Last Meal Cookies!

7.5oz plain flour
4oz cocoa
5oz ground almonds
5.5oz icing sugar
8.25oz margarine
3 egg yolks
4.5oz toasted hazelnuts
5oz dark chocolate chips
milk to bind

Oven to 190 (that's Celsius). Rub your powders into the margarine until you get breadcrumbs, add the rest of the ingredients, add enough milk to bind into dough. Wrap in cling and fridge it for easy rolling.. Roll out to a quarter of an inch and cut into cookies, in the oven until nice and crisp (20mins more and less)

Take out of oven, allow to cool on a wire rack.


Big load of milk chocolate + a BIIIIG LUMP o' Butter. Melt together in a bowl over a pan of boiling water (do not microwave you bad people! It makes the chocolate separate and go nasty) until all melted and silky. Dip your cookies in and chil on wire rack in the fridge. Drizzle with more chocolate so make sure it doesn't run off and to make it thicker and/or roll in more nuts.

Review: Blood Bank by Tanya Huff, Book 6 of the Vicki Nelson Series

This review is difficult for me. Blood Bank is a collection of short stories by Tanya Huff that involve the characters and world of the Victory Nelson series. The problem I have in reviewing it is I, frankly, don't like short stories. As soon as I realised what it was, I admit I was disappointed. I like epic series with huge meta-plot and endlessly developing themes and stories and plotting. Little vignettes of people's lives just generally don't do it for me. So, I'm going to try and work past my natural disinclination to do this book justice


I would say these are a series of delightful little stories that just add a lot of little bits of flavour into the world. They each add depth, they each add a new angle and they all hint at the breadth of the world as well as giving little bits of insight into things like Henry's past and Vicki's relationship with Mike.

But, and I admit this could all be personal taste, it all felt a little empty. It added a little flesh to the bones but not much grew – there was no development, no advancing of the plot or story, no growth. It was interesting, it was a series of amusing insights and curious stories. But after 5 books of the plot advancing and going forwards it felt a little like someone had pushed the pause button and we were having an intermission. Even if the intermission is interesting – seeing how Vicki is settling in with her new circumstances, seeing more flashes from Henry's past – it's still an intermission.

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