Another little something for the weekend...

On the way into work this morning, Planet Rock played "Rebel Rebel", one of my favourite Bowie songs and it was exhilarating to listen to so I felt I had to share:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy-rvsHsi1o

"spaghetti and stuff"...simple, tasty, vegetarian and gluten free.

I am a foodie. I love food and I cook most nights. We have a staple of recipes that I go back to throughout the month, comfort foods that are unique to the family but I am guessing that every family has some dishes that are unique to them, flourishes on known dishes to give it that home comfort taste.
Being a recent vegetarian of a few years, I still find that I am finding my feet, still adapting some dishes and discarding others totally. Given that my wife and daughters are gluten free as well, I thought that there must be other people out there with the same problems so it seemed like a good idea to share the things I come across, menus, restaurants, recipes etc.

I recently invented a dish and my daughters have named "spaghetti and stuff" and it is meal that stems from the foods that we all like. It started with my wife liking fried courgettes and I thought the meal needed a "meat" element and as I am not a fan of the diced Quorn, but do like the Quorn fillets, I cube a few of them. My eldest daughter loves cheese and we all love garlic butter and it all seemed to be a perfect topping for spaghetti, a train of thought that translated into a dish that is simple, tasty, vegetarian and gluten free.

Ingredients:                   Spaghetti
                                      Quorn fillets
                                      Courgettes
                                      Butter
                                      Garlic
                                      Soft cheese

Put the spaghetti on to boil and simmer

Fry the courgettes and the cubed Quorn fillets (chicken or pork would work), until they all start to brown nicely

Melt a good quantity of butter in a pan. Don't let it boil. Finely chop 4 or 5 cloves of garlic and add those to the melted butter. You are not looking to brown the garlic, you simply need it to caramelize it and flavour the butter.

Put the spaghetti into the bowls, top with the courgette and Quorn mixture. Sprinkle with small cubed pieces of soft cheese. I usually use Camembert and Brie.
Pour the hot garlic butter over the whole lot and the cheese will start to melt into the mixture. It is truly a comfort meal and whilst I am sure that someone must have something similar, I've not come across it.

I will add some avocado to it next time or maybe a pinch of dried chilli or smoked paprika, little twists to personalise it even more, I am sure you can think of somethings to improve it further.

...Kings X, a unique band...sweet hooks...harmonies...bludgeoning riffs.

I have sung the praises of Kings X before. They are such an underrated band and they should have been huge but they were on the edge of success, the music press  loved them, musicians loved them but as they were not a commercial sounding band, they stuck to their guns and made music that was out of time and out of kilter with whatever was popular. They weren't LA hair metal, they weren't grunge, they weren't thrash, they weren't AOR, they were, are, just Kings X, a unique band with a sound that had such sweet hooks and harmonies and some such bludgeoning riffs.
Unfortunately, not enough people "got" them. I did, I've been a fan since I first saw them play Milton Keynes in 1989. I have seen them a good few times and have all their albums and my youngest daughter has, in turn, become a fan.
Sitting in the pub the other week with some friends and my daughter, shortly before she left the old fogies to it, one of my friends asked if I was going to see them. I had no idea they were even touring, it was like a ray of light in my life and I did see my daughter getting emotional about it, where I never thought I'd see them again, she never thought she'd see them.

I even felt myself getting emotional over this video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2SYPzKzD94

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1LXLIcx354

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nDxpgqEZsU

I have now purchased 3 tickets to see them in London and I couldn't be happier, this year is looking so good for music. I have Kings X lined up, Ryley Walker is touring again and I have tickets to see Kiss at Wembley and I am planning to go and see Love/Hate in Oxford on April 1st, no joke.

Ryley Walker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqq6HbruXD0
And yes, he really is that trippy live, elements of the Doors, psychedelia and the '60's.

Kiss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KK8AzjNOww
I've seen Kiss a few times but never in makeup, which kind of gives you an idea on when I saw them last, yes, it was quite a number of years ago, even decades ago...

Love/Hate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCX0ZAfAOKc
This lot were part of the LA scene in the late 80's. I saw them a few times and they were always good fun, they even made the global news when the singer crucified himself to the Hollywood sign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOwKav3WR6Y

This will take me up to the end of May and it couldn't be looking more glorious at this moment in time.

Tony Bellew walked past me...I had just been given a sign

I have reverted back to type, I have once again become an avid boxing fan. I have a goatee and I grew it, not because it was about to become a rock 'n' roll thing (back in 1992), but because Marvin Hagler was one of my heroes, one of the greatest Middle Weights we've ever seen, a man who fought in his real life, as much as in the ring. Anyway, I have been following boxing closely for around a year, this time around and it has really come to life, we have some great boxers here and on the way. Gennady Golovkin, Vasyl Lomachenko, Conor Benn (if he ends up anything like his Dad, we're in for a treat) and there are many others, Kell Brook, Artur Betbiev, Joshua (of course) and Tony Bellew.

Ah, Tony Bellew. I had a feeling he would beat David Haye but my head told me that Haye would win. The last time I had a feeling about a fighter winning a fight was way back to Holyfield/Tyson 1. I woke on the morning of the fight, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that Holyfield would win. I just knew that Tyson couldn't beat him. This isn't anything about thought, it was knowledge, as if it had already happened, I knew with 100% certainty, that Holyfield would win. I was working that day and nearly called home to tell my wife to put a bet on it but didn't, common sense told me not to and I listened.
I listened to my common sense this time around as well. I was in London for the day and was wondering around Greenwich when Tony Bellew walked past me. He was in a light grey tracksuit, on the phone and carrying a Prada bag, obviously a present for his wife. I didn't say anything to him, I had no reason to because I had just been given a sign...
                                                                                       
                                                                                         ...I nearly listened to my common sense.

I listened to the fight on the radio, on the train on the way home. There was something so Rocky (ironically) to this fight. One guy trains in the public, posting regularly on twatter and Facebook from sunny climates where the other guy is pounding the streets of rainy, grey Liverpool, probably ending up at a Butcher's warehouse to pummel sides of beef and pork with his bare fists. You had the bad guy and the good guy with the odds stacked against him but with heart and determination, he had the eye of the tiger, without a doubt. Maybe Sly Stallone needs to sue for plagarism.

I've never placed a bet before but as Saturday was my wife's birthday, it did help pay for dinner.

Thanks Tony and what a great fight!