Exam Intelligence

Here is a recipe for stuffed peppers, from our resident Ex-Girlfriend, Sassy.  This recipe takes slightly longer than the others on here, but we are assured it is worth it.  We’ll be giving it a go soon.  In total, the cooking time is about 1 hour, but preparation time is only a few minutes.  We think it’s ideal, because there are two distinct phases to the cooking, meaning you can break after 30 minuts of studying to begin the second phase.

You will need:

• Some mixed peppers (green, red, yellow; number depends on how many you’re going to eat/feed)
• Chopped garlic (1 clove per 2 peppers)
• Chopped onions (1 medium sized onion per 2 peppers)
• Sliced mushrooms (we reckon about 50g per pepper)
• Chick peas or lentils (about 25-50g per pepper)
• Sliced courgette (1 per 2 peppers)
• 2 tablespoons of tomato puree or 50ml passata per pepper
• 1heaped teaspoon of mixed herbs per 2 peppers OR fresh a few sprigs each of basil/oregano/thyme all chopped finely
• Salt, pepper and chili (or chilli) powder to taste (leave out the chili if you don’t like spice!)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• Cheese of your choice to grate over the top, but goats’ cheese is best.
• New potatoes, enough for the number of people you’re going to feed.
• Optional side salad.

What you need to do:

1. Chop the top off each of the peppers, and de-seed the insides.
2. Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil, over a medium heat, until starting to brown, but only just.
3. Add the courgettes and wait for them to start to soften (2-3 minutes).
4. Add mushrooms, chick peas/lentils and tomato puree/passata.
5. Add the mixed herbs.
6. Put oven on to warm to 180°C.
7. Cook over low heat for 25-30 minutes.
8. Fill peppers with mixture.
9. Place in oven for 30-40 minutes.
10. Put potatoes on to boil.
11. Serve with some butter over the new potatoes!

Enjoy!

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This is very rich, and probably quite unhealthy, but it does taste good!

You will need the following:

• Frying pan
• Saucepan
• Knife
• Chopping board
• Measuring jug
• 1 mixing bowl (smaller = better) (any old bowl will do, really)
• Teaspoons and tablespoons
• 2 medium onions
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 teaspoons each of dried thyme and parsley (or a small bunch of each fresh, which you will need to chop finely)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 chicken breasts (about 300-400g of chicken)
• 2 tablespoons of tomato puree
• 5-10 peppercorns, or a good teaspoon of ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon of chicken stock granules (Knorr preferred)
• 1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard or Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar (more will be more acidic, obviously, so we leave it to you).
• 100-200g mascarpone (depending on how rich you want it to be!)
• Rice or salad to serve with chicken.

What you need to do:

1. Chop the onion and garlic quite fine (crush the garlic if you want)
2. In the mixing bowl, use a spoon to crush the wholegrain mustard, or if you are using Dijon mustard, just put it into the bowl.
3. Crush the peppercorns or add the pepper to the bowl.
4. Add 1 teaspoon of each of thyme and parsley to the bowl.
5. Add the onion and garlic to the bowl.
6. Mix with the olive oil.
7. Pour into a frying pan and fry over medium heat until the onions are soft (may take 5 minutes)
8. Make 100ml chicken stock in the measuring jug.
9. Cut the chicken breast up into 1cm-2cm chunks whilst onions are softening.
10. Add the chicken and fry over medium-high to high heat until beginning to brown.
11. Add tomato paste.
12. Add vinegar.
13. Add remaining thyme and parsley.
14. Add chicken stock to pan.
15. Leave for 15-20 minutes.
16. Taste, and if necessary, add more salt (1 or 2 pinches at a time) and pepper (ditto) until happy with the flavour.
17. Now add the mascarpone, stir 5-10 times, and serve with rice or salad.

Guten Appetit!

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What are the properties of the ideal intravenous/inhalational anaesthetic agent?

We’re not sure whether this is a popular question, in and of itself anymore, but we certainly advise you to be wary of the question which goes along these lines:

What’s your favourite inhalation agent/intravenous induction agent?

And how does that compare with the qualities you’d like to see in an ideal anaesthetic agent?

OR

And how does that compare with X (being another agent of the same class)?

Now, obviously you should pick your favourite agent very carefully, and make sure you know plenty about it.

For example, if you choose propofol you must know it’s physical properties, mode of presentation, administration, doses for adults and paediatric patients, effects and side-effects, probable mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and its use in TIVA.  For this kind of information we’d refer you to this book: Pharmacology for Anaesthesia and Intensive Care by Tom Peck and Sue Hill.

However, we did come across this little article about Ideal Agents, written by a couple of FRCAs back in 2003 in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Journal.  Interestingly, even the Surgical-Tutor website has something to say about the Ideal inhalational anaesthetic agent in an article on Anaesthesia and Relaxation!

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