Wherein we meet some of Leah's classmates,

and they are drunk!

On Saturday morning Leah had her last final of the semester.  (I know, Saturday!)  And when it was over she and her classmates got together for drinks.  At 9:00 am.  Hilarity did ensue.

Health Care Professionals right here yo!

So it being a Saturday and Leah being otherwise preoccupied I went ahead with Saturday day plan as usual.  I wen't to the market.  Leah had gotten up so early that I couldn't sleep in so I was done with the markets by 10:00 or so.  I went home to put away the groceries and tried to lie down for a nap, but the phone started ringing almost right away.  I was being paged to come and join the festivities.  

I made my way to campus about 11:30 and found a pretty rowdy group of OT students. The health sciences department had put them up for a bar tab and they were taking full advantage.  Various and sundry liquors were imbibed and the antics were plentiful.  Have a squiz for yourself:

Still relatively together

Thirty Seconds later!

Charlene gets lippy...

So I jumped all over her.

Getting there...

The Standard, like she wouldn't

They made it til 2:00pm.  They're such troopers!

After this I took these two home and they passed out.  Actually Louise passed out in the car on the way home.  I'm not sure if Charlene is trying to give the camera some sort of weird Canasian version of the finger in this picture or what. 

Leah and I went home for a couple of hours and then met up with some of my friends to go to the roller derby.  And while we were there, I decided to focus on drinking beer and only took like four pictures.  One was of a random woman who appeared to be at least six foot seven with a short choad of a guy about five two. Another of Leah that she wouldn't want me to post here and one of pretty much nothing.  This is as close as I got to an interesting picture that night:

Getting ready for the derby. (btw they played on bare concrete and it was brutal.)

History!

Last night I was just setting the sleep timer on the tv and getting ready to let Jeff Goldblum and Law and order lull me to sleep, Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, called a press conference.  Kevin's deputy Julia Gillard had informed him that she was going to challenge him for the roll of leader of the Labor Party.  Now I know you Americans are wondering what the hell I'm talking about because the news there is full up with stories of the President and some general in Afghanistan.  So let me explain.

Australia has its first female Prime Minister.  And it just happened this morning.  It's a really exiting thing.

Last night at 10:10pm the PM Kevin Rudd called a press conference to say he was being challenged for the leadership of his party, by 10 am this morning it was clear he was going to lose so he stepped down and now we have a new PM.

I guess some explanation is necessary.  For us Americans it seems really crazy that this could happen, but apparently here this sort of thing isn't all that uncommon.  Here's the deal, when Australians hold elections for the Prime Minister, they don't actually vote for the actual person, they vote for the party.  Whoever is the leader of the party becomes the PM.  Kevin Rudd (the labor party by the way, Australia's left wing party) has recently had a string of circumstances that have reflected negatively on him so it seems in desperation the party has decided to boot him from the job and appoint his deputy.   That just happens to be Julia Gillard.

Now I've said before I'm not going to make this a political blog, but I think it's exciting for a number of reasons.  This is the first time Australia has had a woman PM and the first time a PM hasn't even lasted his first term since the great depression.   I don't get a vote here, but I like to follow the politics none the less.

I don't know, maybe it was the excitement of the political coup or my disillusionment with work or maybe it was just payday, but on the way home I stopped at the market and bought a couple of small beef fillets and a bottle of wine.  I pan seared the fillets, made a bit of mashed potato and caramelized some Brussels sprouts and melted some blue cheese on them, then I made a pan reduction of shallot and red wine with a little fresh parsley. Not bad less than $20.  I didn't take any pictures of it because I'm fed up with how ugly food looks on these grey plates.  What can I say? I'm a bit of a snob.

Now I'm gonna make myself a cup of Earl Grey and settle down for Glee.  Have a hell of a Thursday.

Awwww Yeah...

Just bought tickets for Roller Derby on Saturday night!  Nothing like violent women on roller skates.

I'm full up with tacos and have nothing else to write about.  Hope your Taco Tuesday is a good one.

Hey Where's My Cuppa?

That's what Leah just said to me as I sat down to watch "Dirty Jobs".  I poured myself a cup of Earl Grey and didn't even offer.  Stupid me.

I've never thought of myself as a tea drinker, much less as being the kind of person who would buy loose leaf tea.  I mean those people wear tweed jackets and discuss Chaucer over crumpets, right?  And yet here I sit drinking my cuppa and writing a blog.  How pretentious is that?  Excuse me while I adjust my cravat...

Happy Father's Day

It's not Father's Day in Australia, but for all the American Dads reading this, Happy Father's Day.  We miss ours!

Continued Obsession..

With winter veggies.  Today we had chicken soup with white beans, fennel and leeks.  If this is as cold as it's gonna get I've got to take advantage.  Served it up with Stilton croûton.

I still think our bowls are horrendous...

Ok, So I Don't Actually Follow the Rules...

And I don't really follow recipes either.  It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I can't seem to do it.  You'd think I would be a recipe follower. I'm the only person I know that always reads the instruction manual for anything I ever buy.  I like to know what things are supposed to do but the truth is I can't bring myself to follow a recipe very often.  My secret, if you can call it that, is to decide on something I'd like to make, and then read every recipe I can find take the parts I like and get rid of the rest. I don't read any food blogs on a regular basis, but I search around for specific recipes and that search can take me to lots and lots of different sites.  That's how I've always worked and it's been good to me so far.

It also helps that I'm compulsive when it comes to spices.  One of the regular stands I visit at the market is the spice guy.  He sells spices for $1.50 a packet.  The I've seen the same ones for sale at the super market for $10 each.  I had so many spices in bags in the cupboard that I had to go out and buy little jars.  Then I had so many jars I needed a rack, and finding no off the shelf spice rack to suit my needs I did what any red-blooded American with a roll of duct-tape and an empty cardboard box would do; I built my own.  Behold, the Duct-tape spice rack:

 Twenty four little jars at $2 each, and an $11 roll of tape makes a pretty snazzy rack doesn't it?  And since I had all that I had to get myself a mortar and pestle to grind them up.  And in the interest of full disclosure, there is another shelf above this one with more stuff that doesn't exactly fit in those little jars.  I've got at least five different kinds of chili alone.  (they all add something different!)  And yellow mustard seeds are different from black mustard seeds. Oh and lets not forget about herbs! The bottom drawer of the fridge is full of fresh herbs and if it looks like I won't use them before they go bad I stick them in the oven on super low heat and dry them for later.  I'm tellin ya it's a problem.

So I guess the answer, Kate, is yes I can just whip something like that up from scratch, but only because I've done a lot of prep.  Oh and a happy accident helps too.  When I was cooking the Vindaloo, Melissa offered up a chunk of fresh pumpkin and it was just the thing to put the dish over the top.

I Don't Make the Rules..

I just play by them.

Today is the Queen's Birthday holiday, our last public holiday until mid August when we have a Wednesday off for the Ekka. (more about that at a later date). Three day weekends rock.  And though I've told many an Aussie in the last few months how proud we are as Americans to have told the Queen to get lost, I say today "God Save the Queen."  Her actual birthday is in April, but today it is celebrated in Australia. (except WA) So good on ya Liz, thanks for the day off from work!

We spent the day hiking on Mt. Coot-Tha and around the Botanical Gardens. Both are only about five minutes from the house and it was a perfect day for a hike.  We've been to the gardens earlier in the year and it was nice to get back and see it in a different time of the year.  We are both still in awe of the fact that even though we are thoroughly into winter we can still wear shorts and work up a sweat by walking outside.

After the Gardens we came home and made the best ever Lamb Vindaloo.  Bet you're jealous. 

Now looking at that I'd understand if you said to yourself, "What's the big deal"  But I assure you, even though the picture may not do it justice, in a perfect lighting, expensive plate, professional food network photographer kind of way, this is one of the tastiest plates of food I've ever cooked.  And that's saying something if I do say so myself.

Long Weekends...

Are (in my opinion) best spent drinking and eating.

Pan roasted pork chop with potato and parsnip mash, fennel apple and onion braise and strawberry, radish and danish feta salad.

Potato, Leek and Fennel soup with Bacon and Stilton croûtons.

Leah and I polished a couple of bottles of Pinot Grigio with the pork chops on Saturday night and followed up on Sunday with the soup and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.  I don't know how I ever lived my life without a weekly farmers market to supply my foodie habit.  It's a really lovely thing that strawberries and fennel are both in season right now.  And who knew that strawberries and radishes make such a nice pairing?  Now if we only had some more attractive dinnerware to serve it.  Those dark grey bowls are hideous.

Leah's Back...

I am happy, that is all.