Focue Provides the Latest and Most Up-to-Date News, What You Focus On is What You Get.
⎯ 《 Focue • Com 》
Euro staggers as traders wary of hawkish ECB; dollar gains
Euro staggers as traders wary of hawkish ECB; dollar gains
By Rae Wee SINGAPORE The euro hit a two-week low on Tuesday as a worsening downturn in euro
2023-07-25 09:41
BBQ salad recipes without a soggy lettuce leaf in sight
BBQ salad recipes without a soggy lettuce leaf in sight
BBQs are just as much about the side dishes as they are the burgers and various grilled meats, but that doesn’t mean you’re limited to serving soggy lettuce. These Maldon Salt salad recipes deliver on everything from a fresh and vibrant orange and carrot salad with halloumi, to a light but flavour-packed pasta salad. Or get your greens in with a steak salad with broccoli, parmesan, and a chilli and herb dressing. Orange and carrot salad with grilled halloumi This orange and carrot salad, paired with barbecue grilled halloumi creates the perfect salad for any summer dinner party. Ingredients: 2 Navel oranges 2 blood oranges 2 carrots 200g halloumi cheese 2 tbsp black olives 2 sprigs of fresh mint 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil Maldon Salt 1 pinch of cumin Freshly ground black pepper Method: 1. Wash, dry and de-leaf the fresh mint. Set aside a few whole leaves and chop up the rest finely. Juice ½ a blood orange, filter out the excess bits/pips with a sieve, then season the juice with Maldon Salt and pepper. Add the olive oil, cumin and chopped mint and mix together well. Put this salad dressing in the fridge for later. 2. Cut the peel and pith away from the rest of the oranges with a very sharp knife until the pulp is completely clean. Cut each orange into segments and toss into a salad bowl. Using a vegetable peeler, finely shred the peeled carrots into the bowl, and add the olives and salad dressing together. 3. Chop the halloumi into thin slices, lightly brush with olive oil and then grill on the barbecue until golden on both sides. Serve together with the salad. Add a pinch of Maldon Salt for seasoning. Pasta salad The simple yet delicious pasta salad is easy to make, perfect for the hot summer months when craving for something light but packed full of flavour. Ingredients: 350g short pasta 150g cherry tomatoes 1 bag of mini mozzarella balls 16 black olives 8 anchovy fillets in oil 2 tbsp chopped toasted pistachios or pine nuts 16 capers ¼ medium red onion 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 4 sprigs of fresh basil with small leaves Maldon Salt Black pepper Method: 1. Wash, dry and chop the tomatoes into eighths, place them in a salad bowl and season with Maldon Salt and pepper. 2. Add the drained mozzarella balls, olives, capers and chopped onion and drizzle with olive oil. Drain the anchovies and add to the mix. Wash and dry the basil and then remove the leaves from the stem. 3. Cook the pasta al dente in plenty of salted water, according to the instructions on the packet, then drain and cool under cold running water. Once fully drained, mix the pasta in with the rest of the ingredients in the salad bowl. 4. To plate up, place the anchovies on top, sprinkle on the pistachios and basil leaves and serve at room temperature. Steak salad with purple broccoli, parmesan, and chilli and herb dressing A beautiful seared steak salad recipe paired with the best in season purple sprouting broccoli and broad beans. Ingredients: 400g sirloin steak 100ml plive oil, plus extra for frying A handful of chopped parsley A handful of chopped coriander 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped 200g purple sprouting broccoli 150g broad beans, blanched 50g wild rocket 25g aged parmesan 20g toasted pine nuts A pinch of Maldon Salt Method: 1. Preheat the oven to 180C. 2. Begin by cooking the steak. Make sure your meat is out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to cook it, so it has time to come up to room temperature. Get a frying pan or griddle pan on the heat get it to a nice high heat. Drizzle some olive oil onto your steak and season generously with Maldon salt and cracked black pepper. Once the pan is nice a hot, place the meat in and allow it to sear and sizzle on one side first. Depending on the size of your steak this can take a good 5 minutes on each side. You want good, deep caramelization on all sides of the meat. 3. While the meat is cooking place the purple sprouting broccoli onto a baking tray and drizzle over some oil and a pinch of Maldon salt. Place the tray into the oven and roast the broccoli for 10-12 minutes until tender and starting to char slightly. 4. Once the steak is cooked to your liking – we’ve served it medium rare here – remove from the pan and leave it to rest on a chopping board. The resting time is key! It helps keep all the cooking juices to stay absorbed inside before slicing. 5. While your meat rests, prepare the rest of the salad. Place the olive oil in a small bowl and mix with the chopped parsley and coriander, the diced red chilli and some Maldon salt and cracked black pepper. Set this dressing aside. 6. On a large platter scatter over the wild rocket. Next top this with the roasted broccoli and the blanched broad beans. 7. The meat will be rested now, so carefully slice at a diagonal into thin slices. Place this over the salad. Any meat juices that are left on the board can be carefully poured into the bowl with the dressing ingredients. 8. Drizzle over the dressing, shave some parmesan across the top and sprinkle over toasted pine nuts. Give the whole salad a final pinch of Maldon salt and some cracked black pepper and then serve. Recipes from Maldon Salt. Find more at maldonsalt.com/recipes-tips-blog
2023-06-13 20:02
Kylian Mbappe: PSG forward reinforces stance over summer exit
Kylian Mbappe: PSG forward reinforces stance over summer exit
Kylian Mbappe has no plans to leave Paris Saint-Germain before his contract expires. The 24-year-old has reiterated his stance to the Ligue 1 giants despite their best efforts to move him on this summer.
2023-08-10 23:30
California governor vetoes bill requiring custody courts to weigh affirmation of gender identity
California governor vetoes bill requiring custody courts to weigh affirmation of gender identity
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have required judges to consider whether a parent affirms their child’s gender identity when making custody and visitation decisions
2023-09-24 05:53
Timeline Troubles: 'The Walking Dead: Dead City' spin-off complicates franchise's apocalyptic universe
Timeline Troubles: 'The Walking Dead: Dead City' spin-off complicates franchise's apocalyptic universe
The zombie apocalypse timeline gets even more complicated with the introduction of the new spin off
2023-06-12 17:57
Burnley vs Manchester City LIVE: Premier League team news, line-ups and more tonight as John Stones out
Burnley vs Manchester City LIVE: Premier League team news, line-ups and more tonight as John Stones out
The Premier League is back! The new season gets underway tonight with newly-promoted Burnley hosting the reigning champions Manchester City at Turf Moor. It’s been two months since the conclusion of the 2022/23 season saw City defeat Inter Milan and claim a treble of trophies in the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup. Pep Guardiola will be hoping to repeat that success in this new campaign but City have been updating their squad this summer. Captain, Ilkay Gundogan, has moved to Barcelona, and Riyad Mahrez has joined Saudi Pro League club Al-Ahli. Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol have since joined up with the champions and could feature in their first league game for the club this evening. Get all the latest Premier League betting sites offers Burnley, meanwhile, are hoping to build on an outstanding season in the Championship under boss Vincent Kompany. They notched up 101 points in 46 games, scoring the most goals (87) and conceding the fewest (35) after a successful rebuild in the second tier. As Kompany prepares to face off against his old team he’ll be hoping that the Clarets bring this form and skill into the Premier League. Follow all the action as the Premier League returns with Burnley hosting Manchester City: Read More The Premier League is having an identity crisis – but one thing can save it Premier League 2023/24 predictions: Champions, top four, relegation, best signing, top scorer and more Pep Guardiola expects Man City’s standards ‘to drop’ this season
2023-08-12 02:50
Meet the former therapist making a living as a professional cuddler
Meet the former therapist making a living as a professional cuddler
A professional cuddler who makes a living giving clients hugs has said people travel from all over the globe to receive the cuddle therapy she offers which is “far less intimate than a massage” and helps people from “all walks of life”. Natasha Wicks, 44, from Coventry, West Midlands, says that despite criticism, cuddling is scientifically proven to release happy hormones like dopamine and that a lot of her clients are “the big spoon in life” and go to her for emotional support that they do not have at home. As such, many of her clients are caregivers and most of them join Natasha for two-hour hugging sessions, costing £70 an hour. The sessions vary depending on what the client wants, some having “emotional hugs”, others talking more and some wanting to “sit at opposite ends of the sofa with our legs and feet entwined”. Natasha became a cuddle therapist in 2015 and, while she has had comments online from people criticising the practice, she said that her family and friends were unsurprised when she first started giving professional cuddles. She said: “They all said to me that I give the best cuddles so it’s not surprising that I’d start doing it as a job. “It’s very much what I do, I help people and want to make people feel better. It’s a natural thing when someone is going through a tough time to want to give them a hug. “Cuddle therapy might not be as widely accepted in society but it’s far less intimate than other things like massages which are seen as normal.” Prior to becoming a cuddler, Natasha originally trained as a CBT therapist and counsellor. She said: “There’d be situations where I would be talking to someone and they’d really need a hug, but obviously, you’d have professional boundaries in place and it wouldn’t have been appropriate. “It was just a really natural thing. One client had finished her final session and we had agreed that she wasn’t my patient anymore so we hugged goodbye. She said to me that she’d wanted to do that for a long time and I thought ‘me too’.” Looking into cuddle therapy, which she said was increasing in popularity in 2014, Natasha took a training course. By 2015, she was a qualified cuddler and started taking on new patients for cuddle sessions. Natasha provides a minimum session of one hour but said most people go for at least two hours, sometimes longer if they are receiving more than one type of therapy. She said: “I always give people a hug on the doorstep when they arrive and then they’ll come in and relax, and we’ll have an initial chat about what brings them here. After that, I’ll put on some ambient music and we’ll have a cuddle on my cuddle sofa. “It can be daunting coming into a stranger’s house and I can tell the difference in them from arriving to leaving. The first hug they might be angled away from me but when we’re hugging goodbye, I can get my head in between their neck and shoulders and you can almost feel that a weight has been lifted from them.” There is not one type of person that visits Natasha for cuddles, but she says that a lot of her clients are caregivers. She said: “There’s all sorts of people who come for a cuddle, from people who have moved away from home for the first time and just want a mum hug all the way to people in their 80s. “I’m inclusive of all genders and all ages. I get a lot of clients who are the carers of their family and they are so busy looking after other people, and probably giving the hugs and support to other people, that they don’t have that for themselves. “A lot of people that come to see me are generally people are the big spoon in the life – they take care of others and don’t want to show a vulnerable side to people because they don’t want people to worry that they can’t cope. “I get a lot of carers, a lot of NHS staff, a lot of mums, a lot of people that are in a world where they have to be the strong one in the situation and they just want to be able to come here and let their guard down.” Natasha’s priority is to make people feel at ease when they arrive as she said it can be “nerve wracking” turning up at someone’s house for a hug. Setting out clear boundaries prior to meeting, the therapist has said that the patients she has welcomed into her home have all been respectful. She added: “I always say to people that when your body relaxes, your tummy might crumble and mine might too, but that people don’t need to worry about it. Sometimes people fall asleep and they might snore or fart, it’s just natural things that happen. It’s happened twice where someone has got an erection and that’s fine, I have boundaries and we’ll just change position. “I want people to feel reassured that, as soon as they get in, they feel comfortable.” Despite the unconventional therapy, when Natasha first took on cuddle clients, she said her family were completely “unsurprised” and the step from CBT therapy to cuddle therapy was a “natural evolution”. While Natasha focuses her time on a holistic approach for treating people, she noted that there is also neuroscience behind cuddles. According to the 44-year-old, physical touch activates the brain’s orbitofrontal cortex and cuddling releases oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin. Now, Natasha also does EMDR therapy and is a mental health swim host, and has clients travel from all over the globe to receive her hugs. She said: “Working from Coventry is brilliant because I’m only nine minutes on the train from Birmingham Airport and people come to visit me from all over. I get a client from Belgium, someone from Ireland and people from all over the UK who come to see me. “I wanted to find a sofa bed that just looked like a big comfy sofa for cuddle sessions. I’d started off with a big L shaped sofa but after about five years, it was sagging a bit, there’d been a lot of healing done on that sofa and it was time for a new one. “Now I have a sofa bed in my living room that I use as my cuddle sofa. It’s in the living room and it’s used for everyday life, watching TV with my partner, having people round and also for my work.” Breaking down the taboo around cuddle therapy, Natasha hopes more people will embrace the alternative treatment. She added: “As it’s become more popular, more people are becoming qualified as cuddlers and I think that’s great. “I’ve had comments online before of people thinking it’s weird or not understanding but there are other things we accept in society that are much more intimate than cuddles, like massages. “It’s not weird, it’s actually a really lovely thing to be able to make another soul feel better for a while.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live What is ‘beer tanning’ and why are experts warning against it? Christian Cowan: Designing is like dreaming Deborah James’s daughter launches anniversary clothing line for Bowelbabe Fund
2023-07-26 21:06
Terran Orbital to Present at Emerging Growth Conference 58
Terran Orbital to Present at Emerging Growth Conference 58 "Space Symposium" Exploring the Future of Space & Satellite
BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 2, 2023--
2023-06-03 03:15
Chris Hemsworth hammers home another rescue mission in 'Extraction 2'
Chris Hemsworth hammers home another rescue mission in 'Extraction 2'
Premiering in April 2020, "Extraction" landed at a fortuitous time, showcasing "Thor's" Chris Hemsworth in a muscular, theatrical-style action vehicle on Netflix at a moment when Covid brought theaters to a grinding halt. The sequel, "Extraction 2," hammers away at the same basic outline, while feeling particularly simple minded even by the standards of the genre.
2023-06-16 21:30
Joe Burrow reveals why he played through pain for Bengals MNF victory
Joe Burrow reveals why he played through pain for Bengals MNF victory
Joe Burrow suited up for the Cincinnati Bengals' Monday night game despite battling a calf injury. He explained why to reporters.
2023-09-27 02:56
McDaniels says Jacobs likely will have the same role if he returns to the Raiders
McDaniels says Jacobs likely will have the same role if he returns to the Raiders
Josh Jacobs’ absence in training camp has created opportunities for the Las Vegas Raiders’ other running backs to show they should be a major part of the rotation this season
2023-08-04 05:50
Suryakumar Yadav leads India to a 7-wicket win in the 3rd T20 against the West Indies
Suryakumar Yadav leads India to a 7-wicket win in the 3rd T20 against the West Indies
Suryakumar Yadav hit a 44-ball 83 after both India openers were out early to pace the visitors to a seven-wicket win over the West Indies in the third Twenty20 match
2023-08-09 05:59