the lake

Posted by trish on Apr 28, 2011 in Shoot | 4 comments

PJ took this shot.  I cannot tell a lie.  BUT I saw the kids, I saw the light, and I called out for him to go and get the camera and take some pictures, so I’m going to claim half the credit.

We were at Lennox Head, just south of Byron Bay, with one of our oldest friends, Penny.  The little head popping out in the water is Penny’s daughter, Tilly.  The other two kids are ours.  This is the tea-tree lake near Seven Mile Beach.  It was beautiful.

Canon EOS 7D with Canon EF  24-105mm f/4 L-series IS USM lens

ISO 400

Focal length 24mm

Aperture f/20

Exposure 1/500

(for the budding photographers out there… when shooting into the sun, use a small aperture and a fast shutter speed so you don’t over-expose the picture.)

I just died of garlic

Posted by trish on Apr 27, 2011 in Eat | 3 comments

This is Day Two of the Dr Joshi See How Hungry You Will Feel After A Day Without A Cheese Sandwich Detox and I’m feeling… hungry.  I don’t have headaches or nausea or any of those other symptoms that he warned me about as the nasty toxins exited my system.  But I do have cravings.  I could murder a beer right now.  And a chorizo.  And a folded-over vegemite sandwich.

I’m allowed rice crackers and hummus so this afternoon, having exhausted the hummus we already had in the fridge from takeaway Turkish on Tuesday night, I made a batch.  I briefly consulted Stephanie Alexander (p203 of her big orange cookbook) and then tipped the following ingredients into my food processor:

HUMMUS

Two 400g tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed and drained again.

juice of one lemon

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tsp of sea salt

a lot of black pepper

3 tsp cumin

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Then I turned the food processor on and watched as the whole lot stuck to the sides of the jug in a solid mass.

So, with the motor running, I added a splash of hot water from a just-boiled kettle.  This helped, but I needed more liquid.

1 generous slurp of olive oil (maybe 1/4 cup)  Success!

The garlic is quite strong.  The black pepper and the cayenne pepper made it just bitey enough that my hummus supply is safe from the kids.  Perhaps next time I’ll put in three garlic cloves, but I’ll roast them or cook them first to get that raw gaahhaaahhhaaaaaarlic flavour out of them. PJ thought it was perfect the way it was.  Which is good, because that means he’ll still want to kiss me.

BTW, this is a photo of some hummus I made a while ago.  Today’s hummus has a slightly more orange colour to it, on account of all the cumin.

Injury Time

Posted by trish on Apr 26, 2011 in Blog | 5 comments

(I just wrote a whole post about how our bag went missing on our return flight to Canberra from the Gold Coast but it was boring and anyway, if you read my Twitter feed you already know how it ends.)

So instead I’m going to enthrall you with my Grand Plan for the next 61 days.  Today is April 25th.  I turn 40 on June 25th.  I have used up all the months that I had to get myself Fit & Fabulous By 40 and we are Down To The Wire.  We are at DefCON 5.  Orange Alert.  The final whistle has blown and we are in Injury Time, people!  If I don’t start something at dawn tomorrow I will arrive at my 40th unnecessarily preoccupied with dismay and disappointment-in-myself the likes of which you have never seen.

Seriously, I’ve been meaning to get back into my Pilates gear since about 2007.  It’s time.

The other day on Twitter I announced that I was going to embark on the Gwyneth Paltrow-endorsed World Famous Dr Joshi Holistic 21-Day Detox and one lovely friend immediately told me I am fine the way I am and I am not overweight and I shouldn’t torture myself.  But as I told her, I’m not doing this to lose weight.

Yes, I am going to lose weight as a result of this diet (how can I not? I’ll be giving up gin for starters) but this is not my reason for going on it.  The last time I went on this particular detox the most remarkable change was in my energy levels.  I woke up without the alarm clock at 6am every morning and immediately started leaping tall buildings in single bounds.  I had energy for everything.  I slept extremely well.  I was calm and relaxed and focussed.  My skin glowed.  My eyes sparkled.  My bloated tummy was suddenly unbloated.  These are the reasons I am doing it.  And yes, alright, the 5kgs I’m likely to lose will not be missed, especially as I go shopping for the Perfect Party Frock for my 40th.

So here’s The Plan:

Diet:

As far as is practical, I am going to stick to a wheat-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, alcohol-free regime.  No more wine. No more gin & tonics.  No more enormous slabs of Italian bread with big chunks of cheddar cheese.  No more Lindt balls.  No more bacon.  I’m also giving up red meat, baked beans, potatoes, tomatoes, avocadoes, shellfish, tomato sauce, vinegar, mustard, vegemite, milk and did I mention wine?

Instead, I will be eating more brown rice, dark green veggies, eggs, salmon, vegetable soup, fresh vegetable juices, gluten-free cereals and breads, goats’ cheese, ricotta cheese, honey, live yoghurt, lentils, chick peas (hummus!), salads and steamed vegetables, soy milk, rice milk, goats milk and white meat (chicken & turkey).

Exercise:

Monday:  Pilates at home on the lounge room floor using one of several Pilates DVDs I have purchased over the past few years OR play a WiiFit game (about one hour)

Tuesday:  Walk up Mt Ainslie (about one hour)

Wednesday:  Pilates class (ride to class on my bike) (about an hour and a half)

Thursday:  Yoga class – brisk walk to class, taking the longer, scenic route (one hour)

Friday:  Personal Trainer* (1 hour that will feel like five).

Saturday: rest day OR bike ride with the kids.

Sunday: long bike ride and/or walk around the Lake or up Mount Ainslie (one hour)

Every Day: A Pilates exercise called ‘the hundred’ – strengthens the core, which is essential for effective and safe Pilates.  (2 mins)

* PJ and I are joining a couple of friends in a group class.

- I have a couple of exercise buddies who have permission to flog me senseless if I miss a session of anything.

- My new bike will be here by the end of April, apparently.  In the meantime my new friend and bike aficionado, Libby, has loaned me one to use.  Thanks Libby!

Writing:

I am going to try to write for at least one hour every day, and I will schedule that hour as though it’s an important appointment I have to keep.   You know, like a job.  Sometimes a whole chapter will pour out of me, but I occasionally suffer from paralysing writer’s block so I’m going to keep my expectations reasonable.  As long as I’m going to be this self-disciplined for 61 days I might as well direct some of that towards my First Draft.  If I can finish the First Draft by June 25th I will be immeasurably happy.

Blogging:

I will try to maintain my blog-per-day average.  The ‘eat’ posts should be, um, interesting.  Hummus recipes, anyone?

Twitter:

I’ll use Twitter to write about my progress.  I’m sure I can sum up each days’ progress in 140 characters or less.

So that’s that.  I know it’s an ambitious plan, but I owe it to myself to take it seriously.  I actually can’t believe I’ve come this close to my 40th birthday without starting up with Pilates again – I’ve been promising to do at least that for several years.  As for the detox – it’s a 21-day detox, followed by ‘maintenance.’  For me, ‘maintenance’ is probably going to mean being as close to wheat-free and sugar-free as I reasonably can.  I’m not going to ask for special meals at restaurants, and I’m not going to turn down a gin and tonic after a hard day or a glass of wine with dinner.  But I do know that I will feel so, so, so much better if I stick to this way of living, that I will be unlikely to slip back into my bad habits.  I’ll be 50 in 10 years and 61 days.  I want to feel no different on that birthday than I’m hoping to feel on my 40th.  In fact, I want to feel better.

PS. I’m having one last G&T and I just ate my one and only chocolate Easter treat (a Lindt bunny).  Going out with a bang…

rosenborg

Posted by trish on Apr 23, 2011 in Shoot | 0 comments

Inside Rosenborg Castle (Rosenborg Slot) in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Canon EOS 7D with Canon EF  24-105mm f/4 L-series IS USM lens

ISO 3200

Focal length 32mm

Aperture f/4

Exposure 1/50

basics

Posted by trish on Apr 22, 2011 in Eat | 4 comments

This is one of many recipes for a wintery dessert that I have in my file of recipes.  I wish now that I had written down the issue number or at the very least the chef’s name when I added the page to the file.  I have no idea who invented this recipe (found in delicious. magazine) but whoever you are? Thank you, this was yummy.  Obviously I added a packet of frozen blueberries, hence the colour.  It was also incredibly easy.

If you’re cooking a roast in the oven (or reheating a casserole, which is what I was doing), make this up while that’s cooking and when you take the roast out of the oven pop this in.  It’ll be ready by the time you’ve finished dinner.

APPLE CRUMBLE (serves 6)

Four large Granny Smith apples, peeled, core removed, roughly chopped (about 1kg)

190g caster sugar

300g plain flour

165g unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces

Grated zest of one lemon and one orange

1 egg

Icing sugar, to dust

Vanilla icecream, to serve

Preheat oven to 170C.

Place the apple in a saucepan with 90g of the caster sugar,  Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until the apple has softened.  If you want to add frozen berries, add them in the last few minutes.  Place the apples and any liquid in a baking dish (I used a 20cm round, 2.5L, 10cm deep dish; there is quite a lot of crumble so you could use something wider, like a deep pie dish – I might do that next time).

For the crumble topping, place the flour, butter and remaining 100g caster sugar in a food processor.  Pulse until the mixture forms coarse crumbs.  Add the grated orange and lemon zest, then add the egg and pulse for a few seconds to combine (the mixture will still be very crumbly).

Spread the crumble mixture over the apples in the baking dish.  Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the topping is golden.  Allow to cool slightly for 5 minutes then dust with icing sugar and serve with ice cream (or dust each serving with icing sugar as you’re dishing it up).

*The recipe says this serves 6 – those are big servings.  The four of us managed to eat half of this, the rest has gone into the fridge.  I reckon you could add another apple and still have enough of the crumble mixture to cover all the fruit if you used a wide pie dish.

*The ‘crumble’ is more like a cake.  There are other recipes that contain rolled oats and these are much crunchier or crumblier.  I would almost call this a pudding.  Whatever… it was very nice.

*I chopped each apple up into quite small pieces and they were very soft by the time we ate this.  I might make the pieces a bit bigger next time.  And by ‘bit bigger’ I mean that I will cut the apple in half, then half again, then half again.  Sorry – in the absence of step-by-step pictures it’s difficult to describe.  You’ll figure it out.  Use the Force.

life lessons

Posted by trish on Apr 21, 2011 in Blog | 4 comments

The other day I popped out of the house for about five minutes to visit the neighbours, leaving Madeleine home alone.  I don’t know what it is about the Universe but every time I leave Madeleine home by herself somebody either comes to the door or calls on the phone.  If the kids are a home alone for any length of time the rules are Do Not Open The Front Door and Do Not Answer The Phone (or wait until the answering machine picks it up and if you know the caller than it’s OK to answer).

My kids are pretty smart, and pretty sensible.  But as studies have shown (heard of the Stanley Milgram experiment?) people – even grown adults – have a tendency to do things they are told to do by people they believe to have power or seniority over them.  And?  Kids don’t listen to their parents’ instructions.  Such a conundrum.

She answered the door to a Door-to-Door Salesman one time, and then opened the locked screen door so he could give her a brochure.

The other day, she answered the phone to a man who told her that her computer was under attack and she needed to shut it down immediately, then restart it, then go to a website and download a program.  Madeleine got to the part where she restarted the computer when I walked back in.  Distressed, she handed me the phone, I listened to his spiel (“your computer’s security is being compromised over and over a hundred times a day!…”) and then told him, not very politely, that he was full of it.

We have a fridge magnet with a Buddah quote on it:

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. 

This is one of those fundamental Life Lessons I am trying to teach my kids.  When they grow up, and someone asks them “what did your mother teach you about life?” I want them to answer “to exercise my judgement and bullshit meter every single day.”  When I look back on my first 40 years, I can see several examples where I took something at face value, only to discover that it wasn’t what I thought it was.  Sometimes I realised straight away, other times I realised too late.  Often, I just quietly accepted it, without standing up for myself or calling them on it. Sometimes I opened the door when I shouldn’t have.

I want my kids to have the confidence to trust their instincts.  They went against their instincts and their better judgement in answering the door, and answering the telephone.  But they are kids, and they’re going to make mistakes like that.  They’ll make a few when they are grown-ups, too.  But the more confident they are in who they are and what they want, the more likely they will start to question things that don’t seem right.  Rather than just opening the door to the salesman, they might think “I don’t have to open the door to this person, I can tell him to come back later, or put the brochure in the letterbox.  I don’t have to open the door and let him in because this is my house and I can ask him to leave.”

The few times in my life where I have seen or heard something that doesn’t sit well with me – and I have recognised that it is happening, and I have stopped to consider my response before delivering it – I have come away feeling incredibly empowered.  There was that time when a younger, male, slightly-more-senior colleague bullied me in front of another colleague, whilst he had his feet up on the desk.  I saw him for what he was, I didn’t take offence, and I turned around and walked straight to his Manager’s office and reported the incident.  THAT was empowering.  I want my girls to know the feeling of standing up for yourself, of confronting somebody who is trying to pull the wool over your eyes, or even just stopping and pausing whilst questioning whether something feels right.  I want them to know that they are strong enough to do this.

Meanwhile, we’re getting a silent number.  I’m sick to the back teeth of all the marketing calls, and this one was particularly heinous.

The Sages Lookout

Posted by trish on Apr 20, 2011 in Shoot | 1 comment

One of my pictures from a tour I took whilst in Thailand last year;  I’m trawling through my archives for inspiration for more stories that I have been asked to write about my trip to Bangkok.

This was taken in the top of the Ho Withun Thasana, within the Bang Pa-In Palace, Ayutthaya, Thailand.  “Ho” means “tower”, and this tower is also known as The Sages Lookout.  This observatory was built by King Chulalongkorn in 1881 as a lookout tower for viewing the surrounding countryside.  I love that these school children are looking out over the palace grounds – little sages, perhaps?

Canon EOS 7D with Canon EF  24-105mm f/4 L-series IS USM lens

ISO 320

Focal length 40mm

Aperture f/14

Exposure 1/60

staples

Posted by trish on Apr 20, 2011 in Eat | 5 comments

When I was cleaning out my pantry this week I realised that there are some things I was hanging onto just in case I ever needed them.  The majority of those things were either several years beyond their use-by date or simply covered in dust.  These included:

sultanas

currants

palm sugar

chilli-flavoured olive oil

custard powder

gravox (gravy mix)

stock cubes and stock powder

tinned plum pudding (how did that get in there?)

table salt

Now that my pantry has been stripped back to the bare necessities, I can see what’s useful.  The list of useful ingredients gives a bit of a clue as to the kind of cooking I tend to do, the kinds of meals I make, and the kind of life I’m living:

tinned crushed tomatoes, tinned tuna in olive oil, jars of anchovies, bottles of passata

olive oil, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar.

flour, sugar, dessicated coconut, dutch cocoa, brown sugar.

arborio rice, basmati rice, jasmine rice, sushi rice, brown rice.

penne, spirals, spaghetti, fettucine.

lentils, beans, cous cous.

breakfast cereals.

gin.

PASTA A LA PANTRY (serves 4, ready in 15 minutes flat)

400g crushed tomatoes or jar of good quality pasta sauce

large tin of tuna in olive oil, drained, flaked

1 medium onion, finely diced

teaspoon of sugar

salt and pepper

cream (optional, but highly recommended)

400g thin spaghetti (about 100g per person)

freshly grated parmesan cheese

Put a big saucepan of hot water on the stove and bring to the boil.  In a frying pan, cook the onion in a splash of olive oil until translucent.  Add the tin of tomatoes or the pasta sauce and stir, allow to simmer (if using tinned tomatoes, add the sugar).   Cook the pasta according to directions on the packet.  Add the tuna to the tomato and onion, season with salt and pepper to taste, stir, then heat through.  When the pasta is ready, drain it, reserving about half a cup of the cooking water.  Add a generous splash of cream to the tomato sauce, stir and heat through, then pour the sauce over the pasta.  (Add a little cooking water if you need to thin the sauce).  If you have some fresh basil or parsley, add half a handful of this, chopped finely.  Serve in bowls, sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Variations:Use bacon or chorizo instead of tuna – cook these in a little olive oil before adding the onions.

When the onions are translucent, add a few anchovies and stir until melted, then carry on with the rest of the ingredients as above.  Just gives greater depth of flavour.

Add chopped capsicum and mushrooms when frying the onions.

purge

Posted by trish on Apr 19, 2011 in Blog | 8 comments

Yesterday I threw a bit of a tantrum. I feel like we are out-growing this house that we are living in and sometimes I feel quite claustrophobic.  The truth is, this house is quite big (though I’d love a second toilet), and the problem is not that the house is shrinking, but that we keep filling it up with stuff.

When I was a kid, I can remember my Dad getting fed up to the gills with all our crap lying around the house.  We would come home from school, kick our shoes off near the door, throw our school bags on the floor, then proceed to leave a trail of stuff all over the house.  Every so often Dad would get sick of having to step over it all (I’m one of four kids, so there was a lot of stuff) and he would start picking things up and hurling them at the bottom of the staircase that lead up to our bedrooms.  The stairs were wooden, so the noise that the heavier objects was significant and no doubt somewhat satisfying to my poor, long-suffering Dad.

I have inherited his trait for getting Fed Up With All The Crap and yesterday I started throwing stuff.  It felt really good.  Some of the stuff made it into a garbage bin or the recycling tub.  Some of it just flew down the corridor towards the kids’ bedrooms.  The whole point of throwing stuff so that it lands somewhere so that kids would have to step over it to get past it on the way to their bedrooms is that they would PICK IT UP.  Doesn’t always work, but I shall continue to enjoy the sensation of throwing shoes, hats and yes, the occasional book, down the corridor.

So, back to my tantrum.  I didn’t stop at shoes.  I then went into the kitchen and, with Ella’s help, emptied the entire contents of the pantry onto the surrounding benchtops.  We filled three garbage bags with expired foods.  There was a box of custard powder that expired four years ago.

After the pantry, I attacked the coffee mug cupboard.  I’ve got a cupboard above the kitchen bench that has three shelves on it.  You’d be amazed at how many coffee mugs we have that we never, ever use.  I got rid of all of them, including my I heart NY mug that I bought in 2004 that no longer has a heart on it because it faded in the dishwasher.  Gone.  The heart and the mug.  Yes, I was brutal.  I even got rid of my old favourite ‘happily dying of chocolate’ mug.  But you should see how much room there is on those shelves now!

Then I came into the office and cleaned off a few shelves.  Ditched some bottles of glue that had long since solidified.  Threw away some scraps of gift wrap that were just annoying.  Added some books to the Garage Sale box.

I feel sooooo much better.  And that’s the thing with de-cluttering.  You don’t know, until you do it, just how fantastic you can feel when you’ve done a big clean-up.  It’s like throwing things down the corridor or at the staircase, only better, because when the dust has settled you can look around and there’s all this… space.

Trish’s Top Tips For Decluttering

1.  If you haven’t used it in 12 months, get rid of it.

2.  If you are hanging onto it because someone special gave it to you, but you haven’t used it in 12 months, get rid of it.

3. If it is still in perfectly good condition, just a little bit dusty, sell it at a garage sale or put it on Freecycle and give it a second chance at life.  Haven’t you seen Toy Story 3? Your possessions just want to get used.  Give them to someone who will use them.

4.  If you really can’t bring yourself to throw it away, bring it to the front of the cupboard and start using it.  If, after 12 months, you still haven’t used it, get rid of it.

5.  If you buy a new [something], get rid of an old [something].  Don’t stockpile stuff just for the sake of it.

6.  Do it a little at a time.  If you find the whole process a bit stressful, just do it one cupboard or one shelf or one drawer at a time.

7.  In all my years of brutal de-cluttering, I have never regretted getting rid of something.  I’ve never had that moment of “darn it, I should’ve kept that extra salad bowl”.  Don’t hang onto things because you think you might find a use for it one day.  This is how entire homes and garages get filled up.  Have you seen the show ‘Hoarders’?  I’m convinced that those people just started out saying “I might need this one day.”

What big eyes you have!

Posted by trish on Apr 18, 2011 in Shoot | 3 comments

This little guy was living in a tunnel he had made in the ground beneath my newly-planted tomatoes.  The thought of him lurking there every time I sent one of the kids out to pick fresh tomatoes was all it took for me to have him… er… disappeared.  (we said a little prayer for him first, and thanked him for becoming fertilizer, and we’ve had a lovely crop of tomatoes this year!)

The big black thing in the bottom left hand corner of the frame is the end of the torch/flashlight.  My camera didn’t know what to focus on – the torch, the ground or the little guy lurking deep in the hole.  It took me a dozen shots to get this one.

BASICS

Posted by trish on Apr 16, 2011 in Eat | 1 comment

This is one way to roast a chicken.  We have a roast chicken once a week; I buy one at the Farmers’ Markets from one of the organic farmers and we usually have it for dinner on Sunday night.  This recipe was in the Sydney Morning Herald’s food section on Tuesday, 22 March 2011, the recipe is from Jill Dupleix.

I can’t even tell you how delicious this is.  It’s my kids’ new favourite way to have roast chicken.  They also love, love, love the lentils, which completely surprised me.  The last time I made this I didn’t have any ginger or coriander but that didn’t seem to bother anybody.

ROAST SPICED-YOGHURT CHICKEN (SERVES 4)

200g plain natural yoghurt (this makes quite a lot, too much in my opinion. 125g is ample).

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated

2 garlic cloves, finely grated

1 red chilli, finely sliced

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp tandoori spice mix or paste

1.5kg fresh organic chicken (you could use chicken pieces ie Marylands, skin on)

400g canned lentils, drained

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp garam masala

2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

75g baby spinach leaves (or one bunch of English Spinach, leaves only)

1 lemon for serving

2 tbsp coriander sprigs

Beat the yoghurt with one tablespoon of olive oil, the ginger, garlic, chilli, lemon juice, salt and tandoori spice mix.  Using poultry shears, cut down either side of the backbone of the chicken and remove.  Turn cut-side down and push down on the breastbone with the heel of your hand to help it flatten out.  Slash the drumsticks once or twice, then coat the chicken with yoghurt mixture and leave for an hour or two (I left mine marinading in the fridge for the whole day and it was fine).

Heat the oven to 200C. Place the chicken skin-side up in a roasting tray lined with baking paper and roast for 50 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

Heat the lentils with remaining olive oil and tomato paste, garam masala, chopped coriander, sea salt and pepper and a splash of water and simmer for 10 minutes over low heat.  Add the spinach leaves and allow to soften and wilt.  Cut the chicken into chunks and serve with the lentils, lemon wedges and coriander sprigs.

gobsmacked

Posted by trish on Apr 15, 2011 in Blog | 7 comments

I just had the most extraordinary conversation.  I still can’t quite believe it happened.

I’ll try to tell you it without giving away the details and I’ll change the names because this is a small town and we all have to get along.

I have been having a conversation, over the phone and over several months, with a public servant, Ms Public-Servant,  from a local government department regarding a public safety issue.  Ms Public-Servant has been very helpful, very knowlegeable, and today I met her in person, at the unsafe public place in question, and we continued our conversation and have agreed on the next step.

Then, about ten minutes later, I went to introduce myself to a senior official, Mr Von Manager, who is new to the area, to advise him of this ongoing public safety issue and to fill him in on the past several months’ worth of discussion and activity that I have been part of.  Mr Von Manager said he was very pleased to meet me because, coincidentally, he had received a letter from a third concerned party, Mr Concerned-Party of Safety Conscious Organisation, just this week, informing him of this particular public safety issue.  Mr Von Manager said he realised it was a big issue around here because he noted that Mr Concerned-Party had copied two other people in on the letter; somebody from Safety Conscious Organisation, plus someone from the same department as Ms Public-Servant – a man whom we shall call Mr P. S. Colleague.

Are you with me?

Mr Von Manager then told me that he had written back to Mr Concerned-Party and also copied it to the others.  He then found a photocopy of the letter and showed it to me, and I got Ms Public-Servant’s business card out of my pocket so that we could check that she and Mr P.S Colleague do, in fact, come from the same office of the same division of the same government department. Yes, they do.

And then Mr Von Manager told me that we should make sure that Ms Public-Servant and Mr P.S. Colleague are both on the same page, or that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, or something.

And then he said “and I assume that he is her boss because he is a man.”

“I assume that he is her boss because he is a man.”

Excuse me, but what the fuck.

Mr Von Manager then gave me the photocopy of the letter that he wrote back, with the names and addresses of the two other recipients at the bottom of the page, and I had a closer look.  The first recipient was Mr P. S. Colleague, whose job title was not given.  We do not have the job titles of either Ms Public-Servant and Mr P.S. Colleague.  The second recipient was someone by the name of Ms Must Have Slept Her Way To The Top, because her job title is “President of Safety Conscious Organisation”.

*update – I have since spoken again with Ms Public-Servant and she confirmed that she and Mr P.S. Colleague are indeed colleagues, and equal ones at that.

public art

Posted by trish on Apr 14, 2011 in Shoot | 1 comment

This art installation – ‘The Journey‘ – can be found on the ground floor of the ACTEW building in the city.  These cones are giant acrylic light globes that change colour.  I took a bunch of pictures with them looking like this, slowing down the shutter speed to get some people walking by in a blur.  I did that for about five minutes, got bored, took the shot below then put the camera away and stood up just as they started going green.

So of course I got the camera out again and started shooting…

basics

Posted by trish on Apr 13, 2011 in Eat | 3 comments

If you’ve got eggs in the fridge, you’ve got dinner.  Or breakfast.  Whatever.  If you’ve also got mushrooms, fetta and a leek, you’ve got lunch.

OMELETTE (SERVES 2)

Four large eggs

Dash of cream (a couple of tablespoons)

salt & pepper

A couple of generous chunks of soft goat’s cheese fetta

A handful of brown mushrooms, thinly sliced

One small leek, white part only, thinly sliced

20g butter

tablespoon of finely chopped parsley

Bread for toasting.

Prepare all your ingredients first, because this all happens pretty quickly.

Beat the eggs and cream together, add a little salt and pepper.  Slice the vegetables, crumble the fetta.

Heat a wide, non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat.  Melt the butter then add the leeks and stir until softened.  Add the mushrooms, stir occasionally until all nice and soft.  Tip the vegies into a bowl, crumble the fetta over them so it can start to melt, and set aside.

Pour the egg and cream into the pan.  It should cover the base of the pan but it will be quite thin.  That’s ok.  Just let the egg sit and start to cook underneath.  When it starts to cook, tip the pan slightly to one side, allowing the uncooked egg to pour to the edge, then lift the side of the cooked egg up so the uncooked egg can flow underneath and start cooking.  You might want to do this a few times on opposite sides of the pan.  Don’t lift the omelette up, or break it, or stir it.  Leave it alone, it will be fine, it’s cooking slowly  (unless the whole thing fizzed and spat when you poured it in, in which case your pan is too hot and you might need to make scrambled eggs instead).

Put the bread in the toaster.

When it looks like the egg is just about all cooked, sprinkle the veggies and fetta down the centre of the pan, from top to bottom, in a strip about 5cm wide.  Then get your biggest spatula or pancake-flipper-thing and flip the sides of the omelette over the top to wrap the veggies up, like a parcel.

Carefully turn the entire thing over onto the other side so the two edges can be cooked and fused together.  Let it sit, don’t rush it.

Your toast is probably ready by now.  Butter on the toast is optional.

Cut the omelette in half across the middle and carefully place each half on a piece of toast on a large plate then scatter with parsley.

OTHER FILLINGS:

Diced, fresh tomato, basil and bocconcini

Smoked salmon, dill and ricotta

Gruyere and caramelised onions

Shaved ham and baby spinach

barefoot update

Posted by trish on Apr 13, 2011 in Blog | 3 comments

A few months ago I read a book that changed my mind about running.  I had been lead to believe that I could not run without built-up arch-supporting running shoes and a pair of very expensive orthotics.  And even with those things, my feet and legs would get very sore after about ten minutes and I would have to stop and rest for about 72 hours.  I can’t tell you how frustrating it was for me not to be able to go faster.  When doing my usual lap around Lake Burley Griffin (about 5km) I would walk fast enough to get slightly out of breath, but all the time I felt like a Border Collie, straining against a leash, dying to take off and chase after the ducks or the leaves that were blowing down the path.  I wanted to go faster.  I still want to go faster.

So I read this book and it told me that I shouldn’t need to wear built-up specialist running shoes lined with orthotics.  It told me that my feet were perfectly designed to allow me to run, and that all I had to do was re-train them to run without all that support, and to dramatically change the way I actually run.  The muscles in my feet and legs would support my arches, and the arches would support themselves, like arches are designed to do.  The book told me to go and get some basic shoes, some ‘barefoot’ shoes, and start walking, and eventually I would be able to run.

Three and a bit months later and I have been wearing my low-profile shoes (sans orthotics) and it really has been a revelation.  I was worried that my shin splints would come back, that the fronts of my lower legs would scream out in pain, but that hasn’t happened.  My feet are visibly wider, my toes are visibly more spread out, and I feel no pain in my legs when I walk.  I’m getting ready to start running, I think these three months of easing into the new shoes has paid off.

There is one thing, though, and that is a niggling injury in my left foot that I’m 99% certain was caused a couple of years ago when I squatted down, putting all my weight on the balls of my feet, but I was unbalanced and my body weight pulled me forward, lifting my heels right up off the ground, and I felt something ‘click’ in my left foot, in the joint at the base of my big toe.  From memory it was sore for a couple of days, but then it went away.  The next time I wore a pair of high heeled shoes it started to hurt again, so I hardly ever wear heels anymore.  But now it hurts after about half an hour of walking.  I’m not game to see if it hurts when I run.

When I was in Thailand last year I had a massage, and the masseur was rubbing my feet and then suddenly started to pull gently on my toes.  When she got to the big toe on my left foot the pain just about lifted me off the table.  I had felt no pain in my feet before the massage, and I was fine after (I walked all day every day for three weeks during that period, with no pain).  So whatever is going on with my foot, it’s painful, but not consistently so.  I’m very worried about exacerbating the injury to the point where I can’t do anything.

I want to run a mini-marathon in about a month and although I think I have the aerobic fitness to manage it, I’m not sure my poor feet will be able to go the distance.  PJ has just sent a message to his good friend the chiropractor/barefoot running coach/sports injury specialist and with a bit of luck he’ll know what to do.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t given up on my barefoot running campaign, in case you were wondering.

pasta (v)

Posted by trish on Apr 12, 2011 in Eat | 0 comments

This is a recipe that I have cobbled together out of ingredients in the fridge, but it was inspired by a recipe from one of my favourite Australian chefs – Jill Dupleix.

Jill Dupleix invented Crash Hot Potatoes. I love her.

(By the way, I’m not going to give my recipes titles that are just a long list of their ingredients.  I’m going to pick the main ingredient – maybe two – and that will be the title.  So this dish is not going to be called roast pumpkin, goat’s cheese feta, pine nuts, cream and spinach pasta. But you might be able to track it down later by putting “pumpkin” or “pasta” in the Search box, because I’ve added tags to the post.  OK? Thank you.)

ROAST PUMPKIN PASTA (SERVES 4)

One butternut pumpkin, peeled, cut into chunks (about the size of matchboxes)

300ml cream

1 cup chicken stock

100g  baby spinach leaves

1 leek, thinly sliced

20g butter

200g soft goat’s cheese fetta (I use Meredith Dairy – it’s divine.)

2 Tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted in a dry frying pan over medium heat.

salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.  Place the pumpkin on a baking tray.  Drizzle or spray with olive oil then roast for about an hour, or until done.  (The pumpkin in the picture above is cooked but I would have left it in for another ten or fifteen minutes to go brown and start to caramelise but I had to take it out of the oven while I went to pick the kids up from some place.)

Use a food processor or blender to mix the pumpkin and chicken stock.

Pour the pumpkin into a large saucepan, add the cream and heat over a low flame.  (Jill Dupleix’s recipe calls for 3 red chillis, seeded and chopped, plus two teaspoons of horseradish cream to be added at this point… it’s delicious, but I’m out of horseradish.  If you’re going to do it her way, drizzle the pumpkin with honey before you put it in the oven.)

Add salt and pepper to taste.  You should end up with a thick sauce.

Boil pasta (Jill recommends shells) and drain when done.  Using the pot you just cooked the pasta in, melt the butter over medium heat and add the leeks.  Stir for about five minutes, then add the spinach and toss until wilted.  Put the pasta back into that pot and mix it all around, then either tip it into the pot with the pumpkin, or pour the pumpkin over the pasta.

Divide into bowls and sprinkle some pine nuts and a generous amount of crumbled fetta over the top.  If you don’t have fetta, use parmesan cheese.

new season

Posted by trish on Apr 11, 2011 in Shoot | 1 comment

This little poppet recently moved into the house across the road.  She was born in Papua New Guinea, and grew up in the Solomon Islands.  They don’t really have autumn over there, do they?

Ah, the delight in her face as she played with the leaves.  Can’t wait to see what she has to say about snow.

Basics

Posted by trish on Apr 10, 2011 in Eat | 3 comments

The girls are 10 and 13 now and according to reality television cooking shows they ought to be making things like Pork Belly with Shitake Mushroom Foam and Seaweed Compote so I reckon they’re ready to learn The Basics.  I have a lime green notebook that I started jotting recipes in when I was still living at home and watching daytime television between lectures at university and it’s full of simple, quick recipes that I thought I’d be able to manage when I was finally in my own place.  The first recipe is Ray Martin’s Caesar Salad, so that dates it for those of you who remember when Our Ray was on daytime.

Anyway, there are a bunch of recipes in there that I’ve never made but there are a few that keep popping up on the weekly menu and those ones I hardly even need to check the list of ingredients anymore.  One of them is Beef and Red Wine Casserole, and as I made it this morning with Madeleine’s help, I told her that this was something she could cook for herself when she’s all alone and living on campus at Cambridge and it’s grey and miserable outside and she wants to make something to remind her of home.  I want my kids to travel the world and study overseas and do all those things that I didn’t do when I was that age but I also want them to have the occasional intense pang of homesickness wherein they remember all the wonderful things about growing up as my daughter and conveniently forget all those times I made their lives a living hell.

This recipe can be cooked on the stovetop, or in the oven, or in a slow cooker.  On a stovetop make sure you stir occasionally and keep the liquid levels up so it doesn’t stick to the bottom.  In the oven, put a big square piece of baking paper over the top of the pot before placing the lid on top, it just saves in the washing up afterwards (the lid stays clean).  For the slow cooker, cook the onions, garlic, bacon and meat in a frying pan before transferring to the slow cooker with the other ingredients then cook on high for a couple of hours or on low for four.It’s easy to increase the number of serving sizes; just add more of everything and maintain the amount of liquid for it all to bubble away in.

BEEF & RED WINE CASSEROLE (4-6 serves)

2 Tbsp olive oil

4 bacon rashers, chopped

2 medium onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 kg beef (chuck steak), cut into 3cm cubes

2 Tbsp plain flour

1 cup red wine

1 1/2 cups beef stock

2 tins crushed tomatoes (800g)

3 large carrots, peeled, cut into large chunks (fat carrots are better than skinny ones)

mushrooms – whole small ones or large ones cut into chunks.  A couple of handfuls’ worth.

half a bunch of continental (Italian, flat-leaf) parsley, finely chopped.

Preheat oven to 160 C.

Prepare all the ingredients so they’re ready to go.  With the beef, it’s a really good idea to blot excess moisture/blood from the cubes using some paper towel before tossing them about in a large plastic bag with the flour to coat (may need to do that in a couple of batches).

Heat the casserole pot over medium heat and pour in half the oil.  When it’s hot, add the bacon and stir for three minutes.  Then add the onion and garlic and cook until soft and translucent, between 5-10 minutes.  Don’t let it burn, but make sure it’s well cooked.

Remove this mixture from the pot and set aside.  Add the rest of the olive oil and when it’s hot add enough pieces of the beef to cover the base of the pot, leaving space between each piece.  This might take three or four batches, it’s important not to let the pot get crowded or it won’t heat up enough to sear the meat.  There should be enough heat in the pot to hear the beef sizzling but not so hot you risk burning it.  Turn the pieces over as they become brown, until you’ve browned it well all over.  Do the same for subsequent batches, putting them aside with the onions and bacon when they’re done.

There will be bits and pieces of bacon and onion stuck to the bottom of the pot and you can get these off by deglazing.  Pour the wine into the pot, letting it bubble up, then take a wooden spoon with a straight edge and scrape the bottom of the pot to lift all the bits.  Keep scraping until all the bits are up – great for flavour, and good for cleaning the pot.  When you’ve got as much as you can off, return the beef, onions and bacon mix to the pot.  Add the stock, tinned tomatoes and carrots (I usually throw in a bay leaf or two as well).  Stir and allow to come to the boil over med-high heat.

Put the lid on and place in the oven for two hours or until the beef is nice and tender. With half an hour to go, make some mashed potatoes.

Just before dishing up, add the parsley, reserving a little as a garnish.  Serve with lots of mashed potato and some crusty bread to soak up all the yummy gravy.

this and that

Posted by trish on Apr 9, 2011 in Blog | 2 comments

I bought this card for myself at Pepe’s Paperie in the Canberra Centre.  This is going on the wall next to my computer, to inspire me to keep going with my novel.

(see more of these gorgeous cards online at Pondering Pool.)

She says it better.

Posted by trish on Apr 7, 2011 in Blog | 4 comments

Yesterday I had to have an ultrasound scan of my uterus.  I know, I know, you probably don’t really care to hear this, and to be honest I wasn’t going to blog about it because I couldn’t think of a really humorous way to tell the story that would have you all focussing on the funny bits rather than forming mental images in your mind that you would struggle to erase.  In fact, even as I was laying there with my belly covered in goop, I was thinking “If I was Dooce, I would already have started writing an hilarious blog post about it in my head, and I’d already be laughing to myself at my incredible wit, and the technician would be all, hey, can you please stop laughing so hard, you’re making your uterus contract and I can’t get a good shot.”

And then of course this morning I log onto Dooce and she also had an ultrasound scan of her uterus yesterday and yes, she blogged about it and yes, it’s hilarious.  You should read it.

I had a young male technician, which was fine because I thought it was just going to be an external scan.  I had several of those when I was pregnant, they’re no big deal.  The only awkward part was when he started asking me questions about why I was having the scan.  I wasn’t sure if he was asking me because that would help him know what he was supposed to be looking for, or if he was just making polite conversation.  Because if he was just making polite conversation, I figured that any discussion about abnormal bleeding would suddenly make it rather impolite.  But I told him, because he asked, and then he said “and how long has this been going on?” and I said “since puberty” and he laughed.  Politely.

And then he told me that he would be able to get a better look with the internal scan.  I guess my poor little uterus must have contracted violently at the thought because although he was looking at the screen he could totally see that he’d surprised me with this news.  He offered to get a female colleague to do it.  I said yes please.

And that’s all I’m going to say about that because really, there’s nothing to see here.

(I’m fine, by the way. Thanks.)

rant

Posted by trish on Apr 6, 2011 in Blog | 29 comments

Someone I follow on Twitter linked to this article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, then linked to her own opinion piece published sometime in 2010.  If you can’t be bothered following the links, the first one is entitled “Why you should keep your maiden name” and the second is simply called “On surname changing.”  Both articles were written by women.  The first was expressing her frustration at the confusion created when she has changed her surname (three times already because of marriage and divorce).  The second, from Melanie, was expressing frustration at other women who change their surnames and what that says about their commitment to equality of the sexes, let alone their commitment to their husbands.

I was 24 years old when we got engaged and I never once considered keeping my maiden name.  Perhaps I was young and naive, but I discovered later that a lot of women saw my decision to change my name as a very clear signal that I didn’t value my identity very highly, and that by changing my name I would be telling the world that I was less important than my husband.  Somebody actually said that to me, to my face, when I was newly engaged.  She was a woman in her mid to late-40′s, she was visiting someone in the office where I was the receptionist and whilst she was waiting for her appointment we started chatting.  She complimented me on my sparkly engagement ring and then asked me if I was planning to change my name.  When I told her I was, she said something fairly harsh about the loss of my identity and I stopped listening.

Today I read the opinion piece and something in it brought the memory of that random encounter back into view:

“I want the sisterhood to be able to make the decisions she wants to, but how can any woman who truly believes in equality change her name?”

“The minute a woman changes her name to match her husband’s, she’s telling the world that one person in the relationship is more important than the other.”

I have to say that I disagree very strongly with both of those assumptions, just as I disagreed with the woman I met when I was 24.  I don’t equate changing my name with diminishing my status as an equal human being.  I don’t believe that I have made a public statement that says I believe my husband to be more important than me.  I don’t believe that, in losing the name I was born with, I have somehow lost some of my worth.  I have married a man who loves me, who values me, who treats me absolutely as an equal partner in this relationship and who wants to hear my opinion on everything.  I married the son of a single mother – there is no question as to the importance, value or worth to him of the women in his life.  In this marriage, in this relationship, there has never been any question as to my worth.  We’ve had the odd disagreement over the years but the question of my name has never come up.

The problem I have with the statements above is that they are more than just personal opinions – which she is entitled to have – they are very severe judgements.  She has not only disagreed with my personal choice, but I feel as though she has judged me as a human being.  Is she saying that I believe I am less worthy, and that I do not believe in equality?   As the mother of two young girls, I have to say I find that notion quite upsetting.

How many of the women who have campaigned for equal pay, access to safe abortions, protection from sexual assault, education for young girls in Afghanistan, more women on executive boards, more women in the military, and so on… how many of those women were married and had changed their names to be the same as their husbands?  It’s a nonsense argument to say that if you have changed your name then you don’t believe in equality.  That if you change your name, you are worth less and you can’t call yourself a feminist.  Or… not that particular kind of feminist.

Ooh.. hang on, my worth just dropped a little.  While I’ve been writing this I’ve burned the dinner.  Bugger.

white paper roses

Posted by trish on Apr 5, 2011 in Shoot | 3 comments

My dear friend Penny’s little brother, Michael, is getting married next year.  A couple of weekends ago I offered to take some photos at the engagement party, being held in Penny’s parents’ backyard here in Canberra.  When I arrived, I found the pergola festooned with these enormous handmade paper roses (they’re bigger than basketballs).  The bride-to-be, a very gorgeous and creative young lady named Jasmine, had made them.  I held the camera high up above my head and clicked the shutter a few times until I got this shot.

sweet revenge

Posted by trish on Apr 4, 2011 in Blog | 13 comments

Ella has to make a model of an Australian icon for her class this week.  About a year ago I read a book called The Homework Myth that basically shows how homework hardly contributes anything to a child’s learning and that most homework tasks are a monumental waste of time.  It specifically calls on teachers to stop assigning tasks that require the child to make a scale model of anything, because these end up being an expensive, time-sucking activity that basically make the parents very, very angry.

This morning when I dropped her at school Ella reminded me that I needed to go out and get all the stuff she was going to need in order to build a model of Uluru.  I asked her what she was planning to make it out of, and she shrugged her shoulders.  This is why these tasks are a complete waste of time – the ten year olds don’t know the first thing about how to make the kind of models they think their teacher wants them to make.  And the teachers are actually hoping that the mums and dads will do the homework for them, because that’s the ugly truth of it – the better the model, the better the classroom display of models will look, so the better the teacher looks.  Ella’s teacher is hoping to bask in the reflected glory and magnificence of a scale model of Uluru that he knows full well will be made by her parents.

I am going to make a large chocolate cake, and I am going to give Ella a short, serrated knife and a big bowl of chocolate frosting, and I am going to invite her to carve Uluru from the chocolate cake, then cover the cake in rich, ochre-coloured sugary frosted goodness, then I am going to suggest she take it to school and insist on allowing everyone to have a slice of Uluru.  The combined hysteria of 25 kids suffering a massive sugar hit ought to keep the teacher’s head spinning for a solid hour one afternoon this week.

Gingerbread Biscuits

Posted by trish on Apr 3, 2011 in Eat | 5 comments

I made a triple-quantity of these for a morning tea at school on the first day of term.  They only take 12 minutes to cook so you can be getting the next tray ready whilst the first one cooks.  It’s useful to have a very large mixing bowl (I got mine at Ikea for $20) and several baking trays or cookie sheets.  This recipe came from a past issue of delicious. magazine.   They are very easy, and really tasty.

GINGERBREAD BISCUITS (makes 20-25)

1/2 cup (125ml) golden syrup

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup caster sugar

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

125g unsalted butter

1 egg

3 cups plain flour

Preheat the oven to 170C.  Place the golden syrup and sugars in a pan over very low heat and stir until the sugars have dissolved.  Add spices and soda.  When mixture bubbles, remove from heat.  Place butter, hot syrup in a bowl, stir well, then cool slightly.  Add the egg, mix, then gradually sift in flour as you stir the mixture.

Line a large baking tray with baking paper.  Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and place them on the tray.  Flatten slightly with your hand, and leave about two centimetres between each ball so they can spread.Bake for about 12 minutes.  Allow to cool on the tray for five minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

If you like, drizzle icing over the completely cool biscuits with some plain icing (1 1/2 cups icing sugar + 1 tbsp warm water, extra if too dry).

Tips from me:

Use a mini icecream scoop to measure out the dough.

Gloves are optional.  I was being extra-hygenic with this batch because I was baking them for the morning tea at school.

Make the icing up in a jug, thin it with water so that it will pour, then have all the biscuits lined up, snuggled together, and just pour the icing in a very thin stream back and forward across the biscuits so you end up with thin striped icing (go in the other direction so you get a criss-cross pattern).

helping

Posted by trish on Apr 2, 2011 in Shoot | 0 comments

Georgiana, age 3, helping arrange miniature cupcakes on the afternoon tea buffet at her uncle’s engagement party.

rant

Posted by trish on Apr 1, 2011 in Blog | 8 comments

Every now and then I’m going to get completely outraged by something and I’m going to use my blog, my personal space that you are under no obligation to visit, to vent my frustrations and/or anger.

We just received an email from the organisers of one of the weekly extra-curricular activities that one of our children attends.  Parents are asked to provide some snacks for the kids to enjoy during the short break they are given, and we take it in turns to provide enough food for the whole group (20+ kids).  Here’s a passage from the email:

Remember that we need food that is healthy, without coconut or peanuts, and preferably without preservatives in the range of 200. Please ensure that all foods supplied are labelled with the ingredients so that foods containing coconut, egg, sesame or gluten can be identified. If in doubt bring the packaging so we can see what is in the food!

Here’s the bit that’s going to potentially get me into trouble:

I think, in this situation, that parents of children who have severe food allergies should be asked to provide a separate snack for their child when their child is attending an extra-curricular activity.  My kids go to nut-free schools, and there is one child at Ella’s primary school who will go into anaphylactic shock if she so much as breathes the same air as a child eating peanut butter.  I don’t have a problem with sending my kid to school with a lunch that I have prepared for her, that meets these guidelines, so that the children with severe allergies are protected whilst they are at school.

But I object to being asked to prepare something within the guidelines given above for somebody else’s child who is attending something outside of school.  If your child can’t have preservatives in the range of 200, then for goodness sake pack them their own preservative-free snack.  That way, the inconvenience is on you, and if you’re the parent of such a child then it won’t be an inconvenience because you’ll already know your way around the grocery aisle at Woolworths and will know which foods to avoid.  It would take the rest of us half an hour of label-reading to make sure we aren’t about to poison your child, and even then we’ll still worry that they’re going to get sick because we didn’t really know what we were doing and you’ll sue us for negligence because we picked the wrong thing.  OK, yes, I could bring the packaging so you can’t be in doubt.  Or, you could send your child with a safe snack so that I can’t be in doubt.

It was my turn a couple of weeks ago.  I bought a box of gluten-free, egg-free, nut-free chocolate brownie mix.  It cost about twice as much as a regular brownie mix.  I also bought some gluten-free crackers, and some carrots and celery and cut them up into sticks for dipping into a large tub of hummus.   I bought a whole watermelon and cut it into wedges.   And I made a batch of my own chocolate brownies, laden with eggs and gluten.

When I collected the plates and containers at the end of the day, the gluten-free brownies had not been touched.  About one-third of the hummus had been eaten, and less than half the carrot and celery sticks were gone.  The watermelon was mostly gone, but the gluten-free crackers were still in their box.  I remarked to the organiser that the kids can’t have been very hungry, and she said “oh, they were, but I always bring food along as well, just in case we need some extra” which implies that they ate the food that she brought.

I asked my daughter what other food had been on the table during the break that day and she said “doughnuts”.

Whenever we have had a birthday party here at home, I’ve checked with the parents of the guests to make sure there aren’t any food allergies.  If we have someone over for a couple of hours after school, I’ll check with them that they don’t have a nut allergy, or I’ll call their mother to be sure if I’m about to give them a couple of my famous chocolate peanut butter cookies.  I’ve got friends with little ones with severe allergies, and I know that these kids are taught from a very young age to ask “does this have dairy?” or “does this have peanuts?”.  So, in general, we all do a pretty good job of working together to make sure the kids in our everyday lives aren’t going to come into contact with something they shouldn’t eat.  This is not difficult, it’s not inconvenient, and it’s never bothered me.  But asking me to prepare enough ‘safe’ food for 20 kids – when I’d be willing to bet 18 of them are perfectly able to eat whatever the hell they like – is a bit rich.  I got enough hummus and gluten-free brownies for all twenty kids and that turned out to be a colossal waste of food.  Surely it makes far more sense for those few kids to bring their own snacks each week, and for their parents to be excused from having to cater to the rest of the group who are obviously perfectly happy with their nutritious doughnuts.

dressed

Posted by trish on Apr 1, 2011 in Blog | 4 comments

[photo: snapped in Oslo, autumn 2010, where big cardigans and big bags were all the rage]

The other day I had coffee with my friend Michelle and whilst we were sitting there at our outside table at Edgar’s a young woman in a black trenchcoat rode by on a beautiful red bike.  She looked totally chic, and if I’d had my camera ready I would have leapt out of my seat and asked for her picture for the Cycle Chic blog.  When she had gone, Michelle and I talked about how this cooler weather might encourage more people out on their bikes for their daily commute to the office – you get less sweaty in autumn – and wouldn’t that be a good thing.  Then we started talking about how Canberrans seem to dress more stylishly in the cooler months than in summer, and we both concluded that everyone looked better because winter coats and scarves and gloves are beautiful, and there’s a lot less bare naked flesh around at this time of the year.  Anyone listening in on our discussion would have picked us as women going through that Major Life Change – the one where you start projecting your sudden distaste for the look of your own flabby, pasty white skin onto those around you.

sausages

Posted by trish on Apr 1, 2011 in Eat | 3 comments

There are sausages, and then there are sausages.  You can tell just by looking at them that some are better than others.  Generally, I avoid anything pink.  If it’s pale pink, with no discernable texture, I tend to run a mile.  Who knows what’s in those things anyway?  Mechanically Reclaimed Meat, that’s what.

When I buy sausages I buy them from a butcher who makes his or her own.  Perhaps I’m kidding myself but I like to think those sausages are made with a little more care, and a lot less rubbish.  Where possible, I buy them at the Farmers’ Market, from the guy who sells the preservative-free, gluten-free variety.  The rest of his produce looks pretty healthy (nice steaks, good looking lamb chops) so I feel safe in assuming the sausages are made with good quality ingredients.

However, no matter who makes them or how they’re made, the thing I like least about sausages is cooking them.  On the BBQ they tend to splutter and burst, and if I cook them in the kitchen – either on the stove in a frying pan or in my Not A George Foreman Fat Free Grilling Machine – they fill the house with nasty smells that don’t clear for days.  Fortunately, I discovered that you can cook them in the oven.  What a revelation.

The first time I used this recipe I followed it to the letter.  Everything cooked beautifully, but I wasn’t happy about the vegetables being coated in all the fat that leaked out of the sausages during cooking – it wasn’t healthy, and I didn’t like the flavour it gave the veggies.  So now I cook them separately, laid out on a roasting rack above a foil-covered baking tray, while the veggies cook in a separate dish.  I tend not to prick the sausages before I cook them this way, but I buy low-fat sausages so there is less chance of them exploding.

This recipe came from my folder of delicious. magazines.  I think this is a Jamie Oliver recipe.

SAUSAGE BAKE WITH ROCKET PESTO (serves 4-6)

600g small potatoes (such as Nicola or chat), quartered

2 garlic cloves, crushed

60ml extra virgin olive oil

2 tbs chopped rosemary

12 small sausages (ie chipolattas)

350g vine-ripened cherry tomatoes

Rocket Pesto

120g rocket

3 garlic cloves

1 cup (100g) grated parmesan cheese

125ml extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 190C. Place potatoes in a large baking dish with garlic, olive oil and rosemary.  Season, then toss together.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, to make pesto, process rocket and garlic in a food processor until roughly chopped.  Add parmesan, oil and salt and pepper, then process until smooth.  Place in a serving bowl.

Remove dish from oven.  Prick the sausages with a small skewer, then add to dish, tossing in oil.  Return to oven, cook for 20 minutes, then add tomatoes, season with salt and black pepper and return to oven for 5 minutes or until tomatoes start to wilt.  Serve with pesto, a green salad and crusty bread.