Beetroot was cheap at the markets on Saturday, so I grabbed a couple of bunches.
This recipe from the Organic Collective is just fantastic!
| BEETROOT, COCONUT AND LIME SOUP | |
|
30g unsalted butter To garnish | |
| Method: | |
|
Melt the butter in a saucepan and when foaming, add the onion and lemon grass and fry over a low heat until softened.
I swear, I have never had so much energy as after eating this soup! | |
Twenty Five Signs That you've Grown Up
1. Your house plants are alive, and you can't smoke any of them.
2. Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.
3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
4. 6:00 a.m. is when you get up, not when you go to bed.
5. You hear your favorite song in an elevator.
6. You watch the Weather Channel.
7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of "hook up" and "break up."
8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.
9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as "dressed up."
10. You're the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won't turn down the stereo.
11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.
12. You don't know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.
13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.
14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald's leftovers.
15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.
16. You take naps.
17. Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.
18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.
19. You go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.
20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer "pretty good stuff."
21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.
22. "I just can't drink the way I used to" replaces "I'm never going to drink that much again."
23. 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.
24. You drink at home to save money before going to a bar.
25. When you find out your friend is pregnant you congratulate them instead of asking "Oh S*$# what the hell happened?"
Bonus:
26: You read this entire list looking desperately for one sign that doesn't' t apply to you and can' t find one to save your sorry old @ss. Then you forward it to a bunch of old pals & friends 'cause you know they'll enjoy it & do the same
Just a quick couple of recipes that I'm really enjoying right now. Posted at both LJ and Vox to keep track of what I'm doing :P. They're both easy and alomst fail-safe!
Gerello Roast
This is a eye round of beef, pot-roasted. It has a lot of flavour and is quite easy to prepare.
Ingredients
* Beef gerello roast (eye round)
* 1 stubbie (Small bottle, about 375mL, for non-Aussies!) of beer
* 1/4 cup of plain flour
* 1 tsp salt
* 1/4 tsp pepper
* 3 Tbsp chilli oil
* 1 can of tomatoes
* 5 medium potatoes
* 6 small orange sweet potatoes
* 5 sprigs of rosemary
* 1/4 cup chopped parsley
* 12 curry leaves (just use a teaspoon of curry powder if you don't have them. I grow it, so no dramas!)
* 1 medium onion, cut into rings
* 1/2 tsp cumin
* 2 Tbsp cornflour
* 2 tsp minced garlic (or 3 or 4 cloves of fresh)
* 2 tsp minced ginger
* 1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
Method
1. Mix plain flour, salt and pepper in a bowl. Push roast firmly into the mixture, coating all sides.
2. Add the chilli oil to a large saucepan over medium heat and brown all sides of the roast.
3. Add onion, garlic and ginger, cooking on low heat for 10 minutes.
4. Add beer, tomatoes, herbs, cumin and Worchestershire sauce. Stir well, cover and simmer for 40 minutes.
5. Turn roast, add potatoes and sweet potatoes, and simmer for a further 40 minutes. - Youc an use any vegetables you like, using the normal cooking times as a guide for when to add your vegetables. If the liquid is insufficient, add your favourite stock.
6. Check potatoes with a skewer or fork. If cooked, remove the roast and let stand for 10 minutes. Remove the vegies and place in a bowl. Remove liquid from the hotplate.
7. In a small bowl, combine leftover plain flour and cornflour with a little water and make into a smooth paste. Mix into liquid and return to hotplate, on medium to high heat.
8. Boil vigorously and keep stirring! This will reduce and thicken the liquid. Once thickened sufficiently, remove from heat. Spoon over roast and serve with vegetables.
Almost Apple Pie Cake
Delicious served on it's own or as a dessert with. warm or cold, with cream or ice cream.
Ingredients
* 1/2 cup light olive oil
* 2 x 50gram eggs
* 2 cups brown sugar
* 2 cups chopped apple (approx 3 medium apples peeled and cored)
* 2 cups sifted self-raising flour
* 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
* 1/2 cup currants or chopped raisins.
Method
1. In a bowl, beat together the oil, eggs and sugar. Add remaining ingredients and combine well.
2. Pour into 23x6cm round, greased and lined cake pan.
3. Bake in the centre of a moderate oven (180C) for 50 to 55 minutes, or until cooked through when tested with a skewer.
4. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cake cooler.
This is a moist cake that will sink in the centre on cooling. Store (if it lasts long enough!) in an airtight container in the fridge.
For those of us who sometimes don't have a lot of time on our hands - and let's face, who doesn't have those days? - I've grabbed some quick and easy pasta recipes that are tasty and good for you.
Pasta Arrabbiata
Arrabbiata means "angry style", so expect this one to pack some bite!
1 brown onion, cut into thin wedges
80g thinly sliced pancetta
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 x 440g cans no-added salt chopped tomatoes
2 Tbsp chopped fresh conteniental parsely
1 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano
To make the sauce, heat a little olive oil in a frying pan, and add the garlic, onion, pancetta, and chilli flakes. cook until the onion softens and pancetta is lightly browned.
Stir in the tomatoes, parsley and oregano. Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat again, and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes, or until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.
The most commonly served pasta with this sauce is penne or orecchiette, and if not eaten alone, it goes nicely with veal cutlets and salad.
(serves 4)
Pasta Puttanesca
"Puttana" is the Italian word for prostitute, and there are various tales of why this style of sauce has such a name. One is that is very quick and easy to make out of pantry ingredients that would be on hand for most people. Another is that it was kept cooking by ladies of the evening, so that the intense, spicy aroma drew in customers.
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
400g can tomatoes
60mL (1/4 cup) dry red wine or water
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
12 small pitted Kalamata olives, sliced
2 Tbsp drained capers
2 drained anchovy fillets, cut into 2 cm pieces
3 Tbsp chopped continental parsley
To make the sauce, heat the oil in a medium, heavy-based saucepan. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until softened. Add the garlic, tomatoes, wine or water, tomato paste and chilli. Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 12-15 minutes, or until the sauce is the desired consistency. Beautiful over tuna steaks instead of pasta, too.
(serves 4)
Tomato, Basil and Garlic Pasta
A beautiful sauce made with delicious Roma tomatoes.
3 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 kg ripe Roma (egg) tomatoes
Freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
To make the sauce, heat the oil on medium, in a large saucepan. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes and pepper. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Stir in the basil. Also nice served with steamed zucchini and broccoli, and salmon or tuna steaks. Simply divide the vegetables and fish between the serving bowls, then place the pasta in a large serving dish. Spoon the sauce over, and allow diners to help themselves to the pasta and sauce to go with their fish and vegetables.
(serves 4)
Pasta Alla Norma
1 ½ Tbsp olive oil
1 brown onion, cut into thin wedges
400g can of chopped tomatoes
500g eggplant, ends trimmed, cut crossways into 2.5cm-thick slices
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
1 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano
Freshly ground black pepper
80g low-fat fresh ricotta, crumbled
Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a medium saucepan (with a lid) on medium. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until tender. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 15 minutes.
Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan on medium-high. Add the eggplant slices and cook for about 5 minutes on each side or until golden. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Stir the herbs into the tomato mixture and season with pepper. Divide cooked pasta between 4 pasta bowls. Top with the eggplant and tomato sauce. Sprinkle over the ricotta and basil leaves.
Sugo Di Limone
1 Tbsp olive oil
500g ripe egg tomatoes, seeds removed, and chopped
½ tsp olive oil
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
This is a warm dish, best served with lamb leg steaks, or salmon steaks, and a salad.
Toss cooked pasta with the tomatoes, oil, lemon zest, lemon juice and pepper.
The recent emails warning people not to take their children to see this movie simply annoy me; as much as the Pro-Christian emails urging people to take their children to see the Chronicles Of Narnia annoyed me. Stop trying to deny me my choice. I am not Christian and never have been, and I object to people telling me how to live and where my beliefs should lie. I adore these books especially because they are anti-Church, in direct oppposition to the dry, boring clap-trap allegory that has been the Chronicles Of Narnia. If you look back over my last post, you'll see my thoughts on that expensive waste of marketing...
One thing the emails pick up on is "ZOMG! THEY MENTION FEMALE CIRCUMCISION IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS11!1!!" Yes, they do; all of about 2 lines in the first book. All it is is a mention that it happens in some cultures; hardly the cause for hysteria. Quite beside the books being "anti-Christian", I believe they are "anti-Church", which is a different thing entirely. Looking back over history, the Christian Church has been a patently poisonious organisation, no less or more so than many groups formed in the name of other religions. But if your beliefs should differ, you're branded Heretic and criminal. THIS is precisely what Phillip Pullman addresses; the desire to impart one set of beliefs above all others, despite the history and relevence of such beliefs to the cultures which hold them.
I have every intention of taking my kids to see these movies. I want my kids to ask questions about what they see. I want them to not blindly swallow everything spoonfed to them. I want them to make up their own minds about religion and if indeed they need *any* in their lives. I have my own spirituality; it may be different from yours, but it doen't make me without morals or ethics. Claiming ownership over all human morals and ethics and branding them "Christian family values" makes you look stupid. Ethics and morals CAN and DO exist outside the framework of Christian - or indeed any - faith. To sugest otherwise is offensive to billions of people around the world who do not agree with you.
I accept that others have the right to believe in their concept of Deity, and that includes Christian people. Please do me the favour of allowing me the same courtesy.
The kids have been watching the Chronicles Of Narnia a bit lately, which is what has prompted this ramble :P. And I have to say that I am glad this epic is visually stunning, because personally, I can deal with a lot of dreck to see something incredibly wonderous. Otherwise, it would just be tedious.
I first read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I was a kid, after reading Tolkein and having Lewis recommended to me as a Tolkein contemporary, so I was probably 11 or 12. The religious allegory eluded me, not growing up in an even remotely religious household. Our parents sent my sister and I to Sunday school, but that was more from a desire to have us out of their hair for a couple of hours on Sunday mornings, rather than any real sense of duty or belief. Even then we went to the local Uniting Church, which spent far more time having us discuss world events, how we could help other people in our communities and in other places, and our thoughts on becoming a good person in deed as well as word, rather than on any kind of bible study. A habit which to my mind is good for all people, not only those who have a religious framework.
But back to Narnia. I read the book and liked the story because hey, it was a magical world that you entered via the back of a wardrobe, and in that world you could meet fauns and there was a witch who made it always winter... But I hated the way it was written, although I could not explain why back then. A few years later, I did get the symbolism. "Ohhhh, Aslan is Jesus! D'uh!", and read the rest of the series (albeit very half-heartedly, as stories they just didn't hold my interest). I got the Magician's Nephew, and tried to keep on with it, as I utterly despise leaving things unfinished. By then, I knew what it was that I hated about the books; the dry style of British academia and stuffed-shirt elitism of the writing, along with the hushed and unquestioning reverence that the book and characters were treated with by annoying people who insist that nothing good has been written since To Kill A Mockingbird.
I don't think the film did nearly as well world-wide as Disney expected it would, given the popularity of the recent Harry Potter movies; a market they had hoped to tap right along with the Christian market. Despite the enthusiasm of the churches, movies such as Mel Gibson's tedious bore the Passion Of the Christ have been a cataclysmic flop across the globe, except perhaps in the US, and as Disney are supposed to be releasing a new Narnia film each year for the next 6 years (with The Horse and His Boy due for release next May), they may come to regret this alliance with the Christian churches.
Churches proclaiming the series as Christian allegory (a claim refuted passionately by his step-son
, who himself is a committed Christian), with Aslan as Christ is an oddly confusing note, for surely Christ was no lion; "the lamb of God", whose first care was the poor, the ill, and the meek. Aslan is a pretty miserable Christ figure; remote, alien, and the personification of power. He's partly the exact opposite of the person who cried comfort for the poor and mourning in the Beatitudes - that part of the angry warrior figure televangelists like to worship, where the rich are told they're rich because they're living the right kind of life. Sermons that reassure the wealthy congregations that they are made rich by God because they deserved it. The godly will reap earthly reward because God is on the side of the strong. This appears to be CS Lewis's view, too. In the battle at the end of the film, visually a great epic treat, the child crusaders are crowned kings and queens for no particular reason. Intellectually, the poor do not inherit Lewis's earth. This is pandering of another sort; pandering to the rich. It is an old theme in the Bible that often evil people grow like weeds and prosper, and many the good and humble remain poor, but modern Christianity has grown a streak where this theme is denied. This just shows how it has adapted primarily to assure its own financial success. There *is* a gentler, more lamb-like side of Aslan who takes comfort in the prescence of Lucy and Susan as he lays dying upon the stone, but it is seldom seen, as he is often remote and aloof. But the willing sacrifice on a path of non-violence is the relationship that seems to be missed by many who are proclaiming this movie as having a Christian theme and using it as an opportunity for sermonising, in favour of the "Muscular-Christianity" version of "might makes right". Sadly.
Yet other themes too seem to be overtly Christian, lifted from thinly-veiled pagan pasts. While the theme of the battle of good versus evil could be the theme of any Norse or other pre- or non-Christian saga as well as any Christian one, the roots comimg from anything other than Christianity are denied. Spirits of trees and rivers and other nature spirits communicate with speech and personality but are nevertheless relegated to mere messengers, all under the wing of the Great Good Aslan, is a theme that makes me slightly nauseaus. Another attempt at the "One World, Ultimately One Religion" theory, that came about at the end of the series - to paraphrase; no matter what names are used in worship, or if the "wrong" rituals are used, any good service is truly done in MY (Aslan) name. Conversely, any immoral and evil acts, even though ostensibly done in worship of Aslan, are in fact done in the name of Tash (apparently Old Scratch himself, in the books the God of the Calormanian people). Religious duality at it's finest *sarcasm*. To be a good person is not enough if one believes in the "wrong" God, and although it's a step, one is not complete spiritually unless they accept the One Truth.
Not to mention it's possibly the most dry and boring piece of cinema to come in a long time. If not for the gorgeous cinematography, I'd have walked ou of the theatre in disgust or simply gone to sleep in boredom.
Oh my, was this GOOD! I added thin slices of lean steak to it and tossed it through to make it more of a meal on it's own, rather than a side dish. As a side dish it serves 4. Yes, this is definitely one for my recipe collection.
Ingredients
600g peeled pumpkin
250g zucchini
1 red capsicum, seeded and deveined
1 red onion, cut into wedges
1 Tbsp olive oil
50g rocket leaves
1/4 cup of pine nuts, toasted
4 or 5 cloves of garlic, skin on
Method
Preheat your oven to 200C. Cut the pumpkin, zucchini and capsicum into 3cm chunks. Drizzle the oil in the bottom of a large baking dish and add the onion wedges. Toss the rest of the veggies in and stir to coat with oil. Roast for 40 minutes or until vegies are tender. Allow to cool.
While the vegies are cooling, make your dressing. I seldom measure these things, so we'll have to guess. But as always, if you need to adjust it to taste.
In a small jug, mix together a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, a couple of teaspoons of white vinegar and about 100mL of olive oil. Take the roasted garlic cloves and squeeze them out of their skins. They should be nice and soft, but still keep their shape. Smoosh them up, and toss them in with the oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice (a tiny bit will do). I also added about 1/2 a teaspoon of white sugar, but I think raw would be better as it has a nice, caramel-y flavour that goes great with roasted garlic and onions, rather than just out and out sweetness like white sugar. I added about a tablespoon or 2 of warm water too, just to tone it down a little. Let that infuse while the vegies cool further.
Quickly heat up a frying pan and put the pine nuts in to toast, shaking them around the pan so that they don't burn. Tip them into the vegies and stir them through.
Wash the rocket leaves, and toss through the vegetables. Drizzle with some of the dressing to taste.
Any leftover dressing should keep a jar in the fridge for a couple of days.
I've barely posted to my LJ, either, but somehow decided to set up not one but 2 other blogs over there. One for my personal development on my pagan path, and the other a personal record for myself and my SO of links and info we might need in the future, when we set up our eco-friendly, mostly-self-sustainable farmlet. LJ is getting kind of dull too, anyway, except for the 5 or 6 friends who I really enjoy reading from or about. Spreading myself a little thin in the blogging department I think, and nothing much interesting to say anyway :P.
Got this book recently, and oh, it looks so lovely. Beautifully illustrated and photographed, gorgeous presentation. Mouth-watering traditional recipes, and filled with snippets of of memories and images of the life of the "Nonnas" of Italy. The handmade pizza dough is definitely one to try.
And for your listening pleasure, Ben Lee's new single, "Love Me Like the World Is Ending". Very sweet and very much Ben. He's certainly grown up and developed from the whiny kid he was :P. Give it a listen, and maybe find something new to like :D.
