Book Review – Murder at Mansfield Park, by Lynn Shepherd

I didn't really get off to a great start with this book. I put it down after one chapter – not because it was appalling, but because I was having trouble remembering the Who’s Who of Mansfield Park’s Bertram family. So I picked up and read the original to refresh my memory, and, as it turns out, that was the worst thing I possibly could have done. You see, M@MP is not tied quite so neatly into the original story (as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and Jane Slayre, are); rather than all the characters being more or less who they originally were, there are quite a few changes made to the lineup, viz.:

Fanny Price – sweet, shy, innocent, somewhat insipid foundling who is taken in by her Aunt Norris and promptly palmed off to the Bertram family (her other aunt); in the re-write she becomes an absolute bitch of an heiress and wanders about the place crushing the spirits of others and behaving somewhat inappropriately with men for an engaged woman, which makes it not entirely surprising that she is murdered.

Mary Crawford – shallow, cheeky, classless, and, perhaps unfairly, painted as all manner of bad things because she is Fanny’s unwitting competitor in love for Edmund Bertram and tries to set Fanny up with her brother; in the re-write she becomes everything that Fanny was originally but with perhaps a stronger character.

Edmund Bertram – gentlemanly, thoughtful, a little too thoroughly good and probably a little naïve youngest son of the Bertram empire and the apple of Fanny Price’s eye; in the re-write he is cast as somewhat more pathetic and ineffective as a man as he is jilted by Fanny Price and murder is attempted upon him.

You get the idea.

The book was confusing to begin with, and then kind of slow to take off (I always abhorred the time wasted on the Lover’s Vows rubbish in the original, so this is no different. I am aware it is a plot device designed to highlight the strengths and flaws of each character, but it doesn't make it any less tedious). Once the mystery got rolling I enjoyed it though, because it really was just about impossible to figure out whodunnit when everyone had a reason and an opportunity. I also liked the character of the inspector but found it to be  generally a little ham-handed.

Just now I Googled the book to jog my memory on the characters, and was a little surprised to find that several bloggers had commented on how much they hated the original Mansfield Park, or, at least, the original Fanny Price. I suppose that is because, when compared to such go-getters as Elizabeth Bennett, Miss Price very much falls short in intelligence, spirit and courage.

My personal belief is that although most star an obviously likeable level-headed or intelligent character, not a single Austen book goes by without one or two of the sisterhood letting the team down somehow (usually involving naivety, stupidity, selfishness or bitchiness), and it is simply a question of whether they can achieve it in a convincingly endearing manner. For example, I had a strong, negative reaction to Emma because the heroine consistently behaves like twat (that’s the technical literary term for it, btw!), even though the first line of the book tells us how clever she is. Ahh, irony.

In summary, if you hated Mansfield Park then you’re in with a shot for liking Murder at Mansfield Park, simply because Fanny Price is offed. I didn’t find it to be particularly well-written or especially compelling, but if you can make it through the first half without losing interest then the murder investigation in second half will reward you. Sort of.

101 Things Update - January 2012

As it turns out, the last time I did a 101 Things update was four months ago, back at the end of September. I've done a few bits and pieces since then, so thought I'd give you a quick update:

#1 - Year of the Cupcake: I got another five cupcakes under my belt... figuratively AND literally!  September's offering was the Cupcake Project's Ultimate Vanilla Cupcakes (GF); October's was Donna Hay's Short Black Cupcakes; November brought Cupcake Project's Pumpkin Cupcakes (GF) with Vanilla Icecream Frosting; December was Christmas Cupcakes with all sorts of really cute sprinkles from Bakingpleasures.com.au; and January was Gluten Free Chai Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting. No wonder my pants are so tight right now... but I don't think I'd change a thing!

#5 (learn to make meringue buttercream frosting) & #6 (make sweetapolita's ruffle cake): I knocked both of these over in one hit, by making the ruffle cake which requires you to make the Swiss meringue buttercream. I know, that's a little cheaty. Meh *shrugs* I'll have to make it again for the #7 rainbow cake challenge so I guess it's a skill I'll use again in the future - best I perfect it!

#9 - to make gnocchi from scratch: In late September I conquered this one. It's time-consuming, but it's nowhere near the pain in the bum everyone makes it out to be. I wouldn't consider it to be difficult. I was freaked out by all the hype about them turning out gluggy, which mine didn't. I don't know whether I got lucky or I just followed the recipe correctly, but again, not a big deal. If you're going to follow the recipe I linked to I suggest adding more vegies. I know that a butter sauce is probably a traditional way of serving it, but I prefer a bit more zing with a napoli sauce or similar.

#10 - to cook artichokes: I did this but haven't posted about it, mainly cos the hollondaise sauce you serve it with was a total failure. Once I get the hollondaise right I'll make it again and then post about it! Long story short, not as scary as the very complex instructions make it out to be. Very tasty, but very messy and fiddly and slow to eat!

#18 - to make a lemon tart: Done. The recipe promised all manner of miracles about it being the best lemon tart you have ever/will ever consume. The filling was amazing but the crust was a little meh. I probably overcooked it, and I don't think my tart case had quite the right dimensions. Definitely one to try again! (aww, shucks ;)

#22 - to learn to make cheese: Underway. My BFF Em and I are booked in to do a cheese course at Red Hill Cheese in May. We will learn to make feta, farmhouse cheese and yoghurt from goat's milk. Yum :) Hopefully they let me take photos. Hopefully I have enough hands to take photos! If both of those things pan out I promise I'll share it with you.

#24 - to blog at least twice per month for a year: Underway. I haven't done this consciously but it seems to be happening anyhow!

#31 - to build a Lego model. I made about half a dozen in one sitting and have written a draft post, but haven't published it yet. I'll get around to it!

#35 - to exercise at least four times per week leading up to the big hike. Done. And I still ended up in hospital!

#39 - to climb Mount Feathertop (the original goal was Mount Bogong but decided about a week before the event that I was being a bit silly, what with the dodgy ticker and all. It's not to say I will rule it out for the future, but I might wait until I'm being treated a bit more effectively). DONE!!! :) :)

#40 - to buy a good pair of sneakers to give my feet the support they needed. Done. This one was obviously added to the list at a time when my feet were sore from my old, cruddy sneakers. My new ones are way awesomer. You know, as opposed to being way more awesome. They're two totally different levels of awesome. Duh!

#45 - to take calcium tablets every day. Hmm, this one was going really well and then the Silly Season began and I went away and ended up in hospital and blah blah blah BAD NESSIE!!! Best I get back in the game on this one cos it's quite important.

#49 - to lose 1kg per month until under 75kg (but over 70kg): Um, well, you see... well, one way of looking at how that's going is that I now have a much rounder number that I need to lose before I reach my target goal (which is between 70 and 75kg). It's a very round number - I think you can figure it out! Not happy. I **could** use the excuse that I have a dodgy heart and I've been in hospital and haven't really been feeling up to exercising and blah blah blah, but that doesn't really excuse the inordinate amounts of utter crap I've been consuming. Seriously, it's terrifying. I could blame that veritable inhalation of calories on the emotional roller-coaster that is dealing with all this medical stuff, but that's a cop-out and I know it. I am perfectly aware that eating like a pig will only make things worse. But my knee is complaining about this extra weight, and I have a policy not to buy larger clothes than the ones I currently own (any distant, future, potential gestation notwithstanding), so I really have to lift my game here. Sigh. And I was doing so well last year :(

#65 - to read all my unread books before buying any more: Going well. Also, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT IS FOR SOMEONE LIKE ME TO STICK TO THIS??? ESPECIALLY WHEN I DO A LOT OF TRAVELLING AND SPEND A LOT OF TIME IN AIRPORT BOOKSHOPS AND I ALSO LOVE COOKBOOKS AND HAVE A NEED TO BUY NEW ONES ALL THE FREAKING TIME??? WHY THE HELL DID I MAKE THIS PROMISE TO MYSELF??? Ahem. What I mean to say is, I have now read Memo for a Saner World by Bob Brown, as well as Murder at Mansfield Park, A Short History Of the World, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and am currently about half way through Possession. I will get around to posting about them sooner or later but I'm afraid I'm not terribly good at writing book reviews. In case you hadn't noticed...

#66 - to read Gone With the Wind: Done it. Loved it.

Many of the rest of them are works in progress:

#74 (delete crap photos from SD cards) is an ongoing battle.

#78 (learn to blow-dry my hair) is something I did semi-successfully once but lack the patience for. I still don't own a blow dryer but I do own a ceramic brush now, so I guess if I'm having a quiet weekend morning once the weather turns colder I might give it another go. Obviously it's not high on my list of priorities!

#79 (use up the dregs of old beauty products) is actually going okay. I mean, I can't **not** buy new shampoo or daytime moisturiser with 15+ in it (even though I still have half a bottle of moisturiser that needs using, but I develop a sensitivity to it if I use it 3 days running, so I only use it on weekends), but in general I'm finishing off bits and pieces.

#80 (clean out my underwear drawer and get rid of the "uglies") is in progress. I have brought most of my personal possessions home from Adelaide (including my undies!) so I have quite a collection in Melbourne now! I divided them into "everyday" and "nice", and divided the "everyday" into "decent" and "dying". I am now in the process of wearing **only** the "dying" ones because I am a colossal tightarse and can't just throw things out unless they're really, seriously ratty. Hopefully I don't get hit by a bus... haha, also, I'm sure you all needed to know I'm wearing ugly undies. Sorry, but it's true. I'm all about transparency!

#84 (rent out the House at Ness Corner) has happened. Becoming a bloated capitalist has not and never will, because between all the exhorbitant agent's fees and gardening and cleaning costs and bills it leaves very little. But very little is better than nothing, which is what I was getting with the place sitting there empty. I'm renting it as a furnished holiday rental for now. Here's my baby here. It makes me sad to think of other people living in it :( The theory is that, eventually, I'll make enough off the rentals to complete #83, which is to fix the gremlins in the house. Wish me luck with that...

#87 (listen more attentively) is sort of happening. For example, since this began I haven't been caught out in a staff meeting or social situation for not listening and had to bluff my way through... but that could just be luck...

#88 (interrupt less readily) is happening. I still interrupt more than I should but I'm becoming better at backing down and letting the other person finish.

#89 (write more neatly) is kind of happening, I think. I've had a bit of practice writing and I think that part of my terrible scrawl was related to the fact that my writing muscles were wasted away from years of typing instead of writing. I will endeavour to do more by hand.

#90 (prepare properly for meetings) happens when I care about the meeting. When it's a boring weekly staff meeting and nobody is interested anyway, it becomes a little tricky to convince yourself to actually prepare. But I'm trying.

#91 (be auditable at a moment's notice) is more or less on the go. At least, I assume it is, because all my audits come through with a clean slate.

#101 (become friends with my cousins) is slowly happening. I have, over the last six months or so, been making more contact with three cousins in particular. A lot of it has been over Facebook or via SMS, but it's still nice to be in closer contact. I guess they're all building blocks.

And that's my update! Sorry it was a bit long-winded, and also a long time coming. Hopefully I'll remember to update on a more regular basis in the future.

Over and out.

Year of the Cupcake #7: Gluten Free Chai Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

I started thinking about different ways to cook with tea after the Daring Kitchen's Cooking With Tea challenge. I had also come across this recipe from a fellow DK participant Jenni @The Gingered Whisk, and it got me thinking - I have a bit of a thing for chai (but with no milk. There is nothing worse than milk in tea *shudders*), and I have a bit of a thing for, you know, baking(!), so it should come as no surprise to anyone that I wanted to make chai cupcakes for my next installment of Year of the Cupcake.

I made them gluten free again, because otherwise mum whinges intolerably about there being baked goods in the house that she can't eat (even though I bought the ingredients). Hopefully this recipe comes in handy for someone. It's from the blog of the National Baking Industry Association, so I guess these guys must know what they are doing...

When I used this recipe, something very odd happened. Let me see if you can figure out what that was:

Haven't figured it out yet? Here, I'll give you another hint:

I'll be jiggered - the buggers rose! They actually, really and truly rose! What the what??!?!!

I eyeballed the recipe to figure out where the magic came from, and, combined with a clue I picked up on a Basco GF flour box, I think it's because there are 3 eggs in the mix and not 2 as is called for in many cake batters. I presume that this means that when the mixture rises, the third egg "catches" it and sets it in a pleasing dome before the cupcakes are removed from the oven and the mixture slumps. I think also that there is less liquid (milk) added because of the extra egg, so it turns out quite cakey (but not squeaky! Yay! That will make more sense if you've eaten a fair amount of GF baked goods) rather than smooshy and unstable and flat.

Like these ones, from when I made GF pumpkin cupcakes:

I probably should have thought earlier on in the peice to either investigate the science of it, or just follow a proper GF recipe instead of simply substituting GF flour and xanthan gum and hoping for the best, hey...

CUPCAKE INGREDIENTS (makes approx. 10 cupcakes):

80mL milk
2 tea bags (I used plain black tea)
180g butter
1/2c castor sugar
3 eggs
1+1/3c plain gluten free flour
1+1/2tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1tsp xanthan gum
1tsp ginger
1tsp ground cardamom seeds
1tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp ground cloves

(at this point I begin to question whether I put in the correct quantities of all the ingredients measured in teaspoons, because this is a halved version of the original recipe, and I may have halved it again... hmm... oh well, looks like I'll have to bake them again to check. Dang!)

Preheat oven to 200oC.

Bring milk to the boil. Infuse 1 teabag in it for 10 minutes and the other for 6-7 minutes (if you think that's a weird direction it's cos the original called for 3 teabags, and that's the only way I could figure out to halve the recipe!). At the end of the alotted time squeeze the teabag into the milk to get all the goodies out and discard teabags.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, until well mixed.

Sift all dry ingredients together and add in 4 or so batches, alternating with milk mixture, ensuring batter is well mixed between each addition. Do not over-mix (I have the feeling GF recipes are particularly delicate).

Fill cupcake wrappers half to 2/3 full (after reading many a blogger bang on about how awesome ice cream scoops are for filling cupcake wrappers, I finally used one and it worked amazingly well! Perhaps I should have paid heed sooner...) and bake 15-20 minutes (I baked for 15 minutes).

I judged the cupcakes to be done when a skewer came out clean, but in hindsight I should have focused on the cupcake springing back when pressed because 2 or 3 of them were a little squishy on top once cooled.

ICING INGREDIENTS:
140g butter
1+1/4c densely packed brown sugar
1/3c milk

Heat milk and a little under half the sugar until homogenous. Do not become distracted and allow to boil as it will become all chunky and gross and you will need to blend it up and use it anyway because you ran out of brown sugar and couldn't start again!

Whip butter until light and white and fluffy. Slowly add the rest of the sugar and mix until combined. Add the milk/sugar mix 1 spoon at a time, ensuring it is completely mixed between each addition. Keep a close eye on it because apparently it can all go horribly wrong if you add too much liquid too quickly, but the mix should take all the liquid if you're patient.

DAMNIT, IT'S UN-ROTATING MY PHOTOS AGAIN!!!

Ahem. Anyway, I refrigerated the icing for a while after I whipped it because it was a warm day and it was a little bit **too** soft.

Pipe with a star tip of some sort.

Ta-dah! (yeah, I need a fatter star tip)

(these are part of the reason my pants are tight today, the other part of the reason being the fourth Christmas dinner I had eaten in under a month and the frozen Christmas pudding I made for it, which I will post about once someone who was there has sent me a photo of the finished product)

One last note - the original recipe is listed in grams not cups. I used the table in this book (which I got for Christmas) to convert the measurements:

Here's the table:

Actually, that's the table I used on the day. The table I used **today** as I write this post is the one from Taste.com.au. I'm not dedicated enough to see whether the two match up.

For you purists/people who don't trust my maths (and really, who can blame you!), here's the original and you can jolly well use a set of scales ;)