A Jug Of Punch.

We decided  to make a pan of cider punch the other night.  It's really cheap to make and easy.  We bought ours from the German garden centre and supermarket (Lidl) for 3 Euros and seventy nine Cents a bottle.

Chop apples and oranges, star anise,  a few cloves and a pinch of ground cinnamon and a tablespoon of sugar.  Mix it all up and add to the cider that you have poured into a pan.  You could add spirits if you want to make it really strong and need to reach for the Paracetamol for that hangover cure in the morning.

Any road or anyway.  Warm it up and pour it into a cup or glass with an handle attached.   It's  very.  Any hot punch recipes please?

I was looking at some more of the old records again the other day and I  found one of my dad's old Clancy brothers albums.  When I  was growing up in Blighty my dad would often play them and his The Seekers records on the radio gram.  One song that often plays in my mental jukebox is the following.  Enjoy,

A Different Perspective On The John Lewis Christmas Advert..

I found the following on good old You Tube today, enjoy!

Webster's Yorkshire Bitter Adverts.

Another one of my favourite television adverts for you folks.  You can always join in and post some of your favourite adverts.  Wish I  could get some of that bitter.  I am making hot cider punch today and watching Gogglebox.  Cheers!

Favourite Television Adverts.

Have you seen Edgar the Dragon in the new Christmas John Lewis advert?  He's a character.  His inventors created the famous Meerkats.  You can buy an Edgar the dragon soft toy from John Lewis stores or online, but you will have to be QUICK!

My favourite  television advert this year is the dancing Pandas on the Sudocrem advert.  Regular readers will know my love for Japanese gardens and pottery.  Its an hypnotising video.  Just a shame it's so short.  I could watch those dancing Pandas for hours.

Thanks for your comments yesterday.  I always appreciate them all!

Cooking Mushrooms On Top Of The Kitchen Range.

The wife's mother was born in County  Mayo.  She told us how to cook  mushrooms  the Mayo way.  Obviously you set the fire in the range then you place the full mushrooms on top of the hotplate.  After a couple of minutes you just sprinkle sea salt (or ordinary salt will do) over them and cook for a few minutes.  Then Bob's your uncle, they're done!

We can never get over how good they taste and they don't go all mushy.   Wonder what other vegetables or meat could be cooked this way?  Anyone got any ideas?  Thanks!

Martinmass And Armistice Day.

It's the feast day of Martinmass today.  Also Armistice Day when the Great War ended.

Martinmass was the Funeral day of Saint Martin of Tours.  He is the patron saint of beggars,  drunkards and the poor.  Martinmass was also the end of the gathering in of the harvest.  It was a time for feasting and celebrating during the Middle Ages to celebrate Autumn and preparing for Winter.   Martinmass beef was made from cattle fattened  and salted for this time.

Goose was traditionally ate on this day and it was also the time of the hiring  fairs for farm labourers.  Nottingham Martinmass fair used to be held for eight days.

An old Martinmass  saying:

"Ice  before Martinmass,

Enough to bear a duck.

The rest of winter, Is sure to be but muck."

Another Song About The Berlin Wall.

The old mental jukebox (Neil Peart phrase) began playing in my head today.  Yorkshire  Heavy rock band Saxon composed a song in 1988 entitled: For  Whom The Bell Tolls.  It was penned a year before the fall of the Berlin wall.  So it was incredibly prophetic.

The title is an expression from a John Donne sermon.   He said that because we are all part of mankind,  any persons death is a loss to all of us.  "Any man's death diminishes  me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bells toll; it tolls for thee".

Ernest Hemingway  wrote a book about the Spanish Civil War with the very same title.

We watched the excellent Simon Reeve BBC Americas documentary  again  last Sunday and it showed the wall between South America and the USA.   So much for the land of the free.

Here's Biff and the lads:

I saw them once play live.  A brilliant band..