Spicy Risotto – A Cure For Colds*

I just made possibly the nicest risotto I’ve ever made. And it was really easy!

My wife is a big fan of risotto, usually I make it cheese free with tomato and pepper. However, she is a bit under the weather with a cold and I had promised to make risotto for her. I thought I’d make it a bit more spicy than normal. So, what I used was….

4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
6 spring onions, finely sliced including the green bits at the end
6 cherry vine tomatoes, finely chopped
4 red shallots
2 heaped tablespoons of paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons of cumin
A pint of vegetable stock
3 mushrooms, finely chopped
1 sweet pepper, finely chopped
100g Tomato purée
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
250g risotto rice
Salt and pepper
Handful of mustard seeds.

Right, this is a piece of piss to make. Firstly get your vegetable stock on the go. I use a pint or so of water and add two or three vegetable stock cubes and boil that bad boy up. I use frozen peas as well as it adds a bit of green to the proceedings.

When that is nearly boiling, heat up some oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds, shallots and garlic. What I did as this point too was get a bit of ginger, used a garlic press and added the result to the pan. Once that has fried for a minute, add the rice and fry it all up for about 5 minutes.

Then, add the tomatoes, paprika, cumin and chilli powder. Stir it in and when the rice takes the colour, add the tomato purée. This should stick everything together, stir it around so it all takes and then add about half of the stock.

Stir in the stock until you get a nice consistency, the rice should become “Unstuck together” at this point. Keep stirring it and add the mushrooms, pepper and spring onion. Gently stir it, probably best to keep doing this for about five minutes, risotto can be a right unsociable bastard to cook, and when the rice has started to absorb the sauce and fluff out, add the rest of the stock.

You can leave this for a minute or two and then carry on stirring. Add the salt and pepper, it’s up to you how much, or even if you want any at all. The rice will absorb the sauce so after about twenty minutes from when you started frying the rice, it will be ready to eat.

If you want to add meat, chorizo is probably your best bet. All the paprika in the risotto makes it well suited. Slice your chorizo and fry it up about three minutes before the risotto is finished. We had it with some chopped raw mushroom, olives and sliced tomato.

The best thing about this risotto is the is no set way to make it, add and subtract whatever you like veg wise or even meat wise, and you’ll have a nice, thick and creamy spicy risotto.

If you throw up, I shall blame someone else. Lets say…Jamie Oliver? Yeah, Jamie Oliver.

*Not really a cure for colds.

Dreams can come true.

So, for my CBT, I’ve been asked to write down the nightmares I’ve been having. It doesn’t make for nice reading but that’s why they’re nightmares. I’m hardly going to wake up in a cold sweat screaming my head off if I’m dreaming about fluffy bunnies being fluffy.

When I get to a laptop, I might write some of them up on here. If you’re unlucky.

Cognative Behavioral Therapy – Round 2

Don’t call it a comeback!

All things considered, I’m a really lucky bastard.  I have an amazing wife, she is a joy to be around, her intellect makes her an education on whatever it is we discuss and her relentless support of her principles and causes she supports makes her an inspiration.

I don’t hate my job, even though it is what may be called an Office Drone, it is always fresh, my colleagues are great people and my employers invest in their staff with training, support, and a health plan.

I get on with all of my family, we may not all be in the same city, or indeed the same country, but we all get on fine and stay in touch with each other probably not as regularly as we should but with every single phone call we always say we will correct that.

So what do I have to be depressed about?  Simple.  I live with Depression.

Even though I know that it isn’t my fault and that I do all that I can to manage the clouds and darkness that descend, they still come.  And every time they come, I always ask myself, what do I have to be depressed about?  The answer is I suffer from Depression and Anxiety issues.

Despite healthy living, keeping active, doing exercise etc, the demon returns when I don’t expect it.  It it here at the moment.  And this is why I am lucky.

My work have a health plan with AXA that they referred me to.  Today, I spoke to a Counsellor for an hour and, as a result, I’m going to do 12 sessions of Cognative Behavioural Therapy and my employer is paying for it.  As someone who loves the NHS, I do feel conflicted about going private but the way I rationalise it, is if I don’t have to use the already overworked and under funded mental health services on offer on the NHS, then somebody else can.  Or they can take one person off of the waiting list.

As I say, I’m a lucky fecker.  I know that it’s quite a privilege to have such a support tool on hand, even luckier that my employer is covering it.  I’ve done some CBT before and it helped hugely.  This time, I shall be doing twice as many sessions.

And to be honest, I feel quite guilty.

Guilty for both having the opportunity that thousands upon thousands do not have, and guilty for essentially being a lucky fecker.  But, as the Counsellor I spoke to today said, “Don’t ask ‘Why’ questions, as they will tie you up in an existential mess.  Instead ask ‘How’ questions, as they are far better for you”.

Good advice, I thought.

Silly Season – Poppies and Winterval

Ah great,

It’s that wonderful time of the year.  The time where bullshit masquerades as truth.  When the nights draw in and the clocks go back, I brace myself for the cretinocracy tsunami which appears on the Facebook horizon.  It seems to get earlier every year as well.  The two issues that cause it all are Remembrance Day and Christmas.

To me, Remembrance Day is about, well, remembrance.  It’s not about an act of supposed defiance against a supposed threat to our liberty.  I find it quite sad that people try to reappropriate a symbol of respect into a symbol of aggression, it goes against everything that those we remember died for.  I really hate the whole “If my poppy offends you then you know where the border is” mentality that exists.

No, your poppy doesn’t offend me, you and your sensibilities, or lack of, offends me.  93% of people won’t reblog this etc etc…  Piss off with yourself.  The best way to honour war veterans is to stop making new ones, not hating all muslims because 20 pricks burn a poppy every year.

Then, once that has passed and people stop pretending to care, the famous, and debunked Winterval Myth still gets dragged out by dragging knuckled lunkheads. Christ, EVEN THE DAILY MAIL SAID IT WAS A MYTH.  But that isn’t enough proof for some people as it means they might have to think for once.  But then again, if someone on Facebook said it was true, I’d better repost it or like the status as I don’t want to be one of the 7% who don’t have the balls to.  Also, if you give so much of a shit about this being a Christian country, why not go to church once in a while when it isn’t a Christening, a Funeral or a Wedding?

May your Remembrance Day be solemn, may your Christmas be filled with joy.  Nobody is trying to take them from you.

“With White Male Privilege…..Comes Great Responsibility”

“With White Male Privilege…..Comes Great Responsibility”.

“With White Male Privilege…..Comes Great Responsibility”

Yeah, shit title, I know.

I’m a white, heterosexual male and I’ve got it relatively easy. The only way I’d have it easier would be if I wasn’t working class. Compared to people of a different colour, I’ve got it easy. Compared to people of a different nationality, I’ve got it easy. Compared to people of a different gender, I’ve got it easy.

Privilege is like money, it becomes an issue when you don’t have it. It’s easy for us white, heterosexual males to assume that everyone is treated the same. To be fair, people are treated the same by WHM’s generally. They are treated with an air of contempt for wanting to do away with our privilege.

I consider myself to be a Feminist. I’m sure some people would say I’m not, but I’m “Pro-Feminist”, either way, that’s their call. I consider myself to be a leftie as well. Again, others may not but that’s their call. I AM Pro-Choice, that’s not really a matter of discussion.

So, when I read Mehdi Hasan’s piece, Being pro-life doesn’t make me any less of a lefty, I squirmed.  Mainly because I disagreed with it wholeheartedly.  Also because I always feel uncomfortable when a man tries to tell a woman what she can and can’t do with her own body. It’s as if men have some kind of, I dunno, privilege to interfere.

As strongly as I feel about issues of inequality, I know there can be the wrong way to go about it.  If I start telling women how they are victims of discrimination, inequality and are one of the groups of people on the wrong end of a WHM stick, I’ll be chastised as a privileged wanker, and rightly so.  How patronising it must be.  And there’s the rub.  I’ll never know what it’s actually like to be the victim time and again.  Sure there may be isolated incidents but, on the whole, our society has a culture that is geared towards the benefit of white heterosexual males.

So, what can us WHM’s who are concerned with the lack of balance do?  If you want to do something, do something about our privilege.  Equality will only come if WHM’s cede territory, for want of a better expression.  I’m nowhere near perfect, I’m sure I still use gender stereotypes from time to time but thankfully, my wife is on hand to tell me why what I say or do is a problem.  She tells me things from her perspective, a perspective that I will never truly understand due to privilege.

Most WHM’s I know talk a good fight, they have the best intentions in the world.  However, time and again they say or do something that I find objectionable.  Usually it is dismissed as my most hated word, “Banter”.  Sometimes, my objections are met with a fresh understanding as to why people might find it questionable.  Sometimes I’m told I’m too PC.  I’ve even been called a traitor to my gender and that I suffer from “Penis Shame”.  That’s fine, I can live with that.

What I can’t live with is to do fuck all about it.  It’s the easiest thing to do isn’t it?  To call for equality across gender, race and sexuality when you’re a WHM.  I’m not going to tell people who aren’t WHM’s how they’re being persecuted, they know that already most of the time.  What I’ll do is to tell other WHM’s how we are the problem.  As long as other WHM’s hold prejudices, or aren’t aware that they are perpetrators of Everyday Sexism, then that’s what we can do.  It’s far more effective and less damaging than Mansplaining.

We should take responsibility for our own space in society.  Ours is one of privilege, we should use that privilege to eliminate that privilege.

Spicy Caribbean Sweet Potato Wedges

I love to cook. I’m a complete novice though, I just really enjoy it. Anyways, tried making these bad boys tonight and was deeeelighted with the results! Dead easy to make too.

Get a couple of sweet potatoes, I used one absolutely mahoosive one, and cut into wedges. Then, in a mixing bowl, I put two tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of paprika, a dash of allspice, chili powder, Cayenne pepper, oregano and thyme. I added a splash of Hot Pepper sauce as well.

Toss the wedges in the rub so that they are all coated, then just put them on a baking tray that you’ve put foil on, probably best to brush the foil in oil, I used nut oil. Then leave ’em in the oven (preheated to 200) for 40 minutes, turning them halfway through.

Had it with a Quorn Peppered steak and roasted veg. Did a Cajun sauce to go with it too. Lahhvly!

Coventry Bound

Well, this weekend I shall venturing forth to Coventry.  Looking forward to catching up with friends, family and the city itself.  I might even head on down to Browns, which hit the headlines a while back in a total non story where they didn’t serve people in uniform.
Of course, the story upset a lot of people.  My opinion of it was that the person on duty was sticking to the rules.  I doubt they knew that the people were attending the funeral of a fallen comrade.  It certainly wasn’t a cold, calculated insult to the dead, as some people would have you believe.

 

I hear that protests are still taking place outside Browns on a Saturday.  Could be interesting.

Of Course He’s Innocent, He Plays For My Team

Of Course He’s Innocent, He Plays For My Team.

Of Course He’s Innocent, He Plays For My Team

I love football.

As a Coventry City fan, that is surely an oxymoron.  It isn’t just on the pitch where I love the game, I love talking about it with friends and fellow fans.  There is, however, a danger in being a fan of football.  People might think that you are a “Football Fan”.

I make the distinction between the two because there is a separation.  Never is that separation more abundantly clear than when a scandal involving a Footballer hits the headlines, and indeed the courts.  Football has a very tribal nature.  “Insult my team or a member of my team and you insult me and my city/country” is the approach from the aforementioned “Football Fan”.  The fan of football tends to take a more balanced approach.

I’ve noticed it recently with the John Terry Court Case regarding racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand, and how opinion has differed even before the CPS had charged Terry.  John Terry is no saint, he had a very public extra marital affair with team mate Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend Vanessa Perroncel.  However, in the usual misogynistic view of the “Football Fan”, JT was a proper laaad and Ms Perroncel was a slaaag, probably out for money.  More on this mindset later.

The way that elements of the Chelsea support were so sure of Terry’s innocence, and the way elements of QPR’s support, and indeed many people who dislike Terry and/or Chelsea were sure of his guilt (either based on their support for another team, or the TV footage showing the incident) reminded me of the staunch, trenchant stance taken by both Manchester United and Liverpool fans regarding a similar incident where Liverpool’s Luis Suarez racially abused Man Utd’s Patrice Evra.  (The situation was further inflamed  a few months later when Suarez refused to shake Evra’s hand earlier this year when the teams met at Old Trafford.)

Many Liverpool fans were, and still are, very vocal and visual with their support for one of their own.  Many Man Utd fans were quick to support Evra’s claim that he was racially abused.  Like Terry, Suarez was no saint.  He first came to attention of many fans when, in the dying minutes of the 2010 World Cup Quarter Final, his deliberate handball stopped a certain goal for Ghana, who subsequently missed the resulting spot kick.  Suarez compounded his Panto villain status by celebrating the miss as he was walking down the tunnel.  Whilst playing for Ajax the following season, Suarez received a 7 game ban for biting an opponent.

Liverpool stood by their player, most notably by the team wearing shirts with the image and number of Suarez in the warm up for a match.  There were many Liverpool “Football Fans” felt it was their duty to do the same, irrespective of guilt.  He was one of their guys so they had to show solidarity.  Likewise, Suarez was already guilty in the eyes of the “Football Fans” of Man Utd.  I daresay had it been Javier Hernandez calling Glen Johnson “Negrito” 8 times, both sets of fans would have been equally supportive of their player, albeit from the other side of the coin.

That’s what bothers me most about “Football Fans” is the lack of being objective.  Even my own side, Coventry City, have signed a player who courted controversy.  Coventry signed the talented free agent and registered sex offender Marlon King after his release from prison.  King polarised a lot of the support at Coventry, many were critical of signing a multiple criminal and the nature of his crimes.  Others adopted the approach that he had served his time and deserved a second, or third chance.  It was the “he’s one of ours so support him” mentality that I mentioned earlier.

King was a success at Coventry, he was top scorer despite only signing halfway through the season.  He was signed on a short term deal and that deal was close to running out.  Then King did something unforgivable in the eyes of the Coventry “Football Fans”, he turned down a new deal and signed for local rivals Birmingham City for a reported 50% wage increase.

This was too much for some of the Coventry fans.  He was a Judas and a scumbag.  It seems that being sent to prison for Sexual Assault is forgivable but signing for another club for more money?  Utterly sickening.  What a horrible man you are, Marlon King.

In fairness, there were pockets of Coventry fans who taunted King whilst playing for Coventry with chants of “She Said No, Marlon”.  However, there were also the flipside where, as Tweeter TheBluestStar will tell you, fans were calling King’s victim a slag.  That is another horrible constant of the “Football Fan”.  Rampant misogyny and victim blaming.  This can be seen by the response to professional footballer Ched Evans being found guilty of rape.

I’m not going to link them here as I don’t want to give them the virtual oxygen that they crave.  There are people on Twitter who are convinced that Evans is innocent based on victim blaming, not understanding what consent is and, probably the most important factor for them, the team he played for.  It all goes back to the “One of ours” tribal mentality coupled with the misogynistic view that “Birds are only after a one night stand with Footballers so that they can sell their stories.  Slags”.  Had Evans played for Sheffield Wednesday and not Sheffield United, I sincerely doubt the rape apologists and victim blamers professing his innocence would still be doing so.  But, of course he’s innocent, he plays for my team.