Dish 43) Fenek Moqli

Heyyy!! So... Easter. When you think of Easter, do you think of Rabbits? Well I do :) And what better way to celebrate Easter than eating a rabbit? No better way, I say! My Maltese co-worker hooked me up with a recipe for a fried rabbit dish called Fenek Moqli.

Basically you buy a jointed rabbit, put it in a bowl with 2-3 bay leaves, some dried thyme, 3 cloves of sliced garlic, and cover it all with some dry white wine. Leave overnight to marinate. Then, heat oil and garlic in a pan and fry the peices, turning occasionally and using the white wine to baste, and stop the sticking.

Traditionally she said you are meant to serve it with hot chips... so Josh and I did a little spin on the tradition. Here is the finished product:

So it was sliced, parboiled desiree potatoes marinated in herbs and oil then grilled on the griddle pan. We also grilled some zucchini and arranged a nice little nest to place the rabbit on. Then we quickly made a gravy from the pan juices- it was delicious! I know it sounds cliché, but it tasted like chicken. It looked a bit like chicken too, and was just a little tougher - maybe that is characteristic of the meat, or maybe i cooked it too long? I thought it would be a red meat for some reason... Anyway Interesting!

So now I have 9 dishes left to go until I have finished my list of new recipes. I have picked out ones i want to make, so stay tuned :)

Writing Revolution!

Hey all my lovely readers! I have some exciting news! You may already know this, but I have begun working with a cool website named "The Milk Bar Mag". I know a cool guy who writes for them and asked how he got involved, and he showed me the way! I e-mailed the cool Editor Dan a link to this very blog, and he seems to think I am also cool enough to get involved in the site! Cool, huh?

I think I will be mainly writing restaurant reviews for the Western Suburbs and around the Queen Victoria Market- both my stomping grounds! I will be testing out all the local cafes which are undiscovered little treasures! My first review was published yesterday entitled "Lunch In The Urban Jungle" and my next one will be up next week :) I am also currently researching my 3rd review :) woo!

So, not only have I been doing this, I am also pushing myself to review other things like movies and CD's on Ctrl-X and they sent me two movies and a CD to review last week. My deadline was Sunday so I spent a lot of my spare time listening, watching, researching and writing. I haven't done something like that since high school! Back then I wasn't very good at reviewing and god bad marks for it so I thought it might be empowering to conquer that fear now. I submitted reviews of Jebediah's new album Kosciuszko, the Edward Norton/Robert De Niro movie "Stone" and the martial arts film "Ip Man: The Legend is Born". So yes, they must have trusted my name or something to send me 3 things without ever working with me before. The ultimate test! I feel confident, apparently they liked the Jebediah review so we'll see.

I have my creative writing class tonight too, so you can see what's on the brain all the time hey? I also am going to be writing some poems soon, visiting a vegetarian restaurant soon, and next week will be doing my volunteer work! Woo! Also, I will be doing some cooking on this amazing long weekend I have coming up. Stay tuned :D

Train Poem

I wrote this poem on a near-empty train in the late morning of last Tuesday. Thought I'd share it...

This noise on the train is intrusive,
to my sore and wind-whipped ears.
It certainly isn't conducive
to my poetry in arrears.

My head is throbbing away
and I sit here to wonder whether
hat hair is really so passé
and if I should have just donned one in this weather

As the rain runs down the glass
like liquid lightning bolts,
I look at the scenes I pass
and rock gently with the trains jolts.

This all has made me gloomy-
the wind, the rain, the chill.
As consolation, I'm at least roomy
and those around me don't seem ill.

If this counts towards my list, I have another 6 to go until I have written 12. I hope you enjoy what I try to pass as poetry :)

MACAROOONNNNSSS

Can y'all guess what I made last weekend?? You smarty-pants, correct! Macaroons :D My friend Claudia arranged the whole thing and brought over some piping bags and food dye, and we got started!! I cannot even be bothered recounting every step of the process and every mistake we made or telling you how many HOURS it took, so please look at the pretty pretty pictures and see macaroons made easy:

They came out looking like little burgers.... They were meant to be bright pink haha! Something went wrong in the oven! The filling was a raspberry buttercream filling with some Maggie Beer 'Raspberry and Pomegranate' Jam mixed through!! It was freaking amazing. I had half a macaroon then Claudia took the rest along to a friend's party, but by the time I arrived (fashionably late) they were all gone! I guess it's a good sign that the macaroons were well received!! Kudos to me and Claudia for being good at stuff :) For some reason we agreed to re-convene and try it again in a few weeks. Oh dear :D 

Oh, did I mention this is dish 42 of 52 for the list?? WOOHOO!! I'm just a bit worried about sleeping under the stars as Winter is setting in. Oh god.

Kitchen Musings

It has been a while since I posted about cooking, so it is fair to assume that you fairly assumed I wasn't cooking. Thankfully, this is not the case! I have been having fun sweating it out in the kitchen, and have selected a few dishes from over the last month or so to write about. Life has been hurtling along, bringing with it many new avenues, opportunities and distractions for me. Many things have changed.. like my housemate Hayden moving out, my involvement in the writing course and having homework again (!), pushing myself to read more and write more in a notebook throughout the day, a new boss, a new kitten and unluckily, new car issues. I have lots on my mind and life feels full of possibilities and challenges to tackle!

Let's put all that aside for a second and step into the kitchen. My kitchen is a place where the little things on my mind twirl up into the exhaust fan along with the steam from a big pot of soup. Depending on my aggression levels that day, they may also get pulverised into oblivion as I knead (read: punch) some dough. I find cooking can be very therapeutic if you are open to the possibility. I'm sure this doesn't apply to everyone of course, but indulge me for a moment while I muse about one of my favourite past, present and future times: food.


Dish 38) Chicken and Apricot Tagine:
 
When I was a kid, my mum used to make "Apricot Chicken with Rice" from time to time. I really enjoyed the simple blend of canned apricot nectar, a few fresh ingredients, and a packet of seasoning. I thought we were stepping up from the classic Meat and three veg into the new wave of culinary fashion. As I became more snobbish I decided that Apricot Chicken was so passé, and I couldn't possibly like it anymore. Overnight it went from something I would squeal "woohoo!" about when Mum told me what she was cooking, to something I would roll my eyes at. Lately, I have realised that those childhood gems have become, whether I like it or not, comfort food. I was feeling nostalgic enough to want some Apricot Chicken but not enough to actually execute my plan. I thought about the meat/fruit combination and realised it is reminiscent of Moroccan tagines with apricots and preserved lemons involved. I decided to put a spin on the Apricot Chicken I grew up with, and made this Tagine. It was Chicken, Apricot and for some reason I put olives in there too.
 

The recipe was delicious but I accidentally overcooked the chicken so it went a little dry :( It was tasty, but certainly didn't meet the comfort food/nostalgia requirement. I may just have to pick myself up a can of Apricot Nectar next time I'm at the supermarket!


Dish 39) Dutch Apple Pie
This recipe comes from the Dutch cook book my pal Jim let me borrow. He put a little post-it flag on the page meaning I should try to make it. It was quite tasty, but I wasn't happy with it at the end. The recipe didn't call for you to bake the shortcrust pastry base first before adding the wet fillings.. so as a result, the base was undercooked and a bit soggy. Also, the apples went in raw and at the end I wished I had stewed them for a little bit to soften them. My dad thought too much cinnamon... but I thought not enough :) It was a controversial little pie, that is for sure. I liked the idea of simmering the raisins in orange juice on the stove, the flavour was delicious!!

Dish 40) Breakfast Pizza

I saw a recipe for this on Smitten Kitchen yonks ago, and I have never forgotten it. Pizza for BREAKFAST?! Unheard of!! Josh and I made this after I got home from Adelaide a few weeks back. We were too hungry so we bought pizza bases instead of making fresh dough. Also, we changed the recipe to include tomato paste - mm-mmm!

I really loved it, but perhaps half a pizza each is enough next time. And most of the eggs were over-cooked so the yolk was like a yellow rubber disc. Not nice! I had one good one - and it happened to be the first one I ate. Then everything went down hill. If you make this, it's definitely better to have the egg a little runny than overcooked BLAHHHHHH!

Dish 41) Peppery Lamb Curry


I got this new cookbook called "INDIA" by Pushpesh Pant, which I am a bit obsessed with. It comes in a little "rice sack" bag for your carrying pleasure! The pages are a thin paper - like yellow pages - and the book is divided into coloured sections for appetizers, mains, vegetarian, breads, grains/pulses. The photography is cool and rustic and colourful and from the 3 recipes I have followed - the food is awesome! I still have 997 recipes to go until I've clocked the book! This was my favourite of the three:

The guy at the spice store convinced me to buy this 5kg sack of rice. He said it would last 10 years. Chester is a fan!  

Oh yummmmm! Lots of different chili powders and fresh and dried chillies went into this!! The only thing I'd change is to cut back on the Ghee, I got so many pimples a few days after eating this and the other curries I made in the following days. My body is not used to so much ghee or butter and broke out like a muvva bitch.

Sleep Deprivation Experiment

For some reason, I wanted to beat my measly record of 33 hours without sleep. This is the reason I put the item on my bucket list "Do not sleep Friday or Saturday night" - I was aiming for 48 hours of waking. I can only assume I was on crack when I decided this and as you can see, I have been avoiding this list item ever since. Well, I finally decided to go for it on Friday. Let me set the scene of my last attempt.

About 6 years ago some buddies and I were talking over MSN and decided not to sleep that night and reconvene the following day at the Nip/Tuck-athon. So we went out seperate ways and did our thing. My only memory of the night was sitting in my bedroom with my back against the bed watching TV all night. If I felt tired I would get up and go for a walk and have some watery coffee. Somehow I made it through the night and caught up with Josh in the morning and we walked from his house to Simon's house to commence the Nip/Tuck-athon. I struggled not to faint or vomit on the walk, and was surprised to find the walk revived me. When I arrived at Simon's, I found out that both Simon and Corey had fallen asleep and were feeling quite defeated. Simon had tried to listen to Iron Maiden to stay awake but instead Bruce serenaded him to sleep. They were trying to get me to fall asleep so my record number of hours wasn't too high, so they had prepared a mattress on the floor with pillows and blankets for me to sit on and watch Nip/Tuck. I stayed awake all day watching episode after episode, and even hallucinated seeing a cat in the room. I can't remember what time I fell asleep but the record was 33 hours. Not really much when you think about it.
I saw a documentary on SBS about sleep deprivation a while ago and the host decided to test himself out, so he hung out with this man who held a sleep deprivation record. The host lost his mind slowly, his appearance became unkempt and he was sitting under a tree at night trying to stay awake and started talking jibberish. It was a very interesting doco. So I suppose I wanted to attempt it again but record what I think and feel seeing as I couldn't remember the last time.

So Friday morning I got up at 7:00am and went to work. It wasn't until half-way through the day that I decided I might as well just try it. The original plan was to just go 1 night and then the following weekend go for 2 nights. I didn't think I could go the double straight away. I should also preface this sleep deprivation account by explaining another intention for the weekend. I have been doing a creative writing course and I thought that the extra hours of waking would allow me to write some quality stuff and also get through the pile of books I had to read. This was the main thing I wanted to achieve over the weekend, and as long as I beat my record I was happy. I thought I could kill 2 birds with one stone and also use the time to get to know my new kitten Peanut:

What a cute little gal! So here is a kind of time-line of how my weekend went...


Friday

7:00am- Woke up
8:30am- 5:00pm- Work
5:00pm- After work drinks. Wondered if the pint of beer would put me to sleep on the train ride home.
6:39pm- Got the train heading home
7:30pm- Dinner at mum's place - had some red wines - again wondered if i was sabotaging myself.
8:30pm- Left mum's with my brothers. Stopped into my place to visit the new cat - the house was empty so there was no stimuli.
9:00pm- Went to dad's place to hang out with my brother/dad.
9:32pm- Starting to feel tired already.
9:34pm- My first yawn. Got out my Baby Box(es) from the roof to go through and look at all my old school work and stories etc.

Grade 6 Jumper, still fits. Somehting is so wrong with that...



"I can make people into snakes" from Grade Prep...



No idea what the hell this is about. It is an anti-racism thing I think. I hope.

SATURDAY

1:20am- Got back home from Dad's, played with Peanut and did the dishes. If I sit down it will be all over.


1:30am- The house is too quiet, put the tv on. Flicking through the channels I see "Desperately Seeking Susan" with Madonna in her 'Like a Virgin' style garb, "Barber Shop 2" and Entourage. I really don't like Entourage. I got told by a male friend that it's like the male equivalent of Sex and the City, so I can't talk too much trash on it. All I will say though is that I can't stand Kevin Dillon. He looks like a mix between his brother and Kevin Bacon. I'm not exactly a fan or either, and the combo is just disturbing. I saw a movie on one channel called "One Nite in Mongkok" which made me laugh. Not only because of the dirty sounding name, but also because I found out Mongkok is the name for Hong Kong's Red Light district. This is made even funnier because there is a restaurant in Adelaide called Mongkok where my cousin Bec had her birthday dinner! I turn over to rage and watch some videos. Eventually I put on Skins to watch, and Maki comes home around 2.30 or 3:00am and we get to talking.

3:00am- Eat some boiled vegetables for my second dinner.
4:00am- Maki goes to bed and I make myself a coffee and put on "High Tension" to write a film review for practice.

4:30am- I feel the muscles in my face acting of their own accord and they feel as though they want to be slack and rest. Some time later I write that my knuckles and joints hurt because I am not giving my body a chance to rest.

4:45am- I write that Red-heads like Mike Bailey (Sid from Skins) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) are the kind of Red-heads that I'm attracted to. The colouration of their skin, and lips is the key.

5:37am- I have an intense internal monologue going on. I am having a conversation in my head and there is a running commentary of everything I see. For example: "Ok, here is the plan. I will go over here and clean this thing, and after that I'll go into my room and.....". I also feel a bit nauseous for the first time.

5:49am- Feel the first waves of physical tiredness: shivers or goosebumps washing over me.

5:59am- I heard a car engine start - people are going to work now. My eyes don't want to focus on anything, and blinking is becoming dangerous. My hands are going numb and I need more oranges. (?)

6:08am- Decide to wax and do some beauty treatments like a facial and manicure to stay awake. Sitting is not working out for me.

6:43am- Eating an orange. Decide I cannot possibly go to bed now, I have way too much to do. I have gotten my 3rd wind, and Peanut has gotten her 27th. This cat never stops!! Walking from the kitchen to the bathroom I think I see a man standing near the hallway. It was a jolt that woke me up even more.

6:58am- I heard my first morning warble, I'm racing the sun.

7:02am- Thought I heard a knock at the bathroom door. Starting to feel paranoid. Luckily the sun is coming up and the shadows are retreating. I have made it 24 hours.

7:08am- Kind of missed the sunrise. I'm sitting in the middle of the backyard on a chair staring at the sky. The air is so fresh and I can hear a shrill cricket to my right, and a bird chippering away in the tree above the cricket.

7:17am- Decide to have a shower to welcome the new day. Have to decide whether or not to change my clothes. Will it be good to make a clear distinction between one day and the next? I change my t-shirt and underwear but nothing else.

8:14am- I realise I have so much reading and writing to do today and can really get heaps done. If my kitten still has energy after a night of no sleep then surely I will be fine also. I clean the rangehood.

9:01am- Peanut put herself to bed. Turncoat!!

Decide to watch some TV - I watch Hannah Montana where she has writers block - how fitting!


10:15am- Decide to do a load of washing and put on Six Feet Under in my room. I'm kneeling my the mirror doing my hair and make-up and watching it in the reflection. Each episode goes for 1 hour so I think this could be my ticket to victory!

12:00pm noon- Josh arrives. He starts work at 1:00pm and finishes at 6:30pm. I tried to convince him to not sleep Saturday night with me... but he wasn't interested seeing as he had work at 7:00am the next day.

1:00pm - Josh is gone, Maki has gotten up and we go to get KFC for lunch. I know I will regret eating this.

I am trying to write my film review up into a coherent body of text, but my brain isn't working and i feel myself relaxing and fading into sleep as I sit at the laptop.

4:43pm- This is the worst I have felt. Sore, tired, no motivation to do anything at all, and cannot even write or read.

5:00pm- Walk to the shops to buy a pumpkin
5:30pm- Start cooking dinner. Cooking is a good task that takes up time.

6:30pm- Josh gets home and has a shower as I finish making the curries. He says I look sick. I'm not even offended because I know he is right.

8:30pm- Josh reminds me that it is daylight savings and I wind my clock back one hour. It's only 7:30pm now. What a blow.
We eat the curries sitting in my bed watching Peep Show. I am barely capable of laughter even though I know it is funny. I am not tired and don't want to sleep, I'm just a shell of a person. My brain is not even allowing me to plan things I could do to kill time. I have never been so literally in the moment. The cats are fighting and hissing at each other and I lose my temper and start going a bit hysterical. Josh suggests I have a shower and calm down. In the shower I realise that I haven't really written anything, my bookmark is still in the same place it was on Friday morning, and I am incapable of feeling any joy. I count the hours of waking: 39. I then make the decision to go to bed. I thought at least I could get some stuff done on Sunday.

In hindsight, it's hard to say if I succeeded or failed. I succeeded in beating my record but I failed at producing anything good except for a notebook full of rambling incoherent handwriting, a clean rangehood, a clean dishwasher, and a few less weeds in the garden. If anything I was less productive than usual on a weekend. The staying awake doesn't really bother me but the frustration of not accomplishing much really in my free time does. I am going to say that my curiosity is satisfied for now, I have increased my waking limit, the list item is more or less accomplished, and now I have some serious writing and reading to do before tomorrow's writing class *eep*