2008 – Page 8 – helenthura.com

September 11, 2008

Birthday Eve

I had a bit of flex time up my sleeve so I had a Birthday Eve day off (also because I was taking cake to work for my birthday and I wanted cake on my birthday not on the day before or after). I slept in till 7am!!! I did some washing, took care of the 1.8kg hunk of Pancetta I picked up last week, replied to some emails and then I headed off into the city. First off I collected my ticket for the Brandenburg concert and then I went to GOMA and checked out the Picasso exhibit at last (it closes on Sunday), that was everything I thought it was going to be and more. It was a really well presented exhibit. Getting a chance to see the works of Matisse, CÃ©zanne, Rousseau, Renoir and all the other pieces that Picasso had collected presented alongside his own work was really good. At the GOMA shop I picked up one of the spilt pain teacup sets, it looks so good (I will take a photo of it later)

Then I headed into the city and made a stop at Lush to buy my birthday present to myself and had a wander round the shops and I made the best discovery in Mountain Designs. Keen now makes/sells bags! Oh they had some cool bags. So cool!

After a bit more of a wander and a visit to Blue Cats for some chocolate goodies, I headed out of the city and home and then onto my parents home. On the way I stopped at the flower market and picked up some flowers.

Pabbi cooked skonsur for dinner which was quite enjoyable, it has been sooo sooo long since I have had skonsur. I got to the kitchen table at dinner and there was a package waiting at my place. I was not expecting any presents at all as the deal is after you turn 21 you don’t get birthday presents any more. I opened the package after tea and it was pack of hankies 😀 Nice lady hankies. I had commented to Mum a couple of weeks ago that I hadn’t been able to find nice hankies. Now I have some 🙂 After that I cooked my birthday cake (pretty much this recipe, photo coming soon) for work today as the oven at their place is just a little bit better than the oven we have at the flat.

Then it was home time to watch The Hollowmen(man oh man I love that show) and then bed 😀 so I would be ready for a busy as usual day at work today 😀

September 10, 2008September 9, 2008

Lamb Casserole

I rarely make a meal which just gives me one meal, I like to get at least three meals out of whatever I am cooking. This lamb casserole/tagine I made last week gave me six meals as there were six chops in the pot 😀 and I had the last one today for lunch at work

I mixed together a spice paste of turmeric, ginger, coriander, cinnamon and cumin with a little bit of oil and fresh garlic. I melted some ghee in my pot and fried off the spice paste a little, then it was in with the chops to brown them. Then a little while later the onions and fennel went in and were covered with water and a bit of tomato passata, then some apricots, dates, raisins, rose water, almonds and green lentils. Left to simmer for a long time I ended up with with the most delightful meal, the lamb was falling off the bone, the lentils were perfect and the sauce was just the right thickness. Served on a bed of cous cous with yoghurt and chives on top I had a a perfect meal to say goodbye to winter with 😀

September 9, 2008September 9, 2008

Bridge to Brisbane

On Sunday I did the Bridge to Brisbane with a friend who works in the Maroochydore recruiting office and another one of her friends. We completed the 10km walk/jog in a little under 1hr 20 mins and shortly after we crossed the finish line, we were deciding that our goal for next year was to jog the entire way and hopefully get near the 1hr mark.

It was such a great morning. Everyone was happy,sweaty and content. As we entered the RNA grounds, I picked up my pace and moved into a faster jog, thinking that the finish line was just round the corner, except it wasn’t just round the corner. I rounded corner after corner till I saw the gates to the arena that marked the 200m to go mark. I wanted to stop but I knew that if I stopped or slowed down my pace I wouldn’t get to the finish line, plus there were heaps of people lining the final 200m who had already completed the race and well I didn’t want to look like I had walked the entire race did I? I crossed that finish line and man oh man I was slightly buggered but I felt so good.

Now I am just waiting for midday on Thursday (my birthday!) for the results to come online to see where I placed in the 36000 people who competed.

September 1, 2008

Fireworks, music and photos

One of my favourite pieces of work to play either on Flute or Bassoon at high school was Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Water Musicso imagine my delight when I saw an ad in the paper on the weekend saying that the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra was about to start touring this piece! I booked my ticket this morning and thanked my mother for qualifying for the under 30 price 😀 The tour includes Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne, details here.

On the topic of fireworks, this past Saturday night was Riverfire, the night that Brisbane puts on a firework show just because we are Brisbane and we have a mighty cool river. This year unlike previous years, I watched Riverfire from the hill that I live on.

I loved how they had coordinated the fireworks so well together. There was some song about two hearts and they had the heart shaped fireworks 😀

sigh fireworks.

The second dump and burn to mark the end of the show.

This is the view from my hill and the about a third of the crowd (the rest were behind me)

August 29, 2008August 28, 2008

Sunday Cooking

On Sunday after spending the last 36 odd hours in bed resting to avoid the beginnings of a cold get any worse I made Chicken soup. It started off with the roasting of chook and some carcasses I had in the freezer. Once the chicken had roasted I stripped it, saving the meat to go into the soup later on and the bones for the stock. I sweated some onions, carrots and leeks in the pot, then I added the chicken bones/skin, water and some sage and let it simmer gently for an hour or two. Then I strained it and strained it again through cheesecloth. Then I let it cool and cracked an egg white into it and brought it back up to heat to clarify it. I read about using the egg white to clarify it in Michael Ruhlman’s book The Elements of Cooking which I am reading with much joy at the moment. I ended up with the most glorious stock, just this delightful chicken flavour. I froze half of the stock to use at a later date and left the other half in the pot and added an assortment of diced vegetables, macaroni and the chicken and let it all simmer again.

When it was all cooked I had this pot of the most delightful soup I have ever made with enough for about 7 meals 😀 I like it when I have lots of leftovers 😀

August 28, 2008August 26, 2008

Leftovers Quiche

This is a quiche I made the other week has a handy way to use up assorted deli goods, vegetables and pastry in the fridge. The quiche was filled with sautÃ©ed onions, garlic, capsicum and shallots, sun dried tomatoes, Camembert, ricotta, lots and lots of thyme, the yummiest smoked olives and of course some egg, cream and seasoning to bind it all together. It was so so so so so good and such a nice treat for lunch at work, where I would give it a burst in the microwave before placing it on the sandwich grill to crisp it all up. Just a quick and easy way to use up some leftovers in the fridge.