I noticed recently that I can't get into the trousers of one of my suits. Measuring my waist today revealed a number so awful that I can only post it in code: guveglfvkvapurf
I've not been running or cycling much recently, which probably has had some impact on my sveltness. The resolution needs to be two-fold to address the roll of fat as well as the slack abdominal muscles. So, more sit-ups and fewer cakes.
Check back in nine days to see my revised score.
The first part of the name comes from a TV series that M and I were working our way through when these were invented (22nd Feb 2011). The second part I'm not sure about. These things kind of sit on the boundary between cookies, biscuits, flapjack and buns. All the measurements are in fluid ounces because we were staying in a cottage in the wilds of Derbyshire with no scales.
The recipe is a Frankenstein-style conglomerate of other recipes. I've no idea about the attribution but if anything here looks like your published recipe then get in touch and I'll give you credit. Anyway, how to make them?
Mix up the following, and bake for approx 20 minutes in a 200 degC oven:
Or to be more accurate: uploading some photos without the bother of any significant commentary.
A café:
Artificial light vs. natural light:
Outside a bar, at night:
Some friends are building a new house:
Inside an airport:
Had a couple of beers with a man now known as GP. Had another go with the camera on my Nokia X3-02 and tried out the digital zoom. Doesn't seem much better than taking a normal picture and zooming in afterwards, to my untrained eye anyway
Went over to Preston for some beers with PH and MR. Preston has changed, but it still looks a lot like it used to. I kind of miss it; well I kind of miss the life I lived there
++Edit++
Not that my current life is unsatisfactory e.g. now I have more money and don't live in squalor. But I partied more then..
MC and I headed out to Anglesey this wknd. I thought it would be sea cliffs, but turned out to be Holyhead mountain. We had rocks, sunshine and pot noodles. A great combo
I've had the plan of being a journalist for a while now. Especially when I get old and am looking for ways to supplememt my meagre pension. I'll sit in my caravan in Hebden Bridge and as the rain bouces of the roof, I'll tap some wise words into my PC and hope that The Guardian will send me a few quid in return.
But what to write about? Well, I could hardly help noticing that something happened in Rusholme today. The traffic was snarled up and about three fire engines, and at least one ambulance and police car were in attendance. There was tape across the road and cops turning people back.
From the edge of the tape I could see that Kebabish was black inside and smoke was coming out of the roof. Not gushing out - the fire was pretty much extinguished by the time I was on the scene.
Anyway, here's a photo, and I'm going to tweet a link to this and see how much traffic I get. If anyone from the Guardian wants to give me a regular slot, please leave your details in a comment
I have a recipe for lentil soup that is probably my second most used recipe ever. The basis for this was suggested by my good friend SN in the 1990s. The recipe has been tweaked a little since then, but essentially it remains "lentil soup with baked beans in it". Doesn't sound too appetising when framed like that, but when blended the beans disappear and just make the soup thick. I strongly recommend rinsing the beans first to remove the sugary gloop that they come in.
Chop up one onion, one pepper, 3-4 stalks of celery and a chili pepper. Leave out the last one if you don't want spicy soup. Fry them in a big pan with black pepper, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp coriander seeds and maybe some paprika. Feel free to stick a bay leaf in, but remember to fish it out before blending. About 5 mins should be enough to soften the vegetables up. Do you have any other left overs to get rid of? For example, half a courgette or a couple of cabbage leaves could go in. Some chick peas won't hurt.
With one eye on the frying pan and one eye on the clock, open a tin of baked beans and rinse the gloop off them. A sieve makes this easier, or just swishing them around in a pan of water. I'm sure that google will show up instructions for rinsing if you're uncertain about this, or leave a comment and I'll try to help you out.
Add 250g of red lentils to the frying pan, along with a can of chopped tomatoes or a carton of tomato passata, and the rinsed beans. Now fill the container that the tomato stuff came in with water and add to the pan. Do this a second time. Now add a stock cube, stir well, and wait for about 25 mins.
In theory you should wait for it to cool down, then blend, then heat it up again to serve. If you're the sort of person to splash yourself with boiling soup, and then sue the person who gave you the recipe, then you must do this. However you do it, the soup really benefits from blending; and serving with toast
If you like soup then a search on this blog for "soup" will give you some other recipes. Try them all!
++Edit++ I'd really like to see pictures of this soup. If you make this, please take a photo and link to it in a comment. Thanks
I get my home Internet connection from the same people who supply my mobile phone. The package in total works out to be quite a reasonable price. But there is a downside, which is apparent when I need to interact with them.
I'm having to deal with them now because the wireless router that they provide drops the connection with the PC several times each day. I contacted them about this in February, and no resolution yet.
I won't name then to avoid possible legal action. But it is fair comment to say that I feel an actual citrus fruit could provide a service nearly as good.
I was at the climbing wall on Thursday, and a geezer was there handing out belay glasses for demonstration purposes. The purpose of the glasses is to allow you to keep your head comfortably level while looking 90 degrees vertically up to see what your climbing partner is doing. The experience was a little weird, but I reckon I could get used to it. The glasses seemed well made and durable. A bit on the bulky side perhaps.
I didn't buy a pair, seventy-five quid being more than I can comfortably drop on an impulse purchase. Maybe I'll just put up with a stiff neck for the time being, but for my reference:
---> www.cubelayglasses.co.uk
++ edit ++
The price is currently £85 on the website
Someone pushed a leaflet into my hand this weekend, about religion and the census. I'm generally happy to accept religious pamphlets from any nutjob with an axe to grind, because I'm interested in what other people think. This time, however, I found that I strongly agreed.
http://census-campaign.org.uk/what-is-happening/
Apparently the Census of 2001 recorded an unusually large number of religious people in the UK populace. Much more than would be suggested from the results of other surveys where the question is asked in a non-leading manner. And, the leaflet continues, the figure that 72% of UK citizens are Christians was used to justify government policies such as state funding of faith schools.
A young man of my acquaintance has three nearby schools to choose from. But, a little detective work shows that two of these are faith schools, and so I consider them an unsuitable place to send an impressionable child. As you can imagine, I object to my council tax being spent on schools that would rather teach funny stories than science
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/21/free-schools-creationism-department-education
Wikipedia tells me that in 2001 there were 390000 people who gave their religion as Jedi. But this hasn't resulted in a single, state-funded Jedi Academy.
I've recently been baking cookies to my own special recipe, but I've run out of ground flax seeds and Wm Morrison didn't have any. So I thought I'd have a go at the fig muffins from the Guardian magazine this weekend link
They turned out pretty well. I like figs - rich in calcium I think - and these muffins complement a glass of whisky very nicely
From the frankly awful picture of the muffins you will notice that I'm still using the Nokia X3-02. It has another feature which makes it difficult to browse through the photos using the windows picture viewer
I got a new phone because I wanted to improve on the camera (2MP plus scratched lens) that my old phone was sporting. I looked at the specs very carefully and picked the above because it has "full focus" according to Nokia.
I'm not really sure what full focus means. I have found it extremely difficult to get an acceptable picture of my intended subject - a small child who moves frequently and unpredictably. Even this picture of my largely immobile breakfast is poor, only the cup handle at the back is sharp.
Still, I can get another phone in twenty four months. Until then I'll have to use an actual camera
Ran out of bread while on holiday, but had flour and yeast. So...
Used the recipe on p269 of La Dolce Vegan. Pretty tasty fresh or toasted. And since this sounds like a shameless plug I might as well finish it off with an amazon affiliate link:
Found ourselves in Macclesfield on a dull day with nowt much to do. We looked around for some signs of culture and found the mill where silk was woven into fabric. Really interesting to see the machinery, and the punch cards used to reproduce the designs. Well worth a look round
