Chicken Curry

Well, as it stands, I'm not sure whether we're gonna make it to Ibiza this weekend. Oscar has got chickenpox three days before the flight so we'll just have to see...anyway in the meantime this is my submission to CF Talk's food issue:

Woody’s Quick Chicken Curry Recipe (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

• Chicken Legs/Thighs (4-6 pieces, leave on the bone)
• Onion (chopped)
• Garlic (1-4 cloves to taste, chopped)
• Ginger (small piece, peeled and chopped)
• Chillies (1-4 to taste, chopped)
• Tin Chopped Tomatoes
• Whole Garam Masala mixture, (ground with a pestle and mortar or spice grinder)
• Vegetable Oil
• Rice

Instructions:

1. Add the oil to a non stick pan or non stick casserole dish.
2. Add the chicken pieces and lightly fry them for 2-3 minutes until they are golden (no need to cook through)
3. Take them out and put them in a bowl for later
4. Add the onions, fry for 2-3 minutes until golden brown
5. Add the freshly ground garam masala. The frying pan should be hot enough to heat the spices through so that the lovely flavour really comes bursting out.
6. Add the garlic, ginger, chillies. fry for a minute
7. Add the chicken back in
8. Add the chopped tomatoes, add water to taste (the more water you add the longer it will take to reduce down to a thick sauce)
9. Bring to a boil, put the lid on, turn the heat down and then simmer slowly with the lid on for about 30 minutes.
10. You can check the chicken is cooked through by skewering it with a knife down to the bone; if the juice runs clear, you’re sorted.
11. For the rice, get one cup full of rice, two cups of water should do for 2 people.
12. Add to a saucepan, bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes when the rice should be ready. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick.

This is my basic student curry recipe and it probably saved me from malnutrian when I was a student. I like chicken on the bone because it has more flavour and doesn’t dry out like chopped chicken can. You can adapt it in loads of ways; if you don’t want chicken on the bone? Chop it up. Want it with lamb or beef, fish or prawn? No problem, just remember lamb or beef may need longer to get tender, and don’t over cook the fish. If you want to add mushrooms and peppers, go for it. Want to add yoghurt or chopped coriander at the end? Simple, but turn the heat off and stir the yoghurt in really gently. You can buy ground Garam Masala from the shops but it loses it’s flavour really quickly so I would always recommend the whole spice version. You can pick up the whole Garam Masala mix from most supermarkets these days and all Asian grocers sell it.

Who ate all the pies?

I had my best hospital visit for a while back on Wednesday. Weight is back up to 10 stone 5; so I've put on half a stone since losing load after Christmas. Hurrah for Scandishakes! With the help of a Scandishake with breakfast nearly every morning, my weight has slowly crept back up again. My blows have stayed pretty steady at 2.7/3.9, my flight SATS have somehow got better since my last test a few years ago. The only thing to watch is the aspergillus levels which have risen a bit, and the glucose tolerance test, which shows my blood sugar does dip quite low 2 hours after the test.

A bunch of us went camping last week near Ullswater. The kids coped really well, it helped that they had loads of kids their age to play with. The weather wasn't great but it didn't rain and you can't ask for more than that. The cheap supermarket BBQ meat was pretty gross though, it was so bad none of us could eat it and the dogs that went past in the morning steered well clear as well ;-)

Proud Brother

typical, my sister inherits the long legs and I get the short and stumpy ones ;-)

Last weekend my sister was finally given her BSc Hons in Geography. Me and my mum went to the graduation ceremony with her boyfriend, then we all went out for a drink and some noodles to celebrate! Happy times, even if the ceremony was a bit boring (A massive procession of students being clapped, and J was right at the end...)

Current Eating/Treatment Regime

PWCF need to eat a lot to stay at their current weight. I think I'm lucky in that I don't have to eat as much as some, but still, in the last 6 months, I've somehow lost about half a stone without my appetite dropping or without eating any less so I have had to add a scandishake to the mix. I had a meeting with the dietician the other week at my annual and she suggested adding another scandishake at the end of tbe day.

Food / Med Diary (Week)

• 6.30AM Get up
• 6.45 Azithromycin and Flucloxacillin
• 6.50 do Dnase on INeb
• 7.00 Breakfast Scandishake with full-fat milk and cereal
• 7.00 Vitamins, uniphyllin, calcium chew
• 7.45 Drive to work, drop off kid(s), do some physio in car, spit into empty creon pot in car. (Timing is everything in this ;-))
  
• 8.30 Arrive at work.
• 8.30 Do Colymycin Neb in car at work
• 10.30 Apple, banana
• 11.00 2 Pork Pies
• 1.00PM Lunch (Sandwich, Mayonaise, Meat Filling, Crisps, Tango or Tea)
• 3.00 Chocolate bar (note: Boost is 300 calories!)
• 5PM Leave work, pick up kids.
  
• 6PM Dinner with kids (have to play it safe so kids have something to eat so we normally have chicken, brocolli, peas and mash, or bangers brocolli and mash, or Lloyd Grossman's Tomatoe Chicken Balti and Rice, or Spagetti Bolognaise or Pasta and Roast vegetables which the kids will actually eat.
• 8PM Kids in bed. And relax. Either go for a run/bike ride or get the wine out, depending on how healthy/lazy I'm feeling.
  
• 9-10PM Colymycin Neb

What an exciting life I lead. Need to try and squeeze in another Scandishake at the end of the day but at the moment it's a struggle, my tum needs a rest ;-)

Tumbles day

A tumbles day is a day to forget, and I've just had one. Yesterday I decided to work from home to make it easier to drop off Abby today and sods law; one of the big bosses decided to pay a visit to the office to see me, so I missed him. He also dropped off a request list that I should have had in May for a dealine at the end of the THIS month. Grump, grump, grump! ;-) And to top it off Abby threw a mega strop at the cricket club on the way back from the school summer fair because we wouldn't buy her any more sweets. Does anyone have a manual on how to be a firm parent? Because I seem to be made of mush when it comes to discipline.....anyway, I've got the wine out and I'm sulking. With three hours of Glastonbury I taped from last week.

Turkey Break in Pictures

Lost: The Bad

OK, We've had the good, now this is the bad (I still liked it though) :

1. Episodes where nothing happens in the plot and you get a boring flash back. The interminable episodes of Hurley's flashbacks (The Dharma VW van episode "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead") and virtually any episode with Charlie's band in the flashback. Fast forward material!

2. Jack's a bit boring. Maybe it's a flaw in the script, but his over-earnest acting started to get annoying by the third season. Particularly when compared to Sawyer; he never really changed throughout the series whereas Sawyer had definite character development.

3. Kate's a bit of a lightweight as well. OK, we get it, it's a love triangle! Just make your choice freckles, and get on with the plot ;-)

4. Locke vs Jack / Fate vs Free will / Man of science vs Man of Faith. Interesting at first, but became a bit tedious towards the end.

5. Llana, the french woman, Alex, Walt and all the other under-developed characters that the writers obviously planned to do something with but ran out of episodes to do it in so wrote them off! Naughty, lazy writing boys! ;-)

6. * New! Claire abandoning Aaron then disappearing and then reappearing as a mad women. I just never bought it. Also, Kate deciding to adopt Aaron for 3 years forming an emotional attachment and then abandoning him to go back to the island. Also, what happened to the two kids in the tail section? Kids in general were given a raw deal by the script writers

Lost: The Good

So LOST is over, what do I watch now? Well before I watch anything else I need to find some closure, before I can properly move on ;-). I have decided that Lost is, was, and always will be 50% Brilliant and 50% Bollox. So with that I'm going to list the things I liked and disliked about the series.

The Good

1. Episodes like "The Constant". Desmond flips through time desperately searching for his Lost love Penny like "The Time Travellors Wife" and finally contacts her. One of the best episodes IMHO.

2. "The Looking Glass." All the season finale's were exciting, but this closer for Season Three was so good it actually gave me heart palpitations for a few hours after I saw it. Poor Charlie; I'd spent most of the time being annoyed by his Mancunian-druggy-rocker character, so it was a total surprise how gutted I was when he sacrificed himself for Desmond.



3. Sawyers nicknames/one liners. Son of a bitch ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WurBi2yQeI

4. Hurley. Dude ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOk9pIbM-T4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZErJDc6978

5. Sawyer grows up, becomes a leader after Jack and Locke disappear, and settles down with Juliet in the 70s. And why not? ;-)

6. They killed Juliet. You bastards!



7. The ambiguous mysteries of the island. The thing about mysteries is that not knowing what they are is always better than the explanation. Explanations are always a bit of a let-down.