Jack Monroe #145 Mamapapa, why is all the food brown?

waffle maker said:

The diagnosis for ADHD and ASD is by answering loads and loads of questions. There is no blood test or whatever. Through the NHS you need a GP referral and the process will involve a specialist team of some kind, depending on how it works in your area. An adult patient would mainly tell the professional themselves. Many threads back Jack talked about making her friends and family write down their views about her behaiour or something- I'm sure this would be part of the process.

An educational psychologist employed privately can diagnose both- I didn't know this until I started working outside of the state sector. You could definitely read up on either condition and answer the questions to present as having either condition. A friend (never diagnosed) got ADHD medication from a private clinic in London and did everyting over the phone/ internet. In my job I work with teenager disgnosed by a mixture of psychiatrists and educational psychologists. I am sure most people working in this area are ethical, but in my experience it is very very easy to get a diagnosis if you have money to throw at it.

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In our health board area, there is no provision for adult ADHD/ADD diagnosis as it is done by educational psychologists in schools. If you're an adult you have to rely on the dreadful mental health team. I was diagnosed as Borderline/Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder by a psychiatrist despite only meeting the self-harm criteria. I was told that I couldn't have ADHD/ADD because I don't have hyperactivity. Second opinion is merely another psychiatrist from the same department reading the notes of the first.

I can understand why people who can afford turn to the private sector. I can't.

Wobblehead said:

We used to put tinned mandarins on a pre made sponge flan base and then add Quick Jel !

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Didn't we all! That was the height of sophistication in 1970s Manchester

Walkdengirl said:

Didn't we all! That was the height of sophistication in 1970s Manchester

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I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again because it’s nice.

Jamaican Ginger Cake- bought.
Double Cream
Small tin of Mandarin segments (any brand will do)

Slice cake lengthways.
Whisk cream until thick.
Drain mandarins.
Softly softly fold in half of the drained mandarins with the whisked cream and then sandwich the two halves of the cake together .

Basic and delicious.

TheDragonWithAFlagon said:

Thanks to Mr D's origin story/location, what I find most offensive about it is that fishing is fucking dangerous. The fishermen who went out to catch those freezer space fillers literally RISKED DEATH to do so. Every time we're back visiting his family, we spend a short time at the memorial looking at the names of the boats and crews that have been lost. And there's always a new one. Every single time, there's a new plaque for more souls lost at sea.

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Not sure where this will land as I'm still < page 10 but you have pinpointed one of the big things about the #giftedfish shitfest. I haven't eaten fish since I was a child (and that was fish fingers) so I have no idea about scallops etc but I do know that people go barmy for well prepared fresh fish. So Jack being so ungrateful is annoying but I cannot really relate. Of course the bit of me wearing a Sea Shepard jumper thinks of plastic waste from fishing vessels (although that isn't unique to fishing, I'm anxious about waste in every industry)

However, every time those fish get mentioned, I can only really think about the danger people in the fishing industry go through every day and the continuous addition of names to the plaque is heartbreaking. She's so spiteful in everything she does.

Edited because I finished the sentence in my head but not with my fingers.

RobinsNest said:

My mum is a teacher at a high school, she teaches special classes to help kids with educational and personal issues catch up and stay on track. She's said that every year, the number of children in her class diagnosed with ADHD goes up. She really struggled to get an autism diagnosis for my brother (even strangers will ask if he's autistic, he's textbook and no, and they were never able to get a proper diagnosis), but most of the kids with ADHD are just generically energetic kids or kids who are a bit forgetful, but they're parents have some money or some doctor friends or harass their doctors endlessly for the label to get what is essentially an excuse for regular child behaviour.

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What your mum says is spot on

Blurp said:

In our health board area, there is no provision for adult ADHD/ADD diagnosis as it is done by educational psychologists in schools. If you're an adult you have to rely on the dreadful mental health team. I was diagnosed as Borderline/Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder by a psychiatrist despite only meeting the self-harm criteria. I was told that I couldn't have ADHD/ADD because I don't have hyperactivity. Second opinion is merely another psychiatrist from the same department reading the notes of the first.

I can understand why people who can afford turn to the private sector. I can't.

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I’m sorry, we’ve talked about this before I know but I think it’s so awful that you’ve been misdiagnosed and are struggling like this. I sort of agree with the discomfort at rich parents (and people like Jack) being able to pay to have a super quick diagnosis, however I too fully understand why some people wish to go private, especially women.

I think it’s really interesting that you were told you weren’t hyperactive, because it’s such a weirdly gendered concept. When you think of a hyperactive child you think of a little boy at a birthday party running around and around in circles. I even remember on my form which I filled in when I got diagnosed there was a question “do you often get up out of your seat when you should remain seated” and I was like, what the fuck, no?! Because I would have been smacked if I did that as a child. The metrics don’t seem to take into account that as women from a very early age obedience and stillness is much more highly prized and so what would become zooming around a room in boys is often leg jiggling, or hair twiddling, or nail biting.

My mum, pre-breakdown and financial catastrophe, was an SEN teacher. I’m convinced she has ADHD, and when I told her I had been referred she was incredulous, but when she had to fill in a form about my childhood she was shocked that everything except being disobedient/out of seat fitted me exactly. Even supposed specialists often only have very fixed notions of what neurodiversity looks like.

I really hope that one day you can get a second - and better - opinion.

Walkdengirl said:

Didn't we all! That was the height of sophistication in 1970s Manchester

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I have decided I am going to make it this weekend. I think Tesco may sell Quick Jel

LyraBalaqua said:

I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again because it’s nice.

Jamaican Ginger Cake- bought.
Double Cream
Small tin of Mandarin segments (any brand will do)

Slice cake lengthways.
Whisk cream until thick.
Drain mandarins.
Fold in half of the drained mandarins with the whisked cream and then sandwich the two halves of the cake together .

Basic and delicious.

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Sounds delish, have you considered a career as a food writer?

discokebab said:

Not sure where this will land as I'm still < page 10 but you have pinpointed one of the big things about the #giftedfish shitfest. I haven't eaten fish since I was a child (and that was fish fingers) so I have no idea about scallops etc but I do know that people go barmy for well prepared fresh fish. So Jack being so ungrateful is annoying but I cannot really relate. Of course the bit of me wearing a Sea Shepard jumper thinks of plastic waste from fishing vessels (although that isn't unique to fishing, I'm anxious about waste in every industry)

However, every time those fish get mentioned, I can only really think about the danger people in the fishing industry go through every day and the continuous addition of names to the plaque is heartbreaking. She's so spiteful.

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I doubt Jack gave a thought about the work it took to get the fish from the sea.

I’m happy to see others still pissed off about the free fish.

Pythagoras Theorem - E = MC2

Patreonas Theorem - JM = £££

Complete and utter cuntyfuck of a human.

Walkdengirl said:

Sounds delish, have you considered a career as a food writer?

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I’ll organise a Patreon and send you a screenshot of mandarin segments

Marmalade Atkins said:

Soup.

View attachment 417326

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I’m sorry but this son of a Farquhar must be fucking mental.
Thick enough to stand your bike up in, that is something, but soup ain’t it.

Cunderthunt said:

Lots of misinformation in this post. I'm sorry that your mum has that attitude, given her role.

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I actually agree with her mum, we had a few children with a private diagnosis for adhd, they were misbehaving children with wealthy parents, the difference between those and the ones diagnosed by the nhs is vast. We no longer accept a private diagnosis which is sad but there was so much abuse of it it couldn't carry on.

TheWrongBond said:

I’m sorry but this son of a Farquhar must be fucking mental.
Thick enough to stand your bike up in, that is something, but soup ain’t it.

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You could use that as poly filler

Sorry, but is this Jack’s entry to the No Shit Sherlock Awards? How is this ‘news’? Jack didn’t write it, it just feels like one of her hot takes.

I just thank the lord Jack ain’t riding this band-wagon.... yet. Thank god they’re too busy with SN’s homework to get singing!

colouredlines said:

Jack's a bit quiet today so here from the archives:

View attachment 416842

Top to bottom:

Slop with exploded cherry tomato (that looks like unruly labia)
Classic slop
A bowl of black pepper with a slop garnish

Which one would YOU choose?

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I’m shockingly far behind but I’ve become an actual connoisseur of slop for a weaning baby and whilst at times (eg struggling to blend any food with a skin) I’ve admired Jack for being able to liquify absolutely everything, there’s no way you’d even feed a baby that shit? It’s literal slop. It’s shit coloured slop. There is no way this is okay, why is she presenting it with those naff humble chef hands like it’s a gift?!

LyraBalaqua said:

I doubt Jack gave a thought about the work it took to get the fish from the sea.

I’m happy to see others still pissed off about the free fish.

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I've never been so jealous of anything in my entire life than the gift of all that lovely fish. I'm a meat and fish eater but love good fresh food, support small businesses, hate food waste and the idea that an animal or fish died and that people toiled doing actual work, not pissing about jabbing at a phone all day, for literally no reason other than to clog up one of those purely-for-display freezers annoys me no end. Not to mention, it falls very short of 90% Vegan principles, doesn't it?

BlendedSlop said:

The mention of the loaf tin has reminded me of that sticky toffee lemon drizzle brick she baked in an old mess tin that she then couldn't dislodge it from. Cue several gushing posts about how it was the best thing she'd ever eaten and she'd greedily guzzled three portions as soon as it left the oven (with a suspicious lack of photographic evidence that she'd managed to do so much as get a knife through it).

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I'd forgotten about that. ah, simpler times

MancBee said:

That looks like an open gangrenous wound that has been infected with maggots.


Sorry for those that haven't eaten yet.

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I'm so pleased I'd finished my chili con carne before reading this

Oooh, this looks interesting https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000lkrv/suzie-lees-home-cook-heroes-series-1-episode-1

Somebody who can cook AND speak.