Finally, some more veg.....

Alas they aren't mine! Check out these pics on: Flickr carrots

Free parking? You must be joking!

My neighbour had a good moan to me yesterday about the state of the nation. Actually, he was more concerned with the state of parking, parking tickets and apparent peremptory council land-grabbing.

Turns out he has what he called a 'static' - a permanent caravan, if that's the right word - up at Dobbs Weir, alongside the Lea river. He bought the static a year ago, on the understanding that there were no plans to abandon the site in the near future. Cost him £20K, he says. Presume that means site and trailer.

Last week, the council gave the lessee of the land (the trailer park operator) notice to move out - which was passed onto the tenants - because they wanted the land back so that some company or other can dig the whole lot out to get to the gravel beneath, just in time for construction work on the London 2012 Olympics.

He was totally miffed by this, as it is an area of considerable charm and beauty (his words, I have not visited the site) alongside the river, which will be destroyed for the sake of commercial gain. Not to mention the fact that the neighbour - and all the other 'residents' are having to move out post-haste and relocate their trailers.

Although the company involved (and probably the council) evidently have the right to do this, it does seem a shame to destroy naturally beautiful parts of the capital for a few bucks.

Or is it that the local council can see a few bucks for them - an astonishingly prevalent attitude around here - and just pushed the permits through?

We had something similar in my area recently, with the council trying to justify the implementation of a CPZ (Controlled Parking Zone) on a few roads around the local railway station. Happily they were obliged to take public consultations on this, and our local residents rebelled.

They dropped the scheme in our immediate area, but a couple of other areas where it was vaunted did not object strongly enough, and are stuck with something they didn't really want. The council think it's wonderful, though - all those permits to sell!

And now that it has been introduced, but not yet implemented - at a promised low permit price of roughly 25 quid a year, they're considering the permits should be a minimum of double that, and up to 400 quid for 4WD gas-guzzlers.

I've no objection to larger cars paying more if they take up more space, but they do seem to have gone overboard this time. Sometimes I wish they would literally go overboard, whilst far out to sea.

And I won't even mention the consideration being given countrywide for measuring the amount of rubbish in your bins - they've put the council (local) taxes up consistently, yet fail to provide consistent improvements in the services provided; well, not here, anyway.

Enough.

Happy Birthday, me!

Well, that's another year over with, yet another year closer to the next existence - wherever or whatever that may be, if at all!

I get the feeling that maybe a belief in reincarnation would indicate that I'd return as something fitting to this blog - like a randy carrot, or a potato that looks like the Virgin Mary.

Birthdays are a PITA if you allow them to bug you. If no-one sends a card (despite the fact that you said you wanted no cards this year), you feel slighted; if they all ignore your pleas to help save the planet by reducing the amount of card and envelopes consumed, you feel as if they consider your entreaties as inconsequential. It's a lose-lose situation, really.

Despite the fact that I don't encourage cards, and don't actively discourage them either, I've had two real card ones this year (my mother and her next-door neighbour) and two electronic ones - one from my daughter (an emailed Powerpoint card) and one from Classic FM! My son, whose birthday was yesterday, tends to forget mine, as I almost forgot his. I did send him a txt msg and left a message on his mobile - neither have been answered, so he's obviously nursing a hangover - or something.

Later - I take it all back; got an SMS from him later this morning - make sme come over all warm and comfortable.

See what I mean about letting it get to you? It doesn't really bother me either way, but I gave up on birthdays on or around my 40th (which was sometime ago).

The picture? Part of the 'Ales Stones' an alleged burial place for a group of Vikings - see Land of the Swede II.

Hot cross buns? No problem!

Hot cross buns are go! This time, they not only tasted good,
they looked good, too.

The basis of this recipe came from a book by Jane Grigson on 'English Food'.

This is to make 6 fairly small buns.

You'll need:

175 g strong plain white flour

good pinch salt

1 teaspoon dried yeast

20 g sugar

1 teaspoon mixed sweet spice

50 ml milk

50 ml boiling water

30 g butter

1/3 (one-third) of a beaten egg (rest is used elsewhere)

70 g mixed fruit with peel

20 g shortcrust pastry

Golden syrup or 1 tablespoon sugar dissolved in just enough water (bun wash)

Method:

Mix flour, salt and sweet spice in a warmed mixing bowl. Into a small pudding basin, put the yeast, 1 teaspoon of the sugar and 50 g of the flour from the mixing bowl.

Put the milk into suitable jug, then add the boiling water straight from the kettle. Using a wooden spoon, mix this liquid slowly into the yeast, sugar and flour in the pudding basin. Make as smooth a batter as possible. Leave in a warm place to froth up - should take about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the rest of the sugar into the mixing bowl flour, add the butter in small knobs and rub in. When the yeast mixture is ready, make a well in the centre of the main mixture, add the 1/3 beaten egg and the yeast mixture, and combine using a wooden spoon. The resulting mix will be a sticky gooey mess.

Flour a warm surface (I use the drop-down lid on the cooker, having had the oven on low for half an hour - this also serves to heat up the grill compartment just enough to use as the 'warm place' for raising the dough) and knead the dough mixture, adding more flour gradually, as needed, to give you a tacky - to the touch - lump of dough, which should not stick to the surface you're using. Whatever dough you have on your fingers should rub off easily - if it doesn't, your mixture requires a tad more flour.

Wash and dry the mixing bowl, and grease it with butter. Place the dough in it, cover with a tea towel and put into a warm spot to rise. To double in size, this should take up to an hour with modern dried yeast, but if you're using fresh yeast, it may take longer.

Punch down the risen dough, and on a warm surface, knead in the mixed fruit and peel. Once this is evenly distributed, roll the whole thing into a sausage and cut into 6 pieces. Make each piece into a bun-shaped ball and place on a lightly buttered baking tray.

Your shortcrust pastry (made by blending 15 g of flour with a knob of butter and a spoonful of water) should be rolled out and cut into strips. Brush the buns with some of the remaining beaten egg and place the pastry strips on them in the traditional cross shape. Brush with the egg again afterwards.

Cover the buns with a tea towel (will get greasy) or a piece of kitchen foil, and allow to rise in the warm spot for 30 minutes. Then bake them in the middle of a hot oven (230 degrees Celcius, 450 degrees Farenheit or UK Gas mark 8) for 10-15 minutes, until they are golden brown on top but before the shortcrust strarts to darken significantly.

Immediately after removing from the oven, brush with the golden syrup or the bun wash, then put onto a cooling tray - edible in about 20 minutes!

If any survive the first tasting, to reheat them, put in a moderate oven (160-180 Celcius, 350 Farenheit, UK Gas mak 3-4) for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

For recipes on different foods, keep your browser on this space (or subscribe to the RSS feed), or look at Healthy Eating Recipes.

 

Not-so-hot cross buns

In plenty of time for Good Friday, I attempted to make some hot cross buns - you can see how they turned out.

The flavour was just right, but the texture was a little heavy, and the glaze/crosses were a disaster.

Will try again before Friday (so I'll still be in time), and post if any improvement. And if improved, I'll post the recipe, too.

 

The new spaghetti crop

It does grow on trees! The BBC proved it 50 years ago, in what was thought to be the first TV April fool spoof.

Click here to see the story as it was broadcast - courtesy of the BBC archives.

I remember seeing this myself, and being almost totally taken in. The whole story is here

For recipes on different foods, keep your browser on this space (or subscribe to the RSS feed), or look at Healthy Eating Recipes.