Danderma's Blog, page 3

So where have I been those past months?

Would it suffice to say I was wallowing away on my couch with the remote control in my hand?

No? Wel that’s not entirely accurate either. I don’t know, I was around, I always am, would you believe me if I say not one day did pass without thinking about writing in my blog and actually composing posts in my head? And talking to you, my dear faithful I don’t know why you still stick around since I was barely there reader?

So where? It’s complicated. I wanted to try something out, I had my suspicions, and I was right. I also, no it will be a bit much but.. erm, well in March or April I was watching the movie the A-Team and then I thought to myself ‘Why not watch the original A-Team series since I have the dvd boxset and everything? Just one episode?’ and that one episode stretched into a watch the entire five seasons-back-to back- TWICE in the span of three months… yes I swear! I don’t recall anything from the 80’s aside for Mr. T and now I’ve watched it I was smitten with H. M. Murdock, HOWLING MAD Murdock, the crazy hilarious ex-thunderbird pilot who was, rather disturbingly, abused mercilessly by Mr. T. Anyways, it was good TV, the kind we’ve grown up with and will barely come across since TV shows these days are saturated with agendas, swearing, violence, nudity and the likes. Many of the actions scenes I’ve seen in movies throughout the decades actually did appear, and I suspect did appear first, on the A-Team and I could bore you with the details but I think that’s enough mania for now. The A-Team was my escapism, and I did hear its getting to be remade in 2017 but they will turn one character into a woman and I swear if it is Murdock, I’m not watching. Leave them be, I am a woman and a feminist and I am not offended by four all men military unit! Leave them be.

I haven’t stopped talking have I? Do forgive me, I’ve missed you guys. I’ve missed having a voice, I’ve missed writing down my random thoughts to the point of having tears in my eyes. Do you know I’ve been blogging for almost nine years now? If that’s not a life time, I don’t know what is! Expect a lot of mushy posts from now on.

So what made me come back? Two things actually and I will write them down: the first being in an event, an opening of a bakery, when a sweet girl came up to me and told me that she was a reader of the blog and asked about my not writing for a while. She had good things to say, and I’m not trying to be vain or anything but in this loud and crazy world -oooh have you guys played Pokemon Go? have you? random I know I told you I’ve missed you!- in this crazy world, there are less and less interaction on blogs and more response to silly clownish SnapChat posts and you think to yourself what’s the point of it all. Girl, your kind words did lift me up and I considered going home right away and posting something about it, but the timing wasn’t right -I did go home to a full CD of A-Team episodes and a grilled cheese sandwich with strawberry milkshake, low fat I swear, my weight issues are making me miserable but I will bore you later with the details-.

The second being, and do note the irony did just dawn on me, was yesterday while I was taking a really lovely picture of a marshmallow milkshake -yes another shake and I dare complain about weight issues!- e7em… OK I was at a restaurant taking what was promising to be a really good picture of the shake when, with a pang so severe I almost keeled over and started crying, I realised how much I wanted this picture to go on my blog and how very much I did indeed miss my blog. One day I will tell you about the evils of the world and how they try to break your soul and all the things you hold dear, but yesterday the moment I returned home I plugged my memory card into my mac and prepared the pictures for the post. I hope you like them

Why am I rambling endlessly? I need to publish this before I change my mind. Anyways, do please come back in a day or two for I have a LOT to share with you guys, a lot a lot a lot.

Over and out. Brb.

Book Review: Slade House by David Mitchell

“What do you do when you’re visiting someone’s house and their garden starts vanishing?”

When I read the book’s description on the cover, I immediately thought of the song “Hotel California”, you know when it goes “You can checkout anytime you like, but you can never leave?” this is basically the story of Slade House, the tale of guests summoned into it but seem to never be allowed to leave. The story is split into several “mini” stories, each is about one guest that is summoned and what went with them as they went through the small black door of the garden. There are all ages and sorts of different guests, which keeps the boredom at bay as you won’t have many unnecessary details and if you do not like the tale of one guest you know its going to be over soon when the next guest is summoned, which makes it a quick nice read.

Is it a horror story? Well, its a bit frighting, but not in a lock all doors turn on every light and loose sleep kind of tale. It has enough intrigue and scare factor to keep your blood pumping in fear but just about. And with each guest, the story of the house seems to be revealed a little bit more with each passing chapter.

Top marks for the awesome cover, which is why I grabbed the book in the first place and if do you pick it up and read it, I think you will find the two last stories the most intriguing of them all. Happy reading.

Book Review: The Year I met You by Cecelia Ahern

Turns out I have a string of Cecelia Ahern’s books that I’m yet to be read, this one I thought I missed entirely but it turns out I began reading a hardback edition in 2014, got to page 20, then let go of it and totally forgot all about it. The reason being that the story didn’t start off well and was kind of slow. I actually contemplated putting it down again and perhaps checking both of my editions into my “maybe not” shelf on my good reads account, but I’m glad I stayed on, I really am.

I didn’t realise it at first but the main character in the story, Jasmine, and I share the exact same personality traits. We are both fiercely independent, refuse help from anyone and prefer to do things our way. We also sure the sensation of working ourselves to a pulp until we crash from tiredness, un aware of how much time have passed and we both also dismiss people who show something we don’t like at once, without a second glance or a hesitant thought.

What this book taught me is, well, tolerance. I know it is classified as a chick-lit, but I did get the message. All of us come with our internal battles, after a while it is much easier to judge an ignorant person from the first action then marking them as undesirables for good. You shouldn’t really waste your breath trying to fix anyone, no one expects you to, but perhaps there is another way? Not everyone is born ignorant, or sets out on a quest to become one. People are often ignorant because either they are afraid, misinformed, or really and truly do not know enough about a subject so its easy to draw their own shallow and misguided conclusions. Your role, instead of simply writing them off and letting them bask in their own ignorance, is to gently prove them wrong by showing them another side of whatever your battle is, easy does it. Sometimes it works and in that case you’ve won twice, other times there is nothing you can do about it, then you may write them off and admit defeat, leave them for their own devices, at least you’ve tried and weren’t an ignorant human yourself.

This is not a life lesson, nor is this exactly a book review, but I’m telling  you the moral I’ve encountered behind the story. Read it, see how Jasmine, who bears an uncanny resemblance to myself character-wise, so much its like reading an indirect novel about my character, deals with the betrayal of her work partner and her inability to work for a year, how she built an unlikely relationship with the messed up neighbour who she addresses in the book title and throughout the book, how she found happiness in the most unexpected of places, and how her life did change in the one year she met him. Read it and you may identify with it yourself. It is one of Ceceilia’s favourites of mine, if not the favourite.

The Cheddar Ploughmans Sandwich

I and the Ploughman’s sandwich go way back, summer of 1993 to be exact which makes our friendship 23 years old come summer! I did already tell you about it in my trip to Richmond upon Thames post when I talked about the first ever packed lunch I picked up on my own and headed to a bench on the park to eat it and enjoy my own company and thoughts. I was 13, I never had a packed lunch, or sat in a park alone, or tried the cheddar ploughman’s before and it was from M&S, and I can still remember the softness of the bread as I bit into it, the sharpness of the cheddar, the crunch of the tomato and the tangy sweetness of the “spread” that, mixed with a hint of creamy mayo, really made all the difference back then, implanting the memory of having that sandwich deep in my memory and opening a doorway to a special place in my heart for the sandwich to forever reside.

Cheddar Ploughman’s sandwich comes from Ploughman’s lunch, a lunch of bread, cheese, and onions that comes with a history that you can read more about in Wikipedia. For the sandwich, there are several different places and/or cafes that sell it in the UK and it usually comes as a sandwich of two good quality brown bread with greens, tomatoes, sharp no-nonsense cheddar slice, mayo, and the brown sauce that is both sweet and tangy and had I known before I’ve tried it that its onion based I might very well never did try it but if you do, you wouldn’t associate it with onions at all, its more like sweetish chutney and without it, the sandwich is nothing but another cheddar sandwich. One day, in Kuwait, shopping in M&S -and this is not an ad in any way if you are wondering-, I came across a jar of “pickled onion sandwich pickle”! I hesitated for a moment, and then I realised that this is the spread, the one that makes the Ploughman’s sandwich and that I had to bring it back home with me right away!

After I got the jar of Pickled onion sandwich spread, the next stop on my sandwich shopping list is the bread, no decent sandwich is made with mediocre bread so I had to get me a really excellent loaf of brown bread and get the bakery to slice it for me.

Then of course I had to get the good cheddar, the sharper the better, and crunchy vibrant greens and tomatoes that would go cruuuuunnnnchhhh as you bite into them! In case you are wondering, cheddar cheese and salad sandwiches are in my list of top ten favourite foods.

A slice of bread, slightly toasted, a thin layer of butter, a layer of lettuce leaves, a slice of cheese, plenty of pickled onion spread, a thick slice of tomato drowning in the pickle spread…

Another slice of cheese perhaps, if you can afford the calories a thin layer of mayonnaise or perhaps not, another slice of bread et voila!

Cut in half, stack up, server with a side of crinkly sea salt chips or a green salad, and lunch is served!

The jar is enough to make you 6 months worth of ploughman’s sanwdiches, and its almost like the real thing. Somehow it tastes better when taken off a lunch fridge during lunch hour and devouring it while sitting on a park bench in the UK.

Is it hard to make? No. Is it an acquired taste? not really, its quite delicious. Why is it almost impossible to find a decent cheddar cheese and salad sandwich with whatever available spread in local cafes of Kuwait? I’m not sure, but I for one would love it if I can have more than one boring halloumi cheese sandwich on my lunch time in a cafe, stuffed with bitter rocket leaves because it was the it green some sixteen years ago!

Here is my sandwich mis-behaving and not willing to cooperate with the photo shoot :p

Are you a fan of the Cheddar Ploughman’s? How do you like your cheddar -or cheese- sandwich?

Book Review: The Marble Collector by Cecelia Ahern

Whenever I want a palate-clenasing from all the disappointing or long boring reads I make sure I reach out for a Cecelia Ahern, I could always count on her for a wholesome and enjoyable read and her latest novel, The Marble Collector, didn’t disappoint me at all. It was an easy read, didn’t take a lot of effort to read or digest, and had enough intrigue between the pages to keep me flipping the pages at a quicker page than usual. 

The story is about Sabrina, a wife and a mother whose vague and distant father is recovering from a stroke in a care home while she tries to balance her life, job, and family. The story takes place during one day when several boxes of her father arrive mysteriously at the care home containing endless collections of really valuable marbles, and as she scans the inventory, puzzled at her father’s hidden hobby, she learns that the two most prizes collections of his are missing and as she embarks on a journey to recover them she also unfolds all the layers surrounding her father’s real personality and side of his life he never shared and in the process, she learns more and more about her self.

At first I couldn’t understand the urgency behind Sabrina’s quest. Why does finding a couple of boxes of expensive marbles need to be tonight? Why not go home, relax, pick up the phone and ask around in a normal pace? Then, as you go with the flow and flick back and forth between Sabrina’s life and Fergus -her father- beginning, you understand and it makes you sad. How a person can live in the shadows of something he likes just because he is surrounded by the wrong people who wouldn’t understand him indulging in his beloved hobby. I was also baffled, there are plenty of F words in the pages of the story but how could it be, that a ten year old or younger child of the early century would know what Cool as F****  means and use it repeatedly to describe his older brother? The swearing part wasn’t my favourite, and I also miss the sprinkle of magic I usually find in Cecelia’s previous books, none of which were found in this one.

In the very end, the last chapter, I cried my eyes out. Its a scene between Fergus, the marble collector, and Hamish, his older brother and idol. Reading it explains everything, and its so touching and sad it broke my heart. A great conclusion and a very befitting ending indeed.

Grand Cinema’s VIP Ulimited Movie Viewing Card

Back in August 2015, almost six months ago, a little black box from Grand Cinemas inscribed with “Try guessing what’s inside the box!” arrived on my doorstep. I was intrigued, and guessed it was an invitation to a movie premier or something. It was indeed an invitation to a movie premier, plus, there was a card inside with my name on it plus the words “VIP”. 

Now when I saw VIP I thought it meant VIP status in terms of being notified of movie updates before anywhere else or a discount card of some sorts. It wasn’t until later in the week when we did attend the movie premier of “The man from UNCLE” in the newly opened Grand Cinema Gate Mall that I truly learned what it was.. a VIP card is a one year unlimited movie viewing card! Yes, it meant I could spend every single day of the week, watching movies again and again, as much as I like whenever I feel like it! For a movie buff this is a dream come true, for a movie buff who actually exclusively watched her movies in Grand Cinema because she preferred the serenity and easy access and better popcorn, it was simply a card to movie heaven!

Why post about it six months later? I wanted to fully try it and report back on its usage after a fair amount of time. Why should you, my dear reader, care about this post particularly? Well, the VIP card is a loyalty scheme that is going to be available for everyone who’d wish to subscribe therefore I hope when the day comes, if it didn’t already, you’d know what to expect when you actually receive your own. Shall we start?

First of all, the card is unlimited access for me, who’s name is on the card, plus one more ticket. It cannot be for endless numbers of tickets or anything more than two. It also must absolutely be used by myself, meaning I cannot use it today then give it to my sister tomorrow to use with her friend. One of the tickets must be assigned to me at all times.

How to use it? You call Grand cinemas, pick the movie and seats over the phone, give them your name and number and receive a reservation reference, then you go to the ticket counter before the start of the movie and present your card and get your tickets. I’ve been there so many times, I’m on first name basis with the ticket employees :p

Does it include free drinks and popcorn or other movie goodies? No it doesn’t, you get to buy these one your own. However, the 3D glasses are given out for free, VIP or no VIP card.

I love the movies, and I’ve been to quite a few of them over the past six months. The seats are always comfortable and it isn’t as crowded and noisy as other cinemas which is why I preferred to go there in the first place, pre-VIP card that is. However, let me tell you about the wrinkles that need to be smoothed out in the VIP scheme, and thankfully there aren’t much to go:

When we first received the card there was quite a good deal of confusion involved, it didn’t come with instructions to use and hence we had to pester the PR personnel of Grand Cinema with our questions. Once we got the number, we also didn’t know if by VIP it meant we can get tickets to the Grand Class (vip screen) or the standard screen and we got mixed feed backs. It would, of course, have been awesome to get unlimited viewing in the luxurious Grand Class but I think we would be pushing our luck there. Turned out it was only for Standard Class. Those things happened at the first week though.
For a person who is used to booking her movie tickets online ever since online cinema booking have existed, 15+ years or so now, I was extremely disappointed I couldn’t use my card to order online and had to do it over the phone. The number to call can get quite busy sometimes and I swear I once had to call 30 times in a row to get someone to answer it, something that grates on my nerves and makes me worry. Also, when I book online I simply go to the ticket machine and enter my booking reference without waiting in line, with the card I have to stand in a long winding line which, again, I’ve managed to avoid for 15+ years now. I think registering the card with an electronic profile and enabling it for online booking would provide a much better experience to the users.
The following is an issue regarding the diet coke of Grand Cinema, I hate that I have to pay the same amount of money for both coke and diet coke yet the coke comes in a cup with ice and the diet coke is always in a can, sans cup and ice! When you ask for a cup with ice and a straw, cause it can get messy sipping from a can directly in the movies and straws don’t really behave well with cans, you need to pay an extra 500 fils! I’m already paying for an inflated price of a can of coke that I can get for 100 fils in the co-op and no I don’t drink regular coke so I wish Grand Cinema would revise their policy regarding the diet coke thing.
The selection and quality of food available in Grand Cinema is top notch, they do have excellent and fresh popcorn, small packets of diet and various flavoured popcorn, and provide sandwiches from Cucinare Bakery and diet-friendly items from Pick. Their nachos even come with both cheese sauce and tomato salsa! The only thing I don’t like much -aside from the can of diet coke- is their nachos.

Thank you Grand Cinemas for the valuable card which I’m yet to overuse properly! Much obliged, and I hope by the time it’s finished your VIP card scheme is up and running and I promise you, I would subscribe in a blink.

Dear reader, if you wish to ad any more comments or enhancements, please feel free to do so!

Book Review: Beside Myself by Ann Morgan

From the blogger who read the world in one year and wrote a book about it comes this second and quite enticing dark thriller “Beside Myself” and once I set my eyes upon it I snatched it at once. I was lucky enough to get a signed copy of Ann Morgan‘s first book “Reading the World: Confessions of a Literary Explorer” because I was featured in it as the author of the book from Kuwait, quite an honour really but I will be talking about that book another time for the post have been ready and waiting for almost  a year now! When reading Ann’s book, I liked what I read. When I read the description of Ann’s second book, I couldn’t wait to get my copy and as I finally sat down to read it, I had butterflies in my stomach.

Why?

Well, you see, I have a little confession to make… I always envied twins! Ever since I could remember I’ve wanted, desperately at some points, to have a twin sister -or even a brother- of my own! I even had the subject of my library project 2 (maktabat 2 in high school, god knows how I would translate it now) be about twins. The way I saw it, twins must be the happiest people on earth because they will never be lonely. Twins would always have someone they’d count on to love them, cherish them even in a way no one else can have. Share their own world, language, clothes, secrets, just like they did in the womb.

Now that being said, you must understand how it felt to pick a book about twins who switch identities in a childhood game only one of them, Ellie, refuses to switch back and steps into Helen’s shoes full force. The switch lasts into adulthood and the devastated Helen loses her identity and as it seems, everything else she cares about.

Why is it a dark thriller? It talks about mental illness, hereditary ones especially, how lonely and isolating it can be to a person, how destructive, especially when it lacks support and understanding from your loved ones, and how mundane activities people would normally take for granted are a dream for others searching for peace of mind.

Was it a page turner? You bet it was, the epilogue did seem a bit slow but after page one in chapter one it really flies and  you are smack in the middle of the twin’s tale. Ann gives quite a rich and vivid description of the surroundings and activities, particularly the art pieces which I could almost imagine seeing and the whispering voices that I could almost hear myself. Some might argue that there are too many details but personally I didn’t mind them much.

I did, however, get a bit annoyed with the arrangement of one chapter for the past, followed by one for the future. I found myself wishing for more of smudge time and little less Helen and Elli time. It could be because I was so heart broken because of Hellen’s plight and how she was wronged yet she was cast aside and treated as a dangerous outsider. I wanted to crawl inside the book, materialise on their doorstep, give Helen a reassuring hug and scream at the top of my lungs that she is Helen and that Ellie stole her life, Ellie is a thief! 

One last thing, when the book finished I wished there was a little bit more to go on. I wasn’t done with smudge yet, I needed to know more and I wanted more details, perhaps a chapter more or even two. Is there a change for a sequel, dear Ann? Well done by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the twins and was deeply moved indeed. Looking forward to more future books.

Meet the Cats, Elsa and Olaf!

For a while now I’ve been wanting to introduce you to two gorgeously cute individuals that I’m quite fond of. Those of you who have pets can relate to my state of adoration of my, well, nephews, Elsa and Olaf and no I’m not talking about the Disney characters here -they are named after them though, obviously!-. Elsa & Olaf are my brother and sister’s cats, they’ve had them ever since they were two tiny kittens and they are wrench-your-heart and pinch-that-cheek and bite-that-teeny-leg adorable!

I’ve always loved cats, and monkeys, and colourful parrots but I kept my distance. However, people who know me closely know that a primal fact of myself ever since I was a child was fear of animals. I could never approach, touch, or pet any animal of any kind of type. I was always the kid who ran away screaming at the top of her lungs in sheer fright, which is weird considering no one else in my entire family behaves the way I do. Perhaps you recall my first post asking for help with the stray kittens who invaded my doorstep?

Ever since then, my relationship with animals have improved drastically and I even began to welcome new stray kittens into the neighbourhood. I began to understand that they are not simply just “animals”, that each soul is a character on its own, and that they do really and truly comprehend when you talk or interact with them! Not that I’ve thought of them as feeling-less things before but it never really registered, the extent of the individuality of each pet and how attached can you get to them, something that is lost among many non-pet owners I’m afraid.

A reader named Sandra once left a comment on my first blog post about the stray cat saying, and I quote “I feel sorry that you have such a fear of animals, because you are missing out on all the joy a pet can bring into your life.” Three years on, and I have to say that she was absolutely 100% right! Sandra, if still read my blog and made it here, I hope this post can show you how much joy did flood my life because of all the stray cats and especially because of these munchkins! I adore them, really and truly, and one day my love caused me to overcome my primal fear and after 34 years I finally pet Elsa and now I actually run after them both and hug them -against their wishes, they don’t love me at all!-

My sister treats Elsa and Olaf like her own children and is simply smitten by them. She takes care of all their needs and even bought them special “car seat belts” for cats and takes them out on a drive every now and then, they love being driven around! They also visit me quite a lot, Elsa the cute one would not be shy at all, she’d either explore the entire house or if she is bored she’d choose the weirdest surface to lie on and sit there looking around, nonchalantly. Though she and Olaf are twins, and she has a better appetite than he does, she’d is extremely light and gets sick very easy, she also hates her car seat and this cute jacket my sister got her from god knows where!

She was traumatised when she was made to wear the jacket -it was extremely cold outside- and when she shook it off she simply sat next to the wall, angry and staring for half an hour at it.

Now let me tell you about our little fearsome lion. He must be the most beautiful cat I’ve ever seen in my life masha2 Allah

Olaf loved the bomber jacket, couldn’t be bothered about something trivial like car-seats so he doesn’t mind at all. However, whenever he visits he would choose a spot where he could hide beneath yet still keep a full view of all the humans in the room, gazing at them and barely blinking! His favourite spot is underneath my dining table and he would keep staring, assessing us, sizing us up and down, and then he’d turn his nose at us!!!

My husband is a cat magnet, I’ve never seen a cat who doesn’t like him aside from King Olaf! He actually like the housekeeper the most

Book Review: After You by Jojo Moyes

How do I feel about this one?

I’m not really sure. I didn’t even want to pick it up at first because when I vaguely recall the prequel, me before you, I associate it with “distaste” for some reason. Then I grabbed it, because I just had to now didn’t I? Then I checked my review of Me Before You and it turned out I didn’t loathe it, I simply didn’t like the ending. Therefore, suddenly After You became the must read next book on my list, I just knew it would be and that’s telling me something about Me before you, right?

When I picked this one up, didn’t waste time flipping its pages at all. I enjoyed and even liked the beginning, yet got frustrated about mid-way to the point of absolute boredom as the story was treated like a puzzle.

The only thing I liked about it is Sam. The thing I hated most about it is nefarious Lily. Who are those two? I won’t spoil it for you, you have to read it and meet them yourself and then let me know if you agree with me or not.

Does it stand on its on? Well I suppose so but then there would be quite a chunk of it missing where you wonder why a certain character is wrecking havoc with the Louisa’s life and she is meekly letting her. The way to read it is hand in hand with the prequel Me before You which I’ve reviewed before and is quite depressing. After You, thankfully, is much less depressing and barely a tear came out of my eye as I read it. There is a side story with her mother though quite entertaining though I could have done without, and a lot of pages and narratives and details I could have done without as well, I think I’ve began skipping the therapy circle’s pages entirely as I went along. There is the ending which made me sad still, for I wanted something good and happy to happen to poor Louisa. I have to say, it looks very probable that there would be a third instalment after After You, which may or may not work out well.

Personally, I think no sequel could have lived up to Me before You, and it should have ended there -its been turned into a movie to be released in 2016 btw- but if there is a third book I’d get it and read it because, well, you’d know why if you read and like what you’ve read in the last chapter of After You.

Anime/Movie Cravings for Lunch!

What makes you crave something? badly?

Me? Believe it or not its cartoons! Anime to be exact, the Japanese ones that we grew up watching. Whenever they gather around a dining table, those glittering dishes, specifically those steaming bowls of soups with a side of little bread. I was always hungry after watching an episode with food, and don’t get me started on Ninja Kabamaro’s chowmein insatiable appetite!

Then, there was Heidi! I didn’t like her in the anime, she was whiney and too perfect and loveable. What I did like the most is the food… when her Grandfather would give her a wooden bowl of milk to drink then melt a piece of cheese over bread. I still salivate when I think about it and I did salivate when I saw the movie Heidi in the cinema recently, this time with real people and real food and plenty of bread loaves and cheese and my god I was so hungry watching that I went straight from the cinema to Sultan Center to get me some bread from their bakery and Raclette cheese then had I force myself to sleep so the next morning would arrive and I’d be able to eat the cheese, Heidi style

So I got me the freshest milk I could find -Alban Dairy’s-, slices of cheese, pickles -cucumbers and tiny onions-, good multi seed bread, and baby potatoes. It is perhaps the quickest easiest most fulfilling lunch that takes 5 minutes to put together and almost zero preparation effort. Now, do you recall my Raclette cheese oven that I’ve used in a ancient post from 2009 for a winter Raclette lunch? If you don’t, then you are in for a trip through a time machine if you click on the link above and see how my posts looked like 7 years and 16 days ago!

The idea behind the Raclette oven is that you place slices of cheese in a little pan, one a time, and melt them gently in the over until they bubble. Now the cheese is melted, you can drizzle it on whatever you feel would go well with the melted cheese, if drizzle is the right word to use in the melted cheese’s case.

Personally I prefer potatoes and salads, perhaps a hint of mustard, with my melted cheese. Others love pickles -which I don’t understand frankly but I’ve never been a pickles fan-. Of course slices of good quality bread are a must, bread and cheese were, are, and will always be the it couple in the culinary world.

So you take a slice, cut off the rind if there are any, onto the little pan…

and voila! It melts away, the top of the oven is also a hot plate where you can heat/grill things and I’ve kept my sliced bread over there so it would be all warm and crunchy, waiting for the cheese’s arrival.

Arrange a plate meanwhile, for pickle lovers there will be pickles.

And pour the melted cheese… I’ve had a picture where melted cheese is being poured tantalisingly but I seem to have deleted it. Oh well, it wasn’t for the faint-hearted.

If you pull something out of that plate, the cheese will oooooze…

And this is my favourite combo: cheese, tomato, and mustard

That was one good satisfying winter lunch indeed, craving met, mischief managed! Food tastes so much better when you crave it badly I suppose, especially if the craving comes with emotional memories from your childhood, and god knows I have plenty of those!

Did you ever get an anime-related craving from the days of your childhood? Do you get the same cravings still?