French Onion Soup

I have been curious about french onion soup (or La soupe à l’oignon gratiné) for a long time now.
I think it all started a few years ago when in Food Technology we were asked to make soup.

Given 2 hours to make it, we all figured it had to be pretty special. Tomato or watercress just wouldn't cut it. However, in the end no one did make french onion soup - the teacher wouldn't let us. So, after a morning spent making dull carrot concoctions and vegetable broths, our curiosities grew.
To make it, you have to slice a massive pile of onions (cue the waterworks), then slowly cook them in a pan with oil, butter and sugar. After about half an hour when they caramelise and turn golden brown, you add beef stock and white wine. The soup is simmered over a low heat for about an hour. It's served with thick toasted slices of baguette and melted cheese. Yum yum!
The end result is this very thin and flavoursome liquid. It tastes sweet and strong but gives the impression of being good for you due to the onions. Hot and delicious, I think French onion soup is worth the long toil and cupfuls of oniony acid tears caused by excess chopping.
So have a go and make it yourself! I used Delia Smith's recipe (from my mum's age old cookery book "Delia Smith's Cookery Course Part 2") but in Good Food magazine recently there was an improved heathier version and I'm sure there are hundreds of recipes online.

Tap

Tap tap click clack bang.
This is the sound of Breadsall Village Hall at 10:00am each Saturday.
Tap classes, built into my Saturday morning along with ballet and disco, are spectacular fun.
There is something very special about slipping on your own stunning shiny tap shoes, complete with horse-shoe heel-taps and polished silver ball taps (mine from the noisy joke shop hidden away in a side street in town).

I love the noise that is made whilst tapping. In French this type of dance is called "des claquettes": a pretty good description of the noise made - clacket, clacket. Let the big band or plinky plonky piano begin and I'll start making beautiful percussion with my feet!

I also love the language of tap. Like most technical dances, if you remember the words to go with the moves it'll help you remember.
In ballet it goes something like:
"Point lift. Point close", or "First, second and back to brabaa"
Boring!
In disco it's a combination of singing the lyrics and muttering the moves, often causing much hilarity. For example, when dancing to Mamma Mia by Abba:
"I've been cheated by you since I don't know when, shoulder shoulder double shoulder shoulder shoulder shoulder, So I made up my mind it must come to an end, shoulder shoulder double shoulder shoulder shoulder shoulder. Mashed potatooooo, will I ever learn? 1, 2, 3, 4, but I suddenly lose control, there's a fire within my soul!"
I swear that dance doesn't look as funny as it sounds.
In tap, it's much more meaningless. Frequently I find myself going "shuffle hop spring brush toe toe, shuffle hop spring brush toe toe, shuffle hop spring shuffle down shuffle down shuffle ball-change. Stamp."
Or:
"Heel dig together. Heel dig together. Heel heel step back step back, heel heel step back step back."

There is a wonderful cleaness and style about tap. It must be the combination of the crisp noises, the neat inticate movements, the unexpected variety of music and the flexibilty of the dance style itself. Tap can be danced to just about any music. I've done dances to Chicago and Little Brown Jug (Astaire-style!) as well as Sophie Ellis Bextor and S Club 7.

The versatilty is also reflected in show pieces - costumes can include raincoats and umbrellas, or fishnets and metallic waistcoats. However, all shows always have cheesy smiles and lot's of variety!

I hope you are all inspired by this post to do some investigating into tap classes in your area. Try them out, and it will be worthwhile. You'll learn a new skill, get some exercise and meet new friends! Remember in Friends when Monica, Phoebe and Rachel took up tap dancing to try and meet the person who stole Monica's identity? They had fun!

Hallelujah

I've heard there was a secret chord
David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya ?
Well it goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne, she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Oh baby I have been here before
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor
You know I used to live alone before I knew you
And I've seen your flag on the marble arch
And love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Well there was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show that to me do you
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Well maybe there is a God above
But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
And it's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelu
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah - I'm sure most people have heard the meaningful lyrics to this song and had them stuck in their heads all day. It has been covered over 180 times (according to wikipedia) and was first sung by Leonard Cohen. The most famous copies (in order from oldest to newest) have included Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright and Alexandra Burke. Also John Cale and Kate Voegele.

Alexandra Burke was the winner of X Factor this year (UK show that is similarish to American Idol). She can sing, she's pretty and looks the part, but could you tell her apart from Leona Lewis over the radio? I like Leona, but we don't need a clone of her. Burke's winning single (which of course became Christmas no1) was a powerful rendition of Hallelujah.

I think this is similar to primary school. Your snotty nosed neighbour leans stealthily across the table and draws exactly what you've drawn. Colourful teach wanders over and kneels down, exclaiming about Johnny's marvellous work - not yours! His is pinned on the wall and he gets the credit and the glory.

I think it's an insult to the song that it can suddenly be turned into the result of just another silly reality show. There have been coutless official and unofficial copies of it, but line should have been drawn at a "winner's song". Especially since the X Factor is laughable nonsense. It's okay to watch, if you can stand the constant advert breaks, and a basic knowledge of the contestants is necessary if you're going to last a week in secondary school. Only, it's so fake and unreal.

None of the songs that reach number one are very different. The videos are always just a montage of X Factor Winner Version#1234, and the voice is the same velvet triumphance. It's terrible that even hallelujah can be subject to this. A sad song about love and death: a song played at funerals and tearful television moments.It's inappropriate!

No songs are safe! Lock them and their copyrights up no matter how much Version#1234 offers you!

Leonard Cohen's is very dirge-like, sung in an impossibly low key. This is befitting the nature and lyrics of the song, and it certainly takes a lot of skill to be able to sing that low. Jeff Buckley's is very individual, as is Rufus Wainwright's which you will find in Shrek (woo!).

However, in the end, Burke leans over Cohen's desk and her picture gets stuck on the wall. The brilliant (catchy and meaningful) melody gets turned into more churned-out conformity.

I'm sure Alexandra is a perfectly nice girl - it's likely the X-factor record deal gremlins with the bulging wallets that decided to benefit from this. It's sad.

Which version of hallelujah do you prefer?
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My new column is up on the internet! It's the February/March version of All Things Local, and the subject is the Joy of Food.

Attitudes to Blogging

There are so many "set" ways that blogging should be done - search "how to blog" on google and you'll be swimming in opinion. Many have rules, that the writers seem to think are definitive, including: post daily! Swear lots! Give your unedited opinion! Offend people! Use a false name!

Surely a blog should be something you're proud of, not something you hide from friends and family?

I think everyone I know who reads my blog would likely steer clear of anything they know will offend their readers too badly, and that must be a good thing. If we all did nothing but tell the complete truth from our (secretly evil...) minds all the time, everyone would be too incensed to read any blogs; we'd all be mortal enemies!

Besides, there are too many different kinds of people to work from one list of rules. There are the people who religiously post every day, and there are people who post when they feel like it, or try and keep to a loose time scale. Some have themes and some just write anything. Some people are strict and others more relaxed. So, I think I'll take such reviews and "helpful" sites with a pinch of salt. Or, you know, the whole shakerful.

I doubt I'll ever be a once-day-blogger, or ever keep to a particular idea for long. My "theme" (if you can call it that) is regularly strayed from. I'm beginning to think if I were more freelance, I'd be more enthused.

I was reading Franco's Rivermist Expressions yesterday, and the review dished out to him by some blog review site. It really made me angry.

I think it was maddening to see one person pass judgement on another's creation, that they've worked so hard on (even if Franco asked for a review). In some places there was decent constructive criticism, but in others just random dislikes based on personal preference and invented ideals.

Why should a blog have 2 column layout? What's wrong with random pictures? So what if we drop some punctuation or the odd cApS? Again, the reviewer seemed to be working from a disjointed set of opinions.
Actually they probably just do it for the hits it generates, which to be honest (if you have few principles) is a pretty good idea.

In conclusion, people have different styles of and attitudes to blogging. It is impossible to pin down structures and rules to which the millions must conform. I don't believe people should judge others unfairly in such a way. Long live freedom, randomness and incongrous creativity!

Snow

Here in England, I feel we never get blessed with lovely thick snow. We either get a tiny hopeless amount, or none at all - just usually a lot of rain in Winter (and Summer and Autumn and Spring). So imagine my delight when, on Monday I awoke to piles of the lovely white stuff, and more gentle flurries drifting from above!

School was still on - it's the kind of school that is determined to stay open no matter the weather. Old as it is, the boiler doesn't break and the paths don't get dangerously slippy. Between classes, we chatted excitedly with our friends and scrutinised the flakes that fell on our mittens, until we swore we could see the individual flake patterns. Monday was great. After 4pm, I played in the snow (snow permits immature behaviour). Snowballs flew every which way! A snowman was built, and a lot of fun was had. At the end, we were completely soaked, as is to be expected.

And on the news in the evening, we saw the huge effects the snow had on peoples lives. Although I hadn't been affected in a bad way, transport and road blocks, airplanes and buses had all been stopped "due to adverse weather". There'd been traffic jams and cancellations and hundreds of schools closed. It really made you wake up and smell the fragility that is modern day - set almost to a standstill by just 2 inches of snow!

On Wednesday, the snow began to melt. Trudging to school didn't make the creaking squeak noises of yesterday, but an icy satisfying crunch. At breaktime everyone was noisy and cheerful, recalling the fun of yesterday, but lamenting the end to it - probably not for another year.

And then Thursday came. There'd been rumours about another snow fall all yeserday - but I personally had refused to hope and believe them. But no!

I just love the feeling of waking up, but not wanting to get up. And them mum yells to open the curtains and you leap from the bed and thrust them aside! I swear it was even thicker and better than Monday- like a huge feather quilt, it covered everything, made everything beautiful. It's impossible to take an ugly picture of snow.

The other thing I had dared not to hope for was that school would be closed. Guess what? My school, big, strong and determined, has closed for just 3 inches of snow! I was ecstatic. I don't think I've had a day off school for snow in all my 16 years!

And so, I have reverted back to my childhood self and have been frolicking all day in the snow, playing with siblings. There are red faces all round as we cavort, and chuck crude balls of snow at each other. We scream with delight when one crashes into the other persons face and explodes into white powder. Looking like desperate fish, we made snow angels, and laughed and laughed. And we made an immense snowman, that is about three times as large as the pathetic Monday one! Needless to say, the camera has been hard at work for hours.

This is the best February 5th ever!