Masterchef.

Where to start? Yesterday Azeez and I took George to A&E with intense left sided abdominal pain, both above and below the umbilicus. He looked pretty grim. We waited for 7 hours, yes, 7 hours, before a doctor assessed him. He stayed in overnight. They still don't really know whats up with him today, but he's in better hands than he would be here! Get well soon Bumder :)

However, spending all of yesterday in MRI meant that I couldn't give Crames the dinner I had promised him. I cooked it before the stomach incident luckily, so when I got home at about quarter past midnight I could heat some up to munch on - it was delicious so I'm going to share the recipe with you all :)

Chicken and Chorizo Stew

Ingredients: 

4 chicken thighs (can have more, but I lacked room in the dish)

1/2 chorizo ring, (sliced into 3-4mm slices)

2 small onions, sliced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 peppers (I used 1 red, 1 green but this can be changed), chopped into 1cm bits

1/2 red chili, seeds left in, chopped finely

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 chicken stock cube

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tin cannellini beans in water

2 tins chopped tomatoes in tomato juice

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C, gas mark 4

Ok, sprinkle a bit of salt over the chicken, then fry the chicken thighs skin down for a couple of minutes in a cast iron casserole dish, with a very small amount of olive oil. This is just to get some of the nice chicken-y flavour out of them before the main cooking sesh. Once they've gone a bit brown, pop them on a dish to one side. DO NOT WASH OUT THE CASSEROLE DISH!! Add your chorizo and fry for about 3 minutes. Due to the high fat content of the chorizo, lots of yummy orange oil will come out of it when you fry it - don't ditch it, its full of yummyness :)

Add the onions and fry until soft. Add the peppers, chili and garlic and cook for about 3 minutes, then add the tomato puree. Cook the tomato puree for around 6 minutes, to ensure that all of the bitterness is cooked out. Add your stock cube (literally crumble it into the pan, no water yet) and your oregano. Drain about half of the water out of the cannellini beans and add the rest of the juice into the casserole - don't add the beans yet! Add your chopped tomatoes and bring to the boil.

Add the chicken thighs by placing them on top of the tomato mixture, then pushing them down slightly - so the skins are still slightly exposed, but the majority is covered by tomato.

Cover and place in the oven for 40 minutes, stirring after 20 minutes.

Add the beans and cook for another 20 minutes, uncovered.

Try it, its not a bad recipe :) I think it'd be nice with most things - pasta, garlic bread, cous cous, potatoes etc.

Oh yeah its Valentine's.... erm... Well I'm evidently still single, and I'm not the object of anyone's affection, so today has been uneventful. Its the first time in 4 years I've not been a V-day celebrator, but I'm kind of fine with that. To anyone that reads this, I hope you had a good day - not because you celebrated Valentine's day, just because today went well. Today has not been one of my best days - up at 6.30 for a hospital visit, getting flashed by a speed camera on the way home, being in pain, being knackered and buying a shit lettuce. But I'm happy :)

There are some things that I really don't understand. 

Mach made me an amazing dinner tonight - steak, green beans and twice baked potatoes. Beautiful. We watched Moulin Rouge with his housemates and I remembered all of the songs and fell in love with Ewan McGregor. Again.

Went to get a bus. Had to wait like 15 minutes for one to come; thanks for nothing Nicholson, Chris and Stephan - your pathetically early bedtimes left me with no option but wait like a loser in the fucking 2C weather :P

Lesson 25: When you need to go to the doctor, don't put it off. It's worse in the long run.

Listening to: Motorcycle Emptiness - Manic Street Preachers.