Waitrose’s sprout buyer has given his top tip for making the vegetable more palatable on Christmas Day.
Patrick Keane suggests: “Sprouts are often overcooked which can leave a bad taste in your mouth – my main tip is to simply immerse them in boiling salted water for three to four minutes and serve al dente.”
The supermarket chain is expecting to sell around 40,000kg of sprouts on December 23 which is expected to be the busiest food shopping day of the festive season.
EastEnders voted best soap exit
EastEnders villain Janine Butcher pushing her new husband Barry Evans off a cliff has been named as the best soap opera exit of all time.
A fifth of 2,000 people surveyed chose the dramatic moment as the most memorable character departure in a poll to mark the exit of one of comparethemarket.com’s meerkats. One of the cuddly characters will have what the firm has described as a ‘shock exit’ in a Christmas Day advert.
£2m counterfeit cash in hotel
Police have recovered more than £2 million in counterfeit cash.
Officers investigating a multimillion-pound jewellery fraud stopped four men at the Portland Thistle Hotel in central Manchester, Greater Manchester Police said. The men were in possession of more than £2 million worth of counterfeit euros, about £50,000 worth of legitimate euros and more than £100,000 of high value watches.
Road-trip runaway found safe
An 11-year-old Arkansas girl paid a taxi driver $1,300 to take her to meet a boy in Florida, but authorities caught up with her in Georgia and found her safe, after her parents reported her missing.
Bryant police used mobile phone records to determine the girl hailed the cab in Little Rock after talking to a 16-year-old Jacksonville, Florida, boy she met two years ago, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. She had stolen the money from her grandmother.
Ellis Houston, a managing partner with Greater Little Rock Transportation Services, which operates the local Yellow Cab service, said the driver was not charged and is not facing disciplinary action, adding: “Maybe he lacked a little bit of judgement.”
Dog is hero in US fire rescue
Authorities are crediting a chocolate Labrador with saving the life of a Sacramento man after it alerted him to a fire inside a home that appeared not to have a smoke detector.
Sacramento Fire Department spokesman Roberto Padilla said the man told firefighters he was sleeping when his dog Buddy nudged him and woke him up. The man saw a fire burning in a bedroom in the rear of the house. The Sacramento Bee reported the man suffered from smoke inhalation and had soot on his face. Mr Padilla said the man did not recall hearing a smoke alarm, and firefighters had found no evidence of a working smoke detector in the house.
Condiments case is dropped
Hellmann’s mayonnaise maker Unilever has withdrawn its lawsuit against the maker of Just Mayo.
Unilever filed a lawsuit against Hampton Creek earlier this year, claiming the name of the small California company’s product amounted to false advertising. The consumer products giant said that Just Mayo has no eggs and therefore does not meet the definition of mayonnaise. It argued that the word “mayo” implies that the product is mayonnaise, and that Hampton Creek was stealing market share from Hellmann’s.
Hampton Creek said that it marketed its product as “mayo” rather than mayonnaise specifically to meet labelling regulations. Unilever said it decided to withdraw the lawsuit so that Hampton Creek could address its label directly with industry groups and regulatory authorities.