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Firefighters have appealed for the public to help them prevent tragedies while cooking in the kitchen in a new advertising campaign. Continue reading Firefighters’ appeal: Stay safe when cooking
Pilton Community Health Project has launched its new Everyone Can Cook recipe book. Last week’s celebrations marked the culmination of months of work from the Cooking Club who meet every Wednesday at the Project (writes Joe Jones).
The book showcases some of the group’s favourite recipes which participants have brought from all over Pilton and the world. All the recipes are easy to cook and budget friendly. Over the past few months, the group have tried and tested every recipe before voting on their favourites to be included in the book.
The friendly cooking club gives residents the chance to share recipes and get together for a chat over lunch. The group is very diverse and reflects the population of the area. Because the group is so welcoming they embrace the opportunity to taste new ingredients they may not have been familiar with. The recipes are easy to cook so everyone can join in.
Penny Donnelly, lead volunteer and photographer for the cooking club, said: “I think the people are amazing and it’s such an honour to work with the group. It’s been great fun putting the book together and really helped boost our confidence and self-esteem. It’s amazing being a part of this group”.
Copies of EVERYONE CAN COOK are now available from Pilton Community Health Project and on-line at http://pchp.org.uk/resources
For more information about the Cooking club or other support that Pilton Community Health Project can offer, call 0131 551 1671, see our website pchp.org.uk or go to our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/PiltonCommunityHealthProject
Pilton Community Health Project’s Wednesday cooking club have created a new recipe book – and they’re launching it tomorrowI
PCHP Community Development Worker (Food) Joe Jones said: “We are launching our new recipe book Everyone Can Cook! at PCHP on Wednesday (10 May). Similar to the Cook & Taste recipe book that Memes put together a few years back with Muirhouse community shop, it’s a collection of favourite recipes from local participants at our Wednesday cooking club. The recipes are healthy, budget friendly and easy to make for and with the family.”
The launch takes place from 12 – 2pm.
Starts WEDNESDAY 17 FEBRUARY
Kick off the New Year with Cookarama!
Cook tasty, affordable family meals in a friendly setting
Tuesdays 10am – 12 noon from 12 January
at Pilton Community Health Project, Boswall Parkway
Free Creche (must be booked in advance)
To book your place contact JOE or MEMES at Pilton Community Health Project, telephone 551 1671 or email admin@pchp.org.uk
New Tuesday cooking flyer Jan 2016
Entries are now open for the 10th World’s Original Marmalade Awards & Festival – and this year any amateur entrant entering from Scotland can put their entry fee towards Marie Curie in Scotland.
For centuries Scotland has been the home of marmalade: it’s said that Mary Queen of Scots brought some over with her from France in the sixteenth century. It’s also claimed that the first real marmalade was made here in Scotland, by Janet Keiller in Dundee. Now the nation’s modern day cooks are being challenged to prove their own homemade preserves are as good as their ancestors and enter a jar into the Marmalade Awards.
There are new categories as well as old favourites to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the awards and 15 categories in total including a special Scottish category. It’s called the ‘Gathering of the Clans’, with Scottish clan chiefs and clansmen and women being urged to put their preserve-making skills to the test. If the recipe goes back generations, the festival organisers want to hear the story.
Entries are now open for the 10th World’s Original Marmalade Awards & Festival, sponsored by Scottish marmalade maker Mackays, which hails the preserve in all its sticky glory!
The closing date for entries is 15 February 2015.
Everyone who enters a jar gets their preserve tasted and judged by experts, and then gets sent a personalised mark card with feedback on how the marmalade can be improved – or if they are lucky, a gold, silver or bronze award. Last year over 2,200 jars were entered. The double gold star winner gets their marmalade made by a commercial kitchen and then stocked at Fortnum & Mason – and 50p from every jar sold goes to charity.
There are categories for artisan, B&B/hotel & restaurant owners as well as homemade marmalade makers to enter and this year any amateur entrant entering from Scotland can put their entry fee towards Marie Curie in Scotland.
Good quality Seville oranges are now easier to source as supermarkets react to customer demand and preserves makers – homemade, artisan and commercial – continue to push the culinary boundaries by exploring unusual marmalade trends and tastes.
Jane Hasell-McCosh, founder of the Awards, said: “We’re seeing fruity, spicy, alcoholic and downright original ingredients, such as seaweed and beer, being combined with citrus to make modern marmalades. Of course people still adore spreading the traditional thick-cut Seville on their toast but our awards celebrate marmalade in all its sticky and diverse, delicious glory!
“Ten years ago I started this event as I was worried that our wonderful tradition of marmalade making and eating was becoming less popular. I’m delighted over the last decade there’s been a renaissance in marmalade making and am looking forward to tasting entries to our 2015 awards.”
2015 is set to be a golden year for marmalade with a growing interest in not only making preserves at home but also a steep rise in exports of British marmalade abroad.
Marmalade maker Mackays, based in the Dundee area of Scotland, has seen a significant increase in exports to countries such as Japan, Germany, Denmark, USA and the Czech Republic.
Martin Grant, Managing Director of Mackays, said: “We are finding an ever increasing demand for marmalade around the world and now export to over 60 countries. We are the last remaining producer of Dundee Orange Marmalade in the area and I think our heritage, coupled with the fact we still make our preserves using traditional copper pans, is the key.”
Paddington Bear, the most famous marmalade lover of them all, presides over the Festival itself making guest appearances and readings from his adventures. Visitors to the Marmalade Festival (28 Feb & 1 March 2015), held at Dalemain Mansion, near Penrith in the Lake District, get the chance to view the entries, taste over 200 different marmalades, attend workshops, lectures, lots of activities for children and the whole event will be well rooted in the Spanish Seville.
The event kicks off National Marmalade Week (28 February – 7 March 2015), overseen by the awards’ organisers, which encourages people to try, buy or make marmalade.
Collection points are available in Scotland for people to drop their entries off, including Mackays (who are offering a marmalade exchange), Hopetoun, Herbie of Edinburgh and more: please see website for full details.
Closing date for entries is 15 February 2014. Further entry details including an entry form, category criteria, submission details, entry fees and entry drop-off points can be found at www.marmaladeawards.com.
Pilton Community Health Project’s Good Food For ALL event is tomorrow at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre from 9.30 – 2.30. Don’t miss it!
New classes starting at Craigroyston
We have some free classes aimed primarily at local people in our community at Craigroyston:
Cook your tea
Sometimes the hardest thing about cooking is deciding what to make!
It is all too easy to run out of ideas for offering something delicious, healthy and within a tight budget. The friendly tutor for this class has a wide range of ideas which can be made quickly and cheaply making this the highlight of your culinary week.
Favourite dishes range from Thai curry, to mushroom risotto as well
as home made lemon chicken. If there is anything you really want to learn to make, the tutor will be able to help.
Come along, cook your tea and take it home to surprise all the family and friends!
Please bring £1.50 each week towards the ingredients.
The class is *FREE.
Saving Money (and the Environment)
Small steps = big changes!
This practical maths course takes everyday situations and shows you how to make the maths work for you!
Work out the running costs of many household appliances, decipher your
energy bill, compare special offers while out shopping and even find out how to make the most of a square foot garden!
Don’t worry if you didn’t get maths the first time round, this course allows you to start small and build up at your own pace. It uses examples from everyday life that affect everyone, from recipes to recycling
and will help you quickly gain confidence in handling your finances!
Not only that, we are running this course in partnership with Edinburgh’s
very own Science Museum at Dynamic Earth and several sessions will take place there (all transport & entry fees provided).
Creative Expressions
Bringing together creative writing, photography and other forms of creative expression, this class offers a range of combined art forms. The informal setting means that everyone can take part in different forms of self expression and gain a satisfying experience.
*(This class is FREE)
And also some classes that we hope will be of interest and are very good value:
Fee is £50 for the standard 10 weeks of 2 hours per week courses – £25 for a senior citizen or student – £14 for anyone receiving benefits. (half of this for the 5 week course or a 1 hour course)
These can be booked online as well as by phone or in person – www.joininedinburgh.org
Make and Mend
Creative Upcycling Projects (5 weeks)
Upcycling is about converting old or discarded materials into something
useful and beautiful for your home or to give as a personalised present. Join this weekly course to learn all sorts of original ways to refashion and redesign things you have at home already, with a friendly tutor full of inspiring ideas and different craft techniques.
Pottery
This class teaches the basics of hand building and wheel throwing in clay and introduces different artistic styles & methods of creating successful ceramic pieces.
It also offers an introduction to the use of the potter’s wheel and stone
wear firing. There is an additional £10 to pay towards materials used.
Creative Writing
Do you feel you might like to have some guidance in developing your creative writing skills, to express ideas and show you how to overcome writer’s block?
A very friendly tutor can help you develop characters, transform experiences into storylines and encourage you to share your writing with
the group. The class is supportive and will look at wide ranging in creative styles.
NOW STARTING SEPTEMBER:
Computing for Not Quite Beginners
This course is ideal for people who can create a word/text document and would like to start experimenting with pictures and tables in order to create a poster, newsletter, invitation or flyer.
Potential students should be able to create a simple document with some
text in it.
The course will cover:
Inserting pictures from clipart, inserting photos from a memory stick, downloading pictures from the Internet, arranging text size, colour etc, using Wordart, designing page layouts and using columns and inserting tables.
Scots History through Scottish Novels
This enjoyable course will to explore the relationship between 20th and early 21st century Scottish literature, history and the culture and politics of contemporary Scotland.
The books the course will be looking at will be James Douglas Brown, The House with the Green Shutters; Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song; Jessie Kesson, The White Bird Passes; Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; James Robertson, And the Land Lay Still.
There will be a small amount of advised reading to support a deeper understanding of the texts and their historical and cultural background.
and there are many more – language, music and others – and it it would be great to have some local people take advantage of these great classes!
Fiona Henderson
Fire chiefs are reminding the public to stay safe while cooking following a kitchen fire in a Dumbiedykes Road flat last night. A man was treated for minor burns and smoke inhalation at the Royal Infirmary following the incident, and firefighters discovered that the flat did not have a working smoke alarm.
Station Manager Steve Harkins said: “Many kitchen fires happen when people are not paying attention or they leave things unattended but there are several things you can do to prevent fires in the kitchen.
“Don’t leave pans unattended. Take them off the heat if you have to leave the room. Fire starts when your attention stops. When you have finished cooking, make sure the cooker or oven is turned off.
“The kitchen can be the most dangerous place in the home. Fire can cause damage not just to your property, but more seriously can put family and loved ones at risk.
“The property did not have a working smoke alarm. We would encourage anyone who doesn’t have a smoke alarm to have one fitted immediately. Smoke alarms save lives. If you don’t have one then call Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and arrange a free Home Fire Safety Visit and we will provide you with a smoke alarm free of charge. It could save your life.
“Home fire safety visits only take around half an hour and are delivered by firefighters from your local community. If you or someone you know could benefit from a visit, please join Scotland’s fight against fire and request a visit by calling the SFRS freephone number 0800 0731 999, by texting ‘check’ to 61611 or by contacting their local fire station.”
Kitchen Safety
More fires start in the kitchen than in any other room in the house. Here’s some advice to help you stay safe.
General cooking
Make sure your home has working smoke alarms. Consider fitting a heat alarm in your kitchen
Make sure your cooker is or has been fitted properly by a qualified fitter
Keep your oven, cooker and grill clean and make sure there’s no fat on it
Keep tea towels, cloths and kitchen paper away from the cooker
Keep fats and oils away from the cooker
Cook with handles turned to the side to avoid them spilling
Use a flameless lighter on gas cookers instead of matches or a lighter
You should never:
Hang or dry clothing and towels on or near the cooker
Leave your cooker, grill or oven on when you go out – even on a timer
Leave electrical wires or cords near the cooker
Keep anything on top of an eye-level grill
Put anything metal in your microwave – even tin foil.
Chip pans and deep-frying
Modern electric deep fat fryers are much safer than traditional chip pans as they have a safety switch that cuts them off to stop them overheating and catching fire.
Try not to use a traditional chip pan if you can because there’s always a high risk of fire. If you do use a traditional chip pan, follow our safety advice:
Only ever fill one third full
Turn the handle to the side – but not over any of the other cooker rings
Fry in small amounts – overfilling could cause spills
Make sure food going in it is dry, not dripping wet or covered in ice.
You should never:
Deep fry when you’ve been drinking alcohol or taking drugs or if you are feeling tired
Leave the pan alone – It only takes a second for a fire to start.
Other kitchen appliances
Washing machines, tumble dryers and dishwashers have powerful parts that heat up, any of which could start a fire if something goes wrong. Follow our safety advice:
Always switch appliances off at the wall before going to bed or going out
Always plug straight into a wall socket and avoid adaptors for lots of plugs as they can result in electricity overloads
Never Leave them running when going out or to bed.
Open fires and stoves
Keep all furniture at least three feet away from your fire
Put the fire guard up if you feel sleepy
Let fires burn down before going to bed – and don’t forget to put the guard up
Keep the guard up at all times if you have children or pets
Have your chimney swept at least once a year – twice if you use it lots
Check your hearth regularly – if it’s cracked, have it fixed professionally
You should never:
Leave a lit fire unattended without a fireguard
Use flammable liquids like barbecue lighter fuel to light a fire
Throw flammable liquids or spray cans onto the fire
Use building or packing timber as firewood – it’s very sparky
Dry clothes over or in front of the fire – they could catch light
Place mirrors over the fire – people stand too close and risk setting clothes on fire
For stoves, you should also:
Replace any cracked door glass or casings immediately
Always use certified fire glass in stove doors
Use the right type of fuel (using coal in wood stoves can damage them)
Be careful not to leave flammable items like clothes and paper on top of the stove.
A wide range of tips on how to keep yourself and your home safe from fire are available on the SFRS website: www.firescotland.gov.uk
