Sugar… in its many forms and types

Caster sugar.
Icing sugar.
Light Muscovado sugar.
Dark Muscovado sugar.
Demerera sugar.
Soft dark brown sugar.
Soft light brown sugar.
Golden Caster sugar.
Granulated sugar.

No doubt there are more types of sugar that I could add to this list but this will do for now. Right now, I have six of the above different types of sugar in my baking cupboard. Six? Seriously, who needs such a variety of sugar in their cupboard… especially when I don't actually put sugar in tea or coffee, I only use it for baking! And, more importantly, what is the difference between all these types of sugar?

That last question is the question that I asked myself this morning as I was checking that I had all the required ingredients for todays bake (ginger cake available from http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1462/sticky-stem-ginger-cake-with-lemon-icing). That particular recipe calls for dark muscovado sugar. I checked my baking cupboard to find I had caster sugar, icing sugar, light demerera sugar, soft dark brown sugar and golden caster sugar but no dark muscovado sugar. At this point I wondered "what is the difference between all these sugars?". A bit of a google and it seems to be to do with the amount of molasses in the sugar and who the sugar is refined. Muscovado sugar doesn't get spun in a centrifuge either… can't say I knew that any sugar went through that process! Maybe that's why it's such a thicker, clumpier sugar?

This page provides a nice high level overview of the differences (for anybody who cares!) and I at least understand a bit more about the difference between all these sugars. But I still wish I didn't need quite so many of them in my baking cupboard :)

Eat a small lunch tomorrow...

as we're going out for dinner tomorrow night.
This was the message that I got, via OCS, from Dave on Thurs 15th Dec.
Me: Oh, okay. Where and what time?
Dave: Nosh in Dalkey at 7pm.
Me: Okay. You do know that tomorrow is both our Christmas team lunches so we'll be eating a v late lunch.
Dave: Yes I know but it's already booked.
Me: Okay.

So, even though I'd been spoiled with a surprise birthday weekend away at The Old Convent the previous weekend I thought that maybe this was an additional birthday dinner (my birthday was Weds mid week) or something.

By 2.30pm on Fri afternoon I'm asking when we're heading for lunch... I have dinner in 4.5 hours you know. By 3pm it was "I have dinner in 4 hours". I finished eating about 3.50 thinking "Oh my God how am I going to manage dinner in 3 hrs?!"

Met Dave at Pearse St Dart station at 6.25 to head out Dalkey on the Dart. At the station we're discussing how full we are and I say that I may not even do the early bird menu as I'm so full... may be better to just order a single dish off the a la carte menu. We get on the Dart and out comes Dave's phone and he's texting away. I assumed to his sister or Carlos. Phone goes away and we natter away (probably about how now hungry we are!) until we get to Dalkey.

We wander down to Nosh and wander in...

I pretty quickly see my brother and his wife Jia there at a large table and I smile to them thinking what a coincidence that they're there that night.

I then follow that thought with "who the hell keeps taking photos of me... and why??" before seeing somebody I recognise at the other end of the table... possibly Amy and Eoin or maybe Fiona?

Then my clearly "not with it" brain kicks in to action and I think that possibly these people are sitting at the same table for a reason...

And maybe that reason is to surprise me...

And which point I promptly start crying!

Before deciding that sitting down would be the safest thing for me to do :)

Thank you to wonderful sister Ciara for organising this... pretty amazing considering that it was organised when Grace was probably only 3 months old and she had my 2 and half year old godson charging around the place and all done from the US! Thank you to Dave for getting the phone numbers of some friends from my phone without my knowledge and passing those with email addresses on to Ciara. And thank you to everybody who was there... Paul, Jia, Ciara, Eunan, Fiona, Jonathan, Fiona, Mark, Amy, Eoin and Sinead.

I discovered that I

LOVE

surprises and that week in December was just full of them!!

Cheers!

The Hong Kong, Macau & China Visit, October 2011 - Part II

Well it's only been about 6 weeks since I wrote up part I and ended saying that i hoped that it wouldn't be too long before I got to Part II... ah well!

Oh my... i've just realised that Part I finished with us leaving for Macau... I thought that i had at least managed to cover Hong Kong and Macau already but it would appear not.

The ferry journey across to Macau was grand, less than an hour I think! We were staying at the Ponte 16 hotel which, like most other hotels in Macau, a casino. First impressions were so very different to our hotel in Hong Kong which was quite discrete. This hotel was not - the reception area was HUGE and quite austentatious. I imagine though that for anybody whose been to Vegas it was par for the course for a casino hotel. Did you know that Macau has actually ovetaken Vegas for gambling income? The Chinese are big gamblers! After a short delay we were checked in to our room which, it has to be said, was very nice. I really liked the view from our room; not scenic in any sense but interesting - a view to local flats.

After a taking it easy afternoon we headed out for dinner. It was a really warm evening and not raining; I was happy :)

Macau is well known for its Portugeuse influenced style of cuisine and the Lonely Planet gave a v good recommendation to a restaurant in the centre so after a wander we headed there. I can only assume that this restaurant a) doesn't care about the LP or b) they've read it and are now taking things easy. The service was fine but one couldn't help feeling that they didn't actually want us there! The food was alright but really nothing to get excited about. But it was still a lovely evening as afterwards we went for a wander around... I thought that all the little side alleys and Senado Sq in the dark were lovely.

Our hotel may have looked very stylish but the kitchen needs to sharpen up a bit! We decided to treat ourselves and order breakfast in bed for the next morning. Dave wanted fried eggs with bacon, I wanted scrambled eggs with tomato. We both got scrambled and Dave got chicken sausages instead of bacon?! I got cereal which I didn't want. Dave got fruit which he didn't want. Interesting... :)

This was to be our sightseeing day as we were going to be leaving early the next morning to get the ferry directly to Hong Kong airport. We got the public bus to the A'Ma temple and then spent the rest of day wandering back up the city via many 17th style Jesuit churches, old government buildings, the odd museum, a great library etc.

Dave at A-Ma Temple

The Old Moorish Barracks were beautiful. We couldn't go inside as it's now the HQ of the Macau Maritime Administration but the outside is beautifully maintained and lovely to wander along the terrace.

Next stop was the lovely Sir Robert Ho Tung Library (unfortunately the Mandarin's House which we really really wanted to see was closed :( ). The courtyard of the library (I want my local library to have a courtyard!) had free wifi and some tables and chairs so we just took a wee break there. Very relaxing...

The architecture in Macau is stunningly beautiful! There are many beautiful old buildings from when the Jesuits were there in the 1700 and 1800s. This is a road we walked along on our from the library to the Leal Senado Building. I love the black and white mosaic tiles under foot.

There were a raft of churches but not too many photos of those as a) I can only take so many churches in one day and b) I got asked to leave one and not allowed in to another as my head and sleeves were bare!

The Leal Senado Building had an amazing old library (Senate Library) of antique books... many under glass and upstairs fabulous book shelves full of antiquarian books. Unfortunately no photo were allowed so none to show there. Anyway, while this building was full of tourists it is also actually home to Macau's main municipal administrative body.

After a small lunch in Starbucks (Dave needed coffee and there was a small rain shower so it seemed opportune timing though with the air conditioning in there I was frozen!!) we headed over to the small little 2 room museum of the Holy House of Mercy... I liked being out on the terrace best.

Then off to the Lou Kau Mansion which was smaller than I expected but interesting to wander around a few rooms nonetheless...

When we came out it we needed to wander up an extremely busy street... if you think Grafton St at Christmas is bad you want to try navigating up through this!

We visited the old protestant churchyard and another few churches and by 4.30 we were pretty whacked so headed back to the hotel for a break before heading out for dinner again. I think that Macau is really very lovely in the evening...

The next installment will be us actually getting to the China mainland!

The Hong Kong, Macau & China Visit, October 2011 - Part I

In October we finally got to our annual holiday. We needed to be on Lang Fang in China by the third week in October for my brothers wedding so we decided to work our holiday around this visit. After much deliberation and with the help of the itinerary that a friend of mine had used some years we decided that we'd fly in to Hong Kong for 3 nights, visit Macau for 2 nights before getting a flight up to Guilin in China. Once in China it would be one night in Guilin, 3 nights Yanghsuo, one night back in Guilin and then another flight up to Xi'An where we would stay 2 nights. From Xi'An we would head on to Beijing via an overnight train, one night in Beijing and then on to Lang Fang for 3 nights before back to Beijing for another 3 nights before heading home!

We flew with KLM to Hong Kong via Amsterdam. We had a five hours lay over in Amsterdam so we decided to head in to Amsterdam itself for a few hours. Unlike Dublin, we know that this was something we could safely do and still make it back to the airport on time for our flight! It was a gorgeous sunny warm day where we saw lots of canals, bikes and ate some yummy ice cream :)

The flight itself was fine except for the fact that I have never, ever, sat had so little leg room on a long haul flight (~11hrs). We were so tight for space that I actually put the magazines in the front pockets up in the overhead locker in an attempt to free up an extra centimetre of space (and that was before the seat in front went in to recline mode!). But other than that it was all fine!

We got a train on to Kong Kong Island before transferring to the subway/metre. I was a little surprised at how busy it was considering it was a Sunday afternoon but hey, I soon realised that what we were experiencing that afternoon was soooo not busy! I guess I'd forgotten that I was on one, if not the, most densely populated island in the world!

While we were walking from the metro station to our hotel (this involved trying to find the hotel as opposed to walking purposely!) I was busy keeping an eye open for a Starbucks where we could have our breakfast the next morning. I am so happy to try local cuisine when on holidays but I reckoned that on our first morning it would be handy to just have somewhere easy to find for breakfast in the morning (i.e. coffee!).

Our hotel, the Lanson Place Hong Kong, was absolutely gorgeous!! I think the only door I opened in the 3 nights that we were was the door to our bedroom! I also want that bed! It was so one of the most comfortable beds I've slept in - wonderfully firm and no annoying ripples when Dave moved (and no doubt he was thinking the same thing!)

That first evening in Hong Kong I discovered that I needn't have worried about not liking Hong Kong... I loved it!! Talk about a buzz!!! I loved it :) Our first meal was bought from a little stall where I took a good guess that what I was buying didn't contain anything other than vegetables and fish. They had no English, we had no Chinese (of any dialect) but we managed to buy our dinners in the end (there was some reluctance to sell me my dish... Dave's was fine as it was about 4 times as expensive and was made up in the little cafe behind the stall). We ate dinner standing on the street, much it would appear, to the amusement to the locals! I thought that some of the passing girls would take our photos :) I guess that not many European tourists buy 15 HKD (~€1.50) meals and eat them on the street. But that's what we were there for... to experience the local feeling. I loved it.

There were many interesting places to visit in Hong Kong, temples, museums, night markets and the Giant Buddha on Lantau Island. If you ever get the opportunity to visit I suggest you take it. I loved it :)

So, on the third morning we headed off to the ferry to head across to Macau for the next two nights. I'd had a great time in Hong Kong and discovered that i have a real love for simple vegetable noodle dishes! Hopefully I'll get to briefly blog about that before too long :)

I'm becoming addicted...

Last July I decided that I'd like to try my hand at gardening so I got my self an allotment until for the remainder of that year. Looking at an allotment plot it doesn't seem all that big but as it turns out, when you're a complete novice on the gardening front a little space takes a lot of maintenance. By September I was heating up there at 9am on a Sunday morning because I was too embarrassed to be soon on my messy weedy plot by any of my clearly more green fingered allotment neighbours!

This year I decided that I would try again but this year, on a slightly smaller scale... my little balcony... which is little. So, for the last 3 weekends I've been to Woodies and/or a Gardening Centre and it has to stop! Who would have thought that it would be possible to make a purchase on every visit??! Seriously. Any my balcony has gone from a barren landscape (poetic licence) to one now growing rosemary, thyme, lavender, parsley, baby carrots, fennel, lettuce, rocket, pak choy and of course, some heather. The mutant cherry tomato plant is inside as it's not quite ready for the big bad world yet :)

So, fingers crossed that I get some of the aforementioned veg from the planted seeds!

I can't quite get over how fast the cherry tomato plant (rhs) is growing. 3 weeks ago that thing was 4-5 inches tall?!

It's nearly Christmas... again!

It's the Sunday before Christmas and I spent last night baking the Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake followed by Bridget Jones' Diary on TV while wrapping my Christmas presents. Now I know that this may not sound like the most exciting way to spend a Saturday evening but as I had had a fairly tiring week I found this wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable.

There's snow outside again this morning. I know that one is meant to love the idea of having snow so close to Christmas but after the previous blast from which we only had a 1 week break I'm not sure that I'm prepared for the icey roads and ice rink like footpaths again! Though on the positive side, at least I'm not going to be dependent on a flight to get to my family for Christmas!

We headed to Christchurch Cathedral on Friday evening for a beautiful performance of Handel's Messiah performed by the Irish Baroque Orchestra and The Resurgam Choir. While I attended this same performance last year I enjoyed it alot more this year... possibly because, as Dave pointed out, the soloists were more balanced with each other. Wonderful music... and luckily there wasn't more than a smattering of snow on the ground when we left the cathedral.

Other random thoughts from the past while:
I made these chocolate truffles last week... they're easy to make and even my Dad loved them. Definitely worth trying out if you want to impress others. Bit like the chocolate brownies I make though, I'm not that keen on them. I think I've eaten 2 of them in a week, the rest being consumed my Dave, family and some friends at work.

But these lemon slices are definitely something I could consume without too much trouble. I made these for a bake sale in aid of SVP on Fri and not sure how but I never actually got around to getting a slice for myself?!

I know that I like Cosmopolitans but on Tues evening I had a Grapefruit Cosmopolitan. Yummy!

Finally got the bulk of my Christmas shopping completed last Monday and Tuesday. Phew! Hopefully I'll manage the little odds and ends on Tuesday lunch time.

Happy Christmas and safe (and successful) travels to all those travelling over the next few weeks.

Cowen says sorry

I love it!