Hello lovelies! I have long been a fan of poverty campaigner and chef Jack Monroe. Her meals prove you don't need expensive ingredients to make a healthy meal. I have recently discovered the fact that you can follow her on Facebook which means recipes pop up on my feed, I get inspired and then we make them.
Or rather we adapt them. Can I ever follow a recipe just like it says, Spiderman wonders to himself.
No. No I can't.
I did use fresh lemons where she uses bottled lemons because I had some, but if you don't use 1/4 cup lemon juice. Also I used kale instead of spinach because...kale.
100 g kale, de-stemmed and torn into bite sized pieces
Smoked paprika for serving
1. Cook your onion and garlic in a splash of water or oil
until softened.
2. Rinse the lentils in a sieve and tip them into the
pan, followed by the stock and the turmeric and chilli flakes, then stir gently. Bring it to the
boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Grate the zest from the lemons and squeeze out the
juice. Stir the lemon zest, juice, and the kale into the soup. Cook for a few minutes
until kale softens.
4. Ladle into bowls and top with a sprinkle of smoked
paprika.
I might even throw in an extra 1/4 cup lentils the next time just to give it more staying power, but the lemon was lovely and bright and contrasted well with the earthiness of the kale and the smokiness of the paprika.
Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you
sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.
We have been looking at silent films for the past few
weeks. Several have had impressive effects for their times, but also some
stylised overacting (which I suppose you have to do if you have to mime everything.)
This week we look at a feature length silent film made in 1914 and starring “America’s
Sweetheart” Mary Pickford. Her acting is really quite good for a silent
film and it is no wonder. She was a feminist pioneer actress and businesswoman.
Wikipedia tells us:
With a career spanning 50 years, she was a
co-founder of both the Pickford–Fairbanks Studio (along
with Douglas Fairbanks) and, later, the United
Artists film studio (with Fairbanks, Charlie
Chaplin and D. W. Griffith), and one of the original 36 founders
of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences who present the yearly "Oscar" award
ceremony.
Who knew?
Pickford was one of the earliest stars to
be billed under her own name and was one of the most popular actresses of the
1910s and 1920s, earning the nickname "Queen of the Movies". She is
credited as having defined the ingénue archetype
in cinema.
She was awarded the second ever Academy Award for Best Actress for
her first sound-film role in Coquette (1929)
and also received an honorary Academy Award in 1976. In
consideration of her contributions to American
cinema, the American Film Institute ranked
Pickford as 24th in its 1999 list of greatest female stars of classic Hollywood Cinema.
You go, girl!
My overall opinion is that the acting is much better and
more subtle than the other films, but the effects are rather same-y. It does however have helpful title cards to help you understand what the upcoming scene will be about.
Because
this is a long film I will use Wikipedia again to help me summarise.
Cinderella is a kind young woman who lives
with her wicked stepmother and ugly stepsisters. They abuse her and use her as
the housemaid. One day Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters refuse to help a
beggar at their door, but Cinderella offers her food and drink. The beggar
woman is revealed to be a beautiful fairy in disguise, who then secretly helps
Cinderella for her kindness. One day when Cinderella is sent to gather
firewood, her fairy godmother summons a troupe of fairies who secretly gather a
bundle of wood for her. Cinderella meets Prince Charming who is walking in the
woods, and each is smitten with the other in their short encounter.
NOTE:
This is typical of Cinderella tales where her kindness must be tested to see if
she is worthy of magical help. Also the meeting in the woods and falling in
love is exactly how it happens in the pantomime version of Cinderella.
Soon, a ball is arranged so the prince may
choose his future wife. The sisters visit a witch-like fortune teller in the
woods, who predicts that a member of their family will be chosen by the prince.
The sisters are delighted, thinking it will be one of them.
That night, the stepsisters have nightmares
of the old fortune teller, while Cinderella has pleasant dreams of fairies
dancing.
NOTE: This reminds me a
bit of Macbeth where the witches tell him no man born of woman can defeat him
and he totally doesn’t think there might be any other possibility and styles
himself as invincible. And why are there always dancing fairies in a silent
film? I wonder if this is all silent films or just fairy tales?
When the stepsisters leave for the ball,
Cinderella is left behind. The fairy godmother appears asks Cinderella to bring
her a pumpkin, some mice, and some rats. The fairy transforms the pumpkin into
a coach, the mice into horses, and the rats into grooms and footmen. Finally,
she changes Cinderella's ragged dress into a gown fit for a princess (with
glass slippers, of course). She tells Cinderella she will to be back at home
before the clock strikes midnight, for then, her fine dress will turn into rags
and the coach and servants will become what they were before.
NOTE: Here we have all
the elements we expect from a Charles Perrault version—pumpkin, mice, rats,
glass slippers and midnight curfew.
The unknown lady who arrives at the ball
charms the guests, and especially the prince. He and Cinderella slip away to
the garden. Their flirtations are interrupted by the clock striking midnight.
Cinderella rushes away, losing one of her slippers, and she arrives home, a
ragged cinder girl once more.
Cinderella tosses on her bed, suffering a
surrealistic dream in which evil-looking dwarves ring the midnight bell and the
numbers on the clock's face dance and scramble wildly. She is awakened by the
arrival of her step-family, who kick her out of bed and set her to her daily
drudgery again.
NOTE: This motif of
being tormented by clocks was also featured in the 1899 version.
Later, heralds announce the Prince's wish
to marry the woman whose foot fits the lost shoe. The sisters go to the palace,
and a comic scene ensues as each tries to force her too-large foot into the
dainty slipper. The Prince learns that every girl in the kingdom save one has
tried the slipper on and failed the test and announces that he will bring her
to the palace himself. Finding Cinderella, he escorts her to the palace, where
the slipper fits her. Her beautiful raiment is magically restored, and all bow
to the future princess. Although a courtier suggests that this is an excellent
opportunity for Cinderella to have her stepmother and stepsisters beheaded, she
forgives them all.
NOTE: Cinderella is always
nicer than I am. Off with their heads!
The prince and Cinderella again sneak away
to the garden. When midnight strikes, Cinderella panics and starts to run away
again, but her fairy godmother reappears and blesses her, assuring her that a
good and noble spirit is always rewarded.
NOTE: I quite liked this
happy ending. Cinderella will not be able to sabotage her own happiness by
running away and her virtue is rewarded. Sadly, virtue should be its own reward
because you can be a good person and bad things still happen but, in this case,,
we get a fairy tale ending.
You can watch it here. I feel the film below has
better quality (less blurry) but it only goes until she leaves for the ball.
Here is the whole film of slightly less good quality (title cards also dubbed into what I think is Spanish)but shows you all the way to the end of the film.
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for the
Laugh o Gram version.
Hello lovelies! I go through periods of food obsessions. This is one of those times. I recently ate some hummus with za'atar on it and it was love at first bite.
What is za'atar, i hear you cry? Well, I am so glad you asked. Za'atar is a spice mixture consisting of various woody herbs, sesame seeds and lemony sumac. it is often used in middle eastern cooking.
Even the name is cool. Za'atar. The two letter a's separated by an apostrophe just amp up the coolness factor. Or should that be the Z factor?
I searched online for recipes and found half a dozen...some had cumin and coriander which gave it an earthy quality, but I wanted fresh and woody--like a forest in the sunlight. Because this is how za'atar makes you feel--like you are forest bathing on a sunny day.
I made my recipe as simple as possible. I couldn't even be arsed to toast my sesame seeds and it still turned out amazing. I had everything in my cupboard except for sumac which I bought at Tesco. Don't leave out the sumac. This tart, lemony red spice gives it the sunshine taste.
Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you
sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.
This week we look at a silent film made in 1907. It
was directed by Albert Capellani who was a French film director and
screenwriter of the silent era. He had a theatrical background and often cast
stage actor colleagues for his films. Capellani's films cover many genres,
including melodramas, fairy tales, costume
dramas with historical and biblical themes, and literary adaptations including adaptations of
Beauty and the Beast as well as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables.
It starsLouise Lagrangein the title role. Lagrange was a French actress of the silent screen who starred opposite Valentino. I personally do not think much of her silent acting skills, but perhaps I am not wise to the subtleties of the silent film era.
This film is 14 minutes long and there are some
surprisingly good effects in it, but a few “what the heck is going on” moments.
Perhaps that was indicative of all silent films, I don’t know. Perhaps if you
had never seen talkies you would be able to follow the plots better.
This film has useful title cards which set the scene. We
begin with The Invitation to the Ball. We see our heroine weeping as she is
chastised by her stepmother and stepsisters. She does a lot of weeping, which
is really just putting her face in her hands and shaking her head to give you
the impression of sobbing, but as every good crybaby knows—sobs come from your
shoulders. A man enters the room and comforts her and wipe her tears. I
thought because he touched her on the face to wipe away her fake
tears was meant to be her father since he was so overly familiar, but I wasn't sure. I think he is. He opens the door and lets in a clumsy man from the palace who brings news of the ball. This becomes clear after
some wild gesticulating and a jig to indicate there will be dancing. The clumsy man from the palace seems to fall down in every room they go in. I presume this
is some sort of comic relief (because watching people fall down is funny.)
As you would expect, she isn’t allowed to go. She lays
her head on the table and pretends to cry when--and I really have no idea what
this is even after watching it five times—some sort of goblin appears out of a box
on the kitchen wall. My husband said “Is it meant to be a rat? Or a cat?” But
it definitely has a jester’s cap on and tries to repeatedly taunt or frighten
her throughout the film. I genuinely have no idea, so if you do please leave me
a comment. Then her fairy godmother appears and seems to chase away the goblin
acrobat. She summons a hoard of dancing girls (why are there always dancing
girls in togas in silent films?) who appear to weaving a giant fishing net (I
kid you not) which turns into a fancy gown for Cinderella. I suppose if you had
them weave a fancy gown with actual thread it wouldn’t show up on film.
They go into the lounge and the goblin does a somersault
and becomes a man in period clothes in a very good special effect. He then throws
two chair cushions on the floor which become footman. I presume he is meant to
be the driver of the coach, but then he spends a few minutes teaching our heroine
how to dance and bow and other things she might need to know when going to a
royal ball. A minute ago he was some sort of hobgoblin and now he teaches
deportment.
There is a big orange warning card to remind her to be
home by midnight followed by a fantastic
special effect of a pumpkin becoming a coach. Then she is whisked off to the
ball which turns out to be an outdoor affair. It is some sort of garden party
where is quite hard to tell who is who (these white period wigs make it very
hard to tell people apart.) While other people dance, she walks for ages in a circle with someone that I thought must be the prince but then after her long
walk she is introduced to someone (without a white period wig) and they dance
so HE must be the prince. Then cleverly, the musical accompaniment begins to
chime twelve times and she runs away leaving her shoe.
The escape was the strangest I had ever seen. She is
running down a road and is suddenly attacked by that inexplicable goblin (for
the love of God, please help me figure out what he is!) and then is seen to be exaggeratedly
limping with a whole search party twenty steps behind her. They catch up to her
and the prince seems to ask a “Have you seen a lovely maiden pass this way?”
sort of question which she violently shakes her head to say “No.” He doesn’t
recognise her in her rags, and she breathes a sigh of relief.
The next scene is the most extraordinary. She sobs
herself to sleep resting her head on the kitchen table. Then her fairy
godmother appears and with a wave of her wand the entire kitchen wall explodes
like a bomb went off. THE ENTIRE KITCHEN
WALL. She doesn’t wake up at all despite a huge chunk of masonry landing on
her leg. This leaves a handy hole to view
the palace and see them plotting to try the slipper on every available maiden.
Then--in an amazing trick of reversing the film footage—the wall flies back up
and puts itself back together like a jigsaw puzzle.
We then see them trying the slipper on every maiden in
the land, and I do mean every maiden--rich or poor. We see ladies sitting in Chippendale
style chairs in a garden (rich) and a lady with an apron chasing a huge flock
of chickens (poor.) They both are unsuccessful at getting the slipper to fit. They
go to her house and she takes off her wooden clogs and lo and behold –the slipper
fits. Suddenly he recognises her, and they get married in colour. That’s right
folks—the last few minutes of this early black and white film were hand
coloured in a sort of garish Easter egg colour scheme. And they lived happily
ever after.
You can watch it below:
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for a
longer silent film starring Mary Pickford.
Hello lovelies! Spiderman and I both have a sweet tooth and we love a little smackeral of something sweet after our evening meal. I used to always have cake or brownies or some other more decadent dessert, but these days we tend to go for energy bites. Or bliss balls. Or whatever trendy name is going around.
I try to vary the flavors we eat. I was having a rummage through my cupboards when I came across a bag of dried cranberries left over from Christmas. My mind starting whirring (you could practically hear it churning out loud according to Spiderman) and a few google searches later I found this recipe from the blog CUPCAKES AND KALE CHIPS.
I wanted a real tangy cranberry vibe not just a few cranberries sprinkled throughout. This one hit the spot.
As I was typing this I mused to Spiderman that the next time I made it I would try substituting orange juice for the water which would make it even more scrummy. This recipe is easy peasy orange squeezy. See what I did there?
Cranberry Almond Energy Balls 1/2 cup (GF) oats 1/2 cup ground almonds (almond meal) or more oats if nuts aren't your thing 1/2 cup sticky dates 1/2 cup dried cranberries pinch salt 3 TB water or orange juice
In your food processor grind the oats, almonds and salt to a fine powder. Add the dried fruit and while the machine is running add the liquid one TB at a time until it all sticks together. Roll into balls. Mine made 13.
It was really nice and tasted a bit like a Bakewell Tart. But the orange will alter the flavour profile. So we will have to just try them both!
Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you
sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.
For the next few weeks we are going to look at silent
film versions of the classic tale of Cinderella. I will start with the oldest I
can find by Georges Méliès.
According to Wikipedia:
Méliès was a French illusionist and film director who
led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was
well-known for the use of special
effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple
exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves,
and hand-painted colour. He was also one of
the first filmmakers to use storyboards. His
films include A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904), both
involving strange, surreal journeys somewhat in the style of Jules Verne,
and are considered among the most important early science fiction films, though their
approach is closer to fantasy.
He also experimented with “stag films.” His most famous of these risque films was After the Ball. "The film's
plot is a one-minute scene of a servant bathing a woman, along with the
scenarios before and after as the servant is helping her get undressed (down to
a bodystocking which simulates nudity) while revealing a few layers of
clothing, bathing her, and finally covering and drying her with a robe. This is
the earliest known film to show
simulated nudity." (again thanks to Wikipedia for that information.)
If you would like to watch it click{HERE}
This film of Cinderella was made in 1899 and features
several elements we recognise and a few that are really strange. It begins with Cinderella begging her
stepmother to go to the ball and then being refused. Her fairy godmother
appears, and our protagonist brings a crate of live animals who transform into larger
papier mache animals and then to footmen for her coach. Similarly a real pumpkin
is transformed into a giant fake one and then a carriage. Her fairy godmother
gestures sternly at the wall which I presume there hangs a clock, but it is
hard to see as this is in black and white and 121 years old. When Cinderella
leaves for the ball the godmother disappears down a trap door (much like the
effect that was used in the 1939 Wizard of Oz where the witch of the west
leaves Munchkinland.) We see Cinders and the prince at the ball dancing away to
some waltzy music (as opposed to the jaunty music at the start of the film)
when suddenly who should appear but Father Time with an enormous white beard
holding a huge clock showing it is midnight. He somersaults into a puff of
smoke and disappears. Her fairy godmother shows up and waggles her finger and
turns our heroine’s dress back to rags. The Father Time bit was weird but made
sense in the context of the showing it is midnight part of the story, but then
he reappears at her house with a bunch of dancing girls who all turn to giant
clocks and torment her. Then it goes back to be the tale we know—the slipper is
tried on and it ends with a wedding with some exuberant dancing by girls
outside the church who look suspiciously like they were the ones being clock
tormentors.
Watch the film here:
This film and its effects are amazing since it was
made in 1899. I have long been a fan of Georges Méliès so this was a delight to
find.
That’s all for this
week. Stay tuned next week for another look into the silent film industry and
Cinderella.
Hello lovelies! Like so many people I dream about
food. Do you do that too? Surely that can’t be just me.
I dream about food marriages--what would happen if
Food A married Food B….what kind of Food Baby would they make?
This recipe was born out of one such dream.
I woke up and said to Spiderman, “What do you think
would happen if I mixed my white bean alfredo sauce with potato soup?” This is
the result of that.
It made a HUGE amount. 8 bowls in total. Well 7 bowls
but I added some sweetcorn the next day to the soup which made it go to the
full 8 servings. This could well be 8 meals for less greedy vegans but was only
4 meals for us because we each had two bowls every night.
I also topped it each night with Bacon Mushrooms.
These savoury mushrooms are always a welcome addition to potato soup. You can
find my recipe for them below:
Preheat your oven to 220C/425F.
Start by marinating your mushrooms for the bacon mushrooms in a small
bowl.
1. Scoop out the mushrooms from the marinade with a slotted spoon and bake them on parchment paper (or silicone mat) for 12 to 15 minutes. Reserve the marinade to add to the soup.
If you do want to make the mushrooms, do it while the
soup cooks and don’t forget to add your leftover marinade to the soup for an
extra pop of flavour.
Alfredo Potato Soup
The soup:
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
800g white potatoes, diced (don’t bother
to peel, the good bits are in the skin)
6 cups hot strong vegetable stock (I used
regular powder stock, plus a glug of tamari/soy sauce and a teaspoon of Tesco
brand marmite)
1. In a big ole pot, cook the onion and carrot in a splash
of water or oil until softened. Add in the potatoes and the hot stock and bring
to the boil. Then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Meanwhile make your
alfredo sauce.
For the sauce:
1 onion, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup vegetable stock
******************
1 tin white beans, drained and rinsed (I used butter beans)
1 TB lemon juice
1/4 cup nutritional yeast or vegan parmesan
1 cup unsweetened non dairy milk of choice (we did soya milk)
1/2 a tsp salt
1. Put the onions in a small pot with the veggie
stock and garlic and cook on med high. Cook until liquid is nearly absorbed,
remove from heat and let cool for a minute or so.
2. Add to the blender with the rest of the sauce ingredients and blend until
velvety smooth. The onion really thickens it up and add flavour.
3. When the potatoes are soft remove from the heat and
use an immersion blender to puree the soup to your liking—we like it 80%
smooth/20% chunky.
4. Add the alfredo sauce and gently reheat---not too
high or the milk might split if it is soymilk.
5. If you made the bacon mushrooms throw some on top
of your soup. Also if you made the bacon mushrooms, don’t forget to throw the
leftover marinade into the soup for another flavour boost. If you didn’t make
the bacon mushrooms then add 1 TB tamari/soy sauce, 1 tsp liquid smoke and 1
tsp toasted sesame oil to recreate that boost of flavah.
The second day I reheated what was left of the soup
with an additional cup of defrosted frozen sweetcorn and more marinade from the
bacon mushrooms.
