There's a special celebration in this week's Heyday Friday newsletter
A Beatles landmark, a double food-related helping of ideas to try, and a feel-good film recommendation in this week's newsletter. Enjoy!
Hello!
Thanks to the magic of Substack there’s been a flurry of new subscribers to this little missive over the past couple of weeks, so first of all I want to welcome you if you’re new here. It’s lovely to have you as part of the Heydays gang and I hope you’ll enjoy all the ideas, tips, fun and inspiration that I share each week. Please do feel free to comment, like and make suggestions. I love hearing from everyone at the other end of these emails.
Whether you’re new or a long time subscriber (thank you), your presence is a particularly welcome present to me as yesterday (if you’re reading this on Friday when this pops up in your inbox, otherwise adjust accordingly) was my birthday.
For musical reasons it was a particularly significant one. Here’s a, hopefully not too visually blasphemous, clue as to why (I can’t pretend I don’t feel just a little bit proud of myself for working out how to create this pic. Even if it does make me look as if I’ve only got one leg!)
Yup - I’ve turned 64. That age we blithely sang about as children/teenagers, thinking then how unimaginably old it was, and now here we are, or rather, I am, discovering what it’s like to be three score years and four. And thankfully still needed and feeded (obviously I know it’s ‘fed’ but I hope you’ll grant me some musically mirroring leeway).
In this week’s blog I muse on what it feels like to have reached my Beatles birthday, and reflect on real life as opposed to the one encapsulated in the song lyrics, as I enter my mid-sixties. You can read those thoughts HERE
None of us get to our sixties without being a bit battered by life. So these
WORDS OF WISDOM
from the fab four seemed particularly apposite
I’ve been trying to get better at using my air fryer, not just because it’s a healthier way to cook but because it’s more energy efficient too. So this week, I’m serving you a double helping (boom, boom) of a recipe AND a smart save tip, both relating to air fryers.
The ‘recipe’ really hardly counts as one, because it’s so absurdly straightforward, but I share it because it produces perfectly air fried fish in no time and without either the smell of cooking it on the hob or under the grill, or the expense of turning on your oven just to cook couple of fillets.
AIR FRYER SALMON
Use one fillet per person. This takes 5 mins to prep and between 8 and 10 mins to cook depending on the size of the fillets.
Combine 1 tsp salt, 1tsp pepper, 1tsp mixed herbs and 1tsp garlic granules (you can leave these out if you’re not keen on garlic. And use any combination of seasonings you fancy) in a bowl.
Drizzle as many salmon fillets as you’re cooking (the seasoning quantities are enough
for up to four) with a little olive oil and roll the fillets in the seasoning so they’re well coated in it.
Cook them in the air fryer in one layer at 180C for 8-10 mins, until cooked through (the bigger the fillet the longer it will take obviously).
Serve with the accompaniments of your choice - I like this with some kind of grain or potatoes and greens for dinner, and salad if I’m having it at lunchtime.
SMART SAVE TIP OF THE WEEK
When it comes to cleaning your air fryer after you’ve used it, this not only remarkably effective, but gentle on your fryer and, if you use eco-friendly detergent, the planet too.
Sprinkle a heaped tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda evenly in the tray of the fryer, next add three tablespoons of vinegar, which will make the baking soda foam. Then add three tablespoons of detergent and spread that well over the tray. Pour in about 500ml of hot water and leave for 5 mins. When you pour off the liquid it will have lifted all the dirt off, so you just have to give the tray a wipe. Voila!
THIS WEEK I’VE BEEN…….WATCHING
I know this is two cinema film recommendations in a row, but The Holdovers was only released in the UK just last week and I wanted to encourage you to see it on the big screen whilst you can. Which is not to say this funny, nuanced, warm-hearted film won’t work when it pitches up on your TV, only that whilst you can enjoy it and support your local cinema at the same time, that seems like a winning combination to me.
Paul Giamatti reunites with his Sideways director Alexander Payne, playing another disillusioned teacher, this time a cantankerous classical civilisation professor, Mr Hurman, at a prestigious New England academy in 1970, who is disliked in equal measure by the pupils, whose lack of academic ability he treats with hilariously cutting distain, and his colleagues.
Left in charge of a group of pupils who, for various reasons, can’t go home for the Christmas holidays - the eponymous holdovers - and who are as bitter and disappointed about it as he is, a convenient plot device serves to whittle the group down to just one, the most bitter and disappointed of them all, and the stage is set for the grumpy teacher and the angry pupil, both lonely and family-deprived in their individual ways, to find some kind of reconciliation, with the situation and each other.
The pair are joined in the eerily empty building by sharp-tongued school cook, Miss Lamb, broken hearted by the recent death of her son, a former scholarship pupil at the academy, in the Vietnam war. Together this unlikely trio fumble their way through their abandonment and despair to find beautifully realised moments of connection, empathy and even joy.
This is a gently told, impeccably crafted and performed story (Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph who plays Miss Lamb have both already won Golden Globes, whilst newcomer Dominic Sessa more than holds his own as Angus, the marooned student) with an ending which features one of the best revenge put-down’s you’ll see on screen.
The Holdovers is in the cinema now
Watch the trailer HERE
WHAT’S MADE ME HAPPY THIS WEEK
This is very much in the spirit of a skill I’ve tried to improve on in the past (not piano playing. I gave up on that a long time ago, much, I’m sure, to the relief of my admirably patient teacher) which I write about in THIS WEEK’S BLOG
That’s it for this week. I’m off to have lunch with my daughter and granddaughter before a lovely afternoon and evening of culture - a gallery visit and the theatre - with dinner somewhere in-between. Then tomorrow evening there’s a dinner with all my family. How lucky am I?
I hope the coming week has lots in it for you to look forward to, too.
See you next time
Happy Birthday for yesterday I hope you had a lovely day 🍹