Our 96th slice of toast - Cream cheese and chocolate syrup

Don't be afraid of this slice.  It may seem that Grace is cowering away, but she is in fact just trying to get out of the picture.  Unsuccessfully I might add.  No this slice is as friendly as they come in which Philadelphia makes yet another appearance.  We would probably purchase a supermarket-own brand if we weren't so disorganised, but we are disorganised so make do with forking out the extra dough at our local Co-Operative.  I say 'local co-operative' quite often, so i'm going to start using the acronym.  LCO.  Much better.  Striving to keeping the characters to a minimum, so that I can up the waffle but without the extra typing!


The chocolate Syrup is made by Lyle and sons.  For some reason, Lyle and sons decided not to include Tate in their syrup business as they did in their refined sugar venture.  Greedy family.  Good syrup though.  Despite the chocolate syrup causing the cream cheese to develop an abundance of cracks beneath it (I don't know why), this tasted great.  I just ignored the cracks.

Our 95th slice of toast - Instant hot chocolate powder

We have already been fortunate enough to show off our ace dipping skills in a mug of hot chocolate, but this time there was no dipping involved.  We had some instant 'Options Belgian Chocolate' sachets remaining from the aforementioned dipping day, thus we used these.  Obviously.  There would really be no point in buying more as these risk going to waste.  We drink tea you see.  Yorkshire tea.

Although it does look a little odd, the slices were actually delicious.  They just tasted of hot chocolate, a taste that I found worked very well with the warm buttery toast.  The chocolate also partially melted over the warmth of the slice, a delight I feel we wouldn't have been fortunate enough to experience had we lingered around PTP (post-toast-pop).  You see those folk, hanging around nonchalantly PTP, not a care in the world, wondering why their slices just don't taste as good.

I made an excellent stencil with this one.  Oh the small things.

Our 94th slice of toast - Cream cheese, olives & capers

Neither Grace nor I have had capers before.  At least not knowingly anyway.  They are imported from Morocco and jared in brine, much like many olives.  We again went for the olive and feta pots from our local Co-Operative.  The olives taste consistently good from these and we just ate the feta separately.  I've no idea how that bright red section of what I guess to be pepper made it there though (see picture).  It certainly failed at being inconspicuous, being red and all.  We ate it.  It won't do that again.

We didn't want to go crazy with the capers and also decided not to taste them alone first, either through fear or a rather dampened sense of adventure that day for whatever reason.  Whatever the reason, we didn't.  Were weren't particularly able to taste them at all with this slice.  I felt there was a flavour above the cheese and olives, something similar to the olive but slightly stronger and tangier, but I couldn't have pinpointed a caper.  I'll try more next time.  If there is a next time...

Our 93rd slice of toast - Brie and maple syrup

Brie can be purchased, as far as i've seen, from strengths 1 - 3.  It is a mild cheese after all.  I would often opt for Coeur de Lion brie, which offers a rather tempting 3 rating.  I do like a strong flavour - it's English mustard over French for me every time.  But we didn't have mustard here.  Our brie was Sainsbury's basics, showing signs of our toast adventure eating quite steadily in to our financial resources and being from the basics range, we were inevitably provided with a strength of 1.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not complaining.  Far from it in fact as I have gained much satisfaction from this cheese in the past at a price marked below the 100 pennies mark.  And with maple syrup lying on top, the cheese becomes so much more than just cheese on toast.  The sweetness of the syrup reminds one of times consuming cheese and chutney, perhaps at a picnic beneath the extended leafy branches of a tree at the park.  I wouldn't rate the syrup up there with a good English chutney.  Heck no.  Certainly not.  But the sweetness matches the cheese in a similar effect, making this a great slice.

Our 92nd slice of toast - PB & tahini

SO MANY PB SLICES!  We're not complaining though.  We're PB whores.  We paired it with tahini today.  This is basically sesame paste, made purely from sesame seeds.  It is also 1 of the main ingredients in hummus, which we also love.  So naturally, we were intrigued by this one.


We were supposed to apply the PB and tahini at a 80:20 ratio but I got a bit carried away with the tahini.  And I got a shock.  I can't quite describe the feeling I was exposed to but I can say that I didn't enjoy it.  It seemed to dry my mouth out completely.  I soon wiped the majority of tahini off the top of my toast and once reduced the slice tasted ok!  Grace couldn't really taste hers, so it seems there is a thin line between not tasting it and experiencing an unexplainable trip to hell.  If you try this, I bid thee the best of luck with your ratios.

Our 91st slice of toast - PB & melted marshmallows

We had one of these little pots of marshmallow when we tried s'mores toast.  We purchased them from our local Co-Operative again, who again cooperated well by having them on their shelves.  And these marshmallows again did not fail in being the most sickly food to ever exist on this little planet of ours.


We started by piling on the PB - we certainly don't hold back with the Skippy.  No siree!  We have such a large tub for a reason and it is running low.  We then sprinkled on those sickly little b@stards and chucked the slice in the microwave.  (I censored the word b@astards in case children are reading because we all know they don't understand the @ symbol...).


The slice was, as I previously mentioned, sickly.  But less so than the s'mores as it was tamed by the PB.  Oh Skippy you are so very good to us.

Our 90th slice of toast - PB & apple

Golden delicious apples aren't gold, but they are delicious.  Now a packet of Sainsbury's basics apples are in fact golden delicious' but with varying sizes.  I didn't let the lack of conformity upset me and purchased myself a bag, in to which I reached for any old size apple to slice up and see how it tastes with our Skippy.

We instantly knew of the UFS risks so made sure we were careful.  Fortunately the nonconforming apple was well ripened and made biting easy, with not a single UFS incident to report.  Not such a nonconformist now.

And the combo worked well.  The apple acid cut through the peanut butter well and in no way overpoweringly so.

Our 89th slice of toast - Olive oil & balsamic vinegar

Oil is certainly not just for cooking.  Especially not the extra virgin olive oil.  Save this delicate stuff for the dipping and drizzling.  I love a good olive oil/balsamic bread dip.  It has a classy feel and its delicious.  I also love prodding the ball of balsamic that sits so independently in the pool of oil.

Our choice of olive oil was a Spanish EV from home.  On purchasing many months ago, I was delightfully surprised that on removal of the lid, a thin pouring tube pops up allowing for a controlled pouring motion without the need for the thumb over the spout.  Saves on oily thumbs.  The balsamic of choice is quite common and is a relatively sweet vinegar.  On toast, both liquids soak in to the toast quite well and the slice itself tastes great.  But I have to say I prefer a good old fresh soft bread dip.

Oh and for those who think that this picture may indicate that Grace is French, she actually isn't.  But its a great bow.

This was the first picture I have taken for this blog.  The sun (shining through the window behind me) was making Grace's pictures all saturated and we don't want that.  We want you to get a nice clear view of our experience :)

Our 88th slice of toast - Brie & blue cheese

I've never quite understood people who enjoy sleep.  You don't remember it.  I mean, you aren't conscious after all.  Thats why we eat cheese.  Cheese gives you cheese dreams.  Crazy dreams that make you wake in cold sweats, too fearful to return to a sleeping state.  So to get us there, we went 2 fold.  Brie AND blue cheese.

My mother calls cheese the devils food.  I think this is due to the high fat content.  In reality, this is what makes it taste so good.  I'll say the blue cheese worked well with the brie and Grace loved it too.  And the dreams.

Our 87th slice of toast - Parmesan

Known in Italy as 'Parmigiano Reggiano', we keep it real over here with simply 'Parmesan'.  Easy cheesy.  This is a strong and dry cheese, made in the most enormous of wheels.  Popularly grated directly over most things in Italian restaurants, we opted for the pre-grated stuff and chucked it on a rather un-italian item called toast.

This slice was excellent!  The cheese melts upon the toast well, blending in with the spread.  Our choice of spread is currently Bertolli.  How very Italian we've been this day.  Excellente!

Our 86th slice of toast - Hummus and tomato

With no exaggeration, the bane of Grace's life returns on a topping loved very much by the both of us - hummus.  Hummus is proof of what a great job garlic can do.  Along with tahini, it turns chick peas from the smell of cat food to a tasty, nutritious, spreadable, lovable and versatile Mediterranean food.

I would again like to take this opportunity to recommend Hummus Bro's, a restaurant business with 3 chains around London.  They make the finest and tastiest plain hummus I have had to date and offer some excellent toppings and beverages :)

I thought tomatoes went well on hummus.  Obviously, Grace didn't.  I was impressed by how thin she cut the tomatoes with an average table knife.  It seems a desperation for reduced tomato portions provides our Grace with professional cutting skills.

Our 85th slice of toast - Cream cheese and strawberries

We have previously indulged ourselves in the pleasures of strawberries and cream, but this time around we indulged in the strawberry cheese cake slice.  As I have mentioned, the co-operative often offers half price strawberries, which is just as well as they are otherwise particularly expensive.  But, the co-op feel that the favour of supplying our proud nation with half price strawberries should come at a cost - so they're more often than not mouldy.  Or at least darn close.  But we don't give in to the recent uprising of hypercondriac's and worry heads and just pick it off.

Fortunately this strawberry punnet was, though soft and a deepened red, mould free.  Bonus.  And on cream cheese?  They were delicious.  CHEESECAKE.

Our 84th slice of toast - Brie & avocado

Brie, the classic Normandy soft cheese. Delicious. Not a classic avocado companion though, that's for sure. So to keep with our apparent tradition of eating fruit outside of its best edible stage, our avocado was not even close to ripe. It was tough.

So we slaved through the stoned fruit with a blunt spoon and did our best to distribute it over our slices of brie, pre-laid upon our toast slices. The avocado really did need many more days of ripening and I will say that this ruined this slice a little. But hey ho we can't all be winners. But we're damn close.

Our 83rd slice of toast - Nutella & pear

Oh my goodness we were looking forward to this one. Nutella is a bit of a heroic topping around our parts and to chuck a cheeky 1-of-your-5-a-day in there could have been risky, but on the contrary this pear was welcomed with open arms. Pear clearly has to go with hazelnutty chocolate?


Well it did. Sort of. It happened that the pear wasn't particularly close to ripeness, so we had a tough time biting through each slice, despite our wonderful slicing abilities. Check them out. Fortunate, we are now experience enough to expect the UFS, thus biting carefully throughout. A ripe pear would have made this a better experience, but it was still pretty ace.

Our 82nd slice of toast - Apple jam & squeezy cheese

I've discussed squeezy cheese before (see our 77th slice of toast). Apple jam on the other hand - now thats new to me! I wasn't sure to expect. All I could consider was apple sauce and how that tastes ie rather un-jam-like. I found some in Sainsbury's, produces by Mammy Jamias. I hadn't heard of this brand either but I recognised the label and I love the catchy name. Its great.

The jam itself certainly differed from apple sauce. The apples were there, but completely drowned in sugar. Now thats a preserve. With squeezy cheese, this worked incredibly well! The cheese has quite a bland taste, as you would expect from something containing such small amounts of actual cheese. Instead, it seemed to add thickness to the jam and dampens the sweetness in a way I found quite excellent. Grace was a little confused by the cheeses absence, but thinks she enjoyed it! She certainly enjoyed drawing her cheese face, which she was dedicated enough to maintain throughout the consumption process.

Our 81st slice of toast - PB & gherkins

Oh sweet gherkin, you are so very feared among us consumers. Some people love them but these tend to be fairly odd folk. Used regularly by Macdonalds in their burgers and picked out regularly by the customers.

Less the burgers, more the toast. Even the Skippy PB couldn't save this one. It's the gherkins significantly aggressive taste that wards many off and it was this that was its toast downfall. Back to the sweet pickle jar for desperate solo snacking.

Our 80th slice of toast - PB & pickle

Bring out the Branston. Today, we did exactly that, teaming it up with our loyal Skippy PB. Branston is the biggest name in pickle and now has range of products. We went for the original pickle. Keeping it real.

Another sweet and savoury dish - a juxtaposition we have come to love from our toasting fun. This one didn't differ from this an we both enjoyed it very much. And the good thing is, both of these are fairly regular components of your average joe's pantry. Should Joe not have a pantry, it is probably stored in the cupboard. The pickle should be stored in the refrigerator after opening. Have some respect.

Our 79th slice of toast - Wotsits

We went for the finer choice of cheese puff. Cheetos I think are the American version. We all know the English versions often offer an improved performance, particularly in film/television but let's all assume the same works for cheesy puffs.

We crushed these puffy cylinders up all over a toast. If you are silly enough to try this then I urge that you butter your toast first. We did and it was close to being too dry as it was! Oh and we didn't need 2 packs each - that was a waste.

Our 78th slice of toast - Mackerel

Grace was not looking forward to this.  I couldn't believe this.  Actually I could, but I felt like I shouldn't...

Fish is a fantastic way to kick start your metabolism in the morning helping you feel awake and active.  Some people find fish a little too much to handle first thing in the morning but it is certainly worth getting used to.  Mackerel is a quite dark oily fish and it is delicious.  Fresh is of course better, but you can get it in tins without bones and in either springwater, brine, tomato sauce or sunflower oil.  Our local Co-Operative only supplied the tomato sauce option.  They seem to have developed a habit of advertising a whole range of flavours for a product, but only stock 1 of them.  Highly unprofessional.

I love this slice and Grace was pleasantly surprised to find that she actually really enjoyed it too.  We recommend fish on toast for winning at things.

Our 77th slice of toast - Squeezy cheese

Cheese shouldn't really ever be in a tube.  Tube's are for toothpaste and puree's or homemade for making fabulously extensive icing patterns and sculptures on overly priced wedding cakes.  Outside the world of food, they are good for use in toilet rolls or for putting round a cat's torso and watch it struggle to balance.

Primula, amongst other manufacturers, decided the tubed squeezable cheese was a good idea.  So here we were squeezing it on our toast.  At just 51% cheese I didn't expect much in the way of dairy and it didn't deliver much in the way of dairy either.  But it did taste as I expected which isn't all that bad.  So if you know what to expect then all is well but if you are, say, a Parisien hoping for a gourmet treat - think again.  Get yourself down the local respected fromagerie.