Thin Thoughts on The Men Who Made Us Fat

Writer - Fiona Mackenzie-Spence

This three part BBC programme was fascinating and dealt with the consequences of a chemically made cheap sugar alternative called HFCS or High Fructose Corn Syrup and how it is changing the way our bodies actually work. Dr Robert Lustig, featured in the programme, shows how HFCS is one of the major causes of obesity in adults and children today You can view his 1½ hour seminar about this here on this link – very educational  http://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM

This means that we no longer have to just look at what kind of food we’re eating and how much, but we have to check exactly what’s in the ingredients. You can find HFCS in a low calorie “Ranch dressing”.  Corn syrup is in an awful lot of food and drinks.  Glucose syrup is also in a lot of food and can be made from corn, although it can also be derived from other foodstuffs.  The real issue here is sugar and if you want to lose weight, you need to consider that it’s as addictive and bad for you as nicotine and not eat it.  

If you want to lose weight you have to eat fresh, healthy, nutritious food. We can eat meat, fish, eggs, cheese, vegetables, butter (a little) and NEVER butter substitutes, fruit, nuts, salads and things like Allbran, or Grapenuts are very good sources of fibre.  Locally produced food is fresher and will therefore carry more nutrients. Visit www.thinthoughts.net for further tips and advice on weight loss.

CarFest 2012

Whole Buffalo spit roast

Did you hear about BBC Children in Need's CarFest 2012?  It's the brainchild of Radio 2's Chris Evans and is likely to raise  £1million for Children In Need (well done Chris!)

We were lucky enough to get a family ticket for CarFest South, tempted by the local food, and a visit to the inspirational organic farm of Laverstoke Park - Oh and not to mention taking the family to their first music festival (our idea of a perfect weekend away).

Laverstoke Park in Hampshire is famous for its buffalo milk mozzarella and ice cream, both of which we can testify to being excellent.  Buffalo also provides a tasty and healthy alternative to beef - and we were able to try it straight from a spit roast as a hot bap. Mmm, a real testament to local food!

Muddy Carrot camping HQ!

Although the name suggests a paradise for petrolheads (which it was for James - his guilty pleasure) we enjoyed the excellent local produce with food stalls from salad bars to sustainably caught fish - deliciously grilled in front of you. There were artisan crisp producers and even a social barbecue area where you could cook what you'd bought on big, ready-lit communal barbecues. The whole feel of the event was good-natured and stress-free (as long as you weren't bursting for a pee at the wrong end of a loo queue!)

Joliet Blues Band 

Not quite the real John Lennon

The third main element to CarFest was the music - a great introduction to rock festivals for children who, like ours, hadn't been to anything like it before. The music was great, we enjoyed tributes to the Beatles and the Blues Brothers, and fab performances from Texas, The Feeling and Razorlight.

We are hopeful with a name like CarFest 2012 that next year may see CarFest2013 and if so we'll be at the front of the queue to nab some more tickets in aid of such a good cause!!

Local Sourcing in France!

Salut!

The rural French are renowned for persisting with their own local suppliers for their everyday groceries; even small villages usually still have their own boulangerie/patisserie, butcher, and épicerie (grocers) as well as the social hub - the café or café-tabac.  Team Muddy Carrot took a short camping break in the Loire earlier in August and enjoyed daily visits to the local shops for supplies of baguettes, croissants, patisseries and some delicious coarse duck and rabbit pâtés-maison.  (Just as Bridport still supports its bakers, we're glad to say)

Not to miss an opportunity, some local producers set up one evening to offer their wares to the captive market in the campsite selling crépes, saucisson and fruit liqueurs from little market stalls. A bottle of intensely-flavoured raspberry cordial accompanied us back home, and has been a delicious addition to puddings and ice-cream.

On our return journey we stopped for a visit to the vieux ville part of Orléans with its stunning cathedral and ancient architecture; well worth a visit if you're ever in the area - especially if you're a devotee of Jean d'Arc.

A bientôt!

Leakers Bakery Sweet Potato & Harissa Bruschetta

Here's a delicious recipe - especially for the approaching Autumn!

For 4 servings:

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into generous slices

240g drained cannelini beans

4 slices Leakers sourdough bread

50g baby spinach leaves

50g Gruyere cheese sliced

2 cloves garlic

Half a lemon

3 tablespoons Harissa paste

2 tablespoon Olive Oil

Roast sweet potato in butter at 180c for 20 minutes. While roasting whizz approximately 240g soft cannellini beans with two cloves of garlic and lemon juice to make a paste.  Spread paste over the top of sourdough slices, leaving the crusts and edges exposed.  Top with raw baby spinach leaves then lay potato over the spinach. Finish with sliced Gruyere. Finally, mix the Harissa with the olive oil and drizzle this mixture all around the edge of the bread crusts plus a little on top of the cheese.  Place assembled bruschetta into the oven for approx 10-15 minutes until the cheese has completely melted.

Leakers Bakery

How is the Muddy Carrot house eco-friendly?

If you’ve ever met either James or Tracy (the brains behind Muddy Carrot) before, then you’ve probably heard all about how eco-friendly their lives are.  Since I’m so keen on the environment I decided to travel to this eco-house and learn about what makes it so eco-friendly.

I started by simply looking at the exterior of the house and noticed that the roof had an overhang over the balcony.  According to Tracy this helps the house heat up more in the winter and cool down more in the summer, this diagram will show you how it works:

So in the summer when the sun is higher in the sky the overhang prevents the house from getting too much heat and in the winter when the sun is lower in the sky the sunlight is free to stream in through the windows warming the house considerably.

Also on the farm besides the house are a number of out buildings, 2 of which had south facing roofs which I noticed had solar panels on; one set for hot water another for general electricity, some of which they sold to the national grid helping to reduce energy bills significantly.

One part of the house that I simply couldn’t miss was the green roof, not green as in eco-friendly (although it was) I mean that the roof was literally the colour green! It had been planted up with sedums, a small hardy plant, not needing very much tending to (unless there isn’t much rain for a while.) Planting on roofs is becoming increasingly popular although it doesn’t mean you should just pour a load of compost all over your tiles, no, the roof has to be specially prepared beforehand to be a sort of basin which is then filled with soil and then is planted on.

Also visible from the outside were the windows, which were double glazed, good for increasing insulation. Tracy told me that they were made from super-insulated Belgian glass, good for protection against the wind. Also, on the note of insulation, when I went inside I noticed the walls were really thick, and Tracy told me that they were a whole half metre and stuffed full of insulation.

Inside the house the only heating source I could find was a relatively small wood burner but I suppose that’s all they need, with half-metre walls all the heat is going to stay inside the house and isn’t going to decrease very easily especially when it’s winter and the sun is heating the house up too.

There are also numerous measures that James and Tracy have taken so as not to waste electricity such as putting stickers on plugs so you know which switch controls which device, also almost nothing is left on or on standby overnight, the only ones that I can think of are the fridge and the freezer!  To help save energy the lights are turned off when not needed, applications that use energy all the time are turned off at the power point, and also Tracy told me that when they had a dripping cold water tap, rather than letting the water just trickle away they put a jug underneath it to collect the water. 

overall I think that this an excellent way to help the environment and more people should try incorporate some of these ideas into their homes.

Charlie, 

Green Society,

 Colyton Grammar School

Nice ‘n’ Easy Coffee Bean Vodka Tiramisu

Very simple and easy dessert to prepare for a dinner party or as a treat, using the Coffee Bean Vodka enhances the flavour!

Ingredients:

• 100ml of English Spirit Coffee Bean Vodka
• 100ml of espresso (or coffee of your choice), cooled 
• 500ml pot of double or whipping cream
• 5 tbsp of caster sugar
• 250 gram tub of mascarpone
• 175 gram pack of sponge fingers
• 25 grams of dark chocolate
• Cocoa powder

Method:

1. Put the cream, mascarpone, half the English Spirit Coffee Bean Vodka and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk until the ingredients have completely combined and have the consistency of thickly whipped cream. 
2. Put the coffee and remainder of English Spirit Coffee Bean Vodka into a shallow dish and dip in the sponge fingers one at a time, turning for a few seconds until they are nicely soaked. Layer these into your serving dish until you have used half the fingers, then spread over half of the cream/mascarpone mixture. Next, grate over half of the chocolate. 
3. Then repeat the layers for a second time (you should use up all the coffee/vodka mix, if not pour the remaining liquid onto the second layer of sponge fingers), finishing with the cream/mascarpone layer.
4. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight. 
5. To serve, dust with cocoa powder and grate over the remainder of the chocolate.

To add that luxurious touch, serve the Tiramisu with a Vanilla Kiss cocktail; 2 measures of English Spirit Vanilla Pod Vodka, 1 measure of Baileys (or similar Irish crème liqueur), serve over lots of ice.

Food Security in South Sudan

Just browsing Muddy Carrot we can see how in the UK we are spoiled for choice of delightful locally grown or produced food. Wonderful! Producing local food is an essential element in many parts of the world. 

Back in 2008 St Mary’s Church Corscombe had the privilege of welcoming Bishop John Zawo and his wife Nancy from the South Sudan, Africa and we were able to show them our local produce. Little did we know that 4 years later a group of us would visit our friends in South Sudan as part of a link we have established with Ezo in South Sudan and see it for ourselves. 

South Sudan became independent last year and is the world’s newest nation. Exciting - but living in troubled times with a recent civil war and various attacks by rebel groups. This has made it so insecure that people have been too frightened to farm until now. Fortunately things have improved considerably recently and people are now farming again and building schools and clinics. 

Seems strange, but we were asked to take with us a large chainsaw – it’s a very forested area and the overgrown fields need clearing. 

Large trees in well managed forests can be felled and the timbers used to build school desks and to rebuild clinics. 

The local people gave us a massive welcome and we are in regular contact by email – using solar power to charge the laptop there. Yes, our diet was mainly rice and maize, with occasional bits of goat – generously cooked by people who cannot afford meat. An amazing caring community shows us what can be achieved when people are committed to each other’s welfare. 

Andrew and Celia Tomkins