Well, I never (pun intended)

31 July - Solution for the last clue and the next cryptic crossword clue

Fabulous creature with horns – closest men petrified (4,4,7)

Solution – Loch Ness Monster

The Loch Ness Monster is a fabled creature which is said to lurk in Loch Ness in Scotland. 

And if you petrify, or frighten, the letters in "horns closest men" you can get to the same answer.

Today’s cryptic crossword clue – solution tomorrow

Plain sailing?  Right on! (15)

Hint – the last letter is d

Need some inspiration – Muffins & Cupcakes

Today's inspiration for you is drawn from Food on Friday: Muffins & Cupcakes.  I only had room to show you a few here.  There were lots of other fantastic ones.  To see them you can go to the original post or to the Pinboard I made up for them. 

These inspirational cupcakes and muffins can speak for themselves!

Lemon curd cupcakes from eat sweet by Carla Sue

Raspberry devil cupcakes from A Handful of Everything

Mini eggnog doughnut muffins by For the Love of Food

Pecan pie cupcakes by Jo and Sue

Berries & cream muffins by Baking by Precious

Beet & dark chocolate muffins by Edible Life in YYC

Mini corndog muffins by I Believe I Can Fry

That's all for now, folks!

International Friendship Day - Let's Celebrate It!

30 July - Solution for the last clue and the next cryptic crossword clue

Ridiculous, as an underdone loaf might be (4-5)

Solution – half-baked

If an idea is half-baked it is ridiculous or badly thought out and if you undercook a loaf of bread it could also be half baked.

Today’s cryptic crossword clue – solution tomorrow

Fabulous creature with horns – closest men petrified (4,4,7)

Hint – one for my UK friends today

Prawn Stir Fry with Bok Choy

I bought a few prawns – no fresh ones were available so they were frozen.  But they were a good size.  My philosophy with things like prawns is to do them pretty simply and let them speak for themselves.

I prepared some garlic, ginger and fresh turmeric by microplaning it.  Be careful if you are using fresh turmeric because it will stain anything it comes into contact with.  I used disposable gloves.  In addition, I chopped ½ a red onion and the white part of a spring onion (scallion).

I fried that off and then added the prawns and right at the end (1 minute only) the green leaves of bok choy.  (I didn't use the stalk parts this time – if you do, you should slice them and cook them for a bit longer).

Finally I served it with rice on the side and garnished it with a finely sliced red chilli, the green tops of the spring onion and some lovely feathery dill.

Capital city of the week - Suva

Charles Kingsford-Smith made an emergency landing in Suva's Albert Park.

This is Suva's Sacred Heart Cathedral

This is Suva's Mormon Temple

You can dance the night away at Lucky Eddie's.

Suva is what country's capital?  Scroll down to see if you were right…

Suva is the capital of FIJI

29 July - Solution for the last clue and the next cryptic crossword clue

More cheesed off, alarmingly, about president defining a civil right (7,2,6)

Solution – freedom of speech

The letters in "more cheesed off" are alarming ie mixed up and put about p for president to get freedom of speech which is, of course, a civil right or liberty.

Today’s cryptic crossword clue – solution tomorrow

Ridiculous, as an underdone loaf might be (4-5)

Hint – the last letter of the second word is d

The Pre-Raphaelites

Have you ever heard of the artists who self-styled themselves as The Pre-Raphaelites?  Well, the only reason I knew about them is a book I got years ago which was in a series looking at the lives of various authors and artists through their letters and diaries.

I like their art, so I thought you might be interested to see some of it and to know a little about them.

Raphael was an early artist that I have posted about before.  

The Pre-Raphaelites did not come before Raphael.  In fact they were quite a lot later – in the mid 1800's.  They were a group of seven artists who dismissed all post-Renaissance art are sloppy and who formed a semi-secret group they call the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.  Most of their works were either signed PRB or PRB appeared somewhere in them.

The artists were Millais, Hunt, Gabriel and William Rossetti, Stephens, Collinson, and the sculptor Woolner.  A lot of the inspiration for their works came from the poet Keats.

The painting at the top of this post is by Millais and is called Spring. Isn't it just great?

This one is Isabella, also by Millais.  It illustrates the opening scene of Keats' poem.  You can see PRB on Isabella's stool.

And here is Millais' Mariana – I love those windows.

Just so I'm not only showing you Millais, here is The Pretty Baa-Lambs by Ford Maddox Brown – doesn't the baby look scared?

This one is by Rossetti and has an Italian quotation to go with it "The mouth that has been kissed loses not its freshness; still it renews itself as does the moon."

And, lastly, another Rosetti – which I think is my favourite.  It is called Water Willow.

This is the book that I have – The Pre-Raphaelites: Their Lives in Letters and Diaries by Jan Marsh. (Published by Collins & Brown in 1996)

Bob Dylan it is not!

28 July - Solution for the last clue and the next cryptic crossword clue

Nerd starts to dismantle Wankel engines, each bit (5)

Solution – dweeb

Nerd = dweeb

And if you take the "starts" ie first letters of the last part of the clue you also get to dweeb.  This was an acrostic clue.

Today’s cryptic crossword clue – solution tomorrow

More cheesed off, alarmingly, about president defining a civil right (7,2,6)

Hint – this one's for the Americans.

Spiral Cut Sausages with Curry Ketchup

I got the idea for these Spiral Cut Sausages with Curry Ketchup from Beantown Baker.  And I enjoyed the results so much I wanted to post about it.  I'll be spiral cutting again soon.

Curry ketchup before sieving

First, let me tell you about the curry ketchup.  It was a bit of work but the results made it worthwhile.  Next time though I might not sieve the mixture at the end – that was the most time-consuming part and I think a chunkier mixture would still be fine.

Curry ketchup

The quantities mentioned here made one almost full large jar of ketchup.

First soften 1 chopped onion in some oil.  After a couple of minutes, add 4 to 6 chopped cloves of garlic.  When that is softened too add the following spices:

1 ½ tblsp salt

1-2 tblsp tomato paste

1 tblsp curry powder (I used half of one of my own mixes  and half a commercial Vencat (Indian) curry powder)  (suggest you use a bit less if you aren't a curry demon like me)

1 tsp mustard powder (you could use prepared – in which case I'd double the quantity)

½ tsp smoked paprika

Pinch of ground cloves (small pinch)

¼ tsp of ground allspice (I didn't have any so used mace instead)

1 tsp crushed chilli flakes

Let those spices and the onion and garlic simmer away for a couple of minutes to deepen the flavour.

Then add 2 medium tins of crushed tomatoes in juice, ½ cup of brown sugar and ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar.

Simmer all this for about 45 minutes, stirring now and then so it doesn't catch on the bottom.  Take it off the heat and stick blend it till smooth and then strain the mix through a sieve and you have it.

This ketchup needs to be stored in the fridge – since I didn't sterilise or seal the jar.

How to spiral cut your sausages

I used frankfurters – the sausage needs to be a reasonable firm one I think for this to work well.  Achieving the spiral effect was actually easy – the most difficult thing was sticking the skewer through the sausage first – I kept going off course and having to start again.  As you can see from the pic my spiral cuts were not particularly even but I must say the taste of the sausage was enhanced because all of the cut edges get a bit crispy.

So you stick a bamboo skewer through the middle of each sausage long ways.  Try to keep it straight!  When you have done this, just take your knife and start cutting at one edge on an angle through to the skewer and just keep going round and round till you get to the other end.  Then pull out the skewer and there is your spiral cut sausage ready to cook.  The sausages were a hit – I think kids would really like them too.

A ladder anyone?

27 July - Solution for the last clue and the next cryptic crossword clue

Shoulder bag, left by a chest, exploded (7)

Solution – satchel

A satchel is a shoulder bag

Left = l

L is by "a chest" exploded ie the letters in "a chest" are scrambled up

Satche + l = satchel

Today’s cryptic crossword clue – solution tomorrow

Nerd starts to dismantle Wankel engines, each bit (5)

Hint – this is an acrostic clue

Need some inspiration? Childhood Favourites II

Here is the second part of the inspirational Childhood Favourite dishes for you.

If you want to see all the links, just go to Food on Friday: Childhood Favourites or to the Pinboard I made for them. 

First up, here's Michelle's Red Velvet Birthday Cake from Ms en Place. 

And these Swiss Eggs from Jenny Eatwell's Rhubarb & Ginger are indeed, as she says, naughty and nice!

And you should definitely read the post that goes with  Nanny's Banana Pudding – great nostalgia by Bakerlady.

I had never seen anything like this Pokeball Cheesecake by The Moonblush Baker – such fun!  I had to look up what a Pokeball was!

I could eat some of this Chinese BBQ Pork right now!  Fantastic work by Cook Snap Savour.

These Bangers & Mash certainly take me back to childhood.  Thanks Sweet Love and Ginger!

That's all the inspiration I can handle today. Ciao!