25 Before 25: Korma from scratch

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I love chicken korma, I sometimes think I could eat it every day for the rest of my life! So I couldn’t wait for Meatless May to be over so I could make this. Yes, I know I didn’t specify it had to be a chicken korma and that I could have made a veggie one. But it was part of the reason that challenge wasn’t too difficult, the thought of being able to make this once it was over kept me going. But it’s definitely a recipe that can be made veggie easily, just omit the chicken and change to vegetable stock. Or if you wanted you could make it a lamb korma, the choice is yours.

I decided to do it in the slow cooker, as I want to try as many meals as I can out in it. Also, it’s perfect to use on hot days, it doesn’t heat up your kitchen. I adapted my recipe from this one on allrecipes.co.uk. And I’ve added other changes I will make when I go to make it again.

Slow Cooker Chicken Korma

Ingredients

2 onions, chopped

3 garlic cloves

4 chicken breasts, chopped into large chunks

1 tbsp oil

25g butter

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp ground tumeric

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp gram masala

300ml chicken stock

Few handfuls of frozen veg (I used carrots, peas, broccoli and cauliflower)

1 tbsp sugar

75ml cream (I used coconut milk, but I found my resulting korma wasn’t creamy enough for me. I would probably use cream or better still coconut cream next time around)

2 tablespoons flaked almonds or cashews

Salt

Method

1. In a blender, blitz the onion and garlic until you get a coarse paste.

2. In a frying pan, heat the oil and cook the chicken until evenly browned. Remove and add to slow cooker.

3. In the same frying pan, melt the butter. Add the onion and garlic paste and cook over moderate heat for 3 minutes. Add the spices and cook for another 1 minute.

4. Mix in chicken stock, sugar and pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and then transfer into the slow cooker. Add the vegetables.

5. Cover and cook for 5-7 hours on low heat or 3-4 hours on high heat.

6. Add the cream and nuts. Serve with rice and naan bread.

25 Before 25: 1 month as a Vegetarian

I think I can pin point my reasoning for wanting to try this. When I was 12/13, I read The Teenage Vegetarian Survival Guide and it was just something I wanted to do. Vegetarianism wasn’t new to me. While no one in my immediate family was vegetarian, an older cousin of mine was. Though now that I think about it, I can’t remember if I ever asked her why she became vegetarian. My aunt was also vegetarian at one stage as well as an uncle in America also at one time being vegetarian. So nothing entirely new for me.

It’s taken me over 10 years to actually try this challenge. And I don’t know why. But I’m glad I did. Eating fruit and veg isn’t my strong point but it was interesting to try new dishes as well as to jazz up some old favourites. I enjoyed the challenge of going out and having to eat the vegetarian option. I am grateful that whenever I went to one friend’s house, her aunt (who’s a vegetarian) always made some extra veggie dinner if I was eating there. And I’m proud my boyfriend stuck to the challenge too (except for once when he ate a hot dog after a 4am charity walk. Apparently it doesn’t count if it’s for charity!).

Plus, it was all worth it in the end, to achieve something. To stick something out and not lapse. It proves that I do have will power and it’s something I aim to remember every time I think I don’t. And while I can’t see myself turning veg any time soon, I do try to have one or two meat-free dinners a week (and it sometimes turns out to be even more than that). I just need to now focus on eating more fruit and veg in general!

Nails of the Week!

I managed to get my hands on Max Factor’s Fantasy Fire the other week and couldn’t wait to give it a go! It’s got a purpley-pinky sheen to it and while it would definitely give certain colours another dimension, I decided to try it over purple, as I thought it would help enhance and slightly change purple.

I used it over Catrice ‘Forget-Me-Not!’, a sparkly deep purple. Here’s a picture of before.

And after, with Max Factor ‘Fantasy Fire’ as a topcoat.

There’s a subtle difference, the Fantasy Fire adds a bit of pinkiness to the shade and I think it helps to warm it up a bit too. I will be using it again over other shades in the future so keep an eye out for it!

Guinness Store House

I’ve spoken before about being a tourist in my own country (here and here). So when I heard a friend of mine was going to the Guinness Store House I thought it would be a great opportunity to try out something ‘touristy’ that I had never done before. It was a beautiful day too and it was great to get out and enjoy the weather.

Lovely brick buildings.

Once you’ve gone through and paid, you come to a tour guide who gives a brief speech about Arthur Guinness and the lease that was signed. And that’s the end of tour guides then. You get to see the lease in a glass display in the ground.

Loads of different Guinness bottles from the years gone by.

For there you progress through different parts of the building which deal with things such as how Guinness is made and the ingredients, how it’s stored and transported, different advertising and memorabilia, various things Guinness sponsors, interactive computers with test your knowledge of alcohol, cafes, bars etc.

Indoor waterfall

Entry to the Store House also includes one free pint of Guinness. This can be redeemed either at the Pour Your Own Pint bar or else at the Gravity Bar (where they pour it for you). However, if you want to do both, you can buy an extra ticket for the Pour Your Own Pint for a fiver and your original entry ticket for the Gravity Bar. I decided to use mine at the Pour a Pint bar. Here you are taught the main steps in pouring a perfect pint of Guinness. Very interesting!

From there, we went to the Gravity Bar. What a beautiful day for a beautiful view!

The Spire looking massive!

I had a great day at the Guinness Store House, it was very interesting and well worth it. I’d recommend it to tourists and locals!

Memories and Music: The Bee Gees

It’s been ages since I’ve done a post like this. My last one was the Lauryn Hill one. I’ve been meaning to do for ages but just never got around to it. Until now, when on Twitter I saw the sad news that Robin Gibb from The Bee Gees had passed away. That’s the second big music loss this week, the first being the passing away of Donna Summer. So since I’m now listening to Bee Gee songs, I felt compelled to write about my memories and experiences.

I can’t remember the first time I ever heard The Bee Gees. My Mum used to have a vinyl of theirs and she recorded some of the songs from it onto a cassette tape (the other side had some Kristy McColl songs). It was one of the staple tapes she had for car journeys (along with Elton John and Jimmy Sommerville!). Because it was recorded from a vinyl, the sound was low and scratchy but I still enjoyed listening to it (most of the time anyway! Sometimes we used to beg to listen to the radio for more modern songs!). Only recently my boyfriend said ‘I didn’t know Massachusetts was a Bee Gees song!’ which shocked me as how could you not know it was one of their songs?!

When we were in the house we used to play the vinyl, often when my older cousins were babysitting and we used to dance around to the upbeat songs (one favourite was You Should Be Dancing). The Bee Gees were still release songs when I was that age, NOW 36 was one of my first CDs and their song Alone was on it.

Even if I hadn’t heard any Bee Gees as a child, I couldn’t help but be surrounded by cover versions as a child and a teenager. One of the first songs I ever remember recording off the radio (ah, those were the days!) was How Deep Is Your Love by Take That. I still love both versions of that song. The of course there was the Boyzone cover of Words (Used to love the video to it!), 911 version of More Than A Woman (I remember listening to late night radio and falling asleep to that!), Steps version of Tragedy (I bought the single and I knew the dance!), Jimmy Sommerville’s version of To Love Somebody, I Started a Joke by The Wallflowers (from the Zoolander soundtrack). There just a handful of covers done out of the Bee Gees back catalogue. All the versions I mentioned were ones that I listened to regularly.

The Bees Gees were more than a band though. They also wrote loads of songs for other people. The ones that are closest to me are Chain Reaction for Diana Ross, for which they sang backing vocals for. Though the Steps cover version was probably how I first came across that song! Emotion by Destiny’s Child was also another one written by them, Islands in The Stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton and Grease by Frankie Valli. This is my favourite song from Grease, I used to rewind the beginning of the VHS just so I could watch the beginning and listen to it again. And while we’re talking about films (and John Travolta ones at that!), how can you not mention Saturday Night Fever?! A bunch of Bee Gees (among others) rolled into one film with fabulous costumes and awesome dancing! Here’s a link to the iconic opening scene to Stayin’ Alive.

This Christmas gone by my siblings and I bought my aunt a Greatest Hits of Bee Gee songs. Which resulted in us all dancing around the kitchen to the music. And me doing gymnastic routines to Tragedy with the gymnastic ribbon my sister got as a present (best present ever!).

Thanks to Glee, a whole new generation have been introduced to Bee Gee songs. I hope they are inspired to go search out the originals. For more info on cover versions, go here, all of them are listed. I’ve added links to all the songs mentioned above (cover version links are under the name of the artist covering the song, the original versions are linked in the name of the song). There’s no denying that the Bee Gees have left an incredibly legacy and I’m grateful for all the memories they have given me.

Nails of the Week!

I know I had the Essence Special Effect Toppers on earlier in the week but these are my Nails of the Week! This week it’s Rainbow Crackle Nails.

Natural light, no flash

With flash

Red- Art Club (Colour Club’s Nail Art sets) in Red

Orange- Catrice Ultimate Nail Lacquer in MAN, GO Tango

Yellow- Art Club in Yellow

Green- Art Club in Green

Blue- Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Denim Chrome

Purple- Eessence Multi Dimension XXXL Shine in Purple Cherry

Black Crackle- Barry M

Top Coat- Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

Essence Nail Art Special Effect! Toppers

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2!

I love sparkly things for nails! I’ve been lusting after the Catrice Million Styles Topcoats for ages but unfortunately I haven’t found any yet. When Googling them, I came across the Essence Nail Art Special Effect! Toppers. I hadn’t seen or heard about them in Ireland until I saw it on Behind Green Eyes blog. And boy did I get excited then! When I mentioned it on Twitter, Miss Green Eyes herself said she could post some to me. I swear, I didn’t think it could be possible to get so excited about nail varnish but I was practically bouncing up and down in my seat! She very kindly posted 4 of them to me: Night in Vegas (similar to the discontinued GOSH Rainbow), Circus Confetti, Disco Disco and Glorious Aquarius (my 4 favourite out of the 8!). Here’s some swatches

Left to Right: Night in Vegas, Disco Disco, Circus Confetti and Glorious Aquarius (all one coat)

Left to Right: Night in Vegas, Disco Disco, Circus Confetti and Glorious Aquarius (all two coats)

Left to Right: Disco Disco, Circus Confetti and Glorious Aquarius (all 3 coats)
And now doing what they’re supposed to do, be topcoats!

Left to right: Catrice I Wear My Sunglasses At Night topped with Circus Confetti, Wet N Wild Wild Shine in Denim Chrome topped with Glorious Aquarius, Essence Colour & Go in Luxury Secret topped with Disco Disco, Nails Inc in Bluebell (InStyle special) topped with Night in Vegas (one coat of top coat)

Same as above with 2 layers of top coat (and a bit messy application, I was too excited to not take pictures!)
I can’t wait to try out different colour combinations! I definitely like the look with just one layer of top coat. I had fun picking out colours to go underneath and had picked out a different colour to go with Night in Vegas but switched last minute as I was drawn to the Nails Inc Bluebell. And now I know why! I saw it on Behind Green Eyes blog and it obviously stuck in my head! Check out her post here for her lovely swatches.
I’ll probably keep an eye out for the other top coats in this range (as well as the Catrice ones!!). What are your favourite shades at the moment? Let me know in the comments below!