Rolls

I've tried making rolls a couple of times: Once by hand and once using a mixer. Both times I ended up with what could be passable copies of hockey pucks or mini discus.

I followed the instructions exactly: Left the dough to double in size then knead it back to the original volume. Pull the dough and put it on a greased baking tray. Cover it with a cloth until the dough rises again. (Now that was a dumb thing to do!)

O.K. substituted cling film for the cloth! The rolls didn't rise so I stuck them in the oven anyway. They look terrible, but they taste yummy! Just like a Scottish plain loaf but exceedingly chewy (just the way I like it). :-)

What to do in a Power Outage?

Power was out yesterday for four hours. Suddenly, our lives stood still. Washing machine and drier stopped, vacuum cleaner stopped sucking, computer shut off, television no worky! Hmmmm, what to do, what to do? Wandered aimlessly for a while then finished my book (which was rather pleasant to do without feeling I should be doing something else). Wandered in and out of rooms making futile attempts at turning lights on. What to do, what to do? Went and had a shower--that killed 20 minutes. Finally gave up and had a martini. Ahhhhh, that's better.

Don't cut your nails when cats are around!

So, I had a sharp, rough point on my big toe nail which I decided to cut off with a pair of scissors. Off I go with two cats in tow. While positioning the scissors the cats started sniffing around my feet. Being slightly distracted by all this moving and sniffing, I snipped: Sadly, as well as the nail, I also took off the tiniest bit of big toe. And I mean TINY! . Even with tiny, wee cuts, big toes bleed profusely! Moral: Cut your toe nails in private.

CPK Pizza

Here's another misrepresented pizza. This time it's California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ Chicken.

Picture from the box. Mm mm mmmm!:

And here's the real thing (note that it's not yet cooked--this is just to show how the ingredients are placed) See if you can spot the 6 pieces of chicken:

Here's another one with the onions carefully distributed.

Tabby-Tote

This device, in my humble opinion, has to be the most perfectly designed vehicle for ferrying-around felines. Any malarky on the part of one's kitty can be easily and quickly "rectified." :-)

Abreva works!

For those of you who suffer the indignity of cold sores (herpes simplex) and their resulting disgusting looking scabs, try using Abreva. It really works. For years I had used after-shave lotion which made me smell nice but did nothing to allay the eventual (albeit temporary) disfigurement. Next I tried Blistex which worked marginally but always left a greasy splodge on my face. Then along came pricey, expensive Abreva in its dinky little tube! Worth every penny! At the first sign of a cold sore (funky feeling on lip), I start applying the Abreva every couple of hours, and especially after eating or drinking or snogging. It's not as magical as the television advertisements suggest but it stops the cold sore getting huge--and if you catch it quickly enough, the sore just kinda melts away (after a few days).
I cannot recommend this stuff highly enough! Brilliant!

Albertson's Culinary Circle Pizza

So I bought a Culinary Circle "Ultra Thin Crust Garlic Chicken Alfredo Pizza" from Albertson's.


Boy, did it look d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s ! I was drooling! Check out the pic from the box...


Doesn't it look great?

O.K. so here's what it really looks like!

Not too many chicken pieces, and a splodge of onion.

It tasted pretty much like how it looks (crappy)!

I contacted Culinary Circle and explained to them how disappointed I was with the product and also suggested a possible "untruth in advertising." And, no, they never responded to me!