Cooking has been something that I have enjoyed for a long time now and over the years I have built up a collection of recipes that I have made for various occasions and everyday meals. Therefore I decided to launch my recipe website and the great thing about this is that you can also get involved!

My new website which I have decided to call Recipe Share can be found on a sub domain of my main domain markdw.co.uk.

You can get involved because you can add your recipes to the site too. You will need to register and then you can publish your recipes. Also I hope that people will comment on recipes that they get off the site in order to find the best ones.

Take a look at the site and register to get started in finding recipes from various people. Happy cooking everyone!

–
Recipe Share from Mark Wilkinson
BBC Good Food - good recipes and great photos!

If ever there was a kick up the backside for the government to finally act on the issue of climate change, the weather of the last few days must have given them this. With a the new Prime Minister beginning the job today it seems the ideal time to do something about it. But will Mr Brown deliver?

Over the last 2 - 3 days we have seen some of the wettest weather than the country has seen for decades. In Sheffield 6 weeks worth of rain fell in just 24 hours. Inevitably the environment cannot cope with this large amount of rainfall and therefore flooding is a certainty. Communities are struggling to cope with this sort of flooding and therefore people’s lives are going to be destroyed causing unrest.

At the moment I am fortunate in that my home is not in imminent danger of flood risk (touch wood!). However if the current trend in climate change continues the type of weather that we have witnessed over the last few days will happen more often and with greater intensity. Therefore it is crucial that the government do something about this now.

We here on the news all the time about China and how they are building 1 coal fired power station per week to fuel their development as a country. What annoys me is that we are supposed to feel annoyed at them for doing this and that it is wrong. Why? After all it is only what we have done in the past. We cannot go preaching to countries such as China who are trying to catch us up in the development race, saying that they should be looking for other, ‘greener’ ways of producing energy when we do not do this ourselves. Only when our Carbon emissions as a nation are reduced to ‘acceptable’ levels (frozen at current levels maybe?) can we start expecting them to do the same. Also surely if we want them to do different then we need to help them. They are only trying to achieve what the rest has already done - gain a better quality of life.

In the sort term I believe Mr Brown’s new government should implement the following initiatives.

1. Change the way in which cars are taxed. This should mean that cars of 1.4 litre (1300cc) or under pay half the current tax and that cars over this amount pay double the tax. This will quickly encourage people to buy cars that are more green
2. Provide an income tax refund of around £3500 for anyone purchasing a hybrid car such as the Toyota Prius. These give off less CO2 emissions and therefore should be encouraged
3. Force new house builders to include green initiatives for every new home they build. This could include solar panels for central heating and energy saving light bulbs for each light fitting in the home - not just the 3 or so you get at the moment
4. Enforce manufacturers of electrical equipment to remove the ’standby’ function of many electrical items. This would stop people from leaving them on, using power when they are not using the items
5. Improve public transport in the UK major towns and cities. It needs to be made cheaper and far more reliable. This would remove cars from the road and remove CO2 from the atmosphere

There is clearly a lot the government can do and there is a lot that has been talked about. However the time has come to stop talking and start doing.

I have recently been watching the Planet Earth series from BBC on DVD. Watching the Arctic program with the Polar Bears and their cub was heart breaking. Surely we as a nation do not want to be responsible for this? Come on Britain, lets lead the way to reduce our impact on climate change. You never know others may follow!

–
BBC Planet Earth
June Floods

At the weekend I was at my parents and my brother’s son was over. He was playing football on the driveway and so I thought that I would join in. Sounds harmful enough but look what happened to my mobile phone.

Running around the drive tackling and playing football I completely forgot that my mobile phone was in my pocket. I was wearing a hooded Nike top and therefore the phone was not exactly secure. I fell out my pocket and then got stood on in order to end up in this state. Gutted!

We hear a lot about easy listening music but nothing is ever mentioned about easy watching TV. These are the TV shows that are just fun and harmless. They tackle only light hearted issues (occasionally delving deeper) and make you laugh. So what examples of these shows are there?

It was my father who coined the phrase “Sunday night easy watching”. He devised this phrase when he used to watch Greengrass messy around in Heartbeat which still shows on ITV. There are also other shows that have aired on a Sunday evening which fit into the same bracket. Midsommer Murders and Pie in the Sky are other examples. Great fun to watch and you never take them too seriously.

I write this post as for a while I didn’t really understand or know what he meant, however over the last few months two TV programs, one which I have watched for a long time and the other a new one to me have made me appreciate just what easy watching TV is all about.

The first of these has got to be the best comedy on TV. It is the program that I can watch any time of the day, and I can watch it for ages and ages, even episodes that I have seen the day before as it still makes you laugh and feel good. This show was a spin-off from Cheers and stars Kelsey Grammer as a psychiatrist as well as his brother in the same profession. Throw in the father of the two brothers and an English health care professional looking after the father after he was shot when on duty in the police force and you have a cracking show. Oh and I forgot about Eddie the dog, which you could make an entire show of by itself. Yes you have guessed it - Frasier. This show is just such easy watching TV.

The second show is a new show that I have only really watched in the last few months. My wife is constantly setting the Sky+ box to tape the number of these shows that air on various channels throughout the day, however I have never really watched them, believing that most day-time TV is rubbish. How wrong I was about this show. The series is based around a physician Doctor Mark Sloan, who loves solving mysteries and is a consultant to the LA Police Department. This link brings his son into the picture, Detective Steve Sloan as he works for the police. Also at the hospital are Doctor Amanda Bentley who is the medical examiner and Doctor Jessey Travis who is also a physician at the hospital. Each episode the team of four have to solve a murder. This sounds like serious stuff and therefore the program shouldn’t fit into the easy watching category, but you couldn’t be more wrong. The way in which the stories are written are superb and it never really feels like you are watching a murder program.

It really is a pleasing thought to now that a lot of the TV on our screens can still remain easy watching TV, especially with all the rubbish that we see on TV nowadays, perhaps most notably the bunch of freaks that channel 4 have decided to put into a house and call Big Brother!

–
Frasier
Diagnosis Murder
Heartbeat

I am not a gardener as it really doesn’t interest me at all, however I do appreciate a great looking garden. This weekend was the time to get my green fingers on so to speak.

With the wife cleaning and out and about doing odd job I set about trying to improve the look of our back garden. We have been to many friends recently and also my parents and noticed that there gardens are so much more welcoming than ours. It never really inspired one to sit down on the bench outside in the garden and read a book or sip a glass of wine, so my wife and I (note the correct grammar there mum!) decided to change this.

The great problem with in our garden is simple - the rabbits. They aren’t a problem in most other terms and we adore them however they do tend to eat any low lying plants that you have. Therefore we have to devise different ways of lifting the foliage off the ground so the rabbits cannot eat them.

Wandering round the supermarket I came across these rather nice wall mounted basket type things that I thought were rather nice and would look good and more to point serve the purpose of lifting plants of the ground. Being buy one get one free, my wifes influence took over and I made the purchase. I then got them home and mounted them on the wall of the conservatory with my ever improving DIY skills. I think they look great.

Next came the need for plants. I haven’t a clue when it comes to plants, apart from herbs which links back to my cooking background I think. With herbs not really being the right thing for these baskets I got my dad on the case and we managed to get some from the garden centre. After a quick potting lesson I managed to get them all into the baskets that I had bought and I think they look great. The garden is now a much more welcoming place to sit out and we have been eating out there the last few nights with the view to doing this more often.

So it just goes to show that just because you are not very good at something, or think that you cannot do something it doesn’t mean to say that you can’t!

Who doesn’t like biscuits? Well not me anyway. I tend to have a nibble on them most days as the snack tin at work is usually well stocked. However I am often asked which is my favourite biscuit? A question which I find really hard to answer.

The reason being that I have so many favourites, it depends on the occasion and accompanying beverage. Lets start with the creams. The two that stand out here are the Bourbon creams and the custard creams (which actually taste absolutely nothing like custard but what the hell!). Both of these are excellent for dunking in a cup of tea or coffee. Not sure why really but it is something to do with the beverage soaking the creamy bit and turning it into a gooey mess. However you have to be careful on the length of dunking time which is a key factor with these biscuits. It seems as thought there is a critical time for dunking. Too short and you hardly noticed the biscuit being dunked and too long and it is a goner in your brew!

Next up would have to come the digestive biscuits. Nowadays they come in all shapes and sizes and also in many different flavours. The two favourites have to be chocolate coated (preferably dark chocolate which is weird because I don’t like dark chocolate on its own) and the plain. I prefer these not to be dunked into the brew. They stand up on their own very well without a liquid addition.

Last but not least come the hobnobs. These are the all time favourite dunkers. As Peter Kay said they will drink your brew in a matter of seconds and there is no risk at all of them collapsing into the cup. They will easily withstand several dunkings before breaking.

So there you have it these are my favourite biscuits for different occasions however there are others that I like. It is a similar question as to what film is your favourite as there are just to many to choose from. I guess I just like biscuits!

Watching formula one over the last 20 years or so I have seen many different rookie drivers come onto the scene. Many have faded into the background, but some have proved their worth, such as Jacques Villeneuve, Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher. But now there is another on the scene, Lewis Hamilton and he looks set to eclipse all of these.

Lewis Hamilton has been driving in what might be termed the lower leagues for a number of years and for many people when he popped on to the formula one scene this year it will have been the first time they had noticed him.

Motorsport is an expensive business and although financial support came from his father and family for a long time, he got his big break when he met Ron Dennis - the boss of McLaren racing. The team funded Lewis through carting and the ‘lower leagues’ of motorsport such as GP2. He was therefore always destined to become a McLaren driver sometime in the future as they would have wanted to cash in on there investment over the years.

Well his big break came this year. Many rookie drivers have impressed. Most notably in recent years would have to be Jacques Villeneuve who in his second year at Williams in 1997 took the F1 world title. Michael Schumacher, the legend of F1 who retired in 2006 didn’t take his first title until he was into his 4th year of F1. However it seems as though Lewis is going to beat even these to great drivers.

I am amazed at how well Lewis has done so far this year. Many people say that he is in the best car and therefore he should do well, but remember there have been a few in the same position. The obvious one that springs to mind is Damon Hill. He was at Williams for his first full year in 1993 with Alain Prost. Prost took the title. Currently 6 races into the season Lewis is 8 points clear in the race for the title and looks the best driver out there by a long way. In Canada the champion Alonso was ragged and made to look very ordinary by Lewis. He has a long way to go, but I believe we have a champion and potential national hero in the making here. Lets hope he doesn’t prove us wrong.

–
Lewis Hamilton.com
McLaren Formula One

With the summer in full swing and the weather set fair over the last few weeks we have seen many BBQ’s taking place across the UK. All I ask is why, when we are so bad at them?

It seems as though all the Brits need is a snifter of sunshine and thats it, out comes the BBQ are off they go. Personally I am not a BBQ fan at all, however I still think that the Brits are rubbish at BBQs and here is why.

First of all is the lighting of the thing. We spend hours preparing the BBQ and getting the coals ready. It is very bizarre really as you are trying to light burnt wood (which is what charcoal is!). People out a whole packet of firelighters on in the hope that it will get the thing going, often still with no success. You always get everyone blowing profusely at the thing in order to get it going and they always end up with charred faces and almost falling over to the fact they are dizzy. Then there is always he budding onlooker that has to shout “oh just chuck a load of petrol on there”. Not a great idea unless you want your house burnt down! Finally you get one corner of the damn thing lit and then all the food (I come to that in a minute) goes on this section. As the BBQ is so cold all the food ends up raw. Or there is the other extreme were you end up with sausages so charred that am artist could use them for his next masterpiece.

Next the food itself. The Australians (and other nations) do BBQs better as they have a variety of different foods that they throw onto their BBQ. However us English are different. You can bet your last penny that at 99 out of 100 BBQs that there will be sausages, burger and chicken drumsticks. How many other meals do you eat were you have three different types of meat on your plate at the same time. I bet Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant doesn’t serve food like that. What is wrong with being a bit more adventurous. It would be great to go to a BBQ where there was not a sausage or a burger in sight. Not likely though!

Next is that why is it that it is always the man of the household that has to produce the food when the BBQ comes out? He never cooks any other time of the year, probably because he hasn’t a clue but as soon as the BBQ comes out he feels like a Mitchelin starred chef and dons the bikini fronted apron (I have one of those!). The is surely a recipe (no pun intended!) for disaster and no wonder the food ends up a bit dodgy.

Having said all that I am sure that we will be getting out the BBQ for all occasions this summer as both the wife and the family love them. Happy BBQs everyone.

–
The History of BBQ
The Simpson BBQ

It seems that anything and everything that is a must have a the moment has to be wireless. First it was the wireless phone and then we move to wireless computing. But did you ever believe that you could have wireless power?

We believe it or not it can be done. Flicking through the BBC News website this weekend I came across an article about the first scientist to light a bulb without it having any physical contact with a power source. Amazing I thought.

This could be really handy for a number of things. I think the one that springs to mind the most is the laptop. Portable computers are great especially with wireless networking so that you can surf the Internet without being connected through a wire. The constraint has always been that you have limited time in which to do this due to the fact that your laptop battery will die rather rapidly, especially with lots of use.

So how on earth do you power a device without a wire or physical contact to it? Good question, that of which I am not entirely sure of the science. According to the news report it has something to do with the same phenomenon that causes glasses to smash and break if an opera singer, for example, is to it the right note. All object vibrate and these vibrations can cause other objects bearby to do the same if the frequency is the same. This is called ‘resonance’. Like I said how this will produce power is slightly beyond me but the article attempts to explain with a diagram.

A thought that did cross my mind is that when electricity is transferred from one place to another for example along an electricity pylon or from a plug down a wire to a device, some of that energy is lost. Therefore if you are going to do this wirelessly the loss of energy would be even greater. Therefore we would have to produce more energy in order to power wireless powered devices than those than were wired. Surely this has environmental impacts as we should be looking to make device more energy efficient and not less?

–
BBC News - Wireless Energy Promises Power Up
Wireless Energy Transfer
Wireless Extension Cord
BBC News Video

As we all know London has finally got the Olympics and yesterday came the unveiling of the Olympic Logo. There have been all sorts of logo’s down the years but this year the logo has received much criticism and in my opinion rightly so.

On the one hand I look at this and think why the hell am I bothered? On the other hand I think, well this is one worldwide event that the country are hosting and therefore it should be right, in order to create a good impression of the event and our organisation of it.

I think that it is really poor and doesn’t really represent anything that anyone can relate to. I noticed that on the BBC people were submitting their alternative logos and some where much better.

My favourite logo was this one that was submitted by James Wren

–
London 2012
BBC News - Alternative Logos