Singular Scene

So Singular in Each Particular

Just Desserts

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Well, you can tell I’m on holidays – two posts in ‘virtually’ one day…

A fair portion of yesterday was spent in the kitchen cooking up another epic batch of fudge (see here) and also the Dessert of Amazing for lunch today.  I need to write the Dessert of Amazing**’s recipe down so I don’t lose it given the current state of the recipe (below)… yes, very well used… While I’m writing it down I shall also share it with you… with pictures. Because I’m generous like that…

First… Get a recipe – I got mine from Lyna – she probably doesn’t remember me sitting in her kitchen copying all the recipes I could find that looked good… I must have rushed it because the method doesn’t make sense towards the end… so I made it up… if you try this and it’s rubbish… don’t say you weren’t warned…

1. The Recipe

Ingredients:

1 250g packet of biscuits – I used wheaten something or other because I like a bit of texture in my crumbs

125g butter

1-2tbs Gelatine – (I used 2 – and I was ever so hopeful that gelatine doesn’t go off… lost count of how long since I’d used it and the supermarket was all out.. seems like I’m not the only one setting stuff this Christmas.)

1 Can of Boysenberries (I used raspberries due to absence of Boysens on the shelf… seems like I’m also not the only one making this recipe)

200g White Chocolate (I used 250g Nestle Bits)

300ml Cream – (I think the recipe only req a cup – that bit of the recipe was missing) but as I didn’t want to waste any I used the full 300 – oh, and whip it good.

250g Cream Cheese

1/2c Caster*  sugar (I think they call it superfine in the US)

2. Behold. The Ingredients

So, I couldn’t be doing with leftover bits of stuff I wouldn’t use later (cream, chocolate) – so I put in whole packets… I figured they were close enough… (proof positive I should in no circumstances be left in charge of experiments requiring critical measuring…)

3. 125g Butter

4. Smooooosh!

1. Melt the Butter and Crumb the biscuits.  In my younger days I’d have been given a rolling pin and the biscuits in a sturdy plastic bag or three and sent out to the front porch to beat the crap out of them… these days I’m allowed to use appliances…  it’s up to you, either way will work though an appliance will make finer crumbs.

5. Apply the Butter
6. Mix to Buttery Crumbs

Combine the butter and crumbs and press into the base of a springform tin.  You can see the lip of the removable base in the photo below, I’m careful to keep the crumbs below this line so things don’t get stuck when you take the tin apart revealing (hopefully) the true extent of the Amazing.  Then pop it in the fridge.

7. Press crumbs into tin and put in the fridge

Pour the gelatine onto 1/3c of hot water (not boiling – hot out of the tap is fine) and stir to dissolve.

8. Sprinkle Gelatine onto hot water
8. When it's dissolved it looks like this.

Pour half the gelatine mixture into the canned fruit, stir and place in the fridge to begin cooling/setting.

9. Ra Ra Ras-ber-ry - Summer's Greatest Love Fruit...y?

Then comes the fun part… beat up the cream cheese with the caster sugar so it’s light and smooth.

10. Before
11. Buahh haa haa; After

Beat up the Cheese and Sugar, in a separate bowl whip the cream – I whip it until it’s thick but not peaky so you don’t over beat it when you combine it with the other ingredients..

12. Whip it Real Good. Actually whip it mostly... see above.

Then melt the chocolate… I use the microwave… but you have to keep an eagle eye on it… this was on high for 55sec with a stirring at about 30s.

13. Oh, melty, melty

Then combine, the cheese, chocolate, cream and remaining gelatine mixture (see, you thought I’d forgot about that didn’t you!) and beat thoroughly –

14. White on white on white

Swirl the cooled/semi-set fruit into the cheese mixture and then pour onto the biscuit base. I noticed (and you will from the pix) that the Raspberries caused the cheese mix (the cream, no doubt)  to curdle a tiny bit… it doesn’t appear to have affected the final cake, and I can assure that it tastes fine.  I can’t remember if the boysenberries did the same last time I made it..

15. Swirly, Swirly
16. Rin Tin Tin

There you have it, I shall report on its reception at BFF’s house and post pix of the decanted masterpiece when that is done…

In the meantime, consider this my Christmas gift to You and I hope you and your families have a wonderful day, wherever you are and whenever Christmas gets to you!

*So named because it’s fine enough to go through a sugar caster or sprinkler…

** Officially a Boysenberry (or Raspberry) and White Chocolate Cheesecake

The Year of the Donkey

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There are any number of reasons to love Christmas, the presents,  time off work, time with family and friends, food favourites.  Then of course there’s the significance for those for whom it’s a matter of faith. I’ve been known to love all of these, I mean, what’s not to love about a tradition that’s all about generosity, fun, faith and family?  It’s all fabulous.

The thing is, it’s all got a bit corrupted over the years… generosity has become commercialised and as often as not Christmas feels like giving for the sake of giving itself; for he sake of the tradition and in doing so actually completely loses the object, the person in receipt of the gift. Even in trying to get the perfect gift for someone we’re ‘competing’ with everyone else who is trying (in various degrees) to do the same. And the recipient (and of course we, in turn) end up with a pile of stuff we don’t need, or worse, don’t like.  Furthermore our kids end up with more toys than they know what to do with. More toys/stuff than they need, more than they can play with, and none of it’s significant at all.

I’m not in NZ for Christmas this year, I’ve been there 3x since Nov 2009 and decided to wait this one out and head home for birthdays in April (if I can hold out on visiting for that long).  Deciding to do that raised the dilemma of getting presents for 9 niblings, 3 siblings (and other halves), 2 step-sibs and 3 parental type units without breaking the bank and that’s before I even try to get it to them… becuase, you know the Postal Service, regardless of the wonderful work they do, has to cover costs and those costs are expensive… really, really expensive.

Now, in normal circumstances I have no beef with sending presents via Australia Post… I do it almost monthly for birthdays across the Tasman but this Christmas, sending a job lot of presents to be added to the job lot of presents everyone will be getting anyway began to feel uncomfortable.

So I opted out… I opted out by asking my family to send donations to their favourite charities as their gift to me and on their behalf I bought a donkey.  Now I’m off to write to them and introduce them to Hee Haw – whose significance to the family/community he will support goes far beyond any new pair of socks, jocks, books or chocolate I could have bought for them.

Christmas of Awesome

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It’s time now for the inaugural Christmas Post of Awesome just in time for the close of 2010. It’s been an amazing year for me, I’ll post about that in time for the New Year, so for now I thought it fitting to post some links of Christmas Awesome I’ve come across in the last few weeks.

Enjoy! And May you and all your loved ones have a happy and joyful Christmas.


Video of Awesome – Digital Christmas
Quite Possibly what it might be like if the 1st Century story took place in the 21st Century… Christmas 2.0

Post of Note – Santa Tracker
This is the US Military official Santa Tracker – bookmark the page so you can check in on Christmas Even and see just how far around the Globe Santa has to go to get to your place!

Surf’s Up – Advent Calendar
OK, I’ll confess to a shade of self promotion here and point you (if you’ve not already seen it) to the Advent Calendar I trot out every year – I still love it!! It’s becoming a tradition with my Australian Family it’s kinda cute that they get a kick out of it still …
Christmas Cross Stitch Countdown

Listening to – Ultra Lounge, Christmas Cocktails Volume 1.
I really can’t get excited about the cheesy/tired/trite versions of Christmas Carols that get blasted over sound systems in shopping malls, and dang it, even in some churches, every year. I was introduced to Ultra Lounge a few years ago and THIS is my go to Christmas CD, no, not much that’s traditional about it at all and it TOTALLY appeals to my retro loving little heart… check it out, it’s gorgeous!!! Ultra Lounge, Christmas Cocktails Volume 1.

Reading – The Nativity – Luke Chapter 2
I can’t go past this chapter of the Bible at this time of the year; don’t freak out, it won’t kill you to read one chapter just as a reminder of how this whole this Christmas thing got started – it’s in straightforward English too…
Luke Chapter 2, The Message

Image(s) of Awesome – The Big Picture – Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas.
I love the Big Picture, a regularly updated gallery of stunning Pictures – here’s their Christmas 2010 version… Enjoy, and go all the way to the end, that last one’s my favourite The Big Picture – Christmas 2010

Diet is Die with a T.

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I knew it would come eventually once the exercise thing was ingrained in my schedule (well, mostly… it has been established that days on which you put your back out can have a negative effect on regular attendance) – but the switch in my head was flipped and I can’t even tell you how it happened. Oh, wait… yes I can.

The switch was an unimpressive weigh in at the gym; one on which the needle went up, not down.

This was a displeasure. This was also not [ahem] for reasons of the ‘moon’ as it were… this was a reasonably clear case of diet outpacing the exercise.

I duly did some research on the web about various programs… Lite ‘n Easy was top of the list after a couple of friends had found it quite successful – it’s a program where your food for the week is delivered in insulated boxes and you don’t have to lift a finger to cook – (I think you can probably pay extra for someone to come feed it to you as well…). This has its appeal in taking out the guess work… but it isn’t cheap and I actually quite like half an hour in the kitchen at the end of the day… so I discounted it.

I did also have a bit of a think about Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig but didn’t even get so far as to check out their websites. I’ve done WW before, I know the drill. I also put on all the weight I lost on it and then some… so it was a heck of a short term investment I wasn’t keen to try again…

So, maybe against all good sense, I decided to D.I.Y this diet caper and what better place to start than my iPhone.

I know, right? Isn’t that JUST the kind of thing I’d do?

I researched apps for weight loss and the highest rated one also happens to be [yay!] free – so I downloaded it and started putting it through its paces… if you want to have a look, you can find it on the web here – http://www.myfitnesspal.com/mobile.

Basically, it’s a calorie counter app. You set it up with your profile, your starting weight, your goal weight and the amount of weight you’d like to reduce by each week and the app advises a calorie limit for each day to get you toward achieving that goal. Then, meal by meal you input what you’ve eaten and the application keeps a running total of calories consumed and calories remaining for the day. Where a particular brand product may not be in the database I can input the nutritional information provided on product and when the app syncs that data becomes available for other users!

I use two other applications on my phone to help this business along. One is A2Z Conversions which is useful for converting oz to grams and vice versa (the MFP site is ‘merican so sometimes that data’s not available in metric measures), the other is LiteTest’s Calorie Converter 1.0 which calculates back and forth between calories and kilojoules, again MFP measures calories and a lot of the nutritional info is measured in kilojoules here in Australia.

There’s a whole bunch of social tools on the MFP website so all the benefits of something like WW where you have ‘group sessions’ to learn tips and tricks to help you along, and Jenny where you have your own weight loss coach are taken on by the social network of other people in the same boat… from the comfort of your own sofa… how. cool. is. that???

I know, I know, right now probably half or more of you are rolling your eyes and thinking “how tedious” or going that step further to “Dee’s always seemed a bit off her head, now we have proof”. I on the other hand love databases and keeping track and planning around how many calories I have left of a day… I love the idea of the social network/forum/community idea of the website though I’ve not jumped in and ‘friended’ anyone yet – and well, yes, maybe I’m weird… but hey… it’s working.

I jumped on the scales at the gym yesterday and since that last ill fated weigh in I’ve lost 1.5 kilos; bringing the total lost so far to 6.5 (that’s 1.024 stones, for my British readers and 14.330lb for you ‘mericans).