Student Newsletter    Issue 12        Date: Fri 12 Feb 2010

Welcome to the Valentine’s issue of your student newsletter.  Quite rightly, we’ve included some background reading to this historical day for lovers.  Just mind who you send your Valentine’s card to!  We’ve also got a pancake day recipe, some more student reviews together with some interesting historical (especially if you’re Italian)  and culinary news - that you probably won’t have read elsewhere.
We’re looking forward to hearing how you celebrated the next two weeks – so keep us posted. We want to  here all about it!
Happy Valentine’s Day!

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 Events
Football    Tuesday 16th Feb
Have you seen our local team play yet?  No matter whom you support, come and practise your footwork at the Spinnaker College football session.
Meet at college: 4pm

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Paintballing        Beginning of March. Date t.b.c. (to be confirmed)
 
If you’ve always fancied your survival or team leadership talents  (or been watching too many reruns of Terminator!), then this could be right up your street.  Come and pelt your fellow students with paint and try to avoid being hit yourself!  This exciting half day game experience will take place at Camouflage, near Petersfield.
What is paintballing?  It’s usually played in teams.  The aim is to hit your opponents with paint, shot from a paint gun. Players play outside or inside, in a natural terrain. Sometimes the aim is to capture something, such as a flag.
Be sure to wear old clothing!
Cost: £19.95 for a half day (+£10 travel)

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  Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day     Tuesday 16 February
 
This is a Christian festival marking the last day before Ash Wednesday – the first day of fasting in Lent. Its history stretches back to 1000AD.  Making pancakes with eggs, flour, milk and sugar is a symbolic way to use up food before the 40 day fast.
In England football was often played on this day, since the 12C – a perfect occasion to join our football session!  Some villages still hold pancake races on this day.  Here’s a recipe from our very English cookery expert, Delia Smith:

Delia Smith’s Pancake Recipe
4oz (110g) plain flour
Pinch of salt
7fl oz (200ml) milk mixed with 3floz (74ml) water
2 large eggs
2oz (50g) butter

To Serve: caster sugar, lemon juice and lemon wedges
Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing
Make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it
Whisk the eggs
Gradually add small quantities of the milk and water mixture, still whisking, until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thin cream.
Melt the butter in the pan. Spoon 2 tablespoons of it into the batter and whisk it in, then pour the rest into a bowl and use it when needed to lubricate the pan, using a wodge of kitchen paper to smear it round.

Now get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium.
Do a test pancake to see if you're using the correct amount of batter.
2 tablespoons will be about right for a 7 inch (18 cm) pan and 3 tablespoons for an 8 inch (20 cm) pan
As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter.
Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife – the other side will need a few seconds only – then simply slide it out of the pan on to a plate.

To serve, sprinkle each pancake with freshly squeezed lemon juice and caster sugar, fold in half, or else simply roll them up. Sprinkle with a little more sugar and lemon juice and extra sections of lemon.

Recipe from Delia Smith’s Winter Collection and Delia's Vegetarian Collection.

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Who’s Your Valentine?
 
Valentine’s day was instigated by Pope Gelasius I in 496AD and is remembrance of Christian martyrs.  There is more than one martyred Valentine. One was a priest in Rome who was martyred about AD 269 and another in AD 197. They are both buried in Rome.
It is the day when sweethearts exchange gifts and symbols of their love for each other.  It has been associated with romantic love since the middle ages.
Since the 19th century Valentine’s cards have been sent, often anonymously.  This can sometimes be the cause of mistaken identity, as in the tragic consequence of Thomas Hardy’s novel, Far from The Madding Crowd, where Bathsheba sends a Valentine’s card as a joke to the rich bachelor farmer, William Boldwood, with the inscription “marry me”.

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 Culture Notes

Thomas Hardy set many of his novels in Dorset, which is the next country to Hampshire. John Schlesinger’s 1967 film, with Terence Stamp and Julie Christie is an excellent adaptation, demonstrating how blind romantic love can lead to disaster . In a fitting gesture to his love for his wife, Hardy requested that he be buried with his first wife, Emma. But his wishes were only partly followed, and his body was interred in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey -  only his heart was buried in Emma's grave, at Stinsford.

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Student of the Month
This month’s start student is Maryam.

 

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New Look Café Opens
There’s been a buzz about the college as the in-house Spinnaker College café has been having a make-over. Come and see for yourself the new look at the launch party - 3pm this Friday 12th February.  The café is renamed “Best Kept Secret”.  The design gives a warm, but spacious feel, with large mirrors and cosy café tables.  All the food will be freshly made every day .Come in and have breakfast before your lessons – you can enjoy smoked salmon and scrambled egg on toast with fresh orange juice.  Or why not drop in for tea and scones at tea time – a very English experience!
Opening times are 8am-4pm Monday – Friday.

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What’s On
Varsity Pro Wrestling
 
A night of the world’s TOP wrestling action.
12 Feb Portsmouth Guildhall    £12.50 online
http://www.varsityprowrestling.com/tickets.html