Sunday Roast: Are you saying this haddock committed suicide?

I’m trying a new way of writing the Roast, because the Performancing extension was starting to bug the crap out of me. The upshot of this combination bookmark/txt file system seems to be the Sunday Roasts are once more up to a full three course meal. Tuck in!

Moose and I have had this ongoing dispute about whether you need to put gelatin in cheesecakes or not (I’m a yes girl, she’s a no). At the moment, the evidence is more in my favour than hers. Anyway, I saw this recipe for blueberry cheesecake and, whilst it doesn’t need gelatin, it does need baking. Still, looks absolutely scrum-diddly-uptious!

I’m a considerate experiencer. What are you? (Warning, it’s quite a long test. Took about five minutes).

I’m a bit on the fence with the whole ID card issue. I’m leaning more towards “I don’t want them” than “I do want them”, mainly because I can’t see the point of them. What do they do that current systems don’t do? And don’t spout on about how they’d stop terrorism… They won’t. Why I chose to link to this today is that we use exactly the same printers and system shown in the picture at work. Trust me: you do NOT want to be working in the department that makes these cards if/when they ever happen if they are still using that system. They are bad enough for a roll-out of around 25,000. I can imagine what it would be like nationwide and the thought makes me want to hide under the desk!

Now, I’m all for technology, but wouldn’t you feel a bit duped if you went to a book signing and just got a robot? Then again, at least Margaret Atwood was at the end of a video-link chatting. And calling it the “LongPen”? COME ON! You’re an author! Think up something a bit more original! Let’s have your suggestions in the comment field at the end of the post 😀

So CFS (chronic fatigue syndrom) sufferers aren’t making it up. I know I wasn’t faking when I spent three years of my life barely able to get out of bed to crawl to the bathroom and back, but somehow having some shred of organic proof to show that people like me weren’t/aren’t faking makes me feel so much better.

So I already kaboodled this trailer, but you might have missed it, tucked away as it is in the sidebar. So, I bring you the spine-tinglingly-good trailer for X Men 3: The Last Stand. I told the Crazy Canalman at the end of 2 that Jean Grey was gonna be back…

BoingBoing is always a great source of the odd and surreal. You do have to ask yourself though, what sort of person would get a tattoo of an Eames chair?

And they also have this link to the WTC in fries and ketchup. Not sure what A would say about having this as his memorial, but still, perhaps it is time we started to look at such events through a more comic lens.

Oh dear lord no. Vin Diesel is proposing more Riddick films…

Remember when I wondered why my server’s stats package even had a listing for Antarctica? Well, turns out there’s at least 64 people overwintering at the South Pole, and a fair few of them have blogs. Here are the ones that caught my eye:
Adventures au Pole Sud
Cynthia’s Polar Adventures
Nowhere To Go But Up
Phil Jacobsen
(The wonderful thing about a small community like the South Pole, all the bloggers seem to link to each other, so you should be able to ferret out more blogs if you want to).

Creationism is to be included in GCSE science syllabi. (Note, that’s in BRITISH schools). This was a headline guaranteed to make me sit up and get pissed off. Then I read the actual story – Creationism/ID isn’t being taught as science exactly. It’s being presented to kids so that they can discuss it as it relates to evolution. Still, I’d rather Creationism was taught in RE as it is, after all, religion. And left off for full comparative discussion in science till A-Level. A-Level science is when you traditionally start questioning the received wisdom you got to GCSE standard. It’s in those years that you start to see what you have learned so far is just the basics, the simplified groundwork upon which proper understanding is built. If you’re not of a mind to take science beyond GCSE level, then I doubt you’re really of a mind to be interested in the whole Creationism/ID/Darwinism debate. (For the record I studied Biology, Chemistry, and Physics at A-Level and was seriously considering doing a degree in Biology before Archaeology got me. It’s a running joke in A-Level science that you spend the first six months forgetting all you learnt up to GCSE, then the rest of the time coming to terms with the fact you will never have all the answers).
(Note: GCSE is the two years leading up to exams taken at around age 16. A-Level is the two years leading up to exams taken at around age 18. Then you go on to get an undergraduate degree).

The news that Channel 4 has bought the rights to the Fox film archive excited me almost as much as the news also presented in the article that Film Four is going to be free-to-air from the summer. I am so sad, but I do love film!

Ratings for ‘Joey’ are down, whilst ratings for ‘House’ are up. Now, I saw about ten minutes of a Joey episode, and that was all I could stomach (I was/am still a Friends fan though), and I never understood all the buzz surrounding House, though I am a Hugh Laurie fan, and have been since the days of Jeeves and Wooster. Now we’ve got Channel Five at Meadow Towers though, I’ve become something of a House addict. Only thing is, they’re showing Season Two, and I’m starting to want to get Season One out on DVD…

One of the reasons I like RSS so much is that it means I can subscribe to lots of sites, even ones that will only have content that interests me a few times a month, and be sure I won’t miss that content when it comes around. One of those times happened the other day, when Molly posted her <object>ification blues.
(That’s not to say Molly doesn’t have lots of interesting and good things to say all the time, just that most of it isn’t Roastable, so you never get to see I’m reading it. I do recommend you subscribe to her feed though. Lots of gold buried in them thar hills!)

And that’s it, though there’s always a few more things to look at if you want to.

16 thoughts on “Sunday Roast: Are you saying this haddock committed suicide?

  1. Oh for f*$%# sake! I thought we would be immune from the creationism vs evolution in science classes debate in this country. Creationism is already taught in RE classes from the age of 5 onwards. GCSE pupils (ages 15 and 16) are perfectly capable of understanding the debate between science and faith without having it spelled out to them. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be made aware of the debate – I’m saying they already are, and it’s a waste of time to repeat it in biology classes. There is already so much missed out of GCSE syllabi as it is, they shouldn’t have to chuck out something important to make time for this redundant information.

  2. I used be a professional baker and I can surely say that you do not need gelatin in a cheesecake… except maybe no-bake cakes… which are very “iffy” to be. I’d stay away. lol

  3. Well hello Jay.
    I’m a supporter of the no-bake, has gelatin camp, mainly because that’s how my Mum did her cheesecake. And oh man, her cheesecake is so good.

    But if you’ve got any recipes for cheesecakes, no matter how they are made, please share. Cheesecake is always welcome
    😀

  4. I knew Jean Grey would be back – I was, however, expecting her to go bad, just like in the Dark Phoenix saga in the comics… We shall see. However, the news that Kitty Pryde is in the next movie is a good sign… Can you say cool walking through walls power? w00t

    And Frasier as Beast?!!!?!?!?!?!?!?

  5. I think she does go bad. I mean, there’s a shot of her with Magneto, and she just looks generally evil. I mean, her hair has changed colour. That’s a sure sign someone has changed sides.

    I wanted Gambit to be in the movie. He was always my favourite character in the cartoon, what with that swoopy coat, and that accent… Ah well, Wolverine will just have to be enough for me 😀

    And Fraiser/Beast looked cool. Odd casting I will agree, but great makeup!

  6. A pro never gives up his trade secrets. 😉 But I never ment to take away from no-bake cheesecakes (though I’ve never personally heard of gelatin in one before). I’ve had them before and was actually fooled once into thinking it was baked when in fact it wasn’t. They can be quite tasty indeed…. really, in the end, it’s all about the cheese, isn’t it? 🙂

  7. I’m leaning toward an “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” kind of deal. With regards the cheesecake recipe that is.

    I do think Curly Durly’s (my mother) recipe needs to be shared.

  8. The link about CFS is interesting – I missed that on my daily BBC news binge. I suppose there is only so much you read see in a lunch (half) hour.

    I’m sorry to hear that you were/are a CFS sufferer. I say are, as I’m not sure it ever totally goes away. My brother was diagnosed with ME at around 11 years old. He is now 21 and still is not back up to full speed. He gets tired very easily and colds and such can knock him sideways.

    What effected our family most about his ME was the fact that so many people just would refuse to accept there was something wrong with him, although, as you also said, he could hardly move for a long, long time. Even after he started to get “better” he would refuse to let go of walls when he was moving about, scared he would fall.

    The worst thing was when he finally did go back to school, a teacher gave him no leeway, and marked him badly because he was simply “lazy” rather than exhausted in his classes.

    I do hope that your’ve recovered as much as possible – and if you get tired, poke me for a cup of tea 🙂

  9. One of my favorite cheesecake recipies is one of the simplest I’ve ever come across: [this is not from my vault – but it’s the one I make the most often cause it’s very versitile and easy] 😉

    1-1/2 cups Graham or Oreo crumbs
    2 Tbsp. melted butter or margarine
    3 pkg. [8 oz. each] cream cheese – softened
    3/4 cup sugar
    1 tsp. vanilla
    3 eggs

    Mix the butter and the crumbs and press that into a 8 or 9 inch springform pan [I prefer 9in]
    Mix the cheese and sugar, get it smooth.
    Add one egg at a time, mixing just till blended.
    STIR in the vanilla [which is optional – at this point you can add just about any flavouring you want, like 6-8 oz of melted chocolate for example, in which case I’d still add the vanilla]
    * I often add some sort of liqueur as well, like 1/4 of Kahlua, Tia Maria, Ameretto or Bailey’s… you get the idea!

    Bake at 350°F for about 45-50 minutes. The centre will still be a little bit “jiggly”, it’ll continue cooking even when it’s out of the oven. Run a knife around the edges and let it cool… shove it in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
    You can put whatever you want on top, fruit, whipped cream, chocolate ganache, coulis, melted chocolate… again, you get the idea, it’s very versitile.

    Enjoy! 🙂

  10. Jay, you’rea star! I’ve been telling Cas for a year now that you don’t need gelatin in a no-bake cheesecake and she just thinks I’m weird. One day I will find my amazing no-bake cheesecake recipe and then we’ll see… :tongue2_tb:

  11. (Moose, :tongue2_tb: to you too).

    Jay, thank you! That looks/sounds fantastic. As illyna says, craving cheesecake lots now. I think I might be doing some baking this weekend. And, because I did say I would share if you played nice (which you have)…

    Ah-hem, your attention please! Please be silent for Curly Durly’s Blackcurrant Cheesecake Recipe!

    8 oz fruit
    3 oz granulated sugar
    6 oz shortcake biscuits
    2 oz melted butter
    2 eggs (separated)
    2 oz caster
    8 oz cream cheese (light Philadelphia works good)
    1/4 pint single cream
    1/4 pint double cream
    1/2 oz powdered gelatin (1 sachet)
    1 level tablespoon cornflour/arrowroot

    * heat fruit, granulated sugar & 4 tablespoon water
    * bring to the boil
    * simmer till soft
    * drain fruit, keeping back 1/4 pint of the juice, cool

    * crush biscuits, mix with melted butter & press into tin (7 1/2 inch loose bottom)

    * beat egg yolks with caster sugar till thick and fluffy
    * beat in cream cheese & single cream
    * 4 tablespoon of water & gelatin into small saucepan (pretty certain it is gel to water, not water to gel – follow the packet!)
    * heat gently and constantly stir till dissolved. DO NOT BOIL
    * cool, beat into cream cheese mix
    * whisk double cream till thick
    * fold into mix
    * whisk egg white till still & peaks
    * fold into mix

    * pour over biscuit base

    * put the 1/4 pint of fruit juice into saucepan
    * mix cornflour with 1 tablespoon cold water till paste
    * add to saucepan gently
    * bring to boil, constantly stirring
    * boil for min
    * remove from heat & stir in blackcurrants

    * let cheesecake & blackcurrants cool, then spread fruit over cake, chill for a few hours, eat!

    Yes, a fair bit more involved than Jay’s recipe, but totally worth it.
    This also freezes really well – normal family practice is to make a batch of four of five, freeze them, then ration them out throughout the year.

    The secret though, is actually to mix some ginger nut and a few chocolate biscuits into the mix. You’ll want the mix to be around 3/4 shortcake.

    I think that’s it. Well, it’s the recipe that I have, but our recipes tend to be more guidelines. I am, possibly, one of the few people who will make a Beef & Macaroni Pie with no beef or macaroni…

  12. That’s a little more involved to say the least, seems like that might dirty every pan and bowl in the house! 😀

    Sound absolutely delicious, and it’s someone similar to a recipe that a friend of mine’s great grandmother makes (we got to talking about cheesecakes soon after my last post here the other day). She couldn’t believe I’ve never seen a cheesecake w/gelatin before either… I learn something new everyday! 🙂

  13. Yeah, the washing up for that one is fairly involved – it’s a two man (or woman) operation. I really want to make cheesecake now. I honestly was going to, but Meadow Towers got invaded… Sometime this week though 😀

  14. Pingback: Bright Meadow » Sunday Roast: When I’m dancing on tables, I know I’ve gone too far

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