Tuesday 20th November

Gosh here we are three weeks into November already! I don't know why I should be so suprised, I feel like my new best friends are the staff at my local post office, I've been up there so often. I made a huge mistake of going to the central post office in Bristol the other day, and boy, was that stupid.

They've just spent ages tarting the place up, and when I was in there, they've got some daft new system for queuing. Instead of having a nice, clearly defined space for queueing in, you take a ticket - yep, just like the line at the deli counter in the supermarkets. Works well there doesn't it? Not in the Galleries it doesn't. The space where people would line up, and wait, nicely, probably moaning, but at least having a rough idea of how long they'd have to wait, and where they were in the queue, is full of posh chairs and irritating interruptions in the space. So you can't actually queue, you stand in the mob, with people getting angrier and angrier, because they've no idea how many people there are in front of them, how long it'll take - absolutely hopeless. I spoke to the manager, who told me this was the bright idea of their re-design people, and I am going to send an email to the customer service department, but it won't do any good. I've stopped going there. I'm lucky in that I've got a local sub post office I can get to, with a nice defined queueing space and polite people to fill it. At least I'm reasonably sure I won't get decked simply trying to get out my parcels.

Anyhow things have been flying out of my Ebay shop. I've got a special deal on postage - spend over £10.00 and you get everything sent to you free! But if you only want a couple of items, then you still get your discount - first item at £1.50, and everything else at just 0.25p.

Check out some of my Xmas items!

A pink and plum Bagcharm - starts on the 27th November, and at just £3.00!

This is a dinkly little fat bagcharm - all pink crackleglass beads and pink flower beads. Starts on the 26th November, again at £3.00.

These are some of my small bookmarks. There's lots of choice, all between £2.50 - £4.00 for the small one's, with lots on buy it now, so you don't have to wait for the end of the auction!

This is one of the bigger bookmarks. They're on auction -

mostly starting at about £5.99, with a 6 inch squiggle crook!

1st November 2007

I have just discovered exactly how far civilisation has fallen. I have seen the evidence in front of my own eyes.

I went to Sainsbury's, the way you do, after posting a few packets - I needed bread, that sort of thing, and I was in no rush so I dawdled around looking at the Xmas stuff. On the end of one rack of shelves were some children's toys - dolls, plastic figures, and among this, a rather battered box containing a doll. A doll done up as some sort of fairytale figure. Across the top of this was a tag line - advertising blurb, I suppose, though what it's called properly I have no idea. It's the sort of thing that people in advertising agencies must have conferences about, and I'm betting that this one came up as the topic at the end of a very long session.  The doll, I'm reasonably sure, was a Disney, so perhaps that may explain it, but nevertheless, this doll - a Sleeping Beauty, although in a way this makes this even more mystifying - was described as "Royal Elegance and..."  now what would you think Sleeping Beauty would be? In this day and age?  Royal Elegance and a presence at the Bar..? Royal Elegance and Empathy over the X ray machine?  Royal Elegance and her gold medal Flower Arranging Certificate???

No. Oh no you'd be way way wrong. No this Sleeping Beauty was Royal Elegance and..  Kung Fu Action.   Royal Elegance and Kung Fu Action.  I don't know whether to laugh or cry...

Sunday 22nd October

Ha! So much for my five days a week posting - but I have got a decent excuse, I've not been feeling very well. So sorry, and thank God I made the chicken soup!!

And just to prove it, here's a photograph of the soup, all steaming straight out of the pot!

So I thought, since I didn't make my five days a week blogging about food, I'd best have another go. And next week is quite an important one, food wise, because it's payday. With all the opportunities for overdoing it that that brings. So I suppose I'd best tell you what I've eaten today - it's not been good folks.

Basically my shopping for the weekend included minced beef, cauliflower, leek, and bread. I'm afraid that where I should have done something sensible and low cal like spag bol, frankly I just didn't fancy it, and I did want a way I could get loads of garlic into my diet, raw if poss. I don't know about you, but I don't know many recipes for raw garlic (short of swallowing them whole, which I don't intend to start trying!) so I made (cringe, cringe...) burger and chips, with garlic mayonnaise. It's been my one high fat meal of the week, so it's not as bad as it could have been, and you should see the way I make it.

Firstly, I get a potato, and slice it into very fine sticks. I popped it into a bath of water for half an hour to get rid of the starch coming out of it (I don't think this makes the blindest bit of difference, but it seems to make them cook a bit better.) Then having dried them on kitchen paper, I tossed them in about a tablespoon full of oil, before popping them into a hot oven for about 45 minutes. I make my burgers by grating a garlic clove into the meat, with some salt and pepper. I've tried not using salt, but this seems to be one of the few dishes were a grinding or two is absolutely essential. I then give it a good mix with my hands - it comes together not unlike a dough. Then I form it into patties, and put it back in the fridge for a couple of hours. After they've stood for a while, I pop them into a heated dry non-stick pan. As they cook enormous amounts of fat are released, and I've take to using the spatula to hold the burgers steady whilst I pour the hot fat out into the washing up water. That cuts down on the fat that the burgers cook in, and is actually in them - and I've not added anything to that. It's a pure meat burger, with the kick of garlic, but you can use any sort of meat and any sort of flavouring. Try pork burger with some grated ginger & spring onions. Goes brilliantly with rice.

The mayonnaise is a standard one, with a small clove finely grated into a couple of spoons full. You can scoop it up with your chips - it's an indulgent meal alright, but boy it touched the spot!

Thursday 18th October

Thought I'd make you hungry! Yep, this is yesterday's chicken, mid way through it's cooking!

Today though, today I have eaten like a god (yep, small G, it was only chicken soup!) I took all of the veg, and stock from around that roasting chicken, and popped it in the fridge - today, before I went to work, I sliced up an onion finely and fried it off, with a clove of garlic, in a dab of oil, and a good dash of boiling water. Now I'm sure there'll be those of you out there who will have picked up that off that rather odd dieting programme on Channel 4 - but let me tell you I've been doing this for years, largely because my oven runs hot, and onions tend to brown rapidly. When you want a truly translucent onion, add boiling water because it converts to steam instantly and speeds the cooking. Not to mention cutting down on the fat content.

Anyhow, to the onions I added finely diced carrots, a couple of bay leaves, a bouquet garni and a stock cube. When this had had about ten to fifteen minutes - when the veg were soft, I added a good cup full of well washed lentils - green lentils. I cooked this until most of the water was gone, and it was absolutely on the point of catching, before adding in all of the stock from the roasting tin - which had set to a jelly overnight in the fridge. Delish! I also added just a bit of the chicken meat, and water, and cooked it until I considered it was done - about an hour and twenty minutes or so. At that point, I added in the rest of the chicken meat which I had taken off the bone, and shredded. At that point, I was ready to go to work (a 2 - 9 shift today!) so I filled up a food flask that I have - wide necked, an excellent way to take liquid foods to work. I gave it two minutes in the microwave, and boy, come five pm, it was absolutely what I needed. And having just come home (about 9.30), I've had a second bowlful, but with the addition of some finely shredded cabbage - I layered it on top of the soup, so that it steamed whilst the soup heated - and it was fabulous. A really good meal. Chicken soup - you just can't beat it!

Weds 17th October

As I write this, dinner is gently cooking in the oven. I've just hot-footed it back from work - via Sainsburys, whizzed through before the post work rush arrived, so wow it was quick. And - bless them, they've yet to fill their shelves with Xmas tat, so I can still find things. 

Now, as I'm sure you'll have realised by now, this week is the one before payday, so I'm broke. So what I buy is important, and on the way home I put a good bit of thought into it - I bought chicken. We all know chicken goes further, but in order to bring the most out of it, I gave a good deal of thought as to how I'm going to cook it, and bought the accompaniments as carefully as I did the main bird. Alas much as I'd like to, I've never been in a position to afford a free range bird - yes, I appreciate that one ought to, that it's the epitome of Chicken eating etc etc, but before all these food nazis start screaming about it, frankly I can no more afford a free range chicken than I could go to the moon least of all at this time of the month.  Bring the price of a free range chicken down, and we might be getting somewhere. So I have a medium priced bird.

I bought onions, carrots, and a cabbage. Oh I can hear the screams of the teenagers from here, but frankly, I don't have one, and if I did, that teenager would have been eating these types of basic foods all of their lives, so lets not go there. To get the maximum out of this bird, I've chopped up one of the onions roughly, the same with a couple of the carrots, and I took the outer leaves of the cabbage, and the core, and gave them a good wash, and shredded them finely. I mixed them all up together and put them in the base of a large roasting tin. On top of the veg, and underneath the bird, I've put a couple of bay leaves, and a chicken stock cube. I do spend money on buying good quality stock cubes, well worth it if you ask me, and better value. I put another couple of bay leaves inside the bird, along with a bouquet garni. I rubbed the outside of the bird with olive oil, and plenty of pepper - freshly ground. No salt though, there's enough of that in the stock cube.  Then I topped it up to the level of the veg with boiling water - and sat the bird on the top. Basically it will pot roast - I should get a nice skin, with plenty of moist meat and a fantastic stock. All of the veg in the stock will go into the stock pan but ultimately be sieved out before I make the soup. I'll have roast dinner tonight, cold chicken for tomorrow, and soup for Friday.  You can't argue with chicken if you're broke - its a good few days meals.

And by the way I didn't go mad and have a cheese sandwich before bed last night!  I restrained myself and gave myself a pat on the back for doing so. But the sandwiches were lovely at lunchtime - really tasty. And of all the food at work, I only had a single chocolate chip biccie today!  Good going is what I say now - but it's only just gone five thirty and the evening is young,...

Tuesday 14th October

Today's installment of the food blogs.. I arrived at Tesco's in town today, thinking I'll zip around here and grab enough to feed me for the next few days - like fast fast, so I can get to work - only to find Tesco's has rearranged all of it's shelving to make way for the Christmas products. Yep. Dundee cake where the pancakes were - I mention this, because frankly I got lost looking for the bread. Yep something as simple and straightforward as a wholemeal sliced loaf. Gone, gone and never called me mother.

Quick diversion here - I have no idea where that expression came from, but I've got a feeling it's one of those music hall soliloquies, the old among us will know what I'm talking about here - Arthur and the lion, that sort of thing. I'm fairly sure I heard one of these things on the radio as a relatively small child, and ever since then I've been wandering around saying 'gone and never called me mother' at things that disappear. No you don't need to tell me this is sad, I'm well aware of the fact, but I happen to like the expression, and have no intention of giving it up...!

Back to Tesco's. I tracked down the bread and purchased a large sliced multi grain loaf. I bought a box of eggs, and a lump of cheese - at least I think it's cheese, I'm never 100% sure of this substance that arrives in solid plastic packaging. Frankly when you get it open it resembles the packaging on the tongue, but they don't have a fresh cheese counter, so you either take the plastic substance or you do without. If it was real cheese, a bit of wax would do, and a wrapping of say brown paper. I remember again (oh dear this is turning into a trip down memory lane) going in to the new - yep, first supermarket in town as a kid, and it had this wonderful scent. Because things like cheese were sold in brown paper, and you could smell what was on sale. You knew it was fresh, because you could smell it. And I'm prepared to bet it was a damn site more ecologically friendly than the current offerings which you can't smell, nor pop the wrappings into the compost bin.
Anyhow I digress. I bought cheese, eggs, bread and a pasta salad for lunch. Now I was impressed with this. It was a chicken and red pepper pesto salad with rocket, and it came with a separate pot of balsamic vinegar dressing. There was plenty of chicken, with a lovely fresh taste - like cold chicken you'd roasted at home and sliced a few bits off to make dinner. The pasta was well cooked, not overcooked, and there was plenty of red pepper and rocket. All for £1.99! I reckon it was an economical healthy meal for about the price you'd pay for a sandwich, and there was plenty of it, it was perfect for tea at work - yep again I worked till 9 o'clock, so I needed a meal.

However, despite this it hasn't been a good day foodwise. I didn't have any of my fresh orange juice for brekkie, because as I mentioned yesterday I've run out of oranges, and don't really have enough money to go buying any more - one has to be practical on the week before payday. But there will be cheese sandwich for lunch tomorrow, which as I'm doing a 10 - 4, will be at an appropriate time of the day.
But, and this is where it all falls apart, everyone seemed to have decided to bring stuff to work for everyone to eat. Bought to work today has been a large bag full of crisps in the flavours no one in the family likes - really surprisingly including bags of mini chedders, which I'd have thought everyone liked! But we're talking a big carrier bagful of crisps and snacks here. And then someone else bought in a couple of packets of biscuits - chocolate chip and chocolate digestives, and around four in the afternoon, a box of croissants. I mean I ask you! I'd reached the stage where if it's waved in front of me, I'm going to eat it. But I do want to say that I did only eat a small packet of peanuts ( I cannot resist a nut) and a single chocolate digestive, and a croissant. I thought this was pretty good going! And I was past eating anything when I got home, so no real disasters.

Well I'd best be off to make the sandwiches for lunch. Maybe I wrote the last sentence above too soon... I'll let you know!

Monday October 15th.

First of my everyday this week food blogs, and boy I could have chosen a better week to do this! I'm working a whole weeks worth of 1 - 9 pm shifts, so my guess is I probably won't be blogging again until Weds morning - so excuse me for not doing this properly!

And on top of that, food wise, today has been a disaster!

I started well. Oh yes, freshly squeezed orange juice  - two of them. Very nice and tasty. Having done that, I'm now all out of oranges! In fact, I'm quite short of fresh food, I need to fit in a trip to the supermarket tomorrow, that's for sure.

I'd made lunch yesterday before I went to work. Yep that old standby, peanut butter sandwiches - but that was it, no chocolate, or crisps - just peanut butter and a couple of bits of bread. White bread though, but good white bread. None of the plastic loaf rubbish.

Dinner - well. With a diet like this for the rest of the day,  you can imagine what happened. By six o'clock I was starving, lunch having been pretty well consumed by three.  I was Hungry with the capital H. So of course, I ended up going to Burger King. Isn't that awful? Awful, but delicious. What I'd like to know - and yep it's that other favorite chestnut of the fast food industry - how come there's nothing on the menu there that's a bit healthier? Its not surprising that no one's going to buy salad - I mean, come on..! But why not go for a half-way house? Where's the lean chicken burgerette? Why enfold everything in crispy coating (which is where the fat is.)  I've got a pretty good idea it's because they couldn't make it look respectable.  But if I was in charge of the Burgerhouse menu, I'd be looking to produce a piece of lean chicken breast, one that had say been dipped in a spice mix, so that it had a nice coating. One that could be photographed attractively, and hold it's own among the (I kid you not here) Angry Burgers on display.  Yes, truly folks, burgers with steam coming out of them , so laden with jalapeno chillis that I'd need a cardiac resuss team on standby if I took a mouthful.  I'm just damn sure that they could produce a healthy attractive looking burger if they tried.

And they could put a baked potato on the menu.  And I'm absolutely sure if you tried hard enough, you could come up with a healthy version of an onion ring. The Burger palaces claim that they put healthy food on the menu, but no one chooses it, so none of it sells. I say they're just not trying hard enough.  If I can think of this in about five minutes flat, then they have the time, the effort and the energy to do it sensibly.

Anyhow that's it for today. I'll try to blog again tomorrow, but frankly it depends on how tired I am when I get home. But if not tomorrow, Wednesday for sure. And I'll be popping on a penitence about how I get on in the supermarket, looking for healthy food that I can make a quick dinner out of when I get home tomorrow night.