richard vodden's blog

Take the Who Should You Vote For? England quiz

Labour				20
Liberal Democrat				20
Green				12
UK Independence	-14
Conservative	-14

You expected: LIB

Your recommendation: Labour/Liberal Democrat

Click here for more details about these results

This is even easier and faster than my last post. Astonishingly enough! For this delightfully creamy pasta effort for two people you will require:

Enough Spaghetti for 2 people (4oz or whatever that is in metric)
8 spring onions
About 120g of Gorgonzola ( the piccante variety is my favourite)
2 tablespoons of double cream (substitute 0% fat Greek yoghurt if you must)
2 tablespoons White Wine (I like a slightly acidic Sauvignon Blanc for this – but anything will do)
Butter
Salt
Pepper
A small bunch of chives.

Set off the pasta – cook it according to the instructions on the packet. Naturally Spaghetti isn’t the only option, but this is a thin sauce so choose a fine pasta. Linguine would be awesome.

Meanwhile heat a frying pan – non stick if that’s your style, I used my incredible “de Buyer” carbon steel pan bought for me by my wife. Its never seen a non stick coating in its life, yet nothing has ever stuck to it. Melt a knob of butter and throw in the chopped spring onions. Keep the pan at a low heat and let the spring onions soften – don’t let them colour. If the pan is low enough this should take about 5 minutes and should make barely a sizzle.

Add to the spring onions the cheese, but break it up before you add it to the pan. Let it melt slowly – again this takes about 5 minutes. Stir it a bit and add the cream and the wine. Bring it to a simmer and then season with salt and pepper.

By now the pasta should be cooked. The Italians get terribly exciting about adding the pasta to the sauce and not the sauce to the pasta. This is all well and good, but my pan isn’t big enough of all that pasta – so I added the pasta to the sauce (having drained it) and then gave it the stir of its life. Spaghetti is quite rugged stuff, so its not going to get damaged.

Finally split the dinner between two bowls. This is surprisingly filling for something which tastes so light and the cheese, despite being the dominant flavour, really doesn’t overpower things. It matches the rest of the bottle of wine beautifully.

I stumbled across a wonderful and very easy pasta dish this evening. This works with any pasta, but works best with long pasta like spaghetti, linguine or tagliatelle.

150g pasta (e.g. tagliatelle)
1 shallot – finely chopped
1 garlic clove – finely chopped
1 courgette – grated
knob of butter (haha – I said knob)
tablespoon of capers
salt and pepper
handful of parsley
75g of Parmesan – finely grated

This is really very simple. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet (or if you’re hardcore and made it yourself, then cook it how you’re ‘sposed to). Whilst the pasta is cooking, heat a fairly large frying pan with a touch of oil and before it gets too hot add the shallot, the garlic and the courgette. Let them gently fry for about 5 minutes, siring occasionally. Finally add the capers, the Parmesan and the parsley and stir for a minute or two. Drain the Pasta, add to the sauce, and serve immediately. Serves 2.

Comparing Dutchy Original with Waitrose All Butter, our exclusive team say 4 to nill that Waitrose win.

Dutchy original were acknowledged for their smell, however the texture of the pastry and a general lack of flavour let them down. It was felt that Waitrose offered a better filling to pasty balance and on the whole a better quality of both ingredients.

I strongly suggest that nobody every buys a Wharfedale DV832B set top box. These are currently on sale in Argos punted as a low power model. I have not made any investigations into the power consumption, so I have no idea how accurate that is.

The unit looks nice, its apparently well built and the user interface is straightforward. It supports full 7 day EPG and has an option to drop back to the old 24 hour EPG. Tuning is fast and intuitive and the picture quality looks fine. I don’t like the absence of channel re-ordering, but that’s only a feature on more advanced units. The major problem I have with the machine is that every few minutes there is a 2 or 3 second audio drop. This is not accompanied by any clicks or pops, its just plain and simple silence. This could be an issue with just my machine you might think. No! Several people on Digital Spy have had the same issue as me:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=482516

I therefore recommend that no-one even considers buying this machine and opts for something made by someone else entirely. The unit has been in production for 3 years, and from what I can very few efforts have been made to rectify the problem. The technical support line told me it was a problem with my SCART lead (its not).

The E-flat leaves, and the C and the G have an open fifth between them.

After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished: the G is out flat. An F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough. A D comes into the bar and heads straight for the bathroom saying, “Excuse me. I’ll just be a second.” An A comes into the bar, but the bartender is not convinced that this relative of C is not a minor. Then the bartender notices a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and exclaims: “Get out now! You’re the seventh minor I’ve found in this bar tonight.”

The E-flat, not easily deflated, comes back to the bar the next night in a 3-piece suit with nicely shined shoes. The bartender (who used to have a nice corporate job until his company downsized) says: “You’re looking sharp tonight, come on in! This could be a major development.” This proves to be the case, as the E-flat takes off the suit, and everything else, and stands there au naturel.

Eventually, the C sobers up, and realizes in horror that he’s under a rest. The C is brought to trial, is found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of DS without Coda () at an upscale correctional facility. On appeal, however, the C is found innocent of any wrongdoing, even accidental, and that all accusations to the contrary are bassless.

The bartender decides, however, that since he’s only had tenor so patrons, the soprano out in the bathroom, and everything has become alto much treble, he needs a rest — and closes the bar.

Over the last few months I have had the privilege of working with some very great people. I have been conducted by Charles Mackerras, Andrew Davis and Mark Elder and most recently I played 3rd trumpet with the Rehearsal Orchestra who were accompanying Peter Donohoe playing the Busoni Piano Concerto. All of these events have fuelled my desire for a professional music career. Somehow, and I don’t really understand why, even more inspiring than all of these events was a somewhat random piece of prose I found whilst watching Darcy Bussell’s retiring performance on BBC2 last friday. This text, written by Martha Graham, I think beautifully sums up the emotional side of performance. She is writing about dance, and much of what she has to say focusses and applies only to that genre. I think, however, that there is something in this writing which applies to all art forms.

http://marthagraham.org/resources/about_martha_graham.php#dancer

R : You like to drink.
I : Fuckin crazy.
C : You are really silly.
H : You have a very good personality and good looks.
A : You like to drink.
R : You like to drink.
D : You like to drink.

Hmmm – appropriate

copy this and see what your name means…

A : You like to drink.
B : You like people.
C : You are really silly.
D : You like to drink.
E : awesome kisser.
F : You are dead sexy.
G : You never let people tell you what to do.
H : You have a very good personality and good looks.
I : Fuckin crazy.
J : People Adore You
K : You’re wild and crazy.
L : You like to drink
M : best kisser ever.
N: Easy to fall in love with.
O: Easy to fall in love with
P : You are popular with all types of people.
Q : You are a hypocrite.
R : You like to drink.
S : You are great in bed.
T : Easy to fall in love with.
U : You like to drink
V : You are not judgemental.
W : You are very broad minded.
X : You really like to chill.
Y : Best g/f b/f anyone could ever ask for.
Z : Always ready