DEEP FRIED MORO BAR

I'm having an odd week. The dreaded lurgy is knocking us down one by one. Son #2 is on his third sick day, hubby is on his first and I've been fluctuating between feeling fine or tired and fluey. Right now I'm somewhere in between.


I've been wading through a pile of books from the library and most of them have been hurled at the wall. Does that ever happen to you? I'm torn between deciding whether it's my state of mind or that I  chose badly. No doubt it will be a bit of both.


And what is it about these books that is turning me off reading them? Vastly different reasons, really. There's the gratuitous sex scenes that go nowhere and have no relevance to the story, the plotless stories, the plain boring stories and just badly written stories.


But that is enough grumbling from me. I've also read some excellent books lately. Here's a couple of the highlights so far this year:

A POISONED SEASON by Tasha Alexander.
    Book 2 in the Lady Emily series.  History, mystery and intrigue. Victorian fashions and etiquette, archeological treasures, and a smattering of Greek all wrapped up in a little romance. I can't recommend this highly enough.
You can read my review of Book 1 here.

THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE by Alan Bradley.
     Book 1 in the series. Eleven year old Flavia is the youngest of three daughters yet her intelligence and maturity outstrip her siblings by years.  Murder, stamp collecting, chemistry and 'old school' boys, set in 1950s rural England. A great read.

THE DEVLIN DIARY by Christi Phillips.
     This follows on from The Rossetti Letter, but is a stand alone. Murder in present day Cambridge University and murder and intrigue in the era of Charles II. I enjoyed the really strong characterisation in this book along with the mystery and history. I haven't read the Rossetti Letter yet, but I certainly plan to.






But the highlight of the week was my first taste of a deep fried Moro! Hubby grabbed takeaways one night and the fish n' chip shop he went to sold this incredibly decadent treat. For those of you who don't live in New Zealand, a Moro bar is fluffy, chocolate flavoured nougat, a layer of flowing caramel all smothered in chocolate. A bit bigger and denser than a Mars bar. A very rich an incredibly delicious treat without being coated in batter and deep fried!


Now I know many of you will be thinking "GROSS" and you'd be right. I stared at my small portion as a chocolatey, caramelly mess oozed from the split batter. There was no way I was going to eat any of it, but I found myself dipping a finger into the hot centre and scooping out a mouthful. A moment of pure chocolate bliss!


Three mouthfuls later and the batter lay limp and empty on my plate; the kid's plates however were scrupulously clean!