Above, Sutton Bonington sets into Autumn colours, never seen the Harlequin berry tree before!

 Mud glorious mud - at schools cross country, yr 7 boys, yr 8 girls.

Autumn also means apples foraged from some unloved tree that nevertheless produces monster delicious fruit! Apple cake here, 4oz butter, flour, ground almonds, 2 eggs, some sugar and a bit of cinnamon. Nice crunchy top yet moist in the middle. One bowl, one cake tin and in the oven.

 Happy shiny sun through the trees on a cold November morning.

 Drive to work through the middle English countryside.

Family Feeding Frenzy starts today.

Peppered mackerel cut into chunks.

Add to just boiled potatoes, carrots and broccoli.

Toss into a bowl with Dill, olive oil, salt, lemon zest.

chunky slices of spring onion, red pepper and tomatoes...

All done - time to eat!

A couple of races done with new running friend, but have decided my schedule doesn't work in a two mornings of running a week. Have to keep my flexibility, so on my own again!
New effort with the blog, once a day, diary of food frenzy, watch this space.

June

 Racing on the trent

 Elderflower cordial

 Meeting reception at the pump room in Bath

 Bath - beautiful evening

 June cottage garden

 Canal by King's Meadow, blooming pondweed...

 Covent Garden window display

St. James' Park

I have found a friend to run with, similar pace, great enthusiasm...I think I'm going to fly this year!
MRC application in...hopefully today if all admin peeps do their bit. Keep fingers crossed for  a few months now.

Happy New Year! 2013 - Our fourth year in Nottingham. We returned to the US over the Christmas break, a few days in Colorado and then a road trip back to Seattle. We drove through ice and snow, we were attacked by a bull on the Interstate...it was an adventure, even I was scared at times.
Seattle was great. Good friends, old places, Cascade concrete on Crystal Mountain, happy times. We all miss the Pacific North West.
No grant application for the 9th, jet-lag and an inability to crystalise our thoughts...soon though.

The River Trent just about to burst it's banks at Beeston Lock. Fantastic 16 mile LSD run yesterday, getting ready for the Keyworth Turkey Trot. I love running out by the river - magic! soggy right foot in the last couple of miles. The river had seeped across the path in the time it had taken me to run out and back. Battled my way past through the brambles. Speaking of soggy feet, here is my (same) foot during a hike in the Derbyshire Peak District last month.

eeewww!

when does MY future begin?

Just waiting for a decision from the BBSRC, will they fund our project to model intracellular organelle dynamics. It's such a very cool project. I know in my heart that it won't get funded, it seems I am not 'favoured' in those circles.Another idea given away, allowed to fester for the best part of a year. No matter, pick myself up, dust it off and continue.

Keith Campbell - creator of Dolly

Food

Hmmm...too late for a photo, all eaten up. Barley risotto with onions and garlic, thin slices of top rump steak and some steamed curly kale. Tasted very good, steak was from Harker's farm shop at Blackberry farm, Clipston on the Wolds. All the beef they sell is reared there and looked after extremely well. I can't buy meat from anywhere else these days.

Robin Hood Half Marathon last Sunday. I PB'd by two minutes without training as much as I have in the past. The race was flat but I wonder if that was it? Maybe I am now going to get faster until I am in the qualification zone for the geriatric Olympics at the ripe old age of ninety. The new course started at the War Memorial. I love this race, it's less than a ten minute walk from the house and the new date late in September is just perfect (in case training went awry in the summer holidays).

back to work

Yesterday 6 miles...windy day!!
This morning just the loop 2.5 miles, but early.

getting ready to go back

Lovely lazy holiday. No miles today..yoga in the evening.

Erica or Eric?

Cooking for gems continues with customers 4 and 5 ... mustardy brussel sprouts and greens, bhaja moong daal. For us at home we also had some cucumber raita.

1st of the year

food will be turkey leg and thigh, roasted potatoes, steamed spring greens and carrots.

Trip to Woolsthorpe Manor, Newton's house closed!


7 miles - long run this week.

New Year's Eve 2011-2012

Red cabbage and red onion thorcurry with sweet potatoes. Paanch Phoran, jeera powder.

Speed work. Loops from suspension bridge over Trent Bridge and back.
3 repeats 9.42, 10.00, 9.57. Mile repeats.

Evening foods. Mini mince pies, roasted chestnuts, quiche either stilton or cheddar and bacon (a dash of homemade pesto!).

not much

is happening around here. Vegetable box is got through by hook or by crook, running happens most of the time, though still not in any regular fashion. Teaching load has been interfering somewhat but now that is over. Grant decisions due soon, very nervous. Skiing in Innsbruck next week. Ice and snow edging back again, sigh.

sponsorship

Hurts me to ask for money, even when it isn't for myself. I rattled a bucket to collect cash at the Co-op last Saturday - excruciating. Raising money for the youth Orchestra, P playing carols in the front entrance of the shop. Now I have decided to run the London Marathon for the charity Shelter. I have just started asking people to donate, hope they think it is as worthy a cause as I do. Knee got much better but today I dinged another ligament when getting off my bike. I think it's because it is so perishingly cold. Was hoping to really get into the running over the next 2-3 weeks but icy roads aren't massively top of my list and that is of course what we have right now. Let's see, out in it again tomorrow.

knee

.....is totally rubbish now. Locks when I stand from sitting, stairs are awful. Can I run? I haven't yet - well not since Sunday, making me grumpy and feeling fat. So let's talk about food, leek, mushrooms and bacon with pasta last nght. All went down, not too much trouble. P even enjoyed it. Today Boiled rice with eggs, carrots and potatoes, eaten with small amount of butter, salt, pepper, lime pickle. Extra veggies - Pak Choy roasted in sesame oil and soy sauce. The lonely beetroot has been pan roasted with an onion in olive oil, salt and balsamic vinegar. Await return of R, T and P from the gym for taste review.

knee

Still sliding around, kneecap dislocating and locking up the joint...hmph, no run yesterday, will try today again.
Food? Last night Haddock cooked in Bengali mustard sauce. Potatoes, onions, cavolo nero from box - plus toms and coriander from the shop. Served with rice. Major spices are panch phoron, english mustard, tumeric and salt.

another subject

I am a relatively new follower of Bitten Blog, having heard about it fro AC and CG but never sure that I wanted to read about cooking when all I do in that dept is try and get a balanced, cooked, dinner on the table each night. However a few weeks ago we started getting a box of vegetables delivered from a local farm. Nothing very new, we had tried this 7 years ago with Pioneer Organics in Seattle. Didn't work too well since T only really ate cake for his first two years of solid food. Now P and T are 11 and 7 respectively and I have decided a vegetable education is required.
So far it has gone well, though after the third week of tennis ball sized beetroots (4 a week) even I could not think of another way to prepare them that I would relish eating. The last of these beetroots languishes in the fridge several weeks later (they keep well, so someday it will make an appearance on the table).
R always encourages me to write down recipes so that I can recreate those that have worked well, but honestly the time it takes to write down, I could have invented something better using those precious minutes - so rarely do two meals turn out to be identical. However the past few weeks have seen me reaching for powers of inventiveness that I never thought I possessed, though Friday night desolate fridge dinners are always my specialty. You know the one where you've got a bendy carrot, a cucumber and an egg and have to conjure up something edible and balanced without a trip to the shops.
Enough preamble, to add to my running you will now also hear about the vegetable box, it's contents and how they are dealt with. Last night, soup, a classic. Boiled chicken carcass for stock with sweet onion. Vegetables included, swede, parsnip, celeriac root, potatoes, cavolo nero, mushrooms (farmers market), garlic (store bought), leeks, carrots, dried herbs, bay leaves, salt and pepper. T excused from eating mushrooms, all the rest went down well with all! Dessert prepared by P and T, baked apples and homemade custard Mmmm. The aim each week is to have finished all/most of the weeks box before the next one arrives, so far (apart from the aforementioned beetroot) so good.
Knee cap dislocating all week, 6 miles on Thursday, 2.5 miler on Sunday...ramping up this week.