CatPoet

I bought 4 ham roast on offer and they now live in my freezer. One was turned into pulled pork tonight, baked in the oven and with a German smoky beer as company. It turned out lovely and had a nice crust. We had in tortilla since it is the easiest way to get my kid to eat anything at the moment. She is still not well from the cold that hit the whole family. Thank you all for the kind words, it just that I cant afford being all posh and have the latest gadgets, I live on a very fixed income, slightly above minimum standard in Sweden, I do my best with what I got.

We had fried eggs, fried sausage, potatoes and heinz beans in tomato sauce for Valentine day because we were ill and we dont celebrate. I did cut out heart shapes for my daughters sausage to get her to eat a little.

Köttfärs paj med frasigt potatistäcke. Ground meat pie with crisp potato blanket. It turned out lovely even though the potatoes weren't crisp. I have started to worry that my food isnt up to the culinary standards of this forum, since I dont souse vide or smoked or cure my self, I just do basic level cooking to feed a family.

I am not posting the recipe of the drinks because I think it is dangerous. But thanks to you all we now have a safer substitute.

Well the testers has now manage drinks to taste like cherry nyquil, Finnish cough meds from the 80.ties and a orginal Nyquil- ish and also child pain killer form the 90:ties. I think we have the flavours she loves. Yes I am making a cake with butter flavouring and Crisco.. ugh... but what dont you do to make some one feel at home? Thank for the campari bitter and sambuca idea, that really helped. They used cheap absinthe, sambuca, campari bitter and a candy called Kungen av Danmark to get the flavour of nyquil.

Campari bitter and bubble gum cherry flavour apparently taste nyquil ish, a friend who has had nyquil tested this. So thanks for the campari hint. Let see if we try the sambuca line later, adding a bit campari bitter. Thank God I am not tasting this. It is a she and she is brought up flavourings more then the real deal, she prefer butter flavouring over butter in cakes for example. Yes, it sound right out dangerous and frat house in my world too. The reason you cant get nyquil here is because of the mixture of cough suppressant and antihistamine, we believe in coughing up the infected phlegm, not keeping it in out lungs.

I been asked to help make an American friend's favourite drinks for a surprise party and two of them contain nyquil. To me it sounds mad and dangerous to add nyquil to drinks so my question is, what can I use instead? It ask for original flavour and cherry flavour in the recipes, so what can I use? And no, I never had nyquil, it isnt legal to sell here.

Liuzhou , Kim Shook : well that is name I got from my friend and remember it is about 60 years since she left China.

Well it is Shrove Tuesday today and both our countries has different traditions but we can combine them! So lunch today was pancakes ( the UK side of things) and we had dessert a semla ( the Swedish side ). How ever we only took a picture of the Semla, a semla is a bun filled with almond paste and topped with whipped cream and a dusting icing sugar ( which had none of, so pretend please). I had it the old fashion way with hot milk. My husband had it the modern way. Oh we found out why breads rise weirdly in my kitchen, we have a weird cold draft that lays a thin blanket of cold air on our kitchen table, so the top of breads rise faster then the bottoms.

Salted licorice is common here with white chocolate. Pineapple and coconut chocolate used to be my favourite as young but as adult I found this amazing coconut and rum truffle. Another thing I love is roasted oatmeal flour, the taste is warm and toasty and works with caramel.

I'm ill and so is the rest of the family. I wanted something comforting and decided to make "ants on a stick", well I took way too much meat , because my tired brain didn't work . Oh well it became more the attack of the ants but it still tasted as I remembered it . The recipe comes from a close family friend , who from age 1- 12 grew up in China, before her father was stationed in Sweden again. She is 75 years old now and this was one of her favourite Chinese recipe and the only one she taught me.

I have a problem translating and sometimes I think Swedish, sometime British English and then I realised that most cooking sites I been on are American, so food terms are different, ingredients are different. I often leave disclaimer that English is my second language. But I do not like when people leave out water when it is part of the recipe, not like cooking the potatoes in water but add 1 cup water to soften the sauce. Delia Smith is a master on it.

BonVivant: Thanks for reminding me about my friend and my movie night in Breda many years ago. We got this small packet of chips at the theatre for free and a pepsi cola. I wont spell the name in Dutch, my Dutch suck, but they were called American Movie theatre butter flavoured chips and the bag was blue,red and white with stars and it had this weird artificial butter flavour a bit stronger then microwaveable butter popcorn. Well they had a break in the middle of the movie and since we were the first sitting, we were the first to get these free chips and well we were yellow. My hands, my lips and where I had touch my clothes were yellow.. and I wasnt the only one. When we left the chips had been removed. My friend loved them, he spent the next month hunting for them but couldnt found more then they had been with drawled. Thank you for the memory!

Andi, but you do measure? Not just grab and hope for the best?

Ann that looks ace!!

Well Most people who cook with zero measurement ends up with a crappy result. When I bake bread I use my blue tea cup ( should call it a pond, it is about 2 cups of tea in it) and that is my guide, I know with that amount of water I get a loaf of bread exactly as large as I need it. I do measure the salt with a certain spoon. So even though I dont use a recipe I measure.

I know this isnt technically a restaurant book but it gives an insight in pastry, which is both fun and enjoyable to read. A Cookie Lover's History Book by Eva Helena Ulvros and Dick Harrision, I only found it once translated to English but if you find it, it is worth the read.

I made a Swedish brownie like thing called Kladdkaka, that is all the baking I have done and I took one piece and placed it beside my friends urn...

My brother got hold of liquorice flavoured Chips, he said they where lovely.

Chinese cashew chicken, well as close as I can get it. We don't have that much Chinese immigrants here and the Chinese restaurants serve the same food and it is make by a guy from Malaysia, yeah he is the head chef for all 4 Chinese restaurants and that includes the Mongolian BBQ. The Thai food how ever is ace, since we have a lot of Thai women here.

There was some one who used Indian tree food colours with good results on another food board I was on. You will never get a bright red as synthetics with naturals. The red food colouring I can buy in bog standard stores in Sweden is beetroot red and it makes things more pink then red.

My kiddo doesnt like too sweet stuff. Doing it in two layers is easier to balance the taste and also the structure of the cake. I would frost the cake with white chocolate ganache and just fill it with strawberries, it will moisten the cake and give the same flavour . I would decorate it with some for button candy or something more kiddy then adult. Strawberry ghost could work or strawberry mice.

May I come with a suggestion? Why not do two separate layers of flavour bottom one with mashed up strawberries ( this will soak in to the sponge) and one with white chocolate ganache?. I never soak my sponges, because I make one that doesnt need to be soaking wet to taste good, except from the fruit juices.

I dont know if it the same but a simple gravy with cream for dinner and I have time , I just add the cream to the pan juices and slowly let it simmer until thick and lovely but if I am in a hurry 1 tablespoon of flour to 100 ml hot pan juice or stock, whisk of the heat and then slowly pour into 200 ml warm cream or a mix of cream and stock and whisk like mad over a medium heat, I use a sieve to make use I get to lumps.

My husband reminded me , I used kerry gold Irish butter for our wedding cake because it tasted so good too, but not as the first I got hold of in the Coop, expensive but brilliant.