shapeofthings: (Wellington)
Masaaki Koyama makes my favourite sushi.

Sushi1

Sushi2

Sushi3

Sunday mornings, Farm Gate Market, Hobart.
shapeofthings: (Diva)
Tonight I threw a belated Christmas/New Years gathering for my Hobart friends. The combination of not having cooked in well over a week, plus having Chef Espen on hand to help out meant I went a little over-board in the catering. I fed 8 of us and could have easily fed 12. There are enough left-overs now in my fridge and freezer that I'm not going to have to cook for the next week, plus I've accrued several new bottles of wine.

The evening was a riotous success, however, and it was great to finally get my friends together to meet each other. It's just a shame [livejournal.com profile] geodyne couldn't join us, but that means there will have to be a next time!

So what was on the menu?

  • Home-made roast garlic hommus with crudities

  • Pear, caramelised onion & OMG cheese (sheep & cow's milk with grape pressings - powerful) tart (gluten-free, of course)

  • Black quinoa mushroom & pea pilaf

  • Dahl fry with basmati rice

  • Chicken, olive & asparagus fritata

  • Kangaroo & lamb meatballs with native spices and pepperberry-elderberry sauce



And for dessert?

  • Watermelon, orange, mint & toasted almond salad

  • Mixed berry tartlets (gluten-free hazelnut short-crust)

  • Panforte



Friends were asked to bring a contribution. Martin brought enough anti-pasto to have fed everyone without me cooking anything (I had to stop him putting everything he'd brought out), Kat contributed some rather tasty salami and a bottle of red (still unopened), Nat brought another bottle of red (half drunk) and Mark and Anita brought some home-grown pink-eye potatoes and broad beans, which I'll cook another day, a bottle of white (almost finished) and a dessert wine (one glass drunk by me).

I totally over-catered, but I had much fun spending the entire day exorcising the culinary ideas that had been building up in my head for the last few months that I was never going to cook for just me. Plus I got old friends together and introduced good people to each other. It was a grand event. Now I just need to deal with the vast amounts of food remaining given my freezer is now chock-full and the fridge is heaving.

Good food, great friends, sweet life. Happy new year.

busy-ness

Sep. 26th, 2011 10:45 pm
shapeofthings: (Wellington)
The lovely Miss [livejournal.com profile] zenandtheart has been visiting for the last few days, and much fun has been had.

There's been epic cheese consumption, drive-by tours, surprise snow, chocolate pudding, sun-lazing, drunken cookery, Monday-night cocktails, the dish-fairy and much excellent conversation.

Meanwhile work is getting scary with everything behind schedule and much to complete before christmas. My non-work time leading up to christmas is also looking remarkably busy, but the next few months are filled with exciting plans and many good things to look forward to. It's going to be a great summer.

A&T


=o)

Roasty!

May. 22nd, 2011 07:46 pm
shapeofthings: (Default)
Wow, slow-roasting the garlic, then adding to your veggie & lentil stew just prior to serving works.

Nom!
shapeofthings: (Me)
This week the weather turned, with the first breaths of winter stirring. There was snow on the mountain on Monday morning and the days are now noticably cooler and shorter. Today I finally accepted that the all-too-brief summer was gone and turned my attention to preparing for the cold, grey months ahead.

A couple of week's ago I'd been fortunate enough to be given a pile of lemons. This afternoon I turned them into lemon curd, preserving the sunshine yellow tang as an indulgent treat to chase away the winter blues.

Curd1


Simple Lemon Curd

1/2 cup lemon juice
1 cup castor sugar (use raw castor, or add a little brown sugar to give a more caramel flavour)
90 g butter
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
Vanilla


Curd2


Bring a saucepan of water to simmer, resting a heat-proof bowl on top (being sure to leave space between the bowl and the water). Chop butter and place in bowl. Pour in sugar, lemon juice, beaten eggs and a dash of vanilla. Whisk together as butter melts. Taking care to keep the temperature low and steady, gently stir mix continuously until it begins to thicken (about 10 minutes). If the mix gets too hot, the eggs will scramble. If you don't stir enough the outside layer will set and over-cook. Once the mix begins to thicken turn off heat and keep stirring for another 5 minutes or so, until the curd takes on a creamy, smooth consistency. Remove curd from heat and pour into sterilised containers. The mix will thicken further as it cools. Store in a cool, dark place (or in the fridge) for a grey, rainy day.


Curd3 Curd4

Y to the UM

Feb. 8th, 2011 08:10 pm
shapeofthings: (Me)
Dear gods that's delicious! Re-discovering I actually know how to cook...

delicious!


Get home from work, tired an uninspired. Inspect contents of fridge, locating half and eggplant, half a capsicum, some tired-looking swiss brown mushrooms and an overripe (home-grown) tomato. Think... find pie dish and turn on oven.

Slice eggplant fairly thinly and line pie dish. Splash with olive oil and throw in hot oven (160-180oC) for 10 minutes.

Slice mushrooms and tomato, cut capsicum into chunks. Mince a whack of garlic.

Discover 1/3 of a brown onion in fridge. Slice thinly. Investigate fridge further; grab ham that needs using up, jar of insipid olives and jar containing dregs of goats cheese in olive oil. Add garlic to cheesy dregs with extra olive oil. Raid garden, returning with sprig of rosemary and fistful of basil.

Pull eggplant out of oven. Top with mushrooms, onion and a scatter of rosemary. Chuck on some olives. Add generous sploosh of balsamic and a gentle drowning of red wine. Return to oven for 20 mins.

Pour self glass of red, retire to lounge room and surf the net until stomach reminds you how empty it is.

Retrive dish from oven. Add thinly sliced ham*, capsicum and top with tomato. Pour over cheesy-garlicy olive oil and scatter with torn basil. Dust with ground pepper and a little cayene or smoked paprika. Bung back in oven for 20 mins or so. Retire back to your red.

Finish wine. Saunter over to oven and discover dinner perfectally cooked. Grab (GF) flat breat, throw on plate and chuck in oven to warm while dinner cools. Once warm, add a smear of butter, re-fill wine glass, serve up perfect melty eggplant-tomato-winey goo and seriously enjoy. It's damn good.

xoxo

* works fine without ham for the veggie types. or substitute your own fun pork products!
shapeofthings: (Winter Wellington)
Roast chook.

Cut off excess fat and rinse with boiling water to shrink the skin
Stuff with a mix of quinoa, shaved fennel, chopped garlic, fresh sage, lemon zest, brandy, salt and cracked pepper.
Rub with good olive oil and sprinkle with smoked sea salt.
Shove a lemon up it's cloaka.
Bake for 2.5 hours on a rack in a low to moderate oven, then remove from pan and wrap in foil to rest.

Chuck roasting pan with juices onto conveniently-shaped rectangular hot plate.
Splash with white wine vinegar to de-glaze, then add some chicken stock, small piece of cinnamon and a couple of bay leaves.
Simmer gently, thicken with arrowroot just prior to serving.

Chook, stuffing, gravy, cripsy potatoes, baked pumpkin, and fresh baby spinach, washed down with shiraz viognier: damn it was good.

Very full belly.
shapeofthings: (Australian Idiot)

Things to do with the unused fruit and veg from last week:

 

  • Cream of broccoli soup
    • ½ head of tired broccoli
    • ½ bunch droopy asparagus
    • Outer leaves of un-touched sugarloaf cabbage
    • Remaining pecorino reggiano
    • A couple of cloves of garlic from the sole remaining bulb
    • Cream (need to buy), milk (in fridge) or evaporated milk (in cupboard, with added carrageenans)
    • Assorted herbs & spices (see garden and spice cupboard for available options

It’s soup, you don’t need cooking instructions. Freeze.

 

  • Parsnip puree
    • 3 large parsnips, wilting in the crisper
    • Olive oil, herbs and spices
    • Remaining sliver of vintage smoked cheddar

Roast parsnips in seasoned olive oil until soft. Put in mini food processor. Add cheese and enough of that bottle of fancy olive oil to blend to a paste. Freeze in small lots (good for making soups, sauces, dips, etc).

 

  • Stone fruit jam
    • Bowl full of peaches, nectarines and plums that never ripened properly
    • Demerara or muscovado sugar
    • Vanilla & cinnamon
    • Juice from the last sad lemon
    • Gelatine from the packet that has sat in the cupboard for at least 6 months

Dice fruit and poach with cinnamon and vanilla (and port, if you can justify buying some – come on, you can poach the last 2 pears with it. And maybe those two huge nashis. Mmm, port-poached nashi…) in sugar syrup until mushy. Strain and blend to a jammy consistency. Reduce strained liquid to sugar syrup and add lemon juice to taste. Thicken to jammy consistency with gelatine. Store in the last empty preserving jar.

 

  • Mushroom stock
    • Bowl of not-so-fresh mushrooms from crisper
    • The last onion
    • The last shallot
    • The last fresh bay leaves
    • Port (if you gave in and bought it) or a nip of cooking sherry
    • Assorted herbs and spices

Finely chop veggies and place in stock pot. Add water until just covered and bring to a simmer. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for an hour or three until it’s all reduced to a rich stock. Fish out bay leaves, pour into take-away containers and freeze. Use as veggie stock or a sauce/gravy base, or add cream to make mushroom soup.

 

  • Fancy poached pears
    • 2 Williams pears and 2 huge nashi pears languishing in the fruit bowl
    • Sugar (we’ve got brown, white, raw castor, Demerara, muscovado and vanilla-steeped coffee crystals – be adventurous)
    • Port (if arm sufficiently rubbery) or red wine (remember to stock up on that cleanskin shiraz – they’re not getting any more in)
    • Star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla

Peel and core pears. Place in saucepan and add water, port/wine, spices and sugar (to taste) until fruit is just about covered. Simmer gently, turning fruit regularly, until fruit is cooked through. Remove fruit and reduce liquid to form sugar syrup. Store pears and strained syrup in fridge, or serve immediately, warm, because they’re damn good.

 

Right, that just leaves us with:

  • 1 sugarloaf cabbage – will keep another week. Make oriental-style cabbage rolls and a stir-fry.
  • ½ kg carrots – will keep another week. Am not making carrot cake.
  • Lots of eggplant – stir-fry, Japanese-style eggplant with miso, pasta sauce or eggplant ragout. Mmm, aubergine stew.
  • 1 sad grapefruit – I feel ambivalent towards said grapefruit. Leave until Alex eventually eats it.
  • Mix of pumpkin, sweet potato, potato and beetroot – more roast vegetable salad!
  • Assorted salad leaves (lettuce, spinach and the mysterious “Asian mix”) – more roast vegetable salad! More compost!
  • 2 cobs of corn from Dad’s garden – cook, butter, salt, eat.
  • 1 coconut – look accusingly at Alex. It’s his damned coconut.

 

And that should just about clean out the fridge!

shapeofthings: (Tea pot me)
This afternoon at work I was struck by the sudden insatiable urge to bake! It had been a long time since I felt the overwhelming urge to transform creamed butter and sugar into delectable cookies and cakes. Since going gluten-free by baking activities have taken nose dive towards non-existent. The grand sum of my baking since November? A couple of batches of brownies, 2 bischoffsbroten (one of which landed in the bin) and a loaf of banana bread. Now the brownies are worthy of mention - devilish morsels of dark, dark chocolate spiked through with rich espresso and a suggestion of chilli - but on the whole my experiences with soy flour and potato starch have been less satisfactory.

Nut Cookies


But tonight I was prepared to stare down prior disappointments and attempt to concoct a tempting treat from my supply of seven types of flour. Besides, I was armed with a specifically gluten-free recipe, so how could I fail? So as soon as I walked in the door I set about making these buttery nut cookies. The verdict? They're ok. Light and crumbly, the texture is nice but a little too fragile. Also, the flavours are a touch too mild for my tastes. I'll try them again, but with the substitution of rich brown sugar and the addition of more vanilla, a breath of cinnamon and a drizzle of lemon. Yes.

Today's lesson? 1 ml of butter weighs 0.904 g. No longer will I need to measure out cups of butter for US recipes.
shapeofthings: (Wedding)
escape


At work this morning, I decided to try to shake my dull mood by sitting outside and writing down the good and exciting things about my job and my day. This is what came out of my pen. Then it rained.

After a day of achieving precisely nothing, I gave myself an early mark. Alex and I were intending to head to the gym this afternoon, but once we were on the way home I changed my mind. I'd been tired for weeks, been too busy on the weekend and needed some time out to look after my emotional well-being rather than the physical. Once we got home Alex brewed up some vanilla tea and we perused our favourite cook books. Despite this surfeit of inspiration, I decided against anything in the books and set about making the one meal that had been gestating in my brain all day: wild rice and mushroom risotto. After all, I had fantastic fresh mushrooms from the market, to-die-for chicken stock I'd made on Sunday and a packet of black rice that had been sitting in the cupboard for almost a year. What I didn't have were wine and cheese, but a quick trip to the shops soon remedied that!



All good cooking should start with quality fresh ingredients, and this was no exception. To make this dish I used:
* unsalted butter
* fresh garlic
* olive oil
* coarsely ground salt and pepper
* fresh oregano and garlic chives (picked straight from the garden)
* button mushrooms
* home-made chicken stock
* proper feta (made from sheep and goat milks)
* bacon (in hindsight, I'd not bother with the bacon)
* reggiano (a rich parmesan-style cheese)
* white wine (mmm, West Cape Howe Semillon Sauvingon Blanc)
* wild rice (I had a funky black rice that turns dark purple when cooked - gorgeous!)


mushrooms


Recipe and food pr0n )

RisottoFinal
shapeofthings: (Wedding)
The last three years have been somewhat of a misadventure for me, with health woes piling on to medical complaints and mental melt-downs. I lost a lot of weight, gained a lot more and underwent treatment for anxiety. Just whenI was beginning to remember what "normal" felt like my immune system went to town on my thyroid gland and I was diagnosed with Graves Disease. It seemed like I no longer knew my own body. Nothing worked the way it used to and very little made sense. I had a severe case of hyper-thyroidism, yet I was gaining weight. The thyroid medication reduced most of the syptoms, but the upset digestion, moodiness and misbehaving metabolism remained.

By August it became apparent that something else was going on with my digestive tract. For several years I'd develop bloating and indigestion if I ate too much wheat, but in the months prior I'd been on the road so much that wheat had become a dominant part of my diet. I'd stopped noticing the reaction to wheat until it had become so much more severe. I had no appetite, felt constantly tired and bloated, had the runs and was putting on even more weight. I was catching every bug that went around; again. This was not right. In a moment of mental clarity I realised that I was reacting to something I was eating. I considered the two food types I'd reacted to indulging in too much in the past: wheat and dairy. I was facing a process of elimination. Remembering the bloatyness, I decided to start with wheat.

24 hours later I started feeling better.

3 days later my digestion started to behave itself.

I thought I had the answer: I was wheat intolerant! I just needed to avoid wheat flour-based products and all would be well.

That conclusion, as it turns out, was far too simple. Initial improvements were countered by sudden returns of those now-familiar symptoms. I eliminated spelt, then rye, and more improvements followed, but still new sensitivities emerged.

By the end of 2007 I came to the realisation that I am completely gluten intolerant. I have diagnosed myself with Coeliac disease. There is a medical check: a blood test to detect the anti-bodies produced in response to gluten, but in order to prove anything you have to eat enough gluten to produce enough anti-bodies to be detected by the test. How much gluten is enough? My doctor says to eat a normal diet but to include gluten. When even the gluten in one jelly bean is enough to make me sick, the official diagnosis just doesn't seem worth it.

So I can't eat bread, or pasta, or pastries, or breakfast cereals. That's the obvious stuff. But I also can't eat soy sauce or soba noodles, most potato chips or rice crackers, marinades or marmite. I can't even eat most brands of ice-cream! Supermarket products are rife with gluten disguised as wheat glucose or caramel colour or thickener or natural flavours. But you know, that's ok. As long as I know the gluten's there, I can avoid it. And the best part is that in avoiding gluten I'm learning to look after myself and to feed my body well. Because to eat gluten-free is to eat freshly prepared, high quality, naturally flavoursome foods. When you're eating like that, you really don't miss mass-produced foods that taste like artificiality. And good things follow: I'm losing weight, I feel energetic and bouncy. I feel properly like me for the first time in years. We are eating well.

Where it gets difficult, though, is eating out. At cafes, restaurants and friends' houses food becomes a risk. Not everyone understands the many forms gluten can take and the unexpected places you'll find it.

We spent the weekend past at Alex's parent's place, in celebration of my boy's recent birthday. Hs father takes great joy and pride in cooking, and has been happy to accomodate my increasingly difficult requirements. On Saturday night he made roast beef with baked vegetables and gluten-free Yorkshire puddings. He even used proper corn flour to thicken the gravy! But he didn't think to check the supermarket-bought stock. I was a veritable picture of mysery that night and the following Sunday; my belly hard and bloaty, and my stomach sore. It was Sunday night before I could even face up to food (a gentle, easy to digest gluten-recovery diet) and today I'm still feeling tender and tired, my digestive tract grumling gassily.

But even in recovery mode, gluten-free food is fabulous. Just look at what my wonderful husband has made me for dinner. And even better, it's made with love.

Sushi!
shapeofthings: (Default)
Lightly toasted fresh rye bread spread with continental unsalted butter, topped with lightly grilled smoked gypsy ham, crispy-grilled halloumi and free range eggs fried sunny-side up. Served with fresh baby spinach leaves, smoked tomato-chilli salsa and a cool glass of Western Australian white.

It doesn't get much better than here at the Aquarium, and to top it off, my hands still smell delicious.
shapeofthings: (Tea pot me)
I made soup for dinner. It's pink, mind you, but also delicious.

But why pink soup? It's a little game I like to play called "use up the bits and pieces in the fridge/cupboard before you go shopping again"/

So what was left in my fridge? A beetroot, coriander, 2 purple-skinned sweet potatos and 3/4 of a purple cabbage.

Add the cupboard staples of onion, garlic, ginger, assorted indian/asian spices and evaporated milk, plus a goey piece of blue cheese (I cheated and bought it especially for the soup), and you have...

Pink soup!

A mild curry spicy soup with a creamy rich edge, and actually rather nice. I might even make it again one day.
shapeofthings: (toe sock)

L to R: dark chocolate-dipped chocolate and pistachio biscottini, lime & poppyseed shortbread, and M&M cookie


Right, as alluded to a few posts ago, I went a bit bezerk in the kitchen before easter. I made 5 different types of biscuits (cookies for the north Americans) and put together little goodie-boxes for everyone in my group at work. Of course there were lots of left-overs, though they didn't last long! Anyway, before [livejournal.com profile] fivecats disowns me, I thought I post up some pictures of said goodies. Enjoy!

Chocolate-pistachio biscotti )


L to R: M&M cookie, nut cluster cookie, and mixed peel & spice cookie


Lime & poppyseed shortbreads )


The whole hog. Each box contained this fine selection of biscuits plus a Lindt ball, just because


M&M cookies )


Each box was also a booby-trapped glitter bomb. Mwahahaha!


Nut cluster cookies )


There are still little bits of glitter hiding in the floorboards


Mixed peel & spice cookies )
shapeofthings: (Tea pot me)
It seems I must be feeling ok, because I've been tearing up the kitchen.

My parents came to lunch today so I decided to put on quite the feed. Earlier in the week I made some spiced plum compote and stuck it in the freeze for today. Then last night I diced up some chicken, beef and lamb for kebabs. I marinated the chicken in an Indonesian chicken sauce and coconut milk with garlic chives. For the lamb I made an Italian-style marinade with tomato, red wine, lots of herbs, garlic and other goodies. Last but not least, the beef got a good bath of red wine and olive marinade. After that I was still wide awake, thanks to the new medication I'm on, so I made chocolate and nut brownies and put together a batch of home-made toasted muslie before bed.

This morning I went straight back to it and made a huge amount of nut cluster cookies (rolled oats, rolled rye, almonds, pepitas, sunflower seeds and pine nuts) and some big fluffy buttermilk scone (the buttermilk was Alex's idea). The cookies are for easter treats for my workmates, but the scones were morning tea with blackberry jam and King Island double cream.

While we were enjoying the scones part one of lunch got started in the oven: a big baking dish full of roasting veggies. The veggies got turned into a roast vegetable salad once they cooled a little, with some baby spinach and fried haloumi chucked in. On a slightly healthier turn, I made another salad that I'm quite proud of as it was a total experiment from an idea I had during the week. What was it? Peach and prosciutto with a rosewater dressing! I'd explain futher, but for now I'd like to keep it as my special dish, rather than see it spread across dining tables. It was very nice though - an excellent summer dish. The kebabs and two salads were washed down with an able rose, then we all sat around enjoying being seriously full.

As it nudged 5pm my parents decided it was time to head home, but I couldn't let them leave without dessert! Out came the plum compote, served thick and warm with a scoop of vanilla bean gelati. Heavenly.

Now you'd think I'd leave it there, wouldn't you? But tonight I've made a mega batch of mixed peel and spice cookies, and there are marmalade cupcakes in the oven. They don't seem to be rising too well though. Never mind, they'll be fine with a coating of cream cheese icing.
shapeofthings: (Tea pot me)
Ok, so tonight's dinner was good enough that I think I should post about it. I made Fish Curry on Red Rice, following my standard make-it-up-as-you-go-along method and I think it worked well enough to warrant me writing down what I did. It would have even been healthy if it weren't for the entire can of coconut milk I put in...



Here's the recipie )

My cupboards/fridge/freezer are currently full of exotic ingredients like belt beans and red rice thanks to hitting the Continental, Indian and Asian grocers recently: heavenly! I'm a big proponent of Slow Food, but don't often get the chance to shop for groceries away from the supermarket and local (very good) green-grocer and butcher. I really must make more of an effort, because this sort of food is just too good.

Cupcakes!

Aug. 26th, 2006 05:34 pm
shapeofthings: (Birthday Cake)
Look what I made...

OMG yum!

Aug. 10th, 2006 08:41 pm
shapeofthings: (Birthday Cake)
Tonight's dinner experiment worked particularly well, so I thought I'd share it as good vegetarian-friendly recipes can be hard to find. It's prime winter comfort food.

First of all, you need to find some long forgotten tortillas of flat bread in the back of the fridge. Once you've found that (look carefully, there's sure to be some), put it down on a bench somewhere where you wont forget it again. Next, get a small bowl or cup. Crush a clove of garlic into it, then add some paprika, fresh torn basil (not much) and a little ground herb salt (normal salt will probably be ok). Pour some olive oil over this mix until it's covered - estimate as much oil as you'll need to lightly brush your stale flat bread/tortilla. Set oil mix aside and clear yourself some space. Read more... )
shapeofthings: (Australian Idiot)


I have the most ridiculous craving for Japanese food, especially ageashi tofu, though some good sushi and miso would be nice too. Who wants to hit up Azabu this weekend?



In other news, I just made Anzac biscuits, but because I put in a little too much liquid they spread instead of rising and made anzac slice. They also needed cooking for longer, so now have that lovely caught golden syrup flavour. Mmm! I'm going to make muffins in a moment though I'm waiting for the bananas to thaw (we're in a massive banana shortage, thanks to Cyclone Larry back in March, so when i find them under $5/kg I buy up and freeze), because I'm making banana and honey muffins. I made some yesterday too, but they're so good I need more!



In other news, the last 2 dyas have actually been chilly, so the weather feels quite late-Autumn, rather than the mid-Spring temperatures we have been having. Never mind that it's mid-Winter. The jacarandas haven't even lost their leaves yet. This week has seen me either hugely productive, or unamble to overcome the inertia experiences when perched in front of the computer. Now I'm just putting off cleaning up the desk, thoguh I don't really know why. I think I might just need another coffee as I'm a bit zonked today. Yesterday and this morning I prevented myself from having the full 8 hours in order to rise at a reasonable hour, as my body clock was drifting towards vampiric and I'm actually rather fond of daylight. Yes, another bucket of coffee... *wanders off*



Right, coffee's brewing. Where was I? Ah, I also had to be up at a reasonable hour because Natasha was coming by to collect the tarpaulins we borrowed from her in November to go to Earthcore. We're so slack we still hadn't taken them back, so I gave her a lovely bottle of shiraz and some G&B organic Maya Gold chocolate. I also momentarily forgot how to spell tarpaulin. Anyway, as well as Natasha, the wedding photog, Andy, was coming around to drop of the DVD of our photos. Yay! I like Andy - he's a bit of a native fish nut, and did a degree in Environmental Science before studying photography - and he stayed for a bit of a fishy chat. He also caught my excitment at finding planaria in BlueFish's tank this morning. Planaria are so cool, as is any other animal that can re-grow it's head. I have never forgotten them since we created a two-headed one in first-year invertebrate biology. In 13 years of keeping fish I've never seen one in a tank before, and this morning, there are two of them crawling along the glass! Yay! From memory, they're hermaphroditic, so soon I should have many planaria! And then I'll take over the world! Mwahahahahaa!

*cough*



So now I have all the wedding photos and the photos from the trip to process and post. Except we're having computer trouble. Argh here (yes, the computer is called Argh) keeps locking up and frequently crashing. The [program that triggers the most crashing? Photoshop. Grrrr! A quick remote assessment by nickthecheeseMaster Nick suggests the IDE cables are shoddy; a diagnosis I agree with after burning some CDs yesterday. It would take several attempts for Argh to read the newly burnt files: it would consistently tell me there was no CD inserted, until on about try 5 it would find the files and play them, then not find them again on try 6. If it is the IDEs, that means every non-spec part of the box barring the floppy drivehas needed replacing. Why did we go to Game Dude instead of Umart? (Ok, so we didn't know Umart existed at the time, but still...) Meanwhile, Umart doesn't sell loose IDEs, so replacement may take a while. How painful. Yet I still spend far too much time sitting in front of it.



I should be on my own tonight, so I'll have to make a special effort to resist the screen. Alex is supposed to be going down to his parents place to borrow his dad's ute. He'll borrow the ute to fix the car, he'll fix the car so I can drive, I don't know why he wants me to drive; perhaps he'll die... *brainsnap* G, that so reminds me of dinner. =o) Anyway, the clutch plate in our car needs replacing, and the machanics wated $700 for the priveledge, so Alex is taking the train down the Coast to borrow his dad's ute for a week so he can get to work *and* do the clutch. And after the clutch, he needs to figure out why the red machine isn't idling properly and fix that. When that's done I can drive again because the car won't keep stalling. Yay! I think the coffee is starting to kick in.

shapeofthings: (Australian Idiot)
Feeling peckish?

Preparation and cooking time: 10 minutes.

Take your bread of choice and cut a decently thick slice. Lightly toast your bread on both sides.
While bread is toasting, chop sufficient pickled onion to form a layer over the bread, and enough colby-style cheese to thickly cover the bread and onion. [*]
Remove toasted bread and top with a little cracked pepper, followed by the onion, and finally the cheese.
Place cheesy onion toast under and nicely hot grill. Wait 5 minutes.
Remove chese and onion toast, cut it in half and allow to cool slightly.
Eat your hard labour and die of foodie pleasure.


=o)

* Proper pickled onions must be used. Little brown onions marinating in wine vinegar and whole spices, not those scary white/green/red ones, ok?

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