Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo was an Australian group blog which discussed politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
please forgive me for undermining the ‘lazy’ in ‘lazy sunday’, and for bragging, but i ran a half marathon and was done before 8.30 this morning
Friday was my 10th wedding anniversary and we went to dinner at Gianni’s in the city, which was excellent … and expensive.
Rest of the weekend, nose in books.
FRIST again!
Hehehe my prodigal dog is now the saviour of my local dog club! Trialling this year even! Still have to pinch myself: 3 months and a week ago still slogging through Grade flipping three.
Anyway, got a heap of seedlings (and a huge self-indulgent lemon tart)incl black russian tomatoes, honeydew melon etc.
Had a walk through back part of backyard, the vege garden. Arthritic hip screamed for mercy at the sight of weeds there where veges have to go. Might pay someone to do that: fucking hip has been giving me pain pain fire & pain for two weeks now
Newly planted apple trees have sprouted leaves, ONE of the currant plants I put in last year has survived the winter–bloody climate change really but really sucks!!
For dinner gonna make Thai fishcakes and thai pork curry. the only way to have a decent Thai fishcake is to make it yourself.
had a read of some of the political blogs. Pies Akerman really is an ignorant, biased tool.
I now have two lawn mowers. Still hate mowing the lawn, though.
Spent Friday night and Saturday night celebrating the fact that I’m now qualified to be what the railways used to call a “fireman”. Took three attempts.
Well, I spent yesterday up at the Sunshine Coast with family. My half-brother has a place about halfway between Caloundra and Landsborough. It’s beautiful, with kangaroos hopping through the place, and bird life a-plenty. And it’s all going to get demolished in about 2 years for a housing development. C’est la vie.
Fun night though, spent the day being Uncle Guy to my step-brother’s 6 and 4 year old terrors, spent the night watching my half-bro’s favourite drum solos on DVD.
If anybody is free tonight, and wishes to get out and catch some tunes by the wayside, there is a meetup of some of Brisbane’s finest unsigned singer-songwriters happening at Kookaburra Café in Paddington from about 6pm onwards.
Oh, and, er, hi. I’m Brady. Long-time reader, don’t usually comment because I generally don’t have as well-researched an opinion as some other commenters. Even though this is the internet, and with the power of Wikoogle I am an expert in every field.
Googled Emile Mercier [see avatar]Wocko The Beaut, Super Dooper Man and Tripalong Hoppity the fearless Texas Ranger. Wish I still had some of his comics. Back in the pink after some invasive procedures and managed to climb the Pinnacle and back in 45mins.My best time ever 38 but I wont see that again. On the mountain bike and a quick ride around the paddocks with the deerhounds [Zorro and Sky] and finnish off with a Cascade lite or three. Life begins at seventy!
“Long-time reader, don’t usually comment because I generally don’t have as well-researched an opinion as some other commenters.”
Let’s face it, if you have a heartbeat you’re well-researched enough to comment here.
BBB
Which would be why you spend so much time here, BBB?
Boom boom.
Jovial Monk, if you’re in Brissie try Thai Wi-Rat in the Chinatown Mall.
Heartbeat confirmed, Mark!
BBB
That’s good!
Terangeree [4]
Congratulations!!
…. And your political aspirations? [Ben Chifley was an engine driver
]
Hey – don’t suppose anyone recorded tonight’s episode of Dr Who?
I spent the afternoon deep in spreadsheets, pretending I’m an economist and trying to work out the social return on investment for a project I’m involved in. Strangely satisfying – probably because it works out very positive. I’m hoping I haven’t done something wrong.
Before that I was chatting to my niece on facebook – she was in Abu Dhabi waiting for a plane connection, off on her first big adventure but still clinging to home I suspect.
Have a code. Could not blant veg. Still miderable.
A search on the episode title should find it for you on YouTube if all else fails.
I wasn’t able to sleep last night because of this bloody hot weather *grumble*…
Mark & BBB,
Sometimes I am not so sure that all of us would pass the Turing test – i.e. no heartbeat required!
I spent the weekend catching up on the washing as it had got a long way behind. Just a pity it started raining as the first load today was almost dry.
It’s possible Andrew!
It seems there’s a late entry for the US Presidential race — he’s apparently an expert in “advanced torture methods” (especially those involving soft cushions), and he’s also a hockey mom.
1.54 am in SA and I’ve just sent off my review of Kate Grenville’s new novel. Also read one and a half other books and did some serious gardening.
(Helen, tx for reminder re veg blantig. I need to branch out. Lemons and herbs are nice, but they’re not really enough.)
Curses! Wasted yesterday fighting about nothing with my Lady Friend, instead of using the lovely day to blant veg! Now just found out I won’t have time next weekend or the one after. It’s looking a lot like I might suddenly fall ill on Friday at this rate. I sure ain’t gonna let the lovely soils of Princes Hill go unexploited. Branching out into green beans and yellow squash, cos tomatoes are soooo 2006.
Wait ’till Cup Day FDB. Too early.
Saturday, spent most of the day note-taking from Diary of Frederick Mackenzie. Then the joy of watching Edward Woodward on The Bill. (And Hayley Mills in Wild at Heart. When did she (and David Warner who I think was just that episode)come in.
Sunday, got some clothespegs, chocolate biscuits and was given a new keyboard. Better speling from now on, I promise.(Getting to that age I should buy a dictionary, I think.)
Sunday night, Dr. Who! Wow! What has been going on. Missed the last 2 episodes. Then Midsomer Murders. This one was, I think, really good. Even got e-mails from people about it this morning.
(PC, don’t know if this too late to use, or irrelevant, re your review of Grenville’s new book, Schama’s Rough Crossings gives a totally new take on William Dawes not found in the Australian historical sources, from an African point of view.)
Yeah, but it’s a new (old) house – first season – so I have to actually create beds out of weed-infested chaos. I’m a bit of a stickler for preparation and have a shit back, so I’ll be needing a lot of my scarce time.
Might find a spot in the ground for my outgrowing-its-pot tamarillo too. Got any tips for timing the pruning or transplanting of Tammy?
Certainly not too early for all the green beans, peas, squash and various other veges. Tomatoes possibly, but the old cup day adage is a pre-global warming one, no?
Played scrabble in a back yard a few miles from home y’day and was staggered to see apricots of around 3cm circum festooning a tree. At our place, it’s still first blossom and early leaf stage on the apricot.
Spring would be a helluva thing for a govt to try & regulate! It’s anarchy among the bees I tellya.
FDB, I would tend to not prune it because it’s already springtime. Replant or repot it if you must. I know it’s customary to prune when you do that but I think it’s the wrong time. Let it recover any which way it can with plenty of love and bucketing, then prune in the middle of winter. I reckon.
Thanks Helen.
I got the feeling I’d missed the boat when Tammy started sprouting new growth a couple of weeks back, and now there are little clumps of flowers. Next year then. She’s only 2 years old, from a cutting at my old share house, now growing in a Fowler’s Vacola boiler pot I scrounged from Laura (i.e. Lucy Tartan). The fruit are just outstanding – I’ve never had such tasty ones and I swear that’s not just a proud Dad talking.
See Laurucy? You said I was crazy to take your rusty pot and jars with rusty lid fittings! You were only 2/3 right!
Paul B, thanks a lot, I must follow that up. My review was an 800-worder for the Age, ie one in which one must concentrate on the actual book under review so no room for the leisurely, much less scholarly, discussion of differing takes on the model for Grenville’s fictional character, but like Grenville I found Dawes so fascinating that I went and read the ADB entry on him, plus Tench’s ‘Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson’ which has a detailed account of the failed expedition against the Gadigal people in December 1790.
The whole ‘figures from Australian history who actually spent most of their lives elsewhere’ thing is really interesting. Most Australians, for example, would be shocked to discover what Edward John Eyre is mostly famous for in non-Australian historical circles.
PC,
I have been fascinated by Dawes for years. I’m not sure, but I think some of his papers are on line at the Mitchell. they were, but they changed the system about a while ago, and I don’t know if they’re still accessible by the net. It is also possible to get a copy of all his weather readings and drawings.
Unfortunately,
Dawes is not one of the First Fleeter who was involved in the American Revolution, so I haven’t done much work on him for a couple of years.King and Hunter write quite a bit about him. David Collins has a bit on him, and Ralph Clark some peripheral references. Probably a leaf through all the First Fleeters except Worgan, who has nothing.
Re Eyre – have got the distinct impression through the reading I’ve done on the West Indies that it drove otherwise sane men mad. And the Jamaican Assembly were notoriously hard to deal with. Eyre was one of many Governors who fell foul of them (which presumably is what happened.)
Anyway, can guarantee you will enjoy Schama.
Copying this from my forum (www.jovialmonk.com.au/forum then scroll to “Cooking with Beer”) and another forum (all my own work, I hasten to add.)
Why I thought it might be nice to publish this post is that we are coming into summer soon, with plums apricots peaches nectarines strawberries etc etc ripening within a few months–LP readers might like an alternative to endless jars of jam or fruit rotting on the ground. I could wax lyrical about fruit meads (melomels, pyment (grapes) or cyser (apples) or peary (pears) or fruit wines (which could be, cough, distilled, cough but that may not suit everyone here. Instead, fruit butter is great on toast, over icecream or on meat.
These fruit butters unlike ‘lemon butter’ contain no dairy products. Just concentrated fruit and, in some, some sugar, cooked until the fruit has the consistency of soft butter.
A slowcooker is the ideal way to cook the fruit. These would hold about 3Kg of fruit.
Apple butter recipe
For apple butter a bit over 3Kg of cooking apples: Granny Smith, Jonathan, Braeburn. Use only one type, mixing types means some are cooked right down while the other type is still firm. Wash and core the apples then cut into segments. We do not peel the apples as there is lots of lovely pectin just under the skin.
Put the segments in the slow cooker and pour over about 1L of apple juice. To make the butter more appealing spices can be added: cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and/or cardamon pods, some mace bark or small piece of nutmeg. A cracked alspice, star anise if you like anise flavor etc. The jar I brought to the May meeting (of the beer & wine club) had two cinnamon sticks, 6 cloves and 1/4tsp of mace–definitely had some spice but the general comments were “not enough spice.”
for my own consumption I add 12 cloves, 3 sticks cinnamon (more of cassia,) 6 cardamon pods, piece of nutmeg, 3-4 star anise bashed up in mortar & pestle or allspice berries, etc
Once all this is in the slowcooker switch it onto Low and place the lid on, leaving a gap for the steam to escape. After 24 hours remove the apple mass from the slow cooker and press it through a sieve or mouli (mouli is much easier) to remove the peel and spices and return to the slowcooker. Taste and add a small amount of sugar–fruit butters use way less sugar than jams do, partly because the fruit sugars become concentrated. Test for doneness by taking out a teaspoonful–it should mound on the spoon. For the more pedantic, place the teaspoon of fruitbutter on a ceramic saucer–there should be no ring of moisture around the butter.
Fill into hot clean jars, seal then waterbath process for 20 minutes. Use within 12 months and refrigerate once opened. The fruit acids mean you have a couple of months to finish the butter once the jar is opeened.
Sweetened fruitbutter is great on toast, over icecream or yoghurt, in a cake etc. Unsweetened applebutter is oh so good on pork chops or roasts–you could even fry the porkchops in apple butter–I have cooked kassler chops that way and oh my god it is spectacular!
Other fruit can be used: peach butter, spiced with great restraint and hardly sweetened is heavenly, but strawberries, apricots, plum, nectarine, quince (quince & apple butter great with cheese BTW,) pears etc. Hopefully winter 08 will be wet and summer 09 mild and I will make a big batch of apricot and ginger butter. Winter originally dry but good rain since incl spring rains–I have some hopes.
The origin of the fruit butters is the Dutch & German etc migrants to the US. The US (& Canada) still consumes heaps of fruit butter but they have forgotten about it in Europe! A lady at the Farmers Market has an old Australian cookbook that mentions fruit butters, but it never took off here. I would like to reverse that! I have since heard of other references to fruit butters made in South Australia.
Think about it. Fruit butter is concentrated fruit, a hell of a lot less sugar than jam, OK having a slowcooker going 12 or 24 hours may not be very green but so what! Unsweetened apple butter on pork chops or roast is heaven on a stick!
For the record, in fermenters I have 20L each of plum wine, pyment (Viognier grapes & orange blossom honey) and peary (lots of pears plus honey) and a melomel with sylvan and boysenberries plus a cyser with a lot of apples, applebutter, honey, Coopers dark liquid malt extract, a shipload of spices, 2.5Kg of muscovado sugar etc.
But I urge all readers to try making a batch of fruit butter next summer!