Recipe reviews!

I'm just doing some cataloging of some cool recipes I've tried over the past month, and using my blog as a bit of a scrap book for them all. Maybe you will like them too?

Roasted onions: from the Cook and the Chef. I think anything slow roasted is delicious. Reheats well.

Madhur Jaffrey's Swiss Chard, tomatoes and chickpeas. Made with fresh Swiss chard and amazingly sweet cherry tomatoes from the market, this tasted amazing. I really should have used freshly cooked chickpeas rather than tinned because they really let the rest of the meal down. It was so quick and tasty, but the simplicity of this dish means that the ingredients have to be super fresh.

Falafel: I have tried many falafel recipes, but this is without a doubt the best one I have found. Just like a bought one! It seems as though where I've been going wrong all this time has been using cooked beans instead of just soaked beans. I used parsley and mint instead of parsley and coriander, because Gib has a very strong aversion to coriander, even in minute quantities.

Best ever mudcake recipe: this is, in fact, the best ever mudcake recipe. I've had so many mixed results with mudcakes in the past, but this one is fantastic. I love how adaptable the recipe is too!

Eye spy... a morning ritual

I am a big fan of routine. It keeps me sane when there's so much going on in and so many things to fit in, and my mornings are particularly sacred. I have both a pre-work and work routine that goes something like this...

7:30am: wake up. I seem to wake up at 7:30am regardless of how early/late I went to bed or whether it's a weekday or weekend. Boot my computer.
7:35am: shower. I have now perfected the 4 minute shower. Check the weather on the bureau of meteorology. Get changed.
7:45am: breakfast. Porridge, or weetbix with a sprinkling of muesli with soy milk. Check whether the rats require breakfast as well, or if their water needs to be changed. Ignore the cat despite his pathetic pleas, because he is likely to have conned other members of the household into feeding him two breakfasts already.
7:50am: out the door for work!
8:00am: Arrive at work. Make a coffee. Spend the next 20-30 mins catching up on news, a few blogs and anything else that is exciting and non-work related.

Thankfully Yarra Valley Water gave us one of these cute electronic shower timers, and not one of the dodgy hour glass ones (I have often wondered how much water went into the manufacture of those dodgy ones!)

And then on the weekend...

7:30am: wake up. Laze in bed, looking out the window.
7:45am: shower. I have now perfected the 4 minute shower. Get changed
7:55am: breakfast. Porridge, or weetbix with a sprinkling of muesli with soy milk.
8:00am: Dawdle. Make a to-do list for the weekend (there's always something on the go). Read the news, a few blogs and anything else that is exciting and non-work related. Start some baking, or work on a sewing project, put on a load of washing, do general cleaning and tidying until Gib gets up. It's always easier to clean when he's not around.
10:00am: Coffee! at one of the local coffee shops.

Thanks Angie for this week's theme, and Cindy for hosting Eye Spy!

Just a minute... in May!

Things have been a little quiet around these parts. It's because, I have to admit... I haven't been doing all that much sewing, gardening or noteworthy cooking. The garden has been looking after itself, the sewing has been kind of non-existant (Gib has taken over my sewing space - grr!) and cooking has just been same old for the past month. So what have I been doing this past month?

Listening... to Max Tundra, a guy that only uses Commodore 64 sounds to create his music. Then there are the old favourites: Daft Punk, Flaming Lips... oh and then yesterday 'Heart go boom' by Apollo 440 jumped into my head randomly. I love that song!

Waiting... to get my wisdom teeth out. It's finally happening tomorrow!

Reading... ethics applications (so I can say that I'm not harming anyone/anything and they give me a big tick to start on my experiments), exciting research papers (at least I think they're exciting) and product information sheets for exciting new equipment I'll be purchasing for the lab.

Watching... Mary and Max, a claymation movie made by the same people who make Harvey Krumpet. Go and see it. You may need tissues. They sampled a beautiful song, Perpetuum Mobile, from one of my favourite groups, Penguin Cafe Orchestra.




Traveling... to Queensland for the first time ever! It was the only Australian state that I hadn't visited. It was Gib's cousin's 21st birthday, and so there was a massive family reunion to celebrate. It was quite an amazing trip up to Hervey Bay: we were fog bound in Melbourne the morning we were supposed to leave, so our first plane was canceled, the replacement plane couldn't land, so eventually we had to go from Melbourne to Sydney, Sydney to Brisbane, and then a 3 hour bus trip to Hervey Bay. 14 hours after checking in at Melbourne airport, we finally reached our destination! When we finally arrived there I just couldn't get over how thick and green and carpet-like the grass was. I kept saying to Gib "Look how green it is!" and I kept feeling the need to touch the soft, spongy grass. We just don't get that down here any more. I got to meet members of the family I've never met before and spend a day on Fraser Island - heaps of fun!

Eating... porridge (I never get over eating porridge in winter). Fresh vegetables from the market. Discovering an amazing Thai restaurant just minutes walk from home. The satay sauce that goes with the roti is out of this world. Also, here is the best recipe I have found to date for making falafel from scratch, with a great video tutorial to go with it.

See who else is playing over at August Street!

A classic mother's day!

Sunday I went out with Gib and his family for the Mother's Day classic, which was fundraising for breast cancer research. Gib did the 4km run, I did the 8km, and then we joined up with his parents (his mum is a breast cancer survivor) for a "cool down" walking lap - they did the 4km walk. Unfortunately my mother couldn't join us. As much as she would have liked, unfortunately she has polymyalgia rheumatica which makes it difficult for her to walk up hills (she can walk for miles on flat ground, but up hills is bad). It was an amazing event though, so many people in such good spirits! For my friend who I did the run with, it was the first time she had ever run 8km! And she did it so easily too. We worked out that from all of our walking to and from the car park to the meeting point, and then to the start of the track... we probably would have walked/run about 16km for the whole day! No wonder by about 3pm I was ready for a nap.

From here

To date, the Mother's Day Classic has raised $4.1 million for breast cancer research.

For lunch, after the run, we went to an Indian restaurant and had a lovely combined mothers day feast with both our families. I hope all of you mothers out there had a lovely mothers day!

Recipe Box Swap: No theme month!

This month I baked macaroons!

Macaroons have terrified me for ages. I don't even know why. I think it has something to do with heating the egg whites and then fear of burning them in the oven. But now that I decided have a go I'm sitting here going "What was all the fuss about?!". They were easy, turned out perfectly, with a light crunchiness on the outside and soft, chewiness on the inside. So good with a cup of peppermint tea. This is my grandmother's recipe.

Beth's grandma's macroons

¾ cup blanched flaked almonds
3 egg whites
140g caster sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 140°C fan-forced.

Toast almonds in a small, dry pan until golden brown (be careful to watch them, don't get distracted!!). Allow them to cool, then blend until finely ground.

Combine egg whites, sugar and tartaric acid in a medium bowl over a small saucepan of gently simmering water until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

Beat the egg mixture with an electric mixer or in a stand mixer until mixture has tripled in volume and has cooled. Gently fold in almond meal. Spoon mixture into a piping bag and pipe small rounds of mixture onto baking paper lined trays (looks cute with a star end too). Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until a golden colour. Remove from oven and allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

I have photos, but unfortunately my camera cable has gone missing. If I get organised (ha ha) they'll be coming later. But mine looked like this:

Courtesy of here

What did you make this month?
Why not post in on the Recipe box swap?

Just a minute in April

Umm... where did April go? And why did I have this post sitting in my 'drafts' folder and forget to post it? Here's what I did in April:

Sewing... or at least trying to. I picked up my overlocker from the serviceman the other day, so hopefully everything will be back and running smoothly.

Eating... mostly healthily during Easter! Amazing but true. It does help when you live with someone who is lactose intolerant and another who is diabetic. I am also thoroughly enjoying the new autumn fruits... mandarins, and the absolutely delicious, crunchy fuji apples (they are my favourites). The cold weather is kicking in and all of my favourite winter recipes are coming out... porridge, baked rhubarb, risottos, soups. Yum!

Enjoying... my local area! I'm training for the Mother's Day Classic and jogging around my neighbourhood. I love looking at people's gardens, the local parkland, seeing the other regular joggers as well. Oh, and I spotted these school kids in these awesome costumes, I suspect for some sort of school project. I didn't get a chance to compliment them as they hurried off in the other direction, so instead I'll give them credit on the internet. I hope they got A+. And there is a new Italian cafe that has recently opened too... brilliant coffee. I do love my community!

Reading... 'Irresistible Forces: Australian Women in Science', by Claire Hooker. It's actually listed on Google books but I picked mine up on sale for $5! So often I sit in my cosy office with my office buddy, a mature age student with two children, and is now doing her PhD. We have an office to ourselves and we both have fantastic supervisors who encourage us to have a good work/life balance and always want to hear the ideas and new findings we have. For women in Science, my situation is not the way it's always been, and still isn't for many women, and I enjoy reading about the women who helped pave the way so that I could do what I'm doing today.

Wanting... to find my routine again in May.

Feeling... the coziness of autumn and the approach of winter. This is definitely my favourite time of year.

Thanks to Jen at August Street for hosting Just a minute!

Nude and native gardening

On Saturday, May 2nd, it was 'World Naked Gardening Day'. I missed it. It would have been good weather for gardening in the nuddy in these parts, but somehow I don't think my family or neighbours would have appreciated it. They have 'days' for everything these days!

However, I was in a garden. I visited the Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne. I'd never been there before and I was seriously impressed. We visited their Australian Garden, which features a variety of examples of native Australian gardens, as well as examples of plants from all different native habitats. I really liked their visual representation of different native gardens and how much water they need: 6 big red watering cans for a low-water garden, 10 yellow watering cans for a moderately watered garden and 14 cans for a water intensive native garden. One of the highlights was getting to see the Sturt Dessert Pea in bloom:

Photo courtesy of RGB Australian Garden blog

They have a display creek bed there as well, with a section where you are invited to take your shoes off and go for a paddle. There was a father there with his two young boys, and one of them was in awe: "Are you sure we're allowed to play in the water, dad?". A sign of the times: playing in water is such a rare and special treat these days.

Eye spy... a work in progress

My current work in progress is my work-life-everything balance. It's been knocked askew. Exciting things are happening but they're also causing considerable stress.

Gib and I do lots of stuff together. We have many overlapping hobbies, but enjoy different aspects of the same interest, but we can still function independently, do our own thing. Since going back to karate a few weeks ago and with my PhD workload shifting for preparation for recruitment of participants and running experiments, and also Gib starting an awesome new role at his work with ridiculously early starts and some long hours (I'm a morning person, but 5:30am is a rude time to be awake) it's been a struggle to keep up. Gib and I used to head to karate together, but with his new work hours it's just not possible, as he needs to be in bed at the time I'm getting home from training. Our house cleaning routine and cooking routine, where we cook meals together and thus have time to catch up on each other's news and discuss cool things, is out of kilter too (although strangely, the house is tidier and more organised than it's ever been).

The multiple changes to our routine and more time apart than usual is making our little abode a mad house. We're tired, stressed and cranky. But on the plus side, neither of us have any struggles discussing anything, so despite our crankiness we've been nutting out battle plans to overcome and work around these new and exciting times. I honestly don't know how people do it all with kids too. How do you people do it?!

Yes, sometimes it does feel like I'm balanced precariously and I really have to keep my s*** together or I'll be falling down that sheer drop below. Photo from here.

Thanks Michelle for this week's theme! I love seeing what everyone else is up to. And to our host, Cindy, for organising Eye spy!

Eye Spy... a magic elixir

When your nose is blocked and you can't taste a damn thing, Vegemite on toast is where it's at. I swear it cures colds (or at least makes them more tolerable)

Courtesy of bababooie

For a general all purpose item though, my favourite is toothpaste! (the non-gel, non-whitening kind)

• Clean CDs/DVDs
• Cleaning pencil marks and crayon off walls
• As an antacid - only use a small amount! (the peppermint, calcite and sodium bicarbonate help neutralise acid late at night when you've had too many nachos and your local supermarket has closed)
• Cleaning silver
• Cleaning grime off your sneakers
• Removing water stains from wood

Thanks Amy for this week's theme, and to Cindy, our lovely Eye Spy host!

T-shirt making adventures

I have decided to delve into the world of making my own tshirts. It all started when one of my most worn singlets finally started to wear through and I was concerned that one day the stitching would give way at work when I was least expecting. Also, being a not-so-financially-flush student, I can't always afford the new and trendy clothes that I want all the time. So I decided to make my own.

I cut apart my singlet top and used it as the pattern. It fits so well, so I thought I may as well use it. I found some great quality stretch knit fabric for cheaps at a vintage fabric sale at the Camberwell Market. I will also freezer paper stencil a design on the front. In all, my tshirt is going to cost about $2 in materials to make.

However, it's going to cost me more...

As I have previously mentioned, I am completely enamored with my overlocker. It doesn't do cover stitch, but I have my overlocker and sewing machine set up side by side so I can lock the edges with the overlocker, and sew them flat with straight stitch on my machine. It was all working fine.

I overlocked the edges for the neck and arm holes, then made the binding for them. Sewing the binding on the neckline and armholes was a b****. Attempting to make my own tshirt has made me realise the effort that goes into making the humble tee. They are an essential part of daily life and we want them cheap. It makes me wonder what the hidden costs are.

However, when it came to sewing the two sides together, the tension wasn't so great. The stitching was pulling apart. It looks as though there's something amiss with the left needle as the right left stitch isn't catching. Maybe the timing is out. Time to take it for a service...

So my $2 tshirt is now going to cost me >$70! Oh well, I guess that's all a part of home sewing...! This machine hasn't cost me much so far, so I don't mind. Although, without my overlocker on hand, sewing just seems less appealing. It's hard going back now I've had a taste of what it can do.

Marvellous meatballs!

On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table,
And on to the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
Rolled out of the door.

It rolled in the garden,
And under a bush,
And then my poor meatball,
Was nothing but mush.

Hehehe oohhh my childhood! I remember there was a little video clip that used to be played on the ABC, but alas YouTube doesn't have it. Anyway...

...as you've probably gathered if you've checked out my profile, or have been hanging out at this blog for any period of time, I'm a vegetarian. However, just because I don't eat meat myself doesn't mean I'm not prepared to cook it for my friends when they come to visit. I used to cook these meatballs up all the time before I became vegetarian, and are something I can cook without needing to taste. I think this will be the first meaty recipe post ever for this blog! These are great for starters, served with some fresh pita, hommus and tzaziki.


Meatballs

500 g rump steak mince
1 egg
1 slice fresh bread, crumbled finely
1/2 cup chopped bacon (optional)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
Pinch nutmeg
Pepper
Salt

Sage, basil, rosemary
1/2 cup stock
60 ml orange juice

Place mince, bacon, bread, garlic, spices and S&P in a food processor
Form the mixture into small balls, about the size of a ping pong ball
Roll in flour and reserved spices
Fry in oil with herbs. When browned, add the stock and orange juice
Simmer until liquid is absorbed (or place them in a pan in the oven). Serve hot.

My other favourite way of making meatballs is to boil them up first (they're done when they float to the surface) which cooks some of the fat out of them, and then bake them to crisp them up. Very light tasting but flavoursome meatballs.

Because it's hard to get a good photo of meatballs to make them look appetising, I used a photo from here

Anti-Theft Lunch Bag‏

A while ago a friend gave me some awesome plastic storage containers to deter workplace lunch thieves. She received the following in an email and forwarded it to me, so of course I had to share. The quick and easy anti-theft lunch bag. A nifty trick indeed!

Hehehehe...

Eye spy... a surprise

Hmm, it's now Friday, and this was supposed to be posted Sunday! To make up for it I'll kick this post off with a Lolcat, one of mah faves...

I thought I'd include that because, well, I'm going to discuss some not-so-girly things now... hold tight or click on past!

Surprise #1:
Two weekends ago while doing the final preparations before we spray the engine bay of my car (literally, we'd even ordered the paint) when we discovered *surprise!* a large weld in the chassis rail! This car was just giving no love back at all! While some people might think that a weld in the chassis rail is OK and are willing to keep forging on, given the other dodgy mechanical and repairs found on this car, I wasn't prepared to trust the quality of their welding work. Especially given that it was on the driver's side. Death or paraplegia isn't the price I ultimately want to pay for trying to save time and money now. Thankfully the guy at the paint shop hadn't started making up our paint yet so now the car is being stripped, parted out and the pieces sold. Bye bye car.

Surprise #2:
As a result of Surprise #1, I spent a large part of last week trawling car sale sites, car forums etc. Most of the cars we inspected were crap, but we did find one little gem. (I have to say, if you're looking to buy cars 2nd hand cars right now, it's definitely the time to buy! So cheap!). Gib and I looked over it, we sent my dad down to look over it, took our friend who's a mechanical engineer to look over it. Brilliant. So we snapped it up and took it home Wednesday. Definitely weren't expecting to pick anything up so fast. So, Hello new car!

An artist (my brother)'s rendition of the rear end of a similar model to my car: Nissan Skyline R34 (mine is a 32).
You can even buy this as a tshirt!

Surprise #3:
I started at a new karate dojo last night. It was a surprise - I wasn't expecting to find a dojo so soon. It felt good to be back in my "white pyjamas". Even though I have trained for a considerable period of time in a similar school, I was nervous about all sorts of things: How I'd fit in, my technique, my attitude, their expectations, my expectations (and trying to remove my expectations a.ka. emptying my cup), how I'd fit in the new knowledge around old knowledge. I think the movie, Karate Kid, has some good reminders on matters like that though:

Miyagi, from Karate Kid:

In Okinawa, belt mean no need rope to hold up pants.
Daniel-san...
[taps his head] Karate here.
[taps his heart] Karate here.
[points to his belt] Karate never here. Understand?

First day back after no proper class for 6 months. I think I need a massage.


Thanks Miss Muggins for this week's surprising theme! And to Cindy for being a fantabulous host of Eye spy!

Make your own cheese!

I decided to make my own cheese. Well, kind of cheese. Labne.

I couldn't believe how ridiculously easy this was to make.

1. Take a 1kg tub of Greek yoghurt. Take a large piece of muslin, or, alternatively cheese cloth (makes sense, doesn't it?). Up end tub of yoghurt onto your cheese cloth.
2. Draw up the edges of cloth around the yoghurt. Drain as much of the fluid as you can initially then tie a string around it so it's a tight ball. Suspend the ball over a bowl (suggestions from here): tie the ball to a wooden spoon, then rest the spoon on the top of a bowl (or jug!), allowing the ball to hang down. I thought I'd be able to do it with some bamboo skewers, but they couldn't take the weight, even when I used 3-4 skewers. Wooden spoon is definitely the way to go.
   
3. Leave to drain in the fridge for 5 days. You can leave it for less time, but it just tastes like thickened yoghurt. 5-6 days mean it's starting to mature slightly.
   

Spoon it out. Roll in spices or herbs (dukkah, paprika, parsley etc). Mix in dried fruit, like apricot. Serve with bread, marinated vegetables, with roasted mushrooms, on anything really! It's creamy and slightly tangy... and too good because I can't stop eating it. It keeps for up to a week.

Cheese made using cheese cloth. Who'd have ever thought?

When art and science meet...

When art and science combine. You know I love this stuff. Avert your eyes if you're a little bit shy when it comes to anatomy and things.

I've just stumbled onto this blog: Street Anatomy. I love it.

The site was featured on Boing Boing with a photo of this awesome plaster cast:

Cool hey??

Also on Cake Wrecks a while ago was this weird cake made in a restaurant in Latvia. It's a restaurant with a hospital theme, where all of the cutlery are surgical instruments, and you dine in operating theatres. Creepy. Even too creepy for my tastes.

But the one that cracked me up was this other feature on Cake Wrecks:

"1946. Admiral and Mrs. Blandy celebrate operation crossroads with an atomic cake. This frequently reproduced photograph captures an uncanny resemblance between Mrs. Blandy's hat and the mushroom cloud." From here.

Hahaha! Anyway, hope you're having a good week and settling back into the work routine ok after the Easter break.