November 12th, 2009
Those who know me will know that I have a habit of getting excited by little things – often the sillier the better. I personally think this is the best way to be and it keeps me entertained as well.
Anyway, my newest little thing to be excited about is a drink I ‘invented’ last night (I put invented in inverted commas because I’m sure others before me have done it. Perhaps discovered would have been a better word). Duncan and I were waiting to buy some milk in Spar because I was desperate for hot chocolate. I spotted a pack of After Eights while I was waiting and decided that I would be an idiot not to see what happened if I melted them into hot chocolate. The results were pretty thrilling even if I do say so myself.
So here is my first recipe to ever go on the internet: minty hot chocolate. It’s excellent.
Ingredients:
Cocoa powder (about 1 tbsp)
Sugar (to taste)
Pack of After Eights (the kind you get at the sweet counter for 70p, not the big expensive box)
Milk
All I did was to measure 2 mugs’ worth of milk and pour that into a saucepan. Put onto a medium heat and add the cocoa powder and sugar (to taste depending on how bitter you like it). Whisk while it warms up and then squish some After Eight sweets into it (I used 6) and continue to whisk until it’s all melted. Pour into mugs and enjoy (preferably with an open fire and a blanket).
Look – I did a recipe!
Posted in Food, My life, Recipes | 2 Comments »
November 8th, 2009
Well, Halloween came and went. We dressed up as zombies, ate cake (I made carrot cake muffins and a chocolate gingerbread – both Nigella and both yummy) and vodka jelly and went out. I mananged to flake out at 1 o’clock which was a bit pathetic.
Some (slightly fuzzy) pictures:
Posted in Alcohol, Food, My life, Pictures | No Comments »
October 29th, 2009
Saturday is Halloween and I am excited. I’ve really gotten into Halloween in the last couple of years, mainly due to finding an excellent fake blood recipe last year and turning myself into a zombie/ghost thing. Pumpkin carving is also high on the to-do list, although I have yet to find a way of doing it that means I get a decent amount of flesh out of the pumpkin for eating.
Anyway, on Saturday some people are coming over and we’re going to zombie up and then go in to town. I was going to make chocolate chip gingerbread, carrot cake muffins and vodka jelly. Then I thought that perhaps this was too much cake for a gathering that will probably only last an hour or so. And now I can’t decide – how much cake is too much? Is it a bit silly to make what is essentially two whole cakes just for one little party?
Will this ever end? 2 cakes today could turn into 3 next year and by the time I’m 30 I will be making hundreds of cakes for every gathering, desperate to feed people something they like. I do hope I’m not on a slippery slope made of cake, cream-cheese icing and desperation.
The vodka jelly should be exciting though – I’m going to put jelly worms in it. WIN.
Posted in Alcohol, Food, My life, Waffle | 2 Comments »
October 28th, 2009
I dream about food a lot. I mean an awful lot. I also spend most of every day wondering what we’ll have for tea which is probably why.
Mostly the things I dream about are absolute nonsense and you wouldn’t want to eat or experience them in real life. The other night, however, I had a dream about something that actually might work and was very excited when I woke up.
If you can make lemon curd and you can make lime curd, then what would happen if you made gooseberry curd? I reckon it’d be pretty good. I had a quick Google and unfortunately I haven’t invented it, but it’s a real thing which is quite good. Imagine gooseberry meringue pie… yum.
I am going to go on a hunt for some gooseberries and I’m going to try it – it’s exciting stuff, I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Posted in Dreams, Food, Waffle | No Comments »
October 9th, 2009
I know I’ve hardly blogged recently. I’m sorry. I’ll try harder I promise. I just don’t like blogging without photos and I always, always forget to take photos of whatever I make us for dinner.
Anyway, I have been watching Masterchef: The Professionals on BBC2 recently and I think Kate Spicer might actually be the most miserable woman in the world, never mind just on telly. Seriously, it’s ridiculous.
For those who don’t know, ‘The Professionals’ have to cook for 3 food critics in one of the rounds (I think it’s the Semi-finals but I’m not sure). Yesterday, they were cooking for that chap who looks like Peter Griffin, some bloke from Waitrose who was jolly pleasant and Kate Spicer. (Boooo, hiss)
The reason she makes me so mad is that she eats food and writes about it for a living, yet she always looks like someone’s just told her that her dog’s died. And then forced her to eat it. And it’s been badly cooked and it’s very disappointing and why can’t chefs just all be good these days!?
I understand that not all food is good and that being a food critic involves a certain amount of, well, criticism. But cheer up for god’s sake Kate. You EAT FOR A LIVING. How is that bad in any way!? Crack a flipping smile. At least smile when you enjoy the food.
The corners of her mouth didn’t even turn up when she ate some really nice venison. I don’t know about you, but I’d love to eat some nice venison. Please. I’d smile all the way through.
I think all food critics should either be like Jay Rayner who always looks jolly happy even when he’s eating something dreadful, or like that chap from Waitrose. Also, is it just me or does Jay Rayner look like he’s from the past? I think it’s the hair. He should definitely have a ruff.
Perhaps we could start a ‘Cheer up Kate’ campaign.
I’m done now.
Posted in Food, TV weirdness | 2 Comments »