Comment on Calorie Restriction Movement

I read Giles Coren’s article last week about the Calorie restriction movement and it was brilliant.  I laughed alot and then sat down and thought about it.

The opening photo is of a couple sitting at the dining table looking really ill.  Apparently the same couple have perfect bodies i.e. their hearts function perfectly, no furring up of arteries, fitness levels are excellent, lowest cholestral possible etc. etc.  however they look ill.  What is the point of being that healthy when you look 20 years older than your actual age, especially when the whole point is to extend your life for many years.  I have just looked over the article again and they seem to be eating the same type of food as the cavemen before they learnt how to kill Mastadons, raw and mainly vegetarian.

Who really wants to live for 120 years.  All your friends will be dead and although your mind might be very active, surely our bones and metabolism is only designed to last a certain amount of time.

Another thing came to mind.  This couple have no children.  Please get in touch ANYONE who has time to be this self absorbed and have children.  It just is not possible.

A day in the life of.

I think it started with the non-drinking I have subjected myself to this month.  Such an idiotic idea, it might have to change to not drinking wine, that leaves Vodka, gin, whisky….I should be fine.

All this abstenance is making me very tired, so these 7am starts, at school by 8.15 make the day very long.  I try to go to bed early but I have a quick look at what is on TV or I wait for Desperate Housewives and before I know it I am still awake at 11 o.clock.  This does not allow enough hours for beauty sleep so beauty is really suffering this month!

Anyway, back to today.

At school by 8.15, no breakfast yet, desperate for a coffee, drop by Costa thinking I could have my Soya Cappuccino, but the delivery van did not turn up yesterday so NO SOYA.  You would think they would make the trip down the road to Tesco just to stock up….so,  still sleepy and desperate for a coffee I get back into the car to go home (I did not think of having normal milk or even black coffee, clearly still too brain dead!)

As I arrive home my Painter is waiting to deliver painted cabinets and pick up new ones,  as he leaves Jenny arrives awaiting instructions for what orders to pack up.

11 0.clock, STILL NO COFFEE.  It is a miracle I am still standing, I feel as if I am about to fall into one of the boxes I am making up for the cabinets.

Jenny then suggests a coffee, PHEW…..BUT I remember that I have promised to see a poorly friend and bring her home made soup.

Into the garden I rush, (actually my lovely husband rushed for me as clearly I was in no shape to rush anywhere) and I start chopping up potatoes and newly dug up leeks for soup.

Doing really well, remembered to put the lid on the potatoes and go off to my computer.  This is fine until I smell delicious fried pototoes, Yum but OH NO they will never be any good for soup now they are crispy….lovely husband can have those, I make a new set for friend’s soup.

At last, soup is made and I rush to the friend’s house.

My poorly friend is in a plastercast and has 4 children but when I turn up at her house it is looking great.  Not only is it clean and tidy with beautiful flowers everywhere but she has just painted 2 of the rooms perfectly (no smudges or paint on the windows).

In my mind I look back to what I have left at home.  The Kitchen has turned into a packing factory and there is still yesterday’s washing up in the sink and this morning’s breakfast on the table.

OH why am I not Superwoman when clearly everyone else is??  By the way if you are wondering why Husband has suddenly been transformed into ‘Lovely husband’ it is because he has been away for 2 weeks and it is a novelty to have him back!

Laundry Sinks

It has just been brought to my attention that I have got a very different boot room sink to everyone else.  When I bought mine it was with the view that I could not possibly have a boot room without a sloping sink. I grew up with them in Norway and England and have never understood how they are not used here.

You can clean your boots really easily in them without the water pouring down the boot, you can also use it for scrubbing clothes on, a bit like the ribbed wooden board they used in the old days.

Here is a photo of it.  If anyone would like to purchase one please email me and I will get one for you too!

Women working from home

I have just had the most hilarious chat with a great girl called Sophie who like me runs her business from home.

I called her to ask where the package was that she was sending me and she said quote ‘ Sent them the day after you confirmed order….bloody courier firm I am using seems to be taking ages to deliver recently.  Are you sure they haven’t left you a card saying they have tried to deliver – they are called MyHermes?’

Absolutely typical, I have just signed up for exactly the same courier company this morning and was wondering how long they would really take, now I know….too long!

The trouble is that (myself included) people just do not want to pay more than necessary to have their items sent to them, but unless you send huge volumes of post it is really hard to get prices i.e. £3.50 that the customer is willing to pay.

Yet when you do negotiate a price that is as low as that the courier company takes 3-5 days.  In my books this is too long.  Because my items are often painted to order they can take up to 7 days to be ready to send and so another 5 days is just too much, I would prefer to spend more on postage.

As my husband says ‘ It is a dichotomy’  He loves big words, lucky that I like big dictionaries!

Baby Kitchen Cabinet

I am so pleased, the journalist Carolyn Hart has put my Baby Cabinet in her Food News page.

You can see her article here

It is on the same page as the virtual farmers market.  What an inovative website.

Another beautiful day

I have just woken up to another gorgeous day in Shropshire. Looking out of my window here the ground is covered in a thin layer of sparkling snow, the sky is that strong, clear blue that you usually see in the mountains and although it is cold I am definately going for a walk.

While writing this I am mulling over the fact that before I moved here I had absolutly no idea where Shropshire was.  I had a vague feeling it was somewhere near Scotland…got that wrong! (it is on the border of Wales)

However 2 facts I did get right, it is a very long way from the London Metropolis and always 2 or 3 deg colder.  Despite my Nordic roots I really hate the cold. Not all cold, but just the damp bone chilling English wet cold.

So when I see the snow I cannot wait to get dressed up and take the dogs (children usually refuse to follow-shame I can’t train them like the dogs) and go on a walk through our glorious countryside that is unspoilt by the ravages of city or comuterbelt life.

Wild horses would not draw me back to live in the South again.

Cookery School

I had completely forgotten that I kitted out this amazing cookery school in the lake district with 6 of my cabinets.  Lucy the lady behind this school is amazing and passionate about what she does, Ambleside really should be called Lucyside, she has a restaurant, store, cookshop and a B&B!

Here is the link to the Cookery School.

The real bread campaign

I have just had a really fasciniating conversation with a passionate bread maker called Andrew from Bread Matters.

It is worth having a look at his website. He is also one of the movers behind the Real Bread Campaign which is where my cabinet comes in.

For people who make their own bread unless they are using industrial amounts, my kitchen cabinet really is brilliant for the storage of different types of flour.

Fish, how to choose it

This is a subject close to my heart.

Many people do not choose fish to eat because they are scared.  Scared of not knowing if it is fresh or not, scared of over cooking it or under cooking it and also scared of choking on the bones.

Lets deal first of all with picking your fish.

Personally I avoid supermarkets at all costs, you walk within 20ft of a fish counter and the smell is overwhelming.  Fresh fish should not smell except of the sea.

In supermarkets they wash the fish in preservatives like a bleach solution to clean them.

As my nice cleaning lady said to me this morning ‘I will never buy fish in Tesco again, I bought it home and it just melted.’  That is rotten fish for you. The flesh should be firm even on a fish like hake where the meat is flaky by nature.

My great friend Emily purchased some cod at a very large supermarket chain that shall remain nameless.  She took it home and was preparing to cook it when she saw something moving.  WORMS.  Yes and she is not the only person this has happened to.

The reason I am telling these stories is not to put people off eating fish but to encourage them to buy fish from independent fishmongers.  Ask your local fishmonger where the fish is from.  (this description was helpful)

I would also like to hope that large supermarkets will start to up their game and serve fresh fish as compared to the revolting stuff they sell at the moment.

So rules for choosing.

• The skin should look shiny not dull
• The eyes should look alive and not cloudy.
• The flesh of the fish should not look as if it is melting.
• If the guts are still in the fish it is a good sign (this is usually the case of mackerel which is an indigenous fish) you cannot leave the guts in an old fish because it would decompose too quickly.

Last but not least it should not reek of either bleach or that overwhelming fish odour.

England is only a small island, so you would think that even those living inland would be able to buy a fresh catch  (I think that is worth an entirely new blog),  but many fishmongers do advocate  another option:  frozen fish. The fish we buy frozen has been done so within hours of being caught.

I think I have written enough but on this final note I would like to suggest a few fishmongers who deliver  in case you do not have one locally.

http://www.martins-seafresh.co.uk

http://www.madaboutfish.net/ particularly like this one as it is near me!

Norwegian Crispbread

Fantastic news for anyone who has been to Scandinavia and loves our crispbread that comes with a hole in the middle.  There is a bakery in Edinburgh that makes just that. I love the website and I believe they deliver!

http://www.petersyard.com/