.....I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!!

OK, I'm back!!!!! I have been a little (A LOT) lazy with 'alongcamepol' recently....well, the past 6 months if anyones counting-WHERE does the time go?!!?) In my defence I have been somewhat busy getting married.....twice.....(To the same lucky fella before you all deem me as 'one of those girls') & relocating said husband back to England (Yeeehaaaar!) but still....excuses,excuses....I've been terrible. Soz. (won't happen again and all that jazz)
I have decided to work my way through one of my FAVE cookbooks (In a striking resemblance to that Dog Poo chick flick 'Julie and Julia'...apologies again needed!) So, 100 recipes will be added, maybe 1 a week....maybe 2...you will have to keep checking in to see!! Most of them are sweet/dessert based, Which in my eyes is one of the most important part of any meal/celebration!
You could actually go out and buy the cookbook and so my efforts would be wasted...However, there are always a few weak recipes to 'pad' out a cookbook and I have taken it upon myself to find out which these crappy ones are! (that and i'm not going to tell you which one it is...mwahahaha!) Plus, I would like to save you all the 20 English Pounds the cookbook costs (because i'm nice like that!).
First up is a humdinger of a treat.......GRASSHOPPER PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sounds gross, Looks weird, but is easy to make (no oven needed!) and is perfect for A, Birthday luncheons, B, A talking point at any BBQ, Party, Dinner party (...probs not suitable for a posh dinner!) C, Anywhere with children present!....All these PLUS the fact it tastes great, Think of it as a fun, cake based alternative to 'after eights'.

YOU WILL NEED:

A flan dish
175g butter (unsalted)
250g bourbon biscuits (or any double,triple chocolate overload cookies....the chocolatier the better!!)
180g marshmallows (I used the bigger ones)
180ml whole milk
700ml double cream
a squirt of peppermint essence
a squirt of green food colouring
Any decoration you may fancy (I used pre made chocolate stars)

To make the base you need to smush up the biscuits to fine crumbs (either in a food processor or go hell for leather with a rolling pin with the biscuits safely packed into a sandwich bag) melt the butter (microwave or bain marie) and add together, mix thoroughly to ensure all of the biscuits have a butter coating, next pop the whole lot into the flan dish and push down and up to the sides with your hands so you end up with a smooth, compact base like so:

....Put this in the fridge and have a cup of tea, do some ironing, meet a friend for lunch, take the kids to the park........etc etc (you need to leave the base for at least an hour in other words)
Once the base has set you can get started on the fun bit! melt the marshmallows and milk together in a saucepan over a medium heat (should take a few minutes...and you have to keep stirring it) then when fully combined, take off the heat and add food colouring and peppermint essence (I NEVER measure the latter ingredients and just squirt them in willy nilly....never hurt anyone!) When you have your desired shade of green mixture put to one side and whip 300ml of the double cream into soft peaks then fold in to the mixture, Finally pour into the Biscuit base and pop back into the fridge (leave it overnight if possible to set fully...if not, it's back to the park for you for a couple of hours until it has set!)
Finally, whip the rest of the cream into soft peaks and decorate to your liking, I used a piping bag and fun nozzle to pipe a nice topper....However, I have FAR to much time on my hands and nothing better to do so all you people who actually HAVE lives then you can literally slop it on and be done in 30secs! I finished off by decorating with my shop bought chocolate stars (think they were Dr Oetker).
I presented my Grasshopper delight to a good friends Birthday BBQ where a handful of wee nippers (children) were present...They LOVED it!!!