It’s strange how little things can change your outlook on a subject.

I have been totally against children being given silly names by parents. (I refrain from using ‘kooky/unusual/quirky’ instead of ‘silly’ as some people feel these are always good words) In fact, I’m opposed to the naming of children by un-educated parents.

But today I see a news story from that country of democracy America, where a judge hasn’t allowed a couple to name their third kid ‘Messiah’. On the grounds that “The word Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ..” See here US Judge changes baby’s name from Messiah to Martin

Now I’m all for silly names!

I guess this arranges these issues on my hierarchy level thus:
Silly religiousity >More annoying than> Silly child-naming.

A further example of how language is used, particularly by large organisations and bureaucracies, to confuse rather than communicate, and often also to hide their true intention(s).

A blogger and father of an autistic son has described his experience with the social care system here in the UK, and especially with the kind of language the system uses.

A very enlightening post; read it on the BBC website

To paraphrase- “By their words ye shall know them”

I just had to re-iterate some points made by this excellent blog from Tim Turner, a former official of the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

The topic is the Government’s use of ‘transparency’ as a ruse to over-ride a system of true accountability.

This is a great paragraph:-

“Transparency could be used as a Trojan Horse to justify curbs on FOI. You don’t need FOI, we’ll be told, because look at these shiny Transparency jewels we’ve decided to give you. This will be a fiction. The point of FOI is that you get to ask about what you want to know, not what The Nice Man Wants To Tell You”

He goes on to list the numerous occasions where the ICO had to intervene and force the Cabinet to reveal information that was requested in the public interest. 

I came to his blog via the <a href=”http://blogs.ft.com/ftdata/2013/07/23/most-transparent-government-ever/?utm_medium=twitter“>Financial Times blog</a>on ‘transparency’ by Chris Cook

1. Start with a nonsensical statement: “A woman is intelligent, and loves mauve”
2. Show attractive people laughing with lots of mauve.
3. Say how many other women liked it.
4. Make up a science-y word: “Non-wrinkle-antium 500”
5. Sell whatever product you want.

I came across this link from the Cheap Talk blog:
It is the best description and explanation of a differential gear I have seen, a 5 minute video that makes it very intuitive to understand.

Check it out: How a Differential Gear works

Great food in nine steps!

A description of the process.. read all the way through before having a go because not all the preparation is described chronologically!

We bought a new 2-litre ceramic oven dish for £3 from ASDA after my first pasta bake experiment because I wanted something bigger. This is my second attempt at a pasta bake (notwithstanding the potato/egg combo Ali baked for me years ago)

Step 1. Cook some pasta with salt, I mixed penne and macaroni about 4 big handfuls in total, drain it when cooked and spread most (70%) in the dish, leaving some for a top layer. I didn’t butter the dish or anything.

Step 2. The 3 chicken breasts and the 6 Linda McCartney Rosemary and Red Onion veggie sausages cooked for about 20+ mins in a gas 6 oven with a couple of turns. I then put the sausages on the pasta as a hidden treat (I wanted chorizo originally; chicken and chorizo in a creamy sauce with potatoes and onions is a killer! But the ladies are so picky with food, I ended up at the Co-op looking for ideas and found these non-offensive-to-anybody sausages (on a discount), and they worked brilliantly!!)

Step 3. I then added the pan-fried new/baby potatoes. A whole can, standard 400g or so (Co-op again), fried in butter with half a chopped onion and 2 large cloves of chopped garlic.

Step 4. I shaved about 1/4 of nice extra mature cheddar on top. 250g block, again a bargain from Co-op at £2 Mull of Kintyre

Step 5. The baked and cooked chicken breasts meanwhile were frying away with the other half of chopped onion and two 25g sachets of Creamy Peppercorn sauce from the guys at Schwartz. You’ll need to add some hot water and/or cream. I broke the breasts up into small chunks with the spatula as I stirred, and I also added some chilli for heat. Layer all this on top, but keep some sauce back to dribble on again on the top layer.

Step 6. Open a can of peas with a can-opener, taking care with the sharp edges of the tin that may cut you. Chuck as much as you like on top. I used

I think I’m finally getting it.

There were distinct stages in my adult cooking life that I imagine might resonate with other people who have lived away from home, as a student or young professional might.

1) Necessity
2) Sufficiency
3) Exploration

I do think age (maturity) has something to do with it, but I will add that I have personally been influenced to move from Stage 2: Sufficiency to Stage 3: Exploration partly by the constant bombardment from cookery programmes on British telly.

As a young, beardless-and-wispy-mustachioed student I survived on eggs, sausages and chips. Necessity demanded I fuel this internal combustion engine, and therefore by necessity fuel was dumped in.

I then gradually bothered (NOT learnt; I have been cooking since I was a child) to graduate to delicious recipes that would suffice for me; an arsenal that would last a 7-day siege, sufficient to my needs.

But cookery programmes, a genre I used to scorn, have seeped into my conscience. Not, mind you, the stupid reality formats. But travel cookery, starting with the inimitable Keith Floyd, really piqued my curiosity when I saw them presented with a real harmonious view of food-as-culture. I don’t yet claim to know Mediterranean rustic cooking, for example, yet the mention of ‘oregano’ evokes such memories within me of scrambling in the Dolomites that I sense an urge to explore food in this light.

Anyways, my rustic sage and oregano chicken casserole will be ready soon (I get real itchy fingers with oven cooking where I can’t keep poking and fiddling with the dish) so hope you all have a good din din.

Had an unusual Valentine’s for a grumpy old so-and-so like me! Quite enjoyable..

When we realised that the Italian place we had our first romantic meal at was booked up to the eyeballs for Valentine’s, The Lady suggested a place based entirely on the goodwill of reviewers on TripAdvisor. I had a less-than-vague memory of walking past this place so many times without noticing it, but as part of our “Let’s-Be-Adventurous” scheme we booked a table.

And now we’re glad we did.

We ordered small lamb kofte, a chicken casserole for The Lady and a mixed grill for me, washed down with a nice Anatolian white wine called Cankaya.

The meat was superb, the chicken melting soft in the casserole, the sauces were full of flavour, the rice was nice and fluffy, the floor was strewn with rose petals, the music was identifiably Turkish but mellow and intriguing, and the service prompt but unobtrusive. We were sat down for two lovely hours.

I will definitely be going back to Saray to try some more dishes; and would happily recommend it to anyone. It feels (is) family-run, with the service and attention to detail that entails but without the shortcomings.

This thought has often struck me.. here, I’ll let the author of “Aid and other dirty business” Giles Bolton say it

For reasons of affordability rather than fashion, many if not most Africans now dress in cast-off Western clothing. Travelling round cities and countryside in Africa can be a surreal experience as you spot adults and children advertising obscure corporate conferences, dishwashing powder and stag weekends. (page 224)

It’s an engrossing book with a number of surprises about the AID business. I’ll give one example without spoiling the book entirely for any prospective reader..

America is the largest financier of food aid in Africa, for which it deserves huge credit…
…Yet starvation generally occurs not because there is an absence of food – traders can always buy it from other countries if there is demand – but because people can no longer grow or pay for it…
…Most American food aid, however, comes from America. Not only is it a lot more expensive, it’s an awfully long way away,…it take on average, five months to deliver…
…There are a number of winners from the American food-aid system. First are the few large agribusinesses allowed to bid for the contracts to provide several million tons of food aid each year…Then there are the US shipping firms who are guaranteed by law to get to transport at least 75 per cent of the food. This is rather a blessing for them as they’re not very competitive internationally, carrying only 3 per cent of America’s non-food-aid imports and exports. (page 204)

It carries on in this vein.

Very readable and highly enlightening, although I found the way he used anecdotes of his life in Africa to illustrate problems with the aid business rather poor.