mountain masala

chapel service

I'm madly putting together next wednesday's chapel service, which is a "stations of holy week". a few others from the college are helping out. it's all very last minute. I'll be recycling and borrowing a few things. the image above is also the wine bottle label for our last supper communion (minus the date & venue details). thanks to cheryl and roddy and others in advance for your ideas... (plus a few of my own!) click on the image to see a bigger version.

I've just bought a zillion pieces of black card so i can cover up the multiple windows. I'll tell you more when its planned.

conversation sermon

john hebenton has posted about the process by which he and his son developed a conversation sermon. a simple but impressive way to work together.

read it here.

john is an anglican minister and youth ministry type person from kiwiland. hi john!

east african chicken

I slightly adapted this recipe from Josephine Bacon and Jenni Fleetwood's "The African and Middle Eastern Cookbook". In the original recipe, this is a butter paste that you put under and over the skin of a chicken before you roast it. I had some chicken pieces that I'd cooked the day before, so I left out the butter, added chicken stock and turned it into a sauce in which I reheated the chicken. We had it with couscous and chopped vegetables roasted in olive oil and honey.

3 crushed garlic cloves
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander
4 tbsp coconut milk
4 tbsp medium sherry
1 tsp tomato paste
salt & chilli powder

simple and tasty. the book is on auction online here!

we followed it up with a peach pie. I has stewed up some peaches a few days before. Just put them in a pie dish with puff pastry above and blow and added a tsp on cinnamon. mmm.....

falling up

back from a couple of days in melbourne at the "spirit of gen y" national roundtable. I've come back with a cold and a sore jaw (a recent ailment that is getting all kinds of rude comments). I've a few things to blog about the event. it was great to catch up with a whole lot of people and go out to dinner with a few. but after hosting a 12 year olds sleepover last night (actually a masquerade party) I'm not in the best shape (so why am I blogging?) my main advice is don't try to hang fairy lights when your inner ear is clagged. we now have temporary fairy lights in our front and back lounge rooms - there's never been a more festive time to visit us. and did you know that 6 12 year old girls can demolish a kilogram of bacon for breakfast, along with eggs, crumpets, muffins, toast, you name it. I think the heart foundation police are going to knock on the door and arrest me at any moment.

some interesting new music on the recent Uncut, Word and Paste mag CDs.

Uncut March 2007 CD has "Falling Up" by Rickie Lee Jones from her new album "The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard". I'm a longtime fan and on the strength of this will be getting the album.

Honey-skinned girl
She's light on her feet
Twirling on Apollo
But she's going down there for something to eat

On the corner
We see him coming
Followed by the rabbis
With their soft shoes humming

We're falling up, yeah yeah
We're falling up

Come on
Try to remember

Honey girl
We could be like him
Transfiguration
Try to remember

We're falling up, yeah, yeah, yeah
We're falling up, oh, oh, oh, oh
We're falling up, oh, woah
We're falling up

Honey baby
We're living with the Romans now
I want you to remember this
Come on
Try to remember

We're falling up, yeah, yeah, yeah
We're falling up, oh, oh, oh, oh
We're falling up, hey
We're falling up, oh woah

Try to remember
Try to remember
Try to remember

what's this about.  not sure but I love it, and the idea of "falling up"
- he's coming... followed by the rabbis... transfiguration... we could be like him....

Also on the Uncut disc is Lucinda Williams' "What If" from her new album "West"

I shudder to think
what it would mean
if the president wore pink
and the prostitute was queen

what would happen then
how would the world change
if thick became thin
and the world was rearranged

the rains brought down the moon
and daylight was feared
and the sun rose too soon
and then just disappeared

if dogs became kings
and the ?? should come
if hobos had wings
and God was a bum

if houses became trees
and flowers turned to stone
and there were no families
if people lived alone

if buildings started laughing
and windows cried
if feet started clapping
and out came inside

if mountains fell in slivers
and the sky began to bleed
and blood filled up the rivers
and prisoners were free

if the stars fell apart
and the ocean dried up
and the world was one big heart
and decided to stop

if children grew up happier
and they could run with the wolves
and they never felt trapped
or hungry or unloved

if cats walked on water
and birds had bank accounts
and we loved one another
in equal amounts

I really like this, although some of the lyrics seem trite and cheesy. i wonder what birthed it. its a bit like joan osborne meets bob dylan meets john lennon.

this Uncut CD also has heaps of other great music from Richmond Fontaine, Dan Bern, Jesse Malin, the Fall, and Explosions in the Sky.

steve taylor's visit

I've finally got some details about steve taylor's visit here on the College website (print version shortly). steve is from christchurch in new zealand (aotearoa) and will be helping us think about leadership in the emerging church, 'alternative' worship, fostering new and fringe faith communities. seeing as 'new models of church' ('models' was not my word!) is one of our synod strategic objectives, his visit is timely and welcome.

steve will be leading sessions at college and next door at Adelaide West UC for ministers and also students, chatting at [re]generate, talking with the college faculty, and leading the Saturday morning session at the May Presbytery meeting. he's a rev dr and a baptist, for those who care about such things.

go and visit steve's blog here.

the word is out. looking forward to it!

art & soul in the city

the super-talented person known as susan wickham is helping scots church in the city to explore how they might engage people through the arts. sue is working on a bunch of things, but these cards are promoting a monthly sunday night labyrinth worship experience. scots have a portable labyrinth so i guess they'll be using that. it starts 25 march, the fourth sunday of each month at 7.30 pm. email susan@scotschurch.org.au or call 82231505 for info. the bag of the card is a "free hug" voucher - she says its for promotional purposes. she gave me about 50 which I'll have to give away, since I came from a non-huggy family, so this is extra-terrestrial for me.

BUT I thought I'd take the opportunity to embarrass myself and sue (well, just me actually). before i had properly met sue i led a leadership thing for Ped and the folk from Brooklyn Park UC - we're talking about 12 years ago. I used the balloon game for the very first time - did I make it up or borrow the idea - i don't know. but I was intrigued to see Tim Duffey use the same game last week! Anyway, I was given this drawing after the event.... and now I know who drew it...

I'll be using the balloon game again in a week or so at our youth leadership weekend - along with a squillion video clips..

yes, i was a stick figure mr bean once upon a time...

thanks susan

moroccan chicken

I'm in love with african and middle eastern dishes. I admit that i bend them to my tastes, but this is the unfolding culinary frontier for me, and it seems to help make spanish, thai, indian, mexican, and even italian recipes make more sense.

here's what transpired tonight

chicken - 2 chopped chicken breasts, marinated in fresh coriander leaves, 2 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tbspn honey, cracked black pepper and sea salt - later sauted with a bit of chicken stock
couscous - from 'Arabesque' by Greg & Lucy Malouf (just go and buy it, will you!) chopped, steamed sweet potato, currants, a tsp cinnamon and orange blossom water. to make the couscous really good (and scare vegetarians) I cook it in chicken stock.
peach salsa - (from the dangerous but completely essential "Big Flavours of the Hot Sun" by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby - IF I HAD ONE COOKBOOK THIS WOULD PROBABLY BE IT - and i only say probably because of my personality type...)  two peaches halved and sliced thinly, 1 capsicum (red pepper) grilled, peeled and sliced, 1/2 cup orange juice, 1 tbps molasses (I used dark treacle), 1 tbsp lime juice, 2 tsp minced red chilli (they say 1 tbsp), salt and pepper (I left out the parsley...)
- walnut and pine nut thingy - I made this up. I fried about 1/2 cup of pine nuts, then briefly fried about 1 cup of chopped dates. mixed this with a peeled and diced orange, chopped 1/4 preserved lemon, a squirt of lemon juice, about 2 tbsp coconut, a bit of orange zest. I'm sure I put some honey in there too - maybe 2 tbsp... some olive oil to loosen it up.

really good and the kids said we ought to put this in the family cookbook (an ongoing project...)

steak and four veg

I'm a bit behind on food posts....

had some economy rump steak the other day (is there any other kind?) and I was going to do a thai stir-fry, but then thought 'let's just have steak'. so, the steak just got fried, but the rest of it worked out really well....

potatoes - sliced thinly, layered in baking dish, some olive oil, sea salt and thyme - baked
sweet potato - boiled and mashed with some decent parmesan cheese grated and stirred through
beetroot - peeled, quartered and baked with 1 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil, 6-8 garlic cloves and fresh oregano
leeks - sliced and sauted

it all looked great and tasted wonderful

mad about womad

yes, I took maddy, the youngest (aka 'mad' or 'moo') to womad on sunday. i was so stuffed beforehand that i decided to put all of my energy into one day....

the highlights and lowlights......
- seeing the waifs live for the first time.  apparently this weekend was the first time they've played together for a while and they were just wonderful wonderful wonderful (the girls just downloaded the chords for 'lighthouse' and we're about to try it in the lounge room - my harmonica playing may not be up to scratch!)
- kev carmody joining the waifs onstage for "from little things big things grow" faaaantastic, although kev didnt do enough of the singing. but we all sang along. I gather that the waifs are on his tribute album. i missed his solo show the day before.
- the mahotella queens - I first heard one of them on stage where 3 of the women were talking about their culture and music. she talked about HIV/AIDS in southern africa and about how their solution was to tell people 'no sex before marriage'. it was quite confronting for the Aussie crowd. then they sang a gorgeous a capella song. but their main stage performance later was completely wild. all decked out with headgear and colourful attire, these 60 plus year olds jumped all over the stage to a very hot backing band. just sensational.
- an all star jam with bill cobham on drums and a string of percussionists, instrumentalists and singers... we had congas, violin, sitar, a middle eastern bagpipe of some kind, didgeridoo and all kinds of percussion. this was indescribably good
- the start of the Kronos Quartet - who, i kid you not, did a rant about George Bush, and then played Hendrix's 'Star Spangled Banner' from Woodstock on strings!!!!! unbelievable. if you've never heard it you won't understand how Hendrix turned the anthem into a Vietnam protest - the Edge on 'bullet the blue sky'  is a second best. I heard some other bits but the crowd was too big and I needed to sit down at that stage
- Augie March. the delight of the day. a 90 minute set, mainly from the new album, and they fulfilled my hopes by finishing with "This Train Will Be Taking no Passengers". Glen Richards voice just soared, and the band and their songs are such a wonderful mix of Nick Cave + Weddings Parties Anything + early Genesis or something like that! wickedly sublime, been looking around the house all day for the new cd to play!
- I heard a bit of Salif Keita and a few others. too much. too good
- saw the twins play in the parade (finally after 3 years!)

few downsides....
- I took one photo and then the batteries in the camera died. can you get batteries at womad? no.
- sitting in the dust all day and so today I've been dying from hay fever
- missed deborah conway and the backsliders and a bunch of others.

what more can i say.......?

a free ticket

I can't believe it! I arrive home from a week of events, out every night, completely exhausted and looking forward to a weekend of mainly sleep. suddenly I have a free ticket to WOMADedlaide!

gotan project, mahotella queens, the backsliders, the waifs, augie march, kev carmody, deborah conway, salif keita.....

aaarrrgh.  when am I going to sleep!!!!!!!!!1