Monthly Archives: March 2009

Nottingham – only 1 in 5 eat 5-a-day

Extraordinary story in today’s Evening Post which says

THE number of Nottingham people eating enough fruit and vegetables has dropped to just 20%, new figures have revealed.

Only 1 in 5 people in the city are eating enough fruit and veg – and I’m in the four fifths.

I’m also amongst the 47,000 obese people and many of my friends are amongst the 84,000 are “only” overweight. I know the damages being obese can do, since a few weeks ago we discovered I’m now twice as likely to die.

I only eat five a day if I make a special effort – and the days I do are the days when I cook properly. When I started using “OneClicktoCook” I was amazed by how much fruit and veg it got me to buy for just one week’s worth of evening meals. The sad truth is that although that website supplies me with 6 evening meal ideas and a shopping list of all I have to buy, too often, those 6 evening meals last two or three weeks. I’ve had to stop buying fresh meat and fish with the recipes because I just don’t get around to cooking it in time.

Eddie Izzard was right:

So it’s all those fruits there, and there’s South African fruit we can have now, without going, “Oh, the guilt!” And star fruit, which are from Mars! So it’s great, you’ve got all these fruits, and you get a selection, you take it home, you arrange it in a bowl… and then you watch it rot! You never eat it, really… Occasionally, you go up to it, and go… “Ah… I don’t think I will. Ooh, a Mars bar, there we go!” (mimes eating bar) “Oh, I’m full-up now!” And they all rot from the bottom up, you go… (disgusted noises)

Cooking with Warren Ellis

Onion marmalade. Although all the ingredients are suitable for vegans (so long as they substitute something else for butter) the recipe description from Warren Ellis is a leetle bit bloodthirsty:

One large onion. See how the onion clearly has a top and a bottom, as defined by the hairy bits. Stand it on its bottom. See the top. Imagine now you are considering the head of a small animal. Like a seal. See the little seal head. Now take a knife and slice off juuust enough of its skull that you can see the very very top of its brains. Yes? Excellent.

Warren Ellis is the evil genius who wrote Transmetropolitan.

This is what text messages are *for*

My brother texted earlier this evening:

Have I got to part bake a pastry case to make pie? How long for?

I responded:

Depends a bit on whether filling is cooked or not and whether you’re just doing a crust or sides and base as well?

All around proper pie! Apple and rhubarb – will prestew the fruit

If all ingredients are basically cooked already need to blindbake the base and sides to about half the time to cook pastry. Line the dish, prick with fork all over, cover in greaseproof, weigh down with eg dry pasta, cook 10-15 mins at 200, remove pasta and paper, put in hot filling, put crust on top, use eggcup to support middle, make hole to let out steam, cook til crust is ready.

Eggcup IN pie?!

Yes, assuming you don’t have purpose based cereamic thing to do the job, or you’re only making small pie. Upside-down eggcup working as pylon in middle of crust. Also assuming eggcup made of something that can withstand heat.

No eggcup – shot glass? Gonna be fairly small pie anyway.

Small pie might not need.

It almost sounds like I know what I’m doing, eh? Despite the fact I’ve never made a full pie, just pies with crusts in pie dishes, or blind-baked tarts with chilled or fruit fillings.

Hope it turns out OK!