You hear that, Mr Andersen?

B is for biscuit, that's good enough for me.

I quite like Griffin's version of Belgian biscuits, but that's tempered by the fact that I know I've done better. (Plus, making Belgian biscuits is kind of cool - making the sausage of dough, chilling it, then just carving off as much as you need is kinda nifty.) Unfortunately, although I get to cook main meals quite a bit, I very rarely do desserts, and almost never get around to baking. I'm not sure why or how this has happened -- perhaps it's because I'm only doing necessary cooking. This would fit with the fact that I tend to avoid meals that require a lot of preliminary prep.; I wouldn't include marinades in this, of course, since that's just "mix these things together and then leave them in the fridge for a while".

Which reminds me -- the chicken and ale casserole worked quite well. I've not had much experience with casseroles, and was making things up off the top of my head; I think that next time there will be more carrots and potatoes, since those were very nice, and more of them would have worked well. I guess there are those bottles full of beer downstairs that we have to use up; I'll just have to think of some other dishes to try making with them. (A friend from work suggested rendering them down for "beer stock"; I'll admit I didn't realise she was teasing me for a few moments.)

Tonight - smoked chicken, crasin and cashew pasta, possibly with bacon, mushroom and pesto if I remember to go into the supermarket. Oh, and probably the last of the speculaas, as well -- I bought them as a treat, and was able to give one to the building owner when he unexpectedly called around, thus giving him the impression that we are both nice and classy. :)

(Speculaas are a Dutch spiced bicuit, and are pretty darn tasty. I should add that to the list of things I should find out how to make, along with Cornish farthings.)

***

Okay, enough food blogging. Watched up to the fifth DVD of .hack//SIGN, the third episode of the series that Puggle gave me, and the first disc of Fruits Baskets, so I don't think I can be said not to be doing my part. As long as my part involves sitting very still and letting the lovely animated characters seep into my brain.

(Watching Fruits Baskets with Puggle & Sok is odd - they've both seen it before, so they're reading magazines at the same time. And at least one of them has declared that they're going to marry one of the main male characters. I, on the other hand, could imagine wanting to take in and look after the main female character, but I suspect that's just my vunerability to things like Li'l Brudder talking. He's just such a trooper...)

***

My sister's having her birthday this weekend, owing to the fact that she's a year and a week younger than me. That week, by the way, was very important only two decades ago; it's less significant now, I guess. ;) I've got one or two things I could give her, but I'm still not entirely sure which it should be - or whether I should go for something comletely different. On the plus side, I have high hopes for the thing that I got Jenni for her birthday.

Speaking of sisters - my sister Ellen ordered something over the web with a NZ credit card, and got the postcode wrong, which meant that the order was rejected -- except she didn't find out until quite a bit later. I now know that Island Bay is 6002, while central city is 6001... but I also know that I have never been able to find a nice list on the net of postcodes, and I'm not sure what Nairn St would be considered to fall within. So - good wishes to Ellen, and I hope things get sorted quickly and cleanly.

Oh, and in the style of LiveJournal:
Listening to: Rhombus, Bass Player.

Posted by svend at October 4, 2004 3:29 PM