Grilled Pepper and Sausage Penne
This is one of what Waitrose call an Everyday Recipe. That’s a bit naff, but the Everyday tag seems to be working for them.
I modified it to make it fully gluten-free and my version used the following ingredients.
- A pack of 6 Musks gluten-free sausages.
- 280g Cooks’ Ingredients grilled pepper in olive oil
- 1 smalll essential Waitrose onion, finely chopped. It might have been one of Sainsbury’s.
- 400g can essential Waitrose plum tomatoes in natural juice
- ½ x 25g pack fresh basil leaves, shredded
- Dove’s Farm gluten-free penne
The method was as follows.
- Cut the sausages into thick slices. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil from the peppers in a large pan and add the onion. Cook over a medium heat for 3 minutes until softened. Add the sausages and brown on all sides.
- Drain the peppers from the oil and add them to the pan. Cook for 2 minutes then add the tomatoes, breaking them up with a spoon. Season and simmer for 15 minutes until the sausages are cooked through and the sauce is thickened. Stir in the shredded basil.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to pack instructions until just tender. Drain and toss with the pepper sauce. Serve with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
It was good.
Two Original Elan Key Fobs and a Tool Kit
I belong to a forum on Lotus Elan Central, where we talk about Lotus Elans, as you might expect.
Someone mentioned getting a new key fob for Christmas. Here are my two.
Two Lotus Elan Key Fobs
Note that the one on the right has hardly been used and the badge has not shown any sign of wear, unlike the one on the left.
Here’s the toolkit for good measure.
A Pristine Lotus Elan Tool Kit
This has never been used. There is no rust at all.
But I do feel cheated in that some tool kits have a pen knife.
The Grapes of the Devil
This was the description of brussel sprouts on one television program over Christmas.
I don’t agree, as I like my sprouts.
The Death of Akmal Shaikh
Akmal Shaikh was a man, who was caught smuggling drugs into China and has now been executed by the Chinese authorities.
But what makes Shaikh’s case even worse, is that he appears to have been a man with all sorts of mental problems, who was exploited by criminals. As the BBC report says.
Mr Shaikh’s family said he suffered from bipolar disorder.
They said he had been delusional and duped into a carrying a suitcase that did not belong to him when he was found with 4kg of heroin in Urumqi, north-west China, in September 2007.
His daughter Leilla Horsnell has said he was approached by drug smugglers in Poland and they convinced him they would make him a popstar in China.
Whether this is true or not actually makes no difference in my mind, as I am totally against the death penalty, as I feel that it is something that should be consigned to our more violent past. We just have to be a lot more civilised.
At least in Shaikh’s case the Chinese authorities haven’t harvested his organs for transplant, as is their normal practice.
Security? What Security!
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a Nigerian man, who attempted to blow up an airliner flying between Schipol Airport at Amsterdam and Detroit.
The fact that he got as far as he did is a complete failure of security.
- He had been put on a security watch list.
- He bought a ticket from Ghana to Detroit in cash.
- He was making a two week trip to the United States with hand baggage only.
- He had visited countries like Yemen.
But he was allowed to board the plane with virtually no security at Schipol, when he transferred to the Detroit flight.
Any of the facts above, should have meant that he was properly searched. But then we don’t do profiling, as it might upset some people.
So now we have the knee-jerk reaction by governments to add more levels of security, which will result in large queues in terminals all over the world. As Patrick Mercer, has just said on television, that will create a nice soft targets for these lunatics.
Christmas Music
What a pleasure to go to the shops now that the dreadful Christmas music has stopped.
But there is also another side to this. Before Christmas, I visited Waitrose and John Lewis several times. Did they have any Christmas music? I didn’t hear any!
But which store group has done very well over Christmas. Step forward John Lewis!
The Anonymous Widower 