Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – Part 2

So, I bought a cheap crappy pair of headphones from the bookshop. They sound prett awful, but at least I have music.
Assignment 1 finished and submitted. Assignment 2 almost done – and my laptop just died. So I’m finishing it on a uni computer.
Then I’m heading home, getting some junk food for dinner and settling in to finish Assignment 3 (due tomorrow).

I really hope tomorrow is a better day.

~K

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

And it’s barely 8:30am.
I should not have gotten out of bed. So far, I’ve left both pairs headphones (iPhone ones AND my good ones) and my laptop charger at home. This is a bad thing, seeing as my plan for the day at uni was to hang out in the library until I finished my assignments. I’m pretty sure my laptop is only at 50%… And me trying to do assignments without music just doesn’t work.

At least I remembered my lunch.

*EDIT* I thought Chicos would improve my day. But the uni lolly shop was out of Chicos. Ugh this day is NOT improving

I’ve been nominated…

…by determinedpremed! I feel loved 🙂 Thanks, and here we go!

The Liebster Award Rules

Thank the nominator and post a link to his/her blog ✓
Display the award on your blog ✓
Answer the eleven questions provided by the nominator ✓
Nominate 5-11 blogs which have less than 1,000 followers, and let them know they’ve been nominated ✓
Make up and post eleven questions for your nominees to answer ✓
Post these rules on your blog ✓

So, here’s my answers:

What are you majoring/majored in? Bachelor of Psychology (LAST SEMESTER! WOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!)
Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years? 5 years – in med school, working my butt off. 10 years – finished school, starting my specialisation training, and having our own house 🙂
Favorite food?  Cheese – the GOOD stuff. None of this packaged crap. Give me a good quality cheese platter and a huge pack of water crackers – and you’d better not be expecting me to share…
Fun fact about you? I am ambidextrous
Your favorite thing to do? so many things… reading, crafting, baking, music…
Where would you want to live for the rest of your life? Adelaide Hills, or somewhere similar
Favorite type of music? ANYTHING. It depends on how I feel. Lately I’ve been all for electronica/house music, or game soundtracks (my AC2 pandora station is my study jam right now)
Biggest Pet peeve? Bad spelling. lyk, srsly ppl? What happened to vowels?
What type of doctor do you want to become? Psychiatrist
Least favorite thing about school? Assignments :S
Favorite thing about school? Learning new stuff! I love finding out new things!

People I nominate:

Stilettos+Stethoscopes

Random thoughts of a 20-something

Trypanophobia

Stress & Caffeine

Late & Starry Nights

Spaghetti Already

Nerd’s Eye View

Cheerios for Dinner

Questions:

1. Why did you start a blog?

2. Favourite recipe?

3. A random fact (about anything)!

4. What book/series would you read over and over again?

5. Can you solve a rubiks cube?

6. Best motivational quote?

7. Morning person or night owl?

8. Sweet or savoury snacks?

9. Favourite flower/plant?

10. How do you procrastinate?

11. Where do you sit on the scale from “Hoarders” to “EEEK there’s a speck of dust and SOMEONE might come visit and see it”?

Well, those questions started out well :S

Have fun all!

~K

Lamb Rogan Josh

 

This is one of my FAVOURITE meals. Once again – I don’t make attractive food. But it tastes awesome.

There are 2 versions of this recipe that I make, depending on whether I am using the slow  cooker or cooking on the stove. The slow cooker version serves about 8-10 people (depending on how much you eat and how much rice you make), and uses a lot of lentils, whereas I skip the lentils with the stove-top version so it serves 4-5. My slow cooker batches are always at least twice the size of the stove-top version, because I have a 6L slow cooker, and my largest cooking pot is only about 3L.

If you haven’t made rogan josh using curry paste before, I’d recommend cooking the stove-top version first, because it’s easier to taste as you go and add more paste if needed. We don’t do spicy food in our house, so I generally use half of what the jar of curry paste recommends and work up from there. Also, make sure that you get the curry paste, not the stir-in sauce. Both are available, and they usually sit right next to each other on the shelf – the paste gives you the opportunity to use as much or as little as you need, and keeps well once opened (1 jar usually lasts us at least 6mths). With stir-in sauces, you really need to use it all at once, because they don’t keep well once opened.

This freezes well, for if you are bulk cooking.

Stove-top version

Ingredients

• 500g lamb, in 2cm (1″) pieces
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• 1 brown onion, diced
• rogan josh curry paste
• rice

Method

1. Set rice to cook in whatever manner you choose (I use a rice cooker). I use 2 ‘rice cooker’ cups of dry rice (which are smaller than a measuring cup, I think it’s about 180ml). This amount matches the sauce well.
2. Cook onion until softened, then add meat and cook until browned.
3. Mix tinned tomatoes, curry paste and 1 cup water in a bowl then add to the meat and onions.
4. Simmer until sauce thickens, then serve with rice.

Slow-cooker version

Ingredients

• 500g lamb, in 2cm (1″) pieces
• 2x 400g cans diced tomatoes
• 2 brown onions, diced
• 2 cups red lentils
• rogan josh curry paste
• rice

Method

1. Soak lentils as per packet instructions*. Overnight is best, but see my note for a shortcut.
2. This step is optional. Cook onion on stove until softened, then add to slow cooker. Brown meat, then add to slow cooker. I have cooked it a gazillion times without doing this and it turns out fine, but it seems to be habit to cook the onions and brown the meat before adding them. Browning the meat does help keep cheaper cuts juicy though.
3. Pour off soaking water, then boil lentils until they’re soft but still ‘lentil-shaped’.  This way, they mush down nicely in the slow-cooker and become part of the sauce. Drain and add to the slow cooker.
4. Add tinned tomatoes, rogan josh paste and about 1 cup of water to the slow cooker. Stir everything together and cover. Set cooker to 8hrs/Low or 4hrs/High.
5. After about 3/4 of the cooking time has elapsed, check how watery the sauce is. If it’s the consistency you want, leave it covered for the remainder of the cooking time. If it’s a bit watery, move the lid so it only half-covers the pot and continue cooking. Check occasionally to see how the sauce is going, and cover again once the sauce has reached the desired consistency.
6. Cook the rice when you’re just about ready to serve. I use 4 ‘rice cooker’ cups of dry rice, which makes enough to match the amount of sauce well.

* I tend to be lazy with red lentils, and soak them in hot water (straight out of the kettle) for 20mins, then boil them.

~K

Blanket!

 

I finished this a few weeks ago, but kept forgetting to take a photo!

It’s ended up taking me 2 years to finish this, because I started it – then everybody (both sisters-in-law, 2 cousins and a close friend) got pregnant, and I started making baby blankets. 5 baby blankets later, I’ve finally been able to work on this again and get it finished. I haven’t blocked it yet, and I’m still deciding if I can even be bothered – I might just iron the edges so they lay flat. Because blocking something that big is a bit of a pain.

It’s super soft, even though it’s 100% acrylic – I fluked when I got the wool, they discontinued the line not long afterwards and I haven’t come across an acrylic this nice since. And it’s not huge, but it’s the perfect size for little me with my short legs 🙂

The pattern is from Crochet Today “Best Blankets 2013”, so I can’t post the pattern, but it’s the ‘Lancaster Quilt’ pattern (with a few personal edits) if you want to try and find it.

~K

Help!

I NEED MOTIVATION!
I am soooooo over these assignments and all I want to do is read a book and pretend they’re not there.
And it’s not even week 2 of semester yet…

Penguin Motivation

from here

Caffeine…

I have come to the conclusion that reading research articles about caffeine consumption actually negates the effects of the caffeine you have consumed. Whether this generalises to ALL research articles, or is specific to the topic of caffeine, I will determine next week. I hate assignments.

Assignments :S

I have 4 assignments due in the next 2 weeks, so I may not post much until they’re done.
See you all on the other side…

Beetroot Risotto

I made this for dinner tonight (using about half the beetroot I have). I got the recipe from here. I made a few changes – I never use wine in risotto, because I rarely have the kind that is good for cooking. I increase the amount if stock slightly to compensate.
Even Hubby liked it, and he generally doesn’t like anything vegetarian… So a roaring success, I think 🙂 And it’s a good deal more appetising than it looks, I assure you.
I think I’ll make it again, and use up the remainder of the beetroot.