Me So Stupid

Over the past week, Branden has been trying to convince me to consider going to a concert for our wedding anniversary this year. I love a good concert and my favorite so far, besides the one Branden's band played at and proposed to me during the set, was the Mika concert we went to in Edinburgh. There are lots of artists that would be wonderfully romantic to go see on our anniversary but the one Branden has been trying to persuade me to go to is nowhere near my top 1000 list. I had to finally say it out loud to him for him to really let it sink in.

"Spending a romantic evening celebrating 4 years of wedded bliss does not include ZZ Top!"

My husband is the only facial haired man I want to look at on our anniversary, not a whole band worth of furry beasts. One night when we were in bed and Branden was still trying to entice me to spend our day with him and ZZ Top, I finally asked him what I should have asked at the start of this madness.

"Ok, if you are such a ZZ Top fan, what songs do they sing?" I pinned him.

"Well, they do that 'Give me all your lovin' song that you know," he came back quickly.

"...and???" I knew I had him because it was almost 1am and he was sleepy.

"Uh, well I could play some of them on guitar," and then he tried humming something that he realized wasn't right but kept trying to defend his cause, "There are other songs that you would know but I can't think of any right now."

I was laughing, tired, and in the rare moment that my husband's brain was just not able to remember something basic, I just came out with the typical response to this situation, "Oh Mags!"

After realizing that my automatic response to my husband's mindless response was to call him myself, we could not stop laughing in disbelief that I actually did that! I think we both lost our arguments but I got Branden to admit that he probably is just so desperate to go to a concert since it's been so long since the last one.

Now for something completely different. Christmas Eve was our night to be together, just the two of us and to eat whatever we wanted...isn't that what holidays are for?? For Christmas Eve dessert, I got my idea from watching Nigella on BBC a few weeks back. She called it 'homemade gelato' but we called it 'the best thing that has ever hit our tastebuds' and it was one of the easiest things I've ever made!

Ingredients:

Double cream (I never remember seeing it in the States but I've heard you can get it...if you can't, it's worth moving countries just to have it!)
Meringue cookies or nests
A chocolate bar (we used dark which I would recommend)
Spiced Rum (or you could use coffee liqueur but the spiced rum was so tasty!)

How to make it:

Whip your double cream until it's firm but soft. I had a small container of double cream, probably the equivalent of 1 cup of the liquid. Grate or slice shavings of a bit of your chocolate bar and fold in to your double cream. Just add however much you want. Take two handfuls of meringue cookies or two meringue nests and crush them like the Hulk into your mixture then fold in. Also fold in 2 tablespoons of Rum which Nigella only said 1 Tbs but you can hardly taste 2 Tbs although it's a nice balance and you could add more if you want the flavor to stand out more. At this point, you will have to use extreme restraint in not just eating this with spoons, but trust me, the frozen version is even better!

We just took a medium square tupperware container, lined it with cling film (leaving extra hanging over the sides to cover the top of the mixture) and then spooned the mix in, spreading it well into the corners and flattening the top. Fold the extra cling film over the top, put the tupperware lid on and pop the whole thing in the freezer overnight! When it's frozen through, just pop the whole thing out onto a plate, unwrap it from the cling film, and slice! The consistency is wonderful and there are no ice crystal bits like typical 'non-icecream icecream'. We loved it so much that we ate it for lunch on Christmas day.

You can see the white meringue bits which added a great texture and the chocolate scattered about for every bit tasting like we had died and gone to blissful creamy heaven! If you want an easy dessert with show stopping flavor, this is the way to go! And I think our 4 mile New Year's Day walk yesterday worked off at least 2 mouthfuls!




*Bonus points to anyone who realized that the title of this post is a ZZ Top song.

Bonus points can be redeemed by yourself at anytime by simply hi-fiving yourself obnoxiously in a public place