Not location specific, No rules: Welcome to ILX heaven

You could look after the baby while she goes out!
That wouldn't really be much of a night out together now would it?

We'll come and look after them!
Thanks for the offer but it's difficult enough to get Megan to stay with her Gran.

Bid rejected, Kv? Go out and find another house you like.

I know, the swine etc. Don't they know that I deserve it.

Ailsa, I do. I am currently thinking how likely I am to get it if I bid sightly below (just a couple of grand but it does make a difference to me) what I know is the cut off and I know that they're looking to rent again if they don't sell it. I know the estate agent wouldn't want to lose his commission so I need to lean on him I think. I just want to be clear that I'm doing the right thing for me. I do want this place though. It is great.

Well done Sarah!

Wednesday Onimo? One should never keep a lady waiting...

Ailsa, I thought you just joined that place. Sorry to hear it's not going well at the moment.

Onimo, I thought part of it was not just that you didn't go out together, but that she'd only been out once since your anniversary - maybe a couple of nights out on her own may redress the balance somewhat? We're quite happy to take the boys if the grans/aunts/uncles don't want all three - the Wii's set up for two players now :-)

kv, yes, I've only been there since April, but it is an awful awful place. I took six months out of this industry before money lured me back in, now I'm remembering in spades why I jacked it the last time.

*applauds Sarah*

Thanks everyone! Here is a gormfull picture of me with my medal in the middle of saying "have you flipping well taken the picture yet Rob??":

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29632983@N00/1392802494/

Tek it by the silence on the molasses issue that golden syrup will probably get the job done? Good :)

I'm not sure if I'm going out after work for work pints, we were supposed to but one of us appears to be away and I haven't seen the other so I dunno now. If we aren't going out then i will get my baking ingredients tonight rather than braving supermarkets on Friday nights. I sort of like supermarkets on Friday nights though! Spot the singletons buying ready meals and bottle of wine for one (I feel a bit better cos I am a singleton buying fresh ingredients and a bottle of GIN for one :))

Ha ha, class. Well done.

Are the fresh ingredients lemons? Then that doesn't count sadly :(

They WILL be fresh lemons actually cos I will be making lemon cake!

But the citrus fruit to put in gin has got to be LIME, not LEMON.

Ha ha ha fair enough!

mmm gin...

We moved our kitchen cupboards around after we found Megan in the kitchen with a bottle of vodka (bad parents!) but now the drinks cupboard is what use to be the munchie snack crisps n sweets n tortillas n shit cupboard so every time I think "I fancy a wee snack" I am confronted with GIN and VODKA and WHISKY and RUM!

And the problem is?

If I had a snacks cupboard it would play the sound of a single lonely cricket chirping every time I opened it, and I would be even fatter than I am. SCOFF SCOFF CRISPS.

That I have a job to keep and 3 children to look after? Also I get pished and can't find the munchies.

xpost

Details... details...

Aye, Megan was making several bee-lines for our kind of open-plan drinks cupboard last week too. Easy seeing who her dad is, eh?

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1081/537193047_02651507c0.jpg

Stop fannying about and just get us a drink, eh?

Cuet!

good morning everyone. no kitten pictures yet. not that they would compare with cute kids and kid stories. We only a have a bottle of tequila in the house and it lives on top of the fridge.

mornin

Kv, have they called yet?

No Misery, I am consulting with family (groan) and solicitor (via text). I have agreement with one, sadly the other isn't the clearest in textmessages and also on holiday. I think I know the figure I'm going to go with. For now. I also have to contact builder with shopping list of things that need doing.

FUN!

Tequila = death for me, I'm afraid.

Tequila is the only liquor I can drink. I've sworn all others off the my personal health and general public safety.

haha - my booze lives in the living room in the fireplace! I have:

1x NEW bottle plymouth gin
1x bottle tonic
1x bottle ginger wine (UH yum yes)
1x bottle madeira!!
1x bottle creme de cassis
1x bottle sloe whisky

In the kitchen on the fridge there's some port (pretty sure this will have to be chucked though), remains of brandy (again should probably go), some whisky (ages old Talisker?? something nice but I think it is prob dead now). I should check that up actually.

Creme de cassis = boozy Ribena, awesome "over ice". Never opened the maderia, got it for some cooking purpose but I can't remember what now. Sloe whisky is sort of all the amazing!

Tequila = DEATH JUICE.

On the molasses issue, I have just got a frantic mail from F saying:

OMG tell Sahrah NO!!!! you cannot put golder syrup in ginger cake ffs!!

GS is ace but neither it or molassess goes off & they're not expensive SHE NEEDS BOTH IN HER CUPBOARD 1/2 GS and 1/2 comndensed milk tastes ace btw!

I think you could probably make an acceptable molasses substitute by melting and then allowing to burn, slightly a dark sugar like demarara and then cutting it with golden syrup.

have several housing difficulties myself at mo kev, but from different perspective. commiserations.

no tequila, thank you, i'm breathing tomorrow.

don't make a lemon cake, make a cheesecake!

Cheers darraghmac.

Oh well - I will get molasses then! I am actually a bit concerned that I might be ruining my golden syrup, I am keeping it in the fridge wrapped on an old recipe print out because the jar is all sticky and I didn't want it sitting out on the shelves getting everything else sticky! Sheesh just like, wipe the jar, idiot...

I have a massive entire booze cabinet in the dining room. In it, from memory:

Sherry cask finish Glenmorangie whisky (opened, maybe about half drunk)
Highland Park whisky (opened, maybe about 2/3 drunk)
Bunnahabhain whisky (opened, probably nearly gone)
Blanton's Special Reserve bourbon (opened, about half gone)
Rowan's Creek bourbon (opened, nearly empty)
Southern Comfort Special Reserve (opened, for cooking, about half gone)
Single Plantation Venezualan rum (opened, 1/3 gone)
Mount Gay rum (opened, for cooking, half gone)
Sri Lankan arak (opened, nearly all gone)
Lebanese araq (unopened)
Tanqueray gin (opened, barely touched)
Bombay Sapphire gin (unopened)
Blackwood's Shetland gin (opened, nearly finished)
Plymouth Sloe gin (opened, half gone)
Stolichnoya vodka (unopened)
that one you get in the blue square bottle in Ikea vodka (opened, mostly gone, in the freezer)
some brand of Aqavit I got in Germany (opened, mostly gone, in the freezer)
La Fee absinthe (opened, barely touched)
some really expensive and nice absinthe I got bought (unopened)
some tequila or other, gold (opened, mainly for cooking, about half gone)
cheap ouzo (unopened)
anise and coffee liqueur from Greece(opened, about 1/3 gone)
really stupidly thick advocaat from Greece (unopened)
small bottles of things like chambourd and kirch, for cooking
some beers that are 'maturing' - there's a Harvey's Imperial stout, an Edwin Tucker one and some really strong American one that just frightens me.

Tequila = DEATH JUICE.

Wusses.

Sarah, you should not keep the golden syrup in the fridge. It says so on the label. I just bought my first jar ever this weekend and even I know that. jeez.

Holy shit (xpissed)

Well, you know, you're never sure what you're going to fancy. ;-)

I've definitely missed a couple off but I can't think what they are.

You are all drunks!

as long as you have a healthy respect for alcohol then i guess it's HOLY CHRIST IT'S A TOWER OF LIQUID JOY

;)

I just drink beer for the most part. Your joy sounds much less fattening.

i think shorts are full of calories though?

shorts? You are making me think of Bart Simpson here.

when you are drinkind hard alcohol in bars and other boring places and have to be polite about it- shorts.

when you are drinking at a party or at home- mistakes.

Hmmm, this is all new to me.

Do you mean like shots? Just the liquor in a small glass with no mixer? yes that way madness lies.

yep shots/shorts interchangeable. and regrettable.

I avoid hard liquor. Too much bar work = the needlehard stuff and the damage done.

Mount Gay Rum is really nice! I wouldn't consider it cooking rum at all! You must have sophis tastes huh Aldo :) Or maybe I have an unrefined palate? Nah surely not.

Oh i totally know golden syrup doesn't belong in the fridge, it was just that it got all sticky and it seemed the safest place for it!

Am wondering how I could involve creme de cassis in a cake. Research and/or SCIENCE beckons.

Oh I forgot, I have aquavit in my freezer. I do like that of an occasion.

It is really nice, I agree, but my single plantation (which may be from a different country now I think about it, I think I had Venezualan the previous time) is so much better it relegates the Mount Gay.

Cheesecake would be good with creme de cassis swirled through, like raspberry ripple.

Sarah type xpost

have a bottle of jack, a bottle of johnnie walker and a half bottle of jameson in a press somewhere. lots of wine left over from christmas.

plain cheesecake with a swirl of baileys.

or just a bailey's cheesecake, lovely.

I feel like some kind of alkie now. ;_;

yep shots/shorts interchangeable. and regrettable.

Def. regrettable. That's why I've given them up except for the occasional lone tequila shot. Which is oh so lovely and warm.

I do have a bottle of some caramel-flavored cream liquor in the fridge. I got it to make trifle with but then made the tart instead. Have had a bit on ice cream and it was okay. When it gets colder might be nice in coffee.

I used to drink baileys as a shot when working in a bar (for about 2 weeks. The horrible stickiness :( ). Can't touch the stuff anymore. Right. No more talk of bars!

Yeh the internet says cheesecake first, but I would be making this for a party and transporting cheesecake across London is just silly. I am going to experiment. But FIRST I am going to see if we are going for an effing pint tonight or WHAT!

xposts

Baileys = milky wrong. Do they still make those Baileys shots things? EVEN WRONGER! I got some to take to another party once, I was already drunk by then obv, and started in on them on the bus - sooooooo disgusting, I think I gave the rest away to some kids on the top deck...

Sorry. . .

When I lived in Dallas I got in the bad habit of doing Tuaca shots when out. Men would often buy them for me and I would stupidly drink them and become black out drunk. This is not a drink to puke.

That whole period of my life was stupid. blehh.

KIDS??? (xpost)

Cake ideas:

Soak cherries in it, make cherry sponge
Add to thickened sugar syrup, use as jam in victoria sponge
Whip into buttercream, use as chocolate sponge filling

I assume most people have heard of the classic French apéritifs, the Kir and the Kir Royal, named after Félix Kir a mayor of Dijon, but I discovered another cocktail with crème de cassis in it last march, called a Parisienne. It's essentially a wet martini with a twist but instead of vermouth, you use the crème de cassis. It's quite delicious.