Spring at last?

- "Hey, how ya doin'?"

- "Good thanks, and you?"

Don't you find that we often say we are "good", "fine", or "well" even if sometimes it's not entirely true? I find myself saying that and then just afterwards, I realise it's not totally the case. I guess we give that reply for several reasons; it takes too long to say why we are not ok or we might think people ask us how we are just out of good manners so we would probably bother them if we were to say "actually, I am not all that well"! It calls for a 'lol', doesn't it? ;)

Enough of those reflexions...

On a less nerdy note, spring might be on its way or it could be that we won't have much of a spring and jump right into summer. The trees and bushes are in bloom and all the daffodils are showing off their lovely flowers.

It's so much more pleasant to walk and be out of doors when the weather is so generous, providing long days and enough warmth to make it comfortable.

My daughter and I have started going out and about again, by the riverside and the park. The ducks certainly seemed to like the attention, or maybe it was just the bread...

At home, as usual we have been busy. Justine is gradually playing with the toys she got for her birthday. She already wore her new booties and pyjamas. She took her new bag to school and had her new plushy key chain on the zip. Plenty more to go:)

I  have been baking, cooking and just trying myself at origami.

Grilled courgettes with melted cheese

Today I made biryani for dinner, fish biryani. Absolutely yummy! I made a cucumber salad to go with it. I know it's daunting to make but it doesn't have to be . You just have to start the marinating the night before. All you need to do is marinate fish, beef or chicken in yogurt in which you mix ground coriander, shredded mint leaves, salt, cinnamon powder, cloves powder, cruched garlic and ginger, melted ghee. Then you need to grab a large potato, cut it into wedges and fry in oil till all sides are golden. You also need onions, quite a lot, cut in slices and fry on medium low until golden and crispy. Rinse some rice in cold water, drain. Time for layering; thin rice layer, some potato wedges and some onions, rice layer, fish/chicken/beef (brown chicken or beef first beforehand), rice layer, potato and onions, rice layer and finally rest of onions.  Now infuse some boiling hot water with saffron and mix in some salt. Pour this over the layers until hot water just goes past the top rice layer. Cover and cook for 25 minutes without opening the lid. Enjoy with slices of cucumber.

I am by no means an origami expert but I can say I mastered the folds and unfolds and my favourite piece of origami of the moment is this cute heart bookmark. So easy and so useful too. We use them in our bedtime storybooks and we offered them as gifts.

After dinner, since I totally forgot to take my daughter to her swimming lesson (ha ha ha), I thought I might as well make her a scrumptious cake. She is a plain kind of girl (I mean she likes her pasta mostly plain, plain cakes, crackers separate from her cheese...you get me) so I went ahead and made Japanese cloudy sponge cake. So yum! So fluffy! Tastes like taiyaki (little fish-shaped custard filled buns).

I think I have done enough blogging for today. Enjoy reading through my blog and please do ask me any questions about what you read. Have a good day, afternoon or evening, depending where you are in the world. Fairy kisses....