Eating the World Cup!

Unless you've been living under a rock, you are probably aware that the Fifa World Cup is on. And even if you were living under a rock then someone with football fever has probably kicked your rock as a ball subsitute and you're still aware it's going on.

Growing up football wasn't a thing in our house, it was rugby rugby rugby, not that I'm particularly devoted to that either. There was sport on in our house, rugby, tennis, cricket, athletics, horse racing, bowls, and for a short period of time even 10 pin bowling. But never football. I've never been one for organised sport (gods I hated PE), so these were background noise (apart from the 10 pin bowling which was kind of fun).

So the feeling of being forced to enjoy a sport I have no relationship with by my peers at school when major tournaments rolled around was always annoying, especially as voicing support for any team other than England, or pointing out their poor track record was met with verbal abuse. We are a nation of nostalgia lovers, and love nothing better than remembering that one time 50 years ago when we were good. But there we are, I hated football and after leaving school I could just let it wash past me.

But now, over 10 years later the World cup is not the massive pain that it used to be. It's actually sort of fun to discuss it at work, I have co-workers from all over the world who want to support their own team, it would be weird to be cocky about England being great when you work with people from better footballing nations like Brazil (although her kids are weird because they'd pick England over Brazil, but then kids are stupid), Germany, Spain and Portugal. And of course there's the office sweepstake that means people are supporting teams because they were pulled out of a hat. I'm sure as the teams are whittled down the energy will change, but at the moment I'm almost enjoying it.

And it's office sweepstakes that have lead me down a bit of a foodie rabbit hole. I haven't taken part, but my husband drew Japan in his, so I thought it might be fun if we had some Japanese food to eat while watching their first game. Bit of a mis-calculation on my part as it turns out it was on during the day, but it didn't stop us having supermarket katsu curry and dim sum that night. And some where along the line I've decided to try and eat something from every country in the world cup.

This is ridiculous I know. I have a spread sheet with ideas on, but I know I can't be too strict with this. I don't have all the time and money to be making completely authentic dishes from scratch, so some countries just have things like “coffee” or “waffles” (yes Belgium, that's you) next to them. But it's going to be fun.

Japan

I've never had Sushi, the closest I've come to eating Japanese food was a katsu curry sandwich from Waitrose and I wasn't sure how close to the original dish it was. I always worry about food being too spicy, especially if I'm not making it. I'd had a look at Katsu recipes in my Hairy Biker Asian Adventure book, and although it seemed to have a lot of ingredients nothing stood out as “spicy”, except the mustard. Sainsburys have been expanding their ready meal selection and Chicken Katsu curry was one. They also had some DimSum in the range which I thought might be fun.

The curry was nice, actually kind of sweet because of the coconut in the sauce. I know “curry” is such an umbrella term and wasn't expecting it to be anything like an indian curry, but it wasn't really like Thai curries I'd had either. Now I've had the curry I'll probably try and make it my self at some point knowing it's something I like.

The Dim Sum was ok, I think it's more an issue of being pre-made and then steamed in the microwave, they came out a bit rubbery. They were fun but I think proper, freshly made ones would be much nicer.

And maybe I'll try Sushi one day.

Peru

Unusual and delicious.

Again, this one was another bit of a cheat. There was a new range of cooking sauces in the “exotic” food aisle. The sauce was Peruvian Chilli and lemon, cooking instructions on the back was to fry pepper and chicken strips, mix in sauce and serve in wraps. Very quick, simple and really tasty, and although we mostly eat veggie during the week this might make a return, although with rice rather than wraps. Also served with tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole because they're also from South America (and just in case the chilli was too much).

Iran, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Egypt

I know these are very different countries with different cultures and back grounds and stuff, but their foods are quite similar. While doing research a few things kept coming up for each of these countries, sweet and sour tagines involving fruit, fancy rice dishes and similar spices.

For Morocco I had a lamb tagine that I had made previously and put half in the freezer. Made with lamb, lots of fruit like cranberries (not many barberries around here), and apricots, it definitely had the sweet and sour thing going on.

Tagine and fancy rice will never make a sexy photo.

Iran was Jewelled rice. I recently saw a tweet that said something like “the reason restaurant food tastes so good is all the butter that goes in it”, and for this I think it really helped. I'm not all that confident with rice, I'm normally a boil lots of water and chuck it in sort of rice cooker, but this recipe needed the spices cooked in a chunk of butter before simmering the rice. I did worry it was all burnt to the bottom at one point, but it was just my rubbish pan and was a really nice consistency. The fried onions for the top didn't come out very crispy but that was probably just me.

For Egypt I wanted something a bit different, already having the rice and stew. A carroty side that was so nice I've kept the left overs for lunch during the week. It was also really easy to make and who doesn't love bashing things in a pestle and mortar?

Saudi Arabia was represented by hummus and pittas, because who doesn't love hummus?

Now to go plan where we're eating from next week!

200 words - day three

So I wrote this the other week, but I didn't post it after getting some really bad family news. Then I took last week off from the writing because I was pretty sick. Here's to getting back on the writing bandwagon.

BTW, this may seem like an odd version to choose, but I rember when I first saw it and it made me cry.

From the tiny window of his room he could see the small blue-green planet earth. He'd never been, not many people had, but on lunar base 3 it was a constant reminder of where they'd all come from. He visited it in his sleep though, the doctor had mumbled something about ancestral memories and handed over pills to help him sleep. But sometimes he likes the visit. It was beautiful, but terrifying. All the colours were too vivid, nothing he'd ever experienced before, even in the green houses where they grew food plants it was all still muted. The distance to the sky was too much, having lived his life on bases or ships, always enclosed, the openness was scary. But even worse was waking and feeling claustrophobic.

He'd tried to replicate it in a holo room, but he hadn’t managed it, there was something missing. He wondered what it would be like to feel a fresh breeze on his skin, not air that had be recycled so often you wondered how often it had been since it had been outside and how any people it had passed through. 

He reached out and touched the window. One day.

200 words - day two.

I felt the last couple of posts were missing out because they've just been text, so enjoy a nice video of John Lennon, and it ties in  with the dream theme (anyone would think I was just throwing this together).  Today's 200 words inspiration just sort of came out of the blue, and I wrote most of it on my lunch break. Most difficult bit was the last few lines.

**

The alarm has woken her, but half an hour later than it was meant to. The shower ran cold half way through, just after adding conditioner, the gas meter must have run out. It took two goes to leave the flat, a quick return trip to pick up an umbrella to protect against the down pour.

Just enough time to grab a coffee at the train station, she was getting the train after her usual one and it was busy. No seats left, and a man fighting to get his case into the over head rack knocked her arm and spilt coffee sow  her shirt.

Arrived in the office late for a meeting, coffee stained and soaked after the umbrella has turned itself inside out the second she put it up. The report she'd spent a week working on back on her desk, red pen all over it. Returning to a cold, quiet flat at the end of the day that never improved. 

“Gilraen, wake, you're having a bad dream.”

She opened her eyes and found herself in a softly lit room, music was drifting in through an open window. A handsome man was lying next to her, slightly pointed ears visible through his tousled hair.

“Yes, a very bad dream.”

Creative writing week 2

So, this week on the #CNWritingChallenge it's 200 words a day. The prompt is Dreams, which hopefully will be a rich source of inspiration. Below is todays offering.

**

Sometimes I dream of flying.

I'm sure everyone does, it's one of those universal things, the dream to leave the earth we seem to be tied to with invisible chains. We'd all like to escape more than the few inches we can normally manage just by jumping.

Sometimes when I dream of flying it's like I'm a bird, I flap my arms and I'm gone, soaring in the sky, circling like an eagle, looking down at tiny people, cars, buildings, like the world is a toy train set.

Sometimes I have a broom, like the witches I've always wanted read about. Sometimes it takes a bit of running, but then even Granny Weatherwax wasn't perfect. But flying through the night, soaring in the moonlight where there is nothing but peace and quiet (and fluffy clouds) and it's all so calm.

I can go where I like, a trip to the seaside, the azure blue sea with white tipped waves on the beach below. Or maybe over the ever variegated greens of a forest, the bird song drifting upwards. Or a trip to somewhere snowy.

But the main thing, even though when I dream of flying I can go to all these wonderful places, and see wonderful things, I'm alone. I can't fly with a friend, I can't carry them with me to see all the things in my imagination. So maybe I'll just keep my feet on the ground.

Creative writing advetures

So I recently stated following Nadia from cottage notebook on twitter, and as part of New Year she set up a creative writing group of Facebook. The idea is to help creativity, and so using weekly prompts (last week was Nature) try and write everyday. Last week the goal was to try and write 100 words a day. Unfortunately a lot of shit is going on in real life, but I did manage to do some writing on two days.

**

Long, wide path, much like a river bed, winding downhill. Except I’m walking against the current that isn’t there. Leaves cover the floor, knee deep in places, even deeper in the drifts that the wind has blown up at the bend. The ceiling of the forest is mostly bare, the breeze and squirrels making those last few leaves shake on their branches whilst their fallen comrades decorate the floor with their mottled browns and golds, the reminders of another summer gone. The tall, skinny trunks of the sweet chestnut trees stretch as far as the eye can see, giving peace in isolation that’s really on my backdoor step.

**

Early in the morning the howling wind woke me from deep sleep.

Loudly the wind screamed around the corner of the house, whistling down the chimney, battering at the door.

Eleanor was finally here, I heard of her coming on the radio the day before.

Amber warnings in place across the county. Power outages, trains stopped, roads blocked. Cross country chaos.

News filled with weather based stories, keeping all other news at bay.

Our commute to work slower, the walk into the head wind difficult . Thank goodness for woollens.

Reality will slowly return, the world going back to business as usual. Until the next storm rolls in.