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Thursday, February 26, 2009

All Your Lullabies: 25th February


The Bird - Skylark
Tenniscoats - Baibaba Bimba
Rand & Holland - Oh My Love
Emmy The Great - MIA
Amiina - Leather and Lace
Cat Power - Sea of Love
Jon Brion - Phone Call
Sam Amidon - All is Well
Sigur Ros - Fljotavik
Patton Oswalt - John Collier’s ‘The Chaser'
Animal Collective + Mum - I've Got Mine
Mum - unknown
Eric Satie - Gymnopedie
The American Analog Set - Choir Vandals

Monday, February 23, 2009

ProcrastiBAKING 2

Gareth made some bagels and plum jam





and I made some lemon honey


Sunday, February 15, 2009

Skordalia de Mike

From meetmeatmikes.blogspot.com

1 kilo of very nice potatoes, boiled until tender and mashed roughly and lumpily
2 cloves of garlic diced
1 tbsp of white wine vinegar
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp of sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly chopped mint - half a handful

Mix all ingredients together - but not too much - we're going for rustic and lumpy here.
This is the most delicious mashed potatoey thing.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

All Your Lullabies: 11th February


British Bird - Little Grebe
The Zombies - The Way I Feel Inside
Arthur & Yu - There Are Too Many Birds
Lambchop - Paperback Bible
Great Lake Swimmers - Falling Into The Sky
Arthur Russell - Close My Eyes
The Clientele - These Days Nothing But Sunshine
Dirty Three - Long Way To Go With No Punch
Age Pryor And Tessa Rain - Funny Shadow
Owls - From Far Away
Feist - The Park
Mirabel - extract from 'Moominvalley In November' by Tove Jansson
Lullatone - Baby
Sun Kil Moon - Blue Orchids
Jessica Lee Mayfield - Kiss Me Again
The National - About Today

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

forthcoming novel

The marmite scooted across the veranda with his little dirty feet, leaving a scuffle of black footprints on the clean yellow floorboards behind him. Dera trailed after, determined to have the marmite as a pet - she thought it would be ever so nice to keep him on her shoulder or in her pinny pocket. Unfortunately he did not wish to be mollycoddled in this manner and was attempting to convince her that he was really a little wild beast who could never be kept.
Moom serenely washed the veranda down and thought about Princess Marina's Wedding Cake.

"but you let the light in" she cried
"you are all sorts of lovely"

seapuppy nose whistling.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Beehive World



The yellow dots are airplanes in the sky during a 24 hour period.


You can see the light of the day moving from the east to the west, as the Earth spins on it's axis, the aircraft flow of traffic leaving the North American continent and travelling at night to arrive in the UK in the morning. Then you will see the flow changing, leaving the UK in the morning and flying to the American continent in daylight.
It is a 24 hour observation of all of the large aircraft flights in the world, condensed down to about 2 minutes. From space we look like a bee hive of activity!

You can tell it is summer time in the north by the suns foot print over the planet - the sun doesn't quite set in the extreme north and it doesn't quite rise in the extreme south.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

All Your Lullabies: 4th February


British Bird - Starling
Fleetwood Mac - Albatross
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - It's A Crime
Seabear - Hospital Bed
Emeralds - Alive In The Sea Of Information
The Mountain Goats - Love Love Love
Corbin Hanner - Poncho
Tortoise - I Set My Face To The Hillside
Jarvis Cocker - Bukolla and The Boy
Kevin Shields - Ikebana
Air - New Star In The Sky
The Album Leaf - Over The Pond
Warmer Milks - Untitled
Maryrose Crook - The Outgoing Queen
Scarlett Johansson - I Wish I Was In New Orleans

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

procrastiBAKING


Moom's Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups of plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
85g butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1-1.5 cups chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 C
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.
Mix together the cooled melted butter with the sugars, beat in the vanilla and egg.
Mix in the sifted ingredients and the chocolate chips.
Place large spoonfuls of dough on greased trays and bake for 15 minutes.
Cool on baking trays and then transfers to a wire rack.



Apple Pie: bread-and-honey.blogspot.com recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups apples, cored, peeled & diced
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons whole milk
2 tablespoons butter
pastry for 2 pie crusts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Roll out 1 pie crust and place in a pie dish. Combine apples, sugar, flour, and spices in a large bowl. Put the apple mixture in the pie dish. Dot the top with the butter and drizzle with milk. Top with the second pie crust.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the crust is golden.



loveandoliveoil.com
Makes 12 lemon strawberry cupcakes.

Ingredients
Cupcakes:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
4 ounces white chocolate, melted
1/3 cup oil
1 cup full fat coconut milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Frosting:
2 ounces of fresh strawberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg whites
6 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons lemon juice (approximately 1 large lemon)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350˚F.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add sugar and brown sugar and mix. Slowly mix together melted chocolate and oil. Whisk together coconut milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. Fill cupcake liners with a scant 1/4 cup of batter (should be just under 2/3 of the way full). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

To make frosting, first wash and hull strawberries and toss them into a food processor. Puree strawberries and set aside.

Add sugar and egg whites into a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.

Using the whisk attachment on a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.

Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. Don’t freak out if your buttercream curdles or separates, keep beating and it will come together again.

Once the buttercream is thick and smooth, gradually beat in the lemon juice on medium speed, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. By this point you should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. You can stop at this point if you want to stick with lemon buttercream. For strawberry buttercream, gradually add in strawberry puree, beating on medium speed until well incorporated. Spread all over the cupcake delights.

tada!