Popcorn

Home made macro photo studio

Thanks Chris for the idea. This is my home made macro photo studio and then a couple of subjects I shot tonight with the mobile... as usual.
I followed the instructions for the box from Strobist. Total cost - zip, nada, zilch, nuffink. I used my video light on one side and just an ordinary bed side lamp for the other.

Longrain - dessert

Sweet potato dumplings with hazel nut caramel sauce and fig and ginger ice cream. Looks like a sloppy shit on plate doesn't it. Tastes wickedly delicious though. Somehow they've managed to distil the essence of Thai food and instil it into a dessert. Good stuff.
Overall? Best Thai food ever. Thanks Longrain.

Longrain - suckling pig with bok choi and plum sauce

Awesome! Totally. Awesome. The crackling is a cracker. The pork is so tender and sweet. The plum sauce is wonderful and the bok choi is sweet and nutty. Garlic chips sets it all off nicely too. Awesome. I already said that yes?

Longrain in Surry Hills

Longrain is Sydney's finest modern Thai/Asian restaurant. So far so good. Started with Betel leaf topped with prawn roasted coconut mint & chilli. Now we on to a lamb curry. Just enough fire to make it interesting. Delicious.

View of Anzac Bridge from Sydney Fish Market

Kick to kick after the game

Winners are grinners

SYDNEY SWANS 8.1 11.6 13.13 18.15 (123)
PORT ADELAIDE 1.0 3.3 6.6 10.8 (68)

Sydney Morning Herald Realfooty match report here.

The oldies celebrating Ma's birthday at the Footy

She reckons she is 46 but we all know it's a little more than that... Three and a half score.
Happy Birthday Mum!

Adam Goodes takes a free kick

Golden gaytime at the Footy

Half time and the swans are smashing the Power.

Let sleeping cats lie on these chilly winter nights

Hotdogs

Sometimes you just need a hotdog, but this was very ordinary. Franks from Coles deli and bread rolls from Bakers Delight. The Beerenberg tomato sauce is great though.

Ooh la la, I made Madeleines

Insert recipe here...

• 100 grams butter
• Zest from 1 lemon
• 1 cup of sugar - you could probably half this amount no worries
• 100 grams of plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Essentially you start making something else stuff it up the first time and then wonder what the fuck you're going to do with the mixture of beaten sugar, lemon zest and butter. It didn't cream up like it was supposed to (see Michelle's blog in a day or two - we started that one again and made a delicious Lemon Delicious). So I let it sit for a while, had dinner and came back to it and added a little extra butter and it creamed very nicely anyway. WTF?. This is where my recipe departs significantly from a traditional Madeleine recipe too, but it was the only thing I could think of to make with a lemony sugary butter mixture. Oh well. Here goes...

1. Beat softened butter, sugar and lemon zest till nice and white and creamy.
2. Add vanilla and the two eggs and beat some more. Till they're light and fluffy I suppose.
3. Sift in the flour about a third at a time and fold it into the mixture. No beating now because that would be... bad.
4. Spoon the mixture into your Madeleine lightly buttered and slightly floured tray (pictured below). What? You don't have one? This is the first time I've used mine and I've had it for 6 months so you don't have to rush out and buy one in a hurry. Actually, the last time I made proper Madeleines I used a cup cake mold tray. Anyway the mixture will mound slightly above the tops.
5. Cook in a preheated oven, 190°C will do the trick, for between 14 and 17 minutes. You can probably tell mine are slightly too brown on the bottom, at least they're not black, so maybe check them after 10 minutes. They're done when they're golden brown and when you touch them gently with your fingertip they spring back into shape.
6. Turn them out onto a rack and sprinkle them lightly with sugar.
   

They're better the same day you make them but after stuffing myself with Michelle's Lemon Delicious and then 2 or 3 of these tasty little suckers I'm as stuffed as a stuffed thing. So at least I'll have plenty for breakfast in the morning. I'm going to name my first daughter Madeleine after these too I think. Ssssh, don't tell Michelle. Ooh la la, c'est tres bon.

Pasta cat loves pasta

The cat who loves calamari

Fish market skies

You wait 5 seconds too long and you miss the rainbow. Bugger.

Sunset over the Anzac Bridge.

12 months since last start and I've fired up the bike

The battery needed to go on the charger overnight but she started up well enough. Might need a service though.

Too long shopping...

So we had to pay for fracking parking. There's always time for hot dogs though.

Always on the look out for weird products

Nipple cover ups. Reusable no less.

Disguising shampoo to look like beer makes me want to shampoo more of course.

Tap dancing in Target

Because I'm bored.

Car park shit fight

Not moving is like this.
20 minutes to get out of the car park. Sheesh.

Shit that was close

Mickey "O" kicks a poster after the siren. Another thriller between these two teams - only 5 points between them at the end. The rivalry continues.
Swans 16.10 (106) Eagles 15.11 (101)
Realfooty match report here.

She's Cherry Ripe mate

A couple of goals late in the third quarter and the swannies stamp their authority all over the game... And i score some cherry ripes. Sweet mate.

Lovely night for Footy

Half time at the Footy

Half time at the Footy. Swans up by 4 points.

Eggs in heaven - Poached Egg Salad

Poached eggs, tomato sticks, croutons fried in olive oil, sprinkled with crispy fried bacon bits, and all in a tomato tea (consomme). God damn this was delicious and very easy.

This is actually called a Poached Egg Salad and comes from Masterchef's Masterclass on Friday. Video here.

Alexander's First Bath (At home)

Fig, radicchio and pancetta risotto

Bugger me if this isn't the best risotto I've ever had. Michelle has outdone herself this time. Transported to Italy I was.

• Carnaroli Italian rice
• Radicchio
• Pancetta (we used a nice smoky speck instead this time)
• Figs
• Home made chicken stock
• Parmesan
• White wine
• Garlic, butter, olive oil, salt, pepper, parsley

Ian Plimer book signing

Professor Ian Plimer signing copies of his new book on the science of global warming, Heaven And Earth, at Abbeys Books in Sydney. He was also tickled to sign my old first edition of Telling Lies For God. Apparently it is going for US$118 on Amazon. He laughed and said, "This is my first book on fundamentalism", and gestured towards some bloke out the front of the shop.

That bloke had a one man protest going on out the front of the shop. I chatted to the him for a while as I was leaving. He was stopping passers-by and customers and asking them to read the latest Quarterly Essay, Quarterly Essay 33, Quarry Vision, Coal, Climate Change and the End of the Resources Boom by Guy Pearse, as an antithesis to Heaven + Earth. This bloke was suggesting that Professor Plimer is nothing but a shill for the mining industry because Plimer is on the board of a mining company. He also suggested that the book I'd bought was just paying for trip Plimer is taking to Paris next year(?). I asked the protester a few questions but he essentially said that he wasn't a scientist and did know all the science behind climate change but we are destroying our children's future. When I brought up the IPCC he claimed that it was comprised of industry stooges as well. 80% he reckoned.
I said I was mostly convinced that global warming was man-made but I am willing to see what someone like Ian Plimer has to say. The dude suggested that people shouldn't buy the book because it would only confuse them and may lead them change their minds. Unfortunately he was coming across as an environmental fundamentalists and didn't appear to be able to speak to the substance or science of the debate.

My babies catching some Z's in front of the tele

Welcome to the World Alexander - the video

Check out the newest nephew in Full HD glory on Youtube by clicking here.

Anzac biscuits

Anzac Biscuits are easy and delicious. Michelle even likes how these ones turned out. Finally I have some validity.

1 cup of plain flour
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of rolled oats
½ cup of coconut
125 grams of butter
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
1 tablespoon of water
½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1. Add the sifted flour, sugar, oats and coconut to a bowl. Got to watch the spelling of the word bowl - an extra "e" changes the meaning entirely and this recipe doesn't call for a colonic.
2. Melt the butter and add the golden syrup and water.
3. Stir the bicarb into the butter syrup mix.
4. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix.
5. Roll the mixture into walnut sized balls and place on a greased baking tray. I use baking paper - less washing up and no sticking.
6. Throw the tray into the oven for 15 - 20 minutes at about 175°C.
7. Delicious cookies biscuits.

BTW, all you need to know about ANZAC Biscuits, for example they can't be called cookies, can be found by clicking here.

Welcome to the world Alexander

Proud parents and new aunty. Michelle's sister Tracey gave birth to Alexander Thomas at 4.27pm this afternoon. 3.655kg and 51cm long. Mother and child are doing well.

One of the benefits of tele-commuting

First Of May

Jonathan Coulton's First Of May.
Adults Only - Viewer discretion advised.