…my true love brought to me twelve fat ones singing.
The saying goes “it’s not over till the fat lady sings”. Now, as we are gender neutral we just have 12 fat ones. If I look carefully they are not even fat. But they are singing and they are singing badly. I was dreading all along that they will perform their new song at the end. With many other things you can say it’s so bad that it’s good. But no way can you find anything good in this video. But thanks anyway for supporting the Dedes.
No, no, no, I am not talking about Devil. He will stay my friend forever. No, I am talking about the old dunger of a mobile phone, my trusted Nokia. I actually loved that thing. As I am sitting in front of the computer all day, every day, I only needed the mobile to send some text messages. For example: “leaving now” or “there in 10 mins”. Everything else could wait. It is actually quite nice to ride on the bus and watch the people around you, and not being tempted to look at emails or the internet. The trusted Nokia was a hand-me down and now I got a new hand-me-down that takes me into the smart phone era. Uhuuuuh. I gratefully accepted the gift, as I can now add instagram to the mix. Devil and I looked at how it all works this afternoon but we weren’t very successful. We had a battle with the mobile and with instagram and with each other. The worst was sharing the images on facebook. We haven’t figured that one out yet, should be easy really…. Anyway, in the end it was too much for Devil. You know how it is when two people who think they know what they are doing, but in fact don’t, try to use the same device. Finally he let me figure it out on my own and wandered off into the garden to watch the grass grow. But when he came back and I was still tearing my hair out, he decided he’d better put the trusted Nokia in a safe place. Who knows. Good on him!
The Dedes have a day off today, so I take the chance to introduce this little monster. I know, it has nothing in common with my creations, except being a puppet. Unlike my Dedes, Mama Dinosaur is cute, soft and cuddly. I met her in class today. My students are currently working on a comic strip and it looks like one of them is following in my footsteps. She is hand stitching a series of animal characters to subsequently take photographs and invent a story of their adventure. I am certainly looking forward to the story!
Usually Rob D Light waits until everybody has left the kitchen before he sneaks in and makes his meals. Like he did last night. He had “found” this huge marrow in the garden and wanted to cook it up. Mouse was still sitting in the dining room leafing through the recipes when she heard the pots and pans being handled in the kitchen, and the fridge door being opened and closed.
“What are you doing?” she asked Rob D Light who got a big fright. “Um, I am making myself a meal.” Rob is very shy as he has to deal with a lot of prejudice. Mouse saw the marrow on the cutting board. “Are you just frying this in oil?” she asked curiously.
“No, I am making a bechamel sauce with it today,” answered Rob. “Oh dear.” Mouse looked as if she had been hit by lightning. Rob was delighted that someone was interested in his work and thought Mouse was impressed with his cooking skills. “It is not that difficult” he said proudly. “No, I know,” said Mouse. “I just realised this is another recipe we don’t have in our collection yet. And it is so versatile.” They both agreed the name bechamel sounds magic, but in effect it is the most basic white sauce you can make.
“Once you know how to make this sauce, you can add all sorts of things: spices or cheese or capers or anchovies. You can even turn it into soup, if you add more water.”
“Yes,” said Mouse excitedly. “When I make Lasagne, I make this sauce and add a cup of cheese.”
“You really have to add some sort of flavour” said Rob. “On it’s own it is pretty bland. But it is good starting point. Today I am adding a bit of cheese as well and will pour it over the chopped marrow then bake it in the oven for 35 minutes”
Mouse asked Rob to give her a quick run-down on how he makes his sauce. He prefers milk when he uses it with vegetables, but you also can use the water you boiled your vegetables in, for example asparagus, or just plain water.
“What about the proportions of butter to flour?” asked Mouse. “Personally, I use equal amounts.”
“It’s not hard and fast, but you can use up to 3 parts flour to 2 parts butter. And with the liquid, you just add as much as you need for your desired texture.”
1 tablespoon of butter, 1.5 tablespoons of flour, 1 cup of water or milk (nutmeg, pepper optional).
This sauce requires constant stirring!
Over a medium heat melt the butter in a saucepan. With a wooden spoon stir the flour into the melted butter until it turns into a well combined paste. Cook ans stir until it bubbles slightly, but make sure it doesn’t turn brown. Add the milk, a quarter cup at a time, and stir until it is well mixed into the paste without lumps before you add the next portion. When all the milk has been added, bring to a boil and it will thicken nicely. Add nutmeg and pepper to taste, lower the heat and cook for two or three minutes longer. If you want to make a cheese sauce, add half a cup of grated cheese at this point. It is done, when the cheese is melted.
Note: If you want to flavour the bechamel sauce, add the flavours of your choice after the sauce has thickened.
Detail couldn’t stop raving about dinner last night. Evan G. List made the no egg fettucini and matched them with garden fresh zucchini fried in lashings of olive oil, nothing else. And Detail fell in love. “Evan, you really convinced me” she whispered passing the empty plate back to him. “Now I thoroughly believe you can eat something made from water and flour only. I also have to admit a vegan dinner can be absolutely delicious.”
Minor, Detail’s teenage daughter rolled her eyes. “But mum” she piped up “I’ve made crackers from exactly the same dough as Evan’s no egg pasta. Just water and flour. Remember when I was cramming for my exams and you didn’t come back from the shops for ages?”
“No way,” Detail replied a tad too harshly. “If you want to make crackers you must use a leavening agent”
“A what?” Minor looked at her blankly.
“An ingredient that makes the dough lighter, such as baking soda or yeast, even buttermilk, otherwise you will just create a solid brick of flour.” She shock her head at the ignorance of her daughter.
“But mum, I tried it, honestly, and it worked. I cut it up into little squares and baked it in a pre-heated oven at 2100 C for 8 minutes” Minor insisted. “They looked and tasted like mini pita breads and I had them with cheese.”
“Pita bread definitely has yeast in it” Detail lectured.
“Whatever” Minor gave up. She knew she was right. Her aunty Chance had suggested she try it. The instant heat seemed to puff up the dough nicely. But as Detail can’t stand her half-sister Chance, Minor knew she’d better keep the knowledge to herself. To mention Chance’s name would set Detail off and it wasn’t worth it.
Detail realised she had upset her daughter again and tried to humour her. “Remember when Pirate made really yummy crackers when you where little? Maybe that’s why they became your comfort food. Should I ask him for the recipe?” She wondered why she hadn’t had this idea earlier as her daughter’s addiction to crackers put a lot of strain on the budget every week.
The Dedes haven’t had much to laugh about this year so they decided recently they need to have a fun Christmas Party. Not like last year when we quietly forgot about Christmas. They still are talking about the year before, when my friend Rae and I took them to North Head for a picnic . I am surprised they talk so fondly about this event, as half of them got drunk and in my opinion they shouldn’t remember anything but their headache the next day. You can imagine how wary I was when they said they don’t mind if I can’t take them anywhere this year, and they would be happy if I gave them the key to the liquor cabinet one night when I was going out. Ah well, as I have neglected the Dedes a little this year I agreed and even replenished the stock before I left.
What a mistake!
Okay, Pig and Professor get always sloshed when there are drinks to be had. No surprises there – but the rest of them?! It obviously got totally out of hand. Well, some of the Dedes were wise enough not to show up at all. After all, it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out what will happen when there is plenty of booze for free. Bad Conscience, always on the lookout for easy victims, was rubbing his hands in anticipation of the aftermath. He had a field day! Plenty of victims to choose from. Witch, who is a teetotaller, was well-intentioned and went to keep an eye on things and also to rain on Bad Conscience’s parade. By the time she arrived things were already getting out of hand and she retreated early into the art cupboard as nothing could be done to avoid disaster. Philosopher, who is interested in how the Dedes tick had a quiet beer in the corner and watched the bash in amazement. He told me later, the new Dede, Top Dog (I haven’t talked about him yet) made a real nuisance of himself. He made unmistakable advances towards Lou, the young puppy. Lou didn’t know how to fend him off and in the end went and hid. “Ah well, you know how it is, Christmas parties, eh” Philosopher finished his account, shrugging his shoulders. Everyone else also seemed to think it was just a bit of drunken fun. I was gobsmacked as what I was hearing bordered on sexual harrassment. It should not be taken lightly, not even under the cloud of alcohol.
Today Witch came to me and complained bitterly. “I don’t understand” she said, “the others get plastered and make fools of themselves, but they vent anger at Philosopher and me! They blame us for not having fun at their silly party!”
“They are only angry with you because you can tell the story,” I consoled her, but she was still shaking her head in disbelieve.
Last week I had this great workshop at Studio One in Auckland. It was supposed to be a holiday programme for kids from 10 to 14. Truth was the youngest was just 8 and I was a bit worried, that the age difference would be too noticeable. Surprisingly it wasn’t at all. They all played wonderfully together and came up with this lovely story not to judge a book by its cover. I am always amazed about their creativity. Isn’t this skeleton just gorgeous? It is made out of two shuttlecocks and pipe cleaner by thirteen-year-old David. We had so many characters in the end we could easily have made a few films…. But what I really like is that they come up with one story as a group and work on it together.
For me personally it was a wonderful break from the drudgery of school and it became very clear to me that I have to get back into the swing with my puppets. I have three projects on the boil and have to make up my mind which one I am starting first. Life is definitely too short…
And here is the film we’ve created.
This week is probably the busiest week I will have all year. It started off on Monday with finishing one puppet workshop. I had done a six week course at Toi Ora, an art trust that works in the mental health sector. This is definitely the area I want to move into. Unfortunately the course didn’t quite work as I envisaged it. I liked the students and the settings, but there were also areas that weren’t sitting right, though I think my blog isn’t the forum to divulge what didn’t work. In the course the participants made their own characters and came up with the story and we celebrated the uplaod of our little film with a red carpet event. It’s a very short film, so we only had a very little red carpet.
And here is the film
dedepuppets 