Q: What’s the difference between a pickpocket and a Peeping Tom?
A: The pickpocket snatches your watch
Current Mood: Amused
The beaver is a proud and noble animal
Notes from a bemused canuck
Q: What’s the difference between a pickpocket and a Peeping Tom?
A: The pickpocket snatches your watch
Current Mood: Amused
All the gifts are wrapped, the lists have been checked twice and there are carols playing on the ipod. I declare that it is now time to get pissed!
Current Mood: Amused
Ben was complaining that his tummy hurt this morning and was subsequently explosively ill in the town market. Joy. Not surprising, given the amount of bugs running around at the moment. This means that Katy will get it, then I will. Hopefully we’ll all be over it in time for our (non-refundable) London trip in a few days.
’tis the season…
Current Mood: Amused
The Bobble that lives in my bag has travelled quite a bit. This is a picture from his latest jaunt, the winter 2011 EMBL council meeting in Heidelberg, Germany.
The lovely lady giving him a hand up is Catherine, the central pillar of the Staff Association without whom everything collapses into chaos and disrepair :)
Current Mood: Amused
I’ve been updating the Xmas 2011 album this weekend, and there are some really good pictures of the Bean.
My two current favourites are:
All pictures are here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/xmas_2011/
Current Mood: Amused
I just cancelled a credit card. We’re consolidating our card debt into one card with a very low lifetime balance transfer interest rate and one card that will be used regularly, so we had one that was now surplus to requirement and we decided to cancel it (as a side note, it can be a negative factor on your credit report to have lots of unused available credit, esp cards)
I phoned up the bank to have the card transferred and was immediately transferred to their “we will do anything to keep you” department. They offered schpiel after schpiel to try and keep us as customers, but the fact is that their offers aren’t all that good and we have better incentives with the other cards we have. When I told the lady on the phone this, her tone of voice went from bubbly to completely resigned while she read the goodbye statement. That level of resignation in her voice made me wonder if they’re somehow punished for every customer that they can’t keep hooked.
Boss: He left?
Underling: yes *whimper”
Boss: TO THE RACK WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!!
Current Mood: Amused
This is something I want to try over Christmas. It’s my take on Nigella’s girdle-buster pie.
Ingredients
For the pie:
Ingredients
* 375g digestive biscuits
* 75g soft butter
* 50g dark chocolate pieces or chips
* 50g milk chocolate pieces or chips
* Coffee ice cream
For the ganache:
* 8 ounces (227 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
* 3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy whipping cream or double cream (35%-40% butterfat)
* 2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter
* 1 tablespoon Cointreau (or liqueur of your choice)
Method
A few notes about the ganache:
To Cover a Torte or Cake: If the cake you are covering needs to be refrigerated, first chill the cake. (This will ensure that the ganache will not lose its shine when the cake is stored in the refrigerator.)
First, brush any loose crumbs from the cake. Using a cake spatula or knife, cover the sides and top of the cake with a thin layer of ganache. (This is called a crumb coat and seals in any cake crumbs so that your cake will have a smooth finish.) Refrigerate the cake for about 5 minutes or until the crumb coat has set. Then place the cake on a wire rack, and put the wire rack on top of a large baking sheet (to catch any excess
Read More “[Recipe] My take on Nigella’s “girdle-buster pie”” »
This is something I did earlier in the year, but forgot to blog about. Based on a recipe found here: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/home_cured_corned_beef/
Home Cured Corned Beef
The spice mix with the gallon of brine makes easily enough curing brine for a 5 pound brisket, cured in a somewhat large-ish container. If you were to use a 2-gallon freezer bag or marinating bag, you would likely need just half (or less) of the amount of brine and brine spices.
Ingredients
Pickling spices:
* 1 Tbsp whole mustard seeds (brown or yellow)
* 1 Tbsp coriander seeds
* 1 Tbsp red pepper flakes
* 1 Tbsp whole cloves
* 1 Tbsp whole black peppercorns
* 6 large bay leaves, crumbled
* 2 teaspoons ground ginger
* 1/2 stick cinnamon
Brine:
* 1 gallon water
* 2 cups Kosher salt
* 5 teaspoons pink curing salt*
* 3 Tbsp pickling spices
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
*Pink curing salt, or sodium nitrite, goes by many names, such as Prague Powder #1 or DQ Curing Salt #1, and is available online and may be available at your local specialty market or butcher shop. If you don’t have it, you can still make corned beef, but it is necessary for that vibrant pink color we associate with corned beef. And it adds flavor too. Without it the corned beef will be a dull grey color. [Rc note: see, I couldn’t get this at all, but I used the curing salt mix from Weschenfelder and it worked out fine]
Brisket:
* 1 4-5 pound beef brisket
* 1 Tbsp pickling spices
Method