Wednesday 13 July 2011

Indian sweets

The title suggests that this blog will be full o short posts about food, but I haven't really done the food part so far. But this post will be about food. As I said a little while ago, we went to Sydney in the holidays, and while we were there, we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. When we were standing at the counter, waiting to pay, we saw a whole lot of Indian sweets. We thought that they looked interesting so we bough about 4 different types. We walked out of the restaurant and searched for a place to sit while we tried them. First we tried a twirly orange one.It tasted like sweet cooking oil inside toffee. Of course, with any of these, you would love them if you grew up with them, but we haven't, so no disrespect to anyone who likes them. We also tried one which, to us tasted like bland cheese, and then one which tasted just like couscous. It was a rather interesting experience.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Haircuts

I'm so scared. I'm getting my hair cut tonight, really short. My hair right now is about shoulder length, and I'm getting sort of a pixie cut I think. I think it will suit my face, but I'm scared of such a drastic change and a possible bad hair cut. My hair looks way better up compared to down, so it will most likely look nice, but that doesn't mean that I'm not scared. I think a little like this hair:

Maybe a little longer. I also saw this and thought that it was nice:

Anyway, I'm scared, but oh well, I'll just have to not think about it too much.

Tuesday 5 July 2011

Jam drops and stupid mistakes

I just made jam drops about 10 minutes ago, and I made the stupidest mistake. I had done almost the whole recipe, the drops were even on the trays, and I looked into the fridge, to find that we had NO jam apart from some disgusting ginger jam stuff! We didn't even have any chocolate to replace it with! Eventually I found some tinned peaces and decided to replace it with that, but it's not really the same is it. Next time I will get out ALL the ingredients before I start, not just most of them. Hear is the recipe in case you want to try making them yourself. I have a better one, in my opinion, but I can't find it. 

Preparation Time
20 minutes
Cooking Time
18 minutes
Makes
about 40


Ingredients
  • 125g butter
  • 75g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 185g (1 1/4 cups) plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp milk
  • 160g (1/2 cup) jam of your choice (like strawberry, raspberry, apricot, plum or blackberry)
Method
    1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
    2. Beat the butter, caster sugar and vanilla essence in a medium mixing bowl with electric beaters until pale and creamy. Sift the plain flour and baking powder together. Use a wooden spoon to mix the dry ingredients and milk into the butter mixture. Mix to a soft dough.
    3. Roll small balls of biscuit mixture with lightly floured hands and place on the prepared baking try about 5cm apart. Flatten each ball with a spatula to make them about 3.5cm in diameter. Make a 2cm-wide indent in the centre of each with your finger or the end of a wooden spoon. Fill each indent generously with jam.
    4. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until lightly golden and cooked through. Stand on the baking tray for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining biscuit dough and jam. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.


      Good luck! And remember not to make the same mistake that I made. I would also add a bit more milk than the recipe suggests, or else the go really crumbly, and it does NOT make 40, I only got about 15, but this is the original recipe.






      A Short Post

      A guy just walked past our door in a dress!!!

      The Hotel That Shall Not Be Named

      I think it is time for my first rant. It will be about a hotel that I stayed in on my holiday in Sydney. This hotel shall not be named. I think that it is the worst hotel that I have ever been to. Here are some of the many reasons why I hated it so much.
      • The lift took about 30 seconds to get from ground floor to the 1st floor
      • There were huge gaping holes between the floorboards on the stairs
      • The room was TINY and felt like a prison
      • There was no hot water
      • The toilet lid was broken, and so was the towel rack
      • You had to put the kettle on the floor to plug it in
      • You had to go downstairs to the laundry to just iron your clothes
      • The TV was TINY and had no remote
      • The bed sheets had hideous jungle patterns on them
      • There was only one small window with a view just of a few buildings
      • The walls were a hideous colour
      • There were only two rooms - the bathroom and the bedroom and you walked straight into the bedroom
      In fact, there were only two good things about it 
      1. It was somewhere to stay
      2. It was near lots of places we wanted to visit
       Well, I'm glad I finally got that out of my system. Till next time then

      The Lazy Cook xx

      Friday 1 July 2011

      My many loves

      I did not have space to write about all of my favourite things in my paragraph about me, as there simply was not enough room. So I shall have to tell you now. I love:
      • Breaking an egg open with one hand
      • Watching videos and looking at photos from when I was younger
      • Smelling and looking at beautiful flowers
      • Drinking tea and eating chocolate on a cold night while rugged up in my warm bed and reading a good book
      • Going clothes shopping and actually buying stuff
      • Buying amazing and beautiful things
      • Book shops
      • The smell of old books
      • Warming my hands around a mug of hot chocolate
      • Eating at lovely french cafes with my mum and sister
      • Making delicious food
      • Decorating the christmas tree while listening to Chrismas With The Rat Pack
      • Everything about Christmas
      • Watching hilarious comedians like Lee Evans and Carl Barron till my sides hurt
      • My puppies jumping on me every morning
      • Designing houses
      • Drinking tea
      • When my hair actually doen't hate me
      • Having my hair brushed
      • It being cold enough to wear sock inside the house and jackets outside
      I am sure that there are many more, but at the moment, I cannot think of any as I am very tired

      The lazy Cook xx

        ...or maybe you will.

        I have just reflected on my last post, and have resently discovered that it is extremely selfish. I know I would be just bursting with curiosity if I was in your case, as if someone says 'guess what! Oh, never mind,' I get incredibly frustrated and annoyed and just keep on asking 'What? What were you going to say?', and this is just what I have done in my last post. So on account of what I have just said, I will tell you the reason for my name. I have called myself the lazy cook, not because I take shortcuts in cooking, or don't bother reading the recipe, but instead just skim the ingredients list. No, I am a lazy cook, because I always intend to make something, and never end up actually doing it as I am just far too lazy. This is incredibly infuriating, as I just love cooking, but I NEVER cook, as I am too lazy or simply forget. I hope I have made my explanation clear, as I am getting rather tired, so I must not say goodbuy.

        The Lazy cook xx