Artist of the Week - Richard Hawley

Wow, what a day! My first dissection lab of the year and a chemistry midterm in the same day - and the work isn't over yet, since I have another test tomorrow (just a small one, luckily). Just a quickie then, before I go to sleep!

Artist of the Week - Richard Hawley

Richard Hawley is a guitarist and singer from Sheffield.  Probably most famous for his work in the band Pulp, he also has also made several solo albums.  He first came to my attention as a solo artist pretty recently, when he made a radio series investigating how sea faring culture has influenced british music, literature, poetry and art. I found the series to be really interesting and insightful, and it brought his music to my attention, since the introduction to each program was the introduction from one of his songs that has come to be my favourite track of his.
A very talented guitarist, Richard Hawley has a remarkably rich, deep voice that lends itself perfectly to relaxed, soulful songs.  He only really sings in his solo work, but I'm going to pick a variety of tracks to give you a taste of his work.


Pulp
No piece that mentions Pulp would be complete without a couple of their most famous songs, so here we have them: (Hawley is on guitar -with the sunglasses- Jarvis Cocker sings)


Disco 2000 



Common People



Collaboration with Elbow
Hawley also did a track with one of my favourite bands, Elbow (possibly an upcoming band of the week) on their most recent album.
The Fix



Solo Work
Here are some of my favourite solo tracks by Richard Hawley


Cole's Corner
A perfectly chilled song about a famous lovers' meeting place in Sheffield



Shallow Brown
Hawley's version of a traditional sea shanty, featuring Smoke Fairies - unfortunately I can't find a link for this :( You'll just have to take my word for it!


The Ocean
My absolute favourite Richard Hawley Song - it shows off his voice and guitar skills beautifully!

End of a Hectic Week

This week was a busy one for me.  It's the start of midterm season, so just as a heads-up I may not be posting as often as usual in the next few weeks since I *should* be doing revision instead of writing blog posts! After two in-class essays this week, I thought I deserved a treat so I went out and bought a new cookbook and some nice groceries to make some new dishes with, as well as some ingredients for a thanksgiving recipe that I will be trying out over the weekend.

I bought The Australian Women's Weekly Fast cookbook from the bookstore on campus. I looked for it online, and I can't find it anywhere else, but if you do spot it in a shop, it has lots of tasty-looking recipes for quick meals and snacks.
I made a couple of things but slightly adapted the recipes to incorporate the ingredients I had, and they turned out really well.

Kiwifruit and Mint Frappe
The original recipe calls for four kiwi fruit and only half a cup of apple juice, but kiwis are really expensive, and I think I like this version better than if it had that much kiwi.  You still get the kiwi taste, but it is light and very refreshing. Use cloudy apple juice - you want it to be tart and flavourful.

2 Kiwi fruits, peeled and chopped into chunks
3/4 cup ice cubes
1 cups apple juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1 teaspoon caster sugar

put all the ingredients into a blender and whizz until smooth!


Tomato, Pesto and Olive Tart
So, I meant to put olives on the tart, but I completely forgot! I also used feta instead of ricotta, which worked really well. I also substituted balsamic vinegar for italian herbs - well, not exactly, but I didn't fancy vinegar on the tomatoes, but I did fancy italian herbs, so there you have it.

400g cherry/grape tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried italian herbs
1 portion frozen puff pastry
2 tablespoons basil pesto
1/3 cup seeded black olives
as much feta cheese as you want

preheat the oven to 220C/435F


cut the tomatoes in half, then, in an oven-proof dish, combine them with the olive oil and herbs.  Roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
Roll out the pastry into a rectangle, then place on a baking tray.  Fold over the edges of the pastry to make a crust; prick the base with a fork. Put a tray or dish on top of the pastry to stop the base puffing up, then bake for 10 minutes.  Take out the pastry and turn the oven down to 200C/395F.
Spread the base with the pesto, then top with the tomatoes and olives, and crumble the feta on top.  Bake for another ten minutes, then it is ready to serve.
Serve a piece with some greek salad on the side!

A New Feature? Artist of the Week

This may become a new feature on my blog, depending on whether I remember to do it every week! I have a pathological need to share my music tastes with everyone, so what better way to do it than in the form of a blog post - I've already had a go at it!

I intend to post an entry about a different artist or band I like every week, and hopefully every so often, you might see someone you know or will get to like! So, off we go on week one...

Artist of the Week - Bat For Lashes

Bat For Lashes, aka the annoyingly talented and pretty Natasha Khan, is a "singer/ songwriter, multi- instrumentalist and visual artist " from London.  I first became aware of her by watching the culture show in February 2007 and hearing this:

and I immediately booked tickets to see her when she came to Oxford the next week!
Her music is kind of wacky, and not to everyone's taste, that's for sure, but after the release of her second album, Two Suns she became pretty popular back home in the UK.  Her music is hard to explain - it could possibly be described as experimental dream-pop, but perhaps it would be better just to listen to some of her songs.  Here are a few of my favourites:
Tahiti


The Wizard


Priscilla
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDfjVT1-mwY

Glass


Siren Song


Daniel - a big hit back home, and apparently inspired by The Karate Kid!


Let me know what you think of her, or whether you think that this feature is a good idea (although if you say it isn't I'm likely to ignore you, I'm afraid - I really do have a pathological need to force my music tastes on others, and it has to come out somewhere!)

Simple, Classy, Delicious

Today I'm going to tell you how I make one of the typical recipes of late summer and early autumn - roast vegetables! They are super easy, and you probably don't need telling how to make them, but everyone does them slightly differently, and I'm going to show you my version! In my opinion, you don't want any flavours to overpower the vegetables, you just want some ingredients that will complement their sweetness.

Some of my favourite vegetables to roast include butternut squash, courgettes, garlic, tomatoes, beets and carrots. I'm not a fan of cooked onions, but I hear that if you are they are especially nice when roasted.

Here we go!

Roast Vegetables

First, chop up the veggies of your choice.  I used what I had on hand;

Courgettes

Butternut squash

Cherry tomatoes - make sure you either cut these or prick them, otherwise they will explode! (I have also just realised that all of the "veg" I'm using are actually fruit - oh well)

When they are in nice big chunks, chuck them in a roasting pan or baking dish.

Drizzle on some nice olive oil

Sprinkle on some garlic powder

Then season well with salt and pepper, and toss everything around so all the "vegetables" are well coated in the oil and seasonings.

Now, put the "vegetables" in the oven at 400 F for forty-five minutes or so, stirring them after about half an hour to turn them all over.

Then eat them! These are actually a bit underdone - you want them to be a bit browner than this, but I was too impatient and hungry to wait the extra ten minutes!

I served them with salt-and-pepper chicken, but they also go well with lamb, with couscous, or with pasta or rice (if you add a bit more oil or use a lot of tomatoes)

An Excursion

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day, and since I only had one class from 9:30-10:30, I decided to take a trip.

I took the bus downtown,

and I went to the bookstore.

Then I hopped back on the bus and went towards one of my favourite places in Vancouver

Granville Island!

I saw lots of interesting things,

Then I went to the public market.

I'm pretty sure this place would be a food photographer's paradise.

I wandered around a bit,

then I went to the food hall...

and I ate this

and looked at this.

The End.