How Tuesday - Beef Tagine

So, this is my first How Tuesday post!

It's not at all craft related, but this Jamie Oliver recipe was so good, I had to share it with you:

Ingredients:

• 600g stewing beef • olive oil • 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped • a small bunch of fresh coriander • 1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, drained • 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes • 800ml vegetable stock • 1 small squash (approximately 800g), deseeded and cut into 5cm chunks
• 100g prunes, stoned and roughly torn • 2 tablespoons flaked almonds, toasted
For the spice rub
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • 1 level tablespoon ras el hanout spice mix (I used a Moroccan spice mix) • 1 level tablespoon ground cumin • 1 level tablespoon ground cinnamon • 1 level tablespoon ground ginger • 1 level tablespoon sweet paprika

Method:

Mix all the spice rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Put the beef into a large bowl, massage it with the spice rub, then cover with clingfilm and put into the fridge for a couple of hours – ideally overnight. That way the spices really penetrate and flavor the meat.

When you’re ready to cook, heat a generous lug of olive oil in a tagine or casserole– type pan and fry the meat over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Add your chopped onion and coriander stalks and fry for another 5 minutes. Tip in the chickpeas and tomatoes, then pour in 400ml of stock and stir. Bring to the boil, then put the lid on the pan or cover with foil and reduce to a simmer for 1½hours.

At this point add your squash, the prunes and the rest of the stock. Give everything a gentle stir, then pop the lid back on the pan and continue cooking for another 1½hours. Keep an eye on it and add a splash of water if it looks too dry.

Once the time is up, take the lid off and check the consistency. If it seems a bit too runny, simmer for 5 to 10 minutes more with the lid off. The beef should be really tender and flaking apart now, so have a taste and season with a pinch or two of salt. Scatter the coriander leaves over the tagine along with the toasted almonds, then take it straight to the table with a big bowl of lightly seasoned couscous and dive in.

The recipe can be found at: JamieOliver.com - Beef Tagine

Folksy Friday - Paris, London, New York

I'm spending pretty much all my time at the moment doing university work, either I'm sitting in lectures, flitting about the lab or sitting around at home working on one piece of work or another... So, with all this work, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about going on holiday!

This week, my theme started out as big cities, but I narrowed it down to Paris, London and New York and found some really great items!

As with all my Folksy Friday posts, each picture links back to the seller's original page so do check them out!

How-Tuesday!

Well, I stumbled across a brilliant idea today called - How Tuesday!

The idea is that you share a little 'how to' with others, which I think is an awesome idea! Unfortunately for you readers, my boyfriend took me out for dinner and a movie tonight so I didn't get the chance to share anything with you this week!

Seeing as it's almost Wednesday now, I guess this is really just a little post to let y'all know that in the coming weeks, I'll be doing Folksy Fridays and now How-Tuesdays too!
I'll mostly be sharing how-to's that I've found here, there and everywhere - to begin with at least - and then when I get going, I might even share some of my own with you all, which should be exciting!

A very late Folksy Friday - Colours of the Rainbow

Well, I started searching for items for this post at about 11 this morning, but ended up spending most of the day sleeping... And before anyone says it, I'm not just a typical lazy student (ha ha!), I've had food poisoning and was awake all night with it, so today I was falling asleep on my feet!

Anyway, enough feeling sorry for myself!

Here are my choices - Colours of the Rainbow... And, as usual, each picture is a click through link to the item in the seller's shop :)

Urrrrh...

Well, I think it's safe to say I've been an exceptionally lazy blogger lately!
I just don't know where my time is going! My head seems to constantly be in one book or another, or some other chaos is stealing my attention.

I've barely made any jewellery lately either, which is just rubbish!
So from today, I'm going to get back into it properly! At least one blog update each week, not including a Folksy Friday post, lots of updates on all the pretty things I will be making and also, lots of interesting bits about what's going on in the life of me ;)

So, I'm going to get started on a Folksy Friday post in a minute, so anyone who happens to be reading this, check back soon!