Welsh rarebit

 We went to Waitrose recently and had lunch in their café. I was surprised to see that they served Welsh rarebits. I love a good Welsh rarebit, especially on a cold day, it is comfort food at its best, so I had to try it. Especially since I hadn't had one in ages, maybe in years. Just seeing it on the menu made me crave it. It was a decent one, albeit tasting a tad too much of mustard (even though I love mustard). All the same, it's been a long time, so I enjoyed it a lot.

"Easy" Chocolate & Mint Cake

It was my wife's birthday a few days ago and she wanted a special birthday cake, not something bought or my old family's recipe. So she found an Easy Chocolate & Mint Cake recipe on the Waitrose website. She bought it and, as I was too nervous to mess it up for her birthday, she baked it herself. But I did the washing up, don't worry. It turned out not so easy after all: instead of three layers of cake, we got two and the cake looks and feels more like a giant brownie. But it tastes really nice and the presentation isn't too bad either. I would have made it much worse looking in any case. Anyway, there is no such thing as a failed cake. This one was certainly a success, although a bit of trouble.

Carrot cake and tea

My mother-in-law knows my love for carrot cakes, so during our last visit she bought one at Waitrose. I had it with tea. Very dark, the tea, and not even a splash of milk. I felt very spoiled. That is for me the ideal afternoon dessert.

Fear of witches

For tonight's countdown to Halloween post, one little anecdotal spooky anecdote. It is accompanied by this lantern which I bought in Waitrose. So anyway, here it is: I'm afraid I have unwillingly made my son scared of witches. I was reading him one of the children books I bought for him, and there was a witch in it, drawn as a rather nasty but not overly menacing old lady. Wolfie: "daddy don't want to read it". He then asked me to put the book in a bag and bring it back to the shop. Just my luck: I got it on Amazon. He's been a bit wary of images of witches since then. It kind of runs in the family: I had a few nightmares involving witches as a child and my brother PJ was also terrified of a witch puppet thing that my parents had bought him for his birthday. Still, I feel a bit guilty about giving Wolfie his first true irrational fear.

Les petits gâteaux de la saison

Non, non, je n'ai pas fait ces cupcakes. On n'a guère le temps d'en faire. Mais 'aurais comme envie de me relancer dans la cuisine de desserts, si on avait le temps et si ce n'était pas un si mauvais exemple pour notre petit loup. Ces gâteaux-ci, ma femme les a fait il y a de cela trois ans déjà, selon un mélange acheté à Waitrose. Dessus, on y voit les "Woodland Friends", des animaux que j'ai vus pour la première fois en chocolats de Pâques. Cela dit pour la plupart, ce sont vraiment plus des animaux emblématiques de l'automne: hiboux, chouettes, hérissons, tous sauf la grenouille. Ma femme n'est pas une aussi grande amoureuse de l'automne que moi, mais il lui arrive parfois de se laisser prendre aux charmes de la saison et ça donne des résultats comme celui-là.

À propos de la Bûche

Noël tire déjà à sa fin, parce que bon, après le 26 décembre, on commence déjà à être en deuil des Fêtes. Mais je voulais malgré tout écrire encore quelques billets sur Noël avant le Nouvel An. Je disais il y a quelques semaines que je m'étais lancé dans la quête d'une bûche de Noël (ou deux). J'ai finalement pu en trouver une. Pas celle sur la photo. Cella-là, c'était un morceau de bûche maison donné l'année dernière par des amis. Non, j'ai dû acheter la mienne à Waitrose, celles de la pâtisserie locale étant toutes vendues déjà. Ce qui me fait croire que les bûches de Noël ont vraiment gagné en popularité en Angleterre. Dans un pays qui a une très longue longue tradition de desserts de Noël nationaux, c'est un exploit.

Le temps du Beaujolais nouveau

J'avais quasiment oublié que c'était le temps du Beaujolais nouveau. Alors j'en ai acheté une bouteille ce soir à Waitrose. Je sais que c'est un vin qui est considéré par les connaisseurs comme indigne de ce nom. J'ai en tout cas un ami qui me tance à ce sujet sur Facebook, à chaque année que je le mentionne. Je serais donc un peu philistin d'en boire. Mais je m'en fous: c'est peut-être une piquette qui ne veut pas dire son nom, je n'ai jamais prétendu être un grand connaisseur de vin, ou même un amateur un peu correct. Je suis un buveur de bière impénitent, bon. Alors quand je bois du vin, tant que c'est pas du vinaigre, je peux en général apprécier. Je boirai donc le contenu de cette bouteille au cours de la fin de semaine. Pas ce soir car je suis un peu fatigué et ça risque de me monter à la tête et de m'empêcher de dormir. Mais ce sera assez tôt mon plaisir philistin de la fin de semaine.

Un fantôme dans la citrouille

J'ai pris cette photo il y a quelques heures, une chandelle en forme de fantôme achetée chez Waitrose. Elles ont une durée de vie pas mal plus longues que les chandelles normales. Mais j'ai pris cette photo parce que Jack O'Lantern est un fantôme.

Chocolate owls (for Easter?)

This is Ollie the owl, a creature from the Waitrose range of Woodland Friends, which they released for the upcoming Easter. They also have the owl as a chocolate cake (see picture below). Call me a sucker, but I bought this for my Easter chocolate animal. Last year, for some reason, I could not find anything at all but Cadbury's eggs, so this time I bought the chocolates early on. I know Easter is meant for rabbits, hares, hens and eggs, all the Pagan symbols of fertility, but I thought I would be original and buy a chocolate owl. Which symbolizes... well, wisdom, for one. Not exactly an abundance and fertility symbol, but nevertheless, I love owls.

I am usually not very original when it comes to Easter. In fact, I am very much a traditionalist when it comes to any holiday, be it Christmas or Halloween. A chocolate owl does fit Halloween and autumn more somewhat, although they would need to be more life-like, like this one. But I have a special thing for owls among all birds. They are nocturnal, mysterious, there is the association with woodlands, ghost stories and horror. If my totem land dwelling animal is a cat, the bird that I would connect to the most would be either the corvids or the owls. Maybe this is why I was an easy target for these stupid desserts. That said, I have to admit, the cake tasted quite nice.