Bacon jam!

Here's a dilemma:
A great friend invite you over for tea and when quizzed about what's on offer the response is "bacon jam". What do you do next?

Clearly, you high-tail it over to his place to try out his concoction. Unfortunately in my haste I forgot to take my camera so there aren't any pictures. Fortunately I found this article which (as well as being very good) has some ace pictures: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2009/10/08/bacon-jam-your-wildest-dreams-come-true/

So, what can I tell you about bacon jam? Well, having read the list of ingredients and the cooking method, I was a little dubious. However, I have to admit that it was damn fine stuff. We had it with cheese and bread. (This was the only potential use I could come up with given the constraints of my mates' empty fridge. My thinking was along the lines of that anything you could do with pickle you could probably do with bacon jam and I think I was right). Incredibly smokey and it managed to pull off that amazing trick of being sweet but intensely savoury at the same time. It was undoubtedly a success.

I guess it just goes to prove the adage "bacon makes everything better". I just can't decide whether to make some myself.

Eat your books

I came Eat Your Books the other day and I quite like it, I think.

The idea is that there is an online archive of recipes in from cookery books you own. Thus you can find recipes in books you own as you'll have you're own "virtual bookshelf".

It would help in times when I've forgotten to write a shopping list or when people ask for a recipe (thus saving me time in photocopying or writing it out).

I haven't signed up yet, but may well do...

Now that's what I call a good idea...

Cake perfection?

Does cake decoration get any better?

Epic Meal Time

Epic Meal Time is a collection of "recipes" made from an unfeasibly large amount of fast food, bacon and Jack Daniels. There's an update every Tuesday.

Only in America...

Watermelons go pop!

Initially quite funny, but the Guardian article on exploding watermelons does make you think about farming practices and just what goes into the food we eat.

Jamie Oliver helps Sainsbury's offer free fish

Sainsbury's have just launched a new campaign to highlight sustainable fishing and will be offering free fish to customers who switch to a more sustainable variety. This is clearly a fantastic scheme, but I'll be intrugues to see just how far it spreads in terms of the number of stores involved and its longevity. I found out about this on edie.net:

"Customers buying one of the 'Big 5': cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns, will be offered alternatives such as pouting, megrim and coley for free.

The retailer is hoping to encourage customers to try other varieties of fish and make more sustainable choices.

Jamie Oliver is heading up the Switch the Fish campaign, which is being launched in stores on 17 June in England and Scotland.

He said: "Earlier this year I joined the debate to encourage people to try new, less loved fish which had a great response.

"Sainsbury's is really taking the next step with its campaign 'Switch the Fish' demonstrating its commitment to getting customers to widen their choice when it comes to eating something other than the 'Big 5'.

"Offering free alternative fish is a great way to do this and will in turn help people be a bit more adventurous when they come to do their next shop."

Sainsbury's recently ran a poll with YouGov on consumers fish buying and eating habits. It showed that 41% of the UK eats cod at least once a month and a fifth of people eat tuna at least once a week.

Fish-eaters are put off trying a different type of fish as they are unsure of how it tastes and how to cook it. According to the poll, 84% of Brits have never tried megrim and 82% have never eaten pouting.

Minister for the Natural Environment and Fisheries, Richard Benyon MP, applauded the campaign.

He said: "If more people start to choose a wider variety of fish, this will help in our battle to end the terrible waste of millions of edible fish being thrown back into the sea dead because of an out-dated system."

Reads what Sainsbury's have to say on the subject of sustainable fish."