Nobody like paying fines but some people go to extraordinary lengths to avoid them. Shafkat Munir had been caught speeding three times in the space of two months and fearing he would lose his driving licence, he hatched a rather cunning plan. He had already contacted the police to try and contest the fines but having no luck, he instead tried to pretend he had died. A man called Rashid Hussain called the ticketing office to say that his friend Shafkat Munir had died in Pakistan in 2002. The same man then forwarded a death certificate to the police. Although the certificate had several errors Hussain still insisted his friend was dead. However when the police rang the mobile number given by Hussain, Shafkat Munir answered the phone. Not the brightest plan. Munir was later arrested.

I found this recipe the other day for beer battered cod and thought I would try it out. Its quite an easy recipe but I found it had really good results. Basically we prepared the batter by mixing the flour and beer as described in the full recipe (I used Abbot Ale) and then folding in the egg whites. See the picture on the left hand side.

 

Then I added the egg whites whilst Rory salted the fish on both sides before seasoning it. After coating the fish in the batter we cooked it in a large wok, making sure the oil was really hot first. We then cooked each piece of fish, individually for about 5 minutes (see picture on the right) and were surprised to see that as it hit the hot oil the fish immediately fluffed up. 

We kept the pieces of fish warm in the oven whilst cooking the rest in the pan. You can see the finished result below.

We also had some batter left over so made some onion rings by slicing the onion, coating it in batter and dropping it in the oil. And as a last experiment we did the same with a few mars bars (see picture below) they tasted dreadful.

I read this article about a horse called Digger who is thought to be Britain’s biggest horse. He stands 19 hands high (that’s 6ft 5 ins) and he is still growing. Digger is only four years old so he could grow even bigger and perhaps be a contender for the title of world’s biggest horse. He already eats four times as much as an ordinary sized horse and drinks 20-25 gallons of water a day.

In all the time we have had our cats we have never managed to get them all in one place to capture a photo of the whole family. We were lucky enough to snap this picture the other day. As you can see Willow (grey) and Lucy (stripy) are about to attack each other so the illusion of a happy family didn't last very long.

A man who confessed his crime to his cats did not realise he was being bugged and was later caught. David Henton was suspected of battering his partner Joyce Sutton to death but as the police had no proof they decided to bug his house. Mr Heston was recorded saying “I had to something about it. I hit my Joyce” say the prosecution. It just goes to show you never know who is listening.

I seem to have done a lot of shopping in this years sales although I haven’t actually spent a great a deal of money. I have been taking advantage of a lot of coupons and special offers I have either been emailed or have found online. Recently I have also found quite a lot of special offers that would useful for Valentines Day such as 1-800 flowers coupons. They have a good range of gourmet food gifts for Valentines Day which would make a slightly unusual present. I also found some Perfumania coupons that offer money off of shipping if you are sending within the US.

I have never really associated wine with China but apparently China is now one of the largest wine producers, in fact it’s the sixth largest wine producing country according to this article. The article looks at Chateau Changyu, a vineyard near Beijing that produces red and white wine as well as Icewine and brandy and whilst a few years ago the wines were not thought good enough for European standards it appears some wine connoisseurs are now getting rather excited about them. The wines cited in the article seem a little expensive but there are some recommendations at the end that are a little more affordable. Whilst I doubt I will be finding Chinese wine in my local supermarket just yet, I am going to try my best to track some down, and as always if I manage to find a bottle, the review will be here.

I read this article today that suggests the recent increase in food cost has added around £750 to the average family’s shopping bill. The article is based upon official figures that show wholesale food prices have risen by 7.4% in the past 12 months, that’s more than three times the rate of inflation. According to the Office of National Statistics the increase in wholesale prices has meant the average consumer pays 12% more for their basket of shopping. I wonder how much truth there is in this. Personally I have noticed that prices of certain products have been creeping up but I have not really noticed a difference in my monthly shopping bill. This may be because I tend to do all of my shopping online and have a fairly strict budget. If I notice the basket total starting to creep up, then I tend to go back and remove any non essential items. Likewise if I find I am well within my budget, because for example I have saved money on special offers, then I will browse around and add a few luxury items that I wouldn’t usually be able to afford. I would be interested to know whether anyone else has noticed any substantial increases in food prices and how this has affected you.

Quiche is one thing I can never get enough of, especially if it is cheese, egg and bacon. I cooked my first quiche in the new oven the other day. As you can see from the picture it turned out quite well but as usual it didn’t last very long.

Wildcats will be reintroduced back into the wild in an effort to save the species. There are currently thought be only a few hundred wildcats left in the wild in Scotland but some experts predict these remaining cats could die out within a decade.  This project which is led by the Aspinal Foundation will start by boosting numbers in thinly populated areas of Scotland and if successful will go on to reintroduce the cats to areas from which they have disappeared. It is hoped that eventually wildcats will be introduced to areas of England and Wales where they have not been found since the 18th century