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I’ve had an eventful weekend, that’s for sure.

Between heading back to my normal office after my last day on-site at ABSA and catching up on mail and office news, I met up with Rob, and my other good friends, Pieter, Tania and their daughter, Zania, at Fourways for supper. Supper turned into late night coffee and cakes at another restaurant when the first started hinting we should leave due to them wanting to close and later Rob and I went to go watch “National Treasure 2“.

NT:2 was good. In some ways better than the first, but in hindsight, my reservations about the first may be skewing that judgement.

Saturday, after playing catchup with the folks at home, I got dragged around Northgate by Tarryn, who initially only went there to get some Tupperware. Several hours later, we eventually emerged, Tarryn having bought a new handbag and some clothes. I picked up a ‘Men’s Health’ book on lifestyle change to combat the typical stresses, etc men fall victim too.

Later that evening, Rob and I went to Brightwater Commons and saw “Alien vs Predator 2” after a very decent meal at Scrooges. AvP:2 was… well… crap. Not bad enough to walk out of, but certainly not memorable. The first was infinitely more memorable.

And today, Rob had some more time to kill before flying back to Cape Town, so we went back to Brightwater Commons and paid a visit to AnimeWorX, where I took the plunge and replaced my Ghost in the Shell : Alias figure, that got broken a while back and secondly, indulged in a Mon-Sieur Bome : Fate/Stay Night – Saber figure.

The first was something I was fond of, not only because I own just about every GitS product short of the games, but because it was originally bought for me as a Christmas present by Rozz, and admittedly, I should have taken her advice back then and left it in it’s packaging. Which I intend to do with both new figures. For now at least, or until I have the means of displaying them out of harms way.

The second, is a series I quite enjoyed recently (many thanks to our resident otaku, John-san, for letting me watch it – may your broken ankle heal soon) and I was quite intrigued by the character of Saber, who turns out to be a female incarnation of King Arthur, known there as King Artoria. Again, my fascination with mythology kicked in…

While I don’t count myself as an otaku, I do enjoy my anime and manga, and if I find something that I like, I tend to collect everything I can from the product range.

So far, I’m looking to collect:

• Fate / Stay Night
• Eureka Seven
• Genshiken
• Hellsing
• Battle Angel Alita
• Robotech / Macross
• Last Exile
• Ergo Proxy

with many more to be added in time to come, I’m sure.

I have a trademark recipe, it seems… it’s a dish I’ve often cooked for friends when I’ve entertained or ended up cooking at their place when I’ve been invited for dinner, a braai, etc.

It started off more as an experiment in flavours and aromas and turned into something that people are eating out of the pot before I can get it to the table.

The best thing, is that it is very simple to make, but be warned, it is very rich!

I work per punnet (400g or so) of mushrooms so if you want to make more, just multiply the amount per punnet used.

250ml fresh cream
75-100ml lemon juice
lemon pepper
crushed garlic (to taste – some like a lot, some don’t)
punnet of button mushrooms, chopped into chunks, or thick slices

Pour cream into suitable non-stick pot (I used cast iron on gas most of the time though) and bring to the boil. Add remain ingredients in no particular order. Reduce heat and stir frequently. Take care not to let the cream seperate. You can taste the cream now and then, adding more lemon juice, lemon pepper or garlic as needed. I generally make mine quite lemony but it’s up to you.

As a note, you can also put the garlic in first, with the lemon juice and lemon pepper and ‘fry’ the garlic up a bit to kickstart the aroma. Just don’t scorch it. Add mushrooms into that mix, then the cream over it. Either way works fine, in my experiments.

Let the mix cook and reduce (the mushrooms shrink a lot as they lose their water) and you should end up with a relatively thick-ish cream, grey-ish in colour. Serve hot on fresh garlic bread, over meat, rice, etc or as a dip.

A variation of the recipe I sometimes use is to add some soy sauce and cayenne pepper instead of lemon pepper.

For those that don’t like cream, take the same idea as above and cook the mushrooms in your choice of chutney, tomato paste, etc. If I do that variation, I tend to make it more spicy (more cayenne pepper, etc) instead of lemony.

As a last note, this mix keeps rather well and is ok to reheat and use for a few days afterward. So go big and make a lot…