Full update is imminent!
Monday, February 27, 2006
Friday, February 24, 2006
Easy-Rabbit Recipe
Or what I did with the rest of the rabbit after having made the Caneloni I haven't got round to showing off yet...
This is basically the easy chicken recipe, but now that chickens are slightly frowned on, and due to the fact that I had about 800 gramnmes of rabbit left over after making the caneloni, and about four portions of rice left over after saturday's cooking, we decided to make easy rabbit.
Step one:
You put your rabbit in an oven-proof dish having salted and peppered it. Then you get the contents of a Knorr (or equivalent) Onion Soup sachet and cover the rabbit with this. Then you get a tin of pineapples in natural juice cut them up into sort of eighths of a circle and put them on top of the meat. Then you pour the rest of the contents of the tin into the oven proof dish and then you fill up the tin with water and pour that into the oven proof dish. Foo! this recipe writing stuff is tough work. OK on to Step 2:
Step two:
So, put the thing in the oven at about 180-190 degrees centigrade, which is about between 355 and 375 in old money. Every 15-20 minutes I would turn and baste the meat and add more liquid to the Onion Soup Pineapple sauce if necessary.
After about 45 minutes to an hour, you are ready. The final image shows Korinna putting in some rice so it can soak around in the juices and sauces before being served.
Step three:
Serve (probably can be done more neatly than is shown in the picture). We usually have one of Korinnas salads with this meal.
So - there it is... easy rabbit.
I realise that use of the ready soup is a cop-out, but it is meant to be easy, after all.
This is basically the easy chicken recipe, but now that chickens are slightly frowned on, and due to the fact that I had about 800 gramnmes of rabbit left over after making the caneloni, and about four portions of rice left over after saturday's cooking, we decided to make easy rabbit.
Step one: You put your rabbit in an oven-proof dish having salted and peppered it. Then you get the contents of a Knorr (or equivalent) Onion Soup sachet and cover the rabbit with this. Then you get a tin of pineapples in natural juice cut them up into sort of eighths of a circle and put them on top of the meat. Then you pour the rest of the contents of the tin into the oven proof dish and then you fill up the tin with water and pour that into the oven proof dish. Foo! this recipe writing stuff is tough work. OK on to Step 2:
Step two: So, put the thing in the oven at about 180-190 degrees centigrade, which is about between 355 and 375 in old money. Every 15-20 minutes I would turn and baste the meat and add more liquid to the Onion Soup Pineapple sauce if necessary.
After about 45 minutes to an hour, you are ready. The final image shows Korinna putting in some rice so it can soak around in the juices and sauces before being served.
Step three: Serve (probably can be done more neatly than is shown in the picture). We usually have one of Korinnas salads with this meal.
So - there it is... easy rabbit.
I realise that use of the ready soup is a cop-out, but it is meant to be easy, after all.
Chicky Thursday
Yesterday was the last day in the calendar before Easter Sunday on which we can eat meat. So we ate meats. Oh yes. Meats from two different classes (Aves, Mammalia) and three different species (Chicken, Pig, Goat). My usually tough stomach has been complaining all day. We got about ten days to finish off all cheese and what have you before Lent starts in earnest. One year I will fast properly. 
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Ravenna - Jan 2005, Part I
Here's one I prepared earlier, as they say... it follows on from the last Venice installment: Venice
Two nights and two days in fog choked Ravenna followed. Our ambitious plan was made easier by the fact that the mausoleum of Theodoric and the chapel of Aint Andrew were both closed for restoration work. That left only six (if I am not mistaken) UNESCO protected feats of the mosaicists art for us to go and gawp at. Fortunately, cameras are allowed here, although the fog cut the available light to a minimum and I had to use all my tricks to be able to shoot decent shots (not that I managed with 100% success, mind you).
Corinna wrapped against the cold as effectively as Lazarus wrapped against death on this early Christian sacrophagus
After finding our way into town in the morning, and finding a place to park - something not as easy as it sounds - we headed off to the Saint Vitale and mausoleum of Galla Placida complex where we spent quite a while walking around and marvelling at the mosaics.
I suppose I could go off on the Justinian / Theodora tangent right now and that would lead us through the Belissarius / Procopius / Narses tangents and back to the goths and all that jazz, but I'd probably forget to write about how it is that I first came to want to come to Ravenna and whether or not you can tell that Saint Vitale is an architectural copy of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople.
One thing I was not prepared for was the material used for the windows - a sort of yellow rock cut thin enough to be translucent and used for window material in San Vitale, the mausoleum and others of the old churches we visited.
We walked across the garden to the tomb of Galla Placida where the mosaic work was far more classically roman-looking than what we are used to miscalling Byzantine. Despite the figurative art having one foot firmly in the Greco-roman tradition, the geometric designs were incredibly forward looking and modern to our eyes.
Geometric patterns on the vault of the mausoleum of Galla Palcida.
Leaving the mausoleum / Vitale area we drove to the cathedral and museum. The chapel of Saint Andrew was closed, but we managed to see the exhibits in the museum, which included some good early mosaic work and of course the amazing ivory throne of Maximian, bishop of Ravenna. I remember friends ("Hi, James!") doing late Roman art courses getting all excited about this throne of some bishop in a place I hadn't heard of, called Ravenna. This was a long time before my "Byzantine" or late roman awakening. The throne was a masterpiece of ivory work of the period and it is good to look at. We have nothing in the eastern empire of this sort (meaning the flammable sort).
We walked around the city centre of Ravenna, which is beautiful enough and hides a number of later churches which no doubt are just as exciting to those who call the 17th or 18th centuries their own.
The baptisteries and St. Apollonaris are next and they require some introduction into the whole Arian / Orthodox thing and probably also the whole Goth business. This is a different chapter.
Two nights and two days in fog choked Ravenna followed. Our ambitious plan was made easier by the fact that the mausoleum of Theodoric and the chapel of Aint Andrew were both closed for restoration work. That left only six (if I am not mistaken) UNESCO protected feats of the mosaicists art for us to go and gawp at. Fortunately, cameras are allowed here, although the fog cut the available light to a minimum and I had to use all my tricks to be able to shoot decent shots (not that I managed with 100% success, mind you).
Corinna wrapped against the cold as effectively as Lazarus wrapped against death on this early Christian sacrophagus
After finding our way into town in the morning, and finding a place to park - something not as easy as it sounds - we headed off to the Saint Vitale and mausoleum of Galla Placida complex where we spent quite a while walking around and marvelling at the mosaics.
I suppose I could go off on the Justinian / Theodora tangent right now and that would lead us through the Belissarius / Procopius / Narses tangents and back to the goths and all that jazz, but I'd probably forget to write about how it is that I first came to want to come to Ravenna and whether or not you can tell that Saint Vitale is an architectural copy of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople.
One thing I was not prepared for was the material used for the windows - a sort of yellow rock cut thin enough to be translucent and used for window material in San Vitale, the mausoleum and others of the old churches we visited.
We walked across the garden to the tomb of Galla Placida where the mosaic work was far more classically roman-looking than what we are used to miscalling Byzantine. Despite the figurative art having one foot firmly in the Greco-roman tradition, the geometric designs were incredibly forward looking and modern to our eyes.
Geometric patterns on the vault of the mausoleum of Galla Palcida.
Leaving the mausoleum / Vitale area we drove to the cathedral and museum. The chapel of Saint Andrew was closed, but we managed to see the exhibits in the museum, which included some good early mosaic work and of course the amazing ivory throne of Maximian, bishop of Ravenna. I remember friends ("Hi, James!") doing late Roman art courses getting all excited about this throne of some bishop in a place I hadn't heard of, called Ravenna. This was a long time before my "Byzantine" or late roman awakening. The throne was a masterpiece of ivory work of the period and it is good to look at. We have nothing in the eastern empire of this sort (meaning the flammable sort).
We walked around the city centre of Ravenna, which is beautiful enough and hides a number of later churches which no doubt are just as exciting to those who call the 17th or 18th centuries their own.
The baptisteries and St. Apollonaris are next and they require some introduction into the whole Arian / Orthodox thing and probably also the whole Goth business. This is a different chapter.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Total Solar eclipse in Kastelorizo II
Further to a previous post about viewing the total solar eclipse from Kastelorizo, I am happy to announce that I received just now my express mail box with 25 pairs of solar shades and a nice piece of aluminized mylar whatsit for making some coverings for my camera and telescope. It all came from these guys: Rainbow symphony.
Now, just have to sort out how we're going to go and how we're going to come back. And a whole lot of other stuff. More later this week.
Now, just have to sort out how we're going to go and how we're going to come back. And a whole lot of other stuff. More later this week.
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