January 29, 2012

Untitled.

At first I found this song quite strange, but now I'm slightly addicted. Not only is Matt Corby a total babe, he is also ridiculously talented. The guy's voice is absolutely incredible and the emotion in this song seems so raw which I kinda love. Also the lyrics seem pertinent to a tough time that I went through last year with a few friendships ending rather abruptly, and in a weird way, this song is helping me to finally deal with it. Skip to 45 seconds in so all you have to listen to is the music and listen to it a few times so you can soak it all up :)



I haven't had much to write about lately, still don't really, but I thought I should at least make an attempt to update this thing :P So, in the name of regular blogging, I'm going to post some more pictures :)

Stayed at my Aunty & Uncle's farm for a few days.
I almost stole one of their chickens :P
Cleaning 400 eggs. Surprisingly relaxing.
Australia Day fireworks :)
19th birthday celebrations!!
Mike and I :)
Smoking is bad for you kids.
This photo is just way to cool not to post...
Until next time! :)

January 18, 2012

La Cucina: Homemade Tomato Sauce


This song is stuck in my head. It's kind of brilliant (watch the video clip!!) Except I couldn't help but laugh at the lead singer playing a tambourine, as cool as that is :P

Some of you may know that I fancy myself as an orright home cook, and so just for something different, and to celebrate my return to the kitchen after my latest surgery, I've decided to publish one of my very own recipes - the first one I ever wrote I think.

Usually, this goes with my bocconcini-filled meatballs, which are seriously awesome (if I do say so myself) but that seemed like a bit too much effort today, so I just paired it with some pasta. Anyhow, without further ado, here is my recipe for homemade tomato & basil sauce :P

Ingredients Makes approx. 750ml
1.2kg tomatoes
15-20 large basil leaves
4 tbsp olive oil
1 small chilli, halved
4 clothes of garlic, roughly chopped
salt, to taste

Homegrown garlic.
The stuff makes me ridiculously happy :D
Unfortunately not homegrown
Not entirely sure what became of our chilli plants :/
Method
1. Poor oil into a small saucepan and heat on a low heat, adding garlic and chilli. Fry gently, making sure to remove from heat before they brown. Leave garlic and chilli to infuse in the oil for 20 minutes before straining. Store garlic and chilli separately*.
2. Blanch and skin tomatoes, before quartering and removing seeds**. Place in medium saucepan (lid on) on low heat, stirring frequently until it turns into pulp.
3. Add bruised (or chopped, depending on what you want) basil leaves and remove from heat. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.
4. Once cool, process tomato pulp with blender and season well with salt.
5. Combine tomato & basil mixture with garlic & chilli oil and mix well. Place over medium heat (lid off) for 20-60 minutes depending on how thick you want it.
6. Once cooked, if not using immediately, place in heated glass jars - refrigerate for up to a week, or freeze for up to a month.


And there it is :) Great for lazy days when I can't be bothered doing anything more than cook some pasta for lunch. Keep in mind though that this is a really simple sauce - it's sometimes fun to throw other ingredients in, grilled vegies, red wine - experiment and have fun!


*I also like to make spaghetti aglio ed olio when I make this, so I use the chilli and garlic from the oil for that, though it can also be used in marinades and anything else you want :)

**You can leave the seeds in the sauce if you want - it makes it so much easier to cook - but I find it makes the sauce taste watered down...

January 16, 2012

A Return to Innocence

There's something brilliant about being around little kids. They're so innocent and cheerful and simple.

I went to my cousin's 8th birthday not too long ago, and all the kids there were so excited by the imminent waterfight. As soon as they realised there were water balloons they flocked to get them. It was pretty great.

And then I went to my old neighbour's new place and chilled out with the kids. They're a bit older than my cousins but still, the two younger one's were happy enough doing their own thing. Just chilling out, and telling me all about how cool their new house is.

Anyways, I'm not quite sure what the point of this blog is - perhaps to say that we should try enjoy the simple things in life some more, demonstrated by little kids and some mildly hipster photos :P



January 14, 2012

The Greenhouse



So I went to the Greenhouse this morning with a few friends for breakfast/brunch, and the place is amazing!

We all spent a long time agonising over what to order because their menu is so different to the usual. Every person there ordered something different, ranging from spanner crab congee (kinda like porridge or risotto), steak and quail eggs, and a breakfast pizza that this morning took the form of a sweet calzone (basically pizza that's made, and then folded in two, so the dough becomes a bit like a crust).

Spanner Crab Congee. Pretty cool, huh?
Pancake, roasted pineapple, clotted cream.
Check out the OJ in the background!
It all looked brilliant, and it makes me want to go back a few times, so I can try all of the Greenhouse's offerings. This morning I went with the pancake with roasted pineapple and clotted cream, purely because I was curious about the combination of pancakes and pineapple. I had my doubts, but given my very limited knowledge of which flavours work with what, I decided to trust the people who know and give it a try, and it was well worth it! A bit bitter, a bit sweet, and you could taste the flavours of the pan on the pancakes - I love slightly burnt butter a little too much...reminds me of when I was a kid and Mum would make us apple pikelets after school :)

But I digress, to the important part - the coffee! And oh my I'd go back there just for that. I had an iced coffee, and much to my delight when I asked for it without cream or ice cream, I was told that's how it's usually done, with a little sugar syrup. I'm not big on sugar in coffee, but I was pretty keen to try this because I remember a friend saying the best coffee she had had was somewhere in SE Asia, I'm thinking it was Malaysia, where they understand the joys of sugar syrup. Twas rather nomtious, the sugar wasn't overpowering and the coffee was obviously well poured.

Anyways, that's my semi-pretentious food blog for the day :P Hope you find it useful!

Breakfast at the Greenhouse will set you back anywhere from $10-$22, and there's a huge variety of drinks, including breakfast cocktails if you feel like getting a little rowdy at 9 in the morning :P

Greenhouse on Urbanspoon

Oh and please excuse the lack of photo's! I'll steal them from my friends soon enough and put them up, but I was a bit distracted by this piece of radtacular artwork, and busily plotting ways to steal it, despite the fact that it was huge...

Just chilling after brekkie...

January 05, 2012

Home Grown

Check out James Brown's funky dance moves :D



Look Mum! Two hands!
I am unofficially* free of my sling!! Woohoo :D 

To celebrate, I made my lunch all by myself! Makes me feel like a little kid finding something so small so exciting, but it's been the little things that have made being in the sling-of-doom not so nice - needing help everytime I wanted something to eat, not being able to go for a swim at the beach and needing people to tie shoe laces for me... Thus it will make the little things that I can do that will make getting rid of the sling so grand!

For example, making myself lunch and using homegrown, handpicked tomatoes while I'm at it :D Even though I'm not at all responsible for these tomatoes, it's still kinda joyful going outside and rummaging around to find a few little yellow fruits that haven't been entirely devoured by bugs. Perhaps when my arm's back to full working order I'll try to get something growing in the garden outside my room, afterall, last time I tried that I did end up with a loquat tree...

Om nom nom :D
The loquat tree I grew from a seed...
*The joys of medical politics means I'm not officially out of my sling - I have to wait for my ortho surgeon to give me the go ahead on that one :P