This blog aims to celebrate the life of Clare Turkington (nee Gaffney). Let's see what happens!
A great person who affected the lives of many in the most positive way.
A lover of family, friends and people, travel, music, sports, food and drink, the internet, the good things in life, looking good and having fun!
which being that she basically taught me how to cook when we were at college. After a few weeks I was confident enough to come up with my own little touches, most of which involved blue food colouring but Clare tucked in despite the presentation and complimented it. She loved my blue rice and tofu.
From: Clare Turkington
Date: Fri, Aug 6, 1999, 4:31 am
To: “Julie Oakley” (E-mail)”
Subject: Clare’s Homemade Lasagne…fa la laaaaa
Ingredients (for the lasagne sauce)
(Amount will vary depending on the size of your dish – the amounts I’m quoting are very rough for about 4 people)
*1 x average size onion
*2 x cloves of garlic
*1 bottle of red wine (white is OK also)
*some oil
*Lasagne pasta sheets
(All the veg I buy is dependant on what looks nice in the supermarket. At the moment broccoli is nice so I’ve used that for the past few weeks. I normally buy about 3 different types of veg.)
*mushrooms (maybe 3/4 pack)
*broccoli (average clump which you buy in supermarket)
*eggplant or aubergine (one piece) or
*zucchini or whatever
*Ready made Pasta tomato sauce (eg Paul Newman’s), or Tin Tomatoes it’s up to you (if you use the tin toms you’ll have to put all your own herbs n stuff in)
*Herbs (like mixed Italian herbs, bay leaf, basil, oregano etc)
*Maybe 1/2 pound of cheddar cheese, and 1/2 pound of mozzarella-both sliced.
Ingredients (for the cheese sauce) topping)
*Tablespoon of butter
*Milk
*Flour (about another tablespoon)
*Pinch of salt
*Use a few slices of the sliced cheddar cheese from above
1) Pour yourself a glass of wine and put some music on which stimulates you in the background.
2) Preheat the oven (according to the temperature stipulated on the lasagne sheet box)
3) Chop the onion and garlic
4) Heat some oil in the pan – not much, just enough to coat the bottom. You don’t need to use a lot at all.
5) Gently sauté the onions and garlic in the pan until soft and golden.
6) While this is happening you can be chopping the veg (if you use broccoli, make sure to shop small otherwise it’ll make layering messy)
7) Add the chopped veg to a pan with the onions and garlic. Do not have heat on too high as you don’t want to burn it. Just stir quite briskly to mingle the flavours. You don’t have to cook it, as that will take place when you’re baking it, I just think it’s nice for the garlic and onion to flavour the veg. That should take about 5 minutes.
8) a) Add the pasta sauce or,
8) b) Add the tin tomatoes, and add herbs to your liking to flavour (a couple of pinches), maybe add a vegetable stock cube to give it some zzzzip!
9) Add some wine (amount optional – you don’t want the sauce to be too runny, it depends on how thick your sauce was to start off with)
10) Add a bay leaf, cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes (just to get the flavours mingling). Stir occasionally.
Help yourself to another glass of wine.
1) Heat the butter in another pan - slowly, as it burns easily. (keep heat low)
2) Once melted, add a tablespoon of flour, and stir. It should look like yellow paste. Maybe a good idea to take off the heat for a minute at this point so it doesn’t burn.
3) Add a bit of milk, and stir and return to the heat. Keep stirring constantly. If you add too much milk at this stage it will curdle. Keep on stirring and adding bits of milk. The mixture should keep thickening and eventually you should end up with a sauce like consistency. Break up some cheese and melt it in. if it’s too runny, add some more cheese. You will know what it is ready.
4) Turn off heat.
Help yourself to another glass of wine.
1) Get the dish you aim to put the lasagne in.
2) Put half the tomatoes and vegetable sauce in the bottom (or so it’s about 2cm high), put some slices of mozzarella on the top, put the pasta sheets on top, put veg sauce on (about 2cm), put cheese on, put pasta layers etc.
3) I normally have 2 layers of sauce and 2 layers pasta.
You should end up with pasta on top.
4) Get the white sauce and pour over the top.
5) Sprinkle with some black pepper.6) Put in the middle of oven for about an hour or so (depending on the instructions on the lasagne box).
Hi All
The last time I saw her was at a carol service just before Christmas, in which someone from her work was involved in. There was a nativity and the best of Christmas Carols followed by mulled wine and chat after and we had such a lovely magical evening and promised to try and make it a date every year for as long as we were working alongside each other in Victoria.
We've been blessed to have met Clare and to have had her in our lives. She could always assist with an issue by being the objective person and she was always so good at helping others, sometimes at the expense of herself. Many a time she could boost me with one of her favourite phrases....."I think you're simply amazing!" How open and honest she was and never afraid to hide behind decorum and politeness. When I was looking for my flat, I didn't have a clue about the steps to take. She insisted I spent the w/e with her where she pulled out her incredible filing system and went through everything that need to be done or considered and filled me the confidence to know that with friends like Clare, I too could succeed!
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