May 2008 - Posts
There once was a time when I used to disapprove of Food Processors. Quite strongly. I'm not quite sure why that was, but I suspect it was probably something to do with a belief that any machine invented in the 20th Century was, by definition, a cynical attempt by corporate empires to part the hapless consumer from his or her money. Whatever the reason, this was a prejudice I was able to maintain for several years, right up to the point when I tried using one for the first time. I bought one the following day. I mention this because this recipe is really only possible if you own or have access to one. I'm not sure if it's worth buying one
just to make this quiche, but if you do own one, it's certainly worth giving it a try.
3 Tb Sesame Seeds
6oz Flour
3oz Firm Butter
3-4oz chilled water
6-8oz cooked brocoli
4oz Stilton
2 eggs
2fl oz Milk
Salt, pepper and nutmeg
Roast the sesame seeds in a dry pan and cool. Put flour, salt and seeds in food processor. Add diced butter. Process. Add water a little at a time and process until pastry forms into a ball. Knead and roll into a flat disk and chill for 30-60 minutes (Something I regularly forget to do). Roll out into a tin (about 8" diameter) and bake blind at Gas 6 (200C) for 10 minutes, then Gas 5 (190C) for 10 minutes. Process the brocoli, add cheese, process, eggs, milk, salt pepper and nutmeg and process. Pour into the pastry case and bake at Gas 4 (180C) for 20 minutes
You might find this interesting - a short video which is both demonstrating a piece of software and talking about PTSD - you can find it here.
If you do find that interesting try a Google search on "mediasite presentation catalog" (note the spelling there) and see what else you can find - and let me know please!
Hard to know how much of a storm in a teacup this one was, but here are a couple of links to keep you up to date with one strand of the debate that's been going on lately, and one that's been causing a fair bit of angst too. If you click here you'll find a link to an e-petition requesting that the govenment "make Psychotherapy an independent chartered profession in its own right and kept distinct from psychology, medicine or any other allied profession". On the same page you'll find the goverment's response. The passage in that response that really put the cat amongst the pigeons was that -
"Our view of a comprehensive mental health programme is that it should provide three main modalities. These are psychoanalytical or psychodynamic, cognitive behavioural therapy, and family or systemic psychotherapy".
The concept of only three modalities (approaches) being acknowledged caused considerable concern - was this the goverment really saying that no-one would be allowed to practice in any other approach? Rumour on the streets (so to speak) was that this wasn't the case at all, that this was simply a case of a civil servant copying and pasting from one document to another without any real understanding of what was being said. Whatever the case, the uproar that this caused resulted in the government finally issuing a clarifying statement - and you can read that here.
One day this will just be a footnote in counselling's history (counselling? It's also been suggested that the government intends that all registered counsellors will be called pschotherapists after regulation) but at the moment it all seems very real!
Just thinking about the posting immediately below this one. The BACP Research Conference takes place this weekend, and it's fully booked. The BACP Annual Conference, the next really big event, takes place on 17th-18th October in Telford. There are big reductions for BACP student members (and if you're not one of those you really should think about becoming one) but, taking travel into account, it could still probably cost you the best part of £200 to attend. I'm certainly not suggesting that just because you apply for an Academic Enhancement Bursary to attend you'll automatically get one, but you can be absolutely sure that if you don't apply you won't!