Alison Lees' Journal

kebabs
Using pork from the butcher, and substituting maple syrup for the honey in the marinade. There were also courgettes, orange pepper and fresh fairtrade pineapple, which I bought in ready-to-cook chunks. I served them with boiled potatoes. They were very tasty, but Sam didn't like them, and Hannah wouldn't touch them. Still, I have lots of other kebab recipes.

Moroccan chicken with apricots

Which I used home-made chicken stock, but cheap chicken. The recipe also included orange juice, for which I used a real orange. It gave a nice sweet fruity taste to the recipe. I was careful only to add a small tin of chickpeas. I served it with couscous, made with a liberal quantity of butter. It tasted very nice, and John liked it, and Sam liked it too. Hannah wouldn't look at it, but what would she know.

Current Mood: spicy

An exercise in logic?
There is a website which is aimed at connecting people who want work done with freelancers who want to do work. There are, in fact, several. This one is called BizReef. I had the following 'project' posted:

Project Name: Ethics and social philosophy
Project Description:
Hi I am hoping you can help with my Ethics & Social Philosophy class. For this assignment due on Friday I need 250 words and I can pay $20. please please let me know asap. thank you

What I don't get is which part of the word 'ethics' the student does not understand...

Current Mood: annoyed

Chicken keema
or, a very simple chicken curry, lots of spices, except I left out the chilli powder. I served it with naan bread and plain yoghourt into which I had put some chopped coriander leaf and some finely chopped sugar snaps (raw). It was extremely tasty; but Sam still didn't like it. He did like the naan and yoghourt though.

Current Mood: content

Dog days
the hottest, sultriest days of summer, which see Wikipedia, or if you have the time, a more learned source of information. Could begin about now, might happen at the end of July, or take all of August. The weather is not consistent about this.

Current Mood: hot

Roast Gammon
The recipe called for honey, but John doesn't like honey, so I put maple syrup on instead. Mixed with mustard with a glaze, a bit tricky, but very nice. Also, the recipe timings were suspect, so followed the instructions on the packet, sort of. I'll need to find a better recipe. You do have to rinse gammon (or it is too salty), next time will leave it overnight.

Hannah's birthday
She is four. Doesn't time fly. She is going to have her very own scooter, when we get to the shops to buy it. She had her visit to 'big school' this afternoon, and a birthday party, with three little girls, and lots of running around playing with toys, in and out of the paddling pool, and the like. I chickened out on the birthday cake, and got someone who can make tasty cakes to make it instead.

Current Mood: old

BBQ spare ribs
or, more correctly, barbecue-style spare ribs, since they were roasted in the oven. Very straightforward and easy to make. They probably would have worked better if I hadn't chucked in the rest of the marinade with them, but were definitely worth trying again. Perhaps I could have made the marinade into barbecue sauce. I think Sam ate some, but he sayed he liked the ready-made frozen ones we'd had before better. Probably because I need practise. Spare ribs are one of those cheaper cuts (except that you need to buy more because of the bones) that are worth looking out for.

Current Mood: sated

Saint Peter and Saint Paul
Transferred from the 29th, to avoid making people go to church twice in a row, or confusing debates as to whether Sunday evening Mass counts for Sunday, Monday, or both days. Because usually the night before counts as the day after.

Anyway, Saint Peter, not always sure, but made it big. Saint Paul, cocksure from beginning (Christians are very bad and must be destroyed) to end (all that is left is the crown of righteousness reserved for me).

Bible: St Paul's letters

Food: rock cakes (it's a pun), fish
Music: rock and roll (again, that pun). Christus vincit, Faith of our Fathers, and other hymns

Colours: red

Hooray for: tents (St Paul began as a tentmaker), fishers (St Peter)

I have updated my website

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/leeslees/

Nothing fancy; but I did it all myself on Word. Some large pictures are slow to download. Let me know what you think; or if you think I should put something else in.

Current Mood: up-to-date

Midsummer's day

At one point, today would have been the summer solstice, which has shifted partly because the 'old calendar' wasn't very accurate and partly because of the earth's precession. But the memory lingers on, of previous holidays, rollicking in sunshine, etc. Used to mark one of the quarter days as well, the days on which people were paid, or paid their rent, or what have you.

Hooray for : sunny days, long days, summer flowers, summer holidays,

Good for: bonfires, picnics, flowers,

Other stuff: A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, of course.

Father's day
Which my father in law says he can remember coming in and is just a cynical exercise to sell things. However, his birthday was only a few days ago, and John's isn't till October, so the children made cards at playschool/school, and we bought some sweets to mark the occasion. And I insisted that John should be allowed to watch the Superleague show, for a change.

Current Mood: virtuous

Summer solstice
And, in my rather confused head, a time to dance naked around Stonehenge, or other henges, and greet the sun. Some of my misconceptions are so daft, even I can't get my head round them. Still. Definitely a time for wine and roses, strawberries and ice cream, and summer flowers.

Decoration: summer flowers
Food: seasonal fruit, veg, barbecues, ice creams, home made lemonade, etc.
Music: Summertime, Summer from the 4 seasons, Nielsen's Helios Overture, Summer by anybody (Classic FM played Summer by Bridge, but I didn't listen to it), prelude for the afternoon of a faun (which is very naughty; back to my stonehenge confusion, I think).

bacon, bean and red pepper risotto
with tinned haricot beans for the beans. Several flaws in the recipe; the method was to cook everything separately, when risotto should be more or less all in one, so I ignored the method, and followed the usual method. The other flaw was that it was to use brown rice. Brown rice is okay, but for a really good risotto you need short grain rice; I don't know if you can get brown short grain rice, never thought to look. Otherwise, it was quite tasty and satisfying, and the haricot beans, which I don't normally eat, were vaguely edible.

Corpus Christi
The body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Transferred from last Thursday. We used to have first communion at mass and a Corpus Christi procession and benediction in the afternoon, but they don't seem to do that round here, which is a pity.

Prayer; O, Sacrament most holy, O, Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine, Benediction, Mass

Hymns. Anything for Benediction, Sweet Sacrament divine, One bread one body, In bread we bring you lord, Gifts of bread and wine, This is my body, Jesus, thou art coming, Blessed are you lord, god of all creation, Guide us O thou great redeemer, etc., etc.

Food: bread, wine, bread pudding, coq au vin, etc.

Current Mood: nostalgic

Bacon in the hole with onion gravy
Individual toad in the holes, but with bacon instead of sausage. This would have been nice if I was any good at yorkshire pudding, but I used the wrong tin, overfilled it, faffed too long before getting it into the oven and generally failed. Also, the recipe for onion gravy wasn't as good as my normal recipe, although onion gravy is always very nice.

Current Mood: discontent

Penne pasta with sausage in tomato sauce
The tomato sauce was a little tricky, involving cherry tomatoes and liquid, and although it tasted nice (it had real basil, garlic, white wine vinegar), I wasn't sure how much liquid to keep and whether I ought to have chopped the tomatoes up. I also wasn't sure that penne were the best pasta shape for such a lumpy kind of dinner. But there you go. I used the butcher's really nice sausages. Then it was topped with cheese, and grilled. I didn't use parmesan, but did use an Italian strong cheese, which is quite tasty. Sam insisted that he didn't want sauce, but let me just take the tomatoes out. John really liked it, and said I could make it again.

What's in a name?
I had Radio 3 on this morning; they announced that there would be a poem by the 'National Poet of Wales'. Sounded interesting. I don't know much Welsh poetry. Who do they think is their National Poet, I wondered. Dylan Thomas? No, it must be one of those bards at the first Eisteddfods. Turns out they meant some lady I never heard of. I suspect that it was not the National Poet of Wales then, but maybe the National Poet for Wales, more properly called the Poet Laureate for Wales.

Current Mood: disappointed

Trinity Sunday

Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Usually taken to be a mystery, especially by those to lazy to think. There used to be a bishop wrote his episcopal letters so that his priests needn't go to the trouble of making a sermon on this day.

Hooray for: one, three, philosophy

Decoration: shamrocks, or similar. Those Irish designs with the three interlocking parts.

Music: Te Deum (just), Firmly I believe and truly (only just), Eternal Father Strong to Save, and other trivial songs that mention Father, Son and Holy Spirit in separate verses.

Prayers: Sign of the Cross, Glory be, etc.

Polling day

I'm sure it's usually in May, but there you have it. We only had European elections to vote in, but a ginormous long list of parties to choose from. Since only the Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems bothered to do any sort of electioneering there was hardly any point. What's the point of being in a party nobody has heard of, and not explaining why anybody should vote for you? I confused the ladies at the poll station (a day centre for old people up a side street that I still have to use my map to remember which one) by looking for 'election statements', but there were none posted. I also had to explain for the fourth day in a row that my children get two weeks off for half term, although I know some schools are closed on polling days. I don't think that's reasonable; it should be possible to hold elections without using schools as polling stations and making children miss out on their education. There are village halls, community centres, church halls, day care centres, shopping malls, sports centres, council offices, Sure Start centres, libraries, pubs, halls of residence, post offices...

Current Mood: democratic

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