Goody

Goody goody, I seperated my aloeveara plants, i have many more succulents and herbs, mints mainly. I have to put in a few hours into my patch, its a lil out of control. The dill has re-seeded itself like the never ending chives they love been cut and more grow. I started painting, just mucking around with colour at the moment.

So last night besty and I went and joined a wheightloss social group, so every week there is a weigh in and a bit of laugh. The lady that runs it is absolutely bloody hilarious, I laughed a lot. Though she takes no shit from anyone, is honest and i would say better than joining weight watches or anything. There is a small joining fee and a raffle every week... i won a bottle of mint dish washing liquid.Besty won a tub of margarine. Hilarious.

There is the jazz festival here on labor day weekend, they are after volunteers. Im thinking about it. Also asked us to bake (heaven for me) for the stall. Im going to make double quantity of the mini chocolate cup cakes. I think im going to bake some cookies too, not sure what ones yet. At least then Im no keeping it, or eating it. The money made stays locally. Which is a great thing.

anyhow, i better go now. Need coffee.

tuesday

So I went to warragul with besty, I didnt buy too much, lunch and some good ground coffee for the lil espresso sgtove top thingy we have here. Had lunch which was just some wedges.. (naughty naughty) (i know) came back home and sat around chatting for the afternoon. Might have found a solution to the lack of zumba teacher, besty called the warragul one and asked her if she might be able to come and teach it here.

Then last night I remade that drink I had, its so delicious. So came up with something that we are going to do monthly.. go to the city and stay and go on adventures, so we are heading there next month. Will look up some gig guides and things closer to the date. We are going to go to the international food thing at vic market too.

Might possibly go for a day trip or 2 before then. Though I have to save some spending money for o/s, how much will I need for two weeks? Um hmm an empty suitcase that i can fill!

Well that is tuesdays wrap.

Valentines Day

Ok Ok so I went and watched that movie. Yes yes a bit a chic flick that made me cry in places.and laugh in other places . atleast i didnt weep! Before went in.. i had this beautiful sticky date pudding... for a bought one at a cafe it was pretty decent.. and you could taste the dates too.

So the movie had a big cast and enough stars , it reminded me of love actually but love actually is far better. Now I have all the ingredients to make that drink i had in the city.. only i used lemonade.. next time i will use half lemonade and half soda water.. its so beautiful and refreshing. Freshly squeezed grapefruit, lime slices, fresh mint from the garden, a bit of lemonade and some soda water plus lots of ice. (you could easily add vodka to this drink too) its perfect for a summer nights.

Anyhow, for dinner tonight we had salads, prawns and these two beautiful cheeses camambare olive pesto and a basil pesto camambare too. Lovely. So I guess I shall leave it there for now and get back to the drawing board.

albell

to the city and back

So i have not written here in a few days. I went away for the weekend.. left on Friday morning. Mum and I caught the nine thirty train thinking it wouldn't be crowded it was , a packed. I read all the way there still reading the The Solitare Mystery which is a gem of a book, whilst mum slept. By the time we got to the city I was bloody tired. \

Anyhow, we checked into the hotel and just put our suitcases into the room. Then I did want to take mum to bokchoy tan (that does AMAZING chinese food) its in fed square. Instead we ended up at some other chinese place having half as good food. Mum ordered honey chicken I ordered a range of dim sum, bad move. It didnt upset my tummy or anything it just wasn't all that crash hot.

Walked up to fed square and went into a cafe and waited for my friend. I had the nicest drink, it was grapefruit, soda, lime and mint it was so yum.. im going to try and make it at home. (through trial and error) so we just chatted and walked around the city. That night I just spent drawing and reading.

So saturday rocks around, i met up with another friend and took her to the french crepery just just off port phillip arcade. I had apple and cinnamon , whilst she had savory. Excellent coffee there too. After that did a lil shopping, found a wool shop (not that i can knit) then went to the bookstore and got Alexander Macallsmiths newy tale in the No1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I must finish of one book before i start the other.

After that I went back to the hotel room spent the latter part of the afternoon reading and drawing. I enjoyed the view too. That evening, had awful food court food for dinner. It was quite bad. Then mum and i met up with my sister and her husband for a coffee. It was a balmy night so there were heaps of people out and about. I had a little flutter on the pokies, won back what i put in and that was it for me. I just dont know how one can sit there and put heaps of money in.. its such a time-warp
though i would like to try a few other things next time. Like roulette or 21 (whatever the name is for that) .

I went back to the room and read for a bit then drifted off to sleep. Woke up at 9amish. Which is good, as i had no dreams that night. Sunday. Sat at maccas cafe for well over an hour before mum and I met another one of my friends for lunch. I have to start looking at cafes and places to eat again.. as i only know a few spots in v the city now. I caught the train home, which was rather busy, i took in the views and made time go fast by reading and listening to my ipod... mum slept all the way.

Agh i miss the city. I love melbs and would love to move back there. However, for now.. i have to make do with heading there every now and again. I have to get back to painting, as its only 7 weeks before we leave to head to see Scott and Jess in`america and i thought a painting shall be a lovely gift for them. I know the colours too.

well to the city and back mum and I went.

one tomato, two tomato, three tomato more.

So today so far..I made a tomato basil pasta sauce... and the rather spicy relish is bubbling away on the stove. I put half the vinegar required. Though I have a feeling (more like a taste test) that its slightly on the chili side. Ooops cant remedy that. However I can say that the relish once again turned into jam, I slightly modified the recipe... its from the Bundaberg Sugar site.

Spicy Tomato Relish (tomato jamish for me)

2 large red onions, diced
2 1/2kg ripe tomatoes
150g raisins
6 cloves garlic, crushed
10 small red chillies seeded and chopped (i used 3 hot ones from the garden)
rind and juice of one lemon
2tbls grated ginger (I used a lot more)
2tsp of ground cloves (I had none so I added a lil nutmeg)
3tsp salt
2 cups apple cider vinegar ( i used one cup and one cup of water)
2 cups of sugar (I used half the amount)
1tbls cornflour

Method
1. Chop onion finely and place in saucepan (in the first step i chopped and prepared all the other ingredients so i could at them all at once)
2 Cut tomatoes into pieces (unless you have blender to chop them into pieces but NOT PUREED)
3. Add to onions everything else except the cornflour.
4. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally for 1- 1 1/2 hrs until starting to thicken
5. Reduce heat and simmer for 30minutes until very thick. (mine still looked a lil watery so i kept it going for a lil longer) (hence making a tomato jam type substance)
6. Combine cornflour, add to tomatoes, stir for 2minutes, turn off heat and let stand.. later spoon into clean warm jars.

So I am not sure if you want to try this recipe or not. Mine is a spicy jam. I prefer it over the one I made last week. I also made a basil pasta sauce too. Too much liquid so there was enough of the run off to make a soup.

Well I got a call from a lady about the scrabble club today. That starts this Thursday around noonish. So to bake or not to bake that is the question! Thinking of making some herb scones, or some lemon verbena cup cakes. I have Zumba tonight.. the last lesson. As the guy has to travel an hour to get here. Got to go now.

ciao

New Blog

Well its about time i started writing again, after just about a year of point form. I suppose i shut myself off from everything, friends especially. I am sorry that I did that. However I am going to be less of a hermit, i have decided. So in a year of just existing and not living I read a lot, drew my way through winter.. and have increased my folio.I have some plans for this year, I hope they don't all go out the window.


I hate the vicious cycle of depression, it strikes me at times... and I try to eat my way through it.. that is NOT a good thing by no means. Turning to food for comfort, I love to cook and bake. I now have quite a herb garden, that looks like its on steroids, I am going to pot up herbs for everyone.. I have enough to share that's for bleedin sure. Even the potted ones look stunning but are very over-crowded.

I have been experimenting with tomatoes (as we have had a bumper crop this year ... too many) I made a chutney with them on friday, it turned out more like a jam and a lil on the tart side of vinegar with a little kick. So sometime today i am making relish. Well. I must get going, onions to chop, tomatoes to dice, ginger to grate, fresh chilies to pick from the garden.