The Accidental Stepford

Stepford - n. a married person who submits to their partner's will and is preoccupied by domestic concerns.

Obsession of the Week: Petits Filous

Perhaps this should be titled my obsession of the past two weeks as that would be more accurate. For the past 14 days I have been plowing my way through teeny pots of petits filous and loving every petit mouthful. I guess I bought them on a whim; overcome by a wave of nostalgia for the days when my Mum would pack them in my lunchbox, I knew that I just had to have some. The strawberry pots are still clearly superior, but I have a new found respect for the raspberry and apricot pots, both of which I cruelly maligned in my youth. With only four out of my mammoth pack left, my trip down memory lane will soon be over, but perhaps this is for the best, as there is something unnatural about having to eat out of a container that most of my teaspoons struggle to fit into.

A Decadent Risotto of Roasted Garlic, Thyme, Mascarpone with Breadcrumbs and Almonds

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I made this risotto last week, it’s one of my favourites and was actually the first risotto I ever made. My sister and I made it for my Dad for Father’s Day a few years back and since then it has been a hit with everyone I have made it for. The mascarpone makes this a luxurious risotto, whilst the flavours of the sweet roasted garlic and thyme combined with the toasted breadcrumbs and almonds makes this a more-ish dish.

The recipe is by Jamie Oliver, and a copy of it can be found here.

Icing Sugar Cannot Save Everything

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This week I made a custard tart. It started off really well, the pastry was easy to make and happily filled my flan tin. Then it all went wrong: I hadn’t weighed it all down properly so it puffed up in a couple of places, I accidentally overfilled the case and then I proceded to slosh so more of the filling onto the out/inside of the oven, leaving me with very little tart. When it came out of the oven there was pastry visible in one place! So I did what all cooks would do in my situation, I dusted the tart heavily with icing sugar. It still looked awful. Two days later only one slice has been eaten. FAIL.

That’s So Gay

[I originally contributed this hurried article for the November 2009 issue of an online student magazine called The Tribe, but thought in the light of recent events in America it was worth re-posting here.]

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The recent Stonewall poster campaign ran with the words: ‘Some people are gay. Get over it!’ 

Britain desperately needs to. 

When Stephen Gately tragically died recently, the majority of the media focus was on his sexuality. Whether it was the thinly veiled prejudice of Jan Moir’s article, or a rehashing of his coming out in 1999, the British press concentrated on the fact that he was gay. Admittedly Gately’s decision to come out was a bold move, but surely there was more to say about his life than this? Then there is the attention that Donal Og Cusak, a famous goalkeeper in the world of Irish Hurling, received for joining those out of the closet. He of course deserves to be praised for taking this brave step, but his admission only further emphasises the lack of openly gay men in sport (however that is a whole other issue). If recent events have taught us anything it is that being gay is still considered a big deal. 

Something that should be considered a big deal is homophobia. Despite being a relatively gay-friendly town, homophobic abuse occurs in St Andrews - from the random drunken insult (bizarrely even in the Gay Bop last year) to a beer mat being thrown at a lesbian couple out on a date. However these instances of homophobia are on such a small scale when compared to some of the incidents that occur nationally, many of which go unreported. A recent example is the violent assault on Police trainee James Parkes, who was attacked by a gang of around 20 people outside of a club in the city centre of Liverpool. The attack was reportedly unprovoked and motivated solely by the fact that Parkes was gay. 

How does such a horrific thing still happen in Britain today? Perhaps the answer lies in how homophobia is tackled in schools. Speaking to a teacher at a Greater London primary school I was shocked by how she was told to deal with homophobia at her school. If a pupil is heard making a racist comment by a member of staff then the incident goes on the child’s record and is reported to (and potentially investigated by) the local governing body. A similar protocol is in place for anti-Semitism and other prejudice relating to religious beliefs. There is no such protocol for homophobia. If a teacher hears a student calling a member of their peer group “faggot” or “dyke”, the teacher would not be obligated to do anything about it. 

In Britain there seems to be an insincere attitude of tolerance towards the homosexual community; Gays can adopt, can have civil partnerships, are allowed in the military… However actually witnessing the results of this tolerance, such as seeing two people of the same sex kissing in public, still provokes a negative reaction from a surprising number of people. The prevailing attitude in Britain seems to be that people are free to be gay so long as they don’t flaunt it - conferring equality without actually wanting to confront what it would mean for society. Is this not a pretty shoddy way to treat at least 6% of the population?

(Source: thetribeonline.com)

Pesto alla Genovese

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Today I tried my hand at making fresh pesto. I used Delia Smith’s recipe from her book Delia’s Vegetarian Collection, but there are tonnes of recipes out there that I’m sure are just as good. It was incredibly easy, though it required a tonne of basil, and Vassili II (our basil plant) is looking very bare now.

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Ingredients:

  • 50g fresh basil
  • 1 fat garlic clove, peeled and crushed
  • 1 tablespoon of pine nuts
  • 6 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 25g parmesan, grated
  • Salt

Method:

  1. Put the basil, garlic, pine nuts and oil into a blender with some salt. Blend until you have a smooth puree.
  2. Transfer the puree to a bowl and stir in the grated parmesan. Presto you have some pesto.

What I am Reading at the Moment

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I know what you’re thinking, pretentious much? But I am indeed reading Machiavelli’s The Prince. It was not my choice. The Mr and I wrote each other a list of ten books that the other one had to read. The one I gave him was full of Henry James, Bret Easton Ellis and Ernest Hemingway. What I received in return were books of political theory and biographies… yeah… Having already tackled John McCain’s memoirs (yes I did soldier my way through that) I now turn my attention to the slimmest item on his list. Like most people I am aware of the basic premise of The Prince and I guess it is something I “should” read at some point in my life, so why not now?

Obsession of the Week: The Commonwealth Games

Ok so they said it would be a disaster, and there is a severe lack of crowd support, but I’m really enjoying the coverage of the Commonwealth Games in Dehli. Maybe my underappreciation of the games in the past is due to the fact that I have never had so much free time to dedicate to watching them (maybe this illustrates how empty my life has become). My one little gripe is the lack of tennis coverage from the BBC: several matches on the opening day, one quick match shown on Tuesday, none Wednesday and Thursday, and then full coverage on Friday (today) when a lot of home interest have been knocked out. Still it’s only a minor issue. I have found myself avidly watching archery matches, swimming races, squash matches… and avoiding weightlifting and boxing, of course. In my opinion the games are entertaining, pretty competitive, and still relevant today. I am now tempted to get tickets for Glasgow 2014, as well as London 2012.

Coffee Coffee Coffee

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There is an episode of Gilmore Girls (yes, I am an unashamed fan of that show) where Lorelei (played by Lauren Graham) runs into a coffee shop demanding “Coffee coffee coffee!” and as a caffeine enthusiast this is how I feel every morning. Does this make me a coffee addict? And is this really a bad thing?

A quick search of the web and you can find numerous website proclaiming the dangers of coffee (and a few listing its benefits). This BBC article from 2007 outlines the perils of drinking excessive amounts of coffee: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6945697.stm, from restlessness and nervousness to delirium and seizures if you really over do it, but would anyone actually drink the necessary 20+ cups a day to experience these effects? And is there anything wrong in having 3 or 4 mugs a day?

I love lattes, americanos, cappucinos, espressos (should I be saying cappucini etc?), filtered coffee, cafetiere coffee, even instant coffee; I will drink them all. My flatmate and I in my last year of university co-owned 6 cafetieres and come the end of the day they all needed washing up, which says it all really. Yet I believe I could give coffee up if I had to, I would miss it but I know I am capable of it. There are days when I don’t partake of a cup of delicious java (or even mediocre coffee), but I don’t experience withdrawal symptoms… so I guess despite sometimes jokingly referring to myself as a “coffee addict” I am not one, as I display no real signs of addiction. That does not rule out me developing one in the future, and this is where the well known mantra ‘everything in moderation’ rears its mundane head.

So what leads to immoderate consumption of coffee? I must admit I scoffed when I heard a few years back that Robbie Williams had checked himself into rehab for a caffeine addiction, but maybe I was too quick to judge. Like all drugs, an addiction to caffeine can really mess a person up, so perhaps it’s time we took it more seriously. Having said that, I know that tomorrow morning I’m going to wake up, stagger into the kitchen and make myself a cup of coffee, and, most importantly, enjoy drinking it immensely.

[Currently I fill my cafetiere with Taylor of Harrogate’s Brasilia blend, however my favourite brand has got to be Lavazza]

‘You ought to write’; they had one and all said it to him from the first; and he fancied he might have begun sooner if he had not been urged on by their watchful fondness. Everybody wanted him to write - everybody had decided he ought to, that he would, that he must be persuaded to; and the incessant imperceptible pressure of encouragement - the assumption of those about him that because it would be good for him to write he must naturally be able to - acted on his restive nerves as a stronger deterrent than disapproval.

—Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country