Thread 18 - TalkLair: "That's no moon. It's a space station!"

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 17)

We've had our heatwave - is this it for the summer? All is lush and green in our LairGarden, flowers are blooming, berries are ripening...

In the TalkLair, all the windows are open, the Pimms is chilled, the MN massive salad is ready to serve. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics. We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

They are muisjes! DD1 is the only one in the family who likes them.

Sound girl; pity about the rest of you.

Apple version of Merrill sounds great.

I make a quince jelly using japonica fruits but I don’t think they would work for membrillo

I now have Cloggie chocolate sprinkles envy. In all my years, I've never eaten the combo of chocolate with bread (and presumably butter?) and will have to try it. Is white bread best?

Amusing news of the day is that I had an email from BT to say that our bill was available online and logged in (probably for the first time this year) to discover it was really remarkably low. The only charges were for calls, nothing about broadband/line rental. I went back over the past 8 months and discovered I haven't been charged for it since March. So I rang them up.

A very lovely Irish woman put me on hold for 10 minutes (at my expense!) but it was worth it because she came back with "Whoops - our mistake. Nobody knows why!" and said they'd start charging from next month but would write off everything I theoretically owed as it was their fault. I said that had I known they'd do this, I wouldn't have contacted them at all ... to which she replied "Be sure to tell your friends this!"

I now have Cloggie chocolate sprinkles envy. In all my years, I've never eaten the combo of chocolate with bread (and presumably butter?) and will have to try it. Is white bread best?

Not even via Nutella?! This is true deprivation!

Rasa, that is a truly suspicious volume of sprinkles - impressive work from MrRasa there.

@weaselyeyes <whisper it low> I tasted Nutella once, just a tiny amount from a spoon. Never again! I'm not really a fan of nuts, apart from walnuts (in cake) and peanuts. And I think neither of those are technically nuts! Macadamia nuts are very good indeed, though.

Nutella is marvellous stuff!

We were introduced to Cloggie sprinkles about 10 years ago, by a Dutch student who stayed with us for a few days and brought some as a gift. It's a Dutch breakfast thing - bread and butter with sprinkles. You even get bowls of sprinkles at the breakfast buffet in Dutch hotels.

And on Dutch ships, I usually redirect a couple of packets to my daughter. She likes their little jam pots, too.

I love Nutella but I never buy it because whenever I have bought it I just end up eating it with a spoon out of the jar.

I wonder if chocolate for breakfast explains why the Dutch are so tall?

2% cocoa. 127% sugar.

Talking of bread ‘n chocolate, my father in law went to a minor public school and used to buy a bread roll containing a chocolate bar* from the tuck shop, as a mid morning snack, apparently. It actually sounds rather nice I think, and I’m surprised it’s not more common.

( *I’m thinking Freddo Frog size),

Cadbury's used to do a dark chocolate spread - nicer than Nutella as well as more allergy friendly. We always had a good stock because PaBint did regular fuel testing work at their factory and got it cheap from the factory shop. Haven't seen it for a very long time.

That sounds rather delicious!

Gü used to do a palm oil-free chocolate hazelnut spread which was much nicer than Nutella, silkier and less sweet. We bought vast amounts of the stuff, as our cupboard full of Gü glasses will testify. Then a couple of years ago, they stopped making it. We haven't found a good replacement so far, so we're back to Nutella but buy it far less often.

I can't recall the last time I had chocolate spread, but my brother eats enough for the entire family. He also makes his own version that he calls 'Angel Shit - certified 100% pure raw Angelic Evacuation'.

Re the Dutch being tall, I'd always put it down to the amount of cheese eaten there. Never seen people eat so much cheese.

Bonne Maman do a good palm oil free chocolate spread.

Ooh thanks @Medee ! <Pencils in supermarket trip after work>

I am almost afraid to ask @Vegemiteandhoneyontoast but what are the ingredients in Angel Shit??

Felicity Cloake to the rescue! https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2016/apr/07/how-to-make-the-perfect-chocolate-spread-nutella?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

@RasaSayangEh, I've just emailed him to ask which recipe he used and will report back. The full label on the jars he made did specify that the Angel Shit was 'gathered at Vespers from sanctified Angel loos'.

Re chocolate on bread - when I first went to Bordeaux on the school French exchange, aged 11, a standard element of a French packed lunch was a roughly 6" piece of a very thin baguette (a ficelle, IIRC), lightly buttered with unsalted butter and with around 4 squares of decent French cooking chocolate (e.g. Chocolat Menier) arranged along the inside. A sort of DIY literal pain au chocolat, I suppose. Also available for breakfast for dipping into your bowl of hot chocolate.

There we were, eating dinner, when we heard the rattle of the cat flap.

Mochi's "I'm home!" miaow sounded very muffled, so we immediately concluded that she had brought home her own dinner and I rushed to intercept her before she brought her victim any further into the house.

Stopped her before she got halfway across the kitchen and indeed I could see some little feet sticking out of her mouth.

"Drop it, you murderous menace!" I cried, dramatically.

So Mochi opened her mouth and out fell... two fully-grown mice, one still live and kicking.

HOW did she manage this feat?

Because they like to play with their food before they eat it.

Well now I’m contemplating homemade chocolate and hazelnut spread. I do have some hazelnuts that could do with using up but I don’t think I have much use for the resulting spread.

You could always use it as a cake filling.

Ooh, chocolate hazelnut cake possibly.