Dilbert

I always find the Dilbert comic strips really funny because they are so true to life, but this one is particularly good!

Australia

I went to see the film “Australia” at the cinema with my parents last night and it was really good. I was really surprised because I’d not heard much about it and so assumed it was nothing special, but it was really unusual, very heart warming and the sound effects were amazing!!

The film is set in Australia during the war after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and stars Nicole Kidman as an English women who has flown over to Australia to collect her husband who is running a cattle ranch out there. Whilst out there she meets Hugh Jackman, the “Drover”, and “Nullah” who is a really sweet little boy at risk of being taken to a mission as one of the Stolen Generations just because he has an aboriginal mother and a white father.

It has a wonderful storyline which really tugs at the heart strings and weaves from one plotline to the next. I thought it was going to end at least five times before it actually did!  Hugh Jackman really smoulders and Nicole Kidman was good too, but it’s the little boy who really steals the show. And the war theme combined with the smouldering out on the ranch theme means it’s sort of cross between Pearl Harbour and Crocodile Dundee!

Overall, it was fantastic and I’m really looking forward to seeing it again. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will be quite the same on video, so I’m going to have to try to go again before it finishes at the cinema. But it was a real epic. 5*.

 

“Breaking the Chain” by Willy Voet

I’ve just finished reading the book “Breaking the Chain” by Willy Voet, which is all about the use of performance enhancing drugs within cycling. 

Willy Voet was a soigneur for the Festina cycling team and had worked in professional cycling for more than twenty years, but in 1998 he was stopped on the Franco-Belgian border with a car full of drugs including EPO, Testosterone, Growth Hormone and the fabled Belgian mix which includes amphetamines, cocaine and heroin.  It was an incident that opened the world of cycling up to great controversy since it emerged that the drugs had been administered by the team as a matter of routine, and the whole Festina team were thrown off the 1998 Tour de France as a result. 

In this book Willy Voet talks about his experiences of that fateful day and the subsequent weeks he spent in prison, but he also exposes the  common practices of drug taking in cycling and aledges that almost all the cyclist and teams use performance enhancing drugs knowingly and that the game is just to dodge the system.  He talks about examples where drug use has gone wrong and instances where they have worked really well, the regime of obtaining and taking the drugs, and near misses where they have almost or actually been caught.

It’s quite a short book and it only took me an evening and a morning to complete, but it was enthralling enough that I read it in just two sittings.  The anecdotes and experiences are all really interesting and it really changes the way you look at cycling as a sport.  In particular, I didn’t realise that certain drugs are undetectable but can cause muscle breakdown over time if used continuously, but I think it would have been interesting to have an extra chapter on the effects of EPO.  However, because the book was written before all the cyclists started dropping dead from EPO use, the book does not cover that.  

Overall a fascinating read - 4*.

Zapata’s, Sevenoaks

This evening, we went to Zapata’s in Sevenoaks which serves Mexican food with my best friend.  It’s based in a lovely old stone building with large windows and plenty of space arranged in a light and airy way inside.  The menu is also full of good traditional Mexican dishes with a few more unusual dishes added such as Chicken & Chorizo Fahitas and tapas served at lunchtimes.

However, the service itself was terrible.  I’m not sure if they were one down on the serving team or if more people had come that evening than expected, but we had to ask for everything at least twice, it took more than half an hour to get the starter of nachos followed by almost another hour to get our fahitas and then they came with only two tortillas each, both of which were almost cold already.  We asked for some extra tortillas but they never arrived and we had to ask for them to be taken off the bill at the end of the night.

The food itself was good, but the meal was really stressful and I don’t think we’ll be going there again which is a shame because it had a lovely ambiance inside.

“The Favoured Child” by Philippa Gregory

I’ve just finished reading “The Favoured Child” by Philippa Gregory.  I found this book really gripping and I really enjoyed the first half, but the second half seemed really wrong and I found the ending very unsettling. 

What I didn’t realise when I read this is that it is the second book in a trilogy, but I just didn’t think the heroine would behave in the way she did in the second half of the book and although I couldn’t put this book down, this is the first Philippa Gregory book that has been a real disappointment. 

Overall a very disappointing 2*.

Little Dorrit

I’ve just finished watching the new BBC One series Little Dorrit, and I’ve really enjoyed it.  It started a few weeks ago, but I never really managed to figure out the scheduling since it seemed to be a bit all over the place, so I’ve been watching it on the iPlayer instead.  What a marvelous thing the internet is these days!

Anyway, back to the series.  It’s based on the book by Charles Dickens which I had never heard about before (bizarrely since I thought I’d knew of all his works), and it’s about a young girl called Little Dorrit who is born and brought up in the workhouse only for some extrodinary things to happen to her later on. 

The plot was fantastic with so many twists and turns it left me dizzy! And the cast were really good too, particularly Russell Tovey, the young man who played John Chivery.  He really tore at the heart strings with his portral of the thwarted love interest, and I desperately wanted her to choose him rather than Arthur Clenham, who seemed oblivious to her love for him. 

Overall, this has been one of the best series I’ve seen for a long time.  May the BBC go on making series like this forever, since my days would be much more dull without them and the BBC really are the best at making things like this!

Battenburg Cake

This evening I made a Battenburg Cake to take to the local fete tomorrow.  I’ve always wanted to make one of these since they are my absolute favourite, and I’m so pleased at how well it turned out!  It tasted really moist yet firm and it looked really professional!

For the cake:
300g margerine
300g caster sugar
6 large eggs
300g self raising flour
4 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the decoration:
Yellow Food Colouring
Pink Food Colouring
Apricot Jam
400g Marzipan

Sandwich tin(s)

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and grease the sandwich tin(s), then add all the ingredients for the cake to a bowl and whisk until fully mixed.  Divide the mixture into two halves, adding a few drops of yellow food colouring to one and a few drops of pink food colouring to the other, and then mix until the food colouring is distributed evenly within the cake mixture.  Bake each colour in a sandwich tin for approx 25 mins or until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out clean. 

One the cakes are cooked, leave them to cool on a wire rack and then cut off the top as shown below to make a perfectly flat top for the cake.  Next, place one cake on top of the other and then cut both cakes in half lengthwise before switching the cakes on one side so the one on the top is on the bottom giving you the traditional chequerboard look that Battenburg cakes are famous for!

Next, use apricot jam to sandwich the cakes together in this pattern and then roll out the marzipan into a rectangle the same width as the length of the cake, using a little icing sugar to make sure the marzipan does not stick to the worktop or the rolling pin.  Finally, cover the outside of the sandwiched cakes with apricot jam and then place the cake at the edge of the marzipan and roll until the whole cake is covered, cutting or folding the marzipan where necessary to get a neat finish.  Voila!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies on A Spoonful of Sugar this week and decided to give them a go.  The first time I only had white granulated sugar in the house and they didn’t turn out great to be honest, but I then tried them again with the mix of both as required in the recipe and they worked out much better.

The combination of the two types of sugar makes them crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.  The only thing I couldn’t get over was that you could taste the brown sugar, which is a taste I’m not very used to, but once I got over that they were great.

It’s also surprising how much chocolate goes into the recipe, but believe me, it works!

Yields approx 17.

300g plain (all-purpose) flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 teaspoon fine salt
170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
215g light brown sugar
120g granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
300g milk chocolate chips

Note: Use dark brown sugar and plain chocolate chips for a more adult flavour.

Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5.  Whisk melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla to mix. Add the egg and then the yolk and continue to whisk.  Then stir in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and fold in the chocolate chips until incorporated. Cover with clingfilm and chill dough for at least 30 minutes until firm.

Drop small balls of dough onto a greased baking sheet and bake in the oven for approximately 10-12 minutes or only until the edges begin to turn golden. (They’ll look and feel underdone but they’re ready.) Cool on the sheet for 1 minute and remove with a wide spatula to a cooling rack. Cool thoroughly and enjoy!

Mincemeat

Today I made mincemeat in my slow cooker and it was so easy!  And it tastes fabulous too.  I’m going to be making the first batch of mince pies in a couple of days and I had so much fruit left over from making the christmas cake and chrismas pudding, I thought it would be worth seeing if I could make mincemeat.  I found this recipe in Delia’s Christmas book and although it didn’t say that you can do it in a slow cooker, it turned out really well!

Apparently it will keep for years since the suet coats all the fruit, including the apples, sealing in the juices.  Also, vegetarian can make it by using vegetarian suet.

Makes 3 lb (1.35 kg)

Ingredients
225g Bramley apples, cored and chopped small (no need to peel them)
110g Shredded Suet
175g Raisins
110g Sultanas
110g Currants
110g Whole mixed candied peel, finely chopped
175g Soft dark brown sugar
Grated zest and juice 1 orange
Grated zest and juice 1 lemon
25g Whole almonds, cut into slivers
2 level teaspoons mixed ground spice
¼ level teaspoon ground cinnamon
Good pinch freshly grated nutmeg
3 tablespoons brandy

3 x 1lb (350ml) preserving jars and 3 waxed discs.

Combine all the ingredients, except for the brandy, in a large mixing bowl, stirring them and mixing them together very thoroughly indeed. Then add the mixture to the slow cooker and set the heat to low.  Don’t worry about the appearance of the mincemeat, which will look positively swimming in fat. This is how it should look. Leave to cook for at least eight hours and then as it cools, add the brandy and stir from time to time to ensure the suet coats the other ingredients. Pack in jars that have been sterilised and then cover with waxed discs and seal. The mincemeat will keep for ages in a cool, dark cupboard – up to 3 years.

NOTE: To sterilise jars, wash the jars and lids in warm soapy water, rinse well, then dry thoroughly with a clean tea cloth, place them on a baking tray and pop into the oven at 180C for 5 minutes.

Chocolate Truffles

Since it was my Aunt’s birthday at the weekend, I decided to try my hand at making her a present!!  I usually get her biscuits or chocolates, but I thought it would be more thoughtful to make her something and I’ve been wanting to try the recipe below for chocolate truffles for ages, but there never seems to be a good occasion.

Overall, they worked very well, but some of them cracked when I tried to get them out of the moulds because the chocolate shell wasn’t thick enough.  I think I’ll make sure I use a thicker layer of chocolate next time to make them a bit easier to remove.  But they tasted absolutely devilish. 

The alcohol gives them a real kick and the yoghurt a slight bitterness, which combines nicely with the richness of the cream and the sweetness of the chocolate.  They were absolutely devine and I’ll definately be making more of them, but they’re too naughty to have every day!

I also made some Empire Biscuits and placed them with the chocolates in a rather stunning box I bought from Clintons.  Overall, I think it all worked very well and she seemed pleased with the gift. 

Ingredients
300g Belgian Milk Chocolate (For the Outside Shell)
Basic truffle mixture:
150 g Belgian Milk Chocolate
150 ml Thick Double Cream
25 g Unsalted Butter
2 Tablespoons Rum or Brandy
1 Level Tablespoon Greek Yoghurt

Mould (I used a silicon ice cube tray in the shape of hearts which I got from Sainsburys, but you could substitute with any other suitable mould)

Before you begin, place the mould in the freezer overnight if you have time since this will make it much easier to work with the chocolate.  Then melt 200g of the chocolate and use a small pastry dish to coat the interior of the moulds with a thick layer of chocolate.  Place in the freezer again until the chocolate shells have set.

Next, to make the basic truffle mixture, break the chocolate into squares and melt.  Then place the cream, butter, and rum or brandy in a small saucepan and bring to simmering point.  Add the melted chocolate and yoghurt and use a blender to mix.  Then transfer the mixture, which will be very liquid at this stage, into a bowl and place in the fridge overnight since it will thicken up after several hours.

Finally, add the truffel mixture to the moulds and then melt the rest of the chocolate not used earlier for the shells to cover the base of the chocolates.  Finally, place in the fridge and leave overnight.