DUH-RUNK

So I hear that blogging drunk is all the arage. So that is awhat I wil ldo, without uskin gthe backwsapece key. I/ve had 5 standard dirnkgdss. I'm lesss drunk tha n i awas when I had 3 standards last week, but last week we played a hardcore came of cricle of deathhhhhhhh.

DRUNK.

They went to stwon/ Sadface. Towna makes me sad becaus ethe bildings are dgonnnnnnnne :(

SAFDDDDDDdd

BUT

I aM okay. I will SURVIVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEE

Okay. I don't jave follweers but one dcay I might and they wi.ll be like "oh Lara you carzy fool."

Yes..
hgoodnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOIIIIIIIIIIIU

xoxo
L.................

Tip of the Day:

If you, like myself and my mother, do a weekly grocery shop at a regular supermarket and want to change it up a little, here is an idea. Instead of going in one direction through the shop, go the opposite direction. For instance, if you normally go up the first aisle then down the second, change it up by starting by going down the first aisle then up the second. It is incredibly confusing at first, and you get disoriented, which = FUN TIMES!


Yeah, that's not really very interesting. But it was fun because I was playing with an Elmo toy (when you squeeze his belly he sings!) and while I was playing with him, one of the checkout women walked past. She then told me about the bigger Elmo toys near the front of the shop, that also sing for you. I was embarrassed, and then relieved when she walked away. Then I noticed the toy cash register and totally wanted one.

Dinner - One Pot Pasta

Well, I was originally going to post this once I'd finished dinner earlier, but then the boyfriend and I decided we would go get fireworks. See, in New Zealand fireworks can only be sold from the 2nd-5th of November, and the boyfriend LOVES making sparkler bombs. The problem is, everyone else loves sparklers as well, so we have to go early to get the sparklers. So at 8pm off we went to the "big red shed". We got sparklers. I got two boxes which have about 40 or something sparklers in them, and I also got a box of fireworks.


Anyway, the impromptu fireworks-mission meant that I couldn't post my dinner recipe, so I will post it now (at 1:45am on a Wednesday morning). You may wonder why I'm awake at this time. You may not be wondering that. You may not even know I exist, in which case, that is very sad and you're missing out.


The recipe: One Pot Pasta. Adapted from here. I love the Food in a Minute site. It is fantastic. This recipe also makes quite a large amount; it made so much tonight that we're having the leftovers for dinner tomorrow (Thursday) night. Wednesday night is curry night here, where I attempt to make some curry using whichever curry paste is in the cupboard.


One Pot Pasta, Lara-style


Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped however you like your onions chopped
• 500g beef mince (but I imagine other mince would work too.)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 420g can of pasta sauce (I used a Wattie's Chunky pasta sauce which I think was garlic and herb? I don't remember, sorry, and the tin is in the recycling bin now. In any case, almost all tomato-based pasta sauces should work.)
• 1 1/2 cans of water (the original recipe says you can use beef stock or red wine, but I didn't bother.)
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into relatively small pieces (this is so that they cook faster. I think you could probably get away with not peeling them, as long as they were washed and had any nasty bits chopped off - this may increase the nutritional value of the meal slightly. This ingredient was not in the original recipe; I wanted more vegetables in mine, plus our potatoes needed to be used.)
• 2 cups of pasta (I used penne and the recipe originally said small pasta spirals. I think if you are using a bigger pasta shape, add another half a cup? I felt like it should've had more pasta in each serving.)
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• 1 cup of frozen peas/corn/carrot mix (again, original recipe just asked for frozen mixed vegetables, so it's pretty much up to you what you put in it.)
• salt and pepper, to season
• chopped parsley

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in a big pot, and brown the mince and chopped onion. Be sure to break up the mince as it cooks, so you end up with small bits of mince.
2. Add the minced garlic, pasta sauce, water/stock/wine, potatoes and the pasta and stir. Heat until it comes to the boil, then lower the heat and cover. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the mince and pasta are tender, stirring every few minutes to avoid the food sticking at the bottom of the pot.
3. Stir in the vegetables, and simmer for 3-5 minutes, until the vegetables are hot. You may need to add a small amount of hot water here, depending on the water level - I put in as much so that it was nearly covering the food in the pot.
4. Add some salt and pepper, and stir it in.
5. Put in a small handful of chopped parsely, and stir before serving. You may need to add extra salt.

Hooray! Food! Not as cheap as the Golden Indian Pilaf recipe, but still relatively inexpensive - and yum.

So, that was the second of my adapted recipes. It's 2:08am now and I'm pretty tired, so I won't write much more. Why does doing stuff have to take so long?

That reminds me, I need to study. I have only one exam for uni for the end of the year (the other courses were all assessed during the semester) so I should probably do some studying for it tomorrow... Human development, bleh.

Anyway, no one is reading this, so I will say GOODNIGHT LARA because I'm the only one who saw that.

If you aren't me and are reading this: congratulations, you have reached the end of another post by me. Fantastic work! Good night.

L.

My first recipe - "Golden Indian Pilaf"

My first recipe on here is one I used tonight for dinner. It is one called "Golden Indian Pilaf" from Food in a Minute and I have adapted it to suit what I had in the kitchen. You can find the original recipe here.


This is a really quick, easy, DELICIOUS recipe which also costs very little to make. It makes a LOT of food too; can feed four fairly hungry people for dinner, plus have extra for lunch the next day! At least, that's how it is in my house... This is quite spicy, so if you don't really like things too spicy, either add less curry powder and ginger, or use plain tuna.


Ingredients:

• 1 chopped onion (peeled, of course)
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• half a teaspoon of ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 2 cups basmati rice (I have also used jasmine rice; both work well)
• 3 cups chicken stock (I have used vegetable stock; it tastes great either way)
• 1 cup of frozen veges (I used McCain's frozen peas/corn/carrots mix)
• 1x 185g tin of tuna with lemon and black pepper (we didn't have lime, like the original recipe suggests)

Instructions:

1. In a saucepan with a lid, heat 1-2 tablespoons of oil, to coat the bottom of the pot. Put the chopped onion in the pot with the minced garlic and ground ginger, and stir over a medium-low heat (e.g. on a heat setting from 1-9, a 4 is ideal) until the onion is soft.
2. Take the pot off the heat and put in the curry powder and the rice. Return to the heat and cook for one minute, stirring the whole time so that the mixture does not stick to the pan.
3. Take off the heat, and add the stock (mix it up with hot water just before this if it is stock from cubes or powdered). Stir it all together and return it to the heat. Put the heat up to medium (again, a heat setting of 1-9, turn it up to 5) and let the mixture simmer for one minute. Turn it back down to medium-low, cover with the lid, and simmer for 7 minutes, stirring every so often. You may need to add more hot water if it begins sticking to the bottom. If you notice it sticking, take it off the heat and add half a cup of hot water, stirring it through before putting it back on the heat.
4. After the mixture has simmered for 7 minutes, add the cup of frozen vegetables and stir them in. Re-cover with the lid and simmer for a further 5 minutes, making sure to stir every so often, and add more hot water if necessary. The idea is for the mixture to be a thick liquid, but not watery.
5. Once those 5 minutes are up, lower the heat to very low (1 on a scale of 1-9), and then drain the tin of tuna to remove the excess oil. Stir the tuna through the mixture, and serve in individual bowls.

There you go! A cheap, quick, easy dinner. If you are making it for one or two people, you could halve the ingredients, or bring the leftovers with you to share with friends for lunch.

If I remember, the next time I make it I'll take a photo to show you how mine turned out.

Enjoy!

L.

My first entry

Edit to point out: when I originally posted this, it was not 3:14am my time!! It was 11:14pm New Zealand Daylight Savings Time on Tuesday October 11, 2010. I think. It's been a while since I posted it, but yes, I think that time is correct. Carry on!


Well, I finally got a blog. I'd been meaning to for so long, but I could never think of a title or address suitable, but tonight I just picked one.


My intention with this blog is to simply post my thoughts or ramblings on whatever topic I'm thinking of at a given moment in time. I'm aiming to include recipes, events from my day, and photos.


I was just looking at the fonts available, but none seem particularly interesting or very "me", so I've chosen good ol' Times New Roman. A classic font.


If you've somehow found your way here from the great beyond (or just randomly from the internet), welcome, and thanks for reading, if you've actually continued right through this. I know it's not very interesting, but I don't consider myself that interesting. Others may beg to differ, but I think I'm boringly average. I guess you'll want to know about me now! Or not, of course...



About me:

• At the moment (which is at 10:59pm New Zealand Daylight Savings Time on Tuesday October 11, 2010), I am a 19-year-old girl/woman. I'm in that awkward stage Britney Spears once sang about; not a girl, but not yet a woman.
• I go to university, and am nearly at the end of my second year. Honestly, I don't think university is the place for me, but there is nothing else I'd rather be doing. I do, however, have plans for once I graduate; I'm hoping to get a post-graduate certificate in event management.
• I love organising things. I enjoy organising parties, lunches, drinks, even just dinner every night for my parents and myself. This is why I'm hoping to get into event planning in future, and this is where the certificate would be useful.
• I am unemployed at the moment. Well, I'm a "full-time student", but once my only exam is over in November I'll have to start throwing my CV out there.
• I live with my parents. Hey, it's free, I get free food, plus they're at work all day! I do love them, but yes, they drive me insane a lot of the time. Unfortunately, if I were to get a job (somehow, haha), and if I did move out, I would need to find a decent place which allows cats. It would also need to be in a quiet street in a relatively decent neighbourhood (I worry about my cats, okay? It's not a crime). It would also need to be cheap-ish, especially if I were to try afford it on a part-time wage. Here's the catch: it would need to be mould-free and warm, as I have problems with my lungs. So at the moment I live with the parentals and my two kitties, for free, and I cook and clean.
• I enjoy cooking and cleaning. This is a topic of one of my many rants, so I'll save that for later.
• I have two kitties whom I adore. More on them later, including pictures!

I can't think of anything else I was going to add, so I'll leave it at that for the time being. Anyway, you'll probably learn more about me as I post more.
So once again, thanks for reading... (I thought these ellipses might make it a bit more mysterious and interesting.)
L.