Chinese Cooking

    

        

I have been on a bit of a Chinese kick of late* and with the help of Ken Hom I've had a go at some of the old favourites myself.

As you can see from my terrible pictures I had a go at sweet and sour ribs and won tons with a pork and prawn filling.

The ribs were not really to my taste to be honest, the sweet element mostly comes from the lychees and I'm not a big fan of lychees, so I think it was a bit of wishful thinking that I'd enjoy them. I'm not sure if it's the taste as such, I just think they look like eyeballs and it puts me off. Adam liked them though, so half a win.
It was quite a long process too, which I didn't really mind because it was something new, but I don't think I'll be trying them again.

        

The won tons on the other hand were crazy delicious, a little on the salty side but I just have to make a mental note not to add so much in the seasoning if I try them again, which I probably will. The recipe did make a 'ton' of them though, so next time I'll wait till we have friends round and share the love.
I managed to get the skins from a local Chinese supermarket, they come frozen and are really easy to use. They even taste good the day after, we had loads left, the bunch on the plate below was probably about half of them.

It was nice to try something out of my comfort zone, and discover that it's actually not that difficult.



*My Chinese kick was actually a few weeks ago, but I kinda hit a bit of a hobby wall. With the wedding and other projects I had stupidly decided to start, before finishing the last I was feeling a little overwhelmed. So I decided to stop it all including blogging for a while and just focus on 1 project (knitting a jumper) until the feeling passed. Happily I think I have managed to get back some control of my crazy brain, and I'm ready to crack on.  

Invites

Finally we set aside some time to pick and order our wedding invites, after a quick to and fro with the vendor, our final design was received and ready to print. Yes you heard me right we opted to get a PDF design from a lovely lady on Etsy at Sweet D Stationary and print them out ourselves. I had originally hoped to design them myself, but after a couple of attempts I just couldn't get the look I wanted so admitted defeat and hit Etsy for inspiration. I originally picked out a load of designs and after days of going through them with Adam we finally decided on this one. 

Thankfully we are both really pleased with how they have come out, and at a fraction of the price of some other invites I've seen. We also asked for a blank border so we could fill in all the other necessary wedding info, to go with the invites, but I guess we could also use it for any other paper goods we need too, brilliant. We are just waiting for the card I ordered to come in and then we can start getting them out to people. 

A lot of the planning decisions left to make depend on who's coming so it will be a huge weight off once we get these out and the RSVP's start rolling in. We should be able to get everything else ordered, scheduled and planned out. Less than 6 months to go....

What do you think of our invites?

Half Marathon Heartache

It was the Hastings Half Marathon yesterday, but I came to the difficult decision a couple of weeks ago that I wasn't ready, and in fact would probably end up doing myself some serious damage, if I tried. I can't say I wasn't disappointed, but at the same time as soon as I decided not to do it I felt as though a huge weight had been lifted. I hadn't realised how stressed I was getting about it, I know a lot of that was probably nerves, but deep down I also know that I had done nowhere near enough training. The final straw came when after a 3 mile, I was in so much pain with my hip that I couldn't sleep properly, (it's still not right now).

I think maybe I should stick to 5k-10k runs and keep that as my limit, I don't want to stop running but I really do need to work out what I was doing to make my hip hurt like that. 

Any ideas? Maybe some new sneaks are in order...

Congratulations to all those who did take part, I hope you all had a great day :o)

Going Tonal

I'm so excited, I have just started an art journalling e-course found on A Beautiful Mess. It's full of 52 different challenges, with 52 suggestions of prompts to use and you just work your way through at your own pace. It's nice to do something creative again I used to do a lot of stuff when I was a teenager but over the years life has got in the way and I seem to have lost some of my creative flair. 

So far I have only done one challenge which was to go tonal, pick a colour just 1 and work with whatever you had in that colour. (I obviously picked orange). Now I can't say I'm overly chuffed with how it turned out, but it's a start, and do you know what, for the hour and a half that I was doing it I completely lost myself. The time flew by and when I had finished I felt quite content, it really was quite therapeutic. 

Whether I make it to the end or not remains to be seen, I don't seem to be very good at seeing things through. But I may share a few pages in the future if I'm particularly happy with them.

Are you like me in a bit of a creativity funk? Give the course a go it's good fun.

Food Diary Despair

This is getting desperate, wedding just over 6 months away and I am finding it nigh on impossible to shift these unwanted lbs. For the past month or so I have been exercising for about 1 hour 5 days a week, either running, yoga or a workout with my personal trainer, and nothing is happening. To say I'm disheartened is an understatement!!

So after a particularly gruelling session with my personal trainer and only 1 lb shifted, since last months weigh in, she suggested I keep a food diary. I'm not very good at this sort of thing, I have tried in the past and always manage to miss off snacks, meals, then whole days. So I am really going to have to make the effort to make this work this time. 

I don't think I've been eating terribly, well not during the week anyway. There has been the odd relapse of a weekend but you can't live like a saint all the time right?? Well maybe that's where I've been going wrong, I just don't want everything I do to be affected by what I can or cannot eat. I also don't want to sacrifice even more of my free time to exercise. I admire those who enjoy, and look forward to their hours of exercise each week, but apart from yoga, I am not one of them.

 But one step at a time, I shall keep my evil all seeing food diary for one week, then next Tuesday, it will be picked to pieces by my personal trainer. Who will then make suggestions, and hopefully guide me to that ever distant light at the end of the tunnel.

My Numbers Up

The Hastings Half is creeping up, and it wasn't until my race number was popped through the letter box that how close was really hammered home. Freaking out now!!! I have been going on a few more runs and extending my distance little by little, but I am nowhere near the 13.5 mile mark.

The 5 mile runs are becoming a bit more comfortable, and hills are less of a struggle but I am still really worried. I am just hoping that I manage to keep my pace and don't get carried away with all the other people there. I'm not good at judging my own pace all that well and find it very easy to get caught up in a crowd, so I must practice zoning out into my own little world.

Thankfully all the major hills are in the first 5 miles so if I can manage to get over them I should be ok (eek, fingers crossed). At least going up hills means that you must come down, hopefully gravity will get me some of the way round.

Have you ever signed up for something on a whim only to think that maybe you had been a little hasty. I mean breezing through a 5k run is not a good reference for a 13.5 mile run, especially as I made the mistake of driving the route the other day, it is a very long way.

Oh well, I guess if you don't challenge yourself how do you expect to move forward in life, who know I might actually enjoy it. Just hope I'll still be able to walk afterwards.

Right, best lace up my trainers and get out there. Need to stay focused, just need to be able to get to the finish line.

Intermediate Yoga

I love YOGA!! There I said it, I can't seem to get enough at the moment.

I started about 8 months ago with one class on a Monday, I then took on an extra class on a Wednesday about five months ago. Both were beginner classes but still tough enough to keep me interested. I have loved seeing how far I can push myself, week by week inching myself a little further into the bends and twists. Filling with joy and calm as my focus and balance poses improve. I have gone from fingertips brushing the floor in a forward bend, to standing on my palms!

I had always been aware of the intermediate class but never imagined I would ever feel confident enough to take the plunge. Until it was suggested to me by my instructor. When the person you look to for guidance gives you the thumbs up, it makes you wonder why you have been so apprehensive all this time. So I went for it, I gave up my Wednesday and joined in with the big kids on a Thursday.

I think I was expecting the class to be full of young bendy types, able to stand on their heads and hold a plank for hours on end, but I was wrong. At least I was pleasantly surprised, there were a variety of people, old and young, bendy and stiff all looking to improve and develop their practice. I know you shouldn't gauge yourself by others, but being the newbie I was pleased not to be the worst in the class, I know that sounds shallow but I only mean it in the respect that I felt I was where I needed to be, and wouldn't be struggling to keep up.

It has also inspired me to practice more at home, maybe not the mediation I find that nigh on impossible with the distractions of home. But definitely a few Sun Salutations and other poses I didn't quite nail in class.

Have you ever held yourself back, and then wondered why when you finally let go?