A few weeks ago I surprised myself by falling headlong into a crush.  A deeply passionate affair, with lots of fire and gasps of pleasure.  Ahem.

I discovered duck eggs.  In particular, I discovered fried duck eggs.

I’ve long maintained a strong anti-egg stance.  After several miserable experiences with boiled and fried eggs as a child, I have long held a belief that eggs were best suited to being baked into cakes.  At a pinch, I’d eat scrambled eggs or an omelette, but you would never, ever catch me eating a boiled (soft or hard), poached or fried.  So what changed?

Well.

A few weeks ago, Dave broke his collarbone while playing football (soccer) with Lucas.  Bear with me, I’m getting there.  I ended up dashing into the supermarket to buy something, anything, to get change for the hospital (horrendously expensive) carpark.  I grabbed the first thing I saw and a few hours later I found myself staring in bewilderment at a bag of pre-chopped swede (rutabaga across the pond, neeps to my fellow Scots) and carrots.  After scratching my head for a while I remembered seeing a root vegetable hash somewhere on the internet and decided to make that.  And since hash is accompanied in just about every recipe by a fried egg, I decided to add one to my plate, too, despite loathing them.  (I think my brain was truly scrambled by stress.)  To my utter surprise, I found myself enjoying the egg!  And the next day I picked up a carton of duck eggs at the supermarket and reprised the precious night’s dinner with even better results.  Duck eggs are awesome!  I have discovered the joys of poking at a wobbly yolk and watching liquid gold pour over cubes of crispy-edged vegetables.  Fantastic.  My conversion to the church of fried eggs is vastly amusing all of my friends and family.  I’m keeping my eye out for goose eggs (even richer?) and after watching a nature documentary the other day, I’m pondering how I’d get hold of an ostrich egg…

This butternut squash and chorizo hash is a ritzy adaptation of the original recipe I tried.  I always have some chorizo knocking arounc the fridge and I had some butternut squash that needed to be used up, so I thought I’d combine the two with somewhat stellar results, if I do say so myself.  Chopping the squash into small dice is a bit tedious, but just keep reminding yourself of how delicious the results will be!  If you don’t have a microwave then you can par-boil the squash until softened before crisping up in the frying pan.  The microwave does make faster work of it, though.

Butternut squash and chorizo hash

Serves 2

• 120g chorizo, diced
• 500g butternut squash, small dice (peeled weight)
• 1 small onion, chopped finely
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 2 duck eggs
• salt, pepper and paprika to season

Put diced squash in a microwave-proof dish with a tablespoon of water and cover.  Microwave for 5 minutes until almost cooked.   Meanwhile, put a large frying pan over a low heat and toss in the chorizo.  Cook slowly to render out some of the fat, then turn up the heat and sizzle until crisp all over.  Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, leaving the paprika-scented oil behind.

Add the chopped onion and the softened butternut squash to the frying pan and fry over medium heat until the onions are translucent, and turning a little bit golden and the squash is cooked all the way through.  This shouldn’t take long–about 5-10 minutes.  Scatter over the garlic and chorizo, stir through well.  Cook for another couple of minutes until the garlic is fragrant and the chorizo has warmed up again, then check the seasoning.  Add salt, pepper and paprika as necessary.  Once it tastes awesome, divide the hash between two plates.

Turn the heat to low and add the oil to the frying pan.  Since I’m a n00b at fried eggs, I like to fry mine one at a time.  If you’ve been doing this for years, go right ahead and do your own thing!  Crack your duck egg into a ramekin and pour into the centre of the pan.  Season and pop a lid over the egg. Cook for 2 minutes and then slide on top of the hash.  Repeat with the other egg and sprinkle some paprika on top of the fried egg.

Q: What do you buy the man who has everything for his birthday?
A: You don’t.  You make him some artwork featuring one of his favourite things!

Last year I struggled to find a birthday present for my husband, Dave, and then foolishly gave away the one good idea I’d come up with to his parents who were also struggling.  So, I decided to make him the comic book canvas I’d been thinking about making for ages.

Since this was going to be a fairly lengthy project and thus hard to hide, I figured that I should probably tell Dave I was doing it, and also since it was for him, it would make sense to ask him which comic or superhero to feature.  I’m not sure who I expected him to choose, but I was quite surprised when he said Excalibur.  In retrospect, it is less surprising as Alan Davis is one of his favourite artists!  With that weighty decision made, I started to trawl eBay for second-hand comics (with Davis on pencils) and picked up the rest of the supplies from Hobbycraft where I was thrilled to discover that they now sold Mod Podge.

I coated the edges of my box canvas with some black acrylic paint so that I didn’t need to worry about trying to do neatly folded corners, and it also makes the finished canvas ‘pop’ nicely against the wall.  I also like to think that it looks professional—am I kidding myself?

The hardest part of creating the canvas was deciding how best to layout the images.  When I initially Googled for comic decoupage-work to get ideas I’d seen a few canvases where people had just laid things out in neat horizontal lines, so I tried that.  And it looked rubbish.  And then I tried to create an Exciting and Dynamic layout which didn’t really work for me either.  The only thing that I knew for certain was that I wanted to put a large team ‘photo’ in the middle.

So, one morning when I had the house to myself I stuck someSuperman: The Animated Series DVDs on for inspiration, collected up my pre-painted canvas, Mod Podge, and all my neatly snipped panels and just went for it.  I think that if I had spent any more time trying to create the perfect layout I would have been paralysed by indecision for weeks.

Once I had about 90% of the canvas covered I started snipping out lots of action words from panels.  My idea was to enhance the overall comic (and give it a bit more depth) by layering POW!, WHAM!, BAMF! over little gaps and corners.  It also came in handy for brightening up the occasional area which felt a bit too dark.  I couldn’t have done this without my tiny super-sharp scissors!!

You can see this layering really well in the above picture of the top left corner of the canvas.  I love the PIP! and WHUMF!

Despite the odd wrinkle here and there, I’m really pleased with the end result and I’m pretty sure Dave is, too, since he’s been keen to show it off to everyone!  It really does look awesome on the wall in our comics room and I’m planning to make a couple of smaller canvases to go beside it as I found some fantastic old ads for Airwolf and Top Gun toys in the old comics!

Kitty Pryde phasing through the canvas

Gah, I really must start blogging more frequently!

I have to confess to a carb-laden comfort eating week, driven by stress but mostly by weakness.  I have managed to bully myself into two days of solid Primal eating and feel much better for it.  All the Easter eggs have either been chucked away or eaten by Other People so that’s a blessing.

Last week: 17st 4

This week: 17st 6

Gain of 2lb

I have visions of waking up in a few weeks to find that I’m tipping the scales at 18stone (or worse) again, so I need to refocus my efforts and get back to the business of losing weight.  The weather is supposed to be horrendous all week, so I shall unearth Wii Zumba or a Leslie Sansone DVD and get some exercise in at home.  I need to make sure that I do lots of stretching afterwards as I pulled a calf muscle last week

Aside from eating myself into a gluttonous food coma, I have been doing loads of organising and tidying at home.  I’m rather pleased to have gotten rid of a few big bags of clothes and to have helped the school raise money at the same time.  I’ve also decluttered, cleaned and tidied the kitchen and managed to keep it in a state of glorious serenity for over a week!  I can’t help but smile every time I walk into the kitchen now and it makes cooking so much easier, too.  I really wish that I’d taken before and after pictures so that I could show off a little.  On the other hand, I’m secretly grateful that no one has seen my horrendously messy kitchen!!

So, um… I’ve been a bit quiet of late, haven’t I?  It turns out that I can get through the Christmas holidays and my birthday unscathed, but Easter is a different kettle of fish.  Last week I gained 2lb and fell headlong into a vat of bread, pasta, chocolate and sugar.  Needless to say, I was feeling absolutely dreadful by this Wednesday, so I girded my loins and started eating properly again.

Last week: 17st 5

This week: 17st 4

Loss of 1lb

I’m really happy with losing a pound; it’s bloody brilliant for just two days of primal eating!  I’m hoping that I’ll feel back to normal after a week of eating well… I still feel very bloated and achey.  Oats really aren’t my friend!!  When school starts again on Monday I should be able to slip back into my usual routine and start walking again, too, which should help shift this extra pound and lose me some more, too.  One day soon the scales will say 16st something

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve managed to get it together enough to write a menu plan.  Well, most of a menu plan!

M: Chocolate chilli, sweet potato fries and sauteed Brussels sprouts

T: Pad Thai, Asian cucumber salad on the side

W: Moroccan meatballs, cauliflower pilaf

T: Chicken risotto (with some roasted chunks of butternut squash tossed in as it (a) needs to be used up and (b) I am apparently out of frozen peas and I refuse to go back to the shops again!!)

F: Leftover (and much improved by a day or two in the fridge) Moroccan meatballs, cauliflower pilaf

I haven’t thought much about food for the Easter weekend.  I did spot some large lumps of lamb in the freezer but I haven’t the faintest clue what cuts they are, so I might slow-roast the biggest lump with loads of garlic and rosemary for Sunday.  I guess it depends on whether we’re descending upon the in-laws or not!  If we are… I am baking a paleo chocolate cake!!  I miss baking and it’s so much safer for me to bake when I have a willing horde of locusts to polish everything off for me.

What a week!  Dave broke his collarbone last Friday so we’ve had a weekend of hospitals and sleeping very badly.  I really need to get back to meal planning properly, but despite not having anything written down we’ve had some awesome meals lately and I’ve done a lot of walking.  It’s now the Easter holidays so I am going to try and get Lucas excited about walking and drag him out for a daily walk as I’ve been enjoying soaking up the sun and all the exercise seems to be having a positive effect…

Last week: 17st 6

This week: 17st 3

Loss: 3lb

This takes me to a total loss of 3st 2lb (44lb) since the middle of October!  I am beyond thrilled.  This is the most successful I’ve ever been at losing weight and it really is sustainable for life.  I love eating Primal!!

I’ve popped an updated progress photo on my progress page.

Here is my walking buddy posing in the valley behind our house.  Isn’t he a cool dude?

We’ve been clocking up the miles together on the school run (well, walk) since I decided to follow in the hairy footsteps of those brave hobbits and walk from Bag End to Rivendell.  It’s been really lovely, especially as the sun has been blazing away beautifully.  We’ve been able to roam around the valley and marvel at the bluebells, primroses and exceedingly fat bumble bees and talk about nature and the seasons while walking home.  (I’d walk in the mornings, too, if I was awake enough.  So not a morning person.)

Today we indulged in a grand hobbit tradition and sang as we walked home.  If anyone was in earshot… sorry.  Here’s our current favourite!

I’m currently on mile 27 of my walk, which puts me almost at the end of a very long road which rolls up and down.  I’m looking forward to reaching the next milestone from the book and ‘seeing’ something more interesting than this road!!  I should probably do more than 1.4 miles a day unless I want to take a year to walk to Rivendell but I’m proud of myself for getting off my arse and walking every day!

*flails like Kermit*

I have lost weight.  I’ve lost a lot of weight.  I’m still utterly amazed and very, very happy.

I’ve spent the past two weeks or so lamenting my woes to poor Georgie.  First there was the week when I did absolutely everything right and lost nothing, and then there was the week when I fell into a vat of carbs for two days around Dave’s birthday and gained a pound (totally okay with that… I had expected more) and then the scales didn’t move.  (Yeah, I’m guilty of hopping on the scales all too frequently at the moment.)   I’ve been keeping going, just taking each day as it comes and trying to do my very best, but the level of angst and whinge was rising to worryingly teenage levels.

Well, there’s no need for any more angsting from me!

Last week: 17st 10

This week: 17st 6

I lost 4lb!!

This takes me to 41lb lost, so I can tick lose 40lb off my list of things to do, and I only need to lose a paltry one pound to reach the (by now magical) 3 stone lost.  Can’t wait to get there!  I’ve already got my reward picked out… I’ve been gagging for the BBC to release Doctor Who and The Daemons on DVD for years and I refuse to buy it until I weigh 17st 5

(Walking is still going well.  I’ve been walking daily and finally managed to crack the 3mph barrier today, even if it was only for one mile with a slower mile 2.  I’m now 23 miles into my epic journey and I think it might be time to re-read the books…)

No man (or woman) is an island.  Especially not when losing weight.  For the past six weeks I’ve been joined on my primal adventure by my friend Georgie and I’ve got to say… it’s been absolutely brilliant having someone to talk to who understands all the little things that other people might find banal or bizarre!  We’ve been nudging each other every day via Facebook to eat properly or do some exercise and it definitely works–the proof of that can be found in our smaller sized jeans!

We’ve been talking about getting more consistent with exercising and I happened to remember something I’d stumbled across a few years ago when Lord Of The Rings was at the peak of its fannish craziness: A Walk to Rivendell.  I’ve been enjoying watching my miles add up on Runkeeper and the idea of layering a bit of geeky fun on top pleases me greatly.  I mentioned it to Georgie and ten minutes later found myself with a new FB group and a virtual walking buddy or two.  People have joined us!  I never expected that.  So now we have our own Fellowship!  We probably need a cool name…

I’m so impressed with the Rivendell walk on Eowyn’s Challenge which have been created by the author of the Atlas of Middle Earth.  Those hobbits covered some serious mileage every day!  I knew their journey was long, but the movies compressed it quite nicely to the point that it seemed more like a ramble in the countryside rather than the long and arduous journey it was.  I mean… 18 miles in a day?  And a seven day trip to get to Bree?  Wow.  And days and days of travel after that.  Hobbit feet are obviously incredibly tough as well as being hairy.  I’m not aspiring to cover quite the same distance on a daily basis, in fact, my only goal is to walk for 10 minutes a day.  I figure that if I do that, I probably won’t want to stop after a paltry 10 minutes but for getting out of the door purposes, a 10 minute goal should work nicely.

Today I’ve clocked up 2.9 miles (or 2.1 if you listen to Runkeeper’s craziness) which leaves me at mile 20 (or 458).  I’m left Bag End, and am firmly in Green Hill Country on a long road that rolls up and down.  I haven’t encountered anything scary as yet, but I did walk a couple of bags of old toys up to the charity shop in the village (extra resistance and petrol-saving in one fell swoop!)

It’s been a good, but busy week.   It was Dave’s birthday so I spent much of the week being consumed by making his birthday cake and spoiling him, and unfortunately fell into two days of eating badly. Still, all the birthday cake has been given away to appreciative minions at work and I’m back on track.  I’ve gained a pound but I’m trying to remain sanguine about the whole thing.  I chose to eat badly–no one held me down and forced cake between my trembling lips–so next time I will choose to eat healthfully and be extra-careful around birthdays!

Last week 17st 9

This week 17 st 10

Gain of 1lb

And now I must get back to the kitchen.  I’m cooking up some paleo char sui in preparation for dinner.  If the pork tastes half as good as it smells then my tummy will be very happy indeed!