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Friday 25 January 2013

Make Your Own Pizza

As you know I'm a puff pastry lover but I decided to try out some pizza dough this week and it's awesome!


In the pack you get prepared dough enough for two rectangular pizzas and tomato pizza sauce


I twisted my dough out of the pack onto some grease proof paper


Unrolled my dough and spread out my pizza sauce


Decorated my pizza with toppings I liked


(this one is my second pizza with brie on!)


And et voila, ten minutes in the oven equals yumminess!!!


Wednesday 23 January 2013

Sick of Snow

It was a novelty.... but now I'm fed up of it and so is pussy cat







Thursday 17 January 2013

New Skills

I did my first aseptic wound dressing today which was handy cuz earlier in the week I had a skills lab on aseptic non touch technique - this means everything has to be sterile, no touching the wound with my grubby mitts, sterile trolley, wound pack, gauze waterproof dressings, saline solution to clean and it turned out lovely. 



I also did my my first ECG where you monitor the persons heart and attached little sticky pads across the patient and attach them up to leads on the ECG machine - two problems with this. If it's a lady her boobs are sort of in the way, if it's a guy when you take the pads off his chest gets a free part wax... oops!


Luckily my patients were lovely and I didn't make any mistakes!

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Easy Ham & Peas Risotto

When I have spare time I do enjoy cooking but I find the problem with so many recipes is that I'm a lazy cook and if there are too many ingredients I'm not interested. I'm not going out to buy chicory, fennel seeds, ground cloves or bay leaves - it's just not happening. Yes I know it makes the recipe fancy and "different" buy I just can't be arsed. 

Imagine my joy when I see a risotto recipe with only 5 ingredients! Score! 


I chopped my leek first (this was an extra ingredient as I happened to have one in the fridge and though may as well stick it in).


Then my onion.


And I fried this in spray olive oil for about 5 minutes and then added chopped ham from the deli (3 slices).


Then I gave that a fry for another 5 or so minutes.


Then I made up a litre of vegetable stock (using stock cubes obviously, I'm far too lazy to make up actual stock) and added the stock and 300 grams of risotto rice to the pan and brought it to the boil.


I turned the heat down a little, covered and left it for 20 mins stirring occasionally. Then I added my peas and left on the heat for about 3 minutes stirring. 


I gave it the taste test and decided to add a little more water because I like softer rice - stir, stir, stir. 


And then a bit of parmesan to finish, yummerz! I found we had way too much for two people but I think could serve 4 if there was also a small side?


And there you have it, the cheater's risotto. 

Monday 14 January 2013

What I Do When I Have A Morning Off - Hex Bug

I've just started back at my nursing placement so I've been away from home the past week working, working, working. So I hadn't seen my cat for a little while, this means bonding time. 

In the boyfriend's Christmas stocking I....I mean Santa included a Hex Bug. 


You put them on a smooth surfaced floor and they run around like... well like a bug, if they hit a wall or an object they turn round and scuttle off. 


This means fun for pussy cat


I know what you're thinking, if it was in the boyfriend's Christmas stocking then why are pussycat and I playing with it? Well... don't tell the boyfriend. 

Monday 7 January 2013

Anatomy Lab

I had a session in the anatomy lab at university today where they keep the cadavers for medical science and my class had an introduction to the lab.

 I wasn't too worried about seeing the dead bodies, you had to place all your belongings away in a locker and wear a white lab coat and we walked into a cooled clinical looking room which they had one complete body on a metal table and on a different table they had a severed arm and a leg that had been skinned so you could see all the muscles and bones. 

This might sound gory but it really wasn't, it was all carried out very respectfully to the bodies, the genitals and face are covered and any tattoos are removed to protect the donors identity as much as possible. We only saw parts of the whole body not all of it at once and it looked like... well any other body really just still and stiff. The limbs looked like meat that you'd buy to cook, I suppose you don't think of meat that we eat being muscle but it is and it reminded me personally of roast beef. 

Apparently pretty much all of the donors are elderly, 80+, more women than men and they purposefully seek out to donate their body for anatomical study once they die which is really kind of them because it was really useful to see. The cadavers are specially embalmed using chemicals that preserve the tissue (this is why the bodies go stiff) and left for three months for the cadavers to gain the full benefit of the embalming chemicals the bodies are then used over the course of an academic year (or in special circumstances over three years) and then at the end of the year students and donor's families are invited to go to a special cremation of the donor's bodies and the students give thanks for them. We are the first nursing cohort to visit the anatomy lab (usually it's just med students) so this was very special. 

I hope you'll understand that I have no photos to share on this post but if you're interested (and I haven't put you off), I'd really recommend taking a look at some of Gunther von Hagens' work, he is the man that has the famous Body Exhibition - I saw it in New York whilst I was there and although you think you know what everyone looks like inside from books, it really is an eye opener. 

Friday 4 January 2013

Tuesday 1 January 2013

New Years Eve

As previously mentioned I hate clubbing with a passion, especially on New Years Eve, the most expensive over hyped night of the year. None of my friends were having parties; I certainly couldn't be bothered to have a party and so the boyfriend and I lived the high life.... at bingo with his family. Yes, yes, we're that cool - but it was actually very funny.


This is my lovely bingo diary I got free, jealous? Hell yeah you are


We didn't win but it was still lots of fun and we had some food (which always seems freakishly cheap to me, it's very nice and they do 2 meals for £6.99 and a few meals for a pound!). I decided I would forego a proper meal and just have a dessert. 


Then we went home to watch the London fireworks on TV, god knows how much they must have spent on them, no wonder England is poor. I hope you all enjoyed your New Year.