Talking cocks

Both Vanessa and I have taken the rest of this week off on leave and, whilst we have no plans to go anywhere special, I have been making serious plans for what to make in the kitchen.

Armed with my trusty "Three & Four Ingredient Cookbook," tonight's main course will be Teriyaki Salmon (the salmon is currently marinading in the fridge, don't you know).

And last night I had a go at Spatchcock Poussins with Herb Butter. They were a little bit dull, if truth be told. In fact, they just tasted like slightly overdone roast chicken (just because I cook doesn't mean I'm actually any good at it).

But a couple of quick points about this particular dish.

First, as the picture above vividly demonstrates, being spatchcocked must surely be the most undignified way for any living thing to become a meal. Seriously, how ungainly do those poor former little chickens look?

And second, a bit of trivia about the origins of that quaint term "spatchcock." And I quote, straight from the pages of the "Three & Four Ingredient Cookbook" itself:

"Spatchcock is said to be a distortion of an 18th century Irish expression 'dispatch cock' for providing an unexpected guest with a quick and simple meal. A young chicken was prepared without frills or fuss by being split, flattened and fried or grilled."

For the record, my two cocks were dispatched after a thorough grilling at high heat.

And whilst we're on the subject of cocks, I see that so-called "man of peace" Senator Ted Kennedy has passed into the next dimension.

This is the same Senator Ted Kennedy who was an unashamed IRA apologist during the dark years of the Troubles when hundreds of innocent men and women were being butchered by his republican friends on the streets of Northern Ireland.

This is the same Senator Ted Kennedy who told Ulster Protestants like me to "go back to Britain" if we couldn't accept a united Ireland.

This is the same Senator Ted Kennedy who, whilst spending decades lecturing all and sundry about what was right and what was wrong about Northern Ireland, didn't actually set foot in the country until 1998, the year of the Good Friday Agreement itself.

Senator Ted Kennedy won't be missed by me or, indeed, anyone else who dislikes individuals who cosy up to terrorists for personal political gain.