exfoliating sea salt scrub

i was rummaging through all my things today, trying to find some light olive oil i had infused with essentials oil. instead, i stumble on some salt scrub we made a little while back. it was wonderfully fragrant with all the lovely things we put in it - orange peel, rosemary, lavender.... to make it, use a light oil; sweet almond oil is a favourite, but light olive oil is fine. olive oil is very warming on the skin and can be "thickish" - choose what you think you might like to use.
with the salt, don't use something too coarse. rock salt is too coarse - find a finer crystal of sea salt because it will feel much coarser on the skin.
i already mentioned that we used orange peel, rosemary and lavender. other things you can use to add to your mix include:
rose petals; use fragrant dark red rose petals which have been grown naturally without pesticides.
mint would be nice and refreshing. there are many varieties of mint, so choose the one you like if you want to use mint.
one you may not have thought of is pineapple sage. pineapple sage has lovely red flowers and velvety fragrant leaves.
lightly mix half a cup of salt with a handful of your herbs or flowers of choice, then start to add your oil. stir the mixture around gently with a stainless steel spoon while you add the oil until you get a consistency you are happy with - you can use as little or as much oil as you like - both are good. use your spoon to fill sterilised containers with the mix and seal them. the salt acts as a preservative, so the leaves and flowers will not rot (as long as you don't stir it around with your hands - your hands have lots of germs on them no mtter how clean you may think they are).
whenyou are ready to use the scrub, scoop a little out of a jar and place it on your wet hands and scrub away and the salt will exfoliate while the oil moisturises. rinse and pat your skin dry.

fresh

i know we're in the middle of winter, but i'm enjoying the vegetables and herbs from the garden now. i put parsley in at the beginning of spring, so i've had a pretty good run, but most of the others were only planted (from seed) about two months ago. the radishes, as were expected, were ready; this is the first time i've planted radishes and they are fast and gratifying. i've had one a day. i keep forgetting to have them with a bit of butter and salt as the french do, and have them au naturel, which isn't bad. i can't say radishes are a favourite vegetable, but they certainly taste better when they're homegrown. other vegetables and herbs i've planted are lettuce, sugar snap peas, regular peas, sorrel, mexican corriander, spring onions, chives, garlic chives, tarragon, greek basil.....buk choy and chillies. not a small list, eh? and to top it off, everything's in pots, save the greek basil. the soil here is very poor; i'm virtually next to the garigal forest, so it's quite bushy and only australian natives seem to thrive here, but that's not going to stop me.
anyway, because i'm only harvesting little bits of everything, i'm just making salad....nothing like it.

thai chicken meatballs

many, many moons ago, i used to make tons of these; there was always something on which i could take these to, and they were easy to eat, being savoury, spicy and a finger food.....finger food is always popular - people just open their mouths and these meatballs just pop in.

1 kilogram chicken mince
2 tablespoons green or red curry paste
1 bunch coriander, chopped finely
1 bunch basil, chopped finely
1 cup breadcrumbs (this may seem like alot, but the meatballs stay moist and tender, not dry and woody)
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup sweet thai chilli sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar, or if you want to be authentic, gula melaka
toasted sesame seeds (optional)

place everything except the sesame seeds in a large bowl and mix it all until it's well combined; i like using my handheld mixer to do this - it mixes things better than i ever do and my hands don't get smelly.
at this point, i like to don a pair of disposable gloves and form the mix into balls. i do this sometimes by rolling, other times by extruding it, but a favourite is to use two spoons - the meatballs aren't perfectly round, but they aren't bad considering that you don't get mince all over your hands and because you don't get mince all over your hands, you know the phone won't ring (that's the real reason why i don't like to dirty my hands - the phone always rings when i'm in no position to pick it up).
once all the mince has been formed into balls, you can cover them and pop them in the fridge and cook them at your leisure, or cook them straight away.
here, i give you choice again!! you can pan fry, deep fry, grill or do as i do - microwave them. since everyone's microwave is different, you have to work out the intricacies of your appliance yourself. i place the meatballs around the edge a of a microwave friendly plate and nuke them until their done - make sure they are fully cooked - raw chicken is a definite no no (read food poisoning, and we don't want that). if you want to pan fry, deep fry or grill, do so, and again, make sure the meatballs are full cooked.
choice here again - once all the meatballs are cooked, you can cool them and refrigerate them to heat and serve later, or serve immediately with a sauce of your own choice - sweet thai chilli sauce is a popular choice. (other sauce choices to follow in later posts)
if the meatballs are microwaved, you can brown them a little under a grill to give them a bit of colour just before serving or use some of the optional sesame seeds to sprinkle on them - that makes them look special.....

round things

when i was about 7, my dad brought me to his colleague's housewarming party. mr and mrs little's house, at the time was something special - it was round and had a greenhouse in the middle. at the same time, mr little designed a building in hornsby hospital, and it was round too - he must have been going through his round phase. maybe it was a time for round buildings - i'm thinking harry's iconic round australia square in the city. i recall that the building's name was a bit of a joke at the time - a cylindrical building called a square....haw haw haw - you have to appreciate that at the time there were no jokes flying around the world at cyberspeed, thus people had to find humour in the most mundane of things, even buildings.
this housewarming party was my first introduction to fingerfood and need i say a round fingerfood item? meatballs. i remember the meatballs - they were so tasty. now i'm more familiar with herbs (one would hope so after so many decades), i realise they were seasoned with thyme. and the more i think about them the more i realise that at that time, they were probably made with a packet of stuffing mixed through the mince. nothing wrong with that - it was a time of culinary discovery and we wouldn't be where we are today without them. so i present this recipe for meatballs which is kitschy, but very comforting. take note that i've added fresh herbs to the mix to redeem it and that i've added a modern touch by suggesting that the microwave can be used to simplify the cooking process.

500 grams mince beef
500 grams sausage mince
1 cup stuffing mix (or bread crumbs, if you prefer)
1 egg
1 onion, finely diced
1 bunch parsley, chopped
1 bunch thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stock cube

mix all the ingredients together well - i like to use my electric handheld mixer to do this - my hands stay clean and odourless and everything is mixed more thoroughly than i could ever hope to do with my hands.
form the mixture into walnut sized balls and place 10 balls on a plate and microwave on high for 2 minutes or until cooked through. the meatballs can be served as is, but can also be finished off either by deepfrying or in a hot oven to give them a little colour.
i don't remember any sauce being served with the meatballs at the housewarming, but as a modern touch, a greek yoghurt dip can be served alongside.