As you may know I have been growing a moustache this month to raise money for The Prostate Cancer Charity via Movember it has been a very itchy experience. Today is the last day, but I have dyed mine purple and keeping it on until the end of the week to get just a little bit more money.
This is my last ditch attempt to squeeze a few more pounds from you lot.
You can see the development of my 'tashe over the whole month: on flickr
Chop 500g of back bacon and place in a lightly oiled lasagne dish or Pyrex roaster, put this in the oven and turn it on to 180° C. Peel and slice to varying thickness 1Kg of Maris Piper or similar potatoes and bring them to the boil in a saucepan of water, meanwhile slice and soften 1 large leek. When the potatoes have been simmering for 5 minutes, drain them and leave them to steam. Gently warm 600ml of double cream in a saucepan and drop in 500g of ricotta cheese and season well; as this slowly melts (don't worry if this isn't a perfect process, some of the cheese being left un-melted is fine) wizz up 150g of breadcrumbs, 150g of grated mature cheddar and 5g grated parmesan. Pull the dish of bacon from the oven and pour off any excess water (if there is too much of this consider a new brand of bacon) and mix in the leek, then layer over first 225g of washed spinach then the potatoes, pour over the cream and cheese mix then sprinkle over the breadcrumb mix. Bake in the oven until the topping is golden brown on top the sauce is bubbling up from underneath.
Variations: use white fish fillets instead of the bacon (will need to be watch much more carefully while you complete the remaining steps) or just use more leeks plus some peppers and courgettes for a vegetarian alternative.
The news flew around twitter last night that Gordon Brown was announcing the opening up of a raft of data lists for use buy everyone whether for commercial purposes or otherwise. Although it is only speculation at this point it looks like the data involved will included Ordnance Survey maps down to a scale of 1:10,000, traffic and transport data allowing for better 3rd party journey planning applications, House price data and offense data for how nice is my locality sites and legislation as Free our Bills has been campaigning for.
There are still a lot of detail missing, such as is this all going to be directly added to data.gov.uk or will the OS run a separate system, what licence will the data be released under and will this solve the problem that the OS currently cause stopping people from overlaying the data onto google maps.
For more information: Ordnance Survey maps to go free online - Guardian
I am not a fan of 'bog standard' even if I am using time saving ingredient from the supermarket I like to add something to them to bring out their best. Unfortunately none of the mustelids on earth have yet evolved into a Spice Weasel, so what to use instead?
My first port of call is a pepper grinder that contains a mix of Bristol blend pepper[1] and crushed dried chillies. I use this pretty much anywhere I am using black pepper (including making pepper crusts) and it adds a nice smidgen of extra pep when going to full on chillies isn't required. It gives that something extra even when all you are doing is personalising a pizza by adding extra toppings or trying to enliven some pasta and pesto.
Next is mustard and horseradish, any sane omnivore will have these in the house for roasts etc but I find for day to day usage I am more likely to put them in things than on them (to the extent that while having cooked with Colman's mustard flour for probably 2 decades I have only recently used it to make mustard). Both go well in mash, potato or otherwise, and while I have always used mustard when turning Béchamel into Mornay I have found recently that if I am going to be putting that over vegetables then horseradish goes lovely in there as well. They also are part of my salad dressing armoury when I break all good rules about how to make a Vinaigrette[2]
There are many other things that in their place liven up stuff but that is some of the generic and besides I dread to think what the food police would think of my pickled cabbage products in toasted sandwiches habit.
[1]black, white, green and pink peppercorns with added pimento
[2]That reminds me I need to right up my Caesar salad and seafood sauce recipes.
I have been a fan of the River Cottage pumpkin/squash baked with cream recipe since I first saw it. Tonight I tried something a little different. Inspired by a the success of a fondue at a recent party instead of the usual filling I went for fondue –like mix of wine and cheese with a little garlic oil.
It worked really well, it shows off the squash if anything better than the original and while it won’t replace the cream version for me, I will make it again.
I am growing a moustache this year for Movember. I have decided to put down my razor for one month (November) and help raise awareness and funds for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer.
What many people don’t appreciate is that one man dies every hour of prostate cancer in the UK, more than 35,000 men will be diagnosed this year and that prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. Facts like these have convinced me I should get involved and I am hoping that you will support me.
To donate to my Mo, you can either:Movember is now in its third year here in the UK and, to date, has achieved some pretty amazing results by working alongside The Prostate Cancer Charity. Check out further details at: http://uk.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs.
- Donate online using your credit card, debit card or PayPal account or
- Write a cheque payable to ‘The Prostate Cancer Charity - Movember’, referencing my Registration Number 391004 and mailing it to: Movember - The Prostate Cancer Charity, First Floor, Cambridge House, Cambridge Grove, London, W6 0LE.
You can follow the progress of my Mo online. Also, http://uk.movember.com has heaps of useful information.
Thank you
But you don't need that any more than you do when someone posts about race for life or bungee jumping for the RNLI, if this is your sort of cause or you just want to support me looking stupid, please donate.
