Mushroom sauce for pasta

Mushroom sauce for pasta
http://www.lunched.co.uk/Pasta/mush_sauce.html

You need:
A good few handfuls of any mushroom sliced thinly.
25g (about 1heaped tbsp) flour or cornflour
1/2 pint of milk
15g butter
olive oil
salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a pan with some olive oil to stop it from burning. Sauté the mushrooms until soft and coloured remove from the pan and set aside. Turn off the heat under the pan. Add the milk and flour and whisk. Turn the heat back on but onto a very low flame. Whisk the sauce frequently but not too vigorously and it will thicken up right before your eyes. It needs to cook for about 10 mins to cook out the flour taste. This is a basic white sauce.

A nice little variation is to bung in a tsp of mustard (english is best), it gives the sauce a certain something. Some torn basil is great too.

Once you are happy with it, return the mushrooms to the pan, allow to heat through, season to taste . Serve over freshly boiled conchigle (pasta shells) as they hold large amounts of sauce. No burnt bits, no lumps, no fuss.

Perfect corn on the cob

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/tipstechniques/ht/cornonthecob.htm

Green beans recipe

A recipe for green beans in tomato sauce, with boiled potatoes in white wine vinegar + cheese:

You need...

* 1 onion chopped finely
* Chopped garlic
* Olive oil
* Green beans, lots of, with ends cut off and washed
* 'Baby' potatoes, bag of (these usually are sold washed)
* White wine vinegar
* Feta cheese diced (or something like Cheshire if you hate Feta!)
* Tin chopped tomatoes
* Brown sugar (only a tad - maybe 1/4 of a teaspoon)

How to prepare...

1. Before anything, steam the beans to soften them up, then drain
2. Boil the potatoes

--when the spuds are about ready to eat go to step 3--

3. In another pan, sautee the onions and garlic until onion goes golden
4. Throw in the beans and stir about a bit
5. Pour in some of the tomato - you decide, but don't drown the onions completely. About 50-50 is ok
6. Toss in the brown sugar and heat it all up
7. Drain the now cooked spuds, then drizzle them in white wine vinegar (but don't go too mad!) and throw in the cheese chunks. Stir.

8. Dish it all out and eat

Blueprints

My grandad Joe worked at an engineering works in Middleton, Leeds. He used to bring home big wads of blueprints so that I could draw on the reverse. These had a strong musty, metallic, and inky smell.

move festival 13th July 2003

move2003_0006
Originally uploaded by shedlord.

REM, Idlewild, Oranger, Badly Drawn Boy, Athlete, John Squire

Thorpe: Man bricks dog

What I (vaguely) remember:

I was somewhere between 10 and 14 years old. We were living in a terraced house in one of the couple of small streets that made up a no-man's land called Thorpe, somewhere in between Leeds and Wakefield. Thorpe is one of those nothingly places you drive through to get to somewhere real. This was emphasized on a daily basis by the noise of the nearby M62. There were no shops (that I recall). The only thing of interest was the Chlorine plant directly across the road. There was literally nothing to do there, except walk the dog.

Now, the bit I should remember about this but can't be sure is the name of the dog in this tale of woe. We definitely had a very stupid red setter called Bonnie when we lived here, but he/she was taken away again at some stage by the original owner because we basically couldn't handle the constant cleaning up of sick, nicking food off the table and general insanity. On the other hand, it might have been my auntie's dog. Let's just call it "the dog" for the sake of argument.

Anyway, I was walking the dog, not on a lead or anything. I got to the end of our street and the dog ran into the very small yard in front of the last house. It probably started having a dump, can't exactly remember - it may have just been nosing around. The owner came out, picked up a bit stone that was next to the door. As I was shouting "No!!!" he threw it at the dog and hit one of its legs. The dog started screaming in pain. Don't remember much what happened next but it involved me crying and swearing at him a lot.

My mum took him to court over it. I had to get up in the witness box and tell the story. When I got to the swearing bit I said something like "then I said some rude things", which made some people in the court laugh. We won the case.

The ice cream men

We had 2 main ice cream vans (70s/early 80s - Belle Isle, Leeds)

1. Walls
The ice cream man was refered to as Wallsy, although this probably came from the brand of ice cream (?)
If I remember rightly he was a grumpy old man and had a really obvious wig that was the target of much piss-taking.
Typical ice cream van shape and product.

2. Basils
Weirder shaped van, sort of pointed and car shaped at the front, with a curvy overhanging bit on the roof. Lots of pink paint. Bit like a rocket lolly.
Don't remember the driver at all. 'Basil' used to sell those screwball things - a plastic inverted cone full of ice cream with an edible bubble gum ball in the bottom.

Billy Wells

He was the 'telly man'. Whenever it needed a new tube putting in (before tvs got cheap and disposable) Billy Wells would turn up. This almost certainly wasn't his real name because he had a foreign accent (Polish I think) and my grandad had supposedly vouched for him so that he could become a British citizen after the war. Apparently we got our telly fixed for free because of this.
He always seemed to be very tanned, so he must have made a bit of money out of it.
Black curly hair. Dazzling white teeth.
I always used to sit on the nearest armchair and watch him take the telly apart, fascinated. Wonder if this put him off?
Seemed like a really friendly guy anyway.

Who?

Message via Friends Reunited from a Julie Priestly...

Hi darren
if u r who I think u r then u lived off dewsbury rd, beeston in an old terrace house. I use to hang around with daz blackie and sharon branfoot (braggy). My name then was Julie Priestley and was from middleton and went to matthew murray school with daz. Believe we use to come round to yr house and play records, my favourite then was japan! R u the same darren jones? If so u might not remember me I had red hair. Hope u r well if u remember me drop a line.
Take care
Julie

...now, the name rings a vague bell, but only just.

Fall Gig, Dec. 12 2003, The Mill, Preston

Boxoctosis / Telephone Thing / Mountain Energei / Green Eyed Loco Man / Mod- Mock.Goth / The Joke / Middle Mass / Walk Like a Man / Contraflow / Mr. Pharmacist / Janet, Johnny and James / Theme from Sparta F.C. / Protein Xmas / Mere Pseud Mag Ed // White Lightning / Big New Prinz / Dr. Buck's Letter // Bourgeois Town

Me and ZZ. Went to the pub that used to be Moss Cottage beforehand. It was very cold outside.

The Mill was full of middle aged blokes. Lots of baldness. Bought a couple of Fall badges and grabbed the best seat on the raised seating area (well, we're only little 'uns). Support acts: Only remember the second act, called The Wandering Step. Pretty good in places - 'I Wanna Go To Reykjavik' was excellent.

Fall came on very late, which wasn't good cos we had to catch last train home. Smith looked like gollum and seemed to be pissed as a stoat. Sound wasn't great where we were. I went to the front for a bit and joined in the traditional Mr Pharmacist ruck - very mannered compared with earlier years, but I suppose you're gonna get that with a load of middle aged slightly embarrassed blokes.

We left somewhere mid Big New Prinz.

Fall gig, Dec 15 1990, Lancashire Polytechnic, Preston

A pummelling set performed to a half full hall - a massive improvement on the lacklustre effort at Preston Guildhall earlier that year. The only songs I can remember them doing are Arms Control Poseur (a heavy, grinding version) and Victoria.

Cranmores list

Cranmore Drive
Fairy Fields (caterpillars and fairy grass)
Old Ma Lindley (apples, 'I know where you live')
The Stotts (or 'Stotties')
The Fowles' (Tina, Mark, Irene)
David Harvey
The Blackies (Darren, Steve, Steven, Dean, Susan, Pat?)
Grand National & the hedge tunnel
Clapgate School (motorbike stunts, british bulldog, flick-a-bee)

Fall Gig, Mar 12th 1990, Guildhall, Preston

Setlist (courtesy of the Fall gigography):

Error Orrori / Littlest Rebel / Jerusalem / Sing Harpy / I'm Frank / Telephone Thing / Hilary / Hit The North / Chicago Now / Black Monk Theme / Popcorn Double Feature / Deadbeat Descendent / Bremen Nacht / Carry Bag Man / Mr. Pharmacist / Victoria / US 80s-90s

Mark E Smith stopped mid-song early on and took the band off stage - for a rollicking probably. He apologised for it.

Don't remember it being a very good gig. Wrong type of venue for The Fall.