Snowflakes with jazz hands

Have you ever seen The Nutcracker? For our latest UK Ballet Meet Up, the plan was to learn some of the snowflake corps de ballet routine:



Pretty nerve-wracking if, like me, you casually attend on ballet class a week (two on a good week!) and don't like to perform!

Luckily I had no need to worry - the lovely Karis from EverybodyBallet was in charge and led a lovely class with adapted sections from the ballet. We started with a 30min barre to warm up (I love barre work! It's so simple and difficult and disciplined all at once!), before spending 2 hours on the snowflake choreography.

One thing we all learnt very quickly - snowflakes aren't delicate and floaty, they're spiky. A lot of the movements were surprisingly quick and we had to get used to using straight arms (as opposed to usually maintaining a delicate curve).

And then there were the hands. At select moments during the piece we had to "shimmer" our fingers in a snowflaky manner (I'm not sure how many snowflakes you've met, but I'm assured that they all shimmer their fingers!). This looked beautifully delicate when demonstrated by Karis, however I'm convinced my version was a cross between jazz-hands and spirit-fingers (oh gosh - that's a dodgy reference to cheerleading film Bring It On (and its sequels!)). Suffice to say, less snowflake and more west end musical. It wasn't until after the class that I discovered many of my classmates had made the same link and we had all been trying desperately not to go too "jazz" with our snowflakes!

What was amazing about the class was how many people were there! At our very first meet-up there were just 5 of us taking the clad (plus a couple of spectators/photographers). At this incarnation (number four) there was 15 of us! Crazy. It was so nice to meet more ballet people and chat with them after class. Some had travelled from as far away as Lincoln just for our ballet workshop! That's dedication, and a testament to the amazing organisation as of Becca :) 

I've saved the best for last: somehow I ended up in a tutu! Still not completely sure how that happened, but it actually worked! It made dancing in my little group of snowflakes more fun and I felt a bit more floaty (erm... I mean spiky of course!). Not really my thing though - I expect it'll be a while before I find myself donning one again!

Apologies for the slightly dodgy iphone pics - I didn't have a decent camera with me! Much too busy dancing to take proper photos anyway!

Mexican take two

Last week I finally got around to trying another Kitchen Nomad recipe. This time I picked something that looked fairly simple: blackbean soup.

It was mostly straightforward - for a start all of the ingredients were mentioned in the actual recipe :) There was one teeny missing step, but beyond that it was plain sailing. Hurrah! 

The end result was a rather tasty spicy soup. It was initially a tad watery, so I added some roasted butternut squash that had been "hanging around" in the fridge and re-blended it. Perfect - more body and a slight touch of sweetness. I have been eating it for lunch all week, either with grated cheese or a few blobs if soured cream. Yummy yummy.

Little happy things

Look at this:

It's a glittery pear Christmas tree decoration! Isn't it fab?!

Today went from an empty, plan-free firework recovery day to lazy dim sum lunch with friends and a wander around the Harrods gift shop. Wonderful, relaxed and happy; and also with a new Christmas bauble.

Fireworks and rushing around.

So far, fireworks season has gone really well. I had planned to write a proper post about everything I've been up to, but between fireworks and the day job I'm simply too busy right now. Instead, for now I'll have to content myself with a few pictures that I snapped over the weekend...

Three vans loaded up and ready for the drive to Portsmouth.

Rigging the shell tubes on the barges at Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth.

A snapshot of the show on Friday night (two barges in the middle of the harbour).

A few of the shell racks - my vague attempt to document some of the kit we travel with.

Rigging at Kenilworth Castle.

A slightly blurry side view of the show at Kenilworth Castle.

I wasn't firing on Bonfire Night itself (Tuesday) because I was needed at work, but I'll be back out on Saturday on another fabulous fireworks show.

When did you last see fireworks?

To all firers out there - stay safe this season. 

Prepping and packing

It's that firework-y time of year again and I've been rummaging through all my gear (and roaming the aisles of Decathlon) in preparation.

November is generally cold and wet and the forecast for this year is no better, so layers and waterproofing are the key to survival. It's similar to dressing for winter sailing or hiking. To ensure that I don't leave any gaps for the wind to whistle through, there's an overlapping process that I employ...

I start with socks - normally knee high ski socks or similar. Over these go my thermal bottoms or regular leggings (leggings do the job well enough unless the weather is really awful). On the top goes my thermal top (invaluable!) and then over that (sporting a very attractive tucked-in look) go my trousers. These are usually jeans, but I have finally found a pair of Craighoppers that were made for ladies with long legs so I'm also experimenting with these.

At this point I throw in a non-essential layer: some sort of cheap t-shirt or old top. It has precisely one purpose - to make me look less stupid if I get super-warm and strip off the outer layers! (Genuinely nobody cares on a fireworks site, but I'm a girl underneath and it bothers me!)

The thermal layers

The next layer is a fleece, followed by a jumper (usually my branded fireworks company hoodie). If the ground is very wet or it is raining then I also add waterproof trousers (with the fleece tucked in!!!). Next my body warmer, which does a superb job of keeping my core toasty warm, and then my big, yellow waterproof jacket.

Up until now, my footwear of choice has always been my very sturdy hiking boots, but this season I'm experimenting with insulating snow boots - warmer, lighter-weight and more flexible. And a total bargin in Decathlon!

Gloves are another essential. I tend towards sailing gloves, preferring to just have the index finger and glove exposed. Wiring in can be fiddly work so full gloves simply won't do. However, I do carry ski gloves in my firing box for when I'm waiting around and getting cold.

I have a cosy fleecy buff to protect my neck and an assortment of warm hats. I often wear two hats.

Also there's knee pads which are surprisingly useful because as we as providing padding for kneeling, they insulate the knees very well!

Bits and pieces, including my new purple thermal cup (should be hard to lose in the grass and mud!) and the fantastic snow boots that I can't wait to wear :)

Everything's organised. Just need to pack it all and hope for nice weather!

Marathon cooking

Two months ago I signed up to a fantastic sounding new company: Kitchen Nomad. The concept is very cool - every month they send you a box packed full of ingredients and recipes all based on the cuisine of a particular country.

This month's box was based on Mexico, which was particularly great because I love Mexican food (it's definitely in my top ten of world foods). I often make Mexican-inspired food (e.g. fajitas or chilli) and frequently choose Mexican streetfood or restaurants when dining out. Fab.

So the box arrived, I got excited and headed straight out to buy the added ingredients that I needed for the taco recipe:

Doesn't it look exciting?!

I was ready to roll!

First to make the dough for the tortilla:

This wasn't too tricky, just a bit time consuming to get the dough to come together and then kneed it.

The difficult bit was still to come...

The recipe said:

"Dust the board and your rolling pin with a little flour. Press a ball of dough firmly on the board with two fingers to flatten it into a fat pancake, then roll out to about 2mm thick."

Oh. My. Life. I nearly cried. The dough stuck to the rolling pin. I tried adding more masa harina flour. The dough fell apart when I tried to pick it up, even when I rolled it thicker than the 2mm suggested. Nothing was working. I gave up on the rolling pin and just pushed the dough out with my fingers - better but still couldn't lift it off the work surface.

In the end, I found a recipe on the masa harina packet which said:

"Use a taco press or flatten betwee two pieces of plastic."

Hurrah! Something that worked. Two pieces of clingfilm, a mixture of fingers and rolling pin and finally I was creating flattish, roundish tortillas that I could actually pick up!

I took lots of photos of my attempts to get the dough rolled out, but it's quite a depressing sequence so I will spare you!

I cooked the tortillas and got started on the filling, which consisted mostly of onions, ancho chillies (which are an amazing ingredient - love these!), crème fraîche and chicken. The chicken was optional, but there wouldn't have been much to the filling if I hadn't used it. As it was I only had enough filling for less than half of the tacos that I slaved over!

The final product:

(with added cherry tomatoes for some fresh zing)

I have one particular niggle with Kitchen Nomad: I'm not convinced that they test out the recipes before sending them out. I have tried at least four now and all had an ingredient that wasn't mentioned on the actual steps (on this one it was the garlic for the filling. I guessed and added it five mins after the onions). On top of that, there were the portioning problems (not enough filling for the tortillas), and the fact that rolling out the dough the way the recipe says to is basically impossible.

In total, this recipe (which was rated 2/3 for difficulty) took me almost two and a half hours. I know I'm not exactly a chef, but I do cook regularly and felt quite deflated by this experience.

However, there are lots of pros to the Kitchen Nomad system:

• It is very exciting to get a new box every month in the post and wonder about what might be in the next one.
• It gives you the chance to try a range of recipes that you may never have eaten, or that you've only ever eaten in restaurants.
• You find ingredients that you love and want to use in other cooking (ancho chillies - my new favourite!).
• It definitely shakes up your usual cooking regime - I have particular meals that I churn out on a weekly or monthly basis. I find that having a box of recipes and ingredients encourages me to experiment more and try new things.

Overall, I'm not ready to cancel my subscription yet, but I do hope the recipes come a bit more "tried and tested" in future so that the experience is more fun and less frustrating!

Am looking forward to trying the chilli honey crumble (doesn't it sound amazing?) and the baked feta (well, it is cheese after all!).

Special people

It's all well and good blogging about fun things I've been up to, but I've been thinking a lot recently about how much more important people are than activities.

I feel so lucky to have some truly wonderful friends - people who I know would go to the ends of the earth for me, as I would for them.

It's these people who make surfing, paddle boarding, random day trips to France and meals out special. Great people who love a giggle and an adventure too.

They even make firework gigs worthwhile - why else would I choose to stand in a field on a cold, wet autumn day for hours on end?!

And it's also these people who we turn to in times of need: who share the sad and difficult times, reminding us that we are not alone.Wanting to help and choosing to listen.

People are great :)