cordon bleu

Ah man, I love cooking. The best is when I've got the house to myself; I can crunk up Radio 3 and really go for it. 

I love experimenting with new recipes (to which end this little gem has been abundantly helpful). In fact, I love the whole process of cooking. I went food shopping today and somehow it never feels like a chore - in fact, in a bit of a geekish way it makes me feel like a proper grown-up. 

I love the feel of all the different types of food - all the different textures and smells. How they feel in your hands and how occasionally wretchedly awkward things are to chop and peel. I love standing by the hob and stirring as though I'm making some marvellous concoction that no one else has ever made; as though I'm the first person to ever experience that particular flavour.

I love that all the hard work and heat and the not infrequent stress is all for a purpose, and you can see and taste the result. I began to take a real pride in the finished product, it becomes a labour of true love and dedication - a work of art.

How hateful it must be to be afraid or begrudging of food. I think about how blessed I am each time I take a teaspoonful to taste as I go along, or breathe in deeply the formative flavourful smell.

Food is glorious, and I try not to take it for granted.

poor lad

To counter the hideous hideousness of seeing Gordon Brown walking his family out of 10 Downing Street, I made a cheesecake last night.

And it took the edge off.

the joy of enchiladas

Who knew?! How have I lived this long without trying them?!

Sure, I've had fajitas, but these are like fajitas and then some. They're like juiced-up fajitas drizzled in sunshine. I think they may become a regular in the goshkate household. Cannot fail to be a winner.

red velvet cake

'Twas a lovely tasty success. Taken me a while to upload the pictures but better late than never. An amazing amazing cake, so thank you girlhula for the inspiration :)

After initial struggle to find buttermilk (to be found in what look like tall yoghurt pots, just so you know...) I donned an apron, rolled up my sleeves and got cracking.

About an hour and an ocean of red food colouring later - voila!

stupid wretched hideous

laptop has broken AGAIN. Hence the lack of blog entries of late. ACH.

Took it back to the same place again and they are a BUNCH OF CROOKS. They are the single most unprofessional "business" I've ever has the misfortune of coming across: completely unreliable and utterly useless. Grr.

AND, they've made me have to be all assertive and no-nonsense and I hate doing that but have had to get good at it pretty quickly. So so annoying.

However, I am going to make a red velvet cake tomorrow so all will be well :)

oh, the joy...

...of honey on toast. Truly, I cannot imagine a thing much more perfect.

Literally liquid gold, and completely wonderful.

I love the way that, if you flick the toast quickly onto your plate and get the butter on before it starts to cool, it melts into yummy shimmery goldenness.

I love that the honey itself makes a really thin crunchy layer on the top that makes a good noise when you bite it.

And I love that my cheap toaster is a little bit too small for my bread, so the top is still a little bit soft when I take it out.

I celebrate and give thanks for the joy that is toast.

from my birthday

Now that I've finally (though shamefully late, I admit) downloaded all the recent stuff from my camera onto my computer, I've come across some little nuggets of birthday happiness. Here are a couple of them:

Pancakes: The Moment of Truth

Pancakes: Chuffed?

I really do have the best housemates. It was brilliant guys x