I Couldn’t be a Catholic Priest
This is from this week’s Popbitch.
In August 1994, the Catholic church decreed that you couldn’t be a priest if you were an alcoholic or had coeliac disease (allergic to wheat).
But then I like women too much! And I don’t believe in god.
I have a feeling that the guy who said that is now Pope.
I have discussed this with several devout Catholics and they don’t agree! Wasn’t according to the Bible, Jesus welcoming of all and sundry? Even tax collectors.
Rabbit Casserole
I got this from Nigel Slater at the Guardian. I made five this evening and the one I ate was very nice. The other four are now in my freezer.
A sweet, apple-rich stew for a cool autumn evening. A piece of rabbit or chicken on the bone and a decent butcher’s sausage should be enough for each person, leaving you with four pieces of meat to make a soup-stew for tomorrow. To make soup of the leftovers pull the meat off the bones then return it to the remains of the stew and slowly reheat. Make thick toast croutes to put in the bottom of your soup bowls, then ladle the thick beany soup over them. A drizzle of olive oil is a sound finishing touch. If you need more liquid then add a little stock or water as you reheat.
The qualities shown serve four.
- 250g dried flageolet or haricot beans – I used a large tin of borlotti beans. Perhaps not as good, but easier.
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 8 large rabbit or chicken pieces on the bone – I used two diced rabbits from the UK Game company.
- 4 decent sausages, cut into four – These were Musks gluten free.
- 2 medium onions
- 400g dessert apples – Two English Bramleys.
- 3 sprigs rosemary
- 2 tbsp flour – Doves Farm gluten-free.
- a bay leaf or two
- 500ml cider, stock or, at a push, water – No prizes for guessing I chose the cyder. Aspalls!
- 3 tbsp double cream (optional)
- 1 tbsp cider vinegar (or more to taste) – Aspalls too!
The method is as follows.
- Soak the beans overnight in cold water. Drain and bring to the boil in fresh, unsalted water. Let them simmer for approximately 40 minutes, checking their progress now and again. How quickly they are ready will depend on the age of your beans. Drain and set aside. I just opened the tin!
- Set the oven at 190C/gas mark 5. Warm 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a shallow pan, add the rabbit or chicken pieces and the sausages and let them colour nicely on all sides. While the rabbit or chicken is cooking, peel and roughly chop the onions, core and chop the apples, and remove the rosemary needles from their stems and chop them.
- Remove the meat to a plate and add the onions to the pan, letting them soften, then introducing the apple, allowing it to colour on all sides, adding more oil if necessary. Stir in the chopped rosemary, flour, bay leaf, salt and pepper, then the cider or stock. Let the liquid bubble for a couple of minutes, stirring to dissolve any crusty bits from the pan. Stir in the drained, cooked beans.
- I put the meat back in now, but the original recipe didn’t say.
- Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, covered with a lid. Check the meat is tender, then stir in the cream if you are using it and the cider vinegar. The sauce should be quite sweet, but if it’s too much so, reduce it by stirring in more cider vinegar. Check the seasoning, adding more salt, pepper, and cider vinegar as necessary.
Serve in shallow bowls.
I just had one with new potatoes and froze the other four!
Completing a Widowhood Survey
Yesterday I completed the survey for Lizzie Evans at Liverpool University.
It was fairly painless and therapeutic. So please do the survey!
Setanta Again
I used to subscribe to Setanta, as it gave me a lot of Premier League matches and Racing UK. Now I need to subscribe to one company to get both. The price will be more than twice what I paid Setanta.
No wonder they went bust!
But seriously, why do I have to pay through the nose to see some racecources on the box and the others are free?
Because most of those running racing are as described by Will Carling and can’t understand that one Racing Channel is for the best of the industry.
Connor Better Than Rooney
That was the headline on the front of the East Anglian Daily Times today.
It is hype, but how many sixteen-year-olds have scored two goals on their competitive start? Not many. I think Trevor Francis scored more but he was an exceptional talent.
I was at Shrewsbury and after watching England last night, he’s a bit like Emile Heskey. Big, strong, athletic and pretty nimble. I wouldn’t give very long odds that Connor leads the England line in the 2014 World Cup.
Rabbits
Cuddly! Aren’t they? No! Delicious? Yes!
There is a report that they do a lot of damage to crops. As someone who keeps horses they are a nightmare, as what would happen if a horse at speed puts their foot in a rabbit hole and turns over. They don’t do too much damage to my crops as I don’t really have any, but muntjak do eat all my young trees.
The report says that nunbers are increasing and blames the government for removing rules that allow you to complain about your neighbours, who don’t keep rabbits down. And as those neighbours are often nebulous government agencies like highways or large corporations like the railways, it is not easy to complain without a big stick.
That may be the case in some areas, but I’m in the middle of nowhere and all then rabbits round here are either mine or my neighbours.
Rabbit numbers are increasing, but they really haven’t got to pest levels yet. But as they say rabbits breed like well – rabbits!
Could though one of the causes of the increase in rabbits be the ban on hunting?
But you say that you didn’t hunt rabbits with hounds! No, but you hunted foxes and whereas before the hunting ban, you saw lots of foxes round here, now they are very rare indeed. I don’t even smell them like I used to in the gateways, where they marked their territories.
So it’s not rocket science to see that if you have less foxes, you might well have more rabbits.
But why are the foxes declining? The only reason I can think, is that whereas some years ago, if they saw a fox, farmers and gamekeepers would leave him for the hunt, now they make sure he doesn’t get away.
Obviously, it needs a proper study, than just my personal observations.
Another reason for the increase is that years ago, country kids often used to go rabbiting, bring them home and skin them for the pot. I don’t know whether it’s still legal, but parents don’t let their fourteen-year-olds take out the 4-10 these days!
And talking of the pot! Rabbits are delicious and good for you!
So let’s make the farmers problem, someone else’s opportunity. We just need to buy them in the butchers or the supermarket. I’ll get some today in Waitrose for supper tonight.
The Anonymous Widower 