Serpent Munchies and other mumblings
05/07/2005 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaAfter a week or so of chaos, Izzie's existence finally gets back to its usual abnormal state.
There are so many rats leaving the sinking ship that the Izzie just cannot keep up. Was too broke to contribute to the collection tins, but last Thursday, Izzie had the inspired idea to come up with her own little goodbye gifts for two of the elves – one whose last shift was yesterday and the other's was this morning.
So Friday we went shopping in our favorite grocery store. The price of almonds has increased by around 50% in the last year or so and almonds just happen to be the main ingredient in Izzie's specialty – Cockroach Clusters. But now it's time for some serious substitution. Tried pecan nuts but they don't take kindly to being chopped into ickle slivers as well as being just a bit too overpowering in flavour. There's also the possibility of using chopped up biscuits and stuff. But we will still be using almond slivers in this latest batch. However, while slinking among the spices and nosing at the nuts, the Izzie spied a big sack of granulated peanuts – all nicely chopped and roasted, but most importantly of all – totally and absolutely salt free and much much cheaper than almonds.
So the plan was to fill up little bowls on Friday – one with dried apricots and another with prunes, top them up with whiskey and let them soak for a day or so as well as toasting all those slivered almonds. Saturday would be the day for melting all those choccie bars and actually making the munchies. Well, the map is not the territory. Was supposed to be finishing work at 10pm, but due to some monumental stuff ups and communication breakdowns, ended up having to stay until 11pm. So that was the end of Saturday's choccie making.
So guess what Izzie ended up doing with her Sunday online time? Actually, turned out to be a particularly successful session as we came up with the inspired idea of dipping the drunken apricots which we had pureed and rolled into balls. Been a long long time since Izzie had done some choccie dipping as it is pretty damned tricky. If you don't get the melting procedures done properly, the chocolate coating gets all grey and streaky. So, killing two birds with the one stone, once the dipping had been done, tossed the almonds in to the remaining melted chocolate sludge, stirred around and tossed little spoonfuls of crunchy cockroach clusters onto our baking trays.
Did the same thing all over again on Monday night but also tried the granulated peanuts. Scrumptious little buggers at less than a quarter the price of almonds. Only problem is, they are not quite as subtle in flavour so adding things like diced crystallized ginger, cherries or apricots just does not really work at all.
So maybe this massive price increase for almond turns out to be a blessing in disguise as we have now resorted to a bit more experimenting and returning to some old favorites. But the chances of making fresh cream truffles still remain remote as the mixture has to be whisked up all nice and fluffy with a room temperature of just about 0 degrees Celsius.
So while such activities are a most decadent indulgence, the cost in time and ingredients is truly tiny in proportion to the value in the eyes of the recipient. Choccies are always considered a decadent luxury and hand made choccies are truly off the scale. Folks really do seem to think that making such critters requires magical and mystical powers not possessed by mere Muggles. And Izzie of course, is quite content to maintain the mystery.
Well. We have had five elves leaving in the space of two weeks and the goblin bitch who did all our pays late the other week will be leaving on Friday too. The only choccies that she would have a chance of getting would be some of those wickedly wonderful Weasley delights – a la Fred and George – and preferably stuff still at the beta- testing stages.
Had to ring up the bank today to get our house repayments moved from every second Thursday to Fridays instead, in case they make a habit of such meanness.
Yesss. Long overdue for an update on the dastardly doings of Dolores but in between mucking around with munchies, coping with the advances of a dozen or so amorous dementors and dealing with the unexpected demise of a most cute and cuddly canine creature, the Izzie has just been too exhausted to do much more than lurking in Cyberia.
There are so many rats leaving the sinking ship that the Izzie just cannot keep up. Was too broke to contribute to the collection tins, but last Thursday, Izzie had the inspired idea to come up with her own little goodbye gifts for two of the elves – one whose last shift was yesterday and the other's was this morning.
So Friday we went shopping in our favorite grocery store. The price of almonds has increased by around 50% in the last year or so and almonds just happen to be the main ingredient in Izzie's specialty – Cockroach Clusters. But now it's time for some serious substitution. Tried pecan nuts but they don't take kindly to being chopped into ickle slivers as well as being just a bit too overpowering in flavour. There's also the possibility of using chopped up biscuits and stuff. But we will still be using almond slivers in this latest batch. However, while slinking among the spices and nosing at the nuts, the Izzie spied a big sack of granulated peanuts – all nicely chopped and roasted, but most importantly of all – totally and absolutely salt free and much much cheaper than almonds.
So the plan was to fill up little bowls on Friday – one with dried apricots and another with prunes, top them up with whiskey and let them soak for a day or so as well as toasting all those slivered almonds. Saturday would be the day for melting all those choccie bars and actually making the munchies. Well, the map is not the territory. Was supposed to be finishing work at 10pm, but due to some monumental stuff ups and communication breakdowns, ended up having to stay until 11pm. So that was the end of Saturday's choccie making.
So guess what Izzie ended up doing with her Sunday online time? Actually, turned out to be a particularly successful session as we came up with the inspired idea of dipping the drunken apricots which we had pureed and rolled into balls. Been a long long time since Izzie had done some choccie dipping as it is pretty damned tricky. If you don't get the melting procedures done properly, the chocolate coating gets all grey and streaky. So, killing two birds with the one stone, once the dipping had been done, tossed the almonds in to the remaining melted chocolate sludge, stirred around and tossed little spoonfuls of crunchy cockroach clusters onto our baking trays.
Did the same thing all over again on Monday night but also tried the granulated peanuts. Scrumptious little buggers at less than a quarter the price of almonds. Only problem is, they are not quite as subtle in flavour so adding things like diced crystallized ginger, cherries or apricots just does not really work at all.
So maybe this massive price increase for almond turns out to be a blessing in disguise as we have now resorted to a bit more experimenting and returning to some old favorites. But the chances of making fresh cream truffles still remain remote as the mixture has to be whisked up all nice and fluffy with a room temperature of just about 0 degrees Celsius.
So while such activities are a most decadent indulgence, the cost in time and ingredients is truly tiny in proportion to the value in the eyes of the recipient. Choccies are always considered a decadent luxury and hand made choccies are truly off the scale. Folks really do seem to think that making such critters requires magical and mystical powers not possessed by mere Muggles. And Izzie of course, is quite content to maintain the mystery.
Well. We have had five elves leaving in the space of two weeks and the goblin bitch who did all our pays late the other week will be leaving on Friday too. The only choccies that she would have a chance of getting would be some of those wickedly wonderful Weasley delights – a la Fred and George – and preferably stuff still at the beta- testing stages.
Had to ring up the bank today to get our house repayments moved from every second Thursday to Fridays instead, in case they make a habit of such meanness.
Yesss. Long overdue for an update on the dastardly doings of Dolores but in between mucking around with munchies, coping with the advances of a dozen or so amorous dementors and dealing with the unexpected demise of a most cute and cuddly canine creature, the Izzie has just been too exhausted to do much more than lurking in Cyberia.
