Diary

November 2005RSS feed

Our "nearly Christmas" cake

Wednesday 2 November, 2005

by Rosemary at 8:03pm in Recipes 1 comment Comments closed

Last weekend, I started our preparations for Christmas by making 6lb of mincemeat and a Christmas cake. Usually, I make two Christmas cakes - I burn the first one, so we cut the sides and the top off and eat it immediately, then I make a second that we keep for Christmas.

This year, I remembered not to use the fan oven and, since Dan was waiting to put the Toad in the Hole that he'd made for dinner in the oven after the cake had been in only four hours, I took it out earlier than I usually do. It is perfect - the best Christmas cake I've ever made.

Felix

Monday 14 November, 2005

by Rosemary at 10:19pm in Cats 3 comments Comments closed

We have a new addition to our family. After losing Homer a few weeks ago, I had a wee trip to the local cat shelter last week, to hand in a donation. There were lots of lovely cats and kittens, but one in particular caught my eye. So he moved in on Saturday.

Felix giving kissesHis name is Felix. He's a six(ish) year old black (mainly) ex-tom cat. His previous mum and dad split up, and his mum couldn't keep him in her new house.

Christmas cake

Thursday 24 November, 2005

by Rosemary at 8:06pm in Recipes Comments closed

Here's one of the recipes I use for Christmas cake. It's very rich and dark (like Dan!). I've made two - we ate one but the second one is living in the pantry and being fed brandy weekly. It's dead easy.

7" square or 8" round tin, greased and lined with greasproof paper.

1lb currants, 6oz sultanas, 6oz raisins, 2oz glace cherries, washed, dried and chopped, 2oz mixed candied peel, chopped.

Soak the fruit in 3 tablespoons of brandy overnight.

Sift 8oz plain flour, 0.5 teaspoon salt, 0.25 teaspoon grated nutmeg, 0.5 teaspoon mixed spice into a bowl.

Strange little cat

Thursday 24 November, 2005

by Rosemary at 8:18pm in Cats Comments closed

Felix is now well settled. He seems to have got the hang of the cat flap, which is good. He's an odd wee creature, though. Or maybe it's just our lack of experience with cats that makes him seem so.

Although he's six, he seems very kittenish. Everything is new and exciting and generates lots of snuffly sniffs. He tears about the house, treating no-one with any respect. However, he and Cass both sleep with us and share a sofa. Copper tolerates him but whacked him tonight when he got too familiar (he was trying to play with her tail, the cheek of it!).

Radio 5

Monday 28 November, 2005

by Dan at 8:02pm in Anything goes 3 comments Comments closed

Following our monumentous move into radio earlier this year (both listeners emailed us to say they enjoyed the programme), last week I got a call from a very nice lady at BBC Radio 5 asking if I'd be willing to record some stuff for a programme about blogging. She caught me on the hop so the answer was 'yes', and as a result I spent my lunchtime today in a very small BBC studio at Stirling University recording some snippets from the TAS diary.

To be honest I felt a bit of a fraud, since I've been terribly negligent of the site lately, and since most of the stuff I read was from the distant past. What I'm hoping is that the pressure of the thought of three or four more visitors in the new year (when the programme is likely to be aired) will give me the boot up the backside I clearly need to get back into the habit of 'writing' (I use the term loosely).

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