Long ago, I tired of the brand of grim UK working-class realist cinema that Mike Leigh and lesser directors have built their careers on. I loved Leigh’s early movies, kicking off with High Hopes, which were original and courageous in their uncompromisingly honest depiction of battling working class Brits at the bottom of the social hierarchy – the Untouchables of the despicable English caste system. Leigh brought an undeniable humanity to his films that surfaced in the moments of humour, affection and dignity his characters somehow salvaged from the squalor and degradation of their mostly bleak existences. Their small personal victories were profoundly moving, and a vital counterbalance to the oppressive bleakness of their physical and human environment. Continue reading ‘Fish Tank’ – Movie Review
Sourdough Pizzas – As Good As Home Oven Pizzas Get!
Back in July 08, I wrote a post entitled Making Your Own GREAT Pizzas At Home. I had experimented with multiple pizza recipes before developing one I particularly liked, and with further tweaking over a period of months was consistently getting results that I was pretty pleased with. My pizzas were on a par with all but one of my favourite local pizzerias, and given the restrictions of a domestic oven, I was chuffed with that.
Naturally, I slipped into evangelical mode and posted my recipe on the web for anyone interested. The response was underwhelming, although a few folk emailed me privately to enthuse after trying the recipe. But there were hundreds of pizza recipes on the web, I reasoned – why should massive tribes of pizza pundits flock to my blog? I sulked vaguely for a short time, then got on with enjoying my home-baked lil’ luverlies.
That was not the end of the story – not by a long way. Driven by a restless and at times self-defeating perfectionism, I continued to experiment with my pizzas, but could not improve on the recipe I posted. Then I happened upon a remarkable site of obsession and instruction that set me back on my increasingly well-padded bum with a jolt: Continue reading Sourdough Pizzas – As Good As Home Oven Pizzas Get!
Baking Sourdough Bread At Home: A Beginner’s Guide
This post is a presentation of the essentials of sourdough bread baking, a collation of information I’ve acquired through months of inhabiting artisan bread baking forums, reading books by the bread gurus and – most important of all – trying many different sourdough bread recipes. Consider it a short-cut to your own wide wonderful world of artisan sourdough bread baking at home. Hopefully, I’ve included everything you need to know to get started. Continue reading Baking Sourdough Bread At Home: A Beginner’s Guide