Book ratings
I now plan to adopt this system of book ratings - it seems pretty comprehensive.
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reviews
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
This was a film I knew of for many years, and was in fact the immediate association I made whenever anyone mentioned Virginia Woolf herself. However, I only watched it for the first time quite recently.
I thought it was fantastic - at the very least, it finally explained my father's use of the phrase "Shall we play Get The Guest?" and a friend's use of "where do you keep the euphemism?" [f you are confused - watch the film!] - but the story itself was driven, intense and absorbing. Elizabeth Taylor was brilliant and Richard Burton is close to becoming one of my great cinematic loves (after Peter O'Toole, Jimmy Stewart and Fred Astaire, naturally).
However - am I the only person who would like to be in a George&Martha-esque relationship?
I mean, I know they are god-awful and nasty to each other, but I think they do genuinely love each other. In my opinion, it would be better to be in a relationship where you loved the other person and fought until it made you sick, than to be in one where you felt nothing much at all.
Maybe it's just me...
I thought it was fantastic - at the very least, it finally explained my father's use of the phrase "Shall we play Get The Guest?" and a friend's use of "where do you keep the euphemism?" [f you are confused - watch the film!] - but the story itself was driven, intense and absorbing. Elizabeth Taylor was brilliant and Richard Burton is close to becoming one of my great cinematic loves (after Peter O'Toole, Jimmy Stewart and Fred Astaire, naturally).
However - am I the only person who would like to be in a George&Martha-esque relationship?
I mean, I know they are god-awful and nasty to each other, but I think they do genuinely love each other. In my opinion, it would be better to be in a relationship where you loved the other person and fought until it made you sick, than to be in one where you felt nothing much at all.
Maybe it's just me...
Kiwi Muffins!
Yes, it's Teddy Tahu Rhodes!
(Though the photo I really wanted to use was the one from Opera Australia's production of Don Giovanni - the one involving black leather underwear. You can see that photo here. The drooling going on from all the women - and probably a good number of the men - in the audience was almost palpable.)
But this is in fact a Bad Pun brought on by people's insistence of referring to kiwifruit as kiwis. This is wrong: kiwis are either small flightless birds from New Zealand, or the small flightless New Zealanders themselves. Trust me, I'm a Sydneysider - we know these things :)
Bad Puns aside, my main point is in fact kiwifruit muffins. Thus:
This is the sort of muffin that will probably work with any kind of fruit - I just happened to have a couple of kiwifruit that were threatening to go off if I didn't do something with them soon, and I remembered I'd found this recipe. Thus, kiwifruit muffins, with non-blurry photo (the bananas in said photo are mostly there to block out my housemate's laptop):
(Though the photo I really wanted to use was the one from Opera Australia's production of Don Giovanni - the one involving black leather underwear. You can see that photo here. The drooling going on from all the women - and probably a good number of the men - in the audience was almost palpable.)
But this is in fact a Bad Pun brought on by people's insistence of referring to kiwifruit as kiwis. This is wrong: kiwis are either small flightless birds from New Zealand, or the small flightless New Zealanders themselves. Trust me, I'm a Sydneysider - we know these things :)
Bad Puns aside, my main point is in fact kiwifruit muffins. Thus:
This is the sort of muffin that will probably work with any kind of fruit - I just happened to have a couple of kiwifruit that were threatening to go off if I didn't do something with them soon, and I remembered I'd found this recipe. Thus, kiwifruit muffins, with non-blurry photo (the bananas in said photo are mostly there to block out my housemate's laptop):
KIWIFRUIT MUFFINS
Ingredients
185g self-raising flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
80g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
2 kiwifruits, peeled and diced
pinch of salt
Method
1) Preheat oven to 200°C
2) Grease a six hole muffin tin (or be lazy like me and get a silicone one....)
3) Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
4) Combine butter, egg and milk and then stir into flour mixture
5) Fold kiwifruit into mixture.
6) Spoon mixture into the muffin tin
7) Bake for 20 min, or until golden
8) Cool in tins for 5 min and then on a wire rack
Preparation time: 15 min
Cooking time: 20 min
Serves: makes 6 muffins
Source: Lynne Mullins, Cuisine.com.au, http://www.cuisine.com.au/recipe/Kiwifruit-muffins, 16/10/07
Ingredients
185g self-raising flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
80g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
2 kiwifruits, peeled and diced
pinch of salt
Method
1) Preheat oven to 200°C
2) Grease a six hole muffin tin (or be lazy like me and get a silicone one....)
3) Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
4) Combine butter, egg and milk and then stir into flour mixture
5) Fold kiwifruit into mixture.
6) Spoon mixture into the muffin tin
7) Bake for 20 min, or until golden
8) Cool in tins for 5 min and then on a wire rack
Preparation time: 15 min
Cooking time: 20 min
Serves: makes 6 muffins
Source: Lynne Mullins, Cuisine.com.au, http://www.cuisine.com.au/recipe/Kiwifruit-muffins, 16/10/07
Labels:
cooking,
photography
Banananana bread (with added raspberry!)
The Netherlands only has one Starbucks at the moment, which may go some way towards explaining why the Dutch seem to be ignorant of the concept of banana bread. I was surprised by this - given how popular it is in Australia as the addition to one's morning coffee - and so I made some yesterday, taking it to work today to try and convert the natives.
No photo, but recipe follows:
BANANA BREAD WITH RASPBERRIES
Ingredients
150g butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 bananas, mashed
2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup milk
½ cup frozen raspberries
Method
1) Preheat oven to 180°C
2) Grease and line a loaf-shaped cake tin
3) Cream butter and sugar
4) Gradually add in eggs
5) Add banana, flour and baking powder, milk and stir
6) Carefully add raspberries
7) Pour into pan and smooth surface
8) Bake for 45-55 min
9) Cool in pan for 10 min before removing to a wire rack to cool completely
Preparation time: 15 min
Cooking time: 55 min
Serves: one shop’s worth of staff
Source: Kim Meredith, Taste.com.au, http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/365/banana+and+raspberry+bread, 16/12/07
Additional notes
Add the raspberries to taste, however be careful as too many will distort the structural integrity of the loaf (i.e. it will fall apart when you try to slice it...) The recipe I cribbed from said you could use fresh raspberries, however that to me is the worst kind of food sacrilege - my reaction here mirrors Gollum's reaction to the idea of spoiling the nice fisheses by frying them! Disgusting!
No photo, but recipe follows:
BANANA BREAD WITH RASPBERRIES
Ingredients
150g butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 bananas, mashed
2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup milk
½ cup frozen raspberries
Method
1) Preheat oven to 180°C
2) Grease and line a loaf-shaped cake tin
3) Cream butter and sugar
4) Gradually add in eggs
5) Add banana, flour and baking powder, milk and stir
6) Carefully add raspberries
7) Pour into pan and smooth surface
8) Bake for 45-55 min
9) Cool in pan for 10 min before removing to a wire rack to cool completely
Preparation time: 15 min
Cooking time: 55 min
Serves: one shop’s worth of staff
Source: Kim Meredith, Taste.com.au, http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/365/banana+and+raspberry+bread, 16/12/07
Additional notes
Add the raspberries to taste, however be careful as too many will distort the structural integrity of the loaf (i.e. it will fall apart when you try to slice it...) The recipe I cribbed from said you could use fresh raspberries, however that to me is the worst kind of food sacrilege - my reaction here mirrors Gollum's reaction to the idea of spoiling the nice fisheses by frying them! Disgusting!
Labels:
cooking
Eliza's Daughter
Eliza's Daughter
by Joan Aiken
A sequel to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, Eliza's Daughter takes up the story of the illegitimate daughter of Colonel Brandon's ward Eliza and that dastardly cad Mr Willoughby. In keeping with the we-only-have-10-female-names standards of the times, Eliza's daughter is also named Eliza, as was Eliza's mother - something which does cause a little genealogical confusion later in the book as bloodlines start to be explained.
I tended to side with an Amazon customer reviewer who complained that it would have been a good book if Aiken had not used Sense and Sensibility as a base and just come up with her own characters. Now, much to my chagrin, I have not read the book; however, I have seen the 1994 film and thus have a basic familiarity with the characters. Much to my dismay, those who are not killed off during the course of Eliza's Daughter would be unrecognisable, were it not for their names. Marianne Dashwood is a spiteful and shrewish woman, Margaret has become foolish and quite pathetic, and a subdued Elinor is controlled by the now bitter and vindictive Edward.
The plot is quite entertaining, but suffers from continual changes of location and a high companion character turnover-rate. Many characters are introduced and then summarily killed off a few chapters later for no apparent reason. One notable example involves a character who has served no real plot purpose before her abrupt disappearance from the tale, who then returns some chapters later - still without the contribution of any plot points.
Character assassinations aside, overall the story is carried along by the independent and engaging heroine and is an entertaining read.
by Joan Aiken
A sequel to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, Eliza's Daughter takes up the story of the illegitimate daughter of Colonel Brandon's ward Eliza and that dastardly cad Mr Willoughby. In keeping with the we-only-have-10-female-names standards of the times, Eliza's daughter is also named Eliza, as was Eliza's mother - something which does cause a little genealogical confusion later in the book as bloodlines start to be explained.
I tended to side with an Amazon customer reviewer who complained that it would have been a good book if Aiken had not used Sense and Sensibility as a base and just come up with her own characters. Now, much to my chagrin, I have not read the book; however, I have seen the 1994 film and thus have a basic familiarity with the characters. Much to my dismay, those who are not killed off during the course of Eliza's Daughter would be unrecognisable, were it not for their names. Marianne Dashwood is a spiteful and shrewish woman, Margaret has become foolish and quite pathetic, and a subdued Elinor is controlled by the now bitter and vindictive Edward.
The plot is quite entertaining, but suffers from continual changes of location and a high companion character turnover-rate. Many characters are introduced and then summarily killed off a few chapters later for no apparent reason. One notable example involves a character who has served no real plot purpose before her abrupt disappearance from the tale, who then returns some chapters later - still without the contribution of any plot points.
Character assassinations aside, overall the story is carried along by the independent and engaging heroine and is an entertaining read.
Labels:
books,
period drama,
reviews
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