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Thurible

Choosing a Perfume

Cooking

Blind Baking

Casseroles

Eggs

Strawberries & Ice-Cream

Mace

Marinating

Parsley

Sliced Penis

Roasts

Tomato Paste

Vegetables

Wine

Man Things

Shaving

7 Deadly Sins

Funda - mentalist Letter

Martin Luther's Letter

Out of the Mouths of Babes & Sucklings

Pearls of Wisdom

Miscellany

As we wander through life, we come across various little hints, amusements,

bits and pieces that help us along the way.

In this section, we would like to share with you some of those things that we can remember.

Please click on the hyperlinks to zoom to a particular entry with great speed and finesse.

Thurible

Once considered an important tool of ritual magick, a thurible is a covered incense burner, or censer.
It is generally made to be hung, or carried on the end of chains. Although it has fallen out of use in many traditions with the advent of self-igniting incense, thuribles are still used in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
Burning charcoal is placed inside the metal censer. Incense, sometimes of many different varieties, is placed upon the charcoal.

Choosing a Perfume

When choosing a perfume, smell coffee beans between each scent in order to clear the sense of smell (like eating sorbet
between courses of a meal to clear the palate).
Never smell more than 4 scents in one go.

Cooking

Blind Baking:

The following is based on a handy hint the Pampas Pastry website which has some great recipes (Australian based) and good information.

If adding an uncooked moist filling to a pastry case, it is often necessary to blind bake the pastry first. This seals the pastry and allows it to remain crisp.
1. Line quiche/pie dish with pastry.
2. Prick it with a knife a few times.
3. Place grease-proof paper over pastry and weigh down with uncooked rice, beans or pasta. This will prevent the pastry bubbling.
4. Bake at 180° C (160° C fan forced) for approximately 10 minutes, remove paper and rice and bake for a further 5-10 minutes.
Allow to cool before filling.

Casseroles:

"darken" the taste of a casserole, cautiously add a little instant coffee.
Leftover casserole can be used as a pie filling for a kind of Shepherd's Pie - with shortcrust pastry as the casing, and and mashed potato on top.

Eggs - Hard Boiled:

If at room temperature, place into boiling salted water and gently boil (simmer) for 15-20 minutes.
If from the fridge, place into cold salted water, bring to boil and then gently boil (simmer) for 15-20 minutes.
When done, put straight into another dish of cold water (to bring the temperature right down).

The salted water helps to keep the egg together if there is a crack.
The cold water plunge bath afterwards helps to stop the yolk from getting a grey ring around it.

Fresh Strawberries and Ice-Cream:

This is a recipe Sr Carmen used to serve in a French Restaurant. A nice, simple and tasty dish. Preparation time is only about 10 minutes, even if you are doing 4 serves.

Ingredients: (per serve)

- 4 medium sized red strawberries (the big ones have no flavour, and the redder the better)
- 30ml (1 nip) of Cointreau
- 2 teaspoons of sugar
- 2 or 3 scoops of ice-cream

Method:

1. Rinse, then "hull" the strawberries (means taking the green stalks/leave off them).
2. Cut them into bite sized pieces (often into quarters will do).
3. Combine the Cointreau and sugar, making a kind of syrup (add more sugar if you wish).
4. Put the strawberries into the Cointreau syrup and stir them around gently to cover them.
5. Scoop the ice-cream into the plate.
6. Artistically arrange the strawberries in the bowl on top and around the ice-cream.
7. Drizzle the syrup (which is pinkish now) over and around the ice-cream and strawberries.
8. Serve and enjoy.

Mace:

Easily available in the supermarket, it is actually the lacy covering that surrounds the seed of the nutmeg. Lighter and more delicate in taste, it can be used in place of nutmeg in desserts (or egg flips!). However, it can also be a special, pleasing and simple addition to meats - especially in a marinade.

Marinating:

Put simply - soaking. To be scientific, when used with meats it breaks down the cut at a cellular level which - in practice - makes the meat more tender. When this happens, the flavours that you have put into the "marinade" are able to permeate throughout the meat and give it a deeper flavour.

A simple marinade is:
- Red Wine (see the note on "Wine" below)
- Garlic (1x clove or 1x teaspoon crushed)
- Bay leaf
- 2x splashes of Worcestershire sauce (preferably "Lea and Perrins")
- 2x splashes of Soy Sauce (preferably the type called "Tamari")

Soak the meat in the marinade for at least 4 hours (in the 'fridge).
When ready to cook, drain off into a little jug and use later for a sauce/gravy.

Parsley:

If using parsley for garnish, chop it up and put it in a bowl of water, and then into the 'fridge. This helps keep its colour and freshness.

Sliced Penis:

Ingredients:
- 500g penis
- 1 chopped tomato
- 1 chopped onion
- Cloves of garlic
- Coriander
- Black pepper
- Cumin
- Saffron
- Salt

Method:
Scald the penis and clean it
Boil for 10 minutes, then remove from pot and slice
Brown the onion, garlic and coriander together in oil
Add penis slices and fry
Mix chopped tomato, pepper, cumin, saffron and salt
Cover the penis slices with this mixture
Cover the pan and cook over a low flame for 2 hours (adding a little water from time to time to prevent burning)
Season with hilbeh and serve hot.

Serves 4

This recipe comes from Israel, and although it may seem to be otherwise, it is not from a feminist cookbook.
The penis referred to is recommended as Geed - penis of ram or bull (... feel better, now?!)

Roasts:
Use an oven bag - they are less messy, and keep the meat nice and moist. Remember to put flour in beforehand, and use oven
gloves when handling it when taking out of the bag (it is very, very hot and will burn your fingers!). Prick the bag and drain into
a measuring jug, then add some appropriate powdered gravy mix (Gravox, Greens or whatever) and you have a lovely sauce
that compliments the meat nicely.

Tomato Paste:
If you don't have Tomato paste use Tomato Sauce instead (but be careful of the higher sweetness of the added sugar)

Vegetables:
To keep vegies fresh for a little longer, save your money by keeping them in the supermarket bags in the 'fridge. If they are sad looking, spill a little water into the plastic bag, give a shake, and pop them back into the 'fridge for about 15-20 minutes..

Wine:
With common sense, use wine instead of water. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS use a wine that you would drink.
"Cooking" wine (the cheap, horrible stuff that you wouldn't put in a glass) is only suitable for putting down ... the sink!
As a rule of thumb, when cooking use the old standard - "white for white meats, Red for red meats". This can be varied when
you get used to using it.

Man Things

Shaving:
To help make the shave a little smoother (and sometimes closer), first put on liquid soap, and then put on the shaving cream. You'll find the blade runs a lot easier as well. This would apply equally well to areas other than the face!

The Seven Deadly Sins

The history of the deadly sins is long and complicated and there have not always been 7!

Variously:

Gluttony, Lust, Avarice, Sadness, Anger, Acedia, Vainglory, Pride

Gula, Luxuria, Avaritia, Tristia, Ira, Superbia, Invidsia.

Gluttony, Lust, Covetousness, Sloth, Anger (Wrath), Pride (Vanity), Envy, Avarice

Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, Lust