Those who know me will know that I have a habit of getting excited by little things – often the sillier the better. I personally think this is the best way to be and it keeps me entertained as well.

Anyway, my newest little thing to be excited about is a drink I ‘invented’ last night (I put invented in inverted commas because I’m sure others before me have done it. Perhaps discovered would have been a better word). Duncan and I were waiting to buy some milk in Spar because I was desperate for hot chocolate. I spotted a pack of After Eights while I was waiting and decided that I would be an idiot not to see what happened if I melted them into hot chocolate. The results were pretty thrilling even if I do say so myself.

So here is my first recipe to ever go on the internet: minty hot chocolate. It’s excellent.

Ingredients:
Cocoa powder (about 1 tbsp)
Sugar (to taste)
Pack of After Eights (the kind you get at the sweet counter for 70p, not the big expensive box)
Milk

All I did was to measure 2 mugs’ worth of milk and pour that into a saucepan.  Put onto a medium heat and add the cocoa powder and sugar (to taste depending on how bitter you like it). Whisk while it warms up and then squish some After Eight sweets into  it (I used 6) and continue to whisk until it’s all melted. Pour into mugs and enjoy (preferably with an open fire and a blanket).

Look – I did a recipe!

Some (slightly fuzzy) pictures:

Anyway, on Saturday some people are coming over and we’re going to zombie up and then go in to town. I was going to make chocolate chip gingerbread, carrot cake muffins and vodka jelly. Then I thought that perhaps this was too much cake for a gathering that will probably only last an hour or so. And now I can’t decide – how much cake is too much? Is it a bit silly to make what is essentially two whole cakes just for one little party?

Will this ever end? 2 cakes today could turn into 3 next year and by the time I’m 30 I will be making hundreds of cakes for every gathering, desperate to feed people something they like. I do hope I’m not on a slippery slope made of cake, cream-cheese icing and desperation.

The vodka jelly should be exciting though – I’m going to put jelly worms in it. WIN.

I dream about food a lot. I mean an awful lot. I also spend most of every day wondering what we’ll have for tea which is probably why.

Mostly the things I dream about are absolute nonsense and you wouldn’t want to eat or experience them in real life. The other night, however, I had a dream about something that actually might work and was very excited when I woke up.

If you can make lemon curd and you can make lime curd, then what would happen if you made gooseberry curd? I reckon it’d be pretty good. I had a quick Google and unfortunately I haven’t invented it,  but it’s a real thing which is quite good. Imagine gooseberry meringue pie… yum.

I am going to go on a hunt for some gooseberries and I’m going to try it – it’s exciting stuff, I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Anyway, I have been watching Masterchef: The Professionals on BBC2 recently and I think Kate Spicer might actually be the most miserable woman in the world, never mind just on telly. Seriously, it’s ridiculous.

For those who don’t know, ‘The Professionals’ have to cook for 3 food critics in one of the rounds (I think it’s the Semi-finals but I’m not sure). Yesterday, they were cooking for that chap who looks like Peter Griffin, some bloke from Waitrose who was jolly pleasant and Kate Spicer. (Boooo, hiss)

The reason she makes me so mad is that she eats food and writes about it for a living, yet she always looks like someone’s just told her that her dog’s died. And then forced her to eat it. And it’s been badly cooked and it’s very disappointing and why can’t chefs just all be good these days!?

I understand that not all food is good and that being a food critic involves a certain amount of, well, criticism. But cheer up for god’s sake Kate. You EAT FOR A LIVING. How is that bad in any way!? Crack a flipping smile. At least smile when you enjoy the food.

The corners of her mouth didn’t even turn up when she ate some really nice venison. I don’t know about you, but I’d love to eat some nice venison. Please. I’d smile all the way through.

I think all food critics should either be like Jay Rayner who always looks jolly happy even when he’s eating something dreadful, or like that chap from Waitrose. Also, is it just me or does Jay Rayner look like he’s from the past? I think it’s the hair. He should definitely have a ruff.

Perhaps we could start a ‘Cheer up Kate’ campaign.

I’m done now.

I’ve got 2 days off now, which is great because I’m knackered. I feel like I haven’t sat down in 3 days. This weekend I’m doing a couple of proper dinners for the cast and crew; pasta (Orzo) salad with roasted veg one day and then pasta with pesto, potatoes and green beans the other. It’s going to be a pasta based weekend, but hopefully no-one will mind and we are on a budget after all!

I’d love to post some photos but I’ve lent my camera to Jonic to get photos of the shoot so that’ll have to wait. Let’s hope it all carries on going so smoothly. You can read about the progress of the film on Miles’ blog.

My lovely friend Miles is making a film in York in the next two weeks and I, like the flipping dork I am, volunteered to do the food.

We started last night, making sandwiches, biscuits (flapjacks = fail) and plenty of hummus for the troops. I had help from the lovely Miss Helen Batty and from Jonic. It was actually a lot of fun.

Tonight is a similar night but instead of 15 people to cook for, there are 40. Two of whom are allergic to eggs. When I was vegetarian I found it really annoying when people didn’t take that into consideration and I was a bit of an afterthought so I’m trying to make most things egg-free.

With that in mind, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make some oatmeal raisin cookies without egg. I’ve been googling and apparently you can substitute half a mashed banana per egg in a lot of recipes. I didn’t know that and I’m really intrigued to try it out. I’ll let you know if it works. If it does then that might be the first recipe I put up here. Exciting stuff!

I will try to take some photos as the catering continues. Fingers crossed that everyone enjoys it and I don’t poison them.

I have grand plans to do lots of baking and things, so I will get back to blogging soon – hopefully with recipes and pictures and all that jazz.

Bear with me!

My exams went ok I think. The practical wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, up to the point where I had to get everything together for serving. Then I went a bit nervous and confused, but I pulled it all together and I think it looked pretty good. I had to make white yeast bread rolls as well, which turned out well (very good dough). I was very proud of how my dessert looked – I’m not very good at presentation but it was very pretty.

Written exams were a lot harder than expected. All the things we thought they wouldn’t ask were asked and there were a lot of very strange questions as well. I think I did ok though, as long as they can read my horrible scrawl.

All in all, I don’t think there’s any question of me not passing, but I think all hopes of a distinction are out of the window. A ‘highly commended’ would be lovely, but I’m not confident. I just have to wait 2 months now for my results.

Everyone in our house seems to be tidying or organising the kitchen and I seem to be getting out of it. There are benefits to being the youngest – everyone thinks you’re a bit useless at stuff like that! I did ask if they needed any help and they said no, so I feel justified!

Right, off to get ready for dinner now. Must try not to drink too much booze – dinner at the Tannery tomorrow and I’m very excited. Don’t want to be hungover and ruin it!

I’m going home!