Barbie, the allotment, and home-made baked beans

Elizabeth and I went to see the Barbie movie today along with Daniel and a friend. The boys had planned to see Oppenheimer but I’d got the times wrong and when we arrived it was an hour an a half wait for Oppenheimer and I convinced them that 3.5 hours sitting in a chair in the cinema was too long anyway so we all saw Barbie.

The kids all enjoyed it. I thought it was a bit silly although I enjoyed the opening sequence which was a comedic take on 2001: A Space Odyssey and I enjoyed seeing all the discontinued barbies plus the original inventor, a woman named Ruth Handler who was eventually done for tax fraud. It wasn’t really a feminist movie although maybe it can introduce children who don’t really know what feminism is to the concept and that’s surely a good thing.

Then this afternoon I cycled to the allotment. My courgettes are in full swing now and unfortunately my once a week visits aren’t frequent enough to stop them becoming marrows.

Lots of raspberries just now too and potatoes.

Elizabeth asked me recently what salt does to the body aside from causing high blood pressure. I know it can also cause kidney problems but I hadn’t looked any further than that so thought I’d investigate.

Perhaps not surprisingly, salt increases the rate at which calcium is lost from bones causing osteoporosis. So there you are: even if you’re lucky enough not to suffer from familial hypertension then osteoporosis is also a risk. Perhaps I should start a series of posts on how to reduce salt consumption in modern society. It’s not easy. Every can, packet and jar you open will likely have salt in it so you really need to look hard at ingredients and stick to whole, fresh foods as much as possible. That doesn’t mean you can’t still use staples like cans of chopped tomatoes and tomato puree, you just need to find the brands that don’t add lots of salt and they do exist. Here’s my home-made baked beans with potato mash. The kids loved it. It’s so easy and very cheap, especially if you’ve got home-grown tatties as we now do.

For flavouring I add onion, garlic, lots of pepper, some chilli, apple cider vinegar, a little bit of apple syrup for sweetness, some green herbs like oregano, and tomato paste. Then mix with beans and vegetables of your choice. The potato mash is mixed with a bit of oat milk then lots of parsley and chives added.

Bon appetit!