February 20-21, 2007: Lemon Pepper Cashews

For Wednesday evening we made arrangements to meet Mike and Jo-Lyn at the Moonlight Cinema in the Royal Botanic Gardens. Given my successful super sandwich picnic a couple of weekends ago, I offered to take care of dinner with a double batch. Unsatisfied with just that repetition, my mind ticked over for a support act. Salad, our default side dish at home, wouldn't do: there were already greens in the sandwich and Michael wouldn't tolerate one based on tomatoes. How about some more protein? I recently saw some great recipes for spiced nuts on 28 cooks and decided to try the lemon pepper cashews.

So on Tuesday night I popped the sandwich filling in the oven and had a go at those nuts. I was a bit slapdash with the measurements and impatient to let the sugar melt properly. Thus, the flavourings didn't quite stick properly and they were a bit too peppery. Even so the sweet-hot tangy spice, enhanced further by the salt, was a hit! Once plonked down on the grassy floor of the outdoor cinema, the four of us were hooked on this snack. Jo-Lyn transformed a bulging cooler bag into a cold jug of Pimm's punch, complete with fruit and mint. Our dainty picnic was complete, with the sound system providing an orchestral soundtrack to set the scene.

The scene set by the music was not entirely one of highbrow entertainment. You see, the orchestra was covering a bunch of Metallica songs and we were here to watch Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. This documentary far exceeded my expectations. Made by Sam Dunn, an anthropologist and long-time metal fan, this was a thorough history of the subculture from Black Sabbath through to acts as diverse as Kiss and Cannibal Corpse. (No, I'd never heard of Cannibal Corpse, either, but the name says it all really.) While Dunn and his interviewees were all clearly passionate about the subject, the movie maintains a sense of humour, and also makes some interesting observations on how death, violence, gender, sexuality and religion figure in the metal scene. Not just for fans of tight jeans an loud guitars!