Sunday, 23 October 2011

Moving stuff around

Some of you are familiar with my other blog, "Do I smell burning?" It's been abandoned for months. As this blog has a bit of everything, I'll gradually move all the recipes here, then close the other blog.

PUMPKIN, CARROT AND BEETROOT SOUP

Pumpkins are plentiful at this time of the year so here's a soup that will give you a bumper dose of the important anti-oxidant beta carotene. It's delicious!

Ingredients

Pumpkin, diced
Carrots
Beetroots
Trimmed leeks
A couple of potatoes
Dry white wine
Paprika
Chicken or vegetable bouillon
Onion and garlic
A very small amount of grated ginger
Salt & pepper to taste.

Preparation

Dice onions, chop garlic, cut all vegetables into chunks. I didn't give exact amounts of anything, you can vary according to taste and how much soup you're making. In a large pan, fry the onions until golden. Add the veggies, mix well, add the garlic, paprika, ginger, white wine and enough bouillon for the amount of vegetables. Adjust seasoning. Simmer for about 1 hour. Check that everything is cooked, whizz the lot in a blender, re-heat gently, taste and adjust seasoning and serve. A sprig of parsley or basil gives each bowl an elegant look.

Saturday, 22 October 2011

Meeting your wife's needs

Mrsgunka strikes again:


After 35 years of marriage, a husband and wife came for counseling. When asked what the problem was, the wife went into a passionate, painful tirade listing every problem they had ever had in the years they had been married.

On and on and on: neglect, lack of intimacy, emptiness, loneliness, feeling unloved and unlovable, an entire laundry list of unmet needs she had endured.

Finally, after allowing this for a sufficient length of time, the therapist got up, walked around the desk and after asking the wife to stand, embraced and kissed her passionately as her husband watched with a raised eyebrow.The woman shut up and quietly sat down as though in a daze. The therapist turned to the husband and said, 'this is what your wife needs at least 3 times a week. Can you do this?'

'Well, I can drop her off here on Mondays and Wednesdays, but on Fridays, I fish.'

Thank you, Mrsgunka.

The question about the blog roll


It looks like the readers are divided on the topic of the blog roll. I'm not one to make a mountain of a mole hill, so I'm quite happy to reach a compromise and make life easier. I've added a simplified political blog roll, showing only the name of the blog and when it was last updated. The link will take you to the home page, where you can navigate the blog to your heart's content. In order to keep the sidebar uncluttered, only the five most recently updated blogs will appear and you'll have to click on "show all" to see the rest. I have also "weeded" the list a little bit, so only the active blogs were included. If you wish to access the original list, there's always Palingates, where it remains unchanged.

I created a separate list of blogs that I think are more in keeping with the ethos of "What time is o'clock," so we can separate pleasure from politics.

Now that we have blog rolls, I have removed the poll. [I seem to have turned into a poet, the rhymes came so easily. LOL!]

Friday, 21 October 2011

Beauty bursting into life

Long time (quiet) reader of the old blog Susie sent me this truly beautiful video. She was inspired by the gentle atmosphere of the new blog.

Life of flowers from VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.


Thank you, Susie.

It's about time



Back in 2003, there were worldwide protests against the invasion of Iraq. Bush's lapdog Tony ("I want to be like Churchill") Blair ignored over a million people who marched through the streets of London and went ahead with the illegal war. I was there, together with Peter and our son Paul. There were so many people that it took us 6 hours to walk from Waterloo Station to Hyde Park Corner (3 miles).