CHRISTMAS! HELP NEEDED.

Hallo Ya'll.
Right, this year I will be posting up the exact recipes that I am making for my family for Christmas dinner. So if you are stuck for ideas then you can have a peek at mine and cook along with me. Veggies? Don't worry, your Auntie Angela will cater for you too.

ALSO, I WANT PHOTOS  OF YOUR CHRISTMAS DINNERS THIS YEAR. I WANT YOU TO FIND A WAY TO GET SOME HEAVY METAL HIGH JINKS INTO YOUR CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. IT CAN BE YOUR COOKING, YOUR DECOR, YOUR NIGHTS OUT, SOMEONE ELSE'S COOKING OR ANY OTHER CRAZY THINGS YOU MIGHT GET UP TO. (No nudity please. This is a respectable site). I WANT PHOTO EVIDENCE THAT YOU ROCK OUT 365 DAYS A YEAR. SANTA DON'T MIND IF YOU'RE A LITTLE BAD.
Your mission is set.
Over and out.

Corn dogs and The Book Of Heavy Metal

So, I never did get me a corn dog in Seattle.
I had been warned that they are disgusting and my facination with trying one will not go rewarded. Hmmmmmmmm.
I shall concoct my own version. I think I may use proper sausage though.. Come on! We all know that hot dogs are made from eye balls and bum holes. Mmmmmmmmm.
The above vidoe by Dream Evil is one of Steve's guilty pleasures. It was official theme song for the week.

So here is my version of a corn dog. I have nothing to base it on though so you'll need to let me know how it compares.

Homemade corn dog with spicy tomato dip 

Serves 2

You will need 6 wooden lolly sticks or strong skewers

6 very good quality porky frankfurters. Not too thick as you want them to cook through. Or 6 vegetarian frankfurters.
120g yellow corn meal (Masa) If you can't get it then use fine non quick cook polenta
120g plain flour
1tsp caster sugar
1tsp dry mustard powder
1tp baking powder
Half tsp smoked paprika
Half tsp salt
120ml milk
1 egg beaten
1 tbsp melted butter

For the dipping sauce

4 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp mayonaise
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
Half teaspoon smoked paprika
Juice of 1 lime

Sunflower or vegetable oil for frying

To make the batter, sieve the Cornmeal, flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, mustard powder and smoked paprika into a bowl.
Add the beaten egg, milk and melted butter and mix lightly till it forms a smmoth batter. You want the batter to be quite thick so it coats the sausage.

Mix all the dipping sauce ingredients together and set aside.

So, fill a frying pan one third full of oil and heat on medium. Stick a lolly stick or skewer up the middle of your sausages.

Dip the sausages in the batter and let any excess drip off. Place into the oil and fry for about 5 minutes turning every now and then to make sure batter is nice and golden. Check that your sausages are cooked through. Drain onto kitchen paper and serve with the dipping sauce.

Let me know how it goes.

Rock You Like A Hurricane

Hallo, hallo.
Laissez les bons temps rouler.



The Hurricane is the most famous cocktail in New Orleans.
Invented at Pat O'Brien's bar on Bourbon Street in the 1940's.
They had boat loads of rum and needed to get shot of it, and so a wee man fiddled about with some rum and left over juice he had lying around and the limes he had to prevent scurvy. Made a few stinkers, got pished, then came up with the fruity, sweet concoction we have today. (This is my interpretation of events-may not be strictly true). 

I had a Hurricane in a plastic cup  from Laffite's Blacksmith shop In New Orleans (The oldest bar in the US apparently). Don't go there. The bar staff are really rude and the toilets are manky. The Hurricane was pretty strong though. It made the Vampire walking tour much more fun. When our guide asked us what the first settlers of New Orleans were missing? I piped up in my broadest Glaswegian accent "WIMMIN"!. I got a laugh.

There are so many recipes for a Hurricane cocktail that it's difficult to know which is the right one. So here is my closest guess.

Hurricane cocktail serves 2

You need two big tall glasses and crap loads of ice

2 fl oz light rum
2 floz dark rum
6oz orange juice
6oz passion fruit juice or pineapple if you can't get passion fruit juice
1oz grenadine
juice one lime
2 slices of orange
2 cocktail cherries

Fill your glasses with loads of ice, pour half of the rest of the ingredients into each glass, squeeze the juice of half a lime into each glass. Top with a slice of orange and a cherry. Stick in a swizzle stick and mix it all about. Put in more rum, stick on some tacky plastic beads, grope your friends and pretend you're on Bourbon Street.

Ang and Polly's Excellent Adventure part two: Seattle

Seattle. The rainy city, the home of Grunge, Microsoft and Boeing.

Seattle City scape behind us. You can see a teeny tiny Space Needle to the right and yes, I AM very short.

Enough about that. Lets talk FOOD.

I love Seattle. They have the best bacon in the world. And you know how much I love pork. I love it even more than Pepper Keenan. Shhhhhhh. Don't tell him.

Anyhoos, The first stop for food was at iHop for a big greasy Breakfast. They give you the calorie count on the menu. Mine's came to 1400. That is three quarters of my daily allowance. Oops.
I had country biscuits with sausage and gravy, hash browns and eggs over easy. My breakfast came on TWO plates. I am a big fatty.
 Pauline had pancakes with strawberry and banana, Steve had a fajita omelet and Arlene had french toast with eggs and bacon. The fact that I had three quarters of my calorie allowance did not deter me from eating for the rest of the day. NEVER trust a skinny chef.

Biscuits and gravy. Other plate of breakfast just out of shot.

We did Seattle in a day. Steve took us in his big black pick up truck and we went to see the Freemont Troll, Bruce and Brandon Lee's graves, the Erotic Bakery and  Gasworks Park. Phew.

Troooooooooooooooooooooooll

I want to live here.

Gas works park, Made famous by the paint balloon splatting scene in the film "10 things I hate about you"

Naughty cakes

We had the most juicy porky sandwich from a little Cuban place in Freemont called Paseo. I had the Cuban Roast sandwich . The pork was melt in the mouth tender and had sticky onions. I'm hungry just thinking about it.
http://www.paseoseattle.com/

Cuban Roast sandwich. I need to Marry a Cuban.

We ate alot of Mexican food in Seattle. From HUGE Burritos in Bimbos
http://www.myspace.com/249416349,

 To tamales at a wee late night take away joint. A Mexican feast at some restaurant I can't remember the name of and burritos at Mamma's.

http://www.mamas.com/

I think I'm all Mexicand out.

A Mexicano feast. And yes. we did finish it all.

I was on a mission to have a corn dog before I left. Even though Steve and Louise tried to talk me out of it.We went to a really cool bar called Unicorn. They did corn dogs. I did not have one.
You win Steve and Louise.

The crazy decor at Unicorn.

A sample from the Unicorn menu

We had more good brunchable food at Easy Street records. Yes, it is a record shop but they have a great cafe too. I had the Frances Farmer French Toast. Oooooh, the bacon. It was tasty, tasty, tasty.

http://easystreetonline.com/cafe

By far the highlight of the holiday was  Evil Dead the Musical. It was amazing. The front two rows had to wear protective ponchos as they got totally splattered with fake blood. I was very jealous.
http://www.evildeadthemusical.com/site/

We played pinball at Shorty's, one of my favourite bars in Seattle
http://www.shortydog.com/

We saw a great Burlesque show at Noc Noc.
http://www.clubnocnoc.com/

Went up the Space needle and thought we were gonna get blown off the top.

Seattle Space Needle

Nearly getting blown off the top of the Space Needle

Got a new tattoo by Asher at Liberty Tattoo
http://www.myspace.com/liberty_tattoo

2010

2009

 Gpt a manicure and pedicure (check me out being pure girly) and went to the last place Kurt Cobain was seen alive.
 Linda's Tavern.

We had fries.


I decided to cook Steve and Louise dinner on the last night to say thank you for putting us up for the week.
 I went Nu'Orlens style and made Chicken, Andouille sausage, sweet potato and prawn Gumbo. Which was like the real stuff.
I was kinda like "how much stuff can I get in one pot"?
I made Bananas Foster for dessert. Not quite like the one at Brennan's. I must find out the secret to their recipe.

My gumbo. It has all sorts of shit in it.

Other places of note are Experience Music Project

EMP for short, is a Museum charting the History of music in Seattle. With a huge emphasis on Jimi Hendrix of course.
This is a must for any music fan.

And for the nerd in you EMP also houses the Science Fiction Museum.
It's pretty damn good if you ask me.



http://www.empmuseum.org/index.asp






Anyhoo. That's yer lot from my Holiday extravaganza.
For anyone visiting New Orleans or Seattle, please check out the places I've been to. You will not be disappointed.

I saw this on the street and just liked it.

Some Southern tunes for your delection.

Down featuring the love of my life Pepper Keenan. OOF!



EyeHateGod. Really I don't mind him so much. He did make pigs, I love pork. Mmmmmmmm



Crowbar. Now clearly these guys have done some good eatin!

Ang and Polly's Excellent Adventure. Part one:N'awlins

Hallo Y'all,

Did you miss me? Of course you did.
Well, that's me back from the US of A.  Jet lag over and back to Normal.
Oh what a time we had. How much food we ate. God it was awesome. So I'll tell you guys all about it.
You might want to get yourself a drink and a few munchie snacks as this is gonna be a long one.
Where to start?
OK so first of all I want to thank the lovely people of New Orleans for making our stay most enjoyable and to my very, very good friends Steve and Louise for putting us up and putting up with us in Seattle.

Laissez les bons temps rouler.
 In New Orleans that means "Let the good times roll". And indeed they did.


Our Holiday started off pretty badly. We got stranded in Dallas for the evening due to the incompetence of American Airlines, who I will never use again.

Anyhoo, We stayed in the hotel from the Shining and there was a Denny's right beside us so for breakfast we had french toast, eggs and bacon. I love American Breakfasts.
 If I lived in the USA I would be a big fatty.
Dallas airport is great. They have a Tex Mex place called Papasitos. They do HUGE portions of food. I had a platter with a beef burrito, chicken enchilada and rice and beans.
Pauline had chicken quesadillas. We only made a slight dent in the portions. As the waitress said when we explained that is was very nice but far too much. "Everything's bigger in Texas Y'all".
Damn right. Even the Margaritas were massive. It was quite fun to ride the sky link (The airport monorail link) while pissed. Wheeeeeeeee.

The Shining hotel. REDRUM REDRUM. This is where we stayed in Dallas

Denny's French toast with eggs, bacon and sausage.

Pretty building, French Quarter, New Orleans

Well. On to New Orleans.
We booked a lovely hotel called the Dauphine Orleans right in the heart of the French Quarter.

http://www.dauphineorleans.com/



If you ever go to New Orleans stay at this hotel. The rooms are massive and quiet and so worth the money.
Me and Pauline nearly hyperventilated as soon as the taxi turned into the French Quarter. It's exactly like you see on TV. Beautiful. You feel like you have gone back in time to a place where the woman drink fresh Lemonade and used fans to cool themselves down in the Southern heat before air conditioning was invented. Not that you need air conditioning in Scotland. Ha ha. Just open a bloody window.

The first thing we did was to go for a walk to Jackson Square to see St Louis Cathedral. Then we took a trip up the Mississippi on the Steamboat Natchez.

http://www.steamboatnatchez.com/
There is nothing better than sitting on the deck in the scorching sun, going up the Mississippi River and sipping on frozen Margaritas at 11.30 in the morning. Bliss.
Alltough we did get severe sunburn.
Who would have thought that you would get sun burnt in October. Well, we are both ginger.


So our first experience of food in New Orleans was to go to a wee 24 hour joint down from the hotel called Deja Vu.

http://www.dejavunola.com/

It was a little neighbourhood place that had a good jukebox and served good homemade grub.
Pauline had a huge burger and I had Chicken fried steak with country gravy. God it was good. 

For anyone outside the US. Chicken Fried Steak is basically a pounded steak covered in a crisp batter kinda like the stuff you get on Kentucky fried chicken but way better. And from what I could work out, country gravy is like a Bechamel sauce with loads of pepper in it???? It was good. We soaked it down with a nice cool, crisp Corona with fresh lime. MMMMMMMMMMMMM.

The Vampire ball was the same night.
 I dressed as a Hammer Horror bride of Dracula with a burned crucifix on  my forehead, a floor lengh red chiffon cloak  and a pink nylon nightdress. I couldn't stand anywhere near a naked flame for fear of going up in a puff of smoke.
Pauline was dressed as a very beautiful Victorian style Vampire. Which we found out was called "Steam punk". Yeah, whatever.
The drinks were so strong that I'm smiling in every photo. Not very Vampire like of me. I'm supposed to be dark and broody. Oh well.
I threw my teeth away on Bourbon Street. They cost me a fortune too.

I'm so scary

Have you ever seen such happy vampires?

Next day we went to the French Market and had a Snowball, which is shaved ice with flavoured syrup. Yum yum.
The man who served us was very nice. We gave him a big tip.

Cherry snowball from a very nice man.

Next port of call for food was the Gumbo Shop. Where we had the best meal of our entire lives.

Gumboooooooooooo. Weep.

http://www.gumboshop.com/visit_the_restaurant/visit_the_restaurant.html

To start we had Gumbo. I've been a big fan of gumbo my whole life but never really knew how to make it properly as I had never been to Louisiana.
 My interpretation of Gumbo was like a tomato based stew.
Oh no no no. How wrong I was.
This was more like a thick meaty gravy with chicken, sausage and rice. Oh I nearly weeped into my bowl I was so overjoyed.
Bridget, our waitress was a character herself. Intense, but very nice and very help full. She seemed as overjoyed as ourselves with what were about to savour.
Bridget, your a gem. We wish you were our friend. Maybe one day when myself and Pauline move to New Orleans we can hang with Bridget.

Paulines blackened chicken Poboy. Mmmmmmmmmmmm

Hot roast beef Poboy with gravy. Oh God, oh God, Oh God.

We took the famous St Charles streetcar line up to the Garden district and picked the houses we wanted to live in.

St Charles Street car line

This is where I want to live.

Then we went to Audubon Park and it started to rain. I thought the rain in Scotland was bad. Ooh wee. This was like no rain I had ever seen. 
We made it to the zoo. All the animals were either in hiding or depressed.
There is no sadder sight than a huge orangutan trying to shield from the rain under a tiny soggy cardboard box. Bless.

Aw.

Scary Gator. Good in Gumbo. Mmmmmmmm.

I walked the 3 hour journey back to the hotel wearing a plastic see through poncho. And I wasn't even embarrassed. What a tourist.

 I did get a pumpkin and pecan pie for the road from Tee Eva's. Twas very very good.
http://www.tee-evapralines.com/

Sweet Potato and pecan pie. And Pauline's feet. It's hard to eating, walking and taking a photo at the same time is not easy.

That evening we visited Bubba Gump for dinner before embarking on a Vampire walking tour.

http://www.bubbagump.com/locations/new-orleans/

http://www.hauntedhistorytours.com/

I swear to God the people in Bubba Gump were trying to kill us with the portions of food. My phrase for the whole holiday was "Oh my goodness". Which I said pretty much after every meal.
Collectively we had  shrimp boil, Mussels and clams, bucket of boat trash, Bourbon Street Mahi mahi and cocktails. Oh my goodness!
Our waiter was cool. He made us do a Forest Gump quiz. I even said the line "I got shot in the buttocks" in my best Southern accent. I was not drunk yet.

Bucket of trash. Mmmmmmmmmm

Shrimp boil. Oh My Goodness.

We staggered towards the meeting point for the vampire walking tour feeling quite full.
The tour guides were dressed the part and standing outside Jackson Square waiting for the participants. We waited till other people went up first so we wouldn't look lame.
We were not the only ones doing this.
If you go to New Orleans take at least one of the Haunted History tours.
The guides, along with making the tours fun also know alot about the actual history of the city.
We also took the cemetery tour.
Nicolas Cage has a tomb there. Clearly, he is not dead yet.

City of the Dead. St Louis Cemetary number 2

Next was Cafe Du Monde for the famous Beignets.
 Fried dough dusted with ridiculous amounts of icing sugar. Soooooooooo yummy.
We ate them in Jackson Square. It was sunny. Life was good.

Messy

Very messy

So, onto our last Day. Do you think you could fit two 3 course meals into one day. Well just you wait till you go to New Orleans.
 You'll fit it in God damn it.

First we booked brunch at the famous Brennan's restaurant.

http://www.brennansneworleans.com/
I had Turtle soup to start. It was very nice. Tasted like a mix between chicken and tuna. Pauline had strawberries and cream.
 I said to Pauline while sipping a Mimosa at 10.30 in the morning. " I can't believe people  in Bourbon Street drinking at this time in the morning". Hypocrite. Oh yeah, You can drink in New Orleans 24/7. You can also drink on the street as long as your drink is in a plastic container. There were many places selling "cocktails to go". True!

Turtle soup.

So seconds at Brennan's was  Eggs Shannon. Poached eggs on top of fried trout with creamed spinach. Pure heaven on a plate. Pauline had Eggs Ellen. Poached eggs on top of fresh grilled salmon with Hollandaise sauce. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Eggs Shannon.

We were stuffed to the gunnals but we had allready ordered the three courses so next was Bananas Foster.
A Brennan's origional creation, and now World-Famous.
Bananas sautéed in butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and banana liqueur, then flamed in rum. Served over vanilla ice cream. Scandalously Delicious!

Bananas foster. Hell yeah.

Pauline could hardly finish her Bananas Foster but as soon as I started eating it I couldn't stop.
Sticky sweet lovelyness. My pudding tubes are always empty.

There was a court yard out side the window and we could see people going up to the wee pond and looking at whatever was in it.
 Fish I thought? Oh no, it was turtles.
Ha ha! I ate your pal. Yum yum yum.
Oh my goodness.

We did a little shopping. I bought a pair of really expensive boots. The guy serving me was rubbing the inside of the boot against his ear because it was so soft. Weirdo.

So next was dinner at Antoine's. The oldest French restaurant in the city.

http://www.antoines.com/index.html
It was lovely inside. Proper swanky McSwank. The waiters were dressed like penguins. And they didn't have a drinks list. Scary.

To start I had shrimp with cocktail sauce.
American cocktail sauce is not like ours. It's more like a spicy fresh tomato sauce. It was very good and the shrimp were so fresh and juicy.
 I can't remember what Pauline had to start as I was so engrossed in my own food. Bad friend.

For my main I had Trout with almonds. Again the fish was so super fresh it melted in the mouth. Pauline had  chicken breast grilled and served with Antoine's original Rochambeau sauce and a rich Béarnaise over a slice of baked ham.
We had puffed potatoes and asparagus and broccoli with Hollandaise on the side.

We ordered Antoine's famous baked Alaska for two for dessert.
Our waiter asked us if we were sure as it was really enough for about four people. This was our holiday blow out treat so we said yes!
Oh my goodness. It was HUGE.
Four my arse. It was about enough for eight people. We dug in regardless with our gold spoons. Oh yes, gold spoons. Now that was a good meal.

Baked Alaska for two.

As big as my head.

After Antoine's we popped over to Preservation Hall to see some live Jazz.

http://preservationhall.com/default_original.aspx

We saw the Glen David Andrews band
Check them out. They are amazing. So good they even appeared in an episode of Treme.

I have decided that when I die I want the full New Orleans funeral service with black horse driven hearse and marching Brass band.
God knows what the people of Possil will think with that spectacle going down Saracen main Street.



Well that was New Orleans for you. Part two: Seattle. Coming next.