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!

The last of the teens

It's coincidental, but the chronological order of this blog is just right for me dealing with the footage I chose to watch of Japan on Friday. Band of Horses is adding their disjointed, connected commentary tonight with "the hell I saw, the hell I saw" on "Cease to Begin". Truthmongers of great talent. I'm not dragging them into it, but their considerate, real-life lyrics and music give me goosebumps, and while I can't be anything but grown-up since I saw nature sway and swirl all over our human fixedness, they just help with emotional perspective.

Watch 3 minutes of towns being swept into the interior and tell me that 'It's because of the whales and dolphins'. Why do we need to deal with fathomless tragedy using puzzlingly apportioned blame? Judging karmic intervention using christian-based western standards is as prescient as placing all your happiness eggs in a shiny materialistic basket. We are minutiae; transient life forms in an ancient galaxy too big for our minds to comprehend and yet important enough in our lifetime to somehow contribute. It's about pulling together as a race, not a religious/political/wealth/geographical group. It's not as hard as it seems. Who are you and what do you really want? I mean 'really' in it's widest possible sense . Open your mind and then make it yawn. Inhale the fresh air and exhale the stale thoughts. Love with an open heart and mind.

No food tonight, but end a meal with a few pieces of dark chocolate and some smooth red wine... and tell the people you love that you love them. I'm a susceptible survivor....

No.17

What a beautiful evening, almost full moon, inky indigo sky and just a few steam-train clouds puffing in it's luminescent wake. And Beirut's "The Flying Club Cup" doing its crazy, circular, sad-happy, political, personal, gypsy, arms-outstretched, inspirational thing. This music is so hard to describe yet so tangible. I almost want to say revolutionary, but that seems like an albatross around the neck of an unrestrained man-child... Precipitous beauty.

Untold beauty held
vigilant city walls cold
idle wings outstretched

It's holiday season for most and I've been making lots of treats. This one is time consuming (but so worth it)rich and not really healthy! Fruity fridge loaf. 250g butter. 1 cup raw (vanilla) brown sugar. 2 L eggs lightly beaten. 2 Packets Marie biscuits crushed (not too finely). 1&1/2 cups cake fruit mix soaked overnight in 3 Tbsps bourbon whiskey. Melt butter and sugar on low/med heat in a med size pot until sugar is dissolved and golden. Remove from heat and quickly mix in eggs and then rest of ingredients. Mix well with a wooden spoon and then pour into a buttered and floured loaf tin. Refrigerate overnight. Serve in slices as is or with vanilla ice-cream. Enjoy!

Sweet 16

Evening...the sun's just sinking into the horizon and the night noises are creeping into the house through open doors and windows. Andrew Bird (a.k.a the whistler) is lighting up my ears with "Noble Beast". Beautiful, strange, simple and complex, unforgettable melodies and personal-glimpses lyrics. Anytime music, but love driving with his voice, violin and haunting whistling.

Tall contorting trees
soughing sighing soldiering
breathing art
radiating
breath of life
climbing clambering
limbs entwined
merging resonant spirits
imprinted
infinitely

Fruit is in abundance and I decided to try jam making. It's fun and a lot easier than I imagined. Here is a great tangy apricot jam. Less sugar than is traditional but it worked well. 1.5 kg fresh apricots. 800g raw brown sugar. Juice of 1-2 lemons (1 large/2 med). Wash, halve and stone apricots. Put in a large bowl with 300g sugar and lemon juice. Stir well. Leave for 2 hours. Pour into large pot, add rest of sugar, stir and bring to a slow boil. Lower heat and keep bubbling slowly. Skim off any foam and stir often. Due to the reduced amount of sugar cook at least an hour like this or a maximum of 2 hours. Pour into hot jars sterilised in the oven at 170 degrees celsius for 10 mins (handle with care), seal and turn upside down on a tea towel until cool. This will create a vacuum. Yummy with fresh baked bread! Enjoy!

No.15

Hellooooooo.... "Just as long as we've got rock 'n roll then everything'll be alright, it'll be alright", The Duke and the King have overtaken pretty much everyone as the most listened to band in our house right now. There's the Felice Brothers high rebellion and story but in a chilled out soul-y kind of way. And the poetry and under-the-skin tragedy make it an emotional, ethereal experience. So, so good....

Cyclical circles
life
death
daily reminders of
insignificant ancient
tangible fathomless
always
interconnected
love
transient eternity

I was inspired to make some childhood-memory sweets recently and these were the yummiest (albeit slightly updated). Chocolate rice crispie squares. 100g Dark chocolate. 100g Milk chocolate. 2 cups rice crispies. 1 cup medium dessicated/ shredded coconut. 1/2 cup sesame seeds. Break chocolate into pieces in a large heat-proof bowl. Melt over a saucepan of simmering water stirring every now and again (don't allow water to touch bowl). When its nice and smooth remove bowl and add rest of ingredients in order, mixing after each addition. Scrape into a 20x20cm dish, flatten with a spatula and score squares into it now. Refrigerate at least 1 hr before cutting/breaking up. Enjoy!

No.14 (Carla's post)

It's almost summer and now it's hiding. Lifted my face to feel cold splashes today. Looping the headphones tonight is Modest Mouse - 'The Moon and Antarctica'. Weirdly wonderful, melodic, uplifting, darkly charming...altogether just right, right now.

Stream of consciousness...floating childhood memories
outstretched hand
can't catch, the meaning
unconscious tears
laughter
peripheral visions
bitter-sweet remembrance
dizzy joy
spinning sky
winded fall
weightless ocean
endless freedom

This life, may be all.

At a family lunch recently the multiple intertwined memories of love-filled food and ties that bind, bound me again.

So, the Morning Benders - 'Big Echo' is playing the nostalgia-for-now soundtrack. And although summer is shy we've been loving light healthy food! Quick stir-fry. Serves 4. 2 cups cooked brown rice. 2-3 courgettes/zucchini, washed, halved and sliced. 1 sweet red pepper, washed, halved, seeded and thinly sliced. 1 small punnet mushrooms, wiped and sliced. 1/2 cup fresh basil & 1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves washed. 1 TBSP sunflower oil. 2 TBSPs Soy Sauce. Heat oil in a wok & stir fry veg on a med-high heat, about 5 mins. Add rice and stir through. Reduce heat. Using kitchen scissors cut basil and coriander into rice & veg mix. Stir through. Add soy sauce and stir through. Add whole coriander leaves when serving. Enjoy.

Lucky 13

Apologies for the unplanned hiatus....sometimes technology just doesn't play along. I tried to blog from my cellphone; just couldn't do it. I need a proper keyboard in front of me! 'Deer Tick - War Elephant' is soundtracking tonight....he's got one of those unmistakable voices and I love the images their lyrics conjure up. There is something dusty and world-weary yet optimistic about it.

Cynicism seems to be a respected form of wit, a show of intelligence, a mask of superiority. 'I have done and seen so much I'm bored'. Granted, cynical comments can be very funny, but I always get a little shiver of sadness. Children capture me with their wondrous innocence. We can't hang onto that indefinitely but we can unburden ourselves of the heaviness around us. Don't limit yourself to a life lived by opinions and judgements. Liberation lies in true freedom of thought. Try it.

Here is a super yummy healthy side dish. Baked sweet potato. 4 med sized sweet potatoes, scrubbed, skin on. 100g butter, softened. 2 cloves garlic, crushed. 1-2 med-hot chillies chopped. 1 TBSP fresh grated ginger. 1/2 cup fresh coriander, washed and chopped. Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees celsius. Prick sweet potatoes a few times and bake in oven until soft. About 45 mins - 1 hr. Mix rest of ingredients and refrigerate until sweet potatoes are cooked. Slice open sweet potatoes and fill with butter mix. Enjoy!