David L. Atkinson's Blog, page 106

Tuesday Recipe - Beef olives with sauteed cabbage and mashed potato

Beef Olives
As always, when it comes to the weekend, I'm searching for something different to serve up. I also subscribe to the BBC History magazine and they publish an old recipe each month and it was beef olives. After a little extra research I produced the recipe you will find on the TAB at the top of this page.
The production of the meal was something of a maximum pan usage fest entailing copious washing up which, for someone who likes one pan cooking, was a bit of a pain. I also had to destroy the meat by beating it with a rolling pin until the meat was no more than a centimetre thick, then placed stuffing in the middle and tied the whole issue into rolls with string. You've guessed it - I'm all fat fingers and thumbs and so that was not great to watch but I managed. I served the beef olives with the cabbage even though I'm not a great fan of that vegetable because the skill of sauteeing was introduced. The end result was excellent and although the recipe calls for carrots and onions I had a second go using bacon instead which worked well.
The cooking time on different versions that I read was interesting as it ranged from 1.5 to 3 hours at 175 degrees. It probably depends on the cut of beef you select. the coarser the longer it will take to cook. The stuffing you could probably vary according to personal taste but the end result was really good.
Sauteed CabbageDice a carrot and a small onion until the chunks are quite small and fry in olive oil, salt and black pepper. When they've softened (about 6 or 7 minutes) pour in a decent glug of white wine and boil for a couple of minutes to evaporate the alcohol then pour in half a pint of chicken or vegetable stock, bring to the boil then cover and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve immediately.
The above makes cabbage edible!!!!
God Bless

Writing - Truth, consequences and Steele will sort it!

I never thought I'd hear myself say this and it is from a snapshot of a longer speech, but I agree with David Cameron when he said today that IS, the group that have beheaded a 3rd hostage today, are not representative of Islam. 
David Haines beheaded 2014
Throughout history vehement groups with political  grievances attract the attention of violent criminals. It happened for hundreds of years with the IRA, it has happened with Christian groups and now it is happening with Islam. The bottom line is that these extremely violent people are criminals.God Bless David Haines, peace and comfort to his family.
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This week we also have the forthcoming vote on the future of the UK. Will the Scottish people vote to leave the Union? In my opinion they should. I don't believe that because I want the UK to break up but simply that the complacent, upper class people who have the power through commercial enterprise with no interest of the welfare of the populace, need a wake up call. It may seem drastic but it is the closest thing to a revolution that is ever likely to occur in reality. Perhaps Patrick Steele is one to put a spanner in the corporate works in the future. He has history in The 51st State when he tried to ensure the continuing sovereignty of the UK with some success. The book is the second in the Steele series and is available from Amazon and all major retailers. 
God Bless

Writing - 10 things we didn't know last week

DNA, dinosaurs and Lord Douglas bless our pages this week.
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1. Babies born in the winter start crawling earlier than those born in summer.
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2. At least three Google employees have lived for months in their vehicles on the firm's California campus, eating in the staff cafeteria and showering in gyms.

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3. People can answer word tests correctly while asleep.

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4. If everyone had only one soulmate, true love would be found only in one lifetime out of 10,000.

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5. Pele - christened Edson Arantes do Nascimento - was named after Thomas Edison.

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6. Over the last 13 years of his life, Andy Warhol stored 300,000 everyday objects including a fan letters, a lump of concrete, used condoms and thousands of postage stamps in 610 cardboard boxes.

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7. The largest hunting dinosaur probably ate whole sharks.

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8. According to instructions set out by a Babylonian scribe, Noah's ark would have to be woven with a rope that would stretch from London to Edinburgh.

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9. The first DNA fingerprint used in court prevented a young immigrant being sent back to Ghana.


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10. The late Sir Donald Sinden was the last person alive who knew Oscar Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, and one of only two people to attend his funeral.


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God Bless

Writing - Sinden, Paisley and Bobby Thompson

Two famous people passed in the last day or so both enigmatic characters with considerable influence on the lives of those they touched.
[image error]Donald Sinden 1923 - 2014
I remember him as a fruity voiced amusing comedy actor but he was so much more. He was a highly thought of Shakespearian actor and also an author. Sinden wrote two autobiographical volumes: A Touch of the Memoirs (1982) and Laughter in the Second Act (1985), edited the Everyman Book of Theatrical Anecdotes (1987), wrote a book to coincide with his BBC TV series The English Country Church (1988) and a collection of "epitaphs and final utterances" titled The Last Word (1994).
[image error]Ian Paisley 1926 - 2014
Ian Paisley has been a 'voice' in my head for as long as I can remember, literally! He was a powerful presence on TV during various episodes of the 'troubles' in Ireland, powerfully yelling his message of 'no surrender' to the Republicans. Even so he relented and ended up working with some of the people who he'd categorised as sworn enemies and became one of the architects for a peace that has lasted for a number of years.
Finally, a relatively unknown man, a stand up comedian, local to the north east of England and renowned for his unreliability. He was nicknamed 'The Little Waster'
[image error]Bobby Thompson 1911 - 1988
'Bobby Thompson is on at the Top Club this Saturday night,' I remember my Dad announcing one day.I asked if we were going he laughed and said that we might be. I questioned his reaction and he said that Bobby only turned up for gigs if he was short of cash.Even so he was very funny if you understood his dialect, which was probably a barrier to national success. He did make a number of LPs of his act and there are some extracts of him performing on YouTube one link which I have added below. If you have difficulty with the language I'm sorry but it is English - honest!
http://youtu.be/QScBfHxt4Tk
You may have to cut and paste the link into your browser.
God Bless

Writing - Steelian access

Steele   My hero was created post recession and so has no concept of how 'good' things were pre-2008. In 'I Have To Get It Right' when he began to flex his muscles he was working in an accountant's office. Then after the Gurentai took him under their wing and removed all of his financial worries, it was justice that was his major concern. He did become involved in international relations in 'The 51st State' but it was for the maintenance of a respectful distance between countries, rather than economic reasons. His trips into the USA had repercussions which can be read about in 'The Biter Bit' but then by the time things began to change in 2011 and the recession was really biting, Steele was trying to make sense of the state of the nation in 'A Changed Reality' and coming up against some really nasty people taking advantage of the shortage of money. By the time the USA are out of their recession Steele's steps are still being dogged by an unknown enemy from the same country. In 'Inceptus' we also find out more about what makes the man tick. The most recent Steele book 'Castled' Steele is once again at risk from unseen enemies. It would seem that he has become quite recession proof!
All books are available in paperback or ebook through Amazon, Smashwords and all good book shop websites.


Cessation This is a dystopian story that hinges directly on the state of the nation as a result of fiscal mismanagement. Having said that it is more a story of human relations, privations, love and loss.

God Bless

Poetry Thursday 127 - Scottish Independence

Two offerings this week, one in response to a completelynovel.com prompt and the second to the current fuss over the Scottish vote for independence.
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A Scottish Sonnet
A Caledonian satellite state,part of the union for four hundred years.Tired of being thought as second rate,but will departing generate tears?
The parent government has lost its wayallowing upstarts to go for alone.Ordinary people will have their saythe outcome as yet still remains unknown.
Sad that it should have arrived at this place.Establishment’s drives causing division.More care was needed for the northern race,people do not respond to derision.
Voting NO leading to devolution.Voting YES generates revolution.© David L Atkinson September 2014



Time
Like the grains of sandTime slips gently through fingers
as money from banks.
© David L Atkinson September 2014

God Bless

Writing - A significant Birthday - Leo Tolstoy

It's 186 years since the birth of Leo Tolstoy and 72 since that of friend and colleague Bert Carson. 
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Bert writes as well and you can see his work by clicking on his name.
Leo Tolstoy
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1828 - 1910
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy also known as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer, philosopher and political thinker who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Tolstoy was a master of realistic fiction and is widely considered one of the greatest novelists of all time. He is best known for two long novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Tolstoy first achieved literary acclaim in his 20s with his semi-autobiographical trilogy of novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856) andSevastopol Sketches (1855), based on his experiences in the Crimean War. His fiction output also includes two additional novels, dozens of short stories, and several famous novellas, including The Death of Ivan Ilych, Family Happiness, and Hadji Murad. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on non-violent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Bevel.
Tolstoy Quotes
'The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.'
'Music is the shorthand of emotion.'
God Bless

Tuesday Recipe - Italian Stew

I know its Italian again but this is me!

Italian Stew
This has to be one of the most simple and delicious meals I've made since beginning this blog page. You can make this as cheap or as expensive as you wish. If you wish to use the finest cuts of beef, the rarest yellow peppers or the most expensive olive oil that is up to you but whichever it is going to take no more than twenty minutes to serve. I've pictured the stew with mashed potato but it could go equally well with pasta or even rice.The full recipe is on the Tab above.


Today has been a good writing day with some more of Chapter 18 of Earth Plc and a haiku for my online publisher completelynovel.com which is on a different blog page published today.

God Bless

Poetry - Time Haiku

Time
Like the grains of sandTime slips gently through fingersas money from banks.
© David L Atkinson September 2014

God Bless

Writing - Happiness is egg-shaped

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I remember the advertising slogan above many years produced I think by the British Egg Marketing Board in an effort to extol the virtues of eggs in your diet. That of course was scotched when Edwina Curry, then an MP and minister, announced that eggs were at risk of giving people salmonella!
However, happiness has raised its head this week in Europe with the UK being found to be the 11th happiest country in the area. On top of which our parish magazine Buzz is completely given over to Happiness this month.

The overall effect is the smile that touches your lips as soon as you see the cover. I defy you to be miserable. The contents were wide ranging and varied from classic literature in the form of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales namely the Pardoner's Tale, to jokes.
The Pardoner's Tale
[image error] This tale was told to demonstrate that money can't buy happiness.The tale is told by a clerical scoundrel who made money by selling pardons, bought in Rome, for sins. These holy relics, sold to the gullible, supposedly would 'heal illness in man and beast, ensure fidelity in spouses, good harvests' and I'm sure much more.The taleIn short three young men are drinking in a tavern and being affronted by the plague which is killing many people decide in their drunken state to 'kill this false traitor, Death'. They set off to look for Death and are told that he is under a tree at a crossroads. When they get there they find a pile of gold which they claim as their own. As it is still daylight the men fear being accused of stealing so decide they must wait till darkness. They draw straws and the youngest of them is chosen to go into town for food and drink. While he's away the two left decide to kill the younger man and split the gold between two but as the youngster is going into town he decides to poison the wine to kill the other two and keep the gold for himself. To cut a long story short all three end up dead and Death has won again proving that money doesn't buy happiness.
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Finally, as we are writers some vocabulary linked with happiness.




God Bless