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Apple Cake

Came across this simple recipe for a delicious apple cake.

  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 apples cored and diced
  1. combine flour and baking soda in a mixing bowl
  2. whisk in butter and sugar
  3. add egg and whisk
  4. add vanilla and whisk
  5. add flour and whisk
  6. add apples and whisk
  7. spoon into greased baking tin and bake at 190 C or 375 F for 35 minutes

Gino D’Acampo’s Ligurian Chicken

years ago I saw Gino D’Acampo cook Ligurian chicken on his Italian Escape: Hidden Italy series on TV.

I jotted down the ingredients and gave it a go.

Wow !

What a great chicken dish. Packed full of fresh ingredients and Italian flavours.

The garlic, bay and vinegar reminded me of Philippine adobo. Chicken adobo, the national dish of the Philippines, is an absolute favourite of mine, so I was curious to try an Italian take on chicken cooked with vinegar.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 3 tablespoons plain flour
  • 8 chicken pieces (about 1.2kg)
  • 6 tablespoons olive oil,
  • 4 anchovy fillets in oil, drained,
  • 3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed,
  • 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
  • 100ml balsamic vinegar
  • 100g pitted green olives, drained
  • 200ml passata
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper.
  1. Coat chicken in flour, brown in the olive oil, remove and set aside.
  2. Fry garlic, anchovies, olives, bay leaf, chilli, and rosemary in the remaining oil.
  3. Add balsamic vinegar, allowing enough time for acidity to boil off.
  4. Add water and passata.
  5. Return chicken to the pan and cook for 40 mins. Allow sauce to reduce.

Serve with Italian bread, seasonal vegetables or rice.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Every country brings a stand-out dish to the table of world cuisine. The British contribute their afternoon tea and cake. The French the croissant. The Spanish bring paella.

The Jamaicans bring their trademark jerk chicken. Hot, spicy and packed full of sweet, smoky flavour. I love it.

As you can imagine, there are as many jerk chicken recipes as there are Jamaican kitchens. Each adapted, refined and perfected to suit the table and taste of the chef and their guests.

Here’s the recipe I use:

  • Scotch bonnet pepper finely sliced (1 + according to taste)
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 3 scallions diced
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • generous dash of soy sauce (to taste)
  • a good splash of lemon juice (to taste)
  • vinegar – I use Filipino cane vinegar (Datu Puti)
  • tsp ginger
  • tsp mixed spice
  • tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground pimento (I use Dunn’s River)
  • 2 tsp dried thyme
  • tsp ground black pepper
  • salt
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Combine ingredients in a large bowl and marinade 1kg of chicken legs for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

Use scotch bonnet peppers if you can get them rather than green chillis or chilli flakes. The Scotch bonnet has a reputation as a fiery hot chilli with a kick, but it adds a rich, deep flavour which other chillis can’t match. Start with one Scotch bonnet and move up to two or more if you dare !

The other must-have ingredient is the ground pimento, also known as AllSpice or Jamaican pepper. Its taste is a combination of warm cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and black pepper and it adds a deep, aromatic flavour to the chicken.

Barbecue, oven bake or air fry.

Enjoy.

Storm clouds

Insane storm clouds earlier.

We had a huge downpour with terrific thunder and bright flashes of fork lightning.

Then this weird, surreal cloud formation drifted over us.

I was half expecting a large alien mothership to descend through the electric clouds and land in Tesco’s car park !

Spring

Spring has sprung.

Sunshine felt warm today. Spring blossoms are out and there’s a real feeling that winter is now, finally, behind us.

The cold, grey skies of January and February have departed for another year.

Thick winter coats return to the wardrobe. Warm socks to the drawer. Blankets to the cupboard.

Spring is here.

I love this time of year.

Spring and summer lie ahead and the cold, damp days of winter are gone.

In the Spring,
When proud-pied April dress'd in all his trim
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing.

– Sonnet 98
William Shakespeare

What the customer wanted…

I remember this classic cartoon. Customer requirements can easily be misunderstood, miscommunicated and mismanaged. I used it in a fair few presentations back in the day.

Understanding the problem your customer is actually trying to solve is crucial.

In 1969 Harvard Professor Theodore Levitt published The Marketing Mode: Pathways To Corporate Growth.

In it, he attributed this saying to Leo McGivena:

Last year 1 million quarter-inch drills were sold, not because people wanted quarter-inch drills but because they wanted quarter-inch holes.

Focus on the outcome the customer needs (the quarter-inch hole), not the means of achieving it (the drill).

The Indispensable Man

Sometime, when you’re feeling important,
Sometime, when your ego’s in bloom,
Sometime, when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room,
Sometime, when you feel that you’re going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow this simple instruction
And see how it humbles your soul.
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it, up to the wrist:
Pull it out, and the hole that’s remaining
Is a measure of how you’ll be missed.
You may splash all you please when you enter,
You can stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you’ll find in a minute
That it looks quite the same as before.
The moral in this quaint example, is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself, but remember,
There’s no indispensable man.

Saxon White Kessinger

Ronald Reagan

Diana Walker, a Time magazine photographer, took this photograph after Walter Cronkite interviewed President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office on March 3rd, 1981.

“After Walter Cronkite’s last interview with the President as the anchor of the CBS Evening News, there was a little celebration in the room off the Oval Office,” recounts Diana Walker. “White House staffers, including Vice President Bush, enjoyed a good laugh over a joke that has never become public.”