Patron Saint of Falling Over Things

Oh, lordy, tonight's X-Files rewatch is 'The Field Where I Died'. It's, like, 75% a good episode, and 25% stubbing your toe repeatedly against a brick wall. Mulder's past life regression hypnosis scene is so painful and embarrassing I had to stick my fingers in my ears.



Gosh, when you miss a week, the recipes actually pile up.

Something I cooked recently:

Mango Cream Cheese Ice-Cream, based off this: Strawberry Ice-Cream

This was the actual recipe:
3 mangoes, which gives about 2.5 cups of pulp
2 blocks of cream cheese
3/4 cup of sugar (I'm still playing around with the quantities, and I think I could have used less.)
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1.5 cups of skim milk
A good squeeze of lemon juice


Blend the mango pulp. Add all the other ingredients. Blend more. Freeze in machine. I use the kitchenaid ice-cream maker attachment, and this pretty much perfectly fitted in the bowl. It made about 1.5 litres of ice-cream. And it's super, super tasty. I wasn't sure that the vanilla was a good idea, but it really was.

I'm always surprised at how little cream cheese taste this recipe has - it really doesn't taste like cheesecake to me. And my particular lactose intolerance handles this recipe a lot more gracefully than ice-cream made with cream or custard.


Coffee Jelly Or Jello, if you prefer.

I love this - it's an extremely dignified way to absorb caffeine on a really hot day. We ate it with a really nice vanilla yoghurt.



Zucchini Herb Bread

This is a bread machine recipe, and I don't have a bread machine so I make it by hand.

( Adapted recipe )


Zucchini Sheet Cake

I found out, with a giant bowl of cake batter, that not only have I never made a sheet cake before, I didn't have anything to bake a sheet cake in. (For other Aussies, they're 13 x 18.5 inches, 2 inches deep.) So, I improvised and split the batter between two roasting pans, and it worked out okay.

So, I guess I made a cake, of sorts? It wasn't a real cake, though, it had a very unusual fudgy texture, thanks to the shredded zucchini. I wanted to try a different kind of icing/frosting, since lilacsigil hates buttercream and ganache is out because the cream is not good for me. I like this boiled milk icing in this recipe - it tasted good, and it's extremely convenient to be able to pour it on the hot cake. Will definitely try it again, especially as there is an avalanche of zucchini coming for us.


Something I have solid plans to cook soon:

Kindkit's Four Grain No-Knead Bread

I love no-knead bread cooked in a cast-iron pot! I don't have any rye flour, though, and the supermarket doesn't stock it. I'll try the health food shop in Warrnambool next week, but if I can't wait, I'll just tinker. Maybe substitute wholemeal wheat? Or I've got some spelt.


Baked Zucchini Chips

A ha ha, there are so many zucchinis coming. So very many. I don't have a mandolin - they scare me so much! - but I'm hoping I can cut these fine enough with the chef's knife. (It scares me less.)



Something I'm idly thinking about cooking in the future:

A real cake. One that you cream butter and sugar, add flour, etc. And don't over/under bake. Our plumber dropped by with a bag of plums, so maybe a plum cake? Maybe Gâteau aux Prunes? I have all the ingredients.


Work on a granola bar recipe. I've got a bunch bookmarked, here, and I'm hoping to hit the goldilocks zone of chewy but not gooey, toothy but not crumbly.


Oh, and this actual recipe that a customer gave me today. She wrote it down on the bottom of her prescription. It's for an apple slice. (For those who've heard me talk about my customers before, this is Mrs Lemon. She's a boss.

( See actual recipe here! It's large, because you need to see the hand writing. )


Now we're watching the Canadian broadcast of the pairs figure skating short routine. One of the Canadian skaters looks an awful lot like Natale Morales, which has given me a Middleman plotbunny that is not an ice-skating AU so much as it is an ice-skating case fic. *makes note to include the German team's giant cow bell*


Think of us tomorrow. It's going to be a billion degrees. We will surely dry.

Title: The Infernal Celibacy Rededication (Or how Roxy decided she didn't need her groove back after all)
Fandom: The Middleman
Rating: G
Words: 4.8K
Characters/Pairings: Roxy Wasserman, Wendy Watson, the Middleman, two celebrity cameos
Summary: No matter the weather, it's good to be Roxy Wasserman.
Notes: Written for Yuletide 2011. Thank you to my betas: lilacsigil, aphrodite_mine and melodiusb

( The Infernal Celibacy Rededication (Or how Roxy decided she didn't need her groove back after all) )

Bram Stoker's widow!

When you see this, post a random quicky Middleman exclamation in your lj.

ETA: I have anomalous morning euphoria, which is all giggles and fun until the inevitable afternoon despair.

How awesome is The Middleman? How smart, how funny, how sexy is Wendy Watson? How can this possibly be a kid's show? And most importantly, how long can it last without being axed for all the reasons listed above?

In other news, my knee made a ferocious click, and now I can't straighten my leg. *limps like a pirate*