Four different miniature pies

Following on from the four kinds of savoury tartlets that I made last time, I wanted to try to get more depth of flavour, and learn from some of the mistakes that I made last time. Here’s the result:

Four miniature savoury pies. Back row, left to right: goat’s cheese, pesto and sun-dried tomato; stilton, walnut and prune. Front row, left to right: cream cheese, smoked salmon and basil; spinach, egg and parmesan cheese.

Savoury tartlets — four different kinds

I’m off work for Christmas, so I have time to mess about in the kitchen. Today, it came upon me that I wanted to experiment with savoury tartlets, so I made four different kinds — three of each, in a batch of twelve. Here they are:

From left to right: goat’s cheese and sun-dried tomato; goat’s cheese and pesto; stilton and prune; stilton and walnut. (I wasn’t sure how the prune will work, but I wanted to try something different.)

The Force Awakens was awesome and I loved it

As my buddy Matt noted, The Force Awakens nails the, “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes” quality of the original Star Wars — something that the prequels completely missed.

Ladies and gentlemen, our glorious NHS

Today, I turned up at my local surgery, Forest Health Care in Ruardean, for a routine appointment at 1:20 pm. Except it turns out that the centre shuts down for the day at lunchtime, so it was deserted when I got there. Evidently I took down the appointment time or date wrong.

So far, so dumb.

Understanding Tony Blair, as explained by Tony Blair

There is a fascinating article in the Spectator today: In defence of Blairism, by Tony Blair. As I started reading it, I was sceptical, but in the end I found it enlightening, and even in places inspiring.

Not that there wasn’t lots to object to, as well, but it’s a genuinely fascinating read. It’s interesting to understand why he thought that the things his government was doing were good things.

What I did on my holidays

I work for Index Data, the world’s tiniest multinational, where fourteen people of seven different languages work together from twelve locations in six different countries. Although we work well by email, Skype, bug-trackers and so on, it’s important that we all get together for a week once or twice a year. Here’s where we got together last week:

This is the view from my room at the Sonesta Great Bay Hotel, Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, a small Caribbean island. I know, I know: it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Desert island albums #3: Blue Öyster Cult — Fire of Unknown Origin (1981)

In this very occasional series, I am writing about the ten albums that I would take with me to a desert island. The idea is based on the long running BBC Radio series Desert Island Discs, of course; but I am giving myself entire albums rather than individual tracks, and I am having ten of them instead of the regulation eight. Hey, it’s my series, I can do what I want. [Previously: Joni Mitchell’s Hejira, and Rainbow’s Rising.]