At the moment I am listening to Confusion, a collection of unreleased live songs by Elliott Smith. It is a really great collection of his songs which have never been released and the sound quality is amazing. Pure Elliott. I hope to get the new album New Moon when I go to work on Saturday, I have listened to a few songs off it on various MP3 blogs and the album’s myspace and I am very much waiting to listen to the 2 CDs through.
I watched two really great TV shows in the past week (both on the ABC of course) , the first was Wildlife in a Warzone which looked at how wildlife numbers are coping in Sierra Leone as well a curious first trip home in fifteen years for the “host” Sanjayan Muttulingam. All in all very interesting, especially finding out that since the end of the civil war in 2002 personal ownership of guns has been banned in SL, which has had a secondary effect of reducing the number of protected animals that were been hunted. The other was of course BastardBoys, a dramatised telling of the 1998 waterfront dispute, I felt that it was really well put together and can see it picking up a few awards this year. Of course it caused a lot of debate round the net, in the papers, on the radio etc as to if it was Howard Bashing and free advertising for Labor or using it as an example of the bias in the ABC it went on and on.
I went for a walk to Aldi today and took this photo on the way there. It is the Chermside Bowls Club that is just round the corner from our house and in a couple of week we are having a barefoot bowls day there for work, which will be heaps of fun 🙂
I first noticed Julie Le Clerc when I was in NZ back in February, her books were seemingly everywhere I looked. The other week when I was browsing the library shelves to see if there was any new cookery books that I hadn’t looked at before I saw Julie’s cafe@home on the shelf and without having a flick through I grabbed it off the shelf. I have really enjoyed reading it and plan to make some more things from the book yet.
On Sunday, I had a quick panic when I thought it was my turn to cook morning tea for work on Monday so after a quick flip through the book I settled on the Coconut Cream Loaf, it was only after I had baked the cake did I realise that I was a week early. Oh well I now have slices of cake tucked away in the freezer to be taken as morning/afternoon tea when needed.
Lemon Coconut Loaf with Pink Icing
(adapted from Coconut Cream Loaf with Pink Icing, p. 162)
Preheat oven to 180, grease and flour a 21cm loaf tin.
Cream the butter and sugar. Then add eggs one at a time. Add the coconut milk and lemon juice. Stir in the flour and coconut. Pour into loaf tin and bake for 40 minutes or until cooked. Ice with simple icing sugar icing and decorate with some more coconut.
I have really enjoyed this cake warmed up in the microwave for a few seconds as it really brings out the coconut flavours.
Blueberry Brioche Scrolls
(adapted from Blueberry Scroll Buns, p. 62)
Julie’s brioche method is quite simplified compared to the others I have seen round the traps in that the dough is not cool risen but warm risen like you would traditionally do for a normal loaf of bread. This means the time between the beginning and completion is severely reduced.. A basic brioche dough is given and then a number of variations are given, the Blueberry scrolls are one of them.
Plain Brioches
1/4C warm water
2tsp active dried yeast
2tbsp sugar
4C plain flour/strong flour
1tsp salt
1C warm milk
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
150g softened butter
1 lightly beaten egg to glaze
1. Place the warm water in a small bowl and sprinkle in the yeast and sugar, leave the yeast to activate for a little while.
2. In a small cup lightly beat the 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks together. In a large bowl combine the flour and salt. Then add the yeast mixture, eggs, softened butter and milk, mix to combine.
3. Turn out on to a floured bench top and knead till smooth and glossy (I needed to work into a moderate amount of extra flour as I found the dough to be rather wet. Place kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in volume, about 1hr or so. Lightly press back the dough, turn out on to the bench top and give it a light knead.
4. Preheat oven to 190. Form dough into to desired shapes either a loaf or 12 mini loaves, place in oiled bakeware and leave to rise for 20 minutes or so.
5. Glaze with beaten egg and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and with a firm crust.
Blueberry Brioche Scrolls.
1 basic brioche dough prepared to step 3
1/2C soft brown sugar
1C Blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1. Roll brioche dough into a 25cmx40cm rectangle, sprinkle with brown sugar and blueberries.
2. Roll up into a log and cut log into 2-4cm portions (This all depends on what size your largest muffin pans are and what size you want your cooked buns. I cut mine at about 3cm and cooked them in a standard 12 hole large muffin pan and think they are just the right size).
3. Place spirals into greased muffin pans. Preheat oven to 190 and leave to rise for 20 minutes or so.
4. Glaze with the beaten egg from the basic brioche dough and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and with a firm crust.
Julies’s notes say that the blueberries will melt into the brown sugar becoming jam like and will cling to the spirals of the dough. I don’t know if I used too many blueberries (you think I actually measured them?) or not enough sugar but I ended up with most of my scrolls oozing blueberry syrup out of the bottom. The recipe says it will make 12 but I only used half of the original dough to make these and ended up with 9 scrolls.
These are so yummy, however next time I am either going to make them with raspberries or chocolate as Matthew doesn’t like blueberries which means that I will be eating these by myself for the days to come.
A determined boy on a scooter, a younger brother moving as fast as he can, a mother watching her two boys with pride and a wee bit of concern.
On Friday, Leanne and I made a trip to a scrapbooking shop that was having 30% off to celebrate their second birthday. I came home with a nice little stack of Bazzill and some lettering. After a play in the playground at Maccas, it was home time for little boys to nap and for Helen to go home and have her own nap before going to work that night. Just as we arrived back at the house, Ethan begged to show me his scooter skills and the speed at which he can ride his scooter. Luckily they live on a pretty quiet street which meant that Ethan was able to race up and down the street, whilst I rolled round on the bitumen having a ball taking photos. Joshua was more than happy to to race up and down the street following Ethan as fast as his hands and knees can take him. Leanne got to act as mother and shepard Joshua from not racing too far away 🙂
I went into the city yesterday to go to the dental school and on my way up to Turbot St from Roma St, I took this photo. The main building in this photo has always reminded me Gotham City, well the Gotham City portrayed in Batman Begins. It is those structures that run up the sides of the building and the tiny building on top that makes me think it is a transplant from Gotham City. What do you think?
My nieces and nephews are 15 900km away on the other side of the world or the better part of AU$3000 in travel costs. Which kind of makes it hard when you want to go over and have a play. One of my friends, Leanne has two little boys and they are not 15 900km away in fact they are only 10 mins or so away. Ethan and Joshua are always up for a play and it is always nice to spend some time with Leanne. Ethan is always ready to show me what he has been doing and to play trains or build blocks.
I popped over yesterday for a visit and Leanne grabbed my camera and took a few photos of the boys and I. Well mainly Ethan and I, Joshua is 14mths old and much prefers crawling round to sitting still for very long. Then before I knew it was time for me to go to work and for the boys to have a nap.
I grabbed this one of Joshua whilst he was strapped in the high chair and not going anywhere 🙂
The final day and by George it was a long one. I rose shortly after 6am and started to strike camp, cursing the rain when it started and smiling when it stopped. 2hrs later and the car was packed and I made my way over to where Bronwyn and Amy were camped to help strike their camp and pack all their gear into the car and for the rain to stop. Shortly after 9am we were driving into town, where I checked in at the YHA where I would stay that night and a visit to Woolies to stock up on half-price Easter eggs and food for the mission we had ahead of us. By 10am we were in the line and busy chatting to the people in the line who were also going to be Front Row Bandits for the day or who we would collectively refer to as our family and making sure people didn’t push into the line because pusher-inners are never tolerated. 11:30 and those who were not carrying the bags made the dash and spread out along the front barrier whilst those of us who were carrying the bags walked briskly to the tent. After a toilet trip was made we all started the long day of drinking the bare minimum because the tent was way more packed at noon than it had been the other days and each and every person wanted to be as close as they could to the front.
1. Timmy Curran.
Another pro-surfer turned singer-songwriter, all that salt-water must put songs in their brains. He reminded me of Paul Greene in his stage presence, very much “man, I can’t believe I am here, pinch me please”. Great opening act for the final day. I reckon he will become a BluesFest regular in the next couple of years.
2. Piers Faccini.
I really liked this guy but I think it was poor programming to put him as the 2nd artist on the last day and should have either been later on in the day or on an earlier day in the festival as on the whole his music was laid back and after a couple of songs most people sat back down and conserved energy for later on. This guy has so much potential and would love to see him at a better time next time.
3. Flogging Molly.
OH MY GOSH! These guys were incredible. Loved them. Similar to the Dropkick Murphys in that they play Celtic-Punk but still very different, more folky. Couldn’t get enough of these guys and still can’t today. When they started playing If I Ever Leave This World Alive, I instantly knew that that is a song I want played at my funeral. The other song I know I want is Dropkick Murphys doing Amazing Grace. You knew that you were not getting your run of the mill BluesFest band when the roadies came on and were placing the drinks round the stage, no bottles of water or just one beer but more like four Guinness on this amp, some more on that one etc. It was classic and Nathan Maxell the bassist was showing his true colours, he had to be half-cut when he came on stage and I have no idea how he managed to play and sing and scull four Guinness. I had respect for him.
4. The Waifs.
The Waifs, where to start. One of the main reasons I went to the BluesFest was to finally see them live and by george was it worth it. Like many Australians I first heard them when their song London Still was getting serious airplay on Australian radio and they then went on to win four Arias for the release London Still came off Up All Night. After that I started to explore their other songs and very quickly became a huge fan. With songs such as Bridal Train to Lighthouse to The Waitress and scores others, I was hooked. The Waifs write songs that are 130% pure Australian. Songs that every Australian can connect to and scores of other people around the world also. They played a stack of new songs which was really cool and a whole stack of old ones 🙂
The Waifs have just returned from a two year break to have kids and write new songs. Through out the set, Vikki and Donna could be seen looking into the wings and giving a little wave to respective kids. One little boy however was not content to watch Mum from the wings and escaped the clutches of his watcher, made his way onto to the stage, picked up a tambourine and joined in for a song. Which won quite a few aww’s and cheers from the audience.
5. Missy Higgins.
Going into Day 5 I wasn’t much of a Missy Higgins fan and I left the festival really loving her. Her debut album The Sound of White was flogged to death on the radio, which is probably why I wasn’t that fussed (it stayed in the top 100 charts for over two years!!). Hearing it all live, wow. I came home and now Andrea and I both have tickets for her show in a couple of weeks to promote her new album On a Clear Night.
The last photo was taken during either during Scar or The Special Two, to which Missy forgot the lyrics twice or perhaps even three times which made everyone crack up as we were all standing there singing it, whilst she was playing the piano and after a couple of restarts she was able to sing again which was a crack up. Really looking forward to her show in a couple of weeks. In the meantime you can listen to all the tracks off the new album on her myspace page
6. Taj Mahal.
Ben Harper had requested that Taj Mahal “open” for them and man they were great. Real Blues with a capital B and plenty of soul mixed in. Loved how he would say that such and such a song was for all the ladies with critical mass in their back field. Lol.
The highlight would have been to when he sang Where Could I Go up on the speaker stack by himself to a tent of 15 000 people. Wow. The girl beside me was crying, it was really quite emotional, I was blown away by it. The photos only show half of it.
Setlist is as follows
Well Well Well (w/Bonnie Raitt)
Dressed In Black (w/Bonnie Raitt)
Jah Work/Exodus
With My Own Two Hands
Ground On Down
Forgiven
Waiting For You
Sexual Healing
Steal My Kisses
Diamonds On The Inside (w/ John Butler)
Where Could I Go (just Ben and his voice, no mike, no band, no nothing)
Masters Of War (w/ Piers Faccini and Jack Johnson)
Burn One Down
Black Rain
Get Up, Stand Up
Better Way
Ben and Bonnie.
JB
Ben and Jack
Leon Mobley – This guy rocked and he knew the crowd was loving him and played that.
At the end, there was no time for an encore due to the curfew the festival has 🙁 As they were leaving Ben said something along the lines of “Thank-you, Byron has given me and this band a present that will take a lifetime to open”. He is widely regarded as the “patron saint” of the festival and the BluesFest is credited with making him as well known and popular as he is in Australia.
