Making it all better

Excuse the language but it has been a hell of a week. Entirely my own fault but I managed to book myself onto a two day course during a week in which I was more than ordinarily busy with my day job. So I have been making it all better by ...

• painting my nails to match my current knitting project (yes, they're now bright red to match Megan's Redgum sock yarn)
  
• knitting said project
  
• buying a scoop of G&D's vanilla icecream with chocolate sauce on the way home
  
• putting a good squirt of Bulgari on each wrist
  
• phoning a friend for a chat
  
• making and eating a mushroom risotto with blue cheese (everything tastes better if you put Stilton on it)
  
• drinking a couple of glasses of Sauvignon Blanc
  
• making Nigella Lawson's banana bread from Domestic Goddess (minus the rum, raisins, and walnuts) for tomorrow's guild meeting
  
• watching four episodes of the West Wing season 4 back to back on the laptop whilst making risotto and banana bread - the Nick and Dave show is pretty entertaining but it doesn't come close to Bartlett for America - we bought our breadbox because it could hold a loaf from our breadmaker but it's also the only spare flat surface in the kitchen on which to rest the laptop
  
  Safe to say I'm feeling pretty good right now.

Tea and garter stitch

Both very soothing and very much required to counteract the tension of the Murray-Roddick semi-final. I'm knitting the flower to send to Anne Makepeace who will be knitting, and sewing knitted flowers onto a blanket on the fourth plinth on Sunday July 26th. I'm gutted that Murray lost, Roddick just played too well, but there's always the US Open and it will still be a splendid final on Sunday.

Project lunchbox* - week 1 review

After a very helpful discussion with Felix and Lara on the subject last Sunday I was inspired to pack my own lunch every day this week (I never usually manage this). The trick, apparently is to prepare things the night before whilst cooking dinner.



Monday - potato salad with green beans
Tuesday - rigatoni in amatriciana sauce
Wednesday - M&S style fruity cous cous
Thursday - left over pork pie and pickled onion from the pub (this feels slightly like cheating but I'm going with it)
Friday - cous cous with red pepper, onion, sultanas and basil (above)

If anyone has any particularly exciting ways with cous cous that they'd like to share, I'd be thrilled to hear about them.

* I find that I stick at things better if I give them a title and commit to them in public.

Ice cream, sunshine, and song

One of the summer traditions at my workplace is that once a year people gather in the small courtyard to eat ice cream whilst the choir sings madrigals. It's at times like these that I feel like I work for the Lever Brothers.





More of the lovely G&Ds ice cream.

It was an amazing day for listening to music and eating ice cream and having cold drinks in the pub after work. It's a less good day for baking but the hot weather meant that I had a glut of ripe bananas which would be good for nothing unless I acted promptly.



The recipe is from Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson and the recipe is online here. I omitted the sultanas and rum and made double quantities to use up all the bananas. I'm going to be popular at work tomorrow.

The extra heat in the kitchen is totally worth it as I can now slope off to bed with a glass of cold milk and a slice of warm banana bread. Heaven.