Recipe of the day - Jersulam Artichoke soup...

Fry an onion and some cloves of garlic in a tiny amount of olive oil. Add some Jerusalem artichokes and fry until golden and getting soft.  Add some stock, (I use chicken), or water and a stock cube, or white wine, or a combination.  I don't bother with amounts - just use your eyes and tastebuds. Slowly simmer until everything's soft - about 40 minutes. Season to taste with salt, pepper and anything else you feel like.  Blitz in a food processor or use a hand held blender thing (that's what I do).  Put some rashers of smoked streaky bacon on the grill and cook till crispy. Add some Philadelphia cheese to the soup - a tub full. Stir gently, add some chives, and heat gently till boiling.  Then crumble the bacon in.

Yum!

Birthday Week

This week is busy for birthdays in my family. Between the 22 and 28  January we have 6 birthdays including me, my brother, both of my sons and 2 grandchildren. Fairly expensive so close to Christmas! My birthday was a little low key last Monday - working all day, some lovely pressies, and a great meal out at the Wig and Pen. Yesterday was Dan's birthday, and his present was a trip to London. Of course, it was a great day out for me, as I had to go with him....

So, started with a train journey to London - first class of course, and if you buy an advance ticket, it costs about 25quid!  Then a quick dash across London to Olympia for the Dr Who experience. Fab couple of hours. A 30 minute "experience" which involved rescuing the Doctor, being exterminated by Daleks, fighting Cybermen in 3D, and driving the Tardis.  Then a great exhibition including the costumes of all the Doctors, monsters, companions, sets, props, costumes, sound effects and special effects.

Back to Covent Garden and a meal in Cabana   - a Brazilian restaurant where you get served from skewers of different meats and veg, followed by frozen yoghurt. They even had a card system on the table where if you had it on green they brought you more, and red if you needed a rest.

Finally we went to see Rock of Ages - a musical based on 80s rock hits at the Shaftesbury Theatre. You could tell what sort of show it was going to be when they gave you plastic lighters which lit up so you could wave them during the slow stuff!  It was fab. I'm a sucker for musicals, but this was really good!  Standing up singing and clapping sort of good.

There's lots more pictures of the day here.

Amelia and the refused transplant

The internet, and in particular the growth of social media, has certainly changed the way things come to my attention and the way I can watch and follow the resulting firestorm which often follows.  On Friday evening, I noticed someone I follow on twitter post a link to something he thought was disgraceful. I followed it up, and arrived here. It's a heartbreaking story, written by the mother of a 2 year old child with a serious genetic syndrome being told by a doctor at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHoP) that the daughter is not eligible for a kidney transplant (without which she will die), because she is mentally retarded.  Putting aside any medical reason for the refusal to transplant, I found the story shocking  - the use of the words "mentally retarded" I thought had gone from common use ages ago, and certainly wouldn't be used by a doctor, and the insensitive way the parents seem to have been handled. From the social worker taking a call during the conversation, to the doctor saying that he "had been warned about their involvement with the child". What parent wouldn't be involved with their child - especially one requiring special care?

The reaction to this blog post quickly spread. Other posts followed, there's a post which links to some of them here, a hashtag of #teamamelia appeared on twitter, a petition was set up which last time I looked had over 10,000 signatures and CHoP's facebook page changed dramatically. From a page of compliments about how staff had looked after various sick children, there are now thousands of comments condemning the hospital for their decision. If you Google the hospital a link to this story is the third in the list, and there are hundreds of them, and rising. As I type this, it's just starting to hit the national press in the US.

The hospital's PR department must be wondering what's hit them. How you react to this sort of situation is vital. They have posted a statement on their Facebook page, which in my mind, and many others, says very little and doesn't address the issues. Of course they will be unable publicly to comment on the particular case because of confidentiality.

So, I sincerely hope that this little girl gets the treatment she needs to prolong her life and give her the best quality of life possible, and I hope that public bodies learn the damage that can be done to their reputation by a single member of staff or a badly handled incident which gets blogged or tweeted about.

EDIT: The hospital PR machine has started to respond. They've posted a response on their facebook page.

Weekend eating

Our weekend eating habits are becoming a bit predictable. Friday night is curry night at our favourite place, the Saffron Club, which also happens to be only a couple of minutes walk away. An ice cold bottle of King Cobra is usually brought to us by the very friendly staff without us having to ask as we always start with it, and sometimes we manage a second...  We have our favourite starters - channa chockpot for Stu and flame grilled chicken livers or jinga puree for me, and our favourite mains. Stu usually has Machi Biran (spiced seabass)  or Kofti (small meatballs) in a variety of sauces, and I usually have lamb, but try to vary the sauce, My favourite at the moment in karai. Then we head back home and collapse in front of the TV. Saturday I cook, and we usually have steak, plainly grilled with a jacket potato and either salad or veg. I like to experiment a bit with starters which are often fish based, and tonight made up  a mango salsa from a fresh mango,  onion, chilli, coriander, tomato, lime juice and a drizzle of garlic infused olive oil. Some scallops on top pan fried in lime infused oil - gorgeous.  Sunday is a full Sunday lunch. Well I say lunch - we usually have it at about 6.30.  Beef, pork or lamb usually with Yorkshire puddings and all the trimmings. Best meal of the week!

New Year's Resolution.....

....is to post more on this blog, in the way that I intended when I set it up. More often, briefer, and more of what interests me and less of what did I do on my holidays. My mobile app, Blogpress which has been broken for over 3 months is now mended so that might make it easier.

So, what better to start the new year than two of my favourite things - cats and food!  My stupid (but hugely loveable) cat Rocco, still thinks our kitchen sink is his bed. Here he is watching me trying to rinse a load of vegetables without wetting him. In the end I gave up, turned the taps on, and he very reluctantly moved, slowly giving his legs a shake. Within a couple of minutes he was back in....

I was rinsing vegetables because I realised I had a glut of them in my veg boxes from the last two weeks, and there's another one due on Thursday. So, curried vegetable soup it is! Everything I could find  - peeled, diced, and cooked in a mixture of wine and stock, with a teaspoon of curry paste to give it some oomph.  A quick whizz with my hand held blender, and a dollop of philly right at the end and voila!   I love veg, but now there's only two of us, I'm not getting through them as fast as I should. Perhaps it's time to downsize.