David L. Atkinson's Blog, page 12

Tuesday Food Blog - Sausage tray bake

It has been almost three weeks since I last posted because of technical issues, so this may be a loan beacon in a sea of darkness!

 Summer sausage tray bake
I was recently appraised of the knowledge that Morrison's chipolata sausages were the best, according to Which magazine, for flavour, low fat and meat content. So I bought some and tried them a couple of different ways. The tray bake above was particularly suited to the current season and is dashed easy to prepare and produce. Also as sausage are a comfort food for many children the dish contains vegetables that will come out tasty and healthy.
Ingredients
6 chipolata sausages1/2 a de-seeded red pepper, chopped1 small onion, cut into wedgesnew potatoes, halvedolive oilgarlicsalt and black pepper
Method
Pre-heat the oven to moderate to hot, I have a fan oven so around 180 degrees Celsius.Prepare the vegetables and place them in an ovenproof baking tray. Pour over the oil and season. I use garlic salt for this type of meal to ensure coverage. Toss the vegetables in the oil and seasoning mixture to ensure full coverage. Prick the sausages and lay them on top of the vegetables.Roast for 45 to 60 minutes or until the sausages are browned and the vegetables tender.You may need to turn the sausages part way through the cooking but ensure they are not covered by the egetables.
Enjoy
A very tasty supper or lunch.
The vegetables you use in this can be varied although if you use soft vegetables such as courgettes (zucchini) may only take 15 to 20 minutes to roast.Roasting wedges of onion in this way creates a sweetness that is highly surprising and I would recommend it when roasting joints of meat of all types.
God Bless

Writing - AWOL

This may well be a tenuous link! I am having problems with Google Blogger and that has been the case since Monday. So as a tester I am going to advertise Inceptus, my 5th Steele novel, which reset the hero for those who hadn't previously read him. Also it was a bit of a watershed in my ability as a writer as it was the best so far. (Notice I didn't say perfect.)



In this the 5th Steele novel Patrick tackles the person who has been surreptitiously dogging his footsteps over a number of his adventures. This is not without risk and the focus of his love, Naomi Kobayashi, disappears which seriously affects his ability to function as well as he can. We also find out more about the man himself.The adventure takes him to Eire, France, the USA before he returns to resolve the issue in the UK.Will Patrick finally rid himself of a deadly enemy?Can our hero rescue his love or is it already too late?Another Patrick Steele adventure filled with tension and action as well as the support provided by the team he has developed over the years.
I hope this gets to everyone.
God Bless

Tuesday Food Blog - Ramen

Father's Day came with some gifts for which I feel lucky and grateful, one of which was a Japanese recipe book one example of which I include in this blog, but first water!

[image error]
 Water is one of the most critical elements to the human body. When you don’t sip enough H2O, your body becomes dehydrated — which leads you to feel weak and decreases motivation — you may feel like you’re always hungry, and, surprisingly, it could make you look puffier.Dietitian Jim White, RD, ACSM recommends the standard 64 ounces of water a day, or eight 8-ounce glasses.By drinking the recommended intake, your weight loss goal becomes more attainable. Sufficient water intake has the ability to boost your metabolism, help you feel fuller longer, and even keep your energy levels at an all-time high.BUT not before bed. You are recommended to cut back about three hours before bed so that your much needed sleep is not interrupted by the need to pee!!
Ramen
Ramen
There are a least a couple of ways that you can produce a ramen dish. You can use the noodles in stir fry or in soups. The latter may be pork, chicken or fish based but in this busy world preparing the base can take a long time. The soup base is cooked over many hours using bones, shells etc and adding onions, mushrooms, ginger and so on. When I have the time and some spare pig's trotters here we go. For this fish ramen I used a vegetable base made from spring onions, mushrooms, garlic, ginger, smoked sesame oil, light soy sauce and chard. For the topping I had a piece of smoked haddock, a hard boiled egg and some raw spring onions.
Method
This is not a complex meal to make and if you want to take short cuts you can buy Japanese noodles with prepared sauces but I had the raw materials at hand.First you mix the flavours and pour over the frying onions followed by mushrooms and chard. When they are cooked to your personal taste throw in the noodles and cook for three or four minutes more. In the mean time boil the egg and cook the fish.When the soup base is ready pour into bowls and top with the sliced spring onions, fish fillet and egg.
Enjoy.
God Bless

Writing - More historicals

I would suggest that a majority of us will read a historical story at some time in our lives. Some of those stories may be of relatively recent history such as the 20th century wars that generates many books both fact and fiction. Others may be from further away in history as in Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. Whatever your personal preference there seems to be something for almost everyone in this genre.
[image error]
The very first historical novel I read was I Claudius by Robert Graves which I devoured while selling ice cream as a holiday job. It opened the door for me to consider other such novels.My next historical adventure will be the Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden a tale of 13th century Genghis Khan.
[image error]


I have produced a blog on historical novels without mentioning the classics such as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre or Sense and Sensibility. Quite deliberate as we are all familiar with that leg of the genre. Lots to read.

Continuing the theme.

[image error]
This is an “autobiography’”of Claudius, the fourth emperor of Rome, set between 24BC and AD54. Author Graves was inspired to write it after it emerged that Claudius really was an historian, and is thought to have penned a lost biography. However, Graves has studied the period closely and although the story is fictional, it’s a great starting point if you’re curious about Roman history. Claudius is plagued by illness, and he’s often shunted out of the way by his ambitious family, but this positions him perfectly as an observer who is close enough to the action to see what people are prepared to do for power. It’s measured and mature, but with enough shocking moments to make you gasp.
[image error]
Victoria – Daisy GoodwinAssuming you watched the recent TV adaptation of the novel, you’ll know that Goodwin’s Queen is a million miles away from the traditional representation of the starchy matriarch who refused to be amused by anything. This is the story of a young woman’s quest for independence and true love, and how she learns to rule by using her heart and her head. Goodwin read Victoria’s diaries in order to become closer to the monarch. Even if you’re familiar with the events of the Victorian period, and the Queen’s reign, this novel will inspire you to revisit the era and consider her life in a fresh light.

God Bless

Writing - Do you read historical novels?

The question above could be dissected as an exercise in itself but in the interest of sanity let us gloss over the meanings of 'historical' novels. Suffice it to say that a novel written about life before we were born, no matter how much before, is intrinsically historical.
[image error]
I have read stories going back millennia. A story well-told is entertaining and surely that is one factor in why we read, the other is for education. By that I mean for information purposes. In the case of stories like Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel the skill of the writer is to convey the idea of what life was really like in the 16th century. It is the creative cloak wrapped around verifiable historical facts and can be made engaging as well as challenging. Hilary Mantel did that very well.
[image error]
Going back to the original question I would suggest that a majority of us will read a historical story at some time in our lives. Some of those stories may be of relatively recent history such as the 20th century wars that generates many books both fact and fiction. Others may be from further away in history as in Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. Whatever your personal preference there seems to be something for almost everyone in this genre.
[image error]
The very first historical novel I read was I Claudius by Robert Graves which I devoured while selling ice cream as a holiday job. It opened the door for me to consider other such novels.My next historical adventure will be the Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden a tale of 13th century Genghis Khan.
[image error]
I have produced a blog on historical novels without mentioning the classics such as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre or Sense and Sensibility. Quite deliberate as we are all familiar with that leg of the genre. Lots to read.
God Bless

Poetry Thursday 268 - Social consciousness

So far it has been a black year but the depths were plumbed at the Grenfell Tower block.

[image error]
Grenfell
Hot flames enveloped the towering edifice,raging, flickering, casting cavorting shadows,through the capitol night’s ebony skyline,visible for miles and yet ignorable.These were homes holding people to their bosom,providing safe havens, resting places, or so they thought.Daily dramas played out seem massive,but nothing compared to this.They were snuffed out with cauterising heat in a few hours.Went to bed happy, secure and safe in the knowledge of tomorrow, but for the crackling, roaring, leaping force,that travels surreptitiously, wearing its thick black cloak,that kills silently.It changed the natural order of things for many – no tomorrow.In the aftermath kind acts, generous donations, bitter weeping, lost expressions and vanished futures.Fire knows no colour or creed.All in its path are nourishment driving souls to their Gods.Anger has grown as did the flames, craving support,wanting help, searching for signs of a future.But there was nothing.Platitudes, promises of more talk but a lack of real aid.No homes or places for daily care for the stricken remainder. Nowhere to live,stay in a high rise hotel,move,But there you go – have some cash!©David L Atkinson June 2017


Red Mist
We are all the same,everything except for name,we’re all in need of love,from everywhere and above.
But whatever we don’t,even coerced we won’ta flaw in our wiring,fear others aspiring.
Instead we rant and rage,reading a different page,adopting reasoned absurdity,and wallowing in angry.©David L Atkinson June 2017
God Bless

Writing - Child warriors

For the whole of time being a child has been full of conflict. There has been exploitation on a vicious scale and we seem to be trying to make up for it in the twenty first century.

[image error]Children in the coal mines
In Sparta boys were wrenched from their families at the age of 7 and trained for the next thirteen years to be soldiers. It's different now but children as young as seven may be wrenched from their family homes to attend boarding school!
The first youth movement may have been led by a french boy called Stephen of Cloyes. He armed his young followers with the scriptures and about 30 000 set off towards Jerusalem. He gathered such a crowd by telling stories and performing miracles, but things went awry when they reached the Mediterranean. It failed to part and allow the children passage.

Noble warriors began as seven year old boy pages who were sent from one noble family to serve in another family carrying out menial chores for which they received education and hospitality. They also received military training and used the crossbow one of the few weapons they could manage.
Between the 14th and 19th centuries the Ottoman Empire rounded up non-Muslim children, some had been captured after battles others were kidnapped, and the system was given the title devshirme which means lifting or collecting in Turkish. The children were dressed in red so that they were recognisable in the event of escape. Once again they were put into service and trained as soldiers. The soldiers were elite infantry and their units were called Janissaries. 

[image error]Powder monkey
The British Royal Navy used the term 'powder monkeys' to describe the boys that were press ganged into service in the 17th century.
[image error]
Little drummer boys were popular in the west and could be as young as nine years old. Their function was to beat a pattern as a signal. Several became quite famous.
The teenage Tommies were not forced into the army but typically lied about their ages to fight for Britain in the First World War. The youngest was aged 12 and another was discovered, aged 13, crying during a particularly heavy bombardment.
During the Second World War there was much made of the role of Hitler Youth. The training for these boys and girls was light and they were used as 'cannon fodder' when the Allied armies were on their final push to conquer Germany.
Sadly the final group are a modern phenomenon that are soldiers because of the lightness of modern weapons. Many are found in Africa.
This blog is about child soldiers but in many ways reflects the developments in the worlds attitudes to children over more than a thousand years as well as the changes in the way we wage war. Hopefully, the use of children will be stopped.
The advent of children in adult worlds can bring interesting conflicts and relationships in to books that are fundamentally adult focused.
God Bless

Tuesday Food Blogs - Cold meal - hot day

As a fully committed salad dodger meals on hot days can be problematic. The weather forecast has been correct over the last few days and it has been hotter than Rome in Yorkshire so it is cool food that I'm looking for when I decided on something really simple.

Penne tuna salad
This salad is simple, refreshing and as fast as it takes to cook and cool the pasta.
Ingredients
1 tin tuna in spring watersweetcorn1/2 red pepper, finely chopped1/2 green pepper, finely chopped2 spring onions, choppedpenne pastaolive oil and balsamic vinegar for a dressingsalt and pepper to taste
Method
The method is really in the veg preparation and a lot of that is down to a matter of personal taste. I was without cucumber which I usually enjoy with tuna but it still worked.So I boiled the pasta for 10 - 15 minutes then plunged it into iced water to cool and stop the cooking process. Then the veg was prepared along with the dressing and tossed into a bowl.Serve and enjoy.
God Bless

Writing - Be observant

As a teenager  traveled to and from school, a distance of ten miles a day, by bus.

[image error]
Quite often I would be quizzed by my mother as to what I'd noticed on the journey and given a 'thick ear' for my lack of observation if I'd missed something. I believe Socrates used to teach in a similar way - teach your student a new fact and give him a slap to ensure retention. Little mother wasn't aware of Socrates methods! The end result was that I carefully observed and it became habitual in that it has made me an observer of life.
Scarborough
On Thursday I took a trip to the coast by train, steam and vintage diesel hauled, in good weather. I went in style and was accompanied by two ladies of a 'certain age' who were garrulous, induced in part by two bottles of prosecco and a vodka each.It gave me the opportunity on the three hour trip to interact and observe. I have no direct plans to use the interaction between middle-aged ladies but it is stored in the memory banks as are the other experiences of the day.
Vintage diesel
Once we were travelling, the countryside provided an interesting backdrop as did the first class service delivered on the train.  This is a separate set of interactions and experiences from that of the two ladies. This level of environmental stimulation is going on around us all of the time and writers are usually aware of it and use it where relevant.
Steam engine - Galatea
In the experiential stakes there of course was the engine that pulled us for part of the way.  In fact I have rarely been photographed as frequently as on this trip. It could have been the steam engine, or the old red livery of the carriages with their table lamps, not really my presence, but children through to the very old waved, and enthusiasts snapped away. Rarely happens to the characterless modern diesel engines. The powers that be talk of HS2 and faster trains but my belief is that a return to steam would attract more custom for all sorts of reasons.
Scarborough harbour
Finally, there is the wealth of opportunity from the harbour and its connections to the sea. So many different scenarios are possible when the sea is close by - travel, fishing, transport storms and so on.Now some writers would have their notebooks by their sides but I rely on memory, photos and my memo app on my mobile. The point is that the experience is stored and ready to enrich!
God Bless

Poetry Thursday 267 - May be not

The show isn't over till the fat lady sings.

Jeremy’s turn to play
When you come to the end of your time,to the end, to the end, of your time,when you come to the end of your time,have the bottle to walk away May.
Gilly oh golly, how you loved your time,right to the very last second.But when it’s over,you’re no longer in clover,have the bottle to walk away May.

Gilly oh golly, how you loved your time,over winter, summer and spring.But when you are done,it’s about as much fun,as a yoyo without any string.
So you have come to the end May,Your ball’s no longer in play May,at No. 10 you do not belong May,time to allow the winner to play.©David L Atkinson June 2017


DUPlicity
You can’t trust anyone,they’re all out for themselves,put relying on others behind you,and depend only on selves.
Their aims are not really like yours,it just seems that they could be.Tying yourself to a strange course,will bring the end quite naturally.
The enemy of your enemy isn’t your friend,they will destroy that in which you believe.You will break if too far you bend,what’s been lost you cannot retrieve.©David L Atkinson June 2017

God Bless