I’ve been browsing through the book recently and I think I could probably spend the next month ingesting all of its interesting data and drooling over the beautiful designs. One particular infographic that caught my attention was the Dangers of Death. It’s a comparison of the many different ways to die and based on your chances of actually dying from it. Apparently there’s a 1 in 3 chance of dying from heart disease. That fact alone is enough to make me consider taking out life insurance.

The data gets a bit sketchy when it claims you have more of a chance of dying from an asteroid impact than you do lightning. Still, it’s good to know that I only have a 1 in 35,000,000 chance of dying from blogging because I was beginning to worry.

This time around everyone who entered really upped their game with some fantastic recipes. Being a leek lover myself I can definitely say there were many outstanding entries, but unfortunately only 4 prizes to give out. Here are the results of the competition:

The winner

Hari Covert – Pressed Leek Terrine with Cobnut Oil Dressing

Runners Up

The Fat Carrot – Welsh Eggs
Allotment2Kitchen – Caerphilly Cheese, Leek and Potato Pie
Reluctant Housedad – Leeks with scallops, black pudding and bacon butter

Entries

Linda Elisha’s Blog – Leek, Chicken and Gruyere Gratin
Sweet Peas, Tulsi and Tea – Spring Leek & Mint Pie
Homemade by Hannah – Smoked Fish and Leek Quiche
The Blue Sky Cook – Leekie Welsh Rarebit
Familycook – Leek and Caerphilly Filo Pie
Checky’s Kitchen – Chicken with Morels and Sherry
Mummy I Can Cook – Leek and Butter Bean Soup with Caramelised Shallots and Bacon
Pebble Soup – Leek and Caerphilly/ Cheshire Cheese Crumble
Chef Mel’s Kitchen – Chicken and Leek Pie
Miss Mamo’s World – Leek & Leftover Pie
Comfort Bites – Pan Fried Salmon and Creamy Leeks
She Cooks, She Eats – Leek and Mango Sausage Bites
Portsmouth Food Lovers – Sea Bass with Charred Leek, Clams, Blood Orange, and a Leek Puree
Anne Walsh – Quorn, Leek and Mushroom Pie
London Unattached – Leek Caponata
Eating Covent Garden – Pork steaks with leek, apple and mushroom sauce

Congratulations to all the winners, and many thanks to everyone who participated!

Personally, I don’t really care for supporting pro teams and all that. I just don’t see the point in getting all worked up and taking pride in something that realistically has nothing to do with me. Fair play to those who do get involved in all the fuss. I can’t deny that the atmosphere of a football mach is both exhilarating and fun, and it wouldn’t be possible without the support and participation of fans.

It’s just not really my thing. I wouldn’t even know where to begin choosing a team to support. An ex once playful told me that because I was his missus I was automatically a supporter of his team. So I took a minor interest in Tottenham Hotspurs. After we broke up the team was a bit tainted for me so I tried supporting Man United because my best friend supports them. I’d be lying if I said I actually cared who won the Premier League though.

Lately I have been getting little more into the whole spectator side of football. Britain’s love for the underdog seems to be wearing off on me. Watching highlights of QPR’s recent wins against top of the league teams Liverpool and Arsenal I did feel a glimmer of pleasure. I’ve even been considering putting a bet down now that my friend has built a site where you can make free bets online. My fantasy football attempt at the beginning of the season was a complete failure. Knowing absolutely nothing about how it actually works I thought if I chose the players who most other people were picking I’d be sure to have a winning team. Surely it’d be a breeze, right? WRONG.

Anyway, here’s a funny photo I took a few years at the only UK football match I’ve ever been too. Tottenham v. Liverpool.

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Many fantastic recipes were entered, and it’d be a shame to keep them all to ourselves so I present you all with the list of entries and winners of the last vegetable garden competition of 2011!

Winner

Wanton Flavours – Carrot Halva

Runners Up

Chef Mel’s Kitchen – Carrot, Maple & Bacon Soup

Super Lucky – Carrot Meringues

Foodiecat – Carrot Pakoras with Tamarind Dipping Sauce

Entries

Misk Cooks – Carrot Salad Totally Unlike My Mother’s

Feeling Food – Thai Festive Peanut Slaw

The Austerity Cook – Love, Money and the Packed Lunch

Chez Foti – My Great-Granny’s Christmas Pudding

Working London Mummy – Turkey Noodle Soup with Carrot, Pepper, Chilli and Lemongrass

Pebble Soup – Carrot Pineapple Snowballs

Mark’s Veg Plot – Carrots, Cardamoms and Crackers

Fabulicious Food – Carrot and Parmesan Risotto

Two Become Four – Butternut Squash, Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup

Food Genie – Carrot and Potato Pie

Day in the life of a Busy Gal… – Carrot Mousse with Carrot Crisp Garnish

Yummy Choo Eats – Carrot & Oatmeal Cookies with Sugar Icing

Look Who’s Cooking Too – Curried Carrot and Lentil Soup

London Unattached – Christmas Pudding Carrot Cakes

Allotment2Kitchen – Chantenay Carrot and Thyme Flan

Portsmouth Food Lovers – Carrot Crush

Mummy I Can Cook – Carrot, Cardamom and Coconut Soup

Fiona Holt – Carrot Tarte Tatin

Jane’s Rambling Blog – Carrot, Sweet Potato and Coriander Soup

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks so much to everyone who entered!

Last Christmas was the best one I’ve ever had. Before that my family members hadn’t exactly been getting along with each other for a few years, and Christmases tended to be full of arguments and disappointment. I think the real low point was when my mother had given both myself and my sister a travel sized bottle of hand sanitizer as her only Christmas gift. It was bad times! We’re past that now, and everyone’s in a good place and getting along. I don’t even care about the gifts I just can’t wait to spend quality time with the fam!

I’ve already got a nice day out planned for the 2nd day I’m back. A few friends, my sister, and I are all going ice skating at Frog Pond on the Boston Common. Then we’re going out for a nice dinner somewhere. Later we’ll go and see my friends’ band play at TT The Bears. Other things I’m hoping will happen are: Going for breakfast at the Lighthouse Cafe, eating lots of my mother’s chicken cutlets, getting to see as many friends as possible, and SNOW! Last year when I was home we had a snowstorm just a few days before my flight home. It was awesome. There’s nothing better than waking up to snow. Have a look at the view from my house last year:

Anyway… COMPETITION TIME!!

Fly Thomas Cook are giving you the chance to win an Antler Purelite Large Suitcase! Christmas is coming and inevitably some of us will find ourselves packing luggage to visit families and friends. Nevertheless it’s hard to fit everything you may need into a small suitcase! So, they are asking British bloggers to share which items they bring with them to really capture the Christmas spirit!

To enter this competition you must:

- Share your tips and experiences on your blog
- Let your readers know that you entered this competition
- Share the URL of your entry on Fly Thomas Cook’s blog before the 19th of December 2011

A jury of travel experts will select the best tips and the winner will receive an*Antler Purelite Large Suitcase.

The competition is open to UK residents only. The deadline is 11.59pm (UK time) 19th of December 2011. More details can be found on the Fly Thomas Cook competition page. If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me or Lucie at Lucie.Oge@arena-media.co.uk.

I’ve recently launched the next competition in the Vegetable Garden Competition series. It’s the final one before the end of 2011 and fittingly  for the time of year it’s Christmas themed.The last competition, Taste for Tomatoes, was the best one since we started. Loads of people got involved and I really enjoyed chatting with everyone involved and seeing all the delicious recipes. Hopefully this one will be even better! Here are the details from the press release for anyone who wants to participate:

The online garden experts from Love the Garden are delighted to announce the fourth and final vegetable garden competition of 2011 to make sure vegetables won’t be forgotten this December: the Christmas Carrot Competition! The independent guest judge, Niamh Shields from Eat Like a Girl, will be looking for culinary creativity with carrots. The author of the best recipe will receive a £200 restaurant voucher to a UK restaurant of their choice. Three runners up will receive a copy of Niamh Shields’ cookbook Comfort & Spice.
Entering the competition is easy.

All bloggers need to do is:

•     Share a carrot recipe on their own blog;
•     Mention the competition in the post;
•     Tell LovetheGarden by emailing the URL of their entry to entries@lovethegarden.com before 21st December 2011.

The orange root vegetable is a prominent part of traditional Christmas meals, but recipes don’t have to be Christmas themed. Recipes for soups, salads, stir-fries and even cakes with this versatile vegetable are welcomed too.

LovetheGarden launched their first competition to find the best recipes for garden vegetables in February 2011, which encouraged bloggers to be creative with cabbage. The winner was Karolina with her Cabbage & Mushroom Pasties. In August, David Hall won the Potty for Potatoes competition with his Hot potato, bacon and nasturtium salad and the winner of the Taste for Tomatoes competition was Nic from Cherrapeno with her Summer Tomato Tart with Chilli Cheese Pastry. The carrot competition will be the last one for 2011, but in 2012, Lovethegarden will continue to encourage everyone in the UK to eat their five-a-day.

The deadline is 11.59pm (UK time) on 21th December 2011. For more information, please visit the vegetable garden competition page.

From the Facebook event page:

Metalheadz presents first in a series of old skool events to celebrate the rich history of drum’n'bass and other forms of electronic music. The dj’s have been requested to dig as deep and as far as possible. So we invite you to come and join us to what should be a classic night full of timeless music.

Growing up in the US I missed out on the progression of most of the DnB scene here in the UK, not to mention all of the Jungle scene. Much of my youth was spent listening to indie, hardcore, metal, punk, and the likes. This is what all of my school friends were into and still are. Boston, where I grew up, used to be known for it’s hardcore scene, but nowadays I can’t think of any real prevailing music scene in the area. That’s not to say that there aren’t loads of people in Boston who are into music, but that it’s not really know for a specific music scene any more. Still, there are certain pivotal points during my life there, which have lead me to where I am today. Some of these points happen to be based around music. So in homage to the Metalheadz History Sessions I present my own personal history of music.

1.) In 1999 is when I first start “clubbing”. There was an under-21s club in Saugus, MA called the Bahama Beach Club (the BBC). Every weekend my mother used to drive me and my friends there and pick us up afterwards. We used to think we were so cool, but really, how cool can you be as a 14/15 year old holding a Coke while dancing in a sweaty club playing the cheesiest, cheese while your mom waits outside to pick you up? I did love it though, and the trance/house room blossomed my love for electronic music. The first trance tune I can remember getting excited over was Darude’s Sandstorm. This tune was huge at the BBC when it came out and it still brings back memories when I hear it today.

2.) It must have been sometime around the summer of 2000 when I met my father’s friend’s son this at a pool party. I don’t remember what the boy was called or even what he looked like, but what I do remember is that he told me to check out Daft Punk. This is the probably the point where I realized there was more to electronic music than what I was hearing at the BBC.

3.) Around 2001/2002 my friends and I started going to raves. We used to collect all the rave fliers we could find from Satellite Records in Boston and hang them up on our walls. The big raves in the area at the time were all held at the Asylum in Springfield, MA. There was the main room which was usually trance and hard house DJs, then there was always a smaller jungle/DnB room. The one producer that stands out for me during this time is DJ Funk. He’s best known for producing a subgenre of house called booty or ghetto house. His tunes we’re dirty, but still silly and fun.

4.) I think it may have been my senior year in high school (2002) when I started hanging out with my friend Pete. We shared a love of metal and electronic music alike. At this point I had already been hearing jungle and DnB at parties, but I still didn’t actually know of any artists. Pete introduced my to my first DnB artist, Hive. Many a dark night were spent driving around listening to the album, Devious Methods. This is one of my favourite Hive tunes, Ultrasonic Sound.

4.) Right after I graduated high school in 2003 I met this girl named Marie during a chance encounter. We started hanging out, going to raves together and on another chance encounter we ran into a guy she’d gone to uni with, Robb, and his friend Mike. These two events pretty much changed my life, not in a drastic, over-dramatic way, but through becoming friends with these people I was exposed to a lot of interesting people, places, and music that broadened both my knowledge and life experience.

My love of DnB was cemented when I’d go with them to the weekly DnB night in Boston called Elements. I was too young to get in at the time so I had to get there early, before they started IDing on the door and hide in the bathroom if the bouncer came around checking everyone was off age. Around this time I was also introduced to producers such as Squarepusher and Aphex Twin. I loved the way Aphex Twins’ tracks always seemed to be telling a story, like an electronic form of classical music. It was exciting and completely different from anything I’d ever heard. It open my mind to a whole new world of sound and broadened my understanding of what was possible with music. This is one of my favorite pieces of electronic music, a track called Jynweythek.

Anyway, I could go on for days, and I’ve probably gone on for way too long already so I’ll stop now. But there you have it, my personal history of music… part 1, maybe?

It’s a gorgeous, light green vegetable that grows in a natural fractal pattern. It was so lovely to look at that I almost didn’t want to eat it, but I wouldn’t dare let it go to waste. I had absolutely no idea what to do with the thing, even chopping it up felt like deciphering a puzzle. Luckily the lad came with a recipe. I’m going to be really lazy and just copy and paste it from the Abel & Cole website, but you can find the original here.

Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon and Paprika

• 1 medium-large romanesco (or any cauli, about 750-800g), trimmed
• 2 lemons
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp hot smoky paprika
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 220°C/Gas 7. Cut the cauliflower into medium florets and rinse, leaving some of the water clinging to the florets.
2. Put them in a large roasting tray, squeeze over the juice from one of the lemons, trickle over the olive oil, add the paprika and some salt and pepper and toss the whole lot together.
3. Cut the remaining lemon into 6 segments and scatter these in the tray. Roast for 25-30 mins, turning once, until the florets are slightly caramelised at the edges.
4. Squeeze the juice from the roasted lemon segments over the roasted cauliflower and serve at once, scattered with a little flaky sea salt.

I really enjoyed the taste of the cauliflower (which reminded me a lot of my favourite veg, broccoli), but I can’t say I was a big fan of the lemon/paprika mixture. Some bites were nice, but others had me making the lemon face. I’m not conscious of ever having had paprika before so I couldn’t distinguish whether it was that or the lemon that was way too intense, but either way it wasn’t pleasant. That’s just my opinion though, and one to be taken with a grain of salt. My palate ranges from chocolate to bland. My friend really liked the dish, so I’m sure other people will too.

The same night I also made…. GRASSHOPPER PIE!

It’s taken me a week to eat the whole thing. I was hoping my mates would help me tackle the monster, but they only managed 3 slices between them. Hmm… that could be saying something. Anyway, in lieu of the actual recipe, here is an artsy fartsy photo of my delicious pie ;-)

Last Wednesday when I came into work I spied a familiar looking box with my name on it sat in reception. I grabbed the box and hurried upstairs to get a peak at what was inside. My 8 year old self would be horrified to hear how excited I was about a box a vegetables. It was almost like Christmas… the not knowing what you’re getting, the smile on my face as I walked proudly down the hall to my desk, everyone around me looking over my shoulders to see what was inside as I “unboxed” the veg… Or not really… But still I did enjoy the surprise.

My box contained broccoli, fennel, potatoes, flat beans, leeks, and purple carrots. Which is a pretty good turn out. Considering how fussy I am, I’ll eat everything in the box with the exception of fennel, which I didn’t find out till I tried it. I’d never had fennel before so my manager made me fennel and orange salad. I’m not a fan of anything that tastes like aniseed/black liquorice, but for anyone who is this is definitely a recipe to try. So here you go…

Fennel and Orange Salad

Thinly slice up some fennel. Thinly slice up some orange. Add some olive oil. Add some salt & pepper.

Fanny’s your aunt.