Giggling Squid - Reigate

As a post-nights treat hubby and I decided to take a wander around the posher-than-where-we-live town of Reigate and go for a bite to eat. I am a spice monster. I love spicy food of all types, but Thai is definitely my favourite.

Enticed by the funny name I decided I fancied going to Giggling Squid, a small chain of 9 restaurants, for some "Thai Tapas". I'll be honest and say that I was a bit worried by the concept of Thai Tapas, but actually looking at the menu it's just smaller portions of all the same lovely things, which is a great idea for a piggy like me who loves trying everything.

They do some mixtures of different tapas dishes, so we went for two of those and some extra bits. Hubby had the descriptively named "vegetarian" which had a vegetarian green curry, vegetable stir fry, jasmine rice and spring rolls. The thai green curry was deliciously creamy, spicy and perfectly balanced with just the right amount of sweetness. The stir-fried vegetables were still crisp and highly perfumed with spices. I had the "starving squid" with thai red chicken curry, jasmine rice, vegetable spring rolls and dumplings.

The curry was creamy and well flavoured, but not as punchy as the green vegetable curry. The servings were very generous, although they were "tapas sized" I'd guess that there was at least as much curry as I'd cook for myself at home for a whole meal. The steamed dumplings were juicy, chewy yummy dim-sum, made even better by the sweetened soy dressing they were served with. The only let down on the plate were the spring rolls which didn't taste of much except the sweet chilli they were drizzled with.

We also ordered Salt and Pepper squid. The batter was light and crisp, while the squid remained nice and tender, but I felt it could have used a bit more salt and pepper. The chilli dip was very tasty though, reminding me (in a good way) of the bottles of Encona chilli sauce you can buy.

Tempura vegetables were also nice, with a light cripsy batter and a good choice of vegetables. Much to my delight (and Hubby's horror) they even had some cauliflower in there.

With a pot of green tea and a bottle of diet coke the whole thing came to around £29, which is a bargain  in my eyes.  I haven't mentioned it yet, but the service was also great. This was probably of the nicer thai meals I've had on the high street and while it doesn't compare to places like the Blue Elephant, it is also great value for money.

7/10

Twitter Christmas Cake Cook-A-Long Part 1 (#twitcakebake)

Some of you will gasp in horror at my use of the C-word, but for those of us who love Christmas, the end of the summer marks the start of Christmas preparation. I'm not yet at the stage where I feel I can openly admit reading Christmas craft books and planning the gifts I will get people but I have started to think about food. Even the most bah-humbugish people who won't put up a Christmas tree until late December, can't deny that a decent Christmas cake needs to be started early.

Growing up with parents a parent who was both French and hated fruit cake I have to admit that I've never had Christmas cake. My wedding cake last year was a fruit cake, so I'm guessing that it was just a non-boozy Christmas cake.

As per usual I'm working over Christmas this year, so I was hoping to make a nice cake to look forward to when I get home (and perhaps even share!).

When I confessed my virgin-cake status on Twitter the very lovely @reddy1408 suggested a cook-a-long, using Delia's recipe with a few tweaks. Quite a few of us are now taking part; @the_learnaholic, @tablet_girl and @thesteth for sure, but maybe some others. It should be interesting to see how they all turn out, although unfortunately I won't get to taste them all.

I got started with soaking my fruit today.

Delia's recipe suggests weighing up lots of different types of dried fruit and soaking overnight with 3 tbs of brandy.

Debs' tweaked recipe suggests 900g of mixed dried fruit with a many glugs of fav alcohol. She uses sherry and if that's good enough for her it's good enough for me.

I ended up using 800g of mixed dried fruit and just over 100g of glace cherries at the request of hubby, as for him a fruit cake is not a fruit cake without them. Having grown up in a family that has a generous approach to adding booze to anything I've put half a bottle of sherry in the fruit. I'm not going to be afraid to add more (just don't tell Delia!).

#twitcakebake

Pre-Nights Day

I survived induction at work. Everyone seems lovely and friendly, but there are so many different things to learn and so many different types of shifts in different areas that I'll be doing over the next year. In fact the most traumatic thing about the whole day was getting lost on the walk home and ending up practically having to hike up a huge hill. By the time I got home I thought that my legs were going to drop off!

Due to a a bit of confusion it turns out that our induction only lasted 1 day, so instead of a second day of induction I am getting ready for a night shift a day earlier than I thought. On the plus side I will get to do the night shift with someone else, so I can ask all my stupid questions about working the computers and finding the right forms for things. On the downside I am having to rearrange everything.

I like my pre-nights day to be pretty relaxed. Everyone has a different way of settling into night shifts. I like to sleep normally the night before, get up early and then go back to bed after lunch. I can use this morning to cook things for the week ahead and do anything I have to do. With this change of plans I'll still get a good pre-nights day today, but tomorrow will be a bit pants. I have to drop off forms and talk to occupational health in the morning, then once I get home I'll get a few hours sleep before the landlord is coming over to do something or other. That probably also means that I'll have to do some cleaning and tidying tomorrow so that the landlord doesn't have to wade through piles of washing up.

The most night shifts I've done in a row is 4, which I feel is about right. I don't know how some people managed to do a week or two.

Anyway I am going to spend the rest of this morning catching up on reading and then eating the lovely tomato, bean and cinnamon soup I've cooked to keep me going over the week. Nom nom nom. I also think I'm going to have to have lots of kitten cuddles from a very grumpy post-vaccination and microchip kitten (have you seen how big that needle is?!).

New Job Nerves

It's September already, I can't quite believe it. I've had the last 5 weeks off of work, but as of tomorrow I start my new job. The job I have wanted for ages. The start of my dream career. I've been excited about this day for a long time, and that excitement has only grown as I've sat at home bored for the last couple of weeks as Hubby has gone to work.

Now that it's less than a day until I start I'm petrified. To be honest I've been getting nervous for at least the last week. As usual for me the nerves have started with bizarre work nightmares, getting so bad that the night before last the kitten sat stroking my face with her paws to cheer me up.

Each time I start a new job I worry about not knowing the place, not being good enough and not making any friends. The fact I've survived it so many times doesn't make it any easier. On the plus side lots of us are in the same boat tomorrow, so I imagine everyone will be as nervous as I am.

To try and subdue my nerves I always like to get extra organised and spend my day writing up my new rota, courses and social engagements in my diary. I like writing them in with my favourite pen that I'll have swapped for a cheap biro by tomorrow, due to my habit of leaving a trail of pens wherever I go. Last year I tried to just use my iPhone as a diary, and as much as I love it, it just wasn't the same. I'll also be spending most of the evening emptying and refilling my bag, just like I did before school years ago. I develop a panic that I've forgotten something. I need pens, spare hairbands, diary, purse, stethoscope, hand-cream, paracetamol, water bottle and snacks. That's before I've even begun to remember all the official paperwork and ID documents that I should take. Eek!

Packing and unpacking my bag should be made that little bit more fun as I've decided I'm going to use the bag Hubby bought me a couple of months ago. It is the beautiful Donna Leather Satchel by Ollie and Nic. I just adore everything about it. It's big enough to carry everything I need without looking daft and I hardly ever lose anything in there because it's split into two handy sections. Mostly I love it because it's simply beautiful. It looks beautiful, it feels beautiful it even smells beautiful. I had a minor guilty pang when choosing it in the shop as it was a bit more than I wanted (Hubby) to spend on a handbag, but it was worth every penny. I am really going to enjoy taking it to work! 

Beautiful Fruit Tart

Last weekend marked the 1st anniversary of my niece's funeral. Unfortunately I never had the chance to meet her, but through her parents and twin sister I have heard lots of wonderful stories about how special she was during her short time with us.

My Sister-In-Law has started a new family tradition of having a BBQ to mark the day, so I needed to make a very special dessert for this very special occasion.

I'll be honest, I think I'm quite a good cook... desserts however are my weak spot. My favourite summer dessert has always been a fruit tart, piled high with fresh fruit sitting on a creamy sweet pillow of creme patissiere. I've always been too scared to make it. In fact I've always been too scared to make pastry or any kind of custard.

I'm not sure why I came up with the idea of making what I thought would be such a high stress dessert, for such a special occasion, but I think it was my way of showing that I care. Fortunately it turned out to be pretty easy and (even if I do say so myself) it was the best fruit tart I have ever eaten, even when served a day later following a 3 hour car journey. I just wish I'd made two so I could have had more.

I pinched the recipe from www.joyofbaking.com, but I've made some changes because I'm lazy. They also have a video you can watch, but I prefer reading instructions. I like the way they've split the recipe into different parts, so I'm going to stick to that as it's really helpful.

Sweet Pastry (can be made the day before)

200g plain flour
pinch of salt
50g sugar (caster or granulated)
110g unsalted butter (softened)
1 egg

1. Whizz butter and sugar with together until fluffy (if better equipped than I am use a electric mixer, I used a handheld whisk).
2. Beat in the egg until it is just incorperated.
3. Add the flour and salt and mix until it forms a bowl - don't be tempted to over mix!
4. Flour a surface, roll it into a ball and then squish it into a disk. At this point mine was a bit cracked in places but this didn't matter.
5. Cover with cling film and pop into the fridge for 30 mins.
6. Butter and flour a tart tin. The recipe recommends 20-23cm. I used a 25cm tin and it worked just fine.
7. Use your fingers to push the pastry into the tin and up the edges nice and evenly. (I imagine that you could roll it out, but this was so simple).
8. Cover with cling film again and pop into the fridge for another 30 mins. You can use this time to heat the oven to 200 degrees C.
9. Remove cling film and prick the bottom of the case with a fork lots of times.
10. Bake tart crust for 5 mins at 200 degrees C and then a further 10-15 mins at 180 degrees C until golden brown. You don't need to use baking beans or anything like that.
11. Cool completely before filling

Creme Patissiere (can be made 2-3 days before)

300ml semi-skimmed milk
1/2 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
50g granulated or caster sugar (I used vanilla sugar)
3 large egg yolks
20g plain flour
20g corn flour

1. In a heatproof bowl mix the sugar and egg yolks.
2. Add plain flour and corn flour to mixture until you get a smooth paste.
3. Heat milk and vanilla pod until they just start to foam & remove from heat. Add this slowly to the egg, sugar and flour paste while stirring constantly (best done with a glamorous assistant). It will thicken up quickly so keep whisking, but shouldn't curdle. 
4. Remove the vanilla bean and scrape out seeds into mix or add vanilla extract.
5. Pour the whole thing back into the saucepan and cook until boiling mixing constantly. Keep mixing and cooking for a further minute. It will get quite thick. 
6. Store in a clean bowl covered with cling film to stop a skin forming. Cool to use, this can be stored in a fridge for a few days.

Fruit Tart

1 x tart crust as above
1 x quantity of creme patissiere as above
All the fruits you fancy (If you're making this for my Dad remember, no Kiwis!)
Apricot jam

1. Melt apricot jam in a pan.
2. Glaze inside of tart crust with apricot jam to avoid a soggy bottom.
3. Pile in creme patissiere.
4. Slice fruit how you want it and arrange artfully on top.
5. Glaze with more apricot jam (do this very quickly if any of the fruit is likely to discolour).
6. Allow glaze to set.

7. Share the yummy tart with lots of loved ones (or eat it all yourself!).

Say Hello To My Little Friend...

Finally after years of waiting I have a pet cat.

Non-cat lovers won't understand this at all, but it's something that I've wanted for so long. When we grew up we had 2 lovely cats. One we got when I was a toddler and the other we got when I was 12. Unfortunately because of unforeseen family things and changes in circumstance we went to live in my Dad's hotel on my 16th birthday and that is when our cats went to live with a family friend, so for the last 10 years I have been catless.


Obviously we couldn't keep cats in a hotel, then I spent 6 years at university frequently spending 3 months at a time on placement away from my flat. The last 2 years I have moved around a lot for work and lived in rented flats with (lovely but) random flatmates, as well as a stint back at home.

Now that I've finally settled down a bit, I know what part of the country I'll be working in for at least the next 8 years I thought it was time to get something cute, furry and loveable back in my life.

So I'd like to introduce you all to Inara (bonus points for anyone who is geek enough to know where the name is from).

I know I'm biased but I think that she is the most beautiful kitten in the world. Unlike me she is remarkably chilled out and settled in instantly. She has managed to wrap hubby around her little paw quicker than I ever could. In fact not only did he carry her into bed every night for the first week but he even spent hours feeding her cat milk out of a syringe when she was dehydrated, getting all covered in dribbles of cat milk!

She was also the first of the 3 of us to get a parcel delivered to the new flat. What a lucky girl.

I realise that I've turned into the mad-cat lady equivalent of a boring parent so I won't show you the other 300 pictures...

Moving House

So finally, a month after last posting, I'm back. I have a (kind of) genuine excuse for my long absence. Moving house. Okay, I know it doesn't take a whole month to move house but all the associated bits (and the little holiday too) take ages. In fact it took over 2 weeks to get our internet working and then the laptop decided to die.

Fortunately for me my hubby is tech-savy and seems to have got it up and running again.

I'm loving the new flat we have moved into. Big windows, laminate flooring, open plan kitchen/living room and best of all we're allowed a cat! It's also good because we're now only 40 minutes from London.

 This makes up for the days of lugging boxes up and down 2 flights of stairs and the rather impressive bruises all over my arms, legs and tummy. I always forget how awful moving house is (even though I seem to move on a yearly basis). Luckily we got all of our deposit back from our last flat, so I feel that the hours spent scrubbing the kitchen have paid back. I even managed to clean the oven without sustaining any chemical burns. A real achievement for someone as clumsy and disaster prone as I am.

Unfortunately my boundless procrastination has meant that even though I'm off work until next week, I haven't finished unpacking the boxes or sorting out the new Ikea furniture. I know. I'm a lazy-bones. I think I just work better under time pressure.

Most of my procrastination so far this week has been in the form of stressing about my new job. It's first day at school syndrome. I'm worried that I won't be good enough and that no-one will want to be my friend. I'm also really stressing out about getting study leave for the part time MSc I am doing. The rota is really tight and I need to try to swap a whole bunch of on calls. In fact I'm so stressed that last night I had nightmares that I was being arrested for writing abbreviations in my notes!

Now that the interwebs is up and running I promise some more frequent (and hopefully more interesting posts)!