Saturday, December 31, 2011

Mary Barry is an asshole

I know that is not a very nice word to use to describe someone but she totally ruined my day, and my biscuits, and I am seriously annoyed.

For those of you who don't know, Mary is somewhat of a legend in the UK for her baking knowledge and skills. She judges this great program on the BBC called the Great British Bake Off and for Christmas Martin gave me her cookbook. Today I attempted to make some biscuits from one of her recipes, which seemed relatively simple to make but looked impressive at the same time.

Well, let's just say Mary either has biceps of steel or she has neglected to include what are some much needed guidance and advice in her recipe. The biscuits are a simple butter dough and are to be shaped using a piping bag and a star tip. Having successfully made the dough I then filled my piping bag with star tip, as well as a line of food colouring in the bag for added effect and was ready for the magic to being. Well that bloody dough was so stiff it wouldn't squeeze out of the bag. Four bags and several curse words later I gave up and tried to shape the now hideous pink dough ( as that was the colour I was left with after trying to soften and pipe the dough) into perhaps a nice star or ginger bread shape. However now the dough was too soft and after a few attempts I binned the dough as it was too ugly to eat and I hated it, and Mary Barry too much to continue. I made whoopsie pies instead.

PS...Closer examination of the book cover reveals the recipe is not actually by Mary Berry and that she simply offers guidance for the recipes.. Sadly, not for this one.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Chickens contemplating escape...



Luckily relations with black and ginger chicken have improved, and they returned to the homestead. Phew.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Landy

Living out in the country there are a few must haves. One is a vegetable patch, another is welly boots, and the most important one is a Land Rover Defender.

And here is ours...



We could literally fit all the Mooney siblings in it!

We are officially outfitted for the country. We have arrived.

Christmas!

Here are some holiday snaps from our Christmas this year. They all involve Henry and Camilla, as Christmas would be no fun without them.

This is the first year Henry really understood Christmas and who Santa is. After having negotiations with the neighbours about what they would be putting out for Santa, it was agreed Henry should put out a mince pie, class of sherry and a carrot for the reindeer. Camilla was in agreement.



Santa was happy. So was Janice who got to drink the sherry.

Here are Henry and Camilla about to pull a Christmas cracker. Note head phones on Henry. He is not keen on loud bangs.



For Christmas Martin and I got Henry a Cars jumpsuit, which he wore all day...



And Camilla a Jesse costume, which she wore for about two minutes. She isn't big on clothing at the moment...



We had a very lovely Christmas and are looking forward to a very happy new year!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas

Kind of.

I got two Christmas cards from the States this year.

One from my sister.

One from my boss.

Is this your way of telling me you don't like me?

Loved ones living abroad appreciate Christmas cards more than anyone.

Sad smily face.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

That Ottolenghi is a GENIUS

This week when I got my veg box I sighed in disgust as I found another bag of brussell sprouts. What am I suppose to do with these? I thought as I threw them into our crisper to join the brussels sprouts I got in my last box. Maybe the chickens would want them.

Not one who likes to waste food I thought, well, if anyone can make brussels sprouts taste good, Ottolenghi can. I went to my Plenty cookbook to see if he happened to have a recipe calling for this hideous veg, and to my mild disappointment he did. (I was hoping to give them to the chickens) Tofu with Brussels Sprouts. Here are the results…



That man is a genius! I hate brussels sprouts but this dish was gorgeous! I would definitely make it again. I have given up trying to convince Martin tofu is good so I put a little of the sauce to the side, cooked some chicken with it and added to his portion. (he accidentally got some tofu in his dish and said, that tofu is no good is it? I thought it was delicious so of course corrected him) Was very simple to make and doesn’t use any weird ingredients that you don’t already have or wouldn’t want in your kitchen.

I love you Ottolenghi!

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Do as I say

Now that things have kind of calmed down, I have finally been able to properly look at our wedding photos. In one of my sister's albums I came across a series of photographs that made me laugh and I think perfectly captured the spirit of a Mooney girl.

We all have an opinion on how to do something...



But the results are usually spot on...