Gaz

I've got two or three old machines sitting around in my loft I was going to throw out but I might see if I can get them up and running with emulation now.

I only really drink scotch and water when I'm at a bar that doesn't have any decent beers or mixed drinks. At home 90% of the time ill make sours, and then it's almost always a daiquiri or a margherita I'm currently trying to dial in a recipe on a a daiquiri with Paranubes rum. It's a sugarcane rum from Mexico which has an Agricole sort of feel but is really unique, the aroma and taste is really savoury with notes of tomato, black olive and pepper I tried a 10:3:2 ratio last night but even with that little sugar I wasn't getting the crispness I wanted. I'm going to mix up a new batch of simple before I try again so that I can make sure it's at the right sweetness.

Try a Last Word with a peaty scotch and you might be converted - I think that one is in the Death & Co book actually (Pete's Word) - there's something about scotch and chartreuse which really works. And it is 3 competing flavours - but it becomes greater than the sum of it's parts. It's from a book called Beta Cocktails which is full of drinks that push the boundaries like that.

Union comes ground for cafetiere in waitrose - check the ground on date for a recent bag.

I can second that, I've eaten two packs in the last week.

I've been trying out quite a few of the M&S bits recently (and I've eaten so many greggs sausage rolls) The "Dirty Fries" were one I was sceptical about, not a huge portion for the price and it's just patatas bravas really but it was very nice, probably the nicest thing I tried from the range. The Margherita Pizza with the cauliflower "house sauce" is really good, surprisingly cheesy and overall a decent supermarket pizza. Cashew Mac is good, I think it could do with a smidge more sauce but overall the flavour was there. I think my cheese sauce which I've posted about in here somewhere is better though. Tikka Masala is really nice. Big chunks of "chicken" and a decent masala, just the right amount of spice and a good sauce to rice ratio. Cauliflower Popcorn is great. This is something that is so easy to make at home but it's a messy process so these are good to just throw in the oven. Really crispy, could probably do with a creamy sauce as well as the spicy dip - I had some vegan mayo on the side.

The new Vegan Range stuff in M&S looks amazing, has anyone tried it? I had the Greggs Sausage roll the other day and it was good, I want them to make a Vegan Steak Bake though.

My favourite thing to do with nutritional yeast is vegan cheese sauce. There are tons of recipes but it's basically boiled potato & carrot with some garlic, mustard, nutritional yeast and optionally, kimchi for a bit of fermented flavour.

I can't agree with that at all, Schweppes is disgusting and ruins everything it touches. I'm not a huge fever tree fan, but there are a lot of tonics out there that use sugar, or agave for sweetness rather than sweeteners and are lightly sweet, lightly carbonated and properly buttered.

1724 is a really good tonic that compliments gin well. There are a lot of really good tonics on the market now though if you move beyond the supermarket.

Stiggins Fancy is gorgeous Pineapple Rum, if that's your thing.

I like the quorn roast, it costs about £2 and cooks in 45minutes. Really easy to throw in the oven and tastes lovely with the rest of the trimmings.

The Serious Eats Yorkshire pudding recipe is amazing. You could make them in mini muffin tins and fill them as canapes.

I was in a huge sainsburies the other day and stocked up on a load of vegan stuff. ToFurkey sausages & Chick 'N - I've had the sausages and they are good - basically seitan flavoured with spices and tomato, they fry up well and worked really nicely as a sort of chorizo replacement. Helmans Vegan Mayo - really thick and I think nicer than normal Hellmans. Veganaise is still nicer I think. Sainsburies own brand blue cheese style block. I don't know what this is meant to be like but it smells and tastes like paint stripper. It's horrible. Fry's Sausage Roll - much more sausage than a normal sausage roll, nice pastry and flavour but it was sooo dry.

I tried Iceland's Christmas Tree flavoured crisps. They taste like toilet cleaner.