Year: 2010
July 22, 2010

Beer in the Butt Chicken

While the kitchen is being worked on, I have been making more use of my Weber BBQ Kettle. Last night I cooked a couple of burgers for my tea, but not wanting to waste a kettle full of charcoal, when I was finished, I moved the coals to the side, and put in a whole chicken on this contraption.

The idea is this – you open a small can of beer, and pour off half of it (hopefully into a glass). You then place the half-full can in the centre of the roaster. You sit the chicken on top, so that the can goes into the chicken cavity. This means that the bird is upright, with the legs hanging away from the body, so everything cooks well, while the beer (or, in my case, cider) inside heats up and helps keep the bird moist from the inside.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>Beer in the Butt Chicken</span>
July 22, 2010

Kitchen Progress

Tim and Nev have been with me all this week, and all the new units are in now, the sink is installed and plumbed, and all of the worktops are in place. There is still plenty to do (including tiling and painting), but already the kitchen is looking absolutely amazing, and I can see that I have almost doubled my usable cupboard space. Which, of course is the whole point of the exercise.

Something I didn’t mention before is in preparation for this work, I naturally had to empty out the kitchen of everything – pots and pans, crockery, cutlery, appliances and groceries. I never realised that I had so much in the kitchen – I have two large portable shelf units in the lounge stacked high my bookcase is crammed with tins and packets, and my conservatory has 4 large storage boxes full of bits and bobs.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>Kitchen Progress</span>
July 19, 2010

Goodbye, Kitchen, Hello

July 16, 2010

Mongrels

Perhaps because it is on BBC Three, I haven’t heard much chatter about Mongrels – sometimes it seems as if I am the only one watching it.

If you haven’t seen it, it is a puppet show for adults (adult topics and swearing) about the animals that live “behind the bins”. It is also very funny. We are currently half way through the first series of 8 episodes, but all episodes shown so far are available on iPlayer.

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July 8, 2010

Dirty Harry Meets Rain Man

July 5, 2010

Making it easy for the phisher king

July 4, 2010

More on cold teas and tisanes

Last week I posted about sun tea, and then learned of the possible health issues with leaving flavoured water in the sun all day.

Subsequently, I tried ‘s suggestion of the fridge method, simply putting a jug of cold water with a few teabags in the fridge overnight. I found that this method worked well with both tea and roibus, and the resulting drink was nice and clear, and clean tasting.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>More on cold teas and tisanes</span>
July 3, 2010

On the glasses front…

I discovered http://www.glassesdirect.co.uk/, who not only do online glasses including varifocals (like many other companies, it seems), but will actually allow you to pick up to 4 frames to receive as a 7 day “home trial”. Frames come with plain lenses, of course, but I think it’s an excellent idea.

They also do reglazing of existing glasses, and cheaper than Boots. However, I have decided to hang on to the (non-varifocal) specs I was thinking of getting reglazed as varifocal, as it seems such a waste – the lenses in them are still my prescription, as it is only the closeup/reading part of my eyesight that has changed.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>On the glasses front…</span>
July 3, 2010

More blogging please

I have been doing stuff around the house today – essentially packing all my books away, so the kitchen cupboards and shelves can be transferred onto the lounge bookshelves, in preparation for the great kitchen tear-down. However, I then need to put the books (and other junk) somewhere, which necessitated a major rearrangement of my box room to Tardis-like capacity. (Regular readers will know that I now have storage space in the loft, but that is for *organised* storage.

The only problem with this plan is that I have been at it all day, solidly. Despite a couple of attempts to be distracted, it turns out that almost everyone else is too busy today to blog (thanks to Paul, though!).

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>More blogging please</span>
July 2, 2010

A Game Of Two Halves

I had the day off today, and it was a day of appointments, the dentist in the morning, and the optician in the afternoon.

I wasn’t looking forward to the dentist – I never do. In December, I had a couple of teeth out (having broken one badly), and was told to let the gum heel for a couple of months before going back. With one thing and another, I’ve let 7 months pass, so I finally went back.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>A Game Of Two Halves</span>
June 30, 2010

Berry, berry good!

A couple of years ago, I planted a thornless blackberry and two raspberry canes. I didn’t expect anything from the the first year, but last year I was hoping for some fruit, but was mostly disappointed.

This year, one of my raspberries is heaving with fruit. The other plant is a later variety, so there is hope for that yet. Meanwhile the blackberry is absolutely covered in flowers and small forming fruits.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>Berry, berry good!</span>
June 30, 2010

Sun Tea