better with more butter
If there’s one thing I hate about the area I live in right now, it’s the lack of decent supermarkets/shops within a reasonable walking distance. It seems like a very simple thing, really - but I actually like to cook. Not particularly domesticated, but I find cooking to be a relaxing activity. Go figure. The thing is, I have a strong opinion about the sorts of food I like to eat (and consequently, cook for myself) and that requires frequent trips to the shops.
I’d like to say I’m militant about fresh produce, but it’s something slightly more old school. I want to look at the item (not online and in pictures) and figure out for myself if I want to buy it or not. I want to see scanned labels so I can check ingredients. Unfortunately, the closest supermarkets that allow me to do this sort of thing are well … slightly far away; so I can only shop once a week at most.
So, sauntering down the road to get my allergy meds from the pharmacy yesterday, I noticed that a new supermarket had opened up enroute. The pharmacy is on Badger Hill, said location always makes me grin a little bit (remember badgerbadgerbadger?). It’s not a route I’d usually take, so I had no idea that a new Somerfield had opened up in the vicinity. Wewt. Obviously, I ducked into the supermarket to grab some food.
Went around buying stuff, noticed an offer for butter. 500g tub, I was told. Buy one, get one free.
Seemed like a fair bit of butter (an entire kilo?!) but what the heck, it’s an offer. I use butter in place of oil anyway, so I run through it fairly fast. So, grabbed me two tubs and went to checkout.
A while later, I connected the “Hmmm. That was a little bit more expensive than I expected” with “Hmm. The bag seems a little bit heavier than I expected” and realized that, in fact, I had bought two 1kg tubs of butter instead. How sickening fattening. But hey, it’s butter. Waste not, want not - maybe Salem and Mitzi like butter on their catfood.
When I got home, i had a slightly better idea. I also have flour, eggs, sugar, dried fruit and raisins (since I eat that sort of thing when I get the munchies). Why don’t I bake a cake? There is just one small problem. I can cook. Baking, on the other hand, is a black art. By which I mean that I expect my attempts to turn out of the oven blackened and charred. Still, I have the ingredients. I have a general idea about what I need to do (I tend to be just a little bit obsessive about figuring stuff out instead of following some prescribed recipe).
All I need now is some icing sugar and a cake tin. Oh, and chocolate powder, I think. Let there be cake.
This is going to be fun.
On 11-Oct-07 at 2:46 pm,
rastadiu wrote:
Let them eat cake!
You are so very decadent.
On 11-Oct-07 at 6:38 pm,
chickenbutt wrote:
Are you serious?????:0 you’re going to bake a cake? woohoo.you need baking powder too then.but oi, there was a nice recipe from ‘Ready Steady Cook’. Mung oyata link eka ewannan
On 12-Oct-07 at 12:35 am,
Darwin wrote:
Don’t forget to grease the cake-tin else it’ll stay stuck in there. And the baking powder, else it won’t rise. Either way, I reckon you should take pics
On 12-Oct-07 at 1:24 am,
Java Jones wrote:
Now you got me guessing as to what kinda cake you’re going to bake. Nutty? Chocolate? Carrot? Will there be any herb in it to get you into that laid-back mode? Or maybe ‘Butter’, since you have a surfeit? And be sure to give Mitzi and Salem a taste first - just in case!
Happy baking!
On 12-Oct-07 at 11:51 am,
drac wrote:
Rastiadu: Yes, yes we are. Antoinette grand?
Darwin and chickenbutt: Ah. Baking powder. Thanks for the reminder, I very nearly would have made myself some sweet flatbread without it
Darwin: Pics. Heh. You can be the great example that people follow, I can be the “don’t try this at home” warning
JJ: Why plan ahead? I’ll just grab whatever is in the fridge and shove it in. Maybe get a bottle of jam or treacle or something.
As for Salem and Mitzi, if they can survive eating small rodents and birds on a regular basis, I think my cake probably won’t kill them either. It could still kill me.
On 13-Oct-07 at 12:26 pm,
tinylittlefascist wrote:
I love butter. Stick it on bread and eat. Utterly unhealthy but so much better than smelly margarine.
I suppose in the interests of health, spreading it out a bit with the cake may be a wiser option. I look forward to hearing the results of your labour. And I was wistful when I heard about your scoping out of Somerfield… Sigh. Jealous fascist I am.
I also note that our sellout corporate worker can no longer even spell her name. See, how the corruption spreads… Either that or it’s a deliberate misspelling in which case, I await an explanation.
On 13-Oct-07 at 2:09 pm,
drac wrote:
Lo and behold, perhaps it was Rastiadu the Greek?!
Why pray are you jealous of my scoping out Somerfield? They used to be awesome a few years ago, but I was left a tad disappointed in my latest foray. Oh, I’d still totally go there to shop - but it wasn’t a WOW experience.
On 14-Oct-07 at 11:59 am,
Psy wrote:
Dude, there are better uses for butter than mere cake. Pfft. At your age, you need to conserve all the butter you can. You just can’t drink like you used to, so have some butter before every pub crawl and show the yunguns how it’s done.
On 15-Oct-07 at 9:37 am,
drac wrote:
Wait. I haven’t heard this one before. So… you eat butter before going on a pub crawl to increase your alcohol intake? I suppose the lipids slow down absorbption or something?
Who knew.
On 15-Oct-07 at 9:38 am,
tinylittlefascist wrote:
Nah. I suspect it wasn’t.
But Somerfield utterly decimates the likes of Keells and Cargills for options. Yes, yes, we hath all the Sri Lankan foods available but for efficiency, convenience and choice, I’d say I’m just jealous of the concept of Western supermarketry.
As you can see, I need a holiday.
On 15-Oct-07 at 1:20 pm,
Psy wrote:
Google, to the rescue.
On 15-Oct-07 at 2:30 pm,
drac wrote:
Psy: See, that last answer basically said the same thing that I thought - slows down absorption; doesn’t nullify the effects of alcohol.
In other words, it’s like getting completely blotto on beer. Yes, you’ll probably outlast the
chronic dipsoyoung whippersnapper swigging arrack or vodka or something, but when the beer attacks, it’s going to be one of the most unfunny experiences. Evah.Although I promise I’ll try heavily buttered toast before I go down to the pub next. In the interests of science, of course.
On 15-Oct-07 at 2:57 pm,
chickenbutt wrote:
In the interest if science?? *sniggers
On 15-Oct-07 at 4:30 pm,
chickenbutt wrote:
grr type. make that ‘interests OF science’
On 15-Oct-07 at 6:25 pm,
Psy wrote:
Of course you were right, I was merely backing it up with infallible Google proof. Unfunny experience or not, think of the looks on their faces when when you pwn their unwrinkled behinds.
Imagery.
Back on track (thankfully), I too plan to dedicate myself to the interests of science. We can compare notes.