Aw, Fudge!

Did you know that evaporated milk and condensed milk aren't the same thing?

I didn't!

Why is this startling fact important? Well, if you try to make fudge with evaporated milk, it doesn't work! As I discovered tonight after purchasing the following in an attempt to make fudge:

A pot (a nice shiny, new pot)
A little baking tray thing for the fudge to cool in
A set of 2 spatulas - 1 wooden, 1 wooden with a rubber spatula bit
Butter (unsalted)
Sugar (soft brown)
EVAPORATED milk (big tin)

Listed my ingredients on a forum I was on, and someone replied saying "Evaporated milk? I thought it had to be condensed?"

Checked up... and discovered that evaporated and condensed milks were NOT just the same thing with a slightly different name. So my batch of what was basically fudge sauce, because it wouldn't set, was poured down the loo.

My brother was heading out to Tesco tonight, so I got a run there with him, and returned with:

CONDENSED milk (big tin)
and Sugar (soft brown Fair Trade)

ready for Fudge MkII (I still had some butter left).

Not checked it in a while, but I fear that this time we might have gone past Fudge, and veered into Toffee territory...

The really annoying thing is when I think how many bars of Orkney Fudge I could have bought for the money it's cost me to try to make a few bits!

Maybe from now on I'll leave the culinary things to the Delia Smiths of this world? I just wanted to do something fun and a bit different to take my mind off today!

And The Nobel Prize Goes To...

Me! For the pot of soup I made on Wednesday night!

It was (imho) the very best pot of soup ever made in the history of soup-making, and was indeed worthy of some honour...

I would love to share the recipe with you, but there's a small technical hitch... I didn't actually have a recipe!

All I can tell you is what went in it...

A couple of salmon fillets (yep, posh soup!), tatties, carrots, a parsnip I had lurking in the fridge, a couple of mushrooms, onion, leek... all boiled for a while in vegetable stock (no salt added... none needed)...

Then, when the vegetables had softened, I scooped them out of the pot, into another pot, and got the tattie chapper in among them (I don't own a blender) - mashed them all down, and then cupped them back into the vegetable stock.

Result - Grade A soup!

Hello, Bloggy Peeps!

How the hell are you?

Me? I'm so-so... Work's work, life's life (na, na, na-na-na... no, sorry... that's LIVE is life)...

What's there to tell you of the last few days? Not a lot really. I did some more cooking on Sunday - another batch of soup (which wasn't as good as the first lot... maybe down to the few brussel sprouts that I chopped up and stuck in) and a pot of mince that I ate the last of tonight. My soup, however, I'm fed up with, so I'm going to freeze the 8 gallons that's left (erm, I kind of made too much) for another day... or 6.

And that's about it... Sunday was very lazy. Lounged around and spent most of the day shoving cats off me coz they wouldn't leave me alone! Honestly, it's nice to be loved, but sometimes it's nice not to be quite so smothered by them... I closed my eyes briefly at one stage, and was suddenly aware of Minnie licking my forehead! Yuck!

And that really is it now, so I'll bugger off and think about some more 80's cheese to plant for Julie to see in the morning...

And On The Seventh Day...

... She made soup, and She tasted it... and lo, it was good soup... and there was enough for the 8th, 9th and probably 10th days as well...

Yep... Sunday I made soup... a big pot of lentil & bacon soup with loads of carrots, lots of neep, a couple of parsnips, a bit of red & orange peppers, and some spring onions... and it's pretty good - even if I do say so myself... but the problem is next time I try to make it, it could taste foul, coz I follow my Mum's method of soup-making... which is to chuck a pile of stuff in it, and if it ends up too thin, add some more stuff and boil a bit longer... and if it ends too thick, then add some more water! Thankfully, this time it ended up neither too thin or too thick... although I did have to top up the water at one stage...

So, what else did I do with my weekend? Well, I worked Saturday, then watched some crap on telly at night. And Sunday, I vegged out with Harriet the cat, watching TV (I could become addicted to "Cirque De Celebrite", it has to be said... High camp, or what?)

And that was my weekend...

Sniffle... Sniffle... (gulp)... It's Okay... I'm Fine... Really...

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! *Sniff*

Sorry... I've just watched episode one of the second series of "Ugly Betty" on Channel 4... and there was a bit near the end that was just so sad... and I blubbed! If you watched it too, you know the bit... *blush*

Anyway, today at work was shit. I'm up to date with things just now, and I'm really struggling to find things to do some of the time. To top that off, the boss was out quite a bit today, and I was there on my lonesome... either with no one to speak to, or with customers who needed technical advice that I just couldn't provide. The boss was even down at the shop over dinnertime, so I couldn't go out to get any food... and then he came back, and went out again... and then came back... and then buggered off early, leaving me alone again for the last hour, still foodless... and I had a serious chocolate urge!

Shopping tonight... and I'm about to venture into the (largely) unknown... Now, I'm not the world's most confident, or capable, cook... but on Sunday I'm going to make soup. I've only tried it a few times before, but my Mum could make great vegetable soup, and I'm hoping soup-making ability is genetic (a bit like child-bearing hips, I guess). I'll let you know how I get on. I'm going for lentil & bacon, with carrots, neeps (turnips to you foreigners), parsnips and spring onions). I guess that's all you need for soup... and some stock... but if anyone reading this has any tried and tested soup recipes, just let me know! Winter's coming, and I love soup on a cold evening.

Working in the shop tomorrow... Oh, fun(!).

Well, I guess that's about all my news for today.

Catch you around, Bloggers... x

A Peedie Bit O' Orkney

It's occurred to me that I really don't share enough of the beautiful islands where I live with you, so I'm going to start posting something Orkney related every day (or every day I post, at least)... It could be a photo, an Orkney word, a tradition, a famous Orcadian (apart from BB Cameron), poetry, a recipe... anything really... and maybe more than one thing a day if you're lucky.

So, we'll start off with a recipe... and a bit of tradition too - The Bride's Cog.

2 bottles whisky.
2 bottles rum.
1 bottle brandy.
1 bottle port.
1 bottle gin.
12 pints of ale (preferably home brewed but bought ale will suffice).
2-4 pints of Stout.
Sugar.
Mixed Spices.
Empty the ale into a large pot and begin to heat.
Once the ale is warm, add some sugar to taste and begin to add the spirits, taking care not to boil the mixture - this destroys the alcohol.
Add mixed spice to taste.
Ladle the mixture into the awaiting cog to be passed around the guests.

Read here for the tradition behind a wedding cog: www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/weddings/cog.htm

It's a potent brew!