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Dates, Dehydrators and the Death of Globalism…

April 5, 2022April 5, 2022humanist55

If you have seen my Theme Reveal for the A2Z Challenge 2022, then you will know that I am writing about becoming Vegetarian gradually as a response to the crisis in food supply chains sparked by the pandemic and made worse by the WAR in Ukraine. As well, I am keeping to the theme I originally planned of foods which can be eaten on their own but can also become ingredients in other dishes…

Globalisation has been rolled back since the banking crisis of 2008, first by the banking regulation that followed, then by Trumpian and Brexit nationalism and mercantilism, then by Covid and now by the shock of war. – From The Spectator

What does this mean? In short, we have all got used to supply chains that bring things from all over the world in a complicated, interlinked, interdependent, just-in-time web of trade. For most consumers, this is most apparent in food. When I was little, we enjoyed English seasonal apples because the rest of the time, the options were small, but now we eat apples from New Zealand (the antipodes of the UK) and many other countries – evening out the shortages of seasonality. In other areas, a factory in Ukraine, that produces a major share of the world’s Neon requirements, has closed down due to the WAR. You may wonder why I keep using shouty capitals for WAR, well it’s because Putin keeps trying to fool (mostly his own people) by denying the reality of what he is doing and calling it a “Special Military Operation”. The unintended consequence of his ill-thought-out WAR, is an acceleration of the death of globalisation. The Neon factory, exists not for the creation of colourful neon signs (whose days is done, in the age of LEDs) but instead, is used in the production of microchips. There is already a shortage of microchips (used in almost every industrial product these days) due to the disruption of production and supply chains by Covid 19. The fragility of these supply chains was further evidenced by one ship getting stuck and blocking the Suez Canal for a couple of weeks and forcing other ships to take the long way around Africa.

We may hope that countries around the world do not return to mercantilism (the opposite of Globalism) but in the light of the WAR in Ukraine, countries will have to consider more self-reliant trading, less dependence on Russian oil and gas for example, more reliable independent defence strategies and more home-grown food strategies. Today’s Food as an Ingredient is the Date, a fruit that is grown from Spain and North Africa, across to the Far East. Are we to face a shortage of Dates in the future? I hope not, and I can’t see a reason why this particular commodity should be affected by a general retrenchment of globalism – let’s hope not anyway, because dates have an important role as an ingredient in Vegetarian and Vegan cooking – which is one response to the coming crisis in food supply chains.

Dates – as an Ingredient…

Dates – little joyous bundles of nutrition…

It is said of Dates, that if you had to survive on one single foodstuff, you could not do better than Dates. They are 75% carbohydrate and have 2% protein and even 1%fat. They are also tasty – especially when freshly dried, having an unctuous, melt in the mouth softness. My first encounter with dates was good, but not as good as the joy of the whole, fresh fruit. My mother used to buy blocks of chopped compressed dates, which she experimentally, (probably a suggestion from Woman’s Weekly) combined with grated apple as sandwich filling! Best eaten quickly before the apple browned… a better experience were the long boxes of dates with rounded ends that we always had at Christmas, slightly dried but glossily sticky. Today, I live near Bradford, which, having a large Moslem population, can be relied upon to supply dates all year round, but with a huge selection of different varieties at either Ramadan or when the date harvest takes place.

From a vegetarian/environmental point of view – getting your sugars from a natural source, as opposed to eating processed sugars, is a great option – true, both have to be transported from afar, but then there is the environmental cost of processing sugar… So considering dates as an ingredient – they add both sweetness and flavour. For example, I love the combination of rhubarb and dates and might not add any sugar at all providing I add enough dates. In my post on apples, the Fresh Apple Oat Cake was topped with a layer of softened dates and think of classic recipe combinations such as Date and Walnut Cake! Indeed you can happily add chopped dates to any recipe calling for mixed fruit – you can add them to salads and savoury dishes where they add a richer sweetness balance than a pinch of sugar. There are, these days, many refined products made from dates – Date Molasses, Date Sugar, Date Spread and read through the ingredients of many chutneys and sauces and you will find dates. HP Brown Sauce (the original brown sauce) was developed in England to sate the taste of British soldiers, returned from India, who had developed a taste for something rich and spicy and the ingredients include date fo sweetness, and tamarind – almost the opposite of dates, for sourness – another unexpected product of British Imperialism…

Dehydrators

Lastly, I want to turn to an aspect of the post-globalism world that might be coming down the line – preserving food. I will cover several forms of preserving that might help us extend the life of our local food products if globally sourced foods are diminished. We have already touched on jam – a form of preserving, and today I want to touch on Dehydrators. Dried fruit, touted as the responsible parent’s alternative to sweets, is expensive – home dehydrated fruit is cheap! I bought a typical dehydrator with six shelves and can load it simultaneously with a pineapple, apples, kiwi fruit and bananas – roughly a carrier-bag full, and reduce it overnight to a few takeaway tubs full of delicious dried fruit! this is the first and most obvious use of a dehydrator, but you can make your own jerky at the meat eater’s end of the scale, and vegan no-bake bread, at the other end of the spectrum – and guess what? The vegan bread can contain Dates – who would have thought it! My Dehydrator cost me £25.00 and has easily paid for itself providing healthy dried fruit snacks to adult grandchildren as well as ourselves.

Chorizo – as an ingredient – Not Going the Whole Hog…

April 4, 2022April 4, 2022humanist55

If you have seen my Theme Reveal for the A2Z Challenge 2022, then you will know that I am writing about becoming Vegetarian gradually as a response to the crisis in food supply chains sparked by the pandemic and made worse by the WAR in Ukraine. As well, I am keeping to the theme I originally planned of food which can be eaten on their own as well as becoming ingredients in other dishes…

I wrote this post in preparation for April, just about at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since then, the knock-on effects of the WAR, have become more apparent and include the idea that meat production is going to skyrocket. I decided to broaden the scope of my theme to include moving toward more vegetarian or plant-based food in our diet which is not the same thing as full-on espousing Vegetarianism for reasons, Ethical, Environmental, or Health, but rather, an inevitable reaction to meat shortages and rising prices. So, if we must go with the vegetarian favouring times, let us go willingly, or at least without complaint, for there are those without any choice, and let us garner knowledge to make the best of the experience – and what better place to start than using tiny amounts of highly concentrated meat flavour to add to mostly plant based dishes…

This post gets to the heart of using food as an ingredient as opposed to food in it’s own right. I always keep some Chorizo (pronounced Chor – ee -tho ) in my fridge but I almost never eat it by the slice or chunk! I am not vegetarian, but I recognise the need to drastically cut down on the amount of meat produced in the world – for the sake of the environment. Meat has a richness of flavour compared to say, a lentil, especially when, as in the case of Chorizo and similarly cured sausages, it has been concentrated by the process of curing. So a good way of introducing flavour into, mainly vegetable-based dishes, whilst reducing your meat intake (a healthy idea anyway), is to add small quantities of finely chopped Chorizo to your dish. Health-wise, you are also getting some vitamin B which is missing from purely plant-based food.

There is a heath argument against cured meats on account of substances used in the curing process being carcinogenic, but we are talking about small quantities of chorizo and there are so many worse sources of danger all around us, so I am prepared to take the risk for the sake of taste. You can use other types of cured sausage, but I like the fruity, spicy flavour of Chorizo which comes from smoked pimento, and I fry it in with onions at the start of making a dish. It’s a win for flavour, for the environment, and for your personal reduction of meat intake!

Spicy Tomato and Chorizo Pasta Bake from https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/collections/recipes-with-chorizo/

The recipe above is from a site showing 41 recipes that include Chorizo as an ingredient, to a greater or lesser extent and illustrates how to incorporate it…

If you have a favourite cured meat that you use as an ingredient – please share in the comments!

Bread – in Geopolitics, in Vegetarianism and – as an ingredient…

April 2, 2022April 2, 2022humanist55

If you have seen my Theme Reveal for the A2Z Challenge 2022, then you will know that I am writing about becoming Vegetarian gradually as a response to the crisis in food supply chains sparked by the pandemic and made worse by the WAR in Ukraine. As well, I am keeping to the theme I originally planned of food which can be eaten on their own as well as becoming ingredients in other dishes…

As the WAR in Ukraine rages on, Ukraine’s minister of agrarian and food policy, announced that – Ukraine’s government has banned the export of wheat, oats and other staples that are crucial for global food supplies as authorities try to ensure they can feed people during Russia’s intensifying war. New rules on agricultural exports introduced this week also prohibit the export of millet, buckwheat, sugar, live cattle, and meat and other byproducts from cattle (see article). As things are, Ukrainian farmers will be lucky to get out to fertilise the soon to sprout winter wheat – ironically, whilst Ukraine is often referred to as the bread-basket of the world, and the yellow colour on the flag of Ukraine symbolises the wheat, the fertiliser used to grow Ukrainian wheat, comes from Russia, illustrating the perfect storm of food supply chains that Putin has, with lack of, or incorrect, foresight, loosed upon the world. Every World War is different, and make no mistake, we are in a world war, because the countries and peoples affected by the WAR, lie far beyond the extent of the fighting. Economies and supply chains require no declarations of war to involve and decimate. European countries will feel the loss of Ukrainian wheat, but the other grains on that list – buckwheat and millet are vital imports to many developing countries such as in Africa. Russia looks likely to take all of Ukraine’s coast and ports so that even if they stop where they are at that point, and back down, how will exports to those developing countries take place?

We may have no choice but to eat less meat since as we saw in the last post, it takes so much grain to raise beef cattle, and we should face this shift with no complaint since there are many people in the world who will have less choice than we do. We will not be being forced to live solely on the staple dish of bread (or as Marie Antoinette would have it – cake) but undoubtedly some things will change our eating habits, whether we like it or not. The rich will, of course, continue to afford the full menu of choices.

Bread is a Staple Food! Of the ten world staple foods, wheat, the source of most breads, is at number three, after maise and rice, which might come as a surprise to Europeans, whose massive use of bread and whose knowledge of foods foreign is often dismal. Maise, or Corn, is, of course, the source of Cornbread, whilst Rice is the main ingredient in most Gluten-Free flour and the bread made from it. After these three staples, comes Potato which is also used in some bread recipes together with some wheat flour. The rest of the ten staples do not significantly feature in the world of bread – Cassava, Soybeans, Sweet Potatoes, Yams, Sorghum and Plantain. If you know of any breads made from these, please correct me by sharing in the comments!

Before looking at bread as an ingredient, let us take a quick trip around the manna itself. The first thing that comes to mind, is a loaf of bread, and to make this, you need hard wheat, as opposed to the soft wheat used for cake and some softer, cake-like breads such as brioche, of which more later. If you take morning toast and sandwiches, you have the main ingredient of two of the daily meals and think of beans/spaghetti/cheese/eggs on toast and that represents supper for some people, or think pizza, or hummus and pitta bread. Most bread is Leavened (made to rise), with yeast, but Soda Bread (risen with baking soda activated by buttermilk) also has it’s place. Sourdough is very trendy but has a long history and depends on natural yeasts which gradually accumulate and become something unique in each baker’s precious starter… But there are many unleavened breads – a plethora of flatbreads – from all over the world – Middle Eastern pitta bread, to South Asian Chapatis or even Aboriginal Australian Dampers.

Some like hearty wholemeal, seedy granary or dabble with ancient grains but many people, at peril to their health, like the refinement of white bread! During World war Two, The refinement of bread was regarded as wasteful and wholemeal was the order of the day, so once the war was over, white bread boomed – a whole generation put themselves at risk of diverticulitis – the cure? Bran cereal made from the bran taken out of the flour to render it white!

But what of bread as an ingredient?

Bread goes stale with varying degrees of speed – not that it can’t be eaten, but it is hard and dry, however, since it is still nutritionally sound, there are many ways to use up stale bread by turning it into an ingredient – breadcrumbs, bread pudding, bread-and-butter pudding, Apple Charlotte – the latter made with bread crumbs. Rusk goes into sausages and that could be meat or veggie and of course, bread itself is Vegan – seems those one-celled creatures, the yeasts, don’t count… I once, briefly, had a restaurant, and I worked hard at developing a range of sophisticated puddings, however, I made a rod for my own back by including bread-and-butter pudding, because over 50% of customers chose that – of course, it may be that they liked my particular recipe, or maybe they couldn’t be bothered to make it at home, though why ever not, I can’t imagine – preparation time, even for a full family size dish, is 10 minutes at most. My restaurant version, though, is even quicker and I made them to order.

https://www.goodfood.com.au/recipes/individual-bread-and-butter-puddings-20131101-2wow0

Frewin’s Bread and Butter Pudding
Preheat the oven to 170C, 325F or Gas mark 3
Take a ramekin or very small bowl, and grease it with butter
Cut a few slices of Brioch Bread and butter them with softened butter
Cut a slice into pices to fit the base of the ramekin
Sprinkle a teaspoon of the sugar of your choice
Sprinkle half a dozen plump raisins or mixed, dried fruit (must be large, fresh and soft, no small gritty ones)
Repeat till the ramekin is full to the brim (this won’t take much, leave small gaps for the mixture to find its way in)
The mixture for a large pudding is 5 eggs beaten into 1 pint of milk but you will have to scale down for just a couple of ramekins. To make it even richer, substitute a little single cream for part of the milk.
Sprinkle a little sugar over the top of the pudding and make sure no dried fruit is standing proud as it will go bitter if burnt.
You need a pre-heated oven to finish the pudding – but start off in the microwave if you are in a hurry, or bake completely in the oven if you are not. You could assemble your puddings and leave to soak while you have your main course and finish off between courses. One minute or so, in the microwave and a couple of minutes in the oven. Watch as it microwaves and when the surface begins to rise, transfer to the oven. Keep checking and when the pudding has risen (as it will, splendidly) and is browning a little – your pudding is ready!

And now for something completely different!

https://natashaskitchen.com/angelinas-easy-bread-kvas-recipe/

Kvass is a barely alcoholic drink made from stale rye bread from the Eastern European Countries through the Russias. When the USSR broke up, instead of embracing the western passion for Cocoa-Cola, the people of the east, in a patriotic passion, started to drink a lot of Kvass. what did Cocoa-Cola do? They bought Kvass factories on the basis that if you can’t beat them – join them! I can buy kvass from various Polish shops near me, but I was really intrigued by the fact that this drink was made from bread and that you could make it yourself, so I decided to have a go! There are many recipes on the internet and I am still trying them out, some contain beetroot, or fruit, but here is a good one to start with. So Rye bread is an example of a bread not made with wheat and many people are turning to it to avoid some of the side effects of wheat, gluten, bloating etc. – but the main reason to start including it in your diet is just that it is a rich flavour and when toasted, is crisp on the outside and soft in the middle – yummy! And now you know what to do with the leftovers!

So here were some ideas for using bread as an ingredient – care to share your favourites?

Carrie-Anne over at Welcome to My Magick Theatre, is writing about Ukrainian history and culture for this year’s A2Z Challenge and has a list of charities you may wish to donate to for the Ukrainian cause.

Zalka Csenge Virág posted on International Women’s Day, 10 tales about women and war (including a Ukrainian tale) over at The Multicoloured Diary.

Apples – as an ingredient, and Analogues of Meat…

March 31, 2022April 1, 2022humanist55

If you have seen my Theme Reveal for the A2Z Challenge 2022, then you will know that I am writing about becoming Vegetarian gradually as a response to the crisis in food supply chains sparked by the pandemic and made worse by the WAR in Ukraine. As well, I am keeping to the theme I originally planned of food which can be eaten on their own as well as becoming ingredients in other dishes…

Analogues of Meat – One Route into Vegetarian Eating

A taste comparison at http://www.veggienuggets.co.uk/the-great-big-sausage-taste-test/

The first time I knowingly met vegetarians, was when my family visited my cousin’s family in Walthamstow, London. My Uncle John was brought up vegetarian and now he was doing the same with his family. There were a lot of dishes we were familiar with from my mother’s cooking, Cauliflower Cheese and, Macaroni Cheese, but then there were Vegetarian Sausages. Since this was back in the 60’s, early 70’s, I am not sure what the vegetarian protein was in those days, but they weren’t great, tastewise. They were sausage-shaped though they obviously didn’t have traditional sausage skins (since they are made from sections of intestines ) so they were straight with a synthetic skin, didn’t brown right well, and seemed to have all the rusk but none of the flavour – a fact that lashings of vegetarian gravy (though having more umami than the sausages) – did nothing to improve. This was the Analogue approach to trying to promote the vegetarian lifestyle – make something that imitates a meat product – sad to say – nobody was fooled! The same approach is still being used with vegetarian burgers and even Cauliflower ‘Steak’ and it seems to me, the wrong approach to set new foods up for comparison with the world of meat because for the sceptics, the analogue imitator is bound to fail at least the taste test, if not the texture, nutrition and appearance tests.

Meat has a strong taste – it is further enhanced by caramelising the outside, and mostly, it is easy to cook and pairs well with equally, simply cooked vegetables – ‘meat and two veg.’ So the first analogue to avoid is just that – why not have a Beetroot Pattie with a Ragout of Stir-fried Vegetables? You don’t need potatoes for carbohydrate since there will be carbohydrate in the pattie and perhaps more in the stir-fried vegetables. Now you are eating something completely different. More of stir-frying later in the challenge, but in case that sounds like a hassle, or you think it takes longer, stir-frying is quick, leaves the vegetables more nutritious and tastes good too and it will take you lees time than boiling potatoes! Since that first encounter with veggie sausages, vegetarian analogues have come a long way, recipes from around the world have turned up on our western shelves, Falafel, for example – or the principle of their cooking, flavours and ingredients, have been incorporated into the latest offerings from the veggie section of the supermarket. Flavours are stronger, chilli alone is incorporated in quantities that would have frightened vegetarians in the 60s. If you cook from scratch, ingredients and spices from around the world are available – although these may take a hit from supply chain problems in the Post Pandemic/ Ukraine scenario. The internet is full of people sharing recipes from all over the world. The before and after cooking photos of vegetarian sausages at top, illustrate some of the vast variety available today – and let’s not forget that consumer demands for choice, have driven meat sausages to more and more additions – cheese, apple, herbs, cranberries, curry spices – so is it so great a stretch to drop the meat altogether and try a meat-free, no a plant-based sausage some nights at the very least?

Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@ralphkayden?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Ralph (Ravi) Kayden</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/vegetarian-food?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a> — See anything Bland or Boring here? I thought not!
Photo by Ralph (Ravi) Kayden on Unsplash

If you are already Vegetarian, or even Vegan, then I am preaching to the choir, but I hope you may find some ideas or feel free to contribute via the comments, your own experiences, recipes and ideas…

Apples as an Ingredient…

I used to say that if there were two foods that I could live off solely, they would be Apples, and Bread! Now that I am older and familial diabetes is kicking in, I try to eat less bread and with both apples and bread, I look for quality and variety rather than quantity! Apples are definitely a food that can be eaten fresh but have spawned a plethora of recipes in which they are the principal ingredient, not to mention drinks, cider and calvados spring to mind.

Apples are divided into dessert and cookers but these are not fixed – you can cook with dessert apples and cookers can become eaters. Due to commercial pressures, the number of varieties easily available, have contracted, so that in Britain, most people will only know of one variety of cooking apple – the Bramley, which you can read about here. But when I was a child and we had two magnificent Bramley trees in the garden, leftovers from the orchard that had existed before the street was built, my parents would carefully select Bramleys, pack them into cushioned trays and store in the attic, where, after the occasional inspection to weed out those that had rotted – we were eventually rewarded with a slightly wrinkled but delicious eating apple. The Bramley, when freshly picked, is too tart for most people to eat, hence it’s utility for cooking, whence it keeps a fruity taste; by contrast, most dessert, or eating apples are too mild in flavour, and once cooked, they are often disappointing, taste-wise. This tartness of cooking apples, means they are full of Pectin – the thing that helps a gel form from sugar in fruit when you are jam-making – hence the combination of, say, Blackberry and Apple Jam, since blackberries do not have enough pectin to set on their own. Recipe quantities couldn’t be easier:-

50% Blackberries

50% Bramley apple

A weight of Sugar equal to the combined fruits.

In case you have never made jam before, I wrote my own simple instructions, since there was always at least one unnecessary instruction in all the ones I searched out and it is in my Theme Reveal.

So I am not saying you should never use dessert apples as ingredients because when it comes to cooking especially, rules are meant to be broken and expediency is the mother of invention – so experiment away. So just what are my favourite English apples? I am not being nationalistic here, but the best apple is an apple fresh, in it’s own season and that means, in it’s own country. There are apples that have been bred to travel such as the tough-skinned, American Red Delicious, or even the French Golden Delicious – which was also American in the first place but was brought in to provide a living for French ex-pats who had been forced out of Algeria. This government-backed scheme did great damage to English varieties with its bland, but long keeping qualities. I rest my case! English seasonal apples vary from the champagne-like burst of flavour of Discovery, early in the season, to the aristocratic sounding, seasonally attired Egremont Russet which comes at the autumnal end of the season.

You couldn’t imagine two more different apples – Discovery, so red of skin that it continues into the very flesh, which is soft and juicy and a sensual discovery indeed. The Russet is very firm until the exact point of ripeness when it is perfect for a brief moment – and then it goes wooly! But when it is perfectly ripe, it is redolent of Autumn, mellow and mature…

But back to the apple as an ingredient. I once helped set up a wholefood shop wherein we sold some lovely wholefoody cakes, some of which were made for sale in London’s famous Camden Lock. The bakers who made them, were willing to sell them to us, but not ar sufficient wholesale discount, so my boss asked me to reverse engineer them, so here is my recipe for Fresh Apple Oat Cake.

Fill an 8” cake tin, ¾ full of oat
Tip into a mixing bowl, add a handful of dried fruit, and grate the largest Bramley apple you can fid into the bowl and mix well
Grease the tin and line bottom with baking parchment
Spoon mixture in and bake in a moderate oven till the top begins to brown
Soften chopped Dates in boiling water until mashable, then spread onto the top of the cooled cake – Enjoy!

You can add, spices of your choice, add extra dried fruit and even grated, creamed coconut for a more luxurious version – but this is the basic cake.

There are so many recipes that use apples as an ingredient – Apple Crumble, Apple Charlotte, Apple Chutney, Red Cabbage and Apple baked in Cider – all of these findable on the internet and you can search as well as I, but I will direct you to one more, based on my most treasured cake recipe book Good Housekeeping’s ‘Cakes and Biscuits’, It is an Apple and Crumbly Cheese Cake – the Lancashire or Cheshire style of cheese is sandwiched between cake batter loaded with chopped apple and nuts – delicious…

On Apples, ‘I could have blogged all night’ – apologies to ‘My Fair Lady’.

Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award

July 29, 2021July 30, 2021humanist55

Thank you Jamie of uniquely maladjusted but fun for this nomination – I “met” Jamie through the 2021 A2Z Challenge this year where she wrote an intriguing story in instalments following a double date with a twist at the end – give it a whirl… Challenging questions Jamie!

https://uniquelymaladjustedbutfun.blogspot.com/

Rules for the Award

1. Thank the person who has nominated you and provide a link back to their blog.
2. Answer their questions.
3. Nominate up to 9 other bloggers and ask them 5 new questions.
4. Notify the nominees through their blog by visiting and commenting on their blog.
5. List the rules and display the “Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award” logo.

Jamie’s Questions…

1. If an employee under extreme stress says (verbally or written) something that is construed as insensitive to a group of people (age, gender, religion, orientation, etc), should that employee be terminated/ not have their contract renewed, or should they be given one more chance if they agree to some sort of approved sensitivity training reeducation program?
- There are two issues to be addressed here – “If an employee (were) under extreme stress…” such that it is implicated in anti-social behaviour, then the nature of that stress needs to be examined and if it is in the remit or ability of the employer to ameliorate that stress then that should be done anyways. As for the insenstive comments, then certainly a second chance should be given but surely subject to that person satifactorily undertaking ” approved sensitivity training reeducation program”. It’s not just a “give a second chance” principle but with the exception of a few gross misdemeanors, employment rights – certainly here in the UK – mean there are a whole progression of warnings which have to be applied before you can fire someone.
2. At what age is it no longer appropriate to Trick-or-Treat for yourself? (Meaning exceptions are in place if accompanying a younger child, such as taking a younger sibling ToT so parents can stay at the house and give out candy.)
- I think that the age at which children stop believing in Father Christmas should be the guide here! After that you only get to Trick or Treat when you have children of your own (below the age of Santa disbelief) then again when you become a Grandparent you get another bite of the cherry. Stealing other people’s children (Kidnapping – Ho! Ho! Ho!) to go Trick or Treating is not to be recommended!
3. Would you support or oppose a mandate that 75% of the human population be required to be vaccinated against Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2 including variants and mutations)? Would your answer change if this mandate were global, your country only, or your local area only? Is there a number or percent of deaths that would influence your support or opposition of such as mandate?
- I would consider myself to be Libertarian, but the thing which which many objectors to vaccination (and certainly mandatory vaccination) forget, is that Libertarian means you should be allowed to do whatever you want but only if it doesn’t hurt other people! If we didn’t have vaccinations, we would still have Smallpox. The anti-vaxxers have been responsible for an unwelcome return of measles and mumps – diseases which some doctors had never encountered, so successful had immunisation become and these are serious diseases for pregnant women and for causing infertility respectively. I blame Trump and the unrestrained spreading of misinformation on social media, but I also think we have missed an opportunity during Covid, to spread some positive social behaviour. In China and Japan, wearing a mask whenever you have the “Common” Cold (which can be another form of coronavirus) – is quite normal behaviour so that you don’t spread it to your fellow human beings – that’s just the kind of societies they are! People who think they haven’t got Covid 19 don’t know – that is the whole reason why it has inevitably become a pandemic – and wearing a mask to protect others (and hoping they do the same) is at one end of the scale and at the other is an even better example of the “selfish” benfits of altruism. The UK government crows about how successful it’s vaccination programme has been, but until they, and all the other first world countries make sure the whole world is vaccinated, then variants will multiply and we shall never be free of the disease. So I am happy to have 100% mandatory vaccination but few governments will go there let alone the right wing idiots who tout it as an issue of right-to-choose…
4. Should celebrities be given exceptions to laws, rules, and terms of service? If so, how famous does one have to be to get that exception?
- Get away! If anything – celebrities should be held to a higher standard of account since what they do influences lots of other people so – its tough love, or just say no to being made into a celebrity…
5. What is your favorite recipe to use with leftover cooked turkey? Or, what is your favorite summer pasta salad recipe?
- I love to make a good stock from the carcass and then make a Christmas Dinner Soup with all the tiny bits of tukey but also leftover potatoes, gravy, sprouts, stuffing – Yayyy!!!

Nominations

All of my nominees commented on my blog during the April A to Z Challenge 2021. So in no particular order and many nationalities…

Tamara – https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/
Anne M Bray – https://www.anne-m-bray.com/blog
Sara Zama – https://theoldshelter.com/
Frédérique – https://quiltingpatch.blogspot.com/
Zalka Csenge Virág – http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/
Sharon E. Cathcart – https://sharonecathcart.wordpress.com/
Pooja Priyamvada – Second Thoughts First

My five questions to my nominees:

Have you ever met anyone online (blogs, dating sites – whatever) and then taken it from the virtual to the “Real” World and what happened?
If you could meet anyone – Historical or Present Day – who would it be and why?
Who would you want as a Creative Writing Coach?
What is the Blog Post of which you were most proud but which got less of a response than you hoped – (please link to the post)?
Do you agree with the idea that we make a choice as to how we are going to die at quite an early age and do you think that choice influences whether that death will come to pass oh, and if you have made such a choice – care to share?

PLEASE let me know if you make a post with your answers! I don’t want to miss reading it.

Roadtrip 5 AtoZ 2021 Challenge

June 25, 2021June 25, 2021humanist55

A trip round some of the blogs I didn’t manage to visit during the Challenge in April!

Time and again in the Blogosphere as viewed through the lense of the AtoZ Challenge, I encounter writers who demonstrate the maxim “A Writer is someone who Writes!” Given that it used to be said (before print on demand made self publishing so easy) that for every novel published, another 4000 were written but not published – the prospects of success as a writer are slim, is it then the case that many of us write simply as a hobby? I have two novels on the go and one seems to be trying to birth a sub-plot into a novel in its own right. I have, in the past been to a real-world writing group and being quite sanguine about making any sort of income from writing, I guess I can answer that question for myself – I write as a hobby! There are so many writing prompts in circulation – not least of all – the AtoZ Challenge and how many bloggers in its ranks can say that they are as prolific the rest of the year as they are in April. To be fair, there are certainly some that I am subscribed to who daily fill my social inbox with one if not more – often prompt inspired- pieces which certainly makes them writers who write daily. Myself, I really enjoy writing and other things being equal I could write all day – my novels for sure, but blogging too – and enjoy the socialising that blogging brings with it. When you are in either a real-world writing group or an online one, and Covid has certainly favoured the latter – then its not just the quality of the writing of your fellow travellers but their personalities, companionship and even friendship that are on offer. All of which musings were inspired by the first of this post’s mini reviews…

hdhstory.net is the home of a storyteller and in his “C” entry for AtoZ 2021, “A Computerised Mind” we have personal revelations aplenty. First a wish to have a mind like “Data” from Star Trek, whose positronic brain allowed for so many skills even though our writer would only wish for such a brain providing he could keep all the emotional attributes of a human being which “Data” lacked… Secondly, and bravely for a writer, he admits to being a slow reader though I think ruminative would be my choice rather than slow. And thus, through such revelations do we come to know the writer a little and if we like and we choose to interact, maybe friendship will follow…

Welcome to My Magick Theatre is the home of a prolific writer, novels abound as do blogs – truly she must be glued to her desk… The link I have chosen is to her “Z” post which was on the subject of Zealots since Carrie-Ann Brownian is a writer of historical fiction amongst other things and Zealots is a fascinating insight into feuding families in Florence (see what I did there? Who doesn’t love a bit of alliteration!) Reading the About page, Carrie-Anne endears herself to me by her choice of typeface – as a graphic designer (among many things), whose roots go back to hand-setting type at school, I love anybody who goes beyond accepting the default offerings of their computer. This is an author, and a blogger that one can, metaphorically speaking, get your teeth into! Unsurprisingly, of the six bloggers who Liked this post, three are known to me and two of those are also novelists. If novels are not your bag, then Carrie-Anne also has a page on which she lists all the music in her collection alphabetically, and giving the medium she possesses – shades of “High Fidelity”…

Ha! Not saying it’s greedy but here is Carrie-Anne Brownian again! Any relation to the eponymous discover of Brownian Motion – ‘cos this gal just cannot keep her fingers still and has two blogs in the AtoZ 2021 Challenge.

“This was my eighth year doing the A to Z Challenge with this blog, my tenth with two blogs. Much to my disappointment, for the fourth year in a row I had to suffice with a fairly simple theme, one I didn’t need to do a huge amount of research for. I remain hopeful I can return to more research-intensive themes in the coming years.”
Reflections page – https://onomasticsoutsidethebox.wordpress.com/2021/05/07/a-to-z-reflections-2021/

Given that the theme of Carrie-Anne’s blog Onomastics Outside the Box was Medieval Tuscan and Italian (plus a few other nationalities) Names – I tremble to think what a “research-intensive” subject might be. I realise now that here is an author who loves lists so the quip about “High Fidelity” might be nearer the mark than I thought. You have to admire the perspicacity of this blogger and if you love names, international versions of names, are a novelist or another list addict this is the blog for you…

Roadtrip 4 AtoZ 2021 Challenge

June 17, 2021August 22, 2021humanist55

A trip round some of the blogs I didn’t manage to visit during the Challenge in April!

Farida at Chapters From my Life, writes about her struggle with cancer. But she also writes poems, campaigns against child abuse and about her own family. Her reflections will resonate not just with others who are struggling with the big C, but the thoughts will inspire anyone who is struggling with Life in general. This will not be everyone’s idea of a blog they want to read, but blogging is a broad church and you never know the day when you will be struck down by something, and if you are, having bookmarked this blog might be the best thing you do today…

Lisa – Musings of a Middle-Aged Mom writes about American Recipes and I know not whether you would call these “Classic” American Recipes or not but I can tell you – if you want an insight into the nature and flavours of American cooking – Lisa fits the bill. The link I have made, is to W is for Wheel – Big Wheel and big is the word – a compound sandwich made from a whole loaf of bread and baked in the oven (pictured at right).

Another recipe leaves me pondering ingredients such as Oyster Crackers, Cheez-its, Goldfish Crackers and Hidden Valley Dry Ranch Mix – it’s another language! But Lisa will be your guide if you step her way…

Beth at Through my Looking Glass reflects (see what I did there) on what she has learned from participating in the 2021 challenge – and has come to the conclusion that its the photographs rather than the travels that should have been her theme. The selection provided in her reflections piece are just that – pictures of reflections and they show a definite style. Now I know photography, like all art, is subject to personal taste but I have seen blogs with very poor photographs and these are quite the opposite!

Beth also writes a Dog Blog…

Road Trip 3 A2Z 2021 Challenge…

May 21, 2021May 21, 2021humanist55

A trip round some of the blogs I didn’t manage to visit during the Challenge in April!

Janet’s Smiles – subtitle Life is One Big Adventure, made San Francisco and some of its more favourite landmarks. It is great when someone who lives in or near an iconic city acknowledges that they haven’t seen it all as they might and sets out to rectify it! And Janet takes us around a city we all know bits of from the many films that have been made here – in fact, I sometimes wonder whether a trip to America might not find one constantly beset by deja vu… Anyway, Janet gives us an entertaining and well-illustrated account of her journey!

HSD (Home School Dad) gives us in the post I dipped into, a post about Racial Recognition through the stories (and picture) of Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks. A great way to imbibe history…

The eponymous Cathy of Curious as a Cathy was someone I got hooked on during the 2020 Challenge and although she has popped up in my inbox all year, I didn’t manage to visit her this year when she chose Looney Tunes characters to reproduce in her own inimitable style. As well as her pictures, Cathy writes a lot – taking up various challenges…

Road Trip 2 A2Z Challenge 2021…

May 18, 2021May 18, 2021humanist55

A mini review of some of the blogs I didn’t manage to visit during the April month of the A2z Challenge…

Sue’s Trifles gives me a problem -as a Humanist who is atheist, I am not usually interested in sites that base their theme around issues pertaining to belief in God but fortunately, Sue has included links to all the years she has participated and whilst 2021’s theme is about Words of Biblical Significance, in previous years she has written about Musical Instruments, Jobs, Physical Space and Rhyme whilst for those of a religious persuasion, Sue has also covered Names of God and the Bible. So plenty for everyone…

In Content Creative by C.E. Flores, the theme this year was Women Writers many of whom were helped by the blog’s author, to promote their books. C.E. Flores gives very good advice on self-publishing and how to then promote your work. This was of particular interest to me as my challenge – unsuccessful – was to finish a book that may well end up going down that route, so I will definitely be back…

This, That and the Other is the kind of site I love and you had me at the title! The pseudonymous author Fandango is a prolific blogger as the email links in my inbox will attest, there are serious posts, flash- fiction and various challenges besides the A2Z. A septuagenarian, self-confessedly cantankerous at times, the main point is that the writing is cogent and entertaining – I thoroughly recommend…

Are you on the Road Trip – what gems have you found?

Roadtrip One – A2Z Challenge 2021

May 15, 2021May 15, 2021humanist55

A brief video through the car windscreen in the Morrocan village of Ifraden…

This is my second year n the A2Z Challenge (2021) and this year I am determined to go on the Road Trip in which participants visit some of the blogs they haven’t managed to see during April – the month of itself. If you want to make your own exploration of this year’s Challenge, here is the Masterlist.
I wanted to start with an image of a road trip that I had taken myself rather than one plucked from the ether – since you can hear my partner and I chatting as she films and I drive, it may amuse…

First up is The Sound of One Hand Typing, where John Holton treated us to Top Ten charts from various US and Canadian radio stations since radio is unique in its ephemeral nature and although there are not many sources of recorded airplay, there are lists of playlists and top tens – great for music buffs and radio aficionados…

More than Words took book reviews as it’s theme for the A2Z and the thing which makes book reviews interesting, is what they tell you about the reviewer as much as the books themselves, both through the selections they make, and the things they write about them. Pooja Jagtiaani is, as far as I can tell from her site, Indian and some of the books she has chosen for the A2Z Challenge are definitely from an India heritage but many are very cosmopolitan – they are well written reviews and if you want to add to your TBR list – try this blog out and see whether you like Pooja’s taste…

hdhstory is a writer’s blog – Harvey Heilbrun is a retired school teacher who the input of ideas from his former charges. He goes to writing groups and generates flash fiction from them and writing at home. I found the pieces I looked at intriguing but reading is such a subjective thing – you must make up your own mind.