Winter Warmers No. 1

When Jack Frost comes to visit, I greet him with comfort food!

Firstly, the ubiquitous yet consistently popular pumpkin soup....

What you'll need

Ingredients

·         a stick of celery

·         an onion

·         half a parsnip

·         half a Swede

·         two carrots

·         approximately half a kilo (or two large chunks!) of pumpkin [I use Kent pumpkin]

·         2 litres of chicken stock

·         an extra cup of water

Kitchen equipment (however, these are not vital)

·         a large saucepan or stock pot

·         a food processor

·         a stick blender

The How-to

1.    Peel and chop the vegetables (except the pumpkin), either by hand or in your trusty food processor.

 The trusty Moulinex doing its work!

2.    Peel and chop the pumpkin with a large knife VERY CAREFULLY!

Beware the fury of the Furi knife...  IT'S SHARP!!!

3.    Place the stock and the water into the pot.

If store-bought stock is good enough for Nigella, it's good enough for me!

4.    Place the chopped vegetables into the pot.

Mmmm...pumpkin.

5.    Bring the contents to the boil.

                                                                 Don't you wish you had a Smell-o-computer?

6.    Reduce to a simmer and place a lid on the pot.

7.    Simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

8.    After testing the vegetables to ensure that they are extremely soft, take the pot off the heat.

9.    Using the stick blender, blend the soup until you are satisfied with its consistency.  You may prefer a textured soup; I enjoy very smooth pumpkin soup, so I blend the soup completely.  BE CAREFUL that the hot soup does not flick up and burn you whilst using the stick blender!

                                         Take it carefully and slowly - this stuff burns!

10. Voila!  Your soup is finished and ready to eat, freeze or store in the fridge for later reheating.

11. You may like to add salt, pepper, cream, creme fraiche or sour cream to taste before serving.

NB.  If you plan to store/freeze the soup, you may find it is quite thick when reheating.  Simply add 1/2 - 1 cup of tap water into the soup to thin it down a little.



More tomorrow - the pea and ham soup is presently in the slow cooker!

I-R

xx

 

Note to blogging self...

If you expect to blog a post on a certain topic, you MUST please remember to take great photos of things you have recently enjoyed, including the:

·         fun gals' night out at great chick flick 'Bridesmaids' - do yourself a favour, folks, and see it!;

·         amazing chocolate and pumpkin cake resplendent with cream cheese and maple syrup icing you made last night; and

·         fabulous lunch with a fabulous friend at a fabulous restaurant today - company, conversation, mains, wine, dessert and coffee were top notch, as was our antiques' browsing afterwards!

This will surely improve your blogging, I-R.

Thank you - come again!

I-R

xx

I like an American comedy and I'm not afraid to admit it!

Don't you just love it when you're wrong?  No?  Well, this time I do because I am.  Wrong, that is. My dearest mother, not infrequently, tells me that it takes a big person to admit that he or she is wrong.

I was wrong.  I was wrong about Owen Wilson.

Haven't seen all of Wedding Crashers and it's unlikely that I want to return to complete it, but I really enjoyed Cars 2.  I will, unbegrudgingly, admit that I am a bit of a ...well....um...'Film N*zi'.  To put it mildly.  But let's not dwell on that fact - back to Owen.

Loved him in Cars, loved, loved him in The Darjeeling Limited (and loved Adrien Brody even more; but let's leave that for a different time....ahem) and loved him in Fantastic Mr Fox.  And now I love him in Cars 2.  I must say that he has a very enjoyable, dare I say it comedicly superior, voice (yes, I'm aware I just made up a word - it works for certain government departments in this state, so I'll be taking the same literary licence!).  It's sonorous, rich and textured...I even enjoy the mid-Western/Texan twang of his.  Wonders will never cease...

Cars 2 has lots of recognisable global scenes in it.  Having travelled to the locations used in the film, I was able to have a quiet giggle at the crazy Japanese toilet and relish the aerial shots of London - they were particularly fabulous, extremely well done and seemed to be accurate, though I'd have to view them in slo-mo to give my final verdict on that.

If you have youngsters, take them to see Cars 2; if you don't have children, see the film anyway - it'll give you a good giggle.  I'm planning to see The Trip next week - a quirky English film about travelling, food criticism and impersonations of celebrities' voices...could a film be any more suited to me?!?!

I-R

xx

Welcome Back, Kotter.

Yes, yes, yes, so you KEEP saying.  I know I haven't blogged in a while.  A few months.  Okay, okay, it's been FIVE months.  Well, I'm back!

There's been some ups and downs...fortunately, more ups than downs (but the downs were pretty dark!).  Thankfully, life has reverted to (almost) normal.  After a lovely holiday at the Sunshine Coast, I'm getting back some of my mojo.  So I'll hopefully be blogging more regularly.

Two of my favourite blogs recently did posts about why people choose to blog.  (I must admit that it was these blogs that prompted me into returning to the blogging world.  That, and the fact that I'm feeling less stressed and more mojo-ed!) I was fascinated to read some of the responses.  Creativity, personal expression and cathartic healing seemed to be common themes.   I expect that the second reason is the compulsion for my blog.  I love reading blogs that use the other two reasons for inspiration and it's easy to become addicted to so many blogs.  Not starting a blog for so long was easy to do as I worried that I wouldn't know what to write or that I wouldn't get any followers.  Well, I still struggle with the first problem!  I still haven't decided on how personal to get with this blog and how much to divulge on it or even what direction it will take...but I'm going to allow it to be very organic.  Let's see where the information superhighway takes me!  As for followers, who cares?  If no one reads, I'll still write.  It's fun! 

Thankfully, too, the city of Brisbane seems to be getting back to some sort of fun, and even normality, after the trauma of the floods.  While areas outside Brisbane still have a loooooong way to go, the city is slowly rebooting and is online once more, albeit in a slightly restricted way.  There are still scars, still some healing to do (and I'm fully aware that this may never completely be achieved), but evidence is strong that things are picking up.

I can't say the same for the Sunshine Coast.  I've had many, many holidays there during my life (in all four seasons) and I've never seen the place so deserted.  Winter? - maybe.  GFC? - probably.  A combination of both? - most likely.  I really do hope and wish that things pick up very soon.  Still, it made for a peaceful holiday for me and my family.  Any break from the routine of everyday life and the challenges of the salt mines is pleasant, so I was happy.

And my daughter caught a fish, so the holiday proved to be very exciting.

Still, it's nice to be back...at home and in the blogging world.

I-R

xx

Little Steps...

Today, I felt like I achieved a few things. 

I got the children to school on MY schedule, managed to snag an excellent park, worked with the top level literacy group, caught up with a friend, scoped out some interesting properties to assist with planning our renovations, dropped off some Baked Relief to Herston, took a phone call regarding care packages of women's lingerie for flood-affected families, answered numerous emails about the flood relief response for the school, had a long phone conversation with school principal about the flood relief for families, started to help a friend with a legal problem, mooted some possible playdates for the kids, located an upset little girl's brother, treated my children to some ridiculously good ice cream, bought some more Merlo coffee beans, told my children two stories about when I was a child (at their request!), had the children bathed and their dinner (which included the requisite five steamed vegetables) served BEFORE Darling Daddy arrived home, checked my daughter's homework, read three books to my son, listened to my daughter reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, cooked dinner for my husband and made him coffee, caught up on Facebook goings-on and discovered some interesting new blogs!

Oh, and I also managed a 10-minute powernap, lunch and the Red Carpet Special of the SAG Awards.  AND posted a blog entry!!!

I wonder what tomorrow will bring...

xx

What to do when your computer freezes....

 Ummm....

PANIC!

Then, hope to all that is sacred to you that your photos and vital documents and irreplaceable information can be retrieved by one of the I.T. boffins who, thankfully, actually enjoy doing this type of work.  And thank your lucky stars that you don't have to go through that sort of pain.

Then you buy the biggest, fastest, most-pimping PC tower available to humankind and finally, you take a deep breath of relief as you get your life back.

I am, most mercifully and happily, a virtual person again.

Back to the blogging in the next few days......

:-)

xx

Brownies and damper and cupcakes - OH MY!

It’s been a weird ride and it just keeps getting weirder: two food drop-offs to the bomb site that is ‘Drift’ Restaurant today, giving an interview with ‘Baked Relief’ CEO, Danielle, to Channel 9 and finally a visit from ‘The Today Show’ where I was filmed baking damper in my kitchen. 

Strange days, indeed; most peculiar, Mama....

And so the clean-up continues.  My darling husband, who has worked like a galley slave, for three full days, as well as some nights (helping people move furniture, before the deluge started!), has had an enforced (by me) rest and recuperation day. A threatened tummy bug meant that I put my foot down, as I explained he would of no use to anyone if he got sick. He has announced his intention to visit Goodna tomorrow and I know he’ll be there, bug or no bug, aching back or not.

Meanwhile, I continue to bake and so do my lovely team of bakers.  Seeing ‘Drift’ today was worse than yesterday...today, I noticed the destroyed black grand piano.  This image “done me in”, as Eliza Dolittle would say.

Taken by Danielle Crismani
17/1/11
Drift Restaurant, Auchenflower

The other image that struck me heartily was a sign in Rosalie.  I will let the picture articulate my thousands of words; I am sure we all feel it at the moment.

Baroona Rd, Rosalie
17/1/11

Go, Brisbane!

xx

I am quite tired tonight, so my thoughts and words are somewhat non-linear. 
Perhaps Ms MacKellar can articulate my feelings in a slightly more moving, more descriptive way....

I Love A Sunburnt Country

---

Written by  Dorothea MacKellar (1908:  written 1906)

The love of field and coppice,
  Of green and shaded Lanes,
  Of ordered woods and gardens,
  Is running in your veins;
  Strong love of grey-blue distance,
  Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
  I know but cannot share it,
  My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,  A land of sweeping plains,
  Of ragged mountain ranges,
  Of drought and flooding rains,  I love her far horizons,
  I love her jewel sea,
  Her beauty and her terror -
  The wide brown land for me. 

The tragic ring-barked forests
  Stark white beneath the moon,
  The sapphire-misted mountains,
  The hot gold hush of noon.
  Green tangle of the brushes
  Where lithe lianas coil,
  An orchids deck the tree-tops
  And ferns the crimson soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
  Her pitiless blue sky,
  When sick at heart around us
  We see the cattle die -
  But then the grey clouds gather
  And we can bless again
  The drumming of an army,
  The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
  Land of the Rainbow Gold,
  For flood and fire and famine,  She pays us back threefold;
  Over the thirsty paddocks,
  Watch, after many days,
  The filmy veil of greenness
  That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
  A wilful, lavish land -
  All you who have not loved her,
  You will not understand -  Though Earth holds many splendours,
  Wherever I may die,
  I know to what brown Country
  My homing thoughts will fly.

While the original sentiments may be Dorothy's, the highlights are mine...

Photo: Michelle Kenna
Friday 14/01/2011
Brisbane Area Flood Photos & Info's Photos - Incredible Flood Photos - Facebook

Take care and keep working hard for the wide brown land and her people.
xx

Deluge, despair and deliciousness

Milton Road - an ocean view

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

"A Tale of Two Cities" - Charles Dickens, 1859

Disbelief.  Shock.  Sadness.  Horror.  Numbness.  Anger.  Futility.  Helplessness.  A tinge of Despair?

It’s been a week of mixed emotions and many of them have been raw, red raw.  Impossible to tear our eyes from the coverage of the floods, Queenslanders have lived out many of these emotions...and more.  While I, my immediate family and my extended family have been fortunate not to suffer from these floods, many friends, near-neighbours and favourite businesses have been taunted by this wicked mistress, this occasional demon that we know as the Brisbane River. 

And still, it is worse.  It is inconceivable to me how those bereaved people are managing to cope each day, every day, day by day – the ones who lost their children, their mothers, their husbands, their brothers, their loved ones.  The state, country and world weep for the people of Toowoomba who suffered the most and must still be dazed at what has happened to so many of their local communities.  Simply, our hearts break...

                                                         The boys arrive!               


Neighbours bring food with death, and flowers with sickness, and little things in between.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” - Harper Lee, 1960

And yet, there is wonder, beauty and goodness EVERYWHERE in our midst.  Look, for example, at the repeated images from around the state of men, women and children, neighbours, friends, colleagues, customers and, best of all, strangers, helping one another to dust it all off, get up and start all over again.  How can this be?  More adjectives appear – incredible, amazing, caring, giving, bighearted.  They all apply.  People giving so, so generously of their time, their efforts and their money to help other human beings.  Even the cynics amongst us cannot fail to be moved at these sights.  It shows the human spirit at its finest and its most basic and I simply love it.

Digella, spreading the word on 'Baked Relief'

From little things big things grow, from little things big things grow...

“From little things big things grow” - Paul Kelly & Kev Carmody, 1991

While I have neither shovelled any mud nor lifted any sofas, I’ve tried to do my own little part, as best I may.  I’ve joined a wonderful cause and, not surprisingly, it’s related to food.  More specifically, baking – no trophies for guessing I’d be keen for this!  ‘Baked Relief’ started a lone woman (aka Digella) taking some late-night cupcakes to her local SES Station and has grown into a city-wide co-ordinated movement with people baking, baking, BAKING to provide the wonderfully kind volunteer workers with food to nourish both their bodies and spirits.  If you haven’t joined the cause, get out your recipes, butter and flour and start your ovens!  I’ll let you in on a not-so-secret secret....Digella had me at the word, ‘cupcakes’! 

                                                                       - - - - - - - -

So, as a city and state, we continue.  One of the children my sister and I looked after today (while his father was cleaning strangers’ houses in knee-deep mud) has a birthday tomorrow.  I was honoured to quickly make a birthday cake for him, to give to his father, so that the lad can blow out some candles tomorrow and songs may be sung to him.  Life does, and MUST, go on.  When I spoke to this boy’s father tonight, I spontaneously started a sentence with, “When things get back to normal...”.  I stopped speaking and we looked at each other.  “What will normal mean?” we both exclaimed at the same time and I wondered...  When will people go back to work?  When will the traffic lights work?  When can we be assured that Coronation Drive will not slip into the river and create another tragedy?  When will our children have their school back in a fit, clean and complete state?  When can the grieving process begin properly, respectfully, so that those lost may be mourned with the dignity and love they deserve?  Questions without answers....

As I said to my beloved children when we surveyed the seemingly endless ocean that was, bizarrely, Wednesday’s Milton Road, “Poor old Brisbane.  She’s going to need a bit of a shine-up after all of this, isn’t she?”

We’re onto it, old girl, and we’ll get there.

xx

                                                    Our community's beloved school

Too wet to go out; And too cold to play ball...

While it continues to be ark-building weather at the moment, the virtual world beckons.  So, too, does the cinematic world.  We did the 'family' thing yesterday and took in Disney's new flick, Tangled, a retelling of the Rapunzel story.  It was more than bearable and I will admit to welling up during a couple of scenes - once due to the emotion and once due to the sheer visual spectacle.  As an added bonus, the requisite 'companion' to each of the main characters are not annoying and do not even speak.  I have to admit that I'm still scarred by Ariel's Flounder (even though we've only read a tie-in picture book and not even seen the film!) and Jar-Jar Binks from the Star Wars fiasco..... 

If you have young children, it's worth a try.

Either that or consider building an ark...

I-R
xx

A New Year's Resolution...

Ho ho ho...and would you like Santa to bring you this Christmas, m'dear? 
Well, I'd like lots of lovely presents.  But I will make a New Year's resolution and give myself a lovely new blog!

Yes, it's been a long time coming and, yes, it's another thing that will possibly consume my life, but it's another creative outlet for me and something fun with which to experiment.

Prepare yourself for an overuse of exclamation marks, discussions about food and bunting, yearnings for more pairs of red shoes, musings about people as well as a few lectures on whatever topic I deem to be of importance.

It's my blog and I'll rant if I want to.

I-R
xx