This one had me in fits of giggles… Enjoy!
Latest adventures…
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Average British menu limited to four dishes
I gasped at the stats I heard this morning on Radio 1 and had to go find the original article myself for a bit more information.
Research highlights our lack of imagination in the kitchen, with few of us bothering to cook new dishes, and most living on around just four regular dishes. The average menu in British households extends to 4.1 dishes, with Scotland’s average even lower at 4.0 meals.
The Scotsman‘s summary of the research was published yesterday claims that the staple diet of the 2,000 adults surveyed is composed of “spaghetti bolognese, stew, sausages and mash and fish and chips” as regular standbys, “with other favourites including chilli con carne and chicken tikka masala.”
Most people claim they’re too busy to cook when they get home at night, but a few do admit to being a bit timid when it comes to introducing new meal ideas.
Well, I don’t think either of those arguments have a fighting chance, they’re both ridiculous. Everyone works long hours nowadays, and cooking can actually be a therapeutic and relaxing activity. Sure, it means 20 minutes less watching some rubbish TV or doing whatever else lazy people do in the evening, but it’s bound to be better for their health than a ready meal.
Aside from the biweekly (that’s every 2 weeks, not twice a week) treat of fresh oven pizza on a Friday night, we probably have ready meals once every two or three months. And EVERY time, I feel let down. Ready meals are rubbish, generally don’t taste particularly good and the texture is usually pretty awful.
I couldn’t imagine living off a range of four meals. What a miserable existence! I can think of a dozen meals made using rice, a meat/fish and some vegetables, and tons more involving chunky soups, roasts or exotic salads. I’m not sure what else to say – Every time I think of this article, I find myself shaking my head, feeling baffled and terribly sorry for these people.
I still want to believe this article is wrong, and the 2,000 people they surveyed were heavily biased and “the type who actually spend time filling in junk to win a car”, as one commenter on Scotsman.com suggested. Please, Britain, don’t head down the ready meals and growing aisles of frozen foods in supermarkets. Do we need to call in Superhero Jamie to save the day again?
[tags]healthy eating, food, Britain, cooking, Scotsman.com, health news, fish and chips aren’t good for you[/tags]
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Boiler nightmare over
In fact, it was over on Friday, but I’ve been having a three-day-long shower to warm up and take advantage of the fact that we have hot water again. Ok, just kidding. I do think of the environment… sometimes.
Thanks to everyone who gave tips on local plumbers, advice on checking if the pilot light’s on (electronic ignition, pa!) and those who apologised in case they’ve jinxed us and caused the bad karma (!!!)
Now back to our regular programming…
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The Baxi boiler from Hell
I’m having a sucky day. No, actually, that’s an understatement. I’m having a “Karma’s a bitch” day.
This morning, for no apparent reason, the boiler died. We tried what we could to find out whether some fuse had blown out somewhere, but nope, all looked normal, but the boiler doesn’t fire on as it should. No hot water. No heating.
Great, it’s the fifth time something’s wrong with that damn boiler since it was installed a year and a half ago! Spoke to the Heateam people, and the soonest we can get an engineer is Friday. Well, good thing it’s not mid-winter anymore, unh? So we’ve got a little tiny heater to take the edge off the cold this evening, and I’ll be washing my hair in the sink later.
Talking about calling Baxi’s Heateam (yeah, I think it should be Heatteam too, with two T’s but they’re somewhat illiterate), the only two songs I heard while on hold were “Light my fire” – oh the irony, it hurts – and “Mack the Knife” – good reflection of how I felt.
Hopefully today’s the peak of Karma kicking me in the proverbial nuts and it’ll get better as of tomorrow… I need that luck badly tomorrow.
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Coffee machine cleaning tip from LifeHacker
Following my post about my new Senseo coffee machine, here’s a clever trick from Gina at LifeHacker for owners of similar coffee machines. Cleaning your coffee machine with a round of vinegar helps keep it free from bad stuff, and makes better coffee apparently.
Vinegar is natural and free of toxic residues. Vinegar is also a good solution because its acidic properties help to get rid of lime scale, mineral build ups, and any oils left over from brewing various beans. If you leave these things in your coffee maker you’ll not only risk breaking the coffee maker, or wearing it out, but you also risk tainting the taste of each pot of coffee you brew.
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Wine Relief: The first cross-blog auction?
Hugh McLeod, of gapingvoid fame, and Tim Atkin, of virtual wine, have come up with my favourite fundraising idea of all times: A cross-blog auction for one of Hugh’s cartoons and a selection of wines from Tim’s cellar. Cool cartoon and nice booze, how can one go wrong?If your pockets permit, go have a look at the wine selection and make your bid. Last time I checked, they were up to £300, and we’re still nearly a week away from closing date!
Otherwise, if your pockets aren’t so deep, why not buy a Charlie & Lola book or a red nose instead? It’s all in the spirit of Comic Relief!
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Gadget lurve: Coffee and little friendly robots
Recently, I’ve been falling in love with inanimate objects. I self-diagnosed I had a problem when I found myself talking to said objects while home alone. Either it’s cabin-fever from having spent the past few days in the house or I’m just losing my marbles. (Generous reward if marbles are returned)
First gadget I’m in love with is my new Senseo coffee machine. I bought it from Amazon about a month ago, and literally picked the cheapest single-serve coffee machine I could find.
In the past, my dilemma with making coffee at home was that, with Andrew not being a coffee drinker, it was difficult to find the right coffee maker. Normal filter coffee machines made too many cups at once, Bodum coffee makers were out of the question because of the amount of grinds at the bottom of my cup (some people disagree on this one, and it’s possible I’ve been doing it wrong all along, but I just don’t like the one-person Bodum), and we live in a small town with no Starbucks or coffee shop within any reasonable distance (thank god, or I’d be very broke).
So I thought for £45 (doh, it’s even cheaper now, it’s down to £35!), it wasn’t a great loss if it turned out to be rubbish. I only tend to have one cup of coffee a day, and only in the morning, so after settling myself down for a day working from home, I made my first cup. And I have to say, it makes great coffee, and takes no time at all.
Before seeing the pods, I was somewhat concerned of the waste I’d be causing, but it turns out that the pods are nothing more than a paper filter, wrapped around pre-ground coffee. While snooping around SingleServeCoffee, I heard about the Ecopad, which was presented as both a more environmentally-friendly solution and a way to use ANY coffee type you liked instead of the few that are offered in pod form. Promptly ordered two Ecopads, but have yet to use them, as I’m still using up the pre-made pods I ordered on CafeCo (Great site, but they forgot to include the little coffee bean stressball in my order!)
I haven’t tried very many coffee machines, but based on my experience, not only is this coffee very drinkable (and strong!), it’s also easy to make and the machine is easy to clean – Just press both cup size buttons at the same time and let it run a water cycle through. So highly recommended for the casual coffee drinkers who might like to cut down on the share of their salary they donate daily to Starbucks.
The second gadget I’m in lurve with these days is Asimo. I think I even had a dream where I was running in a field of flowers holding hands with my best friend Asimo… Ok maybe I should’ve kept that to myself. That’s ok, AWESOM-O-lovers will understand me. 😉
This one stretches beyond just Asimo, though. I’ve been talking to Keira, my little Nabaztag/tag bunny, and she’s been responding. She even sang me “Au pays de Candy” last weekend, and my family knows how much this means to me (put that video online and I’ll have to kill you!).
Mmmmkay, I’ve probably spent more time with non-sentient, robotic little beings this week than I have with real people, and it’s sending me loopy. So of course, I’ll communicate this via my blog, while listening to music via the Airport Express, then Twitter some work colleagues who are at SxSW and check the latest YouTube videos I’m subscribed to…
Right, I think I need to get away from technology, go live in the woods, do some camping and hunt for my own food for a while.
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The death of the water cooler chat
Once upon a time, water cooler chat was a company-wide thing. Anyone could gather in the kitchen during their coffee break and talk about last night’s TV show. Gags and allusions to TV twists caused team-wide laughter or nods, and no one would really feel left out, since most would have watched the same thing.
Nowadays, it’s a whole different story. The market is so incredibly segmented. For some years now, there are hundreds of channels, catering to niche interests. On top of this, Sky Plus and other video recorders are growing in popularity, adding to the mix by enabling us to watch whenever we fancy it. “If you tell me what happened in last night’s Lost episode, I’m going to have to kill you!”
To cause further fragmentation, YouTube and Google Video‘s user- generated content is beginning to rival commercially and professionally produced content in terms of appeal, watchability (let’s pretend that’s a word, mmkay?) and entertainment value. With broadband infiltrating British homes at the rate of 70,000 a week, downloading videos, movies or TV shows is becoming easier than ever.In recent months, the only shows I can think of that have had wide enough appeal to reach across these itty bitty fragments have been Lost and Top Gear, really. (As an aside, if my license fee goes to financing the largest non-commercial rocket launch attempt in European history, I’m all for it!)
Otherwise, an unexpectedly popular topic of conversation is still the Nintendo Wii, which seems to have racked up fans from all ages and interest groups and endures as the best source of evening entertainment.
Personally, I’d be quite happy to see the couch-potato era come to an end to be replaced by interactive media and entertainment. Maybe the next water cooler chat will have to do with our tennis score next time.
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Nabaztag does YouTube
Subliminal messages in this video:
- Bunnies are sentient beings (and they’re evil, just look at the Raving Rabidds for example!)
- Donate to Comic Relief, even Keira the bunny contributed by buying a big red nose… ear… thing…
- Giving the bunny’s email address to my nutty old housemate was a bad idea. (This one’s not so subliminal, it’s more like… abusive!)
that canadian girl 