Rocking the Casbah
It happened.
Mr Upstairs brought home company. At 3am this morning him and this bird, walked/stumbled up the stairs by my bedroom window with no concern for my being asleep.
THIS bird squawked in her half awakeness and they shut up long enough for me to nod back off. I must have done so fairly quickly because I was woken again shortly thereafter by them going off… or going at it… or [insert euphemism of choice here].
Now, you may all think I’m a bit prudish for being bothered about it. If you’ve read my about page you’ll understand why (ironically in my last 5 years of living in apartments this is the 1st time I’ve been any kind of unwitting audience for any kind of [ahem] home-made porn). But there’s a fair bit of ewww attached to trying not to picture what’s going one directly above my bed on the next floor.
Worldly people, please advise, do I have any right to be squicked out ? Is this just one of those facts of life one has to live with when one lives in close quarters?
Sigh, ah well, while I await your sterling advice and before they go for round 4, I’m off to get coffee.
And ear-plugs.
Brownie Points
I’ve been after a bit of baking lately, the cupboards are a bit bare as I’m not partial to shopping and come dinner time, after I’ve done away with my main I’m often after a bit of something sweet to finish.
I know, hardly good for the upholstery but good for the soul, I’m sure you’ll agree.
So this week I’ve been hit by the bakery bug twice and to salve my conscience just a little I’ve eaten my fill of my chosen treat and taken the rest to work to share, because I might as make my workmates souls a bit lighter, even if their butts won’t be…
So this week’s offerings were Hokey Pokey biscuits and Coconut Chocolate Brownies, recipes courtesy of that bastion of good NZ home cooking, the Edmonds Cookbook…
The Hokey Pokey biscuits were rather lovely but the Brownies? Sublime. So, because I love you, I’m going to share the recipe here…
125g butter
1/4 c cocoa
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla essence (5ml)
1/2 c coconut
1/2 c plain baking flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder.
Now, the Edmonds book says use Edmonds flour and Edmonds Baking Powder… that’s bogus, but allowed because it is the Edmonds book after all… you can use whatever the heck brand you like. I sure did. Because I don’t live in NZ and can’t get hold of the ‘proper’ brand…
Anyway…
Melt the butter in a medium (sized) saucepan. Add cocoa and stir over LOW heat for 1-2 minutes. (I used a balloon whisk to stir it to make sure there are no lumps).
Remove from heat. Stir in sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition (the balloon whisk works well at this point too!!). Beat in vanilla and coconut (I used coarse shredded coconut rather than the common or garden variety dessicated coconut, it added great texture). Sift flour and BP. Stir into mixture. Pour into greased and lined shallow 20cm square cake tin. Bake at 180deg C for 30-35 minutes. Leave in tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Cut into bars when cold and dust with Icing (confectioners) sugar.
Makes 16 (which of course, depends on how big you cut it… I used a round tin as I’d nothing else and cut it up v small, they were so awesome, I’m all set for round 2).
So there you go, NaBlo day 10 and a free recipe for all… aren’t you lucky??!!
And So it Begins
I bought my first Christmas gift the other day, one for Lil’ Sis and her hubby. (Yeah, like I’m going to tell you what it is…)
This is a good plan in terms of budgeting. If I was really smart I’d be putting cash aside and doing the bulk of the shopping on Boxing Day, in the sales. Particularly as the family Christmas is not happening until I get to NZ in January… But when I see something I’ll pick it up now just so that I don’t miss out.
Truth is I’m pretty crap at present buying. I can buy for kids; for them I’m a big fan of educational toys, and my nephews love to read so that’s always an easy mark – books.
I’m good for vouchers too, when you’re rubbish at present buying vouchers are your saviour. I LOVE to get vouchers, it’s like getting free money, but there seems to be a bit of stigma attached to them when you’re buying for someone else, like they’re a cop out because you can’t think of what to buy, or worse, that you can’t be bothered to make the effort. Fact is when you’re rubbish at figuring out what to buy vouchers save your life.
This Christmas, I have a cunning plan for the kids, making my own gifts. But again, can’t tell you much about that… Having figured it out though, I need to do some thinking about everybody else…
I guess what I’m getting at is that Christmas is coming and I’m planning ahead.
At least for now…