Shadow Footprints

This evening I've baked, for the first time, Stained-glass window biscuits and gingerbread biscuits.

I've done it for my party, I just want to know why I'm doing all this.

I had a lot of trouble trying to find the boiled sweets for crushing; it's all soft lollies now. I had to buy a packet of mixed lollipops and hop the colours were good.

I made the four of us one of my large calzones for dinner tonight, filled with mince, capsicums, mushrooms, tomato paste, basil pesto, parmesan, mozzarella, and Moroccan Harissa pizza topping from Kato. It was well received and both guys were pleasantly surprised. (Little Bear had had one of my calzones before so knew what to expect.) I do enjoy cooking, and it's nice to cook for people who aren't fussy about the components.

Link: http://shadowfoot.com/recipe/2006/03/23/margarita_chicken

I cooked Margarita Chicken for dinner tonight. It was delicious.

I found it in the September 2005 edition of Men's Health magazine. I generally prefer the US edition of the magazine, but the Australian one is what is available locally.

Tonight Little Bear described me as looking guilty last night, and that she couldn't leave me alone for five minutes "or look what would happen". While she was out yesterday evening I baked two cakes, both flourless chocolate cakes. I had the recipes from two colleagues. They both use ground almonds in place of flour.

Simon's cake has melted chocolate and a small bit of coffee. Tirza's cake uses grated chocolate. Her cake ends up with a crusty topping.

Tonight the gang came around to make pot-luck pizzas. I forced them to sample the cakes. The verdict was that the one with the crusty topping would go excellent as a dessert, served while warm with ice cream. The other resembled a brownie and would go well with coffee. The Faithless One criticised my flourless efforts before sampling them. He enjoyed both and a flourless sponge cake I served a few weeks ago.

Update: I miscalculated on a recipe; I didn't use enough ground almonds in the cake with the crusty top. I used only 210g. I also overcooked both cakes. Care should be taken.

Link: http://shadowfoot.com/recipe/2005/08/31/upside_down_caramelised_banana_cake

There's a cake baking competition at work. My heat is tomorrow. I've made Upside-down caramelised banana cake. I found the recipe last week in the paper. It said to cook for 90 minutes but I found the cake cooked after 55.

I had a couple of trial runs with it, and decided overly ripe bananas, such as those suitable for a banana cake, are not ideal. I also used some dark brown sugar for the caramel, it was a bit too dark. I'm worried that this time I have over-cooked it. Tomorrow will tell. It's a relatively easy cake that looks quite different.

There are two other entrants in my heat tomorrow, one being my boss! I decided to do the best I could and if I lose it's not because I didn't try. tomorrow I'll know.

The competition is really just a way to have a bit of fun and a regular morning tea. Getting a cake to work is difficult for me; I normally pushbike and tomorrow my flatmate has a breakfast meeting.

It was a nice quiet Christmas but I'm glad to be home again. My cat is pleased to see me and is being very affectionate. Thanks to David and Helen for feeding him while I was away. I have no idea what my flatmate's schedule has been, except that the boyfriend is back in town and she's made herself scarce. I failed to plan things well enough in advance, and there wasn't a cold beer for me on arrival. Fortunately I wanted to go out and get a couple of things and by the time I returned I had a few bottles of Beck's chilled sufficiently.

I'm charging up a toy I got myself. My nephews each got a Predator 360 so I went out and bought one for myself. I am such a big kid, but hey, it does have flashing lights when you get it spinning. Another thing I got for myself is the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition boxed set. I love Boxing Day sales.

V, it's okay to call me Brian. Thanks for filling in for me while I was in a place where people still wear mullets. I want a photo of the bicycle frame fence, and the gazebo when you finish it. I'm also waiting to hear how each of your family, friends, and passers-by have irritated you during this time. I've been spoiled with broadband for the last six weeks. I was restricted to dial-up for checking messages, and as it wasn't at a flat rate I couldn't spend much time online.

I saw The Incredibles on Sunday. I think I'll go and see the movie again.

My brother has Sky TV. I gave it up several years ago and hadn't missed it. I did see Delia making Butterscotch and Banana Trifle with Madeira and, not having had any trifle for Christmas, am busy making it now. Delia isn't enough reason to get Sky but I saw Emeril and Tyler Florence are now both on Previous The Living Channel and between them they make a convincing argument. If we had the complete cooking channel it would be an easy decision, I'd resubscribe in an instance, but yoga, quilts and many other topics are not of interest, including Ready Steady Cook. Also, how much trifle do I need?

On the way home I almost repeated my accident, at the same spot. A car failed to yield to me while checking the other way. Fortunately the weather was fine and I didn't have wet brakes to deal with.

Billy talks about something every gay man should carry at all times, just in case.

I've just seen Allyson Gofton's Food in a Minute.... Casual Cooking book for $25 instead of $39.95. I'll be buying that, it's just my style of cooking many things. There's also a competition to win one.

I'm into science fiction, and future dystopias are often good reads. This reminds me of those. As multinational companies expand in their power, and people travel more and more, there is less for governments to control.

Someone who I really respect was asked about me. He emailed me after it with the message "you walk on water!"

The upgrade to Queen St is confusing. They're going to retain the number of lanes, make the footpaths wider and still have parking bays? Are they moving all the building back to get the extra space for the footpaths?

Nice! Can I get Oakley Thump with prescription lenses?

I hadn't realised that Carson Kressley was visiting Auckland, briefly, before the horse race. I should have been there, just to meet some of the gay men in Auckland I don't already know.

Aardvark asks about privacy and why a computer repair company would be looking at the pictures on your computer. What else they might look at?

Pan-fried spinach and mozzarella veal sounds delicious.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Highly respected and intelligent. You are an excellent tactician.
You rarely act without thinking, and are an excellent leader, although you can be a bit boring at times.
You aren't very 'hands on', preferring to have your subordinates do the dirty work, but you'll throw down if necessary.

Which Star Trek Character are you?
Quizilla, via Palochi

The choice to not vote is a valid choice. (Except in Australia.) It is different from not bothering to vote. I've seen lots of people saying "Get out there and vote." The message should be "Decide how you're going to vote, and do it!" This applies to FPP voting systems. I think there should be a None of the above category.

A police chief says "Wear a helmet" after a cycling accident where he stood up to go over a speed bump and let go of the handlebars. He wasn't wearing a helmet, and the injuries showing in the photo would still be there if he had a helmet on, unless he's suggesting wearing a full face helmet. Not only is it hypocritical, "I always wear a helmet. I'm a firm believer in helmets", it's also stupid to use this accident as an example.

I've managed to do something on my website that has stopped google from linking it. If only I could find out what.