Thursday, October 13, 2016

Bits and Pieces Day,

Well carpet's in and it didn't take long plus I got the carpet layer to fix the carpet/wiring area between the kitchen and dining area. My ISP wouldn't touch it although their person laid it underneath the carpet when we first came here 15 or so years ago. It's been a potential tripping hazard since they re-did the wiring a few months ago.Then I showed our new neighbour where the exercise classes took place and afterwards in the mail I had my new copper infused socks in the mail. They actually came from China. Or mine did. If they do all they say they will, I shall be very pleased. Our neighbour helped restore the furniture to the bedroom although Matt had tried to do some of it on his own. I wish he would remember he is NOT 40 any more.

Later in the day I picked up my laptop and had no wifi. Then I went to use my tablet, guess what, no wifi there either. I got on the phone and told them I was absolutely sick of this. The tech I was talking to reckons he made adjustments to the modem his end and I won't have the problem again. However, I still have no wifi for my tablet. They say that is the tablet's fault. Yesterday it was my laptop's fault. Grrr. Crossing my fingers, at least I seem to have had wifi on my laptop ever since. But, boy am I teed off about this whole business.

Last but not least we received a nice cheque,  unexpected, from the Electric Membership Corporation from who we obtained our power in NC. They accumulated money in a membership account for the customers and have sent us dribs and drabs over the years as we are "retired members". The last couple of times were more than dribs and drabs though.

I had an email saying it was International Chocolate Day. When I googled, it seems to have actually been in September. I didn't even realise there was such a thing. I didn't celebrate it at the time, but being a chocoholic, I will certainly celebrate it now.

Millionaires’ Cupcakes

Chocolate cake

100 g self-raising flour
115 g caster sugar
20 g cocoa powder
50 g milk chocolate
2 large eggs
115 g soft butter/margarine
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp milk

Caramel buttercream

150 g soft butter
150 g caramel sauce (I use a double batch of my homemade caramel sauce)
150 g icing sugar

For the hidden centre

2 shortbread biscuits (you can use this recipe if you’d like to make your own)
2 Tbs caramel sauce

1. Chocolate cake

2. Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC/140ºC fan.

3. Line a 6-hole muffin tin with cupcake cases.

4. Grate the milk chocolate (50g).

5. Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl (100g self-raising flour, 20g cocoa powder, 115g caster sugar, 2 large eggs, 115g soft margarine, ¼ tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp milk and the grated chocolate) mix on a low speed until fully combined.

6. Divide the mixture evenly between the cupcake cases.

7. Put the tin in the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

8. Once cooked, remove the cakes from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack while you make the caramel buttercream.

9. Caramel buttercream

10. Put the buttercream ingredients into a large bowl (150g butter, 150g caramel sauce, 150g icing sugar) and beat on a low speed until fully combined and smooth.

11. Build the cupcakes

12. Use a pestle and mortar or rolling pin to crush the shortbread biscuits.

13. Use a teaspoon to scoop out the centre of each cupcake.

14. Add 1tsp of caramel sauce and then 1 tsp of crushed shortbread into the centre of each cupcake.

15. Put the caramel buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe the buttercream on top of each cupcake.

16. To finish sprinkle each cupcake with a little of the crushed shortbread.

17. Enjoy

Yield: Makes 6 cupcakes

Source: Gharlotte's Lively Kitchen


Have a great day
 

14 comments:

  1. It must be nice to have the carpet dealt with. Pity the wi-fi isn't as easy. It's amazing how many things can be responsible for the same problem, isn't it. I do hope they sort it out soon.

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    1. It is Helen. It was hard work moving everything but luckily there isn't that much in the room. We would like a living room carpet but there is no way we can move all the stuff. I am getting so teed off with this wifi business I can't tell you. It wasn't connected again this morning.

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  2. I remember having wifi issues years ago when I had my own modem. I had to buy a more powerful one. Then the cable company offered wifi and fortunately I have not had any issues. Life used to be much simpler back when we only had four TV stations, party land-lines, and had to write letters and go to the library to look stuff up.

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    1. My modem is supplied by the ISP, Denise. I never had to share a phone line thank goodness although I have used others' shared lines in the past. I still love computers even if they can be somewhat frustrating.

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  3. I hope they eventually figure out the real cause of your wifi issues. That just sucks.

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    1. Sucks is a good word for it Alex. Tablet is OK now, that was my fault, I entered the wrong password. My laptop wifi lasted OK until this morning then it was "not connected", grrr.

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  4. I can't imagine every device in your house is faulty. We had a modem we had to reset constantly to get our WiFi to work. Our tech told us it was because there was so much WiFi in our neighborhood, that sometimes it would interfere with our signal. We would unplug it, wait a minute, then plug it back in and it would work fine. Until we had to unplug again.

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    1. The tablet was my fault Liz, I entered the wrong wifi password. But my laptop was not connected earlier. It could be now of course, haven't checked. We certainly have lots of wifi in this neighbourhood, but if it meant unplugging the modem I would be doing it constantly. I really wish I was a grandma dragon, I could go flame the techs.

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  5. I wonder if all that construction has messed up your WiFi somehow? Ours is part of our cable TV so it's been pretty reliable. Glad to hear the carpet is down. Are you going to sprinkle some of that earth stuff around it to head any bugs off at the pass?

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    1. Possibility JoJo but the techs have been in the building so you'd think they'd know. Ours is also the same wiring as for the cable TV.

      The bed has the interceptor cups underneath each foot so that should head them off. There is DE in the cups too although they are not supposed to be able to climb into the cups anyway.

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  6. It's just stupid of these people to always lay blame on your tablet or laptop when they can't figure out the real issue. Let's hope this gets worked out soon. I. Glad you have a new carpet. I meant to ask if you pay hydro? For people who have a low income there is a hydro help where one can apply and have some help with the hydro payments. They base it on the family income and how many are in the family. I can get the info for you if you need it.

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    1. I know, Birgit, very irritating that they keep blaming my laptop. I haven't been having as much problem thankfully and am waiting for my IT guy to get back from vacation.

      Thanks, but luckily hydro is included in our rent.

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  7. Hope the socks work. That would be groovy. Sorry about the wifil problems. Ack. I didn't know about chocolate day.

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    1. The do seem to Ivy. Wifi seems to be better if not cured.

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