The inspiration

Monday 15 March 2021

VIETNAMESE CHICKEN AND MINT SALAD

VIETNAMESE CHICKEN AND MINT SALAD


1 chilli finely chopped

1 fat garlic clove, peeled and minced

1 tbsp sugar

1½ tsp rice vinegar

1½ tbsp lime juice

1½ tbsp Thai fish sauce

1½ tbsp vegetable oil

Half a medium onion, finely sliced

Black pepper

200g white cabbage, shredded

1 medium carrot, shredded, julienned or grated

200g cooked chicken breast, shredded or cut into thin strips

Fat bunch of mint, about 40g stemmed weight, chopped

 

Combine the chilli, garlic, sugar, vinegar, lime juice, fish sauce, oil, onion and black pepper.  Put to one side for half an hour.

In a big bowl mix the cabbage, carrot, chicken and mint.  Pour over the onion mixture and toss well, so that everything is combined and covered thinly. Taste and season if required.

Saturday 28 March 2020

Eggs


Eggs

1 egg is equivalent to ¼ cup of fat free liquid egg

To substitute applesauce for oil in a recipe use the following:

substitute half the oil for applesauce

3 egg alternatives for baking

Bananas Once mashed, they can take on an egg-like consistency and help bind dry ingredients together. One banana = 1 egg

Flaxseed or chia seed Take 1 tbsp flaxseed or chia seeds and mix with 3 tbsp water. Leave to thicken for 15-20 minutes, then use in your recipe.

Apple sauce 32g unsweetened apple sauce = 1 egg

Notes For savoury batters, try using aquafaba (the liquid found in tinned chickpeas).

SCHOOL TIPS FIT THE BILL


SCHOOL TIPS FIT THE BILL

Computer billionaire Bill Gates reckons feel-good, politically correct teaching has created a generation of children destined to a life of failure.

He says it makes them grow up with no concept of reality.

Here are 10 things the Microsoft boss believes every kid should learn at school to prepare them for the big wide world:

  • Life is not fair.....get used to it.
  • If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss.
  • The world won't care about your self esteem.  The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
  • You will not make £40000 a year right out of school.  YOu won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
  • Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity...it's called a start.
  • If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault.  So learn from your mistakes, don't whine.
  • Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now......they made sacrifices to give you a good start in life.
  • Your school may have done away with winners and losers but life has not.
  • Life is not divided into terms.  And very few employers are interested in helping you to find yourself.  Do that in your own time.
  • Be nice to nerds.......chances are you'll end up working for one!

Words


ANTE-JENTACULAR-adj- Pre breakfast.

BATTOLOGY -n- Continual reiteration of the same words or phrases in speech or writing.

BOONDOGGLE -v- To carry out valueless or trivial work to convey the impression that one is busy.

ERGASIOPHOBIA -n- Fear of or aversion to work.

FACINOROUS -adj- Exceedingly wicked.

FLAPDOODLE -n- Poppycock, balderdash.

FOPDOODLE -n- An insignificant tool.

FUSTIAN -n or adj- Ridiculously pompous, bombastic.

GONGOOZLER -n- One who stares for hours at anything out of the ordinary.

HEBETATE -v- To grow dull or stupid.

JACTATION -n- Boasting.

KAKISTOCRACY -n- Government by the worst citizens.

KOPOPHOBIA -n- Fear of exhaustion.

LETHOLOGICA -n- Inability to recall the right word.

LIMACEOUS -adj- Sluglike.

LUCREPETOUS -adj- Money hungry.

NIKHEDONIA -n- Pleasure and satisfaction derived from the anticipation of sucess.

NUGATORY -n- Of no value.

ONIOMANIA -n- Irresistable urge to buy things.

PARALOGISNM -n- ignorant, illogical reasoing.

QUAKEBUTTOCK -n- Coward.

QUEER PLUNGER -n- Con man.

RODOMONTADE -n- Empty boasting, arrogant ranting.

SCIOLISM -n- Superficial knowledge.

SESQUIPEDALIAN -adj- Long winded.

SLUBBERDEGULLION -n- Term of contempt, meaning dirty, wretched slob.

TATTERDEMALION.-n- One whose clothes are always in tatters.

TENULENCY -n- Inebriation, drunkenness.

TERATOSIS -n- Biological freak, monstrosity.

ULTRACREPIDARIAN -adj- Overstepping the mark, presumptious.

VAPULATION -n- Flogging.

VECORDIOUS -adj- Foolish, obsessive.

WITLING -n- Pretender to wit, petty smart aleck.

WORD-GRUBBER -n- Person particular about fine points of verbal usage.

YEMELESS -adj- Negligent.

YOUNKER -n- Inexperienced, even thick headed youth.

TRADITION STEMS FROM ANCIENT PAGAN CUSTOM


TRADITION STEMS FROM ANCIENT PAGAN CUSTOM

Holly, mistletoe and the Christmas tree.....these threee evergreens embody the spirit of Christmas.  Indeed, the festive season could never be the same without them.

Yet they stem from an ancient custom, older than Christianity itself.  Some authorities consider the Christmas Tree to be a survival of pagan worship and trace it back to ancient Rome and Egypt.

The use of evergreens to decorate homes at Christmas time has a pre-Christian origin.  Decoarations with holly and mistletoe date from the time of the Druids, orperhaps even earlier, as part of some ancient pagan mid-winter ceremony.

Mistletoe was sacred among the Druids and was believed to have miraculous powers.  Among the Romans it was a symbol of peace and it was said that when their enemies met under it, they disregarded their weapons and declared a truce.  From this comes the custom of kissing under the mistletoe.

In Northern Europe, evergreens, because they did not die in winter time, became a symbol of eternal life and were almost objects of worship.

Holly has always been a popular Christmas decoration and was endowed with unusual powers.  According to one legend, Christ's thorn of crowns was made of holly leaves and thus began the custom of fashioning Christmas wreaths.

Initially, Christians were not enthusiastic about the pagan worship but were favourably impressed with the decorated evergreen trees and decided to adopt the custom.

It is generally believed that the first Christmas tree was of German origin dating from Boniface, the English missionary to Germany in the 8th Century.  He replaced the sacrifices to Odin's sacred oak with a fir tree decorated in homage to the Christ Child.

The trimming and lighting of Christmas trees became a customary part of the mediaeval German mystery plays when a decorated tree was used to symbolise the Garden of Eden.  After the suppression of these plays, the tree was used in the home and the custom gradually evolved of decorating it with sweetmeats, fruit, and eventually candles.

Accounts persist that Martin Luther introduced the tree lighted with candles.  By the beginning of the 19th century, the tradition had spread from Germany to most of the countries of Northern Europe.

It was introduced in England in 1841 by Prince Albert of Saxony, the Prince Consort of Queen Victoria.

German immigrants brought it to the United States where it was adopted enthusiastically.  Perhaps it served as a reminder of their homes in Europe.

The Star of Bethlehem and the Angel or Good Fairy at the top of the tree has been traditional for the last 200 years.

Presents have always been grouped around the foot of the tree, which automatically becomes the focal point for the family gatherings at Christmas time.
 From News Guardian Christmas Magazine

IT ALL STARTED WITH SIR HENRY'S CHRISTMAS LETTER


IT ALL STARTED WITH SIR HENRY'S CHRISTMAS LETTER

Sir Henry Cole invented the first Christmas card in 1843, the year Charles Dickens wrote his immortal "A Christmas Carol".

Sir Henry, the founder of the Vicotria and Albert museum, and a close friend of the Prince Consort, forgot to write his regular Christmas letter to his wide circle of friends.

Too late to rectify this by normal means, he promptly asked his friend J. C. Horsley, a future Royal Acedemician, to design a Christmas message whcih could be mechanically printed and signed.

One thousand copies were produced and from these Sir Henry took his needs.  The rest of the cards, all hand tinted by another of Sir Henry's friends who had a shop in Old Bond St, were sold for the princly sum of one shilling each.

As befitted the Victorian era, the original design was highly ornate.  A contemporary writer described it as "a trellis fo rustic work in the Germanesque style dividing the card into a centre and two panels.

"The sides were filles by representations of the feeding of the hungry and the clothing of the naked.  In the central compartment, a family were shown at a table, an old man and woman, a maiden and her young man, and several children and they were pictured drinking healths in wine".

Perhaps the idea of private Christmas cards was a little too expensive, or perhaps people saw them as something of a novelty of themoment.  Certainly it took some 25 years for Christmas card giving to gain any real impetus.

Slowly the idea began to catch on.  By 1868, colour was being introduced onto the cards and greeting sentiments were being expressed in rhyme and prose.

Most illustrations at that time could claim little religious or even festive significance.  Flowers, fish, reptiles, animals, fairies and children were more usual subjects.

It took a man of vision to stimulate real activity and interest in cards on a grand scale.  He was Adolph, son of Raphael Tuck, who sold cards in City Road, London.

In 1880 he launched a nationwide competition, offering 500 guineas in prize money to secure talent and originality for Christmas card designs.

The competition attracted 5000 entries which were judged by a panel of eminent members of the Royal Academy.

The event attracted so much press and public attention that the young Christmas card industry never looked back.



From News Guardian Christmas Magazine (1989?)

DEAR SANTA'S FAMILY TREE

DEAR SANTA'S FAMILY TREE

The man we call Father Christmas has a family tree with tangled roots, reaching down through  ages and cultures.

Those roots stretch back to Bronze Age Britain from where his association with the pleasures of food and warmth come.

A Father Christmas figure was associated with a series of pagan myths in those pre-Christian times to do with keeping hunger and cold at bay through long, cold, dark, winter nights.  He was also seen as a bringer of light as well as warmth.

As a result, he was associated with December 21st, the longest night of the year and the turning point in the winter calendar leading to lighter, warmer times.

In later times, after the arrival of Christianity, the man who became St Nicholas was born.

He is said to have been bron at Petara, souther Turkey in 270AD to a Chrisitan couple who had been childless for 20 years.

His parents died when he was young and as a young man he was persecuted for his Christian beliefs.  Later he became Bishop of Myra and was famous for his charity work.

He founded an orphanage, rescued three boys from a murderous innkeeper and saved three sisters from a life of prostitution by throwing gold coins through their bedroom window.

One version of the legen says the coins landed in their shoes as they slept, another says they dropped into the girls' socks.  The idea of giving children gifts in his name caught on and spread around the world.

Over the last couple of hundred years, the many immigrants going to America took with them their own versions of the Christmas legend.

Shamans, from the snowlands of Nortjern Asia, brought the tale of a Christmas visitor who travelled in a sledge pulled by reindeer.  The visitor climbed into homes that were buried in deep snow by the only access point, their smoke holes.

From that came the notion of Father Christmas climbing down the chimneys.

Shamens also told of reindeer that flew, although these tales are thought to have more to do with the story tellers' fondness for "magic" mushrooms than anything else.

The word "Yuletide" was brought to Britiain by Norse followers of Odin yelling "Yalka Tyd" a message of cheer which meant  "the shining one".  Odin was another figure brought from cold climes who brought gifts of warmth and light.

Dutch settlers took the legend of Santa Claus to America where it became mixed with other Christmas myths.

Clement Moors, an American Professor of Theology fused the many myths into a poem for his children in 1820.

That poem combined all the Christmas myths that were current at that time.

It brought together St. Nicholas' kindliness towards children, with flying reindeer and a gift-bringing guest who climbed into family homes through the chimney.

The Clement Moore version of the Santa  myth travelled to England in 1870, where it was merged with the pre-Christian Father Christmas, a jolly man with a beard, who brought warmth and light.

In 1931 he acquired his now traditional reed and white colours by courtesy of a Coca cola advert which designed his outfit in the comapny colours.

Before that, his colours had often been blue, associated with Odin or browns associated with animal skin clothing in Northern snowlands.

Psycologist Stephen Sayer has argued that adults need the Father Christmas story as much as the children.  Mr Sayer, a lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan University believes that by celebrating the myths and rituals, adults can learn to think again in the creative way they thought as children.


From Newcastle Evening Chronicle  (1980's/90's)