Sunday Music

Posted on December 14, 2014 by nicdempsey

From this year’s Christmas CD. The Texas Tornados – Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

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Weekend Tasklist

Posted on December 13, 2014 by nicdempsey

This weekend requires a to do list, so here it is.

House20141109-192556-69956545.jpgI have one week left at work and anything that needs doing for Christmas, can be done then. So the priority housework is stuff that makes next week easier. So it’ll be the usual list

  • General clean of kitchen (sort out the recycling and rubbish, mopp the floor and general cleaning)
  • Food prep for next week. (Make bread, cook some lentils)
  • General clean of bathroom (change towels, empty bin, clean bath, sink and toilet)
  • General clean of bedroom(change bed, clear surfaces)
  • Tidy Living Room (tidy sofa, put things away)
  • Hoover hall and stairs
  • Washing (clothes wash, white wash, towel wash)
  • Ironing
  • Charge kindle, ipad and camera batteries
  • Handwashing

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  • Make mince pies
  • Make Cheese Stars
  • Write Christmas cards
  • Send out cards and Christmas music CD’s (guys if you want a CD, shout!)

That’s what I HAVE to do. In amongst that, I’m going to the cinema with Ma, going to Grace and trying to have a rest!

What are you doing this weekend?

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Friday Night Cocktail

Posted on December 12, 2014 by nicdempsey

The Waldorf Cocktail.

This was apparently the signature cocktail at the Waldorf-Astoria Bar in the early 20th Century. Like a lot of cocktails I like it’s a riff on a Manhattan.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

What

1/4 oz absinthe

2 oz rye whiskey

3/4 oz sweet vermouth

3-4 dashes Angostura bitters

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How

1. rinse a mixing glass with the absinthe and pour away the excess

2. Fill the mixing glass with ice and add the other ingredients.

3. Stir for about 30 to 40 seconds until chilled

4. Strain into a cocktail glass

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Friday Links

Posted on December 12, 2014 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday, people. I’ve returned to normal this week, five days at work, regular bedtimes and general pottering. It feels good but I’m really pleased to have got to Friday!

1. Not having a TV means that the annual Christmas advert frenzy does rather pass me by. This however, sums up how I feel about the Sainsburys ad this year. Just no.

2. Cerys Matthews on Christmas songs. I have an answer to that!

3. Why campaigns to put ‘Christ back into Christmas’ aren’t very Christian.

4. Why the poor stay poor. This isn’t just a US problem.

5. Overcoming the ‘horror’ of state school education.

6. The US Armed Services Editions during WWII, fascinating but I really object to Americans claiming they won the Second World War. I doubt it could have been done without them but I’m pretty that Britain and the Russians had something to do with it too!

7. Tale of two Brooklyns. You could write very similar articles about most neighbourhoods in London.

8. The National Mood. This is about Australia but I feel it also applies here. Replace Tony with David and Nick!

9. This is an old article and I know that I link a lot to stuff about abortion. This does matter though, because I’ve walked through a crowd of anti-choice protesters to get into a clinic. It’s not pleasant. They came running up to me, telling me not to ‘kill my baby’ and calling me other lovely names. It had already been a horrible couple of weeks, being constantly physically sick, feeling really bloody stupid and all the trauma around sorting out the appointment and the money, telling the relevant people what was going on and trying to sort out leave from work. I had thought about it, I had gone over all the options, I was exercising my legal right and these people who didn’t know who I was, or what I was going through felt that they had some kind of divine right to call me a murderer. It made a difficult time, worse, if I had been by myself, I wouldn’t have been able to get into the clinic. That was 20 years ago and it’s worse now. For the religious protesters offering to pray for me, I’d just say (and do everytime I see them) Jesus had a lot to say about people who judge others (Matthew 7) but was silent on the topic of abortion, so maybe I’ll pray for you.

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Christmas Cooking – Mincemeat

Posted on December 11, 2014 by nicdempsey

We’re at the part of December when I start to panic about Christmas. It’s at this point, that everyone I know has put up their trees and decorations and Christmas cards have started to arrive, everyone is having Christmas parties and I’m not at all ready and I’ve overcommitted and I’m beginning to feel completely overwhelmed.DSCF3909

This weekend, when that ‘oh God, I’m never going to have it all together for Christmas’ feeling crept up, I remembered that I’m not doing Christmas Day this year. So that makes life a little easier, that I’m not working after the 19 December so if necessary I can pull it all together the weekend before Christmas, which is what usually happens.There are some things I can do though, that will reduce my feelings of panic and set me up for success this Christmas. I started by making mincemeat this week,

The most time consuming bit of making mincemeat is chopping the apples.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOnce that’s done, you mix everything together and leave it overnight, then bake for three hours, allow to cool and jar. I do it over three nights so it’s pretty simple. The recipe is here, but I thought that I’d add some photos because it looks awful before it looks good and if you’ve never made it before, it might help!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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Want

Posted on December 10, 2014 by nicdempsey

Time for another edition of things that might make good presents!

Litographs have some beautiful posters made with the text from the books they depict, I’m especially keen on the Persuasion one below (of course I am). They also do books and t-shirts.

The National Theatre Shop’s Everybody Dies posters/teatowels/mugs etc are perfect.

Everybody Dies Poster

The Southbank Shop is one of my favourite places to have a browse. And this is a great London print although I’m not sure I know anyone, I’d spend £500 on!

Oxo Red III linocut

We went to the London Transport Museum quite a lot when I was a child and the shop is a marvellous place for presents. I’m not sure where I would put a luggage rack from the decommissioned Met Line trains, but I really want one!

RAW Metropolitan Line luggage rack small

You can also get enamel plates of the LT roundel too!

Click to view Bus Stop Request Roundel Enamel Plate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Handmade Christmas – Vin d’Orange

Posted on December 9, 2014 by nicdempsey

Without a doubt one of the most annoying things about this time of year, when bloggers start to talk Christmas and making presents, is seeing something that would be a good present, that fits your skills level and then realising that if you wanted to give it as a gift, you should have started in August!

This is particularly true of alcoholic gifts. I’ve made plum gin, cherry brandy and raspberry gin to give away at Christmas and I did start making them way back in the summer, so I’m not going to torment you by telling you what perfect gifts they’d make.

This Vin d’Orange though. This fits all the homemade foodie presents sweet spots. It’s easy to make, it’s relatively cheap, and you can start today and it’ll be ready just in time for Christmas!

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I’ve wanted to make Vin d’Orange for a while but every recipe I see requires seville oranges and 3 litres of wine preferably rose (preferably Côtes de Provence rose), a bottle of vodka and a 40 day wait.

Seville oranges have a very short season, slap bang after Christmas, in January and February. Every year I think about it and every year, after the excess of Christmas, I’m not in the right mood (and let’s be real here) don’t have the spare cash for alcohol related projects.

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This recipe for vin d’orange (from David Lebotviz) uses navel oranges, a bottle of rose, half a cup of vodka and has a 2 week wait, which seems altogether more reasonable. Vin d’Orange can be drunk on it’s own with ice or be added to a glass of fizz. I think it would also work as a lighter drink just with tonic or fizzy water.

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A small note on the wine, it doesn’t have to be the best bottle of rose that you’ve ever drunk, you’re going to be adding lots of ingredients to it but the maxim ‘garbage in, garbage out’ is worth bearing in mind here and Cotes de Provence is a dry rose wine, so a dry rose is what you are looking for here. I used a bottle of Sainsburys Cotes du Rhone (I would link to it but I can’t find it on the website!) it was about £6.

What

2 navel oranges, quartered

1 lemon, quartered

1 750ml bottle of dry rose wine

Half a cup of sugar

Half a cup of vodka

One vanilla pod, split lengthwise

One cinnamon stick

How

1. Mix sugar, vodka and wine together in your jar, stir until sugar has dissolved.

2. Add the oranges, lemons, cinnamon and vanilla pod

3. Leave for 2 weeks and then filter through muslin cloth or coffee filter.

4. Pour into sterilized bottles and either keep it to drink yourself or give away with a bottle of fizz for a quick Christmas present.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Life Happened – Birthdays, Christmas lunches and Allotments

Posted on December 8, 2014 by nicdempsey

On Wednesday, Ma, Christelle and I went for cocktails at the OXO Bar, to celebrate their birthdays and the end of my working week!

IMG_2476The Perfect manhattan was perfect!

Ma and Christelle got Happy Birthday ice cream that came with gingerbread Santa and Mrs Claus.

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Fun was had by all.

IMG_2491I also spend the day logging the progress of my rebellious flicky fringe.

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On Thursday, Ma wanted to go to the dump, hey it was her birthday, she gets to to what she wants. She also brought all the packing boxes back to mine and we put them in the attic. So less than two weeks after she moved in, Ma is totally unpacked and her new flat is if not perfectly arranged (she’ll need to live in it a while) totally organised. Most people are surprised about this, I’m not. It’s just how Ma is! We also met Jane for dinner and she helped me tame the fringe!

Although I was off work, I did go in for the team Christmas lunch. We went to The Somers Town Coffee House, it was lovely and we drank far too much as is usual.

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and evident from the photos!

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I was rather taken with the flock wallpaper in the loos, I’m pretty sure my childminder had that wallpaper in her living room, when I was a kid!

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I was home and in bed by 10pm but Saturday morning dawned bright and far to early for a Saturday given my night before, it was time to go and help with the allotment volunteer team. I’m on the waiting list for an allotment (current wait 3 to 4 years) but in the meantime, it’s good to get to know the guys and the allotments again!

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Also there was cake!

So that done, I had a very quiet weekend with some chores and lots of reading.

This week is not going to be as eventful, which is a very good thing!

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Friday Links

Posted on December 5, 2014 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! Not many links this week, I had a migraine Monday and Tuesday and have been running around for the rest of the week so no time to read..

1. An escalator for cyclists.

2. Tell me again that there isn’t a housing crisis in London. Tree growing through illegally rented housing.

3. The power of pessimism.

4. This pregnant lady tell anti abortion protesters where to go. It’s amazing..

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Jillian’s Birthday Cake

Posted on December 4, 2014 by nicdempsey

If you’ve been around here for any amount of time, you’ll have worked out that my Ma and I are very close. It wasn’t always this way, according to her I was a teenage nightmare! I always reply to that accusation that I was a pretty good teenager, especially compared to her or my brother, I didn’t swear at any of my teachers or skip school, I could mostly be found in the library or babysitting..

20121208-205858.jpgI’m not keen on saying that she’s my best friend because she’s not, she’s my mum, but nowadays, Ma is my chief partner in crime. We talk a couple of times a day, see each other at least once a week, we go to gigs and the theatre together, we help each other with decorating and moving and swap furniture and ideas and we take holidays together.Back CameraThat’s not to say that we don’t have other friends and do things with other people and love doing that too. One of the best things about Ma is that my brother is very close to her too, some people have said that Ben and I are unnaturally close to our parent but I don’t think so. I think that we love each other and we support one another and we are very lucky to have her. One of my infant school teachers, knew Ma when they were teenagers and she told me that she thought, we were all so close and because Ma didn’t have a mother after she was 14 so was just making it up once we hit that age! There’s an element of truth in this, as I get older, I appreciate how different (and better) her relationships with Ben and I are. My mother is so much herself, she never expects us to be anything but ourselves, she taught us to live and supports us if she can but the only time I think I’ve ever truly felt that I’ve let her down is when I haven’t been true to who I am, even when who I am is chronically late and has a problem with transition (neither of which are Ma’s failings!)

photoToday is her birthday and given that we have already celebrated it with dinner on Sunday and drinks at the OXO last night, the only thing left is cake.DSCF3317This is Ma’s cake, the one I bake when I want to curry favour! It’s originally from Sybil Kapoor but had to be adapted to add more ginger and I also add pieces of crystallised ginger because when it comes to this cake, the more ginger, the better! It also makes really good muffins!DSCF3789

 

Happy Birthday Mum!

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