Geek Girl Eats Cake

fille geek à Paris

You may think it’s been a bit quiet in my little blog and you’d be right. I have been to Paris for my birthday! I won’t tell you how old I am as it’s hard enough with people who I can see with my own eyes being younger,let alone a flock of them behind a screen.

As you all know, I love cake. And one thing Paris is famous for is…Patisserie. Pastry shop. I love pastry. A lot of my birthdays have focused around pastry.

Everybody asks “What are you doing for your birthday?” My answer for 5 years continuously was: “I am going to get pie!”

The perfect answer. Birthday Cake is for amateurs.

Lemon meringue pie, Blueberry pie, apple pie…can’t get enough. In fact, once I agreed to wait in line with my friend till midnight so he could buy the new X Files video if he bought me two pies from McDonalds. If nothing else, I’m a cheap date and easy to please.

So, Paris. Even their cakes had pastry. All we could buy was pastry, (and by could, I mean wanted). Lemon meringue pie, chocolate pie, croissants, pain au choc, apple tart, all delicious, all fabulous. So if you want to go on a pastry holiday pick France. I will warn you though, the chocolate pie did have a layer of wafer (the texture of it boggles the mind) but hey, you’re in France. Drink wine for breakfast instead. 🙂

Prize Winning Pasty

Local Village Show 2018

Prize for best Pasty: Me

Okay, there was only me that entered, but an Award winning Pasty just the same. And of course I would tell people about the later bit, and when pressed admit then, the competition wasn’t exactly fierce.

Fast forward to Village Show 2019

Prize for best Pasty: Me again!

Five entries! Two burnt, one folded, and one in a bag that looked like it came from the shop.

It was as big as the charger plate it sat on, the reason I won? It was properly crimped (smug face) and it was big enough to feed the whole family (confused face).

As I have stated in this blog before: I ONLY DO BIG FOOD!!!!!!!

You call it family sized, I call it brunch.

Now, I will display my certificate with pride. Best of five 🙂

Conventions aren’t just for dweebs

I went to my first convention in 2005. It was free, took place in a shopping centre in Milton Keynes and featured stars from Star Wars, the A Team and even Flash Gordon. Not just bit parts, the main stars, including Princess Leia herself. As soon as I saw Margot Kidder walk around amongst shoppers of John Lewis, I knew this was for me.

Conventions are in short, surreal. They cost next to nothing to get in, in fact its cheaper entry than going to the zoo and the atmosphere is electric. And yet I know hardly anyone other than online geek groups on face book that regularly go, and I wonder why?

Where else can you find Roger Rabbit talking to Thanos eating a hotdog with a guy dressed like Chris Pratt controlling a life size balloon modelled dinosaur? On one of my photoshoots with John Barrowman, he started chasing the cast of Arrow trying to poke a lightsabre up their bum. You never know what will happen. It is like a dream.

Kids love it. They dress up (along with many adults) sometimes in ways you expect (spiderman, batman, jawas), sometimes a tad unexpected (pennywise the clown? TWD Negan? ). But its all good fun.

Adults spend money to meet their heroes. It can be a lot and sometimes you might have to sell your car to meet Michael J Fox or Anakin from Star Wars but the memories last forever. There are piles of stalls, shoes from Wizard of Oz, jackets from the Marvel and DC movie universes but some of the best things ever is the art.

There are some amazing talented people who walk this earth, and a good number of them are artists at conventions. They are incredible! And almost always the artist is there and will sign and dedicate the print or sketch for you free. I came across one artist (Chris Baker CJB art) who uses pencils. His art looks like b&w photos.

There are some, he did in white instead of black but purposelessly so when you used the negative filter on your mobile phone the artwork appears the right way. Extraordinary!

So whether or not you go to meet your heroes, grab some nice art, get R2D2 shoes or just hang out at the hotdog stand with a blown up t-rex, maybe try conventions. They’re a lot cooler than you think.

Holy Compilation Batman!

If you were obsessed with Batman and his ‘Old Chum’ Robin like me, not only is the complete TV boxset sitting in the corner but you will find the series Batman’66 an essential addition to your comic of graphic novel library.

Each issue takes you back to sitting with glee watching Batman do the Bat-dance, Batman and Robin walking up buildings, the cringing puns and of course the POW! KWACK! and KA-KICK!

You don’t have to be a comic book fan to enjoy this series, just a sense of fun. So, if you really want to see Batman on a plane (in full costume of course) being more popular than the Beatles; Batman trespassing on a gigantic iceberg which is also the country of Penguinia or a high speed chase involving gigantic top hats (holy hovering headwear!), then this series is for you!

There’s even an issue set in Britain, with a British batmobile, a Dectective Gordon of Scotland Yard, a water chase and of course Robin drives on the wrong side of the road! Classic!

Kernow Giants

Being a Cornish Maid has its advantages and disadvantages. A disadvantage is that I always sound like I’m herding cows in a field or a fishwife on a pier, and the other is I cannot cook little.

I come from farmers and miners and if one thing is for sure, Cornish fellas and lasses love their food and lots of it. And because of this, I am incapable of making petit food. I have tried, repeatedly in fact, but no matter what I do, it always looks like I’m catering for a load of Gullivers.

Case in point: The doughnuts you see in the picture above is meant to be lovely little treats for children after school. A lazy sunday afternoon maybe.

I followed the recipe but somehow the dough grew and expanded. Even more so in the oil. And for an accidental clutz such as yours truly, the turning over was nothing short of traumatic.

Twenty four doughnuts were meant to come out.

I had eight.

Eight ring doughnuts. Four of which were as big as my child’s face.

Twenty four treats turned into eight meals with icing and sprinkles. Tasted alright though 🙂

When Jack Daniels meets Sticky toffee pudding

It was during a trip to London that two of my big loves came together.

Sticky toffee pudding with a Praline and Jack Daniels sauce.

I’m just going to let those words sink in for a moment.

Toffee

Sponge

Jack Daniels Whiskey

Praline and then there was ice cream….

Time eaten after the orgasmic first mouthful causing alarm at neighbouring tables: 1 minute 27 seconds.

As full as I was (chicken with Jack Daniels was devoured just moments before with a Jack Daniels milkshake.), I could not get it down me fast enough. Who knew Jack Daniels would make such a great addition to food. Now, if they could just make donuts with a bourbon and toffee glaze……ooh! Jack Daniels Christmas pudding…now there’s a thought!