February Musts...

 

 It's cold and grey outside and I want to do nothing more than snuggle up on the sofa under a soft throw, light my Neom candle and shut out the world.  Only one thing can make this scenario any better, and that's the smell of something delicious slow cooking in the oven.  That something delicious at the moment is slow cooked shoulder of pork.  It takes about 5 hours to cook - completely necessary for that melting, pull-apart meat, as the shoulder is quite tough, but the gelatin in the meat renders down to make the tenderest joint imaginable, if you just let it cook slowly.  I tend not to follow a recipe, but buy the best quality joint you can afford, rub it with Chinese five spice and whack it in the oven at 220 degrees c for twenty minutes initially.  Remove from the oven and cover with foil, turn down the oven to 170 degrees c for another four hours and remove the foil for the last half an hour, before resting for a minimum of half an hour.  There are endless things that you can use this meat for - here are some ideas to spin it out...

More Ideas for Pork Shoulder

• Beer-Braised Pulled Pork Shoulder
• Slow-Cooked Pork Roast with White Wine and Sage
• Pulled Pork Tacos
• Slow-Cooked Hoisin Pork Wraps with Peanut Slaw
• Pulled Pork with a Twist: Cochinita Pibil from Simply Recipes
• Ultimate Cheater Pulled Pork from Splendid Table (Slow cooker version)

Ways to Use Pork Shoulder

• Pork Ragu with Semolina Gnocchi
• Rigatoni with Shredded Pork in Mustard Cream Sauce
• Eggs with Pork "Debris"
• 10 Ways to Make a Pork Butt Last All Week (Or Just All Day)
• Pulled Pork Shoulder: Ways to Use It All Week Long

A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel — an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father's disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics — their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him — nearly destroying him — Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

An unforgettable journey into one man's remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.

 Daniel has spent centuries falling in love with the same girl. Life after life, crossing continents and dynasties, he and Sophia (despite her changing name and form) have been drawn together-and he remembers it all. Daniel has "the memory", the ability to recall past lives and recognize souls of those he's previously known. It is a gift and a curse. For all the times that he and Sophia have been drawn together throughout history, they have also been torn painfully, fatally, apart. A love always too short.

Interwoven through Sophia and Daniel's unfolding present day relationship are glimpses of their expansive history together. From 552 Asia Minor to 1918 England and 1972 Virginia, the two souls share a long and sometimes torturous path of seeking each other time and time again. But just when young Sophia (now "Lucy" in the present) finally begins to awaken to the secret of their shared past, to understand the true reason for the strength of their attraction, the mysterious force that has always torn them apart reappears. Ultimately, they must come to understand what stands in the way of their love if they are ever to spend a lifetime together.

A magical, suspenseful, heartbreaking story of true love, My Name is Memory proves the power and endurance of a union that was meant to be.

 

 

Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, this film is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason, who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. This drama charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence more »from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay's Yellow to Arcade Fire's Deep Blue. The film is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting.

 

February is of course, the month for lovers.  If like me, you don't buy into the huge commercialism of it, but like the excuse to say 'I love you' by making something for someone special, then these ideas are for you...

 

Message in a Bottle 

 



 

Valentine Flip Book

Love Light Bulb