fings what I haz dun - hash browns

Hi chaps,

This may not seem revelatory to any of you, but recently I started making hash browns for a weekend breakfast/brunch (who has early breakfast at the weekend?) and felt the need to share as it's so freaking good.

See, until April this year, Ben and I rarely had weekends to relax together as Ben's job meant he was mostly working, and when he wasn't we were mainly visiting or entertaining guests because it's nice to catch up with family and friends sometimes. This meant very few Saturdays waking up and saying 'what shall we do today? 

In April however Ben was made redundant and we suddenly had all the time in the world, so we filled our time with visiting and guests and day trips and all the things we found it difficult to fit in before. And we had a great time, we saw people and did stuff and it turned into a kind of epic summer of fun things. But now it's autumn and we're settling in a bit more. We've promised ourselves to stay home as much as we can and concentrate on us and our house and getting ready for the c word. Oh yeah. I start geting excited about Christmas in approximately February so this is pretty restrained for me. And yes, food network have just done a weekend of christmas cooking shows and yes I watched most of them. Not even a little bit sorry.

Anyhoo, this is a massively roundabout way of saying that we've discovered the beauty of the lazy brunch together. I have an unashamed love of potatoes so take every opportunity I can to shove them in my face. Now I'd only had the hash browns you get in tacky cafes and cheap hotels before, you know, the triangle shaped ones with little to no flavour. But I'd heard amazing things, mainly from Greg Proops on his amazing podcast, The Smartes Man in the Workd. Seriously, listen to it. It's bloody good. Greg loves his greasy, starchy food as only a dedicated pothead who loves a lot of life on the road can. So I was inspired to give it a go.

I found this immensely simple recipe, which was promising.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/hashbrowns_12454

So basically you get some potatoes and onions, grate them, squeeze out the water, season (do not forget the seasoning on potatoes) mix with an egg and fry. Easy, right? The only ball-achy part seemed to be the grating, but as I have a food processor to do that part I had no worries.

So I've made these 3 times and each time I've got it wrong.

I know, I know, how do you get such a simple thing wrong? Well, the first time I got so carried away that it wasn't until I put the egg in that I realised I'd forgotten to squeeze the water out of the potatoes and onions. Crap. 

However, I'm a great believer in just working things out and making the best of it. Plus I was not wasting potatoes. 

I put the whole mixture in a colander, squeezed it out the best I could, added another egg and firmed it up with some breadcrumbs I had on hand. 

And guess what, it only worked. Totally delicious. 

However, next time I was determined not to mess up. So I got my teatowel ready at the beginning to remind me, however in my lazy morning fug, when I put the grater attachment in the food processor I neglected to take out the metal knife blade, so I ended up with grated, then shredded vegetables. Sort of potato and onion mush. 

Once again, bloody mindedness took over and I just persevered with the recipe. It worked, they were great.

So now I return to this morning. What went wrong today? 

Well, nothing. I remembered every step, used the right blade, and got all the processes right. 

Looks ok, right?

But I used the wrong kind of potato.

We get an organic fruit and veg delivery. It alternates between all fruit and fruit and veg and we always get potatoes (hooray!) in the veg box, but for months now they've always been new potatoes or waxy potatoes. I like new potatoes, don't get me wrong, but it's getting cold, the nights are drawing in, I want to be able to have baked or mash or roast potatoes. So we find ourselves in the ridiculous position of having a load of lovely organic potatoes languishing in the fridge while we buy a massive bag of floury potatoes from the supermarket.

So I thought, 'maybe the waxy potatoes will work.'

Nope.

They hold onto too much moisture and don't stick together well. They kind of fell apart a bit in the pan and stayed too squidgy. I know, this should be obvious, but I really had to try it. Nothing ventured and that.

So in my stubbornness, when they fell apart and wouldn't crisp up, I just went ahead and added breadcrumbs to the remainder of the mix. And yes, it worked. Again. I'm a fricking genius. 

Mmmmm.... goldeny....

To be honest we ate them all and I couldn't really tell the difference. They were a delight for brunch with a fried egg and a glass of orange juice.

Yup, my brunch wins.

Next time maybe I'll do it properly, then again I do have some sweet potatoes in the fridge....

Love and kisses,

H.

fings what I haz dun - homemade cleansing balm

Hey there,

So the 'bookmark a week' thing had become increasingly inaccurate, given how rare my blog posts have become. Also, I was running out of bookmarks that I really wanted to do, so maybe I should just delete them all off my phone and start again. In light of this I have a new series - 'fings wot I haz dun'. 

Once a week (hopefully) I will do a little project, photograph it, and write a blog about it. So here goes....

Like everyone, I like to have a clean face. All the muck that gets on your face during the day plus any makeup can be kind of icky and not great for your skin, but cleaning it off was always a giant ball-ache as far as I was concerned. 

You could use cream cleanser (messy and wasteful of cotton pads), soap (all skincare people gasp in horror), cleansing wipes (feel like sandpaper) and various other concoctions with one thing in common. They don't really work very well.

So a couple of years ago I discovered cleansing balms and, guess what? They only bloody work. They pretty much dissolve even waterproof mascara and other ickyness, then you wipe them off thoroughly with a clean flannel. Clean skin, no ouchiness. Result. 

There is, however, a downside. Price. 

The first cleanser I tried was fantastic. It was the Emma Hardie Amazing Face Moringa (nope, me neither) cleansing balm. And there's a reason all the skincare bloggers love it. It's rich, smells gorgeous, melts in your hands and leaves your skin clean and soft. 

http://www.emmahardie.com/product.php/32/2/moringa_cleansing_balm_with_cleansing_cloth

The only reason I even had it was because it came free with a magazine subscription, but it costs around £35 for 100ml. I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to part with that much cash for something that sits on my skin for 2 minutes a day and gets washed off.

I researched cheaper options and got the Champneys Super Rich cleansing balm.

http://www.champneys.com/shop/shop/super-rich-cleansing-balm/

That's around £10 for 100ml. More reasonable, but still bloody pricey and not as nice to use. 

In the interim I had discovered something called the oil cleansing method. 

http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/

It involves mixing castor oil with another cold pressed vegetable oil (normally olive) and using that as a cleanser. And it really does work a treat, but it's super messy and just isn't as nice a sensation as a balm. I also sometimes use almond oil which I decant into tiny dropper bottles, but I prefer to reserve that as a pre-moisturiser treatment mixed with a little vitamin e oil (ain't I fancy?), or as a pre-cleanse when my eye make-up's really ridiculous.

So in the end I went searching and looky what I found.

http://www.vintageamanda.com/2011/10/hot-cloth-cleanser-or-the-portable-oil-cleansing-method/

I had all the ingredients bar beeswax and I knew where to get that. So I decided to do it.

It's super simple. Really, you just melt together the oils, the cocoa butter and beeswax in a bowl over simmering water, add essential oils.

Easier than melting chocolate, seriously.

Then pour into a container to harden and use.

Look how pretty! 

No idea where to get the jar from I'm afraid, it was a gift from my lovely in-laws. They know me well.

To be honest though, it set a bit bloody hard. It took a real effort to get any out of the pot, and no matter how I scrubbed my skin it seemed to leave a waxy residue. Incidentally, residue is not a pleasant word. Residue.

Right, moving on!

So I thought, bugger it I'll melt it again in the jar and stir in more oil. So I did and it worked. I didn't measure it at all so that's probably no help to you, but I shall be attempting it again soon without the cocoa butter and I'll let you know how I get on. If it works.... christmas gifts! And just as a special treat for you, this is how attractive you can look while using it!

Sometimes my eyebrows are green. 

Now I've loosened the mixture it's a pleasure to use, removes even the silliest makeup and leaves no residue (there it is again) at all. Highly recommended once you tinker with the recipe a little.

Next I need to make face cream...

Love and kisses,

H.

A bookmark a week #8 Raw vegan lasagne

Hiya! Been a few weeks innit?

I got a bit super-stressed at work so I had to have a couple of weeks off blogging, then I had 2 weeks in Amsterdam and, really, it wasn't going to happen then was it...?

But I'm back, refreshed and as culinarily curious as ever.

This isn't exactly a bookmark, more a youtube video that I kept watching and obsessing over.

http://youtu.be/8ixX1Cix7ks

Now my diet isn't fully raw, nor am I vegan or even vegetarian, but I definitely see the merit of eating mainly fresh ripe seasonal fruits and vegetables. I know that when I eat mostly raw food I feel more energetic and my digestion works better (dairy and I are not friends). This may be all in my mind, but that doesn't negate the effects for me. What works for you may be very different. I also still think that there is a valid place in the human diet for meat, just nowhere near as much as we regularly eat in the west. It's also important to me that the majority of meat that I eat is from free range animals. 

Having got the disclaimer out the way, I can tell you honestly that this raw vegan lasagne is bloody delicious. Honestly it is!  

I didn't have exactly the ingredients Kristina does in her video (no chard. I hate chard), also I am nowhere near as perky as she is. Well, maybe a bit perky. Anyhoo, I think I did a fair approximation. I will say that you could probably do this with a standard blender, but the pine nut sauce may not be as smooth and the tomato sauce might be a bit lumpy. I used my nutribullet  *reverential pause for the nutribullet*. Some day I will do a post on how this blender has completely changed the way I eat, but today is not that day. Suffice it to say, it's a bloody good mini-blender with a lot more power than a standard model and it cost about £99 from argos. Utterly worth it.

http://www.argos.co.uk/m/static/Product/partNumber/1463237/searchTerm/Nutribullet.htm

Ideally of course I'd have a vitamix, but given that they cost around the £400 mark, I may have to wait a while to justify that one.

Wait, does it come with the fruit?

The processor I used is just an own brand one from sainsbury and is pretty standard. Any basic processor should work, or use the blender with care.

The recipe is pretty easy, albeit with a few different steps. First, cut your courgette into thin strips. I do have a mandolin, but frankly I'm terrified of it. I've never been able to use it without cutting myself so I thought I'd go for the peeler method for safety.\
 

This is the boring part.

Then I lined the bottom of my dish with about 3 layers of the strips. I used an enamel pie dish that I love but any dish would do.

Not its intended use I think

First complex (ish) bit, the greens mix. I measured none of this. I happened to have a slightly tired little gem lettuce heart which I chopped and stuck in the processor, added a big handful of spinach, same of rocket, coriander and parsley, a spring onion and processed till it was pretty finely chopped.

The smell of this was out of this world. Fresh and green and savoury. Mmmmm.

Next I made the tomato sauce. My tomatoes were cherry plum tomatoes that I'd got at the fruit and veg market in Eastville, it's there every Sunday at least and the prices are pretty good, as is the produce. These had actually been frozen before we went away so blending was a great way to use them up. I added some well rinsed sundried tomatoes, I think 3 in total, 3 medjool dates for sweetness and richness, a tiny piece of chilli pepper and a spring onion. Then I blended it till it was, well, blended.

I then added some coriander and parsley, as it was there, then pulsed that in a bit. I added these late so they weren't utterly pulverised as this would have muddied the colour. This way I got a nice red sauce with flecks of green.

Mmm.... thick and delicious.

Just one more sauce to go, first clean your blender (or, as I did, get your husband to do it).

I was a bit dubious as to whether this would work as I'd never blended anything in the nutribullet without adding fluid unless it was a very watery fruit such as the thawed cherry tomatoes. Nothing ventured though... so I added half a cup of pine nuts, 1 chopped courgette and a little bit of garlic and blended. 

It only bloody worked! Went so smooth and creamy and rich. And delicious. The picture doesn't do it justice honestly, it was mega. 

Then it was all over bar the assembly. I just did this however seemed best at the time, same as I would with regular lasagne. Then I sprinkled it with some more cherry plum tomatoes, these ones had not been frozen so not so sloppy.

I cut half off and managed to get it on a small plate and oh my giddy aunt it was delicious. So good. 

To tell the truth, it got a little sloppy and there was a lot of liquid pooling at the sides of the plate, but this may have been due to the frozen tomatoes. It didn't matter as I just got a spoon and ate it up. Still delicious. 

If anything it was a bit too rich so next time I think I'd make the sauce with half the pine nuts, it was a bit much to finish, but it really was wonderful.

I'd say the while process took me about 40 minutes beginning to end which is pretty good for a gourmet raw meal like this. I normally keep it pretty simple so it was nice to mix it up for a change. I'm having the second half tonight and, having just tasted it, it's still lovely but not quite as good as when it was completely fresh.

For those who care, here's the nutritional info for the recipe. I wouldn't always do that, but I was curious given the nature of the meal.

Most importantly it was lovely for a summers evening, fresh but rich and tasty as hell. I was completely satisfied after and didn't have any digestive discomfort (or much wind, which is more than I can say when I eat cheese!).

If you've got a blender, I would definitely recommend trying this. It's not for everyone, as demonstrated by Ben's face when he tried it (not his thing apparently) but keep an open mind and give it a go.

Until next time, love and kisses,

H.

A bookmark a week #7 pretty storage

Hello there you (yes, you).

This week I decided to do a crafty project. I bought a glue gun a little while ago and decided to use it to stick some stuff to some other stuff. Logic.

I have many storage problems, I always seem to have too much stuff everywhere so I'm trying to get organised for pretty much the first time in my life. Recently I've been obsessing about perfume storage.

When Ben and I moved house last year, I set up an ikea computer desk that we were no longer using in our room as a sort of dressing table with an old pub stool as the seat. It's not pretty, but it works and I love it.

But where to put my perfumes? I seem to have a few now, not sure how that happened, and since I've always been a bit of a beauty product geek I want to look after them. I've seen on the internet where people said they shouldn't be in sunlight because.... er.... because of reasons that sound utterly plausible, if completely forgettable. But mine are in daylight! Panic!

Yes they are very dusty you judgy mcjudge-pants.

I can't put them in a drawer, they're full of other beauty products and tools, but now I know I can't leave them out either. What to do?

The answer came to me after buying an exceedingly comfortable pair of shoes (crocs in fact. I'm not ashamed). I can decorate a shoebox and use that! I know, I'm a genius. 

I toyed with painting it, then decided it would look terrible and I'd make an awful mess. Then I decided to cover it in fabric. After all, how hard could it be? So I searched and found this.

http://www.restorationbeauty.com/2013/02/diy-storagedecorative-boxes.html?m=1

Looks pretty simple eh? 

Of course my box had a lid and stuff, but I figured I'd just work it out. Not wise at all in hindsight.

So first I assembled my equipment.

Next the lovely Ben cut off an unwanted bit of cardboard so it would be easy to close up on it's end.

Remember, always get a grown-up to help

Then I faffed about a bit as I decided where the hell to start. 

In the end, I decided to just cut some fabric and see what happened. It went to plan for a while.

Almost neat innit?

I had super fun with the glue gun, I highly recommend you get one, it's a satisfying thing to use.

So I managed to cover the box ok and I was fairly happy with the results. I decided then to do the lining with some super cute fabric. 

It was at this point I remembered that I don't have the patience or attention to detail for these kind of things.

I basically just shoved the fabric in the box and glued and cut and cut and glued until it was done. Oddly, it was a giant mess.

I made 2 major mistakes. Firstly, sticking the sides so I couldn't put the excess fabric neatly under the main lining there. This meant it was precariously stuck to the top hanging down, then the rest had to be stuck outside the main fabric on the bottom, looking super-messy.

Secondly, I got scissor happy and cut too early so I didn't have enough fabric to complete the lining on the top of the lip that keeps it closed. 

To be honest, once it was done and stuck I was so sick of the sight of it I just shoved it on the side and left it there to languish.

So sad

However, after my strop had ended, I looked at it again, tried putting the perfume in and, honestly, I don't hate it. It keeps my perfumes out of the sun, it looks ok when it's closed, I have spare fabric left over and I know how (not) to do it for next time. Yay me!

Ooh, fancy (if you don't look too closely)

So, should you try it? If your box is open like on the link then go for it, just take a bit of care on the lining, that's where it gets tricky. Otherwise only try if you have the things I lack, i.e. patience and any kind of expertise.

That's me for now,

Love and kisses,

H.

A bookmark a week #6 potato fritters

This is becoming rather a habit isn't it?

Last weekend I had a bit of time to faff about and decided to embark on something rather exciting (by my standards in any event). I have an absolute love for a certain deep-fried foodstuff, well, most deep fried foodstuffs if I'm honest. 

When I was but a wee lass, my family would get dinner from the chip shop on a Friday. We would only get fish on a special occasion or if we were at the seaside, so we would have something a bit cheaper like a battered sausage with our chips. My wonderful mother, who I don't seem to be able to stop talking about, used to get a potato fritter and I started getting this too after a while because how genius is that? Deep fried potato chips with a slice of deep fried battered potato. Maybe it's my distant Irish heritage talking but I just couldn't say no to it.

Sadly, at some point the chip shop stopped doing these and I have been unable since then to find a chip shop that does. I've had mushy pea fritters and baked bean fritters but nothing can compare to the majesty of a potato fritter.

I'd considered making potato fritters before, but had never found a recipe that made sense to me. They all seemed to involve either making a sort of mashed potato cake or grating potatoes for a kind of onionless hash brown thing. I rejected such foolish ideas without hesitation.

However, during a recent attack of nostalgia, it occurred to me to search for 'battered potato fritters' and to my delight I came across this.

http://www.tartantastesintx.com/2012/07/scottish-recipes-tattie-fritters.html?m=1

While I didn't throw up my arms in celebration and give a whoop of delight, this was purely due to the fact that I was in the canteen at work and I am British after all. Anyhoo, I added it to my bookmarks to be tried when I could be arsed to deep-fry.

As it was the Eurovision Song Contest last weekend, and Ben and I were playing a drinking game along to it, as usual, and I decided greasy carbs would be just the thing to line the stomach. The rules of this game are pretty intense after all.

This is just the basic rules, There are many many more and they can be added at any time in the evening.

This recipe is wonderfully simple. Flour, baking powder, salt and sparkling water. Mix them until they're like batter. 

It was so simple I could even be bothered to sift the flour

Done!

Peel and slice potatoes, well here I went a bit off-recipe because, to be honest, I bloody hate peeling potatoes. It's so pointless for anything but fancy mash. Anyway, the skins are delicious and nutritious. Basically, I peeled 3 potatoes, then decided I couldn't be bothered to do the other. 

Rebel potato!

I did keep them separate to do a taste test, but noticed literally no difference in the end product. Then again, by the time we ate those ones we were pretty drunk.

Back to the recipe, you dip the slices in batter and deep-fry them. I don't have a deep fat fryer, so I just used a big pan full of oil. I also didn't have a thermometer to check the temperature, but I've seen people on the internet checking oil temperature with a wooden spoon so I just did that.

Apparently it's ready when the bubbles all gather around the spoon like that. Seemed to work.

Once it was hot I dropped in the slices. I did them about 5/6 at a time depending on size. First of all they sank to the bottom, but soon floated up once they'd started to cook. 

Mmmmm... fire hazard...

They took less than 10 minutes to crisp and become golden so I took them out and put them on a rack to drain (we don't use disposable paper towels 'cause we're giant hippies like that).

Once out I sprinkled both sides with salt (fancy schmancy sea salt, because I can) and waited for them to cool. This really was the hardest part.

Admittedly they're not the prettiest foodstuff. Maybe if you have proper lighting rather than kitchen lights and an iPhone.

Once they were cool we ate a few each, then realised that 4 potatoes, even with nothing else, was far too much for 2 people. We had them in 3 servings over the course of the evening. I'd tell you they're just as good cold, and I thought they were, but I was too drunk to make a fair comparison. I also dipped a few in ketchup and that was a delight. 

Verdict is you should definitely make these. They are immensely unhealthy so probably only once or twice a year, but they're so good. This was my first attempt at battering anything and the batter was crisp and perfectly chip-shop-like, the potato was soft and buttery and the whole thing was the most comforting, lovely thing.

Mmmm... greasy....

Trust me, they were delicious enough for 2 photos.

Ben can be a bit of a picky eater and even he loved these. Also, they're completely vegan, therefore dispelling the notion that all vegan food is healthy...

Next week I may take a break from culinary exploits and get crafting. I recently bought a hot glue gun and can't wait to play with it. Expect injuries...

Love and kisses,

P.S. Mum, if you read this I'll totally make them when you come to visit.

A bookmark a week #5 milk bath

Hello internets!

I have felt entirely unmotivated to cook fancy things this week. I've been super-busy at work and we went to Ipswich for the bank holiday weekend to see family. We had a super-fun time going on walks, playing cards against humanity (not for the tender spirited!), seeing one of our adorable nephews and eating many delicious food.

Ooh I do love a collage

The unfortunate downside was that it seriously limited the time I have for creating kitchen-type-stuff. And I had such plans too... oh well, that'll have to wait for next week.

The other thing that happens when we stay away anywhere is I inevitably throw my back out. I have a chronic bad back after a rope-slide incident in Llandudno when I was 7 and it sometimes flares up at the slightest thing. Such as sleeping on a bed that's a bit too firm. The bed was fine and not bad at all, it's just that my back is bloody awkward. I swear it's much worse since we got a memory foam mattress and I became accustomed to all the comfort in the world. 

Sadly this trip was no different. I woke up each morning kind of stiff and achy, it faded through the day but the cumulative effect has stayed with me since my return. So what bookmark to try today? Why, this one!

http://www.kitchencraftsnmore.net/milkbath.html

I could do with a soak in the bath, and I have all of these ingredients in the house. In fact, I have better, I have some dried lavender that my wonderful mother (her again!) gave me last year that I can pop in to make this even fancier. I also have Dead Sea salt that my wonderful mother (I reference her a lot, huh?) gave me years ago. It may not be an ideal thing to use, but it beats wasting culinary salt!

Yes that is a tupperware of bicarbonate of soda. I buy in bulk.

I read somewhere that you shouldn't use skimmed milk powder, but sadly this was all I had. I'm pretty sure this was all the supermarket sold as, trust me, I would never buy skimmed milk by choice (blech).

So here goes, take the milk powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt and whizz up in my amazing nutribullet. Given that the recipe says 1 cup in total makes a bath and I have 3 ingredients, I used 1/3 of a cup of each. Hooray for maths.

 I didn't mind the cup measurements too much here, although it bothered me that the salt didn't tessellate.

I love that you can see the layers. Small things...

I decided to whizz up some of the lavender, adding it after the initial whizzing, but then to leave some bigger bits and stir them in for added fanciness.

Not so pretty

It went massively clumpy after the whizzing so I had to break it up with my hands, but it got pretty finely whizzed up overall.

I then popped it all into a pretty jar to see if it would make it look lovely. 

Maybe with a ribbon?

Now to pour it into a hot bath and see how relaxed I can get.

Ooh... bits.

Turns out I can get pretty damn relaxed.

It was very pleasant the water felt kind of smooth if that makes any sense. I feel like it was moisturising, but not enough so I wouldn't use body lotion afterwards. And I did.

The biggest downside was the normal one after having a fancy herbal bath. You get all relaxed and soaky, have a lovely chilled out time, then realise you're covered in bits of lavender and have to rinse it all off. Annoying.

I will say that my back felt eased after the bath, although that may have been the unreasonably hot water I used. I always think if you can easily get in all at once it isn't hot enough.

I would make this again as a cheap alternative to a lush-style bath thingy, but next time I would add some essential oil as although the lavender scent was strong when I was making it, it faded pretty quickly in the water.

Verdict? Easy, cheap, quick, nice. Not a bad thing to do of a weekday evening.

Love and kisses,

H.

A bookmark a week #4 sloe port

Another week, another kitchen whim.

Last year my wonderful mother foraged so many sloes that she bought me a load over so I could continue my fruit liqueur obsession (honestly, I have a cupboard just for them). I decided to make sloe gin and sloe brandy. The gin was great, the brandy's also great. Both do kind of have a medicinal hint to them, but that's ok, I could drink them when I had a cold and pretend it was healthy.

Soooo... the gin's all gone now and there's not much brandy left. 

So, so sad.

Anyhoo, I have a real problem with throwing anything edible away so when it came time to throw away the sloes I just couldn't do it. They'd been soaking in booze sugar for months, there MUST be something I can do with them! I know you can dip them in chocolate, but I don't have the patience for chocolate dipping and afterward I'd just have to eat all the chocolate. Bad plan.

Then I found this link.....

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/what-can-i-do-leftover-sloe-berries-sloe-gin-sloe-port-and-sloe-chocolate

Port! I can make another booze drink! 

Ben and I love port with cheese but we really only have it at Christmas. We decided to make one batch with the leftovers from the gin, if it's good we'll make another with the brandy and have a full-on comparison with a good Stilton. Mmmm.... Stilton....

It's so simple, get the sloes, the sugar and the wine (not a very nice bottle, but something perfectly drinkable), chuck them together in a jar (the only one I had is far too big but nevermind), shake and put in a cool dark place. 

t was not a tricky job

Once it was done, we left it in our cosy little cupboard with its liqueur friends and then we forgot about it for a while. 

I'm currently very excited about the kumquat brandy on the left

I know it says shake every day but I haven't needed to do that with any other fruit'nbooze concoction so I thought I wouldn't bother. 

Guess what? It worked!

So we strained it through muslin, retaining the sloes for the chocolate bark in the link. I'll make it if it means I get another use out of the sloes (3 uses, hoarding win), added the brandy and then, boom! Port.

In our fancy vintage glasses, too

After tasting, I can tell you that it's bloody lovely. Nice and fruity with a proper kick.

We'll be putting it away for Christmas as these things usually mature nicely in the bottle and trying it again then. In the meantime I'll use the sloes from the brandy to make another bottle so we can have the proper taste test. 

Verdict, I shall never again throw away booze-soaked fruit. I have some vodka-soaked gooseberries in the freezer..... maybe with white wine....?

Tell you what, if I do it and it isn't hideous I'll do another post on it.... if it is hideous, I won't tell you a damn thing about it.

Love and kisses,

H.

Ben's Projects - part the second

So week two (and already a day late) of my projects blog. Originally my project this week was going to getting our mess of a back garden sorted out - but the weather conspired against me so I had to change things around.

We've actually had quite a full week - with a new one day Con to attend on Saturday just gone (more about this elsewhere). This got me to thinking - Condamned isn't too far away now, June 13th - 15th in fact, and I still had no idea what I was going to run.

The Quiet Year and Microscope have been my go to Indie games for Cons for a little while now, and for something a bit crunchier and dicier I go with The One Ring. However I use a lot of books for The One Ring and don't really want to take them on a flight, and the other two games have been around for a while now. That's when it struck me - I could run Kingdom, and that would be my project for the week - properly reading through Kingdom so I'd be ready to run it for Condamned - and possibly other times as well.

Kingdom is an RPG by Ben Robbins - who was the man behind Microscope - as mentioned above a favourite game of mine. I backed the Kickstarter at the level where I got a physical copy of the finished game - as pictured. 

For those not familiar with it Microscope is a game that looks at the whole history of something - a planet, a kingdom, a ship or just about anything people can come up with. It has a start point and an end point and then explores what happens in-between. There will be a number of Eras, Events and Scenes making up the history you are exploring. The actual roleplaying comes into the scenes - you take on the role of someone involved in an event and explore the framed scene. These scenes tend to be quite short - and can only answer the question posed to frame the scene - anything else players want to find out about has to be explored in another scene.

Kingdom plays in a similar way to Microscope, exploring some of the events affecting one Kingdom (I'll come onto what constitutes a Kingdom in a minute). The Kingdom will have Crises and Crossroads - the players explore these and shape their Kingdoms progression. In some ways it can be likened to a series of linked scenes in Microscope - indeed the book includes rules for using the two systems together.

The most important concept in Kingdom in many ways is what actually constitutes a Kingdom - as this is the basis for all the play. Despite many readings I still struggle with this one somewhat myself - so here's how the book puts it. A 'Kingdom' is the game term for the community or organisation that the game will focus on e.g. a pirate ship or a nomadic tribe. Some kingdoms are small, others are larger. A kingdom should have at least 20-30 people but could have hundreds.

In normal game play, the players as a group (this is a GM-less game) come up with a Kingdom, however if you want a quicker start the games has a large number of pre-generated Kingdoms in it - and I think I may be leaning towards these for Con games. Some examples are: Battleship Orion (think Battlestar Galactica really especially as the Kingdom is the entire rag-tag fleet), Cactus Flats - a Wild West township, Dwarf Mountain - funnily enough a dwarven Kingdom, and so on.

Each player takes on a single character within the Kingdom - and will usually only have one main character per a game - although they may be called upon to take the parts of NPC's. Each character will also have a Role within the Kingdom, they'll be a Power, a Perspective or a Touchstone. Each of these interact differently with the Crossroads and Crises a kingdom will face, and the Role a character has may change during play - either by being challenged for the role by another player or through the character shifting through play.

A Power is able to decide which way the Kingdom will go at a Crossroad, a Perspective can foresee consequences of Crossroads and Crises whilst a Touchstone represents the feelings of the Kingdom - the average member of the Kingdom feels as they do.

I'm not going to go any further into the rules and how the game pans out at this point - not least because I'm still not sure of it myself. Basically each player in turn though gets to frame a scene, and at the end of the scene either the Crossroad comes closer to a decision, a Crisis comes closer to actually affecting the Kingdom or time progresses - and can lead to a fairly large chunk of time passing with nothing happening.

I've now read the rulebook a few times, and have to admit I'm still not one hundred percent on how to play the game - I think this is more down to my learning style than a problem with the book itself - I may have reached the stage where I actually need to play the game to learn it. Which probably means running the damn thing at Condamned - as I can't see myself getting a chance to play it before then - we're far too busy.

So this weeks project - did I read the book? Yes

Am I closer to running the game? Yes

Will I run it at Condamned? Probably (as long as people want to play it)

Do I feel ready to run it right now? No, I'll be reading it again before Condamned, that's for certain.

In the meantime Keep Gaming folks and have fun.

Ben

A bookmark a week #3 dyeing Easter eggs

Hi lovely people!

Last weekend was Easter and I bloody love me a good fertility festival (eggs, bunnies, come on the clues are all there!) so I decided to go full on hippy and dye some eggs naturally.

When I was but a wee lass we would always decorate eggs at Easter, taking them to a nearby hill to roll and crack them before eating them. I remember dyeing them with onion skins, I'm sure we also drew on them with pens but my memory isn't so great on the finer detail...

Anyhoo, one of the bookmarks on my phone (for over a year now) is the following....

http://www.thekitchn.com/vibrant-naturally-dyed-easter-eggs-112957

Don't they look wonderful? 

Now as luck would have it, we recently had some beetroot and a red cabbage delivered that I had no idea what to do with. Neither Ben or I are mad keen on beetroot and we had a red cabbage recently that I made a ton of sourkraut with so I had no need for more...

I've been eating this for days...

So I decided to give this a try. 

I'll preface this by saying I don't seem to be able to find white eggs these days. I'm sure if I went to a farm shop I could, but normal free range supermarket ones are always brown so less good for the dyeing.

I'll also use this opportunity to say I used Delia Smith's method to boil the eggs before dyeing, you can read it here,

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/hard-boiled-eggs.html

The thing about Delia is that she's reliable. A lot of her recipes may not be fancy, but they work. If you're ever unsure, turn to Delia. 

Anyhoo...

First I prepared the blue dye with the cabbage.

Blue seems unlikely from this doesn't it?

I have to start by expressing my frustration with American recipes that use  'cups' as a measure for vegetables. So annoying! It's massively inaccurate, it depends on the size of the chop, how you pack them down, even whether you measure them in a big jug or actual individual measuring cups. Now don't get me wrong, I own a couple of sets of measuring cups and I do use them... for liquid ingredients. To me, that makes sense, but solid ingredients? Nope. And don't even get me started on 'a cup of butter'! 

Sorry, had to take a break there while I stopped shaking with rage.

After ranting about the unit of measurement I got down to it, and from a small cabbage I made enough dye for about 9 eggs, but I just dyed 4 as I didn't want to go over the top (too late you say?). A word of warning, the smell from the boiling cabbage didn't seem too strong, but an hour later I could still smell it in every room in the house. Ick.

Next I gave the beets a go. 

Yes, I dyed them in a beer mug. And what of it?

I had only 2 small-ish beets so I included the red stems and the peelings (well washed) in the pot, although I based the water measurement just on the volume (gah!) of shredded beets. 

I had to squeeze the beets out in a muslin to get enough liquid for even 1 cup of dye, but that's a pretty fun, if messy, job. I decided just to do 2 eggs this time, that's 6 so far...

I thought I'd try the turmeric too, who amongst us hasn't experienced its awesome staining power when messily making a curry? 

Mmmm... gloopy...

Well this was just yuck. The smell the turmeric gave off while cooking can only be described as pungent. I use turmeric a lot, but usually in conjunction with a lot of other things. It was not nice. Luckily it faded quickly... to be replaced by the lingering boiled cabbage aroma. 

Unfortunately, after the simmering it became this disgusting gloopy paste. Kitchen based tasks rarely gross me out, I've jointed a rabbit with no problems, but the texture of this was just so unpleasant. I tried to strain it but it wouldn't go through the sieve and the muslin wasn't fine enough to stop it glopping thickly through the fabric *retches*. So I decided I'd just thin it out a little with the vinegar as directed and leave it unsieved. Again I used 2 eggs. 

At that point I left the lot in the fridge to check on in a few hours. 

So, after 5 hours I checked on my eggs.

The turmeric were not amazing, despite the amount of staining on my hands and clothes (well, pyjamas).

I suspect a lot of that is due to the starting colour of the eggs. Disappointing, but they might get better with a bit longer in the dye.

The beets were a bit better.

Although it seemed like a good bit of the staining would rub off if I wasn't careful.

But the crowning glory was the cabbage.

Look how pretty! Some of it might rub off but I think it's still a wonderful result!

I decided to give them another 5 hours, but I thought I'd mix them up a bit for funsies.

I put 1 red egg back in the red dye, and the other in the yellow in the hopes of orange (my favouritest colour). Then 1 yellow egg back in the yellow dye, and the other in the blue as more blue can't hurt, 3 blues back in the blue and one in the red. We may get purple if we're very lucky...

So after 6 hours and a bottle of wine (at least) I remembered to check them again and I got this.

Not entirely successful, but you can see what I was going for.

So I left them to dry in the fridge in hopes that the next morning they would look less blurry to me.

So when I got up (after tea and bacon) I got them out of the fridge, rubbed a little olive oil on them and this was the end result.

My personal favourite is the purple and blue one. So pretty!

You'll notice that there's one less egg than before. This is entirely due to the fact that I got hella drunk on Easter Sunday (Ben and I were playing our Battlestar Galactica drinking game) and needed protein. So I ate one. And it was perfect thanks to Delia's foolproof method. 

Verdict; this is a bit fiddly and a total ball-ache but if you're a culinary geek and a sucker for twee seasonal crafts like me then you'll love it.

In proper Easter fashion Ben and I then went outside and rolled these down the slope that we laughingly call our lawn. Fun!

One end note, I should point out that while I bounced around the kitchen, merrily making all the mess in the world, Ben was just behind me cleaning and washing up all my mess. Metaphors for life...

Love and kisses!

H.