SORN Too Early

I SORN too early, so I basically did not fully utilise the road tax paid.  I look at the beautiful weather and cannot go out.  I must remember to only SORN when the tax runs out!

Substandard Products

I don't normally check each thing I buy in details, mostly down to laziness.  I only just found out one of the jackets' zip was sown in wrong hence inoperable.  This is the second defective items from Mike Ashley's store that slipped pass me, another reason to never shop with him.

LGBT+ History Month: Renee Richards

The discussion on transgender in tennis actually has a face, Renee Richards'.  You learn something new everyday.

British Pie Week

With restaurants shut, there is not much fan fare for the British Pie Week this year.  One of our favourite shops is giving pies away, but with the stay at home order, I am not suppose to go there, bummer!!

Basic Fajitas

We read the ingredients on the fajitas seasoning mix and tried to replicate it.  Then I came across a Texan fajitas video, it was just 3 or 4 ingredients, cayanne, paprika and cumin.  We tried it, it worked very well, easy piecey!

Real Bread Week

I do already make bread at home. One of our favourite bakers, Leeds Bread Coop mentions they would give out their mother starter, but I am not sure I have the patients to look after a starter...

Langoustine

Taste of prawn, hassle of crab. Just let Young's do the work next time!

 

Old Dictionary

I was just tidying the study and flipped thorough my old dictionary. Nostalgia.

 

Malted Bread II

I had another go at the recipe, this time I used wheat flake in lieu of the "granary". Malt extract is so thick, I added too much of it, again, which is not really a problem except being extra sticky to knead! I am sure I can nail it next time.

Match made in heaven.

 

Ebaying

I haven't done "real ebaying" for a while.  S had an idea of a present, and I explained to her that in order to get the best price, we need to do some stalking and strategic bidding, and with some luck, we would get the thing at the price we wanted.  I did her bidding, literally, and missed out at the end, she thought this akin to gambling, which in my opinion is nothing alike.  It is like a "free spin", and if you land on a "prize", you can buy it at a fair cost, I don't think it has much reassemblance to real gambling.

Modern Football Cards

What is limited in numbers, treasured by a few, and prices highly inflated?  What can be lost forever at the back of a sofa? No, not football cards?  That's pretty much what some of the news channels describing cryptocurrency.

British Pancake is Crepe

We made some pancakes for Shrove Tuesday.  We do not observe any of these religious nonsense, but we made some pancakes anyway.  We made British pancakes for this occassion, which is essentially crepe.  I prefer the fluffy American ones.

Product of Origin, Lack of

The problem with shopping at a local grocer, butcher or fishmonger, it is hard to know wht product of origin.  Some places like to advertise the providence of their product, some do not.  I had to keep asking for the product of origin, the shopkeepers think I am snobbish, and I get disappointed.  It is so much easier if it is printed on the product and you can read without having to ask.

Lucky Dip Valentine's Dinner

I was tempted by the Valentine's dinner meal deal, I added a deal in my shopping trolley.  As we get closer and close to the date, the deal is no longer available online, and therefore I cannot make changes to it.  Knowing if they miss anything, I would get no deal which isn't the spirit of the meal deal, therefore I clicked allow substitution for all of them, rendering my Valentine's dinner a lucky dip.  Out of the six items in the deal, I had 3 things swapped, everything was nice as expected, phew.

Dark Chocolate Orange Bar

It tastes a bit like a chocolate orange except not in a shape of orange.

Lunar New Year 2021

I left the radiators off to recreate the Lunar New Year atmosphere!

 

Malted Bread

I am convinced that commercial granary bread are maltier because they must have used malt extract. Although most granary bread recipe do not mention malt extract, I was adamant to try, I even got two big jar of malt extract, confident that it would taste nice. I managed to find this Malt bread recipe with malt extract. It turned out very nicely. Malt bread the rest of the year!

Pecan Mocha Brownie

I first came across this Waitrose Pecan Mocha Brownie recipe on a Waitrose weekend years ago. I liked the look of that so much, I kept the page. I finally made it. I was a little skeptical at first, but it turned out very nicely.

Montesuma's Absolute Black 100%

I had some Michel Cluizel Noir Infini before,  so I know what to expect for this Absolute Black.   Both are very "medicinal" as expected,  Michel has better aroma.  Now we just need to work thorough this anti-oxidant potion! 

Sad Chilli Plant

I am not sure why all the sudden the chilli plant becomes all sad.  Too wet?  Too dry? Too cold?  Let just say a prayer and hope for the best...

Tasteless Coffee

We had some tasteless coffee ground recently.  We thought that would be the worst, but little did we know.  We got some cheap instant decaff with the word "Gold" in its name, it was absolutely tasteless!  That could be use as a prank, to trick people into thinking they cannot taste!

Bain Marie Sea Bass

My wok is not big enough for fish steaming, so I tried to steam the fish using bain marie. It turned out okay.

 

I need to research more about Turkish fish farming.

British Brown Crab Claws

We bought some crab claws from the new fishmonger, Union Fish.

 

A lot of shells...

All in one Cake

I was looking for recipe to use up some milk, and I found a recipe online.  When you are using oil instead of butter, you can just mix everything in at one go.  What a revelation!

Super Waxed

Flint came home all waxed up.  Maybe I should wax her more often.

Lunar New Year Junk Food Sampling Ft 點 Cook Guide

 

Everyone brings everyone junk food / snacks in lunar new year.  Even if it was not manufactured junk food, it would be home made junk food.  Martin was talking about some "newer" invention, abut this video is more noticable for its rudeness, which is not common on Martin's video.  But since it is exceptionally rude / funny, I will "audio description" it here.

The rudeness surrounds the 水滴型蛋捲, droplet-shaped cookie.  

00:00 - 00:03

Sunny, "I feel compelled to lick it."

Creamy smacked Sunny.

09:30 onwards

Martin, "best gift of the year.  I always wanted to buy it."  Showing off the item.

Sunny, lifting the box close to the camera, "Let's look at the package, zooming in, very nice packing".

Martin chimed in and agreed.

Sunny, stroking the box, describing the different texture of the packing, "the droplet shape is smooth, the rest of the box is matt texture."  (the droplet shapes like... a female body part)

Creamy smacked Sunny.

Sunny passed box to ask Martin to touch the packaging the confirm the texture.

10:24

Sunny, "there is a little plastic knife."

Martin,"I know what the knife is for, there is a membrane in the box."

10:44

Sunny, "let me break the packing."  As he pokes the plastic membrane, he made a moan noise.

Creamy smacked Sunny again.

11:00

(this few second was the first few second of the video)

Sunny, "I feel compelled to lick it."

Creamy smacked Sunny.

11:45

Martin, "The picture on the box doesn't really look like the real item."

Creamy, "the picture looks like theres some chocolate sauce in the middle of the cookie."

Extreme Couponing

I am very much NOT an extreme couponer.  I am a very lazy couponer.  These days, I am not prepare to part with details with any new companies that don't already have my details before in exchange of any coupon.  Good luck couponing.

Andrology with Rhod Gilbert

When I saw the comedy programme with BBC Rhod Gilbert I didn't think it would be serious.
It turned out to be very informative.