Cinnamon Swirl Bread Recipe

Sometimes you just feel like something comforting and tasty, and it’s even better when you know how to make it yourself…

Dough

225g Strong White Flour

5g Dried yeast

25g Caster Sugar

45g Butter (cold and cubed)

100ml full fat milk

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ medium egg

Filling

12.5g melted butter

50g light brown sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Method:

Sift flour, add caster sugar and yeast, mix together.

Rub butter through to make breadcrumbs.

Gently warm milk, add the milk, egg and vanilla to the flour mix.

Knead for 7-10 minutes, or use mixer with dough hook for about 4-5 minutes.

Place in oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise for about 2 hours.

Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together and put aside, then melt the butter.

Once risen, roll into a flat rectangle, brush with the melted butter, and then sprinkle with the sugar/cinnamon mix covering the entire surface area.

Then, roll it longways into a chunky log and press down and slightly flatten. Next, cut down the middle of the roll and twist each strand over itself like a plait, and twist as you go. Tucking in the ends once finished. Then place in an oiled loaf tin to rise again for another 30 minutes to an hour before baking.

Cook in oven at 160°c for 50-60 minutes or until done.

(c) MKW Publishing

The Important Word

Things get changed often when it comes to Words and Meanings, especially these days with the definition of meaning being changed right under our noses, and the important point often gets lost or buried over time. The latest example which bothers me greatly, is the talk of making it illegal to criticise a religion, not all of them, just one. Although maybe not just one, because if you add the prefix of ‘Anti’ and the extra word ‘Phobic’ on the end, it seems to become a rather useful silencing or manipulation tool. And one must question the amount of media attention that is now being thrown at the rather concerning issue of grooming gangs, and the significant numbers of perpetrators and victims. Quite the opposite of years ago, when it wasn’t discussed for fear of ‘inflaming racial tensions’.

But I realised, that was part of the problem in the media and part of the way they were able to suppress it. Because it shouldn’t be about a race at all, if someone rapist is a rapist, or a paedophile, or a cold-blooded murderer, then what should it matter what the colour of the person is or prefix given to them is. It seems that prefix is then used to try and steer people towards that as a focus, so it can lead to other topics, discussions, and ultimately then used as a political tactic or a media frenzy. To then steer it further away by talking of lessons, policies and laws. All the while it’s allowed to continue or hasn’t even been dealt with yet, which means you know they aren’t really talking about lessons and prevention in the future. They are using talking as a way of getting away with not doing. Deliberate procrastination, for what seems a much more sinister purpose.

In reality, they should just be called grooming gangs, or rapists, or paedophiles and so on. Only once they are behind bars and removed as a danger is there time to discuss their motive, their affiliations, their background, their psychology and so on. By putting an extra perceived identity or difference over people, distracts from their actions as an ordinary human who has crossed the line of humanity. And once you cross that line, we used to have quite clear laws and ways of dealing with those people. So, like with many things these days, you end up asking why would the establishment want lots of stabby, rapey, hateful, murderous types of people running around, who appear to be untouchable. Speculated on in The IPA’s, about why they are able to suddenly have all the rights in the world, to have access to all the resources of our country, and are being given priority over the native population which has funded it all, as far as we know.

By putting any kind of racial or religious slur in front of a real accusation of wrongdoing, seems to leave you wide open these days to be ignored, harassed or dismissed. And really, it shouldn’t be necessary anyway to add anything extra, other than circumstance and motive perhaps. And although either of those things may come up as motive by the perpetrator, it should not detract or sway the punishment in any way, just go some way to explain why they steered from the path of normality. And we can see that some very hateful attitudes are being encouraged to fester and flourish, which were always there and are not new by any means, but they never had such an open stage before. Where so many people have so little self-control, or mindfulness, or manners. Even in politics they do it all the time, to have people arguing that it was Labour who did this, or Tory who did that, and so much time is wasted trying to point fingers and shift blame. All the while no one actually does anything, that high-level procrastination being how the government operates. A lot of spending, a lot of talking, and not so much doing.

Focus on the problem words and not the prefix – politicians, rapists, grooming gangs, terrorists, murderer and so on and to me it really doesn’t matter what religion or race you are if you fall into those categories. Because the media and those who own it, are very good at knowing what a well-placed word can do, and how people will latch onto things, twist things or add their own prejudices and add to the distraction of point. So, we end up being caught in a loop of discussion, with peer pressure and shame being used against people to ‘keep the peace’, or whatever excuse they come up with for not doing anything about it. Just letting the destruction pile up and sticking to whatever plan they are following, and we unfortunately are all being dragged along with it…

(c) MKW Publishing

A Prime Choice

Being in your prime. Said of certain ages along the way as you grow up. I guess it changes with requirement depending on what part of your life you’re going through, and whether society has deemed a need for that. The prime of youth, of being work ready, of being mature, of being ‘at the right time’ often in the eyes of others.

But as child brides and marriage take more of a centre stage in the news and certain cultures that are now prevalent in Britain and Europe, I couldn’t help but to give it more thought. Because it’s not new, and it does seem to be across the board in varying degrees.

Amish – although there are many things to admire about the Amish, this wasn’t one of them. Hearing that the much older male members of the groups, will marry the young women, and the young men often get thrown out. So, they don’t take the young women as wives. Apparently, there are thousands of young men from those groups who no longer have a community because of sexual jealousy.

And that is probably the motivation across the board. Competition, jealousy, desire, and extreme selfishness for personal gratification. All neatly protected by that veil of various religions, or cult mentality, or systematic conditions needed to facilitate it and condition the up-and-coming generations to perpetuate it.

In Britain, we currently have a rather large issue of children being inducted into a system of abuse that spans decades. Not just because of foreign religions or cultures, but they are alongside our very own homegrown abusers. Now we have added a hefty number to that with more people of a twisted mindset and archaic attitude. But it was already here, so embedded that most didn’t even notice, or thought it was rare, a one-off when you did get to hear about it in the news. I thought Jimmy Savile might have opened people’s eyes and minds a bit to the scale and level of it. And now we know how selective the ‘news’ is about what and who they report, it’s not hard to see why so many get away with so much.

In Britain, the age of consent was 12, between 1275 and 1875. That’s quite a long time in my view. And although it always seemed a bit much to have a family by 17 back in the day, if you’ve been ‘available’ for 5 years by then, it makes more sense. It didn’t sit well with me, but it made sense. And if we believe the high infant mortality rates and lower age of death than we are used to today, then it makes more sense.

So, I wonder. What was the real motivation for changing it in 1875. As nothing is ever really for safety or for the good of the people, or because people protest, so my cynical mind sees it as a power move. Like with the Amish strategy, to remove their competition or threaten them with punishment for going near their ‘stock’. You still couldn’t get married, though, until aged 21, up until 1823, so there is quite a big gap between being sexually mature at 12 apparently, yet your deemed not emotionally mature until 21. But after 1823, it dropped to 14 for girls to be able to be married without parental consent.

Perhaps that was because a change in attitudes towards unwed mothers took over, and stigma and shame were put in place to make people ashamed of breeding. Also giving a very handy pool of ‘resources’ they might have use for, maybe leading in to that Rather Dark Enterprise that was around at the time…

(c) MKW Publishing