I started this decade in the (really really like-a-cupboard) tiny living room of the flat in Brixton, playing video games with my friend D, and finished it in bed having been asleep for three hours already, with a child tucked in either side of me, and a husband asleep in the back bedroom.

In between, I have:

• aged from 22 to 32
• met said husband
• married him (obviously)
• got my degree
• got my dream job in the games industry
• worked very hard
• quit the games industry so very entirely that I don’t even play video games any more
• come back to knitting
• and sewing
• learnt to crochet, spin, grow veg, make jam, and soap and – obviously – dye yarn with natural dyes
• started Oxford Kitchen Yarns
• I had my yarn sold (very successfully) in a shop
• I have build websites for an Author
• I have given birth to two children
• I have found that being a parent is the biggest education you can have
• I have lived in one flat, and four houses
• I have bought a house
• and a shed
• I have watched to Tour de France arrive in Paris
• I have travelled to France, Sweden, Belgium, and Italy

Not a bad decade, it’s got to be said. 😉

This last year was one of change – a new home, a new member added to the family – it’s been a busy time. To be honest there hasn’t been enough time to get everything I wanted to get done, done. With both children proper poorly* in the fortnight before Christmas, it’s felt like a sprint finish just getting to December 31st.

This year there is sure to be more busy-ness but our roots are firmly planted in our new home, so it’s more a case of fixing the place up and making it feel even more ours.  (Said like that it sounds like far more do-able than the to-do list I’m slowly compiling. 🙂

I”m planning to get dyeing in the next couple of weeks – a slow start, so we don’t all get overwhelmed.

I’m really looking forward to it.

And – this year – no resolutions. Just lots of exciting plans.

Waitrose do a soup called ‘Yucatan Chicken’ which is extremely tasty, but is also pretty expensive.

However it’s really easy to make the same thing at home, and to be honest it tastes even better. 🙂

(Unfortunately I don’t have any photos because the weather has been rubbish and I’m no food photographer at the best of time, to be honest.)

Homemade Yucatan Chieck Soup

(feeds about 8 people)

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts (or the leftovers from a roast chicken)

500ml tomato pasatta

1ltr chicken stock

2 cans of cooked beans (your preference)

1 onion

250g frozen sweetcorn

handful of tortilla chips (crushed)

3 large cloves of garlic

2 red peppers

1 lime

a bunch of coriander

ground cumin

paprika

chilli flakes (or two large red chillies)

optional – a bit of soured cream

Method:

• If not already cooked, put the chicken breasts and chopped up red peppers into a medium oven till cooked through (about 20 minutes) then shread the chicken with a couple of forks and put to one side
• Put a bit of oil, the chopped onion, the crushed garlic, about a table spoon each of cumin, paprika, and chilli flakes (or to taste) into a large pan on a medium heat
• when the onion is cooking nicely and smells great add the beans, the sweetcorn, the chicken, the cooked peppers, the pasatta, and the stock
• add the juice of the lime and the crushed tortilla chips and leave to simmer for a bit
• Just before serving add the chopped coriander (leaves and stems) and stir in a couple of table spoons of the soured cream if using

Note: I haven’t tried freezing it but I think it should freeze fine.

Enjoy!

(I love our apple tree. I’m really looking forward to wasailing it next month.)

I spoke too soon – LR has the lurgy too, along with a glued up eye.

So right now she thinks the world is a pretty miserable place.  Poor thing.