Priceless Paintings from W7

I use a lot of vanilla in my cooking. I use it to flavour cakes and muffins, Pannacotta, Fruit Tumblers, Pudding, Ice Cream, Creme Brullee or Pudim Flan, or to make vanilla-flavoured sugar for use with summer fruits and berries. Its not unusual that I should use two to four vanilla pods on a single weekend.

Even without the Madagascar vanilla crisis, I have always found the price for vanilla quite steep. Subject to its quality and origin, a single pod typically sells for £2…2.50 here in the UK supermarkets, and bargains are rare.

I had pretty much wasted two pods on a large portion of strawberry ice cream last week – wasted, because the strawberries had no aroma to speak of, and neither did the resulting ice cream. It wasn’t the vanilla’s fault, but it got me going. I am no cheapskate, but wasting over £5 of good vanilla on this unhappy ice cream annoyed me, and finally got me going on line.

Et voila! I have just taken delivery from Vanilla Mart, who sold me 20 premium pods (18-21 cm, thick and moist, smells wonderful) for a grand total of £8.50, P&P included. Ordered in the evening of day one, shipped on day two, received on day three.

The fool is me again, of course.

When something looks expensive and feels expensive, it probably is expensive. Supermarkets thrive from making the impression of providing a bargain, but an alert common sense is still required. I admit partial failure, and am glad that I have now overcome the Vanilla rip-off.

Food and Drink, Thoughts food, rip-off, spices

The BBC runs a new program on David Hockney, and The Master contributes three little paintings, which you can put […] onto your phone or computer. These downloads are available right here, and for 48 hours only.

Once David Hockney’s time-limited offer has expired (why this childish for-48-hours-only nonsense anyway?), feel free to take one of mine – that’s OK as long as you don’t change it or pretend you made it yourself. I use Alfred on my mobile phone, and use the Manukan Island sunset as a desktop wallpaper.

Whether you chose David Hockney, one of mine or maybe one of your own making, I find this is a very nice way of personalising an impersonal device.

An endless number of web sites and utilities help you to create the wallpaper that fits your phone from an existing image; see http://www.mytinyphone.com/p/make-wallpaper/ for an example. Go for it!

Painting, Thoughts BBC, david hockney, Painting

This week, I’ve been mostly eating my very own version of bachelor food. The wife was out most days, so I kept up good cooking for myself:

Fresh tomato soup, lamb loin chops and crispy potato wedges (from Jersey Royals, which always remind me on Pam Ayres, but I cannot repeat her joke in the written word. By the way, her website announces a third series of Ayres on the Air on BBC Radio 4 in 2009, something to watch out for – no schedule is released as yet).

Hickory smoked Shek Kebab with roasted courgettes and onions (trying to beat the neighbour with my smoking Webber BBQ, but she’s the queen of grilled sardines and thus cannot be beaten).

Rosemary rump steaks with crispy and hot potato wedges (jersey royals again) with stir-fried fresh artichokes with fennel and courgettes, followed by a shockingly flavourless fresh strawberry ice cream. I had over 500g of strawberries in there, enough sugar and some vanilla, but the aroma was unnoticeably faint. I blame the strawberries.

Wraps with slow-cooked crispy shredded shoulder of lamb (minted) and pork (honey’ed and ginger’ed), with fresh garden vegetables and salads at M&L’s house. A very nice reminder on all those slow-cooking options with my new gear…

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

Dear Lord, give wisdom to the men and women of Ealing Council, for they know not what they are doing.

When they don’t spend their time –and our money- on expensive chest-beating self-advertising campaigns around the borough like big ages, they spend their energy on reverting what was done right by the previous council, as it seems.

The latest ingenious idea is to reduce some of the bus lanes around the borough in order to relief traffic congestion. By that, they do of course mean congestion by cars. (Not a new idea though.)

When bus lanes were extended a few years ago, a route was created to support free and swift flow of busses, and to support a comparatively safe heaven for cyclists. Removing some bus lanes now, or reducing the hours of operation of 24/7 bus lanes to standard peak hours, is a very regrettable step back to the dark ages of individual transport.

If the good lord hears my prayers, surely he’d advise the councillors to spend all the above money, and more, on efforts to reduce individual traffic throughout the borough rather than allowing for even more. Attractive offerings of public transport, and optimum support for alternative means of transport, are the obvious first choices.

Falling back to the petrolhead wisdom of the 1950s might suit a conservative council, but it certainly doesn’t suit a congested 21st town in the 21st century.

Current Affairs, Thoughts Ealing, Ealing council, london, Traffic

The talk about the Hubble and Herschel space telescopes brought one of those crazy science project ideas out of the distant back of my brain back into the conscious part: to build my own telescope.

Not quite like this guy’s home-made 737mm reflector telescope, but something smaller, cheaper, and not as good. I’d still like to see if and how it works, so here’s the idea:

Take a 180..250mm parabolic mirror – a shaving mirror comes to mind. Determine its focal length (one quick experiment with one randomly chosen mirror gave approximately 700mm). Take a black plastic tube (drainage pipe?) of 1 1/2 that length, stick the mirror on one end, and a CCD module into the focal point, done. Possible use a small square mirror in the focal point, redirecting the beam to the camera mounted on the side.

I presume those mirrors aren’t really made to astronomical precision, so the resulting image would, if anything, be fuzzy, but it’s a start, is it not?

Once the principle is confirmed, take the mirror, mount it on a low-speed eccentric drive, pour a few drops of polishing fluid into it, add a handful of steel balls, and let this thing run for a month or so, thereby improving the mirror. A 33rpm turntable comes to mind.

Meanwhile, I could wake up and find my sanity again, but until this happens, I am still inclined to give it a go. It’s tempting, don’t you think?

Thoughts, Web/Tech astronomy

I have been making my own pizza for a great number of years now. Although I can’t quite put an exact date on the making and baking of my first ever pizza dough, we are certainly looking back over 25 years.

Over the years, I learnt to knead the dough early so that it can prove with amble time to turn slightly sour afterwards. This makes for a crisp and delicious base.

Then, I used to put the toppings on, and bake the whole thing at circulated heat, full blast, and on the top shelf (approximately 240 C in my old oven). The idea is to emulate a wood-fired real pizza oven (which would be much hotter still), and it has served me very well over a quarter of a century.

Many friends have sampled my pizza over the years, and they always were happily making very appreciative noises and left little behind.

Now, with my new Neff BW1674N, I read Neff’s user’s guide and find interesting instructions. Don’t use circulated heat, they say, with pizza and similar wet-topping flat items. Bake your pizza at 200C on the lowest shelf, with top and bottom heat combined.

Gosh. What a pizza. A thin and crispy crust, the inside of the dough airy and light, the top crispy again, … This might all be obvious to you, and obviously it’s obvious to the people at Neff, but heck! to me, it’s a revelation.

Just one more reason to love my Neff BW1674N. I’m going to propose marriage real soon.

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

This week, I’ve been mostly eating out:

Baked “local white fish” (probably Pollack), wrapped in pancetta, and served with horseradish potato mash in a pub in Newquay. Always nice, although one would hope that this meal is not the quintessence of modern British cuisine.

A nice Sirloin steak with superb potato wedges and other trimmings, in the Tin Fin restaurant in Perranporth. The Tin Fin is probably the best thing Perranporth has to offer – not that we tried them all, but nothing else was anywhere near as appealing. The wedges are now subject to my own home experiments.

A slightly under average quality fish & chips meal in the Basset Arms in Portreath. We should have gone to the Bridge Inn, but it was further out of town than we wanted to wonder along the windy (but speedily driven) road, so we gave that a miss. Probably a mistake, at least in culinary terms. Emma of Dolphin House recommended the Bridge Inn and deserves a mention here; Emma and Dickon’s Dolphin House is one of the best Bed and Breakfast accommodations we ever had, and certainly the best in our recent Cornwall trip.

A Chinese meal in Hayle. The meal was lovely and reasonably priced. Begs the question though why a Chinese meal? ‘Coz the locals can’t be bothered. That’s why. Some pubs didn’t serve food and others weren’t too appealing. Other eateries were ‘cafe’ places only (meaning, they only serve when it is convenient, i.e. during daytime). The Italian place had lots of space as far as we could tell, but sorry-we’re-fully-booked couldn’t be bothered, so we went Chinese, and enjoyed it.
Serves them right really, ‘em other Hayle businesses.

Food and Drink cooking, cornwall, food, recipe

I tore my trusted Karrimor walking boots some while ago (in Borneo), so when we planned for the coastal path hike, I went and bought some new ones.

I bought a pair of Karrimor KSB Tour Event, and wore them for just one short weekend in the open – broken. Eyelets have torn out, obviously poorly designed and manufactured. I returned the boots and, after a couple of days, Karrimor acknowledged the problem and authorised a refund. Nice.

Next, I went and bought some North Face Cedar Ridge instead. I loved the Cedar Ridge because they were so wonderfully comfortable, but after only one day of wearing around the shops, eyelets tore out. Again! There wasn’t even a trace of stitching or glue on the torn-out pull strap; God knows how this was supposed to last. Same deal again: return to store, they return to manufacturer, they acknowledge fault and authorise refund. Nice.

Next, I went and bought some Scarpa Mistral GTX, and felt at home in those shoes immediately. I wore them for a few hours before we started our trip and was a bit concerned given how little experience I had with those shoes prior to the trip. But, all was well, and Scarpa’s my friend. Definitely. They have the perfect fit, are lightweight, and show absolutely no sign of falling apart. Just as one would expect from a £100 pair of shoes, they’re good shoes.

Out and About, Thoughts hiking, karrimor, north face, scarpa

Over three days hiking the Cornish costal path, with plenty of sunshine, more than plenty of wind, and not a drop of rain, how’s that?

We took the train from Paddington to Newquay, a smooth and quick connection. Upon arrival, we found that town councillors ruined the town of Newquay pretty much with concrete and the omnipresent “amusement arcade;” it could be a lovely place otherwise.

Onwards, along the south-west coast path to Perranporth (20km up and down and, in parts, through loose sands), then to Portreath (another 20km piece, less loose sands but a few more steep descents all the way down to sea level and back up to the top of the cliffs again), then to Hayle (again a 20km section with mixed environment: dunes, beach, cliff tops – nice).

Then just a 90 minute walk to St. Erth station, following our Sunday breakfast, hop back on the train to Paddington, and back in just under six hours, just in time to do some shopping and prepare supper. Perfect.

Some pictures are right here.

Out and About, Travel coast path, cornwall, hiking

This week, I shall mostly be a cabinet maker, a dinner maker, oh – and a holiday maker. Not a blog maker though.

Back in a week or so.

Thoughts

Heads must roll in light of the expenses scandal. Absolutely (but only figuratively speaking, of course). Heads must roll for intentionally liberal interpretation of the rules. Heads must roll for dropping all morale standards and intentionally milking the system. Heads must roll for denying first, then paying back some amount of money. Heads must roll for paying back that money and claiming all was well and in perfect order, while making laws with the other hand at the same time for crying out loud.

Heads must also roll for angrily resigning from the cabinet and thinking that’d be the first step to a career re-launch, neatly avoiding tax investigations or, indeed, criminal charges, in the process. Disgusting.

But.

But when I said the heads must roll, I didn’t mean that the head teacher of the Cardinal Wiseman School in Greenford ought to be arrested, charged with expenses fraud, dragged through the mud (full story here). I had asked for different heads.

The headmaster might have hand his hand into the petty cash kitty or not, and he might have fiddled with expenses, or not. That must, and will, all be found out of course. I can’t help thinking scapegoat though.  I sincerely hope he doesn’t end up being one.

There are some more rather interesting people to arrest and release on bail on allegations of expenses fraud. If you can’t find them in Westminster, make sure to check all their first and second homes.

Current Affairs, Thoughts Britain, expenses, london

You know me. I have a soft spot when it comes to workers’ unions. We all owe them tremendous accomplishments regarding work conditions, employment laws, health and safety, and of course also regarding the pay. Without Friedrich Engels and his friends, and the workers unions’ actions over all those years since, I am sure things would be much worse.

However, the RMT going on strike for a 5% pay rise and guarantees of no redundancies, this at times when most people are happy to keep their job at the current salary levels, or happy to keep their job at all, doesn’t really get my sympathy.

According to one web site, the average salary for a tube driver in 2008 is £40,000. This doesn’t compare too badly with the 2008 UK average household income of just under £30,000, does it? Another source claims an average London salary of £42,302, which would be in line with the request for a 5% increase from £40k (assuming these figures are actually correct), but the whole thing still doesn’t make much sense to me.

Employers shouldn’t be allowed to blame just about everything on the poor economy and get away with an obscure thread of the company’s uncertain future, but still, the coin’s got the employee’s side, too.

I am sure the job, that of a driver and that of station and platform staff, has physical and psychological rigors, and life in London is expensive. So is almost everybody else’s. Go back to your sense, and go back to work!

Thoughts london, rmt

This week, I’ve been mostly eating Dampfnudeln. A tester on Monday. A large serving for 12 on Saturday, and another tester just yesterday. This was necessary to rectify the mistakes made on Saturday or, to be more precise, to confirm the theory of what had gone wrong. Yesterday’s version is now ready to pass the Landfrauen-test (the German WI, if you want).

Dampfnudle, Grumbeersupp’ unn Woisoss

Egg Tagliatelle with green asparagus and smoked salmon, tossed with cherry tomatoes and basil (always quick, always nice)

Sirloin steak BBQ season opener, with fresh oven-baked bread, garlic butter and greek salad (so that we can say we grilled in the garden at least once this year, but since we are promised a heat wave for 2009, I remain hopeful for more)

Fish on toast

Grilled feta cheese, with hot peppers, chorizo, and fresh bread

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

I learned from one of my builders that Jamaican women should stay on Jamaica. Once you bring them here, he says, they don’t want to go back home. Only the men want to go back to Jamaica, but the women want to stay.

How’s that, I wondered.

It’s ‘em women rights innit, he explains.  Once they here and see all that womens’ liberty, he goes on, they won’t be going back, will they?

Probably not, methinks.

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Thoughts jamaica, society

I mentioned it briefly last week already: I am starting to learn the preparation of a traditional meal. Back at home, we call it Grumbeersupp, Dampnudle unn Woisoss (Kartoffelsuppe, Dampfnudeln und Weinsosse). Loosely translates into a vegetable soup, accompanied by salty steamed and fried dumplings (made from sweet yeast dough), and a sweet cream of Riesling sauce. Also often accompanied by custard.

It is thought that only a grandmother can master it, and a whole lot of wealth of myths rank around the secrets of the dough, the right and the wrong frying pan to use, and other aspects. The sister has already proven that grandmotherhood is not required, as she became master of this meal a long time ago.

Now it was my time to try. I tried with a very large pot of soup for twelve (for which I misjudged the amount of vegetables, and the soup ended too watery), accompanied with 40-ish small Dampfnudeln which weren’t quite crusty enough and were a bit wrinkly, ‘coz I had accidentally switched the cooking zone to the small ring – no wonder the pan wasn’t getting hot enough even when I set it on full blast (which would have been way too hot under normal circumstances).

The bottom line is that, while grandmotherhood is not required, a little bit more practise is.

The custard and the woisoss’ were spot on, though, and very popular, so that’s nice.

Food and Drink cooking, food, pfalz