oh yes - pills packed (extremely claustrophobic - so i need these to keep me in line) - iphone filled up with lots of jazz, other goodies and bunches and bunches of books - two large ziplocks all set with black & white fabrics, backing squares, wadding squares, lots of needles, my little folding scissors, thread & my favourite roxanne thimble (plus a few spare leather ones just in case) are all set. more fabric strips and squares in the suitcase for later on...
so - i do hope to get on with my pineapple snail-trail quilt during this month - yeah
now to get the work stuff as organized... but a little sleep first
g'night to all

Not sure you have enough to do in all that time Lotti. I hope you are going to take some hand work with you so you won't have idle hands

Lotti...do you know of "Constant Comment" tea? Orange and spice black tea...a little
OJ and Zest !! Heck of a good idea ! Will be tryin' that one! Thanks !

don't know about devilment, but to keep myself busy 'till the spools get here, and for this reason only:
i'm flying to chicago on wednesday morning, 21st march - 22nd & 23rd set up our exhibition booth, then the exhibition till mid afternoon of the 27th, followed by tear down & packing - no dinner till everything's finished and shipped :shock: i can be a hard taskmaster if i need to...
28th march is reserved for a visit to the chicago field museum and the mosaic that is housed there till mid april - and of course to meet up with, chat, spend time with, enjoy any TQS members and their friends who have a chance to join me there
29th it's off to ottawa, canada for a few days visit with my old school mates - te three musketeers will be reunited - for a couple of days anyway - on the 2nd they'll drive me down to my parents' in the eastern townships, in quebec, canada.
family and other friends for almost two weeks - yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
5am on 14th april i have to be back at p.e.t. airport in montreal - quick stop in toronto and 22 hours later (mid afternoon on 15th april local time - i arrive in hongkong - catch a taxi to neighboring shenzhen and crash...
16th 10am we take over our exhibition booth for our device set-up - then 4 days exhibition - catch our flight late pm on the 20th... and back in zurich by mid morning 21st april - exactly one month after my flight out
yup - i'm doing a trip around the world - just to keep myself busy while i wait for the spools to get here
do you think they'll be here to meet me when i get home?

Marilyn I am glad that your DH likes it too - they say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach... and they are right Lotti, I like the idea of the fresh orange juice and zest too. Let us know how you get on with it. I am sure the guinea pigs will be more than willing victims.

Now, what other divilment can I get up to while we wait for the spools

another alternative liquid to tea that i think might work well is orange juice - i would add the grated peel of two oranges (use organic oranges - so you don't have the pesticides...) to it to get more flavour. oj and fruit generally go together quite well...
of course this would make it an orangy brack - but as one who spreads marmalade on the bread slices when she makes bread & butter pudding, i think it could be quite good
will test this, the original rita-version, the original rosemary-version and whatever else i can think of when i'm at my parents' house in early april. gotta make use of the guinea pigs when you have them...

I must say,Rita, that you started something ! My DH made sure that I sliced the second loaf ,packaged it for
packing in his lunch for work and put it in the freezer so not so likely to vanish overnite!
This from a fellow who says he doesn't like "fruitcake"! Hum..maybe the shot of whiskey in the tea made
a difference?

Frances, I am sure that you could use flavoured teas rather than real tea if you want to. You would probably need at least two tea bags infused for a good while. You could also try it with beer or Guinness. I think if you used beer it might make it lighter too because of the air in the beer - but I have never tried it. Once you cook the cake most of the alcohol will be cooked out of it anyway. I actually think that bringing the tea with the fruit in it to the boil and then leaving it to either simmer very gently for 1/2 hour or overnight if you prefer gives better results because the fruit really plumps up.

DH is grumbling about it being all gone and wanting more. At least there is no fat in it and next time I am going to try it with wholewheat flour like Marilyn. Now that cake would be very good for the innards!

Sorry ! Sugarmuffin 57.... didn't copy the whole post...was fun to read KAF's blog and recipe. Thanks !

Franceslovesfabric wrote:

Love the King Arthur Flour Co. , but not as common in the west...Thank heaven for Mail order !

Franceslovesfabric wrote: I've never made it with anything other than tea (PG Tips to be precise). But what you are doing is adding a flavoured moisture to the cake/brack. I doubt that plain water would be nearly as tasty, Rita has some 'porter brack' recipes that probably involve something like a stout (Guiness?) but there is nothing to stop you trying other liquids - if you do I hope that you report back your findings to the rest of us

Franceslovesfabric wrote:
Hi Frances,
This is a recipe for the Tea Brack. It offers some funny suggestions for replacing the tea.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2010/03/14/irelands-deep-dark-secret-tea-brack/

Karen

I have a question about the "Barm Brack". Is it possible to use something other than tea to make it? I have tried some teas and some things with tea extract (like vitamins) and they make me itch. This sounds really good.

Frances

Heaven forfend that this thread is an exclusive group, and that you have to send in reels to join in the natter! All forum junkies are welcome here if you have a quip (or recipe) that will enliven someone else's day. I'll even throw the limerick competition open to all comers