Friday, 30 May 2014

Hustle Bustle Calm




Hustle , Bustle , Not calm a busy shopping centre! 

The hustle 

The bustle

Then there Is the calm a museum my London sanctuary , indeed you might find me clinging to any museum as I can't do busy .

Hustle : I can't do hustle 


Bustle : I feel cooped up 


Calm : Is a go to place , I know there's still people here but they are spread enough out not to freak me out .

Hustle the need to shop for some.

Bustle no the vibrant busy that I love of say Convent Garden but the endless pounding and relentlessness of a shopping centre.

Calm 


Hustle 

Bustle 


Calm is not being like a bull in a china shop !


My calm , my museum .

Hustle : No time to stop look and wonder .

Bustle everything is now now NOW

Hustle

Bustle 

Calm is having time on your hands !


Hustle 

Bustle 

Calm is taking time out to relax and restore the mind.

Hustle spend that money !

Bustle get that bargain !

Calm look at times gone by of offering by pilgrims to a religious or other cause.



Thursday, 29 May 2014

Rhubarb Recipes To Love And Perfect Roast Potatoes As Well.







Usually  with recipes you 'll have set quantities and instructions to follow , even if you have written the recipe yourself . Well the recipes below are mine but I didn't have anything set in stone I just went with the flow. The foods I used today were rhubarb , lamb and duck and spring greens. The only recipe I really followed was my Rhubarb crumble one and even then I left the ginger out of it.




You see in this household I often have to cook two dishes plain and simple for when you have aversions and sensory issues with food like my son it can be over whelming. I don't like to make a fuss of you will eat this or that or "in my day I ate what I got" with a little forward planning it isn't really an issue. Mr T on the other hand would like it if I didn't get every single pan and spoon out .....


"Do you have to get every pan and spoon out " Mr T ( a shade over 40)



"but they didn't say that to Michelangelo when he was painting the Sistine chapel ooooh no"


Mrs T age 21 


Firstly I cooked my rhubarb crumble



Whilst this was cooking I prepared my potatoes for roasting , it was one of those days I could have done with a double oven.


Perfect Roast Potatoes

Ingredients

Nice Potatoes


Preperation 5 minutes

Method

Preheat your oven to 190 or gas mark 5

Then cut your potatoes up into quarters, depending on the size of the actual potato.

Wash your potatoes then place into a pan of cold water and bring to the boil.

Boil for no more that 7 -10 minutes otherwise your potatoes will disintegrate. ( Be sure to keep an eye on them )

Then drain in a colander and leave to dry for a couple of minutes.

Then shake up the potatoes in the colander just to rough them up.



Next the world is your oyster as here you make further magic happen you can add flavour to your potatoes by way of herbs etc or with your choice of oil. My choice of oil in this instance as part of the #rtchallenge I  am involved in was Rape seed oil from Hillfield Farm.



A couple of glugs of the oil see rape oil combined with herbs is heavenly ( but you can make any combination)


Then place on a oven tray and cook for 4- 45 minutes till they are cooked until you like.

Crunchy munchy !



Rhubarb Crusted Duck


Preperation

5 minutes

Ingredients

Rapeseed oil to sear the duck in


2 duck breasts

enough brown sugar to coat the breasts

About 8 pieces of cubed rhubarb

Method

Take the 2 duck breasts and score the duck on both sides.

Then sear the duck in a frying pan

Coat both sides with brown sugar.

Place 4 pieces of cubed rhubarb on each duck breast.

Place in the oven

180C/160c Gas Mark 4

For 30 minutes test for doneness

Serve with some fresh sliced green beans and of course some rocking roast potatoes.






Lamb & Spring Green Stir Fry With a Rhubarb Splash

Preparation 5 minutes

Ingredients

Enough lamb for 1 or 2 people

I sued lamb steaks

A packet of Spring greens

4 tablespoon of rhubarb juice or more according to taste.

Rapeseed oil for Stir frying lamb

Method

Slice the lamb to slices.

Warm the oil in a pan.

Next add the lamb.

gently stir until the pinkness goes ( or cook according to taste)

Next add the Spring Greens to the pan this will take only 5 minutes to cook or less during this time at the splashes of rhubarb juice just before you plate the dish up.

I obtained my rhubarb dish after I roasted by rhubarb in the oven for the crumble.


Then serve with the roast potatoes.


Wednesday, 28 May 2014

B is for British Museum





I absolutely love the British Museum , if I could have been an archaeologist or Egyptologist  then I would have been in heaven.

I came to see the #8mummies which sees the unwrapping of #8mummies but not the unwrapping you might think of but by way of  3 D scanning and you see everything in a 3D visualisation.

The exhibition is achieved by showing what is underneath each individual mummy and their life story as or how the British Museum believes it to have been.

Staring into the face of the past, the Egyptians would have very much been at home with the likes of Hello magazine.

Ancient lives really aren't so different from our own in the sense that we project an image of ourselves on occasions the image we wish to perceived from.It was incredibly moving to see the #8mummies laid out before me and to see their stories. The mummies span over 4,000 years from the Predynastic period , the Christian era as well as mummies from sites in Egypt and the Sudan.

These #8mummies were living, breathing people with entwined lives and they call to us now to listen to their stories , the British Museum is highly respectful of the remains. The British Museum goes beyond the mask to show you the lives of the mummies as they people.

Egyptians had bad teeth that was an overwhelming  aspect of the exhibition , I am scared of the dentist but after seeing this I am going to be running as humanly possible to see a dentist.

Ancient lives , new discoveries is at British Museum till the 20th November booking is essential .

Saturday, 24 May 2014

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle


What is blogging to you ?

To me it's my rambles , my musings , and a therapeutic cathartic writing  process.


I love to have threads , little ribbons on content that flow from one to another but sometimes I'll bob about and talk about the cat the nice one or the evil ninja one .



See with blogging the only person who will really judge you is 'you' the human condition will spark conflict but also there is hope, the human condition doesn't take sides.


And if it does does then you can be armed for words will be your friends .


Words.


Blogging to me is discovery , it making those Beetroot flapjacks , it is pushing myself forward , it is seeing the world chic unique.

On Tuesday I'm going to an event which is great and I am so greatful for that , not all us bloggers are going someone at the drop of a hat would you believe. After the event I'm popping off to the British museum to see the #8mummies back round again to humans but with stories in the bones. When I last went to the British museum I saw the Pompeii exhibition and when I close my eyes now everything else is stripped away.

Before me I see a babies cradle carbonused and it doesn't  rock.

It doesn't rock.

When the heat from the volcanic debris hit the cradle it carbonised the wood allowing us to see what it once looked like, it is preserved in carbon form.

Emotive.

Affected.

Sadness is that the cradle wasn't empty when the cradle was discovered , the small baby who dies in the volcanic eruption was found still in the cradles , under the blankets.

That to me is what blogging is about.

The human condition and how it drives the soul.