Okay, so I attempted to make Creme Brulee...

Except, I cheated, then got impatient, then got creative.

The cheating: instead of heating cream and sugar, adding egg yolk and vanilla extract and whisking the result, I bought some 'fresh vanilla custard' and microwaved it for two minutes.

The impatience: Brulees went in the oven, fine, came out of the oven, fine, cooled down, fine. Except, then it was time to put them in the fridge for an hour to overnight. I... kinda wanted some dessert, right now, so ate one of them right there. It's weird warm and without the crunchy top.

After about ten minutes of fridging, I decided that, actually, I fancied another one, so I sprinkled sugar over the top and stuck it under the grill (an accepted alternative to the flamethrower). The sugar didn't caramelise, but the brulee started bubbling (I had put some fruit in the bottom, because if Keira can manage it, so can I!), so I pulled it out again...

The creative: I got the box of matches from upstairs, added a bit more sugar, tipped the thing sideways and held a match along the top until it started to go a bit brown. Success!

...It still counts as success when you have to fish a burned-out match-head from your dessert, right?

Stew!

I cooked stew again. Yay for not having any morning lectures - I could go to the butcher's to buy some stewing beef, prep all the veg and stick it in the slow cooker before I went off to my afternoon lecture, AND have a lie-in first!

...I seem to be having more and more trouble getting off to sleep these days. I hope it's not the meds.

Anyway, stew! Today I put in half a sweet potato, but apparently they have a much shorter cooking time to everything else in the pot (potato, carrot, parsnip, swede), because the chunks completely fell apart. Tasty, though. And then I had leftover cheating!creme-brulee for afters.

And I've got plenty of stew left over for tomorrow!

The presence of the slow-cooker in my kitchen has cut the amount of money I spend on food right down. Mostly because I'm actually cooking all the veg I get in a timely manner, just because a stew and a stir-fry each week is like half a week's worth of dinner for bloody cheap. And then I'll balance that out my eating on campus a couple of days (though not so much this term - less late lectures) a week, or having a ready meal. Since Tesco, I now have the ability to make sandwiches and toast, also.

Net result: I am consuming enough food to live on! Yay! This is an achievement and a step towards being Well, you guys!