What They Don't Tell You About Moving House...

... that if the move itself goes smoothly, you feel a bit smug and ridiculously relieved.  So much so that instead of unpacking, you crack open the champagne and spend the afternoon and evening sitting in the sun in your new garden getting rather tipsy.  You then ill-advisedly start unpacking some of your lovely Denby you got as a wedding present but you are rather giggly and butter-fingered and have to stop.

... that you spend the first few days in your new house excitedly showing people round or chatting to people on the phone about how wonderful your new house is and somehow forget that you really have to unpack.

... that you spend the following few days going to John Lewis or Curry's or Homebase or anywhere else where you can spend your time planning the extra furniture and white goods you need and then think, "oh well, there is no point unpacking until those items have been delivered in another week or so".

... that you completely ignore your work and emails because it takes BT more than two weeks to get your phoneline set up.

... that when you finally get your internet up and running you panic when you see how much work has mounted up and you get stuck into it feeling completely overwhelmed.

... that you realise you have been in your house for three weeks and still have piles of boxes unpacked, haven't sent out change of address slips to any friends, family or companies and you haven't even started to think about getting registered with new doctors, dentists, vets, etc..

... that you have to miss some of your cooking challenges and get especially sad when you realise that one of them was to make New Orleans Gumbo!

... that life just keeps on going on and that nothing stops to let you catch up with yourself!

... that you can still clear enough space in your lovely new kitchen to cook up some tasty food but it takes you a few more days to find the cable that lets you upload your photos so you can blog - but wahey!  Here is my first recipe in the new place.

Asparagus Cream Pasta from BBC Good Food May 2011.

Serves 2.
Ingredients - 
1 bunch asparagus
142ml tub of double cream
2 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
50g Parmesan, half grated, half shaved
250g tagliatelle

Method - 
1. To prepare the asparagus, cut off and discard the woody ends, then neatly cut the tips away from the stalks, keeping them separate.  In a small pan bring the cream and garlic to the boil.  Take off the heat, remove the garlic, then set aside.
2. Cook the stalks in boiling salted water for about 4-5 mins until tender (or steam in the microwave like I did), drain then tip into the cream with the grated parmesan (and I left one of the garlic cloves in too to make it extra garlicky).  Blitz with a hand blender until smooth.
3. Cook the pasta according to pack instructions, then throw in the tips 2 mins before the end of cooking time.  Gently reheat the cream, drain pasta then tip into a bowl with the cream.  Toss, divide into bowls, top with parmesan shavings and serve.

Yum.