All over the shop

mmmm... I suspect that this post will be all over the shop, so I think I shall try to order it's contents in a numerically stratified manner, in order to encourage orderly reading.

1. The Full English
2. Sheherazade Goldsmith
3. ODI
4. The Weather (naturally)
5. Fire
6. Why Marilla Rocks

1. The Full English
For many reasons I have been hunting around in blog-o-sphere slightly more than normal. Some of this can be attributed to laziness and procrastination. So, no great surprises there. However I have just come across the London Review of Breakfasts. I recently bumped into an old lover (lover is such a funny word. This guy didn't really qualify as a boyfriend, but lover sounds so Casablanca). However this guy had recently been to the UK for the first time. We concurred 'there's a lot of bad food in Britain', and that this would make a good name for an album. The English Breakfast is one of life's great challenges. When it's good, my word they transcend the divine, but when they're bad they leave you let down emotionally and physically, and crushed for days. My mate BBITW makes a very good breakfast. So does Uncle J. And so do I it must be said. However if you're ever lost and alone south of the river, look up Cafe Rossi, just near the Borough Markets. They do bubble and squeak that you'd crawl over hot coals on your tongue for. Good fried slice too. Continental bread.

This lovely site has also given me a new catchphrase: "the quotidian side of luxury". This will not surprise my friends, it's the pretentious over-educated drivel I normally come out with.

2. Sheherazade Goldsmith
You may remember a little while ago I made some environmentally conscious NYRs. I can report that the stinky weather has made me drive more than I said I would, but that I am riding to work a lot which is cutting down on my carbon emissions. I have a bloke coming to see me about installing rain water tanks next week. I am also have two vegetarian days a week. Most people think of me as a tofu kind girl. And I do love tofu a lot. I also love steak and sausages and lemon and thyme chicken, so this is a big deal for me.

3. ODI
If you don't know what ODI stands for, this probably won't interest you. It's currently 0/92 in the eighteenth. This may even turn into a proper match. That'd be something! Not sure what to make of the hoo-ha about the song in the dressing room. I think tradition is important, and without tradition cricket is... ... well it's the IPL. Shudder.

4. The Weather

I had to sleep under the covers last night. It was very exciting. I also, finally, finished putting up my bamboo blinds, which involved re-stringing them and putting in the little butterfly things you tie the cord around. I can now finally dine al fresco without burning my retinae out.

5. Fire
Unfortunately half of Australia is on fire. I remember the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983. I was still in primary school, and my school was in the foot hills so many of my friends had to leave early to get home before the roads were closed. Once the sun went down you could see the fire front moving across the hills, and frankly down the hills. I was terrified and had to go and stay at my father's house in the city. One of his close friends lost their house in those fires. Back then I was probably too young to realise just how many people not only lost their homes, but their lives, being too caught up in my own angst. This year entire towns have been wiped off the face of the earth, and still living in the foot hills I would be naive to think it couldn't happen to me. I'd have to be unlucky, really unlucky, but I guess it's possible. Also having a friend in the CFS I know how hard it is for them, so my best thoughts are with you all.

6. Why Marilla Rocks.
Marilla knows why she rocks. Cheers hen. Will get around to returning the favour and sharing your generosity with the world soon.

Over And Out

a revelation or two

this evening i realised two things. but before i realised them i realised another. i realised that it's thursday late night shopping before easter and i will make my easter long weekend much more enjoyable if i did the supermarket shopping now.

then i realised the two things that are the things i realised. i realised:
1. it's easter and i am allowed... nay i am obliged.... to eat what ever the hell (sorry Jesus) what ever the heck i want to
2. i'd need to put a cardie on before i went out.

these are two very important realisations, i feel.

firstly, it meant it's not a billion bloody degrees anymore.

secondly it meant i can eat anything and know it's all in the name of religion.

cool

then i thought i might just document every thing i eat this weekend. kate on obsessive consumption (i site i just looooove) documented everything she buys, down to photos of the receipts. so this weekend i will photograph and document everything i eat. and maybe the stuff i buy too, we'll see how we go. kate's zine is called 'what did you buy today', maybe i can start another blog called 'what did you eat today'. kate's site, when she was back at uni made me think about how much useless stuff i buy, so maybe this would make me look at what/how much i eat.

anyway, i digress. this is what i bought at the supermarket today:

it came to a grand total of $44.52 (including $2.73 GST..hissssssss). i've got yoghurt and butter and milk, HP sauce (stay tuned for tomorrow's breakfast!), little chocolate eggs so i have something to offer easter guests should i have any. i got myself sour worms, from the natural confectionery company so they're almost health food. and i got two tubs of ice cream, which made up my dinner tonight. i know ice-cream for dinner. shocking isn't it. i must say, the pure chill organic vanilla raspberry ice-cream in the chichi tub at the back was $7.49, while the good ol' Golden North (a south australian company i'll have you know, just like giganis brothers who made the yoghurt) down the front was $6.37. the golden north was delicious, choc full of roast almond pieces and toffee. the organic stuff was boring as bat doo doo.

obviously, the cat food is not for me!! it's for my beautiful boys.

by the way, don't you just love my funky elephant tablecloth. i got it, and a million other funky tablecloths in the markets in jaipur. jaipur is where i had the best egg kofta i think i will ever eat in my life. mmmmm.... egg kofta

deep frying, drought and a visit to the doctor

last night i hosted my round dinner party, in the company of JC and Young Jess. really it was just a coincidence that the food i had decided to make was round!

to start with we had arranchini. little balls of risotto, with a piece of mozzarella on the inside, rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried. mine were a little big, so the cheese in the centre didn't melt properly, but when done right these are extra delicious.

then we had cannelloni. equal parts of spinach and ricotta, a couple of cloves of garlic fried with spring onion piped into pasta tubes, covered in tomato sauce and cheese and baked in the oven.

i was going to do loukamades for dessert, but it was too hot to deep fry again.

Young Jess brought around the fixings for cannoli, but the shells had gone a bit stale. so like the classy women we are we just ate the ricotta filling out of the bowls with a spoon.
of course amongst all of this i totally forgot to take photos of the actual food.

as i was cooking the leftover risotto balls tonight, i remembered that when i was little i used to get a funny reaction from eating that really fatty, delicious, red chinese sausage. really, the tandoori colour i'd added to the risotto was sort of the same thing.....

..... maybe that's why i spent almost four fun filled hours in the emergency department of the royal adelaide hospital in the middle of last night with a face like some deranged monkey. it just puffed up, and the skin gets all tight and red. it truly is very unattractive.

i was so tired when i got home i just collapsed into bed and slept until about 5pm, and could go straight back to sleep right now that you very much!

but good news is at hand! very, very good news. as many of you probably know australia has been in the middle of a horrible, horrible drought for as long as many of us care to remember. for northern queensland recently this has been replaced by hurricanes and flood. for us here in the south, it has been weeks and weeks on end of blistering heat, that has made almost any type of outdoor activity totally unbearable.

but looking at the online weather report tomorrow will be in the high 20s, going down to 24 later in the week. there has also been rain predicted. oh, blessed rain!!!!! not that i'm getting my hopes up. we've been told this before and it normally amounts to about 30 minutes of light drizzle, but right now i think we're all prepared to take what we can get. BRING IT ON!!!!!

don't mock me!

this month i decided to join kate at the clean plate club, for the cookie carnival. in australia we don't have cookies, we have biscuits (JC the chocolate queen will argue this one black and blue with me however), so this is my biscuit entry for this month.

i would like to start by saying that the results of this baking enterprise are in no way a reflection of kate, the clean plate club or cookie carnival (or biscuit bivouac - i'll come up with a better name), in any way, shape or form. the results can rest only with me.

it was a total and utter failure.

but let's start with the recipe. raspberry swirl biscuits (makes approx 2 doz)

ingredients
2 cups self raising flour
1tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn salt
125g butter, room temp
1 cup caster sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup raspberry jam
1/2 coconut flakes
1/4 cup toasted walnuts

• beat the butter and sugar together until creamy
• beat in the egg and vanilla
• sift in the flour, salt and baking power and beat until moist clumps form
• gather the dough into a ball on the bench top. flatten and shape into a rectangle
• wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour (or overnight if you like)
• remove from fridge and roll out on a lightly floured surface.
• mix jam and coconut together and spread over dough
• roughly chop the walnuts and sprinkle over the top
• roll dough up along the long edge, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for another 30 minutes
• unwrap the log, discard the ends and cut the remaining dough into 2cm rounds
• place cut sides down, 3cm apart on trays covered with baking paper
• bake for approx 20 minutes at 180 degrees, or until golden on the bottom

yes, sounds so easy doesn't it. that's what i thought too.

i'm not sure if my dough was too cold, or too warm, or do dry or too sodding something, but it all crumbled and broke apart. i didn't so much roll it up as fold it over. i must say they taste much better than they look.

you know that bit in elephant man, when he says "i am not an animal.." they look a bit like that.

the photo doesn't help. it's too late, i'm too tired and it's still too bloody hot here for me to muck about with lighting so they look very dried out (as an aside i'd like you all to note the article about the heat i've linked to is from thursday. today is saturday).

on a cheerier note, i also made some cupcakes tonight. i don't have the right ingredients for the icing, so i'll let you know about that, and sunday's round dinner party tomorrow. that's right. round dinner party