Zorac's LiveJournal

...for tomorrow we diet. And by "tomorrow", I mean in two or three weeks when the assorted left-overs, snacks and sweetmeats have finally met their demise. The past few days have, not unexpectedly, contained considerable amounts of both food and alcohol (although the former rather closer to excess than the latter). On the plus side, we have been out for a walk every day, and have spent little time in front of the goggle-box (although such sedentary pursuits as reading, playing board games, and wrestling with puzzles, quizzes, and crosswords are little better for the health).

First year with the new kitchen, and we actually managed to get the turkey spot on (after missing the mark in opposite directions the previous two years), so Christmas dinner itself was an almost¹ complete success. Alas, the traditional Christmas Eve ox-tounge was possibly even more over-salted than the previous year despite additional soaking, so it looks like that's off the menu next time. Today was the equally traditional turkey and left-over-vegetable curry - something that has very little danger of going wrong.

To add some educational merit to this post, here's a recipe for you. A rather fine pudding henceforth to be known as ( Collapse )

1) The "almost" part being due to the Mini Bagpuss Crackers (eight for a pound). These promised a hat, a motto and a sticker sheet in each one. After one cracker each, we had two hats, four mottos (one blank) and no sticker sheets. After the remaining four crackers, we just managed an additional two paper hats, a total of six mottoes³, and one solitary sticker sheet. Unimpressed.

2) I'm not aware of anyone suffering a coronary as a direct result of eating this cake, but proceed at your own risk.

3) On further examination, we discovered that all six were printed with the same joke, which I reproduce verbatim below for your amusement:

What's the difference between a railway shed and tree ?
One leaves.its shed and the other sheds its leaves.

Not quite right, methinks...

I really hate it when the weather gets multiple personality disorder around this time of year. One day it's nearly summer, the next it's almost winter - not a good thing when you have a fairly narrow comfort range of temperatures. Mostly it's playing havoc with my pitiful attempts to sleep. Winter is fine - the heating is on, so the temperature inside stays fairly stable and I can just hide under the thick duvet in my Pyjamas. Summer is less good, but fairly easy to work around - under or on the thin duvet, with or without clothing (and if it gets really hot, open the window). Right now, however, one night I wake up sweating like a pig because it's too hot under the thick duvet, even sans nightwear, the next night I wake up shivering under the thin duvet despite re-donning my PJs. it's just not fair!

It might not quite be summer yet, but it's close enough for me to hit the salad bowl, and my house salad goes something like this: Start with some lettuce, I've usually used iceberg in the past, but that's more through force of habit than because it's any good. Next, add some sweet pepper for crunch - yellow or orange ones add some colour, but green or red will do. Add some tomatoes - I've mostly been using cherry tomatoes or similar, because the slices you get out of normal-sized ones are just too big, and because it's easier to get flavourful small ones. Now for some meat - a couple of slices of ham (chopped) - Sainsbury's have some new seville orange-topped ham which is really rather yummy. And then some more meat - a few inches of dried sausage (the sort that's about an inch in diameter, not your big salami), thickly sliced. Finally drench it in home-made vinaigrette (3:2 ratio of extra-virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar, a good dollop of wholegrain mustard and salt & pepper to taste. No need to make it every time, I make up a fresh batch in an old Snapple bottle every few days). Toss, then enjoy with something bready on the side.

This will be a random entry.

Last weekend I was up in Yorkshire, visiting the lovely frayer. Whilst on a brief expedition to the pretty city of York, we discovered the ideal solution for those little snack cravings - ( Collapse )

Yesterday, I ventured in to down to run various errands. On coming round the corner from my flat, I was confronted by this ( Collapse ) Naturally, I plan to live for ever, but should the worst happen and I end up the guest of honour at a funeral!t00bage, I expect you all to chip in to send me off "Swiftly, and With Style". (Points to any one other than Freya who gets that reference.)

Once I got into town, I was rather surprised to see a couple of people carrying Krispy Kreme boxes, not being aware of anywhere in Oxford selling said doughnuts. After seeing several more people (including a policeman with several boxes) I got onto Queen Street where it seemed that every other person had some. Turning the corner, all was revealed in the form of a long queue of people leading to a lorry filled with such boxes. A few minutes later, I was the proud owner of one dozen free original glaze doughnuts. Yum. ( Collapse )

Thus fortified, I ventured forth unto the kitchen showroom, where I did verily order a kitchen. Finally. A slight tweak to the original plan to put a proper corner-cupboard on the wall rather than just leaving a void, plus selecting the worktop, appliances, etc, etc. In a couple of month's time, I should have a kitchen worthy of a king. As opposed to the current one which isn't worthy of a pauper...

After other assorted shopping ad some food, I went to the cinema to see V for Vendetta. Whilst most certainly not subtle in its politics it was more so in its action sequences than the Wachowski brothers' most recent efforts - more plot-heavy than effects-heavy, even compared to the original Matrix. Plus you have to love Stephen Fry being, well, Stephen Fry, and Natalie Portman is so much better when the director actually permits her to act...

Since then, I've been mostly playing 24: The Game. Whilst certainly not having the most original or high quality gameplay in the world, what it does do very well is re-create the feel of the TV show - most obviously the clock, but also the use of split-screen and technobabbleollocks. Having the original voice cast really helps, and they actually did a pretty good job of making the characters look real. So far, pretty good fun.

Yes, that subject is the literal truth. It was one of your higher-class ready meals including whole chicken breasts, which I microwaved as per the instructions. When I stuck a fork in it, however, I was surprised by a loud noise and a spray of sauce. I approached the other with more caution, but there was a similar effect. Exploding breasts - my day is complete.

And now to music - cover versions, to be precise. The most annoying sort, of course, is the re-make of a classic which tries to sound as much like the original as possible - they almost always fail, and what's the point anyway? Then there's the just plain bad - like Madonna's version of American Pie - and Don McLean had already done a bad cover of his classic original.

What spurred this subject was my recent acquisition (recc'd by frayer of Paul Anka's Rock Swings - a fabulous album of rock songs done in the swing style. Genius. This gives me two versions of Wonderwall - neither the Oasis original, the other being 60s-style Mike Flowers Pops version.

I also now have two versions of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Again, the second isn't the Nirvana original, it's from Scala's on the Rocks, which is familiar songs done by a girl's choir. The crowning glory and song which made be buy the album (after one of you recc'd it to me) is a cover of the Divinyls' I Touch Myself. 'Nuff said.

Another double-cover example is Holding Out for a Hero - which I do have the Bonnie Tyler original of. Here, the two covers are both on the Shrek 2 Soundtrack. The Frou Frou version is ... different, but still pretty good. Jennifer Saunders' showtunes-style version from the film's finale, on the other hand, is simply fantastic.

Another fertile ground for cover versions is my collection of Ally McBeal CDs. Music was a very big part of that show, but to keep the style consistent, rather than using original versions of songs, Vonda Shepard would do a cover. Exceptions to that were either when the song was within the show's world (or, more likely, a character's head), or when the singer was doing a guest spot (a quite frequent occurrence).

Which reminds me, I did one of my periodic checks of Vonda's tour page, to discover that she played two nights at the Jazz Café in London last month. [ Long string of expletives deleted ] I went there last October, and it was really one of the highlights of my year. Still, maybe next year...

Recipe of the day: Nyangy Pizza

2 x 12" Pizza Bases
150g Tomato Puree
50g Garlic Puree
400g Mozzarella Cheese
200g Pepperoni
160g Cubetti di Pancetta

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Mix the tomato and garlic purees and spread over the pizza bases and top with half the cheese. Top with half the pepperoni and pancetta, then the rest of the cheese and finally the remainder of the pepperoni and pancetta. Bake for 15 minutes, then leave to cool for a few more before eating.

So, I spent last week chez mes parents in the south of France.

Short version: Heat. Books. Pool. Wine. Food.

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This weekend saw me jetting off once more to the windy city to spend time with the lovely hermorrine. I managed to flee the office in a timely manner this time, and the trip was uneventful, although lunch was a disappointment - I needed to grab a bite after checking in and having a bit more time, I decided to hike over to the Wendy's in arrivals. Alas, this was a big mistake - apparently they were closing down in a week or so and were not running on their usual supplies (the burgers weren't even square!). I was extremely unimpressed (although not as much so as the gentleman who came up and demanded a refund while I was waiting for my burger to arrive).

We were staying at the same hotel we were in the very first time we met, but alas the room we had wasn't quite as nice as that time (no couch, alas). On the plus side, it does have all mod cons and there's free breakfast. The Breakfast Buffet Circus O'Doom, that is. On Saturday morning we had to cope with people who couldn't make waffles properly (leaving them all stuck to the iron - grrr), milk that wouldn't flow and strange staring children. So much fun. We ate our fill and retreated back to our room.

We spent much of the day watching movies, starting with Disney's Aladdin, which we've been trying (and failing) to watch for the last few trips - I'm sure that our sudden success has absolutely nothing to do with the recently announced DVD release. Next up, HBO brought us Ice Age, which we watched a few months back - not quite up to that standards of Pixar or PDI Dreamworks, but still good fun. After that was How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, which was actually more entertaining than expected, although rather hide-behind-the-sofa cringeworthy in places. Oh, and we somehow managed to catch most of a JKR biography which was interesting.

Dinner was supposed to be at Cheeseburger in Paradise, but we got there to discover it was a 90 minute wait for a table - rather longer than our stomachs were going to allow. It was the same story at a place across the road (we're not quite sure what sort of food they did, but it certainly smelled good). After driving up and down the road, we eventually ended up at a place we went to a couple of trips back, where they do some very nice burgers. After that, we watched the brain-melting Identity and most of SNL before heading to bed.

Breakfast on Sunday morning was slightly less of an ordeal - it seemed that people had figured out how to use the waffle irons properly - as Weird Lady (who was the worst culprit on Saturday, and who insisted on helping the staff fix the milk machine) felt the need to tell us. After that, it was off to the S00per Sekrit again for the afternoon, and then on to our Sunday-night hotel right by the airport.

For dinner, we went to Carlucci's - also the choice of the victorious Apprentice, as every news outlet later let us know. Thankfully, he was at the location we went to for Valentine's, so we didn't have to fight our way past the news crews. Alas, all too soon, morning came around and it was time for me to catch my flight home, but it should be only a few weeks until I'm off again...

Well, once again my horses from the office sweepstake didn't do terribly well. One was the first horse to fall - and at the first fence. The other did manage to finish - but in last place. Ah, well...

Three years ago, it was a different story - I had my aunt to visit for the weekend, and she'd been staying with friends on Friday night. One of her friends had a brother who was a jockey in the National, riding on a horse called Red Maurader. Naturally, my aunt had to have a punt on the 33-1 outsider, and after a particularly gruelling race in which only 5 horses finshed, who should come first but the one on our ticket! Naturally, in true Rigby-Jones fashion, we took the proceeds and went for a slap-up meal - and at those odds we had a very good time!

February the 14th is so much nicer when someone special to spend the day with.

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I really must write-up New Year's soon. Am bad boyfriend...

I like cookies. Especially freshly baked ones that are still warm and gooey. Alas, pre-made cookie dough is ruinously expensive in this country. So, after a few tubs of that, I felt ready to make my own and did some Googling for recipies. Alas, somewhere along the line I got it all horribly confused and found myself with something more akin to crumble than to dough. Doh! Fortunately, raiding the cupboard did turn up something to save the day.

Disaster Recovery Cookies

125g butter
125g soft brown sugar
250g self-raising flour
3 large dessert spoons gooey honey

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the flour and mix in. Panic. Discover honey and start mixing in. Give up on the spoon and get your hands in there and knead it until it looks dough-like. Roll into balls about 3-4cm in diameter (that's an inch and a half).

The dough keeps in the fridge for a few days (at least, it hasn't killed me yet). Take out as much as you need, and bake them for 10-11 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 180°C. Leave to cool for another 10 minutes or so, then eat!

P.S. Why isn't it Friday yet?