A step back into winter

We popped down to Canberra on the weekend for a bit of mountain biking and catching up with friends. Saturday night we saw Snakes on a Plane which was an absolute crackup. Sunday I took these shots while out and about...

walking down to the flea market (that's the back of hubby):





traipsing back up to the cafes for brekky:

tootling around on the bike paths after a long and exhausting ride off road:

and sunset on the way home:

My latest craving

I can't get enough of chai tea lately. This latest fixation has come about through a need for a milky coffee replacement when I'm out somewhere or when someone's doing the cafe run at work. But finding places that do a decent chai has become a bit of a challenge. About the worst I have had was the place that served what could only have been a hot strawberry milkshake *gag*.

Until this morning. I don't know what I was thinking risking it again. I have previously bitched and moaned about this cafe and swore I would never go back there after they served me the red and white slime on toast that was supposed to be a cheese sandwich. But I was busy as hell and one of the girls offered to do the cafe run...and that's where she was headed. The result was this:


This picture doesn't do justice to the huge clods of spice congesting the bottom half of the drink. It was so bad (and, yes, I was so desperate) that I had to use the fork to get the worst of it out, but still I had to strain it through my teeth just to get something that didn't go down with the consistency of curdled milk. For the love of Vishnu - even a poor street vendor in India will have the decency to strain your chai tea through an old sock.

Toesday

Beck's amazing flying beef stroganoff...woooooooh

It's possible I might be drunkamaholic while writing this. It's also possible this recipe doesn't taste as good sober or when you're not listening to the right music. But ohmygollygod does it taste good right now. Let that be the disclaimer for anyone who tries this recipe out and doesn't like it. Sorry whoever you are but you should have drunk more wine and listened to something better.

This stroganoff is a bit of a diversion from the usual boring dried out strips of beef atop boring old rice and will make enough for 4 but freezes well. Here we go:

Coupla dobs of butter
2-3 cloves garlic
Smallish onion
1 and a half beef OXO cubes
Half a kilo of beef mince
2-3 of those giant flat mushrooms roughly chopped
220g tin of mushrooms in butter sauce
400g tin of whole peeled tomatoes
Goodly splosh of white vino
Smaller splosh of Worcestershire sauce
300g tub sour cream
Salt and pepper
Shell pasta
Chopped capsicum and courgettes (sorry I've got a British hubby, what the hell do we call them here? oh yeah zucchini)

Fry onion and garlic in a dob of butter. Whack a bit more butter in and throw beef on top and fry that up too. Give it a minute then chuck in about 3 quarters of the tin of tomatoes and all the tinned mushrooms. Next up is the flavoury type stuff - chopped mushrooms, wine, woosy sauce, wine, salt and pepper, wine. Turn the heat down and throw it all in. Stir her up and let her go for a bit. While that's going stick on the pasta and steam the capsicum and courgettes. Then when there's only a few minutes before the pasta and veg are done put some of the sour cream in. I can't tell you exactly how much to put in here - I tend to be a bit heavy handed with it and generally a bit more than 3 quarters of a 300g tub goes in. I find you need that much to get the creamy flavour going.

Serve up with the pasta on the bottom, then a layer of the veg, then gloop the sauce over the top of the lot. Mmmm....beeeeewdifuuul.

Enjoy with wine from a box (cheaper the better) whilst listening to They Might Be Giants Factory Showroom ("...don't interrupt me while I struggle to complete this thought...") and try not to spill on keyboard. Especially 7 key. Sorry hon.

Hell that was productive. I might get drunk more often.

Shake me up Judy

I've been watching the BBC production of Bleak House that's on the ABC on Sunday nights recently. Absolutely loving it and sorry that it has to end soon. Here's some lively comment on the production that cracked me up - people really get their knickers in a knot about this stuff:
http://www.wildbard.com/2005/12/shake-me-up-judy.html

Tips for getting rid of aphids naturally

I've had a bit of a problem with aphids on our potted herbs lately. In winter we don't get a lot of full sun - I think that's how the problem started. Aphids seem to pick on plants that aren't getting as much sunlight as they need. I've tried a few methods to sort this out. I didn't want to use any chemicals obviously as they are plants intended for eating, and I just don't much fancy spraying chemicals around the place anyway. I heard that spraying the plant with a Tabasco sauce and water mixture can help with some insects. Not aphids it seems. In fact I think they liked it. I tried sitting the plant in the lounge room where the greatest amount of sun reaches. It doesn't seem to have helped at all. In fact, aphid populations increased to the point that they were dropping sticky stuff on the floor and I had to put one of the plants, a very leafy and otherwise healthy looking parsley, out on the balcony to fend for itself. This morning I found the oregano had also taken a sticky turn for the worse so I thought I'd see how the parsley was faring, and maybe abandon the second plant to a similar fate. Only, when I opened the balcony door, I wasn't expecting this:

I guess I don't need to worry about those aphids any more. There were about three of them left, wondering what the hell had happened in the night!

Happy 40 plus 1 day!

Hubby turned 40 yesterday, and we went out to a couple of bars around town. Here he is in a place we went to under the GPO called 1874 that apparently used to be the mail sorting centre:

I had a pretty nice Brown Fox there (a whisky based, very orangey tasting cocktail, nothing like the bourbon and benedictine recipe I found on the net) and did a bit of expert pub crafting of a receipt into a beer coaster:

with the help of my assistant:

A bit of emergency Macca's then on to Hugo's in the Cross. Here's us looking sweet:

Happy birthday dude :)))))

Another one!

Hahaha! Guys, is this true?

Your Ideal Pet is a Cat

You're both aloof, introverted, and moody. And your friends secretly wish that you were declawed!

What's Your Ideal Pet?

I got this from:
http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyouridealpetquiz/

Almost a meme

Carla started this one off and I'm volunteering to pick up the baton. It's a test to see whether you're a Type A personality or not. Of course, true to her blog name, Carla came out as a Type A. I on the other hand have come out as a super-chilled "B+"! Here's my writeup:

You Have a Type B+ Personality
You're a pro at going with the flow
You love to kick back and take in everything life has to offer
A total joy to be around, people crave your stability.

While you're totally laid back, you can have bouts of hyperactivity.
Get into a project you love, and you won't stop until it's done
You're passionate - just selective about your passions

Yep, they pretty much pegged me, though I'm not sure about that stability bit - ha! Or the joy to be around bit - double ha!

Have a go yourself at http://www.blogthings.com/doyouhaveatypeapersonalityquiz/.

Something to sink your teeth into

Hubby (the owner of the above set of chattering teeth - nice aren't they? you want some, don't you?) shouted us to a fabulous dinner out at Cala Luna on Saturday night. Cala Luna is an Italian place, on the Spit Bridge at Mosman. It was a bit of a last minute thing, but a great idea. This meal rated in as one of the Top 5 meals I've ever had. First off they brought out some pane di case and olive oil which is a pretty standard thing, but then they also brought us a little aperitif to try on the house, which was a nice touch. It was a rustic pea and ham soup served in an espresso cup - just a nice little taste to set the taste buds off. Next up we launched into entrees of poached eggs on asparagus topped with herbs, cress, and shaved grana cheese. Sounds unusual, but it's a perfect blend of flavours. For "secondi" I had the roast suckling pig, with roast apples and figs. This was amazing. I can still taste it. Normally I would feel bad about eating tiny weeny animals, but this was just too succulent for words. Nice piggy. Not only was the meat cooked to perfection, but the crackling was so light and crunchy - I couldn't believe it was really crackling. It was just too airy and crunchy. Then there was dessert - Oh my lordy - absolutely gorgeous. Hubby had the tiramisu and I had a Citrus something-or-other. I can't remember what it was called but it came as a little arrangment of glasses on a plate. A citrus salad, a creme brulee, and a scoop of orange sorbet with glace orange rind - I liked how they presented things as separate little treats to enjoy. Both desserts came with a complementary liqueur - his was some nice sticky dessert wine, and mine was a traditional Italian lemon liqueur. I can't wait till we go back. Only next time I will be sure not to eat all day. I was so full after this meal I waddled away in pain. I guess that was the innocent little pig getting me back.

Ho hum

It's full on bucketing down and 10 degrees today - this is as wintery as it ever really gets in Sydney and I've got to say I'm loving it and hating it at the same time. Hating it because I'm trying to stay warm so I can get over the whooping cough that's been stopping me from blogging for weeks. Loving it because I can wear my parka hood up and a woolly scarf and this weekend I'll pull out my beloved wellies. There's a crazy childish joy that catches hold of me when it really rains like this. My workmates and I just ran outside in the rain without brollies to buy hot chocolates with marshmallows and sprinkles. Bugger work and illness and being a respectable adult, I want to go out and stand in the water that rushes down the gutter so it makes little waves up and over my feet. Maybe we could send out a memo to all the boring stuffy offices in the city telling them to all get out the wellies and shiny yellow rain slickers and have the arvo off playing tag in the rain.