Chocolate

[Maggi Young]

Lesley, how is the new oven?

[Anthony Darby]

You can buy Irn Bru is Pack'n'save!

[Lesley Cox]

Can you Anthony? I'm never in there as it would be an extra 5km across town from my usual supermarket. Besides, I don't want to drink the stuff. Thought I could use it as an oven cleaner.

Maggi all is going well so far except that I'm taking time to get to know it thoroughly. It is slower to heat, slower to cook so that I've had some undercooked things, including the cake I'll put on Cooks' Corner in a few minutes. It was still jolly good but could have been used as a dessert. I'm not sure when to use bake, classic bake, fan bake or fan forced. Too many functions. And last night the chips I was cooking in the roasting pan stuck to the pan, same as they did on the old one so I'm going to buy a non stick roasting pan. The chips were to go with the sole fillets from the market and I was frying them in butter, egged and crumbed. As you see, we only eat healthy foods in this house.

[Anthony Darby]

Suggesting Irn Bru could be used a s oven cleaner is flattering it. It is one of the worst causes of hyperactivity in kids and seeing a child with Irn Bru in a teeted bottle and brown stumps where teeth should be speaks volumes for how bad it really is! It's dreadful stuff. My children are only now acquiring a taste for fizzy drinks as we only ever bought them for party guests or when cousins were visiting. Coca Cola would go flat in our house and end up down the sink (until I hit on the idea of buying a bottle of rum - the dark stuff, not Bacardi, which is well marketed rubbish)

[Lesley Cox]

Well we saw the shocking and disgusting results of kids eating sugary junk from an early age, on TV1's Close Up programme tonight. A dental nurse said she had had to remove the full 20 teeth of a 4 year-old. Little kids with nothing but rotten stumps.

Perhaps I was a gorgon to my children but when they were young and wanted soft drinks in their school lunches or as drinks at home, I simply said "No" and that was the end of it.

I suppose this was extremely hypocritical of me. No-one ever told me "No" when I wanted chocolate and the results were quite predictable.

[Arykana]

I think this is a good place to ask about chocolate grape /as the catalog call it/ Akebia quinata
Sombody have this climber and how it is act in garden? My husband would live one

[mark smyth]

I think Akebia is available in UK garden centres.

I like Irn Bru!

Yesterday I bought a bar of Green and Blacks 60% cocoa chocolate and cherries. Sweet chocolate and then a hit of sour cherries - yum.

[Anthony Darby]

That chocolate with the cherries sounds good! My niece drinks vodka and Irn Bru!

[angie]

I think this is a good place to ask about chocolate grape /as the catalog call it/ Akebia quinata
Sombody have this climber and how it is act in garden? My husband would live one

I have this climber in my garden, growing through some shrubs. I have had it for three years but sadly it has never flowered for me.

Angie 

[Lesley Cox]

The Akebia grew for many years on a north (sunny) facing wall in my mother's garden (built over now ) and flowered madly. The flowers are a sort of greyish brown colour and yes, it does smell not so much of chocolate (in my opinion) but of a really strong chocolate drink, lovely if you like those sorts of things. I seem to remember that there were male and female flowers on different stems or something like that. It didn't ever set seed that I can recall but I do remember that it was EXTREMELY VIGOROUS!

[Arykana]

Thank you! We would like to use as a pergola cover over the porch - seems it would work perfectly

[annew]

Also vigorous here, Arykana, growing in shade. It flowers very well, but has not had fruit.

[Neil]

I take you have read http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14679497

[mark smyth]

The new Galaxy orange and shortbread isnt worth buying. Cant taste the orange and the shortbread is tint crumbs.

I'll try the new triple chocolate Mars tomorrow

[Lesley Cox]

"If you want to reduce your heart disease risk, there are much better places to start than at the bottom of a box of chocolates" according to the news item linked above, by Neil. I absolutely agree. Why would one start at the bottom of the box? Start at the top and work down towards the bottom, is much more sensible.