And about time too!

For a long time, I've been threatening to establish a new blog for my recipes and other foodie musings - leaving this as more of a rant-space and techie post blog.

If you're more interested in the food than anything else, you may want to trot along to: A Cottage Kitchen. See you there!

PHP: Cannot send session cookie - headers already sent by .. on line 1

Just a quickie which may save you a bit of time - certainly buggered me up for a few minutes.

If you're doing something in PHP which requires starting a session, writing a cookie, etc and you get the dreaded "headers already sent" error, e.g: "Cannot send session cookie - headers already sent by xxx.php;1" - and the error line indicated after the semi colon is the first line, what do you do?

It's normally because you've got content above the header output - which means it can't be sent, but if it's line 1 at fault, theres normally no content.

Easy - at least in my case - check your file is saved on the server in UTF8 format - NOT ANSI. I was using Beyond Compare to upload/edit a file and it had changed the format without telling me - quick tweak - and everyone is happy again!

Tinned Mince and Moving House

Hmm. Possibly my wierdest blog title ever. Well, probably not, but hey it's still a little odd.

The recent lack of activity here (I really should stop apologising for not blogging often) is because we're in the process of buying a new house (well, cottage), and frankly it's eaten what little spare time is normally left after work.

Packing is in progress now and further updates will follow assuming all goes to plan.

In unrelated news, if you're into food, as I am (and thats why/how you found me here, perhaps), you should check out a relatively new foodie forum: Tinned Mince. It's much better than /actual/ tinned mince, which I suspect is probably not very nice.

More Yoghurt..!

OK, so after some experimentation, it seems the best Jersey Dairy milk to use is the "green one" (referring to the colour of the carton, not the milk itself, thankfully) - which is "Fat Reduced"; one "lardiness grade" above semi-skimmed.

This, with no milk powder, produces a slightly-too-runny-yoghurt which needs to be left in the flask a little bit longer - and then chilled overnight, but is then just about the right consistency for breakfast. Hurrah!

In related news, a few tweaks to blog layout have taken place (mainly removing references to Mattched IT, as this is my *personal* blog) and hopefully you will now see these posts appear in my FB profile feed, rather than as silly "notes" - I didn't really want Facebook to import the whole contents, so that had to change!

Homemade "Jersey" Greek Yoghurt!

An odd title, I admit - and perhaps odder still, not a grumpy post! You may have noticed my mention on facebook of some experimental cookery last night - this was in-fact, my first attempt at making yoghurt.

I followed Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe in "River Cottage Everyday" (link below - it's a great book), as I'm still trying out things from my Christmas/Reyes presents.

It's a simple process and calls for a half litre of milk, 25g of milk powder to thicken and 3 tablespoons of live yoghurt to start the culture off (in the future you can use your own yoghurt for subsequent batches).

Mix the milk and milk powder, heat to 46 degrees, pour into a bowl, add the yoghurt, seal in a thermos and leave overnight. Simple.

I was worried it wouldn't work, as if anything, homemade yoghurts tend to be a bit runny, however, given that I used full fat Jersey Milk (which contains more fat and is richer than 'average' milk), it thickened to virtually the consistency of Greek Yoghurt!

Lovely, but I think we'll try a batch with no milk powder and see what that produces (keep it natural) - and if it's still very thick, may step down to semi-skimmed and see what happens.. will keep you all posted!

PS. Played with advert config a bit to get rid of some really pants ones. No more weight loss ads on this blog - and more posts about lard, methinks!

Northern Rock fail again!

It's probably no great surprise to read the title of this post, but still. I'm annoyed. And grumpy. So I'm going to rant.

I called NRK this morning (or technically NRAM as they seem to have split the company into two, renamed bits and generally made it as confusing as possible). i wanted a Certificate of Interest - or a statement - for last year (calendar) so I can do my tax return.

Simples. Or not. Firstly, the frigging automated "Say the first line of your address now", clearly stood no chance with a Jersey address and failed to understand me. It still had a good few goes, just incase, though. Same with the reference number - I'm not sure what the value in having a speech recognition system that can't even recognise the numbers 0-9 is?

After several frustrating minutes, it gave up and put me through to a human - who in his defence, was as helpful as possible. Until one of the security questions was "what is the approximate balance on your account?". I don't know. I don't carry my latest statement around with me - besides.. IM CALLING YOU TO GET A STATEMENT!

Sadly asking a different question isn't an option - so you have to take a guess. And fail the check. Please call back. Nooooooo! That means wrestling the IVR again... argggh!

Make sure you give your customers the right information..

.. especially if you're a restaurant, your customer is liable to be a bit grumpy and is also hungry!

For instance, do NOT put up a big chalk-board outside with "Dinner 6pm - 9:30pm (Sunday)", but then tell people who amble in to enquire about a table that Dinner is from 7pm in the winter.

Grr.

Are you following the Fish Fight?

Well, are you? Odds are if you're on Facebook you won't have missed it - even if you haven't spotted it on TV.

Hugh's fish fight (more info here) is aimed at raising public awareness of the damage we are causing - both through our fishing methods and our eating habits - to the marine environments.

Although I'm not generally one to bang on about environmental issues too much (apart from the odd rant about using less electricity - but that is more directly pocket-motivated), this is something you should read about if you eat fish regularly.

Swapping under-pressure species such as Cod, Haddock and Halibut for "direct" alternatives such as Coley is a great way to both get involved and to try new things as well. Or you could go the whole hog and switch to a different type of fish - mackerel and chips anyone?

Speaking of which, I couldn't see any locally caught (Jersey) Mackerel in the fish market yesterday - only Cornish - is this because they don't get picked up in our waters, or for another reason? Anyone know?

Domain or not Domain?

I've had a number of different domains registered (notionally to run either blogs or little shops on) for quite some time - I've finally gotten around to consolidating the list of them over the last couple of days.

Now it's time to figure out whats happening with them. I suspect when each was acquired I had a "great idea", which I've since forgotten.

Does that happen to you?

You start something, put it down because you're busy - then when you finally get back to it you think... "What on earth was I doing with THIS??"

Good with Food?

Is it just me who found the new Co-Op advert (you know, the one with the guy talking to his wife about not wasting the weekend) both surreal and totally inconsistent with my own shopping experiences?

I wouldn't use the Co-op if I wanted to save time. Odds of being trapped trying to get to or from a shelf by someone frantically restocking it - or just stuck in a queue for ages - very high.

Oh well; I'll just have to make going to the butcher, greengrocer and fishmonger one of my aims for the New Year!

That ties in nicely with the lovely presents I got for "Reyes" (the Spanish celebration of Epiphany, when the wise men / magic kings brought their gifts). Two more Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (aka Hugh Fearnley-Eats-It-All) cook books!

The links are below if you want to check them out - I've only had a quick read through, but they seem to have some good recipes and I managed to find something in the Meat one for dinner, pretty quickly!

Adverts, Organisations and Blogs Ahoy!

Please don't be too shocked by the fact I've actually been updating my blog recently - I'm not sure how long that will last! :)

I've found a possible new outlet for 'food related' posts, which is great as thats something I really wanted to split out from here, which leaves most of the business stuff over at Mattched IT and really only personal notes on any fun/annoying/interesting things which happen to us, or which I notice.

You may also notice some adverts, because I'm running a few experiments at the moment - and whenever I want to try things out, this blog tends to be the guineapig! Some of them will probably stay, but others are quite likely to go.

PS. Rosa got me a copy of "FISH" - The River cottage book - by Hugh Fearnley eats-it-all and his friend Nick, for Xmas and if you're into fishing (or eating fish), it's really brilliant. :)

Kinect Carnage!

We popped round to see some friends last night - the usual - wish them a Happy New Year, have (quite) a few drinks, etc. What we weren't expecting was XBOX Kinect!

I must say, it works much better than I expected - and some of the sports games are really fun (and much more involving than Wii sports was at the time it came out). It'll be very interesting to see what happens with it in the future - and we might even have to get one at some point.

However, it does have it's downside. Way back in the days of the NES, you could end up with "Nintendo Thumb" if you played too much - and "Wii Arm" is still a big danger. However, with the Kinect, I seem to have ended up with a sore EVERYTHING! On the bright side, I suppose it'd stop you spending the whole day playing games.. :)

Happy New Year!

Well, it happened again - another break (as suspected, our holiday ensured I didn't get back into blogging). Anyway, happy new year everyone - I hope it's a good one for us all!

I've got a possibly new blogging venture on the go which means I need to re-assess what I post here - I think I may limit it to short personal notes of interest, but then again there is generally a shortage of those and they tend to get slapped on Facebook these days!

So we'll see.. but very much still alive!

Um.. what happened?

Wow. Last post in February! Oops.

That gives you an idea of just how busy things have been!

To be fair, inbetween maintaining the Mattched IT Blog and Handmade Crafts Blog, I don't get a lot of time to write posts for here, anymore, but I'm going to try and post occasionally at least.

Mind you, this might not be the best time to start since we're off on holiday in a few weeks..!

Classic ASP (VBScript) - Type mismatch: 'URLEncode'

Just a quick note - half aide memoir and half you-never-know-when-this-might-come-in-handy. We do quite a lot of maintenance work on Classic ASP (VBScript) sites and there are loads of gotchas.

Back in the day when it one of the main technologies I used they got me less, I seem to remember, but nowadays thats not entirely the case!

It's the obtuse error message that got me this time.

baseString = URLEncode(baseString)

Generates this error:

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a000d'

Type mismatch: 'URLEncode'


The fix? Simple.

baseString = Server.URLEncode(baseString)

DOH! Hopefully if this trips you up, you'll find this post in less time than it took me to realise what a doughnut I was being..!

lastminute.com - our top secret hotel saga Part 2!

Well. Phew. We've made some significant progress on the 'lastminute.com top secret hotels' front.

Because I made a big fuss on twitter (and here), I managed to get a lovely lady from the lastminute.com VIP desk to look into our problem and it has been more or less sorted out.

At least she actually listened to / read / understood the problem! While I'm happy that it has been adequately dealt with, the misleading information correct and we have been compensated (with a room upgrade!), I'm still somewhat peeved by how hard it was to get the same simple message through via their standard support channels.

I dread to think what would have happened if I hadn't used social media to complain, though.

Apparently they are going to investigate the awful asssistance we received - I shall report back with the outcome (if we are kept updated, can't remember if they said they would or not)!

lastminute.com top secret hotels? Just Say No!

The title kinda says it all. I won't go into details yet, but we are currently involved in what I will politely call a "wrangle" with lastminute.com.

Their customer service is frankly disgusting. It is the worst experience I have had with a company when something has gone wrong for a VERY long time.

Will post more once the matter is concluded (for better or for worse). However, in the meantime, my personal advice is - if you are thinking of booking a top secret hotel via lastminute.com, just don't. It's not worth it.

Barclays: Surely it can't get worse?

So. I've ranted about how much Barclays bank sucks before. We have a business account with them. Though I'm not sure how long that will continue - now is not a convenient time for us to change, however, they seem to be doing their best to force us.

The latest part in the saga?

Yesterday I tried to pay for a software license, online, from a company in america, using my business debit card. Transaction declined. Tried again. Declined. Very odd.

Then I tried to log into online banking (a bit later). You have entered your details incorrectly. Hmm. No I haven't. Try again. Same. Try again. Very Carefully. Same. Give up. Try again later incase their service is broken (as usual). You have been locked out.

Bum. Phone up this morning. Explain. OK-Sir-I-Will-Definitely-Be-Helping-You-With-The-Problem-You-Are-Being-Having (it is so PAINFUL talking to Barclays employees on the phone, mainly because the scripts they are given are agonizing). I gave my name, date of birth and mothers maiden name, but apparently, incorrectly. This is interesting as I gave them a couple of months ago and they were OK.

So now in order to check our bank balance (and send receipts to our clients) I have to go to the branch with two forms of ID to "update and verify" my account.

So while I'm out, I'm going to pop into HSBC and pick up some information on opening a new account.

Bastards.

Thai Inspired King Prawn curry

Since last nights dinner was very successful and entirely my own concoction I thought I'd share it with you. I was originally intending to write this sort of thing down in a notebook, but it might be more fun to blog it.

For my very own "thai inspired" prawn curry.. you will need:

King prawns (raw, up-to you if you shell them or not, I do) - 6-8 per person
Zest and juice of 1 lime
3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
1 thumb sized piece of ginger (grated or finely chopped)
A pinch of turmeric and one of coriander
1 red chilli (de-seeded & chopped)
1 green chilli (de-seeded & chopped)
A splash of Soy, Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce) and white wine
1-2 tbsp Creme Fraiche

Heat some olive oil in a wok until very hot - but not smoking. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli with the spices and fry for a few minutes. Add the lime zest and the prawns and fry, moving/turning the prawns so they coat well in the spice mixture.

Add the soy, fish sauce and white wine (don't add salt/pepper - use soy to adjust the seasoning). Chuck in the lime juice as well.

Once the prawns have cooked through (very quick - don't cook too much or they'll be orrible), remove from the heat and stir in the creme fraiche to finish.

Serve with noodles and stir fried veggies (a mix of fennel, chicory and brocolli spears is a nice green, wintery mix).

Pie: Sausage, Apple & Sage

Recently, I bought a copy of "Pie" by Angela Boggiano (see Amazon link to the right). This is an awesome book. Well, it is, if like me, you are somewhat addicted to pie.

It was test-driven for last nights dinner and officially gets the thumbs up (so much that I've added an affiliate link to Amazon to try and sell it to you all!).

I even made shortcrust pastry with only a minor adjustment to her recipe. In brief:

Mix 250g of plain white flour with 50g of butter (leave this out to soften for a bit first) and 50g of "good baking margerine" e.g stork (you're supposed to use lard, but firstly I have enough around my middle as is and secondly I forgot to buy any). Rub mixture together until it goes breadcrumby and is soft. Then stir in 2-3 tbsps of water a little bit at a time with a knife. As soon as the dough sticks together, knead it into a ball and let it rest in the fridge while you make the filling.

Extract the meat from half a dozen sausages and set aside. Chop two onions and fry gently on a low heat with a good dollop of olive oil, until they start to soften. Add the sausage meat and cook for a few minutes. Chop and add two small apples - and switch off the heat. Mix in some dried sage (or add fresh sage at the start - I only had dried available), plus a couple of tbsps of creme fraich and one of mustard.

Thats it! Roll out your pastry, assemble the pie in a shape of your choice - in the original recipe it is a plate pie, I made a sort of deep dish one because we're a bit limited on pie-baking-equipment at the moment. Bake for 40 mins (or so) at 200 degrees. Eat. Eat more. Feel a bit fat and wonder how you ate so much pie.

Can't wait to try another recipe out..!