Facebook has changed the way we interact with friends and acquaintances. Do I really have over 100 friends in my life? Probably not. In that list of "friends" are people I would have (and in some cases had) lost touch with had social networking sites not existed. So why am I friends with as many people on there as I am? I suppose I feel like it keeps people updated on what's going on in our lives without having to update each person in turn. But what does this say of me as a person and of my friendships?
One thing that has surprised me though is, taken in a different format, communicating through emails, instant messaging, posts and photographs has changed some of these relationships. People who I spoke to infrequently now know (and care) more about what's going on with me than people I previously talked to a lot. Also having that step removed, being reduced to text makes people braver somehow. Like being hidden behind a screen enables a display of vulnerability which would have been more difficult to show in person or on the phone and I think a degree of vulnerability only strengthens relationships. People who say everything is tickedy-boo all the time are just better liars.
So, anyway, I've come up with a new fruit puree combination.
Pear and Vanilla Puree
4 Pears
1 tsp vanilla extract (not essence).
Method
Peel and core the pears. Add a tiny amount of water and put on a hob with a lid on the top. Cook until softened. Add a tsp of the vanilla extract and mix. Puree with as little amount of water as needed to puree them (you may find none is needed, pears are quite juicy.) Freezes well and mixes well with yoghurt as a pudding.
Pears were less than 70p a bag in my local supermarket last week so it makes the above recipe really economical.
Oh, by the way, despite my lofty reasoning above, the real reason I joined facebook was for the scrabble.
Senin, 21 Maret 2011
Sabtu, 19 Maret 2011
Salmon with Herb Butter and Household Laundry Hints
I was thinking about general household ideas. As today has been so glorious weather wise, I did a couple of loads of washing. I had a top with a couple of chicken fat splashes on it (ew) which hadn't come out even after washing three times. I didn't have any stain remover in the house and vaguely remembered my mum using washing up liquid in the past. It was a cheap top so I was prepared to give it a go, dabbed some on the stains straight before washing and they've come out! (Obviously beware this could damage delicate clothes people!)
My aunt used to have a job helping elderly people out in their homes. She gave me a tip once because she used to have to dry sheets very quickly on the line. If you hang them up by their corners rather than folding them over the line, it acts like a sail and dries much more quickly even in light winds (obviously in high winds this might not be the best idea!)
I also use laundry tablets in my wash and at risk of sounding like a 1950's housewifery magazine, I'd like to add a thrifty tip. It's recommended on the pack to use two tablets but I've never had any issue only using one. Obviously that then doubles the number of washes from a pack saving a good few £'s!
Anyway, onto the recipe. I have been worrying that due to my son's love of cheese, he might be getting too much salt. I don't add any salt to his meals, nor does he have processed meals but when you start adding up what he gets from cheese, bread, a crumpet I gave him. Blimey, it soon adds up considering 1g is the maximum he should have. So this recipe is an adaptation in a way from the fish pie recipe but you could imagine serving it in its constituent parts when he's onto using cutlery properly (see adaptations below). The herb choice I used just happened to be what's looking good in my garden right now. Sorrel has been a real surprise and a winner for it's ability to overwinter and it's already sent up loads of fresh green leaves.
Salmon with vegetables and herb butter - for babies with adult adaptations
Ingredients
Salmon - can use fresh or frozen. Look out in supermarkets for packs of frozen salmon you can microwave from frozen. It comes out far too overcooked for my taste but that's fine for a baby and better if you cook it as I've indicated below with the butter on top.
Green vegetables, chopped (your choice, I used green beans, mange tout and broccoli. The beans and mange tout were chopped to be around 2-3mm in size, the broccoli was in small florets)
A potato, peeled and chopped into chunks
Unsalted butter
Your choice of fresh soft herbs (I used parsley, sorrel and garlic chives)
Method
Cook the potato until soft and mash through a ricer. Boil the green vegetables until cooked. Microwave the salmon as per pack instructions with a tbsp water and the herbs and butter on top until fully cooked.
Mash the broccoli and flake the salmon. Mix together with the butter and any juices from the salmon. The sorrel gives a gentle zing; sorrel used to be used to give a sour flavour before citrus fruits were available in this country. Although after cooking this for my baby, I've since found out that the flavour is from oxalic acid (which is rather poisonous. Oops!) However, you have to eat a huge amount of it to cause any problems and the toxicity is reduced by cooking.
You could use other vegetables if wanted but I think green vegetables go best with salmon. Possibly serve new potatoes separately as finger food rather than mashed potato if you want and your child is good with finger food.
Adaptations
You could make this recipe by poaching or baking the salmon for adults or older children and making the herb butter by mashing together the herbs with softened butter then chilling. Either add the herb butter on top of the salmon before wrapping in foil and baking or add to the top after cooking and allow to melt. For younger babies than my 10 month old (certainly under 7 months or babies who aren't on soft lumps yet), it would be a good idea to puree the salmon and vegetables with the butter and juices, adding more water if needed. Also perhaps miss out the sorrel. Hmm.
Anyway, toxicity aside, (ahem) I think it's a good idea to get your baby used to eating a wide variety of different herbs and spices (possibly leaving chilli for a while). I certainly cook with a lot of herbs and spices anddon't want to be making separate milder dishes for my child for years. I also hope my child will have varied tastes. I remember hearing of a distant relative's partner who was nicknamed "bread roll" as that's all she would eat when she was at a restaurant. That's just sad.
My aunt used to have a job helping elderly people out in their homes. She gave me a tip once because she used to have to dry sheets very quickly on the line. If you hang them up by their corners rather than folding them over the line, it acts like a sail and dries much more quickly even in light winds (obviously in high winds this might not be the best idea!)
I also use laundry tablets in my wash and at risk of sounding like a 1950's housewifery magazine, I'd like to add a thrifty tip. It's recommended on the pack to use two tablets but I've never had any issue only using one. Obviously that then doubles the number of washes from a pack saving a good few £'s!
Anyway, onto the recipe. I have been worrying that due to my son's love of cheese, he might be getting too much salt. I don't add any salt to his meals, nor does he have processed meals but when you start adding up what he gets from cheese, bread, a crumpet I gave him. Blimey, it soon adds up considering 1g is the maximum he should have. So this recipe is an adaptation in a way from the fish pie recipe but you could imagine serving it in its constituent parts when he's onto using cutlery properly (see adaptations below). The herb choice I used just happened to be what's looking good in my garden right now. Sorrel has been a real surprise and a winner for it's ability to overwinter and it's already sent up loads of fresh green leaves.
Salmon with vegetables and herb butter - for babies with adult adaptations
Ingredients
Salmon - can use fresh or frozen. Look out in supermarkets for packs of frozen salmon you can microwave from frozen. It comes out far too overcooked for my taste but that's fine for a baby and better if you cook it as I've indicated below with the butter on top.
Green vegetables, chopped (your choice, I used green beans, mange tout and broccoli. The beans and mange tout were chopped to be around 2-3mm in size, the broccoli was in small florets)
A potato, peeled and chopped into chunks
Unsalted butter
Your choice of fresh soft herbs (I used parsley, sorrel and garlic chives)
Method
Cook the potato until soft and mash through a ricer. Boil the green vegetables until cooked. Microwave the salmon as per pack instructions with a tbsp water and the herbs and butter on top until fully cooked.
Mash the broccoli and flake the salmon. Mix together with the butter and any juices from the salmon. The sorrel gives a gentle zing; sorrel used to be used to give a sour flavour before citrus fruits were available in this country. Although after cooking this for my baby, I've since found out that the flavour is from oxalic acid (which is rather poisonous. Oops!) However, you have to eat a huge amount of it to cause any problems and the toxicity is reduced by cooking.
You could use other vegetables if wanted but I think green vegetables go best with salmon. Possibly serve new potatoes separately as finger food rather than mashed potato if you want and your child is good with finger food.
Adaptations
You could make this recipe by poaching or baking the salmon for adults or older children and making the herb butter by mashing together the herbs with softened butter then chilling. Either add the herb butter on top of the salmon before wrapping in foil and baking or add to the top after cooking and allow to melt. For younger babies than my 10 month old (certainly under 7 months or babies who aren't on soft lumps yet), it would be a good idea to puree the salmon and vegetables with the butter and juices, adding more water if needed. Also perhaps miss out the sorrel. Hmm.
Anyway, toxicity aside, (ahem) I think it's a good idea to get your baby used to eating a wide variety of different herbs and spices (possibly leaving chilli for a while). I certainly cook with a lot of herbs and spices anddon't want to be making separate milder dishes for my child for years. I also hope my child will have varied tastes. I remember hearing of a distant relative's partner who was nicknamed "bread roll" as that's all she would eat when she was at a restaurant. That's just sad.
Rabu, 16 Maret 2011
Musings on school and bullying
I recently found a photograph of myself when I was about 12 on facebook. It had been posted by someone I used to go to school with. I find it amazing how your memory tricks you. If you'd asked me before what I thought of my school life, I probably would have said it was uneventful but this photo took me back to a time I'd forgotten.
I changed schools when I was 14 from a comprehensive to a grammar school (because I moved to a grammar school area) and it was probably the best thing which could have happened to me. In my first school I was mostly unhappy. I was an outsider, a "boff" (short for boffin which was used as an insult). I was teased, bullied and it hurt me.
It made me think a lot about what schooling systems we have in the UK. I'm not saying the grammar school was perfect, the focus on results has made me more of a perfectionist than it's healthy to be but at least I was with kids who were intelligent and weren't ashamed of it. I went to university expecting to be pushed by my peers and so it wasn't a shock. If I'd stayed in the school I was in, it would have been a lot more difficult making that transition.
That all said, the grammar school had a resolutely middle class intake. Most of my friends at my first school came from homes with single mothers or stepfathers. This was not the case in the grammar school.
Now it makes me wonder whether the effect on education is to do with the school, the parents or the affluence? Which came first? Which has the biggest effect?
It does seem sad that there was so little variety in the background of the people who attended the grammar school as I'm sure I'm not the only one out of the people in that photograph who could have benefited from learning in a different environment. I wonder what they're all doing now? It seems sad that others didn't get that opportunity. It also seems sad that a 34 year old can be ambushed by the hurt that bullying caused 22 years before. I'm grown up now but there would be some people in that photo I would chose not to get back in touch with.
I had a think about this overnight. I don't want to sound like some kind of victim. In fact, I'm anything but. Finding that photo made me think of all of the times I was mean to other kids when I was a child. Kids find reasons to pick on other kids. I certainly don't think it's right and I am ashamed about the times I was not so innocent. It's sad though that intelligence is used as a reason, (not that I'm some kind of genius either.) When did it become good to be stupid?
I changed schools when I was 14 from a comprehensive to a grammar school (because I moved to a grammar school area) and it was probably the best thing which could have happened to me. In my first school I was mostly unhappy. I was an outsider, a "boff" (short for boffin which was used as an insult). I was teased, bullied and it hurt me.
It made me think a lot about what schooling systems we have in the UK. I'm not saying the grammar school was perfect, the focus on results has made me more of a perfectionist than it's healthy to be but at least I was with kids who were intelligent and weren't ashamed of it. I went to university expecting to be pushed by my peers and so it wasn't a shock. If I'd stayed in the school I was in, it would have been a lot more difficult making that transition.
That all said, the grammar school had a resolutely middle class intake. Most of my friends at my first school came from homes with single mothers or stepfathers. This was not the case in the grammar school.
Now it makes me wonder whether the effect on education is to do with the school, the parents or the affluence? Which came first? Which has the biggest effect?
It does seem sad that there was so little variety in the background of the people who attended the grammar school as I'm sure I'm not the only one out of the people in that photograph who could have benefited from learning in a different environment. I wonder what they're all doing now? It seems sad that others didn't get that opportunity. It also seems sad that a 34 year old can be ambushed by the hurt that bullying caused 22 years before. I'm grown up now but there would be some people in that photo I would chose not to get back in touch with.
I had a think about this overnight. I don't want to sound like some kind of victim. In fact, I'm anything but. Finding that photo made me think of all of the times I was mean to other kids when I was a child. Kids find reasons to pick on other kids. I certainly don't think it's right and I am ashamed about the times I was not so innocent. It's sad though that intelligence is used as a reason, (not that I'm some kind of genius either.) When did it become good to be stupid?
Senin, 14 Maret 2011
Pancakes
I came up with a pancake recipe the other day which is adapted from some others to make pancakes for my little one which are free from added salt or sugar. Not completely healthy (they contain butter) but hey, kids need fat and they're very handy for breakfasts, snacks and freeze well. There is also an adult adaptation at the end.
Banana or Apple Pancakes
225g, 8oz (just short of 2 cups) Self Raising Flour (or plain / all purpose flour and 2 tsp baking powder)
Knob (about 15g, 1/2oz) unsalted butter or use non dairy spray oil
2 eggs
300 mL, 10fl oz (1 and a quarter cups) Full Fat Milk or use water and a few drops of vanilla extract if avoiding dairy or low on milk!
2 eating apples or 1 large (or 1 and a half small) ripe bananas
To serve for adults and older children
Granulated sugar
Cinnamon
Butter
Or golden or maple syrup
Or a knob of butter and a drizzle of honey (over 1 year only)
Method
Peel and grate the apples if using, peel the bananas if using. If you're making the banana pancakes; good news, this can all be done in a blender. Put everything in, blend, done. If you're making apple pancakes, use an electric whisk to mix the egg into the flour then gradually add the milk then add the apple at the end.
Take a piece of unsalted butter in some greaseproof and rub it over the surface of a warm, non stick pan or use spray oil. Pour or spoon blobs of batter on (often the first one is rubbish but don't worry).
Cook until bubbles appear on the surface and burst then flip over. You might need to adjust the temperature to get it right. Cook until the other side is brown.
To make a syrup, put some sugar (as much as you want to eat really) in a saucepan with a little water and a bit of powdered cinnamon. Heat until fully dissolved and bubbling. When it reaches the consistency you want, add a knob of butter. Serve warm but don't keep warm for too long as it will thicken too much and start to crystallise again. (Only serve syrup for older kids or adults.) Alternatively serve with golden or maple syrup, honey (over 1's only), cream, chocolate sauce or ice cream.
To freeze, take the cooled pancakes and layer them up in a plastic tub interleaved with non stick silicone baking paper (greaseproof does work but it does stick a little bit). To use, take one out, defrost in the microwave and allow to cool before giving to a baby. No idea how long they'd last frozen, they've never lasted longer than a week in our house before being eaten.
Great for breakfast but also great for puddings and snacks for kids.
Update (8/11/11), Just added in some pictures (finally). To think I almost gave up blogging!
Update (23/3/14), Just put in some new, improved photography, ounce and cup measures.
Like these? Why not try my cherry pancakes?
I also made some for my new blog using frozen cherries which were lovely pink pancakes!
225g, 8oz (just short of 2 cups) Self Raising Flour (or plain / all purpose flour and 2 tsp baking powder)
Knob (about 15g, 1/2oz) unsalted butter or use non dairy spray oil
2 eggs
300 mL, 10fl oz (1 and a quarter cups) Full Fat Milk or use water and a few drops of vanilla extract if avoiding dairy or low on milk!
2 eating apples or 1 large (or 1 and a half small) ripe bananas
To serve for adults and older children
Granulated sugar
Cinnamon
Butter
Or golden or maple syrup
Or a knob of butter and a drizzle of honey (over 1 year only)
Method
Peel and grate the apples if using, peel the bananas if using. If you're making the banana pancakes; good news, this can all be done in a blender. Put everything in, blend, done. If you're making apple pancakes, use an electric whisk to mix the egg into the flour then gradually add the milk then add the apple at the end.
Take a piece of unsalted butter in some greaseproof and rub it over the surface of a warm, non stick pan or use spray oil. Pour or spoon blobs of batter on (often the first one is rubbish but don't worry).
Cook until bubbles appear on the surface and burst then flip over. You might need to adjust the temperature to get it right. Cook until the other side is brown.
To make a syrup, put some sugar (as much as you want to eat really) in a saucepan with a little water and a bit of powdered cinnamon. Heat until fully dissolved and bubbling. When it reaches the consistency you want, add a knob of butter. Serve warm but don't keep warm for too long as it will thicken too much and start to crystallise again. (Only serve syrup for older kids or adults.) Alternatively serve with golden or maple syrup, honey (over 1's only), cream, chocolate sauce or ice cream.
To freeze, take the cooled pancakes and layer them up in a plastic tub interleaved with non stick silicone baking paper (greaseproof does work but it does stick a little bit). To use, take one out, defrost in the microwave and allow to cool before giving to a baby. No idea how long they'd last frozen, they've never lasted longer than a week in our house before being eaten.
Great for breakfast but also great for puddings and snacks for kids.
Update (8/11/11), Just added in some pictures (finally). To think I almost gave up blogging!
Update (23/3/14), Just put in some new, improved photography, ounce and cup measures.
Like these? Why not try my cherry pancakes?
I also made some for my new blog using frozen cherries which were lovely pink pancakes!
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