In Memory...

Tonight's show is dedicated to the memory of my dear Father who passed away 2 weeks ago...

 

 Don Hickson

1933-2022 

RIP Rintu Basu

It is with great sadness today that I received a phone call to inform me of the passing this week of my closest friend Rintu Basu.

 

I had a phone call from Rintu on December 23rd, when he told me that he'd been in hospital for 3 days after finally persuading his doctor to refer him. During the course of this visit, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was informed there was nothing that could be done barring a miracle, and he would be looking at months rather than years.

 

I had hoped to have the chance to visit him in February, but sadly he left us, peacefully in hospital before I had that chance to tell him how I felt.

 

I can say in total honesty that I couldn't have known a man more charming, fun, friendly and supportive as Rintu.

 

Someone I am proud and honoured to call....

 

My greatest friend. 

 

God bless you Mr. B

Fun prospect from our resident pirate....

 

https://pixiethepirate.com

CHRISTMAS IN JULY....

 

Defrost the turkey, get the sprouts on the boil and settle back to celebrate Christmas in July, with Pixie!!!

Dark Nights and Dreamscapes

 Hoping you'll all be around for what promises to be another great show from our resident pirate, the wonderful pixie!!!!!

Dates for your diary....

 Once again, the festive season is approaching fast, so I will take this opportunity to bring to your attention  various changes and events coming up in the coming weeks.

 Pixie the Pirate

Saturday 19th December, 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK

 Our resident pirate "Pixie" will be presenting her last show before the holidays begin, on Saturday 19th December at the new time of 5pm Eastern Time / 10pm UK.

 In addition to her charming giggle and wonderfully varied mix of music, it will be the first broadcast of her adaptation of "A Christmas Carol", with the support of her many friends and colleagues in the chatroom.

 Hairy Trev's Christmas Rock Show 

Thursday 24th December, 4pm Eastern / 9pm UK 

With Christmas day falling on a Friday, there will be no Rock show broadcast that night, but instead, you can see in the holidays with Hairy Trev, on the 24th December, 1 hour earlier than usual, with a mix of great rock and festive tunes.

 

The Chatroom Players Christmas Pantomime

Saturday 26th December, 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK

Hairy Trev will present a mix of music and chat, before introducing this year's seasonal play, featuring many of the wonderful friends we have here in our chatroom.

There goes the summer.....

 Once again it's that time of year when I pull my hair out and try to work the time differences when the clocks change, but thankfully, this year Pixie has reminded me of the end of summertime and worked out the changes for me...

Here in the UK, our clocks go back this weekend, the Americans following on a week later.. seems our stateside friends make a policy of being late for everything... look at the war!!!!

All DJ's will of course be broadcasting at their normal LOCAL time zone but this may be altered for listeners overseas.

With this in mind please not the following times and dates:

 

Friday 23rd Oct, The Hairy Trev Rock Show, 5pm EST / 10pm UK (No change)

Monday 26th Oct, Yitzie's Hullaballoo, is now 3pm EST, but 7pm UK

Friday 30th October, The Hairy Trev Rock Show is now 6pm EST / 10pm UK 

And finally, 

Saturday 31st October, Pixie's Halloween special will be 6pm EST / 10pm UK

 

 After that, we are back to our regular time difference and things will seem as normal as they can be for Beaten Path Radio!!!

Pixie's getting in the halloween spirit!!!

 The lovely pixie has been drinking the halloween spirit already and sent me these beautiful artworks to promote the holiday season... I thought I'd share them with you!!

On the subject of which, don't forget to tune in to: 

Pixie's Halloween Special Show

Saturday 31st October

6pm Eastern / 10pm UK

 

 

NEW SHOW FOR THE COMING WEEKS!!!

As a new venture to increase the number of special shows on Beaten Path, I will be taking over the airwaves on Tuesday nights for the coming few months to bring you:

LIVE IN CONCERT!

Each week (subject to timings) I will be broadcasting live concerts and shows from the best artists to hit the stage.

 A new show each week featuring the different styles of performers such as 

Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Dire Straits, Electric Light Orchestra, Mike Oldfield, Queen, Status Quo, Supertramp...

PLUS MANY MORE!

Fans of Yitzie's Hullaballoo need not worry as he doesn't get many opportunities to entertain us and he will still be broadcasting when he can. Live concerts will be broadcast when he has no show on a Tuesday, starting 23rd June, and will be of varying duration, starting at 10pm UK/ 5pm Eastern Time.

KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE CALENDAR AT THE TOP OF THE BLOG PAGE FOR DETAILS!!!

(NB: could I ask people to post a response or send me a message to let me now if they would rather:

A: Have it publicised which act will feature in the live shows

B: Leave it as a nice surprise for when the show starts...

Best wishes to you all.... let's all get our air guitars out!!!!

 

 

Bestest cakes ever!!!

I know this is really simple and everyone SHOULD know how to do this, but my dear mother has always commented that "she can't make cakes like I can"... so I'm doing something right!

The majority of my cakes are based on the traditional "all in one" mix... as I describe it, "Get all your ingredients and chuck them in a bowl... then beat it into submission!!"

Equal weights are used for a basic cake mix, using:

6oz Self Raising flour
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Margarine (cut into smallish pieces)
3 large eggs.

Put all of this into a large bowl and mix with an electric food mixer, starting on a slow speed to keep the dust down. As it binds together, increse the speed which will introduce more air into the mix for a light and soft cake. 

Line the base of a 7-8" cake tin with greaseproof paper. I usually help the paper to stick down by first lightly wiping the base with the paper wrapping from a butter block. 

Pour the mixture into the tin and gently spread out to evenly cover, using a spatula. It was at this point that mother dear commented "It looks very runny... is that ok?" My answer - "you told me that I'm better at making cakes.. don't argue!!!! )

Put the cake into a pre-heated oven at 350F / 180C or gas mark 4, and cook for around 20-30 minutes.

When cooked, the cake should 'spring back" when gently touched although I prefer the option to stick a knife or skewer into the middle. When removed it should be clean and not show any cake mix sticking to it.

Turn the cake out onto a cooling rack.

When cooled, the cake can be cut through the middle (to make a top and bottom) and then filled with your choice of filling. For a victoria sponge, flip the top over. One side is covered with strawberry jam, the other with butter icing or whipped double cream. Bring the two pieces together again and lightly dust the surface of the cake with icing sugar.

Many variations can be made on this recipe, my favourite being a chocolate cake with coffee cream filling and topping

 Chocolate cake with lashings of coffee cream

For making a rich chocolate cake, substitute between 1 and 2 oz of the flour with cocoa powder.

A coffee flavoured sponge can be easily made by dissolving 2 teaspoons of instant coffee granules in THE MINIMUM amount of boiling water required to make a liquid. This should be chilled in the fridge to bring it's temperature down before adding to the sponge mix.

Another great success was my spicey fruiit cake, again an adaptation of the basic cake mix.
Add to this ground nutmeg, ground cinammon, and mixed spice, and a generous helping of mixed peel and mixed fruit. (raisins, sultanas and currents). Don't ask me exact quantities... make it up as you go along and test it with a regular dipping of the finger!!!!

Trev's chicken soup

To start the ball rolling, I've added my home made, thick chicken soup recipe, for making a hot and steamy satisfying light lunch! This was something I came up with when pottering around with alternatives to a soup recipe I tried once.. I loved the thick and creamy texture of these!!

Ingredients:
3 Chicken stock cubes
1 litre cold water
3 large potatoes
2 Chicken breast fillets
1 onion
200-250ml of single cream
White pepper, parsley and thyme

Instructions:
Pour the water into a large saucepan and add the stock cubes, heat until the cubes are dissolved.

Peel the potatoes and cut into dice sized cubes, add to the stock and bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes to cook...

slice the chicken breasts and dice the onions... and fry until cooked.

Put the chicken and onion into a liquidiser and blitz to break the chicken down into fibres. Then add the stock/potato mix and blitz again. You may need to do this in several stages or you're gonna redecorate your kitchen!

Return the mix to the saucepan on a low heat and and simmer, stirring while slowly adding the cream until you acheive the desired smooth consistency.

Add parsley, thyme and white pepper to taste. Serve and garnish with parsley

Serves 4.

Recipe page added!!!

If you have your own recipes or foodie tips you'd like to share, please feel free to drop me details and photos by email directly to "trevor.hickson@talktalk.net"

Your ideas and experiences will appear on the blog and recipes page!

Summertime begins again...

Once again, daylight savings time is upon us and the Americans didn't tell me about it until it was too late!!

Ah well... another headache to work out showtimes for you wonderful listeners!

As always, presenters on Beaten Path will be going on air at their normal time LOCAL TO THEM, which can be confusing for listeners so hopefully this is the updated schedule of shows for the coming period of chaos:

At the time of writing, the Americans have already started their summer early, (unlike two world wars when they decided to let everyone begin without them and joined in the fun later), so the current situation is:

Hairy Trev will be on air at his usual time of 10pm UK, which will now be 6pm Eastern time. Likewise, Pixie will be pirating at her usual 1pm time slot but this is now an hour later in the states at 9am Eastern. Our Argentine listener will not be effected by this. LeHoop's show when he's on air will also appear at the usual time in UK, but 1 hour later for the Americans, at 2pm Eastern time. Yitzie will also be doing a hullaballoo on 21st March at 3pm Eastern, which will be 7pm UK and 4pm in south America.

We in the UK like to check everything works elsewhere before we change our clocks (I think on March 29th) when normality will resume as follows:

Pxie and myself will of course be on air at our usual times of 1pm and 10pm respectively which will once again become the 5 hour time difference in New York, at 8am and 5pm accordingly. LeHoop's show will now appear 1 hour later for the rest of us, at 2pm EST and 7pm UK time.

I hope this all makes sense.. I have to try to work it out from scratch everytime we do this!!!

Trev!

IT'S FINISHED!!!!

Finally, after starting it far too late, I managed to finish this year's Christmas pantomime at 4:30pm this evening...

Tune in to Beaten Path Radio tonight (Boxing day, 26th December) at 5pm Eastern Time, 10pm UK time for the premier perfomance of:

THE CHATROOM PLAYERS

IN

PETER PANSY

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS TO ALL!!

On behalf of all at Beaten Path Radio, I'd like to wish all our listeners our best wishes for the festive season, and good fortune for the new year...

Thank you for your continued audience!!

Hairy Trev rocks out on Christmas eve!

In celebration of a lost friend...

In a change to the normal friday night rock show, Hairy Trev will be dedicating a large portion of his air time on Friday, to the legacy of a great friend who would have been celebrating his 60th birthday this week.

Phil Iaderosa was born, 5th November 1959, and his birthday would have been this coming Tuesday. While it would have been possible to present this tribute show on that day, it has always been a day when his devoted wife, Dawn who would be on air.

However, Phil was always remembered for his own contribution to the radio on Friday nights when he'd host his oldies show. Despite his american nationality, Phil totally adored the Beatles in particular, along with many other bands and performers from that era, and with that in mind, I shall be dusting off the oldies to play the music he loved, along with additional contributions to the show, from the friends he left behind, and I'm hoping, for a very special guest to join me on air for a very special night.

I hope you will join us with some great music and memories of a friend to us all...

HAIRY TREV'S TRIBUTE TO PHIL IADEROSA (RIP) 

FRIDAY 8TH NOVEMBER, 5PM EASTERN / 10PM UK 

The summer is over....

...And once again that means I'm faced with the headache of working out show times across the station as people change their clocks!

This would always be so much easier if everyone finished summer on the same day, but of course, in typical american style, our colleagues across the pond decide to be late joining the party... (KK- the second world war started in 1939!!!!!)😠

now with the added complication of LeHoop, from Argentina, where they don't bother with daylight saving (bloody good idea in my book!!!), it makes things more complicated!! All I can say is, thank god we don't have a DJ in Australia, as they change their clocks the opposite way!!!

Anyway.. having got the grumbles out of the way, please use this list to find out what time you can listen to your favourite shows in your area over the next 2 weeks... (And I apologise if I've got any wrong, please let me know!!!!)

24th Oct: The Le Hoop Experience:      2pm EST / 7pm UK (3pm Argentina)
25th Oct: Hairy Trev Rock Show:          5pm EST / 10pm UK (6pm Argentina)
26th Oct: Wicked Pixie After Dark:       5:30 EST / 10:30 UK (6:30 Argentina)
30th Oct: Slavenation Screamfest:     10pm EST / 2am (31st) UK  (11pm Argentina)
31st Oct: The LeHoop Experience:      2pm EST / 6pm UK (3pm Argentina)
31st Oct: Scary Trev Rock Show:        6pm EST / 10pm UK (7pm Argentina)

Then it's all back to normal again (except argentina which will be one hour out) 

7th Nov: The LeHoop Experience:   1pm EST / 6pm UK (3pm Argentina)
8th Nov: Hairy Trev Rock Show:      5pm EST / 10pm UK (7pm Argentina)

Hopefully this will help people tuine in to their fave DJ's!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

EDIT: DAYLIGHT SAVINGS...

As we in the UK change our clocks a week before america, and Argentina can't be bothered to change them at all (bloody good idea in my view!)... please not the following CORRECTED TIMES for halloween...

THE LEHOOP EXPERIENCE: 2PM EST / 6PM UK TIME (3PM ARGENTINA)
THE SCARY TREV ROCK SHOW: 6PM EST / 10PM UK  (7PM ARGENTINA)

In a seasonal change to his regular Friday Rock Show, Trev will be broadcasting on Thursday night, 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK with his special halloween show featuring a selection of topical songs for this time of year...
Expect ghost and goblins, witches and warlocks, werewolves, all included in a rocking soundtrack!

And to get you in the mood, tune in to the LeHoop Experience who will be playing his regular time of 2pm Eastern / 7pm UK and bringing his own twist to the halloween theme!