Sunday 15 November 2009
Wednesday 29 July 2009
Now I really have seen it all... Bacon Brownies
http://bacontoday.com/bacon-brownies/
It's so dodgy, I'm even tempted to give it a try. With a proper brownie recipe, of course...
...it's now this weekend's cooking project. We're basing it on Jamie's brownie recipe, with all the nutty etc bits taken out. All we need now is some unsmoked, unsalted bacon...
It's so dodgy, I'm even tempted to give it a try. With a proper brownie recipe, of course...
...it's now this weekend's cooking project. We're basing it on Jamie's brownie recipe, with all the nutty etc bits taken out. All we need now is some unsmoked, unsalted bacon...
Tuesday 28 July 2009
Roasted vegetables
1. Go to local supermarket early, and discover they've just marked down all the vegetables.
2. Buy lots of vegetables: peppers, mini tomatoes, courgettes are all good (even when you already have courgettes ripening at home).
3. Slice courgettes and peppers; lay on baking trays. Liberally distribute tomatoes all over trays. Follow with drizzles of olive oil.
4. Stuff in oven at 200F. Go do something else, and forget about oven for two hours.
5. Switch off oven, inspect char-grilled contents and eat. Can also be added to recipes (for that authentic smokey flavour).
6. Go 'yum'.
2. Buy lots of vegetables: peppers, mini tomatoes, courgettes are all good (even when you already have courgettes ripening at home).
3. Slice courgettes and peppers; lay on baking trays. Liberally distribute tomatoes all over trays. Follow with drizzles of olive oil.
4. Stuff in oven at 200F. Go do something else, and forget about oven for two hours.
5. Switch off oven, inspect char-grilled contents and eat. Can also be added to recipes (for that authentic smokey flavour).
6. Go 'yum'.
Middle-eastern night
Hwsgo and I are currently a bit post-viral, so to up our energy levels, we're both on the (give or take a curry and naan) CFS immune-system-assisting diet. Which is basically a caeliac (or even a yeast-free) diet designed to put as little stress as possible on us by cutting out wheat, sugar, dairy and alcohol (amongst other things).
And boy do I remember that first panic of "what the heck do I eat" when I went on this diet years ago (as part of the plan to clear my ME). I mean, breakfast. Hwsgo mailed me the first morning, having noticed that everything he eats for breakfast is off the list (and he *hates* porridge oats)... but cheered up when I told him that bacon and eggs (but no ketchup) were okay. But that done, that left the even trickier question of "what do you feed an unwell (and therefore v bored) foodie on a caeliac diet". I went to the local health food shop for inspiration (and some sugar-free chocolate: it does exist, just look for xylitol in the ingredients) - all the things that I used to eat were way-out hippy, and therefore, to a foodie, completely yuck. Anything brown - ditto. Wholegrain - ditto. Maize - the same.
The answer, my friends, is very traditional: it's meat and vegetables. Eggs. Rice. Lentils. Goat's cheese. Basically, a 1970s evening diet without the chicken kiev (contains flour). And you have no idea just how quickly that can become boring...
...hence the mediterranian evening. Making home-made hummus (no dairy; tastes much better if you warm it in the pan instead of eating it raw), and vegetable couscous. Except I've just checked the label and discovered that couscous is wheat-based. Ho-hum. Back to the rice again... anything but spending the next week writing horizontally...
And boy do I remember that first panic of "what the heck do I eat" when I went on this diet years ago (as part of the plan to clear my ME). I mean, breakfast. Hwsgo mailed me the first morning, having noticed that everything he eats for breakfast is off the list (and he *hates* porridge oats)... but cheered up when I told him that bacon and eggs (but no ketchup) were okay. But that done, that left the even trickier question of "what do you feed an unwell (and therefore v bored) foodie on a caeliac diet". I went to the local health food shop for inspiration (and some sugar-free chocolate: it does exist, just look for xylitol in the ingredients) - all the things that I used to eat were way-out hippy, and therefore, to a foodie, completely yuck. Anything brown - ditto. Wholegrain - ditto. Maize - the same.
The answer, my friends, is very traditional: it's meat and vegetables. Eggs. Rice. Lentils. Goat's cheese. Basically, a 1970s evening diet without the chicken kiev (contains flour). And you have no idea just how quickly that can become boring...
...hence the mediterranian evening. Making home-made hummus (no dairy; tastes much better if you warm it in the pan instead of eating it raw), and vegetable couscous. Except I've just checked the label and discovered that couscous is wheat-based. Ho-hum. Back to the rice again... anything but spending the next week writing horizontally...
Saturday 18 July 2009
Cooking today
A bizarra accident photo involving a chihuahua and a barbeque fork set me wondering about the bizarre accident figures on this most summery of cooking methods (and no, that doesn't include burning the tips of two fingers turning the sausages over). There really *is* something for everyone on the intranet... the relevant report is available here. It's a wonderful study in stating the bleeding obvious - for instance, most bbq accidents occur in the garden... and there are two major clusters of accidents: boys under 7 burning their hands whilst playing in the garden, and men in their 20s and 30s burning their upper bodies (with a possible contibuting factor from alcohol consumption). Strangely, more women than men get injured by BBQs in the US, but this is probably because american blokes feel less of a primal need to light fires and cook mammoth in the open air.
Useful point for the day: charcoal bbqs give off carbon monoxide. Which kills people if they use BBQs inside. So don't do it, okay? Have a happy summer...
Useful point for the day: charcoal bbqs give off carbon monoxide. Which kills people if they use BBQs inside. So don't do it, okay? Have a happy summer...
Tuesday 7 July 2009
Acai
Okay, so like everyone else in the blogosphere, I seem to be plagued by adverts about how wonderful acai is for dieting. Which after a little light investigation reveals several companies running a terrible scam where £10 worth of tablets is somehow converted into hundreds of pounds being taken off the desperate and the desperately-poor, just because they didn't *very carefully* read all the small print. But I wondered if there was something in this acai thing, so I've been to Holland & Barrett and bought myself some acai, some aloe vera and some stuff made from seeds to see if it has any noticable effect. Nothing so far, unless you count ten minutes of wind.
As for dieting, I've found that the easiest way to lose weight is to listen to my partner. Much as it pains me to say it, Hwsgo is right - cutting out all sugar (the white stuff, and anything that includes "sugar" in its ingredients list) does seem to be having the desired effect, i.e. half a stone going south in little over a week so far (it won't last, hence the acai...). What is fascinating (to me at least) is just how many 'diet' foods have sugar in their ingredients. Talk about securing your market!
As for dieting, I've found that the easiest way to lose weight is to listen to my partner. Much as it pains me to say it, Hwsgo is right - cutting out all sugar (the white stuff, and anything that includes "sugar" in its ingredients list) does seem to be having the desired effect, i.e. half a stone going south in little over a week so far (it won't last, hence the acai...). What is fascinating (to me at least) is just how many 'diet' foods have sugar in their ingredients. Talk about securing your market!
Saturday 6 June 2009
4 miles and some new shoes
4.27 miles, to be precise. I forgot my running shoes this weekend (along with almost everything else that I needed for the weekend - basically have my cycling kit, a laptop and the clothes I'm standing up in), and it was time anyways, so it was down to Runners Need for a new pair. Times have changed a bit since the chaps passed you several pairs of shoes, then watched your gait as you ran up and down the road outside the shop: now it's all treadmills and video cameras on your feet. Which is quite scary really : I had no idea that I turned my ankles in quite so much - almost 90 degrees much in the case of my right foot, not quite so bad on my left. But lovely to be able to see how quickly that could be corrected, just by choosing the right running shoe. Which is a men's Brooks Adrenaline GTS 9 in a size 7.5.
Now you might have thought that running was a cheap sport. You get into your trainers, go out on the street - no membership fees, no price-per-run. It's not. As soon as you start running distance - and by distance I mean anything over about 15 miles a week - you're into serious shoe money, of the sort that only my girlfriends shopping in Covent Garden can equal. The Adrenalines were £85, and to keep my feet safe, I now need to replace them every 3 or 4 months. Which is roughly equal to a deal on a gym subscription: £28 per month (my works gym is £15, but that's subsidised). Then there's race fees (because you can't run for long before wondering what it's like to run in company agaist the clock), which are admittedly partly offset by the free t-shirts that most of them give out, although a love of bright colours seems to be important for this right now. And then there's the Runners World magazine habit, and all the detritus that seems to come with running distance - the funny-shaped water bottles, runners pouches, lightweight jackets etc. None of which I bregrudge - I'm just sticking to the trainer tax (and there are ways to make those cheaper: Adrenaline 9s are £76.50 at wiggle, Adrenaline 8s were £40 at prodirectrugby.com and so on - basically, go back one version at the right time and you can get your shoes for roughly half price) and race fees for now.
So, having bought my trainers, I needed somewhere to christen them, and it's only a week to the Bluewater 10k, so I really do need to go out and pound those pavements. D duly threw me out for a run that we'd mapped, discussed, planned on a 3-mile route that even I couldn't get lost on. I got lost. It involved a park with activity stations - I found a park with activity stations, but this being London and London being full of parks, it was the wrong one. Never mind - I ran round, made a guess at the right way home, checked a local bus-stop map and miraculously (for me) set off in the right direction. Running verdict? Right knee blew out again (swelled up during the run and had to be manipulated back into the right place relative to my leg) but no other problems with the shoes - feet v. comfortable in them. Run quite a fun one through some well-mixed urban terrain - projects to city farm and victorian ornamental park. Could have run on for a mile or two, but not sure about anything longer than that - will have to work hard before I can start to attempt the underround seriously.
Now you might have thought that running was a cheap sport. You get into your trainers, go out on the street - no membership fees, no price-per-run. It's not. As soon as you start running distance - and by distance I mean anything over about 15 miles a week - you're into serious shoe money, of the sort that only my girlfriends shopping in Covent Garden can equal. The Adrenalines were £85, and to keep my feet safe, I now need to replace them every 3 or 4 months. Which is roughly equal to a deal on a gym subscription: £28 per month (my works gym is £15, but that's subsidised). Then there's race fees (because you can't run for long before wondering what it's like to run in company agaist the clock), which are admittedly partly offset by the free t-shirts that most of them give out, although a love of bright colours seems to be important for this right now. And then there's the Runners World magazine habit, and all the detritus that seems to come with running distance - the funny-shaped water bottles, runners pouches, lightweight jackets etc. None of which I bregrudge - I'm just sticking to the trainer tax (and there are ways to make those cheaper: Adrenaline 9s are £76.50 at wiggle, Adrenaline 8s were £40 at prodirectrugby.com and so on - basically, go back one version at the right time and you can get your shoes for roughly half price) and race fees for now.
So, having bought my trainers, I needed somewhere to christen them, and it's only a week to the Bluewater 10k, so I really do need to go out and pound those pavements. D duly threw me out for a run that we'd mapped, discussed, planned on a 3-mile route that even I couldn't get lost on. I got lost. It involved a park with activity stations - I found a park with activity stations, but this being London and London being full of parks, it was the wrong one. Never mind - I ran round, made a guess at the right way home, checked a local bus-stop map and miraculously (for me) set off in the right direction. Running verdict? Right knee blew out again (swelled up during the run and had to be manipulated back into the right place relative to my leg) but no other problems with the shoes - feet v. comfortable in them. Run quite a fun one through some well-mixed urban terrain - projects to city farm and victorian ornamental park. Could have run on for a mile or two, but not sure about anything longer than that - will have to work hard before I can start to attempt the underround seriously.
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