Sixteen days into the New Year – how are you doing with those resolutions? They say if you can only keep up an improvement for forty days it becomes a habit, so we’re nearly halfway to that milestone! I’m hoping it’ll turn out to be true. Most of my good intentions have fallen by the wayside (how is it that every time I start dieting, I put on weight? It’s so dispiriting, it sends me straight back to the chocolate). However, I have managed to keep two of them – to cut down on online surfing, and to try out a new recipe at least once a week.
My main time-suck online was dipping into the newspapers. That was taking up a lot of my valuable writing time each day, so ditching them has been really helpful. The only way I’ve managed to do it is to work mainly on my Neo, which is literally just a keyboard with a memory and no Internet access. I upload my work at the end of each day, and it’s really gratifying to see how my work in progress is growing.
As for the recipes, that’s going well too. Orsotto (risotto made with barley instead of rice) has become a new family favourite, and the new Christmas pudding recipe which uses crystallised ginger and pineapple was delicious – so much lighter than the normal stodgy pud, it deserves to be made more often than once a year. I love making jams, jellies and other preserves, so this week’s novelty might be a new variation on the theme of marmalade.
How are you getting on?