Enchanté Encore

This is a pretty good point to begin a blog as I am in a state of high excitement as this weekend I am off for a three night break to Marrakech. This is highly exciting for a number of reasons, namely:
1. Marrakech is an amazing city but the last time I went there I was with an ex boyfriend who I would rather not remember. This makes reminiscing about this incredible city rather difficult and so I am looking forward to making a whole new batch of memories.

                       Marrakech take one

2.I am going with my very good girl friend. As a coupled up individual I have primarily been on couple holidays over the last couple of years and, lovely though they are, I am quite looking forward to some gal time.
3. I live in Glasgow and this 'Summer' has been absolutely abysmal so I am pretty excited about soaking up some of Morocco's glorious sunny rays.
4. The Moroccan food. I adore Moroccan cuisine; roasted aromatic lamb, delicious chicken tajine, spicy vegetables and warm, fresh flatbreads. Amazing! I am hoping to get some inspiration when I'm there and I will share my culinary attempts when I return.
5. I enjoy a good debate and haggling is like the best type of debate because as you persuade the other person of your opinion you get to buy things for less money! Amazing! And there are some phenomenal bargains to be had in Marrakech, spices, leather good, textiles and ceramics are available at rock bottom prices.

On top of all this giddy excitement I have just made a particularly delicious batch of leek and potato soup, thus confirming that we are almost entirely ensconced in the Winter months. I favour a more healthy milk-free leek and tattie soup, here is my recipe:

1. Dice two small onions and three cloves of garlic. Warm a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a deep pan (it is worth investing in a good soup pot, especially coming into Winter) and add the onion and garlic. Cook in the oil, stirring frequently until the onions are starting to go clear.
2. Slice 3 sticks of celery and 4 or 5 leeks and add them to the pan. Peel 5 biggish potatoes and chop them into chunks, add them to the pan.
3. Cover the ingredients in vegetable or chicken stock (I favour vegetable boullion) and season. Don't add too much salt as your stock is likely to be pretty salty but you can go pretty pepper crazy.
4. Simmer for around 40 minutes until the potatoes are very soft and the leeks have begun to break down.
5. Serve piping hot with some tasty carby bread. If you feel like adding some more calories a handful of grated cheddar on the top is particularly delicious.

Enjoy!
S x

Enchanté

I have been toying with the idea of foraying into the world of blogging for some time but keep being put off by people posing with their laptops in Starbucks. My laptop (God love 'er) is far too old and decrepit to stand up against the sleek white MacBooks of Latte-land and I had it in my mind that I would begin one as soon as I had the money to invest in something a little more 2011. However, that still seems to be raaather a long way away and so if I want to begin this thing before I get chronic artheritis then there is no time like the present...

As yet I am not entirely sure how to define what this blog is going to be about but I expect it will grow organically into something of a hodge-podge of things that happen to me/I like a lot/I really don't like/pop into my head on a whim. By day I am a lifestyle journalist and this is where most of my interests lie. As such you can probably expect a lot of travel/cookery/restaurant/literature based scribblings but only time will tell really.

This first blog is probably a good time to explain its name. One of my favourte things in life (fairly tragic but a lady's gotta get her kicks from somewhere) is beautiful handwriting. My own handwriting is quite girly and swirly but I am open to all styles. Gilded lettering on old books always looks amazing and makes me believe that the book will be good irrespective of what the title actually says. Which I suppose means that lovely writing can con people into reading things that are really dull. Perhaps that is not the best name for a blog. Too late.

Right, well it's late and I have used far too many forwarded slashes for my own liking and so I'm going to sign this off.
S x