October 2002 Archives

Ingredients

- Pudding -
4oz margerine
12oz white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
16oz self raising flour
4 oz dates, chopped
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 pint boiling water

- Toffee Sauce -
1 pint double cream
16oz dark brown sugar
8oz butter

makes enough for 12

Equipment

12"x12" deepish dish for baking
large mixing bowl
smaller mixing bowl/jug
whisk
wooden spoon
seive
2pt+ saucepan

Method

- Pudding -
1. Mix water, dates andbicarb in a bowl and leave to stand whilst you make the cake mix.
2. Cream margerine and sugar until fluffy
3. Beat in eggs gradually
4. Fold in seived flour
5. Stir in date, water and bicarb mixture. The dates will have absorbed some but not all of the water. Stir it all in to create a fairly runny mixture
6. Bake for 1 hour at the top of a hot oven (375F, 190C)

- Toffee Sauce -
15 mins before you want to serve the pudding, start the sauce
1. Melt the butter and sugar together in a pan
2. Add the cream
3. Heat slowly to bring to the boil
4. Pour a little over the pudding and brown under the grill

Serve with vanilla icecream to counter the richness

An incredibly blustery day, and Helen Weber's Birthday! Or, as I should be accustoming myself to call her, Helen Denton. Hosted by Hazel, with assistance from yours truely, we celebrated with a comfort food lunch with Helen and Charlie, Bruce & Roopa (and Bump), Penny, James & Henry.

Plenty to eat and drink, with Henry showing an early grasp of that essential toddler ploy "offer to walk around with the crisps, and you can help youself en route". But no photos - and I even took the Ixus round to H's with me, together with 2 chairs, 1 large saucepan, icecream, bicarb, fizzy water, cutlery, baking dish, margerine etc etc etc

==Menu ==
Bangers (Asda Gourmet. Yes, I got Hazel to cross the A.S.D.A. threshold) and Mash, with Delia's Red Wine Sauce for Sausages, and Baked Mushrooms and Garlic
Ruth's Mum's Sticky Toffee Pudding, with B&J DIY Vanilla Icecream
Selection of chocolate mints - not that anyone had much space left after seconds (and still some left to spare!)

(see what you missed Phil!)

A phone call from Laura resulted in her arrival as a surprise guest later on in the afternoon. Scuppered by the storms, which "justified" the closure of most of the Virgin lines (and as I discovered when I tried to nip to B&Q/Homebase in Wandsworth Town, all routes in and out of Waterloo), Laura opted to sit out Ian's attendance at the Boss's only show in the UK chez nous. So we all vegged and chatted and finished off the luncheon leftovers and assorted beverages, half watching Sunday night comfort telly. All very pleasant and snooze inducing.

Tom sent me a link to Jo's photos of their new back garden. It looks lovely!

Basic Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients
2 large eggs
? cup (170g) normal white sugar
2 cups (475ml) heavy or whipping cream (milk fat content between 30% and 36%)
1 cup (235ml) milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Makes 1 quart (can anyone tell me what that is in"real money"? Imperial or metric.

Equipment
Electric whisk (or hand whisk and lots of stamina!)
Large mixing bowl (for whisking & chilling in)
Ice cream maker
Tubs (for freezing and keeping in freezer in)

Method
1. Whisk the eggs in the bowl until light and fluffy (1-2 minutes)
2. Whisk in the sugar a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended (about 1 min more)
3. Mix the vanilla essence, milk and cream and pour into the egg/sugar mixture and whisk to blend
4. Transfer mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions

Note: This is taken form a US recipe, so I've converted measures and ingredients into UK equivalents as far as possible

(For Chris, in case the attachment doesn't get through!)

for the BEST ICECREAM RECIPES EVER - get the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Cook Book

Been trying to check my mail on yahoo.com in vain today - which is a right pain - no haddock to give my working day the kick start it currently requires (the rest of it being Windows 2000 interviews with W95 users) for starters.

bah. i can't check loosemore mail either. and the rest of the web seems to be working Just Fine. Maybe Yahoo are doing work in the US downtime - thanks a bunch if so.

Another vietnamese feast at the Viet Hoa on Kingsland Road. I love the way
you can leave behind my bit of the City so swiftly, simply by moving south, or
east, or north from EC2. On to the Rio at Dalston to wach All or Nothing. A
fantastic local cinema, new to me. It has a 30s feel, comes with an upper circle (not seen since St Andrews Picture House days!) and - I've just this very moment noticed - leopardskin print carpet at our feet. The Rio is an unexpectd gem in a rainy rundown Dalston.

Spent a great weekend in Scotland - Edinburgh, St Andrews and Fife.

Got off to a dodgy start, with what turned out to be a 4 hour delay to our easyJet flight. Not a disaster, but only reaching the home of scots family Robertson atgone midnight put paid to our plans for a civilised catch up over dinner.

EasyJet's sop of a refund looks like being a damp squib, albeit one which magicked away a plane load of passengers' anger at the delay and complete absence of information during that delay. It's less airport taxes, and having looked at how their fares are structured, is bound to be for the one way flight. So much for H and my plans to use the refund to fund a flight to take advantage of H's dad's new flat in Antibes

The past few days have been really nippy - clear skies today and c.o.l.d.

Have packed thermals for a weekend in St Andrews. Brrrrrr.

I knew I'd forgotten some major flat event - The Blinds!!!

- Purchased painlessly and pleasantly parsimoniously from The Discount Blind Centre shop just off Northcote Road, from the young and helpful Gerhard.

- Collected (breathless after a 7 minute dash from Clapham Junction so as to arrive before the 6pm closing time - it rained, so 'SWT services were subject to delays') on Tuesday evening, in advance of annoyed/ing Antoinette's visitation.

- Installed the same evening (after le depart d'Antoinette) with assistance (and drill) from the lovely Phil.

Dad will remind me that venetian blinds are plagued by dust, but I think mine look Just Right

Went to The Lark in the Park, Islington ("borders") to celebrate Juls' 30th.

Ummed and ahhed between their 30th and Azeem's, opting for Juls' on the basis that Tom & Jo, Chris and Sara, Andy Stephens as well as Steve and Juls would be there, whereas the revellers at Adam Street were rather less well known.

Great Mooney-Rooney party, complete with vodka-serving ice maiden torso. The pictures reveal all!!

aka, that's my Christmas present(s) for Rosa (and Barney on a brother-borrowing-basis) sorted!!

The film Cait's brother directed is out on DVD - so the bairns are getting the Barbie As Rapunzel DVD for Chrimbo....

uh-oh.... but they don't *have* a DVD player (yet).

Time for a word in bro's shell-like methinks.....