Hot Breakfast Month

As it turns out, February is Hot Breakfast Month! And so I shall be making the most of this opportunity to stuff my face full of food that is not very good for you, but terribly tasty and much more comforting than cereal in the cold winter months. In Britain we have a good tradition of plentiful hot breakfast foods from which to choose. Pretty much all of these are perfectly suitable  for any meal, despite being seen as predominantly breakfast food. I'll also delve a little into the history of some foods, if possible.

Full English Breakfast

Traditional full English

The full English breakfast is a prolific and much-loved meal comprised of common, if fatty, dietary staples, and is easily available in eateries all over the country. There are a few different regional and personal variations but the ingredients generally remain much the same. This meal was originally created by the Victorian well-to-do, and contained a variety of extra ingredients;

...In the house of a wealthy aristocrat you would typically find dishes of baked halibut steaks, fried whiting, stewed figs, pheasant legs, collared tongue, kidneys on toast, sausages with fried bread, pig’s cheek and Melton pork pie.

Full, hearty breakfasts were not just enjoyed by those of the higher orders, but also by the working classes who found them to be the best way to set themselves up for a day of hard grafting. This idea was popularised by Isabella Beeton in her 'Book of Household Management' commonly known as Mrs Beeton and widely acknowledged to be the first 'celebrity chef.' Her Book of Household Management was a runaway success and is incredibly still in print today.

Mrs Beeton

The full english breakfast as we know it today - the simplified version - became established in the post-war fifties, when tourism was on the rise across Britain and it became the standard fare offered by B&Bs across the country. My ideal full English consists of one sausage, one rasher of bacon, one fried egg, two hash browns, a few fried mushrooms, half a grilled tomato, beans and toast, washed down with a lovely strong cup of tea. My other half is more inclined towards larger portions of all of the above (except the vegetables) with a slice of black pudding too. It's all down to personal preference really, but pretty much everyone I know is a fan of this meal in some incarnation at least. It even exists as a vegetarian option in various hotels and gastropubs, although this may be considered to be heresy in some social circles.

Omelette

Omelettes are classic quick food, easy to make and a good way of using up any leftover food or fresh food that is approaching the end of it's edible life. Not quite as British as a full English, but much less time and effort to prepare. I love a good omelette. Upon investigation  it would seem that countries around the world have their own variations of omelettes, which vary in thickness and main ingredients according to locality, but seem to abide by the same basic rules of shoving all your leftover fresh food into a beaten egg mixture and then frying it.

My perfect omelette - ham , onion, garlic & cheese, with Worcestershire sauce and pepper to season

Omelettes in their various forms have existed since the Middle Ages, so they have no identifiable starting point, they just seem to have been around forever. I did, however  manage to find an unverified anecdote related to the French town of Bessières, Haute-Garonne, who have an annual tradition of creating a massive omelette at Eastertime. According to local legend Napoleon Bonaparte - interesting guy, you should read about him - was leading his army through their town and he was served an omelette by a local innkeeper that he loved so much he demanded that all the eggs in the town be collected and a giant omelette be ,ade for his army to enjoy the next day. The  people of Haute-Garonne have been repeating this massive inconvenience to their town every year since. The truth of this matter will likely never be known, but this behaviour is in-keeping with what is known of Napoleon, and so I like to think it to be true.

Napoleon - big fan of omelettes?

Pancakes

I have a love/hate relationship with pancakes. I love eating them, they're tasty, delicious, and moreish; I can probably eat a good 5 or 6 before I start getting full. Vanilla ice-cream and maple syrup pancakes are my favourite. You can put pretty much anything on or in a pancake and it will almost invariably turn out to have been a good idea. On the other hand, however, making pancakes - simple as they are to make - drives me round the bend. It's incredibly messy (for me, at least!) and you have to make them one at a time, unless you have four frying pans and eight arms, something the usual cook lacks. This means that you either have to come to terms with the fact that at least some of your pancakes are going to be cold before you get around to eating them, or you have to make a pancake, eat it immediately, then rinse and repeat until full, neither of which are particularly good options. It's a lot of faffing for only a couple of mouthfuls of food, delicious though they are, and so we usually only have pancakes on Pancake Day. I also discovered relatively recently that pancakes are actually really unhealthy, which makes me sad.

Maple syrup and vanilla ice cream pancakes aka THE BOMB

Similarly to omelettes, pancakes have been around forever, in various forms. The earliest recorded recipe for pancakes appears in the Apicius Roman cookbook , thought to have been compiled around the late 4th century AD. As with omelettes, again recipes vary from region to region whilst remaining intrinsically the same. Pancakes also feature in some old lore;

“If you throw pancakes to the rooster and he eats them without calling the hens, you will remain single.  If he calls the hens, you will marry.”

*

Above is a selection of hot foods you could enjoy this month, but there are many more out there. Breakfast muffins with cheese and bacon, buttered crumpets and porridge to name a few. I've also stumbled across some interesting looking breakfast foods - such as hammy grits, and bacon, potato and egg breakfast casserole - that I've never had before, and I may give these a go at some point this month. This particular holiday is just like Christmas, in that it's a great excuse to eat delicious if unhealthy food all month long. Enjoy! ^_^


References
Top full English image http://theswash.com/tag/full-english-breakfast
Full English history 1. http://www.information-britain.co.uk/institutiondetail.php?id=2
2. http://www.englishbreakfastsociety.com/english-breakfast/history_of_the_traditonal_full_english_breakfast/ & quote
3. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatpicturegalleries/8451879/A-gastronomic-history-of-Britain.html
Omelettes 1. http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodeggs.html#omelettes
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omelette
Pancake image 1. http://www.food.com/recipe/cinnamon-pancakes-with-ice-cream-and-maple-syrup-441260
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake
Pancake history http://pancakelovers.com/history/

Honest Abe

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.

Genial Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th and arguably the most famous President of the United States of America, was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, on this day in 1809. In America Lincoln's Birthday is theoretically a national holiday, and so I am celebrating it here. I spent 3 years at University working towards a BA in American Studies, but despite this I still have an almost embarrassing lack of knowledge about Abraham Lincoln. Thinking about it, I'm not quite sure whether we just failed to  cover Lincoln or if I just failed to attend that particular lecture. We definitely covered slavery, and the Civil War, I just don't remember any actual profiling of Lincoln himself. It seems unlikely that Lincoln wasn't covered as an individual subject, but also entirely possible. Oh well, I shall find out about him now regardless, and provide you with a synopsis of my discoveries.

Lincoln was what John Lennon would deem a working class hero, a man who rose from a decidedly humble birth and childhood to one of the most powerful offices in the world. The very epitome of that much sought after thing; the American Dream. Almost incredibly, he seems to have done this without sacrificing his ideals and integrity along the way.  Born to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln in a log cabin on the western frontier, life as the son on an intrepid pioneer was tough. In his own words;

"I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.... My father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up.... Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher ... but that was all."

Young Lincoln

As a young adult Lincoln moved to New Salem, Illinois, and worked as a shopkeeper and then general store owner, slowly earning the trust of the locals and becoming a respected member of the community. When the Black Hawk War broke out in 1932, Lincoln was elected to be captain of the local militia, although his detachment saw no fighting. Once the short war was over, taking advantage of his new-found political connections he managed to secure election to the state legislature of Illinois in 1834, as a member of the Whig party. In this new position Lincoln began to teach himself the principles of law, and in 1837 he succeeded in getting himself admitted to the bar, and moved to Springfield to practice law soon afterwards. In 1840, he became engaged to Mary Todd, a well-educated woman from a good family, and after a wobble or two they finally married in 1842. Mary went on the bear Lincoln four children, but unfortunately infant mortality at this time was still very high, and only one of them survived to adulthood. It was during this period that Lincoln began to formulate his own opinion of slavery as illegal, although at this point he did not view it as a moral wrong so much as an economically unviable situation that was standing in the way of progression. 

Dred Scott

Lincoln joined the Republican Party in 1856, but it was only after the controversial and much maligned Dred Scott Decision that he felt compelled to stand for office. The Dred Scott decision is widely regarded as being one of the worst decisions ever made by the Supreme Court. It essentially asserted that African-Americans were not citizens, and therefore had no rights and could never have any rights. Lincoln felt strongly that this was an unacceptable decision, and  during his campaign he made his own opinions on the matter very clear, and the 1852 campaign trail debates were highly publicised and attracted a lot of attention from the media and the public. Lincoln did not go on to win the seat, but he'd certainly made himself and his position known in the political sphere. 1860 was to be Lincoln's year, and with the support of Illinois he managed to beat all of the competition in a four way race to the presidency. Before his inauguration in March 1861, seven states had already seceded from the country and soon they were embroiled in what would come to be known as the American Civil War. 

Lincoln's campaign banner

Abraham Lincoln responded to the crisis wielding powers as no other present before him. He distributed $2,000,000 from the Treasury for war materiel without an appropriation from Congress; he called for 75,000 volunteers into military service without a declaration of war; and he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, arresting and imprisoning suspected Confederate sympathizers without a warrant. Crushing the rebellion would be difficult under any circumstances, but the Civil War, with its preceding decades of white-hot partisan politics, was especially onerous. From all directions, Lincoln faced disparagement and defiance. He was often at odds with his generals, his Cabinet, his party, and a majority of the American people.

Lincoln battled against seemingly everyone in his attempts to wrestle his fractured country back together again. It was a difficult struggle and progress was slow, but by the end of September 1862, shortly after the Union Army had repelled the invading Confederate forces in a short but bloody battle at Antietam, he felt confident enough to reorder his priorities. He changed the Union's main justification for the fighting from the necessity of reunification to the abolition of slavery, following this with the Emancipation Proclamation, a document that promised to free all slaves in states held by the Union. The Union Army continued to slowly wear down the Confederacy until the South changed to guerilla tactics. By this point Lincoln had little faith in his ability to survive to serve a second term as president but to his surprise he was re-elected with a good majority of votes. It would seem that the people still had faith in him. The struggle continued until March 28, 1865, when General Robert E Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S Grant and the war was effectively over. Lincoln had succeeded in reunifying his beloved country, and the Emancipation Proclamation could now be enforced in the rebellious Confederate states, officially putting an end to slavery in the United States of America.

Robert E Lee. No relation to Colonel Sanders

Much of the South had been devastated by the war. Many had lost their loved ones, their homes and their livelihoods. Lincoln had initiated measures to restore the land to peace and prosperity as early as 1863 in some tightly held Union lands, while the war still raged fiercely in others.  Lincoln was not  a vengeful man, and supported a general policy of forgiveness with little punishment for the rebellious states, an approach that some of his cabinet were not happy with. They had little time to remonstrate with the president, however, as he was assassinated during a visit to the theatre less than a month after the conclusion of the war, by a relatively well known actor and Confederate supporter, John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln is lauded as being the great man who brought America through the civil war and ended slavery, and rightly so. I believe that a transcript of the Emancipation Proclamation is worthy of being included here in it's entirety;

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation. 

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh. 

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

Serious Lincoln

Probably the easiest way to honour the man who put an end to slavery in one of the biggest countries in the world is by learning more about him. Conveniently, a new highly rated biopic of the man himself, a detailed portrait of the last few months of his life - simply entitled Lincoln - came out in UK cinemas on January 24th, and should still be showing somewhere near you. Failing that, you could always have a crack at the disappointing (and I like quite a lot of rubbish films) Abraham Lincoln; Vampire Hunter, which covers a longer period of Lincoln's life (ie, all of it) but is admittedly, much less realistic, being full of vampires and whatnot. Lincoln's skill with an axe is, however, documented fact. Or if you're a hipster wearing a bow tie would probably also wear a bow tie to commemorate his birthday, seeing as Lincoln was himself a big fan. At the very least you can go and read some of his Wikipedia page. You don't have to be from the US of A to appreciate that Lincoln was an important figure in history, and all knowledge is worth having.

The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me.

References
Campaign banner http://history1800s.about.com/od/abrahamlincoln/ig/Lincoln-s-1860-Campaign/Lincoln-Campaign-Flag.htm
Quotes http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
Images 1. http://www.wallpapermaven.com/cat/people/Abraham-Lincoln-2.html
2. http://www.wallpapermaven.com/cat/people/Abraham-Lincoln-2.html
Lincoln in general 1. http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln (also childhood quote)
2. http://www.biography.com/people/abraham-lincoln-9382540 (also Civil war actions quote)
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
4. http://www.civilwar.org
Emancipation proclamation http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/transcript.html

Lincoln film promo posters http://www.imdb.com/

Have a Brownie Day

Today is Have a Brownie Day. As my lovely housemate Bella is a baker extraordinaire, I get to eat - amongst  many other delicious desserts - lovely homemade brownies all the freaking time. Jealous? You should be. They are tasty, delicious, and best of all, omnipresent. Bella was also the first person to introduce me to the wonder that is having both custard and ice cream with your dessert, so you don't have to choose. It's incredible that this didn't occur to me before, but I am not known for my sweet tooth, being the kind of lass that would choose a pie over a doughnut any day of the week, so I guess it just never cropped up before.

Myself, I am not much of a baker. By that I mean I have baked approximately 2 cakes and one batch of chocolate buns in my entire lifetime, so I am hardly a dab hand. I can cook just fine, and I keep meaning to get around to learning how to bake - especially after eating Bella's tasty baked goods and watching all of the delicious creations they whip out on The Great British Bake Off - but I'm not quite there yet. 

The Great British Bakeoff 2012 Finalists

I blame this entirely on the internet, as every time I look at baking recipes online I get disproportionately annoyed by the constant use of 'cup' as a term of measurement. WTF is a cup? A teacup? A mug? How on earth are you supposed to know? I have looked into this and discovered that one cup is apparently the equivalent of 226.8 grams which, although it's a bloody stupid number is at least something I can work with. However, you must still bear in mind that this weight is variable depending on what the mythical cup contains, whether it be butter or flour or the soul of a tormented baker. This also does not excuse the certain recipes that I have stumbled across that call for 2 5/8ths of a cup of something. ?!?!?!?! Just give me the freaking measurement in grams, for christ's sake! I'm making a cake, not trying to divine the true meaning of life using nothing but algebra. Honestly. Thus, I have not done much baking, really. 

Time for some brownie trivia. Have you ever wondered whether a brownie is technically a cookie or a cake? Me neither. So anyway, they are technically classed as a type of cookie, and this is because brownies, like cookies, are finger food and cake is generally eaten with a fork. I tend to cover my brownies in custard and ice cream then eat the lot with a spoon, but whatever. The name brownie comes from the lovely rich colour of the bar cookie, as you would expect. Whilst looking into the history of brownies in honour of this joyous day, I discovered that no-one really knows where brownies came from more specifically than the United States of America, at some point. There are, however, a number of twee myths surrounding the invention of the brownie, each of which claims to be the true story. So, let us delve into brownie lore... Different  creation myths state that a chef accidentally added melted chocolate to a batch of biscuits, or that someone was baking a cake which fell, creating the new dessert food. There is also a quite definitive statement regarding the creation of brownies, that I haven't been able to verify beyond the following paragraph;

This dessert was created in the kitchen of the Palmer House Hotel during the 1893 Columbian Exposition when Mrs. Bertha Palmer requested the chef make a "ladies dessert" that would be easier to eat than a piece of pie, and a smaller serving than a slice of layer cake, which could be used in box lunches at the Women's Building at the Fair. The first reference to this dessert as a "Brownie" is in a Sears Roebuck catalog published in Chicago in 1898. This recipe is still served today at the Palmer House Hilton on State Street and is one of their most popular confections.

The above cookbook is the earliest example of a printed 'brownie' recipe. The recipe itself, however, was in fact instructions regarding the creation of a molasses cake, and not a brownie as we would know it. The first legitimate 'cake brownie' recipe did show up in the 1906 edition of the same cookbook, however, and the brownie as we know it has been getting richer and more chocolaty ever since! Celebrating Have A Brownie Day is pretty easy - and obvious - just eat some delicious brownies. If you're feeling up to it, bake your own, if not, just buy some. I shall be dancing around in the kitchen with eggs telling Bella how much I love her and her baking while she does all the work >:) x

References

Top brownie image http://www.beckyshomebakedcakes.co.uk/buycakes/chocolate-brownies
Great British Bakeoff image  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9613036/The-Great-British-Bake-Off-final-BBC-Two-review.html
1896 boston cookbook http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/cookies/cookies2/history-of-the-brownie.asp
Palmer House quote http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/THE-PALMER-HOUSE-BROWNIE-50027879#ixzz2EI5vvLJ1

Read In The Bathtub Day

As I have mentioned previously, I'm a big fan of baths, and everything they symbolise. Which to me is relaxation, contentment, peace and solitude. None of which I can easily get from a shower. Whenever I shower, which isn't that often (BATHZ 4 LYFE!), I find I spend most of my time getting annoyed about the fluctuating temperature, annoyed about the water in my eyes, annoyed that the bits of me that aren't directly under the showerhead are disproportionately cold, and annoyed that it's really inconvenient to read a book in the shower. Yes, this is a thing that I do. It can be done, it's just a pain. Thus, I only really shower when I need to dye my hair because otherwise I would be lying in blood red bath looking like the latest victim in a slasher movie and slowly dying my ghostly pale skin a weird shade of pink. Trust me, not a good look.

The Scream dude. As if you didn't know.

Baths, on the other hand, are excellent. You can submerge yourself neck deep in the suds with a glass of wine, and perhaps a cigarette, if you smoke (smoking kills). You can also set up some lovely ambience with strategically placed candles and a smartphone to play some low key acoustic numbers while you unwind. Also, you are fully in control of the temperature, which can easily be adjusted to accommodate your changing tastes by a simple movement of the toe. Finally, the coup de grace, is having a good book to read in the bath. There are certain criteria that the book has to meet; firstly, it can't be too heavy - if you take a big fat hardback in there, you'll only be able to manage 15-20 minutes at best before you're wrists start to ache and you abandon the endeavour. Also, it has to be a book worthy of your attention, something that you won't drift away from and fall asleep, because falling asleep in the bath is not good! Thirdly, it has to be something that you haven't attached a inordinate amount of emotional value too. In other words, if the unthinkable happens and you drop it in the bath, it's not going to the end of the world. No signed copies or anything.

Reading in the bath is vintage, yo

So, now I've provided you with all the knowledge you could possibly need to be able to enjoy Read In The Bathtub Day to the absolute maximum. Go for it :)

Quack

Lame Duck Day

Today, interestingly enough, is Lame Duck Day. Lame duck in this instance is not referring to a bird with a sore leg, but instead to ineffective politician reaching the end of his tenure. So, who could possibly fit this description? Why, of course! Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who is possibly the embodiment of the biggest anticlimax my generation of voters (I'm 25) have yet seen. (N.b. this entire post will only be relevant to the UK and British politics, so if you have no interest in such things, I would advise you to stop reading now. You have been warned.) So, in honour of Lame Duck Day, let's take a closer look at what Nick Clegg promised, what he has achieved, and how effective he has been to find out just how much of a lame duck he really is, and whether he should be celebrated or torn apart on this most festive of days.

One of Nick Clegg's many public humiliations was on  the matter of a proposed alternative voting system, or 'AV' as it was known. On this matter it wasn't just the Conservative party who crushed Clegg's dreams, but the British public themselves. Clegg managed to battle AV though to a public referendum, but by the time this stage had been reached, the proposal had been whittled down to what Clegg himself termed 'a miserable little compromise.' The majority of those who favoured changing the current first past the post system wanted it to be replaced with a number of votes equals the number of seats kind of system. This was not part of the AV proposal, which instead asked for voters to rank the candidates in order of preference.  It didn't help matters that the figurehead of the 'Yes to AV' campaign was the nationally maligned Clegg himself. Thus, when a referendum was conducted the British public overwhelmingly voted no to AV, and the Guardian compiled an extensive list of reasons why.

Their stance on tuition fees is possibly the biggest public turnaround the Lib Dems have done since joining the coalition in 2010. On the campaign trail, they targeted students - who were at the time paying up to £3000 a year for their courses - with the pledge of abolishing tuition fees altogether. Students came over to the yellow side in their droves, happy for a politician to actually appear to be paying attention to their protests for once. Since becoming junior partners in the coalition  however, the opposite of this has happened, with tuition fees tripling to a potential maximum of £9000 a year. Almost every university in the entire United Kingdom immediately chose to increase their fees for each student to the full maximum, meaning that a undergraduate who studies towards a 4 year course will come away with at least £36000 of debt and very little prospect of getting an appropriately highly paid graduate job. Nick Clegg did publicly apologise for going back on his word in this way, but the general reaction to this is one of 'too little, too late.' It has also come to light in recent months that the Lib Dems had no intention of pushing for the abolition of fees in the first place. Nice one Nick.

Public opinion polls of Clegg and the Liberal Democrats hit a record high of of 34% on 20 April 2010, a fortnight or so before the election, which by the 8 December 2010 had plummeted to 8%, a record low. Every time Clegg has tried to go up against Cameron he's been either simply ignored or steamrollered by the Tory Express, and people have lost faith in him and his party. The yellow ties did badly in the local election in May 2012, when they lost a full third of the seats they were defending, 'a disappointing and difficult night for the Liberal Democrats' which prompted Clegg to admit he was 'really sad' - a fatalistic soundbite if ever I've heard one.

The coalition government has been gleefully parodied by Armando Iannucci in the latest series of The Thick Of It. If you have a passing interest in politics and the world around you and you haven't seen The Thick Of It - watch it, you're missing out. Bill Bailey has bastardised the classic Sting & the Police song Roxanne in his stand up show Dandelion Mind; "Nick Clegg you don't have to wear that dress tonight, walk the streets for money, you don't have to sell your body to the right" Furthermore, there is  an entire blog dedicated to nothing but images of Nick Clegg looking sad. Even Nick himself realises he is something of a joke, and he authorised an autotune remix 'song' of him apologising to the citizens of the UK over not following through on his promise to vote against a rise in tuition fees, on the proviso that all proceeds go to charity.

But it's not all bad news! The website What The Hell Have The Lib Dems Done? was created in the style of it's famous counterpart What The Fuck Has Obama Done So Far?, which was publicised by the likes of Carrie Fisher. This website does however quote almost solely from the Lib Dem manifesto, which is a statement of intention rather than a record of achievements. So the Lib Dems have achieved some things, but unlike Obama they are the smaller partner of a coalition government, meaning they have much less real power and many more opportunities for their measures to be blocked. This has led to Nick Clegg and his entire party becoming ineffectual lame ducks in every sense of the word. Some reports suggest that Nick's days are numbered, but Clegg has been on what the nation perceives to be his last legs for a good few months now and yet has shown no signs of stepping down. It looks as though this particular lame duck could continue to limp on for a while yet. Also, Clegg is at the end of the day only a figurehead, a visible scapegoat for the dissatisfaction of the masses, and if the Lib Dems think they can just get rid of him and win back the trust of the people, I very much doubt that this will turn out to be the case.

The failure of  the Liberal Democrat party as part of the coalition has lost them an entire generation of voters, the vast majority of which will more than likely go back to Labour, myself included. I certainly can't imagine voting for them again any time soon, and the entire party would have to make significant changes for me to even consider them as a viable option again even in the very distant future. They have, as a party, committed political suicide, disappointing thousands upon thousands of voters who made the fatal mistake of trusting the self proclaimed 'party who don't break promises.' At least with a reasonably substantial amount of voters falling back from the Lib Dems to the left, Labour should stand a good chance of winning the next General Election in 2014. Fingers crossed!

References
Wikipedia
Lame duck  http://politicsandfinance.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/what-do-you-feed-lame-duck.html
Nick clegg looking sad http://nickclegglookingsad.tumblr.com
last image of Clegg looking sad http://labourlist.org/2012/03/caption-contest-for-nick-clegg-opportunity-knocks/nick-clegg-looking-sad/
Lib Dem logo http://www.tfa.net/2011/09/16/liberal-democrat-mps-respond-to-the-eu-referendum-question/

The footsteps of Brigid

The beginning of February is when three interconnected holidays are celebrated, Imbolc, Candlemas and Groundhog Day, and I know very little about any of them, so I shall be brushing up on my religious studies and history and delving into the meaning of these festivals.

Imbolc is a celtic pagan holiday that takes place on the first day of February, at is what considered to be the time halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox to celebrate the awakening of the land and the growing power of the sun. The word Imbolc means literally 'in the belly'  and the Irish Oimelc; 'ewe's milk'. This holiday is also known as St Bride's Day. These names indicate that the end of winter is nigh, and the bounty that Mother Earth has been storing within her 'womb' for months will now begin to grow again. Lambs signify the coming of warmer weather and snowdrops, the first bloom of the new year, are known as the footsteps of Brigid. The Latin for snowdrop is Galanthus, or milk flower, which is perfectly fitting :)  I have always admired snowdrops for both their lovely flower and their sheer tenacity in arriving months before daffodils show up, and in such numbers! In some places snowdrops carpet the floor entirely and it's a wonderful thing to see so early in the year.

This is also the holy day of Brighid, (Otherwise known as Bride and many other names) the Irish pagan Tuatha Dé Danann goddess of fire and fertility, home and hearth, and so candles are traditionally made and lit  in every window of the house to honour her, then left to burn until the dawn. Brighid was said in some mythology to have two sisters, each also called Brighid, and together they are taken as three representations of the same goddess, similarly to the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost in Christianity and the Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in Hinduism.

The famous Scottish folklorist Alexander Carmichael (I had never heard of him before now either), sums up the meaning of Imbolc beautifully;

Bride with her white wand is said to breathe life into the mouth of the dead Winter and to bring him to open his eyes to the tears and the smiles, the sighs and the laughter of Spring. The venom of the cold is said to tremble for its safety on Bride’s Day, and to flee for its life on Patrick’s Day.

The coming of Bride by John Duncan

The Roman Catholic Church, when trying to convert the pagan Celts to Christianity, could not dent the people's faith in their beloved Brigid, and so instead they chose to canonise her, and thus she became St Brigid, and a new Christian holiday of Candlemas - or, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary - was brought in on 2nd of February to eclipse the pagan celebration of Imbolc. The Roman Catholic Church decided not to stray too far from the traditional celebrations of Imbolc by making Candlemas a festival of light, wherein each Christian is given a candle to walk around the church in procession with before being blessed. This is because;

Forty days after childbirth, Mary was supposed to have gone to the Temple at Jerusalem to make the traditional offering to purify herself. As she entered the temple, an old man named Simeon recognized the baby as the Messiah of Israel, and a “light to lighten the Gentiles.” 

Candlemas today is strongly connected to the weather. There is a very old British saying that states 'if Candlemas Day be bright and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year,' which brings us neatly around to the American holiday of Groundhog Day (or Marmot Day, if you're Alaskan). Most people are aware of the film Groundhog Day(1993), starring everybody's favourite actor, Bill Murray, but this film has caused the meaning of Groundhog Day in popular culture to warp into having a situation repeat itself over and over until you get it right.

This is incorrect. Groundhog Day is based wholly on Candlemas, and specifically derives from this poem;

As the light grows longer 

The cold grows stronger 

If Candlemas be fair and bright 

Winter will have another light 

If Candlemas be cloud and snow 

Winter will be gone and not come again 

A farmer should on Candlemas day 

Have half his corn and half his hay

It is said that February 2nd is the day that a Groundhog will first come out of his burrow to assess the weather. If he can see his shadow, he will go back into his burrow and winter will continue for another 6 weeks. If the day is overcast, and the groundhog cannot see his shadow, he will stay out of his burrow, and this signifies an early spring. In zoos across America Groundhogs make their predictions on this day, including the World's Most Famous Groundhog (allegedly, but probably accurate, can't think of a more famous one off the top of my head) Punxsutawney Phil, seen below celebrating Groundhog Day 2012 with the local mayor.

So there you have it. A parade of different holidays born from one another and bastardised to suit the place, people or religion of the time. You could celebrate this holiday by visiting a zoo to see some groundhogs make their predictions, or alternatively visit a snowdrop garden. If you don't fancy leaving the house in this cold weather, simply lighting a few candles and sitting surrounded by them should do the trick ;)

References
Imbolc & Brighid  http://paganwiccan.about.com/
Imbolc and Candlemas 1. bbc.co.uk/religions
2. http://www.twpt.com/imbolc.htm

Carmichael Quote http://www.chalicecentre.net/imbolc.htm

Candlemas http://projectbritain.com/year/candlemas.html
Brighid image http://www.orderwhitemoon.org/goddess/Brighid.html
Snowdrops http://www.bbc.co.uk/essex/content/image_galleries/snowdrops_easton_gallery.shtml
The coming of Bride http://www.earthrites.org/turfing/?p=6723
Candlemas http://seanrobsville.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/buddhist-candlemas.html
Groundhog Day film poster http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/
Punxsutawney Phil & mayor http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2012/02/groundhog-day-punxsutawney-phils-ready-for-his-big-moment.html

Cream As Rich As An Irish Brogue...

The last week of January is traditionally National Irish Coffee Week in America, and so I shall be celebrating it right here in freezing cold Yorkshire! I originally assumed that Irish Coffee was a much older drink than it actually is. The cocktail was created in 1942 by Joe Sheridan, a barman who worked at a restaurant in Foynes, County Limerick during World War II. Foynes was an important port for flying boats, particularly American ones who would arrive in Foynes after an 18 hour flight and be more than grateful for a nice warm drink to hold. Adding whiskey to tea was nothing new in Ireland, but Americans preferred to drink coffee over tea, and so it is for these exhausted pilots that Sheridan came up with the idea of alcoholic coffee. The drink was an immediate hit, and reputedly after handing a round out, one of the pilots asked 'Is this Brazilian coffee?' to which Sheridan replied 'No, that's Irish coffee.' and thus the cocktail was born. I think this in an excellent origin story, really nice and heartwarming. Joe Sheridan's original coffee recipe is also beautifully poetic;

cream as rich as an Irish brogue;  

coffee as strong as a friendly hand; 

sugar as sweet as the tongue of a rogue; 

whiskey as smooth as the wit of the land.

Irish coffee went on to become an international success thanks to the travel writer Stanton Delaplane  who brought the recipe back from Ireland to Jack Koeppler, who owned the Beuna Vista restaurant in San Francisco  To begin with Koeppler couldn't get the cream to stop sinking to the bottom of the glass, prompting Delaplane to go back to Ireland for some more practice and advice, but eventually they perfected the recipe and the Buena Vista has been world famous for Irish Coffees ever since, reputedly making up to 2000 a day!

With my heart sufficiently thawed towards this drink, I attempted my own Irish coffee. I don't really like whiskey, and I'm not that keen on coffee either, being the tea lover that I am, and so I was very unsure about Irish coffee. Verdict; warm, tasty, and best of all, alcoholic! There's nothing better than a beer jacket to take the edge off of the winter chill, and this drink is an excellent means to that particular end. Nowhere near as strong as a hot buttered rum, being one measure of alcohol as opposed to the recommended 50/50 dynamic suggested for a hot buttered rum, but undeniably comforting and delicious. A perfect after dinner drink, or a perfect nightcap to fortify you for the cold walk home.

References

Top image http://www.chow.com/recipes/10219-irish-coffee

General 1. http://www.the-irish-path.com/irish-coffee-recipe.html

2. http://www.irelandwhiskeytrail.com/irish_coffee_history_and_recipes.php

3. http://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/beverages/coffee/how_to_make_an_irish_coffee.html