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Risotto

Chicken risotto made with free range chicken stock and a whole lotta gutso!

Ready for the future

I feel like I've achieved so much today!

I love taking time out of an afternoon for a soothing mug of ginger tea and my French homework

...

4 attempts, a bakers dozen of eggs, 1 litre of sunflower oil and I can say I've successfully made mayonnaise!

Im almost ready!

I've just completed hour 5 of the Michel Thomas corse for iPhone! Yippee!

French Nouns and their definite Articles

When I was younger I never realized how effective 'Look, Cover, Write, Check' was. I'm memorizing French nouns along with their gender of articles and this method is working like a charm. I write a list of say 15 words or so and memorize them within a week. Then change the list to new words once I've got those down pat. Here are some I'm working on:

Mad as a hatter

The party was a magnificent success! There was tea, nibbles and sweets galore. Red Queens, Rabbits, a few Alices, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum, A White Queen and a Mad Hatter. 'Drink Me' potions, 'Eat Me' cake,

Derp!

It seems Im living life in ADD. I have so many dreams, passions and aspirations Im trying to do that Im getting sidetracked by all the other dreams, passions and aspirations Im wanting to do that I only DO half of the things Im trying TO DO! GAH! Its frustrating. Anyway Ive done a few sketches, STARTED reading The Pillars of The Earth (Ken Follett - its amazing by the way), attempted a painting, sluggishly wadded through books of French grammar, wrote up an exercise and diet regime (that I will stick to religiously - No more Tim Tams for me), continued with my 100 day Bible reading plan, cooked a risotto which resulted in my breaking the stove, signed up to tennis lessons, stressed a tonne for my visa/tried to come up with an alternative solution, tried to master a piece of emotionally charged sheet music by the brilliant Beethoven ANNNNND I just accidently burnt my hair on my bedside table tea lights. Fuck life. Im going to watch Little Women in bed and conk out.

Spring

The sun is out, it's been in exile and is desperate to shed light.

The temperature is slowly rising...

There's hope for us after all!

Origami!

For my gorgeous little sisters 9^th birthday we are having an Alice in Wonderland tea party. And yours truly is the mad hatter. Its slowly creeping up and I haven’t thought of any costume designs yet but Im sure ill be able to razz up something on the day. Anyway, for the decorations we need 100+ cranes and other beautiful origami shapes so were slaving away all night folding and folding. We ended up making around 20 cranes each so we’re halfway there.

As I was searching for instructions on how to create shapes I stumbled upon these aperture lamps by Claire Norcross. They’re at a store called Habitat in Paris! If only I had known about them when I was there I definitely would’ve popped in and seen them.

It hailed today

Hobart is greyer than ever today.

It hailed while I watched on in wonder.

Listening to this makes it alright.

Listening to: Arcade Fire - The suburbs

Lomography

Digital film has taken the world by storm, there are many more people embracing a passion for photography than ever before. So, is film photography dying? Lomographic society begs to differ. And I for one am riding on the train with arms flailing incessantly.

Im in love with lomography.

 

Quel est-il? Pretty much lomography is taking a cheap plastic ‘kodak’ camera and POSSIBLY making an interesting and artistic print. You must be very cleaver in choosing the right subject, lighting conditions, etc, and know how to make use of the cameras defects. There is an extremely fine line to creating a good lomography image. Lomography cameras, like the Holga and Diana are made almost entirely out of plastic. They sometimes have problems with light leaks, soft focus or colour fringing because of the poor quality lens, however its this aspect that will create a parfait image IF you know how to take advantage of these defects….key word: IF.

I wanna give it a crack!

Listening to: Led Zeppelin - Whole lotta' love

Serge Gainsbourg - Les Sucettes

Les Sucettes; a song written in 1966 by Serge Gainsbourg for a budding singer - France Gall, is a song about a girl sucking on an anis-filled lollipop. Unfortunately, the underage Gall had no clue that the song was an innuendo for oral sex, apparently her guardian’s didn’t either. Or peut-etre they were in on it too...

High fashion perler beads by Sabine Ducasse

"As DIY crafts go, perler beads are about as simple as they come — lay them out, sit an iron on top for a few seconds, and they’ll stick together. (We won’t say ‘easy’ because even perler beads are easy to screw up.) While our creativity was limited to ironing 2-D representations of our favorite cartoon characters, designer Sabine Ducasse’s Melting Pot collection wraps a wearable, iron-melted sheet of the little dots around a person. Ducasse’s retro style pops off her model, bending around the shoulders like a set of pixelated wings. Even the styling is retro, in an 8-bit, psychedelic way, but Ducasse’s throwback to old toys was modern enough to win her a scholarship at the International Fashion Academy. The contest’s “East Meets West” theme was perfect for the French-born, Shanghai-based designer, whose collection saw the hemispheres and the decades literally melt into each other."
                                                                                                                     - wired.com

 

 

The Flag Of Japan

Spread the word to raise funds for Japan

www.japan-flags.com

Listening to: Simon &Garfunkel - Bridge over troubled water



Je parle français!

Oui, d'accord seulment un peu. I bought a baguette and a wheel of camembert. It was nerve racking and exciting. I forgot the word for a plastic bag so opted to juggle my wares to the car. Go team!

Coconut Chicken Curry

 

I stood before the mountain of curry gastronomy and took my first timid steps. Halfway through I almost admitted defeat and cried out in frustration to my maman “My curry tastes like shit!” in which she raised a sarcastic eyebrow “Hmmm, have you tasted shit before...” and preceded to give me her non-text-book-acquired wisdom of ‘How to fix anything’. A pinch of this, a splash of that et VOILA! A curry I can admit I made, with chest puffed out gallantly and a strut that would knock Naomi Campbell off the runway. This recipe is quick, easy and uses basic ingredients but still has a wicked depth of spicy taste and heat.

Ingredients

2tbs veg oil
750g chicken thigh fillets, trimmed & cut into thirds
2 potatoes chopped into cubes
1 lge handful of green beans
1can of bamboo shoots
1 onion sliced into thin wedges
2 garlic cloves chopped finely
1tsp ground turmeric
2tbs red curry paste
1 lemongrass stem, trimmed, bruised & thinly sliced
1sml red chilli, deseeded & sliced thinly (if you like hot curries add another chilli or seeds)
1can of coconut milk
15 fresh curry leaves
1cup fresh coriander leaves
½ lime juiced
Cooked Jasmine rice (I cooked mine with a can of coconut cream and thinly sliced spring onion)
Coriander sprigs & lime wedges to serve

 Method

1. Boil potatoes in seasoned water
2. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan over high heat. Add half the chicken and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until golden. You want to sear the chicken without cooking it the whole way through. Transfer to a plate and cook the remaining chicken.
3. Reduce heat to medium-high. Add onion and garlic, using a wooden spoon sautee until the onion is transparent. Add turmeric, curry paste, lemongrass and chilli. Cook for 1 min or until aromatic.
4. Stir in coconut milk and curry leaves. Add potatoes, green beans and bamboo shoots. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Return chicken to wok and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes until chicken is tender. Stir.


Easy as pie right? I then translated the recipe into French which took longer then making the actual curry!

 

Im a glutton for punishment I know

 

Listening to: Aretha Franklin-I dont want nobody