Be Excellent To Each Other

It’s a bit of a long shot, but does anyone here happen to have any cocktail sticks with the shaped ends, like this:

I need them to make miniature drumsticks, but I don’t really want 500, I want six , and I was hoping someone might have some and be kind enough to pop six in an envelope for me.

Don’t have to be exactly that shape, but not pointy at both ends.

I made the 2024 marmalade. It’s superior to the 2023 marmalade because I bought orange-shaped jars.

That looks awesome Mimi!

Thanks, Jazzy! I’ve just bought 20 lines because one person mentioned offhand that they like lime marmalade

Wow! These look GREAT!

Thanks! I love making things like those.

Actually I almost posted this the other day but didn’t for whatever reason.

In Thursday evening we were at the supermarket and I spotted in the discount (yellow sticker) chiller bay that they had two litre bottles of whipping cream marked down to £1.08 as they ran out of date that day.

We picked one up to bring home and that evening I made nearly a kilogram of butter and 1ltr of buttermilk.

Ever with my finger on the pulse of modern trends, I’ve decided to join in with the pandemic hobby of sourdough bread making.

First loaf of sourdough bread baked today.



Made a few raisin and ginger oat cookies as a tonight too for packed lunches, etc.

I love baking but I've never done bread. Am always tempted so might give sourdough a go one day.

Mimz, your foot photography is so good. Those cookies look great.

My current go to cookie recipes are Murder Cookies (a bit of a Reddit favourite from a few years back) and this chocolate cookie one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqqlZz33HUY

Nigella's got a great chocolate cookie recipe also but this one is now the family favourite.

I’m not a fan of chocolate, but Russell loves chocolate anything and always buys himself those big chewy chocolate cookies from the supermarket. However, those murder cookies sound like *exactly* my kind of thing. I love any dark sugar/black treacle/molasses flavours and anything spiced. I’ll give those a go.

Sourdough is a particularly easy bread, I think (says me with my one single loaf of experience) but compared to other breads I’ve tried it really did feel a lot easier, and it’s pretty amazing considering it’s made of nothing but flour and water (and a bit of salt).

Nigella's Sticky Toffee pudding would sort you right out then. It's gorgeously rich, easy to make and a proper crowdpleaser.

A surprising sunny day = bonus BBQ.

Did chicken + pepper skewers and then yakatori mushroom + spring onion skewers. Went for the healthy option there but both were GREAT.

It’s not the best cake I’ve done, but as he gets older (he has just turned nine) Darwin’s cake choices get more specific, and though I knew that an 8-bit Mario in this very specific pose wasn’t really suited to cake decoration, it’s what he really wanted. Hand cutting pixels small enough to achieve this from rolled out fondant was not fun, but he liked and appreciated it so it’s all good.

That looks great, Mimz!

Thanks! I really appreciate you saying that

Love the massive pixels/mosaic look

It looks amazing!

8 bit Mario cake = genius.

Thanks, folks. I was unhappy with it, but I think that’s a lot to do with being rushed/stressed as I was making it. What I did like (despite it being stressful) was Darwin having a really specific vision of the cake, down to the very specific sprite he wanted replicated.

My pasta maker is my favourite kitchen gadget ever. It’s excellent fun and makes superb pasta.

It looks absolutely brilliant. I haven't quite gone for one yet, but when I do, it'll be because of you.

I like to think that if I have brought one thing to your life it is a fun but pricey kitchen gadget.

It really is so much fun, though.

I'm practically a nonna now. *Flexes in Italian*

How's the cleaning? Faffy?

No, it comes with tools to clean it with, though I don’t have those. You just poke the dry pasta out the die (takes 10 seconds) and then bung all the bits in the dishwasher.

The POTATO MASTER (our halogen oven) died the other day and took all of our electricity with it by tripping all the circuits. It has gone kapuuuuft and returned to meet its maker.

So, I have decided to join the air fryer brigade. The halogen fan oven was basically an air fryer, so it’s no huge change, and much like the halogen I have gone for a basket less one, simply because it’s the one my mother uses. It has a removable rotisserie bar and I’ve got a rotating basket for it, which I reckon will be great for roasting chickpeas.

Most importantly it has a baked potato mode. And a dough proofing mode, which will come in handy as I struggle to find a good proofing spot in my home.

Mimz, I'm about to bestow a lot of responsibility on you. Over the years loads of people have told me how good air fryers are but I'm pretty much 'yeah but it's just an oven' and mine's a fan oven anyway. But I'd be interested to see what you make of it. If it's got some real utility (rather than just saving time) and that sort of thing.

I've not got an abundance of counterspace and my KitchenAid mixer is my baby and that will always have a space on there as will my slow cooker. But I could squeeze in an air fryer (at the expense of my blender). But I'd like to get your opinion first.

Because, of course, I could just get a pasta maker instead.

On it!

I’m willing to bet I have less counter space than you do, but I’m hopeful this new machine is going to earn its place in the hall of fame.

On a completely separate note, I hosted some Halloween funtimes.

Lady T bought a 'portable' airfryer that can be used while away in the caravan. It can run off a 12V power supply, such as the car cigarette lighter (apparently I am old because I still refer to it as such).

This portable airfryer is, predictably, utter shit. It's far too small to do anything worthwhile and the instruction manual reckons it will take 35 MINUTES to cook some sodding chips. However, I reckon that's a wild inaccuracy, as tried it and I don't feel like it puts out any more heat than me gently breathing on something with a wide open mouth.

A real, 240V airfryer, is pretty good though. It warms up leftover KFC quite nicely, keeps it crispy.

Well, my new fancy air fryer arrived and it didn’t even fit under the kitchen cabinets (as in, it sat in the counter but couldn’t sit under the wall mounted cabinets) of my stupid dwarven kitchen.

For the last few years, I've contributed to the family Xmas by baking all the desserts. Trying to decide on what to do this year. I usually make three or four things.

One will be a key lime pie. That's for me. It's my favourite and I usually spend all year making everyone else's favourites so this definitely gets made.

I've got a bundt tin thing that I've never used and I'm thinking of doing some sort of cinnamon-y glazed variant. Not used it before so hopefully the whole thing comes out in one piece.

That leaves one last slot for something special. There are a couple of Nigella options. Her sticky date pudding or quadruple chocolate cake are both great. Anyone got any suggestions before I commit?

There are a few really nice looking things in the magazine my mother sent me:

I’ve been making some frangipane topped mince pies today.

Thanks, Mimi. Some interesting contenders in there for sure.

If I weren’t trying to have a much simplified Christmas this year I would absolutely go for the gingerbread tiramisu.

I'm tempted to try it, I bloody love tiramisu.

I think I'll do that trifle. It's a little bit of a cheat as it uses pain au chocolat that you make from a packet (and I'm not about to start trying to laminate layers of pastry myself) but there's enough cooking in there to make it legit.

I love tiramisu too, Jem! And I love gingerbread and all Christmas spiced things. I thought this looked amazing.

Here’s the text, if it’s easier to read.

Serves 12
Takes 45 mins plus cooling and at least 2 hrs chilling
503 calories / serving
Freezable
Vegetarian

INGREDIENTS
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
160g granulated sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
250g mascarpone
500ml whipping cream
2 tbsp marsala
2 tbsp black treacle
2½ tbsp instant espresso powder, dissolved in 400ml boiling water
3 tbsp Tesco Finest gingerbread or coffee liqueur
300g sponge fingers
3 tbsp cocoa powder
100g ginger nuts
30g crystalised ginger, thinly sliced
10g dark chocolate

METHOD:
Put the egg yolks, vanilla and 80g sugar in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk for 5 mins until the sugar is dissolved and the whisk leaves a trail – test by rubbing a little of the mixture between your fingers. Remove from the heat and whisk in the ginger and cinnamon. Chill this ginger cream for 20 mins or until cold.

Whisk the mascarpone with 300ml cream and the marsala until just combined; don’t over-whisk. Fold through the ginger cream, then divide the mix between 2 bowls. Add the treacle to 1 bowl, folding with a metal spoon until evenly combined.

Line a 20cm, 8cm deep square baking tin with 2 strips of nonstick baking paper long enough to hang over the edges. Stir 80g sugar into the hot espresso; leave to cool, then mix in the liqueur.

Briefly dip 100g sponge fingers into the coffee so they absorb the liquid evenly, then arrange in a single layer in the tin. Dust with ¼ of the cocoa powder, then spoon over half the treacle mixture, followed by another 100g soaked sponge fingers, another ¼ of the cocoa, a layer of ginger cream, then the ginger nuts or gingerbread biscuits dipped in the coffee mix. Repeat for the final layer, finishing on a layer of ginger cream.

Whip the remaining 200ml cream to stiff peaks then spoon into a piping bag fitted with a large, round nozzle. Pipe dollops over the tiramisu, then sift over the remaining cocoa powder. Set in the fridge for at least 2 hrs or up to 24 hrs.

To serve, lift the tiramisu from the tin using the baking paper, then use a spatula to slide it onto a serving plate. Scatter over the crystallised ginger, grate over the chocolate, then serve. It’ll keep for up to 4 days in the fridge.

That sounds good but I hate the taste of coffee unfortunately!

I just realised that the recipes were on the Tesco website as well as the magazine.

Here’s a clearer run through of the trifle, Blucey:

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/blac ... rifle.html

don't get me fucking started

Same, but replace soaking the sponge in coffee with soaking it in galaxy hot chocolate...

Thanks Mimi, you're a star

Nice!

Ah! Thanks, Mimsicle. You're a GEM.

Our family fave trifle comes from a kids recipe book and requires no actual cooking, it's really just chucking sponge fingers and various other sweet things like jelly, custard and cream into a big bowl.

Last time I made it unsupervised (Lady T was away) for a party I was taking the kids to, so I jazzed it right up by also adding some jam, some chocolate chips, and some coloured sprinkles in. It was very, very sugary so the kids loved it and the adults were (easily) impressed.