Murder Ballad Monday--Cruel Sister (fabric art)

Hello and welcome to part 21 of Murder Ballad Monday. After finding 20 different versions of the ballad the Twa Sisters, I was inspired to create my one version of this ballad in fabric collage.

The idea came to me in the dreamtime (as so many of my ideas do) and so I woke up and sketched out the first four "pages" of the ballad. I wasn't sure how it was going to work. Would it be a quilt? Would it be a book? Time would tell.  I decided to look through my stash of fabric and bits and bobs and see what ideas inspired me.

I took a trip to our local craft shop Community Crafts.  This little shop has been in business for 40 years, and they always have the things I need. I spoke to the friendly ladies who work there, and they helped me find some special fabric to resemble water as well as some other speciality notions.

In the end, I decided to turn it into a book as it was more practical for storage. Also, it is a story so a book format seemed appropriate. I decided to add a caption for each panel. The caption was a line or a couplet from the ballad. I did not choose just one source material, I simply used the best line from several sources.

It took me several months to complete it, but it was worth it. It is a combination of hand sewing and machine sewing and I think it is gorgeous (if I do say so myself!) I am supremely proud of it.

You can click on any picture to enlarge it, if you want to see it in more detail.

the cover

close up

close up

close up

                                   

close up

close up

                   

close up

I am so pleased with it. I feel I was able to capture their facial expressions and I used a variety of textures in the fabrics (which really doesn't show up in the photos, but trust me they are there). I felt like Holman Hunt-- Victorian painter and founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood --who liked to have a large catalogue printed with every painting detailing the symbolism of every colour choice and minute detail. I really did think about each colour, each fabric, each texture and was about to create a catalogue to go with my booklet, but felt it was a bit of overkill. But I could go on (at length!) if you ask me about it. Spiderman would advise you not to do so to save your sanity. 

But that is the end of my reflections on the ballad the Twa Sisters. For the next ten weeks I will be looking at variations, not in music, but in story form of this theme. I will be looking at traditional/fairy tales from around the world with the theme The Singing Bones.

What We Ate Wednesday--Red Beans and Rice

Hello lovelies! As I realised that I had been posting lots of chickpea recipes, I thought I would post  a recipe featuring another of my favourite cheap beans--the kidney bean. I never used to be a fan of the ole "red bean" but these days at 33p a tin and great source of  folate, dietary fibre and copper as well as  a good source of manganese, phosphorus, protein, vitamin B1, iron, potassium and
 magnesium they make the menu quite often.

Red Beans and Rice are a traditional Louisiana food. They are often cooked for ages in a slow cooker until the beans are all soft and falling apart. They also are often accompanied by smoky sausage that is cooked in with the beans to give it flavour. 

But I don't have ten hours or a slow cooker and I don't need to use smoky sausage to get that delicious smoky flavour because I have a secret ingredient. Shhh...don't tell anyone. But after you read this, run don't walk to your local grocery shop (or if you are in the UK and can't find it locally then go to Amazon and place an order) and buy yourself some Liquid Smoke.
                                 
This stuff is great. It give a real smoky aroma and taste to food that mimics the thing you liked about meat, but without the cruelty. OK, maybe you should tell people. In fact, tell everyone you know that they can get the flavour they want without anybody having to die.

I do a bit of a cheat on my Red Beans and Rice to break down the beans so they are that sort of broken down soup texture from my childhood without the ten hour wait. I use my trusty food processor to blend half the beans. Also, you know those cheap, generic plain label tins of kidney beans you see on the bottom shelf of the supermarket for pennies and were afraid to try as the beans might be all broken and not whole? This is the perfect recipe for them because you are going to crush them anyway, so don't spend the big money on posh brand name kidney beans for this recipe, OK?

This recipe serves two, but is easily doubled. I served it to my Mum and stepdad Carl when they came to Wales on their honeymoon and they enjoyed it. I like to use brown rice as that's they way we roll, but white rice is traditional, so use what you like. I also like to serve it with creamed corn as I think it looks pretty and the tastes go well together. if you live in the US, you can probably just open up a tin of creamed corn and blurp it in a pan and heat it up, but in the UK I have to make my own, so I'll include a recipe down below.

It should be noted that the picture only shows a small bit of creamed corn because I wanted to show off the rice and make it "decorative" in the photo. After I took the picture i poured more on and mixed it all together, as that's how I like to eat it, but do what you want.

Red Bean and Rice
1 tin cheapest kidney beans, drained and well rinsed
1 onion
1 green pepper, diced small (not traditionally in Red Beans and Rice, but the bitter green pepper compliments the Cajun spices. plus it is a way to use up that red headed step-child of the three pack of peppers)
lots of garlic
1 -2 TB soy sauce or tamari
1 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp Cajun seasonings (or more, but I think this  flavours them just enough)
1 cup veggie broth
1. Use your food processor to chop your onion. It will chop them really small and will thicken the beans without a ten hour cooking time. Cook the onions in a big pot with a splash of oil while you do the rest of it.
2. Wipe out, but don't bother to wash your food processor and add 3/4 cup beans, all the garlic you want, plus the one cup veggie broth and blitz until broken down. It will never get super smooth as there will be bean skins. Just get it pureed and don't sweat it, OK?
3. Add the soy sauce or tamari to deglaze the pan and get any brown bits up and stir to coat the onions and add the bean mixture, the rest of the beans you didn't blitz, the green pepper, the liquid smoke and the Cajun spices.
4. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Because I use easy cook brown rice, I start it now and let my red beans cook until the rice is done.  If you are doing the creamed corn you should be making it and then heating it when the rest is nearly done. .
5. At the end, use the back of the spoon to mash the remaining beans a bit. Taste for salt. My Cajun spices have salt as the first ingredient, so it is as salty as I need it to be.

Creamed Corn
Cream style corn is traditionally made with just corn, water, salt and sugar, but this one uses non dairy milk which makes it super creamy, but feel free to use water. I adapted this recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Appetite for Reduction. This recipe is also easily doubled.

In your blender put the following:
1/2 cup non dairy milk
1 tsp sugar
pinch salt
2 tsp starch--I used tapioca starch, but you could use corn starch (cornflour to my British peeps)
1.5 cups frozen corn that has been defrosted in boiling water and drained

1. Pulse until the consistency you like, then heat.

That's it. A bit of Louisiana flavour in Wales. One that tastes like my childhood except without all the meat, but still just as tasty.  Bon Appétit! 

Murder Ballad Monday The Little Maple Tree (Hungarian)

 Hello and welcome to part 20 of Murder Ballad Monday. This is the first version where I have found a written record, but have not managed to find a recorded version.

                                

I found this version in Hungarian Classical Ballads: And Their Folklore By Ninon A. M. Leader. It is a fragmentary version of the “singing bones” type ballad (Child ballad 10) entitled The Little Maple Tree. This particular fragment is from Transylvania.

I was interested in the fact the sisters were called “orphans” in the song, but a father appears later in the song. I always thought the term orphan was one who had lost both parents, but perhaps in some countries it only applies to someone who has lost their mother.

                                      

The lyrics are as follows:

Three orphans set out

With three little pots

To the forest

To gather strawberries,

To gather strawberries.

Their dear mother

Had left them many costly pearls

Which they were dividing,

Going on their way,

Going on their way.

The three orphans agreed to this

That she, who would be the first to fill,

To fill her little pot,

Would get the pearls.

                   

Little Bencoska filled hers first

Whereupon the two elder sisters killed her.

They put her bones into the hollow of a tree

And hastily went home.

Their father asks them

Where his dear little daughter has been left,

His little daughter,

His little Bencoska.

Three of them went out, and two of them returned.

Where has my little daughter been left?

Alas my God, where shall I go?

Where shall I go, what shall I do?

Where shall I look for her, where shall I go?

He travelled to the forest

to search for the little orphan.

Behold there is a little pipe there!

Behold there is a little pipe there!

He examines it, he even takes it out.

He is thinking what to do.

How can he play it in his sorrow?

Still, he starts to play it.

It has a peasant air.

“Play the tune, play the tune my royal father,

My dear nurse who brought me up.

My sisters have killed me.

They have put me in the hollow of a tree.

They went home and played the tune

And played the tune upon the pipe.

“Play the tune, play the tune my sister dear,

My murderer dear who has killed me!

I was once a princess too,

A princess, the little princess Pendzsoka! (sic)

A princess, the little princess Pendzsoka!

Now I am a little pipe.

My sisters have killed me.

They have put me into the hollow of a tree.

They have put me into the hollow of a tree.

Other Hungarian versions of this ballad contain the following variations:

      1.  The mother is not dead, but instead offers a beautiful dress to the one who fills her strawberry basket first.

      2. The sisters cut her head off and throw her body down a well
      3. The sisters cover her body with brushwood  and a maple tree springs up from the brushwood and a shepherd fashions a pipe from it

     4. The sisters confess their deed and are tortured as a punishment

     5. The sisters are thrown off a high cliff as punishment

     6. The father (sometimes called the King) cuts open the pipe and his youngest daughter emerges alive and well.

Here's how it breaks down compared to other versions:

Name of ballad: The Little Maple Tree

Performed by:  n/a

Refrain: none

Number of sisters: three

Where did they live: doesn’t say

Appearance described as: doesn’t say

 Sweetheart:  none mentioned

Excuse to go to the water: not to the water, but to the woods to pick strawberries
Body of water: n/a

Does it contain the line “Sometimes she sank, sometimes she swam”: no

Miller and child: no

Mistaken for: n/a

Described in death: n/a

Who finds her on the bank: her father finds her in the hollow tree

Instrument she becomes: pipe

Body parts used: doesn’t say

Would her song “melt a heart of stone”: no

Do the strings sing individually: no

What does the instrument sing: it revealed the name of the murderer

Is the sister punished: doesn’t say

So, that’s it for version twenty of The Twa Sisters. Stay tuned next Monday for version twenty-one.

Absolutely Fabulous

Oh my days, people. What a day we had yesterday. A great day. A wonderful day. An absolutely fabulous day.

The Carmarthen Vegans had been begging Sue Thomas the organiser of Absolutely Fabulous Vegan Fayres to host one in Carmarthen. We promised lots of folks would come out and buy and there would be plenty of help on the day. We finally wore her down and it happened!!!

Doors to the town hall opened at 9:00 for an 11:00 start so several of us were on hand to help traders unload their stuff and help them get set up. Several people were initially taken aback because they were used to having to unload it all themselves, but everyone seemed grateful for the help and were even more grateful at the end of the day at 4pm when we were all there to help them load up their vans. Several had a long journey home, so we got them packed and on their way in record time.

Spiderman was one of the early and late "carry the heavy stuff" helpers, but I stayed all day and helped collect the £1 entrance fee wearing my cow onesie.


Children got in free, so based on the money we took for adults we had about 300 people come in browse and buy. And boy did they ever buy! Lots of folks asked to leave and go to the cash machine and come back as there was so much to choose from.

There were:
Crafty stalls:
  Ahh Lovely 

I have a vegan necklace from her. She's so friendly and her products are fab. I met her at the Narberth fayre and she asked me "Are you one of the Carmarthen Vegans that I always see on Facebook taking pictures of themselves with a banner in fun and interesting places?" Yes. Yes I am.

Be Wilder Nature Photography

Beautiful photography.

Healthy  stalls:
Plant Based Alchemy


Salena Walker does nutrition and raw food cooking courses and sells quality supplements.

There was also a yoga stall and reflexology stall whose names I didn't catch.


Heavenly Organics

They had some lush hand cream. She told me she won't use any plastic packaging.

Food Stuff:
Brownins Caribbean Food

They came all the way from Birmingham!!!!! They were really friendly and I ate their jerk tofu with rice and peas and plantains and it was soooo delicious.

Vegan Pizza Co

I mean...vegan pizza. What more do I have to say?

Good Carma Foods

They make these lush vegan Parmesan cheeses. I won one of these in the raffle!

Babita's Spice Deli

Lovely people, lovely Indian food from Swansea.

Cwrtau Bach Deli

Her food was so fresh and healthy.

Mr Nice Pie

Mr Nice Guy as well. In the US, the word conjurs up sweetness like apple of cherry, but in the UK pie is more savoury filling.

Morgan's Brew Tea Company

Delicious teas--their fruit tea is just dehydrated fruit. I won some tea from them in the raffle!

Shirley's Homemade Raw Chocolate

I've had this at other vegan fayres and it is so dark and rich. A lovely lady who was (rightly) worried that I might be overheating slightly in my cow onesie.

Angela Feane, Veganangela Rose cakes

She is so talented! This was a cake she donated as a raffle price for an animal rescue. So, talented and kind-hearted as well!

Tufted Duck

David Grimsell sold Seitan Roast sandwiches  and vegan 'Doner' Kebabs as well as artisan breads and cakes. As seitan is made from wheat, I didn't get to try any, but my friend Aly reliably informs me he is a lovely chap and the food was great. 

The Palm Caye

They are a local ice cream parlour who have developed some vegan flavours!!!! They have previously had strawberry and mango sorbet on offer, but he has developed 3 creamy coconut based flavours that were debuted at the fayre!! There was coffee, mint chocolate and snickers which had a caramel ribbon, some chocolate and peanuts. I had the coffee one and it was everything you would have ever hoped for. He will be stocking the flavours in the shop, so I foresee outings to the ice cream parlour when we visit the comic book shop next door.


And last but not least, my favourite local health food shop Aardvark Alternatives and my BFF Paul the Beard  was working the stall!


There may have been a few more stalls, and if I have forgotten someone, let me know and I'll add them in.

There were also several animal welfare stalls raising money for sanctuaries and other animal care facilities like Lizzie's Barn and Many Tears as well as some with animal rights leaflets.

All in all, it was a glorious day. Food, friends, fun, compassion, kindness and love.

You can't get more fabulous than that!

What We Ate Wednesday--Singapore Noodles

Hello lovelies! We often have noodle bowls on low energy nights as rice noodles cook in three minutes and you can just chuck some sauteed veg in there with some sauce and call it a night. Singapore Noodles are a wee bit more work, but oh so good. The sauce is sweet, sour, tangy, spicy and yum.

I adapted this from  www.minimalistbaker.com/vegan-singapore-noodles and it is mostly the same, but with a few money saving changes.

Minimalist Baker uses tofu and I use chickpeas. Why the swap? A packet of 200g tofu costs me £2.09. A 400g tin of chickpeas (drained weight 240g) costs me 33p. You do the math.

Plus chickpeas are low in fat, high in fibre and protein and full of minerals like copper, folate, and manganese.

I like to roast my marinated chickpeas in the oven (you know how I love roasting chickpeas!) but the sauce has sugar in it and can caramelise and stick to the bottom of your pan and make a frightful mess, so I would suggest using parchment paper just to save your sanity. (and your pan)

You could also use regular old spaghetti here for your noodles, but I like the three minutes rice noodles. Besides we didn't have any spaghetti to hand, so I wasn't just going to buy something when I already had something that would work just as well.

Singapore Noodles
Preheat your oven to 200C/400F
Line a roasting pan with parchment paper.

The marinade(s)
Minimalist Baker calls for doubling the marinade and then dividing it equally --I can't cope with that. I found it easier to just make the sauce in two separate bowls. So if you can cope, double the sauce recipe below and divide in half. If you can't, then make the sauce below twice and put it in two separate containers.
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp grated ginger root
2 TB tamari (or soy sauce)
1-2TB sugar (I used demerara)
3 TB lime juice (fresh is great, but I used a squeezy bottle and it was fine) 
pinch of red pepper flakes
*Remember to make twice*

The veg:
1 onion, cut into rainbows
half a pepper
half a large carrot, cut into matchsticks
Either 1 cup frozen peas or some sugar snap peas or mange tout. (I normally use frozen peas, but Lidl had 250g packets of sugar snap peas on sale last week for 69p so I bought one and used 50g on a Thai pizza and the rest in the Singapore noodles.  I bought the sugar snaps in order to have these two meals. This is called planning! Spiderman would call it smug.)
6 button mushrooms, diced (optional)
1 TB toasted sesame oil
2 tsp curry powder (again this is something I didn't have to hand so I used 1.5 tsp garam masala and 1/2 a tsp turmeric. Problem solved.)

For the roast chickpeas:
1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 container of marinade
Stir to coat. Bake for 15 minutes, remove from the heat and stir then bake for 10 more. The chickpeas will absorb the sauce and go all sticky and crazy delicious.

Cooking the veg:
1. Meanwhile, heat the TB of toasted sesame oil in the pan and cook your onion.
2. When the onion is soft then add in the rest of the vegetables and mushrooms (if using) and cook until crisp tender. Add the curry powder and stir to coat.
I had to take it off the heat as the chickpeas weren't ready and that is fine. If you finish early, remove from heat, deal with the noodles and by then the chickpeas will be ready.
3. Cook your three minute noodles with a kettle full of boiling water and drain.
4. Add the other container of sauce to the veg and heat until the sauce bubbles. Add your drained noodles and roasted chickpeas and dig in.

I notice we have been eating quite a lot of chickpeas lately. They are cheap and they are nutritious, so it really is no wonder. But perhaps you are tired of chickpeas. "When a man is tired of chickpeas, he is tired of life," That's what Samuel Johnson really wanted to say. But in case you are, best beloved, I am planning to cook that Louisiana standard Red Beans and Rice soon and I will blog about that.

Happy eating!

Murder Ballad Monday--Grausame Schwester (German)

Hello and welcome to part nineteen of Murder Ballad Monday.

For the last few weeks we have been exploring non-English versions of the traditional murder ballad The Twa Sisters. We have seen two Norwegian versions and one Swedish version of the song and today we are going to look at a German version entitled Grausame Schwester by a folk metal band called Subway to Sally. They are a heavy metal band that uses folk instruments like the lute, bagpipes, violin and hurdy-gurdy. While the Scandinavian versions were sung in the style of a traditional ballad, this one is not. I will be honest and say if I had not read the lyrics I would have never guessed it was a version of the Twa Sisters, but it most definitely is.  It is also only one of two that I have found that do not feature a refrain. 

If you would like to see the lyrics in German you can go here:

http://lyricstranslate.com/en/grausame-schwester-cruel-sister.html

It is fairly melodramatic with lines like 

Jealousy gnawed at her day and night,

she wished that the beautiful one would lie in a grave

and they wept themselves blind, so lachrymose was the tune 

and the final over-the top lines:

Oh cruel sister, what have you done,

the girl killed in feverish madness

With envy in the heart, with malice in the gut

Hell now awaits, they will kill you too!

This is a live version of the song sung at some sort of huge metal fest, but it is amazing how the crowd responds to the traditional lyrics (even if the music is anything but traditional). Watch the version by Subway to Sally here:

Here's how it breaks down compared to other versions:

Name of ballad: Grausame Schwester

Performed by:  Subway to Sally

Refrain: none

Number of sisters: two

Where did they live: in the north by the sea

Appearance described as: One was of a bright and beautiful figure, the older, however, was dark and cold.

 Sweetheart:  none mentioned

Excuse to go to the water: none given, but it was a day that the winds blew strong
Body of water: seashore

Does it contain the line “Sometimes she sank, sometimes she swam”: no

Miller and child: no

Mistaken for: n/a

Described in death: n/a

Who finds her on the bank: two musicians 

Instrument she becomes: harp

Body parts used: hair and leg

Would her song “melt a heart of stone”: no, it was a song like a scream

Do the strings sing individually: no

What does the instrument sing: it revealed the name of the murderer

Is the sister punished: yes I would think so with a last line that says Hell now awaits, they will kill you too!

Here are the lyrics if you would to follow along.

Cruel Sister

There lived a woman in the north by the sea,

long ago, she bore two daughters

One was of a bright and beautiful figure,

the older, however, was dark and cold.

Jealousy gnawed at her day and night,

she wished that the beautiful one would lie in a grave,

and then one day, as the wind blew strong,

she pushed her sister from the cliff down into the sea

The wind and the waves, they roar and cry,

far above the cliffs, far above the rocks.

But through the wind and the waves a sound penetrates

the voice of a girl, a song like a scream

Two musicians went down to the windy beach,

they found the lifeless body in the sand,

they took her hair, they took her leg,

they built a harp, to free the song

On the windy beach, when they began to play

they wept themselves blind

so lachrymose was the tune, as it softly

revealed the name of the murderer

The wind and the waves, they roar and cry,

far above the cliffs, far above the rocks.

But through the wind and the waves penetrates a sound

the voice of a girl

Oh cruel sister, what have you done,

the girl killed in feverish madness

With envy in the heart, with malice in the gut

Hell now awaits, they will kill you too!

So, that’s it for version nineteen of The Twa Sisters. Stay tuned next Monday for version twenty.

Odd (Day) Out

Well, hello! We had the most spectacular "Odd Day Out" today and I wanted to share our fun with everyone.

So why was it "Odd"?

Well, for starters we had to go the "big city" AKA Cardiff on the train. It is two hours from where we live in Carmarthen and so we don't do it very often. it has to be something. *special*. This was special.

Also we were going to have a slap up meal at a restaurant, something we only do once in blue moon. So that was a treat to look forward to.

So why were we venturing to Cardiff, I hear you cry? For the Cardiff Children's Literature Festival, of course! It was being held at Cardiff Castle, so we got free admittance to the castle (saving us £12.50 each!) with our ticket to see the event. So who were we going to see? I know you are dying to know so......drumroll please...

                                   

OK, you may not know him by name. But you should. And you will after this. He is a children's book writer and illustrator extraordinaire and all round nice bloke.

So as that chirpy Julie Andrew's song goes....Let's start at the very beginning...a very good place to start. 

We left Carmarthen station around 10 and settled in for the two hour train ride. Spiderman had his book and I had my i-pod and we spent the entire train ride pretending to be these two cockatoos and giggling.

We arrived at the big city and had a quick alfresco lunch courtesy of M&S and then wandered to the castle. As I said earlier, we got into the castle for free (AM DDIM!) so we wandered the lovely grounds soaking in the (rare) Welsh sunshine. At 2pm, we were admitted into the "Undercroft" which was a slightly musty, rather echo-y, dimly lit underground room with a whole gaggle of munchkins.

As per usual, we were the only adults without kids, but that never matters to us. We had as good of a time (dare I say even better?) than the kiddos there. The set-up was well thought out--hard chairs for the grown ups and lots of scatter cushions on the floor for the children to lounge about on.

Now a bit about Rob Biddulph. We love his books. Especially this one.
                                     

I mean, who doesn't love sausage dogs, right?

So he started by showing a slide show that as a grown up (but a kid at heart) I found fascinating. He talked about himself as a child and how he loved to draw. He showed some of his early illustrations. He took his favourite book characters and wrote new adventures for them and then stapled the paper together to make it a "proper" book. Me too! I wanted to shout. I did that, too! My early years were consumed with writing books about Dorothy Gale and her comrades in Oz.

He then did a directed drawing for the kids. I wanted to do too, but the lady handing out the clipboard with the paper and pencil wouldn't hand one to me because I didn't have a child with me. Hrumph. My inner child would have liked one, thank you very much. Anyway, he helped them draw the bear from his terrific book GRRRRR! Then he read it aloud with audience participation on the growling bits!!!
                                        

Then he taught us some useful pirate phrases and he read us from his book Sunk starring our old friend Penguin Blue and a host of other animals.

                                           

Can I just say there were some *excellent* pirate-y jokes. Someone (Cough! Cough! not naming names here) thought they were terrible...but what does he know? he never laughs at Christmas cracker jokes or the Panto. Are you ready?

Q: What is a Pirate's favourite letter of the alphabet?
A: Arrrrrrrrr!
Boom Boom!

And the captain of the sunken pirate vessel was called Walker Plank which made me squeal with laughter and made Rob Biddulph glance over in my direction.

Anyway, the talk was excellent and after we queued so he could sign our books. He was so generous and signed it with a beautiful flourish of his fountain pen despite being left handed (How does he do that??? All a fountain pen gives me is a smeary blob of ink!)

He even drew us a sausage dog hula-hooping! 

I had made him a gift as well. It had started as an idea for a badge, but the dog was so long I couldn't make it work, so it morphed into a "thing you can hang up."

He seemed genuinely touched by it and said he would hang it in his studio! 

After our lovely encounter with a wonderful illustrator, we toddled on to Zizzi where we had gluten free pizza with vegan mozzarella cheese followed by vegan coconut and chocolate swirl gelato which was lush. It was such a treat to get a meal and a pudding in a restaurant! 

Then we waddled back to the train station and took the 6pm train back home. On the way, just as we were arriving back into Carmarthen, the sky was the most breathtaking shades of pink and lavender. 

It truly was the perfect end to a perfect day. Nothing odd about that.