Sketching breakfast

If you don’t eat meat, look away now….

 

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If you can’t see what it is, I drew bacon about to be grilled, so I could make bacon and cheese oatcakes.

Today’s USK S-O-T challenge was to draw ‘cooking’. Various pots and pans and foodstuffs have been drawn. It’s keeping me occupied and mentally active.

USK stands for Urban Sketchers, its a world wide movement of people who draw their environment. The rules are, draw from life, not a photo, include background, not just the subject on its own. There are others but I can’t remember them all…. Anyway, I wonder what tomorrows challenge will be. X

Shopping

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I knew I was going to have to go out shopping when my hubby went out to get loo roll and came back with a light bulb!

I went out to try and get a week’s shopping, or more if I can make it last. I usually shop every few days because I don’t have the storage space in my small kitchen for much, and because I only have a small fridge freezer I can’t fit much in that.

First shop, no meat, got a couple of veggie lasagne’s. Two bananas (I left two behind), some mixed veg and a few more things. Second shop. There was no loo paper (what is it with people?) so I bought their last box of man sized tissues. (that always makes me laugh, are they six foot tall tissues?) Third shop, a few pieces of chicken, some burgers, celery, pasta sauce, a bit more.

I gave up the search and came home. One day soon the hoarding will stop.. It isn’t sensible, but what is? I have a feeling that this is partly being driven by that stupidity called Brexit. I think that people have been so wound up by that, that they have got into a seige mentality. The British can be very bloody minded. Its also difficult not to relate it to the idea that the country expects to be cut off from the European continent and is acting like it has already happened.

So what can we do? Deal with the virus, try and stay inside and stay safe. I will still have to go shopping. As to the B word. Maybe this will make people realise its not such a good idea after all….

I’ve read a few of John Wyndhams’ books about the world order collapsing ( Day of the Triffids, The Kraken Wakes,) he doesn’t mention toilet rolls once!

Trying to keep going

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A couple of my friends own restaurants, and now the government has told them to close they are only allowed to do takeaway meals. I feel like I will be buying a takeaway each week to try and help keep them going. With food short in the shops it may be the only way to get something interesting to eat. Yes I can live on vegetables and salads, but it’s nice to have a bit of variety, especially if its well cooked. I mean there is only so much binge watching you can do.

Then exercise. I might drive out to Cannock chase tomorrow for a walk. Somewhere quiet and away from people.

Why do people need toilet rolls?

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Apart from the obvious, (obviously). I went to the shop today and it was almost stripped bare of produce, so I got vaguely similar things to what I would normally get. But why are people obsessed with toilet rolls you can’t eat them can you?

List of shopping :

Loo roll roulade,

Toilet roll sausages,

Sandwiches with toilet paper squares.

Duck au loo roll?

I’m surprised my hubby found some this morning, but that’s because he went to a corner shop and not the supermarket.

Now what can I make out of a large jar of gherkins and some lime marmalade?

Broccoli

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It’s a particular type, but I can’t remember what it is called. Something like romancero…? Not sure. Anyway I think its spirals are based on fibonacci numbers. You see the same pattern in flower petals or the seeds on a sunflower head. These remind me of fractal patterns and apparently there is computer code you can use to draw patterns like the Mandelbrot set. A attern out of chaotic numbers. Nature is amazing!

I give you the Staffordshire Pikelet.

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Staffordshire Pikelets, cousin to the Staffordshire Oatcakes. Made with the same oat batter, but smaller and thicker. With added dried fruit  (currants, raisins, citrus peel).

Toasted under the grill then added butter and as it was shrove Tuesday yesterday I added some lemon juice from the lemons I got for my pancakes. All hot and tasty.

Different parts of the country have different special foods. This one is very tasty and filling!

Potatoes

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Who knew, well I didn’t, that potatoes are very full of carbohydrates that turn into sugar in your body? I went to a course to help me lose weight and we were discussing how much carbohydrates convert into sugar when you digest it. The worst culprits we’re white bread, rice, and potatoes. They explained that instead of looking at the traffic lights on  packets  of foods (showing green, amber and red for amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrate, sugar and salt), if you look at the back of the packaging you can see the total carbohydrates. Divide that by three and it turns out that the answer is how many teaspoons of sugar it would convert to. So 15 grams of sugar equate to 5 teaspoons of sugar.

So what about potato? A single medium potato is equal to 18 teaspoons of sugar! That means it has 54grams of carbohydrate! Who knew? Well I wi have to take this into account. More vegetables less carbs!

Chlorinated chicken

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 In Britain we are about to leave the European Union although 48% of people who voted in the referendum voted not to leave.

To put this in context a ‘friend’ accused me of scaremongering and put a long post on my page saying that chlorinated chicken is marvellous and anyone who was against it were lefie remainers who are apparently too woke??? (what the hell does that mean).

Now I feel guilty because I am speaking against the USA system. But this is what I found on a post on the BBC website on 8 March 2019, and I am using their facts, not my own.

If you read the fact check on the website. ‘is chlorinated chicken bad for you?’ they state that using chlorine is not harmful and cleans up the chickens surface, but this can mask problems inside the chicken where high levels of bacteria can be found like campilobacter or salmonella. It also states that poor hygiene and badly run, crowded abattoirs are hidden by this process. When the two methods of producing chicken were checked, much higher levels of harmful bacteria were found in the chlorinated chicken. So no I will not be choosing it to eat it.