happy 2014!

Welcome, welcome 2014. Time flies! It's already the third new year this little blog of mine sees.

This was an incredible year for me but it absolutely flew by. I only wrote forty blog posts but they make me feel like a proud mama! Not only was it incredible, it was also a very busy year and I'm glad I managed to save some time to post some little things from time to time. I'm conscious this only matters to me... Not many people end up on this little corner on the Internet and since I barely ever hear anyone's thoughts on it, I have no idea what pleases and what doesn't... but at least it pleases me!

Here's a thing I learnt in 2013: you can't always please everyone. Sometimes, you can't even please yourself. In 2014, I hope to learn to be okay with that. Baby steps. That's another biggie from 2013 for me — one step at a time. You can't have everything at once, or learn everything at once, or fix everything at once. It's a tough thing to accept, because it means being smart enough to not throw all your efforts blindly against a wall but rather knock little things off, one by one.

In 2014, take a step back and look at the big picture. That's my advice to myself, and to you. There's a  big chance that with a little distance, things won't be so bad, and you won't be so lost. Or if you are, you're not alone — and how lost can you be if everyone is as lost as you? Doesn't that mean that we're actually all in the right place?

Or maybe I'm going nuts from having had a month-long cold.

Anyway, one thing 2014 hasn't and probably won't change is how much I can talk to not say much. What can I say, writing's my thing! I read a tweet by Caitlin Moran yesterday that said something like "Job: find what you love doing, and figure out a way to be paid for doing it." I spent the past twenty years figuring out the former, hopefully 2014 will focus on the latter...

Happy new year you all. I hope 2014 brings you all of the joy and laughs in the world, patience, strength, love, health, and mostly lots of cheese.


ps. I'd promise I have lots of great things planned for AoF this year but truth is, as always I'll be taking it as it goes with this blog. I have a messy stressful year ahead. We'll see how it goes.

pps. this is totes a photo from nov 2012. shhht secret! x g

SC#35 | Asian inspired squash and carrot soup

This soup is another case of staring at my vegetable-filled fridge after getting my first Abel & Cole box and thinking "what the hell do I do now?"

Well, soup is my go-to when I'm not too inspired, so off everything went in boiling water! I also chucked a can of coconut milk in there to make it a bit special — hence why it's called Asian inspired. It's really me trying very hard to pretend I made Thai curry soup when really I didn't. Still tasty though!

Anecdote: the squash I used for this soup really confused me when I dugged it out from my veg box. It was too orange to be a butternut squash, and I actually originally thought it wasn't even a squash at all (because I'm blind and somehow convinced myself its skin was sharon fruit-like. It wasn't. It was squash-like. Here's the beast:)

Asian inspired squash and carrot soup

4-5 servings

- 1 medium sized squash

- 5-6 carrots

- 1 medium union

- chilli flakes
- 1 can coconut milk
- vegetable stock
- salt and pepper

Peel and chop your squash and carrots into little pieces, set aside. Heat a little olive oil in a pot, and sweat the chopped onion. When translucid, add in the squash and carrots, give it a good mix and cook for about 5 minutes, mixing a few times.
Pour vegetable stock until it about covers the vegetables (note: my stock technique is to crumble the stock cube on my dish, pour boiling water and mix.) Add in chilli flakes to your liking. Bring it to a boil then let it simmer until the carrots are soft.
Take it off the heat, mix with a hand blender then bring to the boil again. Immediately lower the heat, season, add in the coconut milk, give it a good mix and serve!

Eat warm or give it a freeze for a lazy night! Not too sure when the next post will come as I'm off home soon... Just in case, merry Christmas!! x