Bookpacker

This is the yummiest pud I’ve made this season: a single...

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:26:00 +0100

This is the yummiest pud I’ve made this season: a single mixture that separates into a featherlight sponge and INCREDIBLY citrussy sauce. The recipe is from Nigel Slater’s “Appetite” I couldn’t find the original online but “Writing At The Kitchen Table” give it in full here. One thing: I replaced two of the lemons with oranges.

Nigella’s chocolate-orange cake: Gloriously sticky and...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:05:01 +0100

Nigella’s chocolate-orange cake: Gloriously sticky and crumbly at the same time, almost more of a pudding than a cake. Yum.

This is the first time I’d used a pastry recipe from my Michel...

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:13:48 +0200

This is the first time I’d used a pastry recipe from my Michel Roux book (many thanks to Nardac for that) and I have to say it was a winner. A dream to handle, no shrinkage and it produced a really light, crisp crust.

I’ve had a yearning for jam and lemon curd tarts of late -...

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:50:19 +0200

I’ve had a yearning for jam and lemon curd tarts of late - I’m not sure why. But as it took me less than 30 minutes to get these babies on the table, maybe I’ll make them more often. Plus, I had the genius (my italics) idea of using vanilla sugar in the pastry. They’re nearly all gone now, though ::guilty fat face::

Bastille Day Picnic at Invalides

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:51:01 +0200

Bastille Day Picnic at Invalides

How to Start Your Own Dive Bar : Be the boss, bouncer, and favorite bartender - CHOW

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:20:00 +0200

How to Start Your Own Dive Bar : Be the boss, bouncer, and favorite bartender - CHOW:

The name generator is genius.

It’s not the winning that counts… …it’s...

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:56:00 +0200

It’s not the winning that counts…

…it’s the relief when it’s over. Here’s the rest of the team drowning their sorrows after taking part in the annual Paris treasure hunt. If I ever see the inside of the Père Lachaise cemetery again, it’ll be too soon, believe me :))

Emine Saner plays one of London's new street pianos | Music | The Guardian

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:13:00 +0200

Emine Saner plays one of London's new street pianos | Music | The Guardian:

The reason I like this isn’t just because I think “Play Me I’m Yours” is a great idea - it also reminds me of an entire summer spent lugging an increasingly out-of-tune upright on and off a truck as part of a “Songs From the Shows” tour of the working men’s clubs of northeast England. The show was pretty wretched - most of the time, we were just filler before the bingo - but we met so many fab people who helped us haul that bleedin’ piano around. Ah showbiz….

Binge Trading (Seth Freedman)

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:53:00 +0200

I don’t know, somehow I’d expected a book that flags itself as “the REAL INSIDE STORY of cash, cocaine and corruption in the City” to be, well, a little bit more racey than this effort. The “shocking exposé” promised on the back cover turns out to be no more than the observations that a) the rush one gets from gambling can be addictive and b) if you put young people in high-stress jobs and pay them lots of money, chances are they’ll go a bit overboard on the recreational side. I didn’t need this book to tell me that. And the City hardly has a monopoly on that kind of behaviour - some of the biggest “hoovers” I’ve ever met worked in advertising, for example. The author starts off by recounting his own experiences in the Square Mile but soon realises - without any help from me, I might add - that his is a pretty thin tale. So he tries to pad it out by interviewing possibly the dullest collection of City “characters” I’ve ever come across. All of whom, astonishingly, rant on about how “civilians” don’t realise what amazing “charidee” work the City does and try to lay the blame at each other’s door, depending on whether they’re traders, brokers, hedge-fund managers etc. Now I’m not exactly a novice when it comes to the wonderful world of finance so you’d think I’d have more tolerance for this kind of thing than most, but no. It just sounded like a lot of smug, dull people trying to justify themselves. Because the truth of the matter, people, is that FINANCE IS QUITE BORING. Yes, yes, of course it makes the world go round etc. but it’s DULL and many of the people who work in it aren’t that interesting either but ARE full of their own importance. The only film that’s ever managed to make the whole business look even vaguely sexy is “Wall Street” and that was largely due to Michael Douglas’s (then) box-office heat. It’s a shame because Seth Freedman seems to cut quite a dash away from the trading-room floor - the lead-up to his decision to leave trading to join the Israeli army would surely be a much more interesting tale than this slightly-too-earnest effort. I should have bought Cityboy, at least that looks as if it contains a few more laughs.

Carrot Cake with Cream-Cheese Frosting OK, the frosting is...

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:36:00 +0200

Carrot Cake with Cream-Cheese Frosting

OK, the frosting is really St. Moret, whipped together with a little honey and some orange zest.

Second Time Lucky...

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:08:00 +0200

…because sometimes Twitter and Flickr aren’t quite enough…