link love

It's Sunday night and I just felt like I should write. But I haven't cooked anything. In fact, I've slipped into that place where you just kinda eat toast for every meal and your stomach lets you do it and you drink lots of tea. I've been unwell as well as busy this week, so I guess that's okay.

It's a cold, wet night but I'm feeling that Sunday evening optimism for the week ahead that pops up sometimes. I think it is at least partly because this is attached to my head:

A lovely friend bought me a vintage bonnet-style hair dryer last week, as I've just recently had my hair cut into a proper 1940s/1950s style. I think this hot air-filled hat is pretty much the best thing that has ever happened to me since I met Quincy. Not only because it dries my pin curl set while I watch the news or knit or edit my goddamnmofoofathesis, but because it warms my brain up real good, too, and makes me feel all sort of awesome and relaxed. Like how I imagine Quincy feels when she's grilling her paws under the column heater on the rug.

So I thought I'd share some excellent things I've read/cooked/seen/wanted recently. Spread the love, etc.


1. Tavi Gevinson's TED talk pretty much made my week. Watch it and send it to all the young women (especially teenagers!) that you know.

2. Lovely Miss Mimi who writes 1972: The Retro Weight Watchers Experiment is holding a retro Weight Watchers potluck, and guess who's bringing main dishes?! That's right, yours truly - along with my gelatin-molding pal Emily over at Dinner is Served 1972. You know my friends are just dying to be chosen to come eat the results with me. Stay tuned!

3. I discovered this blog and read it all afternoon while I was stuck in bed. It's a really great resource for wallet-friendly recipe ideas - but it also really got me thinking about food prices in Australia. Have a look and see what you think. Or just skip straight to this chocolate mug cake. Doesn't that look awesome?1? It almost makes me wish I had a microwave.

4. Shoes at Kate Spade. I die.

5. Twin Peaks-themed fabrics at Spoonflower. Let's Rock.

6. I love Bon Appetit's Friday afternoon cocktail series, The Happy Hour. This week, it's vodka, lime, mint, blueberries and St-Germain - that gorgeous elderflower liqueur - in a Blueberry Smash. Totally bookmarked for summer.

7. I've started running again. I'll explain why soon, but I came across Team Bangs on the Run's site this week and totally gobbled it all up. Start with the team mannifesto, check out how hot they all are and sign up for the newsletter for great tips.

8. I love links. I can't help it. I had my first hot dog from Snag Stand this week and I really, really enjoyed it. They had a vegetarian chorizo hot dog on the menu. I wanted that, also.

9. My kingdom for a horse. Or, to be able to write like this. I read this over an otherwise miserable lunch and it took my breath away.

10. Some people believe procrastination is a good and productive thing. I am one of them. LOOK WHAT I FOUND.

Lexi.x

The retro gelatin recipe dare: Shrimp Salad Surprise, aka Knoxploitation

This is the story of how my new neighbour and I came to spend Monday evening chowing down (and gagging) on a plate of Shrimp Salad Surprise. It's the story of why I will be forever indebted to Adele and now owe her a great number of excellent dinners. It's also, tragically, the story of the first recipe I've attempted in my new(!) home. Enjoy, dear readers. But be warned: this story contains images that may offend.

Our innocent protagonist Lexi had been a long-time reader of the great blog, The Mid-Century Menu. Every Wednesday, the blog's owner Ruth cooks up a mid-century recipe from her vast collection - exactly as printed - and she and her partner sit down to eat the result. It's a fantastically funny project and quite different to Lexi's self-set retro recipe challenges, 'cause Ruth sticks entirely to the original recipe and tucks in anyway. Lexi's admiration crossed the line though when late last year she emailed Ruth to ask if she'd be interested in a mid-century recipe dare. She was.

The year ended and the seasons changed. Ruth settled into the Winter while back in OZ, Dorothy (that's Lexi, bien sûr) had just - quite unexpectedly - found the ultimate miniature apartment and suddenly had to move house quick smart in the hot summer weather. While she trawled through her closets deciding what to pack, stopping only to photograph Quincy hundreds of times jumping into boxes of crumpled newspaper, Mimi and Emily got in on the dare too and before long the kids in America had come up with a theme: Jell-O. Drastically behind the eight-ball, Lexi nodded politely to all the rules and regulations of the forthcoming challenge: no ingredient substitutions, strict deadlines. It was exciting, in a back-of-her-mind kinda way, until she got the recipe for Emily darling's choice of Shrimp Salad Surprise. (Be warned that if you click the image below, you will read something very dirty.) 

Lexi dutifully picked up all the ingredients from her new local supermarket; before she'd even bought a carton of milk for her new home, she had stinky tinned prawns, garlic salt, sour cream, mushy olives and squeaky-on-the-tooth bland pickled artichokes on her new kitchen table. And lemon jelly crystals. Things were looking bleak. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and boy, did Lexi say some words while she put this baby together...

 

 

 

As Lexi's mate Jez so quaintly put it, she was "basically moulding vomit". It would appear so, wouldn't it? Next was to slice this baby up into "creamy cubes" and arrange among salad leaves, tomato wedges, squeakychokes and sliced stuffed olives. Oh, and to rope her lovely new neighbour Adele into coming over for dinner. What a sport. 

 

First bite goes in.

First bite goes down.

Second bite goes in.

Second bite goes down.

The rest went in the bin.

THE END

The verdict: 

These creamy cubes made us gag each time we tried to swallow. Our first mistake was trying the milky-lemon jelly on its own: the combination of flaccid prawns, chopped pecans, celery and onion suspended in a malevolent concoction of sour cream, vinegar, garlic salt and lemon Jell-O was hideous. Soon we realised that the cubes acted better as a kind of solid dressing for the plain leaves and came significantly closer to being palatable eaten this way. But the whole thing literally stunk and we just couldn't keep it up (or down). We tossed the cubes and opened a tin of Ortiz anchovies. 

Improvements: 

I should have chopped the prawns etc finer, so that the cubes could be cut more easily. The little chunks disrupting the geometry of each creamy cube were not aesthetically pleasing.

Would I make this again?

F*#! no.

See how the other kitty kats fared with their dares!

Mimi at The Retro Weight Watchers Experiment made Waikiki Dip

Ruth at The Mid-Century Menu (poor thing) made Liver Pate en Masque

Emily at Dinner is Served 1972 got stuck with my submission: Swedish Jellied Veal

Fine print: Apologies to mah homegirls Ruth, Mimi and Emily for running late on this post. Unfortunately, Australia is ahead of the U.S. time-wise, so I can't even use that as an excuse.