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Cornish Pasties – on a budget?

Being 300+ miles from the homeland can cause a fading Cornishman to suffer from Pasty Withdrawal, and this is not a good thing.

We have been known to send for emergency supplies from Warrrens, which I have to say are good. Even ‘ansome’ when the withdrawal is severe.

But this time, with budgets an issue more than ever, I was forced to think how much our usual homemade pasties cost?
It’s easy to click click from the smartphone and order 10 Medium Steaks for £26, that’s what it was on the last time we weakened. But now 10MSP from Warrens is £31!

16 Homemade Pasties

1.15kg Cubed Beef – 6.95/kg  Gamble & Hollis Syston: £8.00
Pastry – OK, I could make it myself, yeah yeah, but I’ve 2 kids pulling at my trouser legs so this is easier!
So, 4 packs of Jus Rol Pastry (I re-bash Puff cos I like Puff!), that’s 8 rolls: £8.00
8 potatoes, half per pasty: 50p
5 Onions: 40p
One Swede (which the Cornish call Turnips): £1
’bout 20 Mushrooms, 1/3 Kg: £1 (Oh yes! Mushrooms!)
Eggs: we occasionally get ours fresh from the friendly hen lovers up the road. (Thanks A&K)
Pepper and Salt

So, that’s £18.90 for 16 Pasties: £1.18 each
Warrens by Post £31 for 10 Pastes: £3 each

So here’s our simple Cornish*Pasty Recipe again:

A JusRol ‘roll’ will do 2 medium pasties, cut the roll in half, screw the bugger up and roll it out to a circle and put on:

A handful of chopped potato,
A handful of chopped onion,
A handful of chopped swede,
A handful of chopped mushroom,
A handful of cubed beef (1cm sqs),
Shake a pinch of salt,
Shake a good dash of pepper,
Eggwash around the edge.

Fold the top edge forward to the bottom edge and crimp.

Make the other one. One is never enough!

In a greased baking tin, eggwash (or milk, or egg & milk) the pasties.

Cook on high 220° for 30mins and then lower to medium 170° for 30mins.

If it’s burning (cover with tinfoil).

Eat!

And don’t let any northerners mention gravy!

(*I’m Cornish, I was brought up on these things, so I’m calling ‘um Cornish – even with the personal touch of mushrooms!)
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Rhymes…

I thought “Imagine a world where nothing rhymed”… a friend was bemused by this. I hadn’t thought much about it, but it just resonated with me. And so I pondered a little more…

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I’m thinking rhyme is when things work together, then things just sing, create, live, love, blossom and grow… when simple combinations can trample or crush big ideas, when a few letters can illuminate the fabulous…
Think of our world without any of this rhyming.
A language where we can’t sing about a thing, with the ring of a hymn, and dance and prance and discover by chance… the warmth of a flame and chill of the lame…
Birds flying is a rhyme in a most fundamental form – birds fly high in a sky… A place where a birds can’t fly? A world without such, imagined realities would be dull indeed.
Stuff needs to go together.
The interaction between things is what makes them fecund…
Alas we so often fail to see the rhymes around us, we clash and deny the beauty and often struggle to reach harmony, I guess it’s due to bad grammar and ‘stuff’.

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Post-leak, wet friends…

Those following the tweets, will have seen that our 125l tank started dripping. Argh! a leak, half way up back corner.
So we carefully emptied the tank, and fish one by one, into plastic toy box, and sealed the [supposed] culprit. We refilled the tank after 24 hrs and guess what, still leaking. *#Plec**!
So we emptied the tank again and sealed a bigger area [the full corner section]… we left it 48 hours and carefully put the wigglers back…

No leaks.

So here’s a stock check for the record:

We lost 2 Guppies and alas we lost the Peacock Goby (Gudgeon) which is a shame as it was quite unique.
We do still have:
6 Leopard Danios
1 Blue Dace
1 Red Tailed Black Shark
2 Long Finned Congo Tetra
1 Head Tail Light Tetra
1 USO Tetra (unidentified swimming object)
1 Schultz’s Cory Doras
1 Bristlenose Pleco Ancistrus
1 Fire Eel
1 Cameroon Armoured (African Filter) Shrimp
2 Apple Snails  [Pre-leak video]

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Well done, Leicester City Council…

Well done Leicester City Council: Close [thanks!]… but no cigar!

On 17 April 2012, I reported to Leicester City Council [via FixMyStreet.com] a seriously dangerous pothole, a serious danger to commuting cyclists.

By the 15 May the hole had been neatly filled with tarmac. √

Well done Leicester City Council!

But…


Also on 17 April 2012 I reported some eroded road surface around manhole cover LE4 9LG. Another nearby manhole was tidied-up [thanks LCC], but the worst culprit within 50 yards was left untouched.
I reported this again on the 23rd May, eroding road around a manhole which is causing danger to cyclists. It’s getting worse by the week, now [21st June] a hole 2 inch deep is a seriously dangerous hazard to cyclists.

Also 17 April 2012 I reported to Leicester City Council a serious multiple pothole situation.
There were half a dozen potholes and crumbling road surface. It was [and still is] a hazard to cyclists. It’s likely to either bring a bike down or cause a swerve into traffic. On the 15th May, these dangerous holes and broken road surface had not been fixed and is still a hazard to cyclists.
On the 23rd May I again reported to Leicester City Council, this Eroding Road surface on junction. This eroded road surface is just getting worse. It’s a danger to cyclists. To avoid this you need to swerve into overtaking traffic.

As of 21st June 2012, both of the above situations continue to get worse. I will approach them again.

*************************************************
30th July 2012: Cyclists take care, 3 months it’s still there:

*************************************************
30th August 2012: yeah! Eh? Think it’s being fixed.

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Bike Uncategorized

best cycle tyre for daily commuting use?

OK cycling fans… Nominations for the best tyre for daily commuting use?
I’m used to and very pleased with the stock Specialized Borough Xc Sport Tyre 700×45 that came with the bike. And to be honest they’ve been good but will need changing soon.
The tyres are for a hybrid styled specialised crosstrail sport disc 2011

So types for daily commuting use: ?
SUBURBAN ROADS; as commuters are aware too often suburban roads are fraught with off-road style obstacles, grit, debris, thorns and potholes.GOOD GRIP:

for the wet, oil and grit.
DURABLE: as used twice daily.
SPEED: good reasonable speed, not too much drag.
PUNCTURE RESISTANCE: The SBXc above only had one puncture in 14mths. But, do I have the tube to thank for that? The tyres are peppered with cuts after a year of suburban roads.

I’m told a wider tyre (a larger contact area) offers more comfort, are less prone to punctures(?), and will provide more grip. I do like the ‘idea’ of the semi slick(?) smooth in the centre with knobbed on the sides.

Nominations for the best tyre for daily commuting use?
What have you got?
What do you recommend?

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Me, groan! What have 40 years done?

This is me at 3 and a half years and 43 and a half  years of age… groan!  What have 40 years done?

At 3 the family lived in Hayle in Cornwall and shortly moved to Fowey where we lived for about 5 years.

At 18 I left education and after a few ‘first jobs’ eventually started apprenticeship in a design and print studio in St Ives.

At 24 I left Kernow and studied a degree in the Creative Arts in Cheshire.

At 43 I live in Leicestershire and have done for about 15 years.

Onward!

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One of our our Apple Snails…

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A walk in t’woods…

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Chocolate (& stuff) Slices

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Feeeeeeeel good food!

A fave adaption from the Be-Ro booklet.

Cream 150g marg and 300g caster sugar till light and fluffy.
Melt 100g plain chocolate.
Separate 3 eggs.
Blend melted choc, egg yolks and creamed sugar/marg.
Sieve 250g self raising flour, 1/2 tsp of mixed spice, 1/2 tsp ground ginger and a pinch of salt.
Stir in the above while adding 180ml milk.
Add some items of choice: mixed fruit, cherries, nuts, choc chips…
Stiffly beat the 3 egg whites and carefully fold into the above.
Pour into greased/lined baking tray and bake at 180deg for about 45 mins.
Leave in tin for 10 mins lifting out onto cooling rack.
When cooled, top with choice of topping if desired and cut to slices.

Enjoy.

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Older and burnished but still tooting!

After half an hour tunneled into an ebook on my phone, I looked up from the vivid pictures that had been soaking my perception. I’d been depicting experiences and places from my youth and from more recent revelations, that have been stirringly characterised in the book “Notes from an Exhibition” by Patrick Gale.
I looked up, to see the city park in a similar state to the scene in the novel, bright sun burning, radiating the park around me, colours bright, smells warm and breeze welcome. The novel was set on the remote coast, but my reading was in England’s Midlands, farthest away from any salty sea or Seven Stones stained beauty.
However, it reminded me, and caused me to recall the gaze experienced after a slow toot. In my younger daze, I guess the world was so sharp and rich, that to conduct a plain of wonder that we ached for, we needed to blur the edges with whatever alternative might have worked, and the occasional rolled riz made the world a more vibrant kingdom. Now much older and arguably wizened, I have responsibilities that call for sharpness and attention to detail at a moment’s notice, alas any such sedati-stimulants are carefully considered and rarely imbibed.
As I looked up from the opiate of the novel, my gaze evoked a similar vivid daze, tunneled on the middle distance and detached from the ‘real’. Possibly the novel’s topic of heat, sea, childhood and the creative mind, had lured me in. I don’t know, but I do recall similar experiences reading some other books invoking contrasting worlds and so… it’s to the well crafted “fable” that I raise “regards”!
The good fable can be a powerful conductor if you want to brighten the often sterile world around us, have a toot on a good book! it works for me, sometimes.

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