Sex, Death and Semiotics

Greetings, traveller! Welcome to Highly's House of Batshittery. Here you will find musings, rantings, sniggerings and occasional coherent thoughts on life, friends, medievalism, the Internet, and Being Educated in Australia. Oh, and cleaning. I tend to talk about cooking and cleaning a lot.

If you're looking for my Serious Medieval Stuff, I'm keeping a proper medieval blog over at The Naked Philologist. It's like the Naked Chef, only with more language jokes and less chance of embarrassing burns.


There's now a tag cloud on the left hand side for those who wish to cherry-pick their Highly content.

Adapted from The Ellen Sinclair Cookbook (which is really hard to find these days, why yes, I am smug to have got hold of a copy).

( Dietary and accessibility notes )

Measurements are in Australian standards

( Ingredients and method )

NOM.

My housemate describes these as "like rich tea biscuits on steroids". This is an accurate description.

I might consider adding nutmeg and cinnamon next time.

Jury panel disbanded! Booyah.

Ed: and then I smashed a glass and got wine all over the kitchen. My inner two year old doesn't like things that go SMASH, and my inner adult doesn't like it when there's no wine left.

So. Yesterday I made soup in the slowcooker, but the beans didn't cook through properly. So we left it on overnight. I turned the cooker off this morning, but it wasn't until Kylee got up that she noticed it smelled odd. She opened it up, and found a crust of burned soup. This conversation ensued:

K: I nominate -you- to clean that up.
Me: Damn. I was just going to say the same to you.
K: Hah, I got in first.
Me: Then I require you to suggest to me -how- I clean this up.
K: I think you just scrape it in the bin? It should still be squodgy.

I test its squodginess with a wooden spoon, and discover that it stirs up OK.

Me: I think we only burned the top of it! It looks fine underneath.
K: Oh, hey, yeah! It might still be ok.
Me: But I just stirred in the burned bits.
K: But that might taste fine. I suggest we taste it and see.
Me: I don't want soup for breakfast.
K: Me neither.
Me: I'm just going to... leave this here.
K: ... And then I have to deal with it. NICELY DONE. VERY WELL DONE, I CONGRATULATE YOU.

FAIL:

Step 1: Amy brings in plunger, and coffee!
Step 2: Amy goes to make coffee
Step 3: Amy discovers that she's brought in the household stash of leaf tea instead of coffee
Step 4: Amy makes tea in plunger
Step 5: Amy discovers that the plunger falls apart when called upon to plunge things.

Things I did not succeed at: fruit buns.

I mean, they taste ok? But depressingly heavy. I gather there's an art to making bread rise properly, and it is an art which I have not mastered.

Using a rather lackadaisical recipe dictated to me over the phone might not have been ideal, either. Clearly I should cling to K's copy of The Bread Bible and not venture elsewhere.

---

ED: OMG kayloulee, come home! The granny trolley snapped at my heels all the way home, my fruit buns are dense, and I have spent all day in a very anti-social round of baking things and washing up things and baking more things and WASHING UP MORE THINGS.

PLS TO BE COMING HOME NAO?

Still in Gerringong. Because we tried to put me on the train but the train did not turn up. I am ensaddened, because yesterday I stuffed up my connection at Redfern and thus missed my connection at Kiama, so Maddi and co. came to get me and I didn't get to go on the cute diesel train after all. And today the train didn't turn up! So I haven't been able to catch the cute diesel train.

SADFACES.

Also you guys I have the best girlfriend.

ZOMG BEEEEEACH. I know I say this every time I go to a proper beach (ie, once every couple of years, these days), but OMG I NEED TO GO TO THE BEACH MOAR. SRSly. I've almost forgotten how to body board, I spent ages tentatively bobbing over waves, skeered to get tumbled, and I have no strength anymore. I miss being able to just fling myself at the surf and, well, sink or swim as the case may be. And I know, because I have at least two LJ entries declariing this, that BEEEEACH is just about the best thing there is for the mental health of the Amy.


So. Some waves were caught. Toddlers were given joyrides on the board I'd borrowed from cousin R. Little B. took a face-first tumble off the board and may not yet have forgiven me. She had floaties on and I plucked her out at once, so the worst she got was a facefull of water. Facefull of water never hurt anyone! Bit rough on your first encounter with a surf beach, though.


Also I did manage to catch some waves, but I still haven't figured out how to stop. So I did a lot of skidding right into shore. Somehow my father, despite being Chief Cameraman, failed to get a photo of me skidding right up to Mum's legs. I kind of wanted one to match the one we have of me doing the same thing at five years old. On Boxing Day, in fact.


Dear Northerners: what do you do on Boxing Day without the Boxing Day Test and the Sydney to Hobart to distract bored family members? Christmas in the winter I can understand, but the true meaning of Boxing Day is veeeerrry slow sporting events. And surfing, if one is lucky enough to have surf available.


I have decided that my Christmas decisions next year will be based on whatever option provides me the best beach-going opportunities. The parentals will have a head start, due to being in Perth...


Ed. for HTML fail. Also, I am reeeeeallly hungry. Staying in other people's houses is not good for my tendency to eat small meals and then get hungry again. Eg: if you are the only person who eats a moderate serving at Christmas lunch, you're the weird person who's actually hungry at dinner time.

New LJ comment settings? Ugly! Also appalling. DW has open account creation if anyone was contemplating moving/doubling up.

Ed: OK, -my- theme is still nice. ?style=mine is my FRIEND.

Because, IDK, I have Thoughts.

( TW: meta-discussion, some personal details )

ED: updated shortly after posting. Final three paras added. FYI, LJ folks, this is an unlocked post on DW.