Food on Friday ~ Barbecue
A barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start.
It’s officially summer, (well according to most people), and that’s a time to cook food out of doors. Barbecues, are more an excuse to have a social gathering than a way of cooking food, especially in America. Menus and recipes should perhaps be chosen with that in mind.
You know what? I’m terrible at barbecues.
Something traditionally American for an American barbecue; sticky bourbon ribs. Except this time it’s from English girl Amanda Wren-Greenwood living in France, and her blog Chez la Rêve Français. This is a 2 hour recipe, but I’m certain the results will be worth it.
Sticky Bourbon Ribs
Now, from another English girl Petra, and her blog Food Eat Love, we have; a perfect day for a smoking barbecue. You know what? All my attempts at a barbecue smoke too much….
A Perfect Day for a Smoking Barbecue
at Cooking Up The Pantry gives us a dish that will take some time, but it’s traditionally English and will wow! your guests; barbecued leg of lamb with lots of garlic and rosemary. I love rosemary ~ the herb I mean.
Barbecued Leg of Lamb with Lots of Garlic and Rosemary
Here’s something we probably wouldn’t have at a barbecue in England; braised bbq beef sandwich. This is from Elise Bauer at Simply Recipes and it simply looks delicious.
Braised BBQ Beef Sandwich
I know that you like collections, so here’s a great collection from Country Living; 50+ grilling recipes for an epic summer cookout. This collection includes this very interesting coffee and brown sugar coated skirt steak. Hmmmmm.
Coffee and Brown Sugar Coated Skirt Steak
One of the ‘must haves’ at any barbecue is some great salads. Chungah at Damn Delicious has this light and delicious looking shrimp cobb salad with cilantro lime vinaigrette. Shrimp, bacon bits, and avocado… what’s not to like.
Shrimp Cobb Salad with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette
Heather Christo always makes a great looking salads and appetisers. For those of you who like collections she has 10 of the best amazing healthy huge salads, including this seared tuna with chilli and mango cilantro ginger vinaigrette. Fabulous.
Seared Tuna with Chilli and Mango Cilantro Vinaigrette
And for something to drink at your BBQ, I give you the 10 best lip-smackingly food margarita recipes. (Is lip-smakingly even a word?)
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there are also some great barbecue salads
in last week’s Food on Friday
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Scenes on Sunday ~ Rocks
I know a cascading goddess who is soft for rock.
there is something of a paradox about rocks
building a pleasing stack to photograph locks
an ethical contemplative memory deep in my soul
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
I use a Panasonic Lumix
it’s a great pocket / purse camera
failure to communicate
Women are often very difficult to impress.
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my words are banal, she’s heard it all before
yet my words are very true, I really do care for her
I’m pouring my whole heart away, wish I could find more
memorable originality, honesty, sincere Shakespearian prose
to convince her that I’m not just some other lustful jerk in a bar
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Food on Friday ~ Salads
Early Summer Salad Days
The sky is bright blue, the breeze is warm, and the sea is as calm as it gets. Even here in England it’s warm enough to be thinking salads for lunch and dinner, rather than something hot, filling, and comforting.
For the busy independent lady there are a lot of upsides to making a salad for dinner; it’s a healthy option, salads are usually quick and easy, and you can have some for dinner and take some to work for lunch the following day(s). The major downside is that you may have to go to the store more often to stock up on really fresh ingredients ~ however, if you learn to shop fast and efficiently, (like a cool guy goes to the store), than that’s not such a big issue.
These dishes are mostly vegetarian, vegan, and maybe gluten-free.
Talking about sunshine; from Averie Cooks California girl Averie Sunshine has this pink and purple potato salad. This looks so ‘pretty’, and isn’t is so much nicer to have a visually attractive dish? A really good potato salad is such a versatile dish, and this one looks so much better than an average, run-of-the-mill potato salad.
Pink and Purple Potato Salad
Averie also has a pina colada fruit salad for us for dessert. Personally, if I was making this I’d eschew the idea on using n0n-alcoholic pina colada mix and splash in some booze.
Pina Colada Fruit Salad
Next, from Cookie and Kate, (Cookie is the dog), we have this quinoa broccoli slaw with honey-mustard dressing. This is vegetarian, but I have no idea if quinoa or almonds are gluten-free. I think this dish would be great alongside Averie Sunshine’s pink and purple potato salad.
Quinoa Broccoli Slaw with Honey-Mustard Dressing
I know you guys love recipe collections, and this week we have a collection from Cookie and Kate, 20 epic salad recipes ~ including this cool Thai mango salad with peanut dressing.
Thai Mango Salad with Peanut Dressing
From English girl Petra at Food Eat Love we have this most excellent and truly amazing Tasmanian olive leaf tea jelly tricolore salad. This recipe isn’t vegan because we use mozzarella cheese, but I guess you could substitute that for a vegan cheese.
Tasmanian Olive Leaf Tea Jelly Tricolore Salad
Andrea at Cooking with a Wallflower has spring green tossed with beets, avocado, tomato, blood oranges to give us roasted beet salad with blood orange balsamic vinaigrette.
Roasted Beet Salad with Blood Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette
From Jessica Merchant at how sweet it is, we have this dead easy and very tasty marinated mozzarella melon salad. Remember, if you want to make a vegan dish there are plenty of vegan ‘cheeses’ to choose from.
Marinated Mozzarella melon Salad
Finally for this week, from Heather Christo, how about this gorgeous nectarine panzella salad. You can make this in less than a half-hour, it’s vegan and gluten free. What’s not to like.
Nectarine Panzella Salad
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Thank you to all the great cooks featured
in this week’s Food on Friday.
jack collier
jack collier7@talktalk.net
Soldiers on the Streets of England
Modern Women know full well their own worth.
On Monday night a disaffected Muslim named Salman Ramadan Abedi detonated a bomb in the Foyer of Manchester Arena as people were leaving a concert by American singer Ariana Grande. The audience had largely consisted of young women and girls. The innocent dead amounted to 22 souls and some 59 were seriously injured.
Terrorism is a psychological warfare. Terrorists try to change our behaviour by creating fear, uncertainty, and division in society. ~ Patrick J. Kennedy
The passage of the hours since that cowardly attack has not brought any peace to the hearts of the English. The mood in England today is one of sombre outrage. There is no longer much forgiveness, acceptance, nor willingness to understand the Muslim minority living among us. I have no doubt that in the months to come new laws will be enacted to curtail the activities of the 3,000 or so known jihadists living in England. It is only a matter of time before internet access is restricted for some people. The Army is already patrolling the streets of our major cities to support armed police.
The presence of armed soldiers on the streets is no mere token gesture. These soldiers are not the tourist-friendly Guards Regiments in their red tunics we are accustomed to seeing on the streets of London. These soldiers are battle ready and fully equipped to kill. The Army has already deployed around 1,000 heavily armed personnel to guard London landmarks including Parliament and Buckingham Palace. Some of these men are from elite units such as the Paratroop Regiment. Soldiers in camouflage combat gear and carrying loaded SA-80 rifles are now patrolling alongside officers of the Metropolitan Police. There will never be any official comment, but there is no doubt that elements of the United Kingdom’s Special Forces will be on alert.
This is all part of what was meant to be a secret government plan called Operation Temperer, which can put up to 5,000 armed troops on the streets in response to a major terrorist threat.
It is now axiomatic that certain elements of the Muslim community in the United Kingdom are a real and present danger to the rest of society, especially to young women. The sadly disgusting fact is that Muslim men regard free, liberated, educated western women and girls as third class citizens, little better than whores. This deliberate attack on young women who had attended a concert given by a sexually confident female pop star is a symptom of the hatred Muslim men feel towards western women.
Muslims are responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime towards women including; forced marriage, sexual slavery, honour killings, sexual assault, rape and the grooming of young girls who are lead into prostitution. It is reprehensible that many of these crimes have been ignored or downplayed by officialdom in the name of racial and religious tolerance.
In the United Kingdom today our politicians and senior government officials are now protected by armed troops, from some of the Army’s elite units. Meanwhile the rest of us, we ordinary people are told to carry on as normal. These are not normal times. We ordinary people are angry and afraid. The left-leaning liberal politicians let these Islamic animals into our country, and now they are protecting themselves by putting soldiers on the streets.
I have a question for these politicians and government officials. You have the Army protecting you, but who is protecting us?
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
I rise with the dawn
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does it make you feel good
to know that you
have power over me?
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Terror in Manchester
Slaughter of the Innocents.
The 21,000 seat venue had been packed for the concert and the blast was in the foyer between the arena and nearby Victoria Railway Station. The explosion tore apart innocent children and young people leaving the gig. So far 22 are confirmed dead and 59 more injured. Ariana Grande has told of her horror and sorrow on twitter.
Manchester has a large Muslim population, and this brutal suicide bombing has all the hallmarks of a Muslim / ISIS terrorist attack on innocents.
There is no understanding the mentality or motives of vile monsters who perpetrate these atrocities. However, by instigating these terror attacks, a few home-grown religious fanatics will only stir up hatred against the entire Muslim community ~ and perhaps that is their perverted intention.
I know this area of England very well indeed. My sympathies are with the victims and their families. I have no compassion for the people who made this cowardly attack.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Why walk 5 miles a day, every day?
When it comes to walking, it’s all good.
In case you hadn’t heard, there is a health and fitness trend that says walking 10,000 paces a day is good for your body, mind, and soul. For me, ten-thousand paces equates to about 5 miles on level ground, and will usually take me the best part of two hours to accomplish. Which begs the question; is it really worth my while to devote two hours a day, every day, just walking to somewhere, or even to nowhere and back again?
Well, actually, yes it is, and these are the reasons why.
Let’s start with something scientific and anatomical ~ blood flow in the legs. The circulation in our feet and legs only works because we use our calf muscles, and because of non-return valves in the veins. If we sit still, we have bugger-all blood flow in our feet and legs ~ which is why there’s a risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis during long flights. If you sit at a desk for 8 hours a day, you are in danger of developing poor circulation, which is nasty.
So if you want to have healthy circulation, one of the things you can do is just get out of your chair, and walk.
My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She’s ninety-seven now, and we don’t know where the heck she is. ~ Ellen DeGeneres
Walking more, whether it’s to go somewhere, or for leisure, or part of your health and fitness programme is an easy way to be more active without all that unpleasant sweating, huffing, and puffing that comes with some other forms of exercise. A brisk walk is classed as moderate-intensity activity, and does count towards your recommended 150 minutes of weekly exercise. Walking is a form of exercise that’s easy to fit into your daily routine, for example instead of taking the elevator up a couple of floors, take the stairs.
If you’re not used to taking much exercise, then don’t start off by trying to walk 5 miles. The Mayo Clinic recommends that you add 1,000 steps a week to your baseline average. This means you are going to need a pedometer, and the first thing you should do is measure how many steps you take in an average day. Very Well says that if you are an average American you will most likely be walking 5,000 steps in an entire day, (HA! I don’t believe a word of that, I’m certain the average Californian walks about 2,500 steps a day.)
The respected Mayo Clinic is very keen on walking as a form of exercise and even has a 12-week walking schedule based on work done by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
The benefits of walking include improving your blood pressure, energy, happiness, mental health, skin tone, sleep, stamina, strength, stress levels ~ as well as reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, joint problems, obesity, a stroke, and nasty diseases in general. On top of that you are going to look and feel a hell of a lot better. The key to walking for health and fitness is to build walking into your daily schedule.
These days I am keen on meditation and mindfulness, but I find it difficult to meditate in the traditional fashion. So, I meditate during yoga, and I also practice a form of walking meditation. I have never been taught, nor led through yoga meditation or walking meditation, these are mindfulness practices which just came naturally to me.
All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
All of us should also do some strength exercises, at least twice a week, particularly as we get older. Personally I like to do some yoga, but I also add an isometric workout into my daily walk. This two-for the price of one routine means that I make the most use of the couple of hours I spend in the fresh air and sunshine, (we sometimes get sunshine in England).
You don’t have to believe me that walking 10,000 steps a day is a good idea. Just google 10,000 steps and you will come across loads of articles by people such as the well-respected Dr Mercola who say that walking 10,000 steps a day is a basic requirement for good health and fitness.
In life a couple of things now scare me; having a stroke and developing dementia. If I can improve my chances of avoiding these life-destroying conditions, then a couple of hours walking every day seems a small price to pay.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Scenes on Sunday ~ Sand, Sea, and Sun
Life’s a Beach.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
arachnids
A Spider sewed at Night
Without a Light
Upon an Arc of White
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If Ruff it was of Dame
Or Shroud of Gnome
Himself himself inform
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Of Immortality
His Strategy
Was Physiognomy
Emily Dickinson
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Unlike a close friend of mine,
I am not a big fan of spiders,
nor scorpions, nor octopuses.
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
