Mat Bowles

My own recipe, adapted from multiple sources with some, *ahem* suggestions from friends. Multiple flavourings are possible.

You will need:

10-12 small glass ramekins (you can buy these in department stores, I use the ones that come with Gu Puds, we've got about 30)

For the base:

1 200g(ish) box fine milled oatcakes (I use Nairns which is 218g, I don't personally need to worry about buying the guaranteed gluten free ones which are more expensive, these are made in a factory that also makes gluten products)
125g unsalted butter
some sugar: I recommend a couple teaspoons of molasses sugar with the lumps broken up as best as possible and a couple teaspoons caster sugar.

For the topping:

one 250g tub ricotta cheese
100g white chocolate (I've tried other chocolates, it tends to not work, plus miss_s_b can eat white chocolate without risk of dying, which is good). I recommend Sainsbury Belgian Cooking Chocolate for cost/benefit quality wise

Flavourings:

Either 2 limes, zest and juice, with 2-4 teaspoons of ground ginger for taste (I think 4 is too much, others disagree)
or one large orange, zest and juice, 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1-2 teaspoons nutmeg
You could almost certainly try other fruit+spice combos, this is what I've done, successfully, so far.

Method:

First, make the base: crush the biscuits as much as possible, you want breadcrumb style crumbs. Melt the butter in the microwave, careful not to overheat it. Mix the butter and the sugars thoroughly through the crushed biscuits, you should end up with a very loose, crumbly dough. NB: You can use 200g of any biscuits for this, including standard sweet digestives, but if you use sweet biscuits omit the extra sugar.

Share the mix out amongst the ramekins and press it into the bases, you'll likely get just over 1cm depth per tub, don't worry about exactness here. Put them in the fridge to cool.

Whisk the ricotta in a glass bowl. Using a different glass bowl, break the chocolate up and carefully melt in the microwave, if you're not used to doing this, full power for 30 seconds, bring out stir thoroughly, repeat until it's all just melted, be careful not to over melt as the chocolate can crystallise or otherwise stop being nice.

Whisk the melted chocolate into the ricotta. Then whisk in the flavourings. Share the topping mix about the ramekins, you'll find the lime is a fairly tough mix, you might want to add some more lime juice to soften it further, the orange will likely be a fairly loose mix depending on size and juiciness of orange. Try to press the mix down and spread it out.

Put back into fridge to chill for a minimum of 2 hours (the topping really does need to set). Serve and enjoy.

I am grateful to cosmolinguist and A_C_McGregor for their assistance putting the ingredients together yesterday and their, um, help in choosing the spice quantities—I suspect both would've happily put even more ginger in, but I think 4 teaspoons is too much.

Dear Govt.

We haven't exactly been on good terms for some time now, but even so, please understand that if it gets to the point where I read a Mail on Sunday scare story entitled "Stasi HQ UK" and find myself agreeing with them against your actions? You're Doing It Wrong.

Seriously, know any vegetarians? Or someone involved with a "foreigner"? How about a fear of flying so you prefer sitting above the wing, or a tendency to make last minute decisions on travel plans?

An internal Home Office document obtained by The Mail on Sunday reveals that during testing one 'potential suspect' turned out to be an airline passenger with a spinal injury flying into Britain with his nurse.

'Suspect' requests likely to cause innocent holidaymakers to get 'red flags' as potential terrorists include ordering a vegetarian meal, asking for an over-wing seat and travelling with a foreign-born husband or wife.

The system will also 'red flag' passengers buying a one-way ticket and making a last-minute reservation

There are, we know, nasty people out there. And some of them want to try to blow up aeroplanes. But treating those who believe animals deserve a little bit of respect as potential terrorists?

That's fucking stupid!

I tick so many boxes on this system it's silly. And I know several friends (including those reading this) that tick even more.

FFS. My friend Dr Packula has created a Facebook group, which essentially will share information and link to WriteToThem. Contacting your MP about this insanity would probably be a good thing.

I need to go hit something. Oh, wait, the bread is rising downstairs, I'll go hit that before it goes in the oven. I have photos. If they come out, a post may be pending.

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I think the The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy answered this best back in 1992:

Although it's not exactly new. And possibly it's being replaced by t'internet. Which, y'know, given the events of this week, is probably a good thing. On that subject...

URL of the week:

http://change.gov/ (via)

I have a brief comment on the Obama election. It's a story about a man who captured the hopes of the nation, made an appeal for change, won an election by mobilising a massive coalition of disparate influence groups, uniting them for a common purpose who went on to win seats all over the country, including in places that were previously thought unwinnable for his party. A lawyer, he and his young family were a refreshing alternative to the tired right wing Govt that they voted out.

Mr President Elect Obama sir? If you turn into another fucking Tony Blair, the entire world will be very disappointed in you. I voted for that git, I supported that git. He broke his promises and let me down. Don't be a git sir, we're depending on you.

Domestic bliss?

This morning, miss_s_b did take young shrublette to school, then went into town and did some shopping in Tesco. She bought a loaf of bread, more classic Doctor Who poseable action figure (we're very close to getting the whole Robot now, yay!) and a big bag of five custard doughnuts. I then took her to work. At lunch today, I did eat one of the doughnuts and felt a bit guilty about it. This evening, I picked her up from work, we went to former Cllr Yates's house to get his name at the top of our petition, then I dropped her home so I could go back to her work to pick up her Dad and give him a lift home.

When I got home, I offered to make tea. Quoth she:

I'm not hungry actually. I've eaten all the doughnuts

She has as well, the greedy pig.

Next time she complains about putting on weight? Suggest she might like to stop eating all the doughnuts...

Love you darlin'

Hmm, good news for a change, Masterfoods no longer evil:

Mars said it became "very clear, very quickly" that it had made a mistake.

Merely very very stupid. Was going to post about the sheer idiocy when mooism first posted on the 8th (note, that was 6 days before the BBC caught up), but things got lost in the shuffle. They were using the excuse that "only strict vegetarians" would be affected, and in a way, they'd be right. When I eat out, I don't tend to worry whether the cheese is made using rennet, I'm not that strict. But if a company does something blitheringly stupid, and says that it shouldn't bother me at all?

Worse, for them, it would've meant that many of my non-vegetarian friends and family would have stopped buying their products; why buy Masterfoods when Cadbury do something just as good? Stupid stupid company decision. Still, while I'll try to stick to Green and Blacks when I can afford it, and Cadbury when I can't, I can still buy Masterfoods now, they're idiots, but they're not
evil like Nestlé. Ah, informed consumers making choices within an active market, and forcing companies to change. You can see why so many capitalists are anti-market at heart, right?

The only problem of course is that some of the statistics used to claim how many vegetarians there are in the country are likely very very wrong. Why? Because even smart people are stupid:

Twenty years after the IQ tests were carried out in 1970, 366 of the participants said they were vegetarian - although more than 100 reported eating either fish or chicken.

Guys? Vegetarians don't eat fish, let alone chicken. So as virtually every survey of the nature relies on self reporting, and approx 1/3rd of self-described vegetarians are pescetarians at best, the market impact might be smaller than it should be. People assuming I can eat fish despite being vegetarian is probably one of my biggest pet-hates, and it isn't helped by the ignorance of some who self-describe wrongly. It's a bit like self-described Christians who don't go to church; they may quack like a duck, but they sure as hell don't walk like a duck.

Oh, it's National Vegetarian Week as of tomorrow, so expect dodgy media coverage, false assumptions and some of my more idiotic ethical eaters to be a bit too assertive in various places, sorry about that.

I did not go out on my lunch break and buy a big chocolate doughnut. It is not sat in front of me on the desk to eat after the sandwiches. To do such a thing would be wrong.

Hmmm... Doughnuts...

ETA: Nice doughnut. Not the best ever, but, y'know. Ah well, back to work.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

( Moving to London, stuff with friends, and pirates )
Anyway; I got to ?skip=200 on my main friends view, let alone blogs and weasels, so I gave up, so if anything major has happened in your life recently, or you've died, or something, LMK?

I'll put up a new contact details for LJ-friends tomorrow when I've figured out the post code, but the public bit is Raynes Park, near Wimbledon, SW20

I am a London resident, complete with house keys and off-street parking. Off street parking, broadband and a room that isn't as small as I thought, for £300 a month? Bargain!

Now, naturally, I have to go investigate the kitchen facilities, I'm a little peckish. Then, the plan is, investigate this thing known as Slimelight. I've never been.

Gotta love those Canadians...

I'll be putting the link onto the new site when it's done, but in the meantime, it amused.

I've been playing with background stuff on Taktix, putting ads up (Google won't allow me multiple adsense accounts, but it will let me track individual ad effectiveness, so I'll be playing with that - I don't, actually, care about the money, it's user behaviour that interests me, I'm such a rational choice/webutility geek these days), etc.

Back at work tomorrow. Ah well, can't have everything. Must take long (ish) weekends more often, and hopefully not be ill during them. Still, have rediscovered a love of eating satsumas (I'm not sure my sister believed me when I said she'd interrupted me eating one), and am realising that healthy eating is a damnsite cheapter than junkfood eating. I did, of course, know this, but knowing something and "getting" it are two different things.

Still, time to bed. To sleep, perchance to dream...

Well, it's another bank holiday. Which means when taking my lunch break, buying a newspaper was hard work, getting lunch in an open cafe harder, and everyone wants me to eat crappy milk chocolate bollocks. Thanksfully, my parents, knowing me well, sent in to work via my sister a Green & Blacks dark chocolate egg :-D

Oh, and I went to Somerfield last night and bought 4 bars of their white chocolate, which is absoletely great. If, like me, you were put off white chocolate for life by that Milky Bar Kid, but you like chocolate, do yourself a favour and try this stuff. Suitable for vegetarians but not vegans; I bought some Maya Gold to go alongside it anyway :-D

I like that my job means I work bank holidays and take the day off when I want it. I hate that it's pretty much impossible to get normal services in the pokey small town I work in (the place of my birth). I really need to look more at the Exeter jobs available...