Best Ever Brownies?

Last weekend, I decided to do a bit of baking, and came across this recipe, which claims to be the 'Best Ever Brownies - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1223/bestever-brownies

 With a claim like that, it was worth trying out.

 I pre-heated the oven to 180C/350F.


 I more or less followed the recipe exactly. I put 185g of margarine and 185g of plain chocolate into a microwave safe jug.

 Then, I melted it in the microwave on on for two minutes, stirred it until completely melted and let it cool.

 In a separate bowl, I mixed 85g of plain flour with 40g of cocoa powder. As I'm too lazy to sift it, I gave iit a good stir through to get the lumps out of the cocoa.

 I then chopped 50 g of milk chocolate and 50g of white chocolate into chunks.

 I pulled out the mixer and beat 3 eggs and 275g of granulated sugar on high for about 5 minutes until it doubled in volume.

 Then I poured the melted chocolate into the eggs and sugar.

 Using a spatula, I folded the chocolate into the eggs. I like that the original recipe gives basic directions on how to do this, as a lot of people don't know how to 'fold' into a recipe.

 Then I folded in the chocolate chunks.

 I poured it into a prepared 8"/20 cm pan and gave it a little side to side shake to get the bubbles out.

 I put it iin the oven for 25 minutes as directed by the recipe.

 I checked with a toothpick (and with the method the recipe suggested of shaking it from side to side to see if it still wobbles), and put it back in for another 5 minutes. Then I repeated this three more times. In total, I cooked it for 45 minutes. Their timing was really off!

 I let it cool, but clearly not enough when I cut into it as I kind of made a mess.

 I gave it more time to cool before trying to cut it into something resembling squares. You can see how much stuck to the pan. That's despite a non-stick pan and liberally greasing it first.

 So, are they the 'best-ever brownies'? Well, they're good, but I wouldn't say they were 'the best'. What I shouldn't have done was taste test them right before bed as all that sugar and chocolate kept me up half the night!

Counting Spoons

I don't remember when I last had this many spoons . . .

The few past months have been so in
 busy in my job that I've barely been able to catch my breath. I'm now owed over a week's overtime, which I am struggling to take back. My post grad work slid off the radar around mid-February. And today I met with my tutor to discuss my progress.

'So, where are you at with our dissertation?', was the obvious first question after pleasantries. Ummmm.....

Much of our long meeting was taken up with weighing the practicalities of doing the piece of empirical research I was proposing. Anyone who has done this type of research knows how complicated and time consuming just getting started is, as not only do you need to write very in depth proposals, but then you need to get them through ethic and governance committees who may decide to change what you are doing or may not approve it at all.

'So on a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you think you have to give what you're proposing on top of what's going on at work?, he asks. 'That's probably going to take seven spoons I don't have to spare', was my response.

I could only find a meme that counts to 6. Looking for seven clearly used a spoon.

I got a confused look (note to self, explain Spoon Theory to tutor). 'Look, if it was me, I'd always go for the easy route,' he says. 'I never take the easy route,' I say, 'it's rarely ever an option'. Pretty much, I was told that there is an 'easy route' and I should take it. Which means doing a literature review. Which in and of itself isn't a bad thing, just, well, a bit boring.

One of the biggest frustrations of living with chronic illness is having to accept the limitations your body sets for you, no matter what your mind is telling you. And it's not half as much the illness, as it is the bone crushing fatigue that comes with it.

Hence, you have to count how many spoons you have and use them sparingly, which is why I haven't looked at the feedback I was given on my research proposal since February. So now I need to think of a new research topic that suits a literature review and carefully count how many spoons I have to give it.

World IBD Day 2015

It's World IBD Day today, the big awareness raising event for those of us with dodgy guts. Several prominent British landmarks are being lit up purple for the event. Not really sure if most people will know that's why things are purple, or what IBD is, but hey, that's why events like this exist.

I had a pretty long day at work today as I had to go to London. I had an hour to kill before my train home, and spent it wandering around the rather interesting (and free!) Wellcome Trust Gallery. It's an interesting place, as it's a gallery, but also a hub for all things medical science. Which meant that they sold cute little microbes in the gift shop. This is 'Stomach Bug', which I think is meant to be h. pylori.
 I

I had h. pylori once. It was pretty nasty.

They also sold blood cells -

This is a white blood cell, which misbehaves when you have IBD

Also found a whole bunch of little buttons of various body parts, which were rather amusing. I could only find two sort of related to IBD.

Apologies for fuzzy picture quality. The stomach says 'I love to eat' and the large gut says 'Colon keep moving'

 I couldn't find one for the small intestines, which would have been more fitting for my IBD (I would have bought that one!). Either way, the collection of buttons amused me a great deal today.

#WorldIBDday #fuckyoucrohnsdisease

Monsters in My Soup

I recently got back from holiday in Scotland!

Yes, this is Scotland!

After I got home, my sister said that she was sending me something Scottish for the kitchen. A few days later, this arrived in the post...

Okay, I do love fun kitchen gadgets, but this one is particularly silky, especially as I was nowhere near Loch Ness, other than stopping in Inverness for petrol along the way. But I finally got around to using it today. Sainsbury's sent me the biggest sweet potato I've ever seen, so I made soup with it tonight.

 I've posted a similar recipe before. Pretty much, I peeled and chopped the sweet potato (after getting my large kitchen knife stuck in it several times, if that tells you how bug it was!) and three carrots. I put a glug of olive oil into a big pot, and cooked the veg for about 10 minutes until softened. I peeled and chopped half an onion and two big Clive's of garlic and hung it over the side of the pot in the hanging basket I've written about before. I poured in about 3 cups of vegetable stock, added about 1/2 TSP of cumin and 1 1/2 TSP of ground coriander and  brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat and simmered with the lid on for 20 minutes. I then took my trusty hand blender to the whole thing and pureed it. Then Nessie came to dole it out -

It's very silly. It's great!

Doctor's Orders . . .

I had my six monthly follow-up at the hospital today. Thankfully, my consultant and my previous bastard consultant were listed as 'away'. I must be the only person who is thankful to see a registrar (resident to you North Americans) rather than a specialist.

 This is the second time I've seen this registrar. I rather like him. He has this rare thing amongst consultants. I think it's called, um, people skills. Very rare in my experience. Here's hoping that he doesn't lose them when he becomes a bigwig consultant.

Everything was fine in his eyes. I have only gained half a kilo in the last six months, despite eating far more crap over the last six months than I have in my adult life. My blood work was good, no evidence of inflammation (Yay Humira!), still no anaemia (Yay hysterectomy!), normal liver function (hello beer!) and no hypoalbumenia (Yay remission!).

The only thing that's funky is the continuing slightly low creatinine and urea. Both the previous registrar (also had people skills) and my GP have said that low is way better than high, and both have said that isn't totally abnormal for a small girly like me. Today's registrar said that it's a sign that I'm not getting enough protein. 'So I should eat more steak?', I joked. 'There is always room for more steak!', he said. This made me laugh because I had a similar conversation with a previous GP many years ago (that needs a separate post).

Overall, he is happy with how things were, although he said that they probably should do another MRI of my guts sometime to see how they are doing on Humira. As I've had a pretty bad week at work, I talked him out of it this time around. He decided to put me on 9 monthly recall, which suits me because all going well, I don't have to back in that clinic until 2016. Suits me!!!

So after some pleasantries (people skills!!), I start heading out, and just before I go out the door, he says 'And remember to have steak for dinner tonight. Doctor's orders!'









Yes, sirreee!

Not quilting supplies in the background of this picture.

The Co-op was out of sirloin and rump, so gosh darn it, I had to get fillet. And bloody hell, was it ever gorgeous! #fuckyoucrohnsdisease