Posted on

Sesame Somen Noodle Salad with Smoked Salmon

After I finished all my exams on Wednesday, I popped into Borders on the way home to check out the magazines, I walked out with the November issue of ABC Delicious which came with a July back issue 🙂 as well as the Donna Hay Spring issue that they still had on the shelves and the current Donna Hay Celebrate issue (which has the most gorgeous Christmas ideas in for example a biscuit wreath and a succulent leaf star).

After working Wednesday and doing some scrapbooking (The Story Bridge and Breadsticks Recipe It wasn’t till Thursday that I could sit down with some sticky notes and mark my way through the magazine. It was also my turn to cook tea last night so I dished up the recipe that had grabbed me the most.

Sesame Somen Noodle Salad with Smoked Salmon.
400g Somen noodles
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 or 3 shallots
1/4 cup chives (which I forgot)
1 or 2 small cucumbers (though I used zucchini, since Mum refuses to eat cucumber)
200g smoked salmon, roughly chopped
1 cup mint leaves

Cook the noodles and drain. Combine the soy sauce, brown sugar and sesame seeds in a large bowl. Add the other ingredients and noodles, lightly toss to combine. Serves 4

My notes.
As I am not a fan or raw shallots or zucchini, I gave them a quick cook in the pan (1 or 2 minutes on a high heat). 1 cup of mint leaves is total overkill, it turned out really as Mint Noodle Salad, next time go more for 1/4 cup or less. Maybe add some sesame oil to the dressing to add a bit more flavour. Recipe says it serves 4, but really would serve 5 with comfort and some left for lunch.

salmon noodles
Posted on

new library books

I have always loved going to the library and taking my time there, I mean time, rarely I am out of there in under 45mins. I mainly go for non-fiction books, I guess one reason is that it is easy enough to have a quick flick and decide if you will like the book. One thing about books is that you are always learning, I often get at least three or so photography books on all topics especially those that are not things that I normally photograph as I am always able to gain a new piece of wisdom.

I went tonight and came out with a swag of books, which are as follows.

Crafting Frames at Home – The Editors of Country Living

Hardware Style : 100 Creative Decorating Ideas Using Materials from Every Aisle of the Home Center Store – Marthe Le Van

The Encyclopedia of Quilting and Patchwork Techniques – Katharine Guerrier (different edition though)

Poster Art in Australia: The Streets as Art Galleries Walls Sometimes Speak – Roger Butler with National Gallery of Australia

How to Take Great Photographs at Night : Carefully Structured Assignments to Help Improve Your Technique – Richard Newman

Photographing People – John Hedgecoe

Capturing the Night With Your Camera: How to Take Great Photographs After Dark – John Carucci

Weekend Projects: Over 150 Quick and Easy Makeovers – Petra Boase

Fast, Fun & Easy Irresist-A-Bowls – Linda Johansen

Portfolios That Sell: Professional Techniques for Presenting and Marketing Your Photographs – Selina Oppenheim

Special Effects Photography (Pro-Photo Series) – David Daye

The AVA Guide to Travel Photography – Keith Wilson

Discover Australia By Road – Hema Maps

Viewfinder: 100 Top Locations For Great Travel Photography – Keith Wilson

Simple Knits for Sophisticated Living: Quick-Knit Projects from Beautiful, Chunky Yarns – Barbara Albright

200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans : Crochet Squares to Mix and Match – Jan Eaton

Posted on

browsing in Borders

ok so imagine this.

Young funky girl wearing a pair of moleskin pants, a Kahlua tee and a bulging back pack on back, wondering round Borders after finishing another exam. Decides to go to the top level where the bargain buys are, see if I can find anything I like – nothing much. Now over to cooking that is on the same floor – nothing grabs my eye here either so I wander over to the craft section and smack bang in the middle shelf of the craft section, is the book – The Complete Book of Creative Scrapbooking a whole shelf of our book.

So what does this girl do?
does she
a) just keep on browsing and pretend not to notice it.
b) saunter over and have a flick through and mutter to self about how good looking that guy is on page 75.
or c) pull out mobile phone and ring Barb to tell her that our book has it’s own shelf at Borders, meanwhile having staff and customers look over in awe and amazement.

Now if you picked C you are right of course. I am going to have to go back with a smaller camera and take a photo – didn’t really want to pull out the DSLR and ask someone to take a photo.

Then one of the staff that was near me comes over and asks me which one is the book and proceeds to tell me that he only made that display yesterday 🙂 and chats with me about the book and the process. How cool 🙂

Posted on

for the engineers in my life.

Karl, Dina and co and the rest of you.

Mum was given this today.

An engineer was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, “If you kiss me, I’ll turn into a beautiful princess.”

He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week.”

The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket.

The frog then cried out, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I’ll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want.” Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, “What is the matter? I’ve told you I’m a beautiful princess, that I’ll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won’t you kiss me?”

The engineer said, “Look I’m an engineer. I don’t have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that’s cool.”

Posted on

running

I scribbled this down just after I had got on the connecting bus this arvo.

My life is about running, running between buses, to buses, running to meet someone, to make a deadline, to get somewhere, running always running.

Running to the bus and then sitting simply, quietly in my seat, waiting again to get somewhere at some time.

Breathing fast, heart pumping, bag swinging, getting to the bus, weaing in and out of people, getting to the bus, getting to a commitment.

Always running to something. The final stage of getting home, the walk, is my single piece of simply free time, commitments are nil, time is mine, stopping to enjoy the ride. Walking.

Posted on

Imported Magazines

Borders, Borders, Borders, why do you treat my heart so bad?

I had to buy a new monthly bus ticket today, since the bus from uni was 20mins late I would not make it back to my normal bus in time after going up to central station to get a ticket so I decided to get the next bus and spend some time enjoying the city.

First stop was Borders mmm love that shop. Except I normally walk out empty handed because I just have to love reading US magazines like Real Simple but with a cover price of AU$13.95 (~US$10.69) and increasing, more often then not I only allow myself a flick. I emailed Real Simple today though to see about international subs as the site only has info for USA and Canada. I would love to get RS in the mail each month, sigh. I hope they do Int’l subs.

I also saw some cool books that I like the look of which I have added to my text list on the right some though I did not scribble down the name of or they are not yet on USA Amazon. This book in particular is one I can’t wait to get my hands on – Falling Cloudberries. It is one of those cook books where every recipe looked like something that everyone in the house would eat. I like those sort of cook books – cook books for real life.

On the way up to central station I went via Queens Plaza, not long now till it will be finished then I can do some serious window shopping, from what I could see it looks like it will be a visual delight. Opening date is said to be May 24th. sweet.