Sunday 27 May 2018

This Past Week [+ Friday Favourites]


   So. Seeg and I got married last week, and it's been so strange changing my name everywhere. I've been updating records and official things, though a few important ones are still to go through, and as the post has been coming in over the past few days it's been taking me a rather long moment to work out who it's for - me or Seeg.

   Anyway, we've had a wonderful time this past week. In case any of you forgot, Seeg and I are full-time carers, which is an exhausting task in its own right, and one that becomes especially difficult when it's your own mother you're caring for. But my dad took her on holiday for a week last Saturday, and that's given Seeg and I the opportunity for an at-home honeymoon. We have a place booked up and I am so excited about it, but it's a year from now, so this has been a welcome stand-in.

   Sunday we spent time together, had a romantic duck dinner and a dessert of homemade brownies and chocolate ice cream (yum). We watched Star Wars The Last Jedi for the first time since the cinema, and it was no better the second time around. We have so very many issues with it. We also exchanged our wedding gifts for each other - I got Seeg some Old Toby for his functional replica of Gandalf's pipe, two limited edition Sea of Thieves coins and a Kratos hoody; he got me a Legend of Zelda dressing gown and a book of Scandinavian folk creatures called Vaesen which I've had my eye on for a couple of years. I got the two of us a joint gift of a Falconry Experience Day, and I also ordered in a few boxes of chocolates from the German Lindt website because they have all the pralines and nougat and really good stuff. The UK just doesn't seem to want anything beyond Lindor, which is delicious but repetative. The Creola box is the best - pralines with cocoa nibs, yum. - and the nougat comes in at a close second. So a box of pralines and nougat wins every award conceivable. They also have make-your-own chocolate bars, so I had a milk slab made for Seeg topped with biscuit balls, pistachios, sliced almonds and chopped hazelnuts, named it 'Nuts About You' and added the wedding date beneath it on the label.


   Monday I spent a lot of time in the kitchen - I made a few things from the World of Warcraft cookbook, especially the steaming goat noodles for lunch, and prepped a few things for Tuesday's plans. I also made Just One Cookbook's baked katsudon for dinner, and we had a slice of wedding cake that night, too - oh yes, dessert every day this week.

   And Tuesday's plans were fantastic. Or, fantastical. We are both huge fans of The Lord of The Rings - it was after watching the first film when I was 12 that I decided I wanted to be a fantasy writer - so we finally committed to watching the whole extended version of the trilogy back to back. We began at 9:30 in the morning and it went on until midnight. Seeg smoked his pipe during an intermission - did you know you're not actually supposed to breathe pipe smoke into your lungs? - and I made Middle Earth food: a Hobbit's fry-up for breakfast of sausage, egg, bacon, sourdough toast and tomatoes at the start of The Fellowship of The Ring, a lunch of Dwarvish spiced lamb with The Two Towers, and a dinner of wild pigeon breast with red wine and juniper sauce fit for the halls of Gondor with The Return of The King, followed by a late dessert of simple loaf cake - honey and spices - and cream. It was yum. It was also an exhausting day, but it was really wonderful. We're both very glad we did it. And with a new TV, sound bar and reclining sofa (which isn't new but its comfy features are very rarely utilised), it was our best ever viewing - though Seeg saw it in the cinema when it came out. I saw it on video about a year after its release.


   Wednesday, we made gyoza together for lunch, then played Sea of Thieves with Sam and Duco and did our first skull fort, which was great fun (and tense), then we ordered our favourite pizza for dinner - Domino's Meateor. Then another late dessert of a sundae - 1 scoop of Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie, 2 scoops of Green & Black's vanilla, caramel and hazelnut ice cream, some maltesters, chunks of homemade praline (left over from the wedding cake), cruncy toffee sprinkles and whipped cream. It was epic.


   Thursday was our first day with no plans, so we chilled - I wrote, he played State of Decay 2 - we had more gyoza for lunch (well, he did, I had my left-over pizza) and we made okonomiyaki for dinner. I cheated with the noodles on mine, though, and opted for trying shirataki noodles rather than yakisoba to reduce the carb and calorie count. It worked a charm. Okonomiyaki is such a festival of tastes and textures that swapping ordinary noodles out for more glutinous ones didn't mar the finished dish - it was nowhere near as noticable as it would have been in a ramen dish or something similar - and it knocked off 250 calories. And, as they have no flavour of their own, they really absorbed the flavours of the mirin and okonomiyaki sauce.


   Friday was our last day, and again we had no plans. We chilled again, but together this time, and I made gorgeous (and filling) Korean barbeque beef udon for lunch, then ventured back into my Warcraft cookbook and made Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops for dinner. It was yum. Then my lightweightedness reasserted itself and after one glass of white wine I was pretty much on the floor, which was both ridiculous and wildly entertaining.

   Throughout the week we also received wonderful wedding wishes and gifts, including an ice cream maker, a beautiful bunch of Wild & Bloom flowers, a handmade bunting banner & exclusive Sea of Thieves pin, and a mysterious gift of a Hotel Chocolat milk to caramel sleekster and small bottle of Prosecco, though from whom, we do not know. There was no name on the card and no one's come forward to take credit.


   Now, however, it's back to normal, and I welcome it. Last week was busy, but the week before was, too - what with wedding prep and cake baking. Now it's back to filling Etsy orders, prepping for my art exhibit next month, and working on my book cover so I can get it published by the end of next month. It's the very last thing I need to do, and then it can be unleashed. OH! And I sold a copy about a week ago! I'm terrible at advertising, so every single sale of my book is remarkable, and so exciting!! I have plans in place for my next, so I'm hoping I can get it more publicity. It's definitely deserving of it.
   I'm also going to get to work on making a wedding scrap book - pictures, keepsakes, recipes etc - once everything else is taken care of, of course. Fun!

   So here's this week's favourites, meshed into this post!



Billy Connolly's World Tour   ♥   Cookie Monster pyjamas
Vaesen   ♥   Lindt Creola



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