Lazy slug...

That is what I have become.  I haven't even checked back on this thing to see when the last time I actually did some exercise was.  It would be too depressing.  I have been walking a bit (though lazy, drag me from bed mornings mean not as much as I should be), including a nice long walk last Saturday with my Flâneur, Wastrel and SAM, the latter of whom had come down for dinner the night before.  But other than that - zilch.  I haven't even been to the pool, and I love swimming!

Eating has been a bit of a theme as I cooked a lavish three course meal for my Flâneur for his birthday on the 19th.  It was a little stressful as I had chosen to be a little bit more complicated than my usual "shall we have pasta...".  I made goat's cheese and red onion tarts to start (served with some salad to pretend it was healthy), following by shoulder of lamb stuffed with an apricot stuffing (which was much nicer than I had anticipated).  Was a bit pissed off that the annoying butcher, who pointed out it's called shoulder in Scotland when I asked for neck (which I'd seen used on Masterchef, how was I to know that's what 'the English' call it!), that he had said to me - oh if you're stuffing it, with this piece you wont need to tie it.  Well that was not true and as I checked on it part way through I realised it had sprung apart and the stuffing was starting to char.  So I had to take it out the oven and try and tie string round a hot piece of meat in a desperate attempt to make it cook properly.  Anyway, this was accompanied by dauphinoise potato (recipe on the potato council website, of all places), and asparagus (cooked in butter...hhmmm...).  By this time I was pretty well stuffed as we just don't eat that much anymore, having cut our portions down quite considerably.  But we weren't done, as I had decided to have a go at making chocolate mousse.  

The recipe for the mousse came from Jamie Oliver's "Happy Days" book, and apparently served "4".  As I wanted some for the next night too, I thought I'd do half the mix again and therefore have enough for 6.  Six piggies that would be!  It was a huge amount of mousse that I put into frankly the most enormous glasses I have (they're champagne bowls), and there was still some left over to make two other reasonable sized portions.  I felt really quite ill half way through, but ploughed on none the less.  ;o)  Maybe this is why I am so large....

All this was washed down with some very lovely Californian Zinfandel and some yummy Prosecco.  Hmmm....  Thankfully had taken the next day off, boy did I need it.  My tummy felt a little sore.  Spent most of it cleaning the flat though.  Just don't get the chance to give this place the clean it needs what with working and everything...

Had a lovely visit from Wastrel and SAM and was very pleased that my Flâneur was cooking and that he was doing fish!  He did a fine Japanese spread including gyoza (yummy), sake glazed salmon, greenbeans with a soybean paste and toasted sesame topping, Japanese potato salad and of course, rice.  Washed down this time with a nice Sake and green tea.  Oh, and of course, finished off with Mousse.  That's what we all were - fished off by mousse!!  Only SAM and I managed to finish ours.  Urgh...

So, yes, eating has been a real feature of the last two weeks, but not really exercise.  On the plus side it is now Lent, when traditionally I give up chocolate and sweets.  It's been pretty tough these first few days as I begin to realise just how much of a habit it has become!  This is the 9th year (I think) that I have done this and usually by Easter I don't really want chocolate, so hopefully this will be a real chance to cut right back.  I shall have to just make sure I don't gorge on Easter Sunday and therefore fall with a bit fat bump off the wagon...  Flaneur is under instructions not to buy me more than 1 Easter egg and to make sure it's a really good quality one...  

Lent should help with the weight loss though which appears to have very frustratingly stalled.  Not exercising probably has something to do with that, but I am bumbling along still at the X-1 stone 3lb mark, sometimes a bit lower, occasionally a bit more (v. depressing), but mostly just at the 3 mark.  That's still my stone marker, but it would be nice if it went down a bit, at least to get me into the X-2 stage... Sigh!  Am determined to get back to the exercise this week coming though - I will be at the pool on Monday, I will!!

On the sewing front, I did finish the front of my quilt, which was very satisfying.  Sorry no pics at the moment - have to down load them from the camera, which involves using a different computer...  Anyway, it doesn't look much different from the picture of it all laid out on the floor!  It's blooming massive, but looks great.  I'm really really pleased with it and now just need to get the wadding and backing fabric and finish it off.  It really hasn't taken me half as long as I expected...

Lovely Gift

In our house we don't usually do Valentine's day. It's over commercialised and we don't need one specific day to show how much we love the other. We do usually like to have a nice dinner together, but don't do presents. We sometimes do cards, but only home made and neither of us really had the time this year.

Dinner was great (although today the flat is smelling a little too much like grease and I've got all the windows open to try and air the flat and get rid of it), and similar to the dinner we did the first V day we spend together (which was our 6 month anniversary, a time when you marked such things!). We did what we like to refer to as our 'Japanese feast'. Between us we made:

avocado maki sushi

cucumber maki sushi

meat gyoza (yum yum yum, my favourite!)

ginger pork

savoury deep-fried chicken (Tatsuta-age; marinaded in soy sauce, honey, ginger and garlic, covered in potato starch and then deep fried for a few minutes, totally yummy, but the source of the grease smell in the flat today from the deep frying).

All washed down with a lovely Sake we bought in Japan last year from the hotel we were staying in - their house sake from their super posh Japanese restaurant Kozu. Not massively healthy, all that meat and frying, but all very tasty!! And nice to spend the time cooking together and spending a long time over a meal.

After dinner we cracked open a bottle of Prosecco, which my Flâneur (the new name in here for my fiancé who objected to me calling him 'the' fiancé due to some odd family connotation with the word 'the' before a person's name or description), had bought to make Prosecco truffles. He didn't really have the time, so we just drank the fizz! Very nice one, but not as good as our favourite, which our local wine shop hasn't had in since Christmas. Hope they get it back because it's lovely!

Anyway, over the prosecco, my Flâneur produced a present for me, which he said was not a Valentine's present, but a 'just because' present. He said he wanted to get me a wee something because I'd not had a good start to the year. So lovely of him. (sniff). ;o). And so generous!! This is what he bought me:

Hardly a 'wee something'! It's a travel backgammon set, which rolls up for easy transportation, and is made from beautifully soft suede, the spikes from black and white leather, the pieces are dark and light wood. So gorgeous, so sumptious, so lovely and generous of him! It's something that I have coveted for some time but was just too pricey to justify getting for myself. I love him so much! Just have to teach him how to play now...