Lamb pitta
This is bit of a JamJam homemade recipe!
Marinade diced lamb in rose harissa paste overnight. Roll in garam flour and cook for a while to brown. Recipe follows!
PASTA
Covid-19
Things the government got wrong. Basically everything! Too late to shut down, PPE debacle, care homes, masks, quarantine, test and trace, exams. And still it does not realise that bombast and bluster from No.10 means absolutely nothing on the streets of Manchester or Leeds.
What is needed is a devolution of restrictions and incentives to regional level authorities. The South-West could probably have relaxed most restrictions weeks earlier, Parts of the North should never have restricted anything yet.
Tomato Chutney
POLICE
I genuinely feel sorry for our police force. I think their purpose is to enforce the law.
But when the government seems to be churning out laws that are unenforceable by the day, one wonders how the police force can maintain any semblance of authority. Wearing a mask seems to be voluntary in North Somerset, quarantine after a foreign holiday to prescribed areas seems to be non-existent. And if people can chose which laws they would like to observe the whole system starts to crumble. Well done Johnson and Cummings!
FOOTBALL
Well I am puzzled! Football is obviously an industry which needs to continue. But it is not football without the crowd. Even the comment I had when playing (badly) on a Sunday morning in the snow, ‘nice eyes’ -enough to put me off! I only go to one or two matches a year, but basically the whole of sport seems to have become more distant and something that is played out on the screen, not real life?
Who am I?
I live in Sandford, North Somerset, England, Great Britain, The British Isles, Europe. Non of which mean much to me. Rule Britannia, flying the flag, who cares about these symbols.
I am however proud to be who I am. All of those places above have bent and cultured me to be who I am. I hope I am kind to others, considerate and where appropriate affectionate. I hate bigotry, racism, misogyeny, sexism, etc. in all its forms.
Flying
Slow down! The shut down halted most flights – not all as the rich continued with their private planes (of which about 50% of flights have no passengers!!). As planes are a major source of pollution this has to be a good thing. But people need holidays, and the cultural benefits of foreign travel are invaluable. A conundrum. Maybe shorter journeys abroad by train, and flights that are powered by electric planes (yes the technology is getting there), will be the way to go.
REWILDING
Tens of millions of gardens across the UK have a large area devoted to mono culture. i.e. grass. Much of this is never sat on or played upon. Just cutting the grass once every 10-14 days. Benefit to wildlife = zero.
So I have rewilded my front lawn (and the back one too!). It started up with raised beds for herbs (mint, sage, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, Jerusalem artichoke, fennel, anise hyssop), but has now spread to the whole former lawn. I have planted some bush roses and salvias, marigolds, poppy, chicory, and many other wildflowers (some donated by Di Redfern – thank you). I have put in 100 bulbs, and have 200 more coming. Some plants do well others do not – it will sort itself out with a little help from me.
Hopefully the increase in insects of all kinds will be beneficial to the environment.
I am much heartened to see a couple of other people leaving the flowers in their lawns alone.
It is not neat and tidy – nature does not ‘DO’ straight lines.
PICKLED ONIONS
I am not sure if I am just a bit stupid, or totally stupid? Probably the latter!
Well I am about half way through a 5kg sack of pickling onions – and although they are small, they are still too big for my 350ml jam jars (I only get 6/7 in a jar). I have started to jar them, basalmic vinegar, red wine vinegar, malt vinegar, some with chilli flakes (just a few), and I just got 5ltr of white wine vinegar for when my bigger jam jars arrive.