The Best Christmas Album EVER

Behold! It’s a festive blogpost.

Yesterday, at a friends flat where we were enjoying some Christmas treats, I took over her Spotify and put on an album exclaiming: 'THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS ALBUM EVER.' To which she said: ‘Oh, I thought you said that other album was the best Christmas album ever.’

I thought about it and today was reminded of yet another good Christmas album, hence I present to you THE TOP 3 OF CHRISTMAS ALBUMS (in no particular order, links to Spotify and a sample youtube video of a song from each album):

New Kids On The Block – Merry, Merry Christmas

This is the childhood favourite. I inherited the album on a cassette from my sisters at some point and as I went through a phase of being totally in love with NKOTB I obviously also listened to the Christmas album. I listened to it a lot. At school, we also did a very nice choreography to Last Night I Saw Santa Claus for a Christmas party complete with a saxophone playing Santa. Seriously, this album is nothing very special but I have fond memories of it so if you wish to borrow some nostalgia this Christmas, borrow it from me and go listen to this album.

The Superions – Destination...Christmas!

I was introduced to this earlier this year by the boy. Fruitcake was playing in his house many times over the course of a couple of days whilst I was staying at his and what a marvellous tune it is. This is the album you want to listen to when the stress gets more and more unbearable and you realise you still need to make gingerbread biscuits and buy your mother’s present and you have about an hour and a half to do all of that and more. Even though it ends in the relatively creepy Santa Je T’aime, this album does a pretty good job in providing you the extra energy boost you need to get things done by Christmas!

Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas [Expanded]

This too I was introduced to by the boy a few years back now, I think it was when we were living in Peckham. He also reminded me of this earlier today and having just finished listening to the above mentioned The Superions album I queued this next on my Spotify. This is one to please both the mother and the daughter. I can see myself suggesting we listen to this at my parent’s house when my mum wants to listen to something Christmassy and I want to veto the usual carol type things. A bit of Charlie Brown jazz to make your Christmas just a tiny bit more special. And even though I’ve said this about the two other album previously, I think this one just might be THE BEST CHRISTMAS ALBUM EVER!

Risotto! Ie. There Was a Dinner Party

I threw a dinner party!

Well, it was really just some friends over for dinner but I actually cooked something nice. In fact, something I’d never done before. And it was nice!

Now I’ve got a rubbish selection of photos again, really should learn to use my camera and also, TAKE MORE PICTURES. It’s just, I don’t like using flash which leads unfocused photos. Hmmm.

Anyway, for starters we had a selection of things, antipasti, if you like. There were olives from The Fresh Olive Company (they have a stall at Borough Market, well worth a visit if you’re around there), little coctail stick things I made with baby plum tomatoes, fresh basil and buffalo mozzarella (from Morrisons ‘The Best’ range, and it was really quite decent, I thought), and tomato and olive focaccia I made using the recipe blogged here before, just adding halved baby plum tomatoes on top to compliment the olives. The focaccia needed more salt, I think. Something about it wasn’t quite right, but oh well.

For the main we had a Butternut Squash and Chorizo Risotto using a recipe I found on the Morrisons website. I’m not even quite sure how I ended up looking at recipes on the Morrisons website, but I did and I’m glad I did. I’d never used butternut squash in anything before and that was quite exciting. The one I got wasn’t quite ripe, I think, but since it was roasted anyway it didn’t really matter. I’m not big on following recipes literally and in this case I used chicken stock as opposed to the vegetable stock in the recipe, I also used it almost a litre but I may have used a bit more rice too (I don’t have scales). I also added some salt and black pepper to the butternut squash before roasting.

The thing I’ll do differently next time is the garlic. In the recipe here it tells you to roast garlic with the squash, but I’d recommend throwing it in the pan with the onions and chorizo. Oh that’s another thing, do fry the onions for a bit before adding the chorizo. And use oil a bit more liberally too. Anyway it was lovely. The taste of garlic on the squash was a tad too strong for my liking though. That’s why I wouldn’t roast it again. The good thing about the chorizo is that you really don’t need any extra flavourings in the risotto. The stock, chorizo and a bit of salt and pepper on the squash are just right. Make sure you get a strong parmesan though, I wouldn’t use a bog standard supermarket parmesan since the other flavours are quite strong and I like to taste the cheese in my risotto too.

In other news, I’m still on the look out for a job so you know, if you know of any good opportunities, let me know. Anything office based. In London. Ta.

Arts and Crafts

Over the last year I’ve had this urge to DO stuff. Like arts and crafts, or sewing or something sort of creative. Trouble is I’ve got very low self-esteem and don’t really see myself as a creative person, but perhaps that’s just lack of trying.

There used to be a time when I’d write a lot. You know, in my teens, but perhaps that was just what every teenager does to try to deal with all the angst and horribilities (yes, I know that’s not a word) of life. And writing definitely helped me get over that heartbreaking event of getting dumped out of the blue and out in the open. Over time I just sort of stopped writing, perhaps it was partly due to more school work and writing essays and things that killed any aspirations to write in my spare time. There is a certain lack of imagination as well though, I’d always draw inspiration from my own life or dreams and there are only so many stories about teenage drama one can write. I’ve never been one to keep a diary either. There have been livejournals and different blogs and many actual diaries, but for some reason I’ve never been one to deal with my daily emotions in a way that would’ve kept me writing in diaries.

Around the same time as I wrote a lot, I also very much enjoyed sewing and knitting things. Sewing especially would mostly happen at school where there was proper equipment and good advice on offer. I never got along with my mum’s old Singer (that’s a sewing machine for those of you in the dark) and buying fabric always seemed so expensive that I’d rather spend my money on other things. I’ve knitted quite a few pairs of socks and gloves in my time though. I find knitting to be a nice thing you can do whilst doing other things, mainly watching TV or movies. That’s something I ventured in last year. I decided to knit a scarf for the boy. It turned out alright, but I completely miscalculated how much work it actually was, probably because of the lack of practice. It had easily been five years since I had last held the knitting needles. After finishing it (it didn’t turn out to be as long as I wanted it to but I ran out of time) I was so tired of knitting that I didn’t want to take up another project. And I still haven’t.

Regardless, here’s a photo of the finished scarf modeled by the boy himself.

Also, look at that featured on the Sartorialist blog a few months after I’d done the scarf. Uncanny, isn’t it?
Since this post is going all over the place anyway, here’s a little quote from the boy too, in relation to the above linked Sartorialist post. Just because I find it funny.

‘i have no idea how these people are sartorialist worthy

this is just like

me

but with a silly knot for the scarf’

During my IB times I sort of re-invented myself and was pretty active in school plays and happenings. I suppose after going through middle school in the shadow of my wildly more popular and beautiful BFF I felt the need to be out there, loud, noticed and liked. I pretty much managed to do that too. Kitchen psychology aside, I managed to channel my need to create into different school projects, some that I enjoyed far more than others. There was also a short lived covers band, that was in all honestly totally rubbish. Still, things were done and creative needs were pretty much satisfied.

Enter university, where everything ends. The start of university was a weird time. I moved away from everyone I knew to another country and had to learn to rely on myself and myself alone in life. Suddenly there was no time for anything other than studying, drinking or msn. Although, the first year or two at university I did write a heck of a lot, but most of it would be on msn and the rest would be split between livejournal and essays. Hardly anything was made up. I watched a lot more films than I’d ever watched before, though. Suddenly I knew people with amazing DVD libraries and interest in film. I’d always been interested in film but with the excuse of lack of money (such as with most things in life) never got into cinema in the way I would’ve liked to. So I caught up on loads of films, went to the cinema nearly weekly and I suppose watching other people’s art sort of made up for not creating anything myself.

I still thought about doing things myself and one Christmas brought back my knitting needles from Finland but it never led to actual knitting. I also bought a badge making machine with a friend but that never led to anything on my part. I did make a couple of cards and presents to people, but nothing much. However, I suppose I sort of channeled that creative energy to cooking. One of the good things that come from living on your own, or even with other people is that you get to choose what you eat. And unless you’re cooking with someone, you don’t need to restrict yourself with other people’s tastes. I was pretty content whilst at uni anyway, perhaps because free time was sort of limited and when there was any spare time, something would always be on.

As a little taster of what I did do whilst at university, here’s a birthday video me and the boy made for our friend John. (I do take about third of the credit for this, even though the boy did all the filming and editing etc.) It’s a million times better with sound, but you know how youtube is with copyrights. It also shows yours truly making a photo album for another friend who actually happens to share a birthday with John. Look at me doing things!



The whole point of this post originally was that I wanted to share with you that I feel the need to create things. I suppose it’s a combination of being unemployed at the moment and also being in England. I’m most comfortable with myself when in England and I suppose that sort of frees up emotional space for wanting to do things. Or something. And now I’ll go off on a tangent.

Once I got over the first shock of moving to another country I’ve pretty much always felt happiest and most happy with myself in England. There was a conversation with some friends once about re-inventing oneself and how that often happens when you go to university and how it’s important that it happens and so on. During that conversation I maintained that because I changed schools between middle school and the IB I didn’t have to re-invent myself anymore when I came to university. But I did, or at least I grew to be me. And still, there’s a difference between me in Finnish and me in English. I tie it to the language I speak, not necessarily to the physical surroundings.

This post feels like one big side-track. ANYWAY, after I made the Lego ring featured in a post some time ago I got very excited and realised I could actually do things. I have also recently started reading Philippa Rice’s magnificient webcomic My Cardboard Life and it’s made me wonder why couldn’t I do something like that. And there is no reason. I won’t do my own comic, but it has made me realise that there are a lot of possibilities in the world of arts and crafts and I really should start doing things. Step one will be getting over that money excuse. Step two will be creating things. I’ll keep updating the blog with things if I do end up making something. Perhaps I’ll need to change the header of the blog to ‘Whining and Dining and Making’. Maybe not just yet though.

Puzzles!

First things first. I am now in London, don’t know for how long, but the main thing is that I am now in London. I’m relying on nice people to let me stay at their houses and am looking for work like crazy. I don’t think I’m lying if I say that in the last couple of days I’ve made more applications than in the last six months altogether (which is still not that much...). There have been all sorts of personal issues going on and I haven’t been doing the things I should have been doing, but obviously this situation at least works for my job hunting will. It's all a bit puzzling. Harhar.

In other news, I do have a job for myself in Finland starting in January, but if I’m able to find something better here I will stay.

Right, the reason I’m writing this is that earlier this autumn, or I suppose it was more like late summer, my mum bought a jigsaw puzzle. Actually, it was bought as a present to my uncle, who has his birthday in November. Mum figured it’d be best to buy it early since she found it and loved it and just in case they’d sell out before the actual birthday it’d be good to get it early. And of course, to be honest, we really wanted to have a go at it too.

So a couple of days after the puzzle had arrived in our house, we decided it wouldn’t be at all wrong to do it before giving it to my uncle. Really, we’d be doing him a favour checking that all the pieces are there etc. It is a 1000 piece puzzle and it’s black and white. Yeah, black and white. It sounded like a really good idea until we started doing it. This is what it looked like after two weeks and about 20 hours of puzzle making time after.

These are most of the pieces left at this stage. They’re all just black. Or white.

Doesn’t that look like fun. Anyway, it doesn’t look as grim anymore. The sky is all done, finally. Now it’s just a matter of fitting all the black pieces in. And I’m not there doing it anymore. As I am in London. The puzzle is in Finland. However, my dad retired last week so he can step up now and help mum with it. It’s a pretty damn cool puzzle regardless.

The One With the Lego Ring

Hola comrades!

Now, I was invited to a birthday party. And I really wanted to get the birthday girl something, but didn’t really know what and didn’t really have much money to spend either. I’d been eyeing different lego jewelry etc. at boutiques and on people and I figured, that’s a good idea! But I didn’t have the funds to go looking for that kind of stuff anywhere so I figured I’d do it myself.

And so I did.

In hindsight, considering the person I was giving it to a necklace would’ve been a better choise, but I opted for a ring. Partly because I figured it’d be easier to make and partly because when I set out to do it I wasn’t sure if I’d do it with a block or with a person.

Now, the end product would’ve been a bit better had I had the funds to invest in a hot glue gun, but I didn’t so had to find an alternate way of doing it, so I used a base meant for pearl rings. The base has lots of little holes so that you can tie things on it and so I choked the Lego man (GIRL) with fishing line and tied another string around it’s pelvis and behold, I made a Lego dude ring!

Here are some photees. First, the awesome box I made myself with the helpful advice found on the internets.

I was really happy to find this Lego person, although it's supposedly a guy, I changed it's hair to a more girly style I found at home and now the colour at least matches with the girl's I got this for. The camera is also very like her, I thought, and the shoulder bag completes the package.

The photos aren't of the best quality, but I didn't have much time to take them and I'm not the best photographer ever. I'm also way too lazy to try to do any paint.net magic on them. I'll add one more that sort of shows what it looks like on a finger. This is me holding it though and it's on my little finger because I didn't want to stretch the size before giving it. It may also give you an idea of how I tied it to the base. In case that's something you're interested in.

... and we're back! Again.

This whole blogging thing is getting more and more sporadic. It doesn't help that my laptop is pretty much dead and I need to rely on other computers to do my stuff on. It's never the same when it's not yours, is it.

I have done a lot of cooking and baking and things over the past year, as I've lived with my parents I've had access to their better than average kitchen and my budget for food has also been a bit better. Although, I'd say one of the highlights of my food year was a Sunday roast cooked at the boy's flat. My first ever roast (beef) and my first ever roast potatoes (homemade, that is). I think it came out pretty well, and it tasted nice and all, even though I believe me and the boy did have some differences of opinion on how pink the meat can be. Still, I think we both agreed it was a nice meal.

I also found a new love in risotto. I have enjoyed risotto cooked for me in the past but have always been way too intimidated (for reasons that now completely escape me) to try making one myself. My first attempt was a variation of a lemon risotto with crab meat, prawns and peas. Whilst it didn't taste amazing (the crab meat was tinned and didn't really taste of anything but salty water) it was a good start and since I've pretty regularly treated myself and some other to the niceness that is risotto.

Here's a photo for you of the first ever risotto. Not a good one, but I assure you it did taste nicer than it looks.

There have been some disasters too, like the time I decided to make rasberry and white chocolate muffins, and whilst they tasted nice, they didn't resemble anything close to muffins in appearance. You know, I say disasters, but I can't really think of any others than those muffins.

There was a time earlier this summer, I can't remember why, but I was home alone and decided to treat myself to something supernice to nibble on whilst watching tv. I went to the supermarket with not much of an idea of what I'd like and as I strolled around I found they had barbecued chicken on offer so I bought that and nachos. Behold, the ultimate nachos!

It was a rather perfect mix of nachos, cheese (I think it was Edam, which was not the best choice), salsa, cheese salsa, chicken and sour cream. The only thing missing were jalapenos, which would've completed the amazingness of it all.

In other news, there aren't many. I'm trying to sort out my life and I think for the first time ever, I'm completely unsure where I'll be in the next month let alone next few months. One thing's for sure though, I have got to move out. I'd like it to be London where I'll move to, but at the moment it seems like it might just be the city here. Hmm. Town.

I'll try to get back on track with this blog. I'd love to do more food postings and I've done a lot of food I've thought about making a post here on, but then have lacked the photos and time or something. Excuses they all are. But thanks for reading anyway. Don't get rid of me on your feed reader just yet, this place isn't completely dead.