I was looking for a recipe to use up a few ingredients in the fridge and came up with this chicken dish. Basically I cut a pocket in the chicken breast. Stuffed this with slices of buffalo mozzarella, sliced tomatoes and lots of basil leaves. Then I wrapped the chicken breast is a few sheets of Parma hat and baked it in the oven on 180 for about 40 minutes. The chicken is kept moist by the addition of the mozzarella and the fat that comes off the Parma hat during cooking and the dish goes well with some of my sweet tomato chutney.

The RSPB and the National Trust and Forestry Commission have warned that wild mushroom foraging is damaging forests. Although this years wet summer and mild autumn have produced a bumper crop of mushrooms it seems more people than before are gathering them for commercial gain. In some cases collectors have been stopped with several bagfuls of mushrooms from one trip and in one weekend forest managers at a site in London confiscated 45kg of mushrooms.

Whilst small scale collecting for personal use does not pose a problem it is this large scale collecting that poses a threat to the habitat. Nature groups are now organising courses to help people identify safe mushrooms but also to teach them how to collect mushrooms without damaging the surrounding landscape. Collectors are being urged to leave enough mushrooms for creatures like deer, rabbits, mice and insects to eat. As a rule of thumb it is recommended not to collect more than half of any one species at any one location and not to collect more than you can personally use.

If you have a bit of spare cash then you might be interested in this diamond encrusted saucepan. It has gone on sale at Moscow’s Millionaire Fair for £130,000. The saucepan is encrusted with 270 diamonds and covered in 750 carat gold. Despite the hefty price tag the salesman has admitted that is not an item that you would want to put onto the hob so it seems it is not fit for purpose.

This is an interesting idea, its an airbag that has been designed for cyclists. The device which is called the Hwding helmet has been designed by two Swedish industrial design students. It is worn as a collar around the neck but upon impact takes only 0.1 seconds to inflate covering the skull and neck. It is likely to go on sale in the UK next year and will cost in the region of £260.

That’s according to research that has been carried out by The University of Oxford. The research indicates that not only would the measure prevent 45,000 early deaths but would also save the NHS £1.2 billion each year. The study focussed on the fact that processed products such as cheap burgers and sausages are particularly bad for peoples health because of the high levels of salt and fat they contain.

Based on the fact that the average Briton eats one large beef steak, two portions of chicken breast, two pork chops and milk and cheese every day researchers worked out that lower meat diets could cut deaths from heart disease by around 31,000, deaths from cancer by 9,000 and deaths from strokes by 5,000 each year.

I remain unconvinced, I can see how a diet high in processed meats is bad for you but personally I make all my meals fresh and eat very little red meat mainly because it is so expensive. Perhaps I am not the typical Briton. One thing I couldn’t go without, however, is cheese.

If this article is correct the EU could be set to back the sale of meat and milk from the offspring of cloned farm animals. The report from the EU’s College of Commissioners reportedly favours producing food from the offspring of cloned animals. It would propose a five year ban on the sale of food product from clones but would allow food products from their offspring. This would allow European farms to used cloned animals as breeding stock for animals which will be reared as food. Food products from these animals would not be required to be labelled as such because the offspring of a cloned animal is viewed as a normal animal. As yet it is not know whether there are any long term health effects from eating food from these animals.

According to this article otters have increased ten fold within the last thirty years and are now found in more than 1,500 rivers. The creatures have been brought back from the brink of extinction caused by poor river quality and hunting. During the 1970s the animals were only found in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the far South West of England but they are now present almost everywhere except Kent. The return has been put down to a ban on organo-chlorine pesticides in the 1970s and the fact that otters were made a protected species.

This poor little guy had to rescued when he got his head stuck inside a watering can. It is thought the fox was stuck for around two days after he poked his head inside to get at a frog or a mouse. It took two RSPCA officers to pull the can off the foxes head. Once he had been checked for injuries the fox was released back into the wild.

According to this article red sprouts will go on sale in Asda this December. The red variety is supposed to be much sweeter and milder than the traditional green variety and can be served raw in salads or steamed. They are grown in Cambridgeshire and will be on sale in selected Asda stores during December if you want to try them. 

According to this article if you want to attract bumblebees to your garden you should be growing more stripy flowers. Research has shown that bees are more attracted to stripy flowers because the veins direct them to the centre of the flower somewhat like a landing platform. It seems they are also rather partial to red flowers preferring these to other colours. As bees are so important for pollinating my fruit and vegetables I will have to bear this is mind and plant a border of something stripy next year.

This is interesting its an artificial reef made up of sculptures of people. It has been created by British artist Jason Caires Taylor in the Cancun and Isla Mujeres National Marine Park off the East coast of Mexico. The artist created the sculptures of real people and then anchored them on the seabed. So far a total of 350 sculptures have been anchored although more than 400 are planned.    

An artist has created what is thought to be the world’s largest toast mosaic. The mosaic which is an image of her mother in laws face uses 9,852 slices, thats around 600 loaves of bread. It took six hours to create using nine toasters to brown the bread before arranging them into the image. The Finished mosaic measures 32ft by 42ft beating the previous record which was 29ft 2ins by 44ft 11ins.

I recently came across this interesting article about how to grow tomatoes upside down. Whilst I am lucky to have plenty of space for my vegetable patch this looks like a really good way of saving space especially for those with small gardens. You can read the full article with instructions on how to do it here but the end results look something like this picture. It also has the advantage of creating a colourful canopy. I might give this a go next year, more for the decorative effect than anything else.

I have been cutting back on tea recently as I was becoming a little too reliant on the daily caffeine fix to get me through the day. If this article is to be believed, however, perhaps I should be reinstating my daily tea fix. According to the article research has shown that drinking three cups of tea a day can help protect you against heart attacks and strokes. In fact drinking green or black tea can reduce the risk of heart problems by 11%. It seems it works by cutting the build up of plaque in the arteries. Well, I’m convinced, time for a cup of tea.

According to this article a new mammal has been discovered in Madagascar. Called the Durrell's vontsira or (Salanoia durrelli)   the creature is similar to a mongoose.  It is a cat size carnivorous mammal that lives in the wetlands of Lake Alaotra. It never fails to amaze me that even now new species are still been discovered.

Whenever we get any parcels delivered the cats are always so excited by the new boxes that they never seem to stay empty for long. We tend to have various boxes in different locations around the house so that they can find a little corner to sleep in. I took these pictures of two very large cats in a small box the other day. It doesn’t look too comfortable but they seem happy enough.

If you want to try something a little different then this chocolate covered bacon might be for you. It has been made by an American restaurant based in Santa Cruz. The recipe uses hickory smoked bacon which is cooked in the oven until crispy and golden. It is then smothered in chocolate. If that’s not enough you can also have a scoop of maple syrup ice cream on the side.

Its that time of year again when a lot of us struggle to find the perfect Halloween costume and with only a few weeks to go before the event you might think you have left it a bit late. The good news is that one of my favourite websites The Joke Shop has recently added a special next day delivery option which is available of most items. So if you still haven't found your costume you might want to head over and take a look, you can find the site at the following link.

If you like to  have vinegar on your chips but don’t like it when they go soggy then you might want to get some vinegar flavoured salt. Called Malt Salt it combines salt and vinegar in a white powder. When added to chips you get the flavour of vinegar without them going soggy. If you want to try some it costs £2.80 a packet.

One of my cats developed a rather large lump on the side of his face. It came up rather suddenly and was soon the size of a golf ball. At first I thought perhaps he had been stung by a bee or a wasp but when after a week the lump was no smaller I decided a trip to the vet was in order.

The vet decided it was an abscess probably caused by fighting. She drained the fluid off with a needle and gave my cat a weeks long course of antibiotics. The lump reduced in size immediately after it had been drained but was quickly back to its original size after a few hours. After a few days of taking the antibiotics and bathing the lump twice daily with salt water it soon burst. A large amount of blood and pus came out and for a few days the wound continue to drain. It then started to heal and two weeks later he is left with a small wound. He has now been given the all clear from the vet and despite looking a little rough is back to normal and full of beans again.

Staff at a florist in Lancashire had a lucky escape when they found this little guy hiding in some foliage. Although it looks fairly harmless it is in fact a poison dart frog. It seems the frog survived being packaged in cellophane in Colombia and was then shipped across the Atlantic before being found in the florist.

According to this article more people are suffering from something called toasted skin syndrome. The problem can be caused by being too close to a heat source such as an electric fire for extended periods of time. Recently, however, there have been a number of cases caused by laptop usage. The picture shows the mottled skin that is caused by the problem. In this case a boy used a laptop for several hours a day and ignored the fact that it was getting hot. When you think that the temperature of a laptop can reach 52C it seems a good precaution to rest your laptop on a book or other surface. The condition whilst it does clear up in some people can cause permanent discolouration of the skin and in some rare cases cancer.

This massive pumpkin could be the world’s biggest. It weighs 1,652lbs which according to the article is more than a Fiat. It has already broken the British and European records but the growers are now waiting to see whether it will be crowned as the heaviest pumpkin of all time. The pumpkin was grown by brothers Ian and Stuart Paton who have been growing giant pumpkins for 30 years. If they don’t make the record this year they intend to keep on trying until they do.

We had friends over for dinner the other day and I decided to make this Greek lamb recipe. The recipe was given to us by a friend and is one of the nicest ways to cook lamb I have found so far. It involves slow cooking the lamb surrounded by the vegetables and covered in foil for several hours. The lamb just falls off the bones and the vegetables have the flavour of oregano and cinnamon. I cooked this for nearly 5 hours rather than the 2 and half suggested in the recipe.

You can find the recipe in full here if you want to try it. But to summarise I put the lamb in a large roasting tray. Put the peeled potatoes, onions and carrots around it. Poured a cup of olive oil, a cup of water and the juice of one lemon over the top. Seasoned it with salt, pepper and cinnamon. Added three good sprigs of oregano from the garden and left it to cook for about three hours on 170 before turning it down to 150 for the remaining two hours of cooking time.

If this article is to be believed a lady from Leicestershire got a little more than she bargained for when she opened a bottle of wine to find it included a frog. Isolde Beesley opened the bottle of Moscatel de Valcencia at a family celebration and had drunk a glass of wine before finding the small frog floating in the bottle. It is not yet known at what point the frog was introduced to the bottling process but the wine has been taken off the shelves whilst it is investigated.

According to this article purple potatoes could soon be in a supermarket near you. The variety which is called the Purple Majesty has a distinctive purple colour and reportedly contains more than 10 times the antioxidants that are in white potatoes. It was developed at the Colorado State University from a traditional variety and despite looking a little odd is not genetically modified. If you want to try some it is due to go on sale at Sainsbury’s stores in Scotland and south east England this week. I might look out for them when I am there next.

A group of Australian women have recently broken the world record for completing the fastest relay race in stiletto heels. They completed the 263 foot course in one minute and four seconds whilst wearing 3 inch heels. The original article comes complete with a video. It makes me wince just looking at it.

According to this article Sainsbury and Asda have been accused of misleading customers over the prices of some goods. The supermarkets advertise some larger pack with slogans such as “bigger pack, better value” but this is not necessarily the case. In fact the bigger packs often cost more than buying the same quantity of smaller packs. In one example a bag of 2kg spaghetti cost 27p more at Sainsbury's than buying two 1kg bags. Based on this I will be looking a little more carefully at prices in the future.

According to this article there has been a record number of people needing treatment after eating mushrooms this year. The Health Protection Agency's National Poisons Information Service has received 209 calls this year from NHS staff treating people with suspected mushroom poisoning. This is quite an increase on last years total of 123. It seems the increase might be down to this years bumper mushroom crop which seems to have attracted people to start foraging. Personally I don’t know enough about mushrooms to know whether they are poisonous or not so I will stick to buying mine in the supermarket.

According to a survey published by the RSPB hedgehogs are spotted in 25% of UK gardens. The survey counted the number of birds and mammals in 70,000 gardens in June. Almost 30% of those who took part had seen hedgehogs in their gardens before. In rural areas almost half of people has seen hedgehogs in their gardens. The most frequent visitor to UK gardens is still the blackbird but other creatures such as roe deer and moles were also reported. It just goes to show how important the garden is for wildlife. I am yet to see a hedgehog in mine but we have a large population of foxes, and birds including woodpeckers, jays, blackbirds, a sparrow hawk, collared doves, robins and crows, just to name a few.

This is interesting its a car park that parks the car for you. Users of the car park are issued with an individual key fob which is unique to the user. They swipe this when putting the car in the car park. A lift then takes the car away turns it around so it will be facing the right way when it is returned and finds a space for it. When you return to collect your car, you swipe your key fob again and consult the screen to see which lift your car will be returned to. It’s an interesting idea, you can see the video of how it works here.

This is interesting, it’s an alcoholic drink made from stinging nettles. Called Cornish Stingers it is made with hand picked wild stinging nettles. They are left to brew for seven days and the resulting drink apparently tastes like a dry wine with aromas of citrus and elderflower. If you want to try some it is priced at £25 for a case of 12 and is currently available at retail outlets across Cornwall and from the Eden Project.

According to this article the world’s largest wind farm has recently opened off the Kent coast. The wind farm in Thanet will produce enough electricity  to power 200,000 homes a year. It is made up of 100 individual turbines and is the first of many more planned developments. The UK government aims to source 15% of power from renewable energy by 2010 and wind farms are likely to be a large part of this, so you might find one springing up near you sometime soon.