Spicy Ginger Crunchy Cookies From Kent And Fraser
I bought these Kent and Fraser biscuits in the Waitrose in the Brunswick Centre.
Spicy Ginger Crunchy Cookies From Kent And Fraser
They were delicious and a real surprise.
They were also very good for dunking.
Smoking In Kings Cross Square
As an experienced police officer said, when I visited earlier in the day, you have to give people somewhere to smoke, until the habit dies out.
One of the East Coast crew, I talked to, said that there should be an area for non-smokers.
But perhaps the most amazing comment I heard, was from a man, who actually asked one of the cleaners in the square, would she mind if he smoked.
I don’t know whether he did, but he had asked the question in a very sheepish manner.
So does an efficient cleaning team, waiting to pounce on a dog end, make smokers feel guilty?
I think it will be very difficult to predict if smoking is allowed in the square in say five years time.
The New Waiting Room At Kings Cross Station
I returned to Kings Cross Square to take a few more pictures.
It would appear that the public has got the hang of the new square and is using it as a waiting room.
Everybody seemed very happy with the square and the sunshine.
One of the East Coast crew jokingly moaned about the lack of anybody selling ice cream. But who’d have thought that they’d be selling ice cream in front of Kings Cross station. They don’t yet, but the area today was a good sun-trap.
Kings Cross Square Opens
I went to Kings Cross Square this morning to see the opening.
In the end I had to leave before the actual opening.
I liked the new Kings Cross Square a lot and it is good addition to London. The biggest advantage to me of the square, is that when I’m say travelling from West London to my home in Dalston, it gives me a much better route home. Instead of walking for miles through the labyrinth at Kings Cross to get from the Piccadilly line to the Northern for The Angel and a 38 bus, I think now I’ll surface and walk across the square to a 30 or 73 bus, which will get me more or less to my home. If it’s fine, I can even sit in the sun away from the traffic, while I wait for the bus. If it’s raining the bus stops are much bigger than they were before the development started.
The other thing about the square is that is now a wonderful place to meet someone for a bit of business. Or perhaps to start a date or a visit to the theatre or the cinema!
So that seems to be Kings Cross station virtually finished, with Paddington and London Bridge stations, well on their way.
When do we get started on the terrible dump we call Euston? Or it is Eusless?
Londoners Still Love The Hackney Eight
I was coming home from the Angel last night, when one of the Hackney Eight showed its distinctive shape coming from the direction of Saddlers Wells.
As it approached the stop, prospective passengers walked past the 56 that many of them, like me, could have taken and waited for a few seconds for the New Bus for London to arrive.
Why don’t Transport for London do the right thing and convert route 38 to the new buses?
But then us plebs in Hackney don’t count for much, as BT have shown by their non-delivery of fibre-optic broadband.
If the 38 went to Archway in Islington, it would have been converted by now!
Bondage In Trumpington
I like this story from the BBC, as it has all of the threads that make up an ideal story for the tabloids or a steamy novel.
Trumpington is a picturesque village with an interesting history. They even had a bed burial and Chaucer based the Reeve’s Tail there. Now srely a bed burial is rather kinky!
I even went to a reception there, after two members of C’s chambers had tied the knot.
A Comeback for Europe’s Wildlife
This report on the BBC is to be welcomed.
As I found in Sweden, bears, wolves, beavers and moose are all thriving.
The trouble comes, when animals like urban foxes and badgers become a menace because they are too numerous.
We need to make sure we manage the consequences properly.
Kings Cross Square Is Nearly There
Kings Cross Square opens tomorrow and it’s nearly there.
The buses though are back and I came home on a 476 towards Islington, from in front of the station. The driver seemed pleased too, judging by the smile on his face, when I said it was good to have the stop back.
Portuguese Pork
This is one of Lindsey Bareham’s recipes that I did last night. It’s here on The Times web site.
I cooked half quantities to give me enough for a good supper.
I started by taking a pork fillet, which Waitrose had cut in half. Each half was about 200 g.
Pork, Cumin And Lemon
I cut it into small pieces and then sprinkled it was half a teaspoon of cumin. I also put some lemon juice over it and mixed it up. I then chopped up a medium onion and softened it in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, stirring every now and again. It took about ten minutes.
Cooking The Onion
I used my new Le Creuset shallow casserole and after cooking this dish, I wish I’d bought one earlier.
I then put two peeled garlic cloves and a small red chilli without the seeds and filament into my Little Chopper.
Chopping The Garlic And Chilli
This was then added to the casserole.
Onion, Garlic And Chilli
It was cooked for another five minutes, keeping it stirred.
I took a 400 g tin of chickpeas ans trained and rinsed them thoroughly. For this quantity of pork, I would only need half, but there didn’t seem to be any small tins of chickpeas.
I now turned up the heat slightly and added the pork stirring it constantly.
Cooking The Pork
After the pork had cooked, I added the chickpeas, half a chicken stock cube, 120 ml of boiling water and the remains of the cumin and lemon juice from the bowel.
Final Cooking
After simmering for perhaps 5 minutes, it was seasoned well and some finely chopped coriander was stirred in before serving.
Portuguese Pork
It was good and pretty spicy.
The Anonymous Widower 