*snipped from UKP* It all went a bit squiffy.
I Onion Relished my little heart out yesterday and it just didnt turn out quite right. Its a tried and true recipe and I didn't do anything any different to I normally would and while it tastes ok... it doesnt taste great and I wonder has it got something to do with the brand of red wine vinegar I used...
Either way there is very little I can do about it now... its in jars and in the fridge and its going to just have to do.
I was going to start on the Pear and Ginger chutney this morning but it turns out I'm out of cider vinegar
So that'll get made tomorrow and then on Saturday (while on call) I'll have to make the coffee cake.
All this frantic kitchening is because its my mums 60th this sunday.
Myself, the OH, my wee sister and her BF and my mum have been invited to my aunts and uncles for sunday "birthday" lunch. So the chutneys are for a present along with tickets my sister and I have bought her for the Ulster Orchestra. I'm also baking her Birthday Cake (a coffee one - since thats her favourite) and it now turns out that the rest of my mums "clan" have been invited for champagne and cake about 5pm!
Slight problem... my cake will never feed thirteen! So... as well as baking my wee heart out on Saturday I'm going to make a variety of truffles on Friday so people have little sweet things they can pop in their mouths while they sip and I've decied on;
Cointreau and toasted Almond truffles,
White chocolate and Baileys truffles and
Basic Brandy truffles.
I've been debating making some bite size lemon or orange cheese cakes... Literally "pop one in the mouth" size, but I just dont know if I'm going to have the time or in fairness the inclination... either way myself, sister and our respective other halfs will be ducking out at about seven (six if we can) rather than spend more time than we have to with relatives. One guy and his wife in particular are vile. Really unpleasant people who I'd rather not spend more time than I have to with. Narrow minded "Hyacinth Buckets" of people who tend to look down on me/us (family not OH) and I'd rather pull my own eyeballs out than spend time with them. Pity.. because most of the others are ok. But these bastards have a tendancy to home in on me on these occasions where they can make snide remarks about my job, weight, looks, with dead smiles on their faces pretending to exchange pleasant converstation and I just want to haul off and smack them.
Aaaanyhooooo. Its also coming up to that time of year
year end... man I hate March and April for work and I think that might be making me a bit tense too, but I'll get there... just three months of madness and then normal service resumes!