Obama's Sexy and he knows it!

I certainly agree with him!

The Sun has got his hat on!

 It's official - Summer is here!  Not only have I spent a fabulous weekend having my first barbecue, Pimms and picnic of the year, the clocks say so too!  Before the weekend, I had never really thought about making my own burgers - but as a friend whipped them up in no time with delicious herbs and spices, I wondered why anyone would ever buy them?!  

So I thought I'd spread the Summer cheer and spice up your barbecues by sharing a quick and simple recipe for your own home made burgers. This particular recipe is from good old Jamie, and, as he says, once the basic recipe is down, you can customise your burgers with your own additions.

This recipe makes approximately 8 burgers.

 

Ingredients: 

- 1kg/2lb 3oz minced steak

- 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

- olive oil

- a pinch of cumin seeds

- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds

- salt and pepper

- a handful of freshly grated Parmesan

- 1 heaped tablespoon English mustard (Dijon is also good!)

- 1 large egg

- 115g/4oz breadcrumbs

- 8 burger buns

Method:

1.  In a big frying pan, slowly cook the onion in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes until softened but not coloured. Add the onion to the meat. 

2.  Using a pestle and mortar, bash up the cumin and coriander seeds with a pinch of salt and pepper until fine and add to the meat.  Add the Parmesan, mustard, egg and half the breadcrumbs and mix well. If the mixture is too sticky, add a few more breadcrumbs.

3.  Lay some greaseproof paper on a tray or large plate and sprinkle over some of the remaining breadcrumbs. Shape the meat into 8 fat burgers and place these on top of the crumbs on the tray. Sprinkle more crumbs on top and press down gently. 

4.  The burgers are better if they are chilled before cooking, so put them in the fridge for an hour or so.

5. Take your burgers out of the fridge and fry them in a little oil on a medium to high heat for about 8-10 mins, depending on the thickness of the burgers and how you like them, turning occasionally. Alternatively, shove them on the barbecue!

Serve on tasty burger buns, get your friends round, soak up the Sun and enjoy!

Space on Earth!

Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition at the Tate Modern looks right up my street!  With everything from the weird to the wonderful, the main attraction is her infinity mirror room (her largest to date) with hundreds of hanging changing colour LED lights – now do you see why I’m so excited about it?!  This is the closest most of us are ever going to get to experiencing floating in space.

The exhibition showcases the 82 year old’s astonishing array of media from painting, drawing, sculpture, film, performance and immersive installations.  In 1977, Kusama voluntarily checked herself into a psychiatric home where she has remained.  Since then, her work has been representative of psychiatric trauma and obsessive repetition (as seen through her infamous dots).  So while the infinity mirror room may seem astronomically beautiful, it’s conceptualisation has probably come from a much deeper and darker place than any of us care to venture. 

Regardless of this, I’m planning to check it out at the weekend.  If anyone’s been or is going, let me know what you think!

Breathtaking.

Turn the lights off, turn on full screen and be amazed!

The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

The Bonnington Cafe

In a quest to find a cheap but delicious place for dinner in an easy location for me and 2 of my sisters, we stumbled across The Bonnington Cafe in Vauxhall, once a squat, now a cooperatively run vegetarian cafe.

Although it is very close to the station, The Bonnington Cafe is nestled down a semi-tropical (it has palm trees?!) residential road.  The restaurant offers a different chef and a different vegetarian or vegan menu each night.  On Tuesday, the food on offer was a sweet potato soup to start, tri-colour lasagne or red veggie curry for main and blueberry and apple crumble or orange and almond tart for desert.  The food was seriously tasty but I would recommend going a bit later (8:30ish) when the atmosphere picks up as more people come in to sample the veggie delights.

Although the food was good and the decor was shabilly cosy, the lighting could've done with some work - but at only £3 for starters and deserts, £7 for mains and BYOB policy with no corkage, I'm willing to let it slide as this place really is hearty grub on a budget.

As one of my sisters said, 'It's almost like going out and having your mum cook you dinner'.  So try it out, give it some support, and let me know how you get on!

Confessions of a Docu-Geek!

Last week, I decided to branch out of my usual channel hopping routine, and came across the wonder of Current TV.  I ended up watching Supersize Me's Morgan Spurlock's list of '50 documentaries you should see before you die', and being a mega docu-geek, I loved it!! So, I've decided to work my way through the list, and will be sure to let you know about any which I think deserve to be seen!  Unfortunately, the majority of them are very America-centric, so once I'm done with these bad boys, I'll be moving on to English/European ones.

I'm only at number 47 and am already seriously impressed.  'One Day in September' (number 47) was particularly mind-blowing.  Not only was it extremely well directed and researched, but it focused on a shocking event which, I'm ashamed to say, I knew very little about. 'One Day in September', directed by Kevin Macdonald, documents the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.  The sequential structure of the documentary interspersed with interviews from the victim's relatives, the only surviving Palestinian terrorist (who remains in hiding) and various security and Olympic officials, is mixed with an extremely critical subtext towards the German handling of the tragedy.

It showed the true mark of a great documentary, as I've been thinking about it for days after I've watched it.  So check it out and let me know what you think!

Who Run the World? Girls!

Now, I know my post titles are making it look like I have an unhealthy obsession with Beyonce (me?! Never!) BUT today is International Women's Day and I thought I'd tell you all about a seriously girl power Southbank Centre event - Women of the World Festival (WOW).

Southbank's WOW festival is running from now until 11th March (Sunday) so get down there quick!  With music, talks, debates, mentoring and workshops from influential women, WOW festival hopes to celebrate us women, learn about our history, recognise past injustices and enjoy each other's company.  With performances from icons such as Sinead O'Connor, Annie Lennox and Emilie Sandé, I think it's worth checking out.

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