You know how you're reading/talking about one thing and that leads to another thing which leads to something else etc?
I guess that's how I have come to spend most of the afternoon reading about so called "honour killings" online.
I'm sure I have a lot of opinions on the matter but mostly I just think it's sad...
When I was a teenager in Umea a young girl was killed by her brother and cousin. It happened not too far from where we lived. My brother had kind of hung around with the brother for a short while but I don't think they were very close and I don't think they were still friends when it happened. I might be wrong however, I had all but forgotten about this until today when I unexpectedly ended up reading about the subject. I remember it was all quite horrible when it happened. There was some kind of march in her memory, candles and stuff. Some of my friends had known her and went to the funeral.
It was kind of a shock that someone you'd met and talked to and even hung out with once or twice (a bunch of us went to some football match once and he was with us) had actually murdered someone.
Like I said, it's sad. I remember the mum (in some interview or something) saying that she'd lost two children, her daughter and her son.
And I know it's a tricky subject. A lot of words like culture! religion! integration! immigration! equality! are thrown around. People on blogs and message board, in articles and editorials getting riled up and angry, shouting and arguing.
And sure, I think it's an important debate to have. Solutions need to be found, solutions that work for, if not everyone, at least the majority. But I really can't bring myself to have an opinion.
Because it's people killing people. Family members killing family members. People you're supposed to love and care for, not hurt. And that just makes me sad.
I don't think today is a good day for me to be reading about these things. But then again, what day would be a good one?
I got nothing
sab x
Monday 30 August 2010
I'm blue daba-di daba-do
I'm not going to blog today.
I'm feeling a bit down and don't really want an emo blog.
Besides I need to go back to the Sisyphean task of tidying up my room.
see y'all
sab x
I'm feeling a bit down and don't really want an emo blog.
Besides I need to go back to the Sisyphean task of tidying up my room.
see y'all
sab x
Sunday 29 August 2010
The heck?!
I've been ignoring my hotmail for a couple of days.
Mainly because I've noticed on my little msn today thing that the inbox was full of spam...
Today I decided to do something about it and when I open hotmail this is what I see:
Not only is it 99% spam (which I kind of guessed) but there seems to be two of every message.
98 new emails in all!
Now I've noticed recently that hotmail looks different and since I'm not a big fan of change, I don't like it. But I'm wondering if this updated version, or whatever they're calling it, has screwed up my junkmail filter settings because I used to have one of the strictest settings and only ever got a few each day. As far as I can tell it's either a. that, b. the spammers have gone psycho crazy, or c. "new" hotmail sucks.
Eagle eyed readers will also see in the picture that my hotmail is in Swedish. This is something that's been bugging me for a while. I don't know how it happened! When I moved to London I had another hotmail address but that got hacked or something and pretty much stopped working so I got a new one. Whilst living in London. And at no point did I tick some sort of box or whatnot saying I'm Swedish and therefore want my hotmail to be. So why is it?! Are they psychic?!
Oh well...
Now that I've tidied up my inbox I'm going to have a cup of tea, then get cracking on tidying up my room.
Good times!
Yours truly
sab x
Mainly because I've noticed on my little msn today thing that the inbox was full of spam...
Today I decided to do something about it and when I open hotmail this is what I see:
Not only is it 99% spam (which I kind of guessed) but there seems to be two of every message.
98 new emails in all!
Now I've noticed recently that hotmail looks different and since I'm not a big fan of change, I don't like it. But I'm wondering if this updated version, or whatever they're calling it, has screwed up my junkmail filter settings because I used to have one of the strictest settings and only ever got a few each day. As far as I can tell it's either a. that, b. the spammers have gone psycho crazy, or c. "new" hotmail sucks.
Eagle eyed readers will also see in the picture that my hotmail is in Swedish. This is something that's been bugging me for a while. I don't know how it happened! When I moved to London I had another hotmail address but that got hacked or something and pretty much stopped working so I got a new one. Whilst living in London. And at no point did I tick some sort of box or whatnot saying I'm Swedish and therefore want my hotmail to be. So why is it?! Are they psychic?!
Oh well...
Now that I've tidied up my inbox I'm going to have a cup of tea, then get cracking on tidying up my room.
Good times!
Yours truly
sab x
Saturday 28 August 2010
'tis the season
I've been jamming again! I started last week with an apple and greengage jelly which turned out yummy (and oh so pretty) and today I have made raspberry and peach jam.
The jelly came about because I found some windfall apples in the garden of the house I was looking after last week (the neighbours have an apple tree with a branch that hangs over the fence) and thought hmm, what can I do with these. Jelly of course. Because I only had a few and, lets face it, plain old apple jelly is a bit boring really I needed something else. Greengages seem to be in season now, at least there are loads of them in the shop, and I absolutely love them. I have been eating them by the truck loads the last couple of weeks and had some at home so I thought I'd chuck those in as well and just see if it worked. It did, beautifully so!
From what I understand apples contain a lot of pectin, you can make pectin stock from them to use instead of commercial pectin when making jam, so you'd think it'd be fairly easy to get apple jelly to set. I however only achieved a soft set, after boiling it for what seemed like hours. Maybe I'm not so good with jellies as the same thing happened to my apple and rose hip jelly last year. Now I don't mind a soft set jelly (and I'm not just saying that because that's the only kind I can make) because I just eat jelly on toast. I don't eat meat so I don't do the whole lamb and mint/pork and apple/beef and whatever thing. I'm also militantly opposed to mixing sweet and savoury. I don't want no freaking sultanas in my couscous or pineapple in my cottage cheese. If you're going to eat jelly with some sort of food you would probably want it properly set, but if you're putting it on some crusty white bread or a toasted crumpet jelly that has the consistency of slightly thick runny honey is perfect!
I also had the idea of making sweetmeats again. Last year I made apple and rose hip and it was scrumptious. This year I wanted to try something different and had the idea of using cherries. I wasn't sure if I should do just cherries or mix it with something else like apple (apple seems to me quite a neutral flavour, perfect for mixing with other stronger ones, but what do I know). Before I could decide however, and work out what technique to use, I realised my cherries didn't look too nice. So I just ate them before they could go off.
I'm not with this experiment though, I will make it! British cherries are in season so it'd be a shame not to make something with them.
Today I also found rhubarb in Sainsbury's. Granted it was dutch, but I've been quite upset to have missed rhubarb as I have a flavour combo I want to try. I was so desperate I was considering using tinned rhubarb even though that would be weird and feel like cheating (plus is that something that's done? does it work?). So rhubarb is also on the list.
Peach and raspberry jam will get a post of it's own. This one is starting to get a bit rambly! Also, I have 5 or 6 books to finish...
Toodles the Internet!
sab x
The jelly came about because I found some windfall apples in the garden of the house I was looking after last week (the neighbours have an apple tree with a branch that hangs over the fence) and thought hmm, what can I do with these. Jelly of course. Because I only had a few and, lets face it, plain old apple jelly is a bit boring really I needed something else. Greengages seem to be in season now, at least there are loads of them in the shop, and I absolutely love them. I have been eating them by the truck loads the last couple of weeks and had some at home so I thought I'd chuck those in as well and just see if it worked. It did, beautifully so!
From what I understand apples contain a lot of pectin, you can make pectin stock from them to use instead of commercial pectin when making jam, so you'd think it'd be fairly easy to get apple jelly to set. I however only achieved a soft set, after boiling it for what seemed like hours. Maybe I'm not so good with jellies as the same thing happened to my apple and rose hip jelly last year. Now I don't mind a soft set jelly (and I'm not just saying that because that's the only kind I can make) because I just eat jelly on toast. I don't eat meat so I don't do the whole lamb and mint/pork and apple/beef and whatever thing. I'm also militantly opposed to mixing sweet and savoury. I don't want no freaking sultanas in my couscous or pineapple in my cottage cheese. If you're going to eat jelly with some sort of food you would probably want it properly set, but if you're putting it on some crusty white bread or a toasted crumpet jelly that has the consistency of slightly thick runny honey is perfect!
I also had the idea of making sweetmeats again. Last year I made apple and rose hip and it was scrumptious. This year I wanted to try something different and had the idea of using cherries. I wasn't sure if I should do just cherries or mix it with something else like apple (apple seems to me quite a neutral flavour, perfect for mixing with other stronger ones, but what do I know). Before I could decide however, and work out what technique to use, I realised my cherries didn't look too nice. So I just ate them before they could go off.
I'm not with this experiment though, I will make it! British cherries are in season so it'd be a shame not to make something with them.
Today I also found rhubarb in Sainsbury's. Granted it was dutch, but I've been quite upset to have missed rhubarb as I have a flavour combo I want to try. I was so desperate I was considering using tinned rhubarb even though that would be weird and feel like cheating (plus is that something that's done? does it work?). So rhubarb is also on the list.
Peach and raspberry jam will get a post of it's own. This one is starting to get a bit rambly! Also, I have 5 or 6 books to finish...
Toodles the Internet!
sab x
Monday 23 August 2010
Sweet like chocolate
Hello Blogosphere!
I'm back from my blogging hiatus, at least for now...
I'm not going to do the traditional "this is what I've been up to" thing, thought we'd just pretend I was never away.
I'm house sitting at the moment (for one of the families I work for) and as usual when I have to be alone in a big house I'm freaked out most of the time. The nights are the worst, I check and double (triple, quadruple) check all the doors etc before I set the alarm and go upstairs to bed, yet I still lay awake for ages thinking I can hear someone downstairs. And then of course I have to go and check, which freaks me out even more. You see, I can't just go downstairs and check, I have to check all the rooms on the way down as well. Otherwise I'll get it into my head that whoever was sneaking around downstairs is hiding in one of them! Then I have to turn the alarm off and check the ground floor (every nook and cranny) before going through the whole process of checking the doors, setting the alarm etc and then going back up to bed. It's exhausting. I did not get much sleep last night!
The one good thing about house sitting though, is that I have a whole big kitchen to myself! Yay!!!
So yesterday I baked. Well I say baked but it was more just mixing a bunch of stuff together and faffing about with melted chocolate for a while, but I don't know what the proper term for that is so I'm just going to go with baked.
I found a recipe for something called cookie balls completely by chance on a blog I stumbled across whilst blog-hopping. Hmm, sounds interesting, I thought. But, of course, being me I can't just follow a recipe without adding or changing something. So here's my version:
(I didn't really measure anything whilst making these, as there's no baking and nothing needs to rise etc I don't think it's that important as long as it tastes good. You can use as much or as little of anything to get it tasting just how you like it)
Ingredients:
1 packet of oreos
Cream cheese
Peanut butter (I used crunchy)
(icing sugar to taste)
dark chocolate
Method:
1.Blitz the cookies in a food processor until they're fine crumbs.
2.In a bowl, mix the cookie crumbs with cream cheese to a sort of paste. I didn't use the whole tub.
3. Add peanut butter to taste (I was a bit careful and used about 2 teaspoons but I think it could have done with a bit more).
4. (optional) When you've mixed in the peanut butter you might find that it's not sweet. As I like my sweets sweet, I just sprinkled on a bit of icing sugar and mixed that in. Just a tiny little bit though, you don't want it too sweet!
5. Stick the mixture in the freezer for a while to make it easier to work with.
6. Working quickly shape the cold cookie-cheese mixture into little balls. Put them back in the freezer for a little while.
7. Melt the chocolate.
8. Take the balls from the freezer and dip them in the chocolate.
9. Stick them in the fridge to set.
10. Eat and enjoy!
These are quite rich but absolutely delicious especially with a nice cup of earl grey tea!
I did find that mine are best when they're kept in the fridge and eaten cold, as they go quite squidgy when they're room temperature. The original recipe said that you might want to dip them in the chocolate twice and that might help. I didn't have enough chocolate for that though and I quite like them as they are now!
So yeah, even though there's no actual baking involved it is a little bit faffy and can take a while but it's worth it as they're so scrummy!
I'm sure there are lots of different variation on this and I'm definitely going to experiment a bit more with these. Why don't you try and add your favourite things and see how they turn out!
Sab x
I'm back from my blogging hiatus, at least for now...
I'm not going to do the traditional "this is what I've been up to" thing, thought we'd just pretend I was never away.
I'm house sitting at the moment (for one of the families I work for) and as usual when I have to be alone in a big house I'm freaked out most of the time. The nights are the worst, I check and double (triple, quadruple) check all the doors etc before I set the alarm and go upstairs to bed, yet I still lay awake for ages thinking I can hear someone downstairs. And then of course I have to go and check, which freaks me out even more. You see, I can't just go downstairs and check, I have to check all the rooms on the way down as well. Otherwise I'll get it into my head that whoever was sneaking around downstairs is hiding in one of them! Then I have to turn the alarm off and check the ground floor (every nook and cranny) before going through the whole process of checking the doors, setting the alarm etc and then going back up to bed. It's exhausting. I did not get much sleep last night!
The one good thing about house sitting though, is that I have a whole big kitchen to myself! Yay!!!
So yesterday I baked. Well I say baked but it was more just mixing a bunch of stuff together and faffing about with melted chocolate for a while, but I don't know what the proper term for that is so I'm just going to go with baked.
I found a recipe for something called cookie balls completely by chance on a blog I stumbled across whilst blog-hopping. Hmm, sounds interesting, I thought. But, of course, being me I can't just follow a recipe without adding or changing something. So here's my version:
(I didn't really measure anything whilst making these, as there's no baking and nothing needs to rise etc I don't think it's that important as long as it tastes good. You can use as much or as little of anything to get it tasting just how you like it)
Ingredients:
1 packet of oreos
Cream cheese
Peanut butter (I used crunchy)
(icing sugar to taste)
dark chocolate
Method:
1.Blitz the cookies in a food processor until they're fine crumbs.
2.In a bowl, mix the cookie crumbs with cream cheese to a sort of paste. I didn't use the whole tub.
3. Add peanut butter to taste (I was a bit careful and used about 2 teaspoons but I think it could have done with a bit more).
4. (optional) When you've mixed in the peanut butter you might find that it's not sweet. As I like my sweets sweet, I just sprinkled on a bit of icing sugar and mixed that in. Just a tiny little bit though, you don't want it too sweet!
5. Stick the mixture in the freezer for a while to make it easier to work with.
6. Working quickly shape the cold cookie-cheese mixture into little balls. Put them back in the freezer for a little while.
7. Melt the chocolate.
8. Take the balls from the freezer and dip them in the chocolate.
9. Stick them in the fridge to set.
10. Eat and enjoy!
These are quite rich but absolutely delicious especially with a nice cup of earl grey tea!
I did find that mine are best when they're kept in the fridge and eaten cold, as they go quite squidgy when they're room temperature. The original recipe said that you might want to dip them in the chocolate twice and that might help. I didn't have enough chocolate for that though and I quite like them as they are now!
So yeah, even though there's no actual baking involved it is a little bit faffy and can take a while but it's worth it as they're so scrummy!
I'm sure there are lots of different variation on this and I'm definitely going to experiment a bit more with these. Why don't you try and add your favourite things and see how they turn out!
Sab x
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