The Bloody Well Smell It Yourself campaign...

Right, I'm launching some new campaigns. The first one will be called "The Bloody Well Smell It Yourself" awareness week. This means USE YOUR NOSE to test whether food is really off or whether you are just being ripped off by the manufacturer who are covering their backs by putting the Use By or Best Before date a week before it really needs to be there. OR the opposite problem is of course having loads of rotting stuff in the fridge. Particularly single people who are sharing domestic quarters do this, I find. They buy in bulk once a week or less, when hungry, and don't get around to planning or eating up leftovers. Either way, it's all WASTE. And that means methane emissions from landfill 23 times worse than Co2. So the answer - buy less more often, locally not at the supermarket, plan better, and don't believe the hype about dates. Here's someone who's started a charity to redistribute surplus food to the needy : http://www.fareshare.org.uk/

Canape-tastic

[gallery columns="2"] I went to a canape-making masterclass and it was great fun and the canapes were the best I have ever tasted. It seems to me that each canape must cost about £10 considering the effort and the array of ingredients going into a single one...  anyway they were YUMMY. An article on making canapes in the Times Online: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article6933542.ece

Foodie Films

1 Babette's Feast

Gabriel Axel, 1987

Parisian chef Babette becomes a cook in a strict Lutheran community in 19th-century Denmark. When she wins the lottery, she decides to repay her dour employers and the villagers by preparing a celebration meal, but the locals fear that such indulgence will be corrupting. Finest food moment (FFM): The heart-warming scenes as, despite themselves, the guests begin to enjoy the meal.

2 Big Night

Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci, 1996

Set in Fifties America, this is the story of two Italian brothers in search of the American dream who open a restaurant. Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, they decide to host a sumptuous banquet for singer Louis Prima in the hope that this will pull in the punters. FFM: The loving attention to detail with which the timballo is prepared is enough to make you cry, and the eventual creation of a dish that is just too magnificent to eat.

3 The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie

Luis Bunuel, 1972

Bizarre interruptions from clergymen, military manoeuvres and unexplained food shortages, prevent a group of friends from enjoying a meal together, no matter how they try. The director, Bu�uel, creates a series of situations that reveal the hypocrisy and empty ritual of the privileged classes. FFM: The exasperated expressions of the protagonists hoping for food but never getting any.

4 Felicia's Journey

Atom Egoyan, 1999

A poor Irish girl becomes pregnant after a brief affair with an English soldier. Misled about his identity, she embarks on a fruitless search for the father of her unborn child. Once in England, she is befriended by a lonely, middle-aged catering manager. But, all is not as it seems... FFM: Bob Hoskins, as the bachelor, spending his evenings recreating the dishes demonstrated on television by his celebrity chef mother, Gala.

5 Chocolat

Lasse Hallstrom, 2000

An attractive single mother and itinerant chocolatier, Vianne, opens a chocolate shop in a French village in the Fifties. She encounters fierce opposition from the mayor who fears the effect her indulgent, magic confections will have on the strait-laced residents. FFM: The villagers' faces as, one by one, they give in to temptation and enjoyment as they sample those irresistible cakes, truffles, hot chocolate and much more.

6 Eat Drink Man Woman

Ang Lee, 1994

A widowed chef tries to hold his family of three daughters together, but their only communication is over Sunday dinner. In this gentle comedy of food and family life, primary needs are asserted over more ephemeral desires. FFM: As the opening credits roll, it is such a pleasure to watch the chef preparing the Sunday meal, even the way he cuts the vegetables is inspiring.

7 Like Water For Chocolate

Alfonso Arau, 1991

Set against the backdrop of the 1910 Mexican revolution, the plot centres around a widow and her three daughters.The youngest girl, Tita, has the ability to transmit her feelings to anyone who tastes her cooking. FFM: Tita cooks quails in rose petal sauce and her passion for the dish so affects her sister that, unable to contain her desire, she runs from the shower naked, jumps on to the horse of a passing trooper and rides off with him.

8 Tampopo

Juzo Itami, 1986

Tampopo satirises Japanese society's view of the relationship between food and sex in a series of amusing vignettes. A wandering troubleshooter helps the heroine transform her nondescript ramen restaurant into culinary perfection. FFM: The lips of a gangster and his moll meet only after using their mouths to pass a raw egg yolk from one to the other.

9 Tom Jones

Tony Richardson, 1963

Based on Fielding's 18th-century novel, this is the story of an orphan adopted into an aristocratic household. Our hero's fun-loving attitude makes him fatally attractive to women, including the squire's daughter. FFM: Tom enjoying a bawdy meal with a buxom wench.

10 What's Cooking

Gurinder Chadha, 2000

A hilarious film looking at how four ethnically diverse families celebrate Thanksgiving in LA. On the day, tensions rise and boil over with surprising results. FFM: It's fascinating to see how the same ingredient, such as yam, is prepared differently by each family. courtesy of Waitrose

A vertical garden or living wall

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63D2UkkTtBQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Of course, how long they last or how easy they are to maintain is another option. But there's no reason we shouldn't be trying them for growing food..