Le BESH est trying to win un petit baybee.

[HaveUrselfAFaithyChristmasBaby]

Bring your best Franglais and gin. Newbies always welcome, complete la BESHtionnaire et nous will judge assess vous accordingly.

Oui, nous avons un maker de ice cream.

For the honeycomb ice cream, I make honeycomb, KFZK makes the ice cream base and the machine churns it for us. It is gorgeous. I'm just emerging from more than a decade of dairy intolerance and can now digest small amounts of ice cream and I am enjoying it immensely!

Shagweek will have to start tomorrow though. We have both eaten too much. I am not sure we could cope with the bouncing.

Shagweek starts for us too. Right now I am not sure I could do anything as I ache too much after Zumba.

You are probably already with the landowner, and hopefully holding it together - it's amazing how work mode can kick in once you get going - I hope that's happening for you. In the meantime, and in your absence, as a kind of good luck charm...

Aw,hugs 4 Bugs.

Re: honeycomb, it's tricky. I've made it 3 times and had 2 successes and one burnt lot that went in the bin. A sugar thermometer is the best way, but I don't have one yet. I use a glass of cold water. You have to drop tiny bits of the syrup into it and wait until it reaches the "hard crack" stage. Basically when it forms a string in the water that you an snap rather than a sticky drip at the bottom of the glass. It is quite tricky. I have the recipe I use on my laptop at home. I will try to remember to post it later.

bugs it's understandable that hearing a story like that would throw you, bringing up feelings and what ifs? I hoped you sorted out Mr Landowner good and proper.
I luff the sound of the ice cream but fear based on my culinary skills it would be the burnt effort.
My leg hurts from running yesterday. Rest day today!

Recipe:

Also known as cinder toffee, yellowman in Ireland or sponge toffee in America, this is a frivolous, bubbly, old-fashioned toffee that is as much fun to make as it is to eat. It reminds me of the old sweet shop at the top of the narrow lane in the village where I grew up. It was a dark, tiny place tucked away in a small row of cottages, as thrillingly tempting as it was scary.

Vegetarian
Preparation time:
10 minutes
Cooking time:
25 minutes
Total time:
35 minutes

Serves:
10
Ingredients
300g caster sugar
200g golden syrup
2 tbsp white wine vinegar or cider vinegar
2 heaped tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method
Butter a 20cm square shallow tin and line the base with baking parchment. Fill the sink 10cm deep with cold water ? add some ice if you have any. Fill a glass with cold water and keep it by the hob.
Put the sugar, syrup, vinegar and 150ml water in a very large saucepan (you need to allow plenty of space for the toffee to bubble up). Stir over a low heat, without boiling, until the sugar has completely dissolved. This is crucial. Now stop stirring. Cover the pan and let it bubble for 2 minutes ? this will help to dissolve sugar that has set on the sides of the pan. Remove the lid and let it boil until it has reached hard crack stage (150°C on a sugar thermometer). Test for this by taking the pan off the heat and dripping a little syrup into the glass of water. If it is hard and snaps cleanly without stickiness, it has reached the right stage. If not, put the pan back on the heat and carry on boiling for a few minutes longer. As soon as the syrup?s at the hard crack stage, take it off the heat, plunge the bottom of the pan into the sink of cold water and stir in the bicarbonate of soda ? it will boil up like a mini volcano erupting.
Once it's calmed down a little, stir once more and pour into the prepared tin. As soon as it is cool enough to hold its shape, score the surface into squares with an oiled knife. Leave to set solid, then break into chunks.

BTW, I don't put the pan in cold water, just stand it in the sink ready to cool it if the soda makes it go a bit mental! Good luck!

Sozzles, I meant I didn't put the pan into cold water to add the bicarb. I think that would cool it too quickly. I just stand it in the sink so if it does bubble over I can quickly cool the pan (but I have not needed to yet). There were some comments on the site I got the recipe from that suggested ignoring that step. I always have and it works well.

It's the only recipe I have seen that uses vinegar but it works perfectly (well, two times out of three in my case!).

It's from the waitrose site, I think. There are often good recipes on there.

I've always wanted to try making honeycomb. When I saw Nigella do it on tv it looked such a satisfying thing to make. And eat, of course. Does it stay crisp when mixed with the ice cream?

It stays crisp at first but after a while in the freezer it turns more liquid and oozy. It is yummy either way.

Oooh, I want honeycomb. It sounds lush.

Well, I had my scan this morning. It's too early to tell anything as I was right and the doctor wrong over how pregnant I am. I have to go back in 10 days for another scan. . All they could tell today was there is a fertilised egg and its in the right place which is good. But I am bleeding again, which is bad.

My low GI diet lasted 5 days, euro. I am currently eating cheese straws from the packet. When I get a new ice cream maker (my old one cracked and the coolant stuff all flowed out), I am definitely trying your thing.

Tentatively good news then, blacktea. Ten days is a crappy length of time to wait. Fingers crossed for then.

Seriously, two words Paul Mckenna . I'm enjoying food so much more, I'm motivated to exercise and I'm losing weight. All I have to do is put my cutlery down between bites, chew, and listen to a cd each day for 20 minutes.
Oh blacktea :( hang in there. We'll sit and wait with you!

blacktea, keeping everything crossed for you.

Think ov is imminent here as I had a rush of pant snot (sorry tmi!) yesterday. No temp rise this morning and shag dictator isn't giving any peaks, but I've been getting lots of stabby pains in my lower abdomen today, so fingers crossed. We dtd on Saturday and Sunday and HWHNN is on his way back as we speak. He's got meetings in this part of the world tomorrow so is staying home (and performing his husbandly duties) tonight and tomorrow. Taking no chances this time!

There Is No Such Thing As TMI.

Anyone know where aries is, by the way? Is this her winter holiday?

Hmmm. The dizziness would make me think that too Bugs. But I get loads of white CM post ov every cycle so for me that wouldn't be a diffage symptom. And I have yet to manage to locate my cervix so I don't have a scooby doo on that one.

Happy shagging, Cavey!

bugs it aint impossible if you did the sechs, but cd 11 would be very early for ovulation and only 8 days later very early indeed for getting symptoms. I wouldn't be splashing out on the sticks just yet. Of course you might get a win this cycle especially if you were having a shorter cycle, but I'd wait till at least cd24 to be testing.

Well you might have ovulated early. It's definitely possible. You wouldn't be the first to get diffed from one single shag which was thought to be too early!
Your cycles might well be still up the wall though. Keep us posted with the symptoms but NO sticks till next week!