Vege @ Taste Online

Naples gave birth to the margherita, but now passions run high over the addition of stilton, port or even liquorice

Enzo Coccia has an evangelical air as he discusses his spring pizza ? piled with asparagus, buffalo mozzarella, sheep’s cheese, lard and beans. “They may say I am a heretic, but I just want to experiment,” says the controversial exponent of the Italian trend for what are being dubbed gourmet, or “ultra-pizzas”.

The fashion for ultra-pizzas has spread throughout Italy. But as Coccia is constantly being reminded, this is Naples, the home of the tomato and mozzarella margherita. Since opening in 2010, Coccia’s restaurant, La Notizia, has whipped up an almighty row, provoking an army of growling traditionalists to voice their contempt for Coccia’s daring combination of salt cod with mozzarella, his use of figs and pesto and his ?25 truffle oil pizza. His innovative ? some would say sacrilegious ? approach has divided a city.

“There is no such thing as gourmet pizza, we are not OK with this,” said Sergio Miccu, head of the Neapolitan Association of Pizza Makers, which has secured EU certification for the margherita and another Neapolitan standard, the tomato, garlic and oregano marinara.

“Pizza was born as a food for the poor and any complicated pizza loses its identity,” he added. To prove his point, Miccu listed off the elements that make up the perfect ? and now Brussels-patented ? margherita: a 33cm diameter, 2-3cm high crust, San Marzano tomatoes, cow’s milk mozzarella from the region of Campania and olive oil, all cooked in a wood oven after the dough has risen for nine hours.

But a growing number of pizzaioli, or pizza makers, up and down Italy, are pushing beyond that, taking their lead from a Rome restaurant, La Gatta Mangiona, which has tried out duck and asparagus and steamed chestnut and mushroom pizzas.

In a country that normally prizes simple ingredients and traditional recipes, pizzaioli are now attempting stilton and port pizzas as well as shrimp, saffron and liquorice pizzas.

For Coccia, the economic downturn means more chefs are colonising the poor man’s food. “As the crisis makes people want to spend less on eating well, two-starred chefs I know are rushing to install wood-fired pizza ovens, while I am being considered a chef instead of just a pizzaiolo,” he said.

What makes Coccia different is that he has dared to open for business in the town where pizza was first popularised and where in 1889 a pizzaiolo named his new mozzarella, tomato and basil pizza ? mimicking the white, red and green of the Italian flag ? after Margherita of Savoy.

Naples’ staple got a further boost from the 1954 Italian comedy The Gold of Naples, where Sofia Loren plays a pizzaiola in the working-class district of Materdei. Five decades on, Starita, the local restaurant which kitted her out for the role, is still pulling in the crowds.

“I am dead against these gourmet pizzas ? a pizza restaurant must be quick and cheap and turn out at least 400 pizzas a night,” said Antonio Starita, 70, whose grandfather opened the restaurant in 1901.

“I have seen cream being used, and it doesn’t get worse than that,” he added, while pounding dough beneath the obligatory photos of the pope and former Napoli footballer Diego Maradona.

At Di Matteo on Via Dei Tribunali in the heart of Naples, where 600 pizzas are served a day and a margherita costs ?3, the owner, Salvatore di Matteo, dismissed the ultra-pizza trend as “just like a cold, by which I mean it should pass”.

“For me,” he added, “gourmet means talking about what you eat.”

A third of Di Matteo’s business is folded and fried pizzas ? typically stuffed with ricotta, provola cheese and cicoli, a local type of pancetta. For Neapolitans, he said, it is even more of a tradition than the margherita. “Fried pizza was bigger than oven-baked pizza in Naples until the 1950s. It needs good oil and a pizzaiolo who can tell the oil’s temperature just by looking at it ? it’s such a hard technique that it hasn’t caught on outside Naples,” he said.

For food expert Davide Paolini, the new gourmet pizzas “can be great, but it’s no longer pizza”. He did, however, praise the work of the new wave of pizza chefs in perfecting the dough base. “Gourmet pizzaioli are doing serious research on flours and methods of raising the dough, particularly Enzo Coccia,” he said.

While his ingredients may be raising eyebrows in Naples, Coccia’s light, perfectly baked pizza bases ? thanks to his fanatical attention to detail ? are winning plaudits from his peers. After a long night’s baking, he still has the energy to describe the perfect mix of humidity, volume and temperature for raising dough, before he sketches out the perfect proportions for a pizza oven on a napkin. “This hasn’t changed much since the Greeks, but we are always looking to improve on things,” he said.

At a second restaurant on the same street his menu is strictly traditional. As for the ingredients at his gourmet venture, some may be unorthodox but all are rigorously local.

“I did a fried pizza with mussels and pancetta based on my grandmother’s skewers of mussels and pancetta, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs then fried,” he said. “If I am innovating, it is only because I know the traditions.”

Amanda Marcum Amanda Peet Amanda Righetti Amanda Swisten Amber Arbucci

A storm was on the way and I could smell it in the air. “We should get to the farm when they open before the rain catches us” I said to the children. They ran to get their shoes.

The humidity, the wind, the heaviness… It was on the way.

Jon and Miren were off from school that Friday and they begged to go discover a new strawberry field. “We’ve gone to so many farms this year” Jon recounted. Yes, we have. The warm winter has been good to Florida growers – plentiful.

We visited Diane a few weeks ago. Jon’s best friend Daisy came along and the three of them picked buckets and buckets of strawberries. Strangely, it rained that day as well as I remember their muddy feet.

We also admired the bees at Sunshine Farms where we even spotted peach trees blooming and we bought delicious raw milk for ice cream. I must go back there to watch the bees one more time. They were hypnotizing.

I remembered the wild strawberries I picked as a child in the Basque Country. The berry compotes and natillas we enjoyed growing up or even the bowl of freshly picked strawberries with a touch of cream.

My grandparents had several patches of strawberry plants all around their front entrance and every Sunday, for only a few short weeks, we loved picking our own berries. Tiny and delicate strawberries that would easily bruise.

I miss them.

We arrived at D&D Farms early. The sun was shinning strong on our shoulders and the field smelled of spring.

Jon held Miren’s hand and guided her through the process of selecting the ripest strawberries. “Only the red ones, Miren. Only pick the super red ones” he said to her. “And you can even smell them to see how ripe they are. See?” he added as he buried his face on his palm full of strawberries.

“Wow…” I thought. He sounds just like me.

We also picked up colorful eggs and heirloom black cherry tomatoes they were selling on their farm stand.

“You know you can go feed the animals right?” the lady at the stand said. As fast as she said the words, Jon and Miren were running. We fed the goats, the chickens, and ducks until the rain finally came down. It was our cue.

Back at home, we rested and spent the rainy afternoon baking. “We should make some scones for Daisy” I turned to Jon. “Yes, they are her favorite, aren’t they” he replied.

Quinoa scones laced with juicy strawberry pieces. Miren kneaded the butter into the flour while Jon whisked the egg mixture. A few more turns and in the oven they went.

Natillas came after, which I made with homemade cashew milk. I have been making all my own nut milks lately and I should definitely write another post about it since I have using them in many different recipes. Cashew milk, sugar, vanilla bean, cardamom, and bright orange egg yolks.

Simple.

Just like how we like it these days.

Strawberry and Quinoa Scones

makes 14 scones

1/2 cup (125 ml) unsweetened coconut milk
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp ground chia seeds
2 tbs boiling water
1 1/3 cups (140 g) quinoa flakes (you can use GF rolled oats too), plus more for topping
1 cup (140 g) superfine brown rice flour
1/3 cup (70 g) natural cane sugar
1/2 cup (50 g) almond flour
1/3 cup (40 g) tapioca starch
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
10 tbs cold unsalted butter, cut into very small pieces
1 egg, whisked lightly
4 ounces (115 g) strawberries, hulled and diced into small pieces
egg wash, to brush on top

In a small bowl, whisk together the coconut milk and lemon juice.

In a small bowl, whisk together the ground chia seeds and boiling water. It will turn into a gel-like mixture. Let it cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the quinoa flakes, superfine brown rice flour, sugar, almond flour, tapioca starch, baking powder, and salt. Add the cold, diced butter and work it between your fingers until the butter is the size of small peas and incorporated into the butter.

Mix the coconut milk, egg, and chia seed gel. Add it to the dry ingredients. Fold together until a dough starts to form. Add the strawberries and knead a few times until the dough comes together. Lightly dust your work surface with superfine brown rice flour. Transfer the dough on top and knead it until it comes together into a rectangle that is approximately 1-inch high. Cut the dough into 2-inch squares and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Re-roll the scraps once.

Refrigerate the scones for 20 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 400F (200C).

Brush the tops of the scones with egg wash and sprinkle some quinoa flakes on top (optional). Bake the scones for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let them cool for 5 minutes before lifting them from the pan. They are best eaten the same day.

Brittny Gastineau Brody Dalle Brooke Burke Brooke Burns Busy Philipps

This little chicken salad went to the market. This little chicken salad stayed home. This little chicken salad took a tour through Louisiana and ran off with some cheeky spicy remoulade sauce and who knows where they’ll end up?

Continue reading “Cajun Chicken Salad” »

Cinthia Moura Claudette Ortiz Coco Lee Connie Nielsen Cristina Dumitru

The 21-year-old musician on her debut album, being on the phone to Prince and why you should think twice before going on tour with 12 men

Good topknot, excellent shorts. Who is she and what does she do? She’s Delilah, aka Paloma Stoecker, the latest star in the making on planet pop.

Oh yeah. What’s her sound? She files herself under trip-hop. Remember that? From the 90s? Massive Attack, Portishead? those were the days. Anyway, Delilah was signed to Atlantic Records at 17 before joining Chase & Status on tour as a support vocalist for two years, which she says was a lot of fun but “no one teaches you how to share a tour bus with 12 men, so it was hard at times”.

On tour with Chase & Status. I’ve heard of them. So is she a bit drum’n'bass? Not a jot. Delilah’s music is best described as dark, brooding pop. Pop that’s in a crabby mood.

Interesting. What’s she doing now? She’s just put the finishing touches on her debut album. And, like, a week ago, she was personally asked to join Prince on tour. The musical demi-god. He rang her, actually pressed the buttons on the phone and called her. So she’s off to Australia with him, the lucky possum.

She says: “Now that the album is done, it feels like a huge weight has lifted. I’m so excited about this year.”

We say: If she’s good enough for the Purple One, she’s certainly good enough for us.

Delilah’s latest single, “Breathe”, is out now. Her album From the Roots Up is released on 30 July

Hilarie Burton Hilary Duff Hilary Swank Isla Fisher Ivana Bozilovic

Two political rivals in east Yorkshire join forces to condemn the proposed VAT on static caravans. Their part of the north has thousands of jobs at stake

Among the issues causing controversy following the Budget on 21 March is the Chancellor’s proposal to levy 20% VAT on static caravans from October.

This policy, produced without any prior warning or publicity, would have a disproportionate impact on the Hull and east Yorkshire area, where some 90% of the UK’s caravan manufacturing industry is located.

The Government is introducing this VAT measure to iron out a perceived anomaly within the tax system, albeit not one that many people outside the Treasury have ever expressed any concern about. The merits of the proposed change are highly dubious ? it was rejected when VAT was first introduced in the UK in 1973 ? and efforts to deal with these issues often simply give rise to further anomalies.

Our main contention is one of priorities. How can a change of such trivial importance be justified without any consideration of the wider economic effects of the measure? The Treasury’s own Budget impact assessment shows that VAT on static caravans would cut demand in the industry by 30%. There have been some even more worrying estimates from within the industry.

In turn this would lead to job losses, mainly in and around east Yorkshire, from local caravan firms and their supply chain running to several thousand. The UK holiday industry has estimated that the Caravan Tax would then have a knock-on effect that would lead to thousands more jobs going, especially in seaside towns and rural communities.

The job losses caused by the Caravan Tax would lead to more redundancy costs, increased welfare payments, and a loss of income tax and National Insurance revenues that would certainly mean that the tax would be a net loser of revenue. Indeed, the Treasury’s own figures show the Caravan Tax losing revenue overall. It would raise £40m, but we estimate will cost £45m.

On the Caravan Tax, the Government has got itself a position of defending a measure that contradicts so many of its stated policy goals and the arguments ministers frequently use to support them. One of the justifications for the controversial decision to cut the 50p tax rate next year was that it does not raise enough. The Caravan Tax only raises £15m in its first year and would lose the Treasury revenue overall!

A Government that cuts Corporation Tax to boost jobs and growth should not be introducing a tax that would harm jobs and growth.

A Government that is concerned about rural areas and coastal towns should not pursue a measure that hits these areas, so dependent on the wider UK caravan holiday industry, so severely.

Neither is it wise or fair to impose such a huge further loss of private sector jobs on a hard-pressed city such as Hull where so many job-seekers already chase each job vacancy. The scale of job losses that the Caravan Tax would impose on East Yorkshire would be several times greater than those threatened at the local BAE Systems site in Brough.

The Caravan Tax also fails by any measure of fairness. While proposing to make static caravans less affordable for so many, there is no Budget tax proposal to target the second homes of the wealthiest.

In the debate about how to achieve sustained economic growth there is much upon which we disagree. The dangerous proposal to put VAT on static caravans is, however, an issue that unites us across the party divide. The Caravan Tax must be stopped now, before it can cause huge damage to an important private sector industry that has been working hard to recover from the global downturn of 2008/09.

It would be perverse for any Government keen on creating the conditions for growth, and especially one which speaks so often about the importance of ‘rebalancing the economy’ towards the north, manufacturing exports and private sector jobs , to do such damage to all these objectives. All for the sake of a tax adjustment of no real importance.

With Parliamentary petitions, debates and an Early Day Motion we are doing all that we can as local MPs to raise this urgent issue and persuade the Government to think again. The Government has helpfully extended its consultation period.

Now we need ministers to listen to the groundswell of opinion and withdraw this tax. We’re not asking for a state subsidy for the caravan industry – just for the Government not to harm an industry for no good reason.

Diana Johnson is Labour MP for Hull North. Andrew Percy is Conservative MP for Brigg and Goole

Aisha Tyler Aki Ross Alecia Elliott Alessandra Ambrosio Alexis Bledel

Despite the fact that I love seafood, I don’t have many seafood recipes posted on here on EBF. I’ve decided it’s time for that to change! To kick things off I’m sharing a delicious and healthy salmon recipe today. The best part about having fish for dinner is that it cooks super fast and you [...]

Audrina Patridge Autumn Reeser Avril Lavigne Bali Rodriguez Bar Refaeli

Los Angeles, 1961

When I look at this picture of my mom and me, words fail me.

So let me just wish you all a very happy Mother’s Day, for our mothers, our grandmothers, and for everyone who mothers.

Continue reading “Happy Mother's Day” »

Amerie Amy Cobb Amy Smart Ana Beatriz Barros Ana Hickmann

A late snow flurry in the Cairngorms, blue skies and bluebells and a cheap week away in June ? with everything

Take me there: Cairngorm, Scotland

To say that the Cairngorm (cairngormmountain.org) in Scotland has had an unusual season would be an understatement. Warm weather meant there were no snowsports in March ? unheard of in previous years ? then from out of nowhere, in mid-April and throughout May there has been increasing snowfall, meaning that winter sports fans have been heading for the mountains every weekend this spring. The late snow has been popular with snowboarders and freestylers, for whom the Cairngorm has been laying on special features in its Quiksilver Roxy Freestyle Park, such as a new 9m ledge rail, with an MC encouraging everyone to have a go by offering prizes for an attempt.

Travel clinic: sunshine on a budget

The dilemma I would like to go somewhere sunny for a week with my partner in late June/early July. We’d like to stay in or near an interesting old town, and not far from a beach. Ideally we’d stay in a rustic but beautiful villa, apartment or small hotel with space for sunbathing. Our budget is quite tight, but we’d prefer somewhere other than eastern Europe. Debbie, Whitstable, Kent

Sicily claims the highest average daily rate of sunshine in Europe, with June temperatures registering in the high 20s. Taormina, a historic town perched loftily above the sea and which Goethe called “a patch of paradise”, has an amphitheatre that hosts the Taormina Arte (taormina-arte.com) ? a summer-long festival of concerts, theatre, dance and film starting in July ? and is within sniffing distance of Etna, birthplace of the granita. But stay at the more down-to-earth fishing village of Letojanni, 5km down the coast, which has some lovely beachside restaurants. Owners Direct offers Villa Jasmine (sleeps two to four, from ?560 for a week, ownersdirect.co.uk/italy/it341.htm), which has a spectacular sea view and a terrace with garden and is only two minutes’ walk from the beach. EasyJet flies into Catania from £76.49 one way in June.

Three of the best: bluebell walks

There may be precious little blue in the sky right now, but we’re not struggling at ground level – the damp conditions have given rise to some of the best bluebell carpets in recent memory

Ashdown Forest, Sussex Home to the heritage Bluebell Railway ? climb aboard the steam engines to see swathes of the flowers along the tracks (bluebell-railway.co.uk)

Rievaulx Abbey, North Yorkshire You’ll see patches of bluebells on an inspiring walk that includes strolling through woods and meadows and over a bridge (tinyurl.com/bmy7ahz)

Vicarage Meadows, near Abergwesyn A nationally important wildflower meadow with an amazing display of bluebells in May and early June (tinyurl.com/cmqsvs3)

Jamie Lynn Sigler Janet Jackson January Jones Jennie Finch Jennifer Aniston

Having acted in and contributed to the scripts of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise and its sequel, Before Sunset, the French actress Julie Delpy has followed up her directorial debut 2 Days in Paris with 2 Days in New York. In the amusing, mildly raunchy Paris film her heroine Marion takes her American Jewish boyfriend to meet her eccentric French family. In the equally entertaining sequel, her French family come to stay over Halloween with the 38-year-old Marion, now a single mother and about to exhibit her latest photo essay, and her black lover. Played by Chris Rock, he’s a New York DJ and writer called Mingus, his name considered hilarious by the visitors because it rhymes with cunnilingus. Delpy and Rock are naturally funny and the stuff good, lightweight sitcoms are made of. Intriguing surprises arise from Marion’s selling her soul as a piece of conceptual art and her spur-of-the-moment lie about suffering from an inoperable brain tumour.

Christina Aguilera Christina Applegate Christina DaRe Christina Milian Christina Ricci

My local supermarket has starting putting bacon into larger plastic sleeves. Is it time for a new crackdown on packaging?

Thanks for sending me photographic rather than physical evidence, as old bacon packets are not pleasant. This is how great anti-waste campaigns start. Our last investigation into packaging started with a reader’s photographs of coconuts wrapped in plastic. Ian Bates of Less Packaging has seen such travesties as your bacon packet before. “It’s a fairly typical approach to reduce cost and to try to increase perceived value,” he says. “It looks to me as if the extra cost of shipping and handling the bulky pack has probably not been considered, nor the extra cost of displaying the packs in-store. We still find that very few companies actually measure the true cost of their packaging holistically.”

What’s odd is that the big retailers are falling over themselves to present green packaging initiatives. Sainsbury’s, for example, recently celebrated a loo-roll victory: reducing the diameter of the inner cardboard tube apparently cuts 140,000kg of CO2 by cutting the number of delivery lorries. And Bates says that Tesco has done well on its pre-school toy range, where you no longer find a “single frustrating plastic or metal twisty tie. Hooray!”

Hooray indeed, but probably not enough to quell your anger, given that we still chuck away 10m tonnes of packaging waste a year. Nearly 67% is supposedly recovered, and companies pay levies through a complex system of Packaging Recovery Notes. Yet you end up spending £470 a year on single-use packaging that you don’t want.

This is a good time to campaign. Most retailers are signed up to the Courtauld Commitment to reduce packaging. Phase three, announced in March, will see target rates for the recovery of plastics double by 2017. Already the packaging industry is kicking against this. Consumer ire is important if targets are to be met.

For inspiration look to the Women’s Institute 2006 packaging campaign. It is no longer officially live but so many members are still actively reporting overpackaging that, when I called them, there was a suggestion it might be revived. Their tips for you include the provocative stance of “unwrapping products at the till and leaving the packaging for the store to dispose of” if necessary. The lineage of this checkout campaigning? Austrian hausfraus in the 1980s who clogged up checkouts by removing packaging and decanting groceries into their own reusable receptacles. I can tell you, things soon changed.

Green crush of the week

Industrial designer Ross Lovegrove calls himself a “translator of 21st technology” and believes that only natural growth patterns and organic forms can “create maximum beauty”. His 6m tall solar tree, manufactured by Artemide, stores enough energy even on cloudy days to light up all night long. It comes to London as part of the Clerkenwell Design Week (clerkenwelldesignweek.com), but you can witness its beatific glow in St John’s Square, London EC1 until September.

Jennifer Gareis Jennifer Garner Jennifer Gimenez Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Morrison

When Alan Hollinghurst’s celebrated The Stranger’s Child was omitted from the literary prize’s shortlist, many questioned the award’s credibility. Twelve months on, Britain’s great stylist breaks his silence on the issue ? and on what turns young people into ‘monsters and bores’

Alan Hollinghurst lives in a light and preternaturally quiet flat on Parliament Hill in north London. When his novel The Line of Beauty won the Booker prize in 2004, he spent some of his winnings on revamping it, with the result that it has a new, large sitting room with a lush view out on to a corner of Hampstead Heath. Furniture is sparse (he likes to joke that the money ran out before he could stretch to armchairs), but there are pale carpets and good paintings and ? what’s this? ? a strange plaster relief, in an elaborate gilt frame, of the face of a (presumably long dead) young woman.

I move towards it excitedly, as if I were the first visitor ever to notice it. Beneath her profile is written her name: Daphne. Crikey. Was this a source of inspiration for Daphne Sawle, one of the most important characters in The Stranger’s Child, his fifth and most recent novel? He smiles, indulgently. But, no. He bought it at auction just as he was finishing the book, by which time Daphne Sawle was every bit as real to him as this fine-boned, turn-of-the-century creature.

Hollinghurst is all indulgent smiles today, which is just as well because I’ve got the jitters. The Stranger’s Child, a capacious and wonderful book that begins in one suburban garden in 1913 and ends in another in 2008, has many themes. It is about love, and the passing of time; it is, too, about ambition, taste and disappointment. But more than anything, it is about the unknowability of human beings, and the misunderstandings, even the danger, associated with trying to plug the gaps in our perceptions.

Its nastiest and perhaps most memorable character is Paul Bryant, an enterprising hack reviewer and the would-be biographer of Cecil Valance, the Rupert Brooke-ish figure whose short life and long but ever-shifting literary reputation crouches at the heart of The Stranger’s Child.

Bryant, like me, makes a living poking around in people’s lives ? and I have the impression that his creator disapproves. When he goes to stay with Daphne Sawle, for whom, when she was a girl, Cecil Valance wrote a famous poem, she likens him to a “little wire-haired ratter”; she knows, even before he has lobbed his first question, that all he is interested in, basically, is “smut”. When Paul asks her if he might tape their conversation, Hollinghurst writes of the recorder’s “odd insinuations of flattery and mistrust”. He then lists, highly accurately, the various ways interviewees respond to it: some made awkward, as if it were an eavesdropper; others reassured to a degree that results in a kind of verbal incontinence.

I place my own tape recorder down on the small table beside us. I half expect it to explode, like a grenade. So, does he loathe Paul?

“Well, I wanted to depict him changing,” he says, carefully. “And one knows how sweet young people can turn into monsters and bores.” They curdle. “Yes, exactly. They curdle.”

What about biography? Does he disapprove of it? “No, of course not. I love biography. But as with the novel, there’s a great range between the great and the crap. A great biography is like a great novel; it has a deep sense of wisdom about life. I’m quite amused, though, and sometimes frustrated, when someone ends up with the wrong biographer.

“I’m potty about Ronald Firbank, and the first person to have access to all his papers was this woman, Miriam Benkovitz. She was in a position to do something wonderful, and she wrote this utterly inane book ? and, of course, a minor literary figure is unlikely to have their life written again, so it feels like a waste. The same thing happened with Denton Welch [the writer and painter, who died in 1948]. There was this very slipshod biography by Michael De-la-Noy.”

The Stranger’s Child came out last year (it is published in paperback this week) to almost universal praise; the only criticism anyone seemed to be able to level at it was that it isn’t The Line of Beauty. But then… controversy! The novel was left off the Booker shortlist, and thus became the focus for discontent with the prize and its supposedly lowbrow leanings; soon after, the literary agent Andrew Kidd announced that he hoped to establish a new, more serious fiction award (although, so far, nothing has yet happened on this score).

How did Hollinghurst feel about this? “I didn’t say anything [at the time], and it’s hard for me to say anything about it now because it sounds like I’m saying: I should have been on the shortlist.”

But? “But there were a lot of books that should have been on the shortlist ? Teddy [Edward St Aubyn, author of At Last] and Philip Hensher [King of the Badgers] and probably a lot of other books I haven’t read, too. One can take a position about the shortlist in almost an objective way. But I also learnt, a long time ago, to be aloof from these things. You realise how arbitrary they are. It’s lovely if it works out for you, but it doesn’t mean anything, really, except in commercial terms.

“The Booker made me a lot of money. I didn’t realise that all over the world, people will read a book just because it won the Booker prize.” A delicious pause. “Not something I would do myself… But then one goes into some quite other, private region to produce a book.” He gives me a knowing look. “I think the Booker can drive people quite mad. That’s why it’s good to be detached from it.”

Is he in that private region now? I hope so. “I’m in that rather unfocused phase, which is one of discontent with not writing another book. What I’m missing is sitting at my desk and getting into the large alternative space of a book. I’ve got quite a few bits and pieces, but I haven’t quite had the moment of revelation where I see how they fit together. It’s always like this: a blur of different things, and then a story emerges.”

Does he ever think: I’m not sure I can do this again? “I have an underlying confidence that I won’t suffer writer’s block or anything. But I never think: oh, this will be a smash hit. I know there are things I can do, but an element of doubt is probably quite important.” Is writing painful? For some, it’s agony. “Perhaps we tend to overplay the agony side of it. But then, like any pain, when it’s over, you can’t remember it. So perhaps I’m wrong to say we exaggerate it. What I will say is that there are times when it’s just the best thing: the high of things coming to you. You get a peculiar sense of elation, as if nothing else really matters. It’s not a sense of smugness. But you’re buoyed up. Your mind is wonderfully perceptive. It’s a very beautiful feeling.”

I can measure out my adulthood not in coffee spoons, but in Alan Hollinghurst novels. Partly, this is because he takes such an age to write a book; the anxious wait means that one’s circumstances have inevitably changed by the time he delivers. Partly, it’s because I read his first novel, The Swimming Pool Library, which came out in 1988, during my first year at university, that exciting time when I felt life was just beginning to get going. I remember vividly both the deep surprise of it ? all that sex! ? and my complete inability to put it down, for all that I was supposed to be watching children (I was their nanny).

This is, I think, something the critics rarely point out. They will tell you that his first four novels compose an unofficial history of gay life in Britain (The Swimming Pool Library, which fleshed out ? quite literally ? the gay world before and after the decriminalisation of homosexuality, was followed by The Folding Star, a study of romantic and sexual obsession; The Spell, a comedy of manners whose twin engines are ecstasy and a certain kind of narcissism; and finally, triumphantly, The Line of Beauty, perhaps the best book ever written about the 80s). They will also, inevitably, claim him as the greatest stylist of our age. But do they ever use the word page-turner? No, they most certainly do not.

He wasn’t always going to be a novelist, though. Poetry was his first love. An only child, he grew up in Stroud, Gloucestershire, where his father was a bank manager (he poured this time into The Stranger’s Child: Paul Bryant begins his working life in a bank in a small, country town, where he reads Angus Wilson in his lunch hour, and gets turned on by the angle of his stool at the cash desk). At school ? his parents sent him to board at Canford in Dorset ? Hollinghurst became fascinated by poetical forms.

“We had to do a competition,” he says. “The theme was ‘the pleasures of life’. I wrote three sonnets.” And what were, in his then opinion, the pleasures of life? A low chuckle (Hollinghurst is the drollest, most quietly mischievous man I’ve ever met ? though it’s in his eyes and the cast of his mouth and the tone of his voice, rather than in anything he actually says). “I’m not sure I’d actually experienced the pleasures of life, then. So it was a case of…. going for a walk, having a cup of tea, er… a pint of foaming ale!” He laughs. “They were published, with some typos, in the school magazine. Being a poet at school had a certain prestige; it was a source of glamour. And if you could write modernistic poems, which no one could understand, then even more so.”

Later on, as a young man, he published a volume of poems, Confidential Chats with Boys (1982) ? “intensely rare”, he once described it, self-mockingly ? but then the muse left him, and he started on The Swimming Pool Library instead. He was 33 when it was published.

Hollinghurst dates his interest in architecture from school, too ? and thus, wary though we must be of conflating life and fiction, we can also trace the big houses in his books to this time. “I placed Corley Court [the Valances' home in The Stranger's Child] almost exactly where my prep school had been,” he says. “I’d never gone back into that world before [Corley Court later becomes a school], and I realised the memories were so abundant, I could easily have written a 500-page novel only about that ? not that I’m going to! My prep school, an early Jacobean house, made a deep impression on me. I could draw an accurate plan of every floor, even now ? and all the fireplaces, the plasterwork on the ceilings. I just absorbed it all. You’re wonderfully open and suggestible as a boy, though one also goes through agonies. The emotions of adolescence are so extreme.”

After a long period at Oxford ? he wrote an MLitt thesis on Firbank, Forster and LP Hartley ? he came to London, and began working as a reviewer, eventually joining the Times Literary Supplement as an editor. “It was completely unanticipated,” he says. “I’d applied for teaching jobs. I had an interview in Edinburgh, and perhaps I’d still be there if I’d got that.”

The editor told Hollinghurst, sounding slightly embarrassed, that his salary would be £11,500. “And my father said: that’s more than I ever earned, old boy.” His parents were reassured by the fact of his working at the TLS ? and it pleased him, too, to be able to jump dramatically into a taxi and shout: the Times! (both papers were in the same place ). He went part-time after The Swimming Pool Library came out, and eventually was able to make a living from writing full-time ? which is a good thing because he has a problem combining fiction with the rest of life. Hollinghurst is rather sociable. He has been known to go to parties. But once he’s deep into a novel, he has to isolate himself. It’s for this reason, too, that he has mostly always lived alone.

We talk, before I go, about literary estates. It is a horrible fact that while he was writing The Stranger’s Child, in which we see Cecil Valance’s reputation wax and wane, different parties claiming him as their own at various times, Hollinghurst’s dear friend Mick Imlah, the poet, died of motor neurone disease at the age of 52. Hollinghurst, his literary executor, looked on as people wrote about Imlah, “each of them saying what they thought about him rather as the characters do in the book”.

His own literary executor is Andrew Motion (the two of them shared a house in Oxford; Hollinghurst is also Motion’s executor). “Oh, yes, I’ve kept everything,” he says. “A couple of American libraries have suggested I might like to deposit things with them. But I don’t like the idea of people rummaging about in my drafts. It’s embarrassing. Why expose oneself to that? And I don’t think you should be too concerned with posterity while you are living your life.”

He will admit, though, to enjoying writing his will, when he finally got round to it (“Andrew was much more organised; he wrote his ages before me”). Specifically, he liked the bequest section. So who, I wonder, will get Daphne, with her marble eyes, and her well-bred nose? He laughs, a low rumble of delight. “Yes, that’s something I really should think about. I probably need to add a whole new clause for her.”

Ana Paula Lemes Ananda Lewis Angela Marcello Angelina Jolie Anna Faris

British Tarantula Society Annual Exhibition, Bilston

If you thought tarantulas came in only one variety ? hairy and horrific ? think again. Categories in this eight-legged expo range from “cuddly” Brachypelmas to tree-creeping Asian Arboreals, and even scorpions get a stab at netting the prestigious Best in Show prize. As well as gawping at tanks of leggy lovelies, arachnophiles can browse books and paraphernalia, enter an art contest, and catch a talk on the sustainability of Cambodia’s street-food trade in spiders.

The Coseley School, Henne Drive, Sun

Colette Bernhardt

Bath Fringe

There are over 170 events taking place on Bath’s fringe this year, taking in burlesque, Afro-funk and even a comic play about wrestling giants Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks. Things kick off on Friday with the Bedlam Fair at Green Park Station, and continue next weekend at Green Park Market and Kingsmead. Look out for the Spiegeltent on The Rec, which hosts acts daily from 1 Jun (including The Destroyers & The Carney Villains), with several daytime shows aimed at children.

Various venues, Fri to 10 Jun

Iain Aitch

Kapow! London

You only have to check the guestlist to realise that two-year-old Kapow! has already established a rep as the UK comics con. Comic-book royalty in attendance includes Frank Quitely, the artist behind what’s considered to be the 21st century’s definitive Superman, plus Warren Ellis, co-creator of early-noughties game-changer The Authority, a superhero team that included a bio-engineered gay Apollo and a drug-addled shaman. Guest-of-honour is Marvel head honcho, chief creative officer Joe Quesada. British comedians swell the ranks too including Jonathan Ross, who recently penned his first comic, Turf, plus Frankie Boyle, Jimmy Carr and Nick Frost. There’ll also be the Stan Lee Awards, plenty of cosplay, plus ? of course ? stand after stand of all things comics-related.

Business Design Centre, N1, Sat, Sun

Skye Sherwin

Out & about

Protest, Power, Struggle and Strife ¡No Pasarán! London, Sat

A political marketplace and forum, taking in screenings, exhibitions, workshops and more.

Rich Mix, E1

Olympic Torch Relay, Nationwide, Sat to 27 Jul

The Olympic flame’s 70-day jaunt begins at Land’s End, meandering via Plymouth, Exeter and Bristol, before fetching up in Cardiff on Friday.

Various venues

Crimefest, Bristol, Thu to 27 May

Crime fiction celebration with PD James, Lee Child and Frederick Forsyth.

Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel

Arts Festival, Dumfries & Galloway, Fri to 5 Jun

Jazz and classical music kick off two weeks of music, theatre, art, comedy and more.

Various venues

Charleston Festival, Firle, Fri to 3 Jun

Joanna Lumley kicks off proceedings on Friday, with Annie Leibovitz, Marcel Theroux, Bonnie Greer and Andrew Motion later in the festival.

Charleston, Lewes

Erika Christensen Estella Warren Esther Cañadas Eva Green Eva Longoria

If you are anything like us, your freezer will always be stocked with logs of frozen cookie dough.

When I ask Jon and Miren what they would like to have for the dessert, I know the answer will be “chunky and chewy chocolate chip cookies with crunchy salt on top”

They take after C. and me.

So I thought I’d leave you with our favorite recipe for chunky chocolate chip cookies. The trick? Light muscovado sugar and fleur de sel.

I also shared the recipe with Joanna yesterday.

And I ask you the same question, are you a crispy and chewy chocolate chip cookie kind of person?

Have a great weekend!

Gluten-Free Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

makes 2 dozen cookies

8 tablespoons (110 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (100 g) packed light muscovado or light brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 g) natural cane sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
1 cup (140 g) brown rice flour
1/2 cup (60 g) amaranth flour
1/4 cup (30 g) tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel, plus more for topping
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (170 g) chocolate chunks or chips

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, muscovado sugar, natural cane sugar and vanilla extract. Mix with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the egg and mix until combined.

In a small bowl, whisk together the brown rice flour, amaranth flour, tapioca starch, fleur de sel, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and mix on medium speed until the dough comes together.

Add the chocolate chunks and mix until thoroughly incorporated.

Scoop the dough onto a piece of parchment paper. With the help of the parchment, roll the dough into a log that is approximately 2 inches in diameter and 12 inches long. Wrap the log with the parchment and refrigerate for 1 hour.

In this time, preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Cut the log into 1/2-inch disks. Place them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone mats leaving 2 inches in between the cookies.

Sprinkle the tops with a bit of fleur de sel. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes or until edges set and start to turn golden. They might look a bit underdone, but this is fine. They will harden as they cool and slightly under-baking them will keep them chewy and moist. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before trying to lift them. Store them in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Aisha Tyler Aki Ross Alecia Elliott Alessandra Ambrosio Alexis Bledel

All over the world the sausage is the embodiment of comfort food. What’s your favourite?

? Quiz: test your sausage knowledge
? In pictures: 10 interesting sausages

While I’ve been writing this guide I’ve found that sausages hold a special place in people’s affections. With little prompting, friends, acquaintances and strangers would invariably smile and tell me about their favourite type or a fond memory. For everyone loves sausages; even the most sophisticated gourmet finds them nigh irresistible. That’s probably down to the fact that they evoke just the right sort of childhood memories: of barbecues on the beach or camp fires in the forest, a football match or cosy Sunday breakfast.

They also reveal strong feelings of national pride. British people adore their bready bangers. Germans, on the other hand, are proud of their high meat content and their sausage laws dating back hundreds of years. I recently met an Italian blacksmith living in France who carries an electric meat slicer in the boot of his car because, coming from Bologna, he is convinced that no Frenchman will be capable of slicing his salame as paper-thin as it should be. But when you look closer at the sausages of any country you realise that you can’t really make hard and fast rules: everywhere has too many exceptions.

The more I delved into this world of sausages, the more delightful examples I discovered. As well as beautiful ruby red salami and nut-brown kielbasa, there are comically shaped, bulbous creations stuffed into stomachs, there are long dried sticks, gleaming coils, tiny round balls, and more. Making use of local ingredients or sometimes a seasonal glut (I love the creativity that seasonal gluts produce) generates startling sausages made green with spinach, black pudding pungent with sweet potato leaves, or cuttlefish sausages teamed with fermented rice.

We scoured the world to find examples of these brilliant varieties but occasionally we had to admit defeat. The flour-filled lamb’s lung made by the Uyghurs, the strawberry-flavoured chorizo from Mexico and the fish sausages from Finland all eluded us. I’d love to find them one day.

But above all, hot sausages are the best possible comfort food, especially during a cold wet spring. Served up with some spectacularly good mashed potato or tangy sauerkraut, or even just in a roll with ketchup, they induce what is known as “hygge”. It’s a Danish word, meaning a warm, cozy feeling of well-being. Soul food. But I think it could just as well be translated as “sausage”.

For me, of course I love my native sausages: beef, venison, and haggis, so long as they are made with natural casings. But the more I researched, the more I realised why I liked particular types better than others – the way they are made greatly affects the underlying flavour. With so much variety I now find it far more difficult to be tied down to favourites; it depends on my mood, the weather, what I’m doing and so on. I’m still collecting sausage stories so tell us yours: what you like best, and why. And I keep smiling at the thought of them.

Zooey Deschanel Aaliyah Abbie Cornish Adriana Lima Adrianne Curry

Founder Karl Harder’s ‘democratic finance’ means anyone with £5 can invest in renewable energy projects

Name Abundance Generation

Founders Karl Harder, Louise Wilson, Bruce Davis

Company started Abundance was founded in Oct 2009 but has only been authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority since July 2011

Number of employees 7 full-time staff plus a “very able” team of creatives, lawyers and renewable energy experts who work on specific deals

Based in Shepherds Bush

What’s the big idea?

Harder calls it “democratic finance” ? allowing anyone to invest directly in renewable energy projects in the UK with a minimum £5. He says: “We want to give back to people control over where their money is invested and how it generates a return. Renewable energy is the starting point, but we believe that democratic finance could be a more sustainable source of finance for other forms of public infrastructure investment such as schools, hospitals and social impact initiatives.”

What do they do differently?

Harder says all investors, whether they are small or big, get access to the same opportunities and same levels of service and customer experience.

“The minimum £5 investment is unique in the market,” he adds.

The website provides a direct connection with the projects customers invest in, providing live information about the energy produced, the weather at the site and the expected return investors are earning.

How did it come about?

Davis was involved in the creation of the world’s first peer-to-peer lending site, zopa.com, and was working as an anthropologist studying money and our usage of it in everyday life.

By chance, he bumped into Harder in the British Library, the two began chatting over coffee, and Harder soon found himself talking about how to find ways of involving communities in funding renewable energy projects. Wilson came on board, and three years later, the team created the final model and produced something that Harder says is “truly radical in its approach compared to more conventional forms of investment”.

Its lead investors are NESTA ? a charity whose mission is to “help people and organisations bring great ideas to life” ? and Panahpur, a social investment foundation created in 1907 as a community for orphaned children.

Who are their clients and how do they work with them?

Companies such as The Resilience Centre in the Forest of Dean. They are developing community renewable energy projects and are looking for ways to involve the wider community locally and nationally in funding the project, as well as getting a return based on the money made from generating and selling green energy.

How is the business plan going ? and where do they hope to be in five years?

“We are working with a number of companies who have projects including wind, solar, hydro and anaerobic digestion technologies which will be available very soon through the website,” Harder says.

Unfortunately, the first project ? the Resilient Energy Great Dunkilns ? has been delayed due to problems with the supply of the wind turbine. This meant the offer had to be suspended until the issues are resolved and all cash invested returned to customer accounts.

Davis says it is “disappointing and frustrating when we had gathered such a great and supportive group of investors”, but he remains confident.

Their killer advice for new start-ups

Harder says: “The true measure is not how slick the business plan looks, but how well the team responds and supports each other when the inevitable challenges arise from trying to do something that is genuinely different, and ground-breaking. And it is overcoming those challenges, and building goodwill from customers, that makes it all worthwhile.”

Ivana Bozilovic Ivanka Trump Izabella Miko Izabella Scorupco Jaime King

The last thing Sarah Franklin expected was that her six-year-old son would swap his Superman cape for an Arsenal strip and turn into a soccer obsessive virtually overnight

It was as sudden and irrevocable as a penalty shoot-out. One minute Jonah, our elder son, was all about pirates and superheroes, a new cape the pinnacle of joy. Then, in an identity change Clark Kent would be proud of, the cape was abandoned and he stood before us in studs and Arsenal strip, a fully fledged six-year-old football obsessive.

Yes, yes; that small boys like football is a universal truth, one that has fuelled Persil ads and birthday cards for decades. But, stupidly, I’d forgotten that it was probably based on fact. With two small sons, the odds of someone in the household succumbing to football fever were pretty high.

If you’d asked me a year ago, I’d have confidently stated that a fully blown football fan was as plausible in our house as a pristine kitchen floor. My idea of the perfect Saturday afternoon involves a big mug of coffee and a bigger book; if fresh air is required, a meander in the woodland solves it nicely. My husband grew up in the hooligan-ridden 80s within earshot of the cacophony from the terraces. His relationship with football progressed at an early age from indifference to antipathy. The grand tradition of the beautiful game is often learned at home, but not in this home. In terms of football fanaticism, we languish in the Conference Premier league.

It’s irrelevant, of course. How naive can I be? Like a particularly virulent stomach bug, football is something that Jonah picked up at school. Each breaktime, a gaggle of likeminded footie nuts turns into pint-sized Vieiras and Van Persies, engaging in fierce competition to score a hat trick before being called back in for phonics practice. When it came down to the important business of choosing a team, Jonah did what children have done from time immemorial; he picked the same one as his friends. Male bonding starts with grazed knees.

At home, it’s like we’ve all been initiated overnight into a cult, albeit a very cute one largely consisting of small earnest True Believers in oversized replica kit. Football, according to Jonah, is in everything; all conversational paths lead to the Emirates stadium. He practises his handwriting by copying out league tables, numeracy by fervent study of goal differences and is saving up his pocket money for an Arsenal ticket. His love of reading, the reigning cult here, isn’t diminished, fortunately. I kid myself that this is because my own passion for books has rubbed off, but deep down I know it’s because reading is a gateway to yet more football. As with all good bugs, it’s catching. If Arsenal kick off after Jonah’s bedtime, I’ve got into the habit of putting a note with the score on in his room, to prevent dawn whispers of “Mummy! Can I get up and see if Arsenal winned?”

Like the memory of applause echoing through an abandoned stadium, this flurry of football mania is kicking up anecdotes buried in my brain. For a while in my 20s, surrounded by rabid football fans, I knew plenty about the game and could debate formations and strategy with the best. I went so far as to develop a random, inexplicable crush on Jim Leighton, whose performance during Euro 96 seemed impossibly romantic. But even back then I used to take a book to the terraces “for the boring bits”, and in the years that have passed, my football knowledge has drifted into nothingness, like a missed corner kick.

Now football is part of my eco system again, like it or not. I find myself inadvertantly able to silence a pack of small boys ? no mean feat ? by telling them that I’ve seen Barcelona’s manager play. Barcelona, as any six-year-old will tell me, and frequently does, is The Best Team in the World, so this is big news. “In the olden days?” one of them asks, awed, ruining it. “Yes, in the olden days,” I confirm, feeling ruin-like myself. They are impressed, gazing up at me awestruck; then one spies a stone that looks vaguely spherical, and they’re off, a roiling mass of self-commentating, self-congratulating players, all about to win a cup final. Every game is critical in their minds, whether played by them or by, as they see it, bigger versions of themselves. The route between playground games and televised matches is short and crystal clear. At six, there’s no reason to believe that you can’t play for Arsenal one day. In Jonah’s mind, once he and his friends have agreed who will play in which position, all that remains is for them to wait to be old enough. It’s brilliant to be around such certainty, something Enid Blyton-esque about realising that small boys really do want to grow up to be footballers.

Jonah already possesses the instinct I’ve always associated with grown men, of identifying people by the team they support. I tell him we’re going to visit old friends at the weekend, friends he knows and likes. “But C’s an Ipswich fan!” Jonah says with concern, his tone clearly conveying the dangers of consorting with somebody of such dubious taste. As a first-generation football fan, Jonah has no mechanism for understanding the decades-long agony of supporting a team through wins and losses, losses, losses. There’s a reason everyone in his class supports a Premier League team, and it has to do with the visibility of success.

We persuade Jonah regardless, that we should visit our friends, if only for him to try to get to the bottom of such apparently dodgy taste in teams. All is redeemed when our friend produces a trophy he’d been presented with for winning his fantasy football league. Anyone who can win a trophy has to be OK, after all.

Sometimes I wish for Jonah’s sake that he’d been born into a team, that there had been a family tradition that required him to grow up following, say, Arsenal or even ? horrors ? Ipswich Town. But for the most part, I’m glad that we’re all learning this together. Being a little kid is all about exploring, about finding your way, and there’s nobody in the family who knows more than Jonah about the Premier League. My own father can give him a pretty good run for his money, but on a day-to-day basis, he’s far and away top of the division.

Football has provided, however unwittingly, a level playing field, an area where Mummy or Daddy don’t necessarily know more, or better. This is an epiphany for both our boys, and a salutary reminder for us that life only becomes more about the kids outstripping us in terms of knowledge, passion and ability. My husband is reversing his opinion in the age-old fashion ? football fans can’t all be awful if Jonah is one. Football’s become part of our family’s DNA, along with Sunday night fish tacos and endless lullaby refrains of You Are My Sunshine, that marks out our family as peculiarly ours.

It could, of course, all be a phase. Perhaps by the age of nine, football will have been usurped by some other, currently undetected passion. Whatever happens, and despite myself, I’m really enjoying the football thing, for all sorts of reasons I hadn’t considered. I’m proud of Jonah for showing us so clearly who he is, for demonstrating that the dynamic of a family will continue to shift and flow to accommodate the urges of each of us within it. Well after the last scuff marks from spontaneous indoor football matches have been scrubbed from the walls, the imprint of Jonah’s first true love will remain upon us. I’ll be checking the Arsenal scores before bed for decades.

Aubrey ODay Audrina Patridge Autumn Reeser Avril Lavigne Bali Rodriguez

A reader wonders where to put their belongings while they go travelling

Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out ? a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.

This week’s question:

I’m planning to downsize on retirement and intend to put most of my stuff into storage while I travel. What are readers’ experiences of storage options? How much should I pay? What are the pitfalls? And can I avoid my most loved items getting damp?

What are your thoughts?

Christina Milian Christina Ricci Chyler Leigh Ciara Cindy Crawford

Alison Bechdel turned her relationship with her father into a bestselling memoir. Now it’s her mother’s turn

The first time Alison Bechdel wrote about her family was at college. She was doing “very, very badly” in an English class, and decided to write about a moment in childhood when she and her mother discussed the correct pronunciation of the word “ersatz”. Both parents were English teachers, so the discussion of language was a given.

Her tutor loved the story. It turned around her standing on the course. “I think he thought I was a good writer,” says Bechdel, “but actually I was just writing down what happened. I was not clever enough to make that up.”

It was primarily transcription? “Yeah. I try to stick to that method as closely as possible”.

She has used it for two family memoirs now, both highly literary, both told in cartoon form. That successful essay was the start of a life’s work. The first memoir, Fun Home, focused on her relationship with her father, who died when she was 19, apparently killing himself after revelations about his sexuality, followed by the breakdown of his marriage. In 2006 Fun Home topped Time magazine’s best books of the year and was declared a masterpiece.

Bechdel went from well-loved cartoonist ? her comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For ran from 1983 to 2008 ? to literary superstar. In her new memoir she moves on to her relationship with her mother, Helen, who is still alive, and therefore considerably trickier to write about.

There is an almost forensic quality to Bechdel’s writing methods. She took to transcribing every phone conversation she had with her mother, for instance, without telling her. She pored over and copied out family letters, and delved through 40 years of her own diaries. Most strikingly, she took photograph after photograph of herself posing as her parents. These were used as a drawing aid, and are apparently pretty common for graphic novelists. But Bechdel accepts that the 4,000 photographs she took during the writing of Are You My Mother? might seem excessive. They served a bigger purpose, she says. “I do think it helps me to inhabit their characters, by assuming their physical position or manner. It gives me a kind of empathy, which I might not have if I weren’t acting that out.”

Bechdel, who is 51, lives in Vermont, and these photographs are kept in a computer file with all those of her daily life with her partner, artist Holly Rae Taylor. But the posed photographs far outnumber the others. Her life is her work, she says, “but my therapist is always trying to get me to let go of that idea, saying I need to have a life apart from writing. I’m trying to do that, but there’s a great appeal in the possibility that your life could be a work of art.”

Her memoirs are driven by an urge to fix or save her family, with whom she has always communicated via books. In Fun Home, she writes that her parents are most real to her in fictional terms, and compares her father’s personal myth-making to Jay Gatsby, her mother – a “vigorous American idealist” – to a Henry James heroine.

Her parents weren’t emotionally expressive, but they were artistic. “They took great pleasure in books,” she says, “and all of our feelings got expressed through these artistic forms.”

The memoirs are an attempt to keep that conversation going. “That’s how I learned about connecting as a child, and that’s how I continue to do it.”

The problem, of course, is that this conversation is one-sided, with the balance of power skewed in the writer’s favour. In Are You My Mother?, Bechdel circles around her mother, tracing all her unhappiness back to this relationship, implying some major unkindness, but ultimately revealing that her mother is simply more emotionally distant than she’d like.

Bechdel explores their relationship through the fiction of Virginia Woolf and the psychological theories of Donald Winnicott and Alice Miller, but is also highly personal, tracking their problems as far as the breastfeeding process. To have your parenting choices divulged, considered, often found wanting, seems painful at best. It’s a problem Bechdel is aware of.

“It’s a very dicey ethical line, you know? How much of her story is also my story, how much can I really tell without violating her? Those are the things I’m always asking myself, and I feel like I have hurt my mother. I have betrayed my mother. But it’s something I feel I have to do, and to her credit she seems to be OK with it.

“I mean, I know she’s not happy, but she hasn’t cut me off.”

The difficulty of having a daughter so driven to self-exposure seems especially tough when you consider the secrets her mother has been burdened with over the years. Bechdel’s father, Bruce, was a troubled man, who worked part-time as an undertaker, and first appears in Fun Home pouring all his energies into renovating their house, a gothic revival mansion in small-town Pennsylvania. “Sometimes, when things were going well,” Bechdel writes, “I think my father actually enjoyed having a family, or at least the air of authenticity we lent to his exhibit.” What lay beneath was the affairs he was having with other men, and boys in their late teens, including the family babysitter, Roy.

Bechdel’s mother must have been aware of these affairs for at least part of their marriage. It’s not surprising, then, that she was emotionally withdrawn, doing her best to hold the family together in difficult circumstances.

In her second memoir, Bechdel writes that her mother abruptly stopped kissing her goodnight when she was seven, telling her she was too old. “I felt almost as if she’d slapped me,” she writes. “But I was stoic. I betrayed no reaction.” It was when she was 10 that she felt closest to her mother and, again, a book was key. Bechdel had been writing a diary, but over time had become obsessive about the need to be entirely truthful, a process she has written about in her memoirs. The words “I think” crept into each line (how could she possibly know anything for sure?), and eventually word upon word was scored out by a symbol signifying uncertainty.

For a short period, her mother took over, sitting with her and taking down what she had done each day. “That was a very pivotal moment,” says Bechdel. “It was the first time I remembered really getting that much focused attention from her … All the things that a normal family would express through affection or physical closeness got funnelled, for me and my mother, through that transaction of writing. That became very powerful for me.”

She bonded with her father as a student in one of his English classes, and it was her love of books that led to the discovery of her sexuality. She encountered the word lesbian in the dictionary when she was 13, then found a book on the subject in the library at 19. After writing to her parents to tell them, she received a fairly warm response from her father, a more disapproving one from her mother. This was followed by a phone call in which her mother filled her in on her father’s affairs. The marriage began to break down rapidly, and there were plans for a divorce.

Four months after she came out, her father was hit by a truck. Bechdel strongly believes he killed himself and wanted to write about it for years, but felt constrained. After that college essay, she wrote another piece about her family, a “memoir fragment”, and sent it to her mother. It was sent back covered in incisive notes, scrawled in red ink, about her use of language. She didn’t write about her family again for 17 years. When she first told her mother she was writing Fun Home, the response, was “‘I can’t help you, you’re on your own’. [My mother] said she was not going to give me any more information about my father. I was officially cut off from that, and she’s pretty much stuck to it. I can’t really ask her stuff about the family any more, but sometimes she’ll voluntarily tell me things”.

On one occasion, her mother gave her a “wonderful trove of letters that my father had written her, so it’s not clear cut. She’ll divulge things when and how she wants to”. Has the process of writing these memoirs deepened her family relationships or undermined them? Bechdel says it’s brought her closer to her mother. “It sounds terrible, but I feel like I pay more attention to her because I know I’m writing about her. So I listen more carefully.”

Having always felt constrained by her mother’s critical voice, the book has helped exorcise this too. “I feel somehow that I’m able to just speak more easily, to allow myself to have thoughts and ideas without censoring them or editing them”.

Still, if the books are an attempt to have a conversation with her family, the discussion seems a bit stunted. The sum total of her mother’s response to this book has been three words: “Well, it coheres.”

Bechdel has made an aggressive attempt to force her into a conversation and she has made a defensive decision to stay silent. “Absolutely my writing about her is an aggressive act,” says Bechdel, “but in that military sense, I feel that we have a sort of truce. Like if she’s OK with me writing, I’m OK with her not responding.”

I can’t help laughing when she says she’s planning to write about her two brothers next. No stone of this family’s life will remain unturned. The trouble is, she hasn’t heard from her siblings about this latest book and suspects, “They’re a little tired of me and my memoirs … What I really want to write about is the whole family as a system, and how families work. That would be a way of engaging with them, in a way that I’m not able to do really in my every day life.” But will they keep returning her calls?

Are You My Mother, by Alison Bechdel, is published by Jonathan Cape, £12.99. To order a copy for £10.39, including free UK p&p, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846

? This article was corrected on Saturday 19 May to amend online subbing errors

Haylie Duff Heidi Klum Heidi Montag Hilarie Burton Hilary Duff

A piece of bread and butter pudding left by Prince Charles, a bit of cheese toastie abandoned by Pete Doherty ? this small example of British eccentricity needs a new home, discovers Emma Kennedy. Time, readers, to step up to the plate

Michael Bennett is, I suspect, great fun to know. For nine and a half years he’s run The Old Boat Store cafe in Kingsand, Cornwall with his wife Francesca.

They’re artists and had never run a cafe before and one day, David Bailey, the photographer, popped in. He had a cheese and tomato sandwich but he left a bit. So thrilled were the Bennetts that Bailey had stopped by that they wanted to commemorate the moment and somehow, “I can’t remember whose idea it was”, they came up with the notion of preserving Bailey’s leftover for posterity.

“We kept it wrapped in a paper bag for quite a while,” Michael tells me, but then Paul Heiney, the TV presenter, came in. “And he left a butter wrapper. And then, about a week later, in came Hugh Dennis. He had an egg sandwich. He didn’t leave any leftovers so I had to pick the eggshell out of the bin. And that’s when we decided to get the mineral specimen jars.”

The Museum of Celebrity Leftovers was born. To look at, it’s nothing more than a small decorative shelf covered with petite domes, all of which contain a morsel of food or wrappings. “I wanted to give it an end-of-the-pier feel,” Michael tells me. “It’s a bit of seaside fun. I’m pretty sure it’s the world’s smallest museum. I tried to get it verified by the Guinness Book of Records but for some reason they wouldn’t allow it.”

I can tell that this snub by Guinness is a cause of regret. And quite right too. One of his exhibits is, according to Michael, “surely the smallest museum exhibit in the world. That’s got to be something worth celebrating, right?”

He’s referring to a speck of croissant left by the actor John Woodvine. “He was in An American Werewolf in London,” Michael tells me, proudly. It’s a good job these leftovers are in airtight jars, I think. One gust of wind and John Woodvine’s crumb would be gone.

The museum has become a worldwide phenomenon. From America to Pakistan, everyone loves their celebrity leftovers. “People are probably most impressed by Prince Charles’s leftover piece of bread and butter pudding,” Michael explains.

That dome has a cardboard golden crown on its top. It’s appropriately regal.

The exhibits are strangely hypnotic. So here they are, although, small as they are, we don’t have room to list the whole collection of 26 leftovers.

Prince of Wales, heir to the throne ? tiny piece of bread and butter pudding, no mould

Pete Doherty, musician ? piece of cheese and pesto toastie, a little brittle, no mould

David Bailey, photographer ? crust from cheese and tomato sandwich made from Cornish speckle bread, no mould

Hugh Dennis, comedian ? fragment of egg shell from egg used in his egg sandwich, retrieved from bin, slightly battered, no mould

John Woodvine, actor ? flake speck from a croissant; smallest exhibit in the museum, no mould

Jan Leeming, ex-newsreader ? crystallised ginger from Cornish ginger ice-cream, no mould

Michael Winner, film director and restaurant critic ? piece of lemon drizzle cake, no mould

Paul Heiney, TV presenter and journalist ? Anchor butter wrapper, contents used on toast with scrambled egg, scrunched

Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, first sea lord from 2006 to 2009 ? raisin from fruit cake, no mould

Steve Swindells and Jerry Richards, from UK rock group Hawkwind ? coffee grounds and crumbs from shared chocolate brownie, no mould

William Tyler, musician from the US band Lambchop ? baked bean from cooked breakfast, deteriorated, black and some mould

Stephanie Creek, former member of cafe staff who came fourth on The Weakest Link ? chickpea from a mixed salad enjoyed during her lunch break, desiccated

There’s something joyous about this small, rather intense collection so it fills me with sadness that it’s no longer on public display because Michael and Francesca decided to sell The Old Boat Store cafe. They want to concentrate on their art. Francesca paints in oils, while Michael’s work is mostly collages and pop art. For some inexplicable reason, the new owners of the cafe didn’t want to keep on the museum and now it sits, unviewed, in a spare bedroom.

So if anyone would like to take on the Museum of Celebrity Leftovers, it’s up for grabs. They don’t want any money for it, just a good home. So come on Guardian readers. Step up to the plate. It’s a small piece of glorious eccentricity. Surely it needs to be preserved for the nation?

? If you’d like to take on the museum, then contact Emma on Twitter @EmmaK67 and she can put you in touch with Michael

Ashley Olsen Ashley Scott Ashley Tappin Ashley Tisdale Asia Argento

The first bottles of Buxton Natural Mineral Water and Nestlé Pure Life left the factory in mid-May, heralding a new era for Nestlé Waters bottled water business in the UK.

The new factory is the culmination of many years of research and development and for the first time, combines the bottling facility with warehousing capability with the new lines allowing Nestlé Waters UK to significantly reduce its total energy output and the packaging used in its bottles.

The construction company was tasked with sourcing both procurement and labour from a tight circumference of the building site, ensuring contractors and materials wouldn?t have far to travel and more importantly adding a boost for the local community and employment.

By the end of February, 67% of the labour on site was from within the area and 76% of the materials had been purchased within a 50-mile radius.

The new facility has also given Nestlé Waters the opportunity to promote sustainable development practices and the factory is hoping to achieve an ?excellent? grading in its BREEAM Certification later this year.

This certification takes into consideration the site?s energy and water use as well as its transport infrastructure and its ecology.

Paolo Sangiorgi, managing director Nestlé Waters UK, said: ?I am delighted to see the first bottles of Buxton Natural Mineral Water and Nestlé Pure Life come off the lines less than 12 months after we started building our new factory.

“Waterswallows has enabled us to pursue our ambition to promote sustainable development practices in both the construction and production processes operated there.?

A wave-shaped roof enhances the buildings? visual appeal and a sustainable drainage system manages the rain water that runs off from the new site. A heat recovery system also transfers heat generated from the bottling lines to provide heat to the warehouse and offices has also been introduced which significantly reduces additional heating requirements and reduces carbon output.

Working with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and the local Butterfly Conservation Group, students from Derbyshire University ?Skills for Life? course planted a wild flower meadow within the factory grounds with the aim of attracting many species of butterfly back to the area.

Paolo added: ?Using butterflies as a symbol of a healthy and thriving eco-system, one of our biodiversity targets is to see year-on-year increases in both the overall number of butterflies attracted to the site and the variety of species recorded there.?

Additionally, to create shared value with the local community, schools in the area were also included in the project and pupils teamed up with archaeologists to investigate the foundations of the new facility and created and buried a time capsule in the main entrance.

Start of production also saw the launch of an innovative lightweight range of bottles. These new bottles are the lightest bottled water bottles produced in the UK and have a shorter neck and a sturdy, ergonomical shape that requires less plastic and fits comfortably in the hand. Through their redesign Nestlé Waters has achieved an average 25% reduction in the use of PET in their production with a 46% reduction in PET for the smaller 25cl and 33cl bottles.

Innovation in production continues with the launch of a new sports cap that includes a tamper evident seal that stays within the lid when opened. The new sports cap will be available on the Buxton Natural Mineral Water 25cl, 75cl and 1ltr formats and the Nestlé Pure Life 33cl formats.

Source: Nestlé Waters

Aki Ross Alecia Elliott Alessandra Ambrosio Alexis Bledel Ali Campoverdi

Hi all,
So I love sour cream and perogies, but I usually use one of those store bought dip mixes in my sour cream to give them another flavour, plus I don't eat that many perogies so I use a lot of the sour cream dip for veggies and dip. I got a creamy dill dip package at the store and made it, but it tastes a lot sweeter than I expected it to. I was wondering if anyone has any idea of things I can add to it to cut down the sweetness?
TIA

Adrianne Curry Adrianne Palicki Aisha Tyler Aki Ross Alecia Elliott

This may brand me a total cooking dork, but I have always been terrified of using a paring knife. Particularly given some of my other hobbies (see icon).

Well, I manned up and used one for peeling the ginger for my next pickling batch. SO MUCH EASIER than the veggie peeler or the spoon!

I feel like a total kitchen ignoramus that it took me this long to get over my fear of the paring knife…

America Ferrera Amerie Amy Cobb Amy Smart Ana Beatriz Barros

Summer’s gone on strike, but it’s not all bad news. Snowboarders at Scotland’s Cairngorm mountain resort are making the most of fresh powder on the slopes, especially at the snowboard park

April Scott Arielle Kebbel Ashanti Ashlee Simpson Ashley Greene

The Oxford team argues that government intervention such as taxation can be justified when the market fails to provide the ‘optimum’ good for society’s well-being, as with the duties on alcohol and tobacco for example.

Dr Mike Rayner of the Department of Public Health at Oxford argues that a tax on unhealthy foods would act as an incentive to encourage manufacturers to change what goes into their products and make them healthier over time, stating that, “a tax on sugary drinks is one measure that is a safe bet to change how many calories people consume across the nation and have a significant effect on obesity levels”.

This seems to be the opinion presented from those health advocates who believe this is a bulletproof plan to slash obesity rates, thus reducing the incidence of obesity related ailments.

However, Dr Rayner is careful to state that a tax on sugary drinks is not going to cure obesity by itself.

The other side of the argument

A different view is being heard from the manufacturers of the food and drinks market, who feel they have worked hard over recent years to cut sugar and ensure consumers are aware of the ingredients in their products.

Richard Laming, media director of the British Soft Drinks Association, offers his thoughts: “A tax on soft drinks wouldn’t help deal with obesity. Obesity has been rising even though the consumption of calories in soft drinks has not. And the latest figures show that soft drinks make up only about 2% of the average diet.

Laming is adamant that taxation of soft drinks is not the way forward, but health promotion, education and exercise would have a better impact: “The right thing to do would be to promote balanced diets and active lifestyles through information and education,” he says. “Regulation and taxation do not work.”

Far from the thought that the drinks industry is contributing to the obesity epidemic, Laming believes adequate steps have been taken in order to provide choice, health and nutritional information.

He says: “The soft drinks industry helps consumers by providing nutritional information on-pack, including GDA information in a signpost format. Diet, low calorie and no-added-sugar drinks now make up 61% of the market, up from around 30% 20 years ago.”

Food and Drink Federation director of communications, Terry Jones, offers a similar argument: “When the whole of the food industry is focused on continuing to give hard-pressed families great-tasting food at an affordable price, discussion of adding 20% to food prices seems fanciful if not irresponsible.

“Under the Public Health Responsibility Deal, we will continue to work with government and other stakeholders to make meaningful improvements in public health through pledges in areas such as salt and calorie reduction, and our commitment to improving the health of our employees.”

There is a clear difference of opinion between manufacturers who claim to adhere to progressively stricter health guidelines, and researchers who present information that they claim proves this isn’t the case.

So who will win the sugar tax war? New taxes introduced in Denmark (on saturated fats) and France (on sweetened drinks) will provide an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of such measures in the coming years, and perhaps prove whether the same legislation could be as effective (or not) in the UK.

Rebecca is editorial assistant of FoodBev.com

• Email Rebecca.
• Read Rebecca’s blog here.
• Follow @RebeccaFoodBev

Blu Cantrell Bonnie Jill Laflin Bridget Moynahan Britney Spears Brittany Daniel

Do you find the idea of a pub that serves only vegetarian food attractive or off-putting?

Two London pubs ? out of 7,000, the first in the capital ? have just announced that they’re ditching meat from their menus. The idea of a vegetarian pub remains alien to most Brits; one of my favourite boozers tricked me, the Harden brothers and many others when it announced on 1 April this year that it was going veggie for a month. But there are in fact around 16 vegetarian pubs across the UK, several of which are apparently in Glasgow, which has always been a haven for bien-pensant lettuce-eaters.

One of the new places is the Smithfield Tavern, in the middle of the largest meat market in London. (I’ve been there at five in the morning: the punters don’t look like they eat much tofu.) The other is the Coach & Horses in Soho. In some circles, this is one of the city’s more famous boozers, attended by hacks in macs, wasted artists and, until 2006, presided over by Norman “You’re Barred” Balon. Private Eye, whose offices are up the road, still hold their lunches there. Jeffrey Bernard was among the Coach’s more famous and tragic regulars. He never ate anything there and took all his calories from booze, so if nobody eats the new food at least there’s a precedent for it.

I’d presumed the new menus would be a little bit smart and modern, with beetroot and burrata, maybe some Asian-spiced aubergines, nice salads and stuff. So I was a bit surprised to find that the Smithfield is doing jacket potatoes with cheese and curry for under a fiver, and the C&H is flogging veggie sausage, beans and mash at £7.65.

The landlord of both places is called Alastair Choat, a founding member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, a body that, in its own words, helps “restaurants become more sustainable and diners make more sustainable choices when dining out”. It’s a fine organisation ? anyone who eats out a bit, and who cares about the consequences and corollaries of doing so, does well to take an interest in it.

The Times’s restaurant critic Giles Coren has long included SRA ratings in his reviews, but he was as perplexed by the menu as I was. “That’s not a business I’d want to open myself,” he told me. “Vegetarians aren’t going to travel far for a veggie sausage or baked beans, and punters wandering in are going to be quite surprised by that, then wander out again.” But, he added: “The idea is great. We all eat too much meat, and though we think of a vegetarian restaurant as this dreary, dour place full of people with root-vegetable-dyed hair and rings through their noses sitting down for a bowl of lentils and arguing over the bill, the idea that they’ve now got pubs where they’re getting pissed up and eating tofu is good.”

Over the phone, Choat admitted to me that this is “quite a brave move”. (Which reminds me of Tony Blair saying that whenever he was about to make a stupid decision, the civil servants would euphemise it to him as “courageous”.) The Coach, as Choat puts it, is “a real boozer, a place for people to pick at scotch eggs over their pint. But I was keen to develop my ideas on sustainability and work them into my business. I’m more conscious of how and what I’m eating nowadays, and this is a drive towards making that kind of change.” Surprisingly, Choat isn’t a vegetarian, although he claims not to eat much meat.

It’s true that many gastropubs have been rather meat-heavy in recent years, and turning away from some of that is probably a good idea. But beer and beef have a natural affinity, wine is almost always better with food, and I don’t remember ever fancying a nice salad when I’ve been pissed. Choat may find it a struggle to convince the butchers of Smithfield or whoever drinks in the Coach nowadays that they should embrace sustainability and look forward to homemade veggie pâté on toast. “It doesn’t change the Coach,” he says. “It’s still a boozer, still a talking pub with good food, and that will never change. So come and try it.”

Ashley Tisdale Asia Argento Aubrey ODay Audrina Patridge Autumn Reeser

The first bottles of Buxton Natural Mineral Water and Nestlé Pure Life left the factory in mid-May, heralding a new era for Nestlé Waters bottled water business in the UK.

The new factory is the culmination of many years of research and development and for the first time, combines the bottling facility with warehousing capability with the new lines allowing Nestlé Waters UK to significantly reduce its total energy output and the packaging used in its bottles.

The construction company was tasked with sourcing both procurement and labour from a tight circumference of the building site, ensuring contractors and materials wouldn?t have far to travel and more importantly adding a boost for the local community and employment.

By the end of February, 67% of the labour on site was from within the area and 76% of the materials had been purchased within a 50-mile radius.

The new facility has also given Nestlé Waters the opportunity to promote sustainable development practices and the factory is hoping to achieve an ?excellent? grading in its BREEAM Certification later this year.

This certification takes into consideration the site?s energy and water use as well as its transport infrastructure and its ecology.

Paolo Sangiorgi, managing director Nestlé Waters UK, said: ?I am delighted to see the first bottles of Buxton Natural Mineral Water and Nestlé Pure Life come off the lines less than 12 months after we started building our new factory.

“Waterswallows has enabled us to pursue our ambition to promote sustainable development practices in both the construction and production processes operated there.?

A wave-shaped roof enhances the buildings? visual appeal and a sustainable drainage system manages the rain water that runs off from the new site. A heat recovery system also transfers heat generated from the bottling lines to provide heat to the warehouse and offices has also been introduced which significantly reduces additional heating requirements and reduces carbon output.

Working with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and the local Butterfly Conservation Group, students from Derbyshire University ?Skills for Life? course planted a wild flower meadow within the factory grounds with the aim of attracting many species of butterfly back to the area.

Paolo added: ?Using butterflies as a symbol of a healthy and thriving eco-system, one of our biodiversity targets is to see year-on-year increases in both the overall number of butterflies attracted to the site and the variety of species recorded there.?

Additionally, to create shared value with the local community, schools in the area were also included in the project and pupils teamed up with archaeologists to investigate the foundations of the new facility and created and buried a time capsule in the main entrance.

Start of production also saw the launch of an innovative lightweight range of bottles. These new bottles are the lightest bottled water bottles produced in the UK and have a shorter neck and a sturdy, ergonomical shape that requires less plastic and fits comfortably in the hand. Through their redesign Nestlé Waters has achieved an average 25% reduction in the use of PET in their production with a 46% reduction in PET for the smaller 25cl and 33cl bottles.

Innovation in production continues with the launch of a new sports cap that includes a tamper evident seal that stays within the lid when opened. The new sports cap will be available on the Buxton Natural Mineral Water 25cl, 75cl and 1ltr formats and the Nestlé Pure Life 33cl formats.

Source: Nestlé Waters

Dominique Swain Donna Feldman Drea de Matteo Drew Barrymore Ehrinn Cummings

Thousands of flavour suggestions submitted by VK fans via the brand?s official Facebook page have been whittled down to create three concoctions, known only as ?X, Y and Z?.

VK?s promotional ?Taste Team? and film crew are visiting 10 UK cities over a four-week period as part of the collaboration with national on-trade customers and key independent accounts.

The ?What?s Your Flavour?? tour is supported with premium PoS and a national PR and social media push.

The flavour with the majority of public votes will be launched as a Limited Edition variant in time for Fresher?s Week 2012.

Source: Global Brands

Anna Friel Anna Kournikova Anna Paquin AnnaLynne McCord Anne Marie Kortright

My dad and I snuck out of the house without telling anyone where we were going. He grabbed his camera, I grabbed my camera, and we tippy-toed out the door. We decided we would go explore the little neighborhoods that surround my hometown, Amorebieta, where life seems to stand still.

I rolled down the window, rested my head on my arm, and took in a deep breath of that spring cold air. The landscape seemed almost painted — blue sky and the greenest grass.

I turned my head and noticed a big grin on my dad’s face. “The sheep are out” he said.

And that was it — I knew what I had come for.

Every time I go back home there seems to be a purpose to my visit. It is never clear of what that might be when I first arrive, but as we settle into our routine, a theme always appears — almost as if I had an impeding mission. A void I must fill. With time I have learned that I need soil and dirt in my life.

When I set foot in Basque land, all I want to do is run for the hills. And so I did, and there they were — the sheep and the newborn lambs that were taking over the landscape and feeding on this painted-like grass. It was a beautiful thing.

That morning my dad and I drove to San Migel, only a couple of miles from where I went to school.

“They make really good sheep’s milk cheese in this house” he said. My heart skipped a beat and I quickly asked him to stop. “Then we must get some milk from them!” I replied in a rush.

I had been thinking about mamia for days, almost to the point of an obsession. I think you might have noticed from all the references I have made to it lately. Mamia is almost a cheese-like product. A curd made with ewe’s milk and rennet. Simple yes, but when the milk is fresh, it can be the most delightful, naturally sweet, and creamy dessert. Ask any Basque and you shall see. I have tried to recreate it in the US to no avail. It is all about the milk.

We knocked on their door.

The farmhouse is old, almost decrepit, but a family still lives there raising sheep and making cheese just like generations passed. I love that – such a romantic notion, isn’t it?

A tall, rosy-cheeked man came to the door. He greeted my dad with the cordiality of an old customer. He was paused and spoke Basque with a gentle voice. Such a contrast to my hyper excitement, of one who only gets to savor these moments once a year. “This is a daily affair for him” I thought to myself.

When we asked about the milk, he explained they had run out. “You have to come before eleven o’clock in the morning or it will all be gone”.

“Even with the 600 sheep you have?” I asked surprised.

“Yes, the milk we don’t use for making cheese is sold in a matter of a couple of hours. Chefs and cooks alike come early” he explained.

We thanked him and decided to return the next morning for more. This time we would bring Jon and Miren along.

They were in for a treat.

The next morning after breakfast, we returned to the farm for the coveted sheep’s milk. He was not kidding. We were greeted by a line of people waiting to get their share of the freshly-milked goodness — almost like a pilgrimage, I thought.

While my dad waited, I steered the kids towards the barn. It was cold and too early for the sheep to be out. There they lied, close to one another, mothers with their newborns. What a sight that was. As we later learned, three of them had just been born a couple of hours earlier. Bloody umbilical cords still hanging and covered in amniotic fluid.

I held one of them in my arms. “Most people are afraid of them” said the matriarch of the house. I shook my head. Not me. I love sheep- always have. Jon and Miren gathered around me unsure of what they were witnessing, but they quickly warmed up to the newborn lamb.

We watched them make some cheese that morning and took a stroll around the neighborhood. The apple trees were not yet blooming but it was definitely spring in the Basque Country.

Back at my parents’, my mom gently simmered the raw milk. It smelled like my childhood.

We had mamia for dessert when both my brothers and their families came over for lunch. Drizzled with raw honey and walnuts is how I like it.

“I think I will make a tart with it” I said to my mom. As it turns-out, our schedules didn’t allow it, but when I returned back to the US, I made a custard tart inspired by that day. Sheep’s milk yogurt, raw honey, vanilla bean, and a bit of lemon make the creamiest tart.

The days that followed were spent taking walks, hiking to Santuario de la Virgen de Oro, spending time with friends, cooking with my mom, and visiting my uncle Javi’s sheep and his fruitful garden. His plum and peach trees were already blooming and his citrus trees plentiful.

It was anchovy season for Basque fishermen and we indulged everyday. Quickly fried in garlic-infused olive oil, they are such a treat that I miss living away. It was a pleasure to see Jon and Miren enjoy fish as much as I do- such a staple in Basque cuisine.

“Arraine (fish)” Miren would say when asked what she wanted for lunch. Made us smile.

Marinated anchovies, salad of shaved carrots and fennel with sorrel and watercress. rabbit stew, pea and potato soup… all foods of spring.

We had amazing spring weather during our entire trip, which is not to be taken lightly because spring can be quite unpredictable in the Basque Country. Just a few days before we arrived, snow had covered some of the nearby mountains.

“The trees will start blooming soon then” I exclaimed with optimism.

First plum and cherry trees, then apples will follow.

On a sunny Saturday morning, we drove to the valley of Etxauri. This is fertile land where endless rows of cherry trees paint the landscape. The blooms are to be admired from afar and up close. Fluffy, white petals that almost look like snow.

Wheat grass surrounds the cherry trees. Soft and tall. I had forgotten how soft the grass in the Basque Country is. The kids hid in the fields and ran free.

That afternoon we visited Urdiain, a small but beautiful town where we used to spend our summer holidays when we were kids. We walked around the grove where we used to set up camp and the hundred-year old oak trees where we played.

There were trips to the beach of Laga with salmon and pea shoot tarts and a stop for ice cream on the way home.

During these visits to see my parents, we rarely eat out. We cook at home with the abundant fresh ingredients available and restaurants are saved for special occasions.

This time however, I was thrilled to join my aunt Aran (I was named after her, yes) for a farm to table lunch at Boroa. I will share that day on another post but I came back home completely inspired by that meal of tiny shelled favas, a perfectly poached egg and shaved truffle. Simple yes? But perfectly executed.

Inspired by that dish, I made a spring panzanella salad with English peas, soft-cooked quail eggs, and chive blossoms in a lemon and chive vinaigrette.

It was perfect.

And I leave you with these images and these recipes that made our time away special.

“I missed the sheep” said Miren when we returned to Florida.

“Me too, me too” I replied.

I really did.

Sheep’s Milk Yogurt and Honey Tart

makes a 9-inch tart

Tart crust

2/3 cup (90 g) superfine brown rice flour
1/4 cup (35 g) millet flour
1/4 cup (25 g) almond flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon natural cane sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (110 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Combine the first six ingredients in the food processor. Pulse to aerate. Add the butter and pulse until it is the size of peas. Add 3 tablespoons of ice water and pulse until it comes together. It will not form a ball. Press the dough between your fingers to see if it comes together. Add more ice water if needed.

Transfer dough to a cold surface. Knead a couple of times, form into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and flatten it. Refrigerate the dough for an hour.

Dust your cold surface with some superfine brown rice flour. Roll your dough to 1/8-inch thickness. If it cracks, pinch it back together. If it’s too cold it tends to crack so you can let it come to temperature for a few minutes.

Fill your 9-inch tart pan with the dough and cut off excess. Refrigerate the tart dough for 30 minutes.

Filling

1/4 cup (50 g) natural cane sugar
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
3 eggs
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
1 cup (250 ml) sheep’s milk yogurt or mamia
1/2 cup (125 ml) heavy cream
1 tablespoon raw honey

Preheat oven to 350F (180C).

In a bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together to release the lemon oils. Add the eggs and whisk until combined. Add the cornstarch and vanilla seeds and whisk until lump free. Add the yogurt, heavy cream, and honey and whisk until smooth.

Dock the bottom of the tart dough. Pour the yogurt mixture into the tart and bake for 45 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown and the center is set.

Let the tart cool for a few minutes before cutting. Serve warm or at room temperature.

English Pea, Quail Egg and Chive Blossom Panzanella

If you don’t have chive blossoms, you can simply use some finely chopped chives or very thinly sliced red onion. It is all about getting the onion flavor in the salad.

serves 4 to 6

1 pound (450 g) shelled English peas
12 quail eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup (85 ml) olive oil
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Juice 1 lemon
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
1 tablespoon lemon thyme leaves
Salt
Black pepper
4 or 5 slices of multigrain gluten-free bread, toasted and broken into pieces
4 chive blossoms
1 ounce Idiazabal or Manchego cheese, shaved

In a medium sauce pan, bring water to a boil over high heat. Season with a generous amount of salt. Add the shelled peas and cook them for 4 to 5 minutes depending on the size until they are al dente. We don’t want them mushy. Immediately, remove them from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and submerge them in a bowl of ice water and let them cool. Drain them well and reserve.

Continue to boil the water in the pan. Gently add the quail eggs being careful not to crack them. Reduce heat to medium so that water continues to boil but not too rapidly. Cook the eggs for 2 minutes. Immediately remove them from the boiling water and submerge them in a bowl of ice water until they cool. Peel them and reserve.

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, chives, thyme leaves, salt, and pepper. Add the blanched peas, bread, and chive blossoms. Toss the salad so that the bread is coated in the dressing. Let the salad rest for 10 minutes. Top with the quail eggs and shaved cheese. Serve immediately.

Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Gareis Jennifer Garner Jennifer Gimenez Jennifer Love Hewitt

This may brand me a total cooking dork, but I have always been terrified of using a paring knife. Particularly given some of my other hobbies (see icon).

Well, I manned up and used one for peeling the ginger for my next pickling batch. SO MUCH EASIER than the veggie peeler or the spoon!

I feel like a total kitchen ignoramus that it took me this long to get over my fear of the paring knife…

Cristina Dumitru Daisy Fuentes Dania Ramirez Danica Patrick Daniella Alonso

Ginger wine takes a while to ferment, so start some now and it’ll be there to warm you up come winter

Well I was going to encourage you all into the countryside to collect hawthorn blossom, or may blossom as it is properly called, to make a floral wine. Unfortunately, this May seems to be under the impression that it is October and blossom collecting is out of the question. Something warming is more in order, so I am going with ginger wine.

The Zingiberaceae is a large family with well over a thousand species, though only a few are cultivated, and I have long wondered if there is a native British equivalent to the familiar root. According to the experts, galingale, Cyperus longus, a sedge found in marshy areas in the southern half of England, is the nearest thing that this country has to offer. It is not closely related to ginger, excepting that it is a monocot.

I uprooted a couple of plants in Dorset a few years ago, scratched, sniffed and nibbled. It is aromatic but lacks the punchy nature of root ginger which is packed with those lovely, spicy gingerols. As it is the root that is used, there is another problem with this plant in the dread form of the Wildlife and Countryside Act which forbids the uprooting of plants without the landowner’s permission. I am going to stick with good old root ginger.

Ginger wine is a rather old-fashioned drink and my grandmother, born in the 1880s, enjoyed a long affection for the stuff. The history of ginger wine predates even her, with an Elizabethan reference to it costing a penny-farthing a bottle and recipes appearing at the beginning of the 18th century. It might cost a bit more to make now, but not much. I made a batch in December so it is not really ready yet, but nevertheless it tastes good, if still a little cloudy. And the flavour? No surprises here; it’s gingery.

Ginger wine

About 5 inches / 12cm root ginger
5 litres of water
1.4kg sugar
Zest and juice of 4 lemons
500g raisins, chopped or squashed by putting in a carrier bag and pounding, or a 200ml can of white grape juice concentrate
1 sachet of white wine yeast
Yeast nutrient

Peel and finely slice the ginger, place in a plastic fermenting bucket, add the lemon zest and the raisins, then pour over 2½ litres of boiling water. Cover and leave for 24 hours.

Add 2.5 litres of boiled and cooled water, the sugar, lemon juice and yeast nutrient and stir until the sugar is dissolved, then the yeast (follow the instructions on the packet). Cover and leave to ferment for three or four days then transfer into a demijohn using a sterilised sieve and funnel. Fit a bubble trap and allow to ferment for a couple of months. Rack-off into a fresh demijohn and leave until clear, then bottle.

Ashley Tisdale Asia Argento Aubrey ODay Audrina Patridge Autumn Reeser

Fascination of Plants Day is a chance to celebrate plant scientists working to feed the world, improve health and develop sustainable energy supplies

Today is the first ever Fascination of Plants Day. The day’s festivities are aimed at raising awareness of the importance of plant science to the future of our food and energy supplies, and our health.

Public events are taking place in 39 countries and UK partners include the John Innes Centre, Rothamsted Research, Kew Gardens and Cardiff University. The latter has organised two days of research demonstrations, tours and exhibitions.

In honour of this special day, here’s my pick of some of the fascinating ways plant science is shaping our future.

On your plate

In a changing climate, securing our food supply will be a big challenge. Finding new staple foods will be a vital part of that. At the Crops For The Future Research Centre (CFFRC) in Malaysia, scientists seek out local plant species that have the potential to become important global crops.

Right now, they’re particularity interested in the bambara groundnut. This is a legume grown by subsistence farmers in the drier parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The research centre has mapped the DNA of the plant and created a hybrid variety that should produce greater yields.

CEO Professor Sayed Azam Ali believes bambara is “just the sort of climate-resilient, nutritious and potentially productive crop that should be a crop of the future.” His colleague, Dr Sean Mayes, adds that, “By learning what works ? and what doesn’t ? in a few exemplar crops [such as bambara] we can improve the chances of successful intervention with many other crops.”

In your car

Biodiesel is old news: sunflower, rapeseed and soybean oils have all been pressed into service as sources of automobile fuel. But how about coffee-fuelled cars? Zayed Al-Hamamre and colleagues at the University of Jordan think that spent coffee grounds ? which typically contain about 10% oil ? could be a novel source of biodiesel. They’re working on the best way to extract and process the oils in spent coffee grounds, and their latest results were published in a recent issue of the journal Fuel.

Under optimal conditions, Al-Hamamre argues, we could get around 1,000 tonnes of biodiesel from coffee grounds each year ? without using up more precious arable land.

Those coffee-powered cars might once day be constructed from Cannabis sativa, also known as hemp. James Meredith and his colleagues at Warwick University believe hemp fibre could replace carbon fibre in automobile bodywork.

High-performance cars are constructed from carbon fibre composites, which are lightweight yet able to absorb high-energy impacts. But carbon fibres are energy-intensive to make, and so scientists are looking for natural replacements. Earlier this year, Meredith’s team reported that hemp composite material performed as well as expensive carbon fibre composites in impact tests.

Hemp cars aren’t just a laboratory curiosity. Canadian company Motive Industries Inc has created a prototype car built from hemp composites. They call it the Kestrel and the designers are looking for manufacturers to get the vehicle into production.

Heating your home

As the cost of gas and electricity soars ever skywards, many of us are considering installing solar panels. While great in theory, solar panels have their flaws, one of which is a tendency to lose efficiency as the temperature rises. The leaves of plants, though, have adapted to deal with this problem of baking sun and, as reported by the Guardian last week, the science of artificial leaves is (cough) a growth area.

The Australian fan palm tree, Licuala ramsayi, has spurred a team of German scientists into action. The fan palm has a huge, circular leaf area, but the leaves are cut into tilting blades (hence the name), an adaptation that allows for optimal airflow. This cools the leaf and keeps photosynthesis running at maximum efficiency.

The German team, led by Matthias Zähr, were inspired by the thermal properties of L. ramsayi leaves to build what they call a bionic photovoltaic panel ? essentially, an artificial fan palm. Their hope is that this robo-palm will act as a portable, economical and highly efficient way to generate electricity.

Your health

Plant-based medicine has been with us for millennia, and even today, many “conventional” pharmaceuticals are derived from natural products. The breast cancer drug Taxol, the antimalarial artesunate and the Alzheimer’s drug Reminyl are all sourced from plant chemicals.

Chemists are working with molecular biologists to take the science of plant-based medicine even further. Last year, Dr Paul Long’s team at King’s College London discovered that coral-dwelling algae synthesise their own sunscreen and are able to transport that sunscreen to their coral host.

Dr Long’s team hope to isolate the algal gene responsible for making this sunscreen compound, and then add that gene to bacterial cultures grown in the lab. In that way, unlimited amounts of the compound could be made for human use.

Finally, the humble lettuce may help us to manufacture vaccines against influenza. A team of Taiwanese scientists led by Cheng-Wei Lu announced in a recent issue of Scientia Horticulturae that they’d produced the neuraminidase (NA) protein ? a segment of the H1N1 strain of influenza ? in the leaves of Lactuca sativa, otherwise known as lettuce. Mice given an extract prepared from these lettuces produced an immune response when exposed to the neuraminidase antigen.

According to Lu and team, this novel vaccine production and administration technique could prove faster and simpler than conventional ways of mass-producing and administering vaccine.

Fascinating as the research described here is, much of it is still in the early stages of development. So let’s finish with a wonderful piece of plant technology that’s ready to go.

Mike Schropp’s Bio Computer is a desktop wheatgrass farm that uses the waste heat from a bog-standard PC and is easily recreated by following Mike’s step-by-step instructions.

Happy Plants Day!

Brittany Lee Brittany Murphy Brittany Snow Brittny Gastineau Brody Dalle

Carrying the southern France festivities well into the night, a plethora of famous faces took to Villa St George for a party as part of the 65th Cannes Film Festival on Thursday (May 17).

Among those turning up at The IFP, Calvin Klein Collection & euphoria Calvin Klein Celebration of Women In Film were lovely ladies like Shailene Woodley, Jessica Chastain, Jada Pinkett Smith and Naomi Watts.

Meanwhile, famous couple Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson mingled with fellow pairs such as Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Thomas while Ben Stiller and Chris Rock bonded over drinks as they took in the breathtaking scenery.

Rounding out the guest list at the Cannes Women In Film fete were former “Friends” star David Schwimmer, along with a long list of gals including Isla Fisher, Lara Stone, Dolores Chaplin and the darling Hayley Atwell.

Diora Baird Dita Von Teese Dominique Swain Donna Feldman Drea de Matteo

Making the most of some relaxing time off, Ashley Benson ventured over to the Westfield Mall in Los Angeles, CA earlier this week.

The “Pretty Little Liars” starlet looked fashion forward for spring in a simple sundress paired with rocker boots while she walked through the parking lot with her boyfriend, Ryan Good.

Satisfying her sweet tooth, the 22-year-old tweeted a pic later the same night of herself loading up on tasty treats, accompanying the shot with a message reading, “Bought a ton of cookies last night”

Turning to career news, Miss Benson certainly seems to be looking forward to the anticipation for her upcoming film “Spring Breakers” – as she posted another Twitter pic of two new billboards for the flick on the Croisette in Cannes, tweeting, “Springbreakers.”

The Harmony Korine directed new comedy follows four college girls who land in jail after robbing a restaurant in order to fund their spring break vacation. After being bailed out by a drug and arms dealer they find themselves doing some of his dirty work.

The film also stars Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez and is set to hit theaters in 2013.

Christina Applegate Christina DaRe Christina Milian Christina Ricci Chyler Leigh

(Hot Fruit)

No matter how far Gaz Coombes has travelled from the days when no festival bill was complete without Supergrass chirping out Alright, he can’t escape his gift for writing songs with hooks you can hang a coat on. His debut solo album is packed with them, starting with Bombs, which links one of his wooziest, prettiest melodies to a lyric that gets inside the “mind” of a bomb as it falls to earth: “What a lonely view as I tear away, breaking sound, speeding down.” You get the feeling, from the electronic curlicues, guitar-distortion and guttural dance beats that crop up throughout the album, that Coombes would have loved to ditch the choruses and devote the entire record to off-piste experimenting (the six-minute Universal Cinema, which begins acoustically and gradually cranks up the distortion, shows a musical mindset no longer informed by chart positions). But even as he thrashes and fulminates (“Everybody is a whore in a world that’s sold out” is his sour take on things in Whore), he can’t keep the gorgeous melodies at bay.

Rating: 3/5

Gina Philips Gisele Bündchen Giuliana DePandi “>Giulianna Ramirez Grace Park

In advance of this weekend’s special supplement, the naturalist Stephen Moss tests your knowledge of urban wildlife

Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Morrison Jennifer ODell Jennifer Scholle Jennifer Sky

It could have been a neat, well-aimed satire, but myriad subplots dissipate the energy and comedy

This populist parable draws intriguing battle lines between the sexes, but then forgets what it was supposed to be fighting about. The setting is a generic Arab village where since time immemorial women have gone up the mountain to fetch water from the spring, while their menfolk laze about. So, led by the spirited Leila (Bekhti), the women call a “love strike” until the men pull their fingers out, so to speak. It could have been a neat, well-aimed satire ? the Arab Spring’s Made in Dagenham ? but myriad subplots dissipate the energy and comedy, until we’re left with an earnest, overextended village soap opera. We do at least get some sense of real-life rural inequality ? the women invariably do manual labour as they scheme against their idle husbands ? and there’s some enjoyable interplay between a dream cast of Arab actors. But it feels like a wasted opportunity.

Eva Mendes Evangeline Lilly Eve Fergie Foxy Brown

looking through my collection of recipes, I’ve found that most of the fish recipes I have are soups
Which isn’t really useful in summer

I have a LOT of salmon recipes, but nothing much else. Can you suggest some recipes for fish that aren’t soups & don’t use salmon?

Danneel Harris Deanna Russo Denise Richards Desiree Dymond Diane Kruger

First thing first, thank you for all the sweet comments about our engagement photos! You could probably tell, but I’m super excited about them. I literally can’t stop smiling when I look at them. It’s crazy to think that this past weekend marked one year until our wedding weekend! The weather was absolutey gorgeous so [...]

Eva Green Eva Longoria Eva Mendes Evangeline Lilly Eve

Scenario:  Husband’s 30th birthday party.  Surprise party.  He’ll be out of the house for the 3 hours prior to the party, at which point I’ll have to acquire and prepare all the food and decorate the house, while taking care of a 10 month old.
Ideas for food?  I’m already ordering pizza
What are your easiest party recipes?

Christina DaRe Christina Milian Christina Ricci Chyler Leigh Ciara

Yorkshire’s swishest shopping streets, and the mysterious Dark Arches, will turn into strange and different places for the next three days. Marishka Van Steenbergen has been peeking

Residents of Leeds have woken up to find a boat lodged in a tree in the middle of Briggate, the handsome pedestrian-only street at the heart of the city’s shopping district. The unexpected shipwreck, 14 metres across and four tall, is the first major public installation to mark the beginning of the Overworlds and Underworlds event.

The internationally-acclaimed artist filmmakers, the Quay Brothers, have designed this temporary installation as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Overworlds and Underworlds, happening from tomorrow, Friday 18 May until Sunday night, will see the pair, plus a group of carefully selected fellow-artists, using the city centre of Leeds as their canvas.

This is the first project by Leeds Canvas, an arts consortium chosen three years ago as the Yorkshire region winner of a commission for Artists Taking the Lead. The commission is one of 12 across the UK which are celebrating the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics.

Steve Dearden, associate producer for Leeds Canvas, explains:

Initially the arts council invited proposals for a large piece of public art in all the English regions. That’s when the consortium came together and made a very basic invitation. We would say to an artist, here’s our city, our people, our buildings, make a piece of art which explores and celebrates that.

The free event will include three days of public performances and installations involving light, live music, dance and film. However, specific details of the event are being kept secret until closer to the weekend. Dearden says:

What we want is for people to suddenly be surprised by happenings in their own city or visitors seeing things in the city that have never been seen before.

All along with the brothers what we want to make is a piece of art based on the city. Based on themes in city life, the flow and movement of people and of water around the city. So the day-to-day activities in the city suddenly becoming strange with strange interventions being made, whether by physical objects or moving objects or people.

The Quay Brothers are working in collaboration with eight of the city’s key arts organisations; Northern Ballet, the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Opera North, Yorkshire Dance, Phoenix Dance, Leeds Museums and Galleries, Leeds Met Studio Theatre and Leeds Art Gallery.

Leeds Canvas said they chose the Quay Brothers because of their previous work in Leeds creating art installations for Leeds Art Gallery. They also knew that the brothers had always had a fascination for the Dark Arches under the city’s main train station.

Dearden explains why Canvas is hosting a fleeting public art event rather than a lasting installation.

By choosing the Quay Brothers we always knew we weren’t going to get a monumental sculpture. They work with light; they work in that ephemeral way. We knew it would be an amazing thing that came out of the city that would be there for a period and then disappear again. But hopefully it is one of those interventions where it is something that becomes part of peoples’ memories or the way they talk about the city.

Overworlds and Underworlds will begin on Briggate in Leeds city centre, including the illustrious late 19th century arcades and leading down to the mysterious underworld of the Dark Arches. Dominic Gray, projects director at Opera North says:

The idea of Overworlds and Underworlds is that we’ve got these very mysterious atmospheric worlds, one underneath and one above.

There are subterranean movements going on underneath our feet that are historical as well as physical, the movements of people over hundreds of years. Overworlds is the angels and the things we aspire to, the things that are in the air that we glimpse out of the corner of our eye. The project is about how us, the living people, walk between one or the other and negotiate our map through a city where those things are going on.

Dearden hopes that the event will leave a lasting legacy of collaboration between the artists.

It’s important to mention that it has not just been about the core team of chief executives or artistic directors. People from different levels have been working together, including the education and marketing teams who have collaborated for the first time. So hopefully the legacy of this, apart from the artistic legacy, will be a much closer relationship between those key organisations in the future.

He has also enjoyed his time with the Quay Brothers:

It’s been fantastic working with them, it’s been wonderful to go and meet them in their studio. In this very unique working space, you knock on door in the south of London, open it up and suddenly you are in this junk room of a Russian monastery, lots of icons, books, decanters, you could spend years in there exploring. And at the other end there is this high-tech editing suite where they are making films with the newest equipment.

Leeds Canvas expects Overworlds and Underworlds to be an event that will be remembered for years to come. Dearden says:
I think when people see some of the set pieces there will be a sense of wonder and fun. I expect that on Friday and Saturday night people will be taking photos of themselves in front of these amazing things and it will become part of the photographic record of the city and part of the way people talk about the city in the future.

Here’s a clip of Steve Dearden and Dominic Gray, filmed by Joe Bream talking to Marishka about the weekend’s excitements in Leeds.

Desiree Dymond Diane Kruger Dido Diora Baird Dita Von Teese

More beaches judged good for cleanliness, but tougher standards mean fewer are likely to make the grade next year

The number of England’s beaches gaining Blue Flag awards for cleanliness has increased in 2012. But about 30% of the beaches might not reach tougher water quality standards being introduced next year, said Blue Flag scheme organisers Keep Britain Tidy.

For 2012, a total of 79 English beaches have received blue flag awards ? nine more than in the previous year.

The total puts England in the world’s top 10 countries for having the most Blue Flag beaches, out of the 46 countries taking part in the scheme.

The area with the most Blue Flags in 2012 is Thanet in Kent, with nine, followed by Torbay in Devon with five and Cornwall, also with five.

New awards for 2012 included Herne Bay in Kent, Seaton Carew Centre in Tyne and Wear, and Bridlington North and Bridlington South in East Yorkshire.

Among the 2011 winners losing their Blue Flags this year are Southend on Sea in Essex, Southwold Pier in Suffolk and Woolacombe Sands in Devon.

In addition, 99 beaches have received Keep Britain Tidy’s Quality Coast Awards (QCA) ? nine fewer than in 2011 ? with the Isle of Wight beaches getting 11 awards.

A total of 36 beaches got Blue Flag and QCA awards.

Keep Britain Tidy said the tougher water quality standard being introduced in 2013 under the new EU Bathing Water Directive was estimated to be twice as stringent as the current Blue Flag water quality standards.

“We estimate that around 30% of current Blue Flag beaches might not reach the necessary standard,” said a spokesman for Keep Britain Tidy.

Also, in England, Blue Flag beaches will next year need to provide warnings to beach users when nearby combined sewer overflows discharge, if that discharge could temporarily affect the bathing water quality.

The Blue Flag announcement came on the same day that Surfers against Sewage launched their sewage alert service. This provides real time updates, by text message and online, on sewage discharges into the sea for almost 200 beaches, 150 more than in 2011.

SAS campaign director Andy Cummins said: “It’s vital that beach users know when raw sewage is in the sea and our alert service has proven to successfully influence beach users’ behaviour.”

Drew Barrymore Ehrinn Cummings Elena Lyons Elisabeth Röhm Elisha Cuthbert

Underlying demand is still strong in international markets; however it is insufficient to absorb the current growth in supply.

Operating conditions for most Australian dairy farmers have consolidated in 2011/12 and national milk production has grown significantly for the first time in a decade. National output is expected to hit just under 9.5 billion litres this season, up from 9.1 billion last season.

?Despite national production benefitting from favourable seasonal conditions in southeast Australia, the same or better conditions have prevailed in all major exporting regions, resulting in an extra 7.4 billion litres produced in 2011, and an additional 6.2 billion litres forecast for 2012,? said Dairy Australia managing director Ian Halliday.

?This compares with total production increase for these regions of 5.3 billion litres for 2009 and 2010 combined.

?This time last year, manufacturers who were not seeing sufficient returns from the local market had a fairly strong export market. However, export returns are currently being curbed by ample supplies in international markets pushing prices lower, and a continuing strong Australian dollar.

“Despite this, demand in export regions is still solid and exporting companies are still keen to keep throughput up in the factories and strong competition for milk supply is expected in the coming months.?

In drinking milk regions, the balancing act between fresh supply and demand continues as processors adjust their intake requirements and pricing to meet the demands of a highly pressured retail marketplace.

Aggressive retail competition for milk will continue to negatively influence farmgate prices for farmers in Queensland, central and northern New South Wales and Western Australia, and the current focus on private label discounts will allow little room for improvement.

Dairy Australia manager strategy and knowledge, Joanne Bills, said there had been a complete switch between demand and supply on the international market. ?In the past few years price increases have been driven by demand, now this has reversed with additional supply driving prices lower.

?In the southern hemisphere we are seeing lots of clearing of stocks as the season comes to a close, while the northern hemisphere is gearing up for another year of strong production. Buyers are remaining cautious, waiting to see what happens with prices rather than buying ahead and securing supply beyond their immediate needs.?

The international economic uncertainty means that there is still some risk for demand, although the key emerging markets responsible for growing consumption have a much healthier outlook than Eurozone countries.

?In terms of the international market impact on our domestic market, it means that margins will remain under pressure, which means farmgate prices for farmers will lower in 2012/13,? Bills said.

Leading export markets for Australia remain across Asia, while Japan remains the industry’s largest single export region.

Source: Dairy Australia

Related articles

• Wiseman confirms milk price reduction 30 APR 2012 | Financial
• Australia?s milk supply climbs amid global uncertainty 20 FEB 2012 | Dairy

Anna Paquin AnnaLynne McCord Anne Marie Kortright April Scott Arielle Kebbel

I have a boneless pork shoulder joint that’s just under a kilo (about 2lbs) in weight. I’m marinading it tonight with a garlic, oregano and chile rub in a orange, lemon and lime juice mixture. I want to slow roast it tomorrow, but all the recipes I have that talk about slow roasting deal with much larger joints of meat.

How long, and at what temperature in degrees Celsius, do I need to roast the meat for in order to get the full slow-roasty goodness out of it? Do I just alter the cooking time of the bigger joints? Does the fact that it’s a boneless joint affect the cooking time?

Abbie Cornish Adriana Lima Adrianne Curry Adrianne Palicki Aisha Tyler

Most families massively underestimate the amount of food they throw away each week, according to new research

UK families are wasting £270 a year (£5.20 a week) on discarded food and drink, according to a survey of their kitchen habits.

Most families massively underestimate the amount of food they throw away each week, according to new research.

Despite the economic downturn they admit to buying more than they need, often tempted by supermarkets’ “Buy One Get One Free” and similar offers.

The survey of 2,116 adults, carried out by frozen food giant Birds Eye, found that the average household spends £68 a week on food but that 91% of households with children admit to throwing some of that away.

Vegetables topped the list of the most commonly wasted food group, followed by bread and fruit, and 40% of those polled admitted they felt guilty for wasting food.

The main reason cited for wasting food was buying too much (37%), with 22% doing so because of supermarket offers and mutibuy deals.

Lack of meal planning prior to shopping was another issue, with one in three people admitting to not planning.

Families with children at home proved more savvy, with 37% saying they planned more than before the recession.

The research confirms the fact that a large proportion of Britons (almost 70%) have changed their eating habits as a result of the economic downturn ? 47% of families are eating out less, 24% have changed what they eat at mealtimes, for example by buying cheaper food, and 26% try to all eat the same food at mealtimes to keep costs down.

The findings come as a new report, “Waste not, want not” by the Fabian Society, which looks at consumer attitudes to food waste, is launched in parliament on Wednesday. It says that in order to address the problem of food waste, “it is essential we find fresh ways of communicating about it” and concludes that “while individuals observe wasteful behaviour in others, they rarely reflect on their own lifestyles as contributing to the problem”.

Waste minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach said: “Wasting perfectly good food is bad for household budgets and bad for the environment, which is why we are taking action to help people cut down on what they throw away.

“Through Wrap’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign we are helping households to waste less and save money, while our new guidance on food date labelling has cleared up confusion about when food is safe to eat.”

Elisha Cuthbert Eliza Dushku Emilie de Ravin Emma Heming Emma Stone

Hi all,
So I love sour cream and perogies, but I usually use one of those store bought dip mixes in my sour cream to give them another flavour, plus I don't eat that many perogies so I use a lot of the sour cream dip for veggies and dip. I got a creamy dill dip package at the store and made it, but it tastes a lot sweeter than I expected it to. I was wondering if anyone has any idea of things I can add to it to cut down the sweetness?
TIA

Freida Pinto FSU Cowgirls Gabrielle Union Garcelle Beauvais Genelle Frenoy

THIS WORKSHOP IS NOW SOLD OUT. THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO APPLIED. CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU THERE!

As I announced last week, I am teaming up with Ritchie Ace Camps for a 4-day food styling and photography retreat in beautiful Whistler, British Columbia. The workshop will take place August 23-27, 2012 and is limited to 10 participants.

For more details and to register, please go here.

Hope to see you there!

Carla Campbell Carla Gugino Carmen Electra Carol Grow Carrie Underwood

Work to stop leak on Elgin platform, which involved pumping heavy mud into well, has been a success, says Total

The near two month crisis around a gas well on the Elgin field in the North Sea appeared to have been averted on Wednesday with French operator, Total, saying it had succeeded in plugging the leak.

Shares in the company rose more than 2% on the announcement that no more methane was being released into the environment and the company can soon put a halt to its relief operations which have been costing it $3m a day.

“A major turning point has been achieved,” said Yves-Louis Darricarrere, Total’s head of exploration and production, but the company said it was too soon to say when gas and condensate production could resume.

The Elgin platform used to pump about 3% of Britain’s total gas output from nearly four miles below the seabed, and the incident comes on top of production problems elsewhere.

Safety issues in Yemen and a gas leak in Nigeria have been putting a brake on the company’s target of increasing its global output by 2.5% through to 2015.

The oil world is very nervous of offshore incidents after BP’s Macondo oil well spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 2010. That, very different from the Total gas leak, is expected to cost the company around $30bn in compensation and other claims.

Christophe de Margerie, Total’s chief executive, has previously said the Elgin leak could cost the company slightly more than $300m in lost production in a worst case scenario where production did not restart before the end of the year.

There was relief in the City among investors. “Obviously good news for the group. Final costs are now awaited, but no bad surprises expected,” said analysts at Alphavalue in a research note. Shares in Total had lost 16% of their value since the gas leak began in late March.

Alexis Bledel Ali Campoverdi Ali Larter Alice Dodd Alicia Keys

Her play Posh was inspired by the violent antics of the Bullingdon Club. Laura Wade tells Kira Cochrane why she has updated it for a post-riot, Tory-led, bankrupt Britain

One evening during the first run of her play Posh, the writer Laura Wade was drawn into a heated argument in the interval. An audience member demanded to know just why she hated Old Etonians. The person was very cross, she says, and asked “what [Old Etonians] had ever done to me. As if I was enacting some sort of dreadful personal slight against an ex-boyfriend or something.”

The argument was misdirected for several reasons. One is that it is hard to imagine someone as serious as Wade embarking on a play because of a dodgy ex, or any other dubious personal reason (Posh did, after all, take her three years to write). Another is that her play isn’t specifically about Old Etonians. Instead, it concerns an even more exclusive group, which the country’s three most prominent Tories ? David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson ? all just happen to have been a part of. Posh centres around a fictional dining society called The Riot Club, made up of wealthy, male, public school-educated Oxford University students, which closely mirrors the real-life Bullingdon Club.

For the writer of such a pointed, polemical satire, there is something watchful and slightly wary about Wade. She is friendly, but places her words very carefully. At one point, struggling for a phrase, she says she has lost her “inner dictionary”; at another, more surprisingly, that she “really shouldn’t talk about politics, because I don’t have the right words”. She has always dodged attempts to pin her down with her own polemic.

I suspect this is partly because Posh is a departure for her. At 34, Wade has built up a large body of work, notable for its nuance and structure rather than its incendiary rhetorical flourishes. Also, in writing the play, she had to spend a lot of time in these characters’ heads, making her a little more sympathetic to her subjects than some audience members might suspect. “I don’t want to sound like I’m just defending them,” she says, “but I think the play tries to do something other than portray them as just irredeemable rotters.”

Wade started work on Posh in 2007, when the Royal Court theatre in London teamed her up with director Lyndsey Turner; both wanted to develop a project about wealth and the young. They embarked on some general research, and soon landed on exclusive dining clubs as the perfect vehicle through which to explore “class, culture, privilege and wealth”. Wade studied drama at Bristol University, and one of her favourite jokes in the play is about the idea of it being a place for Oxbridge rejects. Were there a lot of wealthy people there? “I was in the drama department, and we were a bit more of a motley bunch … But you were aware when you walked past the history of art building, for example, that there was a lot of good hair”. Suspiciously good hair? “Yes! Glossy hair. And that was just the boys.”

She and Turner spoke to people who had studied at Oxford, “who knew people, who knew people. You know, there isn’t a website that helps.” No Bullingdon Reunited? “No! And I was also wanting to research the different clubs as well. I always had an idea that I wanted us to create our own version, rather than recreating, documentary-style, some particularly legendary night.” There was, for instance, the night when Bullingdon Club members are rumoured to have smashed up all the instruments, including a Stradivarius, belonging to the string band they’d hired to play.

Still, there are clear parallels between the Riot Club and the Bullingdon. There’s the fact no one’s allowed to leave the table during the course of the meal, the personal bin bags that are given out to vomit into, the restaurant booked under a pseudonym, so the group is less traceable if they end up trashing the place. Trashing turned out to be the central metaphor. “The idea of this dining-club paradigm of a big dinner where you trash the room at the end, and then pay for it. That was the basic scenario that I first got hooked on, and then characters got ascribed to it.”

Writing the play was “like building a bomb over the course of an evening”, she says. Wade’s task was to create a tribe with their own codes, their own slang ? the constant use of the word “mate”, for example, which starts out merely grating, but quickly becomes menacing. The 10 members are bound together by wealth, education, and a twin sense of entitlement and beleaguerment, a notion that they absolutely deserve to run the country, and will have to watch it ruined if anyone else has a look-in. As they joke about trashing each other’s rooms and masturbating on each other’s books, working their way through a roast dinner and gallons of booze, a nagging sense of threat builds beside the broad laughs. The air thrums with misogyny and disdain. It’s clear something dark is set to happen.

The play’s first run in 2010, in the runup to the general election, was a sell-out, but there was a mixed critical reaction, and suggestions that it was too obvious and that the nastiness of its characters strained plausibility. In the Guardian, Michael Billington thought that Wade’s argument would be stronger “if it admitted that, even within the ranks of the bluebloods, there were occasional spasms of doubt and decency”. The Times’s Benedict Nightingale, while praising the play’s liveliness and humour, called it “a paranoid throwback to the era of class warfare”.

To me, though, its carefully built rhythm made the brutality seem realistic, and watching it at the Royal Court, on the edge of moneyed Sloane Square, added a strange frisson. You couldn’t help but be aware of the wealth in the auditorium. The night I saw it, the play’s climax was greeted with silent horror, but on some occasions the violence has apparently prompted whooping. Wade says she never witnessed this herself, but had “a real interest in the different audiences, because every night had a different kind of political balance. Quite often you would feel: ‘Oh, this is quite a posh one tonight.’ And sometimes they felt quite angry when things turned sour.”

The group’s leader, James, arguably the most pragmatic character, seemed a lot like Cameron to me, but Wade says she didn’t have individuals in mind when she was writing. “I sometimes felt like people were looking for which one was the Boris one, and which one was the Cameron one, as if it was the Muppet Babies. Which, when you’ve spent God knows how long crafting back stories for these fictional characters can be slightly …” She leaves it hanging. Ahead of the play’s new run at the Duke of York’s theatre (Wade’s first West End production), she set about updating it, taking into account the Conservative rise to government, the Greek debt crisis, and last summer’s riots. The structure of the play remains the same, but it was a chance to make both shifts in tone and more topical jokes. “I really wanted to get to grips with the idea of them feeling that, though their government is in power now, they’re still not taking the place in society they feel they’re entitled to”, because of the way the world changed during the New Labour era.

Did she find it odd that someone who was a member of a club with the unofficial motto “I like the sound of breaking glass” should preside over the response to the riots? “Yeah, it did seem rather ironic,” she says. “I mean, obviously one can never condone what went on last summer, but it did seem like there was a discrepancy really in the reaction to those people who were not of a class that would ever be able to cover up, or throw money at the problem.”

Wade grew up in Sheffield and knew she wanted to work in theatre since she was a small child; her first play, Limbo, was written while studying for her A-levels, and put on in the studio space at the Crucible theatre, Sheffield. When I mention it, she flinches. “You haven’t got it here, have you?” I ask what it was about, and she laughingly says, “a teenage girl in Sheffield, who was going through some extremely mild emotional difficulties”. She pauses a beat. “I’m very good at research.”

Her reputation built quickly in her 20s, with two death-themed plays, Breathing Corpses and Colder Than Here, playing simultaneously in 2005, and an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland at the Crucible in 2010. She is currently working on a film version of Posh, a film screenplay for a ”grownup relationship drama”, and three separate commissions for the Royal Court, Hampstead theatre and Lyric Hammersmith (for whom she is adapting Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet).

Wade makes an unlikely firebrand. When I ask whether she plans to write more political plays, she equivocates. We talk about the way the government’s mask has been slipping recently, a change that might affect the way audiences view Posh. During its first run, the Tories were doing their very best to present themselves as compassionate and caring ? but flashes of anger have surfaced as they deal with problems from the Leveson inquiry to public-sector cuts. “It’s been very interesting to watch, hasn’t it?” Wade says. “The numerous little problems over the past few months that have seemed quite different from the feeling when the play was first on. Then, I think, a lot of people were ready to give them a chance. And now it feels like it’s all slightly unravelling.” I detect the merest hint of a smile.

Emilie de Ravin Emma Heming Emma Stone Emma Watson Emmanuelle Chriqui

A hundred years ago today, Rothschild created the first organisation committed to protecting the UK’s wildlife areas

Some ideas are so self-evident they barely require explanation. One such concept is that of nature reserves. Most countries have them and today they cover more than 13% of the world’s land area.

But 100 years ago things were different. There were very few nature reserves of any kind, and in the face of an onslaught unleashed by modern farming and industry natural areas rich in wildlife were disappearing fast. This was especially the case in industrialised countries such as Great Britain.

One person who decided to act to stem the decline was Charles Rothschild. A member of the famous banking family, his passion was for nature and on working out where the best places for wildlife remained, and then getting them protected.

On May 16th 1912, 100 years ago today, he set up the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves (SPNR), an organisation committed to identifying and protecting the country’s finest wildlife areas. The organisation’s first reserve was at Woodwalton Fen in Cambridgeshire, where Rothschild had two years previously bought an area of wetland so it could be spared from drainage.

By 1915 Rothschild and his colleagues had prepared a list of 284 special wildlife sites around the British Isles considered worthy of permanent preservation. The list included the Farne Islands and the Norfolk Broads in England, Tregaron Bog in Wales, Caen Lochan Glen in Scotland, and Lough Neagh in Ireland. The idea of protecting these and other important places gathered momentum and spawned a new movement ? the county wildlife trusts. The first one was in Norfolk. Founded in 1926, its initial purchase was of the threatened Cley Marshes.

During the 1940s, the momentum created by Rothschild and his colleagues led to a first major policy breakthrough. New laws were enacted to protect most of the places on his list. Buoyed up by this and other successes, the movement continued to grow. By the 1970s, county Wildlife Trusts were present throughout the UK with the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts working today as their national body. They have a collective membership of 800,000 people and manage 2,300 nature reserves. Some are tiny and of local importance, others like Woodwalton Fen are substantial and of international significance.

But what of the next 100 years? I believe there are two main challenges. The first is to restore large areas of natural habitat. If we are to secure wildlife in our islands for the long term then the fragments of natural habitat that survived twentieth century farming and development must be combined into larger areas of wild country. The Wildlife Trusts’ Living Landscapes programme is, with others, including RSPB and the National Trust, doing this job. There has already been some success. One of the largest such restoration schemes is based on Rothschild’s first SPNR reserve at Woodwalton Fen, where the Great Fen project is reclaiming large areas of drained land back to wild fen.

The second major challenge concerns the restoration of connections between people and nature. If we are to secure a more durable accommodation between people and the natural world then it will be vital for more of us to be more personally connected with nature. To this extent the trusts’ reserves are not only a means whereby we might reconnect fragmented landscapes, they are also vital in connecting us to nature, so that we can better appreciate what it does for us and why we must sustain it.

The fact that many of our country’s best natural areas still retain their landscapes, animals and plants is in large part down to the power of Charles Rothschild’s vision, and the movement that he helped to found. Although he died in 1923 and never saw the results of what he put in motion, he left an incredible legacy. During the next 100 years the nature reserves he helped establish will be at the core of the work that must be done in restoring not only large areas of natural habitat, but also our cultural connections with nature.

Gisele Bündchen Giuliana DePandi Giulianna Ramirez Grace Park Gretha Cavazzoni

Immigration minister says 70 extra staff will be recruited for September when overseas students are due to arrive

Seventy extra border staff are to be urgently recruited from within Whitehall to avoid a renewed passport crisis at Britain’s airports in September immediately after the Olympics, the immigration minister has announced.

Home Office ministers have cancelled all summer leave for UK Border Force officers and drafted in 480 extra temporary staff from other parts of Whitehall to cope with the expected surge of 650,000 extra tourists this summer.

But the immigration minister, Damian Green, has acknowledged that the Olympic contingency plans could result in severe staff shortages after the Games when tens of thousands of overseas students are due to arrive for the start of the academic year.

He has told MPs that the 70 extra staff to be recruited had been due to be taken on by 2014 for the reopening of Heathrow’s Terminal 2. “We have brought forward the first wave of recruitment for the reopening of Terminal 2 to give Border Force even more flexibility to secure the border while dealing with record passenger numbers at Heathrow,” Green said.

Staff will be recruited from elsewhere in Whitehall and are expected to be in post between July and October after being trained and receiving security clearance.

The minister told the Commons home affairs select committee that a return to a “risk-based” policy of passport checks at Heathrow would not necessarily prove the panacea for long queues after a clampdown last autumn. He said the length of queues at Heathrow and Stansted could depend just as much on the wind as on the nature of the checks, especially for long-haul flights.

If the weather meant that a New York flight was delayed and arrived just behind a Nigerian flight whose passengers had to undergo full passport checks, then the passengers from New York would face longer waits to clear security than if their flight arrived 10 minutes earlier. “That will depend on the wind, over which, with the best will in the world, airlines and the Border Force don’t have the control,” he said.

Green said he was not in principle opposed to the introduction of risk-based controls, but a pilot scheme last year was tainted by unauthorised relaxation of the checks because of queues. “They were not risk-based controls, but queue-based controls,” he said.

“It is not at all obvious that just having risk-based controls reduces queues. They may well involve doing more thorough checks on some of those non-EU passengers,” Green said.

Airline and airport representatives giving evidence to the MPs said there had been a noticeable improvement in queueing times over the past 10 days since David Cameron ordered Home Office ministers to get a grip on the border crisis.

But both Green and Keith Vaz, the chairman of the committee, reported continuing problems at Heathrow and Stansted. Green visited Heathrow privately on Monday morning when the UK Border Force had been told to expect 2,500 passenger arrivals between 6am and 9am. At six hours’ notice this had risen to an estimate of 5,000, and in fact 7,500 passengers turned up. “With the best will in the world you cannot call border staff at home at 1am telling them to turn up for duty at 5am,” Green said.

Vaz complained there had been long delays at Stansted on Sunday night when the border control appeared unprepared to process more than 6,000 passengers who arrived between 10pm and midnight.

Joan Collins became the latest celebrity to be caught up in the passport chaos on Tuesday. She tweeted: “Arrived LHR after great trip on @British_Airways but 1000s waiting at passport control ? listen up Ms. May ? need more officers!”

Heidi Montag Hilarie Burton Hilary Duff Hilary Swank Isla Fisher

Hard at work on her newest film, Nicole Kidman was spotted on the Berwick, Scotland set for “The Railway Man” on Wednesday (May 16).

The beautiful Aussie looked elegant in a maroon cardigan, white collared button up and black skirt while laughing and chatting it up with other crew and cast members.

The Jonathan Teplitzky directed drama is based on a true story of a victim from World War II’s “Death Railway” who sets out to find those responsible for his torture.

The new flick also stars Colin Firth along with Stellan Skarsgård and is set to hit the big screen in 2013.

Ana Beatriz Barros Ana Hickmann Ana Ivanovi Ana Paula Lemes Ananda Lewis

Thomas F Wilson, who played Biff Tannen in the Back to the Future movies, has a unique way of dealing with over-curious fans

The internet is awash with an image of a card that actor Thomas F Wilson purportedly carries around with him. Sick of being asked questions about his most famous role ? Biff Tannen in the Back to the Future trilogy ? he simply hands it out to inquisitive fans and walks away. It’s a win-win: they get to discover facts such as “Michael J Fox is nice. I’m not in close contact with him”, “I made less money than you’d think” and “I don’t talk about the movies much because I’m busy with standup comedy and music performances.” In turn, he gets to save his breath. It’s an ingenious tactic and, as a way to escape your most notorious role, much less labour intensive than the efforts of other actors. Chief among these is Jennifer Grey who, in a desperate bid to extract herself from her phenomenal Dirty Dancing fame, slunk off for a drastic nose-job, ensuring that in future fans would only ever ask her: “Hey, aren’t you that woman from Dirty Dancing?” and then, immediately afterwards: “What happened to your face?”

Grey did this while remaining in the public eye. Joey Cramer, the little boy from 1986′s Flight of the Navigator, found it easier to retire from public life altogether. Despite various online efforts to track him down, sightings since his heyday have been sporadic at best. First he was spotted working in a small Canadian town’s sporting goods store, and then last summer the Canadian mounties issued a public warning for a fraudster who fitted his description. It’s unfortunate but, still, at least nobody shouts “See you later, navigator!” at him any more.

Of course, the worst thing anyone could do is make a career from embracing and living off their most famous role, as Corey Feldman has. He could have made a card, had a nosejob or disappeared from sight, but no. Instead he starred in a couple of witless cheapo sequels to The Lost Boys and ended up twirling around in a leotard on Dancing on Ice. Nobody should have to see that.

Evangeline Lilly Eve Fergie Foxy Brown Freida Pinto

I’m on vacation for a couple of weeks and away from our kitchen. So I will be posting a few recipes from the archives, like this lemon poppyseed muffin recipe, originally posted in 2007. Hope everyone is having a fabulous Easter! ~Elise

I love lemon poppy seed muffins. This recipe is based on the same Cook’s Illustrated master muffin recipe on which I based our blueberry and lemon ginger muffins. The balance of flour, leavening, eggs and yogurt results in a light and fluffy muffin. The important things to remember with making these muffins is to make sure your baking powder is no older than 6 months (it may not work if older), and to not over-mix the batter.

Continue reading “Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins” »

Brooke Burns Busy Philipps Cameron Diaz Cameron Richardson Camilla Belle

Work to stop leak on Elgin platform, which involved pumping heavy mud into well, has been a success, says Total

The near two month crisis around a gas well on the Elgin field in the North Sea appeared to have been averted on Wednesday with French operator, Total, saying it had succeeded in plugging the leak.

Shares in the company rose more than 2% on the announcement that no more methane was being released into the environment and the company can soon put a halt to its relief operations which have been costing it $3m a day.

“A major turning point has been achieved,” said Yves-Louis Darricarrere, Total’s head of exploration and production, but the company said it was too soon to say when gas and condensate production could resume.

The Elgin platform used to pump about 3% of Britain’s total gas output from nearly four miles below the seabed, and the incident comes on top of production problems elsewhere.

Safety issues in Yemen and a gas leak in Nigeria have been putting a brake on the company’s target of increasing its global output by 2.5% through to 2015.

The oil world is very nervous of offshore incidents after BP’s Macondo oil well spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 2010. That, very different from the Total gas leak, is expected to cost the company around $30bn in compensation and other claims.

Christophe de Margerie, Total’s chief executive, has previously said the Elgin leak could cost the company slightly more than $300m in lost production in a worst case scenario where production did not restart before the end of the year.

There was relief in the City among investors. “Obviously good news for the group. Final costs are now awaited, but no bad surprises expected,” said analysts at Alphavalue in a research note. Shares in Total had lost 16% of their value since the gas leak began in late March.

Georgianna Robertson Georgina Grenville Gina Carano Gina Gershon Gina Philips

Shimogamo Jinja, Kyoto, Japan

Forgive me please, for a brief diversion from our usual posting of recipes. I recently took two weeks off from cooking and blogging to travel to Japan, my first extended vacation in the nine years or so that I’ve been publishing this site. For those of you who might be interested in a peek at our adventure, I thought I might post a few photos of some of the highlights of the trip. (If you aren’t interested, just ignore, there will be a new recipe soon enough.)

Continue reading “Japan 2012″ »

Christina Milian Christina Ricci Chyler Leigh Ciara Cindy Crawford

? Click here for step by step directions
? Click here for our interactive map of all the walks

Distance 5 miles (8km)
Classification Easy
Duration 2 hours 30 minutes
Begins Information booth, Belton House
OS grid reference SK929393

Walk in a nutshell
A civilised circuit of the lakes, gardens and statuary of Belton Park ? one of England’s most magnificent estates and the setting for the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. There’s an adventure playground and a discovery centre offering family activities such as organised nature trails.

Why it’s special
Jane Austen almost certainly never visited Belton Park, but it is now inseparable from Pride and Prejudice to many of her British fans. In the BBC’s telling of the story, this magnificent 17th-century mansion and its gardens represented Rosings Park, seat of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr Darcy’s aunt. It was chosen for appearing “over-the-top”, a display of Lady Catherine’s power.

Keep your eyes peeled for
You can be almost overwhelmed with wonders strolling around Belton Park. There is a maze, beautiful lakes, a tastefully planted orangery, the Italian garden with its fountain and statue walk ? This is also a splendid spot for wildlife, including kingfishers, grebes, woodpeckers, tree creepers and cormorants.

Recover afterwards
Belton House’s Stables restaurant is open all day, serving seasonal meals ranging from dainty tea and homemade cakes to hearty pies and soups. There are also some excellent local pubs. Try the Crown and Anchor, a few miles east in Welby, for high-quality traditional food. Or there’s the Gregory in Harlaxton, which is slightly posher.

If it’s tipping down
Belton House is filled with glorious carvings, tapestries, paintings and silverware, provides regular “below stairs” tours, and contains a plant shop and a secondhand bookshop. Nearby, there’s the National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford, or the Twinlakes theme park , which has plenty of indoor activities to keep children entertained, including a “dragon zone” and falconry centre.

How to get there
You can either walk from Grantham railway station, which is 3 miles away, or hop on the Lincoln bus, stopping at Belton.

1 Starting at the information booth, walk around the oval to the left side of the house. Pass through the green gates and under the clock archway on the left.

2 Walk down to the signpost, turn right and follow the signs to the gardens.

3 Walk to the front of the orangery and turn right, following the path until you reach a crossroads. Turn left and follow the footpath, keeping left until you see a large metal gate.

4 Pass through the gate and follow the path around Boathouse pond until you cross a small wooden bridge. Turn left and down the steps. Follow the path along the stream toward the maze. When you reach a gravel path turn left.

5 Walk down Statue Walk towards the house. Turn left along the east front of the mansion and through the gate.

6 Turn left and pass through a small gate. Follow the tree line to a gate in a wooden fence, go through the gate and head left up the tree-lined avenue to the brow of the hill.

7 Turn right and cross into Old Wood, picking up the woodland footpath and following the fence line around the golf course until you reach Lion Gates.

8 Cross the historic drive and follow the tree line towards the river.

9 Walk along the river bank toward a small wood. At this point head back towards the drive, then walk back towards the house.

Christina Milian Christina Ricci Chyler Leigh Ciara Cindy Crawford

Successful street traders have always understood that a little theatre brings in the punters, and the new generation is no exception

On my first day selling fruit and veg down the market, the boss entrusted me with my own costermonger’s cry ? “new potaters, easy scrapers, all the way from En-ger-land.” I was studying drama for A-level (and, to be honest, had rather wowed in the school’s production of The Italian Straw Hat) and was happy to try channelling a time when food on the street was all “cried” or “hawked”. Yes, a bit too Dick Van Dyke, but I put a smile on people’s faces. And I sold. People love food with a bit of theatre.

Which is where street food always scores. It’s all about the show ? whether it’s a woman tending a well-fed wok over the gas, or a man extruding thin fingers of churro dough into a deep-fat fryer. People like to watch the crepe makers working their scrapers (to smooth the batter across the griddle) and their spatulas (to scrape the burnt batter off the griddle and throw it into the bin). They love to see all that drama that normally gets hidden away behind the restaurant kitchen door.

But the new generation of traders is raising street food drama to new heights ? with costumes and scripts. Three old school friends founded What The Dickens to revive iconic British fare ? dressed in cravats and cuff links, and riding round on a Victorian tricycle. “We’re not trying to do anything theatrical” says Dominic Rose. “We just do what we do. We’re three well-dressed gents larking about. And that just happens to include an element of performance.”

Some days Adam and Michael will serenade the crowd on ukeleles while Dominic serves up home-smoked bacon and devilled kidneys. Other days, the friends will just banter ? “and we’ll try and flog people a bit of kedgeree off the back of it” says Dominic. “But we always wear ties. That’s quite important. And Michael wears his brown bowler ? the less formal version of the black bowler. He couldn’t get away with black ? this isn’t the bank.”

Robin Dunlop started off in a kilt, serving the family’s seafood to tourists at the Edinburgh Festival from a window basket that he had slung round his neck. But his look is now 1920s strongman ? and he’s one of the Mussel Men. Every hour, on the hour, he and his cousin challenge the crowd to freestyle shows of strength. Whether it’s press-ups, picking up a whisky barrel or a bit of an arm wrestling, “It’s just a chance for everyone to win some seafood.”

The Mussel Men want to bring their moules ? traditionally a restaurant food ? to a wider audience. “And the world is full of people who love oysters but don’t even know it” says Robin. “All this stuff about ‘snot in a shell’? Just give them a try. We converted one guy who had a phobia ? his dad was a fisherman and used to chase him round the house with oysters. When we opened one he was shaking. It took eight attempts but we cured him. We shared the love. That’s the spirit of our business.”

With What The Dickens and The Mussel Men there is the slight issue of trying to monetise something that’s just bloody good fun. They are both edging away from the food truck model (although none of What The Dickens can actually drive) because they want to be thoroughly approachable. “People buy into people” says Robin. “When you are doing something different and adding your own element, people are more willing to support you. I really believe that. I hope so. We’ll just have to see.”

What The Dickens’ devilled kidneys recipe

4 lamb’s kidneys
Small glass of sherry
1 tbsp white wine or cider vinegar
1 tsp redcurrant jelly
1 good tbsp English mustard
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp cream
1 tbsp chopped parsley

First you need to cut the kidneys in quarters and remove and discard the tough white cores. Now briskly fry the kidney pieces in some hot oil for only one or two minutes. Kidneys will go tough if overcooked. Once the kidneys are browned, add the sherry and vinegar and bring up to simmer a little before adding the redcurrant jelly and stirring to dissolve.

Now add the mustard and cayenne pepper and follow them with a few decent shakes from the Worcestershire sauce bottle. Add a little salt and pepper, stir until you have a smooth sauce then stir in the cream.

Serve on toast with a sprinkling of chopped parsley. This ought to do two people as a light supper or a few more as a snack or breakfast side.

Amanda Marcum Amanda Peet Amanda Righetti Amanda Swisten Amber Arbucci

UK local authorities are taking a close look at the policy ? which is winning wider public support

Could a universal 20 mph speed limit on residential streets soon be as widely accepted as the smoking ban in pubs?

It’s too soon to talk about a tipping point, but more and more UK local authorities are taking a close look at a policy which is winning wider public support.

Portsmouth, Oxford and other cities have pioneered the switch within the past five years, and campaigners from the 20′s Plenty For Us movement say 8 million people now live in areas which are committed to adopting the limit for residential roads. They include Newcastle, Bristol, Sheffield and a handful of London boroughs.

“I compare it to the ban on smoking in pubs,” said one supporter at a conference in London this month. “That seemed controversial at the time and now it’s accepted ? and it’s self-enforcing.”

But the most significant recruit to the cause may turn out to be Liverpool, where the local NHS trust will stump up £665,000 over four years to implement and study an extension of the city’s 20mph limits to a majority of streets. Nobody yet knows if injecting money from the public health budget will pay back in reduced hospital costs for treating victims of road accidents or not, but it could be the start of a trend.

From 2013, local authorities, already responsible for road safety, will take on larger responsibilities for public health in England. The idea is that lowering road speeds may cut the NHS bill for treating crash victims, and also combat obesity by encouraging more walking and cycling.

Until last year most of the enquiries handled by the 20′s Plenty movement came from individuals and campaigners; in 2012, says its founder, Rod King, more than half the inquiries have come from local government.

But while the momentum is growing and all three major parties are supportive, the government is against legislation.

“It is not the government policy to have a default limit. This is a matter of localism,” the junior transport minister Norman Baker told a conference in London this month on 20mph limits. “It would be wrong for us to impose our view from Westminster and Whitehall ? those days are ending, I am happy to say.”

Localism appears to be a happy compromise to which both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats can sign up as a way of papering over differences over how hard to push a policy which may still create a backlash from motorists.

Since the replacement of Philip Hammond by Justine Greening, the Department for Transport seems to have dropped the post-election rhetoric about “ending the war on the motorist” and become more confident in advocating lower traffic speeds. Baker, a Liberal Democrat, says he wants local authorities to think hard about 20mph limits, and is trying to make implementation easier and cheaper by simplifying guidance on signage and scrapping the previous requirement for extensive physical traffic calming.

Campaigners and local authorities say they still face a lack of cooperation from many police forces, who don’t like the idea of 20mph limits on the grounds that they would have to enforce them.

Chief superintendant Jerry Moore of ACPO irritated some participants by telling them police would not support 20 mph limits unless they were self-enforcing, in practice ruling out their introduction on roads where speeds were higher than 24 mph at present. “Simply altering the signs and lowering the limit and dumping it on the police is inappropriate,” he said.

Campaigners say evidence from Portsmouth and elsewhere shows strong public support for 20 mph limits, with up to 80% of residents backing the change. They say complaints from motorists that their fuel consumption and their journey times will rise steeply are based on myth.

But independent researchers say the public view on lower limits is characterised by what they call chronic Jimbyism (“just in my backyard”). Lower speed limits are popular, but compliance is low.

Road safety policy in the UK is traditionally driven by the goal of reducing the figures for KSI (killed and seriously injured). So what happens if cutting the speed limit actually increases casualty figures rather than reducing them? Campaigners say this hasn’t happened, but it is hard to rule out the possibility that a surge in walking and cycling on roads previously dominated by cars might send the casualty count upwards, at least in absolute terms.

“The number of cycling injuries has to be measured against the number of miles cycled,” Norman Baker told the conference. “The relationship between the two gives you the true picture.” Advocates for cyclists and pedestrians point out that road casualty rates would immediately fall to zero for both groups if nobody ever rode a bike or walked. Not even Jeremy Clarkson is advocating that. So if the government wants more people to engage in “active travel”, it must therefore be prepared for a higher level of risk.

Erica Leerhsen Erika Christensen Estella Warren Esther Cañadas Eva Green

Perfection can be boring so ditch the decorator, Deborah Needleman says, and embrace your family’s (bad) taste

Idislike homes that look too perfect and unlived-in. But embracing imperfection does not mean anything goes ? it means realising that a house needs signs of life. When I was growing up, my home was neat and attractive, but it had no soul: no memento was ever brought back from holiday, no flowers ever stuck in a vase. So here are 10 simple ways to give yours a bit more personality.

Jollify

Jollifiers are sentimental bits that mean something to you or remind you of a happy time. They require no skill, no complicated understanding of colour, texture or composition. You just set them out and they exude their subtle power: notes from friends, seashells picked up on holiday, or something given to you by a friend.

? and mollify

Mollifiers are things that might offend your aesthetic sensibility but make someone you live with happy. Items could include, say, noisy plastic weapons (my son), posters of tweens tacked on the wall (my daughter) and a collection of framed anarchist posters from the Spanish civil war (my husband). It’s best if not everything in your home is of impeccable taste, anyway.

Children’s art

I once saw a Cy Twombly-esque framed scribble that fitted perfectly above the fireplace where it was hung. With children’s expressionistic scrawls, a little goes a long way. Think of small children as in-house artists: easy to commission by subject, occasion or colour. Give their artwork a good spot or a nice frame.

Short of space

No room for a dining table? That’s no excuse not to have people over. A friend has some of the liveliest dinner parties, and yet her apartment is so small there’s not even a place to eat breakfast. Instead, some people sit around the coffee table, some perch on the sofa, plates on laps, and others sit on the rug. It’s amazing how social stiffness flies out of the window when someone’s butt is on the ground.

An odd chair

This is not primarily for sitting ? it’s more like a piece of sculpture in the shape of a chair. A solitary chair can hold a stack of books, a bunch of flowers, magazines or a lamp, and so acts more like an occasional table than a seat. It can even be used as a chair, if needed.

Not too many pillows

There are two kinds of pillow in a bedroom: the ones you use and the ones that end up on the floor. One or two, maybe three decorative pillows can work, but after that a bed starts to look like a department store showroom and requires its own staff to manage it each night. I understand the instinct to break up the boring landscape of a bed’s surface, but a small throw pillow or two will suffice.

The cardinal rules of furniture

One, get it off the wall ? to encourage conversation, move your big piece into the centre of the room (this will also make it feel larger). Two, don’t get a matching set: your armchairs should not be the same as your sofa. And three, arrange chairs so they “talk” ? not everything around the coffee table should be at right angles. Like people, chairs want to “look” at each other.

Something unexpected

Every home needs something a little surprising to lift it out of the mundane ? for instance, a picture hung below eye level, a slash of colour in a cupboard, or a chandelier set over a plain, rustic table, which has greater impact than if it were hung above an equally ornate table.

Go mad in the hall

An over-the-top wallpaper or a bold paint in a room you spend a lot of time in, such as a bedroom or living room, can get tiresome very quickly. But a room you don’t linger in, such as a hallway or a small bathroom, can handle a bright, patterned wallpaper or an unexpected colour. So be brave.

Embrace age

Understand the virtues of patina, faded fabric, peeling paint, soft down upholstery and old chintz. A home with no sense of history, where everything is new and perfect, has no sense of life. It seems dreadfully claustrophobic and airless. So open the windows and let in the air and the world.

? The Perfectly Imperfect Home, by Deborah Needleman, is published by Jacqui Small at £20. To order a copy for £14 with free UK mainland p&p, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.

Grace Park Gretha Cavazzoni Gwen Stefani Halle Berry Hayden Panettiere

? Click here for step by step directions
? Click here for our interactive map of all the walks

Distance 5.5 miles (7.8km)
Classification Moderate
Duration 2 hours 45 minutes
Begins The stable block, Killerton
OS grid reference SS976001

Walk in a nutshell
A figure-of-eight-shaped ramble through some fabulously picturesque Devon countryside. The whole route is a relatively long walk but the ground you cover is fairly flat and undemanding. You’ll also get the chance to nose around some of Killerton’s traditional orchards, whose apples, and the cider made from them, have become a great success in recent years. You’ll get a real taste of the West Country.

Why it’s special
Cider’s fortunes have waxed and waned over the centuries, with most orchards in England having been lost since the second world war. Yet the tradition lives on at Killerton where row upon row of fruit trees provide a marvellous sight. Here you’ll find 58 acres of orchards, producing 98 different apple varieties, two of which ? the Killerton Sweet and the Killerton Sharp ? are unique to this estate. Cider and chutney are available to buy from the shop, along with the estate’s own flour and honey. There’s also a farmers’ market once a month.

Keep your eyes peeled for
The thatched yellow cottage in Budlake was the village’s post office until the 1950s, and has been preserved as a museum of village life. Look out for its pigsty and its double-seated privy. On the second half of the walk you’ll also pass the magnificent Killerton chapel. Built in 1841 for Sir Thomas Acland and his wife Lydia, with the estate’s volcanic stone, it was inspired by the Norman chapel at Glastonbury. The bell used to be rung to sound the start and finish of each working day on the estate.

Recover afterwards
The stylish Killerton Kitchen restaurant serves lunch and tea, made from fresh local and homegrown produce. If you happen to arrive on the first Wednesday of the month, you can get a two-course evening meal for £10 (call 01392 881345 to book). Otherwise, the stable block tearoom serves drinks and a delicious range of homemade cakes and snacks.

If it’s tipping down
You’ll find that there’s quite a bit to keep you occupied inside Killerton House itself, which holds a fine collection of paintings, furniture, ceramics and costumes as well as dressing-up sessions for children ? which might provide just enough entertainment to weather a short storm. Alternatively, head to Exeter to visit the magnificent Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery (rammuseum.org.uk), which opens every day except Mondays and bank holidays.

How to get there
By train to Pinhoe (except Sundays), which is 4.5 miles away. Or there’s Whimple at 6 miles or Exeter Central or St David’s at 7 miles. Get a bus from Exeter to Tiverton, alighting at Killerton Turn, which is just under a mile from the house.

1 Starting from the drive in front of the stable block archway facing Killerton House, take the paved path leading uphill to your right past the stable block and head through the gate into the chapel grounds.

2 Fork left towards the chapel.

3 Carry on along the left side of the chapel and take the steps beyond, down towards the road and the houses, turning left on to the drive running parallel to the road.

4 Go left through the gate and then through a second gate in the far right corner, turning left into the parkland. Continue straight ahead keeping the hedge to your right all the way through Deer Park and Back Park, until you reach the car park at Ellerhayes bridge.

5 Turn left on to the track at the car park fence and follow it around the perimeter of the wood.

6 Crossing the cattle grid continue along the drive through the woods.

7 Cross another cattle grid and leave the woodland to travel around the edge of the fields.

8 Keep following the drive as it heads back into woodland and reaches a T-junction. Turn left on to the farm track and walk for about half a mile to reach its end.

9 Turn left here and follow the track until you come to the gate on your right, leading back into the park and towards Killerton House.

10 Going through the gate, make your way past the house to pick up the main drive beyond and walk back down it to the stable block.

11 From the front of the stable block walk a few metres to your left along the tarmac drive and go through the wooden kissing gate into Front Park. Turn left and make your way to the metal gate in the corner beyond the yellow gate lodge.

12 Going through the gate, cross the road and continue along the old drive ahead, following it down to go through the gate by Budlake old post office.

13 At the post office turn right on to the road and follow it over the M5 bridge. Cross the road and almost immediately, on the left hand side a set of steps leads down through trees to a path through fields.

14 Go through the gate at the bottom of the steps and follow the path as it heads left, back towards the motorway. Go straight across the track which crosses your path in the field to the road beyond.

15 Cross the road to the lane immediately opposite and follow this to the brow of the hill where the right-hand fork will take you to a gate that leads into woodland.

16 Go through this gate. You’ll reach a second straight ahead. Take the left-hand path through the kissing gate and follow it as it curves to your right to another leading into an orchard. Go through the kissing gate beyond that and through the gate in the far boundary of the next orchard. The next gate is in the right-hand corner of the far boundary. Then your path travels over a boardwalk and some steps to an open enclosure bounded on each of its four sides by a gate.

17 Go through the one straight ahead and follow the path through the wood until it curves around to another gate on your right leading into a field.

18 Go through and follow the path steeply downhill, crossing the field to the gate in the boundary by the road, some distance to the right.

19 Going through the gate and crossing the road, turn left on to the road beyond and take the shortcut footpath on your right a moment later, turning right on to the next road a few metres further on. Ignoring the left-hand lane leading to Newhall a little way beyond, carry on along the road and follow the track at the end, back on to the road over the motorway. Turn left retracing your steps through Sparrow Park and into Front Park and back to the stable block at the start of the walk.

Brooke Burke Brooke Burns Busy Philipps Cameron Diaz Cameron Richardson

I’m on vacation for a couple of weeks and away from our kitchen. So I will be posting a few recipes from the archives, like this lemon poppyseed muffin recipe, originally posted in 2007. Hope everyone is having a fabulous Easter! ~Elise

I love lemon poppy seed muffins. This recipe is based on the same Cook’s Illustrated master muffin recipe on which I based our blueberry and lemon ginger muffins. The balance of flour, leavening, eggs and yogurt results in a light and fluffy muffin. The important things to remember with making these muffins is to make sure your baking powder is no older than 6 months (it may not work if older), and to not over-mix the batter.

Continue reading “Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins” »

Alicia Keys Alicia Witt Amanda Bynes Amanda Detmer Amanda Marcum

The company will continue to have a presence in Harlow, but much of the production is being transferred to Willowbridge Labels, operating from Rougham, near Bury St Edmunds under the control of MD Karl Seeley.

Richard Blackwell will continue in the employment of the company for an agreed period and hopes then to enjoy his well-earned retirement, with his wife Carol who fulfilled an admin role in the company.

There will be no job losses, and hopefully jobs will be created in due course at Willowbridge as their operation expands.

Source: The Denny Bros Group

Related articles

• Accraply acquires Turpins Packaging Group 17 APR 2012 | Labelling
• Multi-?Color acquires UK spirit and wine label specialist 14 MAR 2012 | Alcohol

Brittny Gastineau Brody Dalle Brooke Burke Brooke Burns Busy Philipps

Yesterday I got the rare chance to visit a decent Asian grocer. And I bought a few packets of ddeok and a 2kg tub of gochujang (red pepper paste).
So I made ddeokbokki with noodles this afternoon.

On the spiciness scale, it fell somewhere between Dear-god-it-burns-I-don’t-think-I’ll-survive-this-go-on-without-me and Completely Inedible.

I want to add something to dilute the strength of the chilli. I thought about just adding more water and less gochujang, but that will make the sauce quite watery; I’d like to avoid affecting the consistency (and flavour) of the ddeokbokki sauce as much as possible.
So what can I add ?
Ketchup ? A tomato-based pasta-type sauce ?
Any suggestions ?

Amerie Amy Cobb Amy Smart Ana Beatriz Barros Ana Hickmann

Global warming threatens the future of Peru’s poorest coffee farmers, but one brand thinks it has found an answer on the financial markets

In the foothills of the Andes, in the Sierra Piura region of Peru, the problems faced by coffee farmers are clear. Up to 6,600 farmers produce here for the Central Piurana de Cafetaleros co-operative (Cepicafe), growing 4,000 tonnes a year of the finest Peruvian coffee on family plots scattered across the mountainside. Together, year in, year out, they bring in this special harvest, the arabica coffee cherries, which are painstakingly picked by hand, processed and dried in the sun.

However, thanks to “weather change”, a continual topic of conversation in the area, the harvest is unpredictable. Last year, there was too little rain in the region. This year there has been a deluge: in some areas an increase of 500% on the “norm”.

“I still think coffee is worthwhile,” says 47-year-old Gusto Regis. “It’s not yet as bad as 1983.” That was when the El Niño weather system hit, and landslides and flooding drove his family away to find work labouring in an adjoining region. “Of course we had no land and no money so we needed to come back. I don’t know what we would do if we had to leave again.”

In the neighbouring village, Alejandro Reyes Ruiz talks his co-farmers through a giant diagram he has drawn explaining likely “weather changes”. Paul Santos Santos, 24, a trainee teacher, sings an instructive song about climate and coffee. I explain that where I’m from not everybody thinks that climate change exists. “They should come here and try to grow coffee,” Alejandro says.

Peru is rated among the top three nations likely to be most affected by climate change in the world by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia.

In the Sierra Piura there have been many efforts to adapt, from the installation of a pulley system that takes coffee sacks across swollen rivers to fortifications for the local reservoir which have prevented two low-lying villages from being wiped out in a flash flood. But as the uncertainties grow, so will the bill for tackling them.

A report published today by the UK’s leading ethical hot drinks brand Cafédirect (Cepicafe is one of its suppliers) warns that the effects of climate change on arabica production are likely to lead to worldwide shortages and an exodus from coffee growing by small-scale producers. However the company, which was formed 21 years ago to protect small-scale producers from poverty after the collapse of the coffee price, has come up with a potential game changer: a unique way of playing the carbon market to the advantage of the poor that will fund long-term strategies to adapt to climate change.

Up in the Choco region, at an elevation of 3,100m, subsistence farmers ? their lineage part Inca, part Spanish conquistador ? are unexpectedly trading on the carbon market. In the village the air is full of the smell of wood stoves, which gives a clue as to Choco’s big environmental problem: deforestation. As “weather change” hits, the deforestation has exacerbated flash flooding. There is simply no buffer in Choco any longer and the coffee farmers 2,000m below are in danger of being wiped out as a consequence.

“Of course we approached the carbon market cautiously as it doesn’t have the best reputation and there was absolutely no blueprint,” said Wolfgang Weinmann, head of strategic development at Cafédirect, who for a decade farmed coffee in Ecuador. Carbon-credit schemes are more associated with turbo-charged financial markets looking for a quick buck than the poor on the frontline, but as Cafédirect has worked with local non-governmental organisations, notably Progreso, they have built confidence.

In the nursery that nurtures the pine saplings that represent the first phase of reforestation (the next round will be native trees), it seems they might just have found a workable system that links the poor to the carbon market. For every tonne of carbon captured by the newly planted trees the community receives a carbon credit; later these can be sold on the global market to the benefit of the community. In practice, Cafédirect encourages partners along the supply chain to buy credits, such as Dublin-based Bewley’s which roasts the coffee.

Cafédirect’s report warns that the major multinational coffee retailers and brands must take urgent action too. This will be hard for multinationals to achieve without major change. Unlike Cafédirect, the big players do not have a relationship with their suppliers, as even fair trade beans are bought anonymously at market. Nothing short of a coffee industry revolution will protect the livelihoods of 25 million small-scale producers who produce 75% of high-quality coffee.

If Cafédirect’s project succeeds it could provide a blueprint for indigenous communities all over the world.

Peru’s vice president, Marisol Espinoza, said: “Climate change is a huge worry for us in Peru and we hope this initiative in Sierra Piura can be rolled out to other regions too. It is so important because Peruvian coffee is special. It protects biodiversity, and it’s about development of whole communities. It also has an amazing aroma and taste. That’s the taste of social justice.”

Back in Piura, at the coffee-processing plant ? which exported 161,000 quintals (7,400 tonnes) of top-quality green coffee last year all over the world ? they are gearing up for quality checks. They are acutely aware that in the international coffee market the “taste of social justice” does not necessarily cut it.

“Luckily, we have amazing quality too,” beams the factory manager.

In a few weeks the harvest should begin arriving from the mountain. The fight is on to make sure it continues.

Cheryl Burke China Chow Chloë Sevigny Christina Aguilera Christina Applegate

Making a quick java break before class, Sarah Michelle Gellar was spotted taking her adorable daughter Charlotte to ballet on Saturday afternoon (May 12) in Studio City, CA.

The mommy-daughter duo was cute as could be as the 35-year-old actress sported a pretty pink sundress and dressed her two-year-old daughter in a black tutu with motorcycle boots.

In career news, the ?Buffy the Vampire Slayer? star recently learned that her newest show ?Ringer? has been cancelled after only one season.

The show?s creator Pam Veasey spoke out to The Hollywood Reporter and said, ?It was not, I guess you could use the word “accessible. [If we did it again] we’d make it more accessible for people who just drop in, probably do less in an episode. And what I mean by that is make it less complex in the plotting.?

Busy Philipps Cameron Diaz Cameron Richardson Camilla Belle Carla Campbell

Geoff Beattie has always loved running. His son Ben loathed it. But after years of acrimony and estrangement, it was running that brought them back together, writes Patrick Barkham.
Plus, read an extract from their candid memoir

Geoff and Ben Beattie are not the world’s most obvious father and son. Geoff, a celebrity academic best known as the Big Brother psychologist, is short and muscular, with a California tan and the cheery, eager-to-please, fast-talking demeanour of a TV personality. Ben is tall, slender and reserved, and works in a bank.

They are so different that people occasionally mistake them for a gay couple, particularly when demonstrative Geoff lavishes his son with kisses.

Geoff and Ben share one important attribute: they are both runners. This is not simply a passion passed from father to son like a baton in a relay ? it is a shared state of being. And running has brought them together again after nearly a decade in which Ben refused to speak to the father he could not bear to be around.

Geoff began running as a child growing up in what was called the “murder triangle” in north Belfast. When he ran across the peace line ? betraying the fact that he was a Protestant ? gangs would hurl bricks at him.

Told by a teacher he came from the gutter and would end up back there, this driven, ambitious Ulsterman set about proving them wrong: after studying at Cambridge University, he became a lecturer at Sheffield. By day, he taught psychology; by night, he hung out with bare-knuckle fighters, burglars and call girls, writing features about the underbelly of northern England under Margaret Thatcher for the Guardian.

All the time, Geoff ran. What is the longest period he has gone without a run? “I run every day,” he replies, as if it’s a silly question, when I meet father and son in Manchester. “I don’t do rest days. I have to do it.”

In Chasing Lost Times, the running memoir Geoff has written with Ben, they explain all the reasons they run. Mostly, it keeps them happy, balanced, on track. “To me running feels like some sort of self-correction process,” writes Geoff. “It pulls me back to the real me.”

Other reasons to run include connecting with childhood (Geoff), being with Dad (Ben), and less positive compulsions including guilt, fear, competitiveness and vanity. But Ben, who is 29, returned to running six years ago for a specific, vengeful reason: he wanted to take something away from his dad. “I could never take away his academic qualifications or his money but I could take away his achievements in running,” he writes. The eldest son was desperate to beat his father.

Running was a battleground when Ben was growing up in their home in a converted asylum on the moors above Sheffield. Family meals were delayed so Geoff could run. Ben wanted to stay in the warm but his dad would beg him to come, and then speed off, leaving his son shivering or lost on the moors. One time, Ben deliberately fell into a snowdrift in the hope it would halt their run; Geoff ploughed on.

Geoff was putting more than running ahead of his three children with Carol, his teenage sweetheart from Belfast, who also became a psychologist. One day, trying to catch a train, Carol fell on to the track and slipped under the wheels. Her arm had to be amputated. After the accident, Geoff had his first of many affairs.

When Ben was 17, he discovered the secret at the heart of their family. His father’s frequent absences were not just philandering. Geoff had a second family ? two children with a long-term girlfriend. Ben remembers his younger brother asking where Dad went on Christmas Day. Carol knew but, according to Geoff, asked him not to tell the children.

“From my point of view it’s a completely no-win situation because you’re leaving one set of kids and they are feeling awful and you’re going to another set of kids and they are feeling awful,” he says. “You’re just stuck. It’s a ludicrous position to get into but it happens. I’m sure I’m not the first. It was just an awful, awful situation.”

Ben was furious about how his father treated his mother. “I’ve got so much admiration for her ? I just thought: why?” he says. Geoff moved to Manchester, where he took a new job, but continued to spend weekends at the family home. Ben avoided his dad. If Geoff entered a room, Ben left. For a decade they never spent any time alone together. Geoff feared ? rightly ? that his eldest son despised him.

“My goal was to be nothing like him at all,” says Ben. He stopped running, dropped out of university and became a bar manager. Increasingly unhappy, he found himself living near his dad again. They met for a few tentative lunches and Ben decided to run a 10km race and beat his dad. Unfit from drinking and smoking, he was overtaken by his dad with 2km to go.

Geoff laughs uproariously at the memory. Is this Competitive Dad delight? “No, no, no, no, no,” chuckles Geoff. “It’s only funny because he is so good now. The weird thing is that I don’t feel that competitive about running at all. Ben’s mum is very competitive; he’s really competitive.”

“I think you are competitive,” says Ben softly.

Originally they intended the book to cover the psychology of running (Geoff’s field) and the physical challenge (Ben’s bit). But Ben, who now runs twice a day and more than 100 miles a week, found he couldn’t write about his return to running without explaining why.

Geoff is as open and self-reflective as any psychologist but it was only Ben’s challenge “to come clean” that made Geoff decide to write about “this other life”, as he calls it. “Ben wasn’t happy talking about it, so we had boxed it off. Through the book we opened a conduit through which we could say how we felt,” says Geoff.

Even then, he admits, “I glide a little bit over stuff”; when Ben read a draft chapter that included a sentence that said perhaps Geoff “had his reasons” for the affairs, he exploded and told his dad he had to face up to what he had done.

For the first time, through the book, Ben told his dad he had almost hated him. “In some senses it’s reassuring to hear that,” admits Geoff. “I seemed to make Ben very angry because I have this way of going through life ? it’s just a persona to get through life ? but it really pisses Ben off. Is that true?”

“Yeah. He’s quite a tiring person to be around,” says Ben gently.

Chasing Lost Times certainly illuminates the emotional lives of a father and son. There is one perspective missing, however: the mother and wife. One day nearly 10 years ago, Carol took an injured Geoff to the gym so he could exercise. She was so bored that she stepped on to a treadmill. She now races and regularly wins her categories.

With Geoff living in Manchester and Carol in Sheffield, I assume they are divorced. “No, we’re still married,” says Geoff. “She’s my running partner on a Sunday. So we go to races most weekends. We spend a lot of time together.” Are they still together or are they single? “Who knows? You tell me,” says Geoff lightly.

“It’s complicated,” says Ben.

“It’s complicated,” nods Geoff.

One of the most searingly honest passages in the book is Geoff’s account of a race last summer when he spotted Carol not far behind him. His one goal, he admits, was to increase his distance from her. “I pictured Carol back in university, trailing along after me on the way into the department,” he wrote. “She had followed me to England, she had followed me into psychology and here she was following me in the mud in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain.”

Carol is “ludicrously competitive”, says Geoff now. Later, with less ebullience, he admits she is “not a fan” of the book and was “nervous” about its very personal revelations.

“There’s obviously a lot in it that’s difficult for us to read, and it’s difficult for her to read,” says Ben.

Geoff admits that Carol is “absolutely core” to their story. “You could not have more admiration for a woman ? I don’t want to get too emotional,” he says, as his eyes redden. “She never makes any excuses about life. She never did. She brought up three kids. One arm. She is a fucking amazing woman. I’ve never changed my views on that. Unfortunately I did what I did, and for complicated reasons.”

Geoff’s explanation is that he was mourning the death of his brother, and his father, who died when he was 13, and “clearly needed someone to talk to”. He didn’t talk to Carol; he would have been “ashamed” to offload on her when she was dealing with the loss of a limb and so he found people to talk to through the affairs. “Honest to God, I’m saying that was my mechanism. It sounds …” he tails off. “But she is a remarkable woman, there is no question about that, and the kids grew up with a remarkable mother and she is remarkable with me, actually, still.”

What sort of father does Geoff think he has been? Unusually, there is a long pause. “When Ben was growing up, I was so aware there were a million and one things I wasn’t doing ? ferrying the kids around. Carol did all that stuff. In that sense, I was an awful father. But I have certain qualities. I don’t give up ? Carol always described me as irrepressible ? I can deal with major stuff. If part of being a good father is passing that stuff on to my kids then that’s what I’ve done, which is positive.”

Geoff hoped the book would bring about a full reconciliation with Ben but by its end admits they are not there yet. Where would they put their relationship now? “On a 10-point scale?” volunteers Geoff.

“Eight,” says Ben.

“That sounds about right,” chuckles Geoff. “Before it was about two.” He looks across, a little anxiously, at Ben. “It was really bad.”

Is the book Geoff asking for forgiveness from his eldest son? “I want to come across as a carefree guy who doesn’t give a shit but, actually, I come from an Ulster Protestant background. I have terrible, terrible guilt. I suppose a book like this is an attempt to say, this is what happened, this is my only explanation. Is it a plea for forgiveness? I would say it was. I would say it had to be.”

Has he asked Carol for forgiveness? There is another long pause. “I haven’t, no,” he halts again. “I’ve said to her a million times, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry things happened like this, I’m sorry I wasn’t different.’ But I don’t think that’s quite the same really. I suppose I can’t say, ‘Can you forgive me?’ because I’d be too frightened of her replying, ‘No, I can’t.’”

The three of them, Geoff, Carol and Ben, go running together. “I’m sure people think it’s strange when the three of us rock up at a race,” says Ben. After knocking more than 10 minutes off his dad’s best ever (1hr 26min) half-marathon time, Ben hopes to run a half-marathon in less than 70 minutes. Geoff, fresh from winning three prizes at races in California, hopes to set a new personal best time in the 10km. Both men worry about Carol, whose own pursuit of records has led her to collapse at several recent events.

Ben is more willing these days to recognise what he shares with his dad. “Apart from a nose, that dedication, that single-mindedness and that willingness to prioritise one thing. For me it’s running. For you,” he says, turning to his dad, “it’s your career over everything else.”

Ben has also become more tolerant of his father since he’s made his own mistakes. “I was quite a judgmental child. I thought everything should be a certain way,” he says. “As I’ve got older I’ve realised you can get into situations not of your own doing. Things happen, things spiral.”

Has Ben forgiven his father? Now it’s his turn to pause. “I probably have but at the same time there’s this nagging thought at the back of my mind ? it’s not me that needs to forgive. There are other people and they are still angry, and I still hold a little bit of resentment on their behalf.”

? Chasing Lost Times. A Father and Son Reconciled Through Running by Geoff Beattie and Ben Beattie is published by Mainstream, priced £11.99. To order a copy for £9.59, including free UK p&p, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846

Book extract: ‘I was close to hating my dad ? he made me so angry’

Ben: Looking back now, I cannot ever imagine hating my dad but there was a time when I must have come close. I didn’t want to see him or speak to him. I didn’t even like to hear his name mentioned.

I would fantasise about a time when I would be stronger and I could hurt him, he made me so angry.

My resentment didn’t centre on myself or even my brother and sister but on the treatment of my mum. In my mind, she could and can do no wrong and didn’t deserve such rotten treatment and disrespect. So I would imagine a time when I would be able to beat him ? literally.

In hindsight, maybe becoming a better runner than him was my way to prove my manhood and at the same time take something away from him. I could never take away his academic qualifications or his money but I could take away his achievements in running; achievements that he was incredibly proud of.

After beating my dad in a head-to-head race, the next obvious target to focus on was my dad’s personal bests. This drove me forward.

Geoff: I had never been with anybody else but after [Carol's] accident I had an affair. It wasn’t difficult; the girl made all the approaches and she knew that I was married. We were both in our early to mid-20s.

In retrospect, I think that the sex for me was a mechanism to get close enough to someone to open up to them. This must be one of the best excuses ever, laughable to some, but quite true; at least, that’s how it felt. Today, I can’t remember the sex, or any excitement or any real desire, but I can remember lying in a bed with dank, cheap, blue sheets, with little bits of silver jewellery on the sideboard, and talking about Bill and Carol and my mother, and fragments of my life in Belfast, and feeling much better for it. Very guilty but better inside. I’m not, after all, the kind of person who could go to a counsellor or a psychologist; they’d probably know me for a start.

I can remember the Human League playing in the background, something about a crow and a baby having an affair. “A new band from Sheffield,” she explained. “I know the singer.”

The whole thing was also, of course, unforgivable and Carol never really did forgive me when she found out, which she did almost immediately. She said that at one level we were finished, but I felt she needed me and I certainly needed her. We thought a family would bring us closer together; soon afterwards our wonderful daughter Zoe was born and Carol’s life changed dramatically again, but this time for the better.

I felt I could never leave her; I loved her too much, and I respected her more than anybody in the world. I still do, but there are many other layers of emotion in there as well now, not surprisingly.

Christina DaRe Christina Milian Christina Ricci Chyler Leigh Ciara

My dad and I snuck out of the house without telling anyone where we were going. He grabbed his camera, I grabbed my camera, and we tippy-toed out the door. We decided we would go explore the little neighborhoods that surround my hometown, Amorebieta, where life seems to stand still.

I rolled down the window, rested my head on my arm, and took in a deep breath of that spring cold air. The landscape seemed almost painted — blue sky and the greenest grass.

I turned my head and noticed a big grin on my dad’s face. “The sheep are out” he said.

And that was it — I knew what I had come for.

Every time I go back home there seems to be a purpose to my visit. It is never clear of what that might be when I first arrive, but as we settle into our routine, a theme always appears — almost as if I had an impeding mission. A void I must fill. With time I have learned that I need soil and dirt in my life.

When I set foot in Basque land, all I want to do is run for the hills. And so I did, and there they were — the sheep and the newborn lambs that were taking over the landscape and feeding on this painted-like grass. It was a beautiful thing.

That morning my dad and I drove to San Migel, only a couple of miles from where I went to school.

“They make really good sheep’s milk cheese in this house” he said. My heart skipped a beat and I quickly asked him to stop. “Then we must get some milk from them!” I replied in a rush.

I had been thinking about mamia for days, almost to the point of an obsession. I think you might have noticed from all the references I have made to it lately. Mamia is almost a cheese-like product. A curd made with ewe’s milk and rennet. Simple yes, but when the milk is fresh, it can be the most delightful, naturally sweet, and creamy dessert. Ask any Basque and you shall see. I have tried to recreate it in the US to no avail. It is all about the milk.

We knocked on their door.

The farmhouse is old, almost decrepit, but a family still lives there raising sheep and making cheese just like generations passed. I love that – such a romantic notion, isn’t it?

A tall, rosy-cheeked man came to the door. He greeted my dad with the cordiality of an old customer. He was paused and spoke Basque with a gentle voice. Such a contrast to my hyper excitement, of one who only gets to savor these moments once a year. “This is a daily affair for him” I thought to myself.

When we asked about the milk, he explained they had run out. “You have to come before eleven o’clock in the morning or it will all be gone”.

“Even with the 600 sheep you have?” I asked surprised.

“Yes, the milk we don’t use for making cheese is sold in a matter of a couple of hours. Chefs and cooks alike come early” he explained.

We thanked him and decided to return the next morning for more. This time we would bring Jon and Miren along.

They were in for a treat.

The next morning after breakfast, we returned to the farm for the coveted sheep’s milk. He was not kidding. We were greeted by a line of people waiting to get their share of the freshly-milked goodness — almost like a pilgrimage, I thought.

While my dad waited, I steered the kids towards the barn. It was cold and too early for the sheep to be out. There they lied, close to one another, mothers with their newborns. What a sight that was. As we later learned, three of them had just been born a couple of hours earlier. Bloody umbilical cords still hanging and covered in amniotic fluid.

I held one of them in my arms. “Most people are afraid of them” said the matriarch of the house. I shook my head. Not me. I love sheep- always have. Jon and Miren gathered around me unsure of what they were witnessing, but they quickly warmed up to the newborn lamb.

We watched them make some cheese that morning and took a stroll around the neighborhood. The apple trees were not yet blooming but it was definitely spring in the Basque Country.

Back at my parents’, my mom gently simmered the raw milk. It smelled like my childhood.

We had mamia for dessert when both my brothers and their families came over for lunch. Drizzled with raw honey and walnuts is how I like it.

“I think I will make a tart with it” I said to my mom. As it turns-out, our schedules didn’t allow it, but when I returned back to the US, I made a custard tart inspired by that day. Sheep’s milk yogurt, raw honey, vanilla bean, and a bit of lemon make the creamiest tart.

The days that followed were spent taking walks, hiking to Santuario de la Virgen de Oro, spending time with friends, cooking with my mom, and visiting my uncle Javi’s sheep and his fruitful garden. His plum and peach trees were already blooming and his citrus trees plentiful.

It was anchovy season for Basque fishermen and we indulged everyday. Quickly fried in garlic-infused olive oil, they are such a treat that I miss living away. It was a pleasure to see Jon and Miren enjoy fish as much as I do- such a staple in Basque cuisine.

“Arraine (fish)” Miren would say when asked what she wanted for lunch. Made us smile.

Marinated anchovies, salad of shaved carrots and fennel with sorrel and watercress. rabbit stew, pea and potato soup… all foods of spring.

We had amazing spring weather during our entire trip, which is not to be taken lightly because spring can be quite unpredictable in the Basque Country. Just a few days before we arrived, snow had covered some of the nearby mountains.

“The trees will start blooming soon then” I exclaimed with optimism.

First plum and cherry trees, then apples will follow.

On a sunny Saturday morning, we drove to the valley of Etxauri. This is fertile land where endless rows of cherry trees paint the landscape. The blooms are to be admired from afar and up close. Fluffy, white petals that almost look like snow.

Wheat grass surrounds the cherry trees. Soft and tall. I had forgotten how soft the grass in the Basque Country is. The kids hid in the fields and ran free.

That afternoon we visited Urdiain, a small but beautiful town where we used to spend our summer holidays when we were kids. We walked around the grove where we used to set up camp and the hundred-year old oak trees where we played.

There were trips to the beach of Laga with salmon and pea shoot tarts and a stop for ice cream on the way home.

During these visits to see my parents, we rarely eat out. We cook at home with the abundant fresh ingredients available and restaurants are saved for special occasions.

This time however, I was thrilled to join my aunt Aran (I was named after her, yes) for a farm to table lunch at Boroa. I will share that day on another post but I came back home completely inspired by that meal of tiny shelled favas, a perfectly poached egg and shaved truffle. Simple yes? But perfectly executed.

Inspired by that dish, I made a spring panzanella salad with English peas, soft-cooked quail eggs, and chive blossoms in a lemon and chive vinaigrette.

It was perfect.

And I leave you with these images and these recipes that made our time away special.

“I missed the sheep” said Miren when we returned to Florida.

“Me too, me too” I replied.

I really did.

Sheep’s Milk Yogurt and Honey Tart

makes a 9-inch tart

Tart crust

2/3 cup (90 g) superfine brown rice flour
1/4 cup (35 g) millet flour
1/4 cup (25 g) almond flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon natural cane sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (110 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Combine the first six ingredients in the food processor. Pulse to aerate. Add the butter and pulse until it is the size of peas. Add 3 tablespoons of ice water and pulse until it comes together. It will not form a ball. Press the dough between your fingers to see if it comes together. Add more ice water if needed.

Transfer dough to a cold surface. Knead a couple of times, form into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and flatten it. Refrigerate the dough for an hour.

Dust your cold surface with some superfine brown rice flour. Roll your dough to 1/8-inch thickness. If it cracks, pinch it back together. If it’s too cold it tends to crack so you can let it come to temperature for a few minutes.

Fill your 9-inch tart pan with the dough and cut off excess. Refrigerate the tart dough for 30 minutes.

Filling

1/4 cup (50 g) natural cane sugar
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
3 eggs
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
1 cup (250 ml) sheep’s milk yogurt or mamia
1/2 cup (125 ml) heavy cream
1 tablespoon raw honey

Preheat oven to 350F (180C).

In a bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together to release the lemon oils. Add the eggs and whisk until combined. Add the cornstarch and vanilla seeds and whisk until lump free. Add the yogurt, heavy cream, and honey and whisk until smooth.

Dock the bottom of the tart dough. Pour the yogurt mixture into the tart and bake for 45 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown and the center is set.

Let the tart cool for a few minutes before cutting. Serve warm or at room temperature.

English Pea, Quail Egg and Chive Blossom Panzanella

If you don’t have chive blossoms, you can simply use some finely chopped chives or very thinly sliced red onion. It is all about getting the onion flavor in the salad.

serves 4 to 6

1 pound (450 g) shelled English peas
12 quail eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup (85 ml) olive oil
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Juice 1 lemon
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
1 tablespoon lemon thyme leaves
Salt
Black pepper
4 or 5 slices of multigrain gluten-free bread, toasted and broken into pieces
4 chive blossoms
1 ounce Idiazabal or Manchego cheese, shaved

In a medium sauce pan, bring water to a boil over high heat. Season with a generous amount of salt. Add the shelled peas and cook them for 4 to 5 minutes depending on the size until they are al dente. We don’t want them mushy. Immediately, remove them from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and submerge them in a bowl of ice water and let them cool. Drain them well and reserve.

Continue to boil the water in the pan. Gently add the quail eggs being careful not to crack them. Reduce heat to medium so that water continues to boil but not too rapidly. Cook the eggs for 2 minutes. Immediately remove them from the boiling water and submerge them in a bowl of ice water until they cool. Peel them and reserve.

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, chives, thyme leaves, salt, and pepper. Add the blanched peas, bread, and chive blossoms. Toss the salad so that the bread is coated in the dressing. Let the salad rest for 10 minutes. Top with the quail eggs and shaved cheese. Serve immediately.

Aki Ross Alecia Elliott Alessandra Ambrosio Alexis Bledel Ali Campoverdi

Firstly, Virgin, via its Virgin Green Fund investment arm, announced a new partnership with Strauss Water, best known for its Tami 4 mains-fed water coolers which are omnipresent in Israel and beginning to take a larger market share in the UK.

The Virgin-Strauss Water venture will market, sell and service water products, including home water dispensers and office water coolers. The water will be purified using Strauss? environmentally friendly technology. The brand will launch in the UK this year with plans to expand across Europe.

Virgin is so confident in the new partnership that’s has hired probably Britain?s most iconic advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi, to build a campaign for the new launch. It will be very interesting to see how this develops and how far a major marketing budget can go in bringing about real change in the consumers’ mindset.

The second major announcement was the new equal partnership between major filtration firm Brita and drinking water systems company Vivreau, a big step for both companies in terms of moving into new markets and customer spheres.

These companies have a lot in common: both started out as family businesses from scratch and worked their way up to the top. Commenting on the partnership at the time, Markus Hankammer, CEO of Brita, said: ?We have similar corporate cultures and both regard our products as an ecologically meaningful alternative to bottled mineral water. Most importantly, our product ranges and target groups are complementary and we have a first-class offering for our global audience.?

While Brita is perhaps best known for residential filtration systems (although it has partnered with water cooler companies such as Eden Springs for commercial systems), Vivreau is big in the corporate world (it supplies 75% of the UK?s top 100 companies) and the growing Horeca sector.

Both these new partnerships go to show that there’s a growing confidence in the water filtration market from big business, and that consumers across all sectors are becoming more accustomed to drinking filtered water in the home, the office and out in restaurants and bars.

Let?s wait and see who the next major player will be.

Hannah Oakman is editor of Cooler Innovation magazine

• Email Hannah.
• Follow @hannahcooler

Fergie Foxy Brown Freida Pinto FSU Cowgirls Gabrielle Union

Scientists create a mixture of detritus and waste matter, which is hoped will reproduce larvae’s natural diet

Marine biologists are racing to solve a unique problem which is crucial to their efforts to save the world’s wild eel populations from catastrophic collapse: recreating a food called “marine snow”.

In one of the least-understood global conservation crises, spawning rates for the world’s three major eel populations have crashed in the last three decades by as much as 99%, raising fears they could become extinct across the far east, Europe and north America.

Biologists in Japan, where eels are an iconic part of the country’s cuisine and culture, are on the brink of farming eels from birth to fork on an industrial scale for the first time, potentially in the same way as salmon is farmed worldwide.

That breakthrough ? being sought too by scientists in Korea and the United States ? could dramatically relieve pressure on wild eel populations, and greatly increase the prospects of rebuilding their stocks worldwide.

Yet the goal of producing wholly captive farmed eels, using larvae produced in captivity rather than wild-caught baby eels, is being thwarted by a very significant obstacle: reproducing the larvae’s unique natural diet, which is known to scientists as “marine snow”.

That foodstuff, which is essential to an eel’s growth cycle as they develop and mature from larvae to glass eels, is a mixture of marine detritus, organic waste matter suspended in diffuse clouds, which is proving extremely hard to reproduce on an industrial scale.

Eels are being farmed commercially around the world but only by using baby eels trapped in the wild, adding even greater pressure to the last surviving wild populations. In the UK, young eel or elver numbers are now at 5% of their levels in the 1980s.

Scientists have considered the most unlikely ingredients to help create that peculiar food, including the yolk from shark’s eggs. To exacerbate the feeding problem, eels stay in a larval stage for three to four months, compared with only a few days for cod, and are extremely sensitive at that stage.

Prof Katsumi Tsukamoto, a pioneer in eel conservation in the Pacific who was first discover the Pacific eels spawning grounds, told marine scientists in Edinburgh this week that this obstacle meant it cost ?1,000 (£803) to produce a single captive seedling in the laboratory; their goal is to get that cost down to ?1.

Speaking after a keynote address to the World Fisheries Congress, Tsukamoto, from the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute at Tokyo University, said the focus on devising a wholly self-sufficient domestic eel farming programme, while very expensive, was being driven by the need to preserve remaining wild eels.

“We’re now trying to establish a special strain, completely cut off from wild stocks,” he said. “We want to improve the many different characteristics, for example growth rate, metamorphosis rates and disease resistance. It’s a process of domestication, like sheep, pigs, cows or horses.”

Pressure to produce wholly captive eels is being driven by the continuing heavy demand from consumers: eels are the main ingredient in kabayaki, one of three most culturally important styles of Japanese cuisine along with sushi and tempura.

David Righton, from the Cefas marine laboratory in Lowestoft, and a leading figure in the Eeliad project on saving the European eel, said the quest to find a substitute food stuff is one of the most competitive areas in eel conservation.

“Whoever gets there first has made a tremendous discovery; you’re recovering a cultural tradition. Whoever does this is culturally important as well as becoming very rich,” Righton said.

Bali Rodriguez Bar Refaeli Beyoncé Bianca Kajlich Bijou Phillips

You may know Savoie for its skiing, but this part of the French Alps is now producing wines to match its stunning scenery and top-notch food

Draw a line on the map from Geneva to Chambéry 50 miles to the south and you mark the eastern boundary of a region that has rich resonance for British holidaymakers. Every year we flock in our thousands to the Savoie Mont Blanc region ? to Alpe d’Huez, Tignes, Val d’Isère or Courchevel ? to spend days on the piste and evenings consuming vin chaud and fondue.

And that will probably have been our only contact with the wines of Savoie, a wild paradise famed for its physical beauty and for its walking, cycling, boating and skiing ? but not for its vineyards. And that is a shame, for Savoie whites and reds are undergoing a remarkable transformation. Once crisp and cheerful but little else, they are developing deeper, richer tones and an allure that was absent until relatively recently. Hence the decision of Savoie Mont Blanc Tourism to promote the region’s wines as attractions in their own right.

Savoie and its wines certainly make a heady combination. For a start, the region’s grapes are rarely encountered elsewhere: Altesse and Jacquère produce exotic, fruity dry whites; Mondeuse makes rich, slightly peppery reds. For good measure, they are grown in some of the most beautiful settings I have encountered. At Chignin, for example, the vineyards ? carved out of high, rocky slopes ? are dominated by four ancient, ruined towers, each draped in a thick layer of ivy. So steep are the hillside terraces that grass is planted in strips between the vines to stop the soil being washed away. On my visit, on a sunny afternoon in autumn, with the towers rising above these undulating vineyards, the place had a relaxed, magical allure.

But it is the wines that matter. Until recently, both whites and reds were made and sold fairly cheaply: to be swigged with raclette or mixed with sugar, spice and lemon to make vin chaud. Now the region’s winemakers have made a deliberate decision to take more care: producing fewer bunches of grapes from each vine, using less fertiliser, and slowing fermentation by keeping the tanks cool.

“If you let your fermentation run too fast, you lose aroma. You need to keep it slow,” says Pierre Abry of the Cave de Chautagne (+33 4 7954 2712, cave-de-chautagne.com) at Ruffieux, where the local wine co-operative has built a museum dedicated to local wines. Visitors can taste the grapes and compare their bouquets. Explanations were in French when I was there, but English versions are promised for this year.

The message is that quality has triumphed over quantity. A good example is provided by the Chautagne Blanc, produced at the Ruffieux co-op. It has a clean, slightly flinty taste and makes a fine aperitif. Similarly, the Chignin 2010 of Jean-François Quénard’s Domaine Quénard (+33 4 7928 0829, jfquenard.com) at Chignin is delicate and slightly honeyed, while Christophe Richel’s Mondeuse (+33 6 8020 7594) is a deep red, rich wine with a velvety, violet-scented taste. Richel is a huge, friendly bear of man ? he could be a flanker for a French rugby team ? and will chat until the cows come home about his wine. His tasting cellar, like those of most Savoie producers, is cosy and clubbable.

“We want people to be surprised at how good our wines are,” says Pascal Barlet, whose family business, Les Caves du Prieuré (+33 4 7944 0222, caveduprieure.com), produces one of the region’s special wines: Cuvée Eole. This is a distinctive sweet white made from early-harvested Altesse grapes that are left for months before pressing so their sugar content builds up.

A relaxed approach to wine appreciation is also easy in a region with such rugged charm. Lac du Bourget, a few kilometres north of Chambéry, is the largest natural lake in France: you can take a boat trip on it in the morning (from the town of Aix-les-Bains, +33 4 7963 4500, gwel.com, adult ?11.80, child 4-12 ?8.20), then visit a vineyard in the afternoon. Or hire a bike ? there are electric ones to help on the hills ? and follow a vineyard tour arranged by the tourist office (Chambéry Vélostation (chambery-metropole.fr/83-velostation.htm, ?3 for a half-day’s hire, or ?6 for an electric bike). Or you can, as we did, hire a 2CV (+33 6 8160 7316, lesdeuchesdulac.fr, ?190 a day for two people), the original lunch-box on wheels, chauffeured by a driver in full Maurice Chevalier kit, including striped blazer and straw boater. It’s a cramped, unbelievably lightweight way to travel but it is relatively eco-friendly. Hit a rabbit and you come off second best.

Despite this Gallic image-making, Savoie Mont Blanc has a strong Italian feel. Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of Italy, came from the House of Savoy; Italy’s last king, Umberto II, is buried here, at Hautecombe Abbey; and Italy’s most famous relic, the Turin shroud, was kept for many years in the cathedral at Chambéry, capital of the département.

Chambéry is small and stylish, with narrow streets and Italian-style porticos. Income from Savoie’s ski resorts has brought a prosperous, confident edge. Restaurants are lavish but fairly casual. Try Le Bistrot (6 rue du Théâtre, +33 4 7975 1078, restaurant-lebistrot.com, mains from ?15); L’Atelier (59 rue de la République, +33 4 7970 6239, atelier-chambery.com, mains from ?15); and Côté Marché (60 rue Vieille Monnaie, +33 4 7985 0435, cotemarche-restaurant.com, three-course menu from ?37). At Jongieux, 30km north ? near the Caves du Prieuré and Domaine Edmond Jacquin (+33 4 7944 0235, vin-savoie-ejf.fr) ? there’s the Michelin-starred Les Morainières (route de Marétel, +33 4 7944 0939, les-morainieres.com, four-course menu from ?45).

For a place to stay in Chambéry, the Hotel des Princes (4 rue de Boigne, +33 4 7933 4536, hoteldesprinces.eu, doubles from ?88) has comfortable rooms. Best, however, is Chateau des Allues (+33 6 7538 6156, chateaudesallues.com, B&B doubles from ?120) near St-Pierre-d’Albigny, outside Chambéry, which offers stunning opulence at B&B prices. This is one of the best hotel bargains I have come across. Try it, try the local food ? but most of all try the wines of Savoie.

? The trip was provided by Savoie Mont Blanc tourist board (savoiemontblanc.com), with Eurostar/TGV travel from Rail Europe (0844 848 4070, raileurope.co.uk, returns to Chambéry from £109). For information on wines, see vindesavoie.net. Buy Savoie wines online from Snooth (snooth.com) or Yapp Brothers (yapp.co.uk)

Fergie Foxy Brown Freida Pinto FSU Cowgirls Gabrielle Union

It is all about these beets.

… and those stripes.

My weekly trips to the farmer’s market have been fruitful. I come back with a loaded basket of watercress, tangled pea shoots, heirloom tomatoes, microgreens, kale, Sicilian eggplants, carrots that are twister into knots, and a rainbow of beets.

I have been cooking with beets nearly everyday.

Simply roasted with olive oil and sea salt, tossed together with quinoa, grated raw in a deeply pigmented slaw, and I even baked another batch of these muffins – the pink muffins as we are calling them now.

We cannot get enough of them.

There is a really wonderful beet tart recipe in my upcoming book that I cannot wait to share with you. Inspired by that tart, I set out to cook a roasted multicolor beet and purple potato tarte tatin for Miren and myself a few days ago.

What a sight of colors as they were neatly arranged on the baking sheet. Unreal.

Once baked, Miren couldn’t wait for me to cut a slice for her and dove immediately into it, pulling every single round of roasted root vegetable from the crust.

“Purple, yellow, red…” she said as she ate the slightly caramelized vegetables. She seems to only want to surround herself with purple these days, even when it comes to food.

So we were forced to eat the tart… shall we say, deconstructed?

I made a second one the following day.

The raw beet salad served with a bit of goat cheese and pistachios was my lunch. Marinated in a vinaigrette of apple cider vinegar, honey and a touch of pistachio oil. Beautiful to look, nutritious, and flavorful.

This one I will have to make for friends soon.

Pleased to learn that my blog has been nominated as Best Food Photography on a Blog for this year’s The Kitchn Homies. You can see many beautiful blogs and you can vote here.

Roasted Beet and Purple Potato Tarte Tatin with Caramelized Fennel and Gruyere Cheese

makes a 7-inch tart

Buckwheat and Hazelnut Tart Crust

1/2 cup (70 g) superfine brown rice flour
1/3 cup (45 g) buckwheat flour
1/3 cup (40 g) tapioca starch
1/3 cup (35 g) hazelnut flour
2 teaspoons ground chia seeds (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
8 tablespoons (110 g) cold unsalted butter, diced
6 to 8 tablespoons ice water

Combine the first seven ingredients in the food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the diced butter and pulse about ten times until the butter is the size of peas. Add the water and pulse until dough comes together. It will not form a ball. Simply press it between your fingers to see if it holds.

Transfer dough to your preferably cold surface and knead a couple of times. Form into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, flatten it with your hands, and refrigerate for one hour.

(In this time, roast the beets and purple potatoes).

Dust your cold surface with a bit of superfine brown rice flour. Roll the dough to 1/4-inch thickness and cut a circle that is slightly bigger than your mold. The scraps can be saved for another time.

Transfer the tart base to a sheet lined with parchment and refrigerate the tart base for 30 minutes.

Prepare the filling

5 assorted colors baby beets (about 12 ounces), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch slices
2 medium purple potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch slices
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/2 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
3 springs thyme
pinch salt
pinch black pepper
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1.5 ounces (45 g) Grated Gruyere cheese

Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Toss the slices beets and purple potatoes with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, pinch salt and black pepper. Bake the vegetables for 30 minutes until potatoes are done (they take less time than beets) and remove them. Continue to bake the beets for a few more minutes until tender, about 10 more minutes. Set aside and cool while making filling.

Reduce oven temperature to 375F (190C).

Heat a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the rest of the olive oil and cook the onions, fennel, garlic, and a pinch of salt until tender and slightly caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar, stir, and remove from heat. Set aside and let cool slightly.

Remove the tart crust from the refrigerator. Lightly dock it with a fork.

Place the roasted vegetables inside the tart mold tightly packed. Spread the caramelized onion and fennel mixture on top and sprinkle the Gruyere on top of that. Place the tart dough on top and tuck it into the edges.

Bake the tart for 30 minutes until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before inverting onto a plate. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Ali Larter Alice Dodd Alicia Keys Alicia Witt Amanda Bynes

Green Film Festival, Nationwide

Grass roots, green shoots and other verdant analogies are appropriate to describe this festival’s expansion, from five UK cities last year to 12 this year, from Inverness to Leicester, Cardiff to Cambridge. The emphasis of the documentaries is broad brush rather than local interest, although most venues have added their own distinctive stamp to the core programme. Big issues on the agenda include Big Oil (tackling corruption within the fossil fuels industry with the entirely unpartisan title Greedy Lying Bastards); food waste (just why we waste so much, and what we can do to stop it, in Taste The Waste); light pollution (The City Dark offers a globe-trotting study of what the stars mean to us and how artificial light affects our health); vegetarianism (following three carnivore New Yorkers as they turn vegan for six weeks in Vegucated); and, possibly the biggest issue of all, human happiness ? US doc Happy mixes true stories and pioneering scientific research.

Various venues, Fri to 20 May

Cinemagic, Dublin

It’s short on new films, and it’s also sponsored by a global soft drinks company, but this event will hopefully nurture your child’s appetite in both the world of film and film-making rather than in any kind of sugary carbonated beverages. It’s divided into two sections, starting with the over-12s category, which brings old classics like Minority Report and Jurassic Park (old if you’re 12, that is) plus ancient relics such as David Lean’s Great Expectations and Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps. There are also plenty of fun family workshops, masterclasses tackling aspects of the film/TV trade, and screenings and events with industry professionals. There’s Dermot O’Leary on presenting, for example, or a screening of the recently revamped version of The Woman In Black, which comes complete with live spooky Irish folk tales.

Various venues, Mon to 20 May & 12-17 Jun

Foxy Brown Freida Pinto FSU Cowgirls Gabrielle Union Garcelle Beauvais

A friend of mine stopped by a few days back and gave me 2 packets; one with pomegranate powder and one with cassia bark. I am basically clueless what to make with it. Do you guys have any ideas? Can you please help me out?

Elisabeth Röhm Elisha Cuthbert Eliza Dushku Emilie de Ravin Emma Heming

I loved cottage cheese in America, but only the more sour/tart-tasting cottage cheese. Certain brands were more tart than others and I was really picky about it. Now I can’t really get cottage cheese where I live at all, and made at home it tastes more like mozzarella… too mild. Do you guys know what I mean by liking the “sour/tart” cottage cheese? How can I get homemade cottage cheese to have a stronger flavor like that?

Emmanuelle Vaugier Emmy Rossum Erica Leerhsen Erika Christensen Estella Warren

A friend of mine stopped by a few days back and gave me 2 packets; one with pomegranate powder and one with cassia bark. I am basically clueless what to make with it. Do you guys have any ideas? Can you please help me out?

Anna Paquin AnnaLynne McCord Anne Marie Kortright April Scott Arielle Kebbel

By using a shocking image to publicise ‘attachment parenting’, Jamie Lynne Grumet has invaded her own child’s privacy

Jamie Lynne Grumet has appeared on the cover of Time magazine, looking fetching in a vest and skinnies, and staring into the camera as her three-year-old child sucks at her breast. She aims to publicise “attachment parenting”, although she also says: “There seems to be a war going on between conventional parenting and attachment parenting. That’s what I want to avoid. I want everyone to be encouraging. We’re not opposing teams.”

Sadly, however, the image Grumet has decided to participate in is designed to shock, and to generate controversy. This child is being used to foster those reactions. I don’t mind how long people want to breastfeed their offspring (within reason). But I do mind when people invade the privacy of their own children in order to promote their ideas. That is a parenting mistake. It’s also an editorial mistake ? a huge one. The editor of Time has exploited a toddler and his misguided mother. That’s awful, irresponsible behaviour.

Drew Barrymore Ehrinn Cummings Elena Lyons Elisabeth Röhm Elisha Cuthbert

When my friend Kerissa Barron first told me about this buttery rice pilaf, I couldn’t wait to try it. Then she told me it had saffron in it. Uh oh. For some reason, saffron is a spice that sort of tastes like soap to me. Not a big fan. But, I’ll try just about anything once, and in this case, thank goodness. I couldn’t stop eating this rice. Browned in clarified butter, with cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves, cooked in a saffron infusion, and tossed with nuts and raisins, this rice is the bomb.

Continue reading “Saffron Rice Pilaf” »

Freida Pinto FSU Cowgirls Gabrielle Union Garcelle Beauvais Genelle Frenoy

In pictures: Edward Burtynsky has spent 15 years photographing oil ? from the fields where it is sourced, to the cars it powers, to the detritus it leaves behind

Drew Barrymore Ehrinn Cummings Elena Lyons Elisabeth Röhm Elisha Cuthbert

‘It’s harder to look at yourself on TV than it is in the mirror’

My mouth is my best feature as I have generous, God-given lips and freakishly perfect teeth ? I never had to have braces. I love my eyebrows, which I have threaded. How I see my face depends on how I’m feeling inside. There have been times when, for whatever reason, I’ve felt insecure and scrutinised parts of my face and thought them flawed.

In the past I have had Botox ? through insecurity and being on TV. It’s harder to look at yourself on TV than it is in the mirror ? HD is harsh; I am 49 now and it’s difficult to age beautifully. I don’t have Botox any more because I honestly believe that beauty comes from inside.

When I split up with Mark E Smith, my self-esteem plummeted. I was anorexic: I couldn’t eat. I was brokenhearted because it wasn’t just the end of my relationship, it was the end of my career ? my whole life was intertwined with Mark. The Fall was how I defined myself, so once all that broke apart, I lost my identity. I went to America and did what I’d always wanted to do ? study acting. Slowly, through acting, I became stronger and more positive.

Weight is still my bugbear because I am so sensitive to food. If I cut out wheat, salt, alcohol and dairy, I look healthy with lovely skin and no puffiness, but the minute I have those things, I see a bloat to my face, which I don’t like.

I get days when I think, “Can we turn off the lights before I take off my clothes?” but I am sure many women feel like this and I am pretty happy with who I am.

Cinthia Moura Claudette Ortiz Coco Lee Connie Nielsen Cristina Dumitru

looking through my collection of recipes, I’ve found that most of the fish recipes I have are soups
Which isn’t really useful in summer

I have a LOT of salmon recipes, but nothing much else. Can you suggest some recipes for fish that aren’t soups & don’t use salmon?

Asia Argento Aubrey ODay Audrina Patridge Autumn Reeser Avril Lavigne

They?re both gearing up to release new albums, and Justin Bieber and Usher share the cover of the latest issue of Billboard Magazine.

The ?One Less Lonely Girl? singer confessed that while he is all about taking risks with his new music, he doesn?t want to put anyone off by going too far.

?I don?t want to lose my young fans, but I also want to mature and develop. I always keep one foot out of my comfort zone, trying new things and experimenting ? if you don?t, people will get bored. Seeing the smiles on people?s faces and how I affect them when I perform makes me want to give them the absolute best experience they can possibly get.

Meanwhile, Usher gave Bieber props for his flowing skills. ?He?s always been a dope MC. C?mon. Easy. ?Boyfriend? was really the defining moment; it became No. 1 everywhere, which is what dreams are made of. Both of us are being modest about what our journeys have been in terms of songwriting: Justin really has participated in every writing session -that?s amazing. It?s easy to just dial something in, but if you make the music authentic, people feel connected to you as an artist from the beginning.?

And Justin returned the favor, sharing that he?s really benefitted from Usher?s mentoring. ?What?s great is that in Usher, I have a mentor that?s been doing it so long and has been successful in everything that he?s done. He?s made some mistakes, too, but he?s learned from them, so he can tell me what to do and what not to do.?

Justin and Usher will both be performing at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards.

Alecia Elliott Alessandra Ambrosio Alexis Bledel Ali Campoverdi Ali Larter

I’m back… with a big sigh of relief.

Lots of things have been happening and will be happening for me during the next few weeks. I was in Boulder, Colorado a couple of weeks ago teaching two food styling and photography courses at The Makerie. I really had a wonderful time and loved sharing stories with both students and teachers. I left emotional and inspired.

Two days after I returned home from Colorado, I packed my bags and took Jon and Miren to Vermont with me. We stayed on the hill with my dear Nadia (thank you Nadia!). Remember our trips last summer and autumn?

The kids were so excited to see her. “I want you” Miren said to Nadia many times. Jon loves feeding the animals and collecting eggs, rocks, and sticks. Ryan Marshall joined us at the farm and he shot a short video for my upcoming book. I have admired his work for a long time and was super thrilled when he accepted my offer.

Nadia also took some beautiful shots of us working so I cannot wait to share some of her photos and mine.

Soon.

I have been wanting to write about all the greens that have been available at our farmers’ market. Some old favorites, but also many new ones, like a bunch of purslane I brought home from Jodi a few weeks ago.

Have you ever eaten or cooked with purslane? I had not and what a revelation it was.

I learned that purslane it is one of the most nutrient-packed greens. Contains more omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid) than any other leafy vegetable plant. The leaves, flowers, and stems are all edible and it can be eaten raw in salads and also cooked.

I was intrigued.

Back at home, I cooked a batch of black quinoa. I made a salad with all the farmers’ market finds. Blanched English peas, shaved radishes, diced avocado, and purslane leaves. All dressed with a lemon and grainy mustard dressing. It was wonderful.

There were also pea shoots that I turned into a pesto with almonds and lemon. Tossed quinoa pasta with some of the pea shoot pesto and served it with soft-cooked eggs.

On those mornings that I have to run out the door by 2pm to get Jon and Miren from school, I ate lots of raw pea shoot salads with radishes and also soft-cooked eggs. My new favorite.

And lastly, asparagus, fennel, and purslane soup served with blanched asparagus tips, onion chive blossoms, chervil, and a bit of yogurt.

Absolutely spring.

I will be back soon with more behind-the-scenes images from our Vermont shoot and also some book news.

So much going on.

And this Friday, I leave for New York City where I will be attending the James Beard Awards. I am a nominee, did you know? And I am exhilarated. Of course, I am.

Black quinoa, English pea, avocado, radish, and purslane salad

serves 4 to 6

1 cup black quinoa
2 cups water
Salt
8 ounces (225 g) shelled English peas
2 ounces (60 g) fennel, very thinly sliced
1 avocado, peeled, pit removed, and diced
4 French radishes, thinly sliced
1 cup purslane, washed
1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp grainy mustard
Black pepper

In a medium sauce pan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add the black quinoa and pinch of salt. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes until quinoa is tender (it will be slightly crunchier than ivory quinoa). Cool completely.

In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add a pinch of salt and the peas. Cook for 5 minutes or until tender but still have a bite. Drain them and submerge them in ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain well.

In a large bowl, combine the black quinoa, peas, fennel, avocado, radishes, and purslane. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper. Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss to combine. Serve immediately.

Asparagus and Purslane Soup

serves 4 to 6

1 pound (450 g) green asparagus
Salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium fennel bulb, diced
A few springs thyme
A few stems chervil (optional)
2 cups water
4 ounces (110 g) purslane, tough stems removed
Whole milk yogurt, optional
Chive blossoms, optional

Cut the tender tips of the asparagus. Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil. Season with a bit of salt and add the asparagus tips. Cook for 1 minute or until tender but still have a bite. Drain them and immediately submerge them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain them well and set aside.

Dice the rest of the asparagus stems.

Heat a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add the olive oil, onion, garlic, and fennel. Add a pinch of salt. Cook for 5 minutes or until tender but not browned. Add the thyme, chervil, and diced asparagus stems. Cook for 1 minute. Add the water and bring liquid to a boil. Cook for 7 to 10 minutes or until asparagus are tender. Add the purslane and cook for 2 more minutes.

Transfer to a blender and puree the soup. Adjust seasoning and liquid if needed.

Serve warm topped with asparagus tips, yogurt, chervil and chive blossoms.

Cheryl Burke China Chow Chloë Sevigny Christina Aguilera Christina Applegate

Not 20 years ago, same-sex marriage was a fringe issue, almost unthinkable. That it now has presidential support is epochal

In an interview on ABC News Wednesday, President Obama, after several years of expressing opposition to same-sex marriage and then coyly describing his position as “evolving”, expressed his support for it. In a one-on-one interview, he told Robin Roberts:

“It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

To understand the significance of Obama’s action, a bit of historical context is required. In 1996, the British writer Andrew Sullivan published a book, Virtually Normal, which advocated legal recognition of the marriages of same-sex couples. So radical was that idea back then ? a mere 16 years ago ? that very few gay citizens, and almost no gay groups, endorsed it. Instead, Sullivan told me, “I was actually picketed at book stores” by one gay group, which “had placards with my face on them and cross-hairs placed in between my eyes.” And, he recalled, the Human Rights Campaign Fund (the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy group) “refused to use the word marriage until the new millennium.”

Indeed, Sullivan’s book was published the same year that an overwhelming, bipartisan majority of the US Senate enacted, and President Bill Clinton signed into law, the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (Doma), which barred the granting of any federal spousal benefits (immigration, tax, estate, and hundreds of others) to same-sex couples. Two years earlier, another large bipartisan majority of Congress, along with President Clinton, banned openly gay citizens from serving in the US military.

In the mid 1980s, the US supreme court upheld the constitutionality of state laws criminalizing same-sex relations, with the court’s chief justice, Warren Berger, approvingly quoting Blackstone’s condemnation of gay sex as an “infamous crime against nature”. As the Aids epidemic exploded, President Ronald Reagan, for years, refused even to speak of it because it was mostly gay victims who were dying. The writer Edmund White yesterday recalled:

“As a man in his 70s, I grew up in an era when homosexuality was still an offense in some states punishable by death.”

In sum, as recently as the 1980s and 1990s, the country was headed in the direction of aggressively denying the most basic rights to gay citizens. Marriage equality, a definitively fringe position, was on virtually nobody’s radar.

Pervasive anti-gay discrimination in the US endures to this day. Doma is still valid law, denying same-sex couples every federal spousal right to which opposite-sex couples are entitled (as a result, there are thousands of gay Americans unable to live in their own country with their foreign national spouse). Same-sex marriage is recognized in only seven of the 50 states. On Tuesday, the day before Obama expressed his support for marriage equality, the state of North Carolina ? which Obama won in 2008 ? approved a ballot measure to ban both same-sex marriage and civil unions by a landslide majority.

This is why it is genuinely historic that Obama, in the midst of a difficult re-election campaign, chose to become the first US president ever to support same-sex marriage (former Vice-President Dick Cheney, citing his lesbian daughter, did so when running for re-election in 2004). One can question Obama’s sincerity; some believe his reliance on gay donors and need for greater enthusiasm among his core voters was his motive. One can quibble with his rationale; some have criticized him for suggesting that states have the right to ban same-sex marriage if they wish. But one cannot reasonably question the importance of his act.

Obama’s public defense immediately enshrines same-sex marriage as the official orthodoxy of the Democratic party. It is inconceivable that marriage equality will ever again retreat to the fringe. His willingness to embrace it in the midst of an election year signals a belief that the American public is ready to accept this position as perfectly mainstream, even if they disagree with it. It will undoubtedly enable ? or pressure ? other world leaders to support the same view.

Perhaps the least quantifiable impact of Obama’s statement is the most important one: it is a powerful message to gay youth that their sexual orientation is neither a flaw nor an abnormality. As White wrote yesterday:

“The stigma of being gay drove my age-mates and me toward drink, suicide and years on the psychoanalytic couch in an effort to go straight. We were wracked with self-hatred, which blighted so many lives of our friends.”

This stigma, devastating in so many ways, is surely lessened when the nation’s highest elected official advocates for full legality for same-sex couples.

This week, gay Americans and their allies predictably, and understandably, expressed their glee, along with a not insubstantial amount of shock, at seeing their full legal equality publicly embraced by an American president. But the reaction of the right wing is more telling. Obama’s GOP opponent, Mitt Romney, re-affirmed his opposition to both same-sex marriage and civil unions, but did so with reserved rhetoric and a very tepid tone, betraying a belief that same-sex marriage ? once an electoral gold mine for his party ? is unlikely to hurt Obama’s electoral chances.

US media coverage Thursday has been fixated on the micro aspects of Obama’s announcement: his motives, how it will affect the election, the role that internal administrative divisions played in his decision. But 20 years from now, none of that will matter. The historic event is that same-sex marriage, for the first time, now has a supporter in the Oval Office.

There are many disappointments and truly bad acts for which President Obama is responsible, but for one day at least, on this single issue, he demonstrated authentic and important leadership on a civil rights issue that affects millions.

Amanda Swisten Amber Arbucci Amber Brkich Amber Heard Amber Valletta

Einstein on The Beach and The Queen of the North kick off a weekly roundup of reader reviews

Welcome to a brand new blog series highlighting our favourite reader reviews from around the site. We know from your comments, many or you want to share your verdict on the performances you’ve just seen, but the reviews can be spread out between different comment threads and Twitter as many more readers tweet us their thoughts using the hashtag #Gdnreview. So, this is our first stab at a solution; a weekly roundup blog, but if you have any suggestions how this could be done better, please tell me in the comments below, I’m all ears. Now, on with this week.

Einstein on the Beach

AndrewRose:

Dialogue, music and movement move in subtly changing circles in Einstein on the Beach, creating scenes that are both repetitious and evolving.
The idea behind this total theatrical methodology is that one becomes immersed in the aesthetic experience. In contrast to this desired end, I found myself initially frustrated with the pace at which the performance was moving. I wanted something to ‘happen’. However, as Glass correctly observes, Einstein on the Beach is a performance ‘that teaches you how to hear it.’ Thus, my initial impatience was quickly quelled and I found myself becoming more and more entranced by the performance… In short, Einstein on the beach deserved the standing ovation that it received at the end of the performance on May 5th, but not because it stands as it once did, as a technically brilliant feat of audio-visual theatrical wizardry that stretches the confines of the theatrical medium and tells us more about the world that we live in. Einstein on the Beach has become a theatrical antique. It is still a fantastic experience but the greatest joy in experiencing it comes in the recognition that you are watching a seminal performance that has helped to shape the theatrical world that has followed in its footsteps.

tootifrooti:

I was there on Friday night and felt really disappointed, no, distressed. I felt as if I had sat through a dress rehearsal. The unexpected break because of the problems with the moving elements was the least of it really. There were constant distractions, many of which should have been ironed out before the show. Bungled lighting cues, wobbling, jerky set elements (almost comical at times), something dropped with a loud clatter off scene whilst artists were performing… I could go on…I know it was live, ambitious, etc, etc, however I have seen many, many, live, ambitious performances over the years and never have I witnessed such a technical shambles. The audience were very forgiving.

The Queen of the North

stoon1:

Star rating: 2.75/5

If you’re looking for a nostalgia fix to stir Pat Phoenix memories with added impersonations of her giving it Northern Kitchen sink verbals you’ll love it! Beyond that you’re struggling.
Post show, I learnt far more about her in 5m by flicking thru the excellent prog than during the previous 110m which focuses on her various attempts to get hitched. Lynda Rooke is more effective when in company than during the monologues which are too “Friends, Romans countryman” veneered to allow access to the soul.
Despite the perpetual heartbreak it’s best described as light ent – fine but some characters add unnecessary light headedness whilst others seem token.
Then there’s the absence of glitz, glamour n stardust ? granted it’s her ‘private’ side on display, but there’s a need to create a sense of what having 20m tv viewers actually meant ? flashbulbs, tabloid exclusives and endless weekly magazine covers, interviews, fan mail for a start.

Trisha Brown Dance Company

oldmuskrat:

Well we stayed until the end. About four people in our row had left by the interval. Liked If you couldn’t see me the best, somehow. Les Yeux seemed so-so. The marching band was wicked in Foray Foret but it was a distraction and made your mind wander (the next best thing about it were the gold exotic costumes by Rauschenberg lit by slabs of blue light.) During a silent passage someone’s phone went off and two people stomped out of the stalls.

How to leave a review

You can tweet us a review of any performance using the hashtag #Gdnreview, or tell us what you recommend by leaving a comment on Lyn Gardner’s weekly What to see this week blog. Alternatively, you can tweet us @Guardianstage.

Desiree Dymond Diane Kruger Dido Diora Baird Dita Von Teese

Has anyone frozen sausage gravy for biscuits and gravy?  I wasn't sure if it would be weird because of the milk.  My friend wants to have a big breakfast one day at Sasquatch music festival when we go and so I thought I would see if anyone has done this.  I don't think it would be too hard to just do it there but obviously it would be easier to do it beforehand.  Thanks!

Claudette Ortiz Coco Lee Connie Nielsen Cristina Dumitru Daisy Fuentes

I am in the process of cleaning out my pantry by using up all the “bits n bob” items on the shelf. I do this by seeing what I have that needs using and creating a meal plan that intentionally incorporates a specific ingredient. I polished off some molasses by making a chili molasses butter to slather on grilled corn.

But, I have NO IDEA what to do with the 1.5 bottles of light corn syrup. I also have about .25 bottles of dark corn syrup. I don”t even know how they ended up in my pantry. I eat pretty healthy and generally avoid sweets, so I am at a total loss.

Please help me find a use for this ingredient by suggesting possible recipes? Thank you so much.

Elisha Cuthbert Eliza Dushku Emilie de Ravin Emma Heming Emma Stone

(F-ire)

British composer and pianist Alex Hutton is an inventive writer of cinematic, folksong-like melodies, and a piano improviser who likes to feel pop-song chords beneath him. He could easily just write through-composed songs, but he likes improvisers of character around him, and his core trio here features bassist Yuri Goloubev and drummer Asaf Sirkis, who more usually partner the pianist John Law. Admirers of Israeli bassist Avishai Cohen will tune into this band’s melodic warmth, their sympathetic fusion of piano with basslines of cello-like elegance, and the fiery urgency of the drums in the opening JJ. Esbjörn Svensson fans will also recognise the organic development of a catchy motif on the grooving Wonder Why. The Legentis Script intensifies glowing french horn and flute parts with tumbling piano and a crackling drum break, and Hutton’s pealing-churchbells motif on the graceful Clouds is typical of his talent for unexpected melodic interjections. It’s the kind of music that speaks to a wide listenership, whether its roots are appreciated or not.

Rating: 3/5

Aisha Tyler Aki Ross Alecia Elliott Alessandra Ambrosio Alexis Bledel

Firstly, Virgin, via its Virgin Green Fund investment arm, announced a new partnership with Strauss Water, best known for its Tami 4 mains-fed water coolers which are omnipresent in Israel and beginning to take a larger market share in the UK.

The Virgin-Strauss Water venture will market, sell and service water products, including home water dispensers and office water coolers. The water will be purified using Strauss? environmentally friendly technology. The brand will launch in the UK this year with plans to expand across Europe.

Virgin is so confident in the new partnership that’s has hired probably Britain?s most iconic advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi, to build a campaign for the new launch. It will be very interesting to see how this develops and how far a major marketing budget can go in bringing about real change in the consumers’ mindset.

The second major announcement was the new equal partnership between major filtration firm Brita and drinking water systems company Vivreau, a big step for both companies in terms of moving into new markets and customer spheres.

These companies have a lot in common: both started out as family businesses from scratch and worked their way up to the top. Commenting on the partnership at the time, Markus Hankammer, CEO of Brita, said: ?We have similar corporate cultures and both regard our products as an ecologically meaningful alternative to bottled mineral water. Most importantly, our product ranges and target groups are complementary and we have a first-class offering for our global audience.?

While Brita is perhaps best known for residential filtration systems (although it has partnered with water cooler companies such as Eden Springs for commercial systems), Vivreau is big in the corporate world (it supplies 75% of the UK?s top 100 companies) and the growing Horeca sector.

Both these new partnerships go to show that there’s a growing confidence in the water filtration market from big business, and that consumers across all sectors are becoming more accustomed to drinking filtered water in the home, the office and out in restaurants and bars.

Let?s wait and see who the next major player will be.

Hannah Oakman is editor of Cooler Innovation magazine

• Email Hannah.
• Follow @hannahcooler

Deanna Russo Denise Richards Desiree Dymond Diane Kruger Dido

I was craving crumb cake. Moist and slightly sticky crumb cake.

Jon had fallen ill over the weekend, which forced us to stay home and snuggle. There was lots of lying-down time and holding cool cloths over his forehead until he fell asleep. That’s definitely the part about parenting that I enjoy the least — the worry and the inability to make kids feel better at times. It’s part of the process though, I remind myself.

On Sunday, during one of those quiet times, I snuck into the kitchen to make myself some cake. Not sure what instigated this craving… Perhaps perusing the pages of Nigel Slater’s “Ripe”. Lots of oozing fruit desserts in that book.

Moist cake sweetened with muscovado sugar, layered with thin slices of apples and strawberries, and topped with oat crumble. It most definitely satisfied the craving. Even had some leftover to share with friends.

In fact, I am sitting at the airport as I write this post with ginger tea and slice of the crumble in hand.

I am off to The Makerie in Boulder for a few days to teach, learn, create, and feel inspired. Also to say hello to the state that was home for many years.

Oh and next week, I will tell you about our coming trip to Vermont to see Nadia, visit the hill, and do some other fun things. Remember our trips last summer and autumn?

I will share more soon. See you when I return.

Apple and Strawberry Crumb Cake

makes a 9 by 4.5-inch loaf pan and a 6-inch cake pan

Crumb topping

1/3 cup (45 g) superfine brown rice flour
1/4 cup (50 g) light muscovado or brown sugar
3 tablespoons gluten-free rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons (45 g) cold unsalted butter, diced

In a medium bowl, combine the superfine brown rice flour, muscovado, oats, and salt. Add the diced butter and work it between your fingers until you have a sand-like mixture. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Apple and Strawberry Cake

2 small Gala apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
6 ounces strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced
Juice half a lemon
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (120 g) superfine brown rice flour
1/3 cup (45 g) hazelnut flour
1/4 cup (40 g) potato starch
1/4 cup (35 g) millet flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup (100 g) light muscovado or brown sugar
1/2 cup (100 g) natural cane sugar
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 cup (125 ml) unsweetened coconut milk (canned)
1/2 cup (125 ml) coconut oil, liquified
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Oil the inside of a 9×4.5-inch loaf pan and a 6-inch cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.

Toss the apple and strawberry slices with the lemon juice and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the superfine brown rice flour, hazelnut flour, potato starch, millet flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, muscovado and natural cane sugar, lemon zest, coconut milk, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and whisk to combine.

Fill the loaf pan with the batter about 2-inches high. Spread a little bit over half of the apple and strawberry mixture on top and press down into the batter lightly. Top with enough crumble to cover the fruit. Fill the cake pan with the remaining batter, fruit, and crumb topping.

Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. The fruit in the center will make the cake moist and it might seem it is not done. Make sure crumb topping is crispy. Let the cakes cool in the pan for a few minutes before unmolding.

Jennifer Sky Jenny McCarthy Jessica Alba Jessica Biel Jessica Cauffiel

Please welcome Hank Shaw as he shares his quick and easy version of the Greek classic avgolemono soup, a chicken soup with lemon and egg. ~Elise

The mixture of eggs, lemon and hot broth is a classic combination in Greek cooking. And if there is a classic dish that highlights this combination, it is the chickeny avgolemono soup. Avgo-wha? Ah-vo-LEMEN-o, or at least that’s how I remember the Greeks at the local diner in New Jersey saying it. The “g” isn’t always pronounced.

Continue reading “Avgolemono Soup” »

Adriana Lima Adrianne Curry Adrianne Palicki Aisha Tyler Aki Ross

There are many barriers facing women from ethnic minorities from becoming involved in sport – but that is all now changing

On a recent weekday evening at London’s Wembley Stadium, half a dozen Muslim women, some wearing headscarves, were taking it in turns to flip over some male opponents with impressive shoulder-height kicks.

These women, demonstrating Safari Kickboxing’s female-only Muay Thai Kickboxing classes, were taking part in a ground-breaking celebration of Muslim women in sport. Pioneered by the Muslim Women’s Sports Foundation (MWSF) and supported by the FA, the evening’s Ambassador Awards showcased the diverse sporting talent of Muslim women across the UK and abroad.

“I cannot think of a better backdrop to these inaugural awards than Wembley,” says the FA’s chairman David Bernstein. “It is a stadium synonymous with achievement, excellence, inclusivity, variety and success ? I’ve seen what Muslim women have achieved ? it will be an inspiration for the wider community.”

With awards ranging from UK Sportswoman of the Year to Volunteer of the Year, the MWSF is keen to recognise different forms of sporting success ? both at professional and grassroots levels. The organisation strongly believes that faith and sport for both genders are entirely compatible and that the culture of sport is an essential part of Islamic history. Since its establishment in 2001 it has been at the forefront of encouraging physical activity amongst women from British ethnic-minority communities, particularly focusing on the cultural sensitivities of Muslim women.

So why aren’t enough Muslim women getting involved in sports? The recurring theme seems to be cultural attitudes. Salma Bi, a 26-year-old cricketer, and the only female Muslim umpire at Level 1A, has founded her own coaching academy, and believes “the main challenge is the support of the family”. It is much harder to excel in anything if your loved ones don’t understand why it’s important to you.

Moreover, concerns over maintaining modest dress and contact sports with members of the opposite sex can also make traditional sports clubs off-putting. Ayesha Abdeen, MWSF’s Chief Executive says, “we found that Muslim women are the hardest to get active ? if you can cater to their requirements, you can cater to anybody’s”.

Offering female only sports clubs or sessions has helped to combat this and provide opportunities where more Muslim women feel comfortable in enjoying sport. MWSF also allows mothers to bring their kids along to some training sessions.

Cultural barriers to participation were recently highlighted in Saudi Arabia, when the country refused to allow Saudi women to compete in the Olympics. The institutional barrier, by contrast, can be seen in Fifa’s ban on women wearing hijab on the pitch. The Iranian women’s football team could not complete their 2012 Olympic second-round qualifying match against Jordan because they refused to remove their headscarves.

The new awards will hopefully provide role models for other Muslim women. One such role model for many will be the MWSF’s International Sportswoman of the Year, Ibtihaj Muhammad. She is an American sabre fencer and Olympic hopeful who has made the last two US World Championship teams is ranked second in the US and hopes to be the first Muslim woman representing the US in any sport whilst wearing hijab. Although she has said it is “extremely difficult being different in the sports world ? be it for religion or race” issues of faith, race, gender and sport need not clash. “I would never fence if it compromised who I am and my religion ? I love that the two work together.”

Jennifer Sky Jenny McCarthy Jessica Alba Jessica Biel Jessica Cauffiel

The Cornish town of Helston hosts a day of dances to celebrate the arrival of spring

Janet Jackson January Jones Jennie Finch Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Gareis

Britain’s few remaining hay meadows are at their most beautiful in June, when they burst into flower. Kevin Rushby heads to the North Pennines and learns about their rich biodiversity

Esther Cañadas Eva Green Eva Longoria Eva Mendes Evangeline Lilly

For some, a doll’s house is no mere plaything but a way to create their fantasy home. Even if that means building a tiny bondage room

A couple of years ago, a catalogue arrived at José Alesón’s workplace by mistake. A collection of doll’s house miniatures. He began flicking through, and an interest that had lain dormant for 15 years was piqued. As a teenager, growing up in Santander in northern Spain, Alesón poured his love of antiques and history into a cabinet of miniatures, an alternative world picked out in mirrors, pianos, sideboards, dining tables, each just a few inches tall. He is now in his early 30s, lives in north London and works as a customer services adviser in a high-street bank, and every spare minute of the past two years has been spent on another project, Victoriana, his Victorian doll’s house. Once he started, “I couldn’t stop,” he says. “I went to fairs in Milan, Andalucia, Madrid, Chicago ? It’s been every Sunday, every morning up until 3am changing things around, or I’ll be in the gym thinking, ‘I need to get this.’”

Alesón is incredibly precise and incredibly friendly. In his immaculate living room, he shows me to the doll’s house in the corner, the place where most people keep their TV. There’s something oddly intimate about being shown inside. It’s so perfect, I burst into startled laughter. Each item has been chosen because it coheres to a specific story Alesón has constructed about the house’s residents.

In the bedroom for housemaid Rose there are tiny postcards tacked to the wall, an album of cigarette cards on the bed and books piled haphazardly beneath. The family are living in the 1910s, and in Lady Alesón’s room, there is a pair of shoes and a bag on the floor, gloves slung on the bed, to give a sense of a woman in a hurry. “In 1912, there were the suffragettes,” he says, “and all these ladies who wanted to be more than just a lady. So Lady Alesón has come into the room, and she’s in a rush, she’s left her handbag on the floor because she’s off for a meeting. Maybe she’s friends with the Pankhursts.”

Lord Alesón is an explorer, a former soldier ? and an extension of Alesón himself. Some of the items bear his initials. There’s a set of whisky glasses and a decanter in the library, which he commissioned a craftsperson to etch towards their base with the tiniest criss-crosses, to mirror the contemporary fashion. Each glass is about half the size of a person’s smallest fingernail.

The miniature house is covered in family portraits. There’s Alesón’s great-great-grandfather, who was a doctor; his grandfather at his first communion; a picture of Alesón himself. But there are no dolls. Like many adult doll’s house collectors, Alesón isn’t keen on them. This way, “if you see pictures of the house, you don’t know if it’s a miniature or not. It’s like a mind trick ? It would be broken by a doll, because a doll is not a real person.”

Does he play with it? “It’s not to play with,” he says. “But you know what, there’s nothing more relaxing than sitting here at night, with the lights off, and all the lights on in the doll’s house, enjoying that moment. I like everything to be in order, and this is a kind of perfection. It’s like you’ve stopped time.”

Alesón isn’t the only person who occasionally resides in a small world. This weekend, thousands will attend the Kensington Dollshouse festival in London, which many consider the best miniatures show in Europe. There are more than 170 exhibitors, showing dogs, birds, suitcases, cotton reels, chairs, chandeliers, plants. Most of the miniatures are a standard 1:12 scale.

The festival is run by former ballet dancer Charlotte Stokoe, who guesses there are about 100,000 UK collectors, served by three monthly miniatures magazines. Makers are often highly specialised. Stokoe met a woman once who made “amazing little matchboxes, which opened, and had all the individual matches. The box must have been half a centimetre big. That was all she made.”

As Halina Pasierbska writes in the book Dolls’ Houses, the first recorded house was made for the duke of Bavaria in 1557-8, as a copy of his residence. In the 16th century and beyond, dolls’ houses became a way to showcase the owner’s wealth, or instruct upper-class girls in household management. These days, the appeal for adult collectors is much more varied and knotty. Partly it comes down to having a space they can control, says Stokoe. “Maybe in their real house they have children running around, leaving rubbish everywhere, not tidying up after themselves. And with a doll’s house they can have it exactly as they want. If they want dirty dishes in the sink, that’s their decision.” Many steer clear of dolls, “because they feel that the house belongs to them,” she says, “and they don’t want strangers in there”. That said, she once heard of someone who had had her family made in miniature, and when her daughter broke her leg, the doll of the daughter had to have a broken leg too.

Dolls’ houses represent a form of wish fulfilment. Alesón knows he’s never going to have a real Victorian house that big, he says; this way he can collect reproduction antiques without taking up too much space. He has also always dreamed of having a very specific time machine, which would allow him to experience being both rich and poor in the same era. In constructing the house, he has imagined and compared the two states.

Sarah Whitlam has also created the kind of home she could never really have. She lives in suburban Chelmsford in Essex, and in the corner of her dining room sits a fantasy castle. She worked on it for seven years. There is a snakeskin kitchen, a cocktail bar, an enormous bathroom with a toilet painted in gold leaf. Whitlam works in hotel management, and the design for the bath ? raised on a plinth covered in stones ? was copied from one in the building where she works.

There are crocodiles on the roof, snails on the wall, a woodpecker and squirrel in the tree outside ? and a tattoo parlour, complete with tiny disclaimer forms. Also, a bondage room. “I wanted a dungeon in the castle really,” says Whitlam, “but there’s nowhere to go underground. There was a spare room though, so I did an upstairs dungeon.” A surprising number of the miniatures she needed were available, she says. A company called Delph makes tattoo guns and ink pots, and she found a woman selling 1:12-scale condoms at a craft centre in Braintree. But she did have to make many of the bondage-room items herself: the swinging bed, mirrored ceiling, handcuffs and whips.

Is this her dream home? “I think it probably would be,” she says. There’s that lovely big bathroom, I offer nervously. “Yep,” she replies patiently. “And it’s got a dungeon.” Whitlam is very welcoming, but she likes being able to shock people with the house, she says, and open their imaginations. In arranging the rooms, she wanted them to look properly lived in. “There are people doing these modern houses that have a coat draped over the back of a chair, and I love that,” she says; the illusion that someone has just left the room, that their presence lingers.

Miniatures do seem to stir up aparitions. For the past few decades, Robert Dawson of The Modelroom has been creating brilliantly detailed models of palaces and townhouses ? Versailles, the Doge’s palace, part of the Vatican City ? projects that can take a year and cost as much as £100,000. They are often commissioned for museums. He started out as a theatre designer, and is a big presence in his small studio. (The holes in the ceiling are a result of him miscalculating the height of the Vatican building.) Miniatures are powerful because they distill a room to its essence, he says, and force people to look very closely, to engage with places in an unexpected and imaginative way.

Dawson has been trying to move towards storytelling in his work, which has taken him down some whimsical roads. One customer asked for a doll’s house based on a fictional character she had created, a 19th-century jewel thief, so they built a house for him, with a revolving fireplace, a library with a fake bookcase, “a grotto with a swan boat which he used to get away. And at the top, in the attic, if you peered through the window, you could see hot air balloons.”

His interest in storytelling has also led him to consider darker projects. Dawson saw a picture a couple of years ago of a warehouse that had been the scene of a massacre. “The bodies had been cleared away, but it was imprinted with this extraordinary human experience. If you could present something that made people engage with what happened in this place, I think that would have a value and maybe transcend the danger of being voyeuristic.” He collected some pictures, “and I was trying to work out what it was about this breeze-block space that conveyed such despair. Was it simply because I knew it? Or was there something fundamental that had been burned on to the walls?”

Dawson says dolls’ houses are sometimes used in therapy, because they offer a safe, neutral territory, and can be closed up at the end of the session. And it’s certainly true that people have deep connections to their dolls’ houses. Fiona (AKA Bea) Broadwood makes affordable ones in a smaller-than-usual scale ? 1:24, 1:48 or even 1:144 ? under the name Petite Properties, and has had extraordinary commissions. One woman wanted to recreate her childhood home and “was very specific about the outdoor toilet she wanted,” says Broadwood. “It had to have specific cracks in the brickwork, because her brothers used to terrorise her with spiders they’d find in those cracks”. Another commissioned a funeral parlour. “It was going to have a little desk and some sample coffins, and some nice chairs for the bereaved.”

Broadwood lives in Lincolnshire, and when she started, almost 10 years ago, the demand was for traditional Georgian and Victorian properties. But with the rise of genealogy, she says, many of her customers are recreating their grandparents’ houses in miniature. She often makes old council houses, some flattened years ago, with just grainy photographs to work from. “You’ve got a door and a window, and somebody stood there in a wrap-around pinny ? I get them to write about the house as well, to be as descriptive as they can.”

The reaction from customers can be emotional. One of Broadwood’s favourite commissions was a terraced house that a customer’s grandparents had lived in. “When the woman collected it, she just erupted in tears, and it took ages to compose herself. I knew I had got it spot on.”

Of course, not all adult collecting tends to darkness. I head to the last remaining specialist shop in London, an unmarked frontage opposite Gospel Oak station in north London, which announces its purpose via the doll’s house in the window. Run by Kristin Baybars, it officially goes by her name too, and is by some measure the most magical shop I have ever visited. Every surface is covered in miniatures: plates of sausages, oysters, scallops, jam tarts. There are tiny jars of pickled onions, perfectly turned wooden chairs, Victorian kitchenware with whisks that revolve, a tiny loom that actually works.

Baybars, a long-haired woman in her late 70s, leads me to some wooden children’s chairs, and we sit with our knees about our ears. The daughter of the poet Ida Affleck Graves and the artist Blair Hughes-Stanton, her interest in miniatures was first stirred as a very small child when she was offered a visit to a flea circus. It fell through at the last minute. “Agony,” she says. “I did see a film of fleas later on, when I was about 40 or 50, but I never did get to see that circus.”

Baybars started making her first doll’s house at 15. She was determined to make hundreds of hand-turned mahogany banisters, but needed a lathe, so roped in three other girls at her school to help her in a dishwashing enterprise to raise the money. It took two years. In the 1950s, she became a toys buyer, and toy-maker, for Heals department store, and she and creative partner Minnie King made the Humpty doll for the TV programme Play School.

Baybars has had her shop for almost four decades. She takes me back through its corridors, filled with dolls’ houses she has collected or made herself. One is filled entirely with miniature dogs and cuts of meat. Another depicts a school room, another a historic dentistry scene. There is a “spooky corner” with a guillotine, gallows and some libertine lady dolls, out on the carouse. The place is both shop and museum, with products from some makers long since dead, whose work she refuses to sell.

I wonder if she ever finish that dolls’ house she started at 15. “No,” she says. It’s still at her family home, and her mother, “almost up to her death, said: ‘Kristin, when are you going to make the kitchen table?’ And I never did. It’s still all laid out on the ground, because I want to do it all.”

Jamie Chung Jamie Gunns Jamie Lynn Sigler Janet Jackson January Jones

In pictures: French conceptual artist Daniel Buren is the fifth artist to take over the Grand Palais in Paris, with his Monumenta exhibition Excentrique(s)

Eva Mendes Evangeline Lilly Eve Fergie Foxy Brown

The singer on leaving his native Australia, writing about the London riots, and why his next holiday will be at Center Parcs

We are in Texas (1). It is an interesting place to be. How much do you know about it?

How much do I know? I know that the Mexicans used to own it. There was a battle. The Alamo battle or something? Maybe I’m spitting out facts that aren’t actually true.

Texas produces the most wool in America.

Oh, wow. It’s like the New Zealand of America.

You formed the Temper Trap in 2005. That’s a long time ago. What’s changed since then?

I think I’ve grown this much [gestures]. A little wider round the hips. The years have been good to me, what can I say?

This is your second album. You’ve done two in seven years (2). Some might say that’s lazy.

I like to take my time. You can’t rush art, that’s what I say! [laughs]

Rihanna’s probably released seven albums in the last six months.

It’s a lot easier when you have someone working in an office nine to five actually writing for you. We formed in 2005, but we were just kicking around playing shit shows and bars around Melbourne, and whatnot, for the first two or three years. So really we’ve been a proper touring band in Australia and internationally for maybe three years.

In 2009 you were on the BBC’s Sound of 2009 list with Florence + the Machine, Mumford and Sons, someone called Lady Gaga ?

All the predictions from that year, 95%, were bang on. It was a strong year.

You all did OK for yourself. Apart from Frankmusik ?

Who?!

VV Brown ?

What?!

And Dan Black. What did you do right that they didn’t?

Whatever they did, we didn’t do. So here we are.

What would you say to your fellow 2009ers who didn’t make it?

Er. Sorry, maybe next time?

You moved to London from Australia in 2009. Why?

We were busting to get out of Melbourne. We were all getting a little claustrophobic. It’s a small town, you know? A small town of three million people. We wanted to take the music to the next level. Then we got signed to a label, Infectious, in the UK, and that sealed the deal. We had someone to bankroll the move. We were going to move anyway. We were already talking about it.

Australia gave you a lot of awards (3), though. Were you not being a bit ungrateful?

After. After. As is the case with a lot of these things, when it comes to us, it’s always after. We got rejected to play SXSW maybe three times. CMJ maybe twice. The story of our career has just been a lot of doors slammed in our face. But we’re persistent. I’m not being ungrateful, but, you know, yeah.

Why specifically London?

For what we do, you go to London, New York or LA. You don’t go anywhere else.

There’s a song on the new album called London’s Burning. It’s about the London riots. Were you nearby at the time?

I live on Mare Street.

There is a new cinema (4) there now. It’s nice.

Let’s hope the fuckers don’t loot it.

And steal all those arthouse films? What made you want to write a song about it?

I was writing a lot about my relationship. I fell in love about half way through my last touring cycle, then that went to shit. Totally shattered. And you know, thought I was over it, but then when we started to get back into writing I found myself naturally wanting to write about that stuff. So I obviously had shit to get over. Then one day I had nothing else to say about that, kind of a Forrest Gump moment, and I was looking for inspiration from other things, and it was such a significant moment in time and I was there. I went out and had my camera. I just thought, somebody should write something about this. It’s an important thing that happened.

Sweet Disposition was huge for you. Is it strange to know that one song is responsible for your success?

Sometimes, when I get people coming up to me after shows and they have the lyrics tattooed on them.

You’re shaking your head.

Nooo. [laughs] I almost feel like we’ve been left with a little something to undo, because I don’t want to be known as a one-hit wonder band. It’s hard because nobody buys records. They buy singles. So that song really outgrew the album. I feel like I’m on a mission to prove people wrong with this record. Hey, we make records. We’re capable of that.

What’s your relationship like with that song?

It’s not my favourite song. It wasn’t my favourite song on the album. I can see why people liked it and I’m thankful that it’s got me where I am right now.

How many adverts do you think Sweet Disposition (5) has been used on?

Fuck me. How long’s a piece of string? Like, around the world? Shit. 25?

I don’t have an answer for you, I’m afraid. But it has been on a lot. Have you seen many of them?

Not many, no.

Do you have a favourite?

Probably Diet Coke, because it paid the most.

I like the Center Parcs one.

The what?

Center Parcs. It’s a holiday institution in England. It’s a park, and you hire a cottage, and you get a bicycle, and there’s a swimming pool.

Ahh. Fun! I might have to do that next time I go back.

They’ll probably give you a discount.

Yes. They should. Put me up in a suite.

They don’t do suites.

Oh.

Tell me a little bit more about the album. It’s called The Temper Trap. Did you consider other options?

Yeah and we were divided into two camps. Someone was passionately against what we wanted to name it and the label were going, oh, it’s so negative ?

What was it?

It was going to be called The Trouble with Pain. They were going: “Oh my God it’s so negative, it’s going to fuck up the campaign.” And we were like: “Have you guys checked out the No 1 album in the charts right now? It’s Lana del Rey. It’s called Born to Die. Born to Die. Next to her album ours would sound like bubblegum pop or some shit.” Whatever. We couldn’t come to an agreement so we went: “Fuck it, no one’s going to win. So let’s call it Temper Trap.”

(1) More specifically, we are at a BBQ shack called Sam’s in Austin, where the band are playing their fifth SXSW festival. It is their favourite place to eat here. They have ordered a huge stack of meat.

(2) Their first album, Conditions, was released in 2008. Its follow-up, The Temper Trap, is out on 21 May.

(3) The Drum Media Writers’ Poll named Conditions album of the year, and Sweet Disposition song of the year, in 2009. They won best group and most popular Australian single at the ARIA award the following year.

(4) The Hackney Picture House opened on Mare Street in the east London borough of Hackney in October 2011. It is currently screening Avengers Assemble, Goodbye, First Love, and Damsels in Distress, among other films. So far the fuckers have not looted it.

(5) Sweet Disposition ? the one that goes “cos I’ll be coming overrrrrrr”, you know it ? has also been used in a number of films and TV programmes, including (500) Days of Summer, Big Brother, The Good Wife, Skins, and Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

? The Temper Trap play at the Dome, Brighton, as part of the Great Escape on Friday 11 May.

Adrianne Palicki Aisha Tyler Aki Ross Alecia Elliott Alessandra Ambrosio

I have been waiting to tell you about this for quite some time and so finally, here we are…

Stephanie, Nadia, and I are happy to announce the 2012 food styling and photography workshop in Dordogne, France!

Last year’s workshop was such an amazing experience. We have been overwhelmed with the positive response and emails from readers who wanted us to repeat it.

This is a hands-on workshop where we will learn about my philosophy on food styling and composition, how to tell a story through props, the basics of photography, and understanding and manipulating light, all in the beautiful surroundings of the Perigord region of France. There will be visits to local farmers? markets, gardens, and the beautiful walnut groves the region is known for. It will be 4 days of cooking, tasting, styling, photographing, and visual storytelling. The workshop will take place from September 23-27, 2012, and be limited to just 8 people.

The workshop includes 4 days of cooking, styling and photographing food in a beautiful manoir nestled up against a stone cliff overlooking a lazy river. The cost is $2,240/person (for a shared room) and $2,740/person (private room) and covers 4 nights accommodations in a luxurious bed and breakfast, 4 gourmet breakfasts, 4 lunches, 1 dinner, transportation during workshop hours, 3 days of full instruction, and 1 day of sightseeing in the area.

We are happy to announce that registration will be open on Thursday, January 26th at 1 p.m. EST (10am PST). This is how registration will take place:

1. Right at 1:00 p.m. EST a post will go live indicating an email address where you’ll need to send your intent to register. Please make sure you are online at this time if you are interested in attending this workshop as we are operating on a first-come-first-serve basis.

2. Once you hear back from us via email, you will be required to sign a liability form and return it to us via fax, email, etc.

3. Once payment is made and requested forms are signed, your spot will be secure. At this time you’ll receive an email from us confirming the good news. If you are not able to secure your spot at this time, we will be sure to add your contact information to a waiting list.

4. A detailed itinerary will be issued to the 8 participants via email within 48 hours of registration.

Please know that our last workshop sold out in the first 10 minutes of opening registration, so if you are interested, please make sure to send us an email as quickly as possible.

You can read about our 2011 workshop on our students’ blogs:

Jennifer wrote about it here, here, and here.

Kimberly wrote about here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Lorna wrote about it here, here, and here.

Olivia wrote about it here.

Romina wrote about it here, here, here, and here.

Sanda wrote about it here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Thank you and we hope to see you in France!

Ali Larter Alice Dodd Alicia Keys Alicia Witt Amanda Bynes

Time to post another recipe. I made a batch of this last week, then mum nicked half a jarful to take away on her holiday and I had loads of tomatoes left, so I made a second batch today. This stuff is great for pasta sauce, in sandwiches, on meat or veggies, whatever you can think of.

Easy Roast Tomato Sauce

You will need

- A large baking sheet, one with sides, because a bit of liquid will come out of the tomatoes and you don’t want it ending up on the bottom of your oven.
- A blender/liquidiser/thing that purees (I guess a stick blender would work as well, just stick everything in a pot first).
- Glass jars, to store the sauce.
- A funnel – useful for getting the sauce into the jars.
- A spatula – useful for getting the sauce out of the blender.

Ingredients

Measures vary according to what you like. If you like the ingredient, add more, if you don’t, add none/less.

- Tomatoes – as many as will fit on your baking sheet/s. Riper ones are better, in Summer you can usually get bulk, overripe tomatoes at any fruit and veggie store. (Often sold as “Tomatoes for sauce”, fancy that! Variety of tomato doesn’t matter.
- Onion, I usually use about 1.
- Garlic cloves – I use about a head.
- Salt – I use Maldon sea salt, but I don’t think it matters terribly.
- Dried basil.
- Olive oil.
- Pepper if you like.
- Any other herb or spice or thing you think might be tasty. I had some thyme leftover in the fridge this time ’round, so I added some of that.

Method

- Preheat your oven to… 160C, about that, doesn’t matter if it’s a smidge hotter.
- Quarter the tomatoes and place them on the tray. I put them skin down, that way at least not all the juice falls out into the tray.
- Chop the onion into large chunks and scatter them on the tray.
- Peel the garlic and scatter it over the tray.
- Sprinkle some salt, basil and whatever else you fancy over the top.
- Drizzle with olive oil.
- Stick the tray into the oven and let it roast for… oh, about an hour. The tomatoes should be squishy and the garlic and onion browning up and softening a bit.
- Remove the tray of roasted goodness from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
- Scoop all the contents of the tray into a blender and puree.
- Stick the resulting puree in jars, refridgerate and use as you like. I find the stuff lasts fine for at least a few months in the fridge.

TASTY!

Adrianne Curry Adrianne Palicki Aisha Tyler Aki Ross Alecia Elliott

The acquisition includes proprietary water making technology, inventory, and a distribution centre. Atmospheric Water Solutions uses its licensed and patented atmospheric water generator (AWG) technology to produce pure water from the air.

Atmospheric Water Solution’s products will immediately generate revenue for Marine Exploration as the company enhances its growth strategy.

AWS is preparing to present its line of atmospheric water generators at several upcoming conferences in May.

Based on relative humidity of 30% or more, the Atmospheric Generators are capable of producing 3-5 gallons per day for the home or office, up to 1000 gallons as a mobile unit, and up to 5000 gallons of pure clinical grade water as a plant-based operation.

Marine Exploration CEO, Mark Goldberg, said: “AWS, now our fully owned subsidiary, will be run by its current CEO Howard Ullman who holds the patents on the technology. Ullman served as the CEO, president and chairman of the board at CHDT Corp where he grew sales for the Company from $720,000 to more than $10m under his leadership.”

Source: Marine Exploration

Related articles

• How the Cleansui water filter system works 19 APR 2012 | Cooler
• OriginOil reveals new wastewater technology 19 APR 2012 | Water

Carmen Electra Carol Grow Carrie Underwood Cat Power Catherine Bell

ArtHaus is a new exhibition set in a London apartment, featuring the work of up-and-coming artists to show how art can enhance your home

Ashley Greene Ashley Olsen Ashley Scott Ashley Tappin Ashley Tisdale