Birthdays are for grown-ups too.

Just because you can no longer find a badge with your loved-ones' age on, doesn't mean that you can't do something special for their birthday.  I know, it's easy to see the passage of time and addition of wrinkles as a cue for grumpiness on their part, but it should still be celebrated.

How about showing off your mussels for a birthday tea?


Spaghetti with Mussels.

A bag of fresh, live mussels
2 or 3 shallots
1 or 2 garlic cloves
A glass of white wine
A large splash of tomato and herb pasta sauce. (Homemade or otherwise).
Spaghetti or similar.

This is not scary to prepare and its very quick to cook.
The most important thing is to avoid food poisoning.  This is easy.
When you take your bag of mussels out of the fridge you will find that many of them are open.  This is not because they are dead but because they are out of water and it is a good thing.  It allows you to give them a brisk rinse under the tap to flush out any grit.  If they do not close as you rinse them, they are dead and you should discard those ones.  At this point, take a sharp knife and trim off the hairy bits.  You will now have a lovely bowl of clean, closed mussels ready for the pot.

In to a large pan of boiling water, plunge some pasta.








In a separate pan, fry a couple of finely sliced shallots and some garlic.



When these are softened, chuck in the mussels and a glass of white wine.
Put a lid on to steam the mussels.
When they open, add a large splash of your homemade tomato sauce.  (Or a shop-bought one).
Cook for a further couple of minutes with the lid on.

Serve on a heap of cooked spaghetti.
If any of the mussels have not opened in the pan, discard.

Of course you will need to produce a show stopping cake.

This is it:

Chocolate and Blueberry sponge

For three layers:

Happy Birthday Bob. x

7 eggs

Sugar

Butter

Self raising flour

50g Cocoa powder

But why have I not given the weights for the ingredients?  Well, this is my tip for all sponges.  Weigh the eggs first (minus shells!) and then match that weight with the rest of the ingredients.  For a chocolate sponge, leave out 50g of flour and replace with cocoa.

The other top tip is to make sure that all of the ingredients are at room temperature before you begin.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

Add the sieved flour, cocoa and eggs all at the same time and beat in the mixture until well combined.

Divide between three loose bottomed tins and bake at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Sandwich together with whipped cream and homemade blueberry sauce and fresh blueberries.

Note the lack of candles - best not to draw attention to it!

Frozen Assets

The logic here is un-deniable.  When you buy (or grow your own) whole chillies,  put them straight in to the freezer.  You can then slice them frozen without getting burnt by chili oil.  Of course you have to use the seeds but that is all to the good.

Funny of the Week

A little ranting from David Mitchell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=rTIIRMgzLSI