Eggs, milk, water, plain flour. That is it, ingredients that you probably have at home, to be honest – you dont need to even go out. This recipe makes a huge amount, so you can cut it down if you like.

1. In a food processor or large blender, beat 5 or 6 eggs till frothy.
2.  Add 500 grams of flour and mix well.  Add a pinch of salt.
3. Add 500 milk gradually while beating till properly mixed in (use a spatula to scrape anything off the side of the blender/processor)
4. Add 500 ml cold water and beat until smooth.
5. Add a couple of table spoons of sunflower or groundnut oil and beat in.

Okay, ignore the mixture and go and sort out the rest of the evening. You will get better pancakes if the mixture has been allowed to stand for a while – a couple of hours is great, but even 20 minutes is useful.

When you are ready to cook your pancakes, add a couple of table spoons of cold water and give the mix another blast. Cook in a hot, non-stick pan, just wiping the pan with an oily bit of kitchen towel.

Keep making pancakes and serving them fresh to your friends until they start falling over and groaning in agony.

I love my pancakes flambéed with Grand Manier, but stocks of ice cream, maple syrup, lemons, sugar, honey and warm chocolate are also good! Marmalade and Whiskey is another favourite.

Eat well, and enjoy the fact that you have had proper pancakes and not the miserable rubbish you get out of bottles of instant mix!

First up I have a couple of tomatoes – a small beefsteak and a really large plum cooking tomato. I am only growing a few plants up at the allotment, the rest will be grown at the house by the garage as we did previously. This will be in very well drained pots and watered regularly. Hopefully I can avoid the blight that has been, well, blighting us for the last couple of years!

The main greenhouse will be used for peppers and herbs (as well as the vine and peaches that are already there). On the herb front I am growing coriander, basil and oregano in the green house and rosemary and parsley outside. A few more like thyme will get added outside as I go along. The outside herbs will be in pots in the middle of the little allotment lawn.  Peppers include a large hot pepper, a long, mild green chili, and a small sweet chili.

I already have onions, shallots and garlic planted, though I might add some later ones to keep things moving. To this I will also add leeks and celeriac.

For the roots I have two types of carrot – a mid early sweet one and a mid late one – plus turnips and beetroot.

I cam keeping the bean production simple this time around with some nice broad beans (which need to go in soon) and some small bush French beans. I couldn’t make up my mind which peas, so I need to pick some up locally. We have failed at peas over the last few years and I need to work these out a bit better. I think I might grow them by the onion beds once I sort out the frames.

On the green end of the scale I have some nice savoy cabbage, a long cabbage, some brocolli and sprouts. I was hesitant about cauliflower, and seem to have forgotten it entirely.

Lastly in this batch are some rounder shaped courgettes which look very nice and a very large pumpkin.

So, anything missing?

Well, yes. I have not decided on what potatoes I will grow this year – something different, I think.  Also, I may well add more herbs and small amounts of other bits and pieces. I need to do sweetcorn too, or there will be trouble. I am going to try growing small crops of things this year so that I can get more variety rather than quantity. So I will add spinach, chard and so on. I may not grow lettuce up at the allotment, or just a few in some of the side beds. I still have my winter stuff in the greenhouse, so that will come out as the weather gets warmer. Oh, spring onions is another thing I should think about!

I will get there, eventually.

The mild winter means that all my garlic and onions are sprouting – some of the onions are around 6 inches tall. I hope we don’t get a sudden bout of violently cold weather that wipes everything out. Back in November I was given a pair of seriously good secateurs and now everything that can be trimmed has been duly trimmed. For Christmas I was given a stick chopper, which will come into its own later in the year, and a sharpening stone. That is already being used as I have started sharpening my Azada’s and spade.

Later in January I am planning to order the long handled fork and spade form Get Digging so that I am all set for a big dig come late winter. Back in our garden at home the lawn is looking completely wrecked. I should have worked on that mid autumn, but I missed the opportunity. So in spring I will start seeding like mad and try and get it back to where it should be.  I also need to work on what I am planting in pots both at home and at the allotment. The garden is fairly sheltered, so I will be growing some cherry tomatoes in pots on the patio as well as   a row of Italian cooking tomatoes out by the garage. But I might see what else I can grow on the patio for fun.

I also need to collect some cheap plastic pots and containers for some mixed planting I am planning on the small lawn at the allotment. No idea what I will grow yet, however. So, just need to get past winter, and off we go!

• Bears don’t get smoked salmon. Surely you smoke cigars, and you EAT salmon!
• If Christmas is a time for giving, who gets to do all the receiving?
• Never shove something up a chimney that’s stops something else coming down.
• Bears that hide in wait for Santa are seen as spoilsports – or at least greedy.
• Reindeer are best served medium rare.
• There is nothing more uncivilised than two bears squabbling over the last red nose.
• To remove an arm from inside a turkey it helps to first unclench the paw.
• Christmas Puddings are not missiles.
• Remember, rabbits are not just for Christmas. They are pretty good whenever you are hungry.
• If a bear is smiling at you, make sure you are not wearing a turkey outfit.
• Don’t waste time chasing a turkey when you can just steal one from a butcher.
• Before handing over money, make sure the carol singers aren’t surprisingly furry.
• Christmas stuffing is not a punishment.
• Fake Christmas trees make really bad disguises.
• The safest way to give a bear a present is with a trebuchet.
• Basic arithmetic: a bear at Christmas will significantly increase your food bill.
• Getting a bear out of a fridge is harder than getting him in.
• Remember, bears are not just for Christmas. No, I am serious – you really DON’T want a bear for Christmas!
• Punching a turkey hard is no way to remove the feathers – however much fun!
• Always make sure a bear enjoys his Christmas. If that fails, run.
• If the Christmas movie isn’t Grizzly Adams, panic.
• If a bear is holding up mistletoe he probably isn’t thinking about kissing.

It takes very little time to make and all the ingredients are straight out of your local shop. So, here goes:

The joke is, of course, just like its predecessor, the Perfectly Ripe Avocado, this new product is several days off being ripe. I have picked up these small twin packs several times to find that the contents is hard and inedible. The packaging, oblivious to the fact that the contents is far from the smooth creamy experience that accompanies the properly ripe avocado, instructs you to keep it in the fridge to stop it ripening more! I haven’t tried, but I am not keen on the idea of waiting several weeks for my green cricket ball of a fruit to become something that you can shove beneath a prawn or two.

The new packet sat in my nice warm kitchen a couple of days until I thought I should try the first of the twins. Rock Hard. My super sharp chef’s knive managed to cut through the flesh, but the challange was completely beyond the capabilities of my teaspoon. Into the compost with it!

The second avocado I have just tried. It certain felt more or less ripe, but as you can see, the result inside the skin is watery and uneven and has a bitter taste that has taken the combined scrubbing power of several Peroni beers to remove from my pallet.

I have never yet found an avocado in a supermarket labelled as “ripe” that is actually anything of the sort. It is simple misrepresentation for the sake of adding extra cost to the product. Tesco are not the only company that sells such waste of supermarket shelf space, but then since all the major Supermarket Companies basically sell the identical “own brand” products with different labels (most of the time they even have the identical shaped packaging) this is hardly surprising.

The bottom line is, if you want a decent Avocado – get it from a proper grocer and ripen it yourself!

I do like turkey, but I prefer goose. I am aware, however, that those assembled are not so keen so I will probably stick with the normal bird. Maybe a Norfolk Black or something this year. I will probably vary the way I cook it. There are only five of us so I will be going for a smaller bird and I think I will take advantage of the extra room that gives in the roasting pan and part steam the bird over white wine, stock and plenty of veg – then brown the bird separately towards the end of the cook, probably while roasting off potatoes.

I tend not to do starters at Christmas; mostly because everyone loves puddings too much! But I do want to spend some time on trimmings this year.  I want to do something with chicken livers, I think. Maybe as a paté or forcemeat and used as a layer with something else wrapped in pastry – a mini game pie, perhaps, on the side. It would certainly make an interesting balance with the bird. I also want to take a little bit of a lead from Hugh F-W and his vegetarian sebatical this year and do something a little more interesting with the veg. Sprouts are a must, but anything else is up for grabs. Cauliflower purée might make a base for something. Wrapping something in paper is another thought.

I think I quite like the idea of a plate made up of set pieces. So, a small pile of turkey meat with gravy, a small pie, a small stuffed vegi, a made up turine of mixed stuffings layered, a roasted paper parcel of sprouts with herbs and pancetta, maybe – all made up as single servings of each. I could either serve these on flat serving dishes – you just pick the mix you want – or go to town and present fully on the plate. I think the former as the latter makes it look like that is all you are going to get!

Pudding wise, other than the apple pie recipe I worked out the other day, I am not sure yet.  I should probably stick to the formula I am using for the main course, so small portions or even as small as mouthfuls - again, take you pick. Home made Ice Cream should definitely be part of this, layered with something like an orange and honey syrup, perhaps.  I quite fancy something fresh on the palette, so maybe something interesting with fresh fruit. Actually, thinking about it, fruit kebabs flambéed with brandy might be rather fun – bring them in flaming! We are not great Christmas pud eaters, so this might be the compromise.

Christmas is always a challenge when it comes to food and it can also be a worry. So anything planned or even cooked in advance (like the pie and the ice cream) has got to be a clever thing to do!

Generally speaking, I am not a great pie maker; especially since it is very definitely on my diet black list! But others in the family love them, so I might as well get them worked out in advance – useful for those who visit the site too! Rather pointless getting a Christmas recipe after the event.

There are no clever twists and turns here, this is very straightforward pie making. However, I do strongly recommend non-stick pans for these sorts of pies – if they leak, they can glue themselves to anything and you will really appreciate the non stick. After all, you don’t want to go all safe on the amount of stuffing. So, on to the recipe…

One of the two blueberry plants that sit in brightly painted dustbins by the small green house has the most beautiful red leaves at the moment, and inside the larger, now insulated green house, lettuces, radishes, carrots and chard are pushing there way through the soil with fresh green shoots.

Meanwhile, I have also taken a delivery of stable waste from one of the local yards. For only twenty quid I got an entire tractor trailer load delivered and dropped only a few hundred feet from the allotment – it was as close as he could get.

Forty plus barrow loads later and we have a huge pile sitting waiting to rot down for the spring. This is not pure horse manure – it is a good mixture of horse, shredded paper and shredded wood chip. I am hoping that by piling it high enough and getting it nice and hot, it will reduce down to a good mulch that I can spread in the spring. I know people want pure muck, but much of my ground is very muddy and has a high clay level, so this might do the trick.

The pile has already settled a bit since Sunday when I spent 5 hours moving the damned stuff. Either that or in my dizzy, shattered state it looked a whole lot bigger.

Carrots, Sweat Pea, Chard and Radish

In the greenhouses, the plants are busy. The peppers are still producing peppers but with shorter and shorter days, I think I will have to pick them green or they will be useless.  The lettuces are coming up nicely. I have planted some winter Gems and some other general leaf. I will pick them younger than normal and even just remove leaves as I need them, though they are far too young as yet. The Chard will also get used for salad leaf. The sweat peas are growing too much, so I will pick out the tops next time I am up, see if that slows them down for the winter. With any luck I will have some chunky little plants ready to go out early spring.

I think the water has now been turned off, but my two water butts are full, so that will be fine. I have water for the kettle, a jar of coffee and some bits for the puppy, although she is no lover of the allotment; I wont let her run round. I do need to do a little tidying up. The clearer I keep it over winter, the better the start in the spring – well, maybe.  I am just hoping that the pla

Like many things we buy, the trick is rather than buy a whole pile of cheap ham for a few pounds, buy less of the really nice stuff for the same price – the smaller quantity will be good for your waistband and the better quality will be good for your soul.

I sometimes look for the end cuts – the bits that are a little bit fattier and often uneven thickness. Perfect for this dish.

There you go – English Ham and Pasta. A perfect combination.

Sealed leg of pork waiting to go in the oven

I know I have covered roast pork before, but tonight it turned out particularly nicely, so I thought I would give you the recipe.

I used a fairly cheap cut of pork that you would find in most supermarkets, but if you want to splash out on something exceptional, well, I think you should go for it. I am always amazed at how big the difference between cheap, intensively produced meat, and slow grown, carefully bred and nurtured meat. The biggest difference tends to be in the cooking. For instance, a few years ago I was able to purchase half a lamb with some friends of ours. It was a rare breed animal from an organic farmer who believed quality was the be all and end all of the job.

The lamb had more fat on it that the fast grown ordinary fare but this fat, when the meat was cooked was golden in colour, crisp and gave the meat a delicate, joyous flavour. It was like a completely different product. I was quite happy to eat less (it was expensive) and enjoy the moment rather than buy cheap just so I could have a large plateful.

Anyway, back to the pig and on with the recipe!

For fast food companies the same rule has applied – a customer who loved you as a child would more likely be loyal as an adult. But recently, with more awareness about health and dietary issues in kids, the kids fast food market has taken a bit of a hit. So, Burger King in the US (following on the heals of McDs) are repackaging and relaunching their childrens meals in a bid to get the kids back in and their future customer base assured. 

It is gratifying to see that both companies have reacted to criticism of their children’s offerings; in the case of Burger King they are adding apple slices and milk or juice. However, this is a means to an end rather than trying to rebuild the health of a nation.  Warren Sackler, Associate Prof of food service and hospitality at Rochester (US) points out that children are the hardest of negotiators when it comes to their choice of fast food restaurants. “They always win!”

Burger King relies on this and they want the kids to pressurise the parents to take them to BK outlets. So, whether you order the new boxed children’s meal or not, when you go to Burger King, the child will be given a Free Crown.  Burger King got rid of the King icon sometime ago, but with this clever bit of PR the child is made the king instead, and what young child can resist that!

Of course, once hooked into their semi-healthy children’s menu, the fast food company is in the perfect position to convert the child into an adult customer eating the less healthy menu. You have to remember that Fast Food companies are not trying to sell you one of your main meals, they are selling you food IN ADDITION to what you normally eat.  And they are successful at it – look at the queues at fast food outlets in the city outside of traditional meal time.

It is a business model that grew out of the confectionery market where their offerings were seen as treats not replacements. “The snack you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite.”

Fast food restaurants are not evil, but they are businesses in the business of selling cheap and often. If  they were only used at lunchtime, they would not survive. The new children’s meals are designed to grow the new generation of customer who see box fulls of food as a nice treat and will become greedy because it is cheap to do so.

Oh, as a note, with more and more restrictions coming in preventing companies advertising such products to children, how with the kids even know about this? It is simple really. Kids talk to each other, and when that does not work, the parents will tell them all about it. Daft, isn’t it.

I was reminded today that it is my birthday in a few weeks and was asked what I would like. Since the allotment is my new keep fit thing, I suggested a couple of things related to that. While I was up at the patch doing some weeding, it got me to thinking what would be my ultimate allotment wish list – apart from having more land, of course! (I think I want a small holding, I have decided).

A couple of items sprung to mind immediately – a new, rust proof pair of secateurs would be nice and a good gardening knife would be very handy. Oh, and just about anything from Get Digging.  So, coming up next is my ultimate, and faintly ridiculous, allotment wish list!

Hand Tools

Starting with the secateurs, Felco seems to be the make of choice. I know it sounds silly, but these particular ones have a red handle which makes them easier to find – though, to be honest, I probably need ones with a homing beacon!

I suppose a proper gardener would also want the holster, but since I dont wear a belt that is probably pointless.  I think a tool something or other may be in order; I will get to that later. They also do an over the top ceramic sharpening stone, but I think I would be happy with an ordinary whetstone.

We did have a decent pruning knife at the allotment once, but it vanished, sadly. So I really could do with a new one of those.

I also fancy something more manly – like a chopper so that I can massacre plant stalks for the compost as well. A machete of some sort jumps to mind, though that may be a bit big and to be honest the curve would be a pain. There is something called a stick chopper which is probably more the right shape. Of course, the compromise is a double edged bill hook – that probably gives me everything and is suitably dangerous!

Leaping off to another shop, the rather wonderful Get Digging, they do a range of long handled tools – I already use their azadas, and they are truly wonderful, but I have eyes on their long handle forks and spades too.

Power stuff

I have made a couple of mistakes when buying power tools for the garden. I bought be very expensive tiller to find it is not as good as some of the cheaper ones and I bought a multi tool strimmer-mower thing which has never worked properly. The problem with all of these things is that you cant leave things at the allotment – as we found out once before, they get stolen! However, this is a fun wish list, so here goes.

A small petrol lawnmower would be overkill, but fun. This one seems all I would need. Really, it is only doing the borders of the allotment.

A strimmer might be more use – especially a cordless one with a seriously good rechargeable battery. I get fed up with 2 stroke stuff, to be honest. I would rather walk up and down with batteries. Oh, probably should have a second battery too!

I think if I were to get another rotovator/tiller thing, I would go for something that had decent wheels and much bigger digging width.  This one is twice the size and power of the one I bought and the same price.

Greenhouse

We have two small ones at the moment. In an ideal world, I would like to lose the small one and put up a bigger Polytunnel instead. To be honest, I really dont have room unless I took over the other allotment we used to have. But this would increase our growing season and mean I can grow things that I simply cannot do at the moment. One note, however, if you ever decide to go for a poly, you MUST buy a proper nursery grade one.  There are loads of cheap ones out there, but unless you want them to shred and blow away in a breeze, you would avoid them like the plague. Good quality ones are not hugely expensive – £400 will get you one with everything you need that is 20 feet long.

Assuming I had a poly, I would also need more shelving and so on, but I can make that given enough wood!

I have been wondering about a greenhouse heater for the larger of our two greenhouses. We have no power up at the allotment, so it would have to be a paraffin header of some sort or a gas heater. Though I can imagine that the allotment people would probably be not happy with either!

Talking of wood, I really would like to finish the raised beds and I am short of wood to do it with.

Pots and Stuff

I have loads of plastic pots, but I fancy having some more decorative things around that I can grow individual plants in – cherry tomatoes, peppers, that sort of thing. At the allotment I probably dont want ceramic pots – too heavy to lug around. There are all kinds of planters around though. Some basic square ones probably cover a lot of sins, though I quite fancy come wooden barrel style ones too and possibly some nice, colourful decorative ones as well.

Soil

This is not so much for the wish list, but I do need to improve the soil. I have various composting things going on for next year, but I also need a ton of manure to turn in. So – any volunteers out there?

Gred Wallace and John Torode (BBC)

The most recent series of Celebrity Masterchef has just finished having spent most of the series as a BBC Daytime afternoon show. This was not repeats, this was a brand new series, but it has been moved from its prime time slot. According to the BBC this new slot would allow “a greater examination of the celebrities’ cooking skills … There will be more hours of Celebrity MasterChef than ever before.” Pity it is loosing ratings then.

Of course, any of us who have ever spent time in the Media world (and I have lived there for 30 years) knows that your show is NEVER moved to a day time slot because that will be beneficial – it is moved as the last resort before you are axed.

Whatever the case, Masterchef, this present incarnation of the show, has certainly become very tired very quickly.When it was first relaunched back in 2005 as the appallingly named “Masterchef Goes Large” it was certainly very different to the original programme. It was much more long-winded and demanding for the contestants and was far more edgy. I am not sure the choice of the judges sat that well – they were far too happy to fall in with the producers rather unoriginal desire to give it unnecessary tension every few minutes. Sadly, this takes away from the actual challenge that was being posed and made it more confrontational than was appropriate. In more recent series I am glad to see this has softened.

But this has now been running for six years and despite many tweaks, it has become tired. It has yet to achieve the prestige of Mastermind, though it has produced some new chefs which is always welcome!

Michel Roux Junior (Wikipedia)

There is an exception that perhaps proves the rule and that is Masterchef: The Professionals. This version is open to working cooks and chefs who wish to use it as part of their climb up the very greasy ladder of the catering industry. What makes this series so remarkably different is the placing of Michel Roux Jnr as the judge. This holder of two Michelin stars not only has vast knowledge both of his own and learned from his famous father and uncle, but, like his ancestors, has a reputation for fairness and belief in the next generation.

The tasks are much harder than for the amateur and celebrity versions, but it is the empathy, even sympathy, that Roux shows for the contestants that lifts this show far above its stable mates.  However critical he may be of some of the attempts, he never critisises without then teaching – even the most lax of professionals learn from him.

He is obviously no lover of the producers either and slowly you have seen him move away from the scripted nonsense they want him to say during the judging conversations. This was most apparent in “Michel Roux’s Service” a programme where he was absolutely determined that this was not going to be another reality TV show jaunt. After the first episode, it was plainly obvious that one of the candidates placed in the show was designed to cause as many problems as possible.  Roux’s solution? Kick him off the show and concentrate on actually giving some young people a chance. Touché!

What many viewers may not know is that the Roux family have been running educational programmes, scholarship programmes and generally promoting British Chefs for years, so no wonder he is so good at this.

It is time for Masterchef, or at least the celebrity and amateur strains, to take another rest, me thinks. But let us keep Roux going with the professionals, or maybe just merge it with his own scholarship programme. That programme really does meet the BBC criteria to educate, inform and entertain. No wonder the Pro version has won BAFTA awards.

You have to remember that because this is up at the allotment I have no heat, so this is only helping to take the edge off at night; if we get a very cold period it will not do much if there is no sun to get the heat up during the day. But my hope is that I can get a few things going over the winter, at least to get some crops coming up early in the spring.

According to Monty Don on the BBC’s Gardeners World bubble wrap has an interesting history. Invented back in the 1950s by Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes, it was originally designed as wallpaper. When that didn’t take off, it was sold as greenhouse insulation. So this use actually predates being used as a packing material!

Anyway, enough of the history, the allotment was looking rather nice in the sunshine. This shows the small garden area we have where all our fruit trees and bushes are. The area is a little larger than intended due to the demise of a couple of berry bushes, so I will be building a narrow raised bed over the winter in the middle – not too large, it is rather useful having a small work area. I will put it up towards the smaller greenhouse you can see on the left, just by a small apple tree that is there.

I have not decided whether to wrap up that greenhouse too. I think probably not. Although I have bubble wrap left, it is not enough to do the job so I will probably use it for additional insulation in the larger greenhouse – around pots and so on. Also might use it to stop my supply of water freezing – well, I have to be able to have coffee!

I checked on my small red gooseberry cuttings and they are not dead yet, though I think it will be some months before they show much life. They are in the small green house and I should probably move them over tomorrow to the insulated one. I have quite a lot of room in there. I will swap over some of the things I have stored in the large one too. I still have peppers growing in the small one – will see if they do anything now, though.

So all in all it was a fine day. I still have much to do. Tomorrow the Chairman of the allotments is bringing the shredder up to our end of the field so I should get down there in the morning and get rid of the stuff I have accumulated. Some of it will go in the compost and some on the paths.

I was going to burn it, but with the new houses build right next door (you can see them in the image above) I think bonfires are going to be a thing of the past. Shame. I like a nice bonfire in the autumn! Especially if you have one large enough to get some potatoes baking. But then, I am meant to be on a diet anyway!

Oh, well.

A good, leavened flat bread – soft, bouncy, warm and tear-able is a feast not to be missed, and using it as a wrap for cold meats, or for wiping up a chilli is, to say the least, a delight. It is pretty easy too (especially if you have a big mixer – convert here) and does not need an oven. This is my variation and sits somewhere between Mediterranean ideas and a Naan. 

Recipe: Stove Cooked Leavened Flat Bread

“It is about what we eat, how we cook it and about portion size.”

She is absolutely right. We don’t NEED calorie counts! We need smaller plates. We need to stop supermarkets trying to sell us more than we should eat. Why else, even at this time of austerity are supermarket profits rising? As anyone who reeds this blog knows, I am fat – I am dangerously obese and I am working hard at becoming not obese at all. In the end, I am achieving this by the simple expedient of eating less than I use. I have not added it up, I have not read clever books and I do not sit around trying to read the tiny print on labels. I just eat little enough so that I am hungry. And guess what? I have lost 45 kg. It is not easy, and I get stuck sometimes and it seems to go wrong and all the rest – but it is not complicated either.

However, Prof. Philip James of the International Association for the Study of Obesity said her idea was “Stupid and Pathetic.” Apparently, “It is not simply a question of personal responsibility. There is an environmental problem in terms of the food system we have.”

He and others are far more worried about advertising of junk food and wants to see more regulation coming down on the retailers. Well, I have no problem with that, but it wont stop people getting fat. You can eat a McDs without getting fat – as long as it is your main meal. Not the healthiest thing out, but you will be okay. People get fat because they EAT TOO MUCH. They have too big a portion of dinner at home, they buy chickens that are bigger than they need, they buy huge bags of crisps and keep sweets permanently in a draw at home rather than making them a treat. Then they eat junk food on top.

I am fat, not because of junk food – I hate the stuff! I am fat because I have big plates and I fill them up.

How complicated do you want to make this?

Well, since the allotment has now become part of my Lose Weight Before I Die campaign, I need the excuse to at least walk up the hill to it, even if it is only to water some carrots. However, doing my research (I really am very ignorant on all this stuff) I have found that I need to insulate the greenhouse so that it retains what little heat it gets during the days – basically to stop frost forming inside.

And the answer to this is good old bubble wrap, apparently.  However, I should point out that you don’t wrap up the outside like a parcel and put a big bow round it, but use it to line the windows – all of them.

Before you get going, it is worth giving the inside of the greenhouse a wash with disinfectant to get rid of any bugs. Get rid of any litter, compost, old leaves that makes good nesting for critters. You might need to give the outside a clean too to make sure you get enough light in – one of mine is pretty grubby. Then you need to seal up things like the greenhouse vent/window and in my case the few pains that are a bit small and leave gaps. Bit of gaffer tape, me thinks. Once that is done it is simply a question of lining the entire greenhouse.

You can choose your bubble wrap for price, but garden centres sell UV Stabilised bubble wrap which lets in more light and will last for several seasons, hopefully! (New to this, remember). You will also need to get the clips – packs of fifty cost around a fiver, so probably worth the investment. Note: if you cant get hold of UV stabilised, just get the normal stuff. I think you can waste a lot of time running in circles!

I wont have heat or light in the allotment and I am not going to run a paraffin heater up there, so I need to take other precautions too. One of our greenhouses has a grape vine and dwarf peach trees, though they survived last winter okay. But for anything new I plant it will be in pots and containers, not directly into the ground. These I can add additional insulation to by wrapping the pots in bubble wrap (definitely the cheap stuff for this).

What am I going to grow?

Well, haven’t quite worked that out yet. But I think I am aiming for things like Carrots, potatoes (you get small sized results, but still an achievement), maybe try things like lettuce, thought the family think it is odd eating cold things in winter. Peas can be grown and parsley and things like Kale, chard and so on. It is not the huge variety of crops you can grow in the proper time of year, of course, but then, anything is better than nothing and I would think my vine will appreciate the company.

This year more than most. Last year I pruned quite a lot off the older of the two trees so wasn’t sure what sort of harvest we would get. In the end it was about enough to fill two huge trays to double depth, fill a trug for my mother’s church and for us to take 5 very large bags with us to distribute.

Oh, and what wonderful apples they are! Crispy, juicy, sweet and sharp – everything you want from a good English apple tree. I love harvest season.

Too much for the dog, however.

This year has not been a great year on our small patch to be honest – we were away a lot over the summer and the lack of watering has produced a minimal crop. Also, we lost a few seedlings earlier so the plot did not get planted fully.

This time I am going to attempt to put a bit more life into the old dear. I have stripped away everything apart from the few remaining cabbages and have weeded till … well, we are, for the moment at least, weed free. I have set myself a few tasks that I have yet to complete.

I have been washing the inside of the two green houses with Jays disinfectant (a gardeners favourite, it seems), but as I still have some peppers and the end of a vine growing, that is yet to be completed. I have, however, washed all the pots and trays in Jays ready for seeding next year.

We have had constant problems with our greenhouse based vine – it is the oldest of our three vines (the other two are out-doors) and we have never got it properly under control. So I have built a heavy frame inside the green house and next year it is going to find itself very much more limited. I am planning to train the two most established stems along the length of the frame and offshoots are definitely not allowed. The frame is quite close to the central walkway (this makes the greenhouse sound huge, but it is only little) so I am hoping that I will keep the grapes away from the glass. The vine tends towards the windows and gets stuck behind the frame – the poor fruit gets squished.

In the same green house we have two small but productive peaches/nectarines. They tend to fall over with weight of fruit so, as part of the vine frame, I have given them a frame too. The plants have been cut right back, all suckers removed, and they will get trained over the next couple of years up the frames. I am limiting other planting next year in this greenhouse to chills and peppers, which I will grow in pots so I can move them in and out as needed.

We have raised beds round a tiny lawn area which also had a huge rhubarb plant. That has been removed and the best bit of root replanted out in the main area – I have now reseeded the hole left behind. That will give the apple tree a little less competition and I will also get another small fruit tree of some sort planted – maybe an olive, we shall see. The raised beds have all been cleared and I will be planting garlic in there in a couple of weeks time.

I have also cleared the shed right out, bought myself a new kettle and a jar or coffee. The wonderful weather has made it most pleasant up there and being able to make coffee (sadly, instant at the moment) is a treat. I plan on buying myself an old fashioned espresso pot for next year.

So, more to do, but it is looking clean and dandy, if rather lacking in anything growing, of course. Let us see what happens over the next twelve months – I will keep you all posted!

Generally speaking, Stroganoff is a dish made with fillet streak – it is fast, luxurious and easy. If any recipe tells you it takes ages, then it isn’t a proper Stroganoff – after all, it was one of the staples of many a top hotel in London in the 60s, and they do not want recipes that take forever!#

I have never seen why I have to limit the technique to beef only, and really, this could be applied to just about anything, maybe even fish, as long as it was something like Tuna. Anyway, here is a pork version. For this I have reduced the amount of paprika and added black pepper – it seems to suit the meat better.

In the UK, and across many parts of the world, there is huge concern about teens taking up smoking – you don’t need evidence to show that if you don’t smoke as a teen the chances of you taking it up later are greatly reduced. I started young and smoked for nearly 30 years and I am pretty sure that when I did thankfully give up, I gave up 30 years too late.

The research, which has been gathered using interviews over ten years, talked in confidence to young people aged 13 to 24 and looked into issues of why they started smoking, how they were influenced by packaging, their reactions to marketing by tobacco companies and so on. They were published in the Journal of Adolescents, the European Journal of Public Health and the Tobacco Control journal back in 2009.

Philip Morris initially made the FOI request anonymously through their lawyers, which leads one to suppose that they thought they would get turned down. The request was refused.  However, Philip Morris have continued to battle the Scottish university to get hold of this sensitive information and have even gone to the Scottish courts for mediation.

The university is still refusing the request on the legal basis that it would cost too much to process the raw data – a legitimate argument under law. However, a co-author of the study, Prof Gerard Hastings speaking to the Telegraph, is also concerned about the confidentiality of the young people involved. If Philip Morris managed to get hold of the data, this would undermine future studies of this type as respondents would be unwilling to participate if it risked their information being passed to a commercial company – remember, some of these young people were buying cigarettes illegally.

All in all, another disreputable act from a tobacco company.

I have often wondered if the people who tried to wreck my old blog over an article about the smoking ban were from a tobacco company. One of the researchers in the above case even received calls from an unnamed person discrediting her research .

I am a great believer in cooking curries in a wok or frying pan, especially chicken. The modern chicken (unlike the old boilers) is a very tender affair and does not appreciate being cooked to death – again. Cooking in a frying pan is faster and kinder to the dear bird!

This curry emphasises the sweet-sourness with the addition of palm sugar and vinegar. I have sometimes taken this to an extreme and produced a curry that is getting pretty close to a pickle – feel free to experiment with more vinegar here if you wish, adding it later in the cooking stage.

Six months ago Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall of River Cottage fame launched a campaign which saw over 700,000 people sign a petition. However, this was not a simple protest, over a series of programmes and with the help of people like Jamie Oliver, Hugh not only posed solutions, but also tried to find new and interesting ways of getting us to eat things like Dab fish, more mackerel and so on – Hugh, deep fried mackerel fillets are wonderful, mate!

Tonight, on Channel 4 we are to be treated to an update. Hugh, sporting a new haircut (not a great move), takes us through the last six months – it is reporting on updates about Discards (throwing away good fish because it is not part of the quota, or there is no market), reporting from the EU and seeing the launch of the campaign in a further 11 languages.

This must be worth watching, and if you have’t already, sign the petition and try out some of the recipes!

Out of Town superstores create a problem not just by being a one-stop-shop but also because of their location – out of town. To me, that is the major problem, and adding petrol stations makes it worse. Since retail demand, even in this economic climate, remains high (see Tesco’s profits) it may be that the trick is not to stop the supermarkets, but to redirect them; dont build the out-of-town, but build them right next to the high street.

This means that users of the supermarkets are taken to the high streets rather than away from them, which is a start. However, to make this work properly, extra limitations must be imposed. the supermarket car park must be free and be able to be used by any shopper, not just users of the supermarket. The supermarket MUST have some sort of high street frontage and direct access from the car park to the high street. The supermarket manager MUST be an active participent in the local business community and get involved in helping to promote the high street.

It is possible to create a symbiotic relationship. There are towns that have done this over the years and now have local butchers happily competing with the supermarket, for instance. In effect you are trying to give the shopper the best of both worlds – encouraging them to shop locally while understanding that they need to still use supermarkets. It might also solve another problem – small towns near larger metropolitan areas have lost their identity as a town. They are no longer the local centre for an entire area, but rather have become a self-serving, over-sized village. This does not allow businesses to thrive;  high streets need outsiders as well as town folk. A supermarket can be a draw for a wider area – why not use that to the high street’s advantage?

This is not an ideal solution, and fitting a supermarket into many high streets would be very complicated, but it may be one way of getting the mountain to come to us!

Rick Steins Spain - BBC

I have been catching up (via BBC iPlayer) with the short series on the BBC following Rick Stein through Spain. His Producer,David Pritchard has posted a short Blog about the trip, listing his favourite foods (Damn it David – come and produce me so I can eat everywhere!).

He wanders temptingly through Carabineros (huge, fleshy sweet prawns), Fabada, a been and sausage stew, more prawns, lamb cutlets, and more.

I have always been a lover of Spanish food, but outside of some pretty tacky tapas bars, finding the genuine article is hard work – round here in Milton Keynes, more or less impossible. Oh, we get the odd market with a piella stand, and some Iberico ham of sorts in supermarkets, but little else.

A thousand foods under one market roof in Palma

Many years ago, I stayed with friends in Majorca. I cooked several meals for them and was able to enjoy the huge indoor market in Palma.  The Spanish love their markets, it is the soul of their food industry, and it shows in the huge range or foods and the high quality of the produce.

You would have thought that with the British Love of southern Spain in particular that our country would be stuffed full of Spanish food, but it isn’t. Some of the problem is that so many Britons go to Spain to some purpose built resort like Magaluf – a culturally baron town where the burger and the chip is king. But that does not explain everything.

One Welshman in Seville explained that there were 3000 Tapas bars there, some specialising in Fish, others in vegetables, others in the wonderful ham made from black pig. A good Saturday night would be spent crawling from one bar to another, taking in the wine and the beer, but also the amazing dishes each serve.

We have NOTHING like that here and we are missing out. Italian and Indian food have done well here (though many Indian restaurants are boring and the Italian and Pizza Chains are truly dreadful) So why not Spanish?

Seems like we are long overdue some great Spanish bars and restaurants.

Since mid February I have been dieting, doing a sort of make it up as I go along low carb thing (basically, remove most of the carb, but dont replace it with too much other stuff!)

My weight as of the 1st of August is 120kg (just under 19 stone) and my BMI is 39.05.

In under six months I have lost 20kg. Yipeee!

I am very comfortable with the way I am eating now – so much so that the once or twice I have suddenly had a helping of potatoes I have ended up feeling bloated and horrible.

I have not increased my exercise much (though a few hikes in Dartmoor at the end of July was a good idea), but I hope to as my weight loss reduces the pressure on my painful knees – an affliction since childhood, but hardly the end of the world.

At this rate, by Christmas I should be around 100kg (15.5 stone) which will be a BMI of 33 (Still obese by the way)

And by Next summer I should be 80kg (12.5 stone) which will be a BMI of 26. I will still be technically overweight, but only just, and with any luck I will be getting a lot fitter too.

Should I have considered an operation instead of a diet?

The important thing will be that in 18 months I would have lost about 90% of my excess body weight starting at a point where many private hospitals say I am a perfect candidate for Gastric Bypass surgery (at a cost).

However, in their advertising blurb, the hospitals are boasting that 75% of people who have the surgery lose up to 80% of their excess weight.

I AM DOING BETTER THAN THAT!!

On the hospital websites they point out, quite correctly, that a Gastric Bypass is not an end in its self.  I am quoting here from The Hospital Group website:

“The Need for Long-Term Follow Up
An important thing to remember is that surgery is not a cure for obesity. It is not a magic bullet and will not guarantee results without complete dedication by yourself and by your physician.

If you are going to be successful you will have to continue to work on the behaviours which are important for anyone attempting to lose weight, including physical activity, reducing portion sizes, avoiding energy-dense foods etc.

For this reason, you should ensure the hospital of your choice has available a structured, long-term behavioural and lifestyle programme, with nutritional advice, which you should follow immediately after surgery.”

So, a person has to do exactly what I am doing in order to gain a long term benefit from the surgery (and spending all that money!)

Which begs the question – why bother with the surgery in the first place? Especially if for 25% of people it does not even work!

I am not saying that surgery should never be used, but I do wonder if its growing popularity is really such a good thing.

Key to this dish, and the reason I cook it, is the broad beans and what ever lentils you choose – I used Puis lentils here. The broad beans should be fully shelled – so take the outer casings off, blanch for a couple of minutes and then remove the velvety casing to reveal the bright green been. You could probably get away without doing this is the broad beans are very young and small, but if they are larger, then this is a must – so make sure you have plenty.  You should eat this with the soft olive oil rich flat breads that they love in Spain, I will dig out a recipe when I get time. This serves four with bread at Lunch – the glass of wine is optional!

This mass produced specimen is regularly critisised by the celebrity chefs and tossed aside in favour of the wild varieties that are quite frankly beyond the budget of most of us – assuming we can find anywhere that sells them at all.

And yet, this boring little fungus can be quite delicious and a pile served on toast a most handsome treat. However, they sometimes need a little bit of work to bring out the best. So here we go.