Bread Pudding

I tried out this recipe (from BBC Good Food) last night wanting to use up some bread that was going stale. Was very tasty and declared by everyone in the house that the recipe is a keeper.

Ingredients

• 500g white or wholemeal bread
• 500g/1lb 2oz mixed dried fruit
• 85g mixed peel
• 1 ½ tbsp mixed spice
• 600ml milk
• 2 large eggs , beaten
• 140g light muscovado sugar
• zest 1 lemon (optional)
• 100g butter , melted
• 2 tbsp demerara sugar

Method

1. 1. Tear the bread into a large mixing bowl and add the fruit, peel and spice. Pour in the milk, then stir or scrunch through your fingers to mix everything well and completely break up the bread. Add eggs, muscovado and lemon zest if using. Stir well, then set aside for 15 mins to soak.
2. 1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 20cm non-stick square cake tin (not one with a loose base). Stir the melted butter into the pudding mixture, tip into the tin, then scatter with demerara. Bake for 1½ hrs until firm and golden, covering with foil if it starts to brown too much. Turn out of the tin and strip off the paper. Cut into squares and serve warm.

Choosing your hooks

Just like yarn comes in hundreds of variations, there are many types of hooks to choose from as well. Hooks  can come in different shapes, sizes and textures, all having an effect on your end result.

While the hook size should be based around the yarn & pattern you are using, what the Hook is made from is really down to your own preference. The most common materials you'll find hooks made from are metal, wood and plastic.

Metal Hooks in the UK at least the most common hook materials you'll find to buy in shops, they are strong, durable and smooth. Generally they will be made from aluminium or steel. Metals typically have a looser grip on yarns, allowing you to crochet faster. Metal hooks come in a huge range of sizes from giant 25mm hooks for the bulkiest of yarns to tiny 0.5mm for the most delicate of lace.

Wood hooks can be made in many different types of wood like bamboo. They are smooth and relatively light, Wood hooks tend to have a stronger grip on yarn, so may be a better choice to some very silky yarns.

Plastic Hooks are normally made of acrylic, and are lightweight. They tend to be somewhere in between metal and wood in terms of gripping yarn.

It's good to consider having multiple hooks of varying materials, because their properties may have different effects on your gauge, and general ease to working with different types of yarns.

A brillant morning

Gosh this morning has been a busy one, first and foremost it's my Mum's birthday. I was planning to treat her to a nice cup of tea in bed but she suck up on me as I was in the kitchen to let Mutley outside (he had other plans and refused to get off the bed).

After breakfast was done, and she had opened her presents, we headed out to Windsor for a morning out. We arrived at about 8:40am so not much at all was open so just had a wander until M&S opened, we went up to there cafe and enjoyed some tea and some delicious fruit scones.

After we had finished there we wandered around a bit and someone from the new L'Occitane shop which was opening that day was handing out little bags with some free samples in, since this is one of our favourite skin care brand we were delighted.

Our freebie bag contained a little sample of their face serum, travel sized bottles of the Almond shower oil and Shea face moisturiser.

Since it was their opening day they also were offering 15% of everything in store, I picked up a couple of bits I was getting low on. Rich Body Cream and the Protective Cream.

I also picked up one of their Nail and Cuticle Creams, my hands and nails are taking a bit of a battering with the painting I've been doing recently so that will be a treat for when it's all finished.

Mum bought a nice reed diffuser and fragrance for the upstairs bathroom once it's finished. She picked the Verbina scent which is a wonderful fresh zesty citrus smell. 

Finally because we were both one of the first 100 customers of the day we got a free gift, which contained travel sizes of the new Peony Shower gel, and Cherry Blossom Hand Cream and shower gel.

After we left there we headed down to B&Q to see if I could get a final look at the furniture I was planing to order when we got home but the only things they keep stock of in store is the sliding doors. But yes, we're officially starting to decorate another room. 2012 is the year of the Makeover for this house!

Repainting the dining room and good and bad movies

Well I finished off the living room and straight way I had the erge to paint the dining room, the two rooms are joined by some nice windowed French doors so we normally keep them the same colour. This was a nice bonus since I still had half a tub of the warm beige colour and a full tub of the soft sand colour left.

I whizzed around this room, it only took me about 5 hours to finish the whole thing, minus the small patches I missed. The one annoying thing about the darker colour I chose, when it's wet it near identical to the existing colour on the wall so it makes it rather hard to see in lower light where I've missed until it dries.





Now for some film talk

First up the Hunger Games it's based on the book by of the same name by Suzanne Collins. I've only read the first book (although know my fair share of spoilers from the other two books). Before I begin I'll say where I stand on the book, I only read the book after I saw trailers for the film. I really enjoyed the book and got through it within a couple of nights, it was by no means perfect but I'm glad the book seemed to make a point of Katniss not lusting after the two male roles rather that she had strong opinions against it.

The film however I thought was poor, I can wrap up my views on the film by saying. You have to watch the film as a book companion not as a film adaptation.
(Spolier ahead. Highlight the colours blocks if you want to read them
I'm happy to accept the deaths have to softened due to age rating they where aiming for, and Haymitch's heavy drinking was toned down out for the same reason (although I kinda was hoping they would have left him falling off stage in but that proberly would have added too much humor to the serious part in the story.


Yep, things have to be changed to for the film or cut out completely. How close to dying Peeta is, where the pin came from ect.  


But to me there was two things the film just glossed over, and they aren't small issues, and I think not really delving into them hurts the film. 1) How awful life is in District 12, if Katniss and Gale don't go out hunting illegally, there is a very real chance of them and their families starving. That's the reason Gale's name has been put in 42 times, they are so desperate for food they will take the meagre rations the extra entries award even though the worst case scenario for that is so grim. 2) How brutal the Capitol is. Yeah the games itself are cruel, but you know only for those 24 unlucky ones. Not if caught with a weapon, found outside in the woods, hunting illegally, trading illegally, running away from the capitol the best you can hope for is a fast execution at worst, having your tongue cut out and becoming a slave for the rest of your days.

In the end I kept going back to the thought, I only know this because I read the book. And I'm sorry but that is not how it should be, I didn't need to read LoTR or Harry Potter to understand what was happening in the film, the film explains it.

The one thing I will happily admit I liked was the scenes involving the game master since in the book (written in first person) we never see what's going on with him and it did give me a real scene of how in control of the game arena the capitol really is (it seriously had a whole Truman show vibe going on with that)

Now for the good one.

It's been many years in the making, all the way back in 2005 when the idea for a host of superhero origin stories (Iron man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America) culminating in a movie that bought them all together was announced. Since then each of these films had hints, teasers as to what would follow.

I was hoping the film would be good, equalling the films that came before it.... It blew them away, it pushes the bar of the super hero genre up a good few notches. There is tons of action, personality clashes from the team, some ace one liners in there which has the whole audience laughing, interestingly enough even though it was the action that drew me and I thought would be the focus, its the parts which reflect they characters humanity which I enjoyed the most.

On a side note, even though the Hulk (not Bruce Banner) is semi reduced to comic relief, I think they got him so right this time around. Despite me sleeping though the last two hulk films, if they ever make another Hulk film with Mark Ruffalo in it and done in a similar way as they have done with this film I'll be getting a ticket.