Friday 29 March 2013

March 28th Happy Easter

Surprise, Surprise, it's the Easter Bunny Kinder Surprise. I bought this guy as I thought for anyone follicly challenged (ie not blessed with a particularly full head of hair) they could pop this guy on their head and from a distance it may look like a Hare
(don't you just love the English language)


Thursday 28 March 2013

March 27th Pick Pick

Todays blog is me being picky. Now have a look at this photo...



Yes it is the common Tooth Pick, aka Dentiscalpium. Used to pick sticky bits out from in between your teeth. Also excellent to poke one into each side of an avocado stone, suspend it in water and it will eventually take root and you can plant it. Or if you find a mouse with a broken leg and you are of that type of animal loving persuasion, you could use one as a splint - on the mouse's broken leg. You get my drift.

But this blog isn't about 101 uses for a Tooth Pick. I am being picky (pardon the pun).  I often find them on the coffee table, they have been known to turn up on the bedside table  (not on my side of the bed I would like to stress). Or I have even found the stray one on the kitchen bench or dining table

Somehow these little bits of wood just miraculously appear. I am beginning to think we have a Dentiscalpium ghost in the house!

Tuesday 26 March 2013

March 25th A Not Irrelephant Elephant

I have realised that my blog has been scarce of those wonderful large plant eating Mammals, aka Elephants. The shock, the horror - here am I an elephant lover, our house is a homage to elephants,  and yet there has been a shortage of elephants in my blog.

I thought it time to post a photo of one of my somewhat vast collection. Which one to choose, which one? The smallest? The largest? The wackiest? Close to My Heart? Close to My Heart won the day.  This is the very first elephant that George bought as a gift for me.


He is a fairly thick and solid chappie and made of glass. He stands approx. 20cm high and has those wonderful green and blue swirly twirly bits inside.

I am going to give you the romantic background to him. Our first weekend away together was at Whitianga. That is where a tradition was borne that we still carry on to this day, when visiting Whitianga or Cooks Beach etc. We drive over via Tairua and then come home the much longer, but extremely scenic route via Matarangi to Coromandel township, and home via the Thames Coast. On this very first occasion we decided to call into Coromandel for a coffee and smooch around, as you do.

If I walk into a Gift shop, or any shop for that matter, I can spot an elephant at 100 paces - no matter what his or her size may be. To digress for a minute, I can also do the same with creepy crawlies - and they do the same with me - but that will have to be another blog for another day.  Back to Coromandel and browsing in a shop,  I spied this elephant. I looked at the price tag, fainted without appearing to faint whilst in an upright position. And nonchalantly carried on browsing. What followed was music to my ears. "Did you see this"? My reply "Yes, but it's too expensive"

And then there were three for the journey back to Hamilton.

Monday 25 March 2013

March 24th Foodie Sunday

Sundays tend to be food focussed. OK I confess... every day is food focussed. However, when you don't have the pressures of work etc, Sunday fits the bill perfectly.

The day started with a bit of marinading for the butterflied lamb to be bbq'd later on for dinner


Garlic cloves and Rosemary (both home grown) marinading in olive oil. The lamb was butterflied so I put the garlic and rosemary in the middle and brushed the outside of the lamb with the oil. Hasselback Potatoes are also accompanying the lamb, and this was brushed with the left over oil.

Next up were these..


Eww I hear you say - what is that? Fear not. This is bbq'd eggplant, that has been peeled and left to drain (on a slope) of all juices overnight.

Chop finely with red onion (a 2 eggplants to one red onion ratio), and then you have this...


That is mayonnaise on top. Home made? Doh no. Come on it's Sunday, and I deserve some R & R (ie Red Wine and Reading).  And the final result looks like this:


Doesn't look great does it? But the taste is wonderful believe me. You can use this as a dip, as a side salad, or on Pizza - ie replace your usual tomato paste base with the above It gives Pizza's a wonderful creamy texture, and just that bit of 'something different oomph'

And that was the Sunday that was.


Sunday 24 March 2013

March 23rd A Strange Saturday

What a series of strange events for a Saturday.  Usually when I walk Minnie, I let her take the lead. I know that is contrary to all dog obedience rules and she should be so many steps behind or beside me. But to my way of thinking this is her time and she should choose where and how far we go. Which she does.

Until today...  It's obvious she is getting older as our walks are shorter than they used to be. And she has a set route and set pee points. ie Cross the road, a wee in their driveway, walk so many paces another wee, a wee on the corner and turn right, and so on and so on.

Today, I wanted to go a particular way. Believe me, she was not happy. She kept trying to cross the road and I kept pulling her back. Until we got to the corner and she resigned herself to a turn left instead of a turn right.

This is where sadness comes into play. On this historic and much longer route, we got to know who lives where, the elderly dears in their gardens that we often would stop and chat to. We came upon where our first elderly dear lived, and there was a huge for sale sign at the front and the house is obviously empty.

Carry on around the corner with a slightly heavier heart. I spied in the distance amongst some large trees, a man who looked like he was drunk and passed out. As we got closer, I noticed he was fast asleep. His phone was on the grass in front of him and his cap was also on the grass. What would you do in this situation? I didn't know whether he was pleasantly asleep in a deep alcoholic dream (a 1/4 full bottle of beer was in front of him)  or some P addict that would attack me if I gave him a poke in the chest. I went back to the shop which is not even 50 metres away - and the lady came out with me to inspect him - I must say from the safety of the front of her shop. Her husband was away, so she couldn't leave the shop to get up close.  And still he did not move. We both agreed that as I wasn't returning that way, she would wait half an hour and if he was still in that same position, she would ring an ambulance. George is on a course today, but when he touched base with me later, he said he would call into the shop for me and enquire as to what happened. Fingers crossed there isn't a Police cordon with tapes in that area :(  (a late update - all good and strange passed out man has moved)

Down to the corner and a left turn, and I was so pleased to see my furry plant still intact. It has the kind of leaves you can't walk past, without giving them a gentle rub. Furry Plant hedge remains - yay for that. Allow me to present Furry Plant hedge.


Down the road we go. Blow me down, another For Sale Sign on another Elderly Dear's house that looked empty. All my old dears are leaving the area (either for nudge nudge up there or a rest home somewhere).

Onwards we went, and back to normality and a walk around Lake Rotokaeo (which is actually Forest Lake). A piece of did you know needs to be inserted here. Kaeo means Fresh Water Mussels, and Roto is Lake - so at one time Forest Lake was full of Fresh Water Mussels (presumably)


Slap Bang in Suburbia - who would know?s

Birds of a Feather?

Duck Duck

Back to suburbia, and someone on our street is having a birthday.


mmm we might have Lithuanians living on our street - that is the colours of the Lithuanian Flag (another did you know for the day). Curiouser and Curiouser or just a mad coincidence?
And isn't it grand how the letterboxes are in love!


Friday 22 March 2013

Thursday 21 March 2013

March 20th Bad Photo

You most probably wonder why I have made this my photo of the day. It is a very bad photo - no qualms about that. But....

I was at traffic lights and an old school VW, driven by a young school pup was behind me. I was in my new school VW, driven by an old school - shall we say bitch, because I sure as hell ain't no pup!

Both our Beetles were the same shade of green. I was that gobsmacked I tried to take a photo with my phone (with the reverse camera) and ended up getting a bit of my hair (note the just out of bed but took ages to accomplish sticky up-y bit) and my ear (no matter what time of day, they just plain stick out), and you can just make out the shape of the Beetle behind me.

And then the lights turned green, which is what we both were - and we took off on our own little journeys. Who knows maybe our paths (tires) will indeed cross treads again. 




Wednesday 20 March 2013

March 19th Walks with Minnie


Someone has got a new fence
(ps moving  into bitch mode - shame the two flats housed within, don't match the fence)



And with the recent rain, nature's balance has been restored. Green grass and blue sky. Let's hope they are here to stay


And moving from an urban park, to urban living. These railway tracks are fully fenced with barbed wire and a very long concrete fence. You almost have to admire the graffiti artists for being able to get in and apply their signature. Just wish they could do better art work - a la Banksy

Monday 18 March 2013

March 17th A Wet Substance



And the clouds (or the Lord depending upon your persuasion) decreed that it may rain
And the plants gave a huge sigh of relief to be released from their pain
The cobwebs mingled with water droplets to give an unusual sight
on plant leaves that absorbed as much as they could, to relieve their plight


Sunday 17 March 2013

March 16th A Man in the Kitchen

Starting his preparations for tomorrow. First take a large amount of minced pork.....


Saturday 16 March 2013

March 15th A Mechanical Beast

It was necessary to utilise a mechanical beast today. It definitely is of this earth, but in recent times has very rarely seen light of day



Friday 15 March 2013

March 14th Doggone it

Who says I have to act a certain way. If I am comfortable sitting like this - and I notice everyone else in this house does - then I will sit like this.  Now shove off and get me some treats

Cough Cough Earth to Minnie - we may sit like that but we don't flash the family jewels. Close your legs woman!


Thursday 14 March 2013

March 13th Scope for a Pope


I read the Catholic Church is on the look out for a new Pope
by now I guess all CVs are submitted, unless they are a dope
(or possible puffed some - but I guess that's a nope)
Apparently when successful a chimney will smoke
so I stood outside and looked at ours full of hope
no white smoke, no black smoke, there was nary a sign
hey hurry up you guys, and make up your mind!








Wednesday 13 March 2013

March 12th The Sublime


This Kaffir Lime is our baby. Only purchased at the end of January from the 'King of Garden Centres' ie Rogers in South Auckland, and it was an extremely expensive purchase. Now look at all the wee babies and this is only a small portion of the plant. It is impossible to walk past the pot without a gentle rub of a leaf, and memories of Thailand come flooding back. Aaahhh I feel a poem coming on..

A Kaffir lime is a beautiful thing
the smell when you rub the leaves makes me sing
and cooking with limes makes Thai food just right
As for what it does to a Gin, it is every gin lovers delight!


Tuesday 12 March 2013

March 11th Shakshuka

Sorry if you are disappointed, but Shakshuka is not some new exercise craze where you Shake ya Shuka. It is actually an Israeli recipe. I needed to use up our surplus of garden tomatoes, and went a googling as you do. As in Google Google Gooo, look what I found for you......

I stumbled upon an Israeli recipe which is called Shakshuka. There are restaurants in Israel entirely devoted to the serving of Shakshuka. So I rolled up my non existent sleeves - hey guys, it is summertime here and we are in the middle of a heatwave - and decided for dinner we would go Vegetarian. Which would be the second night in a row for us - I wonder if I could stretch it to one week and someone wouldn't notice - oops just spotted a pink pig in flight whistling by the window. Yes, Shakshuka would be our meal of choice (well the cook's meal of choice to be perfectly honest).

The dish is very simple. Tomatoes are the base ingredient of the dish. So it stands to reason you start off with these


Then the following are added. See that beautiful red chilli there - grown in the garden of yours truly, as were the above tomatoes


Now it's time to start cooking, and first into the pot, with some olive oil, is finely diced onion


After that has softened, the chilli and garlic are added. From a colour perspective, in the below photo it is a case of Ten Points if you can Spot the Garlic


Now it's time to add the capsicum


Oh yes, you are looking (and smelling) good. When all is nice and soft, time to put in the tomatoes


Not forgetting the spices which were cumin, paprika, cayenne and sugar.  The next step is the final surprise ingredient. You didn't think that was it did you?


And your dish finally looks like this and is ready to eat with some good crusty bread to mop up the juices, and a glass of good red wouldn't go amiss

 
And that my darlings, is your introduction to Shakshuka. Now shak your shuka's and go and do some work!

 

Monday 11 March 2013

March 10th Fishy Three Cheeses


 Today was a chillaxing Sunday. Catching up on Coro (get that Becky and the way she has lost the plot. And as for Royston's mother, well I never!) followed by missed episodes of Africa (the plight of the elephants made me cry). The creme de la creme of that TV viewing episode, was us having a supposed 40 winks which extended to a two hour nap.

After that marathon of a busy Sunday, we decided it was time to attend to some food duties. George set to outside, smoking a Kahawai caught in the deep blue yesterday.


Which ended up looking like this


I just thought I would add another angle so you could admire my photography prowess

And whilst he was outside tending to that, I was inside making a 'Three Cheese Courgette Filo Tart'
George was given two courgettes that were marrow sized and the day after, in my inbox, a recipe arrived for this recipe.

The recipe comprised Filo Pastry  and confession of confessions - I have always been too scared to attempt anything that used Filo Pastry due to stories of having to work fast (like that is in my vocabulary) and copious amounts of melted butter. But I had the courgettes (that resembled marrows), purchased some ricotta, gruyere and grated parmesan and voila, here is my 'Three Cheese Courgette that is actually a Marrow Filo Tart'.  Yes, I will be making this again, and working with Filo isn't that difficult.


And can I just add, mine looks nicer than the recipe I followed. They made individual ones in ramekins, and the filo hung over the side. I decided to pretty mine up and bought the filo up over the top.  Oh and I improvised - they had two tubs of ricotta, I only had one so instead used a tub of sour cream. The recipe said two eggs and two egg yolks. No way I am having spare egg whites hanging around. Everyone knows that if you have egg whites hanging around you have to make meringues - so I had free range eggs of varying sizes from next door's hens - and used 5 of them - the eggs silly, not the hens!!

Sunday 10 March 2013

March 9th It's Grass as we know it

 Contrasts in the Park




 This is green grass for those in our drought region who have forgotten what it looks like. And in a matter of steps away, the above changed to this


And it was all located here



Can someone pinch me and remind me this is Hamilton, NZ I am in and not Australia?

Saturday 9 March 2013

March 8th Buds

A seasonal change is just about upon us
and even plants are ready to stretch and make a fuss
When I looked at our espalliered Camellia I couldn't believe my eyes
to see buds all over, what a lovely surprise



Thursday 7 March 2013

March 6th Emotive Advertising

Talk about pulling at your heart strings. I never really took much notice of the labels before on these jars of coffee. But I would love to know the co-relation between 'Open your heart, you know that you can' and a cup of coffee? So does this mean I can only enjoy this coffee after I have open heart surgery?




Wednesday 6 March 2013

March 5th Consensus?

cen·sus  

/ˈsensəs/

Noun
An official count or survey of a population, typically recording various details of individuals.

And this is what it looks like....

Tuesday 5 March 2013

March 4th A Fishy Blog

Tonight we had a particular wish
for dinner it would be nice to have some fish
Preferably smoked would be just nice
To put in a white sauce to have with mashed spuds, not rice
George smoked some Snapper on a whim
and then Andrei and Olimpia called in
They shared with us some Kahawai
Believe me, tonights dinner was definitely ka pai
(ka pai - origin Maori, meaning good, well done - not as in beef well done, but bravo well done)



Monday 4 March 2013

March 3rd Alien Substances

This morning a rare substance fell from the sky
It was wet and soft and from it we did not shy
Then we remembered it was something called rain
but I certainly had to rack my brain
Unfortunately it did not last
our lawn and garden did not receive a blast
so it looks like this drought is set to carry on
and days like this we can only dwell upon


Sunday 3 March 2013

March 2nd 恭贺新禧

Saturday started in it's fairly usual pattern. George up at god knows what hour to go fishing, I didn't even hear him leave. Grocery shopping for me at Rak n Ruin - although interesting $$$ fact of the day. I realise there are price anomalies between P n S and other supermarkets, but here is an interesting do you know. Their Schweppes Tonic Water is a whole $1 cheaper for the 1.5 litre than at NW. But this blog isn't about grocery prices, but I really had to insert that important fact in - especially for those like me that need that necessary ingredient to go with the Gin. As for meat, bread, milk prices - who gives a toss - their tonic water is cheaper!

Anyway, home I came - and Steph called in with the girls to share birthday wishes with me. And here is my birthday card. Havana especially picked this card at the shop, as she told Steph that Nana's favourite colour is purple





And here are her birthday wishes inside (not bad for a nearly 4 year old).


In the drawing on the left hand side you can see on the right hand side of the drawing, objects with legs - the very top one is me, the middle one is George and the teeny one at the bottom is Havana.

After the girls left and George came home - time to head into Hamilton for the Chinese Lantern Festival, joined by Alvin, Alicia and the lovely Ella


Some dude and hairy things wanted in on the action
Peace Brother

Peek a Boo I See You

If you insist..







and then time to head down the road for dinner - and here is some colour in central Hamilton


A great way to brighten up an ugly green power box thingee

followed by dinner, and little Ella agreeing that she likes dining at Yum

By the way, the food at Yum is Yum