I love revamping leftovers to make a quick new meal — and I’m always so pleased with myself when it works as well as it did tonight. Mushroom stuffing turned into pasta. Yummo!
I’m off tonight to have cocktails with a friend, and to chat about writing (and probably other, less artful, gossip!). What a perfect Saturday night.
Over the weekend I went on a food tour in Sydney’s Bankstown with one of my housemates, as part of some research I’m doing for a story.
I learnt so much — about Bankstown’s culture, about food, about my own likes and dislikes.
I won’t go into any more detail just yet, but here are some pictures I took on the day. Yummo!
Today I had a picnic in Centennial Park with a few good friends. We ate, we drank, we chatted about writing. Most of all we soaked up some welcome winter sun. I feel refreshed for what’s shaping up to be a fairly busy week.
Or at least I was until I allowed myself to be distracted to write this post…
Have you ever found a song that you just listen to again and again? And again? It happens to me every now and then, and right now, this song by Radical Face is it.
Ryan over at Pacing the Panic Room (a blog I absolutely love) used this song in some work he did for a couple at their wedding. The video is worth watching — it’s put together beautifully, and it’s full of heart-string-pulling lovey-dovey moments. (I’ve watched it a few times now.)
In other news, I went to the Sydney launch for harvest magazine on Friday night. On a cold night, a glass of wine and readings by two of the writers published in the current issue of the magazine was exactly what I needed. Elena has a review of the issue up on With Extra Pulp. Check it out.
I’m hoping to get posting here regularly happening again. I’ve been led astray by the need to find work, and by cooking. P’raps I’ll put up some recipes for the stuff I’ve been cooking. It’s been pretty yum, if I do say so myself.
For now though, back to the song.
I am most definitely happiest when I have several pots on the stove at once. Yum!
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PS. Wow. My stovetop looks filthy in this photo — I might just go and give it a scrub now…
… I’ve got one.
It’s funny, I haven’t spent much time over the last few weeks thinking about my writing — except briefly to bemoan my lack of it. I’ve been away, this last week, on a yoga teachers’ retreat, which sounds lovely and relaxing, doesn’t it? Well, it was lovely, but not so much relaxing. It was hard work, physically, mentally and emotionally. As is often the case though, with hard work came reward.
When I got back on Friday I felt spaced-out. It was surreal being back in my own life after four intense days of perception-shifting. It’s taken me a couple of days to settle in again. But just at the end of that head-in-the-clouds feeling came something of an epiphany. I’m working on an essay about food at the moment, and have been freaking out about how to narrow down what my research is discovering to a few thousand words. I suddenly realised last night that I didn’t have to. I could still write the essay, but then continue on, and turn this into a bigger project as well.
It probably comes as no surprise to people who’ve spent time with me that I might end up writing extensively about food. I love the stuff. I have a ridiculously fast metabolism, related to my thyroid condition that I’ve mentioned here before, and it means I’m constantly thinking about food and how I might better consume it so that I remain full for longer (and continue to enjoy it!).
Of course, it didn’t take long for the doubt to creep in. Who am I to try to write a book like the one I want to about food (more details as I work them out myself, I promise)? Surely there are already too many books about food on the market?
Valid questions, sure. But I want to write it, so I should just do it, and think about that stuff later.
So. It’s likely that there’ll be more food posts around these parts from here on in. Yum.
No wonder I feel like I’m going mad…
Tomato, lentil and vegetable soup seemed like the perfect dinner on a rainy Saturday night. I made this from a recipe out of my favourite cook book, and added a few things here and there. I love it when I modify a recipe and it works!
The only way this could have been better was with some home-made bread. One of my favourite bloggers, Claire, tentatively tried this recipe and had great results, so I’ve been inspired to give it a go myself tonight…
I’ll probably be writing a whole lot more about my cooking adventures on here for the next little while, because I’m researching a food essay I’m writing. If anyone’s interested, I can start posting up recipes for these things I’m making.
Oh! And we’ve got the Monday Project up and running again. Check out the latest theme here. Which reminds me, I really should send out the email that’s supposed to accompany new themes…
(PS. I have no idea why I included the peeler in that shot. It’s not like it was all that important in cooking this… let’s hope my food-photography improves.)
avocado and lemon 