Hello

Hello & Welcome
ugh face

I’m currently rebuilding the website as the old one got totally messed up when i was playing around with things (no idea what happened).

So i thought that while it was a total clusterfuck mess of SQL, i would take the opportunity to give it a whole new life and everything.

So if you go clicking on things you might find that very strange things happen. Don’t moan, i know a lot of things are broken, i’m working on it, it takes time.

I’ve got tons of old posts and pages from three websites that i’m working through and will be gradually posting all the stuff i want to keep on here while fixing all the broken things as i go through, one post, one page, at a time.

On top of doing all that, i will, of course, be continuing to add more new content and my latest posts will always appear directly below.

Or, if you prefer, you can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest where i put a link to all new posts.

Enjoy


The Descent of Man — Grayson Perry

The Descent of Man -- Grayson PerryIt’s been too long since i read this book to give it a real review, but i will say that it was well worth reading.   Grayson is an incredibly intelligent human being, who not only has an amazing view of society but is also fully capable of expressing it on many different levels in many different mediums.   In this book that view is turned mostly upon white, middle class men, and it’s good!!!

Grayson’s Page

#graysonperry

Spice Alchemy — Neil Cowling

Spice Alchemy -- Neil CowlingIf you like food with flavour then this is a great book.

If you have high blood pressure and want to get rid of salt out of your diet, then use spices and herbs to replace it — this is the book to show you how.

No, i’ve no idea how authentic the spice mixes and recipes are, but to be honest, they’re all really nice so i don’t actually care if my cajun spiced high carb salad dressing is authentic or not, it’s delicious and that’s all i wanted from this book.

The book has lists of various spice recipes from around the world, and also complete recipes in which to use those mixes, if you chose to.   Personally, i just take the spice mixes and make my own things with them as i’m vegan.

My only complaint is that the spice mixes are listed in tsp and tbsp, some ingredients are listed as pre-ground, others are whole, so it all gets confusing in that regard.   I found i had to go to Cronometer and use their “Add food” thing with what was stated in the spice mix ingredients and then change the output to grams to get the exact weight.   That way i could use whole coriander seeds by weight to the same amount of ground coriander by tsp that was listed in the recipe. But if you’re happy using the pre-ground spices then all that won’t be a problem.

But, if you’re going to all this trouble of making your own spice mixes then do yourself a favour and buy whole spices with as far away a ‘sell by’ date on them as you can find in the shops to make sure they’re as fresh as possible — you can even splash out and get organic ones.   You’ll notice a huge difference.   Pre-ground spices are stale by nature as once you grind a spice it starts to degrade rapidly, with fats oxidising and going rancid and essential oils evaporated away.   Most whole spices, that you grind fresh each time to the exact amount you need, are living seeds that you should be able to plant and grow — they’re very fresh!!!   If you do want to get into the weighing whole spice thing then you’ll also need a micro scale (ebay) that weighs to 0.1 grams or finer — well worth a few pounds if you want to make some seriously consistent spice mixes that are repeatable.

That all said, even if you do just want to use tsp and tbsp with pre-ground spices, this book is very much worth the 99p to begin your journey into mixing spices and having some real flavour and health in your food instead of just salt and high blood pressure.

Neil’s Page

#food #recipes #neilcowling



Currently

Fiction

Prelude to Foundation -- Isaac Asimov With the rise of the machines on the horizon . . .
 
. . .me thinks it’s a good time to re-read Asimov.

Fiction

Four Seasons in Japan -- Nick Bradley The Cat and The City was excellent, let’s hope this is too.

Nonfiction

Why Work? -- Collection Yeah, why?

Nonfiction

More Zen.