Winter and colder weather always brings on a new barrage of coughs, colds, sniffles and cases of flu. Your best line of defence against all of these infections –which, incidentally, are all viral infections – is to have a good, strong immune system. While some folk like to get a jab to help protect themselves against winter ailments, you still can’t get a vaccine against the common cold. The reason for this is because this little virus is always mutating and, according to one doctor, you would need more than 100 injections a year to give you immunity to every cold virus out there. Most people would rather stick with just having a few sniffles in preference to this many injections.
A good strong immune system is the best thing you can do to keep you fighting fit – ready to fight off these viruses. So what can you do to give your killer T cells and all the other good guys in your system the best shot they have?
1. Eat your fresh fruit and vegetables. Eating fresh fruit and vegetables is such an important part of staying in good health for a host of reasons, ranging from giving you cancer-fighting antioxidants to stopping you putting on that little extra round your tummy. If you can only take one step to help your immune system, this is it.
2. Sleep well. Your body does a lot of its replenishing and repairing while you sleep, which is why you naturally feel tired when you are unwell. Get plenty.
3. Laugh. Yes, as the Good Book says, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. Laughter also helps you de-stress and feel good. All the more excuse to stay home in bed watching Mr Bean and/or reading Terry Pratchett novels when you’re off colour.
4. Exercise. Exercise isn’t just a way of trimming off excess body fat and keeping your heart safer. Like fruit and vegetables, this is another absolute must that has so many health benefits that you have no excuses not to. If you can’t get a solid half hour a day, you should be able to get three slots of ten minutes here and there.
5. Soup. Soups made by boiling up old bones have some nutritional goodies that do the immune system a world of good. They’re also comforting and soothing when you have a sore throat. For a real cold-fighter, boil up some bits of chicken into soup, then add lemon juice and raw garlic just before eating it.
6. Relax. Stress lowers your immune system because it depletes your body’s energy stores. Take some time every day to chill out and do something just for you. Yes, Mum, that includes you, in spite of holding down a job and looking after the family.
7. Sunshine. Vitamin D is easiest to obtain from sunlight than from anything else (except cod liver oil – so take this as well). Try to get as much as you possibly can.
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A large freezer or deep freeze is a great investment, especially if you like to buy items in bulk or have a vegetable garden. However, they can take up a lot of space and they can chew through the electricity if not used properly.
So how do you get the best out of your freezer?
First of all, do you really need one and how big should it be? If you only want a place to put a few leftovers, the meat, some bread and maybe a few tubs of ice cream and some frozen peas, then you can probably avoid buying a large freezer and make do with the freezer compartment provided in most fridges today. In this case, the same principles apply to a little freezer as to a big one. A large freezer is a good investment if you buy perishable goods in bulk, grow your own fruit or vegetables or are involved in a charitable organisation or church that has a soup kitchen or similar programme. A freezer is also a good place to keep emergency supplies for use during a crisis (social, natural, economic or otherwise).
Make sure that your freezer is properly insulated and the door seal is tight. An electricity efficient freezer will also help make life a bit easier on the financial front. When you go to the freezer, don’t hang around with the door wide open for ages – this lets the cold air out and the warm air in, and any moisture in the air will freeze inside, leading to frost build-up.
The more you put into your freezer, the more efficiently it will work. This is because frozen goods stay put inside the freezer (unless you’re taking them out, of course) when the door opens, unlike air, which whizzes in and out. Besides, once an item is frozen, it will stay frozen and will help anything new freeze more quickly. It is best if you can intersperse new items with older ones – but there are other considerations here, plus the need to leave the door open for as short a time as possible. Let food cool down before putting it into your freezer – you will make it work harder (and chew more power) if you put hot food into the freezer. And don’t refreeze something that has thawed out once.
Label the items you put in the freezer so you know what is what when you get it out. Even clear plastic items get a bit foggy/frosty after a while, and it can be hard to tell the blackcurrants apart from the beetroot. Also add the date to the label so you know how old something is. It’s best if new items go in at the back so you can use things in the same order they went in (oldest first).
Periodically, you will need to defrost your freezer – if you put it off too long, you will be unable to close the freezer door properly. Turn the freezer off at the wall and take everything out. Put the frozen goods in a large, compact pile in a cool, dark place and cover them with lots of blankets to insulate them and prevent them thawing out – you can also put things in a chiller, if you have one. Then leave the freezer open to allow the ice to melt slightly. You can help things along the way with a bucket of hot water, but don’t use a chisel or a knife to chip or pick the ice off – you can damage the inside of the freezer (you can use a spatula or a fish slice – but carefully). Make sure your hands are dry when handling ice to stop the ice freezing to the water on your hands – very painful! Don’t eat any of the ice taken from the inside of the freezer – it can be a bit dubious, especially if you have kept raw meat in the freezer. To get rid of the ice, just put it outside and let it melt – it’s only water, after all. When all the ice is out, replace the items, shut the door and turn the freezer on again.
If you want to freeze free-flow items (e.g. berries or peas), spread them on trays and allow them to freeze solid before bagging them up.
To prevent frozen vegetables and the like getting freezer burn, vacuum pack them. You don’t need a special tool for this – just use the hose attachment of a regular vacuum cleaner with a teatowel tied over the opening. Put this inside the bag of things you are freezing and suck the air out by switching the vacuum on before sealing the bag tightly. Although the vacuum cleaner is usually used by your domestic cleaning London lady, it is recommended you do this task instead of asking her to do that for you.
Be wary if you are considering buying a cattlebeast and getting it butchered with the idea of keeping a supply of meat frozen. An ox has a huge amount of meat on it and you will need a very large empty freezer to hold it all – and even then, you will probably end up giving some away to friends. It’s best to go shares with a friend or three if you are considering this – a meat co-op instead of a veggie co-op.
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We like to think we’re in control. But every so often, disaster strikes and we suddenly realise just how vulnerable we are in the face of the sheer force of nature. But even in these drastic situations, there are things you can do to keep safe. Here’s hoping you never need to use the advice in this article, but it still pays to be prepared and know what to do.
Flooding is the most likely natural disaster to hit England. Get to high ground as soon as possible, and if you have time, move valuables into the attic or the roof space of your house. Don’t go out and about unless you absolutely have to leave the area or check on a vulnerable neighbour. Fast-flowing floodwaters, even if they are shallow, are incredibly strong and can knock you over and sweep you away – even water that is just over knee-deep can do this. After the flood, remember that your water supplies are likely to be contaminated, so filter and boil all water before using it, or else rely on stored water and whatever you have in your hot water cistern or toilet tank (not the bowl, obviously!).
Storm surges from the sea happen when the barometer falls a long way. Get out of costal areas promptly if a storm surge warning is given. If you are taken by surprise, follow the safety advice for floods.
High winds can cause a lot of damage during storms – usually because strong winds can turn loose items into projectile weapons. If a gale warning is issued, take few minutes to pick up odds and ends in the garden that are likely to become airborne. When the storm hits, stay indoors or in your car. If you are indoors, stay away from windows on the windward side of the house, but before you stay away, put strong tape over them to help prevent glass flying everywhere if something hits it. Windows can be opened on the leeward side of the house to prevent pressure problems breaking windows.
Earthquakes are caused by the edges of the tectonic plates that make up the planet’s crust rubbing together. Fortunately, England is not on a major fault line, unlike other places (California and Japan spring to mind). If an earthquake happens and you are indoors, stay away from windows, and get underneath something solid so you are protected if the roof falls in. Doorways, beds and tables are good shelters. If you are outdoors, keep away from anything big that could fall on you, but if you are in a wide field, you are probably safe enough – the movie image of the ground opening up and swallowing people is unlikely. Expect aftershocks. Large items should be secured prior to an earthquake (i.e. just in case) to stop them toppling over – this include things like hot water cylinders and big book cases.
Tsunamis are also unlikely in Britain, but you never know what’s going to come across the ocean if the fault line that is creating the island of Surtsey near Iceland gets really vicious. Follow the instructions for floods and storm surges – in other words, get to high ground away from the coast and put any valuables in attic space. Whatever you do, DON’T go down to the beach to try to catch the wave on camera. If you see the tsunami coming, then it’s too late for you.
Landslides are likely in steep areas after heavy rain or earthquakes. If you see signs that a landslide is about to happen, evacuate the property straight away. Signs that a landslide are about to happen are cracks in the ground, soggy ground where it hasn’t been soggy before, and noticing trees or buildings leaning over when they weren’t leaning before.
Volcanoes are not likely to happen in England. If you are visiting a place where volcanic eruptions happen and one does happen, evacuate if you are told to, and if ash is flying, then breathe through wet hankies or towels and wear goggles if you have them.
For all natural disasters, make sure that you turn electricity and gas off, and have a survival kit on hand.
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Sometimes, in spite of using natural weed control methods such as mulching and feeding the “good” plants you want so they become strong and vigorous (and thus able to crowd out the weedy competition), weeds still grow. You might have some other “weapons” left in your natural weed control arsenal such as digging them all out by hand, pouring boiling water onto them or (in a large patch with no “good” plants in them) lighting a bonfire on top and burning off the weeds. But all these methods are either time-consuming and/or impractical.
So what do you do? Is it time to reach for the chemical weedkillers?
Well, if things get really desperate and you have half an acre of weeds getting away on you, maybe. However, if you only have a few weeds in a small vegetable patch, maybe it’s time to have a change of heart about those weeds and find another use for them. Using the weeds means that you will get rid of them, but it will be less of a chore – and it won’t be such a bad thing if the weeds grow largish.
A good many common weeds are edible – palatable, even. When this writer was a child, sorrel was considered to be a weed that conscientious gardeners rooted out and that you found growing along the roadside. Now sorrel features in gourmet cooking. Maybe, if we wait long enough or get a bit more creative, these other common weeds will lose their weedy status and become the hot flavour of the month. Edible weeds should be picked when the leaves are large but still tender – before they start setting seed, in other words. Use a field guide or the internet to find pictures of the weeds in question before you start picking and eating: if you don’t know what it is, don’t eat it.
Edible weeds:
Dandelions are rich in vitamin A and are every bit as good for you as spinach or silver beet. If you have rabbits or guinea pigs, you probably already encourage dandelions, as they are very popular food for these small pets. Dandelion has a slightly bitter peppery bite that goes well in a cheese sandwich and adds a bit of colour and extra flavour to a salad. Dandelion is also a diuretic (the old country name for dandelion was “piss-a-bed”) and may be helpful if you have problems with fluid retention. If you have the time and patience – and a coffee grinder – dandelion root can be dried and used as a coffee substitute that’s caffeine free.
Sowthistle looks a bit like dandelion but has a different growth habit. It can be used in much the same way as dandelion, but it can also be cooked. In New Zealand (where it is known as puha), cooked sowthistle is a traditional indigenous dish to be served with pork or seafood. The bitter taste is removed by cooking.
Fathen can be used exactly like spinach or silverbeet – in salads, steamed, boiled, in quiches, in soups… Fathen has a pleasant mild taste and is this writer’s pick to become the next quirky vegetable to become fashionable. Fathen has similar nutritional properties to spinach and silver beet.
Chickweed is another mild-tasting weed that makes a good addition to salads. It grows with long stems, so chop finely before adding to the salad.
Nettles are also highly nutritious and have the advantage of handling cold conditions, so they provide fresh greenstuffs during a hard winter. They have to be cooked before use, obviously, and are not suitable for salads! Cooking destroys the toxins. Steamed or in soup, nettles taste delicious. Use rubber gloves to harvest nettles to prevent stings, but it is possible to pick them with your bare hands – if you literally “grasp the nettle” hard, you crush the stinging hairs and they don’t puncture the skin, but if you brush over them lightly, it will sting.
Dockleaves are a traditional way of relieving nettle stings. If you are allowing nettles to grow in order to eat them, allow a few docks to remain so you can deal with any stings.
Clover is a bee attractant and fixes nitrogen into the soil. If you allow clover to grow in a fallow plot, it will improve the nutrients and health of the soil. Pink clover flowers also look quite attractive.
Any weeds, as long as they are not allowed to go to seed, can be chopped down with a hoe and dug into the soil as a “green manure” or fertilizer.
If a weed has attractive leaves and/or flowers, pretend it’s deliberate. Oxalis is considered a terrible pest and weed in some countries, but in the UK, it is a delightful and beautiful addition to the flower bed that requires little care, comes back year after year and gives a lovely showing of shamrock-type leaves and delicate flowers – proof that it’s human perspectives that make weeds into a nuisance.
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You probably made some resolutions back in January to curb a few bad habits (and how are you doing with them now?). The trouble is that your dog doesn’t really care about New Year or new year resolutions and probably hasn’t done anything to break his/her behavioural problems. It’s up to you to help your dog break them. Obedience classes will help with a lot of bad doggy habits, plus a few things that you can do.
Jumping up: Jumping up to slobber at an owner or friend is cute – sort of – in Chihuahuas but is downright alarming in Great Danes and St Bernards (a boisterous dog of a larger breed could quite easily knock a human down). If a dog starts showing signs of jumping up, the easiest way to deter them is to say “down!” and knee the dog lightly in the midsection, then giving the dog attention once he/she has dropped to all fours. If you like your dog jumping up on you so you can make a fuss of him/her, then develop a command (e.g. “up”) along with a hand signal (patting your thighs, hips, chest or shoulders works) which you have to give before the dog is allowed to jump up for a cuddle.
Pulling on the lead: Some dogs pull on the lead with the end result that they nearly choke themselves and yank your arm off. For some reason, even the sensation of having their wind cut off slightly doesn’t deter some dogs and they keep pulling, making alarming noises as they trot along (bull terriers and similar types are the main culprits here). Use a chest harness (of the sort used for doggy seatbelts) or the sort of lead that goes over the nose so the dog doesn’t hurt him/herself.
Begging at the table: Large, soulful eyes that plead for food, sometimes accompanied by whining and dribbling are the indirect cause of many a dog becoming overweight. Dogs should not be allowed in the same room as the dinner table. If you are eating in the lounge or outside, harden your heart and ignore the dog. If a particularly pushy dog tries to steal off your picnic plate, start talking Dog with a low growl and a snap of “mine!” to tell the dog to leave it alone. If you want to give crusts to a dog at the end of a meal, do not let him/her eat it off your plate – this is an unsanitary habit and makes the dog think that he/she is allowed to eat human food off human plates. Toss the scraps to the dog some distance away from where you have been eating instead.
Licking: Don’t let a dog lick your face. It may seem cute to have the dog “kiss” you (actually, licking on the face means “You are the boss and I submit,” or “I’m hungry – please feed me.”) on the face, but when you think where your dog’s tongue has been when your dog greets other dogs or when he/she has been digging or getting into something revolting he/she shouldn’t, it’s pretty blood-curdling. You can’t really curb this behaviour but for your health’s sake, don’t permit the dog to lick anything except your hands (and possibly your feet) and give him/her plenty of pats and attention.
Barking: The irritating sort of barking in dogs is usually either caused by boredom or by excitement. In Dog, loud repeated barking of the sort that drives humans nuts means “Come here!” or “I’m lonely – come and get me!” To cure this one, make sure that your dog has plenty to do and gets enough attention. If you are out for the day and your dog will be on its own in the house, putting the radio on can help the dog feel not so lonely. There is not much you can do to shut an excited dog up if it is yapping all over the place apart from putting it in a nice quiet place until it settles down. The devices that give a dog a mild electrical shock if it barks do work but they curb all barking, including the barks that mean “This is my food – push off!” or “Intruder! Red alert! Who goes there – friend or foe?” or “Take one more step onto my pack’s patch and I’ll tear you to pieces.” Some of these barks are desirable, especially if you have a dog for security reasons. Some dogs bark more than others. It is also not true that a barking dog won’t bite.
Scavenging food from the garbage can: The easiest way to prevent a dog tearing open your garbage bag or knocking over a garbage bin to get at meat scraps inside is not to put this sort of rubbish in the bin in the first place. Better to give them to the dog directly or to bury the scraps in a compost heap. Rubbish bags can be sprayed with a bitter-tasting compound that deters pets and pests (including foxes) from tearing them open, which works tolerably well. If you compost bones and the like, the dog may try digging to get them out, but the end result is not as messy as having torn plastic all over the place. It will be easier for you and your waste management London company to deal with the rubbish when it is in order rather than being spread over.
Dogs possibly joined forces with humans because humans had a tendency to throw out delicious scraps, so all domestic dogs are scavengers by instinct.
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The good news for anyone with an ecological conscience is that most traditional Christmas decorations are made from natural materials rather from plastics. Using natural materials not only means that you aren’t using up something that is sourced from a non-renewable resource (fossil fuels) but also that when you dispose of your decorations (if they get tatty or you don’t want to save them for next year), they will break down naturally.
Some natural materials to decorate with are obvious. Christmas trees, bunches of holly, sprigs of real mistletoe and poinsettia plants are all natural. Many places grow these commercially for sale at Christmas time. Poinsettias can be grown indoors with a bit of care, but to make sure that they produce their flamboyant red stars at the right time, you need to give them special treatment. If you buy a potted poinsettia for this Christmas, be scrupulous about cutting off the dead flower heads and don’t give it much water until about April – it originates from the dryish areas of Mexico, after all. Around April, cut it back to 4 inches high and put it somewhere warm. During autumn days, it needs to have a minimum of 14 hours darkness in every 24 – the hot water cupboard would work nicely for this. This treatment gives you the best chance of keeping your potted poinsettia alive for a second year.
Ivy is a traditional part of Christmas decorations, mostly because it’s an evergreen. Hedera helix or English ivy grows very easily – too easily, some might say. It can induce an allergic reaction in some, but it is not a contact poison for most people, unlike poison ivy. The long trailing stems of ivy make it perfect for twisting into wreaths, or even decorating a Christmas tree. An ivy wreath is easier to make than a daisy chain. You can also include other evergreen plants into an ivy wreath – if you’ve had to trim any lower branches off a Christmas tree to get the tree into a bucket, these work brilliantly – and you can tie basic single granny knots in the ivy to hold the other materials in. An ivy wreath looks good as a centrepiece on the dinner table surrounding a ring of candles or even a Yule log.
A Yule log was traditionally a special log that was ritually burned on the hearth. However, you can make a permanent Yule log by turning it into a natural candle-holder. Drill out holes in a log that you like the look of that are large enough to hold candles then put your candles in. As a variation on the Advent calendar custom, have five candles – four ordinary white ones, then a large red one in the centre (variation: four small purple candles and one large white one). One candle is to be lit on every Sunday leading up to Christmas, starting with the last Sunday in November, leaving the central candle for Christmas day itself.
Pinecones have a lot of potential for natural decorations. They are especially good because they are more permanent, unlike holly, ivy, mistletoe and Christmas trees, in that they do not wilt at the end of the celebrations. Pinecones can be hung on a tree plain, using ribbons, or you can embellish them with glitter or fake snow (use correction fluid on the edges of the scales rather than using aerosol sprays) before hanging them up.
But that’s just the start of things you can do with pinecones, especially as they “take to” any sort of glue that will stick to wood. With a few more additions, a pinecone can become an angel or a reindeer – or anything else you fancy. How about making a crib scene out of pinecones (using, of course, real dried grass in the manger)? And if you live in an apartment where you are not permitted to have a real Christmas tree, you can make a miniature Christmas tree from a large pinecone.
Oranges and whole cloves can be used to make some very traditional Christmas decorations (pomanders) that you can use to keep moths away. These will need to be made ahead of time so they dry properly. Take an orange and tie two ribbons around it at right angles to each other (when you look down on your pomander, the ribbons should form a cross) then poke whole cloves into the skin all over the orange where the ribbons aren’t. Hang the pomander up somewhere dark and dry (e.g. a hot water cupboard) to dry out. Then hang it on the tree. You could also hang real fresh oranges on the tree – the bright colour looks very striking against the dark green and they make a nice healthy snack while opening presents.
Ornaments made from salt dough that is baked and dried are natural. Alternatively, make edible ones out of gingerbread and eat them as part of the celebrations.
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Planning a barbecue is an exciting time. It can also be a stressful time. There’s so much to do to make sure that your guests – and you – have a great time that it’s easy to overlook something. Yes, a barbecue is casual and informal, and much of the cooking can be done as part of the dinner, but planning ahead is still the key (as it is for any social gathering), so that on the day, everything will be smooth sailing. This list will help you with your planning and organising.
1. What are you going to cook on? Do you have enough fuel (gas or charcoal)? One of the worst things that can happen at a barbeque is for the fuel to run out half-way through, leaving everything half cooked. Make sure that you have an extra cylinder of gas on hand or an extra sack of charcoal on hand or tucked around the corner so you can cope with sudden emergencies quickly. Leave cooking on an open fire Boy Scout/Girl Guide style for another time unless you are very experienced – it can be very tricky, although it is possible. The same applies to meals cooked in an earth oven as they do in Polynesian countries – it’s not for the faint-hearted to try!
2. How long will everything take to cook? While sausages, steaks and some vegetables can be cooked quite quickly on the barbecue, other things (e.g. chicken nibbles and chops) may take longer. These things may need to be precooked. Alternatively, light the barbecue and start cooking these sorts of items before guests arrive so people aren’t standing around with growling tummies waiting and wondering if undercooked chicken is really as hazardous as people say (it is). Salads, of course, can be prepared well ahead of time and will not go limp if dressing is left off until the last minute.
3. How are you going to keep food safe? Food that will not be eaten piping hot straight off the barbecue needs to be kept safe so you don’t send your guests home with food poisoning. Keep salads and chicken pieces cooked ahead of time in the refrigerator until the last minute, and if people bring salads or bread, keep these covered with clingfilm or in an airtight container until you’re about to eat. It’s also a good idea to use one pair of tongs for raw meat and another for the cooked meat and vegetables to prevent contamination. Alternatively, sterilise tongs after touching raw meat by holding the business end of the tongs in the flame or in the coals – but watch out that the handles of metal tongs don’t get so hot they burn you.
4. What are you going to do if it rains? Given the notorious vagaries of the British climate, it’s always wise to have an alternative in case the heavens open. Do you have a veranda or porch where you can put the barbecue so you can still have an actual barbeque “outdoors”? Will an awning work? Or will you just go indoors and grill everything?
5. What are you going to sit on? While much of the socialising and eating will be done standing up, everyone needs to sit down now and again – it’s pretty tricky trying to cut up a tough chop or steak while standing up. For a very casual way to seat plenty of people, bales of hay, straw or pea straw are very useful –and they have their uses in the garden afterwards.
6. What, apart from the meat, are you going to eat? Bread and salad are traditional accompaniments for barbecued meat. Use a variety of salads to give everyone a good choice. And remember that you don’t just have to cook meat on the barbecue – onion rings, slices of zucchini, mushrooms, and capiscums can all be cooked on the barbecue easily and quickly. Also consider cooking fish on the barbecue – fish fingers and fillets work nicely.
7. Where will guest put empty beer bottles, drink cans and leftovers? While it’s tempting to have a rubbish bin handy and to chuck everything in there, having two or three containers – one for recyclables like cans and bottles, another for food waste to be composted and a third one for other rubbish – is just as easy and helps you be nice to the environment. It will be easier for your waste management London company to clear the rubbish. Alternatively, if you have a compost heap, show your guests where it is so they can get rid of their food waste directly (but don’t have your barbeque and the food too near the compost heap – too many flies and the smell is off-putting).
8. What nibbles and drinks will you have handy for people to eat while the food is being cooked? Keep it simple here – you can’t go wrong with a cheese platter, popcorn, crisps and a few nuts. Make sure that you have alcohol-free options so your guests don’t try drinking on an empty stomach – being one over the eight and having an open grill nearby is not a good combination and can prove very dangerous.
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Let us cast our eyes over the traditional Christmas fare spread out on the table… Taking centre stage is the turkey (or, if you’re really traditional, a goose), accompanied by bread sauce and/or cranberry sauce. You might find ham. You will probably find roast potatoes, bacon rolls, and Yorkshire pudding, and afterwards comes a rich plum pudding soaked in brandy (and possibly with lashings of whipped cream), gingerbread and Christmas mice pies. Alongside this comes mulled wine.
It’s small wonder then, looking at these offerings, that most of us vow and declare come New Year and the time to make resolutions that we will lose weight and do something for our health. Where are the vegetables in a Christmas dinner? Just because it’s Christmas, does this mean that you have to eat as if you’re trying to achieve Father Christmas’ figure? These days, with refrigerators and hothouse foods being readily available, there’s no excuse not to add a few more vegetables into your Christmas dinner.
The turkey can stay on the menu. Turkey is a low-fat meat and is lower in fat than the traditional goose, geese being rather fatty birds. Stuffing made with plenty of onions and/or oranges or the more American cranberries is OK… but avoid using suet in the mixture. Suet is straight saturated fat. While it doesn’t have the same binding qualities as suet, olive oil can be added to stop the stuffing being too dry, and egg white can be used to bind it. Alternatively, stuff the turkey the easy way with mock chestnut stuffing made from mashed sweet potato – this adds an extra vegetable into the mix and is lower in fat.
Ham is low in fat, but some of the preservatives used in modern hams have been linked with cancer. Try a traditionally preserved ham, or go for pork. The boar’s head was the mediaeval centrepiece of the Christmas banquet, so by eating pork rather than ham, you’re reviving an old tradition. Plums (probably dried in the form of prunes) were the traditional accompaniment to this dish.
The roast potatoes are a good start – potatoes, especially if they have the skins left on, are very nutritious, and they help fill you up. How about adding other root vegetables in with the potatoes? Pumpkin, parsnip, carrots and even swedes roast up nicely. Parboil the vegetables before roasting them, and toss them in vegetable oil before roasting rather than using dripping, butter or fat. Instead of adding dollops of salt, use a mixture of salt and herbs to put a bit of extra zing into the vegetables. Garlic and onions can also be roasted, although these should not be parboiled but just added to the roasting dish – garlic should be left in its skin and the papery peel just brushed with a little oil.
A traditional Christmas dish served in South America is a salad of pickled beetroot and potatoes. This is a nice, colourful addition to the Christmas menu, as it brings the red and white colours onto the table. The tartness of pickled beetroot (tinned will do!) makes a nice contrast to the other foods.
Traditional bread sauce contains double cream, butter and full fat milk. However, you can get away with using only one of these to lower the fat content. While it won’t be quite traditional, you can make bread sauce healthier by using wholemeal bread instead of white bread, or by leaving the onion in the mixture (use ground cloves, in this case) and pureeing it in with the bread and milk mixture.
For nibbles on the side, you can’t go wrong with nuts – they are healthy, tasty and nutritious (as long as you’re not allergic to them).
Now for the puddings. The traditional Christmas pudding and the traditional Christmas cake come stuffed with dried fruit, and this is a plus. However, to reduce the sugar intake in cakes and puddings, make your own fruit mix with raisins, chopped nuts, dried apricots and the like rather than the ready-made mixed that are full of candied peels and glace cherries. If you’re really organised, you can serve a traditional Dutch dessert, but this will need to be planned well ahead of time. This dessert involves preserving your summer fruits – cherries, pears, berries and the like – in brandy, then leaving them to mellow and serving them at Christmas time. This is very rich, very decadent, and increases your fruit intake. However, Christmas mince pies traditionally contain suet in the pastry and sometimes even in the fruit mixture, so they are best avoided – or kept to a minimum. Alternatively, try wrapping fruit mix in filo pastry instead.
For a traditional dessert that’s lighter but has plenty of flair (or should that be flare?), have an old-fashioned Snapdragon. This involves placing dried fruits, usually raisins, currants and prunes in a shallow dish of brandy, which was set alight. To avoid burns, use parfait spoons to retrieve the raisins, and let the brandy flare off before eating… unless you want to face the challenge. Once the raisins are all eaten, finished by throwing salt over the flames for a dramatic finale.
Worried about the brandy and the mulled wine? Don’t be, as long as you drink in moderation. Brandy and red wine contain antioxidants. The spices used in mulled wine also have a number of health benefits, and if you add orange juice and/or zest into the mulled wine, you’re adding more antioxidants into your intake.
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During the warmer months, we tend to be more relaxed when we eat. Instead of formal candlelight dinners with floral centrepieces, we have informal picnics in the sun surrounded by fresh, living flowers. We have barbeques. We take a picnic hamper to the beach. This warmer weather really seems to make us thrive.
Warmer weather, unfortunately, also makes bacteria thrive. Summer is a particularly happy season for our old friend (not!) the E. coli bacterium that causes food poisoning. And salmonella. And just to make things worse, the flies that carry these bacteria to your food are also multiplying and doing their utmost to join in your picnics and barbeques. To make sure that you spend your summer playing in the sunshine instead of lying pathetically in bed frantically trying to rid yourself of the nasties in your system (i.e. vomiting and diarrhoea), it’s important to make sure that you prevent food poisoning happening to you.
Salads are one of the delights of summer that this writer always looks forward to. However, salads are eaten raw with minimal preparation. If you’re not careful, they can be a breeding ground for E. coli. Always make sure that you wash salad vegetables properly before adding them to the salad. This applies to conventionally grown veggies, organically grown veggies (remember: these have been grown with organic fertilisers, which means animal manure) and home-grown vegetables. If you’re really uncertain, or if you are visiting a place where the water is dubious, then rinsing them in water which has had iodine added to it will kill any bacteria. Finish by rinsing off in drinking water. Make sure any animal based products such as meat and eggs are cooked properly before adding them to a salad. Cheese is usually OK to add in. Once you have made your salad and added the dressing, then cover the salad and keep it chilled until the last minute.
Many people say that raw egg yolk is a carrier of salmonella. However, home-made mayonnaise calls for raw egg yolks. What do you do? Do you forgo “real” mayonnaise with lemon and egg yolk? In this writer’s opinion (backed up by a childhood of eating raw cake batter complete with raw eggs and several decades of using raw egg yolks in pasta and in “real” mayonnaise), if you follow the basic precautions of keeping the mayonnaise covered and cool, and if you make it at the last moment before serving, it should be OK – I haven’t had salmonella yet.
Also be careful with barbecues. Meat must be properly cooked to be safe. Chicken is the worst offender here. To be on the safe side, precook the chicken before finishing it off on the barbeque. This will also avoid the “burnt on the outside, raw on the middle” syndrome seen at so many barbeques. One common risky practice seen at many barbeques is using the tongs to handle or turn raw and half-cooked meat, waving them around in the air while talking, and then using them again to handle cooked meat and vegetables. Don’t do this – things that touch raw meat should not go and touch cooked food ready to be eaten straight away. If you have metal tongs, after handling raw meat, put the tongs into the flames of the barbecue (through the grille of the barbecue) before using them again – and don’t forget to use an oven mitt to pick it up again. Failing that, use one set of tongs for raw meat and another set for cooked things and veggies – maybe pass one set to a helpful friend to avoid muddle-ups. Serve barbeque food straight away – don’t let the meat sit
around.
Ideally, meat should not be thawed on the bench. In the fridge overnight is by far the best method that is much more energy efficient than using a microwave or running meat under a hot tap.
And you did remember to wash your hands before eating, didn’t you?
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The kitchen is a place where women (and men!) have passed on tips and hints, and exchanged knowledge as well as preparing food and caring for the family. Here is a selection of handy hints for the kitchen, more or less at random, like life and work in the kitchen often is.
* To save money in the kitchen, in many recipes that call for straight milk, you can replace this with a mixture of 50% milk and 50% water. This works well for roux sauces, poached fish, and soups, but it probably not best for custards or custard-style puddings. Just plain water can be used in making cakes and pancakes – it’s lower in fat, too.
* If you get left with brown bananas in the cupboard (children sometimes refuse to eat bananas once the fruit resemble leopards) but you don’t want to make a banana cake right now, mash the bananas and freeze them until you need to make a cake. Normally, bananas turn black if you freeze them in their skins, and the pulp will turn yellow-brown. This isn’t a problem with banana cakes, as the brown tinge will put in some natural colour. Lemon juice added to the mashed pulp adds a bit of zing.
* Slighty sour milk (e.g. one day past the best-by date, but no more than this!) can be used in baking – scones, cakes and muffins all taste good with soured milk. If you’re not sure, taste a drip of the milk. If it is bitter, don’t use it (pour it down the sink or onto the compost heap) but if it only tastes slightly abnormal but palatable, then use it in baking – or give it to the dog.
* Do you ever struggle to cut a cake horizontally so you can fill it with jam or cream (or both)? Instead of holding a soft, floppy, crumbly cake on its side and sawing at it, or trying to saw through it with a knife while it sits on the plate, use a length of tough sewing cotton, clean dental floss or even a length of very fine (and clean!) wire. Hold both ends of the thread firmly and embed the cotton about halfway down one side of the cake. Then wrap the lengths around the cake and hold them in one hand. The thread may start cutting into the cake at this stage. With your free hand, push lightly on the cake to keep it steady, and pull the thread through the cake with your other hand.
* At some supermarket bakeries, you can fill a bag with rolls or buns for a certain price, sometimes (but not always –check first) with no upper limit of buns with the rule of thumb being that if you, the customer, can close the bag properly, you can have whatever’s in it. If you’ve done this and crammed in lots of buns by squashing them flat, you can restore them by putting them in the microwave oven for about 30 seconds after spraying with a little water. They plump up again nicely and feel fresh and warm (this writer learned this tip when working at a supermarket bakery that had a “fill the bag” deal – the tip was passed on by a customer who managed to get 43 buns into a bag that normally held 25 buns).
* If you aren’t sure about how fresh an egg is, drop it gently into a deep dish of water – the water should be twice as deep as needed to cover the egg. If the egg is fresh, it will sink. If it floats, it’s rotten and should be buried deep in the compost heap so you can’t smell it when it explodes (alternatively, use it as bait if you go fishing for eels). If it keeps one little bit on the bottom of the dish but looks like it is about to take off any moment, it is OK but won’t taste as good as fresh eggs. Use it in a cake or in a meatloaf.
* To make sure that the cupboard where you keep your spreads stays cleaner for longer, put the jars holding the spreads onto a plate or a small serving tray, which you can change every so often. All the gunk that inevitably trickles down the sides, plus the crumbs and oil that get stuck on jar bottoms, will go onto the plate, not the cupboard. If you have oil bottles or jars in the cupboard, you can store the container on paper towels or in a bowl to catch drips.
* Cat litter absorbs smells and is perfectly clean if the cat’s been nowhere near it. Put a little into the back of dark potentially smelly cupboards or even fridges – and make sure the cat can’t get in or it will make a horrible mistake. Baking soda also absorbs smells, so a saucer of this may be a better option inside the fridge. Replace frequently – you can use the old baking soda for domestic cleaning London purposes for example to clean the fridge, the kitchen or the bathroom.
* For food safely, have more than one chopping board. Keep one for vegetables and fruit and another for meat – and maybe a third one for bread. Colour-code them or keep them separate so you know which is which. Wash down the meat one immediately after each use (the others only need daily washing) and sterilise it with boiling water. Alternatively, use the trays used to package supermarket meat as a chopping board, then throw it out after use.
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