Tortilla Parcels

This turned out to be a huge hit, and as there are so many variations possible, I think we’ll be having it quite often.

Base Ingredients

• 6 soft tortillas / wraps
• 1 ball fresh mozarella, drained and sliced

Filling Ideas

• tuna (well drained) and sweetcorn
• mashed avocado and shredded cooked chicken
• mashed avocado and bacon bits
• tuna (well drained) and chopped, deseeded tomato
• crushed beans (eg kidney) and chopped, deseeded tomato

Method

1. Heat a large non-stick frying pan (no oil!)
2. Prepare your filling ingredients, making sure they aren’t wet ie drain stuff.
3. Warm a couple of tortillas slightly (I did it in the microwave for a nanosecond) to make them more pliable.
4. Put a large tbsp of filling in the middle.
5. Artfully drape some strips of mozarella over the filling.
6. Fold two sides of the tortilla over the filling, then the two open ends, to form a parcel.
7. Dry-fry it in the pan over a medium heat, seam-side down, for a couple of mins until light golden.
8. Turn and fry the other side. The filling should be warmed through and the cheese just melting.
9. Enjoy!

B

The problem with posting in the evenings is that I am so bloody tired I can barely keep my eyes open. This is because of the stupid cold that I have had since before Easter, and it is beginning to really piss me off.

Anyway.

B is for BUMBLEBEES, the coolest insects ever. I am ever so slightly obssessed with bumblebees, ever since I came across Mrs Smith’s Bumblebee Pages a few years ago. I know more than the average person does about bumblebees, and it is my dearst wish to one day have a bumblebee nest with my very own queen. Sigh…

B is also for BLOG, which what I’m attempting (very badly) to do here. Still haven’t done anything about that OpenLearning course which I registered on. Where does the time go?

I’m sure B is also for lots more things, but really, I am so tired that the only other B I’m interested in is BED.

A

is for APRIL

And I will be trying harder to keep up:

The theme this month is Letters, and I’ve decided to take this very literally – I’ll be posting about A things today, B things tomorrow…you get the idea. And as April 30 days, and the English alphabet only 26, I get 4 bonus letters! Which I’ll be lifting from other alphabets, obviously.

So, that’s it really. Now just have to figure out how to upload my NaBloPoMo badge onto the sidebar.

Ah, except of course, A is not just for April.

Oh no indeed.

It’s also for…Artichokes
Ahem.
And Apricots.

Oh dear…

Haven’t done very well with the MarBlo thing at all – well, actually started off brilliantly, but seem to have tailed off a bit over the last week or so.

Will do better in April! Especially as the theme is LETTERS and I already have a good idea of what I want to do.

And I’ve signed up to do one of the OU free courses, Writing What You Know, which I hope will help to make these blog entries better.

AND I’ve started drawing again, after years of completely neglecting it. I used to draw (and paint) quite a bit, partly for my degree and partly because I found it very relaxing. And suddenly, the other day, I really felt like starting again. So I dug out my coloured pencils and bought myself a lovely new sketchpad and got going. It’s been interesting, as it’s much harder to do when you’re out of practice, and my hand hurt from pressing down with the pencils (I think that says a lot about how little writing I do these days too – it’s all done on the bloody computer).
If I do anything that’s not completely crap, I might scan it and post it here. If I never mention it again, you’ll know it all went pear-shaped…

So, here’s to the end of March….and the beginning of April!

Still snowing

Cold, very windy and downright unpleasant. Snow in spring is not a good thing (ooh, that rhymed!).

It keeps melting a bit, going all slushy and making the fields we walk Izzy through a nightmare of mud and puddles. And then it gets cold , everything freezes, and it snows again.

I’m ready for spring now, I’ve had enough of winter. Apart from anything else, we’ve already changed to our summer tyres on both cars, so if the weather does get really bad, I’m not going to be able to drive anywhere.

And now, I shall see if there is any chance of getting my dh to make some popcorn…

Bad Idea

Do you think it might be a Bad Idea to have applauded with delight every time Henry pulled out the plug while we were vacuuming today? Because now he might think that that is a good thing. Which obviously it isn’t, it’s actually going to be rather annoying very soon. But today, today it was so cute to see how incredibly pleased he was with himself, sitting their holding the plug.

PS Easter Sunday and IT SNOWED.

Illustrators

A list! Of some of my favourite illustrators:

 
Lisa Evans

 
Francisca Bustamante

 
Helen Rhodes

 
Laura Freeman

 
Mary Claire Smith

 
Lucy Grossmith

Good Friday

Or not so good, as I’m still feeling rather unwell (we can add unbelievable dizziness to the usual blocked nose, sore throat and cough, which sort of makes things a bit more interesting).

But, it’s Easter, so of course I want to talk about bunnies:

last week, the local dog-walking community was a-buzz when Lea stuck her head into a hole in a small, grassy mound and got bitten by a rabbit. A few days later, one of the two small pinschers owned by the greek lady who lives in the same block as Mrs R (who we walk with every day) got bitten very, very badly after also going into the same hole.

So, it turns out that said hole is in fact the entrance to a sett, not a burrow, and the supposed rabbit is actually a badger who has probably got her cubs down there and is not at all impressed at all these little dogs who keep poking in their noses.

Some Fun Badger Facts for you:

1. A family group of badgers is called a Clan, which I think makes them sound both friendly and slightly scary
2. The Latin name for the European badger is Meles meles. It is the only species classified as Meles; however, subspecies of this genus include Meles meles meles…yes, really.
3. Badgers cannot yawn.
4. British forces were said to have released man-eating badgers in the vicinity of Basra, Iraq following the 2003 coalition invasion. UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer denied the rumors, saying “We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.” I bet he had a hard time keeping a straight face while releasing that statement.

For more info on badgers, visit www.badgerland.co.uk!

2tired

too. tired. to. post.
must sleep.
[sound of eyelids gently closing...]

Cut off from the world!

For some stupid reason we have had no internet connection for the last three days. Words have been exchanged with our provider. They were not the kind that you would use in front of children.

Anyway, I’m back online now – hooray! – and will be backdating the posts which I wrote in that time but wasn’t able to upload. So basically, the last three posts you’ve read I have not actually uploaded yet at this minute (oooh, how very Back to the Future).

[Hmm, hope this does not adversely affect my MarBlo status...much check on that....]