Katie Butcher

Believe it or not, Nigel managed to ‘accidentally’ purchase the new Hanson album using 1-click purchasing on Amazon. However, I have to say I actually think it’s quite a good – the three butter-wouldn’t-melt, blond-locked, bubblegum pop boys have all grown up (and turned into not bad-looking young men). The mature Hanson album is guitar rock/pop with catchy choruses and absolutely superb harmonies. The best song on the album is the current single ‘Penny & Me’, but on initial playing, the other tracks seem pretty good too. They’ve certainly come a long way from ‘Mmmbop’.

Listen to Penny & Me (Windows media file)

Last night I made ‘Pescada à la Marina’ (a dish consisting of marinated and then battered fish served with a sauce), but it was pretty tricky and time-consuming, and the result wasn’t great, so I doubt I’ll make it again.

Tonights ‘Tarte Ricotto’ was much more successful – a quick and easy savoury pastry that makes up a meal for the two of us for two evenings.

• 6 oz. shortcrust pastry rolled 1/4 inch thick
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 2 eggs
• 2 oz. smoked salmon or ham
• 2 tsp of grated lemon rind or chopped parsley
• 2 oz. Gruyère cheese

1. Line a greased 7-8 in. flan dish with the pastry
2. Stir the cream cheese in a bowl until smooth and season with salt and pepper
3. Beat the eggs lightly and gradually stir them into the cream cheese
4. Shred the smoked salmon or ham into the mixture
5. Add the grated lemon rind and/or parsley
6. Spoon the mixture into the flan dish
7. Thinly slice the Gruyère cheese and lay on top of the flan filling
8. Bake the flan in a preheated oven, at 400�F (mark 6) for 20 mins or until the filling is risen and golden

We had this with spinach and a few other salady things (tomato, spring onion, olives).

Last night I made a Cottage Pie – something I hadn’t for years. It was what sprung to mind when (as it’s the end of the week and I need to go shopping) the fridge hadn’t much more in than a bag of potatoes and I found a tray of beef mince at the back of the freezer.

But what a great dish! Tasty, filling, cheap and impossible to get wrong. I found a basic recipe in a book (a 30+ year old Reader Digest cookery book that my mum gave me before moving to Spain) and adjusted it slightly to use up a handful of slightly past-it mushrooms and a lonely stick of celery that I found in the salad drawer.

The recipe can also be made with lamb mince (Shepherd’s Pie) instead of beef and made an ample amount for Nigel and I.

• knob of butter
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 1 stick of celery, finely chopped (optional)
• 2 oz. of mushrooms, finely chopped (optional)
• 1lb (454g) of beef mince
• 1/4 pint of beef instant gravy or stock
• 1 tbl spoon of tomato ketchup
• 1/4 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
• salt and pepper
• Mash potato:
  • 3-4 medium/large potatoes (Maris Piper are ideal), peeled, chopped into chunks and boiled for 15-20 mins
  • 3 tablespoons of milk
  • large knob of butter

1. Fry the onions and celery in the butter until beginning to soften.
2. Stir in mushrooms and continue to cook until onions and celery are soft.
3. Add the mince and cook until brown.
4. Stir in the gravy and sauces and heat through
5. Season to taste
6. Meanwhile, make the mash potato but mashing up the potatoes with milk and butter
7. Spoon the mince into oven-proof dish
8. Spoon the mash potato over the top of the mince and spread out with a fork
9. Put in the top of the oven (gas mark 7) for 30 mins
10. Serve with green vegetables

I walk through Millennium Square in Leeds every time I travel between the office and the station. At the moment they’re busy setting up for the Tour of Britain, the UK’s only major professional road cycle race. It’s a six stage race beginning in Glasgow on August 30 and finishing in the heart of London on Sunday September 4. Stage 3, a week today, will start in Millennium Square and finish 160km later in Sheffield. I’m not sure that there are any really big names in cycling taking part, but I think I’ll try and nip out of work and see if I can see them all set off and head off for the hills around Otley.

See Millennium Square Live!

Last night we went to Kirkstall Abbey for an open-air stand-up comedy show. It was part of a Shakespeare Festival that is on there at the moment, giving the actors a night off. There were 4 acts altogether – 2 acts of about 30 mins each (Simon Somebody and Curtis Walker (who I both really enjoyed), then an interval, followed by a chap called Steve Rawlins who did an act of mainly visual comedy (balancing things, juggling flaming torches etc.). After a second interval it was Paul Tonkinson he was okay, did quite a lot of mimicry, but I think I preferred the first two acts. I thought that the compere was good but I don’t remember his name.

The main thing that was disappointing was part of the reason we went to the show was to see Lee Mack, and it turned out he’d cancelled due to filming commitments.

I was a little surprised about how narked Nigel was about the fact that Lee Mack was cancelled. I too was a little annoyed, but thought, “well these things happen” and still enjoyed the show. Bytey and Andrea came along too and they also seemed to enjoy it. I’ll definitely consider going next year.

Both Nigel and I are part of the approximately 10% of the population who are left-handed. I’ve never found being left-handed to be a particular hindrance. I struggle a bit with can-openers and some scissors (those ones with shaped handles in particular), but on the whole it’s not a problem as you learn to adapt or, if you really have to, try to use your right hand instead. I use a knife and fork right-handed (although I put my cup, bread roll and spoon on my left) and I use my mouse with my right hand, which is supposed to be typical of left-handers. Earlier today I came across this website which sells anything left-handed, including some weird things like backwards clocks (apparently many left-handers find it easier to read some things backwards). I can’t say I feel compelled to buy anything from this site, but it was quite interesting to see what range of stuff is available.

Well I finally managed to get around to starting a Weblog. I’ve been meaning to for about a year but often spent so long messing around with setting up pages that I got bored before I got around to adding any content. Now Nigel has kindly set up WordPress for me, which has made things a lot easier, and the only messing around I’ve done is to modify the header picture for this theme to something I feel is more ‘me’.

This Weblog isn’t intended for me to rant and rave and put the world to rights, but more as a personal diary for my own record. I’ve often wanted to keep a diary and tried a few times when I younger, but never managed to keep it up for more than about 2 days. Hopefully I’ll be better with a Weblog.

I also intend to add some other pages about my interests – book reviews, recipes etc. So watch this space!