Attention Muggles

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Attn muggles, originally uploaded by framboise.

The latest tome took nearly 6 hours (and interruptions) to read, nearly a whole extra hour more than the last1. And while I give out no spoilers2, my succinct review is that if you loved the previous six, you’ll not be disappointed with this one. And if you hate the whole shebang, your mind won’t be changed either. I say to all the critics of Ms Rowling: nay-say what you will about the custard-lightness of the early three, the darkness of the latter four, and the ever-increasing need for more judicious editing. It’s a very life-affirming series.

I would place the entire series in the genre that Enid Blyton wrote so well. Gripping adventures, one after the other. There are many better-written children’s fantasy books out there (CS Lewis, Dianna Wynne Jones, JRR Tolkien, Philip Pullman, amongst several others), but this one seems to have captured the hearts of the reading public. Scholars may debate this for years, some perplexed at the simplicity of the writing, the obviousness of the motifs, the sheer weight of the later books. And most will have to secretly admit being spellbound by JK Rowling’s tale spinning.

1 I feel for all you parents out there who will be reading this one at bedtime for months yet. I really do. And I hope the audio tape/CD comes out soon. And that you have invested in lozenges and cough syrup.

2 And never will…

Windy or what? She finds drafts everywhere

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Ooer missus. Trawling through unpublished witterings of mine, what do I find but this?

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I’m not entirely surprised to read that:

…in North America, where a 2006 survey revealed that atheists rank lower than “Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups…

There seems to be a great deal of deity invocation here (apart from mere cursing). Churches1 too. One on every corner. But no corner shops2.

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Freaky or what?

1 There may be churches galore but all with locked doors. Whatever happened to “Sanctuary. Sanctuary.”?

2 Something’s up with that. More G.O.D. than M.I.L.K.

Touche

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[crawling out from under the rock]

So, Tony Blair has been getting his knickers in a twist, has he? A choice quote:

Opinion and fact should be clearly divisible. The truth is a large part of the media today not merely elides the two but does so now as a matter of course. In other words, this is not exceptional. It is routine.
—Outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair, taken from the full speech published by the Indy.

A bit rich coming from the man who convinced Parliament to go to war in Iraq based on no evidence whatsoever of weapons of mass destruction1. I am particularly impressed by the way he has a good whinge about the Hutton inquiry then quickly moves on. And singling the Indy out for criticism? Hmph, I think they’d rather like that. As the leading viewspaper in the UK, it must be nice to know that their words have hit the mark. Own goal, Mr PM. You have indeed said what needed to be said, but perhaps you should now sit down and read it through, paying particular attention to how it also applies to you and your time in government.

1 An over-simplification, but you know the back story. Preach. Choir.

Oats so good for you

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Oatmeal cookies

In search of a half-healthy yet tasty oatmeal cookie recipe. This particular attempt was a result of a modified epicurious recipe for oatmeal cookie sandwiches with nectarine ice cream1. I made one minor but critical change: the addition of lots of orange zest as well as a teaspoon of orange oil. And to (my) half of the mix (next photo), a good handful of dried cranberries were added. I think the cranberry and orange additions made it something more than the plain oatmeal cookie P was craving, but it sustained our interest better for the whole course of the week.

Oatmeal+Cranberry Cookie

One satisfied customer:

C is for Cookie (Monster)

1 My interest at the time didn’t quite extend to nectarine ice cream, but it’s definitely one way to modify store-bought plain ice cream. Bereft of our very handy ice cream maker here, our sad attempts to make tea sorbet and coffee ice cream have been somewhat rough and icy. Stirring in roasted fruit may be one way to jazz things up without buying yet another 110V piece of equipment we can’t take home.

Mexican1 chocolate and almond cake

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Mexican* chocolate and almond cake

Another epicurious recipe: Mexican Chocolate and Almond Cake.

Made modifications to the serving idea since I was taking this to someone else’s house for Cinco de Mayo: replaced sauce and cream with a simple chocolate ganache (1/3cup cream boiled and poured over 2/3 to 1 cup of chopped-up chocolate). There wasn’t quite enough time to let it all set (2-3h would have been better), but the slightly gooey ganache still worked out ok. The orange slices were difficult to slice through though. Need to find a way to slice the garnishing without totally destroying the cake.

1 Not claiming that this is a Mexical cake; epicurious named it as such. To be more accurate, the flavours are inspired by spiced mexican hot chocolate.

A week of washoku

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Japanese Cookbooks

Some time ago, we realised that we were somewhat cheating at dinner time. While not limited to spagbog, tikka masala or sausage n chips, our cooking was not exactly exciting. Cue the LA Times Book Festival, where Kinokuniya had a stand, and where the top book in the stack above reminded me that Japanese food is not that difficult to prepare, given some practice and preparedness as far as ingredients went. Cue the pulling out of the three other books and much scratching of heads over the ingredient lists. Some of the times we cheated and bought prepared simmered dishes and pickles to supplement the meal, bringing up the dish total to the preferred 5. But some other times, we even “pickled” our own, and were pleasantly surprised we didn’t muck it all up.

In no particular order, the results:

Miso Soup with Daikon and Tofu Miso/tofu soup Spinach and harusame soup Snow peas, daikon and egg soup
Celery+Shirasu Salad Marinated rock clams Hijiki salad Wakame+Kuri salad
Chicken teriyaki Asparagus and green beans Miso-ed Sole Squid  
Barley Tea Gyoza Futomaki Marinated octopus
Butter beans and edamame in ume dressing Hijiki salad, take 2 Celery in miso Nibitashi|Lettuce and mini fish
Enoki and tofu miso soup Aubergine Salad Nameless miso soup Ika geso karaage
Gyudon Udon Yakisoba Daikon leftover soup