Making me melt......

I did say, didn't I, that this blog was suposed to be about food and all the excitement and adventure that goes with it?

The OH and I have always cooked this Nigella recipe when we have felt meltingly tender with each other - a symbol of us together - strong, dark and yummy. The fact that my love wants to make me delicious yummy things makes me melt. I love making him this cake too (Guiness is a favourite treat drink in Summer) and this cake has always proved successful for any celebration - my best friends 30th not withstanding.

I love this cake and I love my OH - it's a bit unclear as to where the future lies for us both at the moment - we are in summit and UN negotiations about it all. It's my 30th birthday soon and I can't help but feel that we are both holding our breath until it's all over to make that decision.

I should make this cake, don't you think? Try and melt his heart once more? Funny how food entwines with the rest of our emotions. This recipe is from Nigella Lawsons book Feast. It is a celebration cake, (maybe of your love) and can provide solace for the brokenhearted. I am melting now but not in a joyful way.

Chocolate and Guiness Cake

250ml Guinness
250g butter (1 cup)
75g cocoa (a rounded 1/2 cup)
400g caster sugar (2 cups)
140ml sour cream (I used plain yoghurt)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
275g plain flour (2 1/4 cups)
2 1/2 teaspoons bicarb soda

for the icing:
300g cream cheese (I used 250g which was plenty)
150g icing sugar (1 cup)
125ml cream

Preheat the oven to 180C, and grease and line (yes! lining is essential) a 23 centimetre springform tin.

Pour the Guinness into a large saucepan, and add the sliced butter. Heat until the butter is melted, and remove the saucepan from the heat. Whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla, then pour into the saucepan. Finally, beat in the flour and bicarb.

Pour the batter into the greased and lined tin, and bake for 45 mins to an hour. Leave to get completely cool in the tin, as it's quite a damp cake.

For the icing, beat the icing sugar and cream cheese together. Add the cream, and beat again until it's a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake until it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

First Snow

The first snow of the year has fallen. I awoke this norning to silent flurries of snow muffling the sound of the traffic on the road. As the cars were sooshing by I was looking out of my bedroom window nervously anticipating the journey to work. I am sure if I had not had those few misfortunate events early in my driving career, that I would be approaching the journey less with trepidation and more with gustso and joi de vivre!

....interlude whilst I take a call......oh no. Just been offered the opportunity (dubiously) to go to Diss for a meeting at short notice - travelling is horrid in snow at the best of times;luckily the lady is now coming to me...phew. I couldn't bear another car fiasco (did I mention the wrong fuel escapade last week? 200 quid I tell you - 200 quid!! to pump my tank - that was all my birthday money that Mum gave me)

Anyway, back to tye snow - I have new boots too and the scenes in the area look amazing. Silent drifts of snow are perching on tree boughs and old buildings remind me of Victorian Christmas cards; it really is beautiful. I love snow - absolutely love it. The joy of curling up in front of a fire and snuggling in for winyer with my Deanie (wish we had a fire at the moment - waiting for flue to be put in; freezing feet and the feeling of warmth tingle on through them; the little flutter as you get to wear your favourite scarf and know that this time it will be put to real use as it fends of the blustery cold; like I said, I love snow. Just not when I drive in it wwhen all the tight knots in my stomach feel like they will explode and I worry about not stopping and hitting cars and finally losing my freedom as I am relegated to lifts with friends and public transport; dictating to me what I can do and when.

I love watching the snow flurry in earnest to settle on the ground so I can run through it and make the first footprints, like the times I used to share with my old dog Mickey, when the snow would settle on his whiskers and he would look like a wisened old man. I love the snow then, as I rememeber all the times I had my escapades as a child, including running out and getting tonsillitus as I picked up the snow with such joy and then felt ill for days.

Snow is a double edged sword - beautiful and a real pleasure but painful and, can be deadly. It can cause fear and joy all at once which is always brought back to our minds with the fisrt snowfall of the year.

Do I still love the snow? Maybe, I just love snow most of the time just not when I have to travel very far. Yes, that's it, I love snow, nearly all the time.....

Happy New Year

Wow! Happy New Year. Dean and I are back from out travels to warmer climates and aside from some general peskiness (friends, bugs, bombs, a crashed bus and general jetlag) all went really well!

Since I last wrote, the garden bloomed, the neighbours cat's poo'd in it, the veg were nice (minus the cat's gifts) and all was jolly well. I am still a cookbook-aholic with large volumes cluttering large spaces in rooms that want to be large and can rememeber a time when they were (poor lambs. Dean and I are going from strenghth to strength - I tell him off and he tells me off and then we both sulk, grimace, stomp feet and generallly act childish 9he says I do, I say he does - get the picture?) but he is so terribly lovely. Then we have the impenindg 30th's f my clan - Jane kicked of the festivities in October with hers at the Holiday Inn 9I am still reeling from the bar tab of £9.30 for two single drinks - shocking) and then as usual, Kathryn, myself, Nat and Lyn's all close ranks in that order throughout until August - crumbs! What an expensive but partying year.....

Where as I? Oh yes - Dean and I went on holiday with the rest of the clan t Thailand to visit hi brither Neil who lives there. I learn't some more Thai, went on a cookery course, shopped till Bangkok dropped (serious bargainer here - 1250 baht in Patpong for a tshirt? No, love, I said 100 baht..... the lady took it after saying'Tell Mummy how much you pay?' My Mummy normally gives me stuff I replied....)Jolly good tome and Dean and share New Year with a small party at Fishermas Cottage in Koh Lanta, my friend Nicky, woodlouse infestation, cockroaches and a remarkably friendly frog. He kept popping into our outside bathroom for a chat at night - didn't talk much but that's ok as I talked for both of us....

We arrived home safe and sound minus some booze which we had bought at BKK AIRPORT - it appears that the sealing bags of liquids standard is not universal. The man at Schipol who confiscated it was a bit of a jobsworth and I would like him to answer a few questions such as - how did I get two litres of drink halfway around the world? If it is suc as risk, why did he not destroy it immediately or a least pop it in a container with bombproof elements? Surely a threat is worse at an airport/ Needless to say that the airports will be getting a stiff letter. Dean's Mum has already sent one.

So what next/ Well, the garden is starting to look in need of some love so I aim to get that all started a bit earlier tis year and grow some new lavendar (hooray- bee's and butterfliies, I also need to use my new Kenwood Chef (gained through a devious plan involving my mum and getting her to wrap it for me - long story), as well as trying not to buy copious amounts of books this year and blogging more regularly to help with that addiction 9hey, I could be buying nasty stuff) On top of that, preparig for my 30th birthday and finally, but certainly not at the bottom, losing all these punds - I have got fitter but still far to plump. Oh, and anothet thing......making space at home..... Well, here goes, I'll trya nd write soon but am off to read a book and shake the rest of my jetlag off (don't go on the roads kids, it's not great driving with jetlag..)