October 17th Facebook email

One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody, everything, every night before you go to bed. Bernard M. Baruch


Well wasn’t it a beautiful day yesterday, I managed to take Alfie out three times, we visited Willenhall memorial park on the morning and Cannock chase on the night. Short walks because of my back and moms everything ;0) but we were mobile none the less which shows a little is better than nothing at all because when I added up the total we were walking for at least 90 minutes total throughout the day, slowly maybe but moving.

Anyway I’ve woke up and found an article on my desk that’s been there for a while so it’s made me fancy a curry today, so here’s some tips;
- If you have spices in your cupboard that are more than six months old, get rid of them. Buy fresh ones, buy small quantities and cook with them.
- There are 3 types of curries, light, medium and brown and you master them by cooking your onion properly. For a light curry, like a Korma, you sauté your onion very lightly, so they don’t colour. For a medium curry like a Balti, the onions need to be golden. For a brown curry, like a Vindaloo, your onions need to be a rich dark brown.
- Always use a neutral oil, never flavoured. Vegetable or sunflower is perfect. Never use olive oil in this type of cooking, as it has its own strong flavour, which doesn’t taste nice once heated to a high temperature, and clashes terribly with Indian spices.

Quick Curry Mix

You only need to use five spices when cooking at home according to Atul Kochhar (Michelin-starred chef), Whizz up this combination in a blender for a delicious curry…

1 tsp Whole cumin
1 tsp Whole coriander seeds
Chillies or black pepper – if you don’t like the heat of chillies, use black pepper instead. Add it to your own taste.
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Ground turmeric

mmm I’m feeling a curry coming on.

If you’re feeling a little more conventional on a Sunday, how about this recipe

One Tray Roast Chicken

Serves 4 = 4.5pts each

600 g potato(es), (1lb 5oz) baby new, halved
1 portion lemon(s), juice and zest of 1
15 g fresh thyme, approx, 2 tablespoons, chopped or rosemary
2 clove garlic, crushed
4 medium chicken breast, uncooked, skinless
1 portion leek(s), use 4, trim, rinse and cut each into 3 chunks
1 medium red green or yellow pepper(s), 1 red and 1 yellow, deseeded and chopped roughly
10 spray low-fat cooking spray
200 g cherry tomatoes, (7oz)
1/8 teaspoon pepper, freshly ground black

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/200°C/180°C. Boil the potatoes in boiling water for 10 minutes, until just tender.
Meanwhile, mix the lemon zest with the herbs and crushed garlic. Lightly slash the chicken quarters using a sharp knife and rub mixture all over and into the chicken.

Drain the potatoes well and tip them into a large roasting tin. Add the leeks and peppers and spray the vegetables with low fat cooking spray. Arrange the chicken joints on top, drizzle the lemon juice over and season lightly with black pepper.
Roast for 10 minutes, stir everything around, then return the tin to the oven for a further 10 minutes. Add the cherry tomatoes and stir again so that everything browns evenly, and then roast for a final 10 minutes. Check that the chicken is cooked through by piercing the thickest part of the joints with a sharp knife: the juices should run clear.
It’s much easier to skin chicken joints if you grasp the skin with kitchen paper. This gives you a better grip, enabling you to easily pull the skin away from the flesh.
& to finish here’s another story with a moral just for Rachel.

Butterfly and cocoon

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared; he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.

Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What this man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If nature allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.

And we could never fly…

Remember life starts now?

Are you living yet?

You’re not alive unless you’re living!