Continue reading »]]> I believe it was Oscar Wilde who said England and America are two countries separated by a common language. Truer words were never spoken. Take for example in a hospital. When I heard one of the nurses called sister, I expected to see a woman in a nun’s habit. If you addressed a surgeon in America as Mr., he would very quickly correct you and say he is board certified and to address him as Dr.

Cars are a whole different thing. Your boot is our trunk, your bonnet is our hood, your wing is our fender and your windscreen is our windshield.
You can’t blame us for being a little confused. You claim t]o detest the French, but then you throw all these French words at us. Words like aubergine, courgette and cloche instead of eggplant, zucchini and cover.

In music, which is supposed to be the universal language, it’s all Greek to us. Your quaver is our quarter note, your semi-breve is a half note, your breve is a whole note. It really becomes confusing when you start talking about semi, hemi, demi quavers, which are eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second and sixty-fourth notes respectively. If you want an American musician to make a change to their music, never tell them to get their rubbers out or you may find yourself looking a lot of condoms. What you should ask for is an eraser.

Even your insults mean nothing to us. Words such as berk, plonker, pillock and git simply draw blank expressions from Americans.
After ten years of living amongst the British, it has become easier, but not perfect.

Continue reading »]]> On or about July 1st Going Dippy! Will have its first advertisement in the national monthly magazine Handmade Living. With a print run of 35,000 it is distributed to larger retailers such as W. H. Smith, HobbyCraft, Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda as well as hundreds of smaller news stands. In future issues we hope to contribute to the recipe section and hope a write-up about the business will appear.

In addition we will be mass marketing in the form of two money making opportunities. One is our flyer distribution plan. The other is via e-mails. Once these plans have taken root here, plans are in the works to expand them internationally. As they say in the newspapers, watch this space!

Continue reading »]]> For those who want a change, then try this idea. The delicate flavour of the sauce complements the salmon perfectly.

What you need (for two people):
Two Fillets of White Fish OR Two Salmon Steaks.
300 g. Peeled and Cooked Prawns.
5 Teaspoons of Going Dippy! Dill Dip.
1 Tablespoon Unsalted Butter.
Splash of Dry White Wine.
White Wine Fish Stock.

What to do:

• 1. Make the fish stock in advance by simmering fish head and bones in white wine, with a few slices of leek, a sliced carrot, a few piece of celery, a sprig of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a crushed clove of garlic and a bay leaf. It is important not to let the stock boil, as this will make the stock cloudy. Strain to extract the liquid. Incidentally, this will freeze well for several months.
• 2. The sauce is better made an hour or two in advance to allow the flavours to develop. Melt the butter in a pan, and cook the prawns gently for two or three minutes, stirring frequently. Add the dip, stirring well to mix, then add the white wine, again stirring well. Allow to cook on a low heat, stirring form time to time until the sauce thickens.
• 3. Poach the fish gently in the stock, turning once until cooked. Be careful not to overcook, especially if you are using salmon. The stock can be frozen and re-used several times, as the flavour will improve each time.
• 4. Spoon the sauce over the fish, and serve with boiled potatoes and fresh vegetables.

Continue reading »]]>

I’ve always been a little fussy about my vegetables, but I have always had a prejudice against raw vegetables, so much so that my mother offered to pay me $20 to eat a small side salad.Up until her passing at age 80, I still hadn’t collected what for most people would have been easy money. I would however eat most common vegetables cooked.They included corn, peas, green beans, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, asparagus, sugar peas, lima beans, succotash and of course potatoes. In the States vegetables are just as important as the meat. In Spain the veg are usually just thrown together and cooked to mush. In England it seems that the only veg that is taken seriously is the potato. Everything else is tasteless or in the case of garden peas,like little bullets. I expected the veg to taste different because of the different soil. What I did not expect was my beloved veg to be so depleted of nutrients and taste that the only vegetable left is the potato. Now instead of being able to have my five a day, new studies have shown that in order to acquire what our five a day gave us, we now need our fourteen a day. Is it any wonder that the health food shops are making a killing in vitamin supplements?

Continue reading »]]> Sometimes people get a little crazy when trying to think up politically correct nomenclature. Take for example some of the following.

• Garbage men became sanitary engineers.
• Housewives became domestic engineers.
• Short people were vertically challenged.
• Bald men became folically challenged.
• Stupid people are intellectually challenged.
• Obese people are horizontally challenged.

And it goes on and on and on. If you really think about it, political correctness isn’t working to change our attitudes or turning us into better people or making us more tolerant and understanding. All it is doing is teaching us to be more creative and sneaky in our choice of the words we use to express our intolerance, ignorance,bigotry and prejudice.

Continue reading »]]> Spending a week with the wife’s ex.

Exes are usually exes for a reason and usually for several reasons. Our situation is a bit unusual, but no real exception.

The ex has been spoiled by his new partner and thus has acquired a few bad habits and it is my mission as his exs new partner to break him of.

Habit one – Calling my wife by his current wife’s name.

Habit two – Like most men he has one mouth and two ears, but he starts talking from the moment he gets up and doesn’t stop until he goes to bed.

Habit three – He asks you where something is and pays no mind when you tell him so of course he has to ask again the next time he wants the same thing.

Habit four – Quiet is a foreign word. When he is up, everybody is up.

In all fairness there are a few nice things about having the ex over.

He doesn’t mind sharing the cooking, though cleaning as he goes is not his strength. In fact we usually have to bribe the cleaner to come back.

Those pesky jobs that only tall people can do finally get done.

He is very handy at helping with the garden.

Actually, I just like yanking his chain.Like most of us, he’s human with flaws and quirks, but he has a good heart and loves his family and is a good friend, but don’t tell him I said so.

Continue reading »]]> Words, their origins and meanings have fascinated me my whole life. In American schools of my generation we were taught vocabulary as part of our English class until we were fifteen years of age. We learned the meanings of prefixes and suffixes. As a result, today I can break down an unfamiliar word and have a general idea of what it means. Some examples follow.

Ante- means before as in, antediluvian, antebellum, ante-mortem.
Post- means after as in post-mortem, post scriptand post traumatic stress disorder.
-ology means the study of as in geology,biology and psychology.
-itis means the infection of as in tonsillitis, appendicitis and laryngitis.
Phil means a lover of something as in philanthropic and philharmonic.
Mis means a hater of something as in misanthrope, misogynist and misogamist.
We still have remnants from the three classical languages hanging around. For example: caveat emptor means buyer beware but we come across caveats in all sorts of documents. It means beware or pay attention. The expression beware of Greeks bearing gifts refers back to the Trojan horse.
Abracadabra is believed to be three Hebrew words put together which mean father, son and holy spirit.
And thus endeth toady’s ramblings.

Continue reading »]]> The English poet Alexander Pope put forward the thought that in love as in literature we are often amazed at what others choose.
I was reminded of this the other evening while watching Judge Judy. You see lots of ex-spouses and ex-boyfriends and girlfriends suing each other over common sense issues. It seems that what is practical, sensible and common sense has died an ugly death. For example, a university student had run into a woman’s car while riding his skateboard. He didn’t feel he owed her for repairs because the only reason he ran into her was because she stopped.
Here’s another headshaker. Boyfriend and girlfriend sign a lease and move into a flat. Shortly thereafter the girl’s brother moves in. The girl and her brother have keys, but the boyfriend doesn’t. So the girlfriend decides to sue the boyfriend for unpaid rent. The poor guy couldn’t get in.

You sometimes why people bother.

Continue reading »]]> An easy supper dish with a hint of the Algarve!

What you need (for four people):
8 Pancakes, approximately 8 inches in diameter
Going Dippy Piri-Piri Dip
Going Dippy Fiesta Cream Dip
Half a chicken breast
One medium onion
1 Clove of garlic
Olive oil for frying.

What you do:

• Make the Piri Piri and the Fiesta Cream dips as instructions, and allow to rest in the refrigerator for at least two hours
• Make the pancakes fairly thin to your usual recipe.
• Cook the chicken breast making sure if it frozen, that you allow it to defrost completely before cooking.
• Slice the onion and fry gently in the oil until soft but not brown. Add the crushed garlic after two minutes
• Cut up the chicken and put into a food processor with the onion and garlic, and process until they have the consistency of medium breadcrumbs.
• Put this into a bowl and add the Piri Piri dip. If you like a mild flavour, add four teaspoons, or add more depending on your taste, and mix well. It’s best to check the flavour as you go along (most pleasant this!)
• Stuff and roll the pancakes. If you need to, secure with a cocktail stick.
• Put them into a lightly greased oven dish and put in a slow oven to warm through.
• Gently heat the Fiesta Cream dip, and spoon over the pancakes before serving. (Don’t forget to remove the cocktail stick!)
• Serve with a crispy green salad or a Waldorf salad.