Still around...

We are off to Berlin today. Now that I have access to a working keyboard, I've been mentally listing all the posts I'd like to write. About how to eat well (and cheap) in London, and about eating and travelling in general. It's also fun to compare supermarkets - UK vs Australian, but also the difference between Waitrose and Tescoes (they had vacuum packed, fresh, peeled beetroot in the veggie section. odd)
I'm not missing any food related things from home, except maybe the presence of fresh vegetables. The supermarkets here seem to think we are all to busy to prepare vegetables ourselves. And all the veggies in our restaurant meals have been cooked within an inch of their lives. Not that the food has been bad... we've had curries in Leicester and pork pie in Richmond. And last night we ate a restaurant called "Fish in a Tie"!
So stay tuned for more photo's and more adventures. We're off to the land of beer and sausage!

Pictures from Borough Markets

I'd love to tell you all about our adventures so far, but the spacebar has fallen off this keyboard, and it's drivingmenuts. Enjoy the pictures!

No-egg Chocolate Cracked Cookies

With our holiday fast approaching and K concerns about her blog falling asleep I thought I would cast my hat into the ring also to give her a hand. As the male of the house I am usually the mysterious figure in the background in this blog so it’s nice to make a guest ‘in person’ for in this instance.

As K has alluded to previously I have a small (ok . . . large) sweet tooth. So when the regular work morning tea came around again I felt obliged to find another variation of a gooey chocolate delight to share. There were so many choices but I have always been fascinated by the look of the white ‘cracked’ biscuits. They always remind me of been a child and making Christmas decorations with my mum by spray painting pine cones etc to decoration the house or for the wreath on the front door.

The tricky part for the morning tea was that K decreed that I must make enough for her to take some also to work. The only very ‘easy’ limit she placed on my choice of recipe was that it must not have egg in it. Grrr, so rather than throwing out my plan (and everyone knows that with me being a Taurus I am bloody stubborn) I pulled out the no-egg replacer powder and continued un-phased. I was pleasantly surprise that the cookies turned out perfect and would thoroughly recommend them.

There were numerous recipes online for this type of cookie, but many just seemed more fiddly than I wanted for 10pm at night or had nuts (which would also not work due to other work colleagues). In the end the one below was the one I went with; available from taste.com .au at http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/544/chocolate+crackle+top+biscuits

It so easy and quick. The best part it looks cool and is nice and gooey soft.

Enjoy,

R

Ingredients

50g butter, chopped

100g good-quality dark chocolate

1 egg, at room temperature (obviously, I used egg replacer here)

1/2 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup plain flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

2/3 cup pure icing sugar

Method

1. Place butter and 50g chocolate in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on medium-high for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring every minute with a metal spoon, or until melted and smooth.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat egg and brown sugar in a small bowl on high speed until thick. Stir in chocolate mixture.

3. Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa over chocolate mixture. Mix well.

4. Chop remaining chocolate into small pieces. Stir into dough. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until firm enough to roll.

5. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of dough into balls. Roll in icing sugar to coat. Place biscuits on trays, allowing room to spread.

6. Bake biscuits for 12 minutes or until firm. Stand on trays for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Serve.

Clearing out the fridge

One more sleep until we hop on a plane. The garbage is out, the bills are paid, someone is checking the mail. We have passports and toothbrushes, reading material and insurance.

We know where our towels are.
I'm so excited I think I gave myself a tummy ache. So Ryan roasted all the veggies in the fridge for dinner. And I ate it and felt better.

To all the Aussies out there, enjoy your autumn - we are off to a second summer!