Now, when I was a kid and reading Paddington Bear, he always enjoyed his elevenses with a cup of cocoa and a marmalade sandwich. Sounds sticky, and I don’t think I’d care to combine cocoa with marmalade. I swear I’ve read elsewhere about elevenses including Earl Gray tea and a Bath bun. I didn’t know what a Bath bun was, but it sounded lovely. 

I decided to enjoy my elevenses this morning, albeit at 10:30 because that’s when I did it. I brewed a nice cup of Earl Grey tea, added a few cubes of sugar from Mauritius that I purchased at the British Emporium.  I didn’t have a Bath bun, nor indeed a bun or scone or muffin of any sort, but I had the tea. And I sat for 3 or 4 minutes just sipping the tea and letting my mind calm down.

It was nice.

What I would change: it seems proper to enjoy one’s tea in a china cup and saucer instead of a purple Aladdin insulated cup. I would also have a bun or muffin or something.  And now I know what a Bath bun is:

The Bath bun is a rich, sweet yeast dough shaped round that has a lump of sugar baked in the bottom and more crushed sugar sprinkled on top after baking.^[1] Variations in ingredients include candied fruit peel, currants or larger raisins or sultanas.

Thank you, Wikipedia. I think I might just have to make a batch of Bath buns to enjoy with my tea. I’ll need to purchase some yeast, but I already have plenty o’ sugar, and I even have currants.

And thank you, Jehara, for the reminder to slow down a bit, as even 3 or 4 minutes can be a lovely break.

That is all.

Ahem. Raisins do not belong in banana pudding. I know you like to crumble up cookies to put in said pudding, and that is fine. I’d prefer that you used the traditional vanilla wafers, but I’m not complaining abut the cookies. But don’t include the raisins from those cookies in the banana pudding, because yuck.

Otherwise, I heart you. xoxo

And Friday, Woman in Black opens up. Hmmm. Methinks I need to take that day off. Methinks I need to persuade the incomparable Izzybella to take that day off.

And then the equally incomparable Amethyst is coming over to join Izzy and me for dinner that evening. And for girl time. Plenty o’ girl time.

Enter my awesome plaid wellies.

I’d forgotten how fun it is to splash in the puddles, instead of gingerly trying to avoid them, ending up with soaked shoes and soaked pants and coming into the office a wee bit crabby because of said soaked shoes and pants.

I got out of my car, and splished and splashed and stomped through every puddle I could find between my car and the door.

Then I came to my desk, took off my wellies, slipped on my flats, and got going.

In other breaking news: I’m going to the dentist this afternoon to, I devoutly hope, get my infected wisdom tooth removed. If he doesn’t remove it today, I shall be very put out. It hurts. The whole right side of my face hurts, including my ear. I’ve been on antibiotics for days, but it still frikkin’ hurts! Growl!

I know! What a bossy bitcah!

And you’re probably saying, “What the heck? There’s no such thing as sour cream and onion Doritos!” And you’re right. Well, not anymore. Because when I stopped at lunch to get something to drink this afternoon, I saw the holy grail of Dorito-dom sitting by all the different flavours of Doritos. Limited Edition! screamed the label. Sour Cream and Onion!

I bought two bags so I’d have a spare in case something happens to the first bag and I never find them anymore. I hope they taste as good now as they did when I was a bossy big sister. And if my siblings are reading this, I owe you. Want a Coke and a bag of sour cream and onion Doritos?

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And I must confess that the lean meats do tend to fill me up and keep me unhungry for longer than the other stuff, so I’m trying to obey the doctor.

Yesterday Sarah-bear brought me leftover roast beef with onions, carrots, and potato for lunch. I ate mostly roast, with several carrots, a hunk of onion, and a small piece of potato.  And it was good. I offered to bring lunch today since she was so kind as to provide my Tuesday lunch.

So what to cook? That was, after all, the question. I had some round steaks, but knew they wouldn’t be thawed yet, and I didn’t want to eat beef two days in a row. So I decided on curried chicken. Here’s the approximate recipe:

• Mix together 1 tablespoon curry powder with 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.
• 1/4 cup dried currants
• 2 medium onions, sliced in long strips.
• 2 medium green bell peppers, sliced thin
• some olive oil
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 can ro-tel tomatoes
• some fresh thyme, if you have it, or some dried thyme if you don’t (I had neither, so I used dried Italian herb blend)
• Minced garlic, as much as you want but at least 2 cloves
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted (don’t zone out when you’re toasting them, or you’ll end up with a nasty crusty mess of burned blackened almonds and your house will stink until you get the curry going)
• 1.5 to 2 pounds of boneless, skinless, chicken breast, cut into 1/2″ chunks
• mango chutney
• cooked rice

1. Sprinkle the curry mixture over the chicken, and toss well so that it’s nicely coated. You might need more curry powder. Don’t be shy. Curry is your friend.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick wok or big skillet thingie. When the oil is nice and hot, dump in the chicken. Cook it, stirring and tossing occasionally, for about 7 minutes.
3. Add the onions, garlic, and bell peppers, and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, currants, thyme, and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until it’s time for you to serve dinner.
5. Place some rice on a plate/bowl, spoon some curry on the top (be sure to get plenty of the juices), sprinkle some almonds on top, and then add some mango chutney. If you happen to have fresh thyme, sprinkle a little of that on top of everything, but if you don’t, don’t worry about it.

If you wanted to make it vegetarian, I’d substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth, and seitan for the chicken. It would still taste really, really good.

And if, like I, you toss the chicken and curry powder mixture with your hands, know that your hands will still smell like curry powder the next day, no matter how many times you wash your hands. Unless you know some secret as to how to get the curry smell off, in which case please tell me, because I’ve been hungry all morning because every time my hands go past my nose, I smell curry.

Tonight’s dinner will be swiss steak. Then fish on Thursday night.

I’m really not comfortable with eating this much meat.   I’m going to make a batch of seitan, and see if it will help with the satiety (did I spell that right) as much as the lean meats do. Then I can add seitan into the blend, and feel a little better.

And the tofu in my fridge? Chocolate mousse.  (Melt some chocolate chips with a small spoon of vegetable oil; then blend it together with the silken tofu in your blender. Add a smidgen of vanilla extract, then put it into a bowl and put it into the refrigerator, and smirk when you serve it to your tofu-hating friends.)