Good evening lovelies J
To be honest, I was in the worst mood today! Not an angry
mood or a snappy mood, just a down mood. A crazy order influx that appeared
overnight, lack of communication, non-belief in information sharing, worries,
concerns about my life in general, and failing to hear from an anticipated job
application was the nail that sealed the coffin. I had everything going on
today and in true Nancy style, my mind took off without me and left me making
mountains out of mole hills once again. And thinking about my day now at 8pm,
the only times that my mood got better was at meal times.
Lunch at work was a group affair and we all got involved and
brought something along (I took the lazy road and got some mini muffins from
the supermarket hehe) and we all sat around the tiny little table in our pod
and had a communal feast J
There was a marinara pizza, a olive baguette, ham and salami, a bakers delight
pull-apart, some chicken and beef meat balls, my mini muffins, a fantastic
fruit platter and some yummy Appletizer grape juice. It was a good break up to
the hectic day that everyone seemed to be having which came as a relief and a
forced break that none of us would have taken if we were organising our
individual lunches. As much as a busy day can distract you from a bad mood
temporarily, as soon as you have a minute of down time, you mind goes straight
back there. So it was good to have a discussion and laugh with everyone over
lunch time that was neither a bad mood or a hectic, procrastinating, tail-chasing,
frantic order placing/fixing loaded day.
Dinner was decided on my way home late this afternoon. After
a late night leaving work, it was dark on the way home. The temptation not to
just get takeaway for myself was shifted when I decided to make Chicken Skewers
and some sort of noodle dish. When I got home I shoved some chicken thighs in
the microwave to thaw out and went and sat down. Then my mind shifted....to a
curry! A delicious, winter warmer, belly filling, bad mood feeding meal. I had
the rice, the chicken, the veges and I have recently added some curry spices to
my pantry collection. I have been a late adopter of microwave rice I think, it
seems to be something that everyone has been using it as a shortcut for many
years already! I do love rice and traditional way of cooking it, but sometimes,
convenience wins sometimes. Anyway, I used my new spices, Garam Marsala, Turmeric
and Mustard seeds, along with some cinnamon, cumin and dried coriander to
flavour my curry creation. They started off in the oil and I then popped in the
cut up chicken and some chopped up beans, mushrooms and zucchini. Fried it all
off and then added a small can of light coconut milk. Simmer for a while and
then it was ready to be put on top of my brown rice!
The curry didn’t turn out to be anything like the rich, dark
Indian curry I was hoping to create...but what it did do is make me think about
which cuisine it actually fitted into, in a good way! It was tasty and
brilliant colour due to the turmeric, and actually too me back to the Japanese
curries that Aunty Celica (our maid in Singapore) used to make. It had a mild
flavour, (which I was confused about because of the spices I used, but maybe I
just need to come to terms that I have some work to do with my Indian spice
visions) that reminded me of the Japanese flavours that I had as a child. But
it did have a great flavour that had potential for improvement as well as being
a fantastic first effort as a curry from scratch. And that’s what matters!
Xo
NJC
No comments:
Post a Comment