Hi. You know that feeling, when you can't breathe through your nose because it's summer and you've got hayfever, or you're all bunged up, and you wake up in the morning and your mouth feels really furry and gritty because you've been mouth breathing all night like some socially retarded person?

That feeling is my brain right now. And my mouth. Because I [confession] have been MOUTH BREATHING.

I've spent the day eating nutella from the jar with a spoon [don't look at me like that, everyone does it, nobody says they do] and then having to spend two hours sticking needles into stupid fake arms. ARGH.

So my current playlist is a rotating carousel of Disney lullabies and suck-it-up rap music. I love this song. Love love love. The lyrics are blowing my [admittedly very small right now] mind.

Childish Gambino - Freaks and Geeks

For some reason fileden has deleted my account so about half my song links aren't working. Oops!
p.s. I realise I haven't actually said this at any one point but Disclaimer: I am ill. This is why I've been mouth breathing. Not because I am socially retarded.

Helloooo lovely lovely people. Did you all have a nice weekend? I spent mine baking, running around with my face painted like a snow leopard [always good], and completing essential Primark expeditions.

Just one more week and then Easter! In which I'll be able to faff about, see my family....and work. No rest for the wicked.

So this beautiful muffin above [sitting on a beautiful scarf donated unknowingly by my lovely flatmate] is in fact slightly healthy! I know, healthy. It's so unlike me! It's a date and pecan carrot cake. Nuts are healthy, right? And there's probably one of your 5 a day packed in there too. More to the point, they're delicious and have in fact been scored 10/10 by an independent judge [actually my friend Andrew] and if you do in fact bake them, you're guaranteed love and adoration from all around.

Also, this is awesome. Kate Nash meets Kate Bush? After Noel Fielding performed Wuthering Heights, this song is having a major revival in my mind.

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

This makes about 15 muffins-ish, so I tend to halve the recipe.

2 cups of plain flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 cups of light brown sugar

1 1/4 cups of flavourless oil 

[I used vegetable oil, I think? Or maybe sunflower. Probs doesn't matter.]

4 eggs

3 cups of finely grated peeled carrots

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1/2 cup chopped dates, or a dates/raisins mix

1 teaspoon Jack Daniels, or just scotch/whiskey

[This is optional but I bought a bottle to make bread and butter pudding with so I keep trying to sneak it in everywhere to prove to myself it's useful.]

1. Preheat the oven to  180 degrees celcius. Or, if you have a stupid gas oven like me, point the dial vaguely in the direction of 180 and hope it all works out.
2. In a largeish bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
3. In another [slightly bigger] bowl, whisk the sugar and oil together until you have a lovely oily paste. Sometimes the brown sugar clumps, so I have a go at breaking up the lumps before I add the oil [there's also something quite fun about crushing things with your bare hands].
4. Beat in the eggs, and then add the flour mix bit by bit, trying not to get flour everywhere, or wipe your floury hands all over your nice clean leggings. Add the booze now too. Some of you may want to 'test' the booze, to make sure it's still good. This is an excellent idea and I thoroughly approve.
5. Fold in the carrots, dates and pecans - voila! You have your mix!
6. Pop into your prepared pan - but be warned, this cake doesn't rise that much, so a semi full muffin pot will produce a nicely sized muffin
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops are nicely golden, the tops spring back when pressed, or a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Top with cream cheese frosting and a pecan, and bask in the glow.

This is my new bible - Flavour Thesaurus review

Oh. My. God. This book is AMAZING. Half cookbook, half beautiful food writing. How could you not love something with this in? 

"Black pudding & shellfish: A modern classic. In fancy restaurants, pale scallop is often found perched, trembling like an ingénue, on filthy old black pudding's knee."

So evocative! I've spent my day lazing about, reading this, knowing that I probably won't ever eat even half of these combinations [to be fair, 4,851 is quite a lot].

"Eating chicken wings, I feel like a hamster nibbling on a pencil. Or like one of those crab-eating sea otters that die of starvation because the calories expended getting at the meat outnumber the calories gained when they do."

Sea otters! SEA. OTTERS. I'm sorry, I can't quite get over it. It's like someone took the thoughts straight out of my brain and made them better. I'm not bitter, oh noooo sirree, just happy that something like this exists.

"Just a little caper and anchovy can transform bland or oily dishes. We should carry them around in a  little envelope, like a sewing kit, for culinary emergencies."

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go eat cherries and smoked fish. TOGETHER.

Exams are over! Dontcha just hate when you feel like you've been building up to something for so long and it finally gets here, and you're like "Huh. You're not so great."

Yeah, you guessed it. The great After Exam Anticlimactic Effect. The 'ole AEAE. [Admittedly that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.]

To combat the AEAE I've spent the day indulging in all those little things I felt guilty for doing during revision time: I went to the farmers market, accidently got guilted into buying a ball of mozzarella that cost £3 [£3.No joke.], window shopped my way through Edinburgh, and spent a good amount of time in Costa, reading, with this baby up here. Isn't he a beaut? The steaming bowl of cappuccino, I mean, although my eReader is pretty close to my heart too. I really enjoy how he comes with two handles, perfect for raising up to the sky in appreciation, a la Lion King.

And so I'm going out tonight, hoping not to get too trashed, as I'll be wearing my fancy new detachable pearl peter pan collar that I made myself - pictures to follow at some point. [Pearl collar sounds like some strange sex toy in my head. Hmmm.]

Hope you're all having lovely weekends filled with reasonably priced dairy products and normal size beverages.

Hiiiiii guys. Let me tell you, I am beat. Not from doing anything important, of course, but from all the culinary adventures I've been having [translation: food hangover].

What's not helping is my friendly little smoke alarm in my room, which loves beeping at me every so often, as to say "Hi! I don't know whether you've noticed, but...well, I'm beeping. It's because I'm needy! I need my batteries changed!"

I hear ya, Smokey, I truly do. But riddle me this: how am I meant to change your batteries if a) my ladder doesn't reach high enough and b) you won't open? This is very passive-agressive of you, Smokey. In fact, the more you beep, the more I don't want to change you. Ha. [This won't happen, because Smokey holds the upper hand in sheer irritation.]

So yeah, I've gone kind of insane. Happy Pancake Day! Here's some non-pancake-themed songs. Eat with lemon and sugar.

Villagers - Pieces (acoustic)

Villagers - The Meaning Of The Ritual (acoustic)

Daughter - Run (demo)

Daughter - Your Kisses (demo)

These are very chilled, acoustic songs because my head hurts and I've got my big Sennheiser dickhead-headphones on to block out Smokey and so that's the only thing I can cope with. If you were hoping for dubstep, you've come to the wrong blog.

My exam's on Friday, so I'm going to AWOL til the weekend  -  going to miss me? Then pop on over to What Emily Ate to see what I'm spending valuable revision time doing. [Hint: it's not revision.]

Bagels? Really Emily, bagels? There's absolutely no need to make your own bagels. No need whatsoever. Except...well, I got the idea into my head and then spent about 30 mins looking at recipes, and then I realised I already had sesame seeds AND poppy seeds AND raisins, WELL. It was a done deal.

Not to mention, of course, my overwhelming need to cook when I know I should be revising, so Me + Bagels was a match made in heaven. Lovely carb-heavy heaven.

Bagels, smoked salmon, pots of tea, and the discovery of the Times Online crossword = perfect.

Here's a bit of music trivia for you - James Blake's dad was ALSO called James. Not only that, but he was ALSO a musician. Not only that, but James Blake [baby James] covered James Litherland's [daddy James] song, 'Where To Turn'.

Think on that. [Both are really good].

James Blake - Wilhelm Scream

James Litherland - Where To Turn

Right-click, save link as.

I made a playlist of 'wolf' songs this morning. Why? Because wolves are awesome, that's why. Also, I've got exams in about 10 days so my procrastination level has shot sky-high.

WOLVES, YEAAHHH

Wolfish