Silent Sunday – 28th October 2012
Month: October 2012
How I Cooked the Aberdeen Gordonian Best Steak as a Roast
We took home a lovely piece of meat from Andrew Gordon Butchery and Fine Foods and had a lovely and luxurious meal fit for a King and Queen.
Questions that people often ask are around how to roast a joint of meat, or how to cook roast beef properly so I thought I’d write it down.
This piece of meat is a new steak that is sweeping the meat-eating population of Aberdeen off their feet. Tempted to try it, I went a bit further and had a whole roast for our Sunday dinner last week.
This picture shows the Gordonian Best Steak Roast in all it’s glory. It is actually upside down as there’s a layer of fat on the other side that allows the roast to drip juices and keep it moist as it cooks. My pictures are upside down to show the effect of the quality of the rich colour in the beef.
As a tender piece of meat, the roasting time can be slightly shorter and at a slightly higher temperature than a cheaper, or less tender roast of beef.
It’s a truly gorgeous piece of meat that anyone would be proud to have on their table for a cracking and filling meal.
The best way to roast a tender piece of meat is going to be in the oven, and after searing all sides in a pan first.
Tender cuts of meat always do well roasted.
The purpose of the roasting is only to use the fat to cook the roast, simply and with the occasional baste (spooning juices over the top) to help it along.
To seal the roast in, the easiest thing is to use a frying or sauté pan to help seal in the juices and help along the crusty and full of flavour outside of the roast.
While you are preparing and sealing your roast, make sure your oven is on to pre-heat. You want the oven nice and hot before it goes in to be finished.
Make sure your roasting pan is big enough to hold your roast, but not as large as the juices all escape and leave you nothing to baste your roast with as it cooks. You really want enough juices left over to make awesome gravy as a trimming.
Cook a roast in the oven to finish off the process at around 180 – 200 C, or Gas Mark 6 for approximately the following times per pound of meat.
– Rare (15 – 20 minutes)
– Medium (20 – 25 minutes)
– Well Done (25 – 30 minutes)
I cooked my roast for the kids, which needed an extra 20 minutes on top of the cooking time to ensure there was absolutely no pink at all in the meat. I know that isn’t the ideal way to cook, nor the way that butchers or chefs would recommend, but any redness at all and my kids won’t eat it.
For fabulous roasts, they really do need to rest after they’ve been cooked. Once it’s cooked, just put it to the side for about 15 – 30 minutes and cover it very loosely with some tin foil to help keep the heat in. Resting lets the meat reach a more consistent texture and helps the meat to be consistently juicy.
Use the juices left over from roasting to make wickedly tasty gravy and serve with veg, and sides. I have to apologise for the lack of plate pictures on this post, as I took a couple of hurried pictures as the family were so hungry, and neither of them came out.
The meat was fabulous. The roast only had a teensy bit left over at the end of the meal, as the man and kids both had seconds.
I had hoped to have enough to make Gordonian Best Steak Roast luxurious stovies the next day, but alas, my boys cleared too much of it at the first sitting.
The Gallery – Books
I thought I’d join in the Gallery Blog Link Up this week. It’s been a long week and a half off school with the kids, and they’re going a bit stir crazy as they’re grounded. One thing that can always help to diffuse things with the special needs middler is to sit and read a book to him, but not the bread makers bible, obviously. That’s me putting a book out of sight in a hurry I’d guess. I can’ really remember.
It’s all his own choice. Sometimes he’ll let you, and other times he won’t. Our books are more than dog-eared, they’re often trashed and ripped. I grew up to respect and revere books as something special, so accepting damage to books is something I have had to learn to live with.
My kids books don’t get packed away, or sent onto anyone else after my kids are finished with them. They are so well used here, that they end up in the bin if they last. This book has an awful lot to answer for with pre-teen behaviour, I can tell ya.
I think the one advantage of an 11-year-old who can’t read is that the books are read again and again and again and again, and then some more.
I always have a stack of books, even when my Kindle is still full. My mum has a pile of mine that I am waiting to get back, and this is the stack that I am planning on reading next. I’ve managed to have the house bookcase full of work things so now books have nowhere to go. They are in cupboards, drawers and in the bottoms of wardrobes. I am much better at giving my books away and my neighbour always has a stack of ones I’ve not read.
I love my kindle apps, but there are times I just want a good old-fashioned paper book to read.
Misery, Pain and Trauma in the News
Reading the news can be a troublesome event. Before I even open the app, or the newspaper, or even switch on the radio, we’re faced with mostly the stories of the darkest deprivation and the most miserable things that can happen by the worst sorts of people on our planet.
J#m#y S#v#le
This week, the news has spent a lot of time focussing on him and the goings on of abuse at the BBC over the centuries. I did watch the Panorama programme on Monday, and it horrified me. I was by no way reassured that they thought investigating themselves using Panorama would make them look better. I came away disgusted and appalled by the BBC and by many celebrities in our midst, past and present. The fact that it was common knowledge that he was what he was is pretty much sickening.
I’m also astounded at the amount of direct accusations with absolutely no doubt that he did it all. If they are all so sure, why on earth didn’t they step up to the plate years ago?
And the argument of culture doesn’t really add up as it hasn’t ever been acceptable in my lifetime to abuse children in your trust, and I was born in the sixties.
Everywhere is talking about it as if it’s a done deal and yes I find it sickening and vile to have happened at all, but what I am even more disgusted with is what looks like the extent of the enablers.
Those who knew he liked really young girls and didn’t push it. Those who didn’t want to risk their own precious careers to take on the mighty icon of British good that he was seen as. Those who didn’t do background checks (if there were any back then) before giving him unrestricted access to children.
The enablers should all be lined up and answer for the consequences too.
April Jones
I still look every day to see if she has been found. A little girl who did nothing wrong, and was outside her home playing with friends when she was cruelly snatched away. How the families cope I don’t know. Every moment must be a nightmare.
Ben Needham
Back in the news. Police digging up the land where they stayed when he went missing. Will it bring up an answer to the double decade old question. For the family’s sake, I hope so.
Daniel Rigby
The 2-year-old boy whose life was cut short with 91 separate injuries to his body. There are no words.
Dog Fighting
The SSPCA launched an appeal today after a dog was found in Aberdeen with injuries that were likely as a result of illegal dog fights. I listened to the story on Northsound on the way home in the car today with the kids, and I pulled over to hear it all. The poor girl with old injuries, and fresh ones had obviously been either kicked out or managed to escape wherever she was. On one hand I was pleased she is away from wherever she was, but on the other hand, so sad to listen to what her life must have been like.
She had multiple scars to her face and body. About 2 – 3 years old, so still young and living a life of trauma. I was in Huntly a few weeks ago and was advised never to leave my dog alone, even in a garden as there were dog nappers going around. They didn’t know I didn’t live in Huntly, but still. It looks like it is going on everywhere.
People
I do have to remind myself that people who do these things deliberately are in the minority and that people are on the whole, very good.
Has it been a very bad news few weeks, or is it just that the news are reporting more and more of the worst of the worst?
Or are people really getting worse and more selfish and abusive due to our culture?
Who knows, but it certainly is depressing reading.
Kids Make Chicken Fillets Decorative
I decided to let the kids get creative with their supper. They were not liking how it looked on the plate when they got a plateful of Costco Chicken Fillets with some stir fried veg for supper. This is how dads plate looked when it was dished up.
While not impressed, they decided to take presentation into their own hands so I could put it on the blog. So here goes the version of chicken fillets, with stir fried veg, à la Scottish Mum kids.
Infographic: The Story Book World of Sleep
This Infographic by Wooden-Beds.com gives tips on getting to sleep and staying in land of nod. It talks about what sleep is, and how we can get better sleep.
It even mentioned the little used word, somniphobia. If you don’t know what that is, just read on to find out more. It’s a bit like an insomniacs guide to better sleep.
Provided by www.wooden-beds.com
Guest Tutorial: Make a Colourful Autumn Tree Decoration
How to make an Autumn / Winter tree decoration
Unfortunately summer has gone, now it is time to celebrate Autumn and the coming of winter.
Bring some colour to those grey days with this beautiful fun tree decoration craft activity tutorial by Stacey for Cutfoam, which the kids will love making. The tree shape can be a bit tricky to cut out so children may need some help but they can join in sticking on the leaves.
You will need:
Foam sheets of different colours
- Scissors
- Glue
- Pencil and paper
Step 1
Draw a tree shape on to a piece of paper approximately 20cm x 20cm. Then cut out.
Step 2
Draw around the paper template on dark brown foam.
Step 3
Cut out the tree shape and cut a 3cm slit in the bottom.
Step 4
Using the base of your tree as a guide cut out the shape shown. Make a cut in the top so that it will slot in to the bottom of your tree.
Step 5
Cut leaf shapes from green, red, orange, yellow and light brown foam.
Step 6
Glue the leaves to the tree branches.
Step 7
Slot your tree in to the base piece so it stands up.
If your tree does not stand on its own then glue another strip of foam to the back of the trunk and double the thickness of the base piece. This tree would make a lovely centrepiece for any dining table or mantle piece which the kids can show off to the rest of the family.
This tutorial was brought to you by Cutfoam, the cushion foam specialists.
If you would like a fun tutorial for your blog please contact Stacey.lowe13 (at) yahoo dot co dot uk
Slow Cooked Steak & Potato Hotpot
For the steak and potato hotpot recipe, I’ve used Diced Steak (Round Steak) from Aberdeen Angus cattle. We really like the rich meaty taste of the Aberdeen Angus, so I knew this was going to be a great meal before I started out.
I didn’t add any fancy herbs, spices or taste altering ingredients. I decided just to go with the flavour of the meat itself, with only some salt and pepper to help the vegetables along. The result was a fabulously rich and healthy warming hotpot that I know I am going to make several variations of in future.
Slow Cooked Steak & Potato Hotpot with Diced Steak from a great butcher.
Ingredients
- 1.8 kg Diced Steak Round Steak from Andrew Gordon Butchery and Fine Foods
- 2 Onions Finely Chopped
- 1 Leek Finely Chopped
- 2 Carrots Chopped
- 1 Stock Pot Use Fresh or Concentrated Stock
- 3 Potatoes Sliced
- Salt & Pepper To Taste
Instructions
- Switch on the slow cooker. Add half a litre of boiled water, and leave it to heat while you prepare the ingredients.
- In a frying pan, lightly brown the steak, which should only take a few minutes to do, then put the steak into the slow cooker.
- Lightly fry the onions and leek in a frying pan. I add the carrots for about 30 seconds.
- Add the vegetables to the slow cooker, along with the sliced potatoes, and another half litre of water.
- Leave to simmer for 8 hours on slow.
- Thicken gravy if necessary using bisto or cornflour.
Funky Foodies October & WINNER for September 2012
STAR RECIPE WINNER – for September is a tie. I let my kids choose their favourites this week, and they pondered for a while, before saying they couldn’t decide between Foodie Quine’s Cake Pops and Susan Mann’s Patatas. In the end, I have to declare it a joint draw, and they both get a mention (and a medal).
What the kids said..
Foodie Quine (Twitter @foodiequine) “Her cake pops are better than yours mum, because she used Dairy Milk”
Susan K Mann (Twitter @susankmann) “They look like fine stovies”
THE OCTOBER FUNKY FOODIE LINKY IS OPEN
- Is a monthly linkie, which will close on the last day of the month.
- A medal will be awarded for the Star Recipe every month, and the fabulous trophy in the blog badge will be awarded at the end of a whole year of the Funky Foodies. If you want to find out more about it, read here.
- All you have to do is share as many recipes from your own blog a month as you’d like. If you struggle to add your recipe, send me your link and I’ll add it for you.
- Try to pop around and share the comment love with other funky foodies. We all like a little love and might come across some fabulous recipes.
If you want to host the linkie on your own blog as a blog hop, get the code here :
Simply add the link to your recipe on your own blog, and share your latest recipe with everyone taking part. If you don’t want to miss the linkie being opened, subscribe to RSS or by email in the blog header.
I’ll add recipes of mine to share, although I don’t count in the recipe challenge.
Feel free to copy the badge or use the html in the widget at the bottom of the page to add the small blog badge to your own blog / post. It makes finding you easier for other funky foodies.
If you want to add the blog hop to your own website, get the InLinkz code and add the monthly code to a text widget or a post in html.
Country Kids & The New Allotment
For Country Kids this week, I thought a picture of the fledgling family allotment would be a good idea. The man’s friend has had an allotment for a while, and the one next to his became available. It’s not much money a year, so he decided to take the plunge and take on the overgrown eyesore next to his pal.
As the man helped his pal clear his allotment, he now has to return the favour on ours.
Some tree roots needed dug out, and old carpets seem to have been sewn into the land, and need digging up. So, the pair of them along with 5 kids descended on the patch of over – run ground and got stuck in.
The two smallest kids were more interested in work watching, so I don’t think they did very much, but the bigger kids all had to take their turn at the spade. I am hoping that they will be lovely and tired tonight.
There’s a musty old shed that needs taking down, so I’m sure that will be replaced by a new shed he builds himself after a while. In the meantime, he is using his friend’s one which is much better.
Child Abduction, Fear and Abuse. Help find April Jones.
The news this week has not been good. Along with countless others, I’ve spent a lot of this week refreshing my news app on the phone to see if little April Jones had been found yet. Sadly, she’s not been able to find her way home to her parents, and even more sadly, there has been criticism levelled at the family for allowing April to play outside at 7 pm.
Let’s put this into perspective. The family live in a small community surrounded by open countryside, and where everyone knows everyone else. The kind of community that I grew up in.
I wouldn’t let my children out to play late where we live, but I did growing up, and in a community like the Jones live in, I would have happily let my kids out the front at 7 pm. This is key. April was outside, beside her home, and picked up by someone she must have trusted. What difference does the time make?
And pushing the criticism further away, we are really against it when we realise we have to protect our kids from people they know and trust. I read a blog post yesterday, kindly sent along by Claire Jessiman, The Foodie Quine, that really tells it like it is. Checklist Mommy from the US, talks about “Tricky People.”
She says “Tricky People are the New Strangers.” I really would recommend that everyone who feels the slightest bit anxious about abductions and child abuse to go and read it. It’s also quite light hearted for such a serious topic, which is rather endearing.
In reality, the people who groom kids tend not to be strangers in the eyes of the young. Checklist Mommy does the same thing that I do. She tells her kids to go to the nearest Mum with kids for help if they get lost, or something goes wrong. It’s not actually very likely that they’re going to come across a policeman when they need it. I’ve told my kids that for a long time, as it seems to be the path of least danger in my eyes.
Checklist Mommy goes further. She talks about Patti Fitzgerald of Safely Ever After. A passionate woman with a vision that we all do need to listen to.
Realistically, our kids have a higher chance of being abused by someone they know than being abducted by a stranger. The shock and horror when children like April Jones are plucked from the bosom of their loving family can cause us to react badly when we consider our own choices in how to approach our chats with our kids.
One of the things she says, that struck a chord with me was that nobody is going to offer to babysit for free so we can spend time to ourselves. It really is telling that people don’t want to babysit for the good our own health.
Being suspicious of every adult around our kids is probably a healthy way to go, but we do have to balance that with being sensible. Looking out for oddly given gifts and special treatment is just good parenting. If the warning signs are making you uneasy, it’s perhaps time to make a difference.
The red flags and warning tips at Safety Ever After are really good advice. We could do with a little of that kind of advice coming through our schools. Sadly, we only seem to have stranger danger alerts. How much are our kids missing about the dangers that exist for them, how will they learn that they have to take precautions with ALL adults, and not just strangers?
At the end of this all, social media is powerful. An abducted child has a high chance of being killed within the first three hours of the abduction. It was about three hours between April being abducted and the first social media appeals for help. Lost Kidz is a personal Amber Alert system. It means that the news of an abduction can get out quicker, and share the information with people who can begin to watch out for unusual signs in the area.
I’ve had the odd heart pounding moment when I’ve lost sight of a toddler, but how that feels when the child does not come back after a few minutes, I have no idea. I do know that many children up and down our country this week will have been hugged tighter at bedtime.
The Lost Kiza website says:
“The Lost Kidz App has been developed to enable parents to send out an alert to other parents in the area if their child goes missing. The alert includes a current photo and any relevant information about the child, allowing an anxious parent to recruit the help of everyone in the vicinity to reunite the parent with their child.”
I have downloaded the app. I think this could be a powerful social media intervention. I like the fact that it has a four star rating already. I like the fact that a lost child can be reported quickly, and the word spread.
Jersey based Stephen Fern created the app after watching a TV documentary about the abduction of Jaycee Lee Delgado – its created big waves across America, and is spreading across the world. Eyes immediately looking out for a child in danger.
I’ll continue to refresh my news screen, and hope that April and her family are re-united again. It’s been a hard week for all parents to cope with the raw fear of abduction, but for April’s parents, this must be a living, walking nightmare.
Best wishes to April and I hope she finds her way home soon.
Chocolate is GOOD FOR YOU
Unwrapping a lovely gift for my birthday, I eagerly opened the layers while anticipating a nice box of perfume or a little trinket. Three faces beaming with delight stood in front of me, and I kept the smile frozen on my face as the last layer came adrift, to the sight of my favourite bar of chocolate – a HUGE one. My heart sank to my boots and I instantly fought to find words to thank them, and give them all a huge kiss for. Inside, I felt like weeping at the thought of another two inches on my hips.
Opening it up right away, I snapped sections off and handed the kids all one each. They ran for little plastic bags from the kitchen and dropped their slabs into protective wrapping before slinking off into the sunset. I was relieved that I had managed to hand out so much of the bar.
Is chocolate really that bad for us, or is it just that people don’t want us to actually enjoy something that does something with the endorphins in our brains that makes us think we’ve done a 12 mile run. How have I managed to give myself such a guilt trip over eating one thing that I really do enjoy?
The guilt comes on with one square or ten squares. If I eat it, I feel annoyed with myself, and I don’t think I am alone in that.
Why is chocolate good for us?
The Guardian reported that “A study by the German Institute of Human nutrition found that flavanols from cocoa boost the body’s supply of nitric oxide, which helps to lower blood pressure.” I take that to mean eating chocolate is not all bad, even if it’s not dark chocolate. One point to me. By eating one square of regular chocolate a day, could I really be reducing my risk of stroke or heart attack? That sounds like a nice prescription.
They reported the study from the European Heart Journal that flavanols in cocoa are the reason for the reduced blood pressure, and strokes could be reduced by the increase of blood around the brain.
1,568 people were studied, of which, 57% ate milk chocolate, 24% ate dark and 2% ate white chocolate.
Chocolate to excess!
Sadly, the study showed that the benefits were from eating a smallish amount of chocolate as part of the daily diet. I am more convinced that it would be healthier to have just a few squares a day, but that isn’t easy to do when it’s just sitting there, looking at you and begging to be eaten.
Yes, chocolate is very high in calories, with upwards of 500 calories per hundred grams, so it’s not something that can be eaten without any thought at all. We all know the damage that eating too many treats can do to our bodies, but some of us just can’t stop.
Why do we crave sweet things ?
Imagine a world where someone with foresight and creative ability found a safe way to avoid sugar cravings. I, along with my craving affected sisters, would instantly transform them into a being of ever lasting hero worship, making them an overnight billionaire, and more famous than Mrs and Mrs Beckham.
In the real world, we have to do what we can.
Giving in to a sugar craving can send us into a downward spiral where the need to have something sweet takes over our lives. We satisfy that need with some sugar and our bodies tell us to eat some more. I have no idea why some of our bodies seem to work so sadly against us, but it is a constant fight to retain some semblance of normality and reducing the sugar need.
How to avoid sugar cravings.
A chocolate bar can be anything up to about 50% (and more) just of sugar.
It’s all about understanding the carbs !!!! I know this, yet I still struggle, but it’s good to remind myself. The good carbs will help us keep sugar cravings to a minimum. Starches like vegetables and cereals do this by breaking down the carbs slowly, and not allowing the blood sugar to get to abnormal levels.
Some tricks to try and help reduce cravings are:
- Look at the food we eat. Processed food tends to be quite high in refined sugars, and might be hidden under names like, lactose, dextrose, fructose etc.
- If you drink tea and coffee and use sugar, gradually cut down the amount of sugar you use, until you can stop altogether. It really doesn’t take long before the taste of a hot drink with sugar will turn your stomach.
- In general, white flour and rice has been processed. Try to replace them with whole grain versions. Do this by mixing the white with whole grain until you get the taste for it.
- Try to eat regularly. Skipping meals can make us more hungry when we do start to eat, and drop our blood sugar levels to increase cravings. I struggle with this one as I am fine until I start eating in a day. If I could just stop eating, like an alcoholic can just stop drinking, then I’d have no problem with controlling my weight.
- Eat fruit and vegetables to replace sugary snacks. Common sense, but I find there are days when I just can’t get the fruit I would like.
- I’ve seen the recommendations to use a sugar substitute. All I can say about that is “bleurgh.” I’d rather do without than add a substitute. I’ve used Agave Syrup and Stevia for the kids and cooking quite a bit. They don’t seem to notice, so I’ll carry on with that.
Chocolate is GOOD FOR YOU?
Perhaps if I can change my mindset into thinking and believing that chocolate really is good for me, it will lose the love / hate relationship I now have with it. I want to enjoy eating it, and be able to control how much of a bar I eat.
My new mantra…
Chocolate is good for you, chocolate is good for you, chocolate is good for you, chocolate is good for you, chocolate IS good for you.
For your dry potato, look for Kerrs Pink, September onwards.
My nana used to say it to me, I’m sure I heard my mam say it too. We were from…
This is the first recipe I've used in my new breadmaker and the family are all loving it!