Breathing is Overrated; Don't Tell Me to Calm Down.

 

The title of this post is actually misleading. Results day is never pleasant; if you care, you're nervous the night before. Fact.

My day has had it's ups and downs and somehow (maybe I'm "growing as a person"!!!) I've been able to focus on the individual triumphs - there have been many - and that's really nice, for a change.

So, calm, and breathing nicely, I collected my glasses this afternoon. All four pairs of them (well I do tend to lose things). Walked from the opticians to the car park wearing my new sunnies and falling into chasms where there were once stairs and knocking bottles of Prosecco from the shelves instead of choosing it carefully (I lie; I would never spill Prosecco). I drove home in them, taking my hand from the steering wheel every five to ten seconds to lift the specs just to test how improved my vision was and what I could read that I couldn't before. The answer? Not much. By the time I'd lifted the bloody things and my eyes had adjusted to the light and lack of aid I was ten metres closer to the sign anyway so the experiments were slightly biased. But I do now have very sore eyes and a headache from no longer having to strain. I might take them back.

Onto food. Last night I finally managed to make the minestrone, having pre-roasted the smoked ham earlier in the evening. Please don't sniff at the authenticity of the recipe, where I live you have to adapt and 'knuckle ends' of palma ham or pancetta are not only hard to get but impossible and supermarkets have refused to sell me them unsliced. I wonder if there is a possible weapon to be made from it? Anyway, I sautéed (I seem to sauté a lot) onion, celery, carrots and fennel with a bay leaf, some finely chopped basil stalks with leaves (home reared!) and three chopped garlic cloves in olive oil until softened. Then I added (a couple of glasses of) red wine, two tins of tomatoes and about a litre and a half of chicken stock, not to forget a couple of tablespoons of tomato puree. I then put in some French beans and left it to cook. As it neared the end I separated enough for last night's tea and put to one side. I then split two tins of borlotti beans, my smoked ham (chopped up into small pieces), and a pack of spinach between the pans. I turned off the bigger pan, which actually contained enough to freeze four full portions, plus a mini gals' portion (without pasta). Finally, I added broken spaghetti to the pan I'd saved for tea and let it cook in the soup - I did add slightly more water to it as the pasta soaked up a fair amount but it also thickened it delightfully.  Sprinkled with parmesan cheese it tasted really luxurious.

Big (Working Mama Who Cooks') Minestrone

I apologise for my lack of quantities on occasion, but you put in what you like! I serve 75g of pasta per person for a main course at tea time, but if having pasta for lunch I use 50g. Last night, as we weren't having bread, but the soup was full of goodies, I put in close to 75g between Husband#1 and I - we were nicely full. It may also be worth pointing out that I didn't add pasta to the frozen portions, I'll do that when I cook it. Last year I made some with pasta and it was really soggy by the time it was eaten. We all learn...

I believe (and don't quote me here) that this is good for the diet, which was going nicely until today, when due to an impatience to find out what was happening at work, I had no time to eat breakfast or even mash a cup of tea and so didn't eat until 2pm, at which point I had one and a half chicken (self-roasted!) wraps with full-fat mayo and I'm about to eat a lovely takeaway curry with beer, wine, chocolate and Prison Break. Sorry gals, I promise that I will go back to the jelly reducing, careful eating on Sunday.

Well, come on, the weekend is now here!