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Oyster sauce is not like hoisin sauce, and hoisin is the 'right' one for rice paper rolls. Instead I

3tbs peanut butter
1tbs oyster sauce (maybe less?)
2 tbs mirin
bit of soy, lime juice, Worcestershire

I'm going to actually buy hoisin, becasue turns out the mirin is 75% sugar. Interested to taste the difference.

The only thing I have to add otherwise, is that I poach the chicken in stock, and then cook the noodles in that pot after I take the chicken out. I have looked at close to 30 recipes, and none of them mentioned it. Most just say 'cooked', and lots use 'leftover chicken, bbq chicken'.

Current Mood: sore

Max 1.5kg potatoes (the red ones are nice, the small ones

mrsbrown planted work well too)
12 eggs
2 stalks spring onion
Dill
Mayonnaise (good, not sweet)
Seedy mustard
Pickles
Red wine vinegar
Salt

Cut the potatoes quite small. 2cm cubes are good.

Steam them, then immediately toss with salt and red wine vinegar. This can be difficult, I have taken to pouring them from one mixing bowl to another several times. Don't undercook them, but 'just cooked' is good. They should taste excellent.

Boil the eggs (medhard-hard), rinse with cold water, crack the shells, and rest covered in cold water

Finely chop the spring onions, mix with 1tbs mustard and half a cup of mayonnaise. It is nice to let this 'infuse'.

-- you can pause here and do the rest tomorrow --

As the eggs are cooling, so are the potatoes. Shell the eggs when you can.

Mix the dressing through the potatoes gently (I pour between bowls). Add more mayo and mustard to cover the potatoes well. There is such a thing as to much.

Quarter the eggs and finely chop the pickles (unless you are

charlesnaismith and think bigger is better), mix again.

Hooray, potato salad.

Current Mood: stressed

I hate the name, but these have been going well.

Gnocchi, brassicas + white beans or poached chicken topped with grated peccorino
'sauce' for roasting is lemon slices and juice, olive oil, garlic, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, cumin seeds (or fennel seeds, but we like cumin)

This evening we had honey/ginger/soy salmon
used brasscas and carrots (capsicum may have been nice too?)
'sauce' for roasting was sesame oil, peanut oil, lemon slices and juice, soy sauce, honey, ginger, and garlic. Did the sauce in a small saucepan so the honey would 'melt'.
The veggies (sprouts, snow peas, broccoli, carrots) could definitely have been cooked longer, while the fish only took 10 minutes. Start and leave skin up
Served it with rice cooked in stock, and spinach, 'bowl' style

Current Mood: satisfied

Made 10

Veggies
Quarter cabbage, or half a small one. Purple looks good.
2 carrots
Spring onion would have been nice, but I didn't have any

Batter
5 eggs
1.5 tbs soy sauce
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp dark sesame oil

Sauce (this made more than we needed
1 tbs tomato sauce (use less next time
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce (use more next time)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (don't use more)

I fried the pancakes in a fair wack of rice bran oil, drained on paper towel, used less Kewpie mayo than looked right, and less sauce too. They were good, everyone liked them.

Current Mood: accomplished

Ground coriander seeds, garam masala, and cumin in equal amounts
Garlic and ginger in equal amounts
Cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves for that dessert-y feel

Pasta Carbonara, as inspired by Nat's What I Recon cooking show.

4 adults(definitely halve if just cooking for 2)

320-350g pasta (fettuccine, or spaghetti)
4 whole eggs
1 cup parmesean cheese (grated/shredded etc)
4 cloves garlic (or less)
bacon (3 long strips, or 4 standard)
parsley

boil water, salt like the ocean
meanwhile, chop bacon; parsley;
meanwhile, cook bacon;
meanwhile chop parsley, keep separate; crack 4 eggs into a bowl
add parmesean to eggs, mix well. Can add pepper too.

Cook pasta.
Turn off the frying pan once bacon is cooked and take off the heat.
Once bacon is cooked and pasta is cooked, drain pasta. If you can, save some pasta water.

Put pasta into bacon pan, tip egg/parmesean mix on top, mix well. If the pan is too hot you'll get scrambled eggs instead of sauce.
Add parsley. Mix well.

Current Mood: depleted
Current Location: Chair
Current Music: Without You I'm Nothing

Soffritto, vegetables, stock, starch.

Very fine dice (.5cm):
2-3 onions
4-6 carrots
6-8 stalks of celery

Rough dice (1.5cm):
Seasonal veggies
(2 zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes)
Potatoes (if any)

Start by chopping the onion, as above. Once the onion is chopped, add to the warmed soup pot with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and soften, then continue with the carrot and celery. Add two teaspoons of jar garlic to the onion, stir, and then add the celery and carrot. These will all then cook together for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally while you chop the next veggies. Add more oil if you need.

Then add the seasonal veggies, and soften for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you're adding mushroom, make sure to add this first, for at least 10 minutes, then add the other veggies. Boil a full kettle.

Add two tins of chopped tomatoes (Mutti brand), two teaspoons of chicken stock powder, lots of pepper, 1 tsp mixed oregano and thyme, and cover the veggies with water. Mix. Then add another 2 inches of water. Mix. If it needs more tomato, add more tins.

Once the veggies are all well cooked (might take an additional hour), add white beans (frozen). Once thawed, add 2/3 cup small pasta (macaroni or similar). It will be ready to eat in once the pasta is cooked, in about 8-10 minutes :)

I've got the no knead (at all, not even a little bit) thing sorted with yeast, and nearly with sourdough. And tonight was time for fruitbread.

IT IS SO GOOD.

G is very against sultanas. I can't differentiate them from raisins?

Fruit mix was mostly chopped (plump) dried apricots, then raisins. Then goji, because they were cheaper than the blueberries and cranberries, which I used in approximately equal measure.

I also used leftover porridge.

I can't imagine forgetting this, but just in case.

Cinnamon and allspice (twice what seems reasonable, at least). Do add salt.
Rehydrate the fruit in milk.
I used two cups of instant oats, but would be keen to try with cooked steel cut.
The rest was 50/50 white and wholemeal.

It's cold, so I used a touch of yeast for a ~18h rise.

Base Ingredients
1kg red lentils
1.5tsp dried ginger
1 tsp dried chilli
2.5 tsp cumin seeds
2.5 tsp corriander seeds
2.5 tsp mustard seeds
1.5 tsp tumeric
5 tsp garam masala
.5 tsp pepper
(17 tsp spices)

4-10 onions (4 really big ones)
10 garlic cloves
4 cans tomatoes
2 cans coconut cream
1L stock (or equivalent in cubes, powder)
Spinach (1-2 boxes frozen, or whatever suits)

pepper
lemon juice
mint

To make up a jar for 4kg
6 tsp dried dinger
4 tsp dried chiilli
10 tsp cumin seeds
10 tsp corriander seeds
10 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp pepper
(grind these)
6 tsp tumeric

then 20 tsp garam masala, or
2 tsp cloves
2 tsp cardamom
1 tsp star anise
(grind these)
3 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon

Butter

2 cups bacon roughly chopped

2 onions
3 tsp garlic
4 carrots
3/4 celery bunch
1 zucchini
3 cups mushrooms

4 tins chopped tomato (used 2 flavoured, 2 plain)
4 tins rinsed beans (2 red, 2 white)
1 small jar of nice passata

Beef stock
Pepper
Thyme
Oregano

Saute butter, bacon, onion and garlic until sticking/browning, add veggies and saute more. Then add everything and slow cook on stovetop 3ish hours.

Makes about 6.5L, which for us is about 8 serves (around $5/serve in 2018 for high quality ingredients, or half that if using dried beans, cheap market veggies, a stock cube, and cage bacon)

We chopped everything except the mushroom in the food processor, which made scaling it much faster than hand chopping.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: chair
Current Music: huuuuuum

Makes 8-10 serves

500g red lentils
3 onions
3 large carrots
2 tbs crushed garlic
2 tbs crushed ginger
800g diced tomatoes (canned)
800g/ml coconut cream
bunch of mint
2 tbs cumin seeds
2 tsp whole black pepper
1 tbs mustard seeds
1 star anise
3 tbs garam masala (less if it's fresh)
1 tbs ground corriander
1 tbs ground cardamom
1 tbs ground cumin
1.5 tbs curry powder (I didn't have tumeric)
2 large stock cubes
1L water

4 tbs rice bran oil
4 tbs butter

Grind all the whole seeds, and add to melted butter and rice bran oil and pre-ground spices over heat.

Cook until aromatic, then add garlic and ginger, and cook for a few minutes.

Then add onion.

While onion cooks, grate and add carrots.

At this point I didn't have the required ingredients, so I sat the whole pot in the fridge for a few days.

Add 1L boiling water, and everything except the mint. Cook for 40-50 minutes (for me, this meant, cook for 15 minutes, then put the lid on and turn the pot off, and come back to a perfect dinner four hours later).

Finally, chop the mint finely and stir through.

It's really good with the Greek yogurt from Aldi.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: chair
Current Music: woosssshwoossssh

Makes 2.

12 eggs
400mL cream
2 cups grated cheese
2 sheets frozen puff pastry
300g semi dried tomatoes
750g chopped frozen spinach

Oven at 220, blind bake the pastry 10-15 minutes.
Oven at 180, bake the quiches 35 minutes.

Current Mood: sore
Current Location: chair
Current Music: woosssshwoossssh

Because I always find myself looking for a recipe.

150g butter
3/4 cup sugar (brown if available) (110g brown)
1 cup nut meal (100g)
3/4 cup plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
200g chocolate chips
1/2 cup+ nuts (walnuts or pecans?)

Cream the butter and sugar for 3 minutes.
Add the egg and vanilla, and cream for another 7 minutes.
Barely mix in the flour and other ingredients.

Oven at 180, cook for about 14 minutes.

Crossposts: http://rain-and-snow.livejournal.com/73802.html

Inspired by mont_joye, (and the cheap good strawberries available months earlier than I'm used to) made jam this evening.

600g strawberries
400g sugar
~80-100ml lime juice
1tsp jamsetta

I'm not used to needing to use extra pectin, but I wasn't getting a set at all. Worried it'll be too solid - will see tomorrow.

Crossposts: http://rain-and-snow.livejournal.com/73543.html

Oven at 180oC

90g butter
3/4 cup sugar (I think we eventually did half this)

- melt in double boiler, stir until well combined.

120g currants
90g cranberries
90g figs (~7)
120g slivered almonds (inclined to think we doubled this)
40g pecans (think we doubled this too - probably 100g)

Chop cranberries and figs (~ currant sized), mix fruit and nuts all together, and toss with

2tbs of flour (30g)

Take pan off heat, stir in
pinch of salt
2 tbsp double cream

Stir all together, make into little biscuits, or a slice, or whatever seems to work. USE SILICON BAKING MATS. The sugar/butter combination forms a penetrating, potent cement in conjunction with baking paper.

Aldi 40% 200g block + 2 x 70-80% 100g blocks seems to be the right ratio of chocolate (1:1).

Trying to have a kid put on further hold since the ectopic in November; did our karyotyping bloodtests today. + 6 weeks.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: couch
Current Music: HIM: Wings of a Butterfly
Crossposts: http://rain-and-snow.livejournal.com/72999.html

I never thought I'd make it to 25.

I did fill in the 2014 in review at the end of 2014 - I think I was in Budapest at the time, and it was approximately Christmas. It didn't post, though, so I'll try again, but for 'partway through 2015'.

1. What did you do in 2014 that you'd never done before?
Traveled alone. Spent lots of time with myself, out and about.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Certainly didn't manage to leave the house each day. Aiming to play piano more now it's arrived. Daily is the goal, but weekly is realistic.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes. That was difficult.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nanna H still feels recent, but the two year anniversary is on Mothers Day this year. That's also the one year miscarriage anniversary, so at least my absolute reluctance to go makes some logical sense.

5. What would you like to have in 2015 that you lacked in 2014?
As last year, an addition to our family. More of a routine would be nice too. I was getting one going before Festival, but my sleep and energy patterns have changed now, and I haven't caught up to what works yet.

6. What date from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Days, rather than dates. Losses, learning I was pregnant, mum's cancer, meeting dad's new partner.

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Traveling. I got from Berlin to Krakow on my own, with my own bag, and I felt capable. That was pretty awesome. I started just trusting things would work out - I had bought an emergency KitKat as dinner, and just hoped things in Krakow would fall into place. Turns out they did, and G was wondering if I was still the same person.

8. What was your biggest failure?
A lack of faith in myself.

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
LOL. I have that diagnosis I was after last year, though, and several others to go with it.

10. What was the best thing you bought?
Other than flights? I got a nice ring from Gdansk, and that chair on Monday!

11. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, medical expenses, travel. Also food.

12. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I was really excited about Festival 2015, the weather put a bit of a damper on that. It also took us a few days for some members of the campsite to 'realise' we were camping there, but once we'd all worked out who was who it was quite nice
The Bialowiezia forest and the Vienna cemetery were some of my highlights of the trip. I saw snow fall from the sky. I saw different kinds of snow fall from the sky. I understood that some snow was good for making snowmen, and some was not. SNOW.

13. What song(s) will always remind you of 2014?
Teen Idle - Mariana and the Diamonds; There She Goes - The La's; Sights (especially the Andy C remix) - London Grammar; The Hanging Tree (from Mockingjay (Hunger Games)?); Take Me to Church - Hozier; OneDirection - 18 and Live While We're Young; Taylor Swift - Shake it Off and Blank Space; Riptide - Vance Joy. Radioactive - Imagine Dragons.

Music is one of the things I feel like I was missing in 2014, and I've really been making up for that over the last 9 months or so.

14. Compared to this time last year, you are:
More cautious.

15. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Handwriting/calligraphy, being outdoors, interesting cooking. Identical to last year.

16. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Flopping in front of the internet, rather than a notebook. Identical to last year.

17. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Mariana and the Diamonds.

18. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Nothing I can think of. Possibly nothing, actually.

19. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
It would be really nice to have a social work-y job. I guess that's why I've picked up the volunteering this year.

20. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
Still Nana clothes. I did buy some new ones online while I was away, though. Trying to go back to the black a bit, but I mostly got purple.

21. What kept you sane?
Distance, and G. As last year. Also, going away. I've not been seriously depressed (except after work, like clockwork) since we got back from Europe, so that really helped too.

22. What political issue stirred you the most?
. Head in sand.

23. Who did you miss?
Mum.

24. Who was the best new person(s) you met?
The couchsurfers who stayed with us here, and who hosted me/us while we were away (one of them was even the same person, and that was so good).

25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014:
Often, I actually can. I have lots of feelings, and that's okay. Sometimes they are even predictable. Sometimes predictable things alleviate them too.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Exit Wounds, Placebo.
Crossposts: http://rain-and-snow.livejournal.com/72072.html

1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?
Moved into my/our own place, made pickles, lots of public speaking (willingly, too), made a terrarium.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't usually do resolutions. Last year I was trying to do one nice thing for myself each day (at least), and didn't manage that. This year I hope to leave the house at least once each day. Maybe 50% success rate so far?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope. I guess that's a relief, in some ways.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nanna H.

5. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
An addition to our family; a diagnosis.

6. What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Nothing too specific this year. 24, 26th November and 9th December from last year.

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Hard to decide between making this place liveable before we moved in, getting it to a pleasant state, or getting a job.

8. What was your biggest failure?
Not managing to do something nice for myself each day.

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing different to usual (tired and sore). Diagnosed with Vitamin D deficiency; no apparent thyroid problems; possible genetic issue, but I don't have the results from that test yet. My sister tested positive at the end of 2013 though.

10. What was the best thing you bought?
Laptop

11. Where did most of your money go?
Rent/bills, food, clothes. Nothing particularly exciting beyond dresses and bras that fit.

12. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Bra fitting! Going on holidays! Pickles! BEING FINISHED WITH MY DEGREE OFFICIALLY!!1!eleventy!

13. What song(s) will always remind you of 2013?
Cups - Anna Kendrick (When I'm Gone); Royals - Lorde; Miley Cyrus generally - Jolene, Wrecking Ball, We Can't Stop; Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke; Lana Dey Rey generally, especially Summertime Sadness, Bel Air, and Young and Beautiful.

14. Compared to this time last year, you are:

15. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Handwriting/calligraphy, being outdoors, interesting cooking.

16. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Flopping in front of the internet, rather than a notebook.

17. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Nothing this year, really. Getting more into Lana Dey Rey and Tom Dickins.

18. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
23. Nothing I can think of. Dinner with my mother, sister, and G at her local Japanese restaurant.

19. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Being on speaking terms with my father? Knowing what on earth was going on there would be good. Seeing friends. Leaving the house. Maybe even leaving the house to see friends.

20. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
Clothes. On. Nana-clothes. Probably because I got a bunch of Nanna's clothes from her in the first six months of the year.

21. What kept you sane?
Distance, and G.

22. What political issue stirred you the most?
The election, conservatives, and people who decided Abbott was better than the alternative.

23. Who did you miss?
Friends.

24. Who was the best new person(s) you met?
The WordPress community. They're pretty cool.

25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:
I got much better at working out what I had the energy for, and scheduling around it. I also learned that I can pull on future spoons if they are really necessary.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Chair
Current Music: Meteora
Crossposts: http://rain-and-snow.livejournal.com/71475.html

I found out yesterday that I would be graduating with first class honours.

It seems noteworthy that this is the first time I have felt more than satisfied with my academic performance. It is also the first time that there was literally no higher award I could get in a particular course of study.

Properly realising that my standards might be a little high has been a bit weird - I've always considered that I've done 'well enough', but never actually 'well'. My high school results were 'well enough' to get in to the course I wanted, I've done 'well enough' in classes/music. Even last week going through some of my old school assignments and test results, I would look at the results and see only the marks that were missing, or the 'Very Good' rather than 'Excellent', which was exactly how I saw them at the time. I was always able to explain away any musical success (scholarships, orchestras, solos and so on) by considering that I was playing an unusual instrument, rather than because I had any skill with it. My family celebrated scholarships as successes, but of course S got hers for year 7, and it was for year 11 that I got mine, which was always a bit painful.

In contrast to my past experiences, though, it was really nice to think "heck yes, I want to celebrate tonight". So we went out for dessert at Koko Black after G had finished teaching. It was tasty, and I was pretty pleased with myself. Hooray!

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: chair
Current Music: the rain
Crossposts: http://rain-and-snow.livejournal.com/71404.html

I gave Zombies Run a go today.

I only went for twenty minutes, and walked more than I ran. I think my feet have blisters anyway!

I was amused by the song selection on shuffle - your first wave of Zombies? Mama (We're All Gonna Die).
Followed by I'm (Not) Okay.
Then for searching the hospital, Helena by the Misfits, which is entirely about cutting people up, and also love.

It was to the point that I wondered if the app knew the songs already, which really just comments on the voiceover, I suppose. The radio operator sounds like Alistair from Dragon Age Origins, which was a bit creepy, really.

Crossposts: http://rain-and-snow.livejournal.com/70436.html

Knitting a secret thing for the birthday on Friday.

Cast on x + 30
Knit 1
Purl 1
Cast off 30
Knit 1 Purl 1
Knit 1 Purl 1
Knit 1 Purl 1
Purl 1 Knit 1
Purl 1 Knit 1
(Knit 1 Purl 1)etc...
reduce knit row by 3, at cast-off end
reduce purl row by 3, at cast off-end
reduce knit row by 2, at cast-off end
reduce purl row by 2, at cast off end
reduce knit row by 2, at cast-off end
*reduce purl row by 1, at cast off end

at this stage, knit from the tail (cast-off end), and purl back towards it.

Almost Autumn

Rice Paper Roll sauce

Potato Salad

Tray Bakes

Okonomiyaki

Pumpkin, cauliflower, capsicum and lentil curry

Carbonara

Minestrone

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Dahl

Minestrone

Mint Dahl

Spinach and Sundried Tomato Quiche

Chocolate Chip Biscuits

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Florentines, approx.

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Graduating

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January 2023

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