Remember remember the 5th of November, Gunpowder treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder season should ever be forgot.
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Bonfire Night Party – Chili and Baked Potatoes
Remember remember the 5th of November, Gunpowder treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder season should ever be forgot.
Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged baked potato, beans, bonfire, chicken, chili, food, guy fawkes, onion, poultry, recipe, sparklers, stew, tomato
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The Wednesday Tipple – Hot Toddies for a cold Bonfire Night
It’s nearly Bonfire Night, the perfect time to get stuck into drinks that are as warming for the inside as they are on the outside and write the name of secret crushes in a trail of light from a sparkler.
For the uninitiated – that’s you, America – Bonfire Night is the night when Brits celebrate the foiling of a dastardly plot to blow up the House of Lords, kill the King and bring Catholicism back to Britain. Boo hiss. Continue reading
Posted in The Wednesday Tipple
Tagged apple cider, bonfire, clove, cocktail, food, frangelico, guy fawkes, hot chocolate, hot toddie, hot toddy, orange, port, recipe, sausage, steaming bishop, vodka
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The Monday Treat – All Souls celebrate with mournful black caviar and sour cream on top of mini potato rosti
Before Moving to New York, Jon and I lived in Warsaw, where Halloween wasn’t such a big deal, but All Souls, the day after Halloween, really, really was.
The entire city seemed to migrate to the graveyards and embark upon a cleaning and decorating project – starting with family graves, then graves near the family graves, then other graves that looked like they needed some care and attention. Continue reading
This Dinner Will Get You Laid – The Theatre Ghost – followed by Witches Hair and Sea Monster Spaghetti
I read somewhere that in New York City the present is so powerful that the past fades away and is lost, but not so for my friend Bob the costume man.
“I’ve been on Broadway since Cats was Kittens,†he told me, “and obviously I’m only a few hours younger than God, so I have seen a few things, you’d better believe it.†Continue reading
Posted in This Dinner Will Get You Laid
Tagged calamari, haunted theatre, pasta, recipe, sea monster, seafood, shellfish, shrimp, theatre ghost, witch
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5 Sweet Halloween treats including Oozing Pus Chocolate Cup Cakes and Worms in Dirt.
Oozing-Pus Chocolate Cup Cakes (makes 6 – 8 portions)
These are molten white chocolate truffle cup cakes by any other name, and the warm white chocolate really does ooze pus-like from the centre when they are cut open – the perfect end to an adult Halloween party.
5 oz chocolate (just less than 2 bars)
¼ cup plus 1 tbsp butter
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
¼ cup of sugar
3 tbsp flour
8 – 12 white chocolate truffles (I usually use the Lindt Lindor ones that are sold individually at the checkout in my local supermarket)
- Pre heat the oven to 320
- Melt the chocolate and the butter in a bowl over a pan of hot water or in the microwave
- Meanwhile whisk the eggs, the yolks and the sugar until they are fluffy and pale (by hand; 5 mins, by electric whisk; half that time)
- Fold the chocolate gently into the egg mixture
- Add the flour and stir to combine
- Divide half the mixture into cake cases – or straight into a well-greased muffin tin
- Pop a truffle on top
- Layer over the other half of the chocolate mixture
- Bake for about 15 minutes – keep an eye on them – and cool for 10 minutes
Top with whipped cream and grated chocolate or rich red-brown coco powder, and consider adding Bailey’s to the cream for a decadent touch (about 1 ½ cups of cream would do it) Continue reading
The Wednesday Tipple – devils on horseback, some in a suitcase, and frozen cantaloupe martinis
“Can I take a look in your purse?†asked the security man outside Ricky’s. I’d been on a quest for glow in the dark vampire teeth to send to godson Arthur (what else?), but was leaving empty handed. Nevertheless, a bag inspection was required, so I unzipped and subjected a wallet, a bunch of keys, 3 lipsticks, 2 lip balms, a blackberry, an i-pod, a note book, 4 pens, a nail file, and a pink plastic banana holder to scrutiny. Continue reading
Posted in The Wednesday Tipple
Tagged bacon, canteloupe, costume, devils on horseback, halloween, martini, melon, prune, recipe, Ricky's
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The Monday treat – spicy pumpkin soup and a new, not-so-spicy-pumpkin hair do
So I was going for Mad Men red hair, but as I sat in front of the mirror in the leather and essential oil themed salon sipping my cup of vanilla chai, I wasn’t absolutely convinced.
“It’s going to totally be Joan when it dries,†said the optimistic hair stylist, holding up strands of purest orange to the mirror light.
“Are you sure it’s not, well, a bit pumpkin?†I wondered.
“No way.” He shook his head, causing the dreadlocked part of his Mohican to jiggle in a clatter of plastic beads.
“Nah ah. If that were a pumpkin it would be some totally hot one,†he said. Continue reading
Posted in The Monday Treat
Tagged mad men, pumpkin, recipe, soup, Thanksgiving, vegetarian
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This dinner will get you laid – The ghosts of boyfriends past flee at the sight of autumn risotto with butternut squash and Madeira soaked golden sultanas
Browsing for Halloween costumes in Ricky’s, Adam and I discussed what we would be this year. I was thinking some kind of generic mourner, since I have black lace gloves and a hat with a veil already. Adam was considering the Mad Hatter or the Juggling Football Guy off Youtube but most probably would fall back on plan B – Go Go Dancer. Continue reading
Posted in This Dinner Will Get You Laid
Tagged Adam, boyfriend, butternut squash, ghost, halloween, recipe, risotto, rosemary, vegetarian, Venice
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The Wednesday Tipple – Warm Bourbon and Milk Punch (and ginger chocolate chip cookies)
Among the many myths about this great city of New York, one of the most enduring is that of crocodiles living in the sewers. Over the summer this story was given a new lease of life when a crocodile / alligator / largish gecko was sighted looking suspiciously at a man-hole cover somewhere in Brooklyn. And now new statistics confirm it; potential sightings of toothy lizards in New York have increased by a third – that’s a lot – over the last five years. Is a colony breeding voraciously underneath the city into a secret army, hopped up on whatever spooky chemical waste is sloshing about down there, amassing superpowers, ready and waiting to strike?
As Jersey Shore’s Pauly D succinctly says; “crocodiles gonna eat me, yeah.â€
Make of that what you will. Continue reading
Posted in The Wednesday Tipple
Tagged biscuit, bourbon, cat, chocolate, cookie, crocodile, ghost, ginger, milk, office, recipe, snack, urban myth
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The Monday Treat – cinnamon pecan vanilla cheesecake with a hot toffee apple sauce
It was my birthday this weekend, and I celebrated with duck and pancakes with a side order of good friends down in Chinatown followed by champagne and cheesecake at home.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love cake cake, and I’m happy to eat it whenever the occasion arises, but when I get to call the shots, cheesecake is my celebratory mouthful of choice. Continue reading
Posted in The Monday Treat
Tagged apple, cheesecake, cream, dessert, graham crackers, Katz vs Carnegie, pecans, recipe, toffee, vegetarian
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