Rick's b.log - 2025/04/21
It is the 25th of April 2025 You are 18.218.196.220, pleased to meet you!

Conspiracy theory

Coincidence?

I wanted some AI art here but my AI art app really didn't understand my prompt and instead offered up this...which, let's face it, is possibly better in a really twisted way.

This is AI generated and hasn't happened...
...yet.

Flamin' hell!

So.....that's a YES then?

Here are the little tubs arranged on my shelf.

I now have Nether Flame in stock. 👍

I paid €0,30 for each tub (don't worry, it was a chèque vacance so I sort of got them for free really) which might sound expensive but on the other hand there's 25ml in each tub so really I paid €6,60 for 600ml of sauce - which might actually be cheaper than the other two pictured, millilitre for millilitre. Plus being in 25ml doses, opening one means the rest stay fresh. On the flip side, opening one means one must be consumed...challenge accepted!

No, my maths isn't wrong - I got two free with the nuggets that I ordered. Miserable cold chips, as usual, and roasting hot nuggets. I ate it on the way home.
Actually, the McServer stuffed a huge bag of burgers into my bag. I handed it right back and said I ordered nine nuggets, not nine burgers. Yes, I'm honest.
Besides, the person behind me was likely the person who ordered all of that and she was kind of cute and - like me - had waited damn near fifteen minutes in an otherwise empty restaurant for these guys to get their act together. That's why the chips were awful, they were prepared in the first couple of minutes and stuck in the packing area forever and a day until everything else was ready. I would say McDo should get its act together to better time these things to be ready at the same time, but why should they when suckers like us actually pay money for this pitiful excuse.

Well, joke's on them because here I am enjoying the hot sauce with some chips of my own that I did in the air fryer. These were actually just something dirt cheap that I got from Leclerc in order to throw on top of the Picard stuff to help keep it all cold on the journey home, but it turns out that they were pretty decent chips. Not a quality chip, but more than adequate for pairing with a sauce that would like to tear my head off and take a dump down the neck hole.

This is not a sauce, it is an experience.

Making Trifle was no trifling matter

It was deceptively simple. Make jelly, make custard, make topping. But making the jelly was dissolve the granules in boiling water, leave ten minutes, pour - I made up six plastic beakers with tinned peach pieces at the bottom - and then leave to set, preferably in a fridge.
Then the custard. Again, seems simple but it was a case of boil the powder and milk in a microwave, then immediately add some cold milk, cover and leave to cool. Then put that on top of the jelly and back in the fridge to set.
Then whisk the topping powder and some milk until it peaks. What they neglected to mention was that it would take something like six or seven minutes whipping the crap out of it (max speed). Then spoon that on top, add some chocolate sprinkles (supplied) and, you guessed it, back in the fridge.
Oh, and you can't freeze it or the gelatine in the jelly will disintegrate in some manner (Google said so, I have never tried). Actually, I think I'll pop one in the freezer just to see what happens.

A personal dose of trifle.

So while there wasn't much that really needed done, the continual coolings meant that it was fiddly and took all day.
Speaking of which, it's 9pm as I write this. Having said that, staying up until 1am last night (I was watching "The Lost City on Film4 and then realised that I hadn't eaten all day) so got up late this morning and stayed in bed reading utter dross on Bored Panda until noon when I decided I really needed more tea. So, yeah, I guess the day does go quickly like that. ☺
However... it's still a faff making trifle. I never quite appreciated how much faff.

Now I'm going to go make pasta - all of the leftovers from refilling the jars, and I'll throw some peas and brocolli in, and put some grated cheddar on top. Okay, I'm wanting that right now so bye!

Your comments:

Rob, 21st April 2025, 22:29

I read earlier that Vance's "meeting" with the pope was actually a 30 second photo-op, and nothing was discussed. I'm prepared to believe that..  All that work makes the £2 trifles I occasionally buy sound like a bargain..

Richard Paddle, 22nd April 2025, 15:33

Wow, came across this. Back in 1995 you wrote an article on the Acorn BBS Door games I wrote. I've re-released Boxed-In but now on the internet. https://boxedin.uk/ Good to see you are still around.

jgh, 22nd April 2025, 21:34

Trifles. Known in Japan as Christmas cake.  mdfs.net/pics/2024/12