Resolutions, resolutions

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

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Hello and happy new year to you all! I can’t believe we’re now in 2012 and I’m back to work! I hope you got some lovely things for Christmas, I certainly did. Mostly cooking related, mostly cake related! Bad times, I will explain shortly! My friend Kim got me some of the Le Creuset mini casserole dishes in limited edition twilight colours – there’s three in a set all with a pearlescent glaze and they’re simply gorgeous. I can’t wait to show them off on here and when I see Kim again I plan to make something tasty in them like claypot chicken.

The best thing apart from great presents at Christmas is seeing people you don’t always get to see the rest of the year. I still find it a strange feeling when people say they know about my blog – I always feel like it’s just something I do and that no-one else have any involvement!

Mother LTT had also visited Belgium and even though I just asked for another jar of Speculoos paste, I got three, yes, THREE jars of Speculoos pate, Speculoos liquor (it’s like Baileys), cake, speculoos coated almonds, biscuits, chocolate. I felt like it was almost anything you could thing of has been speculoos’d right up!

I had a tame New Year’s by all accounts. Sure we got drunk, we played drunken Monopoly. I used up some of the leftover turkey I’d frozen to make little turkey tartlets – I just shredded the meat and mixed it with some cranberry sauce, then spooned a bit into a puff pastry lined muffin tin, and pour a little egg + cream mixture over the top. They were inspired by Lynn from My Secret Tea Room’s chorizo tartlets.

We all tend to make New Year’s resolutions that we break pretty quickly but in the past few years I’ve tried to make ones which are more aspirational rather than nailing them down to more specific achievements, e.g. read more books, stop worrying so much. I find these much more achievable and realistic.

So what’s on my resolution list this year?

• Redesign the blog – I’ve been gathering some ideas in my head and more recently playing around with Photoshop to see what I can achieve. I don’t want to say too much but I think it’s going to be good…
• Post more – I did slack a bit last year, I need to work on this (no gold star for me, yet!)
• Help more people out with their blogs – I believe what goes around comes around, so when I see someone asking for help on twitter or emailing me I always try to help them out. If you do want help with your site, get in contact – I’m always happy to try and resolve your issues – I’m a web designer and social media manager by day so I try and put my skills to use in all aspects of my life!
• Do more craft stuff – I made Mr LTT’s sister a pretty little blanket for her impending baby arrival and I really enjoyed making it. When I went home to the parentals, I rediscovered a copy of the Reader’s Digest Book of Handicrafts circa 1981. Some of it is stuff you’d never make these days, but some of it was pretty interesting – I’m kind of obsessed with making a rug now, sadly I don’t have any material scraps as I took quite a few old clothes to charity recycling before Christmas. We shall see! Who knows, I might even join Ravelry.

I’m also on a bit of a diet at the moment. I got on the scales at home and was horrified at what I weighed. I tried lifting one leg off and peeking through my fingers but my woes were not eased! No more weekly McDonalds, no more chocolates, cut down on cake, for as long as I can. At least being back at work I’m now eating in a regular pattern. I’m not eating when I’m not hungry. I’m having SALAD!! Mr LTT thinks it is amusing to name me “piglet pants” and make beeping noises like a Securicor van whenever I’m moving around. People in glass houses!

Anyway I am going to show you one of my lovely presents later on this week! Let me know what you got and what your resolutions are!

Categories: Discussion | Tags: new year, speculoos