I've been taking quite an interest in the horse meat in burgers thing.
Not because it in any sense worries me, but because I've found the behaviour of the media really fascinating - and not in a good way.
I'm sufficiently old to remember a significant number of these health scares. One of the first I remember was Salmonella in eggs, but there's been things like BSE too. Now some of the (BSE) are genuinely of significant concern, but others (Salmonella and this horse meat one) are not far beyond a whole heap of fuss over nothing.
In this case I really think the media has taken things too far - they seem absolutely determined to whip everything up in a massive storm when it's really not that big of a deal. Yes, fraud has been committed and it's not ideal. Yes it does say a lot about our eating habits that aren't necessarily good. But there is no danger to human health from eating horsemeat.
Indeed, horse meat is actually quite good for you, it's just that culturally, for whatever reason, we have not traditionally eaten it in the UK. In France, and I'm sure many other places, they do. It is an edible meat.
But if you take the media's reaction on face value you'd think this was some Soylent Green esque nightmare where they're grinding up small babies and spoon-feeding them to invalids and the poor.
What I found particularly galling was the way they desperately hunted around for anything that might make it a health issue. They eventually found one of course - a drug called "Bute" is given to horses but is now banned for humans. This was apparently found in some of the horse carcasses, but the doses were so low you'd have had to eaten nothing but horse meat from now until the middle of next year to even get close to a human-scale dose.
And even then there are only some vague risks of side effects - this isn't some cyanide-like killer drug, it's just something some people get a side-effect from.
The whole thing is just ridiculously over-blown and the media does itself no favours when it behaves like this.
I have a bit of a theory about this sort of thing. It's actually closely related to the whole "gate" thing the media does. The Watergate scandal was the high-water mark for journalists. It's the one thing they can point to as something that never would have been known about if it wasn't for journalists. But now every journalist thinks that therefore legitimises them - it's why they stick the non-sensical "gate" at the end of stuff: "Look," they're saying. "This is us being all amazing again." even though it's normally nothing of the sort.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Thursday, 21 February 2013
Thursday, 22 November 2012
it lives
So I tested my yeast this last weekend.
The results were not exactly conclusive.
Well, I say that - I did reach a firm conclusion that the new yeast I brought is definitely okay and a packet of yeast I opened from the last batch is also probably okay. However, as to whether the older yeast is okay, I am of the feeling that it is not, but my results were cast into doubt by the new yeast.
Let me explain.
Basically, my main theory as to why my bread recently has not been rising was either that the yeast I was using is dead/contaminated/not working very well, but I was also suspicious that temperate was an issue. With the recent down-turn in temperature I was suspicious that the yeast was not getting fully activated and hence not rising properly.
That would explain why the bread rises were poor, but not completely absent - the bread wasn't like an unleavened bread, but was only about a third of what it should have been.
As such I looked up testing the yeast - what temperature to use - and discovered it was actually surprisingly warm (115F - 120F). You also put in some sugar to give it something to feed on and give it 10 minutes - no rise = dead yeast.
So I gave this a go and got a very result from my old yeast - a slight scum, but nothing to write home about. I then tried it again using my brand new yeast and the other packet I opened from a few weeks back. And I got mixed results - the new yeast went bonkers and the older yeast was somewhere in between.
However, the problem was I was not particularly stringent on the temperatures. The last one with the brand new yeast I did at the proper temperature range. The mid-age yeast I did at a warm temperature but a good way below the recommended range and the old yeast I was quite a long way below.
Now I'd not been stringent because I hadn't thought it would make a big impact, but essentially I effectively got results of: very low temperature = poor result; medium low temperate = okay result; correct temperature = great result as well as the age factor.
In other words I didn't conclusively prove that it's the yeast that's bad, only that I need to be more precise with my temperatures before I can be sure.
However, I did use the two yeasts that had worked to bake loaves and got some awesome results. I'd worried that the bread maker might be faulty, but using the new yeast in there it produced an excellent loaf and using the medium-age yeast to hand-make a loaf I got an excellent result too.
I quite like hand-making, but it can be a bit messy and is a hell of a lot more faff than just sticking it all in the machine.
Still, now I can at least test the old yeast properly next time and see if it is duff.
The results were not exactly conclusive.
Well, I say that - I did reach a firm conclusion that the new yeast I brought is definitely okay and a packet of yeast I opened from the last batch is also probably okay. However, as to whether the older yeast is okay, I am of the feeling that it is not, but my results were cast into doubt by the new yeast.
Let me explain.
Basically, my main theory as to why my bread recently has not been rising was either that the yeast I was using is dead/contaminated/not working very well, but I was also suspicious that temperate was an issue. With the recent down-turn in temperature I was suspicious that the yeast was not getting fully activated and hence not rising properly.
That would explain why the bread rises were poor, but not completely absent - the bread wasn't like an unleavened bread, but was only about a third of what it should have been.
As such I looked up testing the yeast - what temperature to use - and discovered it was actually surprisingly warm (115F - 120F). You also put in some sugar to give it something to feed on and give it 10 minutes - no rise = dead yeast.
So I gave this a go and got a very result from my old yeast - a slight scum, but nothing to write home about. I then tried it again using my brand new yeast and the other packet I opened from a few weeks back. And I got mixed results - the new yeast went bonkers and the older yeast was somewhere in between.
However, the problem was I was not particularly stringent on the temperatures. The last one with the brand new yeast I did at the proper temperature range. The mid-age yeast I did at a warm temperature but a good way below the recommended range and the old yeast I was quite a long way below.
Now I'd not been stringent because I hadn't thought it would make a big impact, but essentially I effectively got results of: very low temperature = poor result; medium low temperate = okay result; correct temperature = great result as well as the age factor.
In other words I didn't conclusively prove that it's the yeast that's bad, only that I need to be more precise with my temperatures before I can be sure.
However, I did use the two yeasts that had worked to bake loaves and got some awesome results. I'd worried that the bread maker might be faulty, but using the new yeast in there it produced an excellent loaf and using the medium-age yeast to hand-make a loaf I got an excellent result too.
I quite like hand-making, but it can be a bit messy and is a hell of a lot more faff than just sticking it all in the machine.
Still, now I can at least test the old yeast properly next time and see if it is duff.
Friday, 10 August 2012
other pics
I'd actually pre-written the post below and was intending to post it yesterday, but Thursday was absolutely manic so I didn't get the chance.
I mentioned some time back that I figured out how to get photos off my phone, so I thought I'd post the couple of random shots I took with the intention of blogging about. They're now quite old so a bit out of context. Firstly we've got some pictures I took back when the lovely summer of rain was just getting going and we were all surprised at the volume. I think we've become used to it by now.
I should explain this is a bit of road that goes down to an industrial estate and it's not an area that's prone to flooding, but as you can see it's like a small lake. It must have been a good 6 inches deep at least and was essentially the consequence of huge downpours over several days that caused all the drains and rivers to just stop clearing the water. Obviously it's the Queen's Jubilee year and we got the long bank holiday weekend, so by way of "celebration" I decided to make some fairy cakes.
As you can see I made up some red white and blue icing. However, in all honesty the icing wasn't very nice as the icing sugar was quite old so it tasted a little funny.
So if we're celebrating Britain then this must be me celebrating Britain's "multi-culturalism" and not simply because I made 6 cupcakes from the recipe and had three left over and some random bits of dark and white chocolate in the cupboard. These were a lot nicer than the iced ones, obviously as chocolate doesn't go funny if left. On these you can also see that some of the fairy cakes sunk a bit as they had a bit much batter in and when the others were finished these weren't quite set. Still it made a nice sink for me to put more chocolate in!
I mentioned some time back that I figured out how to get photos off my phone, so I thought I'd post the couple of random shots I took with the intention of blogging about. They're now quite old so a bit out of context. Firstly we've got some pictures I took back when the lovely summer of rain was just getting going and we were all surprised at the volume. I think we've become used to it by now.
I should explain this is a bit of road that goes down to an industrial estate and it's not an area that's prone to flooding, but as you can see it's like a small lake. It must have been a good 6 inches deep at least and was essentially the consequence of huge downpours over several days that caused all the drains and rivers to just stop clearing the water. Obviously it's the Queen's Jubilee year and we got the long bank holiday weekend, so by way of "celebration" I decided to make some fairy cakes.
As you can see I made up some red white and blue icing. However, in all honesty the icing wasn't very nice as the icing sugar was quite old so it tasted a little funny.
So if we're celebrating Britain then this must be me celebrating Britain's "multi-culturalism" and not simply because I made 6 cupcakes from the recipe and had three left over and some random bits of dark and white chocolate in the cupboard. These were a lot nicer than the iced ones, obviously as chocolate doesn't go funny if left. On these you can also see that some of the fairy cakes sunk a bit as they had a bit much batter in and when the others were finished these weren't quite set. Still it made a nice sink for me to put more chocolate in!
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
confusion reigns
I ate loads of crap last week and so got on the scales expecting a gain, but found I'd lost a pound.
I really found it all very confusing. The only theory I've got is that all the work I've been doing has really been sucking the energy out of me and also I had real trouble sleeping on Thursday night.
It was actually one of the weirdest bouts of insomnia I've ever had, in that I didn't actually feel tired. Well, I felt a bit tired, but not like I do after I've had one of my normal bouts of insomnia.
I've a feeling I did manage to get some sleep at the beginning and that, in effect, I actually just got up at about 1:30 in the morning. But as I say, when it became apparent that I really wasn't actually tired enough to make it even worth trying to go back to sleep, instead I watched some telly.
Usually that would then mean I'd be shattered during the day, but as I say, I was just a little bit tired - nothing particularly over what I'd expect for a Thursday after a busy week.
I did also manage to keep walking during the week. I think that helped keep the old metabolism ticking over and get the proverbial blood flowing, but I dunno, there's clearly something in the whole lack of sleep thing that means I do burn up calories. I wouldn't ever want to use it as a technique, as it's obviously not good for other reasons, but there it is.
One thing I have to say is I was particularly annoyed with myself last week eating some of the stuff I did, but I have been trying to use it to some extent to eat up some of the more random contents of my cupboards, fridge and freezer. I've managed to get through a lot of the stuff that's been kinda been "hanging about" since I started my diet.
About the only thing I've got left is a bunch of pasta meals and some rice. I'm fairly relaxed about keeping the rice, as plain rice is too boring and long-winded a food to cook for it to be "naughty eating" thing. Also, having it there means that if I sneakily buy certain meals I can cook the plain rice which is generally lower calories than the types of rice you buy, if you see what I mean.
I also felt rather daft with the extra eating too, as it was clearly... how to put it? Pointless eating driven by a desire to eat, rather than a need.
That's quite a complicated description, but what I mean is, one of the reasons people like me tend to gain weight is because we eat when we aren't hungry. A classic example of this is snacking - eating chocolate bars when you're not really hungry.
Well, in the evening what I've unfortunately been doing is eating stuff more because I'm in the habit of eating, rather than because I'm actually hungry. More often than not when it gets to evening I'm only really peckish, but because I'll have bought some extra stuff I'll eat that stuff, which is just un-necessary.
It actually represents a significant difference to how I was dieting when I first started this and I think is a reflection of the thing I was doing of buying strawberries (and other less good stuff) instead of sticking to my diet. It's that 'habit' I really need to break.
I really found it all very confusing. The only theory I've got is that all the work I've been doing has really been sucking the energy out of me and also I had real trouble sleeping on Thursday night.
It was actually one of the weirdest bouts of insomnia I've ever had, in that I didn't actually feel tired. Well, I felt a bit tired, but not like I do after I've had one of my normal bouts of insomnia.
I've a feeling I did manage to get some sleep at the beginning and that, in effect, I actually just got up at about 1:30 in the morning. But as I say, when it became apparent that I really wasn't actually tired enough to make it even worth trying to go back to sleep, instead I watched some telly.
Usually that would then mean I'd be shattered during the day, but as I say, I was just a little bit tired - nothing particularly over what I'd expect for a Thursday after a busy week.
I did also manage to keep walking during the week. I think that helped keep the old metabolism ticking over and get the proverbial blood flowing, but I dunno, there's clearly something in the whole lack of sleep thing that means I do burn up calories. I wouldn't ever want to use it as a technique, as it's obviously not good for other reasons, but there it is.
One thing I have to say is I was particularly annoyed with myself last week eating some of the stuff I did, but I have been trying to use it to some extent to eat up some of the more random contents of my cupboards, fridge and freezer. I've managed to get through a lot of the stuff that's been kinda been "hanging about" since I started my diet.
About the only thing I've got left is a bunch of pasta meals and some rice. I'm fairly relaxed about keeping the rice, as plain rice is too boring and long-winded a food to cook for it to be "naughty eating" thing. Also, having it there means that if I sneakily buy certain meals I can cook the plain rice which is generally lower calories than the types of rice you buy, if you see what I mean.
I also felt rather daft with the extra eating too, as it was clearly... how to put it? Pointless eating driven by a desire to eat, rather than a need.
That's quite a complicated description, but what I mean is, one of the reasons people like me tend to gain weight is because we eat when we aren't hungry. A classic example of this is snacking - eating chocolate bars when you're not really hungry.
Well, in the evening what I've unfortunately been doing is eating stuff more because I'm in the habit of eating, rather than because I'm actually hungry. More often than not when it gets to evening I'm only really peckish, but because I'll have bought some extra stuff I'll eat that stuff, which is just un-necessary.
It actually represents a significant difference to how I was dieting when I first started this and I think is a reflection of the thing I was doing of buying strawberries (and other less good stuff) instead of sticking to my diet. It's that 'habit' I really need to break.
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
pancake day
I think, technically, pancake day is called Shrove Tuesday and precedes Ash Wednesday and the beginning of lent.
Lent, I believe, is meant to be the period of fasting Christians go though before Easter. I think it's something to do with Jebus wandering the desert. I believe the idea was that pancakes were a way of eating up stuff like eggs and milk before lent.
These may or may not be right - I don't do religion, so I could well have mixed up some stuff.
Anyway, the real point is it's an opportunity to eat pancakes (or really what most people tend to have are the thin crepes, rather than the thicker pancakes or some recipes). I love pancakes, and have them almost without fail for my Sunday (treat day) breakfast.
My pancake recipe is a bit divergent from the normal recipe. There are plenty of recipes for pancakes, all of which involve eggs, flour and milk, but the difference with what I do is decrease the amount of egg and milk (which I also thin with water). This reduces the fat content, but also means the resultant pancakes are a little thicker than usual, which I prefer. Essentially, my batter ends up being like double cream, rather than single cream as is the norm.
In recent months I've tended to have the pancakes with fruit. When I do my main food shopping, which is usually Friday evening or Saturday morning, I try to buy berries. One of the things I found when researching my diet was that, on the whole, berries have very few calories.
So strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries - I can eat loads of them without much fear of ruining my diet. Well, so long as I tear clear of any sort of accompaniment, like cream or ice cream or sugar. But then I love berries on there own, so I don't mind that.
Actually, one thing I can and do like to do is chuck a load of berries in with a sliced up apple and poor on a low-fat yoghurt. Sort of like a very simple fruit salad. Obviously, this does make the calorie count noticeably higher, but then it's also pretty much a meal.
Anyway, point is I've tended to team my Sunday pancakes with fresh fruit. However, back when I first started this tradition I actually used to generally have lime juice. I know the normal accompaniment most people think of is lemon juice and I would have that too, but I prefer limes to lemons, so I would normally have that (you can buy bottles of the juice).
So last night I reverted to having lime juice, as obviously I didn't have any berries. But what it did dredge up in me was memories of when we were kids and my mum would cook up a batch of pancakes for pancake day. What we used to have then was orange juice, freshly squeezed from actual oranges. I remember it was a really nice combination, so this weekend I might buy an orange or two (and a juicer!) and have that for Sunday.
Lent, I believe, is meant to be the period of fasting Christians go though before Easter. I think it's something to do with Jebus wandering the desert. I believe the idea was that pancakes were a way of eating up stuff like eggs and milk before lent.
These may or may not be right - I don't do religion, so I could well have mixed up some stuff.
Anyway, the real point is it's an opportunity to eat pancakes (or really what most people tend to have are the thin crepes, rather than the thicker pancakes or some recipes). I love pancakes, and have them almost without fail for my Sunday (treat day) breakfast.
My pancake recipe is a bit divergent from the normal recipe. There are plenty of recipes for pancakes, all of which involve eggs, flour and milk, but the difference with what I do is decrease the amount of egg and milk (which I also thin with water). This reduces the fat content, but also means the resultant pancakes are a little thicker than usual, which I prefer. Essentially, my batter ends up being like double cream, rather than single cream as is the norm.
In recent months I've tended to have the pancakes with fruit. When I do my main food shopping, which is usually Friday evening or Saturday morning, I try to buy berries. One of the things I found when researching my diet was that, on the whole, berries have very few calories.
So strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries - I can eat loads of them without much fear of ruining my diet. Well, so long as I tear clear of any sort of accompaniment, like cream or ice cream or sugar. But then I love berries on there own, so I don't mind that.
Actually, one thing I can and do like to do is chuck a load of berries in with a sliced up apple and poor on a low-fat yoghurt. Sort of like a very simple fruit salad. Obviously, this does make the calorie count noticeably higher, but then it's also pretty much a meal.
Anyway, point is I've tended to team my Sunday pancakes with fresh fruit. However, back when I first started this tradition I actually used to generally have lime juice. I know the normal accompaniment most people think of is lemon juice and I would have that too, but I prefer limes to lemons, so I would normally have that (you can buy bottles of the juice).
So last night I reverted to having lime juice, as obviously I didn't have any berries. But what it did dredge up in me was memories of when we were kids and my mum would cook up a batch of pancakes for pancake day. What we used to have then was orange juice, freshly squeezed from actual oranges. I remember it was a really nice combination, so this weekend I might buy an orange or two (and a juicer!) and have that for Sunday.
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
curry and chips
The weigh in this last Sunday revealed I had lost one more pound.
Not a huge amount again, but I was actually somewhat pleased by this, as last week I ate several rather bad things.
The first bad thing I ate was a curry, which I had on Thursday as I went out for dinner. Curtailing my eating out activities has been a part of the diet, as generally most eating out involves quite a lot of calories.
I could probably have limited the calories if I'd had a vegetable curry and avoided having a naan and those poppadoms where you dip them into the sauces and a sorbet for dessert. But I didn't do any of those things - I had a Chicken Rogan Josh, one of those naans that has the coconut in it, several poppadoms liberally dipped and a lemon sorbet.
It was, to be frank, an enormous feast that I'd probably have struggled to eat even pre-diet . I guess on the upside it was so big I was rather full for and so ate less around it, but that was somewhat hampered by the fact that Friday involved a pub lunch at work to celebrate someone's birthday. And I had gammon, egg and chips.
So yeah, quite a bit of pigging out last week, unfortunately, so I was rather pleased that I'd still managed to loose a pound.
I do wonder when I have these slips what would have happened if I hadn't slipped. I mean, it seems fairly certain I would have lost more weight, but how much? Are we talking not enough to show up or several extra pounds?
I dunno - I guess what I'm saying is that I ended up with a weird mix of feeling - pleased I'd still lost weight, despite going off-plan, guilty that I could have lost more, puzzled as to whether I could eat a curry every week and still loose weight, but then worried about how long the diet would last if I did that and only lost 1 pound a week from now on.
Not a huge amount again, but I was actually somewhat pleased by this, as last week I ate several rather bad things.
The first bad thing I ate was a curry, which I had on Thursday as I went out for dinner. Curtailing my eating out activities has been a part of the diet, as generally most eating out involves quite a lot of calories.
I could probably have limited the calories if I'd had a vegetable curry and avoided having a naan and those poppadoms where you dip them into the sauces and a sorbet for dessert. But I didn't do any of those things - I had a Chicken Rogan Josh, one of those naans that has the coconut in it, several poppadoms liberally dipped and a lemon sorbet.
It was, to be frank, an enormous feast that I'd probably have struggled to eat even pre-diet . I guess on the upside it was so big I was rather full for and so ate less around it, but that was somewhat hampered by the fact that Friday involved a pub lunch at work to celebrate someone's birthday. And I had gammon, egg and chips.
So yeah, quite a bit of pigging out last week, unfortunately, so I was rather pleased that I'd still managed to loose a pound.
I do wonder when I have these slips what would have happened if I hadn't slipped. I mean, it seems fairly certain I would have lost more weight, but how much? Are we talking not enough to show up or several extra pounds?
I dunno - I guess what I'm saying is that I ended up with a weird mix of feeling - pleased I'd still lost weight, despite going off-plan, guilty that I could have lost more, puzzled as to whether I could eat a curry every week and still loose weight, but then worried about how long the diet would last if I did that and only lost 1 pound a week from now on.
Monday, 20 December 2010
bloody hard work
So this last Saturday the snow I was worried about turned up.
It was rather surreal, actually, as I went for my usual Saturday morning walk and it was bloody cold, but totally snow free. Then, just as I was coming up the road to where I live a few flakes started.
I then effectively went back to bed (well, had my breakfast and, because I'd done everything I needed to like shopping and buying petrol during the week before, I just sort of lounged about instead of having a shower and getting up properly) and watched some telly. When I eventually got up for my shower, I glanced out of the window and there was a good 2 inches of snow covering everything.
It was quite a shock just how quickly it had come down, and by the time it eventually stopped, it was a good three inches deep. That was at about lunchtime and I considered going out and clearing some of it away. However, I wasn't sure if any more was expected, and also I had to clean the bed-sit and by the time I was done it was pretty much dark.
When I got up on Sunday, there'd been no overnight snow, but it had clearly been a super cold one, as the snow that had fallen had compacted down quite a bit. The forecasts were saying no new snow was due, so I therefore decided mid-morning to get out and do a bit of snow clearing.
If you've ever done this, you'll know it's incredibly hard work. The weird thing is that snow doesn't weigh very much, but shovelling it around is still really hard. I'd actually bought a spade to put in the car, but it turned out to be a bit rubbish, as the surface of the shovel head was too smooth, so the snow slipped off, inefficiently.
However, my landlord had left a yard broom out and I found that to be much more effective. It's odd - I've always found sweeping the snow is much more effective at clearing it, but it's even harder work, even though you're not lifting anything. You also have to be clever about it, as if you start in the wrong place you end up with a big mound that you then have to shovel anyway.
So yeah, cleared the snow for about an hour and a half and then went for a huge lie down, as I was utterly shattered.
The other thing I did of note this weekend was lots of cooking.
Specifically, I made two lots of my amazing bolognaise sauce. I did one lot on Saturday and one on Sunday. I obviously ate some on each of those days, but I bagged up and froze the rest.
My cupboards and freezer are now stuffed with loads of food, including stuff that needs next to no cooking and other stuff that is basically just ingredients. After last year when I got stuck in and found my pack-rat tendencies a real life saver, this year I've deliberately stocked up so that if I get stuck in like I did again I can last ages.
The only thing I won't have is fresh fruit and veg, so it won't be ideal, but I can still go for a good long while on my "stores". Hopefully, if things go well, I'll be able to get down to Devon to see my dad for Christmas, and then on the way back I can shop and get a big load of said fresh fruit and veg that will last me for a good while.
Oh, and mentioning cooking, I completely forgot to blog about this when it was happening, but a few weeks ago, I discovered I'd bought the most amazing box of eggs.
Basically, every two weeks I buy a new six pack of eggs, and then eat three every week. I actually have all of them on Sunday, which has been my (small) treat day and I use one to make pancakes in the morning and have two as boiled egg sarnis in the evening.
Anyway, this box of six eggs contained five with double-yokes. It was the weirdest thing - cracking open or cutting into the egg to discover it was yet another double-yoker. I'm guessing that it was to do with how they sort them, but it was very freaky.
Oh, and I should also say that, when I weighed myself on Sunday I had gained a pound in weight. Given I was unable to do any walking past Saturday morning and how big work Christmas dinner was, I'm not too surprised at this, and I think it's now pretty much official that the diet is on hold.
Given I've lost more than 40 pounds (about 3 stone) I'm not too bothered about a few weeks of small gain over Christmas, though it would have been nice to hit my target.
It was rather surreal, actually, as I went for my usual Saturday morning walk and it was bloody cold, but totally snow free. Then, just as I was coming up the road to where I live a few flakes started.
I then effectively went back to bed (well, had my breakfast and, because I'd done everything I needed to like shopping and buying petrol during the week before, I just sort of lounged about instead of having a shower and getting up properly) and watched some telly. When I eventually got up for my shower, I glanced out of the window and there was a good 2 inches of snow covering everything.
It was quite a shock just how quickly it had come down, and by the time it eventually stopped, it was a good three inches deep. That was at about lunchtime and I considered going out and clearing some of it away. However, I wasn't sure if any more was expected, and also I had to clean the bed-sit and by the time I was done it was pretty much dark.
When I got up on Sunday, there'd been no overnight snow, but it had clearly been a super cold one, as the snow that had fallen had compacted down quite a bit. The forecasts were saying no new snow was due, so I therefore decided mid-morning to get out and do a bit of snow clearing.
If you've ever done this, you'll know it's incredibly hard work. The weird thing is that snow doesn't weigh very much, but shovelling it around is still really hard. I'd actually bought a spade to put in the car, but it turned out to be a bit rubbish, as the surface of the shovel head was too smooth, so the snow slipped off, inefficiently.
However, my landlord had left a yard broom out and I found that to be much more effective. It's odd - I've always found sweeping the snow is much more effective at clearing it, but it's even harder work, even though you're not lifting anything. You also have to be clever about it, as if you start in the wrong place you end up with a big mound that you then have to shovel anyway.
So yeah, cleared the snow for about an hour and a half and then went for a huge lie down, as I was utterly shattered.
The other thing I did of note this weekend was lots of cooking.
Specifically, I made two lots of my amazing bolognaise sauce. I did one lot on Saturday and one on Sunday. I obviously ate some on each of those days, but I bagged up and froze the rest.
My cupboards and freezer are now stuffed with loads of food, including stuff that needs next to no cooking and other stuff that is basically just ingredients. After last year when I got stuck in and found my pack-rat tendencies a real life saver, this year I've deliberately stocked up so that if I get stuck in like I did again I can last ages.
The only thing I won't have is fresh fruit and veg, so it won't be ideal, but I can still go for a good long while on my "stores". Hopefully, if things go well, I'll be able to get down to Devon to see my dad for Christmas, and then on the way back I can shop and get a big load of said fresh fruit and veg that will last me for a good while.
Oh, and mentioning cooking, I completely forgot to blog about this when it was happening, but a few weeks ago, I discovered I'd bought the most amazing box of eggs.
Basically, every two weeks I buy a new six pack of eggs, and then eat three every week. I actually have all of them on Sunday, which has been my (small) treat day and I use one to make pancakes in the morning and have two as boiled egg sarnis in the evening.
Anyway, this box of six eggs contained five with double-yokes. It was the weirdest thing - cracking open or cutting into the egg to discover it was yet another double-yoker. I'm guessing that it was to do with how they sort them, but it was very freaky.
Oh, and I should also say that, when I weighed myself on Sunday I had gained a pound in weight. Given I was unable to do any walking past Saturday morning and how big work Christmas dinner was, I'm not too surprised at this, and I think it's now pretty much official that the diet is on hold.
Given I've lost more than 40 pounds (about 3 stone) I'm not too bothered about a few weeks of small gain over Christmas, though it would have been nice to hit my target.
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
biscuits
Isn't it funny how people can have completely different attitudes and approaches to the simplest of things? A classic example of this, I think, is biscuits.
Now for me, a stale biscuit is the work of Satan.
But, when biscuits do go stale, one of the changes in their character is a shift from crispy and crunchy to soggy and moist. This, fundamentally, is why I hate stale biscuits. A biscuit should snap when you twist it, not bend. That's why, despite all the chocolate and wafery-ness, a kit Kat is still a biscuit, where a mars bar is a chocolate bar. And why a Jaffa Cake is a cake.
However, I'm a great fan of the dunked biscuits. Indeed, when at home and given access to both tea (or coffee) and biscuits, I will inevitably enjoy a session of dunking one into the other.
There's an art to the perfect dunk. You have to time it so that the biscuit is suitably wetened, but not so much that it collapses and half you biscuit falls into your tea. But here's the contradiction - clearly, when dunked, a biscuit is very wet indeed, and I like this. But I hat stale biscuits.
An anti-dunker made this point to me and really they're correct. I was left floundering with the half-hearted riposte of words to the effect that "no, they're not the same" when really the difference is not all that great. But for me the point remains - dunked biscuits are good, but stale biscuits are bad.
If a biscuit has gone even slightly stale I will reject it like an implanted kidney. Biscuit staleness is caused by air getting to the biscuit - a biscuit will only stay crisp if it is protected from the moisture filled terror that is the atmosphere in general. There are several ways to achieve this. First off, you can buy a proper biscuit barrel. These have a little container filled with special moisture absorbing crystals that dry out the air in the tin when the lid is closed.
Alternatively, you can do what I do and ensure that the biscuits effectively remain properly packed in the wrapping the came in. To do this, you only open the biscuits at the top (not the entire pack) and then carefully seal them closed by twisting the loose wrapping and adding sufficient air-tight cling film to prevent deadly atmosphere contamination.
I'm very careful about the above and I know of nobody who likes a stale biscuit, so you'd think other people would be to.
But they aren't. At work, people will brig biscuits in and proceed to open the entire pack and put it into the tin we have. If this were a proper biscuit tin it would be okay, but it isn't, so as quickly as the next day the biscuits will have gone stale. And all they needed to do was take adequate precautions, but I guess they have different attitudes and do different things.
I mean, one person put some biscuits into the fridge. The fridge of all places! That's just asking for trouble. They weren't even chocolate biscuits.
Now for me, a stale biscuit is the work of Satan.
But, when biscuits do go stale, one of the changes in their character is a shift from crispy and crunchy to soggy and moist. This, fundamentally, is why I hate stale biscuits. A biscuit should snap when you twist it, not bend. That's why, despite all the chocolate and wafery-ness, a kit Kat is still a biscuit, where a mars bar is a chocolate bar. And why a Jaffa Cake is a cake.
However, I'm a great fan of the dunked biscuits. Indeed, when at home and given access to both tea (or coffee) and biscuits, I will inevitably enjoy a session of dunking one into the other.
There's an art to the perfect dunk. You have to time it so that the biscuit is suitably wetened, but not so much that it collapses and half you biscuit falls into your tea. But here's the contradiction - clearly, when dunked, a biscuit is very wet indeed, and I like this. But I hat stale biscuits.
An anti-dunker made this point to me and really they're correct. I was left floundering with the half-hearted riposte of words to the effect that "no, they're not the same" when really the difference is not all that great. But for me the point remains - dunked biscuits are good, but stale biscuits are bad.
If a biscuit has gone even slightly stale I will reject it like an implanted kidney. Biscuit staleness is caused by air getting to the biscuit - a biscuit will only stay crisp if it is protected from the moisture filled terror that is the atmosphere in general. There are several ways to achieve this. First off, you can buy a proper biscuit barrel. These have a little container filled with special moisture absorbing crystals that dry out the air in the tin when the lid is closed.
Alternatively, you can do what I do and ensure that the biscuits effectively remain properly packed in the wrapping the came in. To do this, you only open the biscuits at the top (not the entire pack) and then carefully seal them closed by twisting the loose wrapping and adding sufficient air-tight cling film to prevent deadly atmosphere contamination.
I'm very careful about the above and I know of nobody who likes a stale biscuit, so you'd think other people would be to.
But they aren't. At work, people will brig biscuits in and proceed to open the entire pack and put it into the tin we have. If this were a proper biscuit tin it would be okay, but it isn't, so as quickly as the next day the biscuits will have gone stale. And all they needed to do was take adequate precautions, but I guess they have different attitudes and do different things.
I mean, one person put some biscuits into the fridge. The fridge of all places! That's just asking for trouble. They weren't even chocolate biscuits.
Monday, 5 July 2010
oh that holiday
So Sunday morning I looked out the window and noticed my landlord buggering about with his caravan.
And then Sunday afternoon he knocks and my door and explains how they'll be setting off tomorrow (Monday) and here' the key to look after his place.
Which presumably means I'll get home and they'll be gone. And I'm left slightly puzzled as to whether I'm going bonkers or he's just changed the date. He didn't mention he did and I was in the middle of dinner (he's got a hell of a knack of knocking on my door while I'm eating or just about to take something out of the oven) so I didn't ask, but I'm pretty sure he said he was heading off on the 1st of July.
I dunno, maybe he didn't say that date or maybe he changed it because of the rain, it just gets very confusing is all.
I'm now about half of the way through Matter. It's very good, but I have to admit it feels like it's a little padded. Well I say that, in the midpoint, Banks is essentially juggling 4 plot-threads at the same time and it keeps moving between them in a sort of languid way.
No, that's not right - it's like every time we switch narrative you shift into a different gear. Some of the stuff is told almost in a summary way, while other bits are told at a very leisurely pace. It's not a bad thing, because Banks's stuff is always very entertaining and readable, it's just that when I reached page 300 and realised I'm only half way through I think I sort of which he'd only had 3 plot threads, if you see what I mean.
My little toe on my foot ached like a bugger on Friday, and then Sunday it itched like mad. This is the one that I banged and while scratching it bits of scar tissue were coming away. That usually means it's all healed if the old scar tissue is breaking away, but it doesn't half make things look messy.
And speaking of Friday we went to the pub at lunch for a work colleagues birthday. I wouldn't usually mention this sort of thing, but it was a slightly bizarre experience. We went to a pub called the French Horn, which we've been to a handful of times over the ten years I've worked here.
Usually I associate it with being very busy at lunch - it's a well known gastro pub, but we were virtually the only people in there. And perhaps the explanation was that the food was really odd.
I had belly pork, which was reasonable enough, but it had this sauce with it that I thought was going to be normal apple sauce, but it was actually a sort of creamy sauce that was apple flavoured. Also, the crackling on the top was weirdly chewy where I normally associate it with being crispy.
And then the pudding. I had a fruit crumble and it turned up and was crunchy. At first, I thought this must be in the crumble, but then the actual fruit bit had crunchy stuff in it too. Now I can't be sure because the fruit was obviously brightly coloured and the crumble was covered in custard, but I'm pretty sure these crunchy bits were peanuts.
Yes, that's right, peanuts in a fruit crumble. It was just plain wrong and, tbh, slightly unpleasent.
oh that holiday
So Sunday morning I looked out the window and noticed my landlord buggering about with his caravan.
And then Sunday afternoon he knocks and my door and explains how they'll be setting off tomorrow (Monday) and here' the key to look after his place.
Which presumably means I'll get home and they'll be gone. And I'm left slightly puzzled as to whether I'm going bonkers or he's just changed the date. He didn't mention he did and I was in the middle of dinner (he's got a hell of a knack of knocking on my door while I'm eating or just about to take something out of the oven) so I didn't ask, but I'm pretty sure he said he was heading off on the 1st of July.
I dunno, maybe he didn't say that date or maybe he changed it because of the rain, it just gets very confusing is all.
I'm now about half of the way through Matter. It's very good, but I have to admit it feels like it's a little padded. Well I say that, in the midpoint, Banks is essentially juggling 4 plot-threads at the same time and it keeps moving between them in a sort of languid way.
No, that's not right - it's like every time we switch narrative you shift into a different gear. Some of the stuff is told almost in a summary way, while other bits are told at a very leisurely pace. It's not a bad thing, because Banks's stuff is always very entertaining and readable, it's just that when I reached page 300 and realised I'm only half way through I think I sort of which he'd only had 3 plot threads, if you see what I mean.
My little toe on my foot ached like a bugger on Friday, and then Sunday it itched like mad. This is the one that I banged and while scratching it bits of scar tissue were coming away. That usually means it's all healed if the old scar tissue is breaking away, but it doesn't half make things look messy.
And speaking of Friday we went to the pub at lunch for a work colleagues birthday. I wouldn't usually mention this sort of thing, but it was a slightly bizarre experience. We went to a pub called the French Horn, which we've been to a handful of times over the ten years I've worked here.
Usually I associate it with being very busy at lunch - it's a well known gastro pub, but we were virtually the only people in there. And perhaps the explanation was that the food was really odd.
I had belly pork, which was reasonable enough, but it had this sauce with it that I thought was going to be normal apple sauce, but it was actually a sort of creamy sauce that was apple flavoured. Also, the crackling on the top was weirdly chewy where I normally associate it with being crispy.
And then the pudding. I had a fruit crumble and it turned up and was crunchy. At first, I thought this must be in the crumble, but then the actual fruit bit had crunchy stuff in it too. Now I can't be sure because the fruit was obviously brightly coloured and the crumble was covered in custard, but I'm pretty sure these crunchy bits were peanuts.
Yes, that's right, peanuts in a fruit crumble. It was just plain wrong and, tbh, slightly unpleasent.
And then Sunday afternoon he knocks and my door and explains how they'll be setting off tomorrow (Monday) and here' the key to look after his place.
Which presumably means I'll get home and they'll be gone. And I'm left slightly puzzled as to whether I'm going bonkers or he's just changed the date. He didn't mention he did and I was in the middle of dinner (he's got a hell of a knack of knocking on my door while I'm eating or just about to take something out of the oven) so I didn't ask, but I'm pretty sure he said he was heading off on the 1st of July.
I dunno, maybe he didn't say that date or maybe he changed it because of the rain, it just gets very confusing is all.
I'm now about half of the way through Matter. It's very good, but I have to admit it feels like it's a little padded. Well I say that, in the midpoint, Banks is essentially juggling 4 plot-threads at the same time and it keeps moving between them in a sort of languid way.
No, that's not right - it's like every time we switch narrative you shift into a different gear. Some of the stuff is told almost in a summary way, while other bits are told at a very leisurely pace. It's not a bad thing, because Banks's stuff is always very entertaining and readable, it's just that when I reached page 300 and realised I'm only half way through I think I sort of which he'd only had 3 plot threads, if you see what I mean.
My little toe on my foot ached like a bugger on Friday, and then Sunday it itched like mad. This is the one that I banged and while scratching it bits of scar tissue were coming away. That usually means it's all healed if the old scar tissue is breaking away, but it doesn't half make things look messy.
And speaking of Friday we went to the pub at lunch for a work colleagues birthday. I wouldn't usually mention this sort of thing, but it was a slightly bizarre experience. We went to a pub called the French Horn, which we've been to a handful of times over the ten years I've worked here.
Usually I associate it with being very busy at lunch - it's a well known gastro pub, but we were virtually the only people in there. And perhaps the explanation was that the food was really odd.
I had belly pork, which was reasonable enough, but it had this sauce with it that I thought was going to be normal apple sauce, but it was actually a sort of creamy sauce that was apple flavoured. Also, the crackling on the top was weirdly chewy where I normally associate it with being crispy.
And then the pudding. I had a fruit crumble and it turned up and was crunchy. At first, I thought this must be in the crumble, but then the actual fruit bit had crunchy stuff in it too. Now I can't be sure because the fruit was obviously brightly coloured and the crumble was covered in custard, but I'm pretty sure these crunchy bits were peanuts.
Yes, that's right, peanuts in a fruit crumble. It was just plain wrong and, tbh, slightly unpleasent.
oh that holiday
So Sunday morning I looked out the window and noticed my landlord buggering about with his caravan.
And then Sunday afternoon he knocks and my door and explains how they'll be setting off tomorrow (Monday) and here' the key to look after his place.
Which presumably means I'll get home and they'll be gone. And I'm left slightly puzzled as to whether I'm going bonkers or he's just changed the date. He didn't mention he did and I was in the middle of dinner (he's got a hell of a knack of knocking on my door while I'm eating or just about to take something out of the oven) so I didn't ask, but I'm pretty sure he said he was heading off on the 1st of July.
I dunno, maybe he didn't say that date or maybe he changed it because of the rain, it just gets very confusing is all.
I'm now about half of the way through Matter. It's very good, but I have to admit it feels like it's a little padded. Well I say that, in the midpoint, Banks is essentially juggling 4 plot-threads at the same time and it keeps moving between them in a sort of languid way.
No, that's not right - it's like every time we switch narrative you shift into a different gear. Some of the stuff is told almost in a summary way, while other bits are told at a very leisurely pace. It's not a bad thing, because Banks's stuff is always very entertaining and readable, it's just that when I reached page 300 and realised I'm only half way through I think I sort of which he'd only had 3 plot threads, if you see what I mean.
My little toe on my foot ached like a bugger on Friday, and then Sunday it itched like mad. This is the one that I banged and while scratching it bits of scar tissue were coming away. That usually means it's all healed if the old scar tissue is breaking away, but it doesn't half make things look messy.
And speaking of Friday we went to the pub at lunch for a work colleagues birthday. I wouldn't usually mention this sort of thing, but it was a slightly bizarre experience. We went to a pub called the French Horn, which we've been to a handful of times over the ten years I've worked here.
Usually I associate it with being very busy at lunch - it's a well known gastro pub, but we were virtually the only people in there. And perhaps the explanation was that the food was really odd.
I had belly pork, which was reasonable enough, but it had this sauce with it that I thought was going to be normal apple sauce, but it was actually a sort of creamy sauce that was apple flavoured. Also, the crackling on the top was weirdly chewy where I normally associate it with being crispy.
And then the pudding. I had a fruit crumble and it turned up and was crunchy. At first, I thought this must be in the crumble, but then the actual fruit bit had crunchy stuff in it too. Now I can't be sure because the fruit was obviously brightly coloured and the crumble was covered in custard, but I'm pretty sure these crunchy bits were peanuts.
Yes, that's right, peanuts in a fruit crumble. It was just plain wrong and, tbh, slightly unpleasent.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
too much food
Dinner last night was a bit weird.
When I went home for Christmas my Dad gave me a bunch of food. This happens every Christmas, because, even though he doesn't buy excessive amounts, he still buys too much stuff. Basically, it's because he's buying extra things on top of what he normally buys anyway.
But also recently, he's started giving me meat. The reason is that a friend of his gives him meat (it's complicated) and because he can't eat it all, he bungs it in the freezer and then passes it on to me when I visit.
Now this is fine in concept, only he doesn't really tend to think it through enough. So, for example, last time he gave me some pork chops. This would be great - ideal even, because obviously you can do as many chops as you need, right? Except he froze all four chops as one lump.
That's a lot of chops in anyone's book and it also means you can't cook them individually under the grill or anything. I effectively had to treat them as a large roast, but then they're rubbish like that, because they're very bony and fatty, so you can't really keep the leftovers. In other words, I cooked the whole thing, but could only eat the main meat part of the chop.
Plus, I don't know about you, but I can't just eat a chop on its own as a meal, so I ended up doing a full roast, so it's really a big meal. So anyway, I informed him of this when I next saw him and he now freezes the chops individually.
However, at Christmas he game me a proper roasting joint of pork. It was a big joint and I finally decided this weekend to tackle it.
One of the things about pork I find is that it doesn't really shrink. Most meats do - if you roast beef, for example, what comes out of the oven will be up to a third smaller that what went in, in my experience. But that doesn't seem to work for pork - what come out is roughly the size of what went in.
I could easily have gotten four meals off of this joint, but instead I had big portions and did three meals. In other words, on Saturday I cooked a full roast that featured pork, apple sauce, gravy, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, carrots and peas.
From that, I ended up with cold meat, Yorkshires, apple sauce and the gravy, so on Sunday I reheated those and did some more roast potatoes, carrots and peas and had another roast.
But then Monday I obviously still had meat, Yorkshires, apple sauce and gravy left, so what to do?
Normally when I do a roast, what I do is I have the Saturday and Sunday roast, but then I make a stew on Monday, half of which I can keep and have on Tuesday. I don't do it that often - perhaps once a month? - as it's complicated and time consuming, but it also represents great value for money. Generally speaking home cooking is always cheaper, especially when your most expensive ingredient (the meat) goes a long way.
Anyway, the problem was that I don't really like making stews with pork. My stew recipe works for dark meats - beef and lamb, in particular - but it's not so good for white meats like pork and chicken.
That meant only one option - do more potatoes and carrots and have another 'roast' (I actually boiled the potatoes as it was quicker - well I steamed them technically, but you know what I mean).
So rather bizarrely I've eaten full roast dinner for three days in a row. I still feel a bit full now :/.
When I went home for Christmas my Dad gave me a bunch of food. This happens every Christmas, because, even though he doesn't buy excessive amounts, he still buys too much stuff. Basically, it's because he's buying extra things on top of what he normally buys anyway.
But also recently, he's started giving me meat. The reason is that a friend of his gives him meat (it's complicated) and because he can't eat it all, he bungs it in the freezer and then passes it on to me when I visit.
Now this is fine in concept, only he doesn't really tend to think it through enough. So, for example, last time he gave me some pork chops. This would be great - ideal even, because obviously you can do as many chops as you need, right? Except he froze all four chops as one lump.
That's a lot of chops in anyone's book and it also means you can't cook them individually under the grill or anything. I effectively had to treat them as a large roast, but then they're rubbish like that, because they're very bony and fatty, so you can't really keep the leftovers. In other words, I cooked the whole thing, but could only eat the main meat part of the chop.
Plus, I don't know about you, but I can't just eat a chop on its own as a meal, so I ended up doing a full roast, so it's really a big meal. So anyway, I informed him of this when I next saw him and he now freezes the chops individually.
However, at Christmas he game me a proper roasting joint of pork. It was a big joint and I finally decided this weekend to tackle it.
One of the things about pork I find is that it doesn't really shrink. Most meats do - if you roast beef, for example, what comes out of the oven will be up to a third smaller that what went in, in my experience. But that doesn't seem to work for pork - what come out is roughly the size of what went in.
I could easily have gotten four meals off of this joint, but instead I had big portions and did three meals. In other words, on Saturday I cooked a full roast that featured pork, apple sauce, gravy, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, carrots and peas.
From that, I ended up with cold meat, Yorkshires, apple sauce and the gravy, so on Sunday I reheated those and did some more roast potatoes, carrots and peas and had another roast.
But then Monday I obviously still had meat, Yorkshires, apple sauce and gravy left, so what to do?
Normally when I do a roast, what I do is I have the Saturday and Sunday roast, but then I make a stew on Monday, half of which I can keep and have on Tuesday. I don't do it that often - perhaps once a month? - as it's complicated and time consuming, but it also represents great value for money. Generally speaking home cooking is always cheaper, especially when your most expensive ingredient (the meat) goes a long way.
Anyway, the problem was that I don't really like making stews with pork. My stew recipe works for dark meats - beef and lamb, in particular - but it's not so good for white meats like pork and chicken.
That meant only one option - do more potatoes and carrots and have another 'roast' (I actually boiled the potatoes as it was quicker - well I steamed them technically, but you know what I mean).
So rather bizarrely I've eaten full roast dinner for three days in a row. I still feel a bit full now :/.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
dough you know what i mean
I'd normally be putting a film review on the blog today, but the Love Film scheduling means that this weekend I was without a rental (I only get 3 a month - it's a legacy thin from when it was Amazon rental) but also of course I didn't watch any of my bought DVD films because I was so busy watching all the telly recorded.
So instead I thought I'd talk about last night's second attempt at roll making.
It had the same basic outcome as the last time - the dough that came out of the machine was very sticky and I had to add extra flour and knead that in, in order to be able to form it into the roll shapes.
The problem was I don't know if that was because I messed the recipe up again or not, because what I tried to do was tweak the recipe. The last lot of roles was too much - I mentioned they used a lot of flour and that resulted in really big rolls that were too much to really eat in a sensible fashion.
So what I tried to do was halve the recipe, only the measure are such that that isn't easy to do. I mean, what's half of 3 & 1/4 cups? 1.5 cups and 1/8th of a cup is the answer, but that's not easy to measure. That means I could easily have botched the recipe again.
The other problem was that my timing wasn't great - last night I had quite a complicated dinner to cook as well. If I'd really been thinking I'd have just done a normal loaf, but I wasn't and so ended up adding more effort into an already hectic schedule.
So, for example, if I'd really been thinking about it I'd have actually only made the dough into four reasonably sized rolls, rather than the 6 half sized ones I did. But with me dashing about I didn't think, so I made that error.
However, I'm actually fairly convinced I got the recipe about right, but still it gave me the really sticky dough. I mean, the end result was okay, but the super-sticky dough makes it quite a complicated process. I'm therefore coming around to the idea of maybe not doing rolls as frequently as envisaged, owing to how messy the kneading is. I could maybe do them just for the weekend or something.
I've been continuing to watch Saki and it's Mah-jong related antics. I've still got the very strong feeling that if I properly understood Mah-jong then I'd enjoy it a little more, but I can still get the general jist as it's quite well done.
One of the interesting aspects of the show is that Yuri (basically lesbianism) seems to abound. Like 75% of all anime, the series is set in high school, and if the series is to be believed, it would seem that if a girl is interested in Mah-jong she's also interested in the contents of her fellow female team-mates knickers.
Not that there's anything wrong with that of course (No, Sir), but it does get a bit silly at times.
The other interesting thing about it is the way they depict the games of Mah-jong. It's done like one of those Beyblade/Pokemon tournament battle anime, with all like special moves. Lightning forks are everywhere and we keep slipping into a kind of virtual representation world where the characters are engaged in physical combat.
But it's for Mah-jong. Which is closer to chess than karate. The clever thing is that it manages to strike a good balance between knowing this approach is silly and also taking it seriously that really works.
So instead I thought I'd talk about last night's second attempt at roll making.
It had the same basic outcome as the last time - the dough that came out of the machine was very sticky and I had to add extra flour and knead that in, in order to be able to form it into the roll shapes.
The problem was I don't know if that was because I messed the recipe up again or not, because what I tried to do was tweak the recipe. The last lot of roles was too much - I mentioned they used a lot of flour and that resulted in really big rolls that were too much to really eat in a sensible fashion.
So what I tried to do was halve the recipe, only the measure are such that that isn't easy to do. I mean, what's half of 3 & 1/4 cups? 1.5 cups and 1/8th of a cup is the answer, but that's not easy to measure. That means I could easily have botched the recipe again.
The other problem was that my timing wasn't great - last night I had quite a complicated dinner to cook as well. If I'd really been thinking I'd have just done a normal loaf, but I wasn't and so ended up adding more effort into an already hectic schedule.
So, for example, if I'd really been thinking about it I'd have actually only made the dough into four reasonably sized rolls, rather than the 6 half sized ones I did. But with me dashing about I didn't think, so I made that error.
However, I'm actually fairly convinced I got the recipe about right, but still it gave me the really sticky dough. I mean, the end result was okay, but the super-sticky dough makes it quite a complicated process. I'm therefore coming around to the idea of maybe not doing rolls as frequently as envisaged, owing to how messy the kneading is. I could maybe do them just for the weekend or something.
I've been continuing to watch Saki and it's Mah-jong related antics. I've still got the very strong feeling that if I properly understood Mah-jong then I'd enjoy it a little more, but I can still get the general jist as it's quite well done.
One of the interesting aspects of the show is that Yuri (basically lesbianism) seems to abound. Like 75% of all anime, the series is set in high school, and if the series is to be believed, it would seem that if a girl is interested in Mah-jong she's also interested in the contents of her fellow female team-mates knickers.
Not that there's anything wrong with that of course (No, Sir), but it does get a bit silly at times.
The other interesting thing about it is the way they depict the games of Mah-jong. It's done like one of those Beyblade/Pokemon tournament battle anime, with all like special moves. Lightning forks are everywhere and we keep slipping into a kind of virtual representation world where the characters are engaged in physical combat.
But it's for Mah-jong. Which is closer to chess than karate. The clever thing is that it manages to strike a good balance between knowing this approach is silly and also taking it seriously that really works.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
rollover
This last weekend I finally had my first crack at making bread rolls.
My dad bought me a bread maker for me last birthday and I've pretty much used it constantly since then. However, I haven't been particularly adventurous with it, having stuck basically to standard white/brown loafs.
But the machine itself has loads of different settings that led you make all sorts of different breads. Of these, the one that intrigued me the most was bread rolls.
One of the problems with the loaves is that, without the preservatives and other things they put into supermarket bread, they go stale really quickly. Now stale bread is something I'm not at all keen on, so it means I have to use up the bread quickly, which can restrict my meal options, or throw it away, which is rather wasteful.
My hope is that rolls will last a little longer, or at the very least will be slightly more manageable from a meal-eating point of view. But there were two potential issues that were holding me back from trying.
First off the recipe seemed a bit complicated. Basically, when you make normal, yeast-based bread you have to have two periods of 'proving'. This is when the yeast really does its 'thing', pumping out carbon dioxide that forms the bubbles that make bread the fluffy thing we all love.
With the normal loaves, these proving periods are covered in the machine's program where it just sits and waits, before doing more mixing. For the rolls you use a setting called 'dough' that only has 1 period of mixing and proving.
The idea then is that you hoik the dough out, knead it, chop it into individual rolls that you shape and then leave, covered, to prove a second time.
This sounded rather complicated and prone to error, so I've been afraid to try it. The other issue was that the recipe uses loads of flour - nearly twice as much as the loaves I've been doing - so I was afraid I'd balls it up and use up the flour.
My plan then was to make a normal loaf and then immediately try out the rolls. Given that a normal loaf takes 3 hours and the dough setting takes 1.5 hours, the 2nd proving period takes half an hour and the baking takes at least 15 minutes, you can therefore see why I waited until the weekend!
The final result was... (drum-roll)... actually not all that bad.
I did fuck up the recipe a little. Ironically I realised I didn't put the correct amount of flour in. This had the effect of making the dough very sticky, but with some good old fashioned elbow-grease, I kneaded in the extra dough.
I think the lack of flour also made it rise too much - not enough weight to stop it, if you see what I mean. And I was afraid my error and attempt to correct would have the opposite effect.
But nope, after the 2nd resting, the rolls did indeed inflate, and after baking I tried one out and it was really quite nice.
I left the rest of them and checked them out last night. They'd definitely declined in freshness like the normal loafs, but they seemed better and were still quite soft and moist.
Altogether then, I'd say it was something of a success.
My dad bought me a bread maker for me last birthday and I've pretty much used it constantly since then. However, I haven't been particularly adventurous with it, having stuck basically to standard white/brown loafs.
But the machine itself has loads of different settings that led you make all sorts of different breads. Of these, the one that intrigued me the most was bread rolls.
One of the problems with the loaves is that, without the preservatives and other things they put into supermarket bread, they go stale really quickly. Now stale bread is something I'm not at all keen on, so it means I have to use up the bread quickly, which can restrict my meal options, or throw it away, which is rather wasteful.
My hope is that rolls will last a little longer, or at the very least will be slightly more manageable from a meal-eating point of view. But there were two potential issues that were holding me back from trying.
First off the recipe seemed a bit complicated. Basically, when you make normal, yeast-based bread you have to have two periods of 'proving'. This is when the yeast really does its 'thing', pumping out carbon dioxide that forms the bubbles that make bread the fluffy thing we all love.
With the normal loaves, these proving periods are covered in the machine's program where it just sits and waits, before doing more mixing. For the rolls you use a setting called 'dough' that only has 1 period of mixing and proving.
The idea then is that you hoik the dough out, knead it, chop it into individual rolls that you shape and then leave, covered, to prove a second time.
This sounded rather complicated and prone to error, so I've been afraid to try it. The other issue was that the recipe uses loads of flour - nearly twice as much as the loaves I've been doing - so I was afraid I'd balls it up and use up the flour.
My plan then was to make a normal loaf and then immediately try out the rolls. Given that a normal loaf takes 3 hours and the dough setting takes 1.5 hours, the 2nd proving period takes half an hour and the baking takes at least 15 minutes, you can therefore see why I waited until the weekend!
The final result was... (drum-roll)... actually not all that bad.
I did fuck up the recipe a little. Ironically I realised I didn't put the correct amount of flour in. This had the effect of making the dough very sticky, but with some good old fashioned elbow-grease, I kneaded in the extra dough.
I think the lack of flour also made it rise too much - not enough weight to stop it, if you see what I mean. And I was afraid my error and attempt to correct would have the opposite effect.
But nope, after the 2nd resting, the rolls did indeed inflate, and after baking I tried one out and it was really quite nice.
I left the rest of them and checked them out last night. They'd definitely declined in freshness like the normal loafs, but they seemed better and were still quite soft and moist.
Altogether then, I'd say it was something of a success.
Thursday, 19 June 2008
Sandwich rule
I've always been fascinated by how sandwiches pretty much conform to the rule "You get what you pay for."
Which isn't to say that sandwiches aren't over-priced - they are - but just that if you pay £1.00 for a sandwich you get about a fifth as good a sandwich as if you pay £5.00 for a sandwich.
I've also always been fascinated by expressions such as the above - you get what you pay for. I mean, that's a fairly innocuous and obvious one, but generally I love expressions and try to shoe-horn them into any conversation I'm having.
Not much of a blog entry, but I've been kinda busy this last couple of days. It's been kinda fun - I've been doing what I call "reprographics" which is basically the company is attending a roadshow in the near future and we need a big logo for the board as well as some "letterhead" type paper and name badges and stuff and I've been making them up.
We're not really that sort of a company so it's taken probably five times as long for me to do it in photoshop, rather than a proper design program, but as I say, we're not that sort of company so we don't tend to have those sorts of programs hanging around. Still, kinda fun.
I've always said there were only ever two things I wanted to do in life. The first was sing and the other was draw comic books.
I can't do either, unfortunately, as I don't have either vocal or drawing talent; however, through seer bloody mindedness I have sorta ended up with a few basic skills with the old photoshop, so it's fun to flex them every so often.
Which isn't to say that sandwiches aren't over-priced - they are - but just that if you pay £1.00 for a sandwich you get about a fifth as good a sandwich as if you pay £5.00 for a sandwich.
I've also always been fascinated by expressions such as the above - you get what you pay for. I mean, that's a fairly innocuous and obvious one, but generally I love expressions and try to shoe-horn them into any conversation I'm having.
Not much of a blog entry, but I've been kinda busy this last couple of days. It's been kinda fun - I've been doing what I call "reprographics" which is basically the company is attending a roadshow in the near future and we need a big logo for the board as well as some "letterhead" type paper and name badges and stuff and I've been making them up.
We're not really that sort of a company so it's taken probably five times as long for me to do it in photoshop, rather than a proper design program, but as I say, we're not that sort of company so we don't tend to have those sorts of programs hanging around. Still, kinda fun.
I've always said there were only ever two things I wanted to do in life. The first was sing and the other was draw comic books.
I can't do either, unfortunately, as I don't have either vocal or drawing talent; however, through seer bloody mindedness I have sorta ended up with a few basic skills with the old photoshop, so it's fun to flex them every so often.
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