The beaver is a proud and noble animal

He's so cute when he's carrying that thing around the house. Plus, when he's in the right mood, he'll play fetch-and-disembowel :)

I took this picture at 7:30 am. When I left for the office at 9:30, most of it was already gone. As I look out my office window now, it's all gone.

This is not proper snow.

Fooey.

No pain no gain (and no point)
Jeremy Clarkson

On the surface the human being appears to be a flawed design. Obviously our brains are magnificent and our thumbs enable us to use spanners. Something an elephant, for instance, cannot do.

However, there seems to be something wrong with our stomachs. It doesnt matter how many pints of refreshing beer we cram into them, they always want just one more roast potato. And then, instead of ejecting all the excess fat, they feed it to our hearts and veins, and we end up all dead.

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Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp orange zest
1 cup milk (any kind)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and orange zest.
Alternating in 3 additions, beat in the flour and the milk at low speed, ending with an addition of flour. Evenly distribute into prepared muffin tins and bake at 350F for 15-17 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Chocolate Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

8-oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp orange zest
3 tbsp orange juice
2-3 cups powdered sugar (may need extra)

In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter until well combined, then beat in cocoa powder, orange zest, orange juice and 2 cups powdered sugar until smooth. With the mixer on medium-high, add additional powdered sugar (1-2 more cups) until frosting is somewhat stiff but still easy to spread.
Apply to cooled cupcakes.

Cause I haven't had one for a long time now.

That's what the moggie is looking like these days.

Cut for picturage!

I've been criticized for being quiet recently, so I figured I should go through the motions of updating. Life is fairly quiet at the moment. We're still licking our financial wounds from the end of last year, so we're not going out much, though I did buy myself half a kilo of nice tea and a little tea ball so that I could brew it at the office.

Had a bit of an allergy scare last week, but I think we have strong suspicions who the culprit is. We blame the office microwave. It reeks of curry. We've eaten most of the foods that were suspects and since I didn't die, we've ruled them out. I was a bit angsty and bummed from that, but that seems to be slowly going away.

Went to the gym once this weekend, and compensated for that by making a batch of the most decadent muffins you've ever seen. So yeah. That's useful. In my defence however, I was really productive this past weekend, doing umpteen loads of laundry and dishes and cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom. It seriously needed it.

The cat is now officially on adult food, and since we found a brand he'll actually eat and like, things are good on that front. We need to take him to the vet sometime in February to find out if he was only born with one ball or if it's simply not descended and will need surgery to remove.

We're going to start planning our weekend in Manchester soon. Anna and Rho are getting hitched (finally!) and that's cause for celebration.

As I said, I don't really have anything major to report on. This is a good thing though, because it means that things are finally settling down :)

I had my first allergic reaction serious enough to scare me yesterday in close to two years. I'm really not happy about it. In fact, angry, frustrated and scared would be better words.

I don't know how it happened, or why. They say that, statistically, a person with food allergies will react once every two years, no matter how paranoid you are. Something will slip through and bite you in the ass. Well, yesterday, I got bitten.

Sometime during the afternoon, about an hour after lunch, my right eye started to itch and swell up. When I went to the bathroom, I found that my face was red and blotchy. I think I scared my coworkers. I took some benadryl and started to wait it out. In the end, my nerves got the better of me and I asked for a coworker to drive me to Addenbrookes. In my heart of hearts though, I knew it was a waste of time because by that time, the benadryl was kicking in and the blotchiness was gone. I no longer itched and the swelling wasn't getting any worse. As I pretty much predicted, by the time I was seen by the triage nurse and told that “somebody would see me shortly”, I felt ok. I then proceeded to spend the next hour cooling my heels in the waiting room until Katy arrived to join me and we decided to just go home. By that time, most of the swelling in my eye was gone and there wasn't anything they would have done anyway.

What really frustrates me though is that I don't know what caused my reaction. What we had for lunch was leftovers from the previous night's dinner and that was perfectly fine. I was finally at a point in my life where I could happily (well, most of the time) live with my allergies. I was comfortable. Now, that's gone. I'm paranoid again about every thing I eat. I know I need to just jump back into the saddle and try and get over this as soon as I can, but it's easier said than done. Is it just something that I know I'm already allergic that slipped in somehow? Maybe it was something on the cup that I got from the cafeteria and later used to drink my tea. Maybe it was something that fell into the dish from the communal microwave. Maybe…. maybe… maybe.

Maybe my body decided to hate me some more and become allergic to something new, which will mean I'll need to overhaul my diet again and make it even more restrictive. Maybe… maybe… maybe.

*sigh*

I'll just have to work through the list of ingredients that I had for lunch and see if something comes up again. Hopefully, it won't. That'll mean it was just “one of those things” and I'll be able to leave it behind me and go back to living, instead of being afraid.

The good news though is that I know I'm surrounded by people who care and will look after me if bad things happen. This helps a lot.

2 tbsp Sunflower Oil
2 onions, finely sliced
2 tsp cumin/coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 pack (500g) mini chicken fillets
500ml chicken stock
175g dried red lentils
6 tbsp greek-style yogurt

Instructions

Heat oil in a large pan and fry the cumin seeds until they start to pop. Add onion. Cook over gentle heat, stirring occasionally, until softened. Mix all the remaining spices and tomato paste into a paste. Dilute slightly with 1 tbsp of the chicken stock add to pot. Cook for 1-2 minutes more.

And the chicken, and cook for 2-3 minutes each side until coated in the spice mixture. Stir in the stock and lentils, bring to the boil then cover and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally until the lentils are tender and the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Stir in the yogurt and cover, then simmer for a further 5 minutes.

Spoon the curry into individual bowls over steamed basmati rice.

The children's party is over. Now for the 50,000 pound bill