Tim Peake UK Space Cartoon

Staying with this weeks space theme, here is a cartoon to celebrate Tim Peake being assigned a mission to the ISS in 2015! 

Despite the futurist nature of the mission I decided to return to my root, and drew it free hand in pencil. Unfortuantly the computer doesn't like this, so it's trying to show a landscape picture in portrait, hence it's a bit squashed. I'll try and upload a better image later in the week. :)

ISS Star Wars TIE-fighter Cartoon

It's been a busy week; the ISS has had  an emergency short notice EVA, a crew change over today, and the new Star Wars film is being shot in the UK.

ISS Commercial Space Flight Cartoon

This was inspired by my trip to the European Astronaut office in the spring. The Columbus module is the heart of the ESA science programme on the ISS. If anyone has been following Commander Chris Hadfield at the moment you'll have seen the inside of the module in his pod-casts, as the CSA and ESA work together.

The photo this cartoon is based on was taken by the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis,credit to NASA :)

Ed: A couple of people have asked if this is rotoscoped- it's not,  I've drawn all of it by hand using the touch pad on my laptop and MS Paint :)

Egg-Free Yoghurt Sponge Cake

 An Egg-free cake that does not look or taste like this! Picture by Paul Kidby
PS- sorry there is no cake picture-the original was so popular it was all eaten!

Making egg-free cake can be a challenge;  more than once my egg-free cakes are closer to a Dwarfish Battle Scone in consistency than a sponge cake, however this recipe seems to work and was liked by both non-egg cake eaters and egg-cake eaters alike.

Chicken, Sweet Potato and Pepper Soup

As it's snowing today, and as it's nearly April, I thought I'd include a summery exotic soup to warm everyone up.

I used the left over bits from some chicken thighs being used in another recipe so they didn't go to waste, but left overs from a whole chicken or even chicken breast if you plan to eat the meat will also work.

Prep time: 10 min
Cooking time 40 min + over night stand to infuse the flavours ( optional)

1 handful of left over chicken bits and bobs
1/2 onion chopped
1 medium sweet potato ( or kumera) chopped
1/2 red peper (or capsicum) chopped
1 small carrot chopped
a pinch of salt and black pepper
1/2 Chicken sock cube
400ml water


1. Heat some oil in a  pan and fry off the chicken left overs ( these are the cut off bits of sinue, fatty bits, skin etc) with a little salt to flavour. Cook until golden.
2. Add in the chopped onion and pepper and cook until soft
3. Break the stock cube into the water and stir until dissolved, then add to the pan. give the pan a good stir to lift all of the flavours off the bottom of the pan.
4. Add black pepper to taste.
5. Add in chopped sweet potato and carrot in chucks about 1-2 cm thick, place a lid on the pan and turn down to a simmer.
6. Stir the pan occasional, testing if the potato and carrot are cooked, once soft remove from the heat and let the soup stand over night to improve the flavour. If you want to eat striaght away go to step 7 without waiting.
7. remove the chicken bits from the soup if you don't want to eat them. Mash the sweet potato and carrot until you have a thick, smoothish soup and reheat it slowly ( obviously if you've skipped step 6 you won't need to do this). Eat piping hot and enjoy a summery winter weather soup!

Chi-squared test Statistics Cartoon

I was in a statistics lecture this afternoon, and this occurred to me- A new  take on the Χ² test- this one is much less stressful that real statistics!

And if you feel like a brew- why not try my home-made-instant Chai Latte Recipe?

It's our FIRST BIRTHDAY! with Quick cinnamon and chilli Pan au Chocolat

Today is Cartoon Kirsty Cooks FIRST Birthday! WAHOO! So far this year we've had 3266 visitors form all over the world- which is very exciting!

How to make a Star Craft Cake is the most popular post of the year, which the almost six times as many hits as any other post- so check it out if you haven't already seen it, as the base is a jolly good cherry sponge- just right for birthdays

For our birthday recipe I thought I'd tell you about my Pan au Chocolat, unfortuantly I can't find the camera, so I can't upload a picture for you yet- oops! I like this recipe because it's really quick, and it makes a nice treat to have fresh hot pasties for breakfast :)