Hello

Hi my name is Aoife Kerr and I am of three doing Day by Day musings.

One or two things about me. I love to read, watch movies, knit, spend time with family and friends and take photos. I currently work in Easons and have been there for the past ten years. I enjoy working there.

Today being the new year, I thought I would talk about the next year and some of the things I’d like to do.

One thing I am looking forward to is just seeing what the year will bring. I am looking forward to the movies I will see, the books I will read and the photos I will take.

Speaking of which, this year I would like to focus more on my photography. This year I have a monthly challenge that will get me doing more photos. This months challenge is hands. I will put it up when I have the photo to show you what I came up with.

I am also hoping to go on one or two city breaks and do some more traveling. Not sure where I will go yet or with who yet but I can figure it out. It will be lots of fun.

I am also looking forward to hanging out with my friends and family. It’s a bit vague I know but it’s always fun to be able to do either nothing or something with someone, especially with people you’ve known for years.

I have to admit one of my goals this year is to keep my room clean. I am quite messy so this is will definitely be a challenge for me. So I will look at it at least once a week and will do something small everyday.

I also want to save so that I have something for a rainy day. Or when I retire. Or both. One way I plan on doing this is saving about €160 a month. Another way is putting a fiver away a week so that I can save for any holidays I want to go on. It’s a small amount but it does add up. I also have putting a euro aside as well for any ebooks that I want to buy. It’s kinda useful because that I have a few ebooks that I can at once. I also have been €2 away for a me day. So with that I might get my hair cut, my nails done or go see a movie. It’s one of those things where it seems a little silly but it helps to have a way to treat yourself.

After that I am not what I want out of my year. I may have to think more about it. I will let you know.

Thanks for reading,

Aoife.

Quick Chicken Curry

1 tbsp oil

1 onion

2 tbsp curry paste

4 tomatoes, chopped

4 skinless chicken thighs, or 4 chicken thigh fillets

100g baby spinach

4tbsp plain yoghurt

40g coriander leaves

Method

1) you also need basmati rice or naan bread to serve.

2) heat a little oil in a deep non stick frying pan (with a lid) and add the onion.

3) fry for about 3 minutes until tender.

4) then stir in the curry paste and fry for 1 minute

5) add the chicken and tomatoes and a splash of water, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes until cooked through.

6) stir in spinach until it just wilts.

7) then stir in the yoghurt and coriander, season.

8) serve with rice, naan bread or salad.

This is easily one of my favourite curries. I used tikka curry paste and used pepper and garlic instead of spinach. This is so nice. I would definitely do it again.

Vegetable Sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

2x 400g tin of whole peeled tomatoes

2 leeks

1 aubergine, sliced 1cm thick

1 courgette, chopped small

1 yellow pepper, chopped small

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp oregano

1/2 tsp sweet paprika

Stock made with 1/4 beef stock cube and 100 ml boiling water

Method

1) salt both sides of the aubergines. Leave them to rest in a colander for 20mins to draw out sour water.

2) meanwhile, prepare the other vegetables.

3) once ready, rinse aubergine slices and dry them using kitchen paper. Cut into small cubes.

4) heat the oil in a non stick pan and add the leaks. Sauté for 3 mins

5) add the rest of the ingredients, stir well and cover with a lid. Leave to simmer for 20 mins, stirring occasionally.

6) remove lid and simmer for a further 10 mins to evaporate excess water, stirring occasionally. Blend if desired.

Serves 2-4

Now, i don’t have a photo for this, but trust me, it is so worth making. I have blended it, mostly because I used for Spaghetti Bolognase. It is so nice with that. I also added garlic and pepper to it. Fair warning though, I know it says that it serves 2-4 people, but I reckon it could serve a lot more people than that. It’s more like 6, maybe 7, depending on much sauce you like with the Spaghetti Bologonse .

I do hope you enjoy it.

Deadpool 2

So this is a bit of a short one (sorry) but I saw this on Thursday and it’s AMAZING!

It’s funny, well written and everything you can expect from Deadpool. I cannot wait for the next one and everything that it entails.

Apart from that, I’m going to see Hairspray in July, which will be a lot of fun. I will be seeing it with one of my sisters.

Reading wise, it’s kinda annoying. I’ve tried two different books but I can’t seem to get into them. I don’t know if it’s me or the book. Ah well. I’ll get back into soon enough.

What about you? What have you been up to recently?

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Straight People should have to come too. The more awkward the better. Simon Spier is 16 and trying to figure out who he is – and what he’s looking for. But when one of his emails to the very distracting Blue falls into the wrong hands, things get all kinds of complicated. Because, for Simon, falling for Blue is a big deal… It’s holy freaking huge awesome deal.

If you haven’t read this book yet, read it. It has become one of my favorite YA books. It is engaging, well written and laugh out loud funny. I completely fell in love with Simon and his friends. It so good. I would definitely recommend it.

Avengers: Infinity Wars, Some Jelly and Squares

So on Saturday, I got round to watching the new Avengers movie.

AND MY GOD WHAT A MOVIE!!!

It is so good. I have to admit I’m a little traumatized by the end. But it is totally worth it. I kinda want to get some of the merchandise now. I won’t say too much about it. Mainly coz of spoilers and stuff but if you haven’t seen it yet, go see it.

I also found a recipe for rhubarb and jelly that is really nice. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture coz I may have ate it. But it is worth making I think.

4 rhubarb stalks, peeled and chopped

1 sachet Hartley’s sugar free jelly

Boiling water from the kettle

Method:

1) place rhubarb in a saucepan with a little water. Boil for 10 minutes until soft.

2) meanwhile make the jelly according to instructions on sachet: Stir jelly powder until dissolved and then pour over the cooked rhubarb.

3) mix well and pour the mixture into three individual serving dishes.

4) cool down and refrigerate or eat lukewarm.

Another thing I’ve been doing is knitting squares for a blanket.

This is what I’ve done so far.

So what you do is putting 33 stitches and knit till you’ve reached 19cm or 7 inches. It’s really quite simple. It would be helpful if you have any spare balls of wool or if you want to do something small in between big projects.

When I’m done with the blanket I’ll let you know how it goes.

Anyway, Im going to head now, to do some knitting.

Learning Irish again

One thing I’ve always been secretly guilty of is not being able to speak Irish as fluently as I do French (or even English) so this year I’m aiming to cross that off my bucket list!

So the other half and I are taking some lessons at home and hopefully at least knowing one other person that speaks it will help me stay motivated.

I’ve a rake of books and tapes at home but I’d be interested in hearing your suggestions for Gaeltachts or even meetups where I can practice in the future.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts 🙂

Special Olympics and Volunteering

For those of ye who don’t know I’m heavily involved in the Special Olympics. I’m the family coordinator for Team Leinster which means I’m the right hand person for the families of Team Leinster leading up to and during the Games in June.

I have been volunteering for people with special needs since I was a teenager and I love it. It is easily one of the most rewarding and challenging and humbling things to do. Every bad day is made great when I get talking to the athletes and I’ve loved every minute. Every long road trip every pitstop, every late night and early day.

I would encourage anyone who has been tempted to volunteer for anything whether it be animals, education, and technology please checkout volunteerireland.ie

Coco

Have you guys seen this movie yet?

If you haven’t, you really should. It’s so good.

It’s set in Mexico around the time of the Day of the Dead. The main character, Michel, loves music, but his family don’t. He ends up in the Land of the Dead.

Like with a lot of recent Disney movies, it is both moving, funny and heartfelt.

I loved it. I would definitely recommend it and I hope you enjoy it.

Pacific Rim Uprising

Guys and girls if you’re looking for a action movie that is brilliant fun then this is the one

To be honest it’s not fantastic with the plot and if you are looking for something deep then look somewhere else but for what it was it was great fun.

The plot carries from the original movie which to be perfectly honest I know very little about other than the Kaiju are baddies from another world and there is a break in the Pacific sea where they escape. Earth created Jaegars to beat them which are massive metal legend like machines

The movie is hilarious and a fantastic action film. Loved every second of it and the music is spot on matching every scene perfectly. The plot is good enough to keep your attention and well worth seeing it on a big screen.

Do go see if it you can 😊

Easter and Other Things

So. How was everyone’s Easter?

Mine was kinda quiet. I went to Dublin Comic Con, which was a lot of fun. If you’ve been, I would definitely go. There are a lot of great stalls, plus there were lots of people cosplaying (dressing up as their favorite character), where you can take their photo.

Apart from that, I had a quiet weekend. I did find a recipe that I thought I would share. It’s for egg fried rice. It was rather nice. Recipe below the photo.

1/2 tsp coconut oil.

I bag of 200g rice

2 eggs

1/2 tsp Panaeng curry paste

1 Pak Choi, finely chopped

1/2 orange pepper, thinly sliced

3 scallions, finely chopped

1/2 freshly grated ginger

Few drops of brown rice vinegar

Soy sauce

Method

1) scramble the eggs and set aside.

2) cook rice according to packet instructions

3) Melt coconut oil in non stick pan.Add curry paste, ginger and scallions. Sauté for 2 minutes and add peppers and Pak Choi. Cook for a further 2 minutes and add rice. Heat through for 2 to three minutes.

4) pour vegetable and rice mixture on a plate. Immediately pour the eggs on the pan, and stir with spatula, making scrambled egg. Cook the mixture quickly, add rice and vegetable mixture back to the pan and stir through. Season with vinegar and soy sauce. Serve warm.

My notes;

So I didn’t have any curry paste, but I used curry powder and tomato purée instead. I also forgot to add the vinegar and soy sauce. But still, I enjoyed it. It was very lovely. I would definitely recommend it.