Ninjas and Badgers team

After much deliberation I have decided to make a chess set pitting ninjas and badgers against monkeys and lions. No, I'm not fully sure why either. I'm going to use fimo which, when baked after "sculpting", will leave the pieces with a plasticy, bendy finish. Still not sure what to make the board out of.

Ninja pawns, ninja lookout (castle), badger knight and badger bishop.

September = make a chess set

End of August = A baker I am not

So the least said about my rather poor efforts to achieve this challenge the better I think.

Although I started well with a lovely batch of white bread rolls and a loaf using a recipe taken from Richard Bertinet's "Dough" ...

...and a batch of shortbread cookies (using a recipe from the bbc website) in the shape of giraffes (using cutters from the natural history museum - I named them longneckshortbreads)

...I didn't do any more baking at all for the rest of the month.

Summary :

Number of days in the month : 31

Number of days baked bread, pie or cookies : 2

Challenge Complete : 6.45% (FAIL)

August = make bread, pie or biscuits once a day

I have to admit that towards the end of last month, when I started dreaming about bacon (actually) and seeing people as roast chickens (not actually), I did start to think that this challenge would be a brilliant one to follow up the no meat month with and that somehow it would restore balance to the universe. So for the next month I will be donning my baker's outfit (maybe not actually) and trying to make bread, pie or some cookies EVERY day. I'll post some, if not all of, of the recipes and some pictures of my creations.

End of July = show me the meat

Summary :

Number of days in the month : 30

Number of days not eaten meat : 30

Challenge Complete : 100% (COMPLETE)

July = still no meat

So far so good, still no meat and no major wobbles. I even managed to get through my 30th birthday (which included witnessing three men devour 16 rashers of bacon in front of me in my own kitchen AND my girlfriend eating what looked, smelled and sounded* like the best steak in the world in front of me during my birthday meal while I went for (and to be fair enjoyed) the pea risotto with buttered greens). I've hardly been pushing the boundaries of vegetarian recipes though I must admit - it's mainly been veggie curries and veggie pizzas with the odd veggie burger thrown in to trick my jaw into thinking that it is still getting itself around a juicy quarter pounder dripping with cheese and bacon. If it sounds like I want it, it's because I do but I don't need it. I'm going to try and experiment a little with some vegetarian cooking and eating for the last couple of weeks. I have also started thinking about what the first meat will be that I do have. At the moment I'm thinking it will be a roast but you'll just have to watch this space.


* - the sound was the "mmmmms" and "ahhhhhs" of my girlfriend rather than any actual noises made by the dead cow on her fork.

July = No meat

I drew my first challenge out of the jar (supplied by the lovely Pippa) this morning and, despite my quite exciting dreams of standup at the apollo and doing keepy ups on Record Breakers in front of Cheryl Baker and Roy Castle (RIP), I drew the challenge of not eating meat for a month.

I have never felt the need to not eat meat before and am in fact rather fond of, and have no ethical issues about, eating it. Although hardly one of the "showpiece" challenges, it will be interesting to see how difficult I find it and also what effects, if any, it has on me.

If I complete the challenge (and in fact all challenges from now on) I'm going to make a badge to wear with pride in a cub scout stylee. Probably a bit like this.