F1, Queueing for our Allotment, Pizza and Onion Rings

Stuck this afternoon in a massive queue on the way to our allotment - it is near Deepdale and PNE are at home today - I was listening to 5-Live and it struck me that not only was I in traffic, but I was listening to commentary about traffic, albeit in Dubai. Is there a duller and more over-hyped sport than F1? Rallying I can understand - countryside, mud, real roads, getting within inches of the cars - but Grand Prix? No. How is it interesting that one helmet in a very fast car goes round in circles more rapidly than another helmet in a slower car?


Two little victories in my culinary life. Thursday night I made three pizzas (pizzi?) from scratch, even thinner than previous effort as I used the same quantity of dough for three rather than two, the result being nicely crisp crust. Very hot oven, done in 15 minutes. Unlikely though it sounds the sardine, anchovy and prawn one (all were with onions and peppers) was praised by wife and son, and the meat feast (mini-meatballs made with leftover roast beef from Sunday) not far off. With two mozarellas, sardine tin, anchovy tin, and a few slices of salami I reckon £3.75 for the lot, the price of one from a shop or half from a takeaway.

Even smaller win: to go with steak on Friday I made my own onion rings - Greek-style batter recipe courtesy of the great Jane Grigson, with a bit of cayenne in place or her pernod. Crisp again, no processed rubbish in them, not a crumb left. Egg from our chickens, bit of flour, baking powder, water, some cheap olive oil, two onions, so pence against pounds from the freezer section of some supermarket. A sneaky extra vegetable, and the pleasure of crunching sounds at the table.

The Divine Hugh

New Hugh F-W series began last night, and was disappointed enough to wander off to do stuff elsewhere halfway through. He is my favourite food writer of modern times at least, David and Grigson (Jane not Sophie) vying for all-time top spot. HF-W is thought-provoking and environmentally aware, which balances the ridiculously posh accents of his team of photogenic gardeners. It began badly with the trail, which stated something like: "Britain is a nation of carnivores and River Cottage led the way." Am reasonably sure we ate meat before it appeared as a topic on bookshelves and TV screens. And the stunt of giving up meat entirely for a period was as annoying as someone's kid screaming 'look at me.' There was something very condescending about giving the veg packs to builders too.

I'll still buy the book as he always has good ideas and has a cosily relaxed writing style (see previous blog for my rather different views on Nigel Slater's) but maybe he should take a break from TV and stop to think about his output more. That's me off the list of potential contributors then.