Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Joy to the World

Wow, a new post, and I'm sure its been less than a month since the last one...

Um, not a lot has really been happening, except that I just switched to blogger beta version, and apparently its a lot easier to do things, only it was never really hard to do anything to start with, so I'm not really that excited about it. Oh, and thanks to Schnozz over at schnozzfest
(http://www.schnozzfest.com/blog/ check out her NaBloPoMo story, its awesome) I also have Google reader, which makes checking blogs at work that much easier. So woohoo for that, a new, easier way to avoid doing work. Like I needed one.

We went to the Christmas Carols in the Stadium on Saturday. Very cool. They were using the PA system that had been set up for the Elton John concert tomorrow, but they were clearly unprepared for such a system because golly gee that was LOUD! Deb and I couldn't hear anything but fuzz out of our ears for hours afterwards. The carols worked much as they always did, all the people that were there purely to be seen were down on the grounds, wandering back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forwards (there was a lot of walking clearly) wearing completely inappropriate clothing and being scorned by those sensible among us who were there for the carols and were dressed warmly (and also secretly envied because of the self confidence and large groups of friends, two things I never really had). Nick Tansley (a local radio "celebrity") was running the show and basically every carol was set to some random beat he had found on his electronic keyboard. I bet you never heard "Away in a Manger" as a march before...

Anyways, the best part of it was that the brass band section were all dressed up as super heroes. There were the usual culprits, Batman, Robin, Superman, and then there were the ones tailored for the younger crowd, like Mr Incredible. Then there were the less usual culprits, Virgil Tracy from the Thunderbirds and Zorro. And then there were two completely new superheroes. There was Pink Super hero woman lady thing... and Captain FartyPants. Now, Fartypants' had a very obvious super power, but I'm not sure what Pink Super Hero Woman Lady Thing had as her superpower, but perhaps it was the power of wearing pink. Because there was a lot of pink. It would definitely blind her enemies.

Oh, the other best part (shut up, you can too have several best parts, its not a competition) was the fireworks. We were right under them and couldn't see them. But I'm told they were good. If only they had pointed them out to us before they sang Mariah Carey songs over the top of the bangs (Mariah Carey can drown ANYTHING out, even a sonic boom).

Hmmm... what else? Oh, on Saturday we had people round, and after they left we discovered poor Logan (the backwards eared bunny) had been tied to the top of the Christmas tree. People, this is not the best way to convince the kitten-cat not to attack the tree. You cant tie her favourite toy to the top and then expect her to leave it be. So the only way to stop her trying to climb the tree was to make the tree come to life. Its very hard to attack something that shakes and growls at you in a very big boomy voice.

Also, I baked. But we had none of the real ingredients, so I improvised a bit. Or, a lot. We didn't have eggs so I used Greek yoghurt, I had a banana I needed to get rid of so I put it in my blueberry muffins, we didn't have baking powder so i used a teensy bit of baking soda. They still turned out edible. But my hokey pokey cookies were the best. The recipe (not from the book obviously) is as follows....

Hokey Pokey Cookies

  • Some random amount of margarine (we didn't have butter)
  • Approximately 1/4 cup of milk (recipe called for a tablespoon I think)
  • Lots of golden syrup
  • Some sugar (recipe said 1/2 cup, I used around twice this)
  • Flour

    Put margarine, half the sugar and milk into a pot. Squeeze in a generous amount of golden syrup. Turn on element. Wait for margarine to melt.
    30 Minutes later realise margarine isn't melting, notice pot isn't getting warm. Wonder what is wrong but decide to give it some more time.
    20 minutes after discover smoke coming from element next to pot. Realise wrong element is turned on, and that hot element has some crusty leftovers on it that are just about on fire. Turn off hot element hope it doesn't catch fire, turn on element under pot.
    Stir until margarine melts, taste ingredients, add copious amounts of golden syrup. Taste ingredients. Mmmmm syrupy. Add rest of sugar. Stir until sugar melts. Add more golden syrup. Taste. Yum. Heat until nearly boiling. Taste. Ouch hot, run cold water and put tongue underneath
    Take pot off stove. Hunt desperately for something to put hot pot on but, since unable to find anything, hold pot for twenty minutes waiting for ingredients to cool.
    Prepare to sieve flour into pot. Discover that you have no sieve. Decide to use colander instead. Discover colander not a good replacement for sieve.
    Clean flour from bench. Add some fresh flour to pot. Stir. Add more flour. Stir again. Add more flour. Stir some more. Keep adding flour until you have a consistency that will allow you to roll it into a ball. Add more golden syrup. Taste. Discover slight floury taste. Add more golden syrup. Taste. MMMM good.
    Roll into balls of varying sizes, put onto an oven tray. Crush balls with a fork (laugh evilly as you do so). Realise you have forgotten the baking soda and this is the biggest your cookies will go, squash some more.
    Put oven tray into oven. Cook until you become impatient. Take cookies out of oven. Eat one. Run water and place tongue under it. Leave cookies to cool.

    There you go, hokey pokey cookies. That taste like squishy fortune cookies. Yum.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

heh.

Anonymous said...

Penny-pooper - votes Hilz - Top Chef Bomber Award and hopes to hell that she will use it on Mariah Carey (can't stand that woman). Also points out that most likelihood the 'pink' lady was the superherofightingcancerwoman (shakes head in pure amazement that Hilz did not work that one out)
wonders thoughtfully as signs off .....

Hillz said...

wrong shade of pink. also her name was "pink super hero woman lady thing" as told by the MC