Food Memories

I was thinking just recently about how different food and meal times are today than when I was growing up in the 1970s and 80s.

This was a time before most people had heard of a microwave and the slow cooker, pressure cooker and sandwich toaster were at the cutting edge of modern kitchen technology. You bought your greens from the greengrocer (or granddad’s garden), your bread from the baker, your dried goods from the grocer, your meat from the butcher, your fish from the fish shop, and, your booze from an off-license and the only take-away options were fish and chips or a Chinese – and neither would deliver. This was a time when the fruit and vegetables available in the supermarkets and greengrocers changed with the seasons and came in all kinds of non-uniform shapes and sizes. Esther Rantzen built her career on odd shaped vegetables. The hypermarket was still a strange, foreign French phenomenon back then and Brussels had yet to begin to interfere too much.

Every main meal would feature potatoes – new, boiled or mashed (or creamed), or, more typically chipped. The chip pan was often a family heirloom passed down through the ages and with the oil rarely changed across the generations. These were proper chip pans – the kind that burnt your house down if left unwatched. No namby pamby oven chips or deep fat fryers for us. And, this was proper fat – proper artery clogging lard, dripping and the like. Not a poly-unsaturated , extra virgin, or groundnut back in the day.

Every main meal also featured bread. No baguettes or ciabattas or pittas for us. It was sliced white with butter (or dripping) every time. I can still see my grandma sitting on the sofa and roaring at the wresting on a Saturday afternoon while the butter softened on the hearth next to the gas fire in the lounge. Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy used to get her going. Saturday teas sometimes consisted entirely of jam sandwiches – my dad’s favourite.

The Sunday roast used to last for days. Big chunks of meat that always had a bone which I would pick clean while stirring mom’s home made gravy. No Bisto or ready-made in our household. Sunday lunch would be followed by cold meat and bubble and squeak or a cottage/shepherd’s pie on a Monday or maybe a risotto (minced meat and rice) or a homemade pie. Mom had her own contraption for mincing meat.

There was always a homemade cake. A scone, a rock cake, a Madeira, Victoria sponge, coffee, or, fruit cake. Licking the bowl clean after a baking session was often a weekend treat. Sunday lunches were often completed by a pie or a crumble using apples, gooseberries or rhubarb from my granddad’s garden. Sunday teas were often followed by tinned fruit and condensed milk or Angel Delight – heaven in a packet.

Meals were always traditional. Spaghetti bolognese was an exotic treat while curries (Vesta) were made by adding water to a dried powder and they always contained sultanas.

Cheese came in only a few flavours – Cheddar, Cheshire, Stilton (at Christmas)  and magic little triangles of Dairylea.

These were happy days full of fresh, homegrown, homemade comfort food. While I enjoy today’s variety, ethnicity, and, ready availability, I do think that the modern ready meal, pre-made sauces, stocks and blah, blah, blah are lacking in something.

Now, what’s for dinner?

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The Soundtrack to my Life

Happy Days

Childhood Memories

Stupid!

The Eames/Bradley Report which proposed giving £12,000 to families of all those killed in Norther Ireland’s Troubles is proving as divisive as any religion or sectarianism.

How can it be right, morally or ethically, that the family of a terrorist gets “rewarded” the same as the family of an innocent?

And, I know, many of you will be screaming at your computer screens saying that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter……..Nelson Mandela…..blah, blah, blah. But I am sorry, you are wrong! Plain wrong. 

A freedom fighter does not bomb innocents on a crowded shopping area in Omagh. A freedom fighter does not shoot dead a policeman directing traffic or a prison officer on his way home. A freedom fighter does not lob grenades into the crowds of mourners at a funeral.

The people who did such things, on both sides of the sectarian divide, are terrorists and criminals pure and simple. I am sure that they were loved by their friends and family but to reward the circumstances of their death, in the course of perpetrating a reign of terror against the non-combatants on the islands of Ireland and Great Britain, is simply wrong.

Remember the innocent victims first and foremost. Truth and reconciliation is something I hope we all strive for in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Wrong has been done on both sides. But, black is not the same as white; good is not the same as evil; and a hooded coward killed setting a bomb in a pub is not the same as an innocent shopping on a Saturday afternoon.

Related Posts:

The Troubles

Celebrity Big Brother Fixed?

Now, I have long since been a fan of the, sadly, now faded talents and charms of Ulrika Jonsson (see here)……..

And, I am very glad indeed that the American contingent did not win (see here)………

But, how on Earth did Ulrika do it?!? She was booed throughout the evening by the in-studio audience. She had been up for nominations so many times. She was so up herself, arrogant, glum, and often a bit rude throughout the three weeks. And, quite frankly, she looks like my grandma…….

Even she muttered the word “fix” when the result was announced. Channel Four, shame on you!

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Big Brother House on the Prairie

Big Brother House On The Prairie

Just two days ago, when commenting on Barack Obama’s inauguration speech, I admitted that it made me wish I was American.

Having watched last night’s version of the UK Celebrity Big Brother show on TV I have revised my opinion. Big Brother quite rightly, being such an historic event for the world, America, and clack Americans in particular,  allowed the housemates (including the three Americans) to watch the inauguration video. Normally, all news of current affairs and the outside world are denied to Big Brother contestants.

Coolio was clearly moved.

But, the reaction of La Toya Jackson and Verne Troyer was so indicative of the worst face of America – isolationist, arrogant, self-important, a skewed view of history, a lack of awareness, and a total lack of understanding of why the rest of the world does not see it as God’s nation and our great redeemer.

Here is a transcript with some of the most bizarre statements highlighted:

“LT: I think he (Obama) will try and do what he says, it will take time. Bush has our country in a mess, but I don’t like people talking about our country like that, I just think it’s totally disrespectful’ I noticed everything, and you know what I also noticed, it’s an inauguration for us, and everybody sat and looked at the tv that way, instead they should have said you are the Americans, you sit here. I think we should have been the one really looking up looking up and seen the tv.

Verne ??????? tv

I mean if that was somebody elses country I would have said, no take this seat, this is your President being sworn in, you have this seat. I’m not complaining but I just think it’s, I don’t know. It was so touching and so incredible.

Verne: The way he was talking about, it’s not just affecting America, it’s affecting the whole world.

LT: … and it is affecting the entire world Verne, America is so powerful, even though there are some in her that want to put America down. America is so powerful, we are the ones who support other people in war and things of that nature, and the reason that we are existing today

Verne: Even for other countries existing, if it wasn’t for us they wouldn’t exist.

LT: Of course, of course ….

Verne: Undermining our country I hate

LT: yeah, yeah, yeah.

Verne: Bcause we have done so many good things.

LT: absolutely

Verne: …. and yes in the past 4, 8 years ….

Lt: I think it is disrepectful, totally disrespecful, so I stay out of it don’t say anything.

Verne: I try too

LT: I think it’s a fool that argues constantly and consistently, my parents also told us, just listen don’t say anything to get your point across. Sometimes it’s difficult to get your point across.

Verne: … other people don’t really listen some time.

LT: No they don’t and that is what I mean.

While Verne might be short, La Toya is certainly short of a few brain cells. She is her brother’s sister for sure. I am glad she has gone no matter how easy on the eye she may have been.”

While we may share a language and a special relationship, I still maintain that America is one of the most foreign countries that I have visited.

The Stig Outed

I cannot believe that Top Gear’s Stig has been identified and outed by the great British media.

Apparently the Stig, contrary to popular mythology, is neither super-human, alien, nor Damon Hill. The Stig is actually one Ben Collins, stunt driver and champion racing driver.

I agree with The Times Newspaper that this is a fact, like the non-existence of Father Christmas, that I would rather not have been told. Next they will be telling me that Jeremy Clarkson is not God and that Kylie is crap in bed.

Ben must be hoping that he doesn’t suffer a fate similar to that of the previous Stig, Perry McCarthy, who was left to drown after being driven off a warship in one of the Top Gear challenges……

;(

Barack’s Inauguration Speech

What can I say?

For the first time ever I wish I was American.

I hope I don’t change my mind soon!

Deja Vu – I hope Not

I am so looking forward to Barack Obama’s inauguration as President of the United States of America tomorrow. I am looking forward to it almost as much as I am looking forward to being rid of that bumbling buffoon George W. Bush!

I just hope that Barack is granted a full period of time in which to deliver. I understand that the security around the new President will be unprecedented. And, this is not just in relation to the new Presidential car which has been nicknamed “the Beast” and described as a “rolling bunker” capable of withstanding a rocket-propelled grenade – which is probably a good thing given the amount of US military he will have around him and their track record for instances of friendly fire.

I believe that this emphasis on security is probably only sensible. In a world full of fools and a country full of guns and extremists of every colour, creed and insanity, the first President of colour (black) must be at risk.

I hope that it is not tempting fate, therefore, that Obama has chosen to align himself so closely with former President Abraham Lincoln. He who freed the slaves. Barack’s theme will echo “A New Birth of Freedom” made famous in Lincoln’s Gettysberg Address in 1863. He has already emulated him by retracing part of Lincoln’s train journey from Philadelphia to Washington for his own inauguration.

Let us hope, please gods, that he does not emulate him in other ways – such as by catching an assassin’s bullet. So many of us have too much hope invested in him! Take care.

Why?

Why did the Moonbase Girls of SHADO have purple hair in the cult TV programme “UFO”?

Oh what the heck – who cares?

You will enjoy this video of Lieutenant Ellis (Gabrielle Drake):

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-MuXIBOqBitg/ufo_tv_series_lt_ellis_gets_undressed/

The King IS Dead…….

So, yesterday President George W. Bush gave his last press conference before making way for the new King, Barack Obama. In his final farewell George W.  joked about the fact that he had been “misunderestimated”. I wonder why………?

• “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”—Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
• “And so, General, I want to thank you for your service. And I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq.”—meeting with Army Gen. Ray Odierno, Washington, D.C., March 3, 2008
•  ”Well, I think if you say you’re going to do something and don’t do it, that’s trustworthiness.”—CNN online chat, Aug. 30, 2000
• “I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.”—Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008
• “One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.”—U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 3, 2000

Do you have any favourite Bushisms?

Presumably George W. was so-named so that he did not confuse himself with his father and end up sleeping with his mother…..although this has never been proved

For sure, “Junior” would not have been the best of names for the ” Leader of the Free World”, being an unelected position as I understand it. Not surprising for a nation with a World Series that only they can play in……..

Well I am sure that history will have something to say about Dubya’s legacy as president…..as long as he doesn’t blow us all up in the next week.

Goodbye and good riddance. The King is dead. Long live Obama!

In the meantime you might enjoy this:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FvtAluA7gys