Bailey’s Custard Tart

It’s been that long since I wrote a post I can’t remember how to do it anymore. As the actress said to the bishop.

The reason I am writing this post is to have a quick rant about Panko Breadcrumbs. Which I will now refer to as Wanko Breadcrumbs (BTW this post is NSFW). I just made some Arancini. But instead of simply whizzing  up some stale bread like you are supposed to , I decided to use up a spare pack of Wanko Breadcrumbs. Basically you end up with something with the texture akin to a packet of crisps. Don’t bother.

Anyway no one cares about little balls of rice covered with crushed up crisps. What people care about is Custard Tart infused with 3 litres of Bailey’s Irish Cream.

Happy Days

It’s been nearly 1 year since Happiness Stan last posted a post. I lost my mojo. Gave up. Couldn’t be arsed, so to speak. But give a guy a break. In that time I (we) have:

• Moved house (major trauma)
• Changed jobs (but not company) – even more major trauma and I still never know what the next day will bring
• Oh, and adopted some children (major total mega what-the-frickety-frick trauma)

Because of these major life-changing events (you know, those kinds of events you read about in the news where somebody loses a major body part in a terrorist attack where they refer to it as life changing but….

Moving

It’s been some time since the Happiness that is Happiness Stan saw fit to write something. For Happiness Stan has been about as happy as a fart in a thunderstorm. Not happy. Not happy at all.

I could go into the intricate details surrounding this lack of happiness….and i will.

Moving. To be specific. Selling one house and then buying another. And then moving from the former to the latter. They say that moving is akin to dying*. And it is. At various times death would have been a…sorry I’ve been distracted whilst the wife is singing along to a live TV version of the Sound of Music…It’s okay she’s gone to get some wine. Anyway back to my point…death would have been a sweet release. The issue?

*(I made that up but it is true)

Super Luxury Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding

The ‘Super’ comes from the nutella spread used to sandwich the brioche slices together. The ‘Luxury’ comes from the additional slab of chopped up dark chocolate.

This creation came about due to a series of unfortunate events. Last Saturday England humiliated itself in the Rugby Word Cup, losing to Wales. Now whilst this debacle was going on, we were getting ready to meet with our mortgage advisor the next morning.

Having blown us out once already, said mortgage advisor claimed that meeting on a Sunday morning was no problem and he ‘often did it’. So, documents in hand, the following morning we prepared to set off to sort out our mortgage (oh yes, we are moving). Just as we were walking out the door, I checked my phone.

Text message. ‘Really sorry, I’ve been ill all night, can’t make the meeting’. Blah, blah. Then, rather strangely, the message ended with the mortgage advisor stating he wouldn’t be in the next day either, as if reinforcing the gravity of his life threatening illness.

Gutted. We were really under pressure to get the mortgage sorted. What to do? Well of course, make something utterly decadent. Super Luxury Brioche and Butter Pudding. 

What Have The Americans Ever Done For Us? Hot Dogs, Buddy, Fully Loaded.

There’s a scene in ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’ where a squad of Israelite rebels, led by John Cleese & Co, are discussing ‘what have the Romans done for us?’ The debate centres around whether they should pursue a terrorist course of action, and everyone gets a bit stressed as they start to realise the Roman’s have actually done quite a lot….

‘…All right… all right… but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order… what have the Romans done for us?’

Now fast forward a few thousand years.

Here we are, in the glorious 21^st century. For Rome, read Amercia. Now I haven’t spent too much time or effort considering the socio-economic influence of America on the planet. And I’m not going to start now. What I will do is consider the culinary influence of America.

And they have done some seriously important things for us. Fully Loaded Hot Dogs are a case in point.