It was Rach's 30th this weekend, and she thought that she was going to have a quiet romantic weekend with Nick in Pitlochry, whereas in fact he'd secretly arranged for all us mates in Sheffield to go up too. It was great fun; I thought Rach was going to pass out when she saw us all stood there. Rach has already described the weekend in full
here, so I'll not re-hash what she's already said (except to say yes, we really did have breakfast with Ronnie Corbett, and yes, we really did go to the National Poultry Show).
After leaving Linlithgow we caught the train into Edinburgh and had a really relaxed day. After a quick visit to Waterstones, we sat in a café for a couple of hours drinking coffee and reading the paper, then went for a fantastic lunch at the
Mussel Inn, then went and sat in the Café Royal pub for a couple of hours and read our magazines, and then chilled out on the train home. It was great and about as relaxed a day as possible.
Labels: chickens, food, holiday, linlithgow, pitlochry, scotland
Tuesday, January 30, 2007 1:40 PM
I have a growing number of blog posts which I keep meaning to make and yet I've not gotten around to actually writing them, so I'm going to combine two posts into one here and review two of this year's biggest movies.
Superman Returns:
Nick hated it,
Rach hated it,
Christian loved it. This was all rather irrelevant, because as you all know the only opinion that counts is mine! This week I have
finally watched it, I've digested it, I have considered it, I have discussed it, and no matter which way I look at it I have to say: it was balls. I love Superman. The concept, the comics, the original couple of movies; Superman is a cool character, even when
fighting for the Soviet way. But this film somehow managed to make me not give a flying fuck about either him or anyone else in the movie, Lois included. Consider this, at one point Lois was about to drown, along with her son and new man, and I just did not care. Partly this was because you knew damn well that Supes would turn up and save the day; but mostly it was because they were such badly drawn characters that having them die might actually gone some way to saving the movie. They didn't die. Superman saved them. The movie sucked.
There were a few things that might have saved the film: A decent script editor, a decent acting coach, a decent film editor, and a director without his head in his arse. Somehow even the soundtrack composer managed to screw up. He had at his disposal one the all time classic film scores, written by one of the greatest ever soundtrack composers and after the opening credits had finished, he was somehow able to filter out of the music any life and excitement and passion, leaving us with bland and soulless drivel. This was because he was seemingly trying to stamp his mark on some of the themes; but what he was actually doing was corrupting music that is embedded in the brains of my generation. Dude, either use the themes or don't, picking the first four notes of a theme but then randomly changing the fifth is just dumb, sounds crap and should make you a-fucking-shamed of yourself. Idiot.
Casino Royale was more successful.
You may recall that I was rather sceptical about this film. With the possible exception of Goldeneye, I have felt grossly let down by the Brosnan Bond films, and yearned for a decent good old fashioned spy thriller, and that is pretty much what we got. OK it would also have benefited from a good script editor: "
Oh James, if all that was left of you was your smile and your little finger, you'd still be more of a man than I've ever met." was greeted with embarrassed laughter at both screenings I saw it at.
Anyway, you've all seen it, I think you all liked it, there's not much I can say that you don't already know is there? Though being a pessimist about Bond, I shall leave you with my one fear: the studio will look at the money the film made, they will roll around in dollar bills in their offices for weeks and then go: "
Hey, let's try and extract from the movie some kind of formula for how to make a Bond film in the 21st century!" and they will then insist that the next film and all subsequent Bond movies follow this formula. Films should not follow formulas. I film starts with the characters. When you have good characters you consider the story; when you have a good story, you can write the script. You then edit the script until you have a lean engaging movie to which you can attach a director. You shouldn't pick a director and tell him "
[Fight * 3] + explosion + car chase + [Bond girls * 2] + another chase + 007 gets hurt + aborted romance + double cross + vague cliff hanger = Bond", because the result will be extraordinarily tedious.
Labels: bond, film, movies, superman
Thursday, January 11, 2007 1:49 PM
Is it just me, or is
this unbelievably creepy. I mean it should be cute, it should be cute
times four. However, there's something about four babies laughing together that just freaks me out. Maybe I've seen too many episodes of Doctor Who, and am expecting them to suddenly shoot deadly plasma goo from their eyes. Or maybe I've seen too many creepy horror movies, and this is the pre-credits scene showing how they were born four happy brothers, before a chemical spillage made them grow up into evil men that bum-wrecked a hobo while giggling just like they are here. Or maybe it's just because they don't seem real, but you know they are, but they don't look it, but they are.
I don't know, maybe it's just me.
Labels: babies, freaky, movies, video
Thursday, January 04, 2007 10:50 PM
I promised a while back that when the festive season was over, I'd write a post about my experiences with making canapés. Well, the festive season is over and so here's a post about my experiences with making canapés. Bang on queue. Well done me.
The first thing you should know about preparing canapés is that it is hard work. You need to set aside a whole day basically. Some are easier than others to prepare. If I were to do these again, I'd not make the Smoked Salmon Roulade (it is quite tricky) and the Quails Eggs or Cucumber Rolls (more trouble than they're worth in my opinion). The miniature pizza I'd make again, but without the semi dried tomato, I'd probably just get some sun dried tomatoes that had been soaked in olive oil and cut into small pieces. I'd also use a simpler pizza dough recipe than Heston Blumenthal's (not that his is that complicated). The cheese & paprika twigs are time consuming, but they seemed to go down very well with everyone that tried them, so may be worth the effort if time allowed.
There's a photo of the canapés I made for Tim's party
here. I didn't think to take a picture of the ones I made for Christmas Day I'm afraid.
So without any more of a do, here are the recipes I used:
Smoked Salmon RouladeIngredients1 bunch large watercress
225g soft cheese with garlic and herbs
2 tsp lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
225g smoked salmon
InstructionsFinely chop the watercress, discarding any course stalks. Whisk into the soft cheese with the lemon juice and black pepper.
Cut out a large piece of greaseproof paper .
Lay on the top the smoked salmon, overlapping each piece to form a large rectangle. Cut in half width-ways.
Spread the soft cheese mixture over both rectangles then carefully roll each into a large sausage.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Cut each roll into 5mm slices and serve asap.
Smoked Salmon on blinisIngredientsCocktail blinis
Smoked Salmon (sustainably harvested smoked salmon of course)
Cream Cheese with garlic and herbs (I used the leftovers from the smoked salmon roulade above which has lemon juice pepper and watercress mixed in).
InstructionsPrepare soft cheese mixture. Spread on crostini (or blini) and put a piece of smoked salmon on top. Put a tiny dab of the soft cheese on top of the smoked salmon and place on that a small bit of dill.
Variations: I've specified blini here as they're don't take any time to prepare and hold up well to being left out all evening better than some other bases do, but you could used crostini or toast too, I guess.
Salmon and Cream Cheese on toasted brioche
Ingredients
All Butter Brioche loaf
100g cream cheese
juice and zest of half a lemon
2 tbsp fresh dill
180g canned salmon (drained)
InstructionsToast slices of brioche and cut each slice into small squares. Leave to cool.
Mix the cream cheese, lemon and dill, then flake the salmon into it. Mix together.
Top each brioche slice with the salmon mixture.
Variations: Some I topped with a little bit of fresh dill, others with a small bit of lemon, some with "caviar" (and by caviar, I mean reconstituted herring which looks like caviar) and I think also some with a little bit of smoked salmon. Doesn't have to be brioche, could be crostini or something.
Curried Prawns on NanIngredients1 tbsp oil
1 clove garlic - crushed
2 tsp mild curry powder
4 spring onions - finely chopped
450g cooked & peeled prawns - roughly chopped
4 tsp mango chutney
4 tsp natural yoghurt
salt & pepper
2 large nan breads
InstructionsHeat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onions, curry powder and garlic for 1 minute.
Add the prawns and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
Take off the heat and stir in the chutney and yoghurt.
Season and set aside.
Heat the nan as per packet instructions.
Cut into small squares and top with a little prawn mixture.
Cheese and Paprika Twigs: Ingredients2 sheets of ready rolled puff pastry
60g finely grated parmesan
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp paprika
1 egg - lightly beaten
60g grated red Leicester cheese
InstructionsHeat oven to 200c
Unroll pastry on a lightly floured surface
Scatter with the parmesan, cayenne, paprika and a little salt.
Fold in half so that the cheese is sandwiched together and roll until thin
Slice into long fingers, twist each finger, and place on baking sheet.
Brush with the egg, then sprinkle with the Leicester.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until puffed and golden.
Miniature PizzaIngredientsPizza dough - any recipe would do, I just happened to use the one from Heston Blumenthal's Perfection book.
PizzaMaking.com is a good source of recipes.
Sun Dried Tomato Pesto: Place 1 garlic clove, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 50g sun dried tomatoes (reconstituted), 25g fresh basil leaves, 25g pine nuts, 90ml extra virgin olive oil into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Stir on 2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese.
Semi Dried Tomatoes - Get a load of good quality cherry tomatoes.
Peel, cut in half and de-seed. Toss in olive oil. Place each half on baking tray lined with foil. Place a thin slice of garlic, and a small piece of fresh basil on each tomato. Sprinkle with fresh thyme. Place in oven at 110 degrees for 1-2 hours. Keep an eye on them as you don't want them to burn. Take out of oven when done and remove the garlic and basil and any thyme leaves.
Fresh Basil
Buffalo mozzarella
InstructionsHeat the oven up as high as it will go. Minimum of 250c, but higher would be better if possible.
Flatten out the dough and cut into small pieces.
Place a small amount of the pesto on each piece of dough.
Top with a small piece of mozzarella, a semi dried tomato half.
Place in oven for a few minutes, or until done.
Top each cooked miniature pizza with a small piece of fresh basil.
Cucumber RollsIngredientsCucumber
Roasted Bell Pepper
Feta Cheese
InstructionsFinely slice cucumber using a mandolin and cut into small strips.
Wrap cucumber slice around a cube of feta and a piece of pepper, and hold together with a cocktail stick.
Quails EggsIngredientsRoasted Bell Pepper (I used left overs from Cucumber Rolls recipe)
Semi dried tomatoes (I used left overs from Miniature Pizza recipe)
Cucumber slices
Quails Eggs
InstructionsCut eggs in half. Sandwich a piece of pepper, tomato and cucumber between each half, and hold together with a cocktail stick.
Labels: canapés, cooking, food
Wednesday, January 03, 2007 10:16 PM
Tim had a New Year's Eve party, and we piled over to Bole Hill to let off a bunch of fireworks. Shortly before, I set up my video camera in Tim's bedroom to capture the event. I'm glad I did that, because to be honest I was pretty drunk, and don't remember much about those fireworks, other than for the fact that I lit some of them. We started off with a "Bruce Lee", which is one of those single ignition boxes that set off a large number of shots. You can just make out Tim lighting the thing and then running away. This was followed by a load of individually lit rockets, which sadly went so high that the camera didn't capture them, and finally we had a load of sparklers.
The video is of course over at
You Tube.
Labels: drunk, fireworks, New Year, party
9:05 PM
