The Different Daily Dish Challenge of 2021

Apparently my wife(Bronwyn), was getting tired of my request for chicken pie and mash potato every few evenings, so she requested that we challenge ourselves to eat a different dish for dinner every day for a month. I think she also wanted to improve and/or expand her cooking skills. The rules were simply that when together we must have a different dish every day for dinner. The only exception being if one of us were away from the house, then you’re allowed to eat what you like. As it was November 2020 with a Tier 4(which soon became a Tier 5) Lockdown in London and there weren’t any pubs, restaurants or entertainment venues legally open + both of us would be in the house most nights(aka trapped with no excuse or escape), so 1st December seemed like a good time to start this challenge.

Update: We made it to 4 months (March 31st) and now Bronwyn wants a month off for some chicken pie 😀

We managed to get through the first month without many problems, I did happen to be away for dinner a couple of nights(caring for my mother), so had Fish & Chips), but other than that it was quite fun and rewarding to try to think up and cook such a variety of meals. I then suggested we carry this on to make the challenge 3 months long, as that should be much more challenging, so we did.

Once we hit the 3 month barrier, I then wondered if there was some kind of World Record for this, but haven’t found the answer yet. Anyways we’ve decided to keep going and maybe try to travel the world – so far we’ve been to England, Scotland(Hogmanay), Wales(St.David’s Day), France, China, Japan, Korea, Israel, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, the Caribbean, . Any suggestions or comments are welcome 😀

Here are the meals we have eaten so far :

December 2020

Dec 1 Chicken Kiev
Dec 2 Pork loins with cous cous
Dec 3 Dry Chicken noodles
Dec 4 Spaghetti Bologonese with pork mince
Dec 5 Venison and beef special anniversary dinner at The Richmond Hill Hotel 🙂
Dec 6 Left-over bologonese mix but with salad + jacket potatoes
Dec 7 Thai green curry
Dec 8 James’ nice chicken/celery pie + pastry top
Dec 9 Dominoes Pizza
Dec 10 X Ate separately (James had pie & pizza left-overs, Bronwyn Steak & Ale Pukka Pie).
Dec 11 Beef meatballs with harissa sauce
Dec 12 Chinese from The Chef takeaway
Dec 13 Beef brisket roast
Dec 14 James’ Israeli chicken Sofrito
Dec 15 X James ate at the Wetherspoons pub before lockdown and had a panini.
Dec 16 X James ate Fish n’chips with his Mum.
Dec 17 Pork shepherds pie
Dec 18 Chicken, olive + tomato + potatoes bake
Dec 19 Indian Cottage takeaway
Dec 20 Katsu curry by James
Dec 21 Pork chops with mashed potato and carrots
Dec 22 Sausage casserole by James
Dec 23 Beef burgers from mince by the Bronwyn
Dec 24 Gammon and pease pudding
Dec 25 Christmas turkey + vegetables + trimmings 😀
Dec 26 Turkey stew by James
Dec 27 Turkey curry
Dec 28 Turkey casserole
Dec 29 Chilli con carne
Dec 30 Fallafel and cous cous salad (James)
Dec 31 Roast lamb leg

Created some Strava artwork – The Wizard aka Sutton Strava Sorcerer!

After seeing various Strava artwork such as last year’s 127km London Reindeer, decided to do my own! Most of these artworks seem to be done by cyclists(prob due to the distances involved to create the actual shapes), but I wanted to run it and somewhere local.

After scouring the local area on Google Maps for hour and not finding anything at all promising, finally came up with a random design! There’s some guy in Australia who has done a load of them, but I think that’s because his city(possibly Melbourne) is grid structured, so it’s a lot easier to draw with, whereas London streets are all over the shop! Anyways at first he was going to be a toucan, but ended up being a wizard 😀

Anyways, I call him “The Wizard” or the “Sutton Strava Sorcerer”! 😀 my wife says he looks like a Dementor from Harry Potter!

Rail Tour to Scunthorpe Steel Works and Walk across the Humber Bridge

Staying just within government social distancing and travel regulations, on July 4th 2020 I went on a special rail tour of Scunthorpe British Steel works with my friend Paul (whom had arranged the rail tour). The schedule was up at 6:20am, breakfast, out the door around 7am and back at 2:59am! Quite a packed full day, featuring Skegness, Scunthorpe, walking the Humber Bridge, fish & chips in Grimsby and Lincoln Cathedral and Castle!

The USA needs leaders that will encourage all people groups!

So, violently Destroying 1000+ small businesses, mostly owned by local black ppl is about “justice” and will really help the black community in those deprived areas?! Then there’s Apple, the company that actively helped the Chinese communist govt suppress Hong Kong democracy protestors just months ago, putting “F*** the Police” on their main playlist to really help things, as they know about “justice”, right! LOL

Something else to really object to is the media hiding last year’s stats(click here for link) that show 99% of black AND white cops are good guys and shows :

The race of a police officer DOES NOT predict the race of the citizen shot. In other words, black officers were just as likely to shoot black citizens as white officers were

Keeping church house groups going during the Coronavirus Lockdown!

Leading a church “lifegroup”(aka small group, house group or Bible study meeting) once a week is usually a case of going to somebody’s house and physically meeting, BUT yesterday it was a bit different! what with the Coronavirus lockdown currently happening in the UK, we decided physically meeting was off the cards! Anyone over 70 has been advised to “social distance” themselves for the next 3 months and everyone else has been told to avoid any unnecessary social meet ups. Our church – Everyday Church, Wimbledon – also announced yday that all Sunday services are to be cancelled, until government guidelines change. As Christians we know that meeting up to worship God, pray, study the Bible and for fellowship/socialising reasons is very important, so what can we do?

Free car ferry on the Amazon River from Manaus via the BR319

Like many others, I’ve wanted to see the Amazon river since my Dad first told me about it when I was 5 or 6 years old. The biggest(and back then longest) river in the world! Then in October 2019, was lucky enough to find myself on a 3 week trip to Brazil, based in Rio de Janeiro. Had just gotten married and my wife randomly suggested we go and see the Amazon! What a Brilliant idea! So, after a quick bit of research, I discovered that Manaus is the main Amazon experience town and where most Amazon tours depart from + it’s the cheapest Amazonian place to fly to in Brazil. So, booked return flights from Rio to Manaus town, for a 6 night stay and found a bargain tour to go on.

Then I discovered a slight problem!

The tour was all well and great, BUT upon checking the map I noticed it was primarily a “rainforest tour” and wasn’t along the actual official Amazon river either! In fact it turns out Manaus isn’t actually on the “Amazon”, but sits on the Rio Negro river instead.

Now, my wife did not mind this one bit and am sure 99% of people that visit Manaus are booked on tours and don’t mind either, most people really want to see the rainforest and the animals, BUT I really mostly wanted to see the Amazon river! So what to do?…

Leek and Venison Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients:

1 x onion chopped
1 x leek sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic chopped
2 x carrots sliced
2 x celery sticks sliced
300g Waitrose New Zealand Venison Mince
1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon cornflower
approx half a pint of vegetable stock
some butter and oil for frying
6 x medium potatoes for the topping

Recipe

Had some frozen venison sitting in the freezer, so decided to make a venison shepherd’s pie. Takes about an hour to cook.