My spirit animal for today
Is a lynx that just can’t be bothered to give a damn.
[recipe] Beef Bourgignon
1.5kg lean stewing beef cut into 2-inch cubes
6 slices bacon
2 carrots, sliced
10-12 small pearl onions OR 1 small white onion, diced
300g mushrooms, sliced
500ml red wine, young and full-bodied (Pinot Noir or Gamay – Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone or Burgundy)
500ml beef stock
1 tbsp tomato paste
125ml tomato sauce
30g (1/4 cup) flour
salt and pepper
1/2 tspthyme
1 bay leaf
olive oil
Preheat the oven to 175C/350F. In a large dutch oven over medium high heat pot add the olive oil and bacon pieces. Cook until crisp. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon.
Salt and pepper the beef and add it to the pot and sear on each side for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the dutch oven.
Add the carrots, pearl onions, and mushrooms and saute 2-3 minutes until tender. Remove and set aside.
Add the red wine to the skillet scraping down the sides and allow to deglaze. Add the beef stock, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and whisk in the flour.
Add the beef and the vegetables and bacon back to the pot and stir. Add thyme and bay leaf. Put a lid on pot and let it simmer in the oven for 1.5-2 hours until the beef is tender.
[recipe] Honey-Mustard chicken and potatoes
500g potatoes, cut into thin wedges or sliced
600g chicken breasts, cut into thick strips
2 medium onions, finely diced
A small bunch of fresh rosemary
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
3 tbsp. grainy mustard
Juice of a large lemon
1 tbsp. olive oil
2-3 tbsp. honey
Salt & pepper
Preheat oven to 200C
In an oven-safe skillet, sautée the onions in olive oil over medium-high heat on the stove until softened and starting to brown.
Take off the heat and arrange your potato slices on top in an even layer. If you are using a normal skillet, transfer the onions to an oven-safe dish first then arrange the potatoes on top. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Cover loosely with foil and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until softened.
Meanwhile, mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl. Take the pan out of the oven and arrange your raw chicken on top of the potatoes in an even layer. Pour the prepared sauce on top, making sure everything is coated. Throw a few sprigs of rosemary around the chicken, cover again with foil and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the foil and roast in the oven for a further 15 minutes until nicely browned. Serve immediately.
NOTES
• If you find that the sauce is drying out during cooking, add a small amount of warm water (1/4-1/3 cup) to the pan shake to mix before returning it to the oven to prevent the bottom from burning.
• Try marinating the chicken in the sauce overnight for added flavour.
Common sense… prevails?
MPs have voted to extend Brexit beyond 29 March by backing a government motion forced on Theresa May by the Commons.
The motion, which May was forced to agree to if her own Brexit plan was defeated again, as it was on Tuesday, decrees that the government will seek agreement with the EU for an extension to article 50 beyond that date. It was passed by 412 votes to 202.
188 Tories votes against the Government’s motion, only 112 Tory MPs supported it. The former Brexit Secretary voted with the government, while the current Brexit Secretary voted against the government
The motion says that if a Brexit plan is agreed by 20 March then this would be a brief, technical extension until 30 June – if not, it says, it would probably involve a longer period, and the UK taking part in upcoming European elections.
In response to Thursday’s vote, the European commission stressed that the UK would not automatically be granted an extension, saying the EU would have to consider its own interests.
“The inmates are running the asylum”
That’s how one political talking head described the situation.
MPs have inflicted two more defeats on Theresa May, rejecting the idea of Britain leaving the EU without a deal and clearing the way for Brexit to be delayed.After the prime minister’s deal was heavily voted down for a second time on Tuesday, she announced a government motion ruling out a no-deal Brexit on 29 March – overturning her longstanding policy of refusing to rule it out. May promised MPs a free vote, but the motion was carefully worded, with the final sentence stating that, “leaving without a deal remains the default in UK and EU law unless this house and the EU ratify an agreement”. However, MPs voted by 312 to 308 to support a backbench amendment which struck out that last phrase so as to rule out a no-deal exit altogether.
In chaotic scenes, the government then rescinded its promise of a free vote; and whipped its MPs to vote against the amended motion. Several Tory MPs, including cabinet ministers who have warned about the risks of a no-deal Brexit abstained or otherwise defied the whip, and the government lost the vote, by 321 votes to 278. The prime minister responded with a defiant statement, insisting a no-deal Brexit could only be avoided by agreeing a deal, or cancelling Brexit.
So repeat after me. The government tried to force its own MPs to vote against the government’s own motion, after it was amended to rule out any prospect of no-deal Brexit – and failed. The scuttlebutt from the moderate Tories is a choice between a bad Brexit deal or no Brexit at all – something that they really want to avoid. The Brextremists want to set everything ablaze and fiddle.
The vote does not definitively preclude a no-deal Brexit – MPs must still agree a deal, or extend or revoke article 50 in order to do that – but it underlined both the strength of feeling at Westminster and the government’s loss of control. In the aftermath of the vote, Brussels warned that the Commons vote blocking a no-deal Brexit was meaningless. A senior EU negotiator described it as “the Titanic voting for the iceberg to get out of the way”.
Quoted text: The Guardian
Brexit clusterfuck, the continuation
So the latest vote on the Brexit withdrawal agreement happened last night.
It wasn’t expected to to well, and it didn’t go against expectations.
Tonight, there is a vote on whether or not to take no-deal off the table. If it stays on the table, the UK will go full steam ahead and damn the torpedoes. Or they might try and wish their way out of the EU. Either way, bad things happen when you reject reality and substitute your own.
If no deal is taken off the table, as I’m hoping saner minds (or motivated self-interest) will prevail, then the UK needs to ask the EU for an extension. That’s still not a given, because I think that the EU is getting (rightfully) fed up with this whole shitshow.
If we do get the extension…. then what? There’s still no workable deal. Labour just wants a general election, in the assumption that it can do nothing much better than the Tories just did (but hey, at least they’ll be in power!). The ERG and Boris are foaming at the mouth at the prospect of making money while everything burns around them (but at least we have blue passports – made in France!).
My preferred option is another referendum, where people who realize that they were lied to, promised impossible things and were given the wrong targets to hate and fear, vote to rescind this idiocy. There are also millions of new young voters who are eligible to vote since the madness began – and a significant majority of those are against Brexit. If the worst comes to pass and the voting public still decides to press on with it, then fine, let the UK go to hell in its corner, because it frankly doesn’t deserve anything better.
The road to health is still bumpy
I’m in Barcelona for work. Work-wise, it’s been going very well, with many details sorted out and progress visibly happening. We’re in a really nice meeting room at the University of Barcelona and the mood is generally positive.
Food wise, I found that lunch is generally the easiest meal of the day. Monday I had some grilled iberico pork and potatoes and today I had swordfish and potatoes. Both went down very well. Dinner tends to be more problematic. On Sunday, I was only able to eat about a third of my ramen before feeling over-full. Last night, I had yakitori and rice, and that was ok-ish but one small (but really appealing) tuna maki put me solidly into blockage territory and I had to get back to the hotel toot-suite to be sick. Felt better afterwards, but still not ideal.
I still think the trip was a success, food-wise, because it does show me that I can function (mostly) OK when I’m not home, but I still need to be careful.
Ben goes to Canada
Ben had a week-long school holiday at the end of February, while I was on medical leave. Initially, my mom had offered to come over but, after discussion, we decided that it would be easier to ship Ben to Canada on his own. He arrived in Montreal and spent the night there. He, Nat & the boys were all supposed to go to my mom’s place on the weekend for my cousin’s wedding. The weather turned for the worse though, so they ended up with only Ben being dropped off/picked up in Hawkesbury. He then spent the week skiing, snowshoeing, sewing and shopping. Nat and the guys came the next weekend, so my mom had a full house for a couple of days – before Ben and Nat had to go back to Montreal for the return trip.
[recipe] French onion sausage pasta
Ingredients
2 tbsp. olive oil
500g ground sausage
1 tsp. onion powder
120g cream cheese
1 onion, diced
sea salt & ground black pepper, to taste
1 can (300ml) condensed french onion soup
500ml beef broth
2 cups egg noodles
120ml full-fat sour cream
40g freshly grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, heat olive oil and add in the onions, sausage, onion powder, salt and black pepper. Brown the sausage and mix well.
Pour condensed french onion soup,cream cheese, beef broth, and egg noodles into the pot and stir. Boil until noodles are fully cooked, about 8-10 minutes.
Add sour cream and grated parmesan cheese and stir.