Culinary Inspiration from the most unlikely of places...

When I was searching for no bake no fridge few ingredients recipes I came across a recipe for Prison brownies. A bloke named Ricky who lives in prison in the US is my saviour. I don’t know how he managed it but he has found a way of making pretty authentic brownies using chocolate cream biscuits, chocolate syrup and 1 chocolate bar. I’m glad that some people spend their time inside being productive and helping others. Thank you Ricky. Making them is all in the method. First your separate the cream filling from the biscuits. You bash the biscuits until they are just crumbs. You break the chocolate bar into tiny pieces and mix with the crumbs. You add the chocolate syrup until the mixture sticks together. Form brownies. Then you blend the cream filling with a little water and spread over the top of the brownies. Leave them for an hour or so and enjoy. Not bad, not bad at all. They are a bit stickier than ordinary brownies so you will get messy hands.

Exams

I know the exams are for the students but I couldn’t resist having a go at the Senior 6 French exam when I found a spare paper lying around. Wherever in the world I happen to be and however old I am it seems my swotish, bookish, teacher’s pet tendencies are never that far away. I’ll never forget that date I went on at the bookbarn in Bristol. The poor unfortunate guy endured hours of watching someone stare at a psychology textbook on visual illusions and then trailed me around as I discussed the relative merits of different books on making displays in the early years.   

I do actually enjoy exams. I know its not normal. It certainly helps to pass the time. The senior 6 French exam has helped me to fill two periods of exam invigilation already. I have been slowly translating a page and a half of dense French text, first without a dictionary and then with for the words I couldn’t work out, and you know what, I think I’m getting better. I think its roughly equivalent to A level French so I’m feeling quite proud of myself that I managed to do it. I’m determined not to forget all of my French this time. I’ll be making a nuisance of myself across the channel by insisting on speaking my bad French at Callais buying copious amounts of vin rouge...ah vin rouge, how I miss you.