ecoexplorer.co.uk

In memory of Made In Chelsea, possibly the worst television show ever made, tonight’s cocktail hour was devoted to the Chelsea Sidecar.

It’s one part gin, to one part triple sec with as much (or as little) freshly squeezed lemon juice as you can handle.

If that’s not easy enough for you (and if you’re a Made In Chelsea fan that’s more than feasible) this nice young man will talk you through it.

Straight, this cocktail is a nightmare. Shaken with ice, and served in a chilled glass with a sugar rim, it’s a dream. Purge those tedious memories of Simple Spencer and Cag-pout for good.

If you liked Mr Cocktail, I would recommend the following tutorial for “Chocolate Sailor”. A classic. “Come on, hop aboard!”

How to Make the Chocolate Sailor Mixed Drink —powered by eHow.com

As a long-time fan of Johann Hari I’m feeling pretty disillusioned by the events of the last 48 hours. As a journalist I’m perplexed by the way Hari compiles his interviews. But let’s not kid ourselves that all this fuss is because this is the most outrageous journalistic scandal of the year.

Feelings are running high because Hari is an award-winning and outspoken journalist who has set himself up as a bit of a media celeb - not just reporting and commenting on the news but going as far as making the news, e.g. calling for the pope to be jailed (a good clip to watch when you need a pick-me-up).

Journalism is a world made up of shades of grey. We’ve all tidied up clumsy sentences and we’ve all had to flesh out weak interviews with background information. But copying paragraphs from previous works and pasting them into your interview as if they were new quotes is both misleading and just poor quality.

Brian Whelan, the journalist who has researched some of Hari’s interviews, has set out (more…)

God bless whoever at the Grauniad got bored enough to think this one up. Because everyone loves a silly animal quiz…

It’s veg box day and it arrived with a huge bag of rocket so to use it while it’s fresh as a daisy I made a dead simple rocket omelette by…

Scrumptious simple supper.

In the butchers yesterday I came across camel steaks. Like you do. After friends telling me they had “a hunch” that camel steak might give me “the hump”, reminding me to “sheikh” the pan and asking what I would be having for “desert” (their wit knows no bounds), I’ve cooked the camel tonight, telling myself I’m celebrating Australia Day. I kept one of my steaks very simple, using this recipe, while chopping the other for a stew (an Anglicised version of this).

I’ve eaten the (more…)

Hard to believe anyone’s shocked by the current Sky Sports sexism saga or by the idea that there might be inherent sexism in sports media. Sky has been making a mockery of women presenters for years, dressing them up as over made-up, cleavage-flashing dolly birds alongside their more serious and sensibly-dressed male counterparts. Case in point…

Some of the more tame comments on YouTube videos like these include: “i’ve said it once & i’ll say it again. move the damn bar at the bottom of the screen. it hides the 2 best parts of your show ssn” and “Dec from Ant n’ Dec has nailed her!” (more…)

In true credit crunch fashion I took up the challenge of sourcing and cooking a home-made haggis this Burns’ Night. Abattoir pics and the full story can be found here.

Here, for other have-a-go haggis heroes, is a step-by-step guide to making haggis with the best and most simple recipe I could drum up, after searching high and low and throwing all my results together.

It’s not for the faint-hearted. You’ve been warned.

In making haggis you learn a whole new language. On the right, for example, is “the pluck” (or the innards) of a sheep, consisting of heart, lungs and liver.

Below are the lungs (or “lights”), which are brilliantly pink, with dark purple muscle attached - this is tasty so keep it - and a white trachea (or windpipe) - this is gross so lose it, or get in a mess as you’ll soon see I did.

Using a big pot of hot water boil the organs whole. (more…)

Bored of seeing the same old snowmen everywhere? Want a snowman with a difference? Look no further than these marvellous Calvin and Hobbes sketches for inspiration. Brilliantly twisted. And the vid is proof that they can be recreated in the real world. Ace.

The gay community is up-in-arms after a homosexual couple have been forcibly separated and pushed into heterosexual partnerships.

The Scotsman reports that “Guido and Detlef have become the poster boys for intolerance of their alternative lifestyle - despite the fact they are both male vultures”.

There are articles scattered around the web devoted to gay animals, and yes, the tale of Guido and Detlef is being treated as a bit of a joke, but I’m wondering whether this hilarity over gay animal relationships really is a tad homophobic - as if, in the wild homosexuality must be some sort of glitch or hiccup because it goes against nature.

I’m looking forward to hearing more on this story - especially from those protesting under a rainbow flag at the zoo gates. Munster journos, get out there!