Affogato

Posted on November 8, 2012 by nicdempsey

Affogato is one of my favourite things. The amount of times, I’ve decided not to have anything from the carefully selected and prepared dessert menu and instead asked for vanilla ice cream and an espresso…well it’s a lot.

Affogato in Italian means drowned, usually coffee, but I have seen them with limoncello or other alcohol. I am against this as I like my alcohol to be alcohol not hidden in food (except Christmas Cake!) and prefer coffee. It’s a free world though, so if you want to try go ahead, it just won’t happen if you come here for dinner!

If I have this at home, I use decaff, Illy do a decaffeinated version of their ground coffee that provides the taste but not the buzz, which works for me in the evening. You can use whatever you like, of course, usual rules apply, good ice-cream and proper coffee are essential. This doesn’t work with ice-cream that’s more air than cream and instant coffee.

So this isn’t really a recipe, it’s more about the joy of cold ice cream and hot coffee. The way the coffee forms a crust on the ice cream and the melted ice cream and coffee blend together. It’s the world’s easiest pudding and perfect for when you just want something a little sweet at the end of a meal.

Try it…

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Boom, Bang, Whizz

Posted on November 7, 2012 by nicdempsey

Fireworks on Saturday night. What better way to commemorate an attempt to blow up Parliament than with a bonfire and fireworks. Although I am very opposed to the burning of Catholics and the Lewes parades scare me. Look, I’m not very keen on the Pope either but there’s no need to burn him in effigy, that’s just not very nice.

However, fireworks and sparklers. I’m all about that.

It was Laura’s idea to go and to take Oli. Hence lots of pictures of the nephew.

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Foodie Penpals – October

Posted on November 6, 2012 by nicdempsey

Last Tuesday, I got an email from my penpal Jen, apologising for forgetting to post my parcel!

I was relieved as I thought I was going to have 3 months in a row that I didn’t get a parcel, which would have been very sad. Jen’s parcel arrived on Friday. I was impressed at how beautifully wrapped it was.

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I was more impressed at it’s contents.

Gin!

Darnley’s View Gin to be precise. I’ve heard about this gin but never tasted it. It’s a Scottish gin so I did wonder if the name had anything to do with Mary, Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley. I looked it up and the gin is made by the Wemyss Whisky Company in Fife. The blurb on the website reads thus:

“Scotland, 1565. Mary Queen of Scots first spies her future husband, Lord Darnley through the courtyard window of Wemyss Castle, the historic family seat of renowned vintners and spirits merchants, the Wemyss family (pronounced ‘weems’).

Today, in recognition of this defining moment, they bring you the superbly balanced, hand crafted Darnley’s View Gin.”

I haven’t drunk it yet but I am going use it for this week’s Friday Night Cocktail, hurrah for gin.

Also in the parcel were a packet of chipotle chillis. Jen loves chipotle so I’m going to have to find something to use them in, hopefully they won’t be too hot. Last year Max and I made some spiced vodka using chillis and I’m thinking that these might add a nice smoky flavour.

Last but not least some handmade strawberry and vanilla jam. Perfect as I’ve never really successfully conquered strawberry jam so very rarely have any.

Jen also included a flyer from the shop that she bought my chillies in and a local food magazine and it’s a good job it’s for October because it made me want to jump on a train straight to Edinburgh!

A fantastic parcel – thanks Jen!

If you’re interested in joining the foodie penpals group, go to Rock Salt where Carol Anne explains it all and you can sign up.

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The Weekend

Posted on November 5, 2012 by nicdempsey

The Weekend started on Friday night, not with pizza and wine but with a haircut at Jane’s. It’s always good to see Jane and the kids but by the time I got home it was 9.30pm. I made the fatal mistake of starting to read. At 1am, I finished the book (The Twelve, there were some issues but I just wanted to know what was going to happen) and went to sleep.

Saturday morning dawned bright and early, I got up did some exercise and then chores. Trip to the Post Office to pick up a parcel and shopping. Amazingly enough, I was asked for ID in Sainsburys. I didn’t have any ID, I had to explain that I’m 21 years away from needing ID and what 17 year old buys Marsala? It’s flattering when people think I’m in my late 20’s but when they think I’m in my late teens, it’s their eyesight that’s the issue not my ‘youthful looks’

Anyway that done, I did the fastest unloading of shopping in the world and ran to catch the train to Watford for lunch with the family.

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This is Oli ready to go…

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This is my little brother holding forth on something…

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Oli and his ‘coffee’..

Then Lu, Ma, Oli and I went to see the fireworks….

Oli wasn’t really sure what was going on but loved the windmill that Ma bought him…

 

Got home late and went to bed.

I had plans for Sunday but when I got to them at about 7.30am, it was cold and wet.

 

So I chucked my plans out the window and had a quiet day at home. Fortunately for me, Dev and Kathy both needed stuff that was in my flat and at various points in the afternoon/evening popped around to say hi, which stopped me from being a complete hermit!

And that was the weekend.

Anyone go and see fireworks this weekend? Or get up to anything fabulous?

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Sunday Music

Posted on November 4, 2012 by nicdempsey

Alex Clare – Words Are Clever

If you don’t want to dance to this, we can probably never be friends…

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Countdown to Christmas or Goals for November

Posted on November 3, 2012 by nicdempsey

For November and December I’m going to do something a bit different. Inspired by from Cassie at Back to Her Roots, I’m going to adapt her All About the Numbers Challenge.  Cassie took the 50 days from October to Thanksgiving to set a challenge that would remind her to stay healthy in the lead up to the holiday season.  I didn’t join in because I’d already set goals for October and some of Cassie’s goals didn’t feel right for me although the idea was a really good one.

When I came to think about my November goals, I was lacking inspiration and then I realised that from today, there are 52 days until Christmas.  So I decided to steal use Cassie’s All About the Numbers Challenge as a model for my own (only without the beautiful graphics!) and call it (very originally) Countdown to Christmas.

The Challenges

Between now and Christmas Day, I will:

1) Do a plank a day of a minute or over (52)

2) Log 1820 fitness minutes (35 minutes a day)

3) Walk or run 260km (5km a day)

4) Do 1040 sit ups (20 a day)

5) Do my knee exercises and stretches 104 times (twice a day)

6) Have 26 alcohol free days

7) Eat 364 servings of fruit and vegetables (that’s 7 a day)

8) Be thankful every day for 52 days.

9) Be in bed at 10pm for 35 days.

Couple of things come into my head right about now. First, this is never going to work and second it needs a spreadsheet!

Anyone else settling goals this month? What are they?

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October Goals – Recap Four

Posted on November 3, 2012 by nicdempsey

So this is the goal update for this week and October! The goal setting will happen in a post later on this afternoon.

As ever, if you’re not interested in my monthly goals, avoid the blog on Saturday and come back tomorrow for Sunday Music!

How this week has been

It’s not been a fabulous week, it’s seems like if it could go wrong it did go wrong. Nothing major, I just haven’t been 100 per cent and little things have been dreadful. However, the perspective police (my mother, Michael and godchild 2 – who was also having a bad week!) reminded me that no-one died and I wasn’t in a superstorm, so it wasn’t all that terrible. I am however glad that I’m done with it!

Let’s get to it…

1) Cook a new recipe each week (I’m not making it specifically vegetarian but I will try for three out of four)

I made the cod and tomato thingie and it was great.

I’m done for the month, with a perfect record! Pass!

2) Exercise twice a week.

I ‘ran’ on Sunday (6k), was at the gym on Wednesday and Thursday. Done under trying circumstances but done!

Again that’s a pass for the month. Yay for exercise!

3) Clean floors and hoover once a week

Done, done, done. Another pass I’m giving myself!

4) 10pm school night bed time.

Done. Pass for the month!

5) Walk 10k four times in October.

Fail for the week, 25% for the month. Not good.

6) Tidy the cupboard. I have a store/junk cupboard off the bathroom that really needs some organising.

100% fail. Didn’t get to it, just didn’t have the time.

7) Cheerfulness. I’m going to find something that makes me happy every day and will list them as part of the Saturday goal progress report.

Saturday – Time with Lis and Lincoln.

Sunday – Sunday afternoon, movie, dinner, whisky, time with my Ma and James Bond!

Monday – I didn’t feel well, I went to bed early and got some sleep – it was lovely

Tuesday – The sun was shining, it made me happier.

Wednesday – Cake in the office, the company won an award.

Thursday – I was in the gym on Thursday, doing my walk uphill, run on the flat bits and it was feeling tough. I was surrounded by people on the treadmills going fast and feeling that I would never get there. Then a women who had been running really fast got off the treadmill and her shirt said ‘Run Your Own Race’. Words I really needed to hear/see at that moment.

Friday – Friday Sushi. I normally take my lunch into work but today wasn’t feeling it and got sushi instead. Glad to have that option sometimes.

8) Forward planning. It’s Christmas in three months and before that Ben, Oli, Christelle and Ma have birthdays. By the end of this month I would like to have their birthday presents sorted out!

All done! I am prepared for the birthday season (with the small exception of working out what I’m doing for Oli’s cake, he wants a rocket, he wants Mickey Mouse – I’d like a nice simply number 3). Just have to sort myself out for Christmas now!

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Friday Night Cocktail

Posted on November 2, 2012 by nicdempsey

I’m going to start today by talking about washing up. Washing up is the downside of cooking and cocktail making. If you make cocktails at home there is a certain amount of washing up that will eventually be required beyond the glass that your drink ends up in. A shaker (yes even if you use a jam jar!), a stirring spoon, a strainer.  After you have made and drunk your cocktail, you will need to wash up.

If you’re lucky you’ll have a dishwasher, either a machine or a person that will do this for you.  My life and my flat are dishwasher deficient (unless Christelle or my mother are visiting!) and whoever designed my kitchen clearly never had to use a kitchen, it has one of those very silly small round sinks, that aren’t deep enough and doesn’t have a draining board.   On a wooden surface. It’s not a good look and something I hope to one day persuade my landlord to do something about.

Meanwhile, I struggle on and make sure the washing up is done every night before I go to bed. Except on Friday. On Friday’s I leave the washing up for the morning. Which is why sometimes on a Friday night, I want a cocktail I can make in one glass.

Which is where this comes in.

A Manhattan on the rocks.  Job done.

While my normal preference is for a Perfect Manhattan (half dry/half sweet vermouth), straight up.  Michael picked up the habit of an ‘on-the-rocks’ Manhattan while he was living in the US and introduced me to it. I’ve found that it works better sweet and I use the everyday whiskey in the cupboard instead of the rye. Generally something Irish and blended, often Jamesons, at the moment Waitrose’s own.

Could we call it a Manhattan-ish? Whatever you call it, it doesn’t involve washing up more than one glass. Sometimes on a Friday night, that’s just perfect.

What

Ice

2 dashes Angostura bitters

2oz whiskey

1 oz sweet vermouth

Maraschino cherry

How

1) Put the ice in the glass

2) Add bitters, whiskey and vermouth

3) Stir and add cherry if using.

4) Drink!

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Baked Cod with tomatoes and parsley

Posted on November 1, 2012 by nicdempsey

As anyone who came across this blog would realise, I like to eat and I like to cook. However, I don’t really like faff. I’m not really a details girl outside of work. At work I have learnt to sit and plan, then execute things. At home, I’m getting better at being tidy and planning things but it’s not my default operating mode. A lot of my life has been a struggle to overcome nature (my dad’s free and easy ways) with nurture (how my mum would do it!).

This is very clear in how I cook.  I’m not one for long and complex recipes or ingredient lists. Short, simple and not to much mucking about. Any food that I cook again and again and takes longer than about an hour to get to the table is either really, really good or has a large element of doing a bit and then leaving it for a while.

This is a roundabout way of explaining why I like Bill Granger so much and why when I saw this recipe in Feed Me Now, I knew I was going to try it. It ticked all of my quick, easy, no faff rules and I had all the ingredients in the house.

There were some changes, I played about with the quantities at bit, it was still good though and the scope for changing it up is immense, I’m thinking that adding some chopped up anchovies and black olives would be great. The recipe specified chopped tomatoes and I didn’t have them, I overcame this by chopping them in the tin with scissors!

I ate it with mash and peas and it was great comfort food for a cold, wet day.

What

1 tablespoon oil

1 onion, chopped

Small handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tin (400g) tomatoes

2 cod steaks

1 tin (400g) tomatoes, chopped

How

1) Pre heat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4/350F

2) In a pan that can also go in the oven and has a lid, heat the oil and cook the onion and parsley over a medium heat, until the onion softens (about 5 minutes). 

3) Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

4) Add the tomatoes, stir and bring to the boil and then let simmer for about 10 minutes.

5) Add the fish, make sure the tomato sauce covers them and cover with the lid and place in the oven for 15 minutes.

6) Remove the lid and cook for a further 10 minutes.

7) You’re all done. Serve and eat.

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Click-Clack the Rattlebag

Posted on October 31, 2012 by nicdempsey

You have the rest of the day* to go and download this Neil Gaiman story.

It’s available free on Audible and for every download they will donate some cash to the two charities of Neil Gaiman’s choice. On his blog, he said, “We chose our charities with pride and with care: we picked Donors Choose — http://www.donorschoose.org/ –for the US; we picked Booktrust – http://www.booktrust.org.uk/ — as our charity for the UK”

I’m all about people reading more and having more access to books. Reading opens you up to hundreds of ideas and worlds and people. It’s not hyperbole to say that reading changes lives. So please go and download this story, you’ll be helping others and getting a free slightly scary story.

I know about all this because Matt is going to use this story for the godchildren’s Halloween party, where the children are going to get party bags with a book in it for All Hallows Read.

Link is here for the UK and at Audible.com for US people.

*This is about as much Halloween as I do.

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