Sticky Date Pudding (Microwave Version)

Finally, I have managed to create another microwave-style dessert! It requires two mugs rather than one, but otherwise it’s pretty simple.

For the pudding you need:

• 3 tbsp flour (I used wholemeal)
• 1 pinch baking powder
• 1/2 tbsp butter (or margarine)
• 1 and a 1/2 tbsp milk
• 2 and a 1/2 tbsp chopped dried dates (about 6-7 dates)

For the sauce you need:

• 2 tbsp boiling water
• 1 and a 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp butter (or margarine)

To make the pudding, put the 1/2 tbsp of butter in a mug and melt it in the microwave for 10 seconds. Add the flour, baking powder, milk and dates and stir to combine.

Place the brown sugar and 1 tsp of butter in a separate mug. Add the boiling water and stir until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.

Pour the sauce over the pudding mixture. Microwave for two minutes. Check the consistency of the sauce. If it still seems too watery, microwave for another 30 seconds. The sauce should be syrupy rather than solid. Don’t microwave it any longer than you have to to reduce the sauce – the first time I made this recipe, the pudding turned to charcoal!

Serve with cream, yoghurt or icecream.

7 Things You Need to Know Before You Eat At Karin

1) The basics

Karin is a Japanese restaurant in Parnell, Auckland. It’s hidden behind a curtain down a side street off Parnell Road.

2) The decor

Karin is unimposing on the outside but comfortable and attractive inside. Try and get one of the tables next to the window, which overlooks Parnell, the harbour and Rangitoto.

3) There is only one chef

At least on the night I visited – Friday evening – there was only one chef working in the kitchen. They also do takeaways and I suspect these are made first. This means you may have to wait a while for your food and it will not all arrive at the same time.

4) Sashimi is raw meat

Sashimi is on the same page of the menu as the sushi, so keep an eye on the picky eaters in case they try to order something familiar and end up with raw tuna instead.

5) The sushi is good, but just sushi

I love sushi. And the sushi is really very good. But you can get good sushi pretty much anywhere in Auckland. Go for one of the proper meals and enjoy the real cooking. In my experience, by the time your food arrives you will have worked up an appetite.

6) Corkage fee is $6.50

This isn’t too bad, assuming you like wine enough to want to bring your own. There’s a decent wine shop about a block and a half up* the road.

7) Movenpick is just down the road

The desert options are pretty average but for amazing ice-cream just walk for a minute down* Parnell Road and stop in at Movenpick.

*Parnell Road has a distinct slope to it; when I say “up” and “down” the road, I literally mean up and down.

7 Kind of Awesome Ways to Deal with Stress

Here at the University of Auckland, there’s one week left until the end of semester and about a week and a half until the first exams. This means two things: the end-of-semester parties, and people stressing about how much study they need to do.

I’m hoping that my party won’t result in 73 people getting arrested, as in Christchurch.

But I’m not here to talk about parties. I’m here to talk about stress.

This semester, one of my courses consisted of a group project worth 100% of my grade. This project proceeded to NOT WORK. Enthusiastically. Electrical components broke, code worked differently from day to day, and I was home before 10 pm about one day in ten (including weekends)… It was the kind of project that a year ago would have made me so stressed I got sick or grumpy or just gave up altogether.

But I didn’t. Partly it was because my fellow group members were great. Partly it was because of my other classmates – we all helped each other out with this project. But a big part of it was that I deal with stress a lot better now. And, just in time for exams, here are some of the best strategies you might not have thought of.

Student Soup

No, not these

7 Things That Even Student Flats Should Have In The Kitchen

In every student flat I’ve ever visited, the kitchen has included the following:

• incredibly mismatched cutlery and dishes – and no matter how many they have, eventually they will run out and people will start to mutter about whoever is not doing their share of the dishes
• at least one thermos without a lid
• at least one lid without a thermos
• several out-of-place appliances donated by parents – my flat has two identical bread makers
• a lot of empty take-away curry boxes, even if no one in the flat ever orders Indian

And while all of these things are simply part of the student lifestyle, there are a couple of things I think any student in a flat should get hold of if they can.

7 Things You Need To Know About ‘Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance’

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance is the latest novel in the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Only the e-ARC (e-book of the advanced reader copy) is available yet; you can find out about it from Bujold’s blog and buy it from the publisher’s website.

7 Anti-Murphy’s Laws for Students

As I said in my last post, I don’t think Murphy’s Laws are at all useful and they also aren’t all that funny. I can forgive the first, of course, but not the second.

Below I have compiled some anti-Murphy’s laws. They’re just as likely to be true as their more depressing counterparts, and considerably more likely to make you feel better as you finish exams.

1. If you had never heard of a concept in the exam before, no one else had either.
2. In the five minutes of last minute cramming outside the exam room, you read at least one thing that was useful.
3. That assignment that took WAY TOO LONG helped with one of the exam questions.
4. You remember every question you struggled with but forget most of the ones you did well at.
5. That kid who left half an hour before you had given up.
6. That kid who left half an hour after you was freaking out.
7. Anyone who claims it was really easy is joking, mistaken, and/or about to find out they no longer have any friends.

It’s sunny in Auckland at the moment!

On Murphy’s Laws

Murphy’s Laws are a set of ‘rules’ based on the idea that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. It’s named for Captain Edward Murphy, an engineer working for the US Air Force in 1949. Captain Murphy, like a lot of engineers, had a tendency to be dismissive of the intelligence of non-engineers, since what he actually said was about a technician:

If there’s any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.

I was going to write a list of Murphy’s Laws applying to students, but then I realised that a lot of Murphy’s Laws aren’t actually relevant provided you aren’t an idiot, and most of the rest are only relevant if you’re pathologically pessimistic.

Look at this one:

If you bring your voodoo doll/adult magazine or embarrassing cream to work, your boss will find it.

I’m not even sure what an ‘embarrassing cream’ is, though if this were the Harry Potter universe I would definitely expect Fred and George to be selling it. Anyway, it seems pretty self evident that none of these things should be brought to work anyway.

Or how about this one:

If you pick up a chunk of broken concrete and try to pitch it into an adjacent lot, it will hit a tree limb and come down right on the driver’s side of your car windshield.

Serves you right for trying to chuck your rubbish into the neighbor’s garden, mate.

Karma?

What do you think? Are Murphy’s Laws the funny precursor to Memebase? Or are they just a way for people to explain how they managed to vandalize their own car?

Microwave Apple Crumble

My new obsession is making individual desserts in cups. Let’s face it: you don’t want to bake an entire apple crumble just for yourself, especially if it’s going to take an hour.

However, it turns out there’s another option. A really easy option!

7 Things You’re Going to Need for Exams

Undergraduates in NZ are about to start our exams. Depending on your attitude and level of exhaustion, this time of year can be horribly stressful or actually pretty fun.

If you’re like my friends, you’re rereading that sentence. Exams aren’t supposed to be fun. But the thing about exam time is that there are no lectures, no irritating 2% assignments that take the whole weekend, and nothing new to worry about. After working hard to get projects and assignments done, it’s kind of relaxing not to have to get up early and remember to make it to tutorials. Besides, once we hit exams, it’s only three weeks until we get a proper holiday.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy, especially if you’ve neglected one or more subjects and need to learn it all before the exam. Studying for days at a time requires the proper equipment, especially if you plan to go into panic mode. Below is my first ‘List of 7′ – 7 Things You’re Going to Need for Exams.