I don't like cheesecakes any more.

After me baking cupcakes a week ago my cooking career became endangered. Baking a nice, tasty cheesecake before made me so self-confident that I decided to make something similar again. I made a decision and chose quite tough recipe ("I'm such a good cook, why not? There's nothing I can't cope with"! eh...) - cheesecake cupcakes with gingerbread underside and plum preserves.
Everything went auspiciously, I carefully followed every step of the recipe and put my cupcakes-to-be to the oven. After some time a really pleasant smell emerged from the kitchen. How complacent I was when I saw these beautiful, fluffy little cakes. Unfortunately, after an hour this image came to my eyes...

I have no idea what happened to them! The gingerbread base transmuted into a sad layer and cheese shrank without any reason, I took a risk and sampled my work. It was a bad decision. My conclusion? Don't be too self-confident and throw yourself in at the deep end. I'll be more careful during cooking something tough, go back to simply recipes and refine them. Furthermore, now I know that I shouldn't give up, because even if I fail, next time I'll do better. Here's curry with noodles, which I made just after baking these... whatever, I don't even know how to call it.

Very tasty :)

Cooking

February was definitely a month of salads for me. I’ve made so many of them since I wanted to master my “salad skill” and now I’m a little bit fed up with them. Nonetheless, I’m content with it, because I managed to get some experience in this special category. I learned which vegetables and other ingredients can be mixed together so as to taste better. Not so long ago, I used to add too much spices to all the salads I made. Now, I learned to use a proper amount. I came to a conclusion that I love preparing salads, because they are the only dishes impossible to ruin.

I also wanted to make sushi again, because I had just made it once with friends. I had to check if it was still tasty when I did it myself without any help. It occurred that it was even better, because I changed the recipe a little bit and added my favorite ingredients.

Never before did I realize how much I like spinach. About a month ago I didn’t have any idea what to prepare for dinner with my family. I wanted to cook something which I had never done before and was hard to ruin, because I couldn’t disappoint my relatives with an unpalatable meal. The only thing which came to my mind was spaghetti with spinach-cheese sauce. It occurred to be so delicious that only 3 hours later I was cooking it again for my friend, who was amazed with it too. Two weeks later I bought a new pack of spinach and decided to make pancakes with this. That time I created a recipe for pancake's filling made of tomatoes, meat and, of course, spinach. I've never eaten something like that before, the taste was just out of the ordinary. I was so amazed with it that I cooked first quiche in my life (with spinach, to be sure that it would be tasty). After me making this I heard the most beautiful words I could imagine. My mom told me that I was even a better cook than her!

I prepared something which I had never eaten before – muffins with a filling of cheese, ham, vegetables and spices. I had heard a lot about non-sweet version of muffins, but actually I didn't expect it to taste well. It turned out to delicious and I’m going to make it again. The only mistake I made was baking it too long, because muffins were a little bit too dry. Next time I'll do my best to take it out of an oven early enough.

And finally, things that I’m the most proud of – (very) chocolate cupcakes and cheesecake with carrots and pineapple. I’ve never been good at baking. It was impossible for me to bake something and not burn it. That's very sad, because baking is a part of cooking that I like the most. That time everything went perfect. I just have to work a bit more with decorating food, because my meals usually taste better than they look.

And some simple, but delicious cakes made of french dough:

Now, I can say without any doubts that cooking has become my best hobby. It helps me to relax, satisfies not only me, but also my friends and relatives, In this case experience is the best teacher, because I'm far better in it than I used to be at the beggining of September. I'm not ashamed to say that I'm proud of myself. I'm going to keep going and try out new recipes that I've never done before, so as to develop my skills.

Exercising during winter and 1st running session this year

Action

Some time ago I realized that I have a problem with systematicity. I tried to exercise regularly, but I admit that most of the time I was too lazy to do it and now I’m… ashamed. It’s obvious that if I want to see effects of activities which I do I have to be systematic. I’ve therefore promised myself that even if I am tired and lazy I will exercise anyway. It wasn’t an easy task for myself, but I think that I managed to complete it. Moreover, summer is my new motivator since I want to look good in clothes different from winter jacket in which everybody looks like penguin or Eskimo. I also realized that I don’t like my body altogether. Sometimes I feel jealous when I see fit thin girls on the street. I must get rid of this feeling!

Now, instead of working out with the “exercise agenda” I created about 3 months ago, I decided to change it a little bit, so as not to get my muscles used to doing the same activities all the time. I searched Youtube and found videos with trainings I’ve been really entranced with, e.g. BeFit’s, Jamie Alderton’s and Tiffany Rothe’s. Every time I exercise I choose some of their videos and mix them to create a competent training session lasting at least 1 hour. Then, I do a training consisting of stretching exercises made by myself, because I like it so much and hope that one day I would be able to do splits, which has always been my dream.

There always exists that critical moment just before working out, when I feel lazy, totally non-productive and worn out after whole day. During these moments I recall myself that I ruled to be systematic, can’t disappoint myself and will feel complacent and happy after (as always!). Then, the feeling of shame comes and I have no choice but do a training J My problem is that I’m very impatient and when I don’t see effects of my work, I give up and quit. Unfortunately, changing the way the body looks takes much time and requires hard work, thus I’m still trying to accept it and be active. I am doing everything to be persistent and work out (at least?) 3 times a week.

Running

Yesterday was the first time I went running this year. The weather was so beautiful that I instantly felt an overwhelming desire to go jogging. I remembered that amazing feeling I used to undergo during every run and couldn’t do anything different but do this. Simultaneously I thought that it was going to be a complete failure, because I hadn’t been running for about half a year, so my physical condition wasn’t so good as it had used to be… Additionally, all the exercises I had done at home were the muscle-growing type and running is a typical cardio workout. Nevertheless, I did my training. As I expected, it occurred to be very close to failure, because I got a colic at the very beginning and wasn’t able to get rid of it during the whole session. I could catch my breath, though, and didn’t feel a terrible pain in my legs, so it wasn’t so bad. Besides, the only training which is bad is this one, which never took place, not this during which something went wrong! J

Today I had a really terrible day. My mood was… hopeless. I felt like crying and then, suddenly thought that I may check out if running helps me. Not only did I run 40 minutes without any break, which I consider as a success, but also cheered myself up. There’s no better way to improve your mood than running! Nothing is able to clean human’s thoughts the way it does.