Vierentwintig Mereltjes

(aka Beef, mushroom and red wine pie)

(and no, it wasn't supposed to be burnt around the edges)
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Leftover milk and apples = pancakes!

While hunting for a recipe to use up 3/4L of milk that is about to pass its use-by date, I came across this recipe. It doesn't use much milk, so it didn't entirely suit my purposes, but it was very tasty (and I got to use some of my left-over apples instead!)


GRATED APPLE PANCAKES

Ingredients
½ cup self-raising flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg, whisked
1/3 cup milk
2 apples, peeled and grated

Method
1) Combine flour, sugar and cinnamon
2) Add egg and milk. Whisk until smooth.
3) Stir in apples.
4) Heat a non-stick pan over low heat. Cook batter in small pancakes (about 10-15cm diameter)
5) Cook for about 2 min on each side.

Preparation time: 10 min
Cooking time: 10 min
Serves: makes about 6-8 small pancakes

Source: Claire Brookman and Jenny Fanshaw, Taste.com.au, http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/17045/apple+pancakes, 12/12/07

Random photography (1)

The view from the Cahill Expressway
Barry
Lots of Spanish roses

Apple pie


And look - pie!

But that's another story....
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Polenta pie

This took quite a long time to make, but I didn't try cooking the polenta and the sauce at the same time (which would have cut a good 15 min off the whole time) But other than the time-consuming nature of this meal, it was very filling and was nice cold the next day. Which, I might add, was when the photo was taken, hence the pretty layering going on - when it was still hot, the sauce tended to run somewhat.

I might also add that the really odd measurements are a result of my halving a recipe that had been converted from Imperial measurements. It made way more numerical sense in oz.


POLENTA PIE

Ingredients
113g polenta
450mL water
200g mushrooms, finely sliced
15g parmesan cheese
salt

Béchamel sauce:
20-30g butter
1tbsp plain flour
375mL warmed milk
20g grated cheese

Method
1) Preheat oven to 220°C
2) Boil polenta in salted water.
3) Let cook slowly for 20 min, stirring frequently.
4) Turn cooked polenta out onto a plate and let cool.
5) Meanwhile, melt butter in saucepan on medium heat until foaming.
6) Add flour and cook (stirring) for 1-2 min or until bubbling.
7) Remove from heat and slowly add milk, while whisking.
8) Return to heat and cook (stirring) for 10-12 min.
9) Remove from heat and stir in grated cheese.
10) Also meanwhile, cook mushrooms in some butter for 3-4 min.
11) Grease an oven-proof tin and layer polenta – béchamel sauce – mushrooms. Repeat, finishing with the béchamel layer and then sprinkle with parmesan.
12) Bake in oven for 30 min.

Additional options
Suggestion: grease polenta pot with butter first, to prevent sticking. (I had to spend a good 10min cleaning the polenta pot afterwards...)

Preparation time: 40 min
Cooking time: 30 min
Serves: 4 people

Source for polenta pie: Elizabeth David, BBC Food, http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/print/polentapie_5283.shtml, 02/12/07
Source for béchamel sauce: Annette Forrest, Taste.com.au, http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9918/basic+bechamel+sauce, 02/12/07

Fanfic recs - List no. 2

An addition to my ongoing collection of decent fanfic (I tried but just couldn't bring myself to use the word "good" there), enjoy this humorous offering:

The Adventures of Icarus, the Invisible Poltergeist
by After the Rain
Author Summary: In which Mr. Prongs takes Muggle Studies, Mr. Padfoot has a crush on Professor McGonagall, Miss Evans demonstrates where her son inherited his CAPS LOCK tendencies, Mr. Wormtail discovers that his Animagus form is useful for petty theft, and Mr. Moony explains why none of this can possibly be construed as his fault.

And, in honour of my current Mary Russell-fueled Sherlock Holmes kick, this one too:

Sherlock Holmes and the Ravenclaw Codex
by Dolorous Ett
My Summary: Well, it's a Holmes and Potter crossover, told in pure Watson style. Currently WIP, but she's only got two chapters to go, so I'm feeling confident of one day reading the ending!

Inventive casserole

I made up a whole new and exciting dish the other day: Inventive Vegetable Casserole. It was originally going to involve chicken, but I ran out of space in my oven dish, so it became vegetarian by necessity.

I took an oven bowl and tipped in a can of tomatoes. Then I added 4 potatoes, 2 carrots & 6 mushrooms, all cut into smallish pieces. Next came various herbs and spices, namely oregano, rosemary, Italian herb mix and black pepper. This was all topped off by a very large glass of red wine, then stirred and put in the oven at 180°C for about 1 3/4 hours.

And it ended up alright - even though the red wine was quite a dominant flavour!

For next time, the vegetables need to be in smaller chunks and I think cooking it for longer at a lower heat might be a good idea.

[And it might have been nice with some lamb, but they don't sell it in the supermarkets here - *sigh*]

I am an antisocial bookworm - and I'm proud of it!

I have now read 113 books since February 26th this year.

This works out to be one book every two days - without even including all the dodgy fanfic...

...thus illustrating yet again that I truly have no social life...

...but I'm OK with that :)

Cake of Infinite Variety

For years I saw cookery as being a difficult thing in which one had to follow a recipe with pinpoint accuracy or else the dish would go up in smoke and taste like rubbish. However, I've been learning to cook recently (a side effect of moving out of home and into a share house in a foreign country) and have had my perceptions of the whole thing substantially altered. This means I have come up with a new Philosophy of Cooking. Cooking: a process in which you take a whole lot of raw ingredients that you like the taste of, mix them all together, and come up with something that tastes as good, or better. This was the principle by which I discovered the joys of Mustard Chicken Schnitzel.

Anyway, I've been cooking a lot recently, and have resorted to the internet to find easy recipes involving only the ingredients I have in my cupboard. The following was one of the better discoveries.

VARIABLE CAKE with EXTRA EXCITING INGREDIENT

Ingredients
½ cup butter (which is silly, because you can't measure butter in a cup - just approximate instead)
½ cup sugar (the original recipe calls for 1 cup, but even I found that excessively sweet)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1¼ cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Extra exciting ingredient(s)

Method
1) Preheat oven to 180°C
2) Grease and line 20cm cake tin
3) Cream butter and sugar
4) Mix in eggs and vanilla
5) Mix in flour and baking powder
6) Add extra exciting ingredient! Things I have tried include: diced melon, sultanas, diced canned peaches and combinations thereof. Make sure to add more flour if the extra ingredient is wet and makes the batter drippy. Apparently you can also try using 3 tbsp cocoa, but I haven't tried that one yet (cocoa not being in my cupboard, you see...)
6) Bake for approximately 40 min (the original recipe said 25 min, but my cake was still runny in the middle after that time - I suspect that had something to do with my butter and sugar not being properly creamed)
7) Remove from oven, cool and eat

Preparation time: 15 min
Cooking time: 40 min
Serves: makes one medium sized cake

[Source of original recipe: Cooks.com, 12/9/07]

Image manipulation

I have been playing around with free image software (specifically GIMP) and have ended up with a photo of myself with a "Cubist" filter. But I thought it looked cool...

Other people's poetry:

Anthem for Doomed Youth
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
     Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
     Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,
     Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
     And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
     Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
     The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of silent maids,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Hope
Spike Milligan (1918–2002)

Just when I had made my today
Secure with safe yesterdays
I see tomorrow coming with its pale
     glass star called hope.
It shatters on impact
And falls like splinters of cruel rain
And I see the red oil of life
     running from my wrists
     onto tomorrow's headlines.

First they came...

Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.

Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.

Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.

Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.

attrib. Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

[When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.]

Fanfic recs - list no. 1

Games of Skill And Chance
by Snowballjane
Author Summary: The war is over and Severus Snape has one more term left to work at Hogwarts. How does he end up running the school games club and how will it affect him?

Furious Wielder of Storms
by Pavonis
Author Summary: Colin and Luna go for a walk in the Forbidden Forest, and make a discovery that changes their lives. People who think Grawp is just a waste of space - think again. Also contains Ancient Runes, Cho Chang being disinterestedly kind and the advantages of a classical education.

The Hall of Heroes
by Pavonis
Author Summary: In which Severus Snape finally gets his just deserts - or does he? Contains mistaken identity, Giants, horned helmets, mead, the Ballad of Severus the Small and His Tiny, Tiny Stick and the final fate of all good Death Eaters.

Marks And Scars
by E. H. Smith
Author Summary: In which two of the most intriguing characters from the works of J.K. Rowling and Lois McMaster Bujold meet for tea and, eventually, sympathy. A meeting between these characters is certainly something their respective authors would never have anticipated, but their worlds turn out to be oddly congruent. Takes place during the spring of Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts (not that Harry figures in this story in any but the most peripheral way) and, from the Bujoldian point of view, during KOMARR.

Ordinary People

by Hayseed
Author Summary: How do ordinary people cope with their extraordinary circumstances? A SS/HG romance that strives for realism. For everyone that is tired of SuddenlyBeautiful!Hermione and SexGod!Severus...

Dastardly Schemes and Drastic Measures
by Hayseed
Author Summary: Hermione Granger and Severus Snape have been partners for years. When Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter decide that their friends are Made For Each Other, nothing good can come of it. Or can it? An unplanned trilogy certainly has. WARNING -- As fluffy as a one-eyed baby turkey.

Darkness and Light
by R.J. Anderson
Author Summary: A young blind woman comes to Hogwarts on a secret mission, only to find herself allied with the one man she has been warned not to trust -- Severus Snape.

A Deeper Season and What Passing Bells
by E.E. Beck and Sahiya
Author Summary: Take one Miles, a hapless cousin, Cetagandan social politics, a galactic conspiracy, a scientific discovery, a lot of firepower, and an unexpected declaration. Mix well and step back quickly. Canon note: This is an AU, if events had zigged rather than zagged. It begins directly post Memory, though for reasons of convenience and, well, the airy possibilities of fanfiction, Laisa never happened. The rest will unfold as it unfolds.

Bicycles (and why we love them)

From 30th April 2007. And not finished. But posted for everyone's edification :)

Understand that I know nothing about bicycles or cycling - until two months ago, I hadn't ridden a bike since I was 15 and hadn't owned one since I was about 10. So if I sound at all patronising, it's because I'm writing for my own level of understanding here...don't be offended...

1. If you are on a bike in Amsterdam, the only thing that outranks you on the road is a tram. Cars get in big trouble if they hit you, and pedestrians shouldn't be walking on the road anyway. This having been said, make sure you keep an eye out for cars, because it will hurt if they hit you.

2. Things to be careful of while riding:
  • Tram tracks: make sure you don't ride along them, because your wheel may get stuck and you will fall off. Cross them perpendicularly and you'll be fine.
  • Ice on the roads: be aware that if you swerve abruptly, you will skid and fall over. The same applies for any loose material (sand, gravel, leaves, melting snow, etc.)
  • Tourists: if you are riding in Amsterdam, there will be tourists and they will be walking on the bike paths (especially along the Damrak) - this is why you have a bell. Or if you don't have a bell, a sharp yell will work. Mostly people will get out of your way - occasionally you will have to stop for them when they don't.
  • Shoelaces, trousers and skirts: are likely to get caught in the bike chain (or in the case of shoelaces, twisted around the pedal - that happened to me and was *not* pleasant) You can get trouser clips, or you can just keep an eye out for it.
3. Tyres: as far as I gather, if the tyre isn't firm when you press it with your thumb, it needs air. There's a free automatic tyre pump at the MacBike place at the Waterlooplein in Amsterdam. The only hard part about using the machine is working out which side puts air in and which lets it out. (I think the side that doesn't make a whooshing noise puts air in...)

4. Buying a bike: bikes are expensive - cheap ones seem to average around €150. Anything that's €50-€100 is probably stolen. Anything under €50 is definitely stolen. (And if you have €700, you can get a nifty one with a wagon in the front!)

5. Locking your bike: bike theft is rampant in Amsterdam. You will need two locks with your bike.
  • back lock: this is a nifty horseshoe shaped lock that puts a metal bar in between the spokes of your back wheel. The keys can't be removed unless it is locked (so don't unlock it first when you come back to your bike)
  • massive chain lock: this is the lock you use to chain your bike's front wheel and frame to some immovable object (bike racks, lampposts, canal railings, etc.) Some of the chain locks have a trick to them... it was like a puzzle, I felt so good about myself when I worked it out!
  • If you see a sign saying "Geen fietsen plaatsen" or "Fietsen worden verwijderd" or anything along those lines, don't park your bike there.
6. A useful page of advice: How not to get hit by a bike

Entertainment

Since last writing I have spent large amounts of money on tickets to various European entertainment venues - the Munich Opera House (Billy Budd - Benjamin Britten); the Spanish Riding School in Vienna (pretty white horses); and the Musikverein (LSO with Colin Davis playing Dvorak 6 and Beethoven 2)


My ticket for the LSO is a 6 euro standing room ticket - I probably won't be able to see or hear anything. However, on the grounds that, having just arrived in Vienna after a 24 hour plane journey, I will probably fall asleep if I sit down for any long period of time, it seemed like a wiser investment than 41 euros for an actual seat...

Other than spending lots of money on concert tickets (I have also been tempted by the possibility of Ute Lemper in Amsterdam in April, Janacek's From the House of the Dead, Adam's Dr. Atomic, Bach's St. Matthew Passion and the North Sea Jazz Festival - unfortunately I missed the 2006 International Jew's Harp Festival) I have been looking to buy long sleeved shirts in the middle of a Sydney summer. Ergo, I have not been having much luck - I am severely tempted just to turn up in Europe with 4 shirts and buy some more when I get there.

Alban Berg!

I bought a ticket to go see the Alban Berg Quartet in Munich! (Apparently they're going to post me the tickets - all the way from Munich to Sydney...)

I'm still deciding whether to get a ticket to see the Lippizaners at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.

The really annoying thing that happened when I was looking on the internet to see what was on in Munich and Vienna at an appropriate time was that the Munich Philharmonic are playing Zarathustra - the day before I get there!!! (I could have cried...)