Where's my magma?

We had dinner guests last night and I attempted to cook them chocolate fondant. I was inspired by seeing this delicious looking dessert on Masterchef, a reality tv cooking show (you'd have to be living in Outer Mongolia not to know it). The dish is supposed to be a kind of chocolate crust or shell with liquid chocolate sauce in the middle. One of the judges on Masterchef describes said sauce as 'molten magma'....mmm.

The first time I saw this dish attempted on Masterchef it failed and became 'chocolate pudding' as the whole thing set like a cake. The second time around the Masterchef team seemed to pull it off easily and produced the dish en masse for a wedding. "It can't be that hard then..." I thought and armed with an internet recipe I got to work.

After an absolutely delicious vegetable and lentil cottage pie made by Mr Jac I put the chocolate fondant in the oven. This is where I like to think it all went wrong, thanks to our dodgy oven. A dessert that was meant to cook for 12 minutes had to be extended another six minutes, then another eight minutes, then another nine minutes. The bloody tops of the fondants wouldn't set!

Finally they were done on top and I dished them up happily as I thought I could see a 'damp patch' on their bottoms that surely indicated the presence of magma. We all dug eagerly in to our fondants to discover a SOLID and rather tough cakey texture throughout the whole pudding. Masterchef #fail. Everyone politely chewed through it, although only one out of four of us actually ate the whole thing.

It was a very disappointing result. I'm putting it down to a combination of our unreliable oven, that last nine minutes (a wee bit too long), and perhaps that fact that where the recipe stated to 'whisk', I 'beat' instead. I shall persevere however, and inform the blogosphere when I do succeed with chocolate fondant. I want my magma.

Saturday night

It's been a while so I thought I better do another post.

It's been a long week. My little boy, Little Jac, developed his first flu this week (he's one). The symptoms seemed to chop and change all week but included yukky cough, snotty nose, fever, vomiting and lengthy periods of either lying in bed or on me kind of groaning. So I suppose it was an "intensive caring" week for me, with lots of extra comfort and entertainment required. He seems to be coming out on the other side now thankfully, and I feel good I have been able to nurse him in what I hope was a competent manner. Feel like I did some successful mothering - yay!

It's been cold this week in Melbourne, but I don't think I've been quite as cold as this girl. I'd contemplate feeling sorry for her if only she'd put some clothes on.

Mullet with headlights

Mr Jac sent me to this you tube video of a reworked "literal" version of Bonnie Tyler's Total eclipse of the heart. So funny - you have to watch it. My favourite 'lyric' is "...mullet with headlights..." It's right near the end though so watch it all the way through!

Words and Pictures - Souvenirs

I have been collecting souvenir cloth patches since I was a kid. I have an old blanket that I sew them on to. The oldest ones must date from the late 80s. I try to collect one from every place I have a holiday. There are at least ten more in my sewing basket that are waiting to be added. As you can see I've always had trouble trying to keep them squared while sewing!

People have offered to bring me patches back from their own travels but I have to decline. Their meaning comes from me visiting each place and finding each patch. The only place I've visited where I couldn't find a cloth patch was Singapore.


Incidentally, one corner of my blanket is covered in all my old Brownie and Guide badges :) Some of them are quite worn as you can see! I loved achieving those badges - I remember the one with the bee was 'Thrift', the one with the quill I think must have been 'Writing', and the one with the magnifying glass I'm pretty sure was 'Collecting'. Good times.

First post

Hello. This is my second try at a blog. My first one consisted of about two posts and was awful, so hopefully it is lost never to be found in the blogosphere.

I have been reading some interesting and entertaining blogs lately, and the feeling that I'd like to get into it myself has been building. The catalyst was today's 'Words and Pictures - Souvenirs' post on meetmeatmikes blog (I will learn how to link that!). I have a little something I'd like to contribute, which will be in my second post.

I'm not overly happy with the title of my blog, I'm not much of a gabber, more of an infrequent rambler I think. It'll do for now though. Also the colour is a bit too bright. I love pink, but I'd like a paler version for my background. Details, details. I hope to 'fix things up' at some point in the future.

OK, better publish before I chicken out (also I have a little man asleep in a cot who sounds like he will soon be getting up).