Chocolate Experiment

Recently, due to a lack of availability of chocolate, I decided to attempt an experiment at making my own out of what is essentially the binder mix for Chocolate Cornflake Cakes / Chocolate Rice Krispy Cakes.

I put it in a cake baking tin that’d been chilled in the freezer, and left it in the freezer for a couple of hours. Continue reading “Chocolate Experiment”

New drink I’ve tried (or had for first time in ages)….

End of last week I ordered some fizzy drinks (or “soda pop” as you lot over in the US would probably call it) from an online Health food store – http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk (mention my “tell-a-friend reference number”, and they’ll send me some free chocolates if you place an order over £40. code = MJ23664W).

I first came across Fentiman’s products about 10yrs or so ago I guess, when my Dad ordered in some of their ginger beer from his Health food supplier Brewhursts (now trading as “Tree of Life”)……….. from what I recall it didn’t sell that quickly (I probably ended up drinking most of it), but it was damn good stuff………… several years later after going without, and making do with IDRIS + “D&G Old Jamaica” ginger beer, one night online a couple of months ago I got thinking “what the fuck was that one the old git used to stock called………….. Botanically brewed stuff……?”.
A wee bit of Googling around later and I came up with Fentimans, and being stocked at this online health food store (I’d ordered stuff off them before, last year).
Not only did they have the Ginger Beer, but they had a load of others from Fentimans, including this one: “Fentimans Curiousity Cola”.
Unlike the big 2 cola brands (Coke & Pepsi), the vast majority of ingredients are natural, and clearly stated on the bottle (rather than kept as a huge secret). They include:
– Fermented Ginger Root Extract
– Carbonated Water
– Sugar
– Catuaba Extract
– Gurana Extract
– Caramel (E150)
– Phosphoric Acid (E338)
– Cola Flavour 9594 (flavouring)
– Caffeine

It tastes completely different to the big brand rivals, in an extremely good way. Closest taste match I can think of would be them jelly cola bottles you see in the Woolworth “Pic n Mix” sweets display or the lesser known “silver cola balls”. And it has just the right amount of fizz.
Because of the way it’s created, it’s mildly alcholic……. though at around 0.5% no more alcoholic than a can of BASS Shandy, or that departed great “TOP DECK SHANDY” (wonder where the hell that went?).
Unlike the above 2 Shandy products*, however, it seems FENTIMAN’s Curiousity cola has a slight reviving effect….. or at least it did for me (was suffering from that cr*ppy groggy & achey feeling you sometimes get after taking a nap on the sofa).

If any of y’all (Alicia, Sammiejo, Rainn, Nichole B, Felicia, MellySmelly, etc) ever finally come visit, let me know in advance and I’ll order some in so you can try it too (if you’ve never had it before……… don’t know if it’s available where you are).

The manufacturer’s website is:

http://www.fentimans.com/

*Shandy = a soft drink made with a mix of Beer & Lemonade

UPDATE:

Just spotted it available for sale in the US via an Amazon.com retailer for $39 a case

HERE

Food X’s Quiz thingy I made a while back…..

The Food X’s Quiz

1) When picking out fruit flavoured sweets, do you opt for:
[X] Green (Lime, usually)
[] Red (Strawberry or Raspberry)
[] Purple (blackcurrant)
[] Yellow (Lemon)
[] Other:

2) Do you prefer:
[X] Peppermints
[X] Spearmints
[X] Any damn mint
[] Hate Mint flavoured stuff!

3) Given a choice, would you prefer to get fast food from:
[X] McDonalds
[] Burger King
[] Pizza Hut
[] Domino’s Pizza
[] KFC
[X] A British Fish & Chip shop
[] An Indian Take-away
[] A Chinese Take-away
[] Other:

4) Which chocolate do you like best?
[X] Cadbury’s
[] Mars
[X] Nestle
[X] Hershey’s
[X] MILKA (German brand)
[X] Ritter Sport (German brand)
[X] Kinder
[X] Ferrero

[X] Green & Black’s
[] Any Plain chocolate
[] Any Milk Chocolate
[] Any White Chocolate
[] Other:
[] Hate chocolate

5) What’s your favourite Ice Cream?
[] Vanilla
[] Chocolate
[X] Mint / Choc Chip
[X] Raspberry Ripple
[] Strawberry
[] Rum & Raisin
[X] Toffee / Fudge
[X] Butterscotch
[] Banana
[] Other:

6) What’s your favourite thing(s) for breakfast?
[] Plain Cornflakes / Rice Krispies
[X] Chocolate cereal
[X] Honey & Nut flavoured cereal
[] Cinnamon Cereal
[] Doughnuts
[X] Coffee
[] Tea
[X] Fried bacon / sausage(s) / egg(s) / Bread, etc
[X] Toast
[] Usually skip breakfast
[X] Other: Porridge

7) What’s your favourite fizzy drink(s)?
[X] Coke
[] Pepsi
[X] Dr Pepper
[] Sunkist Orange
[] Fanta Orange
[] Appletise
[X] Ginger Ale / Ginger Beer
[X] Dandelion & Burdock
[] 7.UP
[] Sprite
[X] Lemonade (clear)
[] Lemonade (Traditional cloudy stuff)
[X] Cherryade
[] Orangeade
[] Other:

8) Do you like Spicy food?
[X] Yes
[] No
[] Only if it’s only a little bit spicy
[] Only if it’s nearly spicy enough to blow ma head off

9) What’s your favourite Pie?
[] Pork Pie
[X] Steak Pie
[X] Steak & Kidney Pie
[] Chicken Pie
[] Chicken & Mushroom Pie
[] Pumpkin Pie
[] Lemon Meringue
[] Other Pie:
[] Don’t like Pie

10) What’s your favourite Tart? (filled pastry casing)
[X] Strawberry Tart
[] Lemon Tart
[] Custard Tart
[X] Yorkshire Curd Tart
[] Other Tart
[] Never tried any
[] Hate Tarts

11) What’s your favourite kinda cake?
[X] Plain Sponge
[X] Chocolate Sponge
[X] Ginger Cake
[X] Chocolate Gateau
[X] Black Forest Gateu
[X] Battenburg
[X] Madeira sponge
[] Fruit Cake / Christmas Cake
[X] Jaffa Cake
[X] Cherry cake
[X] Any Cake
[] Other:

12) What’s your favourite kinda biscuit / cookie?
[] Rich Tea
[] Custard Creams
[X] Ginger
[] Nice
[] Malted Milk
[] Oreo’s
[X] Bourbon Creams
[] Digestives
[] Chocolate Digestives
[X] Chocolate Chip
[X] Pink Wafers
[] Plain Shortbread
[] Fruit Shortbread
[] Other:

13) What’s your favourite booze?
[] Red Wine
[X] White Wine
[X] Champagne / Sparkling White wine
[X] Sherry
[X] Port
[X] Brandy
[X] Whiskey / Whisky
[] Vodka
[X] Beer
[] Tequila
[] Absinthe
[] Gin
[] Any, as long as it gets me drunk
[] Other:

14) Do you prefer:
[X] Whole Milk
[] Semi-Skimmed Milk
[] Skimmed Milk
[] Soya Milk
[] UHT Milk
[X] Chocolate Milkshake
[] Strawberry Milkshake
[X] Banana Milkshake
[] Hate Milk

JD’s Egg fried Rice recipe

Egg Fried Rice
Ingredients:
1 cup of Rice
1 Onion
2 cloves of Garlic (optional)
1 tin of Spam (optional)
1 Bell pepper (optional)
1 tablespoon of Soya Sauce (optional)
2 – 3 eggs
Cooking Oil

Kitchen tools needed:
1x saucepan of boiling water
1x large(ish) Frying pan
1x Measuring jug or a mixing bowl
1x Fork
1x Spatula
Bowl or Plate to put it on when you’ve finished cooking it

How to cook it:
Once the water in the saucepan has started to boil, tip the contents of the cup of rice into it.
Next, heat up the frying pan and add the oil
Chop the onion, put it in the fry pan. Next do the same with the Garlic & Bell pepper if you want to include them.
Break the eggs into the measuring jug or mixing bowl, and beat them with the fork.
Add the Spam to the frying pan if you wanna include it.

By now, 20minutes will have passed and the rice should be ready.
Drain the rice if necessary, then tip it into the frying pan with the rest of the stuff. Keep stirring, or you’ll burn it.
Pour the beaten egg over the rice and other ingredients in the frying pan…… keep stirring and turning the mixture until the egg has started to dry out.

Pour the tablespoon of Soya sauce over the mix, give it a quick stir and it is ready to serve & eat.

~ JD