Baked eggs...

I'm really into tomatoey things at the moment - warming, slightly spicy tomatoey things packed with veg. Add a few chick peas and it's heaven on a plate! So this evening I decided to make baked eggs - I started off making a spicy ratatouille-type base with onion, courgette, aubergine, tomatoes, chick peas and some chilli and garlic. Then I put that into a warmed baking dish and cracked a couple of eggs in, and baked it all in the oven for about 20 minutes. The yolks were slightly overcooked - I could have taken it out maybe three or four minutes earlier - but I have a bit of an aversion to runny egg white and I didn't want to risk it! It was gorgeous, though - I'm absolutely stuffed and it's all good veg and protein!

Weekword: Rock

I'm late with my Weekword homework! I may have sneakily changed the date of this post to Friday, but it's actually Sunday. But I have mitigating circumstances - my sister came to stay on Friday and I've had a really horrible cold, so I haven't had much time or inclination for blogging.

Anyway, on to Weekword. Maria chose 'rock' as this week's word and it was a bit of a challenge! When I was little I used to collect rocks, pebbles and crystals - every time we went to the beach I'd spend ages finding interesting rocks (luckily one of our favourite beaches, Seaton, was made entirely of pebbles) and looking for fossils, and if I found a rock I liked in the garden or the playground or just out and about, it'd go straight into my pocket and into my collection. When we left primary school, everyone in the class was allowed to choose an Eyewitness Guides book as a leaving present, and I chose Crystal & Gem.

Unfortunately I don't have my childhood rock collection now, and living in a city it's quite hard to find interesting rocks to take photos of! So I thought 'I know, there's a sweet shop down the road - they'll have sticks of rock and I can take a photo of those!' But the sweet shop didn't have any rock. This was the closest thing I could find...

Wet, cold and miserable...

...and that was just England's performance! We braved the Wembley drizzle to watch England play France, but unfortunately the England players forgot to turn up, so they had some Sunday league chaps take their place. We did eventually remember how to play football, but sadly it took 85 minutes for us to do that and by that point it was a little bit late! Oh well, it was good to be at Wembley anyway, and we had brilliant seats. The best bit of the evening was the fact that we got to our seats to find pieces of card which we were instructed to hold up during the National Anthem - with everyone holding up their cards, we made a giant St George Cross to send a message to the world that England loves football and England would be a fantastic place to hold the 2018 World Cup!

Foggy cobwebs...

I'm led to believe there was a frost this morning, but it had melted by the time I left the house. We still had lots of fog, though, and some rather pretty cobwebs!

Sluttish inspiration...

Earlier today I was wondering what to have for supper when I happened upon a post on one of my favourite blogs, Domestic Sluttery. Their squash, mushroom and chick pea bake sounded absolutely perfect for a chilly Autumn evening - and it was! It's really easy to make - I used portobello mushrooms, which looked fab and tasted even better, and I added a bit of rosemary and paprika to the roast veg. And I made a really simple sauce with a tin of finely chopped tomatoes, some black pepper and a hint of chilli. I had it with a couple of Quorn sausages, because I'm a bit of a protein fiend, and it was lovely and warming and filling and gorgeous!

Amusing sights...

Spotted this on my way to football this morning and it made me smile!

Back to the old skool...

Look at my new camera! It uses film and everything! I got a really good deal from a friend of mine who'd had said camera sitting in her attic for ages, so I'm now the proud owner of a Nikon F-401 plus two lenses and an external flash. I've had a bit of a go taking some photos just to test out the various settings, but I can't wait to go out and about with it!