ALL CHILL, NO THRILL
It’s 31st December and long gone are the days when I would be getting ready for an all nighter, drinking pint after pint of Guinness before making up the words to Auld Lang Syne, because no one really knows the words do they. Nope, me and the Mrs just enjoyed a ridiculously huge 100 day old chicken bought earlier from the Ginger Pig and watching Pulp Fiction whilst the dog is running up and down the stairs like a ferret on crack barking at the fireworks.
THE KILLER
2018 has been a whirlwind of learning. If you’re not in the know, social media is a circus of klusterfucks. I’ve learnt a lot throughout the year, from the best way to shoot a turkey carving to creating rich pins for Pintrest, but there have been many occasions where the computer nearly found it’s way to taking a short sharp drop kick out of the office window. And then there’s the media trolls, who are never short of a comment or two from the shade of my sirloin to my choice of burger bun. But truthfully, it’s been a fucking blast and I wouldn’t swap it for the world.
THE TURKEY TURTLE - LITERALLY THE FUNNIEST COMMENT ALL YEAR
And as I watch John Travolta bust out some of my signature moves, I ponder… do I have any resolutions for the new year?
2019 FOOD PREDICTIONS
There’s a few schools of thought about what 2019 is going to bring about with its food trends for the upcoming year.
Waitrose predicts that bitter foods will be the talk of the town in 2019 such as black coffee, dark chocolate, char-grilled meats and craft beers. We just call this Saturday night at the shack.
For a look back on our ponderings of all things bitter check out BUT FIRST, COFFEE where I lovingly invented the butter bacon coffee for myself and BEER AND BARBECUE – THE PERFECT MARRIAGE where I basically spent a day in the sun drinking Sadlers beer while Mrs S was out shopping. It’s a hard job, but someone’s gotta do it.
Waitrose also predict that ice cream will be taking centre of the Instagram stage as new dessert themed chains pop up on your local high street taking inspiration from street food from the East. Long gone are the days of the artic roll which we touched on when lovingly revisiting some 90s nostalgia in last week’s post THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING. Think bright colours and tropical flavours to follow your barbecue favourites.
The panel of experts from whole foods however have far healthier expectations as many more hop on to the dietary band wagon. Their predictions include more vegan friendly meatless snacks hitting the shelves as veganism continues to grow in popularity. A recent survey by comparethemarket reveals that a whopping 7% of the UK are now vegan and it’s evident as the range of available plant based ready foods continues to grow within our supermarkets. All that digging out of the brother in law in our post THE VEGANS ARE COMING he is now two years in and still going strong. Well he showed us, I doubted he’d last a week, the smug little git. Expect the shack to keep up with the times as we expand our repertoire into vegan friendly dishes.
Whole foods predicts that healthy fats will be top of the pops for 2019 with the Ketogenic diet being the most searched on Google this past year. Forbes predicts that there’ll be more ditching the carbs for butter coffee and of course everyone’s favourite fatty treat, BACON as the diet claims many health benefits from weight loss to Diabetes reversal! You can read all about my own carb free adventure at THE CARNIVORE CHALLENGE where I shunned everything except meat, fats, coffee and water for an entire month as well as having a very unfortunate incident with an over indulgence of coconut oil.
So back to the question in hand… do I have any resolutions for the new year as midnight fast approaches? No, not for me. I'm happy just as I am. But I will be dabbling at some new creations so... watch this space and make sure you subscribe to the blog to make sure you never miss an episode.
Some new year recipes for you...
JERK HAM
CANDIED ORANGES WITH DARK CHOCOLATE
ORANGE DRIZZLE CAKE
