Au Gratin de Pommes de terre...Uzo Style ;)

I am not sure if I mentioned that I currently live in France now. My husband was transferred here for work and we have been here for about 9 months. So don't ask me to speak french fluently, because you will be not only utterly disappointed but it may ruin your lovely vision of the language. I can write and read better than I speak...the accent is so hard to catch!


Anyway, they have a special dish especially in the south of france called Au gratin. It is a dish which involves your baking vegetables or fish with cheese and spiced bread crumbs. Pommes de terre is french for potatoes...donc (so) this is a recipe for a potato au gratin. I love it because it is so easy to make and absolutely delicious! The kids will eat it off their plates...you can count on it! Try it and let me know what you think!

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 35-45 mins

For four people (2 adults, 2 very hungry kids...! Take note!)

Ingredients

4 large potatoes

1 medium onion

Half of a red pepper

150g of chorizo sausages (Hot, dried sausages)

5 heaped tablespoons of crème fraîche

5 heaped tablespoons of your favorite tomato sauce (in my case, Nigerian stew)

Two pinches of salt

Two pinches of pepper (optional…but Suya pepper preferable)

Two heaped tablespoons of grated cheese (any kind, preferably mozzarella)

Two heaped tablespoons of either spiced or regular bread crumbs

125ml of water

Method

Cut the potatoes into thin slices

Cut or blend or grate the onion

Cut the red pepper into thin strips

Cut the sausages into small cubes

Mix all with the crème fraiche, tomato sauce, salt, pepper and water and pour into an oven dish

Heat oven to 180 C and put in the dish for about 30 mins. Check to ensure the potatoes are done and the mixture will be bubbly at this point. Sprinkle the grated cheese on the top and allow to melt for another 5 mins and then sprinkle the bread crumbs and leave for another 5-7 mins or until brown. Switch off the oven, and serve hot! Delicieux!

Substitute for crème fraîche
(Please note this subsitute takes 12 hours or overnight to prepare. Some people suggest just using very think yoghurt or sour cream but I believe this tends to "curdle" when heated. You can just use thick greek yoghurt if you lack the patience but it is worth it! :))

I understand  crème fraîche would be hard to find anywhere but France...so I found the following subsitute for crème fraîche online and I can't find remember where! If you do, let me know so I can give the author due acknowledgement.

Ingredients
1/2 cup sour creame
1/2 cup whipping cream
OR
1 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons low-fat (not nonfat) buttermilk

Method
Mix your ingredients. Place in glass jar or non-reactive bowl. Cover and let stand 12 hours. After your cream has thickened and fermented, refrigerate and use within 10 days.

Get out of that "darkness"! - For heart broken singles and married folk

You know, I don't know if men go through the same things as ladies, but ladies get so down when matters of the heart prove unsuccessful.

So he hurt you so much. He betrayed your trust and left you high and dry. Or he just ignores you and treats you less than his computer....and even his blackberry is more valuable to him than you are... You just want to switch off the lights, lock your doors and stay in one little corner of the room and sulk and weep and...just die. Food is tasteless, you hate going out, you refuse to pick up the phone, you just walk around your house and work like a zombie...wishing you did not exist and wondering what you did to deserve this pain...

Ok...STOP RIGHT THERE!


This is dedicated to you. Are you ready to stop feeling the "pain"? Let us go step by step in getting out of that "darkness".

1) Cry it out. Yes yes, cry it out. You are allowed to. Cry till your eyes hurt and all you can do is sleep

2) When you wake up, go for a walk in a nice park...if you can. For people who don't have parks around or somewhere safe to walk...just do some form of exercise. Jog around or skip rope or do stomach crunches...something active

3) If you are married or have a partner, stop expecting him or her to do this or that or love you more. Love yourself more. Start finding yourself again. Start doing something for YOURSELF and not him/her. Seriously, stop waiting to be included in their programs. Find YOUR program and stick to it and when he/she finally asks you to go somewhere, you say "I am busy"...that's right.
 
4) This is a continuation of number 3 and applys to single and married. If you don't know what to do to occupy your time, find a goal or project you have always considered doing but just never got around to it. Dedicate that time you used on him/her and the time used feeling down and out...to that new project. Write it down and the steps to take to reach that goal. Work on it...hard... Any project will do..from determining to drink one gallon of water per day or working on improving your skin or hair texture to loosing those 20 extra pounds or starting your own company! Get loads of information from the internet about that project. Set small goals and achieve them and watch yourself feel better!

5) Start working on getting physically fit and eating well. I put taking a walk right after crying because being active has a positive effect on a person's mood. When you begin to make this a lifestyle, you not only feel better on the "outside" but on the inside.

6) There is no need sharing your emotional woes with every person you meet. This is especially true for married folk. Like they say...20% of them don't care and the other 80% are glad you have those problems...(That is overexaggerated though...)...but my point is you have to find a way to hold your tongue when you meet people. People may think all there is to you is just emotional drama...but there is much more to you than that!

7) Continuation of  6: You do need to talk, but talk to a close knit of friends and family you trust who can give you good advice on how to deal with things. Most of the times, though, family can be biased, so seek someone unbiased to help shed light on areas you need more knowledge. If you don't have any friends because you have a rotten character, work on being a better human being as your little project.
Turn to God and ask earnestly, from your heart, to help. Talk to him like you would talk to any other person. Whether you are muslim, christian, buddhist, or even athiest, talk to that unseen spiritual positive force and confide in it.

8) If you are in an abusive relationship where you (and maybe your kids) are beaten all the time...run run run run run! Please do not hesitate to share this particular problem so you can find someone to help you.

By the time, you find a project to do, you will be so busy researching the internet and watching videos on youtube that you will forget some sucker "dumped" you. He would finally be the "best thing you never had"  and you would have found the "good in goodbye" (according to Beyonce ;)

There is more to life. Living is hard, I know, but it is so short that it will soon be over before you know it. So why go kill yourself or others when death will come anyway? Take the challenge of living each day as best as you can....focus on the joys more than the sorrows. Let's do this. Let's feel better, people.
Better-feeling people make better-feeling nations. Get out of that darkness.

Just do it

I have actually been thinking about starting a blog....I had a vision, a dream, a fantasy of creating a new world for myself online....where I could express and share my thoughts and knowledge and ideas...and have people I had never met before (and may never meet) be inspired....or identify with my experience and share their own thoughts and ideas with me...

That was....ehm....about four to five years ago now...

You see, I have come to the reality of the fact that I am an avid procrastinator. I delay things that I know must surely be done to a later time. It starts most times with delaying the time I wake up by pushing the alarm snooze button...or just canceling the alarm altogether. Sometimes, I actually believe I can drive a distance which should normally take...at the least... 17 mins...in less than 10 mins. It ends most days with my delaying my sleep time...just randomly searching the internet for whatever...

Procrastination....I have realized...is a very very dangerous thing. It is very dangerous because it can be so subtle...it is so easy to deny. For example, you have an assignment to do. You know it is due in two weeks. You don't understand the main topic...much less the questions...but you know it represents 20% of your grade. It's a monday. You say...well, I have to do this and that which is more important...and that and this...the weekend will be the perfect time to start it. The weekend comes and then you realize you have chores to do, people to see, places to go...you delay it again. One week gone. The next week, same thing...and then you find yourself on a sunday night before the due date, having a sleepless night working on an assignment you don't know the head or tail about.

Another common example is in loosing weight. Hello! A lot of us are guilty about this one. You know you want to loose that weight. Those extra pounds are just weighing you down. You know it, you feel it. You say..."I have to loose weight. I will start running first thing tommorrow". Tommorrow comes and you press that snooze button and before you know it, it's time for work. You move it to the next day..and the next...and the next...and then two years later, you are even more heavy!
It is because of this single reason that people do not do the best they know they can do and end up settling for less because of this evil thing called procrastination. Dangerous, wouldn't you say?

One factor of procrastination that is often excluded when people talk about it is the search of the impossible, unfathomable, unattainable thing called "perfect timing". There is no such thing as perfect timing. For example, you are newly married and you are considering if you should go ahead and get that online degree...then you say..."Ah, I don't have the time...I need to concentrate on my hubby and me...on my job...on conceiving..on my business...I will start when I am pregnant and get some months off..." Then you get pregnant, and you feel all oozy and sick and nauseous....and all you can do...is all you can do! You move it to after the baby....then baby comes and you realize..."oh hell...this is a lot of work!" and you move it to when baby can walk...and then baby walks around, talks a lot and well...destroys a lot..and you say "oh dear, when baby grows and can take care of itself..." and then baby grows but then you get pregnant again and the whole cycle starts again....before you know it, 10 years have gone by. (Now I am a mother of two and my babies are more precious than any degree in the world...but you get what I mean?...)


My point is there is no perfect timing. You want to start something? Start it now. Time waits for no man. Start it now. Stop procrastining, get organized and keep on moving.

Another key factor which leads to procrastination is depression. Yes, yes the big D word. You feel down, you feel blue, you feel out, you feel like a failure...you don't want to go on anymore...and then..you just don't go on anymore! You find yourself at a standstill...exactly where you were four years ago, is where you are today. And you feel like shit for that. Depression is a mind thing....no one can help you better than yourself. It helps to share but you have to be the one to get out of it...and move on. As my cousin's lovely wife would say it...I have worn that t-shirt before. I think many many people have worn that t-shirt more than you can imagine and ripped it apart and moved on! You need to do the same to get going.

Life is a journey; it never ends until life ends. You have to keep on moving. You have great ideas, great lyrics, great dreams...go ahead and work on them...one by one, step by step. Never underestimate the power of small beginnings. You may fail, but that is fine, learn and move on.

So...let us stop putting that clock on snooze and looking for excuses on why we are not where we want to be...let us work on ourselves...let us do this... just do it.