Purpose

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!

Photo of Clare in HK - Tania and Steve remember

-----Original Message-----
From: Tania Willis
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 11:29 AM
To: rosee; karen swindall; adams; Ann Eagles; stu and anne; Gill; Steve
Paine; Peter Adam
Subject: Photo of Clare in HK

Hi All

I¹m so happy that today I finally found that photo of our last meet up with Clare in HK last Oct. I have been searching high & low for it.

She looked fantastic, so healthy & fit. She had a beautiful glow about her, more so than ever before. And she looked so pretty in that dress. She was bouncing with energy. It was near the end of her trip & she'd done loads of walking round HK- The Peak, various trails above the
mid-levels. Etc... It makes even less sense of her illness.

After this photos was taken, she still had enough energy to insist that we walk the length of the beach. When we got to the river at the end, undeterred, she insisted we pulled out dresses up and wade across the other side not knowing if we were going to go up to our waist in the dark water. We nearly did.

Then we had a good old stroll round the back of Ham Tin, across the marshes to spot buffaloes in the dark & avoid the snakes. She wanted a look at her old flat, which we duly did and then ended up drinking Tsing Tao's out outside Ham Tin shop til midnight. Whereupon John the Dog passed by & the night ended with a spot of wild dancing up at his flat.

All just as it should be

Fond Memories...

Love to you all

Tania


From: Steve Paine
Date: 11-Feb-2007 01:53
Subject: RE: Photo of Clare in HK
To: Tania Willis, rosee, karen swindall, adams, Ann Eagles, stu and anne, Gill, Peter Adam

Dear Tania,

Thanks for that. Reminiscent of the evening many of us got naked and leaped into the water around 3 am after overindulging at the Stoep. Clare told me that if I reported what she looked like bare-assed that I would be hunted down.

Steve

Peter Adam on Clare Turkington

From: Peter Adam
Date: 05-Feb-2007 02:56
Subject: Re: Clare photo album
To: Rosemary Ufot Laurence
Cc: Karen swindall karen swindall, Tania Willis, Stu & Anne

Hi Rosee,

Firstly, I just wanted to say that I was very moved by reading the transcripts of the eulogies at Clare's funeral. Hoa and I are so sorry that we were not able to attend. I was smiling as I thought of Clare's jacket pockets being full of Cheung Sha sand, she would have loved that.

I miss my friend very much and I have been thinking about how to describe my feelings about her untimely death. The only thing I could think of that speaks to me about Clare is a poem by Edna St Vincent Millay called First Fig. It goes like this:

My candle burns at both ends

It will not last the night

But ah my friends and oh my foes

It gives a lovely light

To me, Clare was a bright and powerful light that shone on all of us, sadly, all to briefly.

I found some more photos of Clare from her visit to Hong Kong last year, which I think would be good to put up on her blog.

With love,

Peter & Hoa

Julie on Clare's fab veggie lasagne

From: Julie Off!cer
Date: 04-Feb-2007 21:29
Subject: Clare's fab veggie lasagne.

To: taniawillis, ridlydidly, dave_powell_hk, kradam, ianlantauhk, jas.bushell, landlordincomeservices, katherineshutt, joaniemagill, kitblack, taffinda, tania_scott, catherine, jacqueline, maggiwig, kittykt88, jumpingjackflash65, zulugirl29 chrisfahy2000, punyaardvark, chris.heath, Ericl81372, me_chelletaylor, traylingcarol, leearma, wickrob, stu_and_anne BRADFORDEM, kslantau, padam, gill, joanwillox, Jackie.Christie, mihacienda, owen.connolly, dave, afuguet, miller.jenni, Nick.Needham,peteoak

Clare has been such a huge influence in my life for so many different reasons, one of 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.

Her lessons apply to just about everything I cook now, Anyone who was ever lucky enough to sample her cuisine will know that she could rustle something up that was a gastronomic treat. She loved my cannelloni and I marvelled at her lasagne (which I know someone has already mentioned in one of the group emails). While she was in Hong Kong I asked for her the recipe and she wrote it out and sent it to me. I told her last year that I couldn't find it since I'd moved flat and she said she'd like a copy of it too because not only was it fabulous but it was also very funny in a Clare way. I laughed my head off when I got it and told her she should do some more and make a book. I'd have bought it for sure!

Anyway, I found it on Fri in a very unobvious spot, and my two dear friends from college Chris and Sam, who have been staying with me and acting as my crutches since the funeral, agreed it was a fitting tribute to follow her fab recipe and then watch The Piano, one of our all time favourite films that we'd seen together at college. We tried to follow the recipe as closely as possible, listening to Fleetwood Mac (to stimulate) but didn't always manage to sync the wine parts. It was a bit runny too as we used 3/4 of a bottle of red wine. We all agreed it was a great effort though not a patch on hers of course, she'd have been proud I'm sure.

SO… because I want as many people to as possible to share and enjoy some of the wonders of Clare, here is the recipe in true Clare fashion. Quirky, fun, informative and fabulous. Read, enjoy and cook, eat and weep in pleasure and in her memory. As we did. (i heartily recommend as much red wine as possible (though white is OK also) followed by lots and lots and lots of gin. (repeat as necessary)

Julie.

Clare's Vegetable Lasagna Recipe

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).