Helen – Page 79 – helenthura.com

July 22, 2007July 23, 2007

Bertha Control CD Launch

Last night I headed down to the Zoo (solo because my prospective partner in crime decided that reading Harry Potter was more important than live music, shakes head) primarily to see Banawurun and Saritah and secondly to check out Bertha Control live for their CD launch.

Banawurun were a treat and I knew they would be. Enjoyed them at Woodford and enjoyed them immensely again last night. There was no didg or clap sticks this time though. Troy n’ Trevelyn draw on their Indigenous and Zimbabwean roots respectively and weave the music together in a way which just makes perfect sense, a blend of soul, funk and of course some good old fashioned reggae.

Saritah is someone I have known about for a couple of years now after finding her website and downloading some mp3’s so it was an absolute treat to see her live at long last. Saritah was joined up on stage for a couple of songs by local girl Georgia Potter, who I have seen round the traps before, she added some rather incredible soul vocals to the set. The set was closed rather perfectly by Pray.

Bertha Control, were intriguing, full of reggae and funk with a good dose of rock. For a couple of songs they were joined by a cellist and violinist which was great fun they also had a horns section which consisted of sax, trumpet and flute 😀 always love a horns section. One song in particular stood out for me, which was Daze of the Week which you can listen to on their myspace page.

July 19, 2007July 19, 2007

Lemon Meringue Pie

First off, every time I see Meringue written/typed I think of Merengue or more precisely Pintame or Sauve mente by Elvis Crespo and my feet start tapping. Ok now that I have that out of the way.

I have never actually had Lemon Meringue Pie before, sorry correction I have no recollections of eating it in the past but Mum says she made it a bit when I was a wee kid so I quite possibly have eaten it before. Nevertheless when I was pulling Bush Lemons off the tree on the side of the road, I knew that the the first thing I was going to make was Lemon Meringue Pie.

Like any good Australian, this recipe comes from The Australian Women’s Weekly Cooking Class Cookbook, our version is at least 29 years old as Mum’s maiden name is written in the front. This book though is a classic and many of our favourite recipes are from it.

I didn’t use the pastry recipe supplied but my last pastry disc from the Chocolate Mascarpone Tart and that pastry worked quite well.

Lemon Meringue Pie
The Australian Women’s Weekly Cooking Class Cookbook

Filling
4TBSP plain flour
4TBSP corn flour
3/4C lemon juice
lemon zest from the juiced lemons
1C sugar
90g butter, in small cubes
4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 1/4C water

Meringue
4 egg whites
2TBSP water
pinch salt
3/4C castor sugar

Line a 9″(23cm) pie plate with your preferred pastry. Decorate the edges with your finger, prick base with fork, line with a disc of baking paper and cover with rice, beans or baking weights. Cook in a 180Â°C oven for 10-15 minutes or until it is lightly browned. Leave to cool.

Dissolve the cornflour in a portion of the water so that it is smooth. In a saucepan combine the sifted flours, lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar and water. Stir till smooth over a moderate heat until the mixture boils and thickens, it must boil. Reduce the heat and stir for a further 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter and egg yolks, keep stirring till the butter is melted. Leave to cool.

Spread the cooled filling into the pastry shell. Beat the egg whites, salt and water on high speed till soft peaks form. Keep beating at high speed and gradually pour in the sugar until the sugar has dissolved (you can tell this by dipping your finger in the mixture and rubbing it against your thumb, it should be smooth). Spoon on top of the pie, spreading it evenly on top. Peak or rib the meringue decoratively with a knife or a spatula.

Bake in a 160-180Â°C oven for 5-10 minutes or until the meringue has just lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool. It is easiest to slice this with a normal dinner knife dipped in hot water.

July 17, 2007

C’side, Seaside

This takeaway shop on Gympie Rd has been a bit of an institution round the Chermside area for quite a while now. I have often walked past and seen local workers or tradies at the counter picking up a takeaway lunch or snack. It has also had a few ownership changes recently, which has seen the name change. As I was walking home from work on Saturday I couldn’t help but laugh at the new name for the shop. Abbreviating the suburb name C’side to make your fish and chip shop sound like it is right on the water front. I loved it.

July 16, 2007July 16, 2007

Blue King Brown

Last post from the ABC birthday party and really about time. I discovered Blue King Brown at Woodford this year and since then their album Stand Up has had a lot play.
Whilst the ABC show was a different vibe to Woodford where it was a X000 wet people dancing in mud at midnight to 100odd people dancing in the winter sun at the Riverstage with X000 people sitting on the hill behind them, BKB delivered with the crowd listening to every word that sung from Natalie’s mouth. There were times when the crowd was jumping, clapping and singing a long with the songs and then there were times when the crowd stood there listening in awe as they listened to the words and thought about the meaning behind them. Head over to their myspace page and listen to some tracks if you haven’t before. Now the photos which is what you all come for 🙂

July 14, 2007

Grandmum’s Cheesecake

As we were driving home from our Mackay trip, Mum noted a bush lemon tree by the side of the road laden with lemons. I promptly did a u-turn on the road and went back to the tree to pick a fewlemons. There is nothing quite like bush lemons and for the rest of the day I could smell the lemon oil on my fingers, our car too was perfumed with the delicate scent of lemons. It was quite a treat. Later on that day I picked up 5 limes and 5 meyer lemons for $1 at a farm gate stall on the Gympie-Tin Can Bay Rd. We have had quite a few lemon treats since we returned and this is the first one to be posted 🙂

This recipe is one my Grandmother used to make(hence the title) and was made by my mother with the photographs by me of course.

Grandmum’s Cheesecake

Ingredients
Crust
250g Arnott’s Scotch Fingers, crushed
45g Copha, melted
45g margarine/butter, melted

Filling
250g cream cheese
400g sweetened condensed milk
1/3c fresh lemon juice
1tbsp gelatine dissolved in 1/4c hot water

Make a crumb crust with the scotch fingers, copha marg/butter. Press into the base of a 7″x11″ Lamington tin and refrigerate.
Beat 250g cream cheese till soft, beat in the remaining ingredients. Pour into the prepared crust and chill till set..
Serve with strawberries, passion fruit or just chomp down on a piece as it is.

July 13, 2007

Target 140

We just received our quarterly council rates notice in the mail and of course the first page that everyone in Brisbane turns to at the moment is the Water Advice. I present to you our water advice page.

We are a family of 4 adults and in the most recent reporting period we were using 308L a day which works out to be 77L per person per day. The target that the BBC and Water Commission are promoting is 140L per person per day. Looking at our notice that is what we were achieving 12 mths ago. According to the Water Commission, the average per person per day usage is currently 137L in the region.

It will be interesting to see what we achieve for this period as our rain tank is now feeding the washing machine which saves about 50L per load, which will add up.

In addition to having a front loader washing machine, we don’t own a dish washer, the garden is been left to fend for itself except a few plants that get the water from the shower whilst waiting for the hot water to kick in. It is all about just taking a millisecond to think when you turn a tap on, is this necessary? Am I able to reuse this water? etc.