All Summer in a Day

It seems like it's been raining steadily for the past two weeks.  Or should I say that for two weeks now I have been adorning my sexy rainproof shoe covers, mac and rain cape yet still managing to get soaked while out and about on my bicycle.  Whenever it's as rainy as it has been I always think of a short film that I saw as a child after moving to America.  Years later I was reading a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury when I realised that one of them, 'All Summer in a Day," was the basis for the short film that I had seen years earlier.

The story and film take place on a colony of Venus where the sun only appears for a few hours every seven years.  A group of schoolchildren are preparing to see the sun as they were too young to remember it the last time it appeared...all except for Margot who is the the only child to be born on Earth.  The other children are skeptical of her memories and drawings of sunshine and flowers as theirs is a grey and dismal world.  The film and story are sweet, funny and sad.  The film reminded me then and now of England and being stuck indoors as a child when it's chucking it down outside.  Playing in the rain, puddles and mud can be as much fun now as it was then but after awhile it gets a bit boring and you just want to see the sun.  For years I looked on YouTube for this film and a few years ago it finally popped up.  I hope you enjoy it and hope that we don't have to wait as long as Margot and these children do to see the sun again.

Part 1

Part 2

Pt 3

Food Fixie

Sweden-based photographer Fabian Ohrn and art director Joakim Hedblad have created a beautiful fixed gear bicycle that also happens to be totally edible!

The bicycle is made of leeks, kolbaz sausages, regular spaghetti, Swedish rhubarbs, ginger, organic carrots, syrup, lime, lemon, black spaghetti, grapefruit, cowberrys, pear, cheese, whole wheat macaroni sticks, cucumbers, sugar, orange, and extra virgin olive oil.

If I recreated my bicycle out of food I would need lots of aubergine, grapes and dark plums!

Six-pepper Sunday Roast Chicken

I love a Sunday roast.  I love six-pepper jelly.  So I massaged six-pepper jelly into a chicken and roasted it up.

I've tried this technique many times and the resulting chicken is crispy, spicy and super moist.

There's nothing like sharing a home-cooked roast dinner with friends and family but I knew that I had a hectic week and that by roasting a chicken I would be setting myself up for some easy but tasty meals to eat throughout the week. I made three tasty salads with some of the left over meat and ate those on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  This one has the chicken, mixed greens, shredded carrot and beetroot, mixed seeds and a dollop of rhubarb chutney.

With the left over carcass, some onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, parsley, salt and pepper I made a chicken stock.  I use stock cubes in emergencies but I always try to have an arsenal of homemade stocks in the freezer as they make such a difference in soups and gravies.

From which I then made red cabbage, chicken, parsnip and pinenut soup to have for lunch on Thursday and Friday and I was able to freeze two large portions as well.

I'll share some of my other leftovers meals as there are so many, I have a post nearly ready to go on rissoles and risottos. I'll also post the full recipe for the above soup.

Blog EAT Blog - 18 March - Heat Four

Aw, what a lovely day at the Vibe Bar for the fourth heat of

Big Apple Hot Dogs

(

@bigapplehotdogs

) Blog EAT Blog. See my recent post

here

for links to loads of posts regarding the first three heats of Blog EAT Blog.

Here's a photo of the man who brought us all together, Abiye of Big Apple Hot Dogs, dashing as ever in red:

You can find Abiye and his delicious, gourmet, handmade hot dogs at 239 Old Street across from the old Foundry, Tues-Fri 12-6.

The lovely Clara of

Can Be Bribed with Food

(

@BribedwithFood

) created Devious Dolly made with red and white cabbage, carrot, mayonnaise, Clara's secret scotch bonnet hot sauce and more! It was colourful, creamy, crunchy and spicy!

Today's contest saw

WillYums

(@willyumscouk

) rock up with Jam Hot - Jack Daniels, bacon, chorizo pineapple jam, ndjua cheese sauce, cider fried jalepenos & magic jerky dust topping.  It was meaty, crispy, slightly sweet, overall goodness that tasted and looked delicious.

For my topping I decided to do a Big Apple & Pepper Chutney 4 a Big Apple Hot Dog -  apple and pepper chutney which is bramley apples, onions, cider vinegar, demerara sugar, Smy six-pepper jelly then topped with Spanish onions fried in goose fat and a drizzle of additional six-pepper jelly for those who wanted to take it up a notch!

Whilst frying my last bunch of onions this morning I went to check the time and this happened:

BOOM - a cornflour and kilner catastrophe!  I decided to think of it as an offering to the Blog EAT Blog hot dog gods and that I would clean it up upon my return...which I am now putting off by blogging.

So in summary here are the three entries:

I love this photo from Abiye where all three contestants seem to be gazing lovingly at their dawgs:

Hybrid hotdog topping action courtesy of 

@nima_taba:

Let Abiye know which one was your favourite by tweeting #blogeatblog or

@bigapplehotdogs

and the winner will be announced soon as will the final series which will be announced soon and will see the winners from all four heats battling once more to win Blog EAT Blog 2012!!!

Thanks again to Abiye, Vibe Bar and everyone who came out for a great event and day! The best bit was chatting to the contenders and the people who came down. The London food revolution will not be televised...well it kind of is...but it will most definitely be tweeted and blogged about...Blog EAT Blog style!!!

and remember...

it's not your chutney...

it's Smy Chutney.

please follow Smy Chutney on

facebook

and

twitter

...

and if you haven't seen it already, here's a little video made by

Emma Crouch

(

@isayraar

) about Smy Chutney:

It's 'Blog EAT Blog' Out There!

I'll be participating in the fourth leg of the Blog Eat Blog series which has been created and arranged by

Abiye

of

Big Apple Hot Dogs

(

@bigapplehotdogs

) to get bloggers and food-lovers together for fun and fodder by challenging them to create the ultimate topping for his ultimately tasty hotdogs.  I met Abiye last year and he's great, his hot dogs are great and it's great that his Old St stall is just around the corner!

The Blog EAT Blog series have been held each Sun lunch since 26 Feb at the

Vibe Bar

.  Unfortunately I couldn't attend the first three heats but I've been following the latest Blog EAT Blog news via Big Apple Hot Dogs twitter, the participants twitters and blogs and I've decided to to a little summary here in preparation for this weeks upcoming heat of which I will be stepping into the ring.

Heat One - 26 February:

Here is a photo from the day by Big Apple Hot Dog...

...and here is a close up of a Big Apple Hot Dog + Turkish Slaw by and from

@fergusjackson

  of the

Hand to Mouth blog

The winner of Heat One of Blog EAT Blog

 Check out the full run down of the day and winning recipe here at the

Hand to Mouth blog.

Heat Two - 4 March:

‏

Check out ALL of the following blog posts as they feature brilliant pics, recipes and stories of those participating who were...

Ian who can be found twittering as

@grobelaar

and making people hungry on

Pie for Brains

and tempting people at Blog EAT Blog with

a West Indian inspired Callaloo & crab, with pickled red onions and fiery hot pepper sauce.  He has done a brilliant

post on his website

here

.

Adam twitters as

@adamvdb

and blogs about food and all sorts as

Bussche Tucker

he also has done a super fine post on the days events and his entry the

Ostenderfurter

on his blog

here

.

Burger Anarchy

can be found on twitter as

@burgeranarchy

and came up with the brilliantly sounding and titled

Bacon Cheese Animal Dog. You can find the recipe for their

Bacon Pickle Animal Cheese Sauce on their

London Burger and Food Blog.

Tuck & Vine

created a Smoked Beetroot Mayo doubled with a Kiwi Pinot reduction by Louis Fernando for their entry and have blogged about it

here

and can be found on twitter at

@tuckandvine

.

There's also a great piece and photos here that summarises Heat Two by

Street Feast

.

Heat Three - March 11:

The participants this week were...

Representing

7 Thumbs Up

was

@steampie

who created a bourbon-bacon marmalade with crispy fried leeks topping. I'm curious from his Twitter info and nod to the Red Sox if he is from Massachusetts...? Do check out his

post on the day

and here's a great photo of all four contestants entries from

@steampie

:

The chilli cheese goodness on the bottom left belongs to 

The Londoner

whose blog I love...you had me at Slutty Brownies! She tweets as

@_RosieT

and she has

posted about the day on her

blog

.

Next up was 

Chris Green

and his Damson Relish, pictured top right, and a man after my own heart...you can see his recipe and all about the day on his website

here

and find him on Twitter

@chrisgreen

.

Then there was

Paul's

Poutine topping of cheese curds, gravy and crushed crackers and can be seen above lower right

. Paul can be found on Twitter as

@PaulLomax

, or on his

Mouth Watering

blog.

and I also loved Sunshine Day's

post

covering Heat Three and her shoes!

Heat Four - 18 March:

(Update!)

WillYums

(@willyumscouk

) will be participating...

as will Amy of

Grumblings from a Greedy Girl

@greedygirlblog

and 

Carla of

Can Be Bribed with Food

(

@BribedwithFood

)

and I know I'll be participating and I'll give you a hint...my secret ingredient is six-pepper jelly!!!

Come out and say hello, this Sunday at the Vibe Bar!!!

and remember...

it's not your chutney...

it's Smy Chutney.

please follow Smy Chutney on

facebook

and

twitter

...

and if you haven't seen it already, here's a little video made by

Emma Crouch

(

@isayraar

) about Smy Chutney: