Into the thick of it.

How on earth do you working people blog so prolifically?! I'm sending out some serious respect to all of you working bloggers, especially those who are dedicated enough to be managing things like this!
Yes, I am now in the realms of work. Not exactly the nine to five, as it's more 8.30 until whenever things get done. But I'm loving it, which is a good sign. Okay, I'm only two days in, but they've been long days, with a steep learning curve, and so far so good. I'm hoping that once my body gets over the initial shock I'll be right back to the ridiculous amounts of baking and preserving that have graced this blog in the past.But, no fear, I do have a recipe for you today, and lots of other things to share. Firstly, I shall admit to spending the five days after hand-in very well indeed; in the beautiful sunny hills of Italy. We ate too much food, and drank far too much wine, and it was fabulous. The perfect little treat.As ever my photos were mostly food, and frankly with produce as stunning as that from Italy who can blame me. It wasn't quite autumn there, but the gourds were already out in force, showing off their deep oranges and dusky yellows. The grapes were heavy on the vines and the coffee and pastries divine. Mmmm....I also have seven things to share with you as hinted at in the previous post. I was very kindly given the kreativ blogger award by Liz, whose lovely blog occupies this corner of the web, and I think it's about time I share the seven fact about myself. Hmm, it's hard thinking of these things, but I'll give it my best shot. I just hope they're vaguely interesting.

- By the age of 11 I knew I wanted to do a PhD, and by the age of 14 I knew what I was going to do it in. Weird huh?!

- One of the reasons behind wanting a PhD was so that when I was a great rock and roll bass player people I could be called Dr, like Dr Dre or Dr John, and I'd actually be one. I haven't even picked up my bass for ages.

- I don't mind rodents or spiders, I love snakes. However, I am terrified of slugs and snails. They freak me out, and I have been known to freeze and squeal at the sight of them. I kid you not.

- One day I want to own two sheep. One called Eddie, the other called Bill.

- I'm bit odd about white and yellow foods. Eggs are only okay if cooked into cakes, I don't like bananas, and am very particular about creams and custards. It's a texture thing. Blah, slimy.

- I have competed in a national fencing competition. I came second to last.

- I'm not a huge fan of potatoes, or any other carb apart from fresh pasta or bread, but I crave good chips rather more often than I admit to.

And speaking of which, I give you a recipe:
These were perfect just before we went away. Baked rather than fried and seasoned with lashings of salt, pepper and paprika. Amazing. They may seem simple, but try them.

Baked paprika chips.

One large potato per person
2 tsp oil per potato + 2 tsp (I used olive)
salt
black pepper
smoked paprika

Preheat the oven to 220C. Coat a large roasting pan with 2 tsp of oil and place in the oven as it warms.

Slice the potatoes into small strips, making them like fries rather than traditional British chips. Once the oven has reached temperature spread the chips out into the pan and drizzle the remaining oil over it, grind some pepper and salt over them and toss. Return the pan to the oven and cook until the chips are golden brown and crisping. You'll need to toss them about every fifteen minutes. Mine took about 45mins.

Remove from the oven. Douse in paprika to your own taste (I like a lot). Return to the oven for two minutes to bring out the flavour of the spice and then serve tossed with more salt and pepper.

See, I've finally given you a recipe! I promise more, honest. Apparently there's a tradition in the office that every Friday someone brings in some sort of cake. Guess who's getting in on that immediately!

As for passing on the award, I have a theory. So many of you out there are creative and blogging, that passing it on to just seven people would be a little cruel, and as it happens I know many of you have already either received the award, or something similar. So, I shall instead just try and pass on my enthusiasm and love of all things creative and hope to continue reading about all the amazing things you are all already doing that inspire me daily and make me realise that no matter how long the days at work, coming back to this little space makes me grin and motivates me. Thank you everyone, for your reading, and for your writing.

And the award goes to...

...ME!

I had another post all worked out for today, and then out of the blue I got an award!

Ta da!


The lovely lady what lunches, Cucinista, has honoured me by passing on the "One lovely blog" award, my first ever blogging award. Thank you so much!

So what happens now? Well, first of all you head right on over to Working Lunch and check out the fabness. This is a lady that takes lunches very seriously indeed, and frankly so would I if I took the time to prepare the gorgeous meals she does. Salad with avocado and grapefruit, oh yeah.

Next? The rules of the game are that I have to pass the award on to ten other blogs I've discovered recently and think are damn fine. Here, I hit a wall, not because I can't think of ten lovely blogs, believe me I can probably list almost a hundred, the problem is that so many of them have either had the award, or are so well known that everyone already knows they are lovely.

My solution is to name six very special blogs that I follow obsessively, and that more people should know about. I hope that is alright with everyone. Here's my pick in no particular order:

The Transplanted Baker - Siri upped sticks from the confort of Minneapolis to the Fiords of Norway, and has done with with an ease and style I envy. Plus she digs pie and bread with a passion. What's not to love about her?

Arctic Garden Studio - Nicole is my blogger-ganger (like a doppleganger in the blogging world), she preserves, she knits, she loves buttons, is obsessed with lemon and somehow always manages to post things I am thinking about.

Green Ink - a literary Londoner (well, living in London at least!), need I say more?! Get thee hence to her page.

Shutterbean - I'm not sure how I stumbled across Tracy's blog, but I do remember arriving and then losing hours going through her previous posts. This lady has style, her obsession with black and white reminds me of a very close friend, and her home and cooking are just beautiful. I'd harbour some seriously jealousy if it wasn't for how downright nice this lady is, and just how effortlessly she seems to cope with balancing being a new Mum with absolutely everything else!

The Domestic Novice - There is nothing of the novice about this lady, I can tell you. Gorgeous summer cakes and the pictures of flowers will have you wishing for days in the garden tending to flower beds and drinking white wine and eating sponge cake. Or is that just me?

Batter Splattered - I was originally only going to post five blogs, but it would be a huge injustice not to have Molly in my list as I owe her so much. In fact, I would love to give her a special award of her very own, the "Molly Rocks" award. She is the lady who got me blogging, she said far too many nice things about my writing when I was still a humble invitiation-only, "I bet only my Mum would read this" blogger. She pulled me in with her love of thrift store scores, her jammin' jelly and her appreciation of a cold beer on a hot afternoon. She's also an Alaskan. Boy, those Alaskan ladies are something special aren't they? I wish that Molly and I lived closer as I can just see us sitting on a deck in the soft summer evening light sharing a beer and talking about recipes with unusual names.

So there you go, that's my list. There could have been so many more, but the above ladies are ones that make me grin every day, and make me thankful for the blogging community.

Now, I'm off to put things in jars...more about this later in "The reveal (part two)" hehe.