A Life of Crime and Chocolate

You need to feel better that almost-human. Moet is good for that, just so you know...

heyjude said:

Oh, I'm boring. I don't drink (any more) AND I'm a vegan.

Did you ever notice the hand crawling away at the end of that emoticon? ::shudder::

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It's very scarey. I'm a vegan except when other people cook. And I only drink if there's Moet

HJ - actually I thought soon as I came off the site after posting if you might not do honey. I've not heard of the other stuff. Good though if you're feeling more human. (I'm not vegan but I don't drink either).

And now the big decision - to go to the supermarket now and get it over with, or wait until I have baked cookies.

What HJ said! And if you go to the supermarket first there is the possibility that you will get their cookies!

I think the only cure for a sore throat is a strong chocolate liqueur. As it is chocolate you will not notice the alcohol until it starts to kick in - by which time is it far too late to stop! When you do stop you will have forgotten all about your throat.

Went to the supermarket and discovered a whole load of baking stuff on sale for making Christmas stuff (baking gifts for people is quite a big thing here at this time of year). So got a load of stuff to use in the cookies and in future baking products. Thinking of bringing some of my pernik cupcakes back as pressies to my Scottish pals.

heyjude said:

Did you ever notice the hand crawling away at the end of that emoticon? ::shudder::

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I hadn't noticed, actually, and now I join you in the ::shudder::.

Zelenka said:

Thinking of bringing some of my pernik cupcakes back as pressies to my Scottish pals.

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What are pernik cupcakes?

There is an overabundance of candy in the office today. I wish I was vegan. Hm, maybe I can be vegan for the day and that will help me avoid temptation...

Namatu said:

What are pernik cupcakes?

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Pernik cake is kind of like gingerbread but with aniseed instead of ginger in it, and a bit of cinnamon. But I don't have a proper tray for baking yet so I make cupcakes out of the mix instead. And stick cocoa in them so they're chocolate - aniseed.

Got five of those left, and four pear and chocolate chip cookies. It's a good way to take a break from the computer for a bit but I'm going to be huge by the end of NaNo at this rate...

heyjude said:

The trick is to do it for ethical (not dietary) reasons. Watch the Meet Your Meat videos,

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I don't want to meet my meat! I don't eat it anyway. As I explain to people on rare occasion when they ask, my vegetarianism didn't begin for ethical reasons, but they don't hurt either.

Oh, and look at the labels for candy. Carmine is ground-up insects. Gelatin is ground-up cow's bones. Didn't take me long, once I started thinking about those things for real, to stop craving any of it.

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Yes, I really don't want to eat bugs in my strawberry yogurt! Who thought carmine was a good idea?

ETA2: BTW, Namatu, I know you're one of the healthiest eaters I know. I just like to talk about this stuff.

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But I ate a peanut butter cup this morning! and there are brownies. Not in my line of sight, however, so I shall just exit my office in the "away" direction today. It's too bad there's no carmine in brownies. I wouldn't want to eat bug brownies.

I recently started to bake my own bread. The reason for this is a packet of bread rolls I purchased at a supermarket. I went on holiday a day of two after getting them and forgot about them. The best before date on them is August 11 - they are still soft and there is no sign of mould. I shudder to think about the preservatives in the bread that has kept it going so long.

Shakesbear said:

I recently started to bake my own bread. The reason for this is a packet of bread rolls I purchased at a supermarket. I went on holiday a day of two after getting them and forgot about them. The best before date on them is August 11 - they are still soft and there is no sign of mould. I shudder to think about the preservatives in the bread that has kept it going so long.

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The ones from the supermarket in Scotland were the opposite. They were practically mouldy before you got them to the checkouts. But my theory was that was because the Co-op in Glasgow Shawlands actually had its own time stream, running differently to normal time. My evidence for this was the time it took to get from the back of the queue to the tills, or for things to be restocked after the ran out.

I started baking here for economic reasons rather than health. I really grudge paying for pastries or cakes or whatever now when I can make a batch for a few crowns worth of ingredients, and I can make them how I want them.

Weirdly, I think I have actually lost weight since coming to CZR, and I put it down to making proper food now, rather than eating takeaway or supermarket meals.

I was going to make banana loaf tonight. However I forgot to buy bananas. Which are slightly important to the recipe. Will try the farmer's market tomorrow.

Shakesbear said:

I shudder to think about the preservatives in the bread that has kept it going so long.

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Curiously, a grocery store near me has some pre-made, put-in-the-oven-to-bake bread rolls. The ingredients include parabens. Now, parabens are in a lot of things, but I have never seen them in food before. I'm not eating that.

Zelenka said:

I started baking here for economic reasons rather than health. I really grudge paying for pastries or cakes or whatever now when I can make a batch for a few crowns worth of ingredients, and I can make them how I want them.

Weirdly, I think I have actually lost weight since coming to CZR, and I put it down to making proper food now, rather than eating takeaway or supermarket meals.

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It is the making of proper food! Far fewer calories, no preservatives, no artificial flavoring...

It's interesting to read labels. I needed to buy some bread crumbs for a recipe. I had no bread so couldn't make them myself. The little container with bread crumbs in them had such a long list of ingredients, with long and interesting words. The container for panko bread crumbs had four ingredients, all of which I could identify and pronounce. I bought that one.

Namatu said:

It is the making of proper food! Far fewer calories, no preservatives, no artificial flavoring...

It's interesting to read labels. I needed to buy some bread crumbs for a recipe. I had no bread so couldn't make them myself. The little container with bread crumbs in them had such a long list of ingredients, with long and interesting words. The container for panko bread crumbs had four ingredients, all of which I could identify and pronounce. I bought that one.

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It's amazing how weird ingredients are, even something like sugar, where you'd think the packet would contain just sugar.

(although I did laugh at the ingredients on a Marks & Spencer bag of peanuts, which had as a warning at the end 'May contain traces of nuts'). May contain? So there's a chance it doesn't?

Zelenka said:

It's amazing how weird ingredients are, even something like sugar, where you'd think the packet would contain just sugar.

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Sugar that contains more than sugar is suspect. Why mess with a good thing? (I'm looking at you, margarine.)

(although I did laugh at the ingredients on a Marks & Spencer bag of peanuts, which had as a warning at the end 'May contain traces of nuts'). May contain? So there's a chance it doesn't?

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I agree with all of you. Store bought foods are becoming more suspect than ever. Earlier this year I had a go at making my own bread. Never having worked with yeast before my first attempts were... well, let's put it this way, if you were building a house and needed bricks I could have provided some for you. But I'm getting the hang of it and my breads are becoming more edible. I just knead to keep practicing.

Also, store-bought biscuits (cookies) are so full of preservatives I actually feel sluggish if I've eaten any. They're now banned in my home. I prefer to go to the greengrocers or the store and buy the raw ingredients and make everything from scratch.

Sometimes it works - and sometimes I have, what my husband calls, a culinary malfunction. What can you do? I prefer to be slaving over a hot keyboard anyway.

Zelenka said:

(although I did laugh at the ingredients on a Marks & Spencer bag of peanuts, which had as a warning at the end 'May contain traces of nuts'). May contain? So there's a chance it doesn't?

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A good chance, because as we all know peanuts grow underground and hence are a legume. Technically, they're a bean.

ETA: Upon re-reading that statement, the fact that peanuts grow underground isn't what makes them a bean. Sorry, I just woke up. If memory serves, it has to do with the way the plant reproduces. Nuts are "seeds mixed together with their own fruit" somehow. Check with a proper botanist or look it up if you want particulars.

It is these differences that allow a good friend of mine, who has a deathly allergic reaction to nuts, have his a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast every morning.

DocBrown said:

A good chance, because as we all know peanuts grow underground and hence are a legume. Technically, they're a bean.

ETA: Upon re-reading that statement, the fact that peanuts grow underground isn't what makes them a bean.

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But they are a bean? Excellent. All those peanut butter cups today were good for me!

Gail, I agree that it's better to make your own cookies than buy the ones in the store. I have some addictive cookie recipes. Oatmeal cranberry, spelt chocolate chip, pumpkin chocolate chip...

Semi-Tangent: I am always amused by this delusion people have that fruits and veggies are good for them. Like anything, it is about moderation.

Eating a quart of strawberries, or melons, or apples, or any other fruit that creates its own sugar is not any better than eating the equivalent sugar in the form of candy treats.

And please don't waste my time on the refined sugar versus "natural" sugar nonsense. Eating too much sugar in any form is going to make you fat.

Namatu said:

But they are a bean? Excellent. All those peanut butter cups today were good for me!

Gail, I agree that it's better to make your own cookies than buy the ones in the store. I have some addictive cookie recipes. Oatmeal cranberry, spelt chocolate chip, pumpkin chocolate chip...

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Yesterday was my first cookie attempt. They turned out a wee bit too thin but still edible. Today if I get bananas, it will be banana and poppyseed cake, possibly with chocolate sauce. If I don't go to the market (as it seems to be an awful day out there today), then I might make brownies, as I have all the stuff for them.

Not feeling so good today though. It's probably sympathetic with HJ but my throat is swollen like anything this morning.