What I'm doing right now (AM)

Hi guys. Guess what I'm doing right now? I'm making hedgehog to take to the office tomozz.
Here in Belfast they have things called 'tray bakes' which are like what we would call slice. On a few occasions, people have brought them in to the office to share, only they've been those dreadful pre-packaged store bought numbers that aren't worth the margarine and corn syrup they're made from. I thought I'd make some proper hedgehog to share so i'm mixing butter and cocoa and crushing Marie biscuits as we speak.
Working Girl is on TV in the background.
I keep catching glimpses of Melanie Griffiths' hair and fur coats out of the corner of my eye and thinking that surely this movie marked the end of the 1980s.

Was anything ever as 80s as this again? I don't think it was. 

In praise of condiments (PM)

America's ability to harness the power of condiments really is one of the great things about America. It sounds frivolous but it's not, it's true. Condiments' raison d'etre is to make things more delicious. To jack up the flavour of this or that, according to the eater's preferences. Who wouldn't want that? Australia, apparently. Seriously, catch up Australia!
I like how at diners and cafes they usually have salt, pepper and a range of condiments on the table, and you know what that says to me? It says "we want you to find what you're eating delicious, and we recognise that sometimes that might take a little extra, so here's a little something extra".
It's a great nation that can recognise that people just want to have a delicious time, and can help them do that through wide availability of condiments. I very great nation.
But, you're talking to someone who has so many condiments in their fridge sometimes it's hard to find room for actual food. So yeah, I'm in praise of condiments. You bet you're life I am.

In praise of leftovers (PM)

I am always so busy eating the firstovers to tune in to discussion of potential leftover innovations. Idiot.

Now I think about it, I could have turned all that leftover cauliflower kugel I made in to a pretty sweet vegetable tart. Sheesh, I could have made burgers. But I didn't. Oh well. 

Next year in Jerusalem. 

This is a tart I made another time. 

Real cool and not too costly (PM)

Hey! Miguel told me a great story about Frosty Fruits the other day. It went like this: I ate this delicious thing the other day. Frosty Fruit have put out this new lemon, lime and bitters flavour. That’s what I ate.

Hang on, I guess that story wasn’t that great. But it did make me want to eat a lemon, lime and bitters Frosty Fruit, even though I think original is probably the best. The watermelon and pineapple one sounded promising but it is not as good as the OG. That ad for FF also made me want to eat a Frosty Fruit. They really just do not make ‘em like they used to.

Mostly though, I just want the heat to break. This morning while I was getting my  coffee everyone in the shop was so heat-spaced that I think I somehow caught their spaced outedness. I think that because as soon as I walked out with my coffee I fell off the kerb and stepped on my own toe really painfully. Who knew that was even possible.

Real cool and not too costly (AM)

It's been so hot for so long. I keep looking at the weather forecast hoping to see cooler weather ahead but it never comes. It just never comes.

Of course it will one day, and I know when that day comes, I will regret the warm days I've wished away.

What I won't regret are all the Frosty Fruits I've eaten this season, each more delicious than the last.  Nor will I regret the google search that led me to discover the Frosty Fruits ad that ran during our childhood. I'd forgotten all about it of course but at the first sign of that dancing fruit it came flooding back. Super catchy and super creepy, it's got it all, just like the delicious ice treat it's selling.

Please watch it all the way to the end.

Yum things! (PM)

Is that the same jar of coconut and chocolate spread I gave you for christmas? Because if it is, you have marvellous restraint. That stuff lasts days at my house. Mere days.

But this is a yum thing that lasted a little longer.

OK, big rolls of meat may not appeal to everyone, but if you dig on meat, stay with me.  This is a beef brisket that I brined for two weeks in order to turn in to hot salt beef, the cousin of corned beef. It seems brisket is the kind of cut that contains a lot of connective tissue, which needs a little coaxing to break down and taste delicious. Brining helps with that. So in it went in to a brine bath that sat in my fridge for two weeks. Every day I turned the brisket over, to make sure it was even. The brine needed to get even with the brisket and I let it.

After the brining,  it looked like this:

Eww. It did not look pretty. But it was ready to cook.

I simmered it for four hours, again this is to make sure that the final result is nice and tender.  They say two hours is enough, but the longer the tenderer. So as you can imagine, after four hours it was so tender it would fall apart at a whisper.

In the great tradition of hot salt beef (there is one, apparently), I turned it in to a sandwich with lettuce, caramelised onion and hot english mustard. Delicious.  This photo does it no justice.

Then I turned it in to a second sandwich with all those things plus cheese and pickles. 

Deliciouser!