Archive | Uncategorized RSS feed for this section

Lockdown: The Earphone Weeks

7 May

This Is Fine

When this all started I eyed up the four foot stack of books next to the sofa, waiting to be read. Oh I was going to steam through that. On furlough I bet I could probably manage a whole book a day.

Let’s get to it, what have I read these last long, strange, empty six weeks:

Nothing.

Not one single book. Why? No idea. I just have absolutely no wish to read. I’m a bit annoyed with myself but I just don’t want to. I was halfway through the excellent A Treachery Of Spies and it’s just sitting on the coffee table starting at me.

I have a feeling it’s not just me, so I thought I’d tell you about the things I have been enjoying and some things I think you might too.

What I’ve been listening to 

You're Dead To Me

I am loving Greg Jenner’s You’re Dead To Me podcast on BBC Sounds. He sits down with an academic and a comedian to talk about a historical figure or event for 50 minutes and I think this is the main thing that has stopped my brain ossifying. Each episode is fascinating, informative and very funny and I feel at least 10% smarter. So far my favourites have been The Spartans, Blackbeard and Lord Byron. (And it’s amazing how many professors turn out to be really hot when you Google them.)

 

Ghosts In The Burbs

Ghosts In The Burbs is sooooo not usually my sort of thing at all but I’ve been really sucked into this. Liz Sower is your common or garden stay at home mum in Wellesley, Massachusetts – chatty, affable, someone you’d hang out with – who has a bit of a thing for ghost stories so puts up a flyer asking locals to tell her theirs. Each episode she meets up with someone to hear about their experience and suddenly you’ve gone from a description of a handbag to waiting to be murdered by a seven foot tall shadow man who lives behind the fridge.

 

ElvenQuest

Oh my god I can’t explain how much I loved this. ElvenQuest completely rips the piss out of basically every fantasy novel ever and had me doing huge out loud laughs. Stephen Mangan stars as a sarky novelist of said genre who, with his dog, gets sucked into a Lord of The Rings parody land called Lower Earth where he and a band of warriors team up against Alistair McGowan’s Lord Darkness. It sounds like such awful geekery but it’s just the most hilarious pastiche you basically can’t not like it. If that doesn’t win you over, loads of the jokes are about sex. Hope that helps.

 

This Thing of Darkness

This Thing Of Darkness is a really gripping drama podcast that’s sort of a look at the impact of a murder on a family, and sort of a whodunnit. David is in prison charged with the murder of his son, Jamie, though he insists he is innocent. The episodes take the form of his talks with his psychologist, her interviews with the rest of the family and her thoughts on the psychological impact of terrible crimes. Did David do it? It’s a compelling listen that’ll keep you thinking. A good one for when you’re pottering around in the kitchen.

 

Hag

I listened to Hag last year but have dipped in and out a bit recently. I was completely ready to hate this as it’s sold as “feminist retellings” of folk stories from the writers’ hometowns and is that not just the most tedious thing you have ever heard? From the description I assumed they would be militantly irritating and all about armpit hair but I loved them. Women are really interestingly portrayed and put front and centre without it being sort of obvious, and the stories are brilliant. As an extra treat, at the end of each episode the writers discuss their story with Oxford’s Professor Carolyne Larrington who specialises in medieval literature and they’re such interesting chats. This is also the second time I have mentioned professors in this post so look how smart I am.

 

The Whisperer in Darkness

This is one I tell everyone they have to try, but that’s because The Whisperer In Darkness is just SO incredible that I couldn’t stop listening, crouched in a corner looking like The Scream and trying not to cry. Based on H. P. Lovecraft stories, it’s about a fictional true crime podcast called Mystery Machine, which I would totally listen to if it existed. The two podcasters start an investigation into the case of Charles Dexter Ward, a man who has disappeared from his locked room in an American institution, while the psychiatrist treating him arrives in London to commit a murder. Cue the occult, secret government plots, more of the occult and you literally jumping out of your skin at some points. The second series is just as fantastic and creepy and one bit – you’ll know which bit when you listen – made me scream.

 

Homeless Bodies

It is such a shame that there are only six short episodes of Homeless Bodies. Each story is based on an item from the Wellcome Collection so naturally they’re all creepy as shit. I think this must be Audible’s Thing because each episode begins with the author talking to one of the Collection’s curators (does this count as a Professor hat trick?) about why they decided they liked a tattooed bit of human skin or whatever enough to write about it.  They’re all absolutely brilliant and my favourite one is the second episode, based on the scold’s bridal. Weirdly.

 

Mortem

Let’s talk Mortem. This is the first I’d heard of Carla Valentine. She’s an incredibly cool and charismatic mortician, and this podcast takes a death – the body on Carla’s slab – and then goes from the morgue to the crime scene to police labs and speaks to real-life experts as if they’re working to solve the case. It sounds really simple but it’s an interesting dive into how it all works. Each case is told over three episodes and I think my favourite is The Burning Man: the tests they do, and how, have you gripped. This is one I like to listen to while I iron. Post mortems don’t really go with cooking supper.

 

Paradise

In 1978,  after going missing while travelling through Belize, Peta Frampton and Chris Farmer’s bodies were found. They had been sailing on Silas Duane Boston’s boat, along with his two sons, and he was the only suspect. He wasn’t arrested for 38 years, despite his sons claiming they had witnessed the murder. Paradise asks why it took so long for authorities to act, speaks to Peta and Chris’s families,  includes recordings from Chris’s time travelling, and basically teams up with the suspect’s oldest son. I felt like this podcast was going to be really intrusive, but actually the two journalists investigating are really sensitive, and it feels like it means something to them. It’s a sad story, so this isn’t one for one of those lockdown days that involves just blankly lying facedown on the floor for three hours.

 

My Favorite Murdwe

Oh come on, we all knew it was going to show up. If you haven’t already heard of My Favorite Murder, you probably won’t like My Favorite Murder.

 

 

Halloween Costume Ideas For Grown-Ups

1 Oct

I saved all of these as screenshots when Storify shut down and printed them out and posted them to Agnes for prosperity.

Here is a nicely un-flowing list of all the Halloween costume ideas you will ever need.

Pastry Fail

4 Apr

I think that being able to cook your own food and to not be scared of trying new things, whether they’re tastes or something you thought would be too complicated – like profiteroles or  bone marrow pie funnels for instance – is hugely important, and no one should be worried about having to knock something up for supper or when having people over. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the time I don’t WANT to cook, but it’s nice to know I’m able to.

Over the last few years I’ve been really surprised by how calm I am in the kitchen, and how if something goes wrong I tend to do a quick bit of heavy swearing and then just start again or try and fix it. Until Tuesday. Until Tuesday when I tried to make some pastry and a Hulk rage took over. NEVER EVER EVER AGAIN. Except for tomorrow when I’m attempting to hand make pasta without a machine.

I knocked this together the night before and let it rest in the fridge. I chopped the big ball of it in half to make it easier to manage and started to roll it out to line some tart cases. It was cracking quite a lot but on went a rictus grin and I kept it up.

Pastry FailTits, arse and tits again. I went to roll it out again. It didn’t crack so much this time, so that was good. Yaaay.

Pastry FailThen I tried to lift it to put it over the tart case.

Pastry Fail

At this point my boyfriend was suddenly concentrating very hard on his work while I mimed taking the window out with the rolling pin and hissing. I tried to put it together again to roll it out. Again.

Pastry FailOmg. Omg I hate you so much. One more go. One more go.

Pastry Fail

I gave up on that bit of dough as it was getting very warm and just crumbling and being SHIT. SO SHIT. I think I whacked at it with the rolling pin for a bit until my arm started to hurt. By now my mum had slunk out of the kitchen just in case she breathed too loudly or tried to suggest something that might help.

I started on a new bit of the dough and FINALLY FUCKING FINALLY OH MY GOD got it to line one of the cases. And then had to do it twice more. I tried that first bit of dough again to make a nice even four, and then flung it into the bin trying not to then set fire to it.

Isn’t all the patching around the sides good?

Pastry Fail

I had to blind bake these to fill later, so had a fight with some grease proof paper and some baking beads. Finally though, it was coming together.

Pastry Fail ONLY THE BASE WOULDN’T COOK ENOUGH UNDER ALL THE BEADS AHAHAHAHHAHAH.

I poked some holes in to try and stop it rising while I browned it off a bit.

Pastry Fail

Finally, though, I had some slightly crappy but DONE, actually FINISHED pastry cases for the pudding I was making. Not the four I had hoped for, but one for me, one for The Chap, and one for my mum. Phew. Aaaaaaand, relax.

Pastry FailYou know what? Just put it in your bum. Whatever. I don’t even care.

Pastry Fail

 

Have a lovely weekend xxxx

 

 

 

No-Knead Bread

25 Jun
No-knead bread

Hello.

TUMBLEWEED.

I’ve been incredibly lazy and haven’t blogged for aaaaages, but this is an amazing recipe I stole off Sod Nigella and the Mountain Bakery for the most delicious home-made loaf you will ever eat.

This is so terribly easy but does take a bit of time – I tend to make the dough in the evening and stick it in the oven the next morning.

You’ll need:
  • A casserole with a lid
  • 400g strong white bread flour (On Morgan’s advice I tend to throw in a big tablespoon of extra flour to get the bread a bit firmer.)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons of salt.
  • 350ml tepid water
  • ¼ teaspoon of dried yeast

As always, make sure the water isn’t too hot otherwise you’ll kill all your yeast and then where will you be, hey? Sad and hungry, that’s where.

Mix in the yeast and leave it to one side for a minute – it should go slightly gross. This means it’s working.Stick the flour and salt in a nice big bowl (you want lots of room for the dough to rise) and add the water. Mix it up a bit but don’t worry about it too much.  It’ll end up as a very sticky, wet mess. It doesn’t need to be all glossy and together.Cover this with clingfilm and leave it somewhere warm overnight. That’s right, OVERNIGHT.

When your dough has proved it’ll seem like it’s gone all wrong. A big, bubbly sticky mess that looks like it’ll fall as soon as you touch it. It should be like this, or always has been when I’ve made it, so deep breaths – you’re fine.

Whack your oven up as high as it will go, probably 250ºc, and stick in the casserole with the lid on to heat up.

Flour a surface really well and, being careful not to knock too much air out of it, get your dough out of the bowl. Fold it over on itself so the top is all floured and cover. Everyone seems to be using a tea towel but I can’t be bothered with the washing so use clingfilm.

Once your pot is nice and hot plonk your dough in it, put the lid back on and stick it in the oven for half an hour. After this take the lid off and stick it back in for another ten minutes or until it’s golden and crusty on top.

No-knead bread

Done. Told you it was easy.

So easy EVERYONE has been at it.

Mike Fleming made it:

Kate DH made it:

One of the guys from my office made it:

I made it again and again and again…
 
%d bloggers like this: