G-n-L Ganesh and Lauren

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Nepalese Cookbook

Friday, 26 February 2010

It has been a long time since I've written here... I do apologise! It was an exciting weekend of bike riding over the West Gate bridge, cycling with the Banyule Bug and helping out at the Sustainable Living Festival last weekend, and of course work has been rather interesting of late... but no more excuses! I'm writing to update you all on the progress of the Nepalese Recipe Book!

After weeks of cooking up a storm in the kitchen we've honed in on a few winning recipes including (in no particular order):

Daal Bhaat
Chickpea, Spinach and Tomato Curry
Asparagus Bhutuwa
Lamb Quantee (Lamb with bean sprouts)
Paratha with Vegetables
Lamb Sekuwa
Gajar ko Halwa (Carrot Pudding)
Mahendranagar Samosas
Vegetable Pulao
Tarkari (Mixed vegetables)
Creamy Coconut, Cauliflower and Lentil Curry
Quick and Easy Potato and Zucchini
Chicken, Broccoli and Tomato Curry
Tibetan Momos
Beans and bamboo shoot curry
Lamb Curry
Shikarni (Apple, Cinnamon and Honey yoghurt)
Kheer (Rice Pudding)
Banana Chiya Bread
Chiya (Spiced Tea)

Unfortunately I'm still missing some good recipes for chow mein, thukpa, laddu and achar... Not to mention a guide to hosting your very own Nepalese Dinner Party! If you have some suggestions, know of anything vital that I've missed or can help me convince G to call his mum for help please let me know :-)

Labels: cooking, nepal, recipes

Mini-Adventure 8: Phillip Island

Monday, 15 February 2010

Wow... It's been a rather hectic few weeks... With the couch surfer, outings, cleaning up the yard for the first bbq on the mexican chiminea and starting off my involvement in the Transition Town movement - valentine's day was a rewarding and relaxing day of fun...

G and I have agreed that instead of getting involved in the consumerism of the event we should organise to do something together each Valentine's Day... last year we went horse riding through wineries... this year we decided to use our Christmas Presents (jet boating at Phillip Island!)... On the way down to Phillip Island we stopped off at the Cranbourne Botanical Gardens to get ideas for our front yard. An award winning garden it may be, but it was not in the least bit inspiring. It was definitely a beneficial stop though because it turned out to be hard rubbish day in Cranbourne - or a 'Gold Mine' as G termed it. We now have a large assorted array of power tools in various states of disrepair that will soon sit proudly in our shed :-)

The next stop, just over the bridge was the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory. A feast for all the senses we just had to stop for a delicious hot chocolate given the stormy weather. I can still taste the melted chocolate pouring down my throat... mmmm....

We were very lucky in that the thunderstorms held out long enough for us to be thrown around on choppy seas in western port bay... A couple of times we were literally thrown from our seats as the boat swerved over large waves and lept across the ocean. We saved the penguins for next time and headed back to Melbourne to discover free mulch - a feast for the veggie patch! And to implement G's method of super savings shopping... (I've put G in charge of all food preparation this week while I take over the garden and chook care)... should be fun! :-)

Labels: botanical gardens, chocolate, hard rubbish, jet boating, mini-adventure, phillip island

Invictus: Unconquered: Inspiring!

Saturday, 30 January 2010

I have a new appreciation for rugby after seeing the film 'Invictus'... The true story was an innovative solution to the question - 'how do you inspire a nation?'. How do you unite people separated by so much hate and create something incredible. I was so impressed that Nelson Mandela was able to analyse the needs of the country so well and come up with such an inspired solution! Obviously not the focus of all his attentions but it's an important lesson for any community project or business that I want to get off the ground - people need to be inspired first!

Speaking of inspiration I'm extremely excited about week 1 of 'do something different month' - this is what's planned for the week:

Sunday: Salsa dancing in Fitzroy! (Still working on convincing G to come!)
Monday: Magic Monday at Dante's - Magical comedy night!
Tuesday: Having a couch surfer come to stay - our first official one :-)
Wednesday: Visiting the community 'generosity kitchen' Lentil as Anything
Thursday: Jeannie's birthday party at a Vietnamese restaurant
Friday: Playing pool night at the Albion
Saturday: Visiting a shooting range

Speaking of productivity the Nepalese cook book is progressing well, though has hit a slight road block in recipe variety... We need ideas for recipes that don't involve rice now :-) And as a result of the great Australia Day beer tasting I've discovered my favourite type of beer is cider - not beer at all! (G is still wearing his australian flag temporary tattoos in recognition of some delicious pear cider)...

Well back to work!! Lots more websites to program!

Labels: inspiration, invictus, unconquered

Observations on Chicken Behaviour...

Sunday, 17 January 2010

This has been one of the more interesting weeks of chook-keeping that we've had. As you may already know, our game hen Russet has always been extremely timid and is often pecked by the largest 2 of the red hens (Big Red and Copper). The situation had been slowly improving until friday when G left the chook pen door open accidentally. I'm not sure what happened during the day but when we returned home all the chooks were in the backyard, Russet was visibly distressed (but un-injured as far as we could tell) and wouldn't stop making noise (which is extremely unusual, she's usually very quiet). When we rounded the chooks back into the pen the largest 2 kept chasing and pecking Russet for no reason at all. Then out of the blue the 3 large hens (including Sienna) turned on a pigeon that had walked into the coop and tried to eat it!! They managed to swallow a large number of feathers before we could intervene to save it. I guess that explains all the pigeon carcasses in the chicken coop.

We made the executive decision that the 3 big hens had to go. Obviously Russet was never going to improve with 3 crazed pigeon killers as coopmates. We listed an ad and separated Russet from the others as a short term measure. G was of the opinion that Sienna was a good chook and that she and Russet could be friends while I was of the opinion that Sienna was only being nice to Russet because she was smaller than Red and Copper and as soon as they had gone Sienna would be 'queen of the nest' and start pecking Russet too. G decided to test the theory and purchased 2 new game hens (yet to be named!) to form an army with Russet to defend against the gang of 3. My theory turned out to be correct. As soon as Copper and Red were separated Sienna turned nasty. So we halved the coop with the game birds on one side and the gang of 3 on the other side. The two new game birds were about half the size of Russet and things started off well... but soon even they turned on Russet!!

I started to consider that perhaps sometimes my shy behaviour led others to treat me in the same way Russet was being treated! Not that I've ever noticed that but it really made me think... People treat you in the way you behave. And even tiny game hens thought they could beat up on Russet because she was timid. If you demand respect you seem to get it in this world!

Labels: behaviour, chickens

Avatar : It just keeps getting better!

Sunday, 10 January 2010

The first time I saw Avatar at Village in 3D I was impressed - the graphics were stunning, though I felt the story line was a little cliche, the characters overly stereotypical. The second time I saw Avatar was at Imax at the 3rd largest screen in the world (yes, I did feel a bit guilty about those 15000 watt lamps and the energy required)... I was inspired, awed and amazed. The creativity displayed in creating an entire culture, language and planet in Pandora was astonishing. Each little detail became increasingly evident, each glowing footprint, each flickr of the network built into the environment, each intensely stimulating selection of colours on the fluorescent planet, the ring in Nyteri's ear that made her appear more human than the other Na'avi, even the 2d photographs that appeared remarkably 3d for a moment. Who wouldn't want to live on a planet with floating magnetic islands, mystical trees where memories and thoughts could be downloaded, flying on brightly coloured teradactyl type creatures, sleeping in giant cocoon leaves and experiencing a deep and fulfilling connection to the environment? The movie is a creative masterpiece regardless of whatever the critics might say.

Labels: avatar, movie, review

A few bricks short of a load...

You may possibly consider G and I a few bricks short of a load after hearing what we did today... Having stumbled across what we assumed to be a small lot of cement covered bricks on ebay for only $10, 8km from our house we excitedly prepared the little yellow car to collect our new veggie patch path. On arrival it became clear that we definitely bought more than we bargained for. Sitting on the front lawn of the house were 400 cleaned and neatly stacked bricks, and about 1000 more cement encrusted bricks randomly scattered around the garden. Evidently not a job for the little yellow car. We hightailed it to the nearest Budget rental and hired a '1 tonne ute'... Even with this impressive vehicle it took us 3 trips and most of the day in the searing heat to pile the bricks up in our backyard. We now have enough bricks to last us a very long time - though we are of course too tired to do anything with them today. Instead we strung up the defences for the plants against tomorrow's 43 degree heat wave.

I also packed my bags for the first day of bootcamp! I start a 1 month, 3 mornings per week intensive bootcamp course tomorrow to get back into shape for 2010... Am looking forward to the workout, but definitely not the heat or the 5:15am start! Oh well, the sacrifices we must make to attain good health. Oh, and in health news apart from the chocolate thickshake and chocolate chip cookies I scoffed today, the Nepalese cookbook trial has been enormous success :-) Apart from the daal every single recipe has tasted delicious :-)

Fingers crossed for a fire free scorcher tomorrow!

Labels: bricks, home improvements

Happy New Year 2010!!

Friday, 1 January 2010

What a thunderous and dramatic start to 2010... Happy New Year everyone :-) I hope you didn't get too wet last night. After a roasting 38 degrees all day the sound and light show provided by nature during the fireworks was only rivaled by the eerie vapour rising from the roads. It felt like the world was coming to an end - but of course we have to wait for 2012 for that to happen!

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes... I'm looking forward to the surprise birthday dinner mum has organised with some very old friends - at a Bollywood restaurant no less! And I have to say it has been a healthy start to 2010. While I may have eaten cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner in previous years, there has been not a crumb of cake this year. I had an extremely healthy yoghurt for breakfast. Some tea and oranges that a friend dropped around with my pressies at lunch and I'm looking forward to a healthy indian vegetable curry tonight at Planet Bollywood!

We're also welcoming a house guest for the new year who has had some misfortune and has nowhere else to go... if anyone has any suggestions on how to make her feel more comfortable and at home here please let me know! It must be hard enough living with strangers as it is...

I hope all of you have a beautiful 2010 filled with happiness, health and success in your endeavours :-)

Labels: happy new year