No.20

Warm days, golden afternoons, pink mountain dusk, earthy smells mixing with the cool night air. Autumn. The changing of the seasons always fills me with nostalgia and far distant memories. It feels as though I'm tapping into some collective consciousness that is right now and long gone. Fionn Regan's latest album "100 Acres of Sycamore" seems like the right kind of music to listen when I feel the pull of natural cycles. His voice is so gentle and there is something circular about the music and I'm always a sucker for off-beat romantic lyrics.

A friend suggested I mention what I am reading and while I would love to discuss something intellectual, I have fallen victim to George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice" series. It is so escapist and captivating. His characters are detailed and real, the story is complex and the social commentary totally relevant in spite of the fantasy setting. When I look around me and see the big egos most people use to approach life, and how unhappy most of them are, I wonder whether they ever think about finding themselves. Not the self based on acquisitions, others' opinions and external elements. The fearless, self-reliant, open-hearted self. Maybe they just don't care and are happy in their unhappiness.

Here is a very unhealthy cool weather pudding recipe! Sticky Toffee Apple Pudding. Pudding: 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup softened butter, 2 eggs beaten, 4 cups granny smith apples peeled and finely chopped, 2 cups stone ground multi-purpose flour, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tsps cream of tartar, 1/2 tsp salt. Sauce: 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 Tbsp flour, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup of cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract. Pudding: Cream butter and sugar for 5 mins with an electric beater in a large bowl. Add eggs and beat on low until mixed. Add apples and mix with a spoon. Mix dry ingredients together and add to apple mixture in 3 batches mixing well. Pour into a greased 20x20cm baking dish/pudding basin (not too shallow). Bake at 170 degrees celsius for 50-60mins (or until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean). Sauce: Mix sugar and flour in saucepan. Add rest of ingredients and bring to a slow boil. Boil 2 mins stirring continuously. Pour over hot pudding. Serve with custard/cream/ice-cream. Yum.

nenenenenineteen

It's a cool-ish and sunny summer afternoon and today I start regular blogging, again. The Low Anthem - "Oh My God, Charlie Darwin" is an album I wanted to hear for a while and finally got last year. "If your pilot light should die, do not quake and do not bark, you will find the spark". Their old world hypnotic melancholy seeps into my very pores. Good music always feels like it becomes part of me...I'm never sure whether I capture it, or it me.

I could talk about the state of the world, but I don't feel like it today. Music is far more interesting. It has defined so much of my life. I remember being swept away by "Don't cry for me Argentina" aged 5 years; lying on my ouma's persian rug listening to my grandfather's Rat Pack records; our whole family cleaning the kitchen after Sunday lunch blasting The Rolling Stones - "Hot Rocks"/ Fleetwood Mac - "Rumours"/ Pink Floyd - "Dark side of the moon" or "Wish you were here" and many, many others. Broken hearts and bruised egos were either painfully prolonged with sad songs or randomly jettisoned with soaring feelgood stuff. There was a mixed tape for everything, EVERYTHING. Road trips, parties, getting ready for parties, boyfriends, girlfriends, despair, dancing. I have vivid memories of hearing songs for the first time and how they affected me. What is it about music that reaches so deep inside us, it becomes embedded? Hearing one chord and knowing exactly what song it is. It can make the world outside drop away, take you up to the stars, make you feel teenage-giddy, pull you into its crashing wave, transport you back in time, change your life. Like most art forms it bypasses the barriers and speaks directly to your soul. Anything that bypasses those wary walls is important; essential for happiness. It's a primal yet progressive force that makes my world much shinier...

Here's a recipe for my favourite soup...Creamy Mushroom. 2-3 med leeks sliced, 1 punnet white button mushrooms roughly chopped, 1 punnet portabellini mushrooms roughly chopped, 1 big clove garlic finely chopped, 1 litre vegetable stock, 1/2 cup cream cheese. Put a splash of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter into a heavy-based saucepan over a med heat and add leeks once warm. Fry gently until soft. Add mushrooms, increase heat slightly. Add a little more butter and the garlic. Stir until everything has softened a little, then add stock. Bring to a slow boil. Turn heat down and allow to simmer for about 15 mins. Add the cream cheese and stir through. Remove from the heat and blitz with a stick blender until smooth and creamy. Return to heat and add as much salt and black pepper as you like. Garnish with a little spoon of cream cheese and some black pepper. Serve with bread of your choice (seed loaf seems to work well). Enjoy!