June 2018 - Week 2: Cooking Vs. Convenience

I'm focusing on trying to cut down on convenience foods. I cooked steak and veg yesterday and am making a braised steak with the rest of the meat I bought. I made my own sausage rolls too, so that I can still have frozen convenience foods, except they will be home made.

Homemade sausage rolls.

11/6/2018 - Monday

It's a public holiday today so it's very quiet outside (the street is normally parked out by 8.15am). I did a load of washing, had left-over steak and veg for morning tea, and made braised steak for dinner.

I uploaded last week's blog entry.

I noticed Jason added a couple of blog entries relating to home-made shampoo and toothpaste in the last couple of days. He has been extra creative and experimental in his iterative approach to creative practice by trying different materials / ingredients and varying recipes according to his own need/preference. I shared these entries to Twitter, which will automatically share them on Facebook as well.

I did some more writing about the Situationists' background. I focused on reading and writing about John Dewey's Art as Experience (1934)

12/6/2018 - Tuesday

I went to the doctors to see about clearing my lingering head-cold-like symptoms. My head is chronically blocked to the extent that I have had muffled hearing for over a week in my left ear, which has spread to the right ear, and now I can hardly hear at all. He prescribed some antihistamines and antibiotics. I hope it clears quickly.

I went to the butcher and bought some sausage mince to mix with beef mince I thawed out. I made my first ever batch of sausage rolls using the following recipe.

INGREDIENTS

· 4 sheets ready rolled puff pastry

· 1 tablespoon milk

· 1 egg

· 500g veal mince, or beef mince

· 500g sausage mince

· 1 small brown onion, finely chopped

· 1 small red onion, finely chopped

· 1 medium carrot, coarsely grated

· 3 cloves garlic, crushed

· 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

· 1 1/2 tablespoons tomato sauce

· 1/4 cup (60ml) Worcestershire sauce

METHOD

Step 1

Preheat oven to 220C/200C fan-forced. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper.

Step 2

Thaw puff pastry. Meanwhile, combine milk and egg in a small jug. Whisk well. Combine veal mince, sausage mince, onion, carrot, garlic, parsley and sauces in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Divide mixture into 8.

Step 3

Lay a sheet of pastry on a flat surface. Cut sheet in half horizontally. Spoon 1/8 of the mince mixture down along the long side of one pastry half, shaping mince into a long sausage shape. Brush opposite long edge with a little egg mixture

Step 4

Roll up pastry to enclose filling, finishing seam side down. Brush top of log with egg mixture. Cut into 6 short pieces. Place pieces, seam side down on prepared tray, 2cm apart. Repeat with remaining mince mixture, pastry and eggwash.

Step 5

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

Left: Sausage roll mixture. Right: Two 1/2 sheets of frozen pastry, each with 1/8 meat mixture.

Left: Two rolls ready for egg wash and cutting Right: 4 batches of 12 sausage rolls each.

I did some more work on my Situationist chapter.

13/6/2018 - Wednesday

I worked on writing my Situationist chapter mostly.

Paul and Carla visited for a little while and Bill dropped in for a couple of hours of playing guitar/jamming.

Chub brought over a roast dinner.

14/6/2018 - Thursday

I tweaked the introductory section of the chapter I'm working on and sent it to Jo and Andrew. (They need time to read stuff to be able to provide feedback by our meeting on Monday).

I had lunch with Deniz.

Afternoon and evening I worked on my Situationist chapter writing.

I ate reheated sausage rolls and had boiled and fried dumplings for the rest of the day.

Boiled and fried dumplings.

15/6/2018 - Friday

I kept working on my Situationist writing. I'm writing about the split between the aesthetic faction and the political faction in 1962.

I had dumplings for morning tea sitting out on the front balcony in the sunshine. This was one of those sublime moments. It really does pay to slow down and savour moments and the various aesthetic experiences they offer.

I made a homemade hamburger-sandwich for lunch.

Chub brought over some paella for dinner.

Paul and Carla called in for a visit and Carla asked if I could paint a hoodie for her. She would get one from the op shop.

16/6/2018 - Saturday

Dad's in Qld so I made lunch at home.

I went to the Salvos and bought a hoodie for my sister in law which I painted.

I did some more work on my Situationist writing. I have realised that I am aiming to reunify Situationist theory and practice, to how they operated before the 1962 split.

Left: Front of the painted hoodie. Right: Back of the painted hoodie.

17/6/2018 - Sunday

I had a home-grown banana for morning tea. It was tiny and took 2 weeks to ripen when removed from the bunch. Its a strange time of year to be ripening bananas. Fresh fruit is another way to have convenience foods without resorting to processed products.

A bunch of bananas hanging out in the back shed.

bananas ripening

Left: Ripened bananas. Right: A very yummy banana next to a USB as a size comparison.

I went and had afternoon tea at Deniz' place.

I worked some more on my writing. I added information about commodification... from different times to show evolving ideas... such as Marx (19th century), Adorno (1944), and Baudrillard (1968).