The Rambler

Abstract art - I could do that ...

I spent last weekend in the big smoke—well, Brisbane … and it wasn’t the whole weekend; just Saturday and Saturday night and enough Sunday to ensure we fitted in dumplings for lunch.

While we’re only ninety-odd km away by car, it’s a palaver to drive down and expensive to park. Plus I have this weird anxiety thing about driving on the highway. It’s not so much that I don’t trust everyone else on the road; I don’t trust myself to react quickly enough when at speed. Besides, there’s the train – which is pretty much two hours each way door to door.

These days, though, we have access to most of what we need here on the coast – except dumplings. There are no decent dumplings to be had up here. Sure, we get the occasional okay dumpling, but I’m talking dumplings plural and anyone who knows good dumplings also knows that average dumplings leave you craving good ones more. Taste of Shanghai or New Shanghai – if you are reading this, you should open a Sunshine Coast outpost. #justsaying

Anyways, Sarah and I were in Brissie to see Beauty and the Beast – and loved it.

Abstract Art

Before the theatre, we wandered through the art gallery and spent way too long trying to figure out what this unnamed picture by a German-Australian artist (whom I googled at the time but now can’t remember his name) could mean. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them. The top half is more silvery than it looks in the picture, and the bottom half is more inky blue, so I thought maybe it’s a representation of Sydney Harbour and the bridge in the fog.

Abstract art: I could do that …

Yeah, but you didn’t …

High Tea and toasts

We had scones and other high tea treats (I would have liked a whole tray of the sammies – the sweet treats looked pretty but were way too … sweet) before the show and afterwards repaired to the rooftop bar at our hotel to toast the release of One For Sorrow.

Speaking of which, a massive thanks to Debbish for this fab review of One For Sorrow.

Patch Boxes aka the antique of the week …

This week, I did some research on antique patch boxes. These tiny boxes were used to keep beauty patches—black patches of gummed taffeta. They were used—especially in the 17th and 18th centuries—to emphasise the fashionable whiteness of a woman’s (or man’s) skin and cover up blemishes or scars.

The 17th-century painting below (sold last year at auction for £220,000) shows two women wearing patches.

Things that made me go hmmm….

Shakespeare

There’s long been a bit of a hoo-ha as to whether a certain William Shakespeare really wrote everything that’s been attributed to him. For someone as celebrated as he is, not a whole lot is known for sure about him. Now, though, there’s a bit of a row as an American academic is booked to talk at The London Library to discuss her theory that Shakespeare was really a woman.

The mind boggles.

Paddling in a Pumpkin

No further words required.

Reading

This week I read:

The long-awaited ninth instalment of Julia Chapman’s Dales Detective series – Date With Justice.

For some reason, the publisher of this series is a tad lax with releasing eBooks to Australian audiences – to the extent that book No 6, Date With Deceit, wasn’t released in eBook for Australian audiences at all. I even went to the extreme of writing to the author about it (she had no idea why). In the case of Date With Justice, availability in digital format in Australia is delayed until July. I could, however, get access to the Audible version, so that’s what I did.

The verdict? I bloody loved it!

I also read Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn – mainly because I can’t wait for the new series in May. While I enjoyed the escape, this really is one of those occasions where the TV is better than the books.

I had a stack of books I’ve been waiting on for ages all come into the library at once the other day – and are all on short loans. One of these is The Last Witch of Scotland – which I’ve been very much looking forward to. I am, however, off to Sydney for a week tomorrow and have carry-on luggage only so it will need to wait until I’m back.

Recipe of the week …

This week’s recipe came about because someone at Grant’s work sent home more limes than we could eat. It’s a good problem to have. Anyways, I sent some of them back—in cake form. It seemed like a nice way of saying thanks to them.

I made this in the Thermomix – purely because I couldn’t be faffed standing and stirring – but you can find a similar recipe here that uses shop-bought curd, or here if you want to make your own.

Lime Curd Cakey Squares

Cake mixture

• 300 g self-raising flour

• 120g unsalted butter, diced

• 220 g white sugar

• 2 eggs

Lime curd

• 60 ml lime juice (3-4 limes)

• 60 g butter

• 110 g white sugar

• 1 egg

For the lime curd

Place all lime curd ingredients into the mixing bowl and cook 5 min/100°C/speed 4. Pour into a bowl and set aside until needed. You might think it’s too thin, but it firms up on standing. Clean and dry mixing bowl.

For the cake

Place all cake ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix 30 sec/speed 5 or until combined. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Putting it together

Preheat oven to 180°C (160C fan). Grease and line a square cake tin (20 cm).

Press half the cake mixture into the base of the tin, top with the lime curd, then crumble over the remaining cake mixture to cover. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or cold, dusted with icing sugar (optional).

A note on the plate

This one is by Shelley. It’s in their Regent range but is quite a rare pattern, and while the backstamp was in use between 1925 and 1945, I haven’t been able to find out much about it. It’s one of my favourites, though …