WikiFood

Happy New Year, maybe...

This one is simple.

How do you start a new year in a happy way? Not sick. Simple, huh?

I had a cold that was lingering for two weeks and then BANG something horrible hit me. I was really sick for 24 hours and then less sick for two days. I finally had to call the gastro doc last night to make sure I didn't need an ER visit (I didn't!) and today things are much better.

I lost five pounds in four days. Losing weight is nice. Losing weight this way is horrible. Living on toast, rice, jello, applesauce and clear liquids is just no fun. None. Not even a little bit.

So I got out of bed today, not quite ready to set the world on fire but feeling a lot better. And now I have laryngitis. REALLY bad larygitis.

Happy New Year!

What's next?

Ted Williams

Ted Williams, the man with the big voice, is all over the news this week.

In case you've been away from the news lately, he's the man who was homeless as recently as a few days ago. A news videographer saw him panhandling, took the time to speak with him and almost miraculously, he's now off the streets, has a voiceover job, many OTHER job offers and has reconnected with his mother after ten years with no contact.

My sister, who works with the homeless on a daily basis, is understandably sceptical. She knows that many of the men who leave the streets often return months or even years later. She says it's a part of them. I agree, it probably is. I've never been where they are, so I can only believe what she tells me and what I've heard elsewhere. The chances aren't often very good.

I, however, am choosing to be optimistic about this situation. Maybe Ted can be THE one who makes it. If he does, others can look at him and think that maybe THEY can too. Ted says he's been sober for two years, and even as he was talking on TV today, saying all the right things, you could watch his mother's face, knowing that she was thinking about all the times he said those same words to her many times before and never following through. He said he'd come to visit her. He never did. There were many things he never did.

I want to believe that he IS clean and sober. I want to believe that this man could be a shining testament to others who think that walking away from the streets is impossible. He said he wants to get a sponsor "here", and one can only assume that means in NY where he's already done a voiceover for the Kraft company. He says that the pressure of everything will likely get to him and he will need help getting through it all. I also hope that means that he HAS been going to AA or NA and had a sponsor back in Ohio.

Ted Williams could be one of the few success stories. I pray for him and his family. I pray that his mother, who's 90 years old, will have time with her son as the man she wants him to be, not the man he's been these past years.

The next time you see a homeless person, remember Ted Williams. You don't know why that person is on the streets. Maybe he's looking for that person who takes two minutes to talk with him and find out that there's a real person under the dirt and smelly clothes. Ted isn't the only one out there looking for a break.

Smile. Say hello. You don't know who you could really be talking to.

Top Tips For [After] Christmas

Everything is being taken down and put away if you havent quite finished yet, here are some of my favourite ideas for post-Christmas-recycling. I dont think any of them are original, I have just picked them up over the years

Use Christmas cards to make cards and gift tags for next year and thank you cards for this year.

Packs of blank cards are very cheap in places like The Works, and The Range, and some Pritt or double sided tape makes it all a very easy process.

Wrapping paper- whatever the magazines suggest is not always easy to re-use but you can put it through a shredder and use it as packing material

Charity Shops need you! Well, they need the gifts you received which you will never use. And if you got a new scarf/ tie/ handbag, why not consider donating an old one?

It is silly [and maybe even wrong] to clutter shelves and drawers with unused items which could benefit others

Leftover Christmas food has many possible ways of being served.

Think creatively before you throw it out!

January is the month for quiches and soups

DOUBLE OR WHIPPING CREAM if it is still in date, then whip and freeze it. Any cream can be added to a home-made soup for added luxury, or in a quiche filling
CHESTNUTS stir into casserole, or warm through with sprouts or red cabbage
CRISPS crumble these on top of casseroles, or any pie topped with mashed potatoes.
NUTS drop them into a casserole. Grind them fairly finely in a processor and use to make a crumb crust for quiches.
MILK- if you have too much and it is just on the turn use it to make ricotta [see here] and put THAT in a quiche
VEGETABLES- these can either go into soups [with the turkey stock you virtuously made and froze last week] OR into quiches.
CHEESE you guessed it, quiches.
PICKLES & CHUTNEYS Jamies idea if there is an odd spoonful left in the jar, stir it into a casserole for added flavour. Better than than left indefinitely in the fridge to grow whiskers.[the pickle, not Jamie]
WINE in the unlikely event of half a glassful left in the bottle sling it into a casserole, or in with stewed fruit- or freeze to use like that later.

Then theres all the sweet stuff

PANETTONE makes wonderful bread and butter pudding, or you can slice it and panfry in a little butter, serve with jam/custard/icecream
DATES/DRIED FRUIT/CRANBERRIES go well into cakes and muffins [and freeze them for treats on cold February afternoons] [see here]
BARS OF CHOCOLATE wrap carefully, and HIDE somewhere to use later in cooking.
SPONGE CAKES- if going stale, make into trifle. The last spoonful in a jar of jam can be added here [or a jar of cranberry sauce] Yogurt will substitute for cream [stir in a tsp of icing sugar if too sharp]
SWEET BISCUITS the crumbs and broken bits in the tin will make a sweet crumb crust for a dessert. Sliced bananas and some custard will make a good filling.

Like The Frugal Queen [here] I always find it useful to make a post-Christmas audit of all food cupboards/fridge/freezer [and those tins and boxes lurking at the back of the sideboard] and then plan menus.

but I have a question for you, dear friends can anybody come up with a good way to recycle star-shaped pretzels and Twiglets?

if not, I am afraid they may end up being thoughtlessly nibbled as we watch the TV, and food eaten like that is doubly fattening.

Paris Mushroom Soup

I love mushrooms, or flavor sponges as those in the know (moi) call them. I made this soup on sunday while half watching the Pats destroy the Dolphins and lamenting that it was my last day off before back to the grind. The soup did make me feel better.

I took a few liberties with the recipe. I added some amazing grey salt with herbs de provence that I have. I added a splash of red wine instead of white because that's what the cabinet held. When blitzing up the first half of the soup in the food processor, it seemed too watery so I took out about a cup of liquid and pureed the rest. I like the consistency better that way. I also left out the little mushroom salad you make for the bottom of the bowl.

This is a great hearty soup, perfect for winter. Not so perfect, however, for photographing. Nothing like a bowl of gray soup. I guess that's why the photo in the book is of the ingredients before they become soup!

Buy this book for the recipe.

Norfolk Dumplings!

A great Sunday we had a visit from Bobs sister Denise, and her husband Kevin plus his parents John and Ruth.

Bobs turkey and pork casserole with dumplings was really tasty, served with red cabbage and chestnuts. Technically his dumplings were not proper Norfolk Dumplings, as he used suet. But they were wonderful comfort food on a cold, damp day.

My brioche based bread-and-butter pudding came out really well too. All eaten, so no pictures, sorry!

Steph reports that, with a Sainsburys bag on her arm, she has managed to have a shower, and the pain in her wrist is less intense. Thats good news. Thank you everyone for your kind get well wishes.

It is our last evening here at Cornerstones for a bit I am planning to listen to the double-length-special-60th-anniversary Archers programme shortly. After which I shall definitely need a cup of tea, if it is all to be as dramatic as they are promising.

Hoping to recover from the awful episode* in time to enjoy Rufus Sewell as Aurelio Zen. We both enjoy Michael Dibdins books about this Italian Detective, so hope it transfers well to the screen. [And I think Rufus Sewell is a great actor]

**I dont want anybody bumped off I still remember being upset by the sudden deaths of Polly Perks, John Archer, and Mark Hebden. [Im too young to have heard live the death of Grace Archer] Yes I know they are fictional, but thats not the point

iPuds!

Back in September I posted a teaser about some of the Christmas gifts I was making

The cardboard was for stiffening the covers

of the mini recipe books

containing my favourite Magic Pudding recipes

[here and here and here and here]

which I gave as Christmas presents to various friends and family members.

Some of the mini books went into baking dishes

[along with an apron, oven glove, or potholder] I hope they enjoy baking warm comfort food on cold wintry days!

The recipes came, in one way or another, via the internet which makes them iPuds, I guess. The motif on the front of the mini-book was created using one of the built-in designs on my Janome Embroidery machine [I changed the colours and added simple text] I have already had some lovely thank-you notes from the recipients. The inner pages of each book simply needed one sheet of A4, printed on both sides, cut into three, folded and stitched together.

You Cant Take It With You When You Go!

This popular motel chain has just released the list of bizarre items left behind in their bedrooms during 2010. Now I have occasionally left behind the odd toothbrush or magazine but surely you would notice the absence of a lifesize Dalek or seven artificial limbs. Or your false teeth!

Life size electric Dalek with voice changer worth 1,650 [Newcastle ]

Set of gold dentures worth 6,500 [Bridgend]

Three seat antique rocking horse worth over 1,000 [Chessington]

Decree Absolute Divorce papers [Barnstable]

Keys to a Rolls Royce Phantom [Chester]

Rolex Watch 50,000, Hermes Handbag 8,000 [Leamington]

Bengal Kitten called Tiger worth 1000 [London Docklands]

Case of royal memorabilia from Victorian era to present [Gatwick]

A four foot Yam [Cambridge Central]

10,000 cash was left in the dustbin - A customer had brought the cash to purchase a car but the sale did not go through and he threw the wrong envelope into the bin [Warrington Central ]

Traffic lollipop stick [Harrogate]

A case designed to carry 7 artificial legs with different shoes [Wolverhampton]

And then there was this one

A groom was left tied up to the bed by his friends on the eve of his wedding as a joke. No one remembered to untie him on the morning of his wedding. The wedding had to be postponed for a couple of hours so that the groom could be found. [Kendal]

Poor chap what kind of friends were they?

Apparently books are often left behind in 2010 the top two forgotten volumes were the autobiographies of Simon Cowell and Ant&Dec. Nuff Said!

We have just had overnight guests ElizabethD and her husband, of the delightful French Village Life blog. She and I have been blogfriends for a couple of years now, and have chatted on the phone and emailed quite regularly. It was really wonderful to actually meet them properly for the first time yesterday.

They were travelling south to the ferry having spent Christmas with family, and broke their journey to stop with us for b&b. I wished they could have stayed longer, it was such fun having them with us. Maybe next timeIm happy to report that they did not leave anything behind except lovely memories and a basket of hyacinths [we noticed they were very careful to take the much admired new iPad with them when they left!]

Poor Steph is really suffering with her wrist she says it is very painful, and unfortunately the story of how she broke it is amusing, so people persist in teasing her, not realising the real discomfort she is suffering. I am resisting the inner urge to rush straight down to London and [s]mother her!

Midnight Crackles

These midnight crackles may look like little lumps of dough (doesn't that sound appetizing) but they really are quite tasty. I refrigerated the dough and when I took it out of the fridge, it was much too solid to work with. I let it warm up on the counter but alas, it was still hard and crumbly when I tried to form the cookies. I did the best I could, baked up a few and hoped for the best.

The best came a day or two later- once the chocolate had fully hit the cookie after some time relaxing on the shelf, these were so good. I ate some for breakfast New Years Day. Obviously, I'm not one for resolutions.

Later I took some more dough, still rock solid, and put it in the mixer with some crushed up white chocolate pretzels and candy cane bits. I beat it up and made some more cookies. Still unattractive but a great mix of salty and chocolaty.

Try the recipe, but don't refrigerate the dough for long! The Recipe.

Definitely NOT Part Of A New Year Diet!

Thanks everyone for the wonderful pretzels suggestions.

Following a link from Fran, I came across these [here] which list processed/crushed pretzels among the ingredients.

They rejoice in the wonderful appellation of

Chubby Hubby Cookies!

and if I made them, I think Bob would be very chubby.

I did look long and hard at their art&craft potential Mags points out that some people object to using foodstuffs in that way when half the world is starving. Thats a valid point, and I am very guilty there [I confess to previous involvement in flour and water paste, teabag dyeing, potato printing, salt dough, popcorn chains, pasta picturesoh dear] I think that keeping them for next years tree as Pastasmissus suggests might not work theyd probably disintegrate in storage [unless I varnished them]

I am hoping to take cakes into the staffroom next week [see here] so I suppose I could take pretzels as well, Frances.

Or I could just grind them and put them in a jar to use instead of breadcrumbs as Liz suggests, maybe to coat chicken pieces [but how often do I actually use breadcrumbs when cooking?]

But thanks again for the ideas, everybody.

I have just spent the most delightful evening but will blog more on that tomorrow.

My Huckleberry Friend

As a child, I remember Dad reading me the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and his comrade Huckleberry Finn

And we watched the 1938 film together in the early 1960s on our little black and white TV.

Dad told me all about Mark Twain aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens where his pen name came from, his witticisms and how Twain loathed racism.

So I wasnt altogether happy to read [here] that Huck Finn is being republished in a Bowdlerised version. According to the BBC website

First published in 1884, Huckleberry Finn is considered one of the great American novels.
While telling the story of a boy's journey down the Mississippi River some time between 1835 and 1845, the novel satirises Southern attitudes on race and slavery.
"The book is an anti-racist book and to change the language changes the power of the book," said Cindy Lovell, executive director of The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, Missouri.
"He wrote to make us squirm and to poke us with a sharp stick. That was the purpose," she told Reuters news agency.
The novel has often been criticised for its language and characterisations and it is reported to be the fourth most banned book in US schools.
The "N-word" appears 219 times in the story.

I feel that the book should remain as it was written in order to make the point. I am aware that the N-word is now offensive, and would not use it but then it was in common usage and it is, to my mind, an essential part of the book. Surely it is part of the task of the teachers of literature to explain such things ot their pupils?

Can we take all classic literature and obliterate the parts which represent attitudes which are currently considered to be inappropriate/offensive/wrong? Who is going to decide what stays and what goes? And if that happens, what will be left?

Twain himself was very particular about his words, and did not take kindly to editing. He is quoted as saying that "the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter".

The New York Times has said in an editorial

There is no way to 'clean up' Twain without doing irreparable harm to the truth of his work

It does seem that the majority opinion in the States is that this new edition is pointless.

It may be the 4th most banned book in US Schools [what are the others?] but after all, Twain himself did say

God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.

I think I shall stop ranting

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt

Pleased As Punch!

At the risk of sounding like someone from the QVC shopping channel, Martha Stewart Craft punches are superb! Cleverly designed, they enable the dedicated crafter to achieve stunning results with minimum effort.

I have loads of other punches, but have never used a set as good as these snowflake ones which were my Christmas present from Bob

There is a corner punch, which can be used in three different ways; without its wings as a regular punch with both wings as a corner punch, and finally with one wing for punching an internal corner on the fold of a card.

Then there is a border punch the wings on this are printed with snowflake guides, so you can line up your punching accurately

This gives you a straight border or [this is the clever bit] you can combine it with the corner punch to punch round a corner! You are also given dimensions for punching the four sides of a square.

The largest punch in the set does an amazing deep border- or if you punch all the way along, you get a band of snowflakes

As youll see from my first shot, the wings fold up for intelligent storage.

The punches are easy to operate and the instructions are clear.

Initially the downside was all the confetti but even that proved useful.

Armed with my punches, some double sided tape, sticky foam pads, and a pack of cheap blank cards from The Works [which turned out to be exactly the right dimensions for punching round] I took my 2010 cards [plus Marions which she had kindly set aside for me] and produced my cards for 2011!

I have had enormous fun doing this, using the different punches to produce different effects.

It is also very satisfying to know that is one job out of the way! And good to do it whilst still feeling festive

I like to make cards which depict some aspect of the true Christmas story [no robins, penguins or Santas!] but this year, received fewer than ever such cards, which is sad. Among the bundle from Marion were only three [and one of them was the one we sent!!]

The non-religious cards will get recycled in other ways, dont worry! And I suspect I shall be discovering lots of other uses for my MS punches too. What a brilliant Christmas gift.

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