New Year thang

[perlmonger]

ramtops and I spent New Year with gmul, agc and Jane, Pat and Dave, pugwash and Sarah but, sadly, not Sasha and John who couldn't make it due to John being ill (and also knackered from working in John Lewis's electrical department for the week after Christmas - the horror... the horror...).

It was an excellent night; between us, we consumed all of my chilli, a seriously non-authentic concoction constructed thusly:

Brown an unfeasible quantity of stewing beef in a Circulon casserole that appears to be enormous but will all too soon turn out to be barely adequate in size.

Fry onion and celery, add garlic and coriander, cumin and dill seeds, these previously dry roasted and ground in pestle and mortar, and fry a bit more.

Add tomatoes, ground paprika, the contents of the frying pan, a generous quantity of cocoa powder, bay leaves and some thyme to the beef.

Add chopped red chillis and (in this case, as this was aimed at an audience of unknown tolerances) a chopped red bell pepper.

Curse on discovering that the Krups Orchestro has chosen this moment in time to deliver espresso into its grounds tray rather than its delivery spout.

Make a quantity of strong coffee in the small cafetiere in order to put off getting the emergency backup espresso machine from the loft.

Add coffee to casserole, along with Sel de Guérande and crushed black Parameswaran peppercorns, and bung the casserole into a slow oven for a few hours.

Leave to fester gently to itself until the following afternoon.

Add red kidney and flageolet beans that really should have been pre boiled but came respectively out of tins and a glass jar. Oh what an idle sod am I.

Stuff the now full to overflowing casserole back in the oven for a few more hours until people are ready to eat.

That's it really.

We finished off (this may be taken literally if you so choose) with ramtops's lethal chocolate MOOOOOOOOSE!!! which evaporated - much of it in the direction of gmul who makes up for not drinking alcohol with a notable affinity for chocolate-based food products.

Much groaning and subsiding into furniture. The final hours of 2003 and the first of 2004 were enlivened by impromptu entertainment from the Midwich Kittens who, we have decided, may be known elsewhere by the names Chloe and Radclyffe Denton. gmul has already noted his experiences of last night on our couch...

Anyhow. A Happy New Year to one and all.

Comments

[margotmetroland.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year to you too.

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