I’m a person who likes food. In fact, if I had things my way, my parents would be entertaining a lot more than they usually do now, just so that I can make delicious snacks, as well as meals.

In earlier days I would have just decided what I wanted to make, and then make it for Lunch, or just for the hell of it. Unfortunately, lately that’s not really been possible, as I’m sticking to my diet again.

This week, however, I’m taking on three food projects. Tomorrow I’ll be making a curry from scratch, because I’ve always wanted a proper one. Friday, I’m making Lasagne Bolognese with garlic bread and a salad, because friends of my parents are coming over for dinner, and finally, on Sunday, my sister will be having her belated birthday party, for which I’m going to make all kinds of different foods as well. Just thinking about it has me quite hungry, already.

Next Monday I’ll probably be sick of cooking for a while, but honestly, I don’t mind. My University work needs attention too!

Religiously speaking, I’m not much of anything, and I’m definitely not Catholic. However, since my parents raised me (relatively) well, I know some about all kinds of religious holidays. Generally, I don’t observe any (by observe I just mean watch, perceive, notice, not to show regard for), except for the ones that get me free days from university.

Generally, my family only ‘celebrates’ Easter and Christmas with some really, really good food. However, this year I’m also doing Lent, my way.

In August of last year,  I went to see a dietician, because I needed new eating habits, for my health as well as my weight. For a few weeks I was very vigilant about the diet, and it worked well. Then obviously, came Christmas, and it went out the window, because I love food.

Ever since Christmas I’ve been having trouble getting back into the groove. This is where Lent comes in. A few weeks ago Caitlin, said something on her facebook page about it, and that got me thinking.
Lent is a fixed period of time, with an end date, and a reward at the end, in the form of loads of Easter Eggs, chocolate or otherwise.

So, I’ve decided to stick to my diet for Lent, which is going well so far, but I’m sure it will be somewhat of a challenge!

I have learned two things today:

1. Turns out little sisters are good for something! For instance when your moustache needs plucking, and you don’t want to do it yourself.

2. Making sorbet without an ice-cream maker is a rather annoying and tedious process. Note to Jamie Oliver: a couple of hours means TWO, not SIX and up.

I have recently found that cooking is an excellent method of dealing with all the stress that surrounds my studies. Especially stews, which is real winter food, are nice to do. They usually require little preparation and have to simmer for an hour or two. Giving you time to clean up the mess you made during the preparations.
I also enjoy luncheon dishes, as they are often things that I usually don’t eat, and allow me to eat something warm for lunch, which just bread with something on it won’t.

So this afternoon I attempted Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches, and this evening I made a wonderful goulash . I served the goulash with noodles for me and my parents, and potatoes for my siblings, as they don’t like noodles.

The final serving of the goulash I made.

I forgot to take a picture, so this is the final serving (mine) of goulash with egg noodles The yellowy things are potatoes, the red is bell pepper and the brown is the meat.

The philly cheesesteak sandwich I made was delicious

The cheese is cheddar (which I now love) and the toppings are mushrooms and onions.

Recipes:
Goulash
Philly Cheesesteak

It has been over a year now since I was in Rome with school but there is one thing I will never forget: the ice cream.

It’s no secret that the Italians make the most amazing ice cream in the world, what is a secret however, is the size of the scoops. They are HUGE. They don’t use a normal scooping device, they use a triangular flat knife of sorts to scoop the ice into the cone, creating a enormous mound of ice on top of the cone.

There is an Italian ice cream shop in town, and since I got money from my grandfather to buy ice cream, I went there.
Too bad the ice cream was nothing like the ice cream I got in Rome. Sure, it was tasty enough, but the scoops were very disappointing.

Tiny wasn’t exactly what I was was hoping for, especially since the previous times I bought ice cream there the scoops were bigger.
This episode has taught me two things:
The first is that size really does matter. (At least in ice cream xD), and the second is that apparently the credit crunch affects ice cream too.

I am so hungry right now, I could eat a horse. Which is not a good things considering it’s 00.10 and I’m planning on going to sleep soon. What’s even worse is that temptation is lying just one floor under me, in the form of delicious stilton quiches I baked for my dad’s birthday, which is tomorrow.

I have done this particular type of quiche before, and they are so, so, so delicious. Resisting them right now is really hard, but I promised my mother I wouldn’t, so I won’t.
Good thing that my sister bought me chocolate as a bribe for borrowing Pride and Prejudice from me, I can eat those in stead of the quiches that are downstairs calling my name.

As desperate as I was two weeks ago about my brother and sister not liking anything Icooked, so happy am I now. My brother and sister actually liked what I cooked tonight.
Well, for the most part.

I made onion rings, baked beans, oven fries (from the super market) hamburgers and a cucumber salad. I got the idea for the onion rings after watching The Big Bang Theory one too many times (lol), because Sheldon always eats them.
And they were delicious. Even my sister thought so, and she is normally quite picky about what she eats.

Perhaps it was not such a  wise choice to make them today though. She ate a lot of the onion rings, and even some baked beans, and she is going to a school dance tonight!

A grocery store about 5 kilometres from my house sells a chocolate mousse cake. It looks completely delicious, and I totally want it. There are just three problems:

• It’s really, really expensive for a cake that size, and although you think you might buy it some day when you have some cash lying around, you never will, because it would make you feel incredibly guilty about spending so much money on such a little cake.
• It’s not the right size. It’s either too small for 5 people to share with, or too big for you to eat by yourself. Especially because eating the whole thing would make you feel guilty about the amount of calories.
• And the biggest problem: it’s chocolate mousse, covered with first rate Belgian chocolate. Which makes it a huge, huge, huge calorie bomb. One shouldn’t want to eat it for that reason alone.

So why do I still desperatly want it, even though I know better?!

I have been cooking on Friday for a few weeks now. Since the beginning of February I believe, and everything I have cooked so far, my parents have loved, and my siblings hated.

The first Friday I cooked pasta. Usually my brother likes pasta (my sister hates it by default), but not this time, because *shock,  shock, horror gasp* I put PEAS in it >.<. He hated the entire dish because of one stupid ingredient.

The second Friday I cooked something that my mum cooks every single week, with one addition: leeks. Again, they hated it.

Third Friday: fried rice, Monday after: same fried rice. Yes, by now you you probably guess what I was going to say: they hated it AGAIN.

So, last Friday I thought, why not cook something my sister always says she likes, and my brother should like, because it has loads of meat. So I made Steak and Kidney pie, with mashed potatoes and carrots and peas. They hated it yet again, even though I made it because potatoes and vegetables and meat is something my sister ALWAYS likes. Except not this time.

I don’t know why I even bother really. At least my dad loved it, and helped himself to the leftovers the day after .

It´s weird how eating habbits can change overtime.

Until recently I always preferred to eat dinner, instead of lunch, and lately I seem to prefer lunch. Mostly because lately I seem to not like everything my mother makes. It´s just a fase I suppose, but it´s also very annoying.

Instead of eating dinner with everyone (which I do anyway, even if it’s only a little) these days I prefer to make lunch for myself. Usually this consists of some kind of eggs or toast, or something with macaroni.

One thing that hasn’t changed though, is that I still hate breakfast. Didn’t like it as a kid, and I still don’t like it now.