Month: May 2006

[Recipe] Treacle (a.k.a. molasses) cookies

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1/2 cup dark treacle
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sour cream
3 cup flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sweet spices (cinnamon / clove / ginger)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Mix sugar, egg, treacle and sour cream until well combined.
2. Sift dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients, mixing until you get a dough that can be formed into a ball. You may need to add more flour to get this consistency.
3. Roll dough on floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into 2inch circles
4. Put on greased, floured baking tray.
5. Cook at 350F for 10 minutes.
6. Let cool on wire rack before eating.

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An update with some meat on the bone

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Haven't written anything of substance in a while, so I'll make this one count.

We're slowly reclaiming our back yard from its natural wilderness state. I cut the grass for the second time last weekend under the watchful eye of a suicidal sparrow who kept landing in front of the lawnmower to get at the fresh bugs, with Katy going “watch out for the biiiird!”. It's still looking rough so we bought a rake to try and pick up the grass clippings that are left behind. Katy was off on holiday this wednesday and had a go at it. The lawn won in the end, but she still managed to get half of it raked clean. It's slowly getting better. Our goal for this year is to get it in a clean slate state that we can use to make something pretty next year.

She also had a whack at pruning the shrubbery in front of the house. We can now get in and out of the house without being attacked by the bushes now (even though it looks like a WMD went off in the front yard)

We're in Leicester this weekend. Since I was supposed to be in Canada at the moment, I had the week booked off as holiday time but I'm only taking Thursday and Friday off. Since we finally got the paperwork from the Home Office, wedding plans are officially underway. We bought the paper and envelopes for the invitations we're going to make. We bought the wedding rings (well, they're ordered, at least. We're paying them over 3 months to lessen the pain) and Katy knows which dress she wants. We stopped in a bridal shop today to have a look at suit styles. I'm going for the top-hat-and-tails look, with grey pinstriped trousers with a charcoal tail suit, cream vest and burgundy cravat. I need to buy some cufflinks, but I've seen some nice mother-of-pearl ones at the jewelers where we bought the rings.

And now for something completely different, we bought a BBQ! It's a pre-emptive wedding present :) It was on sale for 20% off, so that's ok. We just need to assemble it and get a bottle of propane and suburbia, here I come :)

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[Recipe] BBQ sauce

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I've been looking for a garlic-free BBQ sauce. Of course, I can't find one, so I found a few recipes online and combined them into this one, which I will try as soon as I have my BBQ :)

Ingredients
1 can (28 oz.) tomato puree
1 can (28 oz.) chopped tomatoes in juice
1 onion, chopped
1/3 cup dijon mustard
1 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups wine vinegar
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground red pepper
1/4 teaspoon Mace
1/4 teaspoon Cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
muslin wrapped cloves and cinnamon (to remove afterwards)

In large saucepan, whisk together the tomato puree and mustard until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. When done, sieve and simmer for another 10 minutes.

In theory, it should last a few weeks in the fridge because of the vinegar, but I might pack it in sterile jars and see if I can make it last a bit longer.

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Maybe it was a good thing that I wasn't at Heathrow this weekend…

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20 May 2006. A WOMAN who arrived in London on a flight from Africa yesterday is reported to have died from the deadly and contagious ebola virus. Panic has spread among cabin crew and hospital staff after the death of the 38-year-old Briton. The unnamed woman is understood to work at an embassy in the African kingdom of Lesotho.

Before boarding a Virgin Atlantic flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow she visited a doctor complaining of flu-like symptoms. She was allowed to fly, but during Flight VS602 to the UK she suffered a violent fit which left her unconscious. Cabin crew and passengers rushed to her aid but towards the end of the flight she began to vomiting.

When the Airbus A340-600, carrying 267 passengers and crew, touchdown at Heathrow she was rushed to nearby Hillingdon Hospital, West London. Her symptoms matched those of the viral haemorraghing fever, ebola. The results of a post mortem are awaited.

Virgin Atlantic cabin crew who came into contact with the woman have been told to monitor their health. One said: “We are now terrified what we may have caught.” Deadly ebola is often characterised by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat.

Edit: Having said that, this article was in the Mirror, which isn't the most… reliable or credible source of information.

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People you do not want to piss off

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The campus hosted an exhibition from the Korean National Tae Kwan Do demonstration team. That was… impressive!

They host national tryouts across Korea and take the top 100 people. They train intensively for months and then they take the top 25 of those people to tour around the world doing TKD demos. They showered the cafeteria with kindling and apple blobs for a solid hour.

In a word, wow.

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Oye como va?

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Katy and I saw Santana in concert at Wembley Arena this weekend and boy, did we ever get our money's worth! The show was 3.5 hours, with the first act doing a 1h set and Santana playing a solid 2 and a half hour set without interruption!

Since the concert, I have come to a few conclusions:

1. I am offiially old, because the concert was LOUD! I should have known better, because I brought earplugs with me when I went to see Rush live and I was happy I did. I came out of the show with a hell of a case of tinnitus, but the music was kick ass.

2. I prefer Santana's earlier works better than his latest ones. I think I had a small orgasm when he played the first riffs of Black Magic Woman. The most recent stuff from his latest album is still good, but it's a bit too involved. Too much happening at the same time. He played a lot of the songs I wanted to hear though, like Oye como va, Black magic woman, Smooth, Maria Maria, Foo Foo, Put your lights on, and I'm forgetting a bunch more (like I said, it was a looooong set!).

3. The average age of the concertgoers must have been around 37. Easily. If not in the early 40s. The woman with the business suit complete with shoulder pads was not the typical concert fan, but man did she seem to be enjoying herself :)

The concert itself was really good, but tiring. We'd planned things well though. We had decided to make our way to London without any real haste, check in to our hotel (which we booked right next door to the arena), chill out by the hotel pool, have a meal at the hotel and head out to the concert. Things didn't quite go according to plan.

We thought we were booking a good room in a 4-star Hilton hotel. At least, that's what was on my reservation sheet from Expedia. We were expecting something similar to the conditions we had when we spent a weekend at the Casino Hilton in Hull when Katy first came to see me in 2004: fine dining, beautiful views, marble bathtub.

The Casino Hilton this wasn't. Hell, we didn't even see any mention of the Hilton chain.

I don't know how this hotel could be rated 4 stars. It shouldn't be. The bed was clean but lumpy and very uncomfortable. There was no air conditioning in the rooms, which were quite hot and stuffy. There was no mini bar nor fridge. The kettle was completely full of scale. The prices for room service and at the bar were quite high for what was being offered. The view we had was the side of a competing hotel and a really big parking lot. All in all, we were thoroughly unimpressed and really disappointed.

Wembley itself is like being in the rougher parts of Leicester. I felt like a visible minority there :)

Anyway, it was a good weekend, and I put a bunch of pictures online here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/santana_wembley/

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