Random things I have learned this week about rural living

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1. The joy of taking the laptop into the kitchen to work in a sunny spot can sometimes be hampered by extreme cockadoodledooing in the garden.

2. Cockadoodledooing is not conducive to any form of concentration.

3. Concentration can then be further hampered when a straying dog decides to attack a sheep in the field right outside your back garden.

4. Running out into the back garden in your pyjamas (the ones with the pink lollipops all over them) and shouting obscenities in a manic fashion whilst windmilling your arms will scare dogs away from attacking sheep.

5. The sight of a grown woman with mad, Russell Brand hair and lollipop pyjamas running towards them screeching like a banshee would probably scare anyone, to be fair.

6. Trying to walk over to the sheep to see if it’s alright will also scare the sheep away.

7. Phoning your friend in hysterics and jabbering incoherently about dogs and sheep and screeching in lollipop pyjamas and stuff in a ranty way is a very good test of friendship (thank you, Poppy’s Mum, you passed with flying colours).

Where was I? Oh yes….

8. Opening the patio door and shouting ‘WILL YOU SHUT UP!’ has absolutely no effect on the aforementioned cockerel or the amount/volume of his cockadoodledooing (but does give your nearest neighbour a good laugh).

9. Bursting into tears when trying to recount the dog/sheep incident to your children is a very good test of the teen/parent bond. Being patted on the head and told you’re a ‘bit of a knobber’ is A Good Thing.

10. This rural/self sufficiency lark is not as easy as I thought.

Andy Gray, Sky Sports, sexism and teenage boys

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This afternoon, Andy Gray, the Sky Sports football presenter was sacked after ‘new evidence of unacceptable and offensive behaviour’ came to light.

If you’ve been living in a small shoebox in the cupboard under the stairs for the past week, I’ll bring you up to speed: during Sky’s Sunday match, Gray and his co-presenter Richard Keys were recorded off-air making offensive comments about Assistant Referee Sian Massey, and Keys also made comments about West Ham Vice Chair Karren Brady.

Further clips then emerged showing Gray and another Sky presenter making off-mic comments about Sian Massey including comments about her looks and again the classic: ‘what do women know about the offside rule?’.

Twitter went wild. One notable comment, from Kenny Dalglish’s daughter Kelly Cates made me laugh: ‘Phew am exhausted. Just read about something called “the offside rule”. Too much for my tiny brain. Must be damaged from nail polish fumes’.

Apropos of nothing, I do actually understand the offside ‘rule’ (not that I think women need to prove knowledge of the laws of football in order to compete with the fellas). I come from a footballing family - my Dad was a footballer at a reasonable standard before going on to become a referee, and my brothers and husband are/were all decent footballers. Rightly or wrongly, there’s a lot of sexism surrounding football and I genuinely think this news will bring up the same old discussions about the definition of ‘banter’.

There’s been some debate in this house, I can tell you. The reaction of my teenage sons, one of whom actually feels quite sorry for Gray, mentioned ‘entrapment’ and thinks that he’s been harshly treated, and the other who thinks his sacking was inevitable, reflects the diversity of the comments being made elsewhere. I think teens are 90% bravado, 10% hormones, and ribbing and piss-taking are part of their everyday life, hence a bit of ‘banter’ is nothing unusual. They also, though, mix with teenage girls, who don’t take crap, especially not crap of the sexist variety.

As usual with these kind of things, I can see both sides (I’ll never be a banner-waver at a protest, I’m afraid). Admittedly, most people would get caught out eventually if all their comments were recorded, then played to the wider public, but, as I pointed out to my laid-back offspring, both men knew they were being recorded and sexist comments are unacceptable, especially when they come from public figures. Sky was never going to let Gray continue in his role, especially when further film came to light of him asking a co-presenter to ‘tuck this in for me, will you’, gesturing towards his, well, I presume it’s his microphone.

And the loser in all this? Poor old Sian Massey, who has been withdrawn from officiating at tonight’s league 2 game, and has found herself at the centre of an unholy row through no fault of her own

What do you think? Is Andy Gray unfortunate, or a sexist pig? And have you had to explain this whole situation to your kids?

Farmhouse Breakfast Week 23rd - 29th January

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So this week is the delightfully named Farmhouse Breakfast Week. I am a huge fan of breakfast (who am I kidding, I’m a huge fan of breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper…). I get up early with da brevren every day and make them a proper brekkie. The Death Wish Child is a two fried eggs on toast addict, especially now Mrs Nutty is producing some beautiful, golden-yolked eggs, and can often be persuaded into a bowl of porridge (no fruit though - just golden syrup - I don’t mind too much as he has fruit in his packed lunch). The Mad Professor, not being a morning person, needs cajoling to eat anything and sometimes it’s a battle. To be honest - I’d rather he went to school with two cookies and a glass of milk inside him than nothing at all.

At the weekends we really enjoy our late breakfasts - I often make pancakes with maple syrup and bacon, but I honestly won’t buy horrible bacon, so sometimes it’s just the pancakes. It’s so difficult to get good bacon (and pork) here - I mean, you can get standard supermarket bacon, but there is NO choice at all: no outdoor reared/free range piggies… I mean, aren’t there any ‘happy pigs’ in Ireland (at least where supermarkets are concerned)? I love bacon, but I can’t buy intensively reared bacon. I just can’t. Marks and Sparks seem to have well-labelled, decent bacon, so I stock up if I’m near one, which isn’t very often.

Happily, the lovely chaps at Denhay Bacon sent me a mahoosive big pack of their lovely bacon to try, and I have to say I was delighted. Their Spoilt Pig range (www.spoiltpig.co.uk) is outdoor reared - the piggies having the opportunity to rootle and tootle and live happy lives. I know some people don’t care what happens to their meat before it dies, but I want mine to be treated properly. Not only that, but it grilled to perfection, without giving out all that horrible water that a lot of the brands on sale do, and wasn’t overly salty OR smoky. Perfect.

For more info on National Farmhouse Breakfast Week, and some great breakfast recipes to try, check out shakeupyourwakeup.com

What about you - are you a breakfast bod? And do you care where that bacon in your sarnie came from?

Easy, step by step bread. And how to knead.

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There is nothing, I think, quite as delicious as the smell of bread baking. I know there are times in the kitchen when you want to rush in, whip up something quick, and rush out again, but there are other times when a quiet potter is just fabulous. For those times, breadmaking is ideal. I love kneading bread - there’s something quite hypnotic and soothing about it - and producing a home-made loaf is possibly one of the most satisfying things you can do.

As you know, I’m a bit of a rapeseed oil nut, and it’s perfect for this recipe, being both very healthy and pleasantly nutty in flavour, but you can use olive oil or melted butter. Just make sure it weighs 50g.

450g strong white bread flour

2tsp salt (remember a tsp is flat though, don’t overdo it)

1 sachet (7g) yeast

50g rapeseed oil

300ml warm water

So first, sift the flour and salt, then stir in the yeast. Measure out the oil, pour that in, then use the same jug to measure the warm water (it’ll pick up some of the oil that was left in the jug) and pour that in.

Stir it around with a wooden spoon, then when it’s roughly together, flump it out onto your work surface.

The science bit:

Think of gluten as the spongy network that holds all the bubbles (of carbon dioxide, but hey, that’s me being picky) produced by the yeast in place. This is the most important bit of bread making. You want the gluten to form nice strong chains - under-kneaded bread will be tough, so don’t skimp.

Kneading technique:

Everyone’s got their own techniques, but all you’re aiming to do is stretch and develop the gluten and aerate the dough (as well as making sure that all your ingredients are thoroughly mixed). Most forms of squishing, folding and stretching will do the trick.

First things first: don’t worry if your dough is sticky - you want your dough to be sticky. Your fingers will get covered in dough - don’t worry! The stickier your dough,the softer and more plumptious your bread.

Start off roughly squeezing it together and then start pushing it away from you with the heel of one hand (you have to use your imagination a bit here, because obviously my other hand was holding the camera). Really smoosh the dough across the work surface:

… then bring it in, folding it over, and squish it together:

…then push it away from you again. Carry on doing that until your dough is soft, stretchy and plump - about ten minutes should do it - and bounces back when you stick your finger into it (I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but yes, it should be the texture of a nice soft bum cheek).

Rising:

Flour the bowl and pop your ball of dough into it. Loosely cover with clingfilm and pop into your airing cupboard alongside the pillows and enormously fat, bad tempered cat (hence the clingfilm). Leave it for a good hour or until it’s doubled in size.

Knocking back:

Fetch your dough, avoiding your unpleasant feline, pull it away from the edges and give it a couple of thumps with your fist to knock it back.

Additions:

This is the time to add stuff in if you’re being fancy: olives, sundried tomatoes, seeds… whatever you like. As a rough estimate, I’d keep the ingredients to under 150g.

Shaping:

Plop it once more onto a floured surface. This time, you’re thinking finished product, so give it a quick squish and start forming it into whatever shape you like. Being blessed with the decorative talent of an amoeba, I usually go for something plain - a rough, ball shape with a slit down the middle, but hey, if you want to plait, don’t let me stop you.

Second rise:

Flour a baking tray and place the dough on it, loosely covering it again and then it’s back to the airing cupboard or sunny windowsill for its final rise. It probably won’t take another hour, but just wait until it’s nice and puffed up.

Baking:

Preheat the oven to 200/gas 6 and bake for about 20 - 30 minutes. Obviously a ball shape is going to take longer to cook than a flatter shape. When it’s done it will be browned, and will sound hollow when you tap its bottom (ooer).

This is quite a soft, farmhouse loaf, but it’s got a lovely texture. Obviously it won’t keep as well as plastic bread, so it’s best to scoff it warm from the oven.

PS: If you’re a first-time bread maker, make sure you take a picture of your efforts - great competition coming up very soon!

You might also like:

Browse bread recipes

Mr and Mrs Nutty: Big Bird’s illegitimate offspring

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Sunday saw us travelling north - practically into Northern Ireland, in fact, to pick up two chickens that the Death Wish Child had set his heart on. Admittedly I’ve done weirder things, but meeting up with the seller on a country road - surreptitiously passing a squawking bag between us and then stealthily exchanging cash did make me feel strangely guilty.

‘Wow!’, said the Death Wish Child breathlessly as we drove away, ‘that was just like a drug deal!’.

He really wants to breed chickens, but I’ve always been slightly reticent about having a cockerel. I know they can be pretty annoying.

Anyhoo, Mr and Mrs Nutty have arrived - looking like the bastard child of Big Bird and Animal from the Muppets:

… and also despite their ridiculous behaviour (the run around like loons, and yesterday, in a triumphantly comic moment, actually ran smack bang into each other), they’re settling well.

Mr Nutty is rather proud of his new flock (I think he was bullied at his previous home as he’s rather bald on top), and settled himself happily atop the hen house last night to guard over his new ladies, only to be a bit cross when I nabbed him and stuffed him into the coop with the others (well, there are foxes round here).

Next up on the wish list, is a new chicken house. And while not quite convinced by the ‘nogg’ (you heard it here first: http://www.nogg.co/):

…there’s a lovely man locally who makes gorgeous chicken coops:

…and then we’ll keep the small ark for a little nutty lovenest (or a ‘naughty ark’ as DWC suggested). We travelled happily home talking of naughty chickens (‘go to your coop!’) and dreaming of little nutty chicken babies. How cute would they be?

The Brilliance in Blogging awards - it’s not the winning it’s …

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…oh who am I kidding. It’s the winning, right?

And I won!

Let’s back up a bit. A year ago, two things happened: one dreadful, and one pretty amazing.

The dreadful thing was an awful, terrible earthquake that struck Haiti and devastated countless lives.

The amazing thing was the response to this disaster. My own personal, tiny part in this was to send an email to a couple of blogging buddies asking if they fancied clubbing together and raising a bit of money. You can read all about it here:

Bloggers for Haiti: with a little help from my friends

And it really took off - the massed ranks of the British Mummy Bloggers got involved, as did bloggers from all over the world, not just raising money for our own little Shelterbox campaign (the total stands at £4419) , but for the DEC appeal too.

As a part of this amazing thing, I was delighted to be nominated for a Brilliance in Blogging Award in the ‘Make a Difference’ category. I was even more delighted to find out last week that I’d won.

The Brilliance in Blogging awards very kindly gave me my award ‘for mobilising many MANY bloggers to write about and support the Bloggers for Haiti appeal. People from all over the globe jumped on board. From little acorns.’

Of course one year on, the work in Haiti continues. My lovely friend Rosie Scribble has been working with UNICEF, who have been kind enough to send me some information on the work they are doing in Haiti:

On 3 December, Nadège, 16, waits for services for her cousin’s malnourished six-month-old daughter, Christelle Jean Pierre, at a UNICEF-supported baby-friendly tent in the impoverished Cité Soleil neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital. Nadège is caring for Christelle because the child’s mother has been hospitalised with cholera. To ensure good nutrition and prevent cholera among small children, UNICEF encourages women to breastfeed their babies for at least six months. When breastfeeding is not possible, UNICEF supports efforts to provide ready-to-use infant formula, a safe milk-substitute. Baby-friendly spaces also offer nutrition counselling, as well as other foods and medicines, including ORS and zinc tablets to treat or prevent diarrhoea.

To read more about UNICEF’s work in Haiti, please click here: UNICEF.org

Many, many congratulations to my fellow nominees and winners. For a full list of winners in the British Mummy Bloggers Brilliance in Blogging awards, please click here: thebmbblog.co.uk

Tesco Magazine’s Mum of the Year Awards

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My lovely friend Erica, was recently featured in Tesco Magazine talking about modern parenting. Tesco mag have a long history of supporting Mums (AND bloggers - there’s a mum blogger on the cover of the current issue, incidentally), so when they recruited me to tell you all about their Mum of the Year awards, I was highly delighted.

This year, for the first time ever, Tesco Magazine have opened up one of the categories so that the public can be involved in choosing the winner: the People’s Choice Award. There are three finalists:

* Michelle, the mum of a Downs Syndrome little boy, who founded Family Voice, to help other families in similar situations, and Little Miracles, a playgroup for disabled children

* Karen, whose husband was killed while serving in Afghanistan, and who now devotes her time to fundraising for forces charities, especially Forces Children’s Trust, who raise money for children who have lost a parent in the forces.

* AnneMarie who has devoted herself to helping her local community, Dumfries, including spearheading a successful campaign for an improved community centre in the area.

You can find out more about the finalists, watch videos of them being ‘championed’ by a celeb, and cast your vote by clicking on the Tesco Magazine Mum of the Year Facebook page. Votes must be cast by 25th January. Go on, what are you waiting for?

English Mum on Ice

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Picture the scene: back-to-school Monday has finally dawned. If you listen quietly, the collective sigh of thousands of relieved mothers can be heard drifting across the lough. It is cold. At 7.40am on the dot, Gorgeous Lou from next door arrives, perfectly groomed and pristine (you can set your watch by her - the child is a miracle) and we bundle into the ratty but perfectly serviceable Volvo and head to the bus stop, arguing about who actually is sitting in the spot where the dog was sick in the car the other day (I washed it. I did, honest).

The frost is twinkling in the car headlights, but there is a light drizzle too - an odd combination. We turn left at the four-way cross and start to head down the steep hill to the Nine Eye Bridge (thanks to Poppy’s Mum for not rolling her eyes when I asked for an explanation for its name - it has nine arches over the lough, apparently) on the way to the bus stop. Suddenly in front of us, it is all ahead stop: tail lights and… slightly more mysteriously… headlights can be seen, as well as people. The next ten minutes go something like this:

  • A helpful man in slippers appears at #1′s window: ‘it’s nothing more than an ice rink’, he warns us.
  • We all panic as, with perfect timing, the car in front of us begins to slip sideways
  • Helpful Man in Slippers and various other people decide that the best thing to do is for the cars at the top of the hill (us) to try and turn round, lessening the risk of them sliding into those stuck further down.
  • #1 gets out to help and I take the chance to reiterate the fact that if he hadn’t left his school coat lying about someone wouldn’t have nicked it and he wouldn’t now be freezing in his jumper and he’s having a laugh if he thinks I’m buying him another one.
  • The white car in front of us goes first, aiming for reverse, but actually achieves a very graceful slide sideways towards the hedge.
  • Helpful Man in Slippers and #1 attempt to guide us backwards into a driveway by aiming to get two of the wheels onto the grass verge.
  • It becomes apparent that slippers aren’t very good for grip.
  • It becomes touch and go whether it will be us, or Helpful Man in Slippers, now being helped by #1, who will end up sliding down towards the bridge first.
  • We try to reverse but go nowhere, the wheels hopelessly skidding on the slick black ice, then, with a jolt, we ended up slipping sideways too.
  • Gorgeous Lou, from her usual spot in the back seat, emits an involuntary whimper.
  • ‘If we start sliding’, adds the Death Wish Child helpfully, ‘we could tip over the bridge and into the lough’.
  • I throw the ‘shut the f*ck up’ death glare to the Death Wish Child in the back seat.
  • Helpful Man in Slippers and #1 try to guide me into the driveway by yelling such useless phrases such as: ‘hard right… not that hard… now left… no! Yes! but lefter than that…’

Eventually we got turned around and after another false start when we tried to slow down and warn someone else and couldn’t get started again, limped back home and tried the other way around the lough with more success. Abandoning all hope of catching the bus, and with the ‘gung ho’ spirit of those that have cheated a watery tipping-over-a-bridge type death, we decide to drive to school

Result = a grand total of two hours for the school run. We probably owe Helpful Man in Slippers a bottle of something too.

New chicken babies!

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It’s been a very weird few days here at English Towers.

I’ll start with the good news. We got new chickens! We drove to the other side of Bailieboro and met with a lovely man called Percy, who had possibly the biggest bird obsession (feathered, natch) that I’ve ever witnessed.

Percy lives in a house pretty similar to ours - a newish built house set in about an acre of land. His acre, though, is completely covered in sheds, bird houses and coops of all shapes and sizes. Wandering through the birds with his lovely girlfriend (whose name I missed at least three times and was so embarrassed I didn’t like to ask again), we passed a beautiful pair of peacocks and a huge pair of breeding turkeys, proudly puffing up their feathers and warning us that this was their patch.

Percy specialises in all sorts of weird varieties - I’ll never be able to remember the names, but there were some kind of ‘Polish‘ ones with mad headdresses, and others with furry feet, hugely long tails, and even brightly coloured ones that hardly looked like chickens at all.

We settled on three babies who will grow with us, and hopefully be tame enough to succumb to the odd cuddle (what? we like cuddles). All three are Wyandottes, but there is a certain amount of colour mixing, so they’re not ‘pedigrees’ or anything. We think Tiny, (top), the smallest of the bunch, and Lucy (below) are possibly the ‘blue-laced’ varieties, as their undersides are a beautiful shade of blue/grey, and their feathers are red, tipped with blue:

But the third one, Holly, looks more like more a turkey than anything else (hence her name):

The sad news is that after a good six weeks of trying, poor Millie was not getting any closer to enjoying life here. The obsessive pacing and total terror of being outside made life for her (and us) pretty hard, and after a nasty incident where she bit #1 in the face (he’s okay - more shocked than anything, but to hear a snarl and find your son with blood pouring from his nose was a bit of a shocker), I had to contact the rescue and say I couldn’t keep her.

Poor Millie. Happily, the couple that found her are going to give her a home (they don’t have children, but do have other dogs - maybe she’ll be better with company). We all feel a bit of a failure, but as my lovely friend Liz pointed out, ‘sometimes dogs are just too damaged’. I hope that she’ll settle and live out her life in peace, but have to accept that it won’t be with us.

Ben’s 24 hour slow roasted pork

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Fellow blogger and tweeter, Ben, from Mutterings of a Fool was telling me all about the fabulous slow-roasted pork he was going to cook for his family over Christmas, so of course I persuaded him to give us the recipe (and take photos). Over to Ben, then. And no dribbling on the keyboard, now.

When cooking for a large number of people or just for a stress free Sunday lunch I often make use of either the slow cooker or slow roasting. It means you don’t have to worry about the meat being cooked and you can stretch the cooking time if needed without it resulting in a dried out joint.

One of my very favourite recipes is 24 hour slow roast pork, I think the recipe that this is based on originally came from a Waitrose magazine 7 or 8 years ago and it has been a staple of our cooking ever since. The great thing about it is that you prepare well in advance of the meal and it takes minimal effort during the cooking time. Be warned though, your house will be filled with the smell of pork cooking for 24 hours making you almost permanently hungry!

You can adapt this recipe as you see fit with other herbs etc, it’s also good with red chillies deseeded and thinly sliced; a lovely warm heat after being roasted. I would imagine it would also work well with a lamb joint.

Ingredients (serves ~8 people)

3kg shoulder of pork

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Zest of 1 lemon, cut into thin slivers

Fresh rosemary

Olive Oil

You’ll need a joint of either shoulder or leg of pork which has been boned and rolled, I used a 3kg shoulder joint and it served 7 adults with leftovers for sandwiches etc. Using anything smaller than 2kg won’t work as well as it will most likely begin to dry out. Ask the butcher to score the fat. If he hasn’t already done so, you can do this yourself but much easier if he does it before tying the joint up.

24 hours before you want to eat (or thereabouts it doesn’t need to be exact, a few hours less is fine also) pre heat the oven to 200 degrees C and place the joint of pork in a large baking tray.

Dry the rind with kitchen roll, this helps to get nice crunchy crackling. Once dry rub in some olive oil to cover it all over and season with salt and pepper.

Slice up the lemon and garlic and break the rosemary into smaller pieces.

Score the meaty side of the pork and push in some of the lemon, garlic and rosemary. Try to get some under the rind also as this will help get the flavour into the meat. Also push some into the cuts in the fat, try to get some into all areas of the meat, but it really doesn’t need to be precise.

Put the joint into the preheated oven with the fat side up and roast for 30 minutes, then turn the heat down to 110 degrees C and be brave and leave it for 24 hours!

Basting every few hours will help; you’ll be amazed how much fat comes out. These juices can be later added to your gravy or to roast your potatoes.

After 24 hours take the meat out of the oven and rest for 30-40 minutes covered in foil, the meat will stay plenty hot enough. This is the ideal time to turn the oven up and cook your roast potatoes.

Once you’re ready to serve pull the crackling off and break into smaller pieces, I normally put this in a small pile in the corner of the serving dish for the meat. The meat wont carve into slices, but rather should fall apart into strips/chunks and you can just tease it apart with a knife and fork.

Serve with whatever vegetables you wish; my favourites are celeriac and potato mash, cabbage, cumin and orange carrots (Hugh double barreled recipe) and creamed parsnip. The good lady always insists on Yorkshire puddings as well!

Everybody needs a giant inflatable ladybird in their lives…

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I am a very lucky blogger. Not many days go by when I don’t have a completely confused courier ringing me and trying to work out how on earth to get his van across the lough without getting his feet wet (don’t you just love satnav?).

This week, I received an enormous, furry inflatable ladybird from Ikea:

Excuse the poor photo, but I took it on my laptop to show my Twitter friends. It caused much hilarity, both here (where de brevren did unspeakable things to the poor creature) and on Twitter, where my favourite suggestion was a recreation of the ‘near, far away’ sketch from Father Ted using ladybirds. Have a look at Ikea’s PlayReport and check out more of their toys on their Facebook page too.

Other random but nontheless wonderful gifts this month have included

Some very tasty Seriously Good Gordon Ramsay for Comic Relief sauces (the Cherry Tomato and Balsamic one is especially gorgeous):

A beautiful White Company bathroom [edit: of course I mean bathROBE - damn these sausage fingers], embroidered in pink with ‘English Mum’, from the lovely people at Bold (they sent me washing powder too, bless ‘em) as part of their ‘Bold Hugs’ campaing…

Loads of Duracell Ultra Power batteries and a game of Operation, which caused family arguments and accusations of cheating on a scale never seen, even at the warzone that is English Towers, from the lovely people at Duracell.

An Xbox Kinect, plus Kinect Sports, Dance Central and Kinectimals. This has completely taken over our lives and not a day goes past without our beautiful Kinectimal Maltese Tiger getting a sneaky head ruffle from someone in the house.

A fabulous Nokia N8 (which actually hasn’t arrived yet - that was one of the couriers that didn’t work out the lough puzzle).

Different packs of amazing Marriage’s Organic Flour (I love the Organic Light Brown flour) - check out Marriage’s the Master Millers.

Lots of gorgeous Galaxy chocolate and a copy of Audrey Niffenegger’s wonderfully atmospheric book ‘Her Fearful Symmetry’ so that I could grab a bit of ‘me time’ during the madness that was Christmas.

A heowge box of Green and Black’s miniatures. Nomnomnom.

And finally, lots and lots of lovely jellies from The Natural Confectionary Company. I’m a big fan of their cute videos as well. This is my fave:

Food trends for 2011: what foodies predict for the New Year

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And so to 2011.

There are, of course, all manner of predictions being thrown around for the New Year. Food-wise, there’s an awful lot being talked about ‘conspicuous thrift’. I also saw someone on twitter declare ‘cupcakes are dead! Long live the pie’. I thought I’d ask a few of my foodie friends what they thought we’d see in 2011.

Here’s what they thought:

Tom Aikens, Chef Proprietor of Tom Aikens Restaurant, Chelsea:

I think that people are still wanting more down to earth simple food that is more accessible and easy on the eye as well as the wallet ….

Catherine Phipps, food journalist, Guardian Word of Mouth:

The combination of rising wheat prices and interest in South American food will equal increased interest in different types of potatoes for our carb of choice. I also predict intelligent marrying of locavorism & fusion along the Momofuku line: local ingredients given a twist. Finally, everyone will start replacing their wooden spoons with spons! www.thesponco.com.

Journalist and food blogger Aoife from myadventuresinveg.blogspot.com:

I think 2011 will see people move even more towards veggie food. I think that more people will start experimenting with vegan (and vegetarian) meals - even if they don’t totally adapt their diet or lifestyle, they might dip their toe into the veg pool. With famous folk like Biz Stone (who founded Twitter), Olivia Wilde, and Ellen Degeneres spreading the veg word there could be a rise in people seeking out information on vegetarianism and veganism. Hopefully for most it would be more than just a ‘trend’ though. For me, it’s not about a ‘them and us’ situation with people who are veggie and who aren’t, so my ideal would be that people have more access to vegan food when eating out - I predict that more restaurants will cotton onto the growing popularity of vegan food and people like myself won’t have to drive waiters (and our friends) crazy asking for things without goat’s cheese! In other trends, I foresee American health food trends like agave syrup, chia seeds, green smoothies, brown rice syrup and nutritional yeast moving to the mainstream in Ireland and Europe.

Foodie and blogger The Glutton at gluttonyforbeginners.wordpress.com:

I fancy trying out more Middle Eastern food this year - I think it is time I dusted down Claudia Roden’s Arabesque. I suppose one thing I see more of is online speciality food ordering and I hope to do a bit more of that in 2011. Obviously a lot of people now do their food shopping online but I think more are moving towards buying certain things, like meat and veg, from specialist online providers rather than do an entire shop with one big supermarket. It reminds me of the way my mum used to shop years ago when I was a kid - going to each individual shop like the bakers, greengrocer, butcher etc but I will do it online rather than take a trip down the high street.

Food blogger likemamusedtobake:

I predict cake: lots and lots of yummy cake!

Food blogger Gráinne at upliftingfood.com:

I predict many gyms membership numbers going up from people reading the Irish Foodie blogs and eating all around them ;)

Food geek/blogger, Jules who runs a business teaching children about the wonders of food and blogs at thebutcherthebaker.wordpress.com:

I think that due to the current financial climate the trend for comfort food is going to conutinue with a big resurgence in both sweet & savory pies (hurrah!) also cakes like carrot cake and banana bread are going to get prettier and take on cupcakes, it’s about time a cake that doesn’t require tonnes of sickly sweet icing takes off. In the summer the trend for edible flowers is going to grow and become more mainstream with edible flowers being more readily avaliable in shops.

Food blogger Cathy from homemademummy.net:

I predict 2011 will mean More but Less. More time and attention paid to creating fantastic food, but splashing out less often. That way we can still have fabulous treats but keep an eye on tightening budgets.

Helen, food writer and foodie gift expert at The Foodie Gift Hunter:

I’m going to go with hopefully a more successful punt this year on Finnish food having a moment, based on Turku being one of the European Capitals of Culture. Also the fact that a generation may have had the Moomins cookbook for Xmas which is an intro to Finnish food.

Food blogger and restaurant reviewer Elizabeth at Elizabeth on Food:

Burgers, burgers and more burgers. It’s been burger madness in London in 2010. Bar Boulud, Corrigans, Hawksmoor. It will be a matter of time before other restaurants (even Michelin starred ones) and countries will follow this trend. I’ve written a post on this subject a few months ago called: The hamburger, fast becoming slow food. http://elizabethonfood.typepad.com/elizabeth-on-food/2010/08/the-hamburger-fast-becoming-slow-food.html

Irish Blog Award winning food blogger The Daily Spud:

Naturally I predict that, together with a general trend towards more traditional dinners, potatoes will be the must-have accessory for the discerning diner in 2011 (and yes, I would say that, wouldn’t I!)

Photographer and food/parenting blogger Cara from frecklesfamily.com:

I predict meatballs are this years must have!

Food blogger Louise from usingmainlyspoons.wordpress.com

Wholewheat flour as a trendy new ingredient - see Kim Boyce’s book from last year, and Alice Medrich’s new cookies book as examples of baking that highlights wholewheat and different flours as having their own flavours. Plus, has the advantage of being cheap to experiment with.

Whoopie pies and macarons were clearly very 2010. Maybe 2011 will be year of the traybake, seeing an increase in sales of Australian Women’s Weekly publications?

Chocolate is going to get expensive, so maybe there will be more attention paid to where the beans are from, to help justify the higher prices that are going to have to be charged. Cadburys et al with Venezuelan varieties perhaps.

Donal Skehan, cookbook author, TV cook and food blogger at donalskehan.com:

Lots of very exciting predictions and things to be excited about in 2011!

Firstly the follow up to Nigel Slater’s amazing Kitchen Diaries will be out later this year which is most likely to be the highlight of my cookbook collection in 2011.

Of course the release of my AMAZING new book “Kitchen Hero: Bringing Cooking Back Home!” will be out in April alongside its 13 part series on RTE. The book and series will have lots of very tasty and easy dishes for everyone to try.

Last year there was a huge surge of interest in growing veggies at home, so I think this will increase again this year, growing your own is definitely on the rise.

Keeping chickens! I’m hoping to keep some chickens this year, when I finally convince my girlfriend, but it is something that is becoming more and more popular.

Lunchboxes: people aren’t spending what they used to on coffee and a sambo, so I think people will start looking back towards the kitchen and making their own lunchboxes. So expect lots of lunchbox envy in 2011!

Amy Lane, writer, cakeshop owner and food blogger at amylane.wordpress.com

I think there will be a big upsurge in home baking this year, with another series of the Great British Bake Off providing yet more inspiration. I predict that the regular cupcake will go mini in 2011, with the bite-size version becoming more popular. I also think people will become more experimental, trying out some baking that is a little trickier in particular macaroons and artisan breads.

Nick Coffer, radio presenter, food blogger (and vlogger!) at mydaddycooks.com and cookbook author:

I think one of the big trends in food blogging for 2011 will be… more food blogging! Setting up a food blog is such a quick, cheap and easy process - you can be up and running and publishing posts literally within minutes - that I think that food blogs will become ever more numerous. Which is great news for readers because it gives us the opportunity to enjoy content from brilliant foodies and great writers who would not have had a similar forum to express themselves on, even barely a few years ago. My advice to new food bloggers is to find a unique angle. I know that is easier said than done but standing out from the crowd is key to building a following. And blog because you want to. The most successful bloggers launched their blogs as labours of love rather than as a means to earn income or become writers. I launched my own blog to stay sane at a time when I was a stay-at-home dad, struggling to find new creative ideas after my business was hit in the recession in 2009. I had no idea that it would take off as it did and I think that a key part of this was the fact that it was launched as a piece of fun rather than with a master-plan. The best blogs are the most natural as this is what will engage your readers most. I am fortunate because blogging has opened up a new career for me (the “My Daddy Cooks” book is published via Hodder & Stoughton in May 2011 and I present a weekly food show on BBC Three Counties Radio) but the most important thing remains to produce interesting and vibrant content which people will want to read. If you do that, people will follow you and your blogs!

And for me? I think the biggest food trend will be a continuation along the path of responsibility: respect for the animals that provide our food (high welfare, free range) and support of local food producers (I love Catherine’s ‘locavorism’ term, above).

I’ll be continuing to embrace good food, cooked with local, sustainable ingredients, where at all possible (until they invent local lemons, I’ll still be buying those pesky flown-in ones). The only cookery book you will need, to support you on this most responsible of journeys is the beefy and quite amazing Food from Plenty by Diana Henry - helping you make the most of your ingredients, be they a saved-for free-range shoulder of pork, or a glut of windfall apples.

Oh, and this week I’ll be replenishing my chicken family too - watch this space!

My 2011 mood board and my 1000th post

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My lovely friend Not Supermum has challenged me to create a ‘mood board’ to show all my hopes and aspirations for 2011. So much nicer than all those boring resolutions - a gaggle of pictures that will be my inspiration for life in 2011.

And what better way to celebrate my 1000th blog post! Thank you for sticking with me for all these years (or, indeed, for just dropping by today).

Wishing you a wonderful 2011. Here’s to cherishing our friends and family, being open to new friendships, giving people the benefit of the doubt and loving the skin we’re in eh?

Mwah xx