inspiration from masterchef

this season's masterchef seems to be using the sous vide technique a bit more than the last season.....george's meatloaf burger, peter gilmore's poached chicken and truffles...while the thermomix hasn't got the capacity of a commercial immersion water bath (it is a domestic machine after all), one can enjoy restaurant quality sous vide with a bit of imagination. i figured that i'm going to try george's meatloaf burger, but mine will be more like scotch eggs, and i'll make peter's chicken much the same way - they'll be chicken balls. there's a definite plus there - the chicken skin won't have to be so big because my parcels will be smaller.
i remember when i got my thermomix, i really wanted it because it could cook and stir. little did i know i was going to get so many bonus appliances.....and that i would use it so many times a day....much better to get bonuses rather than be dissappointed.

hokey pokey

the first time i ever had hokey pokey icecream was when i went to new zealand....north island....pokono....i think that's how it's spelt. this was quite a long time ago. a tiny little place, but famous (well, it was back when i was there) for their icecream. their icecream was the same as everyone elses', but it was the way they scooped it. they were big scoops of icecream which supported other big scoops of icecream. from memory, the double cone had 2 scoops of icecream, one in each cavity, then another scoop on top.

today, i sit here chomping on my cornetto hokey poke cone. typical cornetto size and should be greatful it doesn't contain the calories a pokono icecream cone has, but still reminiscing about the pokono icecream.......

minty things

let me tell you how anal i was when i was in primary school (that was in the seventies)...remember perkin's paste (you really have to be my vintage to appreciate this)? in the magenta coloured container? the paste was all nice and smooth on top, and when i used it, i never disturbed the nice smoothness, and would just carefully use the paste next to the paddle thing so as not to mess it up.....i'm the only person i know who kept their paste like that....it was so traumatic when someone borrowed it and messed it up, and you know what? it still is. i lent my copy of bridget jones' diary to someone once and it came back so battered (it was like new - the spine didn't even have a crease....)....sad...i know....i really have to lighten up...i am much better these days.

to thermomix or not to thermomix

tomi expressed to me that all the recipes i've posted requiring the thermomix don't apply to her...well....yes and no. most of them can be made without a thermomix except for the sous vide cooking. the thermomix just makes things easy - one doesn't have to cook the stock concentrate in a saucepan, then blend it with a food processor or blender and have all the washing up to do. the same applies for making soup...then it comes into its own where sauces and risottos are concerned.

then, there was someone i met whose friend bought one. the friend said she had to use it everyday to justify having purchased it, so is always wondering what to make with it. i simply said i don't do things with that mind set - i was more of a person who thinks about what i want to make and then thinking the thermomix can do it. the thermomix has to fit in with me, and not the other way round....and so far it has.

what's in a name?

just recently, a friend from highschool found me on facebook. jj is a psychologist and as far as i know, i know four psychologists. of those four, three of them have sons named jack, or variations of jack. the other psychologist i know who hasn't got a son called jack hasn't got any children.

jj reckons it's a coincidence. i know four psychologists....how many psychologists do you know, and do they have sons called jack?

he's so smart

i mentioned in an earlier post that salli's son harry is developmentally delayed. i don't know what his mental age is, but he never ceases to amaze me with how clever he really is. several weeks ago, when i went over to visit, sal was carrying on about how harry came home from care with someone else's cardigan - i don't know whose daggy cardigan he's come home with, but it isn't his. he must've been cold, so he just found something to put on. after a split second of thought, i simply told sal that he's a lot smarter than a lot of other people who are supposedly not mentally challenged. i can think of lots of people who may feel the cold yet refuse to put something on. so who's smater? i know miss k refuses to carry more clothes than what she might think she needs and come home with chills.
yesterday when salli and i were on out way to woollahra, her phone rang. it was the man who sold trampolines. salli has a trampoline for harry - one of those old fashioned rectangle ones which doesn't have a barrier around them to stop anyone from falling off the trampoline; she trying to find a replacement something or other for harry's trampoline and do you think she can find one? not on your life because these days, there are no rectangular trampolines to be found. this sent salli off on a tirade of how sick she was of how children these days are so wrapped in cotton wool because they are so protected, which is very true. harry, who is developmentally delayed...did i tell you that?..... has had a trampoline since he's been 5 (he's 22 now, i think) and has only ever fallen off it once; he fell off once and was smart enough to know not to fall off it again. it's really uplifting knowing harry and knowing he's so smart....but worrying that there are some others out there who aren't.

prudence

just lately, i've had a few blasts from the past, and after reading through my post on singing at the top of my lungs with anonymity, i suddenly remembered a girl i went to school with....prudence. a couple of years ago, i was minding my own business, doing my grocery shop at woollies, when i heard someone singing....opera style; it wasn't exactly opera, but that la la la style associated with opera. when i walk over to the deli section, isaw who it was...it was someone i knew.... i realised that it was prudence. not straight away, it had been some 20 years since i last saw her. now you have to give prudence credit - she was singing, in public, and in a recognisable mode. i couldn't do that....i'm too self conscience...besides, i wouldn't want everyone to think i was some mad woman....

a new beginning

miss c had her valedictory dinner on wednesday night and it was lovely to see all the girls in her year looking all grown up and beautiful. parents and teachers caught up with each other and i even gave miss c's biology teacher a chemistry lesson. i explained soap making for him. as a scientist, it's interesting that he knew the theory, but not the practical. i guess there's so much in the science course they have to absorb when studying that not all experiments can be given justice.
there were the usual speeches and the head girl from 2004 came along to give her speech. her speech, for me, was memorable. there were 10 points she went through with the girls. i will mention a few.
never wear uncomfortable shoes; if they are uncomfortable at the shop, be assured that they will hurt even more when you wear them where you are going. i would have added that you can't take them off if they hurt - once they come off, your feet will hurt even more and you will never get the shoes back on. keeping the shoes on just keeps the feet numb; once the blood rushes back to them is when you will regret it. i speak from experience.
travel. i never understood fully the importance of travelling when i was younger, but really appreciate it now. travel give you an opportunity to broaden your mind. it doesn't matter where you go - it can be within your own city, state or country - you will see something different and get a new perspective on things. our lives, for the most part are comfortable and it's good to see how other people live.
listen to what your mother says. that goes without saying. i have to say i'm lucky in that miss c and i can discuss things, but mostly because i very rarely advise miss c, it counts for something when i do...i hope....
don't fear a broken heart. don't stay with someone who doesn't appeciate how wonderful you are. as a parent, that to me was such a wise thing to say to teenage girls who are just starting out into adulthood.

ulterior motives

miss k asked me about new year's eve tonight. she/we like to plan early. she had ulterior motives. she wanted to know if we would do new year's eve this year in lavender bay...and who we would have join us. i figured i'd let miss c and miss k decide on who they wanted to join us. no doubt, their core group of friends would be there - ohno, beanstalk, tomi......can osh kosh come?....aha - ulterior motive uncovered within seconds. yes, yes...you can ask him, but will he be in sydney then? yes, he's not going away. okay. i suspect miss k has probably already mentioned this to osh kosh.....and she's probably already asked him....
i actually thought i might let their friends stay a couple of nights this time. the last time, they just stayed overnight, but i think they'd have lots to do if they stayed a few days. they'd be able to go on walks around the harbour, and if beanstalk brought a boat, he could use the jetty, and that would be fun for them. another thing i just realised - they're going to be able to toast in the new year with champagne this year - how about that?
so...you already know miss k's motives...what about mine? i have a whole pile of things i want to cook...what else? what could be better than a group of teenagers to do some serious eating?

soap couture

all the bits and pieces i was able to read about soap making emphasised that all care had to be exercised when making soap. lye was a dangerous chemical and would burn on contact. rubber gloves, goggles, long sleeves and pants were highly recommended. i took this further and ensured i wore something i wouldn't worry about if ruined.

i wore my goggles and made sure i had my gloves on as i poured the lye in. having been prewarned that this action could be dangerous, i did what i was told and exercised all care. there wasn't any bubbling or any toil and trouble. in fact, it was very dull, much like pouring a cup of salt into a pot of water really, but i don't think i would never be blaise about pouring lye into a pot of anything - it does get really, really hot, and there are no reasons to take unnecessary risks. gloves and goggles are always on.

anyway, i've got all this gear one, even after i've cut the soap and all.....then the doorbell rings....sigh.....of course the doorbell rings; i'm dressed like a slob. i look like i'm a mad scientist...of course the doorbell rings.

chemical reactions

golden one's dad is a plastic surgeon with beautiful skin. as such, i have always told blutsie to pay close attention if he should so much as reveal his beauty secrets (oh, lol, a man with beauty secrets). miss c had already found out that he used neutrogena moisturiser with spf 15....then more recently, blutsie found out that her father in law used goat's milk soap. he bought her a few bars of it and told her that it was very good and that she should use it.

now, i have possessed a desire to make soap for a very long time, and thought that this would provide the opportunity i have been waiting for. i looked at several recipes for soap and found that even though they expressedly tell you to weigh everything carefully because soapmaking was a very exact science, i found none of them to have an identical recipe....can't be that exacting then, i thought.

because i'm me, i thought i could easily replace the water needed with goat's milk and honey, after all, measurements looked approximate when comparing soap making recipes. measuring was not the issue here. it was the goat's milk and honey. i had to add sodium hydroxide to the liquid, and i did. i knew there would be a chemical reaction which would make the liquid very hot. what i didn't know was that it would be so hot that the sugars in the honey and goat's milk would burn. then there was the fat in the goat's milk i didn't consider. this fat would start the saponification process. but that didn't stop me....i persevered. i carried on as if there was nothing wrong. i heated the coconut and olive oils (i used extra virgin olive oil, no less - that was all i had) as instructed and combined the two liquids together. once the lye and fats have been combined, the mixture has to be stirred until "trace" is achieved. this is a state where the lye and fats have combined sufficiently for saponification to occur and develop the mixture into soap. the favoured method of mixing is to use a stick blender; this speeds thing up - mixing by hand using a spoon/stick would take anywhere in the vicinity of an hour or more, especially if olive oil is used; a stick blender would help the mix achieve trace within minutes. i used an old (i think about 40-50 years old) sunbeam mixmaster. my mixture achieved trace soon enough after mixing, but me being me thought that it would be better to keep beating. big mistake. the mixture separated. %##&*$!^%*%$..... i felt the bowl....ahhh....maybe it's not hot enough....so i stuck it into the microwave and beat it some more.....hmmmm..... heat it again......beat it again.....and keep beating. finally, i get this mixture that looks like thick, gluggy custard, but a caramel colour. oooh...better pour it into the moulds...now.....

i notice the soap is solid really quickly which wasn't what i expected. i thought i'd have to wait until the next day, but since it was so obliging, i went with it.....no problems there.....i'm impatient, and if the soap wants to set quickly, i'm good with that.

when i think it's solid enough (and this was only an hour or so after pouring it into the mould), i unmould it....and i cut it. soap is the loveliest thing to cut. it's so smooth and firm and the knife just glides through. nothing as smooth to cut.

i lay out all the bars of soap. it's rustic looking, and it looks like fudge. and it has a distinctive smell which i can't put my finger on. it's probably the mixture of olive oil and honey.

i've used it since, and it is lovely. i don't think i could go back to using regular bought soap anymore; there's no comparison.

another awkward silence

i was just reading about how to make labneh cheese and it reminded me of a lunch i went to at mingay and paul's place. i got a call from wenty saying that he was going to the markets with mingay and paul to buy lobster for lunch and if i wanted to join them.

can i bring a friend?

of course you can.

i rang salli.

salli had never met mingay and paul before, and for some strange reason, i told salli about mingay's yoghurt. the first time i encountered this yoghurt was on a hot summer's day. mingay excitedly showed me the yoghurt saying that they made their own yoghurt and had it for breakfast everyday with fruit. it smelt.....ummmm.....not very nice.....not a pleasant sour smell, but a vomitty smell (sorry....that's what it smelt like). then, not only that....it had fruit flies flying inside the jug; the jug was loosely covered with cling film that had seen better days. wenty, always blunt and rude said simply that he was surprised that mingay hadn't killed paul with food poisoning.

and so onto the lunch we go. they bought ten lobsters so we could have two each (they weren't big); one we had cold and one we had with mornay sauce. we had a fig and soft cheese starter, the lobsters and salad to finish off. when mingay brought out the salad, we eagerly looked into the bowl and he told us happily about what was in it. homegrown radishes, herbs, olives...a little of this and that. then he tells us about the dressing. a bit of oil, vinegar, seasonings and......his homemade yoghurt. dead silence.....then wenty breaks it by saying "and why is it suddenly so quiet after you say you put in your yoghurt?"

i can laugh about it now, but eating mingay's food is a bit like playing russian roulette.

anniversary

today is blutsie and golden one's ninth anniversary.....yes....their ninth anniversary is on the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year.....and what do they have to show for this time together? four boys....wiggy, sly, engine and ack dack. i'm baby sitting tonight so blutsie and golden one can go out. naturally, engine's was the one still up - he was put on this earth to make my life interesting...and he does...he does....

awkward silences

wenty first started driving me around when i was in my first year at university. i had seen him before when i had been to his parent's holiday place in narrabeen, but had never acknowledged each other, until one day, my mother came home and told me wenty was going to drive me to uni. i was horrified. and mortified. it was awful.
the morning came around, soon enough; i got into the car and probably said hello and that it wasn't necessary to drive me. i remember him saying it wasn't any trouble...and that was it...silence.....for the rest of the trip..... to give you an idea of how long the silence was - it took a good hour to get to uni, that's how long our silence was. i was so shy, and i didn't know what to say or do, never mind wenty not having anything to say either.
i got out of the car, thanked him, slammed the car door and thought that that was that. no such luck.
somehow or rather, wenty was back the following week. the same thing happened. we were totally silent. i don't know how long this went on for, but somehow we got through it and ended up had lots to talk about. eventually, wenty drove me to and from uni every day we had in common.

amnesia

people always ask wenty and me about our history together...always. i don't know how mingay and paul got together, but they know all about us. it was on one such delving occasion that i realised that i had an amenesia moment with wenty.
one of the first times we went to dinner together was to the double bay steak house in st leonards. wenty and i barely knew each other at the time, and i was terribly shy. because the place we were going to was called the double bay steak house, wenty automatically assumed that it was in double bay and suggested that we could go to the french riviera for ice cream after dinner. alas, it was in st leonards, but he had already committed himself to ice cream, as he kept his word on that count.
but i'm going off on a tangent....back to the amenesia. apparently there was some dancing involved with the dinner. while i remember a lot of what happened between the two of us back then, i didn't remember the dancing. wenty was telling our eager audience about how we were on the dance floor and he was spinning me around and then suddenly realised that everyone else was dancing much more slowly. that, he said was the one thing that has stuck in his mind after all these years. i don't remember it; i put it down to being so traumatised that i had temporary amnesia. yes, it was traumatic for me. wenty has traumatised me no end.

pumpkin soup

as we were driving up to the mountains last week, wenty was telling me about how he made pumpkin soup every now and again, based on MY instructions. i asked what he meant, considering that i hadn't i hadn't made pumpkin soup for a very long time.
"you always told me to place everything into the pot in layers"
"i did?"
"you did. onion and garlic sauteed in oil, then topped with peeled and cubed pumpkin. then put the lid on and allow the pumpkin to steam over the sauteed onions and garlic until very soft before adding stock and blending. it gives the soup a depth of flavour."
that was probably over a decade ago. fancy wenty remembering after all these years. and he always tells me i have a good memory....i guess between the two of us, we can piece together our memories and missing pieces.

blue mountains

i've just returned from a fews days away in the mountains. wenty rented his sister's holiday place in wentworth falls for jurgen's 80th birthday. the first night, there was just the six of us - jurgen, mingay, paul, tina (jurgen's neighbour), wenty and myself. the following day, alan and ross arrived and we went to dinner at lillianfels. it was one of the nicest dinners i have ever been to, not that the food was fantastic or anything, but because i had such a nice time with wenty. it was the first time i have realised that wenty has always spoilt me so much...and he's been spoiling me from the moment we met 30 years ago...fancy that.....
the following day, we sent five of them sightseeing and mingay, wenty and i hung around for most of the morning in the house, chatting and it was really pleasant....i have to admit that i was amazed at how pleasant it was; normally, the three of us fight, and if mingay isn't in the picture, wenty and i fight....we always fight, and always have done soon after we met, so if you do the maths, we have been fighting a mighty long time. anyway, in the late morning, wenty and i left mingay to the house and went into katoomba and checked out the shops along the main street. i think wenty must have got in touch with his feminine side or something because not once did he complain as i looked through all the shops...omg...this is sappy.....all i can say is that it's taken me three decades to realise that apart from our constant bickering, he's looked after me all the time; best not to let him know though - he's not the sentimental type.

cyber friends

i've been using the internet for years, but it was only recently that i've become better acquainted with other cybernauts.
miss c and miss k have had cyber friends for years now and miss c actually arranged to meet some a few years ago. i went with her to ensure her safety, naturally. we met in the city and of all things, one girl actually lived a few streets away from us. miss c sees her occasionally and they have been quite friendly over the years.
miss k has wanted to meet her cyber friend in person as well, but has not, to date. they did try to arrange something, but her friend's mother exclaimed, "what if she's a dirty old man?". she's a sensible woman. i wouldn't be any different. this girl lives in a different part of sydney to us. if miss k and this girl ever cross paths, it will interesting for them.
me? much as i love the internet, i hadn't made any friends until now. just a couple. we email back and forth, and they're interesting people to chat to. i try to chat in the same style as i talk because when and if i ever meet them, i'd like to think that they would recognise me. my friend, poppelle, thinks i type just like i talk, and i think that's important - i don't want to sound like someone i'm not.

it smells like spring

i just stepped into my backyard and had a "smell"....it smells like spring. i know that it's still winter officially, but it was so warm today, and tonight, the backyard smells lovely. i don't plant anything special in the garden on account of the ground being infertile and all, but it's better than what it was when i first moved here.
i remember when we lived in lindfield, the smell of each season was quite distinct until the charcoal chicken shop opened up at the station; lindfield just never smelt the same again. now that we're in killara, and far enough from the highway, the seasons smell like they should again, although not quite the same as when i was a child. people are no longer able to burn the autumn leaves anymore. i do miss it a bit, but we're supposed to use our green bins now. i think it also helps that we're so close to the garrigal forest.....i love the way the air smells....

mork from the philippines

wenty and i went to yum cha today. after the bill was paid and i was waiting for him, i overheard the guy behind me answer his phone, "hello? hello?" "nanoo, nanoo" "nanoo" "nanoo nanoo".
i related this to wenty, who just replied that the guy was from the philippines. am i missing something? mork from ork used to say "nanoo nanoo" on the mork and mindy show and we were told that he spoke orkish (or whatever). well, now i've been told otherwise. mork is really from the philippines.