A Very Brief Seasonal Food Year

• January – broccoli, Savoy cabbage, celeriac, onions, ham, oranges

• February – cod, parsnips, winter greens, purple sprouting broccoli, rhubarb

• March – mussels, winter roots, onions

• April – spinach, wild salmon, sea trout

• May – asparagus, rocket, early runner beans, Jersey Royals, rabbit

• June – broad beans, watercress, crab, leafy lettuce, strawberries

English: Broad beans growing in fields at Kilmeston. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• July – cucumber, beetroot, tomatoes, venison, scallops, cherries

• August – gooseberries, blackberries, plaice, monkfish, sardines, nectarine

• September – apples, plums, early squashes, game birds, goose, oysters

• October – pumpkin, apples, chard, chestnuts, guinea fowl

• November – baking potatoes, pheasant, mussels, oysters, scallops, kale

Mussels at Trouville fish market (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• December – Brussels sprouts, chicory, turkey, parsnips, swede

Loser!

At the WeightWatchers weigh in tonight I was exactly 2 stones down.  Not bad for a fat lad.

The official WeightWatchers' line is that after 10% weight loss you will start to reap serious health benefits. I have been running regularly in addition to following the  eating plan, and I can report that yes, I do feel better for both my lessened weight and greater athletic ability.  I have done diet plans and bouts of exercise before though so the challenge will be to continue this time and keep the flab away.

Anyway, tonight I did celebrate with a large G&T and a glass of red wine. Dinner though was a low ProPoint pasta dish...

Serves 2

40g (dry weight) pasta, any sort
2 small onions, diced
2 tsp olive oil
garlic, either 4 cloves or a teaspoon of puree
chilli, a generous pinch of dried, or half a teaspoon puree
1/4 head celery, thinly sliced
8 button mushrooms, sliced
1 green pepper, diced
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp parmesan
chopped rocket

Put the oil in a saucepan, add the onion, celery, mushrooms, pepper (plus the garlic and chilli if using fresh) and fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the garlic and chilli if using dried/puree, fry over a lower heat for two minutes.

Pour in the chopped tomatoes.  Bring to the boil and simmer for about ten minutes.  The vegetables should be cooked but al dente.  Or if you like your vegetables more thoroughly cooked then simmer for twice the time.

Cook the pasta, drain and add to the sauce.

Garnish with chopped rocket and grated parmesan. Home grown rocket in this case.

I planted a herb garden before the last bout of freezing wintery weather.  The rosemary, which I had assumed to be the hardiest looking herb, died. The softer herbs, rocket, parsley, chives and mint, have all survived.

The nice serving bowl was supplied by Becky Leach via a Jamie Oliver night.

The wine is Massivo Nero d'Avola 2009 from Laithwaites.

The Institutionalisation of Religion

Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople was a major Greek lexicographer and literary critic, and did much to preserve, and copy classical manuscripts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Historically the institutionalisation of religion has been an attempt by a group that were central or influential to exert control and try to enforce the elements of right-practice or right-belief that they deemed most important.  If a set of teachings and behaviour is successfully institutionalised, as Beattie describes (2006, p.73) by being formalised into a uniform expression through teaching, worship, ritual and myth and by means of physical institutions, places of worship and organised priesthoods who pass on the agreed teaching to the next generation, then an existing pattern of religious insight  continues as an organised religion. Often though, by providing a defining line for one particular institution, other branches were not brought into line.  Instead they were empowered by being able to define themselves in the light of institutionalisation and to draw boundary lines in practice and belief of their own.  The separation of the Monophysite and Nestorian churches from the Byzantine church after the filioque controversy may be seen in this way.

Beattie, H., (2006) Sikhism Study Guide, Milton Keynes, The Open University.

*I'm rather over my word count for this month's essay, so have a quick cut-and-paste while I rejig my conclusion.

Nutrient Dense Foods

I Hate Travis

Because you're shit.

Let's be blunt.  Travis are/were a bunch of whiny little shits. I particularly hate the song "Why Does It Always Rain On Me" which seems to embody everything that is weak and poor about the indie rock genre.  It is sung in a downbeat, whining, pathetic vocal style.  It features blokes playing guitars with a minimum of effort, ooh, let's just strum a bit that sounds nice. Well no it bloody doesn't, it sounds like you never got beyond grade 2 in guitar lessons at primary school.

And then there's the lyrics...

"Why does it always rain on me,
is it because I lied when I was seventeen."

Grow some balls man, get a spine.  Of all the things in the world you could have chosen to write about, you chose drizzle. What the hell is wrong with you ?  This is music for middle class students without a girlfriend who have skived off their afternoon lecture to sit in the rain-streaked window of the local greasy spoon feeling sorry for themselves..  And you haven't got a girlfriend because all the cool guys were listening to Rage Against The Machines' Battle of Los Angeles. 

This is the sort of semi-rock pap that Absolute Radio clog up their airwaves with.  Harmless, inoffensive, innocuous, easy-listening bullshit.  Music that's played because hardly anyone in the listening masses will be affronted or upset by it.  Well I am upset, and not only because Absolute play the same tired old half-rock crap over and over again. I'm upset that anyone could write drivel like this, I'm upset that people bought it when there were a hundred other, better, albums they could have spent their money on.  It upsets me that people will settle for third or fourth best, that they won't step outside their aural comfort zones to actively search for something more stimulating.  And Travis, they're stimulating like Ovaltine.

Do you know why AC/DC are still playing headlining stadium tours and Travis don't ? It's because AC/DC do songs about drinking and sex and living life at a hundred and ten miles an hour.  If ever once Brian Johnson had said "I wan't to do a song about condensation" then Angus Young would have bludgeoned him to death and exhumed the corpse of Bon Scott, wired it to the mains and let it be the frontman for the next tour.

This is mentioned on Wikipedia - "When Travis started to perform this song at the 1999 Glastonbury Festival, after being sunny for several hours, it began to rain exactly when the first line was sung." This is because even God hates Travis, and he wants them to stop singing.

The World's End - Teaser Trailer

Still Losing

At WeightWatchers this week I achieved my 10% mark.  That is, I have lost 10% of my body weight as measured at the first meeting I attended, 1 stone and 9lbs down.  Friend John is doing even better.

While I have been at home most days I have eaten a lot of soup.  Vegetable soup can be made to 0 ProPoints if you're feeling really keen, just boil up some zero pointed vegetables, season and blend.  Here though is very low point soup recipe with a bit of a kick.


Hot And Sour Soup

4 cups strong beef stock - I use Knorr stock cubes
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1/8 cup rice vinegar
1/8 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons hot chilli sauce (but make at as hoot or cool as you wish)
2 carrots - cut to julienne / matchsticks
1/2 cup shredded black ear mushrooms
1/2 cup preserved vegetable
2 teaspoons
cornflour dissolved in a little water
1 egg, beaten

Method - put everything except the cornflour and egg in a pan, bring to the boil, simmer for a couple of minutes.

Add the cornflour to thicken the soup to a light coating consistency.

While stirring the soup, drizzle in the beaten egg, it will cook instantly into egg threads.

If you find the soup too sour then add a little sugar or artificial sweetener.  The soup will be better for the preserved vegetable (which you can get in chilled packets or tins from a Chinese or Asian supermarket), but will work fine without it, same for the black ear mushrooms.

It is a simple base recipe, you can play around with it by adding fresh chopped coriander leaves, parsley or spring onions