Brrr!
The boyfriend and I just got back from town after a day of Christmas shopping and present hiding (his is under the bed in the spare room with a dressing gown chucked over it, and apparently I am banned from the bedside table on his side of the bed).
We hit the German Market for some tasty Grilled pork steaks, krautsalat and fried potatoes. Every winter I crave the German Market's fried potatoes, and they have never disappointed. We managed to do a little shopping but it was far too cold for too much browsing. We had a few glasses or mulled wine - or "Fire wine" as they call it.
We'd planned to go to Tiso to buy a pressie for his brother-in-law, but got a little distracted so never made it before closing. We'd bought some inexpensive gloves, socks, hats and blankets from Mountain Warehouse yesterday, and we'd planned to hand them out to homeless people - we tried last night but it was midnight by the time we got out and by then the streets were deserted. Found out today the soup van comes along at 9:00 pm and collects anyone found on the streets to take them to church shelters.
We spoke to a guy named Darren, who was chittering with cold and sitting under a plastic sheet - he's been sleeping in the cemetary at the West End and some guys had started on him, kicking him in and running off with his case. He was sitting with wrecked shoes that were soaked through, and his gloves were soaked as well. We gave him a new scarf, blanket, socks and hat, and I bought him a couple staek pies, a coffee and a slice of chocolate cake.
I don't think I will ever feel right complaining about my cold feet ever again.
Wednesday 22 December 2010
Friday 10 December 2010
Last day
It’s my very last day here, today is my last day at work. I’ve had a great time here…it’s been hectic at times, slightly stressful, and I certainly have not had enough sleep since starting back at uni. I’ve loved working here though, and I hope one day when I graduate, I might come back.
One girl, who I’ve worked with on a few occasions but who is not a regular in our office (she always stops to say hi to me however busy she may be) made a point of saying bye and good luck yesterday…and she emailed my team leader to contribute to my leaving present.
Another girl who I’ve worked with regularly over the past year (I even spoke to her a couple times on the phone in my previous incarnation as the Director’s PA) was stuck because of the snow and couldn’t make it into our office, but she phoned me yesterday to tell me how much she’s appreciated my help, and to tell me they couldn’t have done it without me. And how she’d wanted to say goodbye in person, but she hadn’t been able to get across town since the snow started.
My team leader yesterday said she’d give me a glowing reference for anything, and they’d love to have me back if I ever decided to. And she told me it would have all fallen apart without my organisational skills. I’ve enjoyed working for her, she doesn’t tolerate slacking and I’ve worked hard.
I’ve loved working here, and I’m really going to miss it. Next Monday I may even wake up at 6:00 am though I won’t have to.
One girl, who I’ve worked with on a few occasions but who is not a regular in our office (she always stops to say hi to me however busy she may be) made a point of saying bye and good luck yesterday…and she emailed my team leader to contribute to my leaving present.
Another girl who I’ve worked with regularly over the past year (I even spoke to her a couple times on the phone in my previous incarnation as the Director’s PA) was stuck because of the snow and couldn’t make it into our office, but she phoned me yesterday to tell me how much she’s appreciated my help, and to tell me they couldn’t have done it without me. And how she’d wanted to say goodbye in person, but she hadn’t been able to get across town since the snow started.
My team leader yesterday said she’d give me a glowing reference for anything, and they’d love to have me back if I ever decided to. And she told me it would have all fallen apart without my organisational skills. I’ve enjoyed working for her, she doesn’t tolerate slacking and I’ve worked hard.
I’ve loved working here, and I’m really going to miss it. Next Monday I may even wake up at 6:00 am though I won’t have to.
Monday 6 December 2010
Mini rage
ALL Lothian buses are cancelled. No way to get home, no news except a stupid message on their site. It would take me at least an hour and a half to walk home in optimal conditions, so probably around 3 hours in the snow. This was supposed to be my last week at work, I was meaning to get so much done and leave a good impression of how efficient I can be. Now I’ll probably need to go home in the next hour and abandon everything, just so I can get home.
I still love snow, but I hate how unprepared we are in Scotland for it. I love this country, I moved here from the other side of the world and decided to stay, and it isn’t often I whinge and moan about it. But this is taking the biscuit. We have had extreme snow for the past few years, and still no one will admit it’s coming…and actually prepare for it. What’s wrong with sticking snow tyres on buses and providing adequate snowplough services? We used to get far more snow than this in Toronto when I was a wee kid, and the city never ground to a complete halt like this.
One year at Hogmanay, there was a blizzard – this was a white-out, the kind never seen in Scotland. I was in Toronto; me and my friend Pete had gone to a warehouse party downtown and we were pretty much stuck – you couldn’t see a foot in front of your face it was that bad. We still managed tog et a taxi, and there were night buses running (though not to where we wanted to go).
Why the hell is it so difficult to make provisions for snow in this country???
I still love snow, but I hate how unprepared we are in Scotland for it. I love this country, I moved here from the other side of the world and decided to stay, and it isn’t often I whinge and moan about it. But this is taking the biscuit. We have had extreme snow for the past few years, and still no one will admit it’s coming…and actually prepare for it. What’s wrong with sticking snow tyres on buses and providing adequate snowplough services? We used to get far more snow than this in Toronto when I was a wee kid, and the city never ground to a complete halt like this.
One year at Hogmanay, there was a blizzard – this was a white-out, the kind never seen in Scotland. I was in Toronto; me and my friend Pete had gone to a warehouse party downtown and we were pretty much stuck – you couldn’t see a foot in front of your face it was that bad. We still managed tog et a taxi, and there were night buses running (though not to where we wanted to go).
Why the hell is it so difficult to make provisions for snow in this country???
Review: Yaktrax Ice Grips (for shoes)
I love snow. I love playing in the snow, although sometimes my idea of “play” is an 8 hour ski day, finishing with me crawling knackered out of my ski boots and into a pair of fluffy sheepskin boots. I do love my outdoor sports in the winter; ice skating on a real frozen pond, long walks on crunchy fresh snow, barrelling down a hillside on an old wooden toboggan (my early Christmas present from my boyfriend).
What I don’t love is trying to walk on ice, which is what we have now. My street is just covered in sheet ice, and it’s a nightmare to walk on it. That is, until I found these. I’d heard about them before as it was mentioned in the latest e-newsletter from Energia Athletics in Toronto (164 Danforth Ave, Toronto M4K 1N1). Energia is one of my favourite gyms in the world, and I wish it were here. They do my favourite classes – kettlebell and yoga – and the teachers are great.
As much as folk try to deny it in this country, snow has been coming in thick and fast the past couple winters, and we are repeatedly unprepared for it. I remember about 9 or 10 years ago, a good friend of mine from uni was planning to come visit me in Toronto over the Christmas holidays. He nearly didn’t make it over as Glasgow was experiencing 2 inches of snow, and Glasgow airport had lent their only snowplough to Aberdeen. Only snowplough? That’s madness!
Yaktrax are designed for the kind of conditions expected in Canada and the Eastern US states (NYC and Boston are pretty snow-covered this time of year, if I remember correctly). They are like snow tyres for your feet; they look like something a Spiderman impersonator may wear (complete with rubber webbing) to try to scale tall buildings. My boyfriend says they are slip-on crampons, which climbers use. These can be used everyday in the snow, and they’re reasonably affordable in comparison to the technical gear ice climbers use. You can slip them over any footwear, although I think a sturdier shoe is probably best and would be comfier to wear. I haven’t tried them on my Celtic Uggs yet, but once I do I think I may just be unstoppable – sheepskin goodness with a non-slip, failsafe sole? Oh yes!
It was snowing when I left for work this morning, as it has done for the past week. I’m pretty used to it now, and I’ve been one of the sensible folk trekking through town in a pair of hiking boots or wellies rather than more “traditional” work shoes. Now I know many people do not have the luxury I do of being able to wear whatever I damn well please to work, but still there is no excuse for the wee high heeled footprints I’ve seen more than once on my travels!
I don’t have a problem walking in snow, as I am Canadian and spent my winters buried in the stuff as a child. However ice is still a hazard for me, and as I am a person who has enough problems walking on dry ground in the summer without tripping over my own feet, ice is a particular problem. I am spectacularly uncoordinated, and even in hiking boots I skid a little with every step.
Aha, well not with these! I almost didn’t believe my boyfriend last night when he waxed lyrical about their amazingness after taking the dog for a walk at midnight. We’d both bought a pair at Tiso, but it was late when we got home so I never tried mine out until today. Now I can safely say these are the best things for winter since they invented the woolly socks and Gore-tex. I was already out the door this morning when I remembered we’d bought these, so I ran back in to put them on. I was wearing wellies with a pair of skinnies, so there was no problem getting them over my shoes. I stepped out onto the pavement outside my flat and didn’t skid at all, not even a millimetre. It was like walking on fresh snow, only with snow tyres on. I knew there was sheet ice under the layer of snow, as I could feel the crunch – didn’t slide or slip, and if I hadn’t known it was slippy by the people skidding around all over the place walking their dogs and crossing the street, I would have been blissfully oblivious.
It felt a little weird once I got in to work, as the chains made a clinking noise reminiscent of Jacob Marley’s ghost in A Christmas Carol. On bare pavement where there is no snow, the Yaktrax felt a little strange as well, but it’s a small price to pay for not falling on one’s bum on black ice.
I have had at least 3 comments since I got in today, all from people impressed with this ingenious invention.
I love these, and I shall be wearing them every day until the snow melts.
What I don’t love is trying to walk on ice, which is what we have now. My street is just covered in sheet ice, and it’s a nightmare to walk on it. That is, until I found these. I’d heard about them before as it was mentioned in the latest e-newsletter from Energia Athletics in Toronto (164 Danforth Ave, Toronto M4K 1N1). Energia is one of my favourite gyms in the world, and I wish it were here. They do my favourite classes – kettlebell and yoga – and the teachers are great.
As much as folk try to deny it in this country, snow has been coming in thick and fast the past couple winters, and we are repeatedly unprepared for it. I remember about 9 or 10 years ago, a good friend of mine from uni was planning to come visit me in Toronto over the Christmas holidays. He nearly didn’t make it over as Glasgow was experiencing 2 inches of snow, and Glasgow airport had lent their only snowplough to Aberdeen. Only snowplough? That’s madness!
Yaktrax are designed for the kind of conditions expected in Canada and the Eastern US states (NYC and Boston are pretty snow-covered this time of year, if I remember correctly). They are like snow tyres for your feet; they look like something a Spiderman impersonator may wear (complete with rubber webbing) to try to scale tall buildings. My boyfriend says they are slip-on crampons, which climbers use. These can be used everyday in the snow, and they’re reasonably affordable in comparison to the technical gear ice climbers use. You can slip them over any footwear, although I think a sturdier shoe is probably best and would be comfier to wear. I haven’t tried them on my Celtic Uggs yet, but once I do I think I may just be unstoppable – sheepskin goodness with a non-slip, failsafe sole? Oh yes!
It was snowing when I left for work this morning, as it has done for the past week. I’m pretty used to it now, and I’ve been one of the sensible folk trekking through town in a pair of hiking boots or wellies rather than more “traditional” work shoes. Now I know many people do not have the luxury I do of being able to wear whatever I damn well please to work, but still there is no excuse for the wee high heeled footprints I’ve seen more than once on my travels!
I don’t have a problem walking in snow, as I am Canadian and spent my winters buried in the stuff as a child. However ice is still a hazard for me, and as I am a person who has enough problems walking on dry ground in the summer without tripping over my own feet, ice is a particular problem. I am spectacularly uncoordinated, and even in hiking boots I skid a little with every step.
Aha, well not with these! I almost didn’t believe my boyfriend last night when he waxed lyrical about their amazingness after taking the dog for a walk at midnight. We’d both bought a pair at Tiso, but it was late when we got home so I never tried mine out until today. Now I can safely say these are the best things for winter since they invented the woolly socks and Gore-tex. I was already out the door this morning when I remembered we’d bought these, so I ran back in to put them on. I was wearing wellies with a pair of skinnies, so there was no problem getting them over my shoes. I stepped out onto the pavement outside my flat and didn’t skid at all, not even a millimetre. It was like walking on fresh snow, only with snow tyres on. I knew there was sheet ice under the layer of snow, as I could feel the crunch – didn’t slide or slip, and if I hadn’t known it was slippy by the people skidding around all over the place walking their dogs and crossing the street, I would have been blissfully oblivious.
It felt a little weird once I got in to work, as the chains made a clinking noise reminiscent of Jacob Marley’s ghost in A Christmas Carol. On bare pavement where there is no snow, the Yaktrax felt a little strange as well, but it’s a small price to pay for not falling on one’s bum on black ice.
I have had at least 3 comments since I got in today, all from people impressed with this ingenious invention.
I love these, and I shall be wearing them every day until the snow melts.
Thursday 2 December 2010
Motivation low, fading fast...
Winter is a terrible time for me as far as motivation goes. All summer I was going to the gym 3 days a week, and even when I was on holiday I was at the gym doing kettlebell classes 6 days a week and yoga straight afterwards as well. I really worked my butt off in Toronto this summer; shame it was only for a couple weeks!
Well, now winter has well and truly arrived I haven’t done one tiny smidgen of exercise. I definitely feel unfit, and I’m quite tired – I’ve found it harder and harder to wake up at 6:00 am for work now. Especially since we got our new curtains which block out the outside world brilliantly. Can’t blame the curtains though, as even when they’re open at that time in the morning it is totally dark outside. This morning, it was still dark when I got off the bus at work.
Depressing.
I can’t be bothered to go to the gym, as it would involve traipsing through the snow to get there from the bus stop, and then back up the hill again to get the bus home. It’s already pitch black by the time I leave work anyways.
I need some bloody motivation!!
I think now uni has finished for the term, I’ll start going back to yoga. I need to do something or I’ll go stir crazy, and it’s not helping that my boyfriend wakes up waaay later than I do (yes I know 6:00 am is antisocial) and is perky at midnight, when I’m barely able to prop my eyelids open.
I need to do something soon.
I’ve ordered Insanity from Amazon, so am hoping it will arrive over the weekend. I’ve heard good things about it, and I think it will definitely help being able to do a workout at home that will kick my butt. That was what I loved about kettlebells – totally takes it out of you and you definitely feel like you’ve done a hard workout. My trainer at my gym always makes sure I don’t go away feeling I’ve had an easy time!
I want to get more days in skiing this winter as well. Last year I wasn’t even working or going to uni, but I only managed to go twice (thrice if you count the dry slope, which I don’t). I miss getting in a full 2 weeks of skiing in Whistler every winter, plus whatever random ski days I could muster up. I think if I had to live in Canada again, Whistler would be the place. I would be happy being a ski bum!
I’d probably also be skinny. The last time I can remember being able to eat anything I wanted and still fit into a size small trouser was when I was doing 8 hours on the slopes every day and stuffing my face every night. I could eat anything I wanted and just burned it off the next day.
I miss those days…
Well, now winter has well and truly arrived I haven’t done one tiny smidgen of exercise. I definitely feel unfit, and I’m quite tired – I’ve found it harder and harder to wake up at 6:00 am for work now. Especially since we got our new curtains which block out the outside world brilliantly. Can’t blame the curtains though, as even when they’re open at that time in the morning it is totally dark outside. This morning, it was still dark when I got off the bus at work.
Depressing.
I can’t be bothered to go to the gym, as it would involve traipsing through the snow to get there from the bus stop, and then back up the hill again to get the bus home. It’s already pitch black by the time I leave work anyways.
I need some bloody motivation!!
I think now uni has finished for the term, I’ll start going back to yoga. I need to do something or I’ll go stir crazy, and it’s not helping that my boyfriend wakes up waaay later than I do (yes I know 6:00 am is antisocial) and is perky at midnight, when I’m barely able to prop my eyelids open.
I need to do something soon.
I’ve ordered Insanity from Amazon, so am hoping it will arrive over the weekend. I’ve heard good things about it, and I think it will definitely help being able to do a workout at home that will kick my butt. That was what I loved about kettlebells – totally takes it out of you and you definitely feel like you’ve done a hard workout. My trainer at my gym always makes sure I don’t go away feeling I’ve had an easy time!
I want to get more days in skiing this winter as well. Last year I wasn’t even working or going to uni, but I only managed to go twice (thrice if you count the dry slope, which I don’t). I miss getting in a full 2 weeks of skiing in Whistler every winter, plus whatever random ski days I could muster up. I think if I had to live in Canada again, Whistler would be the place. I would be happy being a ski bum!
I’d probably also be skinny. The last time I can remember being able to eat anything I wanted and still fit into a size small trouser was when I was doing 8 hours on the slopes every day and stuffing my face every night. I could eat anything I wanted and just burned it off the next day.
I miss those days…
Tuesday 30 November 2010
Snow Day
It took me from 7 am this morning til 10:30 to get to work. How depressing. The bus would not stop in Bruntsfield for about 3 hours, just sped on past – there were 3 other folk waiting as well, though we were sat in the juice bar in front of the stop…all came running out when we saw the bus approaching and just looked so demoralised when yet another bus went by without stopping. MEAN, MEAN BUS DRIVERS!!! Though it was probably comedy gold from the POV of the girl working behind the counter at the juice bar.
Edinburgh is strangely unprepared for snow. As my street is a dead end, no one has shovelled – my boyfriend spent the past two days scraping our steps and the steps of the next door neighbours (the family we actually like), but other than our 3 sets of steps the others seem remarkably undisturbed. Maybe they have retreated underground and have decided to join the mole people? I’m not sure, but there is about 2 feet of snow on top of most of the cars.
Edinburgh is strangely unprepared for snow. As my street is a dead end, no one has shovelled – my boyfriend spent the past two days scraping our steps and the steps of the next door neighbours (the family we actually like), but other than our 3 sets of steps the others seem remarkably undisturbed. Maybe they have retreated underground and have decided to join the mole people? I’m not sure, but there is about 2 feet of snow on top of most of the cars.
Random thoughts
1. I saw baby Uggs the other day, so very cute but I wasn’t sure whether they said “practical and cosy in winter” or “I also carry my dog around in a handbag”. Mind you, our puppy has a pair of hiking boots, so I’m probably not the right person to judge.
2. My boyfriend was offered a chocolate lab/collie cross pup and so “Princess” (our cat) has been living in fear ever since. Ever since she heard the words “new puppy” she’s been throwing things into a suitcase (her spare fat suit, a travel sized bag of cat treats, a bandana) and stomping around the flat in a huff.
3. Boyfriend tried to take the puppy for a walk yesterday but Baby Boy decided to do his business about 3 inches from our front step…don’t think he fancied his chances in the Links, the snow on our front step came up past his belly.
4. “Princess” went outside and slid down our neighbour’s tin shed room (heh, cat on a cold tin roof) – came back more white and very unimpressed. Maybe more unimpressed as I was stood at the window taking photos. Is that considered animal cruelty?
5. The boyfriend was thinking up ways to retrieve her – the most sensible suggestion was asking the neighbours to let us into their garden, but the one we should have gone for was a large spoon attached to a long poking device made of disposable chopsticks. Used ones of course, as we are trying to be environmentally friendly. I suggested we poke her with the pointy end to get her attention, and then retract the poking device quickly into the flat and try to scoop her up with the spoon end. Could you imagine her happy little face when she realised she was getting prodded in the side with a dirty chopstick?
2. My boyfriend was offered a chocolate lab/collie cross pup and so “Princess” (our cat) has been living in fear ever since. Ever since she heard the words “new puppy” she’s been throwing things into a suitcase (her spare fat suit, a travel sized bag of cat treats, a bandana) and stomping around the flat in a huff.
3. Boyfriend tried to take the puppy for a walk yesterday but Baby Boy decided to do his business about 3 inches from our front step…don’t think he fancied his chances in the Links, the snow on our front step came up past his belly.
4. “Princess” went outside and slid down our neighbour’s tin shed room (heh, cat on a cold tin roof) – came back more white and very unimpressed. Maybe more unimpressed as I was stood at the window taking photos. Is that considered animal cruelty?
5. The boyfriend was thinking up ways to retrieve her – the most sensible suggestion was asking the neighbours to let us into their garden, but the one we should have gone for was a large spoon attached to a long poking device made of disposable chopsticks. Used ones of course, as we are trying to be environmentally friendly. I suggested we poke her with the pointy end to get her attention, and then retract the poking device quickly into the flat and try to scoop her up with the spoon end. Could you imagine her happy little face when she realised she was getting prodded in the side with a dirty chopstick?
Saturday 27 November 2010
Super healthy spinach and kale soup
In keeping with the soup theme, I made this tonight with a couple bags of greenery I found lurking in the fridge that has maybe seen better days. Perfect for soup thoough, and I love a green soup. May make this again for St Patrick's Day next year. Plus both me and the boy have been feeling a bit run down, so the huge amounts of garlic should hopefully help.
Spinach and kale soup
400g organic spinach (Phantassie)
200g organic kale (Phantassie)
3 medium onions, chopped (W Christie butchers)
8 cloves garlic, chopped (W Christie butchers)
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 tsp wild garlic pesto (Sacla)
2 Knorr vegetable stock pots
½ tsp black mustard seeds
A pinch of nutmeg
750 ml boiling water
Heat oil in a large pot. Sautee onions for a few minutes until translucent, then add the garlic – do not cook the garlic for very long, as it has a tendency to burn. Add the black mustard seeds to the onions and garlic to toast them slightly.
Now add the spinach (you could break it up or chop it if you like, but I was terribly lazy and just threw it all in at once. Ah well, it gets blended anyway so it shouldn’t matter). Add the kale as well – you will probably need to break it up a bit as it is hardier than the spinach.
Add the water and the stock; you could use fresh vegetable stock if you like but I had a few stock pots to hand so just used them. Cook the soup down until the spinach and kale are wilted. Season with some sea salt; add a small pinch of nutmeg, maybe some freshly ground black pepper.
Using a handheld blender, puree up the soup – the blender we have is amazing and we don’t even need to take the pot off the hob. I don’t like my soups totally smooth so I’ll usually stop just short of totally blended – I like a bit of texture!
To serve you could spoon in some crème fraiche, but this is super tasty and very healthy as it is. I think this may go some way to counteract the week of takeaways we’ve just had, bad me!
Spinach and kale soup
400g organic spinach (Phantassie)
200g organic kale (Phantassie)
3 medium onions, chopped (W Christie butchers)
8 cloves garlic, chopped (W Christie butchers)
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 tsp wild garlic pesto (Sacla)
2 Knorr vegetable stock pots
½ tsp black mustard seeds
A pinch of nutmeg
750 ml boiling water
Heat oil in a large pot. Sautee onions for a few minutes until translucent, then add the garlic – do not cook the garlic for very long, as it has a tendency to burn. Add the black mustard seeds to the onions and garlic to toast them slightly.
Now add the spinach (you could break it up or chop it if you like, but I was terribly lazy and just threw it all in at once. Ah well, it gets blended anyway so it shouldn’t matter). Add the kale as well – you will probably need to break it up a bit as it is hardier than the spinach.
Add the water and the stock; you could use fresh vegetable stock if you like but I had a few stock pots to hand so just used them. Cook the soup down until the spinach and kale are wilted. Season with some sea salt; add a small pinch of nutmeg, maybe some freshly ground black pepper.
Using a handheld blender, puree up the soup – the blender we have is amazing and we don’t even need to take the pot off the hob. I don’t like my soups totally smooth so I’ll usually stop just short of totally blended – I like a bit of texture!
To serve you could spoon in some crème fraiche, but this is super tasty and very healthy as it is. I think this may go some way to counteract the week of takeaways we’ve just had, bad me!
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Ice cream
I remember this stuff from my childhood. My parents used to buy that 3-tiered ice cream for me from the supermarket, and I used to call it Napoleon ice cream. Took me until I was in junior high before I realised it was “Neapolitan”.
Freeze drying it was a stroke of genius, as my mum hates mess and there are few things messier than a child with rapidly melting ice cream on a hot July in Toronto. You had me at freeze-dried.
That and my phonetic pronunciation of Garfield’s lasagne and my inability to differentiate between pheasants and peasants as a child. Endearing, non?
Monday 22 November 2010
Oxtail soup
Tis the time of year for soup. I’m not usually a huge soup person, especially during the summer months; I’m more a solid food kind of girl, with the emphasis on chewing. Makes me feel like I’ve worked for it – pureed food just seems too easy.
I get lazy in winter, and I think it’s a fabulous time of year to get cosy under a thick tartan blanket on an armchair of epic proportions, with the lights down low and a good film on the telly. There’s really nothing better to get me in that snuggly frame of mind than a nice bowl of steaming hot soup and some crusty bread. My favourite at the moment is Falko’s spelt and honey (dinkelbrot mit honig), which is amaaazing. It may be the best bread I have ever tasted, and I buy it every weekend at the farmers market. And as far as the soup element is concerned, nothing beats homemade.
My lovely boy made a version of oxtail soup over the weekend; it is gorgeous, but quite different from any other oxtail soup, I promise!
Hearty oxtail soup
1.5 kg oxtail
1 bottle Madeira wine, medium dry
Flour
500 ml beef stock
3-5 onions, chopped
Carrots, chopped
Romanesco, in florets
Brussels sprouts, halved
20 cherry tomatoes
Dust the oxtail with flour, then brown in some oil (we use Summer Harvest rapeseed oil) in a heavy, lidded casserole dish. Remove the meat and set aside. Add the onions and saut̩ Рyou might need to add some more oil at this point. When the onions have softened, return the oxtail to the pot; now is the time to add the whole bottle of Madeira. Cook it all down for about 15-20 minutes before adding the beef stock. Season. Simmer over a very low heat for a very long time; my boyfriend cooked this soup over a period of 5 hours, but you could probably get away with a couple hours.
Meanwhile, in a separate pot of salted water, blanch the vegetables. You can add as many or as few vegetables to this as you like, but we used a couple large carrots, half a huge head of romanesco, and about 10-12 sprouts. Drain.
Once the soup has sat simmering for what seems like forever, and you can no longer remember a time when you did not have soup simmering on the hob, remove the oxtail from the broth.
Set the meat aside and add the drained vegetables to the soup. Toss in the cherry tomatoes as well; there is no need to chop as the soup will cook down further;
simmer the soup with the vegetables and tomatoes for about 20 minutes, mashing the vegetables with a wooden spoon if you prefer soups with a chunkier texture, or puree with a handheld blender if you prefer something a little smoother. I personally like mine with a bit of texture, so only lightly blended it.
Now, you have one of two choices. You could shred the meat and add it to the soup, or you could leave it out altogether. We did half and half; as there is quite a lot of soup yield, we added shredded oxtail to half the batch and left it out of the other batch. It’s wonderful and yummy either way, and I can’t think of a more perfect meal on a freezing cold Edinburgh winter night.
I get lazy in winter, and I think it’s a fabulous time of year to get cosy under a thick tartan blanket on an armchair of epic proportions, with the lights down low and a good film on the telly. There’s really nothing better to get me in that snuggly frame of mind than a nice bowl of steaming hot soup and some crusty bread. My favourite at the moment is Falko’s spelt and honey (dinkelbrot mit honig), which is amaaazing. It may be the best bread I have ever tasted, and I buy it every weekend at the farmers market. And as far as the soup element is concerned, nothing beats homemade.
My lovely boy made a version of oxtail soup over the weekend; it is gorgeous, but quite different from any other oxtail soup, I promise!
Hearty oxtail soup
1.5 kg oxtail
1 bottle Madeira wine, medium dry
Flour
500 ml beef stock
3-5 onions, chopped
Carrots, chopped
Romanesco, in florets
Brussels sprouts, halved
20 cherry tomatoes
Dust the oxtail with flour, then brown in some oil (we use Summer Harvest rapeseed oil) in a heavy, lidded casserole dish. Remove the meat and set aside. Add the onions and saut̩ Рyou might need to add some more oil at this point. When the onions have softened, return the oxtail to the pot; now is the time to add the whole bottle of Madeira. Cook it all down for about 15-20 minutes before adding the beef stock. Season. Simmer over a very low heat for a very long time; my boyfriend cooked this soup over a period of 5 hours, but you could probably get away with a couple hours.
Meanwhile, in a separate pot of salted water, blanch the vegetables. You can add as many or as few vegetables to this as you like, but we used a couple large carrots, half a huge head of romanesco, and about 10-12 sprouts. Drain.
Once the soup has sat simmering for what seems like forever, and you can no longer remember a time when you did not have soup simmering on the hob, remove the oxtail from the broth.
Set the meat aside and add the drained vegetables to the soup. Toss in the cherry tomatoes as well; there is no need to chop as the soup will cook down further;
simmer the soup with the vegetables and tomatoes for about 20 minutes, mashing the vegetables with a wooden spoon if you prefer soups with a chunkier texture, or puree with a handheld blender if you prefer something a little smoother. I personally like mine with a bit of texture, so only lightly blended it.
Now, you have one of two choices. You could shred the meat and add it to the soup, or you could leave it out altogether. We did half and half; as there is quite a lot of soup yield, we added shredded oxtail to half the batch and left it out of the other batch. It’s wonderful and yummy either way, and I can’t think of a more perfect meal on a freezing cold Edinburgh winter night.
Wednesday 17 November 2010
HMV Picturehouse
I wrote an email to the Picturehouse about last night c/o the box office. Here's my email and the one I got in reply...
I've always been a great believer in giving credit where it's due, and I may be mocked for my habit of complimenting builders on their good work, waiters on their good service, folk in shops for being super-helpful. I don't care. It's nice to be nice sometimes!
From: Me
To: HMV Picturehouse c/o the Box Office
Hi
I was at the White Lies gig last night at the Picturehouse; I felt the need to write this email because of an incident that happened once the show had finished.
First of all, I need to compliment the Picturehouse on its amazing Security Staff. One of your guys turned what could have escalated into something ugly into a lovely story my boyfriend and I have been telling our friends.
We had a great time at the gig (we’ve seen White Lies at the Picturehouse a few times), but when we were waiting in the queue for our coats, a guy in the queue behind us tried to start a fight with my boyfriend. Basically I’d gone to join the queue on my own, and my boyfriend came to join me after he’d been to the toilets – he asked the people standing directly in front of and behind me whether they minded, but they all said no. A guy reasonably far behind us started mouthing off about him skipping the queue, despite the fact my boyfriend didn’t even have a ticket – he was just keeping me company. The other guy started to get very hostile and threatening my boyfriend, saying he was going to get him outside.
Now I know usually some drunken yob mouthing off on a night out is something to shrug off and ignore, but we had just found out someone we know had been attacked outside a pub for no apparent reason last week, and he’d died a few days later in his sleep as a result of his injuries. I think needless to say we were a little more cautious than we would have been on any other night.
I spoke to one of the Security on our way out, just to keep us right in case anything did happen. The person we spoke to was incredibly helpful – he walked with us out the door and even escorted us to the traffic lights at the cross roads on Lothian Road so we could get a taxi outside the Sheraton. Once we’d crossed the street, he even stayed on that patch of pavement until he’d seen we were in a cab before he returned inside.
I think being nice is a bit underrated these days, and I would like to thank the Security at the Picturehouse for being fantastic. If anything had kicked off it would have ruined a great night, but your staff made sure that didn’t happen.
Kind regards,
..........
From: Operations manager (Events) - HMV Picturehouse
To: Me
I have been forwarded your e-mail to the Picture House.
It was kind of you to have taken the time to compliment our staff, which doesn't happen very often.
The steward involved will be passed on your thanks, and the incident will be conveyed to the staff at the briefings.
thanks again for taking the time.
kind regards
I've always been a great believer in giving credit where it's due, and I may be mocked for my habit of complimenting builders on their good work, waiters on their good service, folk in shops for being super-helpful. I don't care. It's nice to be nice sometimes!
From: Me
To: HMV Picturehouse c/o the Box Office
Hi
I was at the White Lies gig last night at the Picturehouse; I felt the need to write this email because of an incident that happened once the show had finished.
First of all, I need to compliment the Picturehouse on its amazing Security Staff. One of your guys turned what could have escalated into something ugly into a lovely story my boyfriend and I have been telling our friends.
We had a great time at the gig (we’ve seen White Lies at the Picturehouse a few times), but when we were waiting in the queue for our coats, a guy in the queue behind us tried to start a fight with my boyfriend. Basically I’d gone to join the queue on my own, and my boyfriend came to join me after he’d been to the toilets – he asked the people standing directly in front of and behind me whether they minded, but they all said no. A guy reasonably far behind us started mouthing off about him skipping the queue, despite the fact my boyfriend didn’t even have a ticket – he was just keeping me company. The other guy started to get very hostile and threatening my boyfriend, saying he was going to get him outside.
Now I know usually some drunken yob mouthing off on a night out is something to shrug off and ignore, but we had just found out someone we know had been attacked outside a pub for no apparent reason last week, and he’d died a few days later in his sleep as a result of his injuries. I think needless to say we were a little more cautious than we would have been on any other night.
I spoke to one of the Security on our way out, just to keep us right in case anything did happen. The person we spoke to was incredibly helpful – he walked with us out the door and even escorted us to the traffic lights at the cross roads on Lothian Road so we could get a taxi outside the Sheraton. Once we’d crossed the street, he even stayed on that patch of pavement until he’d seen we were in a cab before he returned inside.
I think being nice is a bit underrated these days, and I would like to thank the Security at the Picturehouse for being fantastic. If anything had kicked off it would have ruined a great night, but your staff made sure that didn’t happen.
Kind regards,
..........
From: Operations manager (Events) - HMV Picturehouse
To: Me
I have been forwarded your e-mail to the Picture House.
It was kind of you to have taken the time to compliment our staff, which doesn't happen very often.
The steward involved will be passed on your thanks, and the incident will be conveyed to the staff at the briefings.
thanks again for taking the time.
kind regards
White Lies gig, HMV Picturehouse
Last night’s White Lies gig was in some ways a fabulous show in my favourite Edinburgh venue. I can’t say enough how great the security staff were – I turned up at the door at 8:30 pm and asked one of the bouncers by the door if there were any tickets left at the box office, on the off chance. It was a free gig, so I wasn’t holding my breath. He said technically no, but asked how many I was after – I said two (one for me and one for the boyfriend), so he looked at the two in his hand someone had just handed over and said “here you go”.
The tix were one for two people, so he wasn’t technically doing anything wrong – but from the experience I’ve had with bouncers in the past, this was above and beyond the ordinary. He was actually nice.
I think nice is underrated. People really should make an effort to at least try it sometimes.
The band were great, as always. The boy and I might be considered “groupies”, as we’ve seen WL every time they’ve played in Scotland (including once at T in the Park). We were the most sober people in the room, sipping pints of water all night and getting mocking looks from the bar staff all night.
I was sent off to the coat room queue so the boy could go to the loo (must have been all that water, I said). I made random chitchat with the guys in front of me, as you do when waiting in a bloody long queue – and can I just point out I was at the very end of the queue at this point, there was no one behind me. A few minutes later, my boy came to join me, and he asked the bloke in front whether he minded if he (my boy) climbed over the barrier – random bloke said no, of course he didn’t mind.
As soon as he’d joined me, some wee guy starts mouthing off about my boy jumping the queue. We tried to explain he was only coming to join me, he didn’t even have a coat checked, but the guy just wouldn’t let it lie. Starts picking a fight, which was stupid as fuck in his case as he was about a foot shorter than my boy and a podgy little rat. Wanted to “take this outside” (take what outside? Even his friends were telling him he was being a dick).
Now on a normal night, we would just shake it off – some little turd mouthing off is nothing really, especially some little turd who even I could take down. But we’d just heard earlier that night a guy we’d partied with on Mull had died – the victim of a totally random attack outside a pub on the island. Apparently some guys set on him and kicked the crap out of him, and he died at home not long after. One of my best friends knew him very well, and I can’t even imagine how she’s going to feel when she finds out.
Scum. Bloody scum.
On our way out the door I grabbed a bouncer – a huge guy with a skinhead and tattoos up and down his arms – and let him know the situation. Not to get the wee guy in trouble or anything, but to keep us right in case something did kick off. The bouncer was great – he walked us down the stairs to the exit, then escorted us to the traffic lights to get a taxi at the rank across the street. Even after we’d crossed, he walked up and down that stretch of pavement until he saw us get into a cab.
I’ve heard all sorts of nasty stories about dodgy security staff, and I’ve had friends at the wrong end of it as well (one down to mistaken identity). This has restored my belief there are some good, decent people in the world.
Like I said, nice is underrated.
The tix were one for two people, so he wasn’t technically doing anything wrong – but from the experience I’ve had with bouncers in the past, this was above and beyond the ordinary. He was actually nice.
I think nice is underrated. People really should make an effort to at least try it sometimes.
The band were great, as always. The boy and I might be considered “groupies”, as we’ve seen WL every time they’ve played in Scotland (including once at T in the Park). We were the most sober people in the room, sipping pints of water all night and getting mocking looks from the bar staff all night.
I was sent off to the coat room queue so the boy could go to the loo (must have been all that water, I said). I made random chitchat with the guys in front of me, as you do when waiting in a bloody long queue – and can I just point out I was at the very end of the queue at this point, there was no one behind me. A few minutes later, my boy came to join me, and he asked the bloke in front whether he minded if he (my boy) climbed over the barrier – random bloke said no, of course he didn’t mind.
As soon as he’d joined me, some wee guy starts mouthing off about my boy jumping the queue. We tried to explain he was only coming to join me, he didn’t even have a coat checked, but the guy just wouldn’t let it lie. Starts picking a fight, which was stupid as fuck in his case as he was about a foot shorter than my boy and a podgy little rat. Wanted to “take this outside” (take what outside? Even his friends were telling him he was being a dick).
Now on a normal night, we would just shake it off – some little turd mouthing off is nothing really, especially some little turd who even I could take down. But we’d just heard earlier that night a guy we’d partied with on Mull had died – the victim of a totally random attack outside a pub on the island. Apparently some guys set on him and kicked the crap out of him, and he died at home not long after. One of my best friends knew him very well, and I can’t even imagine how she’s going to feel when she finds out.
Scum. Bloody scum.
On our way out the door I grabbed a bouncer – a huge guy with a skinhead and tattoos up and down his arms – and let him know the situation. Not to get the wee guy in trouble or anything, but to keep us right in case something did kick off. The bouncer was great – he walked us down the stairs to the exit, then escorted us to the traffic lights to get a taxi at the rank across the street. Even after we’d crossed, he walked up and down that stretch of pavement until he saw us get into a cab.
I’ve heard all sorts of nasty stories about dodgy security staff, and I’ve had friends at the wrong end of it as well (one down to mistaken identity). This has restored my belief there are some good, decent people in the world.
Like I said, nice is underrated.
Tuesday 16 November 2010
One down...
I feel happy about the essay I handed in today. I think I did ok; maybe more words than what the tutor asked for, but I’ve answered all the questions and I’m pretty sure it made sense.
I think we’re off to see White Lies tonight, then it’s study study study for the Biology exam on Thursday.
Only 2 more weeks of classes til Christmas!
I think we’re off to see White Lies tonight, then it’s study study study for the Biology exam on Thursday.
Only 2 more weeks of classes til Christmas!
Monday 15 November 2010
Tatties Bojangles
My boy treated me to a gorgeous roast dinner tonight; roast chicken with tomato gravy and roast potatoes on the side. I'm usually more a fan of the red meats when it comes to roasting, but this was sooo good.
Everything came from the market of course, except the shallots which came from our neighbourhood butcher W. Christie. It's a fantastic family-run shop who know us by name - one of the sons taught us how to make perfect crackling!
This is definitely a rustic style meal, but you can't beat it for proper comfort food. We're not big choppers in our house, so if it can be crushed, mashed or left unpeeled, you can be assured it will be!
Roast chicken with tomato gravy
Medium organic chicken (Hugh Grierson)
Giblets
6 shallots, quartered (W Christie butchers, Bruntsfield)
8-10 vine tomatoes (JM Craig)
Chilli infused rapeseed oil (Summer Harvest)
Sea salt
Green peppercorns, crushed
Preheat oven to 180*C
Rub the bird with sea salt and green peppercorns. Drizzle a roasting pan with the chilli oil, place the bird in the centre and arrange the shallots and tomatoes around it. Place in oven to roast for about 1.5 hours, depending on the size of the bird. Prepare the potatoes and roast alongside the chicken.
Meanwhile simmer the giblets in some water and a pinch of salt.
Remove the bird from the oven and place onto a serving platter and leave covered in a warm place to rest. Whilst the bird is sitting nicely, add a spoonful of plain flour to the juices and whisk well to remove the lumps; then strain the giblet stock directly into the roasting tray. Simmer gently, breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Season if needed.
Roasted chilli potatoes with brussels sprouts
500g roasting potatoes, peeled (Phantassie)
10-15 brussels sprouts, scored with an X (Phantassie)
Chilli oil (Summer Harvest)
Dried chilli flakes
Sea salt
Drizzle plenty of chilli oil into a roasting tray and heat in the bottom tier of the oven.
Slice potatoes about 4-5 mm thick. Toss directly into the hot roasting tray and heat quickly on the hob a few minutes until the potato slices are coated. Season with sea salt and chilli flakes. Place in the bottom of the oven with the roasting chicken.
About 30 mins before the chicken is ready, toss in the brussels sprouts and continue to roast until tender. This is the simplest potato recipe I have come across - no parboiling!
We ate this with Phantassie's beetroot relish rather than the more traditional cranberry sauce, and it was lush.
Everything came from the market of course, except the shallots which came from our neighbourhood butcher W. Christie. It's a fantastic family-run shop who know us by name - one of the sons taught us how to make perfect crackling!
This is definitely a rustic style meal, but you can't beat it for proper comfort food. We're not big choppers in our house, so if it can be crushed, mashed or left unpeeled, you can be assured it will be!
Roast chicken with tomato gravy
Medium organic chicken (Hugh Grierson)
Giblets
6 shallots, quartered (W Christie butchers, Bruntsfield)
8-10 vine tomatoes (JM Craig)
Chilli infused rapeseed oil (Summer Harvest)
Sea salt
Green peppercorns, crushed
Preheat oven to 180*C
Rub the bird with sea salt and green peppercorns. Drizzle a roasting pan with the chilli oil, place the bird in the centre and arrange the shallots and tomatoes around it. Place in oven to roast for about 1.5 hours, depending on the size of the bird. Prepare the potatoes and roast alongside the chicken.
Meanwhile simmer the giblets in some water and a pinch of salt.
Remove the bird from the oven and place onto a serving platter and leave covered in a warm place to rest. Whilst the bird is sitting nicely, add a spoonful of plain flour to the juices and whisk well to remove the lumps; then strain the giblet stock directly into the roasting tray. Simmer gently, breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Season if needed.
Roasted chilli potatoes with brussels sprouts
500g roasting potatoes, peeled (Phantassie)
10-15 brussels sprouts, scored with an X (Phantassie)
Chilli oil (Summer Harvest)
Dried chilli flakes
Sea salt
Drizzle plenty of chilli oil into a roasting tray and heat in the bottom tier of the oven.
Slice potatoes about 4-5 mm thick. Toss directly into the hot roasting tray and heat quickly on the hob a few minutes until the potato slices are coated. Season with sea salt and chilli flakes. Place in the bottom of the oven with the roasting chicken.
About 30 mins before the chicken is ready, toss in the brussels sprouts and continue to roast until tender. This is the simplest potato recipe I have come across - no parboiling!
We ate this with Phantassie's beetroot relish rather than the more traditional cranberry sauce, and it was lush.
Sometimes...
Do you ever get the feeling you’re missing out on something? When you’re so busy with a million different pies in the air (ah…the mixed metaphor) that Real Life seems to be passing you by?
That’s the feeling I have right now.
We’ve had a class test and two essays in the past 3 weeks – one in genetics, which is a foreign language to me; plus it’s been frantically busy at work as things round up to the last corner before this beast of a project comes to a close. Because I’m only part time now, I’ve been known to stay until past 7:00 some nights. Tomorrow I have another essay to churn out, then it’s a day of rest then another test and another report for the end of the week.
I feel like I should be getting more done, but I’ve also been sacrificing any semblance of a social and personal life.
I took a break from studying at the weekend to spend some time with my oft-neglected boyfriend. We went to the Farmers Market on Saturday to stock up the fridge, then hit the charity shops in the afternoon and finished off at Courtyard Antiques in Causewayside – this time it was old maps we came home with, and a full set of beautiful copper frying pans of varying sizes, which we got for a song.
We cancelled on one of our friends coming round as we were knackered from too much wandering and far too much spending; ended up with folk round anyway, but it was a pretty chilled out evening…with hats.
I bought a velvet sombrero from a charity shop. It’s very…ornate. I also bought an 80s style round wicker coffee table with just enough room in the base to fit a cushion and perhaps the cat, if it pleases her.
Charity shops are amazing, I love them. You can get anything, you just never know when it will appear in your life. Some of my proudest finds have been from charity shops.
Yesterday I locked myself into the bedroom with my laptop and did a good few hours of solid essay writing before we went into town to buy some jammies (for both of us – flannel reindeer for me and a reasonably sedate red plaid for him). Boyfriend was oh-so patient with my shopping compulsion, bless him. When we came home he didn’t nag me to come out with the puppy (I took Baby Boy out on my own in the morning for the first time ever), and I got in a few more hours of productive time.
After class this morning, I had to wolf down my packed lunch and rush off to catch my bus to work.
I would have liked to spend a few minutes chatting with my friends from my course. There are a few people I get along with really well who I don’t see much of outside of class – there was a really sweet girl I got along with who I found out today has dropped out.
Today’s jumper colour: orange
That’s the feeling I have right now.
We’ve had a class test and two essays in the past 3 weeks – one in genetics, which is a foreign language to me; plus it’s been frantically busy at work as things round up to the last corner before this beast of a project comes to a close. Because I’m only part time now, I’ve been known to stay until past 7:00 some nights. Tomorrow I have another essay to churn out, then it’s a day of rest then another test and another report for the end of the week.
I feel like I should be getting more done, but I’ve also been sacrificing any semblance of a social and personal life.
I took a break from studying at the weekend to spend some time with my oft-neglected boyfriend. We went to the Farmers Market on Saturday to stock up the fridge, then hit the charity shops in the afternoon and finished off at Courtyard Antiques in Causewayside – this time it was old maps we came home with, and a full set of beautiful copper frying pans of varying sizes, which we got for a song.
We cancelled on one of our friends coming round as we were knackered from too much wandering and far too much spending; ended up with folk round anyway, but it was a pretty chilled out evening…with hats.
I bought a velvet sombrero from a charity shop. It’s very…ornate. I also bought an 80s style round wicker coffee table with just enough room in the base to fit a cushion and perhaps the cat, if it pleases her.
Charity shops are amazing, I love them. You can get anything, you just never know when it will appear in your life. Some of my proudest finds have been from charity shops.
Yesterday I locked myself into the bedroom with my laptop and did a good few hours of solid essay writing before we went into town to buy some jammies (for both of us – flannel reindeer for me and a reasonably sedate red plaid for him). Boyfriend was oh-so patient with my shopping compulsion, bless him. When we came home he didn’t nag me to come out with the puppy (I took Baby Boy out on my own in the morning for the first time ever), and I got in a few more hours of productive time.
After class this morning, I had to wolf down my packed lunch and rush off to catch my bus to work.
I would have liked to spend a few minutes chatting with my friends from my course. There are a few people I get along with really well who I don’t see much of outside of class – there was a really sweet girl I got along with who I found out today has dropped out.
Today’s jumper colour: orange
Wednesday 3 November 2010
Bad eggs
I was in work by 7:15 this morning, so I thought I'd get myself a nice hot breakfast in the canteen. The food in there is usually ok, nothing to write home about but not too bad as far as canteen fare goes.
Except today. I ordered the eggs benedict sans bacon and was presented with a poached egg on an english muffin...with warm MAYONNAISE.
Bleugh! I even had two bites to make sure, but it was most definitely mayo.
How revolting...
Except today. I ordered the eggs benedict sans bacon and was presented with a poached egg on an english muffin...with warm MAYONNAISE.
Bleugh! I even had two bites to make sure, but it was most definitely mayo.
How revolting...
Sunday 10 October 2010
Gammon steaks with carrot mash - Thursday 7 October 2010
Oh man was I tired on Thursday - I was working from 6am til 10:30, ten it was off to uni for a full day of classes. I came home slightly delirious and in need of food, so my boyfriend made the ultimate in comfort food. Meat and mash. I pretty much passed out s soon as we'd eaten!
Another totally simple meal, but incredibly tasty!
Gammon steaks with carrot mash
2 unsmoked gammon steaks
4 medium or 2 huge carrots, chopped
300g all purpose potatoes, unpeeled
A splash balsamic
Butter
100g Cheddar (we used Arran Cheese Shop's cheddar with chives)
Boil carrots until tender, drain and seta aside. I don't like cooking the potatoes and carrots together, as it's ncie to keep the two flavours separate. Over the drained carrots, add a splash of balsamic to bring out the flavour.
Meanwhile, boil the potatoes. When they are tender as well, drain and toass with the carrots. ROUGHLY mash together with a generous knob of butter; remember, you don't want to mash to finely asn it's lovely to have the texture of the carrots in the mash. Stir in the grated cheddar and spoon into a baking dish. Bake at around 180'C for 45 minutes, until the top is crispy and golden.
When the potatoes are nearly finished in the oven, grill the gammon steaks. Once everything is done and ready to be plated up, open up a jar of pineapple chutney.
Simples!
Another totally simple meal, but incredibly tasty!
Gammon steaks with carrot mash
2 unsmoked gammon steaks
4 medium or 2 huge carrots, chopped
300g all purpose potatoes, unpeeled
A splash balsamic
Butter
100g Cheddar (we used Arran Cheese Shop's cheddar with chives)
Boil carrots until tender, drain and seta aside. I don't like cooking the potatoes and carrots together, as it's ncie to keep the two flavours separate. Over the drained carrots, add a splash of balsamic to bring out the flavour.
Meanwhile, boil the potatoes. When they are tender as well, drain and toass with the carrots. ROUGHLY mash together with a generous knob of butter; remember, you don't want to mash to finely asn it's lovely to have the texture of the carrots in the mash. Stir in the grated cheddar and spoon into a baking dish. Bake at around 180'C for 45 minutes, until the top is crispy and golden.
When the potatoes are nearly finished in the oven, grill the gammon steaks. Once everything is done and ready to be plated up, open up a jar of pineapple chutney.
Simples!
Healthy lunch - brown rice with mackerel - 6 Oct 2010
It's been a busy couple weeks for me, starting uni and still working at my job part time as well. It's great, don't get me wrong - I love being busy, and it makes me appreciate my weekends even more. Home cooking has taken a backseat though, and we've had a few more takeaways than usual. In fact, it was takeaway fest in our house all week after Em left...yikes!
I did manage to muster up a super-healthy lunch to take with me to uni. It's hard to believe it's been a whole weeks icne I lasted cooked anything in my kitchen! This was pretty basic, filled to the brim with fresh veg, and hopefully went some way to balancing out the week of (slightly) unhealthy eating!
Brown rice with mackerel and veg
75g brown rice, dry weight
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1.5 cup sugar snap peas, sliced
1 cup cauliflower (I used the lime green version from Phantassie)
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tin Portuguese sardines in tomato sauce
1 small tin sweetcorn
Cook rice according to packet instructions.
In a separate pan, heat the rapeseed oil and sautee the cauliflower and sugar snaps, just until tender. Add the cherry tomatoes. Finally add the mackerel, breaking up the fish with a wooden spoon. The last thing to go in should be the sweetcorn. Season.
Add the cooked rice (drained) and mix well.
I did manage to muster up a super-healthy lunch to take with me to uni. It's hard to believe it's been a whole weeks icne I lasted cooked anything in my kitchen! This was pretty basic, filled to the brim with fresh veg, and hopefully went some way to balancing out the week of (slightly) unhealthy eating!
Brown rice with mackerel and veg
75g brown rice, dry weight
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1.5 cup sugar snap peas, sliced
1 cup cauliflower (I used the lime green version from Phantassie)
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tin Portuguese sardines in tomato sauce
1 small tin sweetcorn
Cook rice according to packet instructions.
In a separate pan, heat the rapeseed oil and sautee the cauliflower and sugar snaps, just until tender. Add the cherry tomatoes. Finally add the mackerel, breaking up the fish with a wooden spoon. The last thing to go in should be the sweetcorn. Season.
Add the cooked rice (drained) and mix well.
Braised goose - 28 September 2010
Tuesday 28 September
I had friends staying and decided to make a last homecooked breakfast before Em went off on her travels.
In keeping with my "buy nothing" challenge, I used up the fresh ricotta I bought at the Market last Saturday.
I'd brought home two, so one was used for the previous night's veggie pasta bake, and one for ricotta pancakes for the troops this morning.
I've made these before - they're adapted from a Bill Granger recipe. Pretty foolproof, thought I may be a little out of practice at pancake flipping, so they turned out a little misshapen. No pictures unfortunately as I was in a total rush to get these made and get to uni on time! This is the recipe I used.
For dinner we had braised goose. I'm always up for trying new things in the kitchen, and I have never cooked goose this way before. In fact, other than one incident with a roast goose, it's not a meat I'd cooked before at all.
Braised goose (serves 4-6)
4 goose legs
1 goose breast fillet
10 cloves garlic
3 medium onions
1 carrot
Half bottle red wine
Leftover gravy (optional)
Leftover veg (optional, but I used steamed red cabbage and purple cauliflower from Sunday dinner)
2 tins plum tomatoes
Chicken stock
Chop onions roughly and lay on the bottom of a large slow cooker or cast iron oven pot.
Make slits in the goose flesh and push garlic cloves into the holes. Place on the bed of onions. Season. Pour over the red wine and the two tins of tomatoes. Add in any leftover ingredients and maybe some extra veg.
Cook on low in the slow cooker for 24 hours. Alternatively you could stick it in the oven at about 75'C for the same amount if time.
We had this with mash, and I think the meal went a long way to line my stomach before we went out for drinks for Em's leaving night!
I had friends staying and decided to make a last homecooked breakfast before Em went off on her travels.
In keeping with my "buy nothing" challenge, I used up the fresh ricotta I bought at the Market last Saturday.
I'd brought home two, so one was used for the previous night's veggie pasta bake, and one for ricotta pancakes for the troops this morning.
I've made these before - they're adapted from a Bill Granger recipe. Pretty foolproof, thought I may be a little out of practice at pancake flipping, so they turned out a little misshapen. No pictures unfortunately as I was in a total rush to get these made and get to uni on time! This is the recipe I used.
For dinner we had braised goose. I'm always up for trying new things in the kitchen, and I have never cooked goose this way before. In fact, other than one incident with a roast goose, it's not a meat I'd cooked before at all.
Braised goose (serves 4-6)
4 goose legs
1 goose breast fillet
10 cloves garlic
3 medium onions
1 carrot
Half bottle red wine
Leftover gravy (optional)
Leftover veg (optional, but I used steamed red cabbage and purple cauliflower from Sunday dinner)
2 tins plum tomatoes
Chicken stock
Chop onions roughly and lay on the bottom of a large slow cooker or cast iron oven pot.
Make slits in the goose flesh and push garlic cloves into the holes. Place on the bed of onions. Season. Pour over the red wine and the two tins of tomatoes. Add in any leftover ingredients and maybe some extra veg.
Cook on low in the slow cooker for 24 hours. Alternatively you could stick it in the oven at about 75'C for the same amount if time.
We had this with mash, and I think the meal went a long way to line my stomach before we went out for drinks for Em's leaving night!
Monday 27 September 2010
Spinach, ricotta and mushroom pasta bake
Tonight's dinner is in the oven. In
Keeping with my "buy nothing" experiment, I raided the fridge for ingredients.
This is a pretty basic recipe inspired by a pasta bake served during the field trip last week. Good hearty veggie food.
Spinach, ricotta and mushroom pasta bake (serves 4-6)
About 250g fresh cows milk mozarella (S S bei Naufragati)
1 onion, chopped (Phantassie organics)
1 small punnet mushrooms, sliced
1 bag spinach (Phantassie organics)
1 whole ricotta (S S bei Naufragati)
1 whole smoky garlic cheddar cheese, about 280g, grated (Isle of Arran Cheese)
280g dry pasta (Waitrose - leftover in cupboard from months ago)
Cook pasta in plenty of boiling water. Preheat oven to 180'C.
Sautee onions in a little oil until slightly softened. Add mushrooms and cook for a further couple of minutes. Let cool.
Drain ricotta. Add half the grated cheddar - you could use any strong cheddar, but I like the smoky garlic flavour of the Arran cheddar. It also saves having to chop garlic! Add the cooled onions and mushrooms and mix thoroughly.
Toss cooked pasta and the spinach in the cheese mixture, reserving some to spread on top.
Spread the mixture in a large casserole dish, spreading the remaining cheese mixture over top. Finish with the rest of the grated cheddar.
Bake in oven until the the cheese is melted and golden.
Keeping with my "buy nothing" experiment, I raided the fridge for ingredients.
This is a pretty basic recipe inspired by a pasta bake served during the field trip last week. Good hearty veggie food.
Spinach, ricotta and mushroom pasta bake (serves 4-6)
About 250g fresh cows milk mozarella (S S bei Naufragati)
1 onion, chopped (Phantassie organics)
1 small punnet mushrooms, sliced
1 bag spinach (Phantassie organics)
1 whole ricotta (S S bei Naufragati)
1 whole smoky garlic cheddar cheese, about 280g, grated (Isle of Arran Cheese)
280g dry pasta (Waitrose - leftover in cupboard from months ago)
Cook pasta in plenty of boiling water. Preheat oven to 180'C.
Sautee onions in a little oil until slightly softened. Add mushrooms and cook for a further couple of minutes. Let cool.
Drain ricotta. Add half the grated cheddar - you could use any strong cheddar, but I like the smoky garlic flavour of the Arran cheddar. It also saves having to chop garlic! Add the cooled onions and mushrooms and mix thoroughly.
Toss cooked pasta and the spinach in the cheese mixture, reserving some to spread on top.
Spread the mixture in a large casserole dish, spreading the remaining cheese mixture over top. Finish with the rest of the grated cheddar.
Bake in oven until the the cheese is melted and golden.
Storecupboard challenge
I had a conversation with the boyfriend last night that turned on a couple lightbulbs in my brain. Given, we were pretty knackered, and sometimes I get crazy notions when tired.
We have a lot of food in the house. I don’t just mean fresh or frozen, though we have a ready supply of both of these as well. What we have in abundance is of the non-perishable variety. This idea came into conversation when we had to chuck out a jar of marmalade that had been languishing in the back of the cupboard for at least six months. It takes a long time for preserves to go mouldy, even opened, and he mentioned his gran would have his head on a stick if she ever found out about his chucking food out. Basically, food wastage is bad. We all know that.
We’ve had a few incidents recently which set the wheels moving. We have fair-sized separate freezer that sits in the hall, and which was pretty full of leftovers. Unfortunately, the whole thing went and broke down, so we had to throw out loads of perfectly good food because we couldn’t guarantee it was safe to eat – quite a lot of meat and fish based food was quite frankly not worth the risk. It had iced over to the point the run off damaged some of the floorboards underneath. Not a pretty sight.
Then a friend of ours came to visit, and whilst I was away on a field trip in the Highlands all last week, she and my boyfriend decided to eat their way through the contents of the freezer that could be salvaged. They just chucked in whatever they could find, mixed it with whatever was in the cupboards, and basically lived on meat + veg + condiment stews all week.
It’s led me to have a good long think about what we throw out, and even what we don’t throw out but that never sees the light of day in our cupboards.
I think now is the time to do something about it. I may not be a woman on a mission to change the world just yet, but I can be a woman on a mission to reduce her own damned waste!
So my challenge to myself is to use up all the jars, spices, tins, bottles etc that have sat in the kitchen for almost as I can remember living in that flat. Fresh food is fair game, some things of course can be replaced when needed (redcurrant jelly is a big one, as I put it in almost everything), but new and interesting uses will be found for the olives, jams, jellies, marmalades, marinades, oils, vinegars and sauces we have been up until this moment “saving for best”.
Challenge: To use up our non-perishables, basically we need to stop buying so much food. I plan to do one weekly food shop which will be mostly fresh fruit, vegetables, meats and some perishable items such as cheeses, but we will make use of what we have in our pantry until it is ALL GONE.
Why do we want to do this? To reduce waste and to prove we don’t need to buy all the time to make tasty food.
I haven’t been cooking as much as I’d like recently, and I think this may give me the inspiration I need to do something in the kitchen other than grill a steak or boil some noodles.
Weird and random recipes will surely follow.
We have a lot of food in the house. I don’t just mean fresh or frozen, though we have a ready supply of both of these as well. What we have in abundance is of the non-perishable variety. This idea came into conversation when we had to chuck out a jar of marmalade that had been languishing in the back of the cupboard for at least six months. It takes a long time for preserves to go mouldy, even opened, and he mentioned his gran would have his head on a stick if she ever found out about his chucking food out. Basically, food wastage is bad. We all know that.
We’ve had a few incidents recently which set the wheels moving. We have fair-sized separate freezer that sits in the hall, and which was pretty full of leftovers. Unfortunately, the whole thing went and broke down, so we had to throw out loads of perfectly good food because we couldn’t guarantee it was safe to eat – quite a lot of meat and fish based food was quite frankly not worth the risk. It had iced over to the point the run off damaged some of the floorboards underneath. Not a pretty sight.
Then a friend of ours came to visit, and whilst I was away on a field trip in the Highlands all last week, she and my boyfriend decided to eat their way through the contents of the freezer that could be salvaged. They just chucked in whatever they could find, mixed it with whatever was in the cupboards, and basically lived on meat + veg + condiment stews all week.
It’s led me to have a good long think about what we throw out, and even what we don’t throw out but that never sees the light of day in our cupboards.
I think now is the time to do something about it. I may not be a woman on a mission to change the world just yet, but I can be a woman on a mission to reduce her own damned waste!
So my challenge to myself is to use up all the jars, spices, tins, bottles etc that have sat in the kitchen for almost as I can remember living in that flat. Fresh food is fair game, some things of course can be replaced when needed (redcurrant jelly is a big one, as I put it in almost everything), but new and interesting uses will be found for the olives, jams, jellies, marmalades, marinades, oils, vinegars and sauces we have been up until this moment “saving for best”.
Challenge: To use up our non-perishables, basically we need to stop buying so much food. I plan to do one weekly food shop which will be mostly fresh fruit, vegetables, meats and some perishable items such as cheeses, but we will make use of what we have in our pantry until it is ALL GONE.
Why do we want to do this? To reduce waste and to prove we don’t need to buy all the time to make tasty food.
I haven’t been cooking as much as I’d like recently, and I think this may give me the inspiration I need to do something in the kitchen other than grill a steak or boil some noodles.
Weird and random recipes will surely follow.
Friday 17 September 2010
I'm a part-timer
It is my last week working full time - I will be on part time hours as of week after next, and I will be in a muddy field next week. Oh yes, it's field trip time!
It's not all long lie ins and lazy weekdays though. I'll be at uni 4 mornings a week and one full day, then it's off to work I go 4 afternoons a week.
It's not all long lie ins and lazy weekdays though. I'll be at uni 4 mornings a week and one full day, then it's off to work I go 4 afternoons a week.
Wednesday 25 August 2010
The McDonaldisation of everything aka how they lie to you
I have a confession to make.
It’s nothing big, and I’m not ashamed of it by any means. I used to drink Vitamin Water.
Maybe it was the quirky labels, the ones that they cunningly customised to fit with whichever country they were trying to flog their wares I bought a bottle in Canada once, and the label had some Canuck reference. The bottles sold here in Scotland have labels aimed at Scots – it’s been awhile since I bought a bottle, but from what I remember the words “hangover” and “whiskey” were mentioned. Don’t quote me on that though.
Maybe it was the fact that one of the flavours was Dragon fruit.
I never picked up a bottle, looked at the label and thought “ooh, healthy!” I assumed they were healthier than fizzy juice, but I didn’t really think they were packed chock full of vitamins and I could stop eating my five-a-day.
I stopped buying (and drinking) the stuff when my boyfriend broke the news to me Vitamin Water is owned by Coca Cola. I don’t drink Coke or Pepsi for a reason – multinational soft drink companies that are trying to take over the world are not getting my dollar! That’s also why I don’t eat McDonalds or Burger King. Well, other than the “food” is shite.
Let’s just think of it this way. If I want to indulge in greasy, fatty, deep fried mess, I’d rather spend my couple of quid at a chippy, where there is at least some small chance the food is produced on site. Family businesses are always a favourite for me. Even if the burger patties and the chicken tenders come frozen in an industrial sized bag, at least your buck is going towards someone who lives and works in your community, not the McDonalds brand.
That’s why I am proud to live in one of the only countries in the world were Coca Cola and Pepsi are outsold by a local soft drink. I don’t drink Irn Bru either, but it’s nice to know Coke and Pepsi haven’t taken over every corner of the globe. There’s something comforting and homey about the Irn Bru adverts, and I think it’s a humour that may not translate well out of Scotland.
It’s nothing big, and I’m not ashamed of it by any means. I used to drink Vitamin Water.
Maybe it was the quirky labels, the ones that they cunningly customised to fit with whichever country they were trying to flog their wares I bought a bottle in Canada once, and the label had some Canuck reference. The bottles sold here in Scotland have labels aimed at Scots – it’s been awhile since I bought a bottle, but from what I remember the words “hangover” and “whiskey” were mentioned. Don’t quote me on that though.
Maybe it was the fact that one of the flavours was Dragon fruit.
I never picked up a bottle, looked at the label and thought “ooh, healthy!” I assumed they were healthier than fizzy juice, but I didn’t really think they were packed chock full of vitamins and I could stop eating my five-a-day.
I stopped buying (and drinking) the stuff when my boyfriend broke the news to me Vitamin Water is owned by Coca Cola. I don’t drink Coke or Pepsi for a reason – multinational soft drink companies that are trying to take over the world are not getting my dollar! That’s also why I don’t eat McDonalds or Burger King. Well, other than the “food” is shite.
Let’s just think of it this way. If I want to indulge in greasy, fatty, deep fried mess, I’d rather spend my couple of quid at a chippy, where there is at least some small chance the food is produced on site. Family businesses are always a favourite for me. Even if the burger patties and the chicken tenders come frozen in an industrial sized bag, at least your buck is going towards someone who lives and works in your community, not the McDonalds brand.
That’s why I am proud to live in one of the only countries in the world were Coca Cola and Pepsi are outsold by a local soft drink. I don’t drink Irn Bru either, but it’s nice to know Coke and Pepsi haven’t taken over every corner of the globe. There’s something comforting and homey about the Irn Bru adverts, and I think it’s a humour that may not translate well out of Scotland.
Wednesday 11 August 2010
Weekend roundup
Last weekend there was the infamous midgie massacre of my legs, from which we are still finding casualties. Despite this the boyfriend and I had a lovely couple of days at our friend’s farm. He picked us up on Saturday around lunchtime, which was lucky as I was starting to feel the Festival Rage. It’s an unfortunate affliction which seems to come on around this time in August when tourists start invading my city and treating us lowly locals as part of the entertainment. Anyways, enough of that…we shall only speak of nice things!
The puppy sat in the back with me, dressed in his Sunday best…
Saturday afternoon we raided the vegetable patch. There really is nothing quite like eating sweet peas straight off the plant, and I must have devoured a hundred of them. They were so sweet we could have had them for dessert!
I left a pile of empties behind me…
Sunday was for lazing about and not doing a whole lot. We didn’t want to tire ourselves out before the drive home! The boyfriend and I found a couple of sun loungers and settled into a nice reclining position. Even the puppy decided to adopt a distinctly horizontal stance.
We resurfaced for long enough to have a wee barbecue…
The buffalo steaks were from Puddledub Buffalo at the Farmers Market, and everything else – the carrots, the sugarsnap peas (my favourites) and the onions - came from the veg garden less than ten feet away. You really can’t beat zero food miles, from plant to plate in under a minute! The carrots were super-sweet and tasted like no carrot you could find in a supermarket and I think I ate more peas in those two days than I ever have in my life. We didn’t do much to them, just grilled with a little bit of oil and did the steaks in a splash of Lea and Perrins.
The puppy sat in the back with me, dressed in his Sunday best…
Saturday afternoon we raided the vegetable patch. There really is nothing quite like eating sweet peas straight off the plant, and I must have devoured a hundred of them. They were so sweet we could have had them for dessert!
I left a pile of empties behind me…
Sunday was for lazing about and not doing a whole lot. We didn’t want to tire ourselves out before the drive home! The boyfriend and I found a couple of sun loungers and settled into a nice reclining position. Even the puppy decided to adopt a distinctly horizontal stance.
We resurfaced for long enough to have a wee barbecue…
The buffalo steaks were from Puddledub Buffalo at the Farmers Market, and everything else – the carrots, the sugarsnap peas (my favourites) and the onions - came from the veg garden less than ten feet away. You really can’t beat zero food miles, from plant to plate in under a minute! The carrots were super-sweet and tasted like no carrot you could find in a supermarket and I think I ate more peas in those two days than I ever have in my life. We didn’t do much to them, just grilled with a little bit of oil and did the steaks in a splash of Lea and Perrins.
Tuesday 10 August 2010
Cure for insect bites - itch-be-gone!
I have found the Holy Grail, that thing I have been searching for every summer of my life but which has eluded me until now. I have found a cure for insect bites!!! Although not so much a “cure”, as I’d already been bitten, I have found the perfect combination of remedies to rid me of the incessant itching, and that is good enough for me.
Let me just say, I have tried every over-the-counter remedy the chemist’s has to offer, but with no results whatsoever. I’ve a desk drawer full of antihistamines, anti-itch creams and even specific ointments for the problem. I’ve tried lavender essential oil mixed in with some aloe vera gel for spreadability, which soothed my skin temporarily (and better than the creams and ointments from Boots I should add), but the itching just came back eventually.
Yesterday pr’evening, I stopped by Real Foods on Broughton Street after work for a small bottle of peppermint oil – my friend Chris had passed this suggestion on to my boyfriend as it might help with the infection – yes, some of the bites were infected and bleeding, possibly because I’d itched them or maybe because I’d slept under a wool blanket the other night…or possibly because midges are the handiwork of the devil – but I’m a little wary of using peppermint on insect bites as it can be a skin irritant. I asked the girl behind the counter if she could suggest anything for the bites, and she pointed me in the direction of a bottle of neem oil.
I’d heard of neem oil before, and had a vague inkling to its skin-soothing properties – however, it was an oil I hadn’t come across during my time as an Aromatherapy student as I don’t believe it is that widely used in massage. I’ve certainly never heard of it used in that way before – possibly because the oil smells a little like poultry seasoning! I’ve read up a bit online about the stuff, and some folk have likened the smell to dirt, musk, decomposing coffee grounds and garlic. And oddly, peanut butter.
The essential oil is extracted through cold-pressing the seed kernels of the neem tree. The neem tree is a relative of mahogany, and is more commonly found in Asia, especially India and Burma. It is thought to have antiseptic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and immune enhancing properties, and is also thought to be amazing for the skin (both in regulating oiliness and relieving irritating skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis).
The oil I used wasn’t 100% neat neem oil but a blended skin preparation – it was blended with a carrier oil (jojoba I believe) and eucalyptus, but to be honest I didn’t get much of a whiff of the eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is known for its antiseptic properties as well, so I figured I couldn’t really go wrong.
First I ran a hot bath. I emptied out most of a tub of bicarb of soda into the water (it wasn’t full, as I’d made a few sticky toffee puddings a few months ago, but it was at least 75% full). A friend had recommended the bicarb in a warm bath to soothe skin irritations, so I thought I would give it a go. I had originally planned to use oatmeal as well, but I couldn’t find any plain oatmeal in the flat – my boyfriend found some porridge oats with raising, sultanas and almonds but I thought I’d give it a miss.
I added a few drops of the peppermint oil into the water, then quite a bit of the neem oil. After I got in the bath and soaked for a bit (and my boyfriend and the puppy both came in to check on me), I rubbed plenty of the neem oil onto my legs to cover the bites and soaked some more.
When I got out of the bath I patted myself dry, so didn’t rub the oil residue off my legs. I didn’t use any other moisturiser but just got dressed in my jammies and left the rest of the oil to soak in. I didn’t feel the need to scratch once in the middle of the night, and as a happy side effect, possibly because I’d added the oil to my bath water as well, a huuuuge spot on my upper lip seems to have cleared up quite a bit. It’s not completely disappeared, but it doesn’t look fit to burst like it did last night.
I rubbed some more neem oil onto my legs this morning before getting dressed, and even with leggings on (I refuse to bare my legs until I look less like the elephant man’s lesser known cousin) the bites are only giving off the slightest hint of a tingle. I don’t feel the urge to scratch, and even though I can still feel the tingle, the irritation is about 90% gone and it is now bearable.
Incidentally – and this is my reasoning that it was the neem oil that helped the most overall – a few rogue bites on my arms and chest are still pretty itchy, and those were the places I hadn’t applied the neem oil, either in the bath or this morning.
Let me just say, I have tried every over-the-counter remedy the chemist’s has to offer, but with no results whatsoever. I’ve a desk drawer full of antihistamines, anti-itch creams and even specific ointments for the problem. I’ve tried lavender essential oil mixed in with some aloe vera gel for spreadability, which soothed my skin temporarily (and better than the creams and ointments from Boots I should add), but the itching just came back eventually.
Yesterday pr’evening, I stopped by Real Foods on Broughton Street after work for a small bottle of peppermint oil – my friend Chris had passed this suggestion on to my boyfriend as it might help with the infection – yes, some of the bites were infected and bleeding, possibly because I’d itched them or maybe because I’d slept under a wool blanket the other night…or possibly because midges are the handiwork of the devil – but I’m a little wary of using peppermint on insect bites as it can be a skin irritant. I asked the girl behind the counter if she could suggest anything for the bites, and she pointed me in the direction of a bottle of neem oil.
I’d heard of neem oil before, and had a vague inkling to its skin-soothing properties – however, it was an oil I hadn’t come across during my time as an Aromatherapy student as I don’t believe it is that widely used in massage. I’ve certainly never heard of it used in that way before – possibly because the oil smells a little like poultry seasoning! I’ve read up a bit online about the stuff, and some folk have likened the smell to dirt, musk, decomposing coffee grounds and garlic. And oddly, peanut butter.
The essential oil is extracted through cold-pressing the seed kernels of the neem tree. The neem tree is a relative of mahogany, and is more commonly found in Asia, especially India and Burma. It is thought to have antiseptic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and immune enhancing properties, and is also thought to be amazing for the skin (both in regulating oiliness and relieving irritating skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis).
The oil I used wasn’t 100% neat neem oil but a blended skin preparation – it was blended with a carrier oil (jojoba I believe) and eucalyptus, but to be honest I didn’t get much of a whiff of the eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is known for its antiseptic properties as well, so I figured I couldn’t really go wrong.
First I ran a hot bath. I emptied out most of a tub of bicarb of soda into the water (it wasn’t full, as I’d made a few sticky toffee puddings a few months ago, but it was at least 75% full). A friend had recommended the bicarb in a warm bath to soothe skin irritations, so I thought I would give it a go. I had originally planned to use oatmeal as well, but I couldn’t find any plain oatmeal in the flat – my boyfriend found some porridge oats with raising, sultanas and almonds but I thought I’d give it a miss.
I added a few drops of the peppermint oil into the water, then quite a bit of the neem oil. After I got in the bath and soaked for a bit (and my boyfriend and the puppy both came in to check on me), I rubbed plenty of the neem oil onto my legs to cover the bites and soaked some more.
When I got out of the bath I patted myself dry, so didn’t rub the oil residue off my legs. I didn’t use any other moisturiser but just got dressed in my jammies and left the rest of the oil to soak in. I didn’t feel the need to scratch once in the middle of the night, and as a happy side effect, possibly because I’d added the oil to my bath water as well, a huuuuge spot on my upper lip seems to have cleared up quite a bit. It’s not completely disappeared, but it doesn’t look fit to burst like it did last night.
I rubbed some more neem oil onto my legs this morning before getting dressed, and even with leggings on (I refuse to bare my legs until I look less like the elephant man’s lesser known cousin) the bites are only giving off the slightest hint of a tingle. I don’t feel the urge to scratch, and even though I can still feel the tingle, the irritation is about 90% gone and it is now bearable.
Incidentally – and this is my reasoning that it was the neem oil that helped the most overall – a few rogue bites on my arms and chest are still pretty itchy, and those were the places I hadn’t applied the neem oil, either in the bath or this morning.
Monday 2 August 2010
Weekend roundup
I had a mini adventure on my way to see the boyfriend on Saturday night. It all started when I got in a taxi at Leven bus station…
Everything started out fine. The driver was friendly, said he hoped I liked old time rock-and-roll, then proceeded to stick on a Bobby Darrin CD. This was going the way of an old Buddy Holly tune, and I had no objections. He even quoted me twenty quid for the journey, including a brief stopover at Sainsburys so I could pick up a few groceries. Not bad considering I have sometimes paid thirty quid just for the journey from Leven to St Monans, without a stopover.
After we left the Sainsburys car park, the driver mentioned he wasn’t that familiar with St Monans, and asked if I cold get directions – the place I was headed to was on land that belonged to a local farm, so he had no idea how to get there. I said fine and phoned the boyfriend. He was halfway through rattling off directions when I heard a sentence you never want to hear coming out of the mouth of someone driving you to a remote cottage, halfway to your destination and nowhere near your starting point on a deserted road.
“I think my car is breaking down.”
Ah crap. At that point I noticed his car was making a clunking noise that most definitely did not sound healthy. It was stuck in second gear, and the driver was concerned if he stopped the car, it may not start back up again. The house I was going to was not quite in St Monans, and would take us slightly off-road for a few hundred metres, so I told the driver it would be ok to drop me off by the bus stop on the main road – he felt bad as I was a lone female and it was getting quite late, but there really wasn’t anything for it and I didn’t want him to be stranded on a farm road waiting for help! He’d already phoned his dispatcher, who’d said unfortunately they couldn’t send anyone for ages to pick him up. His plan was just to ease the car back to Leven and hope for the best.
As we neared the bus stop, the driver gave me a two minute warning and I undid my seatbelt, opened the passenger side door, and chucked my overnight bag onto the pavement. Then I jumped out. He couldn’t stop the car completely, but he did manage to slow down enough so I didn’t have to do a ninja-style dismount. As he pulled away I heard him shout “are you alright?”, but I’d landed on my feet and other than a dusty bag, no damage at all.
About five minutes later my boyfriend rocked up with the puppy. The sun had vanished completely but I’d started reading a magazine by streetlight.
We had a bit of a tearful hello as we’d not seen each other in over 48 hours – the longest we’d been separated in ten months. I know he’s at our friend’s for a reason – it’s a damned good reason too, and he is doing a good thing – but I miss him like crazy. He was looking good – and more importantly healthy – but a bit scruffy. The boys never do care about hygiene much when left on their own for a few days, although our host Chris can be a bit girly sometimes, with his love for aromatherapy oils, Kiehls moisturiser and fairylights.
The walk down to Chris’s cottage is quite nice in the dark, though in late July the sun never entirely goes away, so the sky wasn’t entirely pitch black. The puppy was even relatively well behaved.
We had a pretty chilled out evening, though it was weird having Chris’s cottage all to ourselves. We usually end up there with a few people sitting round the fire, but on Saturday night it was just the two of us and the animals. We made a beef stew with the groceries I’d bought in my 30-second-dash through Sainsburys and settled in to watch the rest of “Gangs of New York”. Quality film, if a bit traumatic in parts. It’s done a lot to redeem Leonardo DiCaprio in my estimations after the entire “Titanic” debacle – oh hell that was a shit film. I really think he’s much better in films where he isn’t portrayed as the romantic hero – he’s not got the face for it, but he’s a decent character actor playing quirky roles, like in “What’s eating Gilbert Grape”.
We didn’t talk much, just sat with the coal fire burning and the film on the laptop in the corner. I dozed off for a few minutes when the boyfriend went to check on the food, but this time I made it through the whole film. Chris’s cat came in at one point, and the puppy decided to investigate – that cat is so much more chilled out than ours, and he just sat there and took it as puppy prodded him, gave him kisses and nuzzled his ear. We took a few photos because, as per usual, we are like the pet paparazzi.
“Get your coat, you’ve pulled”
The next morning we went on a short walk into town to grab some groceries and provisions for Sunday lunch. The fridge was bare when I turned up (I thought it was an exaggeration – it wasn’t) so we were looking for a meat, some veg, and maybe snackage. I love the idea of living in a seaside town, but what I would find very hard to live with is the lack of choice. There are two shops in town open on Sunday, and one of them is a generic chain convenience store. To be fair, it does stock some unusual produce – I’ll get to that later – but it’s mostly generic over-farmed meat and ready meals full of additives and E-numbers.
On the walk home poor puppy was a bit ill, so we stopped at the local vet’s surgery to jot down the emergency number. We had to tie puppy up and this was the only thing we could find. Cute! I’ve no idea what he is doing with his tail though.
Chris arrived home with his dad not long after, so we dispatched Pa of Chris with the leftover stew from the night before and “Orange County” on DVD. We stuck the whole chicken in the le Creuset pot I’d unearthed for Chris a year ago from my infinite stores of kitchen equipment (still no signs of depletion) with a drizzle of oil and rubbed with some sundried tomato pesto. It was a pure lazy Sunday lunch, but Chris doesn’t have an oven so the choices were limited. We had to cook the chicken in a toaster oven – oddly something I’ve had to do before for Christmas and Thanksgiving at my mum and dad’s house, as my mum cannot use her oven and relies on a small toaster oven they’ve had since I was in primary school. The actual oven is used to store baking trays, muffin tins and frying pans.
We gave Chris his wee pressie – we found this sitting on top of the deep freeze in the Spar and I thought it was too random to pass up. I hope he never eats it at it may kill him, but the fact someone has marketed this is amazing to me.
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Everything started out fine. The driver was friendly, said he hoped I liked old time rock-and-roll, then proceeded to stick on a Bobby Darrin CD. This was going the way of an old Buddy Holly tune, and I had no objections. He even quoted me twenty quid for the journey, including a brief stopover at Sainsburys so I could pick up a few groceries. Not bad considering I have sometimes paid thirty quid just for the journey from Leven to St Monans, without a stopover.
After we left the Sainsburys car park, the driver mentioned he wasn’t that familiar with St Monans, and asked if I cold get directions – the place I was headed to was on land that belonged to a local farm, so he had no idea how to get there. I said fine and phoned the boyfriend. He was halfway through rattling off directions when I heard a sentence you never want to hear coming out of the mouth of someone driving you to a remote cottage, halfway to your destination and nowhere near your starting point on a deserted road.
“I think my car is breaking down.”
Ah crap. At that point I noticed his car was making a clunking noise that most definitely did not sound healthy. It was stuck in second gear, and the driver was concerned if he stopped the car, it may not start back up again. The house I was going to was not quite in St Monans, and would take us slightly off-road for a few hundred metres, so I told the driver it would be ok to drop me off by the bus stop on the main road – he felt bad as I was a lone female and it was getting quite late, but there really wasn’t anything for it and I didn’t want him to be stranded on a farm road waiting for help! He’d already phoned his dispatcher, who’d said unfortunately they couldn’t send anyone for ages to pick him up. His plan was just to ease the car back to Leven and hope for the best.
As we neared the bus stop, the driver gave me a two minute warning and I undid my seatbelt, opened the passenger side door, and chucked my overnight bag onto the pavement. Then I jumped out. He couldn’t stop the car completely, but he did manage to slow down enough so I didn’t have to do a ninja-style dismount. As he pulled away I heard him shout “are you alright?”, but I’d landed on my feet and other than a dusty bag, no damage at all.
About five minutes later my boyfriend rocked up with the puppy. The sun had vanished completely but I’d started reading a magazine by streetlight.
We had a bit of a tearful hello as we’d not seen each other in over 48 hours – the longest we’d been separated in ten months. I know he’s at our friend’s for a reason – it’s a damned good reason too, and he is doing a good thing – but I miss him like crazy. He was looking good – and more importantly healthy – but a bit scruffy. The boys never do care about hygiene much when left on their own for a few days, although our host Chris can be a bit girly sometimes, with his love for aromatherapy oils, Kiehls moisturiser and fairylights.
The walk down to Chris’s cottage is quite nice in the dark, though in late July the sun never entirely goes away, so the sky wasn’t entirely pitch black. The puppy was even relatively well behaved.
We had a pretty chilled out evening, though it was weird having Chris’s cottage all to ourselves. We usually end up there with a few people sitting round the fire, but on Saturday night it was just the two of us and the animals. We made a beef stew with the groceries I’d bought in my 30-second-dash through Sainsburys and settled in to watch the rest of “Gangs of New York”. Quality film, if a bit traumatic in parts. It’s done a lot to redeem Leonardo DiCaprio in my estimations after the entire “Titanic” debacle – oh hell that was a shit film. I really think he’s much better in films where he isn’t portrayed as the romantic hero – he’s not got the face for it, but he’s a decent character actor playing quirky roles, like in “What’s eating Gilbert Grape”.
We didn’t talk much, just sat with the coal fire burning and the film on the laptop in the corner. I dozed off for a few minutes when the boyfriend went to check on the food, but this time I made it through the whole film. Chris’s cat came in at one point, and the puppy decided to investigate – that cat is so much more chilled out than ours, and he just sat there and took it as puppy prodded him, gave him kisses and nuzzled his ear. We took a few photos because, as per usual, we are like the pet paparazzi.
“Get your coat, you’ve pulled”
The next morning we went on a short walk into town to grab some groceries and provisions for Sunday lunch. The fridge was bare when I turned up (I thought it was an exaggeration – it wasn’t) so we were looking for a meat, some veg, and maybe snackage. I love the idea of living in a seaside town, but what I would find very hard to live with is the lack of choice. There are two shops in town open on Sunday, and one of them is a generic chain convenience store. To be fair, it does stock some unusual produce – I’ll get to that later – but it’s mostly generic over-farmed meat and ready meals full of additives and E-numbers.
On the walk home poor puppy was a bit ill, so we stopped at the local vet’s surgery to jot down the emergency number. We had to tie puppy up and this was the only thing we could find. Cute! I’ve no idea what he is doing with his tail though.
Chris arrived home with his dad not long after, so we dispatched Pa of Chris with the leftover stew from the night before and “Orange County” on DVD. We stuck the whole chicken in the le Creuset pot I’d unearthed for Chris a year ago from my infinite stores of kitchen equipment (still no signs of depletion) with a drizzle of oil and rubbed with some sundried tomato pesto. It was a pure lazy Sunday lunch, but Chris doesn’t have an oven so the choices were limited. We had to cook the chicken in a toaster oven – oddly something I’ve had to do before for Christmas and Thanksgiving at my mum and dad’s house, as my mum cannot use her oven and relies on a small toaster oven they’ve had since I was in primary school. The actual oven is used to store baking trays, muffin tins and frying pans.
We gave Chris his wee pressie – we found this sitting on top of the deep freeze in the Spar and I thought it was too random to pass up. I hope he never eats it at it may kill him, but the fact someone has marketed this is amazing to me.
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Sunday 1 August 2010
Squat Lobster fusilli with baby plum tomatoes
A few weeks ago I spied a wee treat at the Farmers Market - something I'd heard about from friends who came from the west coast but had never seen or tasted myself. Two wee tubs sitting amidst the peppered mackerel and smoked salmon they sell in abundance. I had to have them. They were expensive and I had no idea how to cook them, but I bought them anyways. Two 100g pots of shelled squat lobster tails.
I just threw together this little recipe tonight with what I had the fridge. The squat lobster tails had to be taken out of the freezer yesterday as the bloody thing is in serious need of defrosting, and the wee pots of loveliness were in danger of going to waste.
Squat lobster fusilli with baby plum tomatoes
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic
200g squat lobster tails, shell removed
10 baby plum tomatoes
Spelt fusilli (regular wheat pasta can be used as well, I'm just trying to cut down on wheat)
Cook fusilli in boiling water.
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot. Add the onions and sauté gently until softened. Add squat lobster tails and sauté until just cooked - do not overcook! Finally add tomatoes and garlic, give it a stir just to heat through, and remove from heat.
Toss with cooked pasta.
Poshest packed lunch ever!
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I just threw together this little recipe tonight with what I had the fridge. The squat lobster tails had to be taken out of the freezer yesterday as the bloody thing is in serious need of defrosting, and the wee pots of loveliness were in danger of going to waste.
Squat lobster fusilli with baby plum tomatoes
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic
200g squat lobster tails, shell removed
10 baby plum tomatoes
Spelt fusilli (regular wheat pasta can be used as well, I'm just trying to cut down on wheat)
Cook fusilli in boiling water.
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot. Add the onions and sauté gently until softened. Add squat lobster tails and sauté until just cooked - do not overcook! Finally add tomatoes and garlic, give it a stir just to heat through, and remove from heat.
Toss with cooked pasta.
Poshest packed lunch ever!
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Saturday 31 July 2010
No one home, but I've left the cat on charge...
It's been a stressful few days - boyfriend has been sent to stay with friends 5 miles past Wherethefuckarewe and we've been missing each other like crazy. It sounds stupid but this is the longest we've been apart in almost ten months. I caved and am now sitting on a bus to Ohhellthisisalongbusjourney, where I can either get a connecting bus to Wherethefuckarewe or a taxi if it's too late at night for bussing it.
I will be passing through small towns in Fife I would never have known existed if the Number 58 bus hadn't decided to grace them with it's presence. And I used to live in Fife, so these towns
must be pretty obscure.
That's not to say they're not pretty and picturesque, but unfortunately it also doesn't mean I am any more likely to remember their names.
I spent my first Saturday on my own in a long time, woke up, went shopping, had sushi...everything was a bit blah today, though there were a couple things that brightened up my day.
First, there was "the cupcake". At five minutes to seven in the Harvey Nicks food hall, the girl at the Chocolate Lounge - the new conveyer belt pudding bar on the fourth floor - directed me to the deli when I asked for a cupcake to go. I went for the strawberry cheesecake option, with pink frosting and glitter, and topped with a single slice of caramellised strawberry. I wish I'd taken a photo, but I ate it so fast before I even remembered my phone has a camera!
The second thing was this - also pink. I'm not usually a pink person; my favourite colours are yellow and orange. But I was throwing a few things into a bag to take with me and this tote made me smile. It zips up into a square pouch!
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I will be passing through small towns in Fife I would never have known existed if the Number 58 bus hadn't decided to grace them with it's presence. And I used to live in Fife, so these towns
must be pretty obscure.
That's not to say they're not pretty and picturesque, but unfortunately it also doesn't mean I am any more likely to remember their names.
I spent my first Saturday on my own in a long time, woke up, went shopping, had sushi...everything was a bit blah today, though there were a couple things that brightened up my day.
First, there was "the cupcake". At five minutes to seven in the Harvey Nicks food hall, the girl at the Chocolate Lounge - the new conveyer belt pudding bar on the fourth floor - directed me to the deli when I asked for a cupcake to go. I went for the strawberry cheesecake option, with pink frosting and glitter, and topped with a single slice of caramellised strawberry. I wish I'd taken a photo, but I ate it so fast before I even remembered my phone has a camera!
The second thing was this - also pink. I'm not usually a pink person; my favourite colours are yellow and orange. But I was throwing a few things into a bag to take with me and this tote made me smile. It zips up into a square pouch!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Wednesday 28 July 2010
Roast lamb for two with sweet potato and chilli jam
Boyfriend cleaned the kitchen whilst I was at work yesterday, which was a joy. I got a text sometime mid afternoon to let me know he’d rescue some select vegetables from the plastic veggie rack under the counter, but unfortunately some of their friends were not so lucky, and not everyone made it. The most notorious casualty was a melon that died in his hands.
We had a mini lamb roast I’d bought from the Puddledub stall at the farmers market weekend before last. I’d actually forgotten about it completely, but it’s a novel idea – a tiny lamb roast of about 350g total weight, perfect for two people as a mid-week roast, with pretty much no waste. I bought one for my friend Chris last time we went to visit him, because he only has a toaster oven so wouldn’t be able to roast a whole leg of lamb. These mini roasters are terribly cute and would be perfect for a dinner party idea I’ve been brewing since Christmas. I managed to find a handful of shallots that didn’t look too suspicious and some organic sweet potatoes from Waitrose that my boyfriend nudged me towards – probably as they didn’t have much time left, and also because he loves sweet potato.
Roast lamb for two with sweet potato and chilli jam
350g mini roast lamb (I used a Jacob mini roast from Puddledub, which is cute as hell and ready rolled)
A handful of shallots, chopped
2 sweet potatoes, chopped
Rapeseed oil (Summer Harvest – farmers market)
Chilli salt
1 tbsp sweet chilli jam (made by the lovely Mel)Preheat oven to 190 º.
In a heavy bottomed pot – I used a large Le Creuset – pour about a tbsp of oil. Add the sweet potatoes and shallots, taking care to spread them out so they lie in a relatively even layer covering the whole dish. Place the piece of lamb on top, season with chilli salt (don’t forget to season the veg as well) and brush with a little sweet chilli jam.
Roast 45-50 minutes for medium, 35-40 minutes for medium rare. Let rest covered.
Serve with sweet onion chutney.
We had a mini lamb roast I’d bought from the Puddledub stall at the farmers market weekend before last. I’d actually forgotten about it completely, but it’s a novel idea – a tiny lamb roast of about 350g total weight, perfect for two people as a mid-week roast, with pretty much no waste. I bought one for my friend Chris last time we went to visit him, because he only has a toaster oven so wouldn’t be able to roast a whole leg of lamb. These mini roasters are terribly cute and would be perfect for a dinner party idea I’ve been brewing since Christmas. I managed to find a handful of shallots that didn’t look too suspicious and some organic sweet potatoes from Waitrose that my boyfriend nudged me towards – probably as they didn’t have much time left, and also because he loves sweet potato.
Roast lamb for two with sweet potato and chilli jam
350g mini roast lamb (I used a Jacob mini roast from Puddledub, which is cute as hell and ready rolled)
A handful of shallots, chopped
2 sweet potatoes, chopped
Rapeseed oil (Summer Harvest – farmers market)
Chilli salt
1 tbsp sweet chilli jam (made by the lovely Mel)Preheat oven to 190 º.
In a heavy bottomed pot – I used a large Le Creuset – pour about a tbsp of oil. Add the sweet potatoes and shallots, taking care to spread them out so they lie in a relatively even layer covering the whole dish. Place the piece of lamb on top, season with chilli salt (don’t forget to season the veg as well) and brush with a little sweet chilli jam.
Roast 45-50 minutes for medium, 35-40 minutes for medium rare. Let rest covered.
Serve with sweet onion chutney.
Alice in Wonderland dinner party - a work in progress
I have been obsessed with Alice in Wonderland since I first read the books as a child. I read the original when I was about six, and “Through the Looking Glass” not long after. I have yet to read “Exeunt Alice”, though it’s on my TR list at the moment. Unfortunately my TR list, along with my cycling gloves, 10 pairs of Bridgedale bamboo socks and all my nice underwear (plus two Valentino dresses that don’t fit me at the moment), is lost somewhere in my landfill of a sitting room.
Anyhow, the obsession only grew after I saw Heston Blumenthal’s Alice in Wonderland themed feast – though I wouldn’t agree with some of the things he put on the menu, and I have my doubts about the edible garden with insects; the mock turtle soup with pocket-watch “consommé” looked amazing, and the “drink me” potion was fascinating. I have the most beautifully illustrated Alice in Wonderland book – it’s more a coffee table book rather than a bedside table one, as it’s quite large – which is quite dark, and I always fancied having an Alice themed dinner party.
I’ve been to the Alice in Wonderland Café in Tokyo, which was fun but the food was pretty bog-standard. Yes it’s a gimmick, but it inspired me to go for a slightly Alice-tinged theme throughout my flat – mostly with unexpected pocket-watches hanging from the walls at the moment, but soon to feature murals and art, as soon as the walls and ceilings get sorted!
I’ve toyed with the idea of oversized vs. undersized with relation to my menu, and having thought about it have come to realise there are so many options without even having to fiddle too much with nature. I have read a few interesting blogs about Alice in Wonderland tea parties, especially this one, which totally inspired me.
I think I would serve a “drink me” potion before my starter. I wanted something less ordinary than wine glasses, so thought a cocktail of some description served in vintage apothecary bottles, labelled with “DRINK ME” in old fashioned lettering. I like the idea of mismatched bottles, plates, crockery. Food served in vintage tea cups and saucers maybe. So after my guests have finished their “DRINK ME” potions, I’ll be ready to serve the starters – which could maybe be quails eggs, baby carrot lightly steamed with their tops still attached, some roasted baby onions and a hollandaise sauce or a mousseline on the side, served in little bitty tiny jugs.
Next we would have an itty bitty mozzarella and tomato salad, made with tiny bocconcini mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes, with a bit of balsamic glaze and a sprig of basil.
For the soup course I would go for two different kinds – a mock-turtle soup served in dainty teacups with a cheap pocket-watch placed on the saucer (not as elaborate as Heston Blumenthal’s edible pocket-watch, but then again I don’t have minions), and a cullen skink also served in teacups, with small toast fingers cut in the shape of hearts or diamonds.
This would be followed by a small piece of cake – maybe carrot cake iced with cream cheese frosting and a tiny sugar carrot (I just found a box the other day). The piece of cake would be served in a vintage tea cup, and at a jaunty angle. My other possible idea was to bake a savoury cake somehow – I’ve not looked into it enough, but to have a savoury cake iced with…cheese maybe – with the words “EAT ME” in balsamic glaze or even brown sauce. I might even stretch as far as a small meatloaf or a wedge of focaccia. Thinking about it now, a savoury “cake” might be better.
This will be followed by a sorbet – not made by me, but I would love to be able to serve a scoop of Belhaven’s gooseberry ice with a sprig of mint in a tea cup and saucer – I just wish they sold the tubs of gooseberry! Maybe garnish with the odd poached gooseberry or two.
Then would come the next course, or my usual “second starter”. Following the “EAT ME” cake, the second starter would have to be oversized. One thing that comes to mind is possibly a huge pie – I thought it might be un to make two pies, one steak and ale and one chicken and mushroom with marmalade - my two usual suspects- but to make each one half of the pie. I haven’t thought this one through as much as I have the “mini” food.
The oversized course would be followed by a glass of wine or another cocktail, again in some interesting receptacle with the “DRINK ME” label. That would segue quite nicely into our first main course…
…the mini lamb roasts from Puddledub – one for every two people, so probably a total of 3-4 roasts, glazed with the amazing sweet chilli jam I got off a friend at work. These would be served with tiny potatoes, maybe cut to look like hasselback tatties with the smallest bay leaves I can gather up snuck into the tiny crevices. I’d serve alongside some baby carrots again, lightly glazed in orange juice, butter and honey. The entire lot would be served between a vintage cake plate and a glass cake plate, with a playing card placed between the two. I’ll garnish with a few redcurrants and a sprig of mint. Redcurrant gravy will be served alongside, and in teacups – I think one teacup for every two people would do. I’ll have one of those teacup and pot sets where the pot sits on the cup, with a horseradish cream from Stichill in the cup half, and some fresh mint sauce in the pot. A selection of chutneys will be laid out on the table in mismatched teacups.
The roast lamb would then be followed by a poultry course – a couple roast poussins, decorated to look like Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and a couple roast quail per person, surrounding the poussin. I think I’d roast the quail very simply with plenty of garlic, rosemary and salt. The poussin I will do with lemon, garlic, rosemary and sage. I don’t want to do anything too fussy, but I’ll have a few sauces to go with both – a creamy sauce, one with cider, gravy…
For pudding I’ve fallen in love with this idea. Red velvet cupcakes with red frosting and white chocolate buttons, made to look like mushrooms.
Throughout the meal we will have wine and cocktails, poured from teapots of varying sizes. There will be tea and biscuits to finish, maybe shortbread in the shape of hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs.
Anyhow, the obsession only grew after I saw Heston Blumenthal’s Alice in Wonderland themed feast – though I wouldn’t agree with some of the things he put on the menu, and I have my doubts about the edible garden with insects; the mock turtle soup with pocket-watch “consommé” looked amazing, and the “drink me” potion was fascinating. I have the most beautifully illustrated Alice in Wonderland book – it’s more a coffee table book rather than a bedside table one, as it’s quite large – which is quite dark, and I always fancied having an Alice themed dinner party.
I’ve been to the Alice in Wonderland Café in Tokyo, which was fun but the food was pretty bog-standard. Yes it’s a gimmick, but it inspired me to go for a slightly Alice-tinged theme throughout my flat – mostly with unexpected pocket-watches hanging from the walls at the moment, but soon to feature murals and art, as soon as the walls and ceilings get sorted!
I’ve toyed with the idea of oversized vs. undersized with relation to my menu, and having thought about it have come to realise there are so many options without even having to fiddle too much with nature. I have read a few interesting blogs about Alice in Wonderland tea parties, especially this one, which totally inspired me.
I think I would serve a “drink me” potion before my starter. I wanted something less ordinary than wine glasses, so thought a cocktail of some description served in vintage apothecary bottles, labelled with “DRINK ME” in old fashioned lettering. I like the idea of mismatched bottles, plates, crockery. Food served in vintage tea cups and saucers maybe. So after my guests have finished their “DRINK ME” potions, I’ll be ready to serve the starters – which could maybe be quails eggs, baby carrot lightly steamed with their tops still attached, some roasted baby onions and a hollandaise sauce or a mousseline on the side, served in little bitty tiny jugs.
Next we would have an itty bitty mozzarella and tomato salad, made with tiny bocconcini mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes, with a bit of balsamic glaze and a sprig of basil.
For the soup course I would go for two different kinds – a mock-turtle soup served in dainty teacups with a cheap pocket-watch placed on the saucer (not as elaborate as Heston Blumenthal’s edible pocket-watch, but then again I don’t have minions), and a cullen skink also served in teacups, with small toast fingers cut in the shape of hearts or diamonds.
This would be followed by a small piece of cake – maybe carrot cake iced with cream cheese frosting and a tiny sugar carrot (I just found a box the other day). The piece of cake would be served in a vintage tea cup, and at a jaunty angle. My other possible idea was to bake a savoury cake somehow – I’ve not looked into it enough, but to have a savoury cake iced with…cheese maybe – with the words “EAT ME” in balsamic glaze or even brown sauce. I might even stretch as far as a small meatloaf or a wedge of focaccia. Thinking about it now, a savoury “cake” might be better.
This will be followed by a sorbet – not made by me, but I would love to be able to serve a scoop of Belhaven’s gooseberry ice with a sprig of mint in a tea cup and saucer – I just wish they sold the tubs of gooseberry! Maybe garnish with the odd poached gooseberry or two.
Then would come the next course, or my usual “second starter”. Following the “EAT ME” cake, the second starter would have to be oversized. One thing that comes to mind is possibly a huge pie – I thought it might be un to make two pies, one steak and ale and one chicken and mushroom with marmalade - my two usual suspects- but to make each one half of the pie. I haven’t thought this one through as much as I have the “mini” food.
The oversized course would be followed by a glass of wine or another cocktail, again in some interesting receptacle with the “DRINK ME” label. That would segue quite nicely into our first main course…
…the mini lamb roasts from Puddledub – one for every two people, so probably a total of 3-4 roasts, glazed with the amazing sweet chilli jam I got off a friend at work. These would be served with tiny potatoes, maybe cut to look like hasselback tatties with the smallest bay leaves I can gather up snuck into the tiny crevices. I’d serve alongside some baby carrots again, lightly glazed in orange juice, butter and honey. The entire lot would be served between a vintage cake plate and a glass cake plate, with a playing card placed between the two. I’ll garnish with a few redcurrants and a sprig of mint. Redcurrant gravy will be served alongside, and in teacups – I think one teacup for every two people would do. I’ll have one of those teacup and pot sets where the pot sits on the cup, with a horseradish cream from Stichill in the cup half, and some fresh mint sauce in the pot. A selection of chutneys will be laid out on the table in mismatched teacups.
The roast lamb would then be followed by a poultry course – a couple roast poussins, decorated to look like Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and a couple roast quail per person, surrounding the poussin. I think I’d roast the quail very simply with plenty of garlic, rosemary and salt. The poussin I will do with lemon, garlic, rosemary and sage. I don’t want to do anything too fussy, but I’ll have a few sauces to go with both – a creamy sauce, one with cider, gravy…
For pudding I’ve fallen in love with this idea. Red velvet cupcakes with red frosting and white chocolate buttons, made to look like mushrooms.
Throughout the meal we will have wine and cocktails, poured from teapots of varying sizes. There will be tea and biscuits to finish, maybe shortbread in the shape of hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs.
Monday 26 July 2010
Restaurant review - Chop Chop - Commercial Street (Leith)
Today has been one of those days…I am bone tired, had an argument with the boyfriend last night over something totally stupid AND one of my friends was ratty with me first thing in the morn, and to top that off it’s dreeck outside – not quite raining though it’s thinking about it. I got in to work late, should have gotten more done today but have been experiencing technificulties. I decided to take myself out for a long(ish) lunch to cheer myself up.
I have wanted to try out the new Chop Chop in Leith for a few weeks, ever since I noticed the sign go up about 7 weeks ago. When I first walked past it was still pretty much a building site, with the Chop Chop logo but not much else. I’ve been to the Morrison Street/Haymarket branch a couple times – once with an old friend of mine I used to go out for dinner with at least once a month – until she moved down to London, the traitor – and once with my mum and dad. I am familiar with the Chop Chop idea, and I like it. Informal food, informal settings, authentic Chinese and some cracking dumplings. The staff sometimes look rushed off their feet, but that’s understandable as the restaurant is often packed elbow to elbow. Today was my first time in the Leith location though, so thankfully it was quiet.
The new Chop Chop is slightly snazzier than the original – all pale wood floors throughout, comfy leather-upholstered chairs and sparkly red tabletops. The air is distinctly more chilled out, and not just because Monday is their quiet day and there were maybe two other tables. I was greeted by a waitress who asked if I wanted a window table, but as it was grey and uninspired outside I decided not to depress myself and opted for a seat close to the bar.
Totally out-of-the-blue I heard a voice greet me very enthusiastically. More enthusiastically than could be expected from a random weekday lunch visit to a new restaurant. I turned around to see my friend G, who last I’d heard had moved to Perth to pursue a career in…something…working for…some guy. This was a few months ago, and it was probably just after the New Year I last saw him – no idea he’d moved back to Edinburgh and most definitely no idea he was working in my neck of the woods. Anyways, turns out G is the new assistant manager, the restaurant opened its doors six weeks ago, he’d moved back to town with his girlfriend and had bought a canoe (which he was trying to sell now he no longer lives near water).
G managed to sit down and have lunch with me briefly, and he recommended the beef noodle soup – there are no long and flowery menu descriptors here, so beef with noodles in soup is called beef noodle soup, and dumplings are listed by ingredient, not what season or emotion they evoke. I’d had a craving for a noodle soup all morning so this sounded perfect. I opted for the business lunch, which came to £7.50 for a man, a dumpling dish and 2 starters. You get a choice of 3 deep fried gyoza-style dumplings or 6 boiled dumplings. I went for the deep fried option today as it was blatantly a comfort food day.
I had the crispy potato and the bean sprout salad for my starters – you get a slip of paper with the lunch menu options on it, and you check the ones you want before presenting to your waiter – very dim sum style, and reminded me of dim sum places my mum and dad used to take me and my cousins to when I was wee. I was torn between the bean sprout salad and the seasoned chicken wings, but thought maybe one healthy option may not go amiss. I wasn’t expecting to be bowled over by the salad – I never am, salad is just a means to an end for me – but this was so tasty. It was much more than just raw bean sprouts and carrots, which is what I was expecting. The sprouts were marinated in something sweet, maybe with a hint of light rice vinegar, but not overly tangy. They weren’t soggy, but slightly softer with a bit of crunch still. I hate raw carrots, but the marinade softened them enough to take away the overly raw taste, but not so much to be soggy.
The crispy potatoes – well, I had no idea what to expect here, but maybe somewhere in the region of patatas bravas, only maybe a bit more deep fried. These were thin strands of potato, almost the consistency of feelings, but quick-fried in deep fat, crispy, and with all the best elements of a crisp, a chip and a hash brown. I could sit and eat a whole bowl of these in one sitting, but thankfully for my waistline they didn’t.
My gyoza came next – Chop Chop is one of those restaurants where your food arrives at your table as it comes out of the pan, and not in any order – and they were fabulous – not too greasy although they were deep fried, filled with a tasty pork and chive meaty mouthful. With your order you get either 3 deep fried or 6 boiled dumplings, and I’m not sure if this is a nod to promoting healthier eating – perhaps if you are indulging in deep fried dumplings you should eat less of them! These were accompanied with soy sauce and vinegar at the table, and G brought over a small dish of crushed chillies and freshly minced garlic to add to the traditional dipping sauce. You add vinegar to soy sauce in a dish to your taste – I like it 3:1 soy to vinegar usually – and then add the chillies and garlic depending on how spicy you like you sauce. It’s a great idea, and the garlic and chilli really do add something t the sauce you don’t usually get with the usual soy and vinegar usually presented at Chinese restaurants.
My noodle soup arrived at around the same time as the gyoza, so I tucked in to the noodles first to let the gyoza cool slightly. I have burnt my mouth many a time on a hot gyoza. The beef was soft and melted in the mouth, the soup was warming, the broth tasty (I cheated and added some chilli and garlic to the bowl), and the noodles were deliciously slurpabale. There is no ladylike way to enjoy Chinese noodles, and I believe if you can eat noodles without making a mess of yourself, you are blatantly not enjoying them like you should!
I had a fabulous meal, a nice chance to catch up with an old friend, and a new restaurant to go to within walking distance of work. Not bad for a Monday.
I have wanted to try out the new Chop Chop in Leith for a few weeks, ever since I noticed the sign go up about 7 weeks ago. When I first walked past it was still pretty much a building site, with the Chop Chop logo but not much else. I’ve been to the Morrison Street/Haymarket branch a couple times – once with an old friend of mine I used to go out for dinner with at least once a month – until she moved down to London, the traitor – and once with my mum and dad. I am familiar with the Chop Chop idea, and I like it. Informal food, informal settings, authentic Chinese and some cracking dumplings. The staff sometimes look rushed off their feet, but that’s understandable as the restaurant is often packed elbow to elbow. Today was my first time in the Leith location though, so thankfully it was quiet.
The new Chop Chop is slightly snazzier than the original – all pale wood floors throughout, comfy leather-upholstered chairs and sparkly red tabletops. The air is distinctly more chilled out, and not just because Monday is their quiet day and there were maybe two other tables. I was greeted by a waitress who asked if I wanted a window table, but as it was grey and uninspired outside I decided not to depress myself and opted for a seat close to the bar.
Totally out-of-the-blue I heard a voice greet me very enthusiastically. More enthusiastically than could be expected from a random weekday lunch visit to a new restaurant. I turned around to see my friend G, who last I’d heard had moved to Perth to pursue a career in…something…working for…some guy. This was a few months ago, and it was probably just after the New Year I last saw him – no idea he’d moved back to Edinburgh and most definitely no idea he was working in my neck of the woods. Anyways, turns out G is the new assistant manager, the restaurant opened its doors six weeks ago, he’d moved back to town with his girlfriend and had bought a canoe (which he was trying to sell now he no longer lives near water).
G managed to sit down and have lunch with me briefly, and he recommended the beef noodle soup – there are no long and flowery menu descriptors here, so beef with noodles in soup is called beef noodle soup, and dumplings are listed by ingredient, not what season or emotion they evoke. I’d had a craving for a noodle soup all morning so this sounded perfect. I opted for the business lunch, which came to £7.50 for a man, a dumpling dish and 2 starters. You get a choice of 3 deep fried gyoza-style dumplings or 6 boiled dumplings. I went for the deep fried option today as it was blatantly a comfort food day.
I had the crispy potato and the bean sprout salad for my starters – you get a slip of paper with the lunch menu options on it, and you check the ones you want before presenting to your waiter – very dim sum style, and reminded me of dim sum places my mum and dad used to take me and my cousins to when I was wee. I was torn between the bean sprout salad and the seasoned chicken wings, but thought maybe one healthy option may not go amiss. I wasn’t expecting to be bowled over by the salad – I never am, salad is just a means to an end for me – but this was so tasty. It was much more than just raw bean sprouts and carrots, which is what I was expecting. The sprouts were marinated in something sweet, maybe with a hint of light rice vinegar, but not overly tangy. They weren’t soggy, but slightly softer with a bit of crunch still. I hate raw carrots, but the marinade softened them enough to take away the overly raw taste, but not so much to be soggy.
The crispy potatoes – well, I had no idea what to expect here, but maybe somewhere in the region of patatas bravas, only maybe a bit more deep fried. These were thin strands of potato, almost the consistency of feelings, but quick-fried in deep fat, crispy, and with all the best elements of a crisp, a chip and a hash brown. I could sit and eat a whole bowl of these in one sitting, but thankfully for my waistline they didn’t.
My gyoza came next – Chop Chop is one of those restaurants where your food arrives at your table as it comes out of the pan, and not in any order – and they were fabulous – not too greasy although they were deep fried, filled with a tasty pork and chive meaty mouthful. With your order you get either 3 deep fried or 6 boiled dumplings, and I’m not sure if this is a nod to promoting healthier eating – perhaps if you are indulging in deep fried dumplings you should eat less of them! These were accompanied with soy sauce and vinegar at the table, and G brought over a small dish of crushed chillies and freshly minced garlic to add to the traditional dipping sauce. You add vinegar to soy sauce in a dish to your taste – I like it 3:1 soy to vinegar usually – and then add the chillies and garlic depending on how spicy you like you sauce. It’s a great idea, and the garlic and chilli really do add something t the sauce you don’t usually get with the usual soy and vinegar usually presented at Chinese restaurants.
My noodle soup arrived at around the same time as the gyoza, so I tucked in to the noodles first to let the gyoza cool slightly. I have burnt my mouth many a time on a hot gyoza. The beef was soft and melted in the mouth, the soup was warming, the broth tasty (I cheated and added some chilli and garlic to the bowl), and the noodles were deliciously slurpabale. There is no ladylike way to enjoy Chinese noodles, and I believe if you can eat noodles without making a mess of yourself, you are blatantly not enjoying them like you should!
I had a fabulous meal, a nice chance to catch up with an old friend, and a new restaurant to go to within walking distance of work. Not bad for a Monday.
Friday 23 July 2010
WANTED: environmentally-friendly shampoo to keep my new red hair red
I was at the hairdressers for a “spruce” yesterday, as my hair has grown super-fast this summer and my roots were getting out of hand. I’d also decided to go red this summer, and my lovely colour had all but faded in the three weeks since I was last in. Indecent I know, but I seem to repel red colour. I have Gore-tex hair, it’s a curse. Unfortunately, I love my hair red, it suits me (I think), and I am not willing to give up colouring. So something will have to be done or I will be making once-a-fortnight trips to the salon to get my hair touched up, and I really can’t afford that on my salary.
I have resisted buying a colour shampoo/conditioner for awhile now, because all the products tailored for reds have an awful perfumey smell (I prefer my scents to come from essential oils rather than chemicals born in a lab) and also because I don’t fancy washing my hair with products that contain parabens and other nasty chemicals. I’d heard about the various different nasties cosmetics companies sneak into almost every product on the market, but it wasn’t until I read Kate Lock’s “Confessions of an Eco Shopper” last year that I started scouring ingredient labels on everything I put in my shopping basket. The salesgirls at Harvey Nicks sometimes look at me with puzzled expressions as I squint for half an hour at a pot of cleanser.
Let me just say I was a little heartbroken (not distraught, as it’s only shampoo) to discover Kiehl’s products contain parabens. Kiehl’s for fuckssake! I’d been using their Olive Oil shampoo and conditioner almost exclusively for a year, not to mention their face washes, sunscreen, moisturiser. It made me a little sad as Kiehl’s is a brand I always associated with pure ingredients, and one I have recommended to friends. I bought their centella asiatica cleanser and moisturiser for my boyfriend’s best friend when he was having a weird skin reaction to pretty much every face product he tried – however I have not looked at the list of ingredients for their centella range, and aside from that he was every so impressed with them he’s requested the pair for future b-day and Christmas pressies as they’ve worked so well for him. Tbh I have not been to the Kiehl’s counter in quite a few months, so much was my disappointment, so I may be completely out of order here and they may have removed parabens from their ingredients. I am crossing my fingers as wel speak. I have noticed over the past few months that quite a few companies now advertise they are “paraben-free” on their labels, especially some which I know in the past have used parabens as a preservative…so, a step in the right direction, I think. Hopefully Kiehl’s have jumped on this particular bandwagon, and I can go back to using their lovely potions.
However, credit where credit’s due – I’ve read Kiehl’s have come out with a new body “cleanser” - shower gel – with green credentials. The minimum of ingredients (all biodegradeable), minimal environmental impact and maximum reuse, and cradle-to-cradle certified (C2C certification is a multi-atribute label - meaning it has passed an assessment of the product’s safety not only to us and the environment, but also for future life cycles, focussing on using materials that are safe and can be disassembled and recycled as technical nutrients of composted as biological nutrients). Kiehl’s currently sell two products/ranges that carry a C2C certification – their new Aloe Vera Biodegradeable Liguid body cleanser (which I have not tried yet) and their Acai Damage Repair range. I am currently using the acai cleanser, which is quite nice and easy to rinse off, as it comes in mousse form. It is however not as moisturising and softening as I know some of their other products are.
Back to my original issue – keeping this darned red hair of mine red. I have asian hair, which is hardy and strong but not so great with holding colour. Back in my hair-bleachine/perming/straightening heyday, around year three into my student days, after I had my dark brown hair bleached ash blonde, dyed blue, then “plum”, highlighted, permed, bleached again – I’d gone to a hairdressers in my hometown wanting more highlights added to my SO unnatural honey blonde tresses (unnatural mainly because I am asian) to which she point-blank refused, warning me my hair would break off and die, pretty much. This was just from looking at my already-blonde hair with the permanent wave. She said hair that is bleached should never be bleached again, and was horrified when she heard what processes that poor head of hair had been through just in the past six months. Then she took a closer look and was amazed – nothing broken, not too many split ends – I mean, my hair was dry and not in great condition, but by all accounts there should not have even been much hair left on my head after the abuse I subjected it to. Point taken, hair strong as an ox but still looks a mess most of the time.
I have had a wee scout about for a good colour shampoo and conditioner with green credentials, paraben-free, SLS-free, and without the horrible lingering perfume smell I hate. Now I’ve had a few recommendations, and I have to admit I did a search online for reviews as well, and I think I may have come up trumps with one range – Aveda’s madder root shampoo and conditioner, which contains henna I think, and from what I remember from Civello, the Aveda salon in Toronto, smelling lovely, natural and earthy. I will be stopping by Jenners on my way home this evening to have a gander at the ingredients. If there are any nasties in there I may cry – or dye my hair back to brown.
Here is my list of nasties I try to avoid in my cosmetics – and the ingredients I squint to find on those labels.
1. Parabens - Methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben and ethylparaben
When Kate Lock wrote “Confessions of an eco-shopper”, she bemoaned the fact almost every product on the market contained parabens, and it was daned near-impossible to find a moisturiser or a cleanser that didn’t contain this nasty. However since the book was published in 2008, I’ve noticed quite a few products (especially in high-end department stores like Harvey Nicks and Jenners in Edinburgh) have had a “paraben-free” label. Parabens are preservatives used to extend the shelf life of a product and inhibit microbial growth. They are also hormone disruptors and may cause allergic skin reactions in many people. Oh, and they’re known to be toxic – always a bonus.
2. Diazolidinyl urea, Imidazolidinyl urea
Preservatives again. They have been shown to be a primary cause of contact dermatitis and can release formaldehyde, which is toxic. Formaldehyde you will probably know is what is used to preserve dead bodies - I have had the pleasure of visiting the dissection room at a well-known Paris institution back in my days as an art student, where pickled body parts were stored to be studied by medical students and to be sketched by art students.
3. Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone
More preservatives that I have noticed appearing on product ingredient labels. I have hard talk some companies are using these to replace parabens and some other common preservatives so they can slap a bag fat “parabenfree” sticker on their product. They may be cause neurotoxicity and allergic reactions.
4. Sodium lauryl sulfate, Sodium laureth sulphate (SLS)
SLS is VERY commonly used in cosmetic products, particularly shampoos. SLS is a cheap, harsh detergent used in shampoos and cleansers mainly for its cleansing and foam-building properties, but can cause skin irritation and allergic reactions. If your shampoo lathers up to a nice foamy lather, which in the 80s I believe people though was the mark of a good cleanser and not a foaming agent, it’s probably SLS. Just for the record, a thick foamy lather is not an indication your hair will be cleaner than with a less foamy product. Quite interestingly, I read an article about common misconceptions about natural shampoos that don’t contain SLS, which was very interesting and which you can find here. Apparently sodium laureth sulphate is slightly less harsh than sodium lauryl suphate, but both an cause scalp irritation and flakiness.
5. Diethanolamine (DEA), Triethanolamine (TEA)
These are emulsifiers and/or foaming agents. Again as with the foam-building properties of SLS, the addition of a foaming agent may create a thick lather but this will not clean your face or hair more effectively. DEAs and TEAs can cause allergic reactions, eye irritation and dryness, and they can also be toxic.
6. Petrolatum
Otherwise known as petroleum jelly, this is a cheap mineral oil that claims to be moisturizing but can actually interfere with the body's natural moisturizing mechanism, which can lead to more of the problem than it can sove. Petrolatum is often used in lip balms (although there are some good beeswax and cocoa butter ones available now), and is probably a large factor in why overuse of these balms can cause more dryness of the lips than not using anything at all.
7. Polyethylene glycol (PEG), Polypropylene glycol (PPG)
These are synthetic petrochemicals used as humectants which have been known to cause skin irritations. PEGs and PPGs are similar to propylene glycol, which isn’t that bad if formed from a veg-based glycerine mixed with grain alcohol. If the product is largely made up of natural ingredients and without other nasty chemicals, if propylene glycol is on the ingredients list the product may be ok. However if propylene glycol is not formed in this manner, it is probably best to avoid.
8. PVP/PVA Copolymer
This is an chemical derived from oil, most commonly used in hair sprays or styling products. It is toxic when inhaled, which may explain why you might have heard about idiots buzzing bottles of hairspray.
9. Stearalkonium Chloride
This was originally developed as a cheap fabric softener, but no appears in some hair conditioners. It can cause allergic reactions and is toxic.
I have resisted buying a colour shampoo/conditioner for awhile now, because all the products tailored for reds have an awful perfumey smell (I prefer my scents to come from essential oils rather than chemicals born in a lab) and also because I don’t fancy washing my hair with products that contain parabens and other nasty chemicals. I’d heard about the various different nasties cosmetics companies sneak into almost every product on the market, but it wasn’t until I read Kate Lock’s “Confessions of an Eco Shopper” last year that I started scouring ingredient labels on everything I put in my shopping basket. The salesgirls at Harvey Nicks sometimes look at me with puzzled expressions as I squint for half an hour at a pot of cleanser.
Let me just say I was a little heartbroken (not distraught, as it’s only shampoo) to discover Kiehl’s products contain parabens. Kiehl’s for fuckssake! I’d been using their Olive Oil shampoo and conditioner almost exclusively for a year, not to mention their face washes, sunscreen, moisturiser. It made me a little sad as Kiehl’s is a brand I always associated with pure ingredients, and one I have recommended to friends. I bought their centella asiatica cleanser and moisturiser for my boyfriend’s best friend when he was having a weird skin reaction to pretty much every face product he tried – however I have not looked at the list of ingredients for their centella range, and aside from that he was every so impressed with them he’s requested the pair for future b-day and Christmas pressies as they’ve worked so well for him. Tbh I have not been to the Kiehl’s counter in quite a few months, so much was my disappointment, so I may be completely out of order here and they may have removed parabens from their ingredients. I am crossing my fingers as wel speak. I have noticed over the past few months that quite a few companies now advertise they are “paraben-free” on their labels, especially some which I know in the past have used parabens as a preservative…so, a step in the right direction, I think. Hopefully Kiehl’s have jumped on this particular bandwagon, and I can go back to using their lovely potions.
However, credit where credit’s due – I’ve read Kiehl’s have come out with a new body “cleanser” - shower gel – with green credentials. The minimum of ingredients (all biodegradeable), minimal environmental impact and maximum reuse, and cradle-to-cradle certified (C2C certification is a multi-atribute label - meaning it has passed an assessment of the product’s safety not only to us and the environment, but also for future life cycles, focussing on using materials that are safe and can be disassembled and recycled as technical nutrients of composted as biological nutrients). Kiehl’s currently sell two products/ranges that carry a C2C certification – their new Aloe Vera Biodegradeable Liguid body cleanser (which I have not tried yet) and their Acai Damage Repair range. I am currently using the acai cleanser, which is quite nice and easy to rinse off, as it comes in mousse form. It is however not as moisturising and softening as I know some of their other products are.
Back to my original issue – keeping this darned red hair of mine red. I have asian hair, which is hardy and strong but not so great with holding colour. Back in my hair-bleachine/perming/straightening heyday, around year three into my student days, after I had my dark brown hair bleached ash blonde, dyed blue, then “plum”, highlighted, permed, bleached again – I’d gone to a hairdressers in my hometown wanting more highlights added to my SO unnatural honey blonde tresses (unnatural mainly because I am asian) to which she point-blank refused, warning me my hair would break off and die, pretty much. This was just from looking at my already-blonde hair with the permanent wave. She said hair that is bleached should never be bleached again, and was horrified when she heard what processes that poor head of hair had been through just in the past six months. Then she took a closer look and was amazed – nothing broken, not too many split ends – I mean, my hair was dry and not in great condition, but by all accounts there should not have even been much hair left on my head after the abuse I subjected it to. Point taken, hair strong as an ox but still looks a mess most of the time.
I have had a wee scout about for a good colour shampoo and conditioner with green credentials, paraben-free, SLS-free, and without the horrible lingering perfume smell I hate. Now I’ve had a few recommendations, and I have to admit I did a search online for reviews as well, and I think I may have come up trumps with one range – Aveda’s madder root shampoo and conditioner, which contains henna I think, and from what I remember from Civello, the Aveda salon in Toronto, smelling lovely, natural and earthy. I will be stopping by Jenners on my way home this evening to have a gander at the ingredients. If there are any nasties in there I may cry – or dye my hair back to brown.
Here is my list of nasties I try to avoid in my cosmetics – and the ingredients I squint to find on those labels.
1. Parabens - Methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben and ethylparaben
When Kate Lock wrote “Confessions of an eco-shopper”, she bemoaned the fact almost every product on the market contained parabens, and it was daned near-impossible to find a moisturiser or a cleanser that didn’t contain this nasty. However since the book was published in 2008, I’ve noticed quite a few products (especially in high-end department stores like Harvey Nicks and Jenners in Edinburgh) have had a “paraben-free” label. Parabens are preservatives used to extend the shelf life of a product and inhibit microbial growth. They are also hormone disruptors and may cause allergic skin reactions in many people. Oh, and they’re known to be toxic – always a bonus.
2. Diazolidinyl urea, Imidazolidinyl urea
Preservatives again. They have been shown to be a primary cause of contact dermatitis and can release formaldehyde, which is toxic. Formaldehyde you will probably know is what is used to preserve dead bodies - I have had the pleasure of visiting the dissection room at a well-known Paris institution back in my days as an art student, where pickled body parts were stored to be studied by medical students and to be sketched by art students.
3. Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone
More preservatives that I have noticed appearing on product ingredient labels. I have hard talk some companies are using these to replace parabens and some other common preservatives so they can slap a bag fat “parabenfree” sticker on their product. They may be cause neurotoxicity and allergic reactions.
4. Sodium lauryl sulfate, Sodium laureth sulphate (SLS)
SLS is VERY commonly used in cosmetic products, particularly shampoos. SLS is a cheap, harsh detergent used in shampoos and cleansers mainly for its cleansing and foam-building properties, but can cause skin irritation and allergic reactions. If your shampoo lathers up to a nice foamy lather, which in the 80s I believe people though was the mark of a good cleanser and not a foaming agent, it’s probably SLS. Just for the record, a thick foamy lather is not an indication your hair will be cleaner than with a less foamy product. Quite interestingly, I read an article about common misconceptions about natural shampoos that don’t contain SLS, which was very interesting and which you can find here. Apparently sodium laureth sulphate is slightly less harsh than sodium lauryl suphate, but both an cause scalp irritation and flakiness.
5. Diethanolamine (DEA), Triethanolamine (TEA)
These are emulsifiers and/or foaming agents. Again as with the foam-building properties of SLS, the addition of a foaming agent may create a thick lather but this will not clean your face or hair more effectively. DEAs and TEAs can cause allergic reactions, eye irritation and dryness, and they can also be toxic.
6. Petrolatum
Otherwise known as petroleum jelly, this is a cheap mineral oil that claims to be moisturizing but can actually interfere with the body's natural moisturizing mechanism, which can lead to more of the problem than it can sove. Petrolatum is often used in lip balms (although there are some good beeswax and cocoa butter ones available now), and is probably a large factor in why overuse of these balms can cause more dryness of the lips than not using anything at all.
7. Polyethylene glycol (PEG), Polypropylene glycol (PPG)
These are synthetic petrochemicals used as humectants which have been known to cause skin irritations. PEGs and PPGs are similar to propylene glycol, which isn’t that bad if formed from a veg-based glycerine mixed with grain alcohol. If the product is largely made up of natural ingredients and without other nasty chemicals, if propylene glycol is on the ingredients list the product may be ok. However if propylene glycol is not formed in this manner, it is probably best to avoid.
8. PVP/PVA Copolymer
This is an chemical derived from oil, most commonly used in hair sprays or styling products. It is toxic when inhaled, which may explain why you might have heard about idiots buzzing bottles of hairspray.
9. Stearalkonium Chloride
This was originally developed as a cheap fabric softener, but no appears in some hair conditioners. It can cause allergic reactions and is toxic.
Monday 19 July 2010
Wednesday 14 July 2010
Sports bras to harness the big of boob
The situation is growing desperate, I can’t hold out any longer. I need to buy a new sports bra.
It is the one thing I don’t like shopping for – and that includes power tools and toilet accessories, stationary, “feminine hygiene” products, toilet roll and that gel I had to get when I had the random mouth ulcer a few weeks ago. I absolutely hate shopping for sports bras, because they never work.
So I am left jumping up and down in a fitting room, feeling stupid, bosoms not sufficiently anchored and frustrated. Add to that sweaty and pissed off, and there you have it, a typical shopping trip in search of a sports bra.
At the moment I go to the gym three times a week to do kettlebell training, and yoga once a week. The kettlebell sessions are on a Power Plate, so I have an uneasy feeling wearing just my regular bra may not be cutting it. I actually don’t care how hideous the bra is, as long as it holds me in and holds me tight! I am a 34FF which does not help matters, so there will not be a cute “supportive” tank top in my future, oh no.
This morning I did a search for sports bras for the big of boob, and there was one that has been mentioned on a few forums. I don’t know if it available in the UK, but it is called the Last Resort. So far only good reviews, so I think I will be ordering one of these and putting it to my thrice weekly Power Plate test…
And on a random note, this.
It is the one thing I don’t like shopping for – and that includes power tools and toilet accessories, stationary, “feminine hygiene” products, toilet roll and that gel I had to get when I had the random mouth ulcer a few weeks ago. I absolutely hate shopping for sports bras, because they never work.
So I am left jumping up and down in a fitting room, feeling stupid, bosoms not sufficiently anchored and frustrated. Add to that sweaty and pissed off, and there you have it, a typical shopping trip in search of a sports bra.
At the moment I go to the gym three times a week to do kettlebell training, and yoga once a week. The kettlebell sessions are on a Power Plate, so I have an uneasy feeling wearing just my regular bra may not be cutting it. I actually don’t care how hideous the bra is, as long as it holds me in and holds me tight! I am a 34FF which does not help matters, so there will not be a cute “supportive” tank top in my future, oh no.
This morning I did a search for sports bras for the big of boob, and there was one that has been mentioned on a few forums. I don’t know if it available in the UK, but it is called the Last Resort. So far only good reviews, so I think I will be ordering one of these and putting it to my thrice weekly Power Plate test…
And on a random note, this.
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