THEGAYUK

Day: 19 August 2015

  • Liam Payne “Not Homophobic” In Any “Shape or Form”

    Boy-bander Liam Payne has addressed concerns that he his homophobic after comments he made at a concert

    One Direction’s Liam Payne, has once again been forced to address concerns that he is homophobic. In a Twitter statement he said,

    “I am in no way shape or form homophobic that’s a ridicules (sic) thing to say and I’m not here to offend people so take it as you will,”

    The singer was making an introduction to the song Girl Almighty, which apparently appeared to be a little too heteronormative, seemingly suggesting that perhaps only gay men were in the audience, and sparked a fierce online debate on whether what he said was anti-gay.

    On stage he said,

    “This is my favourite song off the last album, and it is about trying to find that number one woman of your life, which none of you can relate to, ’cause most of you are girls. Except for the boys in here, you know what I’m talking about,”

    Clearly annoyed by the possibility of being called homophobic Payne went on to say in his Twitter post,

    “So annoying trying your hardest to make people happy in a show and you think about all the notes u tried to hit higher or a little sweeter

    “And all some people want to concentrate on was a throw away statement about a song that I love (sic)’

    Last year Payne was accused of homophobia after tweeting his support of the Duck Dynasty family and their “family values.”

    In September the One Director star strongly denied that a “weird” video showing two men having sex was not of him and another man.

    He said,

    ”I’m 100% not homophobic, but I’m also 100% not gay so when somebody says I am I’m gunna say I’m not which does not make me a homophobe.’

  • PRODUCT REVIEW: Ice Cream Makers

    If like us, you enjoy a scoop of something sweet in the summer sun, then here are our top two ice cream machines to help you complete your creamy cravings!

    Both machines have been picked for their simplicity and quality of ice creams they produce.

    Magimix Le Glacier – from £40 for a 1.1 ltr / £55 for a 1.5 ltr

    For around an extra £15 it’s definitely worth opting for the 1.5ltr, even then the price is still reasonable- and why wouldn’t you want more ice cream? The machine itself is extremely compact so makes great for those with limited space.

    When comparing to the other machine I’ve picked, the Le Glacier’s only downfall is having to have pre-freeze the bowl. Although you could just keep the bowl in the freezer ready for when you want to use it. This machine is marginally noisier than the Cuisinart, I would give noise level 7/10.

    Putting together the parts of the product can be a little bit fiddly to begin with, but

    the quality of ice cream the machine makes is fab and some recipes you only have to churn for 20 minutes.

    Cuisinart Gelato & Ice Cream Professional- from £200

    Probably my favourite out of the two. Requires a larger space in the kitchen as it is a bit chunky, but the reason for that is that it freezes and cools whilst churning and no pre-freezing is required, meaning it is good to go whenever you are!

    The machine is durable as I made three ice creams in one go, with the product only requiring a 10 minute cooling time after the second was made. If you wanted to do that with the other machine (Magimix), you would have had to re-freeze the bowl for each ice cream.

    Some appliances can be daunting from the point you open the box and see all the contraptions that come with it, but Cuisinart have kept this minimal and simple.

    Pretty much a plug and play product and has a timer you can set for how long you want to churn with an auto-off function.

    It comes with a cute little ice cream pail and two different paddles (one for normal ice cream and the other gelato/sorbet) and the quality is seriously superior.

  • JUICERS: Battle of the Budget Buys

    Our Food and Drinks expert Jordan Lohan takes a look at two juicers this month.

    Both of these juicers have the same amount of parts that come with the product (being seven, six of which require cleaning and are dishwasher safe).

    This also makes both machines a little fiddly when first getting to grips with what goes where. This is pretty much universal throughout other juicers out there so those points will not be considered in the comparison.

     

    Russell Hobbs- Aura Juice Extractor

    Available from £60

    Its clunky exterior means you are able to add whole fruits which reduces time preparing fruit and vegetables for juicing as opposed to the other machine.

    The manual is extremely user-friendly and comprehensive, kitted with a list of certain ingredients and how to prepare them (I found this really useful), even encouraging you to utilize the extracted pulp in composting or even to thicken soups etc. 35 recipes were included which a few had nice introductions to as to why they were included (stress busting/energizing / beautiful skin etc.)

    2 speed settings for the motor dependent on if you’re using soft / hard ingredients, and although I found this a bit annoying, it does mean you are supposed to get more out of the ingredients used.

    This was the noisier out of the two machines tested and I found that there was more pulpy bits and less juice extracted compared to the other. The cord was a good length enabling you to position freely on your worktop.

    Overall, the juices that the Russell Hobbs made came out clean and of good quality, although I felt a little “short-changed” with the amount of produce I had put into the machine.

     

    Cuisinart Compact Juicer

    Available from £70

    A lovely looking compact product perfect for smaller spaces, although the cable is extremely short meaning you’re limited to where you can place it in your kitchen if yours is gadget-laden like mine.

    A glossy manual, although wasted as no ingredient guidelines like the other product. Simple recipes just listing ingredients, although I do like their more innovative approach to using the machine with recipes for a dressing and even pineapple muffins.

    Simple on and off function with one speed setting, although this would suggest you are compromising the quality of juice extracted, and there is also more preparation involved (chopping down in size)- however out of the two, this product produced less “waste”. I had to clean the path for the pulp as it had a lot of build up throughout juicing. This was also the more difficult of the products to clean.

    Like the Russell Hobbs product, I enjoyed the juices I was able to create. Probably more so as I was aware how much less waste there was in comparison. Its good points are it’s aesthetics, size, lower noise level and less waste than the other machine tested.

    In conclusion, it would appear you’re likely to see the same traits amongst budget juicers, with various pros and cons out weighing each other making it difficult to decide on the ultimate budget juicer. If you can afford it, you want to find a juicer that uses the cold-press method and one you can make “milks” out of from nuts etc for optimum nutritional / functional use.