Design snobbery

If you criticise a design because the final result doesn't look good or do the job, your criticism may be valid.

If you criticise a design because of the software that was used, your criticism is invalid and you are a design snob.


(Note, it's perfectly OK to criticise a design because a poor choice of software has resulted in it not looking good or doing the job. Because you're criticising the result, which is what matters.)

Light spam

I've been getting quite a bit of spam to my business email saying things like:

As knowing that you are in the LED lighting market . Now I am writing to establish business relationship with you .

Well, the email is kirsty(at)lampbiblepictures.co.uk. Obviously I sell lamps :-)

Hedgehog potatoes

Aka Hasselback potatoes.

I didn't make this recipe up, but I did it a bit simpler than some I've read - I didn't faff about with preheated baking trays of oil, or iced water or anything unneccessary like that :-)

You will need:

• Potatoes (new or medium)
• Oil
• Seasoning if you want

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. (Recipes say do it a bit hotter for medium potatoes)
2. Scrub potatoes.
3. Slice each potato in narrow slices, but don't slice all the way through. Tip from Nigella - place potato in the bowl of a wooden spoon to slice - that means you can't slice through by accident.
4. Brush potatoes on both sides with oil, place on baking tray sliced side up.
5. Season.
6. Cook for 45 minutes or so (longer if bigger), until brown and a bit crispy.
7. Yum!

Hedgehog potatoes - before cooking

Hedgehog potatoes - after cooking

I did quite a few potatoes as I had some needing used up. So I just had them on their own with a little gravy and salad. Obviously could be used in smaller quantities with meat.

It would be interesting to slice them both ways, in a criss-cross pattern - would look even more hedgehog-like.