Our Last Confectionary Review Of 2013 ….. To Wit, Marmite “Very Peculiar” Chocolate.

Tonight we are going to see in the New Year, in the Italian Style with our lovely friend from work Luci, however, we thought what better way to see out the Old Year than with our dear blog friends, doing what we do best ….. in confectionery review style!!!

Our very special friend George in Hampshire sent us a bar of “Very Peculiar” Marmite Chocolate, extremely surprised that we hadn't reviewed it before, which considering how we profess to be Marmite's greatest ever living exponents, seems to be a little remiss to say the least!!

Now, we love Marmite and we love chocolate, but is mixing them together one step to far …… we have to admit to being slightly apprehensive.
First we smelt it ….. inhaling robustly

….. it smelt OK with no overtly powerful savoury overtones, just subtle hint of Marmite, a tease if you will   ……

….. so the proof of the testing had to be in the tasting …… and our verdict …………. nom, nom nom …. a surprising 8.75 noms on our Richter Scale of Noms ……

As Darrell so succinctly put it  “ The Marmite was barely discernible on  first bite, however as it melted in your mouth, just at the very last moment one gets a subtle hint of salty/savoury which is indeed most pleasurable ……. and adds a certain que n’cest pas!”

So there you have it ….. Marmite Chocolate gets our thumbs up!

We now look forward to the New Year ….. only to wonder what other new confectionary treats and experiences await us …… and to offer the services of our highly honed and experienced palates PLUS our Richter Scale of Noms to any purveyors of confectionary who might appreciate a good, honest and unbiased appraisal of their products!!!!!! What are we like?

xxxx Have a good and safe night tonight …….. see you in 2014!! xxxx

Christmas Is ……. The Season Of The Board Game

Lucy very kindly purchased our festive crackers this year, to wit festive crackers of the Muppet type variety …… and as I may have mentioned, Darrell was determined that the Miss Piggy one would be his!!! I can now confirm that for the sake of family unity Chez Castle Greysquirrel, no one put forward a robust argument to thwart Darrell’s plan, so Darrell, to put it bluntly, did get to pull Miss Piggy for Christmas!!!!

However, within the box of aforementioned Muppet Crackers there was also a board game …. and, it would have looked most rude if we failed to partake in the playing there of …..

The game involved the wearing of masks, allowing us to immerse ourselves in our chosen character, embracing and empathising with them at each stage of “their journey” around the board!!!  It goes without saying that Darrell chose to be Miss Piggy ….. a role he undertook worryingly, a little too well, with great accuracy! Nigel was quite happy to be Kermit, a foil to Darrell’s Piggy ……

…….. and I was OK with being Fozzie!

The masks in all honesty were a little too big for us and impeded our rolling of the dice and moving of our characters across the board ……

……. however, much festive mayhem and joviality ensued ….. we laughed so much that our stomachs ached and Darrell had to breath into a paper bag!

But, to quote the Fonz “Happy Days”! Thank you Lucy, your considered purchase was a triumph!

Festive Bubble And Squeak

There is nothing more wonderful, in the days following Christmas as bubble and squeak for breakfast, dinner and tea!!!!!To say that we had a most  ample sufficiency of leftovers for its making of, from our Christmas repast would be a slight understatement ….. so far we are on our fourth day of enjoying this delicacy ….. very ably prepared by the maestro of bubble and squeak himself ….. Darrell.

…… and our enthusiasm for its many guises still shows now sign of abating, we just love it …… nom, nom, nom!!!  Next the turkey leftovers no doubt!!!

A Christmas Gift That Will Just Keep Giving …..

On Christmas Morning, before we partook in our festive breakfast  repast of a bacon, and fried egg muffin with tomato sauce accompaniment (as part of our rigid five a day regime)….. I hung up the bird feeder that I had asked Father Christmas for …………

I put it on a branch near the lounge window so that I could watch the toing and froing of the birds without frightening them, and then I came back  inside ……..

……. and OMD, within a minute or two I had my first visitor ……

It was an emotional, festive Bird Watching Magazine/Bill Oddie type moment for me ……. this will certainly be a present that will just keep giving, so long as I maintain a good supply of fat balls for my new found  friends …….

…… and hopefully,  I will soon become cognisant with the various breeds that visit it/me….. something I can pass on to Nigel, because at the moment the only bird he really recognises is Big Bird from Sesame Street …. however, if he (Big Bird), came to peck at my balls I think we would all be very taken aback and not a little overwhelmed!!!

Bing Crosby Eat You Heart Out, Nigel’s Has A White Christmas …..

The lull Darrell and I had been waiting for in our Christmas proceedings to present Nigel with his instant White Christmas wonderland arrived yesterday between our turkey, chips. peas, pickled onions and bread and butter lunch and our turkey curry tea!Perhaps, we were a little taken aback when he insisted on fetching his cement mixer, as we had imagined he would want to make a romantic and picturesque snowmen and throw the occasional snowball while humming “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow” as he played, rather than hit us with several robust and jaunty renditions of “Bob the Builder”  …….but that’s Nigel for you!

However, his little face and rampant joy were just as we had envisaged when we hatched our snowy plan …..

Happy Christmas Days

A Festive Surprise For Nigel from Darrell and Me …..

While Nigel was busy playing with his new Christmas presents, and the turkey cooking in the oven, Darrell and I decided to make an extra special Christmas surprise for the little fella to make Christmas last just a little longer ……

We wanted to give him a “White Christmas” …. despite our keeping a very intensive eye on all the weather forecasts, it was obvious that without divine intervention it was not going to be a  Christmas of the snowy variety and so to make Nigel’s Christmas dreams come true we availed ourselves some Magic Snow from E-bay.We had already rescued a small, wheeled  cart, which was being thrown out by the Art Department at work for Nigel, into which we decided to put our “snow”, a mobile snow-pit, if you will,  into which we proceeded to add the snow powder and water.  It said on the packet that the said powder would expand by a 100 times, but as we couldn’t imagine what 100 times the test tube container would look like, we just kept adding more and more water and mixing robustly  ……..

….. hoping that eventually we would have something vaguely resembling snow.

After about five minutes we thought we had just about got it right ……. and then Darrell decided that the proof of the snow was in the snowballing ……

What is he like?

We have now put the snow away, in a safe place, ready for an opportune moment, a lull in the festive proceedings if you will, to present it to Nigel ……. we can’t wait to see his little face!  His first “white” Christmas!

It’s Christmas Morning …… And He’s Been!!

He’s been, he’s been …… Nigel woke us up at 4.30 …. and there was no doing with him …… it was Christmas morning, and Nigel was determined to embrace every second of it ….. even if it was still dark!

However, I have to admit that Darrell and I were just as excited …. and so we decided that our present opening fest should ensue.

We each took it in turns to open our presents, so we could all share in each others moment.  I went first ….. and yes, to my joy I found my bird feeder AND some bird food to go with it …… I can’t wait to put it up in the tree, after all the excitement has died down and see what birds visit it first.

Darrell opened his next to reveal that Santa had left him a tiger onsie ……

…… well, he was in it before you could say “de rigueur” and his little face was an absolute picture, he was soooooooo thrilled and I have to say, he did look rather cute!

And then, it was Nigel’s turn, I have to admit to worrying a little robustly as his parcel looked rather small for a cement mixer and I didn’t know how Darrell and I would cope with an inconsolable Nigel on Christmas Day of all days ….

However, Santa had done good, Santa had done very good …….. and had found Nigel a perfect, Nigel sized cement mixer ……. the little fella’s excitement almost reached Neolithic proportions ….. and now I worried how we could calm him down.

There were also a few surprise presents in our stockings, Dianne, our friend in sunny and romantic Florida had sent a huge pile of presents for us ….. for Darrell and I there was a mahoooooooosive box of chocolates ……

….. of which we availed ourselves of immediately, well, it would have been rude not to, however we remained mindful of our impending Christmas luncheon and so did not overindulge profusely.

 

……. there was also a Christmas badge for each of us that we put on straight away and that we can wear every Christmas from now on, “A thoughtful present” said Darrell “….. that will just keep on giving!”

And finally, there was another parcel from Dianne for Nigel, as he opened it our excitement was both palpable and tangible …… OMD …. when he saw what was inside we thought he was going to self combust …… Dianne had sent him two outfits ……

……. including a puffa jacket, something he had wanted for ages and ages, but aforementioned puffa jackets in a Nigel size are almost impossible to find …… We all felt very blessed to have such a WONDERFUL friend so far away in America …… THANK YOU DIANNE ….. WE LOVE YOU ….. and hope you like the presents we sent you xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And ….. there was a present for each of us from The Lovely Laura’s mum, the Equally Lovely Denise, contained in a beautiful sparkly and frilly bag …………

….. our initials in wooden patchwork form. We all felt very, very blessed in a Hello Magazine Christmas Edition type way, we had had so many presents from such special people ……. We hope you have all had as  WONDERFUL Christmas morning as we have ….. and at 4.30am in the morning  ….. the day is yet young!!!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS ALL AND ONE …..!!