Bringing it back :-) Reading

Hello people, long time no see!

I'm working on bringing this blog back to life, making it prettier, archiving off the old and... There will be a newsletter! Lots and lots of plans (and lots of entries already written and ready to go, but not until the pretty comes!).

But in the meantime, I'm having a play with the old budget and going back to some wonderful blogs I used to read for ideas. Which led me to theppk pot'o' beans because I'm also so much thinner than I used to be thanks to a book (more of which over on another new blog, because I have a challenge I'm putting the nearly 40 year old me through) and, well, Beans :-)

But hey people. Please watch this space. There will be cookies...

Recipe

Today I took part in a blogcast/podcast on Sidepodcast (see various earlier 'reading' entries, or just go to www.sidepodcast.com and find out what its all about :-) When I say 'took part' I actually prerecorded my bit (taking no chances on interuption here!).

The quantities are smaller than usual here as I had a 30 minute limit on the broadcast :-) So this afternoons effort was baked as muffins, and works nice and swiftly like that. If you want a cutting cake use a 6" sandwich or 4" square tin - or you can double the recipe up and use a more 'conventional' size. This will lead to a more brownie like cake and take a lot longer to bake though :-)

Angel Cake

You need:

1/2 cup self raising flour
2 Tbsp cornflour
2Tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 Tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp sugar
20g chocolate, roughly chopped or use chocolate chips

Mix all of these well together. You'll get a pretty dry finish.

Then you need:

1/2 cup red bull

Mix this into the other ingredients. It will start to bubble and fizz a bit. Transfer to your muffin tin or cake tin and bake it at 180 degrees Celcius for 12-15 mins for muffins/cupcakes and a little longer for the quantity baked together. Usual testing methods (skewer comes out clean etc) apply.

New books

I have a large pile of books to read - courtesy of my birthday last week, and of today's trip to the library. Eek!

DP gave me Terry Pratchett's Nation, which I have yet to broach the cover of (vrf) as I was reading the other book he gave me - Secrets, by Freya North. Just the same as ever there (predictable etc etc 'chick' lit, whilst actually being well written and featuring characters who actually talk to each other, know things and work hard :-) ). She has a website - www.freyanorth.co.uk - where the books each have a synopsis, and some have a 'what happened next' section as well.

The other thing that has happened is that the bookshelves are up! well, on the half landing wall anyway. So several boxes of books have finally been unpacked, and I'm finding myself catching up and rereading a whole lot of stuff that I've not seen in a couple of years. As are the children :-) DP didn't entirely believe that I could have read all of them, and indeed I haven't as around 2 meters of shelf is taken up with his books many of which aren't to my taste... although I may *have* to read them now just to, um, make a liar of him. But 2ish metres out of over 20m unread by me isn't bad going really.

Only the rest of the house to bookcase now and, oh, maybe another 10ish boxes of books to find homes for on those shelves.....

Reading

Just to let you all know - that useful site now-formerly-known-as 'it's not easy being green' has moved to http://www.newhousefarm.tv/forum/

Please go and have a read. There is loads of really useful and interesting stuff there :-)

You could have a look at http://www.thebiggreenidea.org/ (the attached charity :-) ) at the same time if you felt like it :-)

Reading

Lots of reading - The Idler(www.idler.co.uk ) being part of it, North American magazines another; and for websites please have a look at www.buynothingday.co.uk with regard to the upcoming weekend :-)

Reading

Opps, I managed to go another month...

Anyway - I've done a *lot* of reading. Apart from the annual 'read all the magazine articles about 'doing' christmas and picking the recipes etc to pieces to veganise those worth doing (suprisingly few, but I have come up with a couple of new ideas for cake and pudding that work better than the ideas of previous years, yay! - of which more will be revealed later :-) )' I've also worked my way through a large pile of 'green/climatechange' books (and not all are 'we're going to hell in a handcart' thankfully) and been reading some new websites (the content of some is, well, not very green at all, but darn good reading) and finding some lovely podcasts. So many that to talk about them all would mean I needed to do a name change - 'listening, reading and recipes' anyone?

Anyway... I don't digress, but I'll get to the point. First book worth a mention is Sold Out! How I survived a year of not shopping, by Robert Llewellyn. If you don't know the name, then maybe you'll know him as Kryten, late of Naylor/Grant production 'Red Drawf'? Host of recycling show 'Scrap Heap Challenge' he spent a year writing about 'not buying' in a column for The Ecologist magazine, and this book is also a result (and *not* a direct lift of the columns, which is pretty unusual in this sort of book - yay to him for not taking the easy option :-). I even went out and bought it (and annoyingly found the following week, that if I hadn't been so keen I could have waited until this Wednesday coming and bought it *and* met the man himself! Waterstones in Milton Keynes if anyone out there wants to know about it).

Second reading item of note, is the new issue of Craft: you can buy it in the UK for a scary price... or subscribe to the online version for lots and lots less (so if anyone wants to buy me a present ;-). This issue has lots about Weaving, plus the usual run of recycle-based projects. Months of things to do for all :-)

Third reading item... well, this one is definately 'online'. www.sidepodcast.com is all about Formula one. It has various attached podcasts and things, but I got drawn in because DP found it one day when looking for how to 'catch up' on the races he missed due to working weekends. Anyway - they've started doing a 'gameshow' on live feed one evening a week; and that makes for anarchic listening/viewing 'live' or you can poddle along later and listen to the edited version.

And that is it for today. I may or not be back with a recipe later....

Recipe

Yes, two posts in one day... trying to make up for the lack of writing over the last few....

(so shoot me, I've been cooking!)

This one definately makes the list of things I will eat again. A thrown together dish from the freezer and the fridge and seriously yummy (I could probably have eaten my serving and DPs, and the extra portion for him to take for lunch tomorrow; but that would make me a pig... so I didn't and left space for cake :-) )

Chilli Linguine

this much makes 2 good portions and a lunch sized one spare.

4 sundried tomatoes - soak for a good 30mins before using
4 Tbsp chopped cooked tomatoes
1 tsp chilli paste
one small onion, finely chopped
10 ish frozen artichoke heart quarters (these ones came from M&S)
2 cups frozen green beans
3 portions wholegrain linguine (for us this is c. 150g, but your mileage may vary)
2 Tbsp olive oil

Fry off onion, then add tomatoes and chilli paste and cook through, stirring often until slightly reduced. Stand to one side.

Cook pasta according to instructions. When 3/4 done put frozen green beans and artichoke quarters in the pan too.

Once cooked drain, add olive oil and stir well. Then add sauce and stir to coat. Serve :-)

Can add cheezly or whatever grated over the top. Or a couple of tsp hemp or sesame seeds. A sprinkle of nori flakes is yummy (and if you are going to do that, then add 1tsp good miso to the sauce post cooking, but before you stir it into the pasta and vegetables).

Recipe

Quick and dirty this one...

Bread... lovely lovely bread.

Small loaf - bake into your favourite shape and enjoy :-)

500g Malthouse flour (for those in the UK, I like the Doves farm one)
2Tbsp shelled hemp seeds
2Tbsp Ex. Virgin Olive Oil
2 tsp yeast - active dried for ease.
Fat to grease tin if using, plus extra flour for dusting/tin.
Water to mix. usually around 400ml, but sometimes more sometimes less.

Flour, yeast and hemp seeds into a bowl and mix together. Add oil and mix well. Then add water 200ml at first, then the rest gradually until dough is firm, springy and *slightly* damp/sticky and forms a neat ball. Knead, knead and knead again. Finally will be slightly more sticky (you may need to dust occasionally with a little flour).

Then turn over dough and leave to rise - at least an hour, but we leave it for around 2 or 3.

If using, grease tin, and then dust over flour.

Knock dough back and gently knead again. Shape and place in tin... alternatively split into 8 balls and shape as rolls. Let rise again, 30mins is enough, but longer is fine.

Turn on oven to 200 Celcius. Put in loaf and cook for 10 mins, then turn temperature down to 180C (you'll keep the higher temp long enough) and continue to bake the rolls for a further 15m (but check the hollow sound) and the loaf for between another 15 and 30 (it depends on all sorts of factors, sorry).

Let loaf cool in tin for c. 30 mins then turn out so you avoid condensation.

Let it cool longer if you can... yeah right... eat warm with slatherings of your favourite spread... chilli sauce is lovely :-)

Alternatives for the loaf - knead through 3Tbsp of tomato puree or sundried tomato paste between the risings, until you get a ribbon effect :-)