pea, potato and rocket soup

I used a veggie cookbook (the name eludes me) to make this, and it was so delicious. It looks kinda funky, but tastes kinda fun-kay!

Ingredients:

- few glugs of oil

- 1 brown onion

- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

- 2 tsp fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme

- 250g Potatoes, peeled and chopped (this was about 2 potatoes for me)

- 500g peas (i used frozen)

- 100g Rocket Lettuce (this was one of those rectangular plastic tubs they sell mixed leaves in)

- 1 litre vegie stock

- Salt and Pepper

- Juice from 1 lemon

Start by browning the onion, garlic and thyme gently in the oil.

Add the potatoes and stir into the onion mix until coated.

Cook for a few minutes, then add the peas, stock, and salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 mins.

Transfer to a food processor adding some rocket and lemon juice in each batch if it doesnt all fit.

Return to the pot and stir through so it is all the same consistency. Season and serve immediately with delicious sexy crusty bread :)

yummy pumpkin soup!

I made a great pumpkin soup yesterday... if i do say so myself! As usual i half followed a recipe and half made it up how i wanted it to be :P this is how i did it, but feel free to use whatever you have laying around!

Ingredients
- 1kg pumpkin, chopped into smallish cubes
- oil for cooking
- 2 small onions, chopped finely
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- curry powder (i free-poured but it would have been about 1/2 teaspoon - 1 teaspoon)
- turmeric powder (again i free-poured - about the same amount as the curry powder)
- half a red chili, seeded and chopped finely
- 1 juicy red tomato, chopped
- 500 - 750mL vegie stock
- 1/4 cup char grilled capsicum
- 1 can of beans (cannelini would be best, but i only had 4-bean mix)
- salt and pepper


METHOD
Prepare the char grilled capsicum (i already had some left over) by blackening the skins, then cool it off in a bowl covered in glad wrap. Give it a few mins, then peel the skins off under running water. (enviro tip #143: run the water into a bowl then tip it on the garden)

Heat oil in a pot, add onion, garlic, curry powder and turmeric powder. Cook gently for a few mins until the onion is translucent then add the pumpkin, and stir to coat in the onion mixture. Cook for about 5 mins, then add the stock. Get it to a simmer and add the capsicum, chili, tomato and beans. Let it bubble away until the pumpkin starts to "melt" and you have a thick orangey stew.

Transfer in batches to a food processor and whizz until it is smooth. Return all the liquid to the pot and heat gently. Give it a taste to see if you need to add anything to get it to your liking. At this point i was wondering if i needed to add a cream or coconut milk... but when i tasted it, i decided it was perfect! It is very thick and rich and pumkiny with a few hints of other flavours for good measure. This is probably my favourite punkin soup i have ever made :D

Enjoy!

fucking gross mushroom

i was weeding the garden on Sunday morning, and i was going along pulling out little weeds, when i stopped abrubtly at the sight of this near my hand....




i didn't get out a ruler but i reckon it is around 12cm tall and wide. it is so creepy- i hate it! Josh wanted to step on it, but then his foot would probably get covered in mushroom goo, and start shrinking his body inch my inch, until he is a tiny mushroom dweller and has to live IN the shattered remains of the big creepy mushroom castle as punishment. I think he would probably adapt quickly to a new environment like that, he is pretty good that way. I can see him ruling the people and the bacteria as one united front, with health benefits and a good education. I would come and squirt them with a water bottle every now and again to help them prosper. If the mushroom castle got bigger than my knee, i would probably freak out and throw some sort of mini petrol explosive at it. Wow, i trailed off for a bit. Anyway the mushroom is still there in the back yard, i want to see how big it will get! But i will stick to my promise to destroy it once i get scared.

2009 AFL Grand Final Partayyyy

There is one day in September that all Aussies gather together for booze, screaming, betting, bright colours, and men in little shorts writhing around in the mud. It may seem like some sort of sexy gay festival, but no - it's the AFL Grand Final! As i live in Victoria, 10 of the 16 teams are from our lovely state, so it is a big deal to us homies. While I myself am not so into footy these days, i still love to watch a close game and the atmosphere is uber contagious! Here are some pics of our Grand Final day celebrations.. i must say we are becoming more tame and respectable each year haha!

The two teams: St. Kilda SAINTS and Geelong CATS. Both from Melbourne :P

Our friend Jess opened her lovely home to us, and there was so much delicious food i nearly died!

These are some of the lads who couldn't drag their eyes off the screen... except evan but he loves the camera unconditionally more than anyone haha

Oh yeah WIZARDS was being played! In the below photo, Stevens was a level 8 Fire Wizard, and possibly just fell over the couch.

It was a close match but Geelong won, and poor Simo was really unimpressed. (Saints fan)

Rule #1 of Wizards... if someone attacks your wizard staff - all must be destroyed

enjoying the wizard staff fight...

this is me getting friendly with nature!

Jess's brother looks so much like mclovin from Superbad it aint even funny. YYYYAAAAAHH!!

great eastern asian groceries

located at 183 Russell street Melbourne, this Asian supermarket has it all! Hmm, not cheery enough to be in real estate yeah? meh. Anyway as i plan to make okonomiyaki soon, i had to go pick up some more okonomiyaki sauce and some bonito flakes etc. $27.00 later.... errrr....

It was hard to take pics because the place was full of people! i didn't want to take too many photos of foods i found weird etc because the people all around me probably consider it normal, and might be offended.

chicken powder. eep.

well, i normally buy 10kg of dried shiitake mushrooms, this measly 1kg just doesn't meet my demand. sigh. seriously this bag was effing huge.

noodles galoooore. pretty cheap IMO.

Even if you don't know what anything is, i'm sure you will walk out with at least ONE thing. Tofu is so cheap there, it's like 90c a block. At Safeway its $3 - $4.. ripppp offffff! Everyone should shop at an asian grocery! hooorrrayyy!!!

wizards!

No, I am not talking about magical wise wizards. I am talking about drunken slobbering wizards.

A few of my friends play this drinking game called "wizards" where you drink cans of booze and stack the fresh one ontop of the empty one and tape them together. You eventually end up with a large wizard's staff which you awkwardly and drunkenly have to try and drink out of.

There are other rules and things like: if you are drinking red cans you are a fire wizard, if you drink blue cans you are a water wizard etc etc. Below is one of my friends at our 2009 Australia Day BBQ who was at the time becoming a Level 11 Fire Wizard. The funniest part was that he later went to a childrens birthday party and wanted to take his wizard staff along, and his girlfriend (pictured) told him no way!


All i know is that whenever my friends play this... for a lack of a better word... 'game', i see the worst side of them and worry for their livers. I guess if i can still like them after seeing them acting like idiots then they go alright. The good news is that they intend to play wizards in TWO DAYS TIME at the AFL Grand Final BBQ on Saturday so i can get some pictures and make my very own set of Wizard Trading Cards. Hoorah! First one to pass out gets a dick on the face. hehe.

blah blah blah

the other day i was on the train reading a graphic novel about zombies, the only problem was that it was an a4 sized book with big pictures and there were 3 nude scenes in the 45 minute journey. As it was a peak hour train there were people all around me and i felt as though they were checking out the nudity thinking i'm some kind of horny nerd. Plus sometimes the text goes really big like when someone is really angry and the words FUUUUCK YOOOUUU!!!!!!! or MOTHERRR FUCKKKERRRRR!!!! or ARRRRGGHHHH!!!! stand out quite a bit. When you are reading a novel and there is a sex scene you just roll with it. And if you start getting a little bit involved and find your nose touching the book, nobody REEEALLY knows what's going on. But if you find yourself with your nose pressed up against a nude couple in a sensual embrace in a post apocalyptic zombie town... then you're weird.


Actually that reminds me. I was reading these books by an author named Ryu Murakami. The first one i read was called "In the miso soup" and it was like a Japanese version of american psycho. Anyway some of the shit in that book was nasty and i was reading it on a crowded train thinking how lucky it was that people couldn't hear my thoughts. I'm talking decapitations and weird sex stuff. It's almost as weird as Crash by J.G Ballard *shudder*. Anyway my point is, i dont really have one but what the hell, i'm glad that "In the Miso Soup" wasn't a graphic novel. because it was very graphic. lol. end.

Lately I have been a bit obsessed with obentoos (japanese lunch boxes). I have one at home but have never used it! Then i stumbled across this website: http://www.justbento.com/ which has like 70 different bento menus even including vego and vegan recipes! I plan to start making these for lunch, but man it takes a lot of effort. I don't eat asian food every night so it's hard to just put leftovers with a bit of rice and some veg. I will get there. Mark my words, i will get there..

Wow, another week is here! I had a lovely weekend. On Saturday morning i woke up to this lovely note:


it was by josh's friends who stayed over on Friday night. I laughed a little and left it there, but Josh didn't notice it until Sunday night, and thought i had put it there. yeah right! ahaha

I thought this picture was funny. I made dippy eggs with toast soldiers (with butter and seeded mustard) for breakfast/lunch on Saturday and my egg cracked in the pot. It grew this weird alien bobble, which i promptly picked off and ate as soon as i put the camera down.

if anyone hasn't tried dippy eggs with seeded mustard on the toast, i say WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!!??!! YOU HAVEN'T LIVED MAN, YOU HAVENT EVEN SCRATCHED THE SURFACE OF LIFE!!!! *pant pant* it is amazing. It has made my favourite breakfast even better :)

stay tuned for some more subarashii goodnessssss!

my very first onigiri

last night i made one of my favourite Japanese snacks - "onigiri". I guess you could say it is like sushi because it involves rice and seaweed and a filling. They are little parcels of goodness, and i have fond memories of buying them for like 130yen at the convenience stores as a little snack to take on the train. My favourite ones are the salmon filling, but our salmon just isn't the same so i opted for tuna mix :D

They are really dead simple to make and are good for any time of the day! I like plain rice, which is basically what it is, with a few little bits of flavour. I gave one to a girl at work and she said it didn't have enough flavour for her :( oh well, more for me!

Boil some sushi rice, cut some seaweed into strips, and make a tuna mix (tuna, mayo, spring onions).

Wet your hands otherwise it is impossible to mould into shape. Mould into balls and poke your finger in to make a hole. Stuff the tuna into it, and then cover it up with rice. Then start to mould it into a triangle. Put a bit of seaweed on it, and you have the below yummy snacks!

movie review- wristcutters: a love story

My friend Simon gave me this movie to watch, promising it was going to be rad. In turn I promised him that I would write an in depth subarashii review instead of offhandedly saying “Oh yeah… I watched that movie you gave me… wristcutters. It was cool, thanks!” So here it is Simo, in all its rambling, incoherent, tangential glory. My first subarashii film review!

Now, it has been quite some time since I attempted to review a film. I distinctly remember the last time was for school, and I reviewed “The Mummy Returns”. I will be the first to admit that it was a pile of maggot filled shit. I consider myself a competent writer and got good marks in everything else, but I suppose movie reviews weren’t really my forte *shrug*. I didn’t so much ‘review’ it as I gave a blow-by-blow account of every single minute. It was like reading the Wikipedia review of Silent Hill, which I actually had to read in order to understand what the fuck HAPPENED!! I watched the whole thing and at the end I went ‘uh, what!?” it is so bad. Anyway.

Wrist Cutters. I knew absolutely nothing about this film and had never heard of it, plus it was a burnt disc so I didn’t even have a cover to give away clues or show who was in the cast. All I knew was that I was going to see some slashed wrists. I’m sure that if you haven’t seen this and you know the title I won’t be ruining much to say that within 2 minutes I did see some prime wrist cutting action. I have to say there is A LOT of blood in that sink. I knew what he was going to do but I still gasped at the sheer amount of blood. I thought that maybe it was filled with water and then the blood added to the volume. I’m not sure. I have never seen a person bleed to death so I suppose I am a little uneducated in that field. I brought this up with Josh last night and he said “Obviously he filled it with hot water and dipped his hands in to help the blood flow quicker…” as if I should have known this fact from birth. When I asked how he could have immediately realized this, he said that he thinks about a lot of things and that if he ever wanted to commit suicide he would do it properly, that’s for sure. Concerning and weird as this was, I brushed it off and went back to my thoughts about the film.

The main character is named Zia, and is played by Patrick Fugit (aka the boy from Almost Famous) and he has some facial hair in this one, just in case you are interested. His relationship with his pretty and IMO slut-face girlfriend ‘Desiree’ comes to an end, and this is the reason he kills himself in the first scene. The next thing you know, he wakes up in the afterlife for suicides. I was a little confused thinking that perhaps he survived and went back to living a crap life dealing with his actions, but actually nope – it’s suicidal purgatory for him baby. This new dark world freaked me out at first because I thought there was going to be a shoddy “dark silent hill” vibe, but luckily it was not so. phewwww

So, in this new world, Zia finds himself unable to be happy, smile, or love, and each day is a mundane dull routine. He meets a few people who help him to understand things a little better, and we get to see how they died – aweeesooomme! The strangest one is a Russian guy named Eugene who becomes his companion, but I won’t give too much away. One day Zia runs into an old friend who informs him that Desiree killed herself too, about a month after he “offed”. The main part of the film sees Zia and Eugene driving around the desolate plains in order to find Desiree so the 2 can be together in death when they couldn’t in life. They meet some new people along the way, and the plot thickens into a bit of a moral dilemma for Zia – what would a love story be without a moral dilemma!? There are many other strange characters; there is even some Will Arnett (GOB) action in there too for good measure.

This movie was dark and lovely, and even made me cry a little – the last 10 seconds are beautiful! Thank you Simon for lending me this movie. I look forward to the next one :)

thursday thoughts

i was at the old fashioned lolly "shoppe" yesterday buying a dr. pepper for an afternoon treat, when i spotted the PEZ display. I got really excited, especially as there were some Star Wars PEZ dispensers. I bought a Darth Vader one for Josh as a little gift, and came back to work to show everyone how cute it was. One lady here is about 30 and she said "what is THAT!?" and i went "oh he's Darth Vader." and she went "a what..?". This is when i realised that there is actually someone on this planet (exculding the 3rd world of course) who doesn't know what PEZ is. Everyone was astounded because PEZ has been around since the dinosaurs. I found out that it is an Austrian product, first released in 1927 as peppermints for adults. In '55 they put heads on them and marketed them to kiddies, and they went globaaaaal. So, there is no real excuse for not knowing what PEZ is, unless she grew up in a cult in the bush...

my horror was intensified when this fijian man at work also said he didn't know what PEZ was. He said he grew up in fiji and they didn't have them, then when he came here he was too old for lollies. I suppose that's fair enough. this time....

The weather this morning was so bizarre. Well, living my whole life in Melbourne, you think i'd be prepared for some erratic weather patterns. But i am always shocked or suprised by the sudden changes. It was stormy, warm and muggy. It had this tropical feel to it, instantly making me feel as though i was on holidays or something. My whole disposition changed and i have been in a really good mood all day. After about an hour at work i said to the 3 other girls who sit near me "Do you guys feel any different today?". One girl agreed and the other 2 just looked confused and a little scared. I started to explain myself and they breathed a sigh of relief. For some reason they thought i had played a practical joke on them and was waiting for them to realise. Like i had adjusted their seats or poisoned their coffee or something. What the fuck... I'm not some kind of sadist. I just wanted to converse about the weather! jeez!

Also, I have noticed one drawback of having bright red hair. I am a magnet for street corner charity volunteers. I try so hard to avoid talking to these guys cos the only time i am walking in the city is when i am heading somewhere in a hurry and i cant stop and chat! I feel like a bitch going "no thank you...". The first time i rolled with it, signed up and was even a little flattered by the compliments... but last night this guy started waving as i approached, and i was trying to ignore him and hurry for the tram, but he sort of got in my face so i took my headphones off to explain that i already signed up to help the cause yesterday. He insisted on a High-5, and then started asking me heaps of questions about WHO i signed up with, which guy, what did he look like etc etc. Then he put his hand up for another high-5 before i left. and you can't refuse someone a high-5! Damn this hair making me more social and talking to strangers! maybe its a good thing... we'll see.

Ok, I am needing some air. Some sexy steamy muggy melbourne air. haha

wednesday thoughts

i'm eating some left over vego bolegnaise today, although it tastes like salt and vinegar chips. this is because i got the bowl out of the fridge after josh had his way with it, and transfered it to a container. What i failed to remember was that josh crushes potato chips into his bolegnaise as garnish... rendering the whole dish flavoured like a crinkle cut chip. i shit you not. it tastes okay but i don't really get it, this is like when people put icing sugar on popcorn. CORN IS SAVOURY, LEAVE IT SAVOURY!!!! phew..

this somehow gets me thinking about garfield. as a kid i had this garfield book where he fell asleep and "woke up in the future" and the only form of food is in pill form. So he eats one "lasagna pill" and he is full. Anyway he doesnt like this because he enjoys eating too much. I feel the same way. i like eating and tasting and savouring a dish not just swallowing it whole and getting on with my day. no thanks. whats funny is that i thought this was an accurate representation of the future. I was actually worried about these food pills. what if i didn't like the flavour? I would already have eaten it and be full but i may have hated the dish. And what if i vomitted? would a tiny pill shell come back up, or a whole meal? how can a tiny pill make you full? hunger supressants? omg celebrity slim is going to take over the world. be on your guard everyone. anyway i don't know what the point of this is. there isn't one really, i just feel like writing.

anyway i still love my red hair. It is amazing how many strangers have broken through the barriers of social awkwardness to compliment me - a mere stranger with great hair. The most awkward one was this volunteer for the Australian Red Cross, he was standing on a street corner and as i approached he spotted me. i was trapped, i couldn't go anywhere so i kept walking toward him. he was shouting out "Oh my god, you're a goddess! look at you with your gorgeous hair, and a tiara and underpants on the outside!!" (yeah i dont know wtf he was talking about) anyway he went OFF and kept calling me a humanitarian goddess. it was weird!

This was a waste of your time, i apologise.

fond japan food moments

as i am hungry and have been remeniscing about japan of late, I have decided to take a trip back and remember some of my favourite Japan food moments...

This was from when i went with Josh last year, we were feeding our soy sauce corn cobs to the pidgeons because we had too much cooorn. i cant beleive we got its eye closed!

This was one of my favourite things to eat - a SETTO (set) for lunch or dinner. It usually came with a bowl of Ramen, some Gyoza, sometimes rice, sometimes beer, sometimes edamame (soy beans). They are cheap and filling and i want one right now.

GYOOOOZAAAA!

OKONOMIYAKI - HIROSHIMA STYLEEEE

FRESHNESS BURGER!! I want the world to know that one of the nicest (and most expensive) burger joints is in Japan. We thought Mos Burger was da bomb, until we found Freshness Burger :P (if you see the menu, pretty sure we all got Classic WW burgers - the biggest muahahahaaaa!)

McDonalds had Mega Macs.. so when in rome, scoff your face

We drank this stuff like it was water. It wasn't overly alcoholic, but it sure was tasty!

I saw these melons at the supermarket... they were equivalent to $68 AUD! zzzooommg no way!

These pics are from when i went with Josh in April/May 2008...

This was our breakfast when we stayed in a guest house in Nagano - the coolest city everrrrrr!

These looked.... delicious..... especially the blue ones!

Josh and I accidentally went to a Korean table-top cooking restaurant thinking it was Japanes.e Anyway somehow we ended up with this strange internal organ hotpot.. blechhh!

In harajuku, these are probably one of th nicest kebabs i have EVER had. The guys there were maybe Labanese, and spoke their native language, english, AND JAPANESE fluently. They were amazing.

Josh and I found this restaurant near Roppongi / Akasaka. Omg i totally forgot the name of it. BUT it was cheap and delicious and the chefs and waiters were all young and awesome and we got TRAAASHED and left with them at closing time!

These were 2 of the chefs, they were in a tribute band for MAXIMUM THE HORMONE! weeeee-hooo!

Well, now i am absolutely starving. gosh darn it.

ravens, crows, and gumby

howdy! i had a great weekend! Friday night was a girly sleepover at my place, i was too busy playing host to take photos, but we had Raclette and watched Sixteen Candles - it was funnnn!

Saturday and Sunday day times were pretty much dedicated to painting doorframes and skirting boards at my dad's place. my legs KILL! all day squatting and standing squatting and standing... argh!

Saturday night Josh's band RAVEN VS CROW played The Arthouse in Melbourne. IT. WAS. AMAZING! They sounded so great, i guess that's what you get when you play at a decent venue :P I was listening to the songs thinking "wow, they sound so different - SO GOOD!" then i realised that is how they sound all the time but when plugged into speakers with bad sound mixing it comes out sounding very different. It was good to finally hear the songs how they were intended to sound :)

Left to right: Josh, Boucher, Evan. Sorry Hayden i cut you off :P

Anyway last night Josh was playing Xbox and i got bored watching so i decided to finally use that nose pore strip thing i bought ages ago. I realised i probably didn't even need to use it as blackheads aren't really a problem, but its just one of those things i have always wanted to try.

If you can't already tell by the borderline nonsensical text, it is a Korean product.

I have to wait HOW LONG?!?! I decided to take photos of the waiting time because i knew that the end product probably wouldnt be photo worthy.. this is me waiting...

I went into the hallway and made a dinosaur with my hand. It is either a Stegosaurus or a Brachiosaurus, i haven't decided.

Chester saw me playing on the carpet and came over for a pat.

But then he started to attack my hoodie draw strings.

I went into the kitchen and remembered I wanted to take photos of these for the blog:

Nope, they aren't pencils.. They arrrrreeeee.....

CHOPSTICKS!!! Woooo! Anyway, then i snuck up behind josh and took a photo of him playing xbox (splinter cell??) I still hadn't put the mattress away from the sleepover so we have been laying all over it all weekend.

Back to the bathroom where i saw gumby trying to hook up with my toothbrush! Fuck that shit!

Then he insisted we take myspace shots. Notice we are both looking away from the camera...

The time was finally up, and i peeled off the strip - with no pain like the clearasil ads used to suggest - to reveal my nose looking... exactly the same. I think because i have a button nose, they arent really designed to fit the shape properly or something *shrug* actually i noticed one little thing stuck to the strip. just one! I dont know how many pores there are on the nose, but i am guessing there are more than one...

my conclusion: BOOOOOOO!!!!