Friday I'm In Love: Before I die.

The other day at work, my friend asked me what bands I would most like to see before I died. 

I couldn't think of a single band. 

When people put me on the spot I get all flustered and I could only think of stupid bands (The Spice Girls), or ones that I've seen already (Tegan & Sara). And to make matters worse, her answers were all trendy (Radiohead, Daft Punk, Portishead) and so were everyone else's. 

But I couldn't stop thinking about it. What bands would I most like to see? Out of all the bands, ever, there must be someone that I would most like to see. Surely.

I didn't take my first steps on a dance floor as a baby just to have no answer to this question. 

But I thought long and hard about it, and I came up with a list, and I could probably tell you one memory related to each song: 

Bjork. 

I think my dad introduced me to Bjork. Or maybe when I was a kid I just really liked the umbrella dance routine in 'It's oh so quiet', either way, I now own all her albums and went through a stage when I wanted to listen to Hyperballad every day. 

The Cure.

I like their upbeat stuff more than their gothic stuff, but I just can pass up all that big hair. I liked 'Love Cats' long before I realised who The Cure actually were. And then in year 11 it was really cool to listen to them, and I jumped on that bandwagon for life. 

The Smiths.

I listened to The Smiths a lot in years 11 and 12. They remind me of my friends Leah and Susan, when we'd stay at each others' houses and drink cheap champagne. Those were the days... 

Arcade Fire.

I'm pretty sure that my aformentioned friend Susan introduced me to Arcade Fire. When Brent and I were in  Glasgow, we went to a pub that had this album playing on repeat. Now that's all I can think about when I listen to them. Ahhh... Scotland.

Tom Waits.

Mostly I like the way Tom Waits sounds like he's been drinking lots of whisky and smoking even more cigarettes for a really long time. But it's all beautiful. I think my dad also introduced me to Tom Waits. I remember him listening to it as a kid, and I had no idea why he wanted to listen to that weird guy with the deep, crackly voice.

What bands would you most like to see before you die?

Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme.

It was my birthday this week and I got some excellent presents. A Chasseur cast-iron pot, the Julia Child cookbooks and a set of knives were the main ones. I feel so spoilt! I've been trying to cook things in my new pot and chop lots of things with my new knives and I'm in heaven. But the knives are so sharp that I keep cutting myself. It's the kind of sharp that means you don't realise you've cut yourself until you see the blood dripping down your fingers onto whatever you're chopping. I must've cut my finger pretty deep the other day, because it won't stop bleeding. When it does, if I even touch my finger on anything, it bleeds again.

It did stop bleeding long enough, though, for me to cook dinner. Out of the hundreds of recipes in the Julia Child book, I chose this one because it had Bonne Femme in the title. Really, though, it's just chicken in a casserole with bacon, potatoes and onions - my favourite kind of dish. I know that not everyone likes their dinner to be covered in butter, but I do. Everything tastes better with butter. If you don't like your chicken and potatoes swimming in butter, you should just turn away now, this is definitely not a calorie-friendly meal. Then again, you have to splurge sometimes, so you may as well go all out.

To be honest, I did expect this dish to be a bit more... wow. It was basically just a roast chicken with butter and bacon to make it special. Don't get me wrong, it was super tasty, and cooking chicken in a cast-iron pot is my new favourite past time, but I think it could benefit from something else. I'm not sure what... Actually, I didn't have the right amount of bacon, so that might've made a difference. Doesn't matter though, I'll definitely make this dish again.

Julia Child says to use a 1/2 pound chunk of bacon, which you then have to cut up into lardons. This seemed like to much hassle for me, so I just used 4 strips of bacon, which probably wasn't enough, but, whatever, I do what I want. She also says to use 15-25 white onions. I imagine she's talking about those little onions that you use for pickling, but really, that's a bit outrageous. I used 2 big brown onions instead.

Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme:
Adapted from Julia Child's "Mastering The Art of French Cooking"

Oven- 180C

5 rashers of bacon, sliced
4 tbsp butter
1 chicken
2 big brown onions, cut in half with the skins off
4-5 medium potatoes, peeled, quartered
1/4 tsp salt
herb bouquet

Cover the potatoes in cold, salted water and bring to the boil. A couple of minutes before the water starts to boil, drop the onions in. As soon as it's boiled, drain everything.
Saute the bacon in 1 tbsp of butter in the cast-iron pot for 4-5 mins on the stove top. Take out and put aside.
Brown the chicken in the pot, until browned on all sides, be careful not to break the skin of the chicken.
Remove the chicken from the pot and keep aside. Pour out the butter from the casserole.
Put the last 3 tbsp butter in the pot and heat until foaming.
Add the potatoes to the pot, rolling them around to "evaporate their moisture."
While the pot is still on the stove, spread the potatoes around the edge of the dish and put the chicken back in, breast side up.
Salt the chicken.
Put the onions around the chicken and scatter the bacon on top.
Add the herb bouquet.
Baste everything with the butter at the bottom of the pan.
Cover the chicken with alfoil, and put the lid on.
Roast for 1 hour 10-20 mins until the chicken is done.
Serve the chicken with the butter sauce from the pot.