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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
souliesoul's InsaneJournal:
| Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 | |
| 11:51 am | In preparation for backing up to IJ, I've just private locked anything prior to January 1 2008 using the handy security edit tool. This is because a lot of my early entries are me being over the top and angry about my parents and my situation in life at that point. If there was an easy mass-deletion tool, I'd probably do that to the posts too since I don't want to remember how depressed and hopeless and angry I felt back then. Of course, the anger didn't last all that time, but I feel that it might be a good thing to start the new year by private locking everything except the previous year. Please comment and let me know if you've got an IJ account, I'd like to have as many of my friends added as possible in case anything does happen to LJ! |
| 12:34 am | In case the worst happens, I am also at IJ (I will back up as soon as I've finished either my essay or my project as a congratulatory present) as souliesoul. http://souliesoul.insanejournal.com/pro ♥ |
| Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 | |
| 5:17 pm | Not long now! Oh my god! The newsreader just made a joke out of 'don't blink' <3<3<3 Four minutes! Bless, the weatherman just advised us to have extra blankets on our beds tonight. OH MY GOD ( Doctor Who - Eleven Spoilers! ) |
| Friday, January 2nd, 2009 | |
| 7:53 pm | Asian Chicken Noodle Soup This is, shockingly, my own recipe. It's a combination of tips and hints and recipes from over 20 different recipes I found online. I was mostly looking at pho ga from Vietnam, and Thai chicken noodle soup, so, I guess this can just be called Asian Chicken Noodle Soup, and wow, YUM! 2 freezer bags of chicken stock (about 2 1/2 to 3 litres, I think) 1 piece lemongrass 4 cloves garlic, split in half 1 onion halved 3 kaffir lime leaves pinch five spice pinch chili powder 1 chili sliced splash of soy sauce 3 chicken breasts 1 large carrot, halved and finely sliced 2 pak choi, roughly chopped handful mange tout handful sugar snap peas 6 mushrooms, quartered beansprouts (add right at the end of cooking time) fine rice noodles 2 spring onions, finely sliced 3 sugar snap peas, finely sliced hoisin sauce hot chili sauce Bring the chicken stock to the boil and add the first set of ingredients. Wait for the stock to return to the boil before adding the chicken breasts. You can either add them whole, as I am, or slice them. Slicing them will reduce the cooking time, but I want to reserve one piece to use for sandwiches or a salad tomorrow! When the chicken is nearly cooked add the vegetable section, leaving the beansprouts until just a few minutes before service. Meanwhile, cook the rice noodles according to the instructions on the packet. When you serve, place the rice noodles in your bowl, top with slices of chicken, the broth and veg, then anything you like from the final section. (We had the sauces in a side dish, to dip bits of chicken and veg in. I don't know how that works manners-wise, but it worked for us.) Thinking back on it, I probably should have removed the ginger and kaffir lime leaves before adding in the veg, but it worked out okay in the end. This was very, very tasty. Seriously tasty. So tasty I'm considering rather than having the broth and a chicken sandwich over two meals tomorrow, I may just have another bowl of chicken noodle soup. |
| Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 | |
| 10:39 pm | Quinoa Chili to welcome in the New Year Adapted from Newly Wed Cooking and Closet Cooking. This is Quinoa Chili, and it's very, very tasty. Personally, I'd use 2 teaspoons of chili powder, except Mum isn't a fan of overly spicy food, and 1 1/2 is all right. 1 cup quinoa (rinsed thoroughly) + 2 cups water for boiling 1 tablespoon oil 2 small onions, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 chili, chopped 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder 1 tablespoon cumin 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes 1 - 2 cups water 1 tablespoon tomato paste 2 14 ounce cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed 2 zucchinis, chopped 1 teaspoon chopped chipotle chili in vinegar 1 teaspoon dried oregano salt and pepper to taste 1 small tin sweetcorn 1 handful cilantro (chopped) Rinse quinoa thoroughly in a fine sieve until water runs clear. Toast the quinoa in a dry pan for approximately 2 minutes. Combine quinoa and and 2 cups water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for about 15 minutes. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions and saute until tender. Add garlic and chili. Saute for a further minute. Add cinnamon, chili powder, cumin and continue to saute an additional minute. Add 3/4 cup water, tomatoes, beans, zucchini, chipotle chili, oregano, tomato paste, salt and pepper and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the quinoa and corn and simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Serve! |
| 6:54 pm | The utter incompetence of the Learning Skills Council has NO BOUNDS. They are the body that sort out the Adult Learning Grant that I applied for. Remember a few weeks ago they returned not only my documents but a P45* belonging to someone else? Remember how I returned it with a letter explaining their mistake and asking them to return Mr Clarke his P45? Well, have a guess what I received today in the post? THAT'S RIGHT! I GOT MR CLARKE'S P45 AGAIN! Returned with their standard 'return of documents' form D: I don't know what I should do now. Mr Clarke may urgently need his P45, to at the very least prevent him needing a P46, and, also, he should have this document, not me! I know I'm going to have to contact the LSC by phone and ask for a manager, ask about a formal complaints procedure and follow it. If I can't get through to the manager, I'll request a manager's name and send them a new letter enclosing my previous letter and the P45. Hopefully a named letter will get attention. But, there has to be more to do, right? This represents a serious misuse of data. Hell, it did the first time around, nevermind to do it TWICE. * A P45 is a tax document stating personal details, the company you just finished working for, how much you earned there and how much tax you paid along with whether or not you're having student loan payments deducted. So, pretty personal information to be sending to a complete stranger. |
| Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 | |
| 5:41 pm | The Christmas cake is cooked and cooling, and I'll ice it later. There are Chocolate Cookies in the oven right now (for my brother, as he doesn't eat fruitcake). All that's left for me to do is to wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!  |
| Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 | |
| 1:09 pm | I have just spent OVER AN HOUR wrestling with my stupid sewing machine. I have managed to sew ONE line that is about TWO CENTIMETERS long! D: If this screws up again, I will give up and hand sew the mice. That would be very annoying after I have managed to locate the plate that covers the teeth, since my model doesn't have retracting teeth. :/ And to top it off, I've just had to remove the foot assembly in order to be able to fit the felt under the needle with the plate in place. ARGH! ETA: I screwed up the stupid head. I misunderstood an instruction so I attached the ears the wrong way round, tried correcting part way through and ended up with wonky ears. The body is sort of okay. I've drawn a new head and I've got it pinned ready to sew, but right now I'm downstairs again because I don't want to miss DS9 or Voyager, and I want to eat lunch. I did have a late breakfast, but if I have lunch and read through Star Trek, then at four I can go back up and sew the brown mouse and the cream mouse head (again). |
| Friday, December 19th, 2008 | |
| 7:40 pm | Red lentil curry. I guess this should be called Dal, really, but whatever it's called, it smells gorgeous and I'm certain that it will taste good also since it's a variation on my chicken and lentil curry. ETA: tastes fab! The recipe makes enough for 4. ( Recipe under here! ) Current Mood:  hungry |
| Saturday, December 6th, 2008 | |
| 9:02 pm | Oooh 'Countrycide' is on (Torchwood ep). To rewatch or not? I think I will try, but it'll be like when I used to watch Grey's Anatomy - my hand will be hovering over the remote. BTW, I love that the first victim we see has the 'what's that coming over the hill? is it a monster?' song playing. Fits the ep perfectly, a really good decision by the production team. |
| 8:11 pm | ( Merlin spoilers ) I've spent today not doing much. Having a sort of restful day yesterday seemed to help my infection go down a bit, so I decided to do even less today. I did get some blank cards to print on, and I read a bunch of fic, including Pru's fantastic Merlin AU in which Arthur is the Prince of Wales and Uther is the King of England and Merlin is a junior doctor. Can't wait for more of that :) |
| Thursday, November 6th, 2008 | |
| 10:48 am | I'm making pizza from scratch, since it's great to have the dough in the freezer, and Chris is coming over tonight and I'm hoping it might make her smile a little. I made the sauce last night and we had it over pasta for dinner (yum), the rest was cooled, and frozen in individual portions and one portion stuck in the fridge for tonight's pizzas. Pizza sauce, adapted from Jamie at Home: oil from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes (this adds a lovely flavour, but you can just use olive oil!) 4 cloves garlic, sliced 3 tins of tomatoes (I used 1 can chopped, 1 can whole and 1 can passatta) pinch of dried basil teaspoon of dried oregano Drizzle 1-2 tablespoons of oil into a pan over heat, use this to fry the garlic until fragrant. Add in the dried herbs, fry for a minute then add in the cans of tomatoes. Stir well then turn off the heat. Use an immersion blender, or a regular one, to blend the sauce until it's a texture you like. Return the pan to the heat and bring to a boil, simmer sauce until it's reached the right consistency for you to be able to spread it on pizza. |
| Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 | |
| 8:06 pm | Pentapus at Threadless ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} pentapus has a cool design at Threadless which needs votes so that it can become a shirt - go forth and vote by clicking on the banner below! |
| Thursday, August 28th, 2008 | |
| 5:09 am | After a mild panic attack, and while very much wishing I could take an eraser to anything and everything I said in certain ship forums when I was younger and much, much drunker, I have deleted the website component at my fannish website. All that remains are graphics files and layout information. And my Nano fic whose beta gave up part way through without telling me! I'm still having a bit of a panic attack, but I hope that this will go a little way to alleviate it - at least I really, really want to go back to sleep, but I keep thinking about the morally wrong ships I used to support (L/D etc) and freaking out. Probably, this is a lesson that you should not use the internet while stressed out and extremely drunk. Great, now I'm nervous to go back to bed in case I get another panic attack. (I think it was triggered by thinkng SCBA when I was thinking of SCUBA, which led to SCUSA or whatever it is, which triggered the panic. Fun.) Current Mood: nauseated |
| Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 | |
| 8:26 pm | I've just spent a couple of hours in the garden! I was preparing pots and tubs for planting, then sowing seeds. I also watered everything. I've added thyme, basil, parsley, a tub of carrots and a pot of courgettes to the potatoes, carrots, stawberries, salad leaves and tomatoes that are already growing. Before I head off to Liverpool next week I'll give everything a feed. I have two additional tubs left, one I'm going to try a potato or two in, and perhaps also the beetroot, and the other, perhaps more herbs or something. This is only year one, so it's not very varied. Next year I hope to add more fruits (I want a tree fruit too, maybe apple or plum), more veggies, more tubs! Mum has even suggested putting planters down on the lawn next year, which I'd like to explore too. I just hope that I have some free time in what promises to be a very, very busy year! Current Mood: tired |
| Thursday, July 10th, 2008 | |
| 7:21 pm | I've just done some gardening! My tomatoes are flowering, and there are several tiny tomatoes growing! I've resown carrots, and some salad leaves, and my neighbour gave me some beetroot to sow, so I did! I fed the tomatoes and potatoes and strawberries, which omg are so tasty! I also put down slug barrier stuff. While I was out there, I had a chat with one of my neighbours, who, to be honest, my family don't get along with brilliantly, but he's successfully growing a heap of different veggies next door. ( More gardening stuff :D ) I think I've posted about this, so I'll give a quick overview( about the food budget challenge ) Thus far, of my £30, I've spent £10.88. That includes tea tonight, which is homemade pizza (yay) from the freezer. I have not counted cups of tea made at work, or biscuits eaten there, because a) tea is a perk of working there (for real) and b) I either bought the biscuits in the team biscuit box, or they've been birthday biscuits. So, yeah, not going to add that up, though I have kept a record of what I've eaten because I think that this week is a good opportunity to look at what I'm eating. I haven't stopped eating chocolate daily, I haven't eaten any differently to normal. So it's good to see that I'm not already at £15-20, with 3 full days left. I am going to spend a lot tomorrow though - I'm going to go to the farmer's market, and buy some veggies to make chicken soup (using the stock I made and froze), and a burger yum! Current Mood:  hopeful |
| Saturday, June 21st, 2008 | |
| 7:30 pm | Doctor Who, Season 4 ( Spoilers for this week's Doctor Who and from the preview of next week's ep ) I need an icon of the Doctor! I only have Rose and Martha at the mo... and Rose with the Doctor... Current Mood: cheerful |
| Friday, June 20th, 2008 | |
| 8:01 pm | Hello lovelies, as I am beginning to freak out about finances for next year on an epic scale, I have put more pieces of art up for sale on Etsy.com. Prices start at $30 for a 10x8" acrylic painting on canvas! Currently there are 7 paintings for sale, by the end of the weekend there will be even more! Spread the word to anyone who may be looking for gifts or new pieces for their homes! http://mosieart.etsy.com EDIT: I've just uploaded some more, there are now 12 up for sale! Current Mood:  artistic |
| Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 | |
| 9:17 pm | Mel's Super Awesome Lasagna Makes 6 generous portions. Or 8 for people who plan on lots of side dishes (I don't bother, lasagna is yummy alone, except for some salad leaves) or don't have big appetites. For the red sauce: 1 medium onion, finely chopped 3 cloves garlic 500g minced beef 2 400g cans chopped tomatoes 1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste 1-2 tsp dried oregano 10 plum tomatoes, quartered Fry the onion until soft, then add the garlic. While you're doing that brown the mince in a separate pan (to save time. If you don't want to do this, after you've added the garlic, stir for 1 minute, then add the raw mince and brown with the onion and garlic). Add the browned mince to the after the garlic has been frying for 1 minute. Add half of the oregano, stir once, then add the tomato paste. Once that has been stirred in well, add the canned tomatoes. Stir again, season and leave to simmer for at least 15 minutes. If you'd like to use the red sauce on other pastas cook for at least 30 mins, then serve. For the white sauce: 1/3 cup butter 1/3 cup flour 2 1/2 cups milk 2 tbsp finely grated parmesan cheese 2 generous handfuls of finely grated cheddar cheese Melt the butter. Add the flour and stir well, cooking for at least 2 minutes. While you're doing that warm the milk in a separate pan. When the butter-flour mix has had it's time, add the warmed milk. Keep stirring continously until the mixture thickens. This can take several minutes. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add the grated cheese and mix thoroughly. For the assembly: 1 batch red sauce 1 batch white sauce box of sheets of lasagna pasta (exactly how many you use depends on your dish, mine takes 9 plus two broken up for the gaps at the side) parmesan and cheddar to sprinkle on top (more cheddar than parmesan) Put enough red sauce on the bottom of your dish for a thin layer. Top with a single layer of pasta sheets. Then add a layer of red sauce. Then more pasta, after that, a layer of white sauce, then a layer of red followed by pasta etc (how many layers you get depends on the depth of your dish. Mine has three layers of pasta). You should ensure that you have enough white sauce left to coat the top after you've used all the red sauce in the layers and top that final layer with cheese. So for example, mine from the bottom up goes - red, pasta, white, red, pasta, white, red, pasta, white, cheese. Cover the top of the dish with a layer of tinfoil, but ensure that it doesn't touch the cheese - if it does or is going to, put a bit of oil or something on the foil so it doesn't stick. Cook in a preheated oven (gas mark 5) for 30 minutes, then rotate, remove the foil and give it another 15 minutes at gas mark 6 until the cheese is golden and bubbling. Take out of the oven and set aside for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy! ETA: Got distracted and forgot about the cooking time of the actual lasagna, d'oh! Added. (Photos to follow.) Current Mood: tired |
| Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 | |
| 12:28 pm | Oh god. I feel so sick. This isn't fair! I'm on annual leave today, of which I have only three, very, very precious days left, and I get to spend all day feeling miserable and nervous and sick (because of the nervous)! Stupid University. There's an induction evening tonight. For my class. Oh dear god. I have a class again. Why am I doing this to myself? (Other than the obvious pining for a degree and education.) There is a line, in Helenish's Your Inevitable Unhappy Ending (which I totally rec) in which John is thinking about Rodney and Radek exchanging shouts of 'fuck' and 'jesus fuck' and my mental litany keeps going back to that after making detours to 'oh my god' and 'unlovable'. There will be students. Students younger than me who are having their end of the year show. And students from my class who will be even younger! I was worrying about this yesterday to Mum and she pointed out that when she was doing her physiotherapy diploma she was a whole year younger than everyone else at 17. Because that's a totally helpful thing to say to someone who is worried about being at least 3 years older than her classmates! *sigh* I've baked the flapjacks Mum was heavily hinting she wanted, and I'm about to make myself an extremely unhealthy lunch of chips, fish fingers and onion rings. Possibly the fish will be in sandwich form. I hope we have Heinz salad cream... I feel slightly okay about the lunch though, as I didn't make chocolate krispie mix (ie melt a bunch of chocolate, through some rice pops in) for breakfast, though I was really, really tempted and may have it for dinner tonight. Current Mood:  stressed |