Wednesday 8 May 2013

Step Away From The Hair Gel

Very, very busy at work at the moment but I'm coping well. OK, today I was really tired and must have looked it as everyone commented, darn it. Sometimes make up just doesn't cut it, think I'd going to have to find some industrial strength. On the whole though things are still going really well.

Having said that I haven't been sleeping well, I'm either too hot or too cold and it's getting on my nerves. Oh well just one more day and it's the weekend.

A lot of people have asked for my recipe for Moroccan Stew so here it is. Enjoy.

Moroccan Stew
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion thickly sliced
2 carrots peeled and cut into chunks
450g beef casserole steak cut into bite sized pieces
1 tbsp ras el hanout spice (if you cannot get this the garam masala will do
2 garlic cloves crushed
1tbsp clear honey
100 soft dried prunes roughly chopped
500ml beef stock
100g soft dried apricots halved
400g tin chickpeas drained and washed
couscous to serve

heat oil in a large pan and add onion and carrot. cook for 5 mins until softened then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. toss beef in spice mix then add to pan and tune until browned on all sides.
Return onions and carrots to pan along with any spices not taken up on the beef and add the garlic, honey prunes and stock. lower heat cover and simmer for 50 mins.


Remove lid and add chickpeas and apricots, cook for a further 10 mins with lid off to enable sauce to thicken slightly. Serve with couscous or rice.

I'm told it works well with tofu if you are a veggie.

Apprentice Watch.

Where to start? To be honest I've not seen so much hair gel and lip gloss in one place since the last school disco, and that's just the boys. And what's with the eyebrows? Alex, severely waxed browns only look good on elfin faced women, and Jason, loose the uni-brow there's a love.

As for the girls well there were enough false bits flying around to create a whole new person. Yes this year's Apprentice will be either Barbie or Ken.

Definitely not in the 'Barbie' mold was Jaz, who broke the golden rule and volunteered to be the first project manager. Has she never watched this programme? It is almost a given that one of the project managers on the first show will bite the dust. Jaz was an 'educator' and immediately set about motivating and patronising the other girls in equal measure. Jaz had a big voice, a big personality and very, very big hair. She was doomed from the start. Her one saving grace was her suggestion to try and sell the cat litter to Battersey Dogs Home, a suggestion that was roundly dismissed because it was 'too far away'. The boys did go to Battersey and won the task. However she also decided it would be a good idea to try and sell the China cats to China Town. This was not a success and the words 'coals to Newcastle' floated through my mind.

However this was not Jaz's finest moment. That came when, during the boardroom grilling, she called Lord Sugar 'man'. After that she was out of the door with her feet barely touching the ground.

I must admit, although I would have found her very annoying, she was at least a break from the Barbie doll clones left behind.

The second episode is on tonight and I just can't wait. I have a feeling there are going to be some real cat fights this year. I wish I could make a prediction of who I think will win but it's a bit early in the game for that. Maybe a winner will start to emerge tonight.

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