Matthew's Journal

This is a variant of a recipe that I have posted previously, but this one uses a slow cooker:

1 1/2lb pork sausages
1oz butter (or margerine)
8oz leeks, washed & sliced
1 lb cooking apples, peeled, cored & sliced
2 1/4 oz packet instant potato
salt & freshly ground black pepper
8 fl oz dry cider

Cut each sausage into 4. Melt fat in frying pan and cook sausages and leeks for 10 mins until browned. Cook apples in boiling water for 1 minute; drain well.
Place sausage mixture and apples in electric casserole/crock pot/slow cooker/whatever you want to call it.
Sprinkle instant potato and seasoning on top, pour over cider and stir well.
Place lid in position and cook on high for 2-3 hours or low for 4-6 hours.

Traditionally my family serve this with baked beans. I always end up using more cider than that, too...

I've never really blogged about music much, even though it's something that I get a lot of pleasure from. I suspect this may be partly a fear of boring people, or appearing nerdy (though I really should have got over the latter by now), and partly that until recently I had a radio show in which I could enthuse about early music. I'm really missing it, although maybe no-one else is ;)

Anyway, this evening I've been listening to Lassus' Missa pro defunctis, performed by the Hilliard Ensemble (it's on a disk with his Prophetiae Sibyllarum, which are a somewhat different work!), and it's lovely. I have a fair selection of settings of this, and Lassus' is perfectly formed, and restrained without being bland. That's not to say I don't like the fireworks of Mozart's setting, but by the time you get to Verdi or Puccini, I think they forgot it's meant to be a liturgical work! Lassus' work has a timeless and contemplative feel to it, and certainly rewards careful listening to pick up more of the structure.