I was just watching the local news on BBC while having supper (bad habit, I know, but I can't expect much conversation from my teenage son while eating...) and they were talking about this Youtube clip about a dog (or it's stupid owner, rather) in Richmond Park. Type in 'Jesus Christ in Richmond Park' if you are interested. It's about a dog owner completely losing the control of his dog in one of the most famous century-old nature reserves outside London with lots of wild deers.
The park belongs to Royal Parks of London, a government agency controlling some of the London parks. I live near Kensington Gardens, one of their parks, and I have suffered numerous times from very irresponsible dog owners. I have no idea why the Royal Parks allow dogs to be unleashed and to run around as they like. I try not to moan about things, but I find it hard not to when it comes to dog owners. I've already complained about them in this post... The parks are for everyone to enjoy. 'Everyone' means humans, not dogs.
They chase squirrels, geese, deers (in this case), or anything that moves. When my son was tiny he was playing with a ball that we bought for his birthday, and a dog came running after the ball and slobbered all over it. They come running towards cyclists while chasing something. I'd say 70% of the dog owners in London don't have control of their dogs and they don't seem to care to keep them in sight, either.
One more thing, while I'm at it. In Royal Parks you are not allowed to run private business such as selling ice creams and roast chestnuts. How about dog walkers? They are running business in Royal Parks. One dog walker often has half a dozen or more dogs at a time and they unleash all of them at one go the minute they reach the park. I will probably complain about dog owners (and about Land Rovers but that's another story) again sometime :(
This is a very easy and fancy looking autumn pudding.
Ingredients (for 4 little pouches):
6 large sheets of filo pastry
50g butter, melted
2 eating apples, chopped in 2cm dice
a handful of raisins
50ml Calvados
30g sugar
a tablespoon of butter
a tablespoon of icing sugar (for dusting)
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Cook apples pieces with raisins, sugar, and butter with Calvados in a pan over medium heat for about 10 minutes until cooked through with no liquid. Cook on a high heat at the end if there's any liquid left. Leave to cool.
Cut the filo pastry sheets into four squares. Use 6 little squares for each bundle and layer them. Brush each sheet with melted butter. When you have four squares of layered filo pastry, put quarter of the apple mixture on the top. Now pick up four corners of the pastry and scrunch up at the top to seal. Do the same with the other three pieces. Brush each piece with the melted butter and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until nice and brown.
Dust with some icing sugar when the bundles are cooled.