Leaving on a jet plane…

In two weeks, Wayde and I are heading to Sydney for a few days but as neither of us have really explored Sydney during our previous visits, I am calling out for suggestions on where to go. We are looking for great markets, record stores, pubs with great beer and cheap(er), tasty eats. Any ideas?

The Little Pest

One minute 6 secs… cracks me up.

Bad mouthing countries other than yours

Recently, Fox News in the USA featured an article about the liberal drug and sex laws of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Clearly they didn’t go for the researched balanced opinion. Rather they preferred the sensationalistic version. An Amsterdam native decided to reply…

The Lazy Girls’ Guide to Chocolate and Orange Birthday Cake (for Mum)

I have somehow become family cook and baker. Somehow. Who am I kidding? I manoeuvred in and took over from my mother when I moved out of home starting with hosting Christmas three years ago. I love to cook. I love to bake. But never alone or for myself. I think, had I discovered this love around the ages of 17 or 18, I may have pursued it as a career but at 31, I am too old to launch myself into a career that involves many years of paying your dues with breakfast or dinner shifts (or both). I’ve worked these hours as a waitress and bartender for the best part of the last 10 years and don’t care to do it for another 10 years.

Chocolate and Orange Cake -

225g softened, unsalted butter

225g self raising flour

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

4 teaspoons of orange juice

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 tablespoons of cocoa powder

1 cup of cream, whipped.

Throw it all in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer until smooth. Bake at 175 c for 40 mins. Cool on rack. When cold, whip cream add a few drops of orange juice or essence, cut cake in half and pile it on! Replace top and cover in milk chocolate icing. This is a lazy girls guide so I used pre-made icing available from the baking section of the supermarket.  Decorate or eat or both.

My favourite city meets a man with skills

My father is a cyclist. He doesn’t do anything like this guy but you can’t help being impressed with his dedication. I mean, honestly, riding up a tree?! Who does that?!

Lonsdale House succumbs to television.

This is Lonsdale House.

Pretty, isn’t it? Well, it’s being bulldozed. I don’t mind overly. I would prefer the building had been given some love before falling into disrepair, but that is the nature of property development in Melbourne. You let something fall into disrepair and no one will stop you knocking it down. The shame of the story is what will replace it.

Which is this.

Nice and appropriate, don’t you think. There is even a television on that wall in another picture (I can’t get a good res picture of it). The street is art deco. The whole street and we are going to bookend it with this? I’m not against modern architecture, but I would like to see our commercial architects build a future classic. I can’t foresee people protesting against it’s demolition in 80 years time as I have with the demise of the Lonsdale building.

Here is an artist rendition of it’s impact on the space around it.

Low impact…

Front doors

I love a good front door and this is the best we’ve had. Our last house, in Carlton, had a lovely front door with the name Victoria in frosted glass above it. Next door was Albert and one further down, George. There was a fourth but the glass had been replaced. We guessed that it would be George’s wife, Elizabeth. But I love the warmth of this led-light when I come home. We have a nice selection of led-light in this house including in interior doors, which is lovely. I like my home to have character. I would also like to impose my character upon it but alas! I am a renter. It has such potential. And my father loves to come here. He doesn’t too often but when he does he gets nostalgic for when he was a child at the primary school down the road. He stands in the front garden reminicing about the times he would walk, at 5 or 6 years old, our very street  to get home.

The neighbourhood ghost story.

Many years ago, a young woman lived with her new husband in the house her father bought as a wedding  gift in 1926. She was happy. She found out she was expecting their first child one year, twelve days after they said ‘I do’. She would wander around the house, one hand polishing, dusting, sweeping with the other gently caressed her belly. She would hum as she cleaned. The day after the child was born, her husband stood over the blood soaked sheets where she lay under a cloth, the figure of an infant lay beside her. He turned and left the house to decay. Sad story? Not a true story but this house looks like it has a sad story or two in its life time.

I would like to go back and take a couple more pictures but I am scared the squatters we suspect live there might chase me down the street.

On the steps of Venice, anything is possible.

Venice is a great city. A total labyrinth of a place. We were there during the World Cup in Berlin in 2006. Italian pride was overflowing. On our last day, we ended up at the Venice train station hours too early. Once the night had taken our view of the canal for the last time, a dozen or so people started to meet on the landing at the top of the stairs. Someone placed a small boombox in the centre, pressed play and paused with his partner before waltzing around the landing with the group in step.

They danced for hours and were still swirling by the time we had to leave.

Can’t hold an Italian in love down…

The Lazy Girl’s guide to cooking. – My favourite soup

Beef/Lamb, vegetable and barley soup.

I love this soup. With hot, buttered toast to dunk in, it warms you from the inside out. Perfect for winter. I make a large pot and freeze some for later, and it is best from day two until spoiled!

It is very simple and takes very little time to prepare. While there is about an hour and a half between starting and eating, an hour of that is simmering.

This is what you will need:

300g beef or lamb cubed
1 brown onion
2 Carrots
1 large potato
2 sticks of celery (or  buy a bag of pre-cut veges if you’re truely lazy)
1 tin of diced tomatos
sweet Hungarian paprika
200gs of soup mix (in the soup aisle at he supermarket. Usually on the bottom self. Has barley and split peas in it)
2 Chicken stock cubes (I use vegetarian ones as they are less salty.)

Brown the meat in the pot. Remove and let rest. Heat a healthy drizzle of olive oil over a medium heat and brown the onion. Add the carrots and potato then the celery and a teaspoon of paprika. Stir through and let the veges warm through. Put the meat back in. Stir. Add the can of tomatoes. Stir.

Fill pot with 2.5L boiling water. Add stock cubes and soup mix. Bring to the boil while stirring regularly.

Semi cover and leave to simmer on a low-med heat until grains are tender stirring regularly to prevent it burning on the bottom. Usually takes about an hour.

Salt and pepper to taste.

To add a bit of thickness to the soup, you can blend it a little. I use a stick blender until it looks as I like it. You can also remove some and place it in a regular blender, give it a spin then add it back to the pot.

This is a keep or freeze for ease type of soup. It keeps my busy husband and I healthy and satisfied in a rush.

Makes: shit loads.

(c) Leni Dixon 2009