Entries Tagged 'What I’ve been doing' ↓

I can’t recall exactly how this came about but me and the Mister wanted to know how much our heads weighed. We took turns at laying half on the bedroom floor and half in the bathroom so we could put our heads on the bathroom scales, then tried to relax as much as possible so that the old head just lolled there. We both came out at about 4.5 kg. I have no idea if this is realistic or not – whether the fact that our heads were attached to our bodies means that we were adding to the weight by association or lighter because the head was not truly isolated.

A bit of Googling tells me that this is about right. I guess we could’ve just used the Internet in the first place, but where’s the fun in that?

I was instantly drawn to this mini pumpkin – minikin – in the supermarket because it was wee and orange and cute. Once I got it home I a) wasn’t sure I could bring myself to cook it and b) became uncertain that you were actually supposed to eat it, that it might be ornamental.

However, we roasted it up and it was delicious. And during our googling to check that we could in fact eat it, we came across the almost exact meal that we were making on the Clearview Estate dinner menu! (Well, minus all the marinading and froth … but close enough)

marinated hawkes bay natural lamb fillet with roasted minikin, pumpkin Israeli couscous & saffron froth

$26.50

I’m very pleased as in cat-got-the-cream-smile to get every question correct on this 8th grade (3rd form) maths test that was forwarded to me 😀

http://www.blogthings.com/couldyoupasseighthgrademathquiz/

I didn’t Google anything (like what is the difference between median and mode anyway?) and I used only calc on my PC and it took me 15 minutes.

I’m stoked!

I’ve finished my children’s book! All 12 pages of it – wow! It was great fun doing it and I feel very virtuous. In the end it’s not just a story to go with a few spare photos from the Macy’s parade but it’s a story about going to New York, some of the things we saw and did and a bit of a geography lesson. Now I just need to transport the monster file to a colour printer, get it bound and send it off 😀

As I’ve already mentioned, I had to buy a bottle of this stuff for the pan dolce I made for Christmas last year. And not wanting to be wasteful I’ve been keeping my eyes open for other recipes that make use of it. Recipes for things that I would eat … it’s main use seems to be in Middle Eastern cooking …

Came across a recipe for Orange Blossom Butter Cookies – bit like orange flavoured short bread – weren’t too hard to make and they look impressive but unfortunately, taste like (as I’d imagine) Granny’s orange-fragranced powder puff!!

Have since found some useful tips in a Cuisine magazine:

Orange-blossom water is distilled from the fragrant blossoms of Seville oranges. The result is an intriguing flavour. However, too much and it smells like a garden and is too overtly floral to enjoy with food.

[It] enhances fruit, particularly apricots, figs, strawberries, rhubarb, pears, dates and bananas. Add a few drops to fruit salads, summer pudding, fruit pastries, stewed or poached fruit, fruit creams and fruit crêpes.

A few drops added to savoury dishes such as lamb with apricots and almonds, chicken with white wine and grapes, duck with cherries, and Persian or Arabic rice dishes, adds an irresistibly exotic touch.

Try adding half a teaspoon of orange- blossom water to salad dressings. This is intriguing with carrot salad, avocado and smoked fish and stir-fried peppers with ginger and chilli.

Yep – I was just asked by the current Hunter St barista Wayne (I’ve decided to start using their names as when I read back over all the posts I’ve made about Fuel I realise it would be interesting to know who was working at the time) whether I actually did any work for Fuel! He is coming to terms with my hardcore fan status and is intrigued by a) the length of time I have been going to Fuel and b) the lengths I go to in order to get a Fuel.

Before he started a few months ago he was apparently *warned* about me – on the first day I showed up when he was there he said “You must be Catherine (stuck out his hand to shake) – Hi, I’m Wayne.” Transpired that the previous barista (Cosmo) had told him all about me (she arrives every morning around 10.30, she knows the boss, she has a latte, she doesn’t like it if you put the cup down in the chocolate sprinkles or let any chocolate sprinkles get in her cup from a neighbouring drink, she knows when it has too much nang (just watch her, she always does a little test of the cup to check it’s weight before she takes it away and you can tell by the look on her face if it’s right or not), she’s always wearing or carrying something orange, she’ll complain if something is not right and not always to your face – this one time she told the boss that someone needed a refresher course in doing milk – that person got transferred out to the airport) … you get the idea!

Aaaaanyway, Wayne asked what my story was, and I said that it was just because I had been drinking Fuel for so long that I knew what to expect and had become educated in what they were trying to achieve over the years, and as a customer, if I saw anything to the contrary, I let them know. From an individual barista’s performance, to a burnt roast, to bad service, to what I see competitors doing – stuff like that. And the good stuff too! I am concerned though that he tells me he feels under such pressure whenever he makes my coffee – I don’t mean to be like that! However – he makes bloody good coffee!!

Last night I started writing a children’s book.

Actually, it’s going to be a story for my niece – not quite as formal, but still, a children’s book! She was very fascinated by our photos of the balloons at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and when my mother suggested I could get some copies for her to take to school as ‘news’ I thought about turning the photos into a bit of a story. Which means trying to explain some interesting stuff to a 6 year old, like what and where New York is and therefore the concept of the ‘other side of the world’, the enormity of Macy’s itself, the balloons being the size of buildings – but not NZ buildings – New York buildings! All in words that a 6 year old can read themselves. I’d imagine this exercise will be fun and frustrating but worth it – she’ll love it.

Had a pretty cool time of it over Christmas and New Year – most of it spent out of Wellington with family. Random list of stuff we did:

• cooked a turkey – successfully!
  
  


• had 3 bottles of ’98/’99 Bordeaux – all gone off – what’s the chance of that happening?
  
  


• enjoyed excellent coffee at Brown Sugar Cafe in Taihape
  
  


• was in Whakatane for the national high temperature of 28*C one day
  
  


• made raspberry jam
  
  


• made pavlova
  
  


• read 2 books
  
  


• hacked back the basil plant before we left and it’s coming back for it’s *3rd* crop despite being left without water for 10 days
  
  


• entertained various overseas guests in various places from Basel, Montreal and Blenheim
  
  


• had 3 gift opening sessions
  
  


• watched father shooting rabbits (from such a distance I really only heard the bang)
  
  


• hung out washing on a real clothes line
  
  


• knitted
  
  


• went to Mitre 10 mega.

Or as I’ve come to refer to it – “the Christmas scone cake”! I tried an alternative to the traditional Christmas Cake this year – which freed up my Labour Weekend – mainly to avoid being overwhelmed by having to consume an 8kg fruit cake that no matter how many chunks you break off and give to family, you’re still chewing your way through in May the following year.

Introducing the pan dolce – Christmas tradition of Italians – a much lighter scone like cake that stores for 6-7 weeks and contains sultanas, mixed peel, hazel nuts and pine nuts. And also the very interesting orange blossom water which required a bit of research – yaaaay Moore Wilsons!

Anyway, a very precise and successful Sunday afternoon was had – it looks just like the pictures and tastes good (it did say in the recipe that it made two because you just can’t resist eating one straight out of the oven – which we’re doing!)

Precise measurements:

Patting out the rounds, without handling too much:

The finished product:

Just had a great long weekend doing some of our usual weekend things, and some not so usual – like:

• random trip out to Lindale to pat baby animals – some of us were first timers …

• our friend who we think is a bit of a chef rose to the challenge again – we bought various ingredients from Moore Wilson’s and said we’d like lamb fillet on a kumara cake with wilted spinach followed by poached pears with vanilla mascarpone cream – 3 hours in our kitchen and he delivered it all!
• gardening apartment-style and scared to death of the Legionnaire’s disease warnings on the back of the potting mix – avoid breathing soil dust at all times …