Category Archives: Personal

moments, snippets, things, stuff; bits of life in general

Purple sprouting broccoli, pasta, and a hot mustard anchovy dressing

Purple Sprouting Broccoli from: http://flickr.com/photos/ndrwfgg/133472799/

The recipe I should have cooked tonight:

KALE WITH ANCHOVY AND CHILLI DRESSING

This pungent, piquant sauce, somewhere between a dip and a dressing, is quite delicious with earthy kale – or broccoli, or almost any other robust green vegetable. If you like, you can turn it into a more substantial supper dish by cutting the kale into thick ribbons and tossing them, along with the sauce, into hot buttered pasta. The leftover dressing will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Serves four, as a starter.

500g curly kale, or purple sprouting broccoli, washed and trimmed

2 knobs of butter

For the dressing

50g anchovy fillets, drained

150ml olive oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled

Leaves from a sprig of thyme

A few basil leaves

½ small red chilli, or a pinch of dried chilli flakes

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp red-wine vinegar

A few twists of black pepper

Blend all the ingredients for the dressing in a liquidiser until completely smooth.

Steam the kale or PSB for just 3-4 minutes, so it still has a bit of crunch. Toss with a knob of butter. Warm the sauce over a low heat, whisking in a knob of soft butter as it heats up. This should help to emulsify it but don’t worry if it separates a bit; it’ll still taste fine. Arrange the kale/PSB on warmed plates and drizzle over a generous amount of the warmed dressing. Serve at once, with soft brown bread to mop up the sauce.

This is of course completely copied from the Hugh and the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/mar/10/foodanddrink.features

Emma cooks this all the time and it’s fab. My feeble attempt tonight was more complex and not as good. (Although I suspect that my olive oil-drizzled baked beadcrumbs as a garnish may well make a repeat appearance!)

A bit of a change

I’ve upgraded WordPress and lost my old theme customisations in the process. I did back everything up, but at this point in the process it seemed more fun to grab a new (widget-enabled) theme – hence we’ve gone all HemmingwayEx.

How a deal is done

Found whilst looking for a screenshot solution – isn’t the web great?

from: Screenshots: How a deal is done

Jack, a smart businessman, talks to his son.

Jack: I want you to marry a girl of my choice
Son : “I will choose my own bride!”
Jack: “But the girl is Bill Gates’s daughter.”
Son : “Well, in that case…”

Next Jack approaches Bill Gates.

Jack: “I have a husband for your daughter.”
Bill Gates: “But my daughter is too young to marry!”
Jack: “But this young man is a vice-president of the World Bank.”
Bill Gates: “Ah, in that case…”

Finally Jack goes to see the president of the World Bank.

Jack: “I have a young man to be recommended as a vice-president.”
President: “But I already have more vice-presidents than I need!”
Jack: “But this young man is Bill Gates’s son-in-law.”
President: “Ah, in that case…”

This is how business is done!!

Is there a name for a deal structure like this? One which puts three partners together in a mutually beneficial arrangement. Without all three elements there is no deal but put them together and it works. There seems to be a lateral shift of thinking going on here – a sort of eureka moment. But can this type of thinking be encouraged in some way?

I noticed…

lunch outside Just to say I noticed…

Now if only someone would pull their finger out and sort out the wobbly fence eh?

My son wanted to be King Stupid!

King StupidMy kids love playing the games on the BBC website, one of which is called ‘Stupid‘. One of the player roles is King Stupid.

Well, a while ago I heard my son shouting “I want to be King Stupid” and I thought I was hearing things. Imagine an apostrophe in front of the name – ‘King Stupid – and you might begin to get the idea of what I thought I heard.

I couldn’t let the pun go, so the result is now a T-shirt shop: www.kingrude.co.uk. I’d quite like to make a King Stupid T-shirt, but I’m not entirely sure the BBC would approve, so you’ll have to make do with the other designs for now.

If you find it all a bit too rude then all i can say is that I’m ‘king sorry… ;-)

How to be a successful Evil Overlord

Spooky TV - Mad Scientist
Image credit: brainloc

Seth’s Blog: Tips that may come in handy one day
The list Seth points to is great advice, but might I suggest that readers start at the end – tip number 100 is horribly true.

That said, I do quite like number 12 – from a management perspective I think this has great potential:

One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

Web 2.0 colours from Miles Burke

Miles’ Blog » The Web 2.0 Secret Weapon – Thoughts and errata from Miles Burke.

Ahhh! The secret to web2.0 is finally revealed. This’ll be useful when I get around to designing my forthcoming, ultimate, web-based solution to everything.

Or would it be churlish to suggest that these are just bright, optimistic colours that work well on screen? Of course, that comment excludes ‘Google White’…

Hands up if you actually recognise all of the webapps mentioned.