After our recent kitchen refurbishment, we sat down, found the plughole for the kettle and then had a nice cup of tea.
That said, it should come as no surprise that the upheaval resulted in some things becoming displaced i.e. lost.
The most valuable item in our erstwhile kitchen was your building instructions for a fruit cake.
In desperation (well, feeling a bit miffed), I looked on NCOTAASD to find the instructions again.
404 Page not found.Oh Dear.
Miffness has turned back to despair !
The thought of unhappy non-scoffers makes my heart very heavy and I was wondering whether you might have some of that traditional English never-kick-a-man-when-he's-down (NKAMWHD), all-pull-together (APT) kindheartedness in you and assure me that I may somehow see again that ground (not teeth)- breaking set of plans for the building of the aforementioned.
As you can see I have colossally slack having not updated NCOTAASD for some six years or something. However, this has rightly put me on the spot so I have sorted it out and the cake recipe is once again gracing the internet. To be honest I was in a similar predicament a while back although it was all of my own making. Wifey insisted that we got a new kitchen and not long after it went in I built a NCOTAASD fruit cake in it - the christmas variant of (soak all the fruit in booze for a couple of days and add another spoonful of mixed spice and some nuts (..and wrap the whole lot up in jam/marzipan/royal icing)). I resorted to a back up of the recipe, but was annoyed that I couldn't just go to online. Well now we all can.
Hoorah for you telling me to sort it out.
I live in France. On the whole it's a good place but when it comes to tea and biscuits the country has really let itself down and has much to learn about both. This means that I have to go to the British section of the local supermarket to stock up which gets me funny looks by other people in the shop. The other day however, I was chuffed to bits when I saw a shipment of Custard Creams had come in and that I could buy a double pack for one Euro which I thought was a bargain. I bought 2 packs and headed home to the kettle immediately.
the answer they've been waiting for. Those genius biscuit makers. Whatever will they think of next?
First well done on living in France. I always think that most of things we British do in France, including living in it, come as a bit of a surprise to it. They perform a useful service, helping to keep the whole place on its toes rather than sinking into a Gallic drowse. Drinking tea absolutely anywhere other than in a Salon de The seems to do the trick. Certainly striding around with a big enamel mug of the stuff a couple of fig rolls always gets me noticed. Having just got back from a few days over there, I have to say making French things into curries also gives me an overwhelming sense of 'France wasn't expecting that'.
So on those Custard Creams. Indeed they emanate from Lidls and therefore were probably made by United Biscuits, (McVities/Crawfords/Jacobs). As such Lidls wouldn't have much to do with their specification apart from a price-point. I suspect that you may be experiencing some effect caused by eating them in France. Perhaps your British metabolism is going into some sort of hibernation state. This could be due to the stress of having to eat all that semi-raw meat, heavy sauces and sharp jabby pointy crusty bread. Having at last had some proper tea and biscuits perhaps you body is trying to conserve these precious resources by entering a torpid resting phase.
Happily the advice would seem to be to eat ore of them till you get used to them again.
I work as a hospital chaplain here in Oakland California, a city which has its problems. I am also a British ex-pat, although I've been living here since I was 8 so I've lost the accent, unfortunately. I'll have you know that very early this morning I was robbed of my wallet by two gun-wielding men. Physically I'm fine. Emotionally I'm a bit wobbly. I'm currently following my mum's advice, which is that I have a nice cup of tea and a sit down. This, naturally, made me think of you.
Yes indeed people in shock get given sweet tea whether they want it or not, that is the British way. Either it will fortify and comfort you, or if you find yourself struggling to drink the unaccustomedly sweetened brew at least its taking your mind off the matter at hand.
Chin up. At least that San Andreas fault thingy across the bay has gone off recently, that could really ruin your day.
As Which seem to have got the mince pie survey side of Christmas covered this year will you be doing a group stollen test so that we can make informed purchasing decisions in that market during the forthcoming festive season?
Nicey replies: Chris you're right. I did make a special noise last night next to the stollen's in Tesco. I think this idea might have finally come of age as I have found myself gainfully employed once more which means I have many new work mates on which to road test such large tea time treats and therefore up the cake review bandwidth.