For the love of jelly...

So my darling husband has been incredibly sick battling a hideous throat infection. Being the super wife that I am* I have been taking care of him. During one particularly strained moment he told me that if I misrepresented him on my blog and make him out to sound pathetic without ensuring that everyone knew how horribly sick he was then he would sue me. He claims he was joking, but just in case consider this my disclaimer...he was really sick, so sick that for a few days I was fraught with worry...however there were also some entertaining moments during those days (well entertaining for me anyway).

At one stage I had been cutting his panadol into quarters because he was having trouble swallowing them due to his sore throat (and general incompetence) when he came up to me sheepishly to say, "Can I ask you a favour, can you crush my tablets for me."

Seriously.

Another challenge was finding food that he could tolerate with the antibiotics and wouldn't throw up. His throat was very sore so it had to be soft as well. I suggested jelly, thinking that it would be a good alternative to tinned spaghetti. Little did I know that jelly would pose such a problem.

So I headed to Rustans supermarket to search out some jelly, and not having any clue where anything is stored in the incomprehensible aisles I asked for help. Big mistake.

The usual modus operandi of the staff there is to tell me..."sorry ma'am out of stock" no matter what I ask for. It is then after 15 minutes of searching every aisle that I actually find 15 kinds of the thing that was supposedly out of stock.

So I asked someone where the jelly was. Blank look. Searching my mind I tried to remember what American's call jelly...jello, of course. "How about jello I ask." Blank look.

"You know, jello? It is a powder that makes water go hard. You know, makes it wobble." (Insert wobble motion with hands and head here, you know, to make my point.) "It comes in fruity flavours, like lime or strawberry, lots of colours like red and green?"

Suddenly his face lit up with a smile..."Red and green? Ahh GULAMAN! This way ma'am."

Of course, gulaman, I should have known.




*...may not actually be a super wife, but think that crushing tablets gets me at least some wifely brownie points

Deck the halls with boughs of...chrisanthemum

Filipinos LOVE Christmas...this much has been confirmed by me in the short time I have been here. The streets, shopping centres and even high rise buildings are literally covered in lights and decorations. These decorations start appearing in any month ending in -ber, which means Christmas trees in September are not an uncommon sight.

I really like their commitment to Christmas here...it is very joyful! The chrisanthemum is their christmas bloom of choice and it is everywhere, in its sparkly, multi-coloured glory. I for one hate chrisanthemum's so will not be partaking in that particular tradition.

They also have some unusual Christmas installations including the odd animal display in the Powerplant Mall that includes moose and panda bears.

As I write this the Rockwell Christmas Party is is full swing in the park below our apartment. It is an event for those of us who live in Rockwell and includes food, drink and entertainment in the style of a cover band. The band is currently singing "Never Gonna Give You Up" and the crowd is going off! Other hits have included September by Earth Wind and Fire (just about to tour) and Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys (also about to tour).

Our stuff still hasn't arrived so none of our Christmas decorations are here. I have compensated and now have at least a little Christmas spirit in the apartment in the form of an Advent wreath. I am missing our stuff cos I haven't been able to bake Christmas biscuits yet this year! Next week I will be tackling Lebkuchen so fingers crossed! If all goes well I will post the recipe here.

For now, I leave you with a snapshot of Christmas in the Philippines.

 

 

 

Steak Frites and Top Deck Mousse - an example of my mad Macguyver and Martha Stewart skills

So yesterday Reece and I had been married for a month! And what a month it has been! I still cannot quite believe I am here in Manila, and that this is my home for the next 2 years, but indeed it is. To celebrate (and to sneakily get out of planning our 1 year anniversary cos we take it in turns) I decided to cook a really simple meal hopefully using the freshest ingredients possible.

Of course, I am running with less than the full contingent of kitchen items, so I couldn't be too adventurous!

I decided to make Steak Frites and Top Deck Mousse, two hopefully easy things to pull off. However, tere are always things you forget you don't have...like a whisk or mortar and pestle. Which is how I ended up crushing peppercorns with a glass. My first attempt was a failure as I sent peppercorns scattering across the floor with too much force. I ended up crushing two or three at a time...quite the laborious process let me tell you!

I did however relent and buy a whisk, so ended up creaming sugar and eggs together and whipping cream with sheer brute force and perseverence.

Anyway enough bitching...here are the recipes.

Steak Frites (serves 2)

 

Steak
2 steaks (I used Australia Mulwarra tenderloin cut into 1-inch thick steaks)
1 tbs whole black peppercorns
1 tbs whole pink peppercorns
Generous pinch of salt
Olive oil to help steaks marinate

Peppercorn and mushroom sauce
200ml white wine
300ml beef stock
5 button mushrooms chopped
3 spring onions chopped roughly
3 garlic cloves chopped roughly
1/3 cup whole basil leaves
1 tbs black peppercorns (crushed)
1 tbs pink peppercorns (crushed)
60g butter
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup cream

5 button mushrooms sliced thinly
1 tbs whole black and pink peppercorns

Frites
4 medium potatoes (cut into roughly 1.5cm chips)
Basil (a shake or two to coat)
Salt and pepper to taste
Enough olive oil to coat frying pan with 1cm of oil to shallow fry

Cover the steaks in salt, peppercorns and olive oil and leave to marinate for an hour or so. Don't forget to take the steaks out of the fridge 20 mins before you want to cook them as they cook best at room temperature.

Heat a small saucepan to medium-high heat and brown mushrooms, crushed garlic, spring onions and crushed peppercorns with a splash of olive oil and 30g of butter. When the mushroom mix is brown and sizzling, add the white wine and beef stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium, add whole basil leaves and let simmer until is has reduced by half. Once the stock has reduced remove from heat and leave to steep. Once cool, strain through a tight colander or muslin to remove all the bits and pieces and don;t forget to save the liquid...this will form the base of the sauce.

Pre-heat the oven to 175 degrees. Combine the potato chips with the basil, salt and pepper. Heat a fry pan and add enough oil to cover the base up to 1cm. You need the oil very hot so it may take a minute or so to heat up. Once the oil is hot shallow fry the chips, constantly turning to ensure they are brown all over. When they are brown, transfer to an over tray and stick them into the hot oven to continue cooking. At this stage they will take another 25 mins and longer if you like them really crispy.

Drain most of the oil from the pan from the chips and reheat to high heat. (You'll need your overhead fan on for this part!) Cook the steaks for 2-3 mins on each side and remember to only turn them once. Once they have been browned on each side stick them into the oven on the same tray as the chips to finish cooking. For pink meat only leave for 5-7 mins, for more brown inside (which is how I like it) leave for 10-12 mins.

At this stage you will want to add the finely sliced mushrooms, whole peppercorns and remaining 30g of butter to the hot pan and let it brown and sizzle. Add the stock and let it come to the boil before turning the pan to medium heat. You want the stock to reduce even further, but keep stirring it to make sure it doesn't get too thick. (If at any stage it seems too thick you can thin it out with a little more white wine.) Once the stock has reduced add the cream and Dijon mustard and stir until the sauce becomes thick and glossy.

Take the steaks out of the oven first and let them sit on the plates for 2 mins while you finish the sauce.

Serve the steaks covered in the peppercorn sauce with the chips on the side.

Top Deck Mousse (makes 6 smallish glasses)

150g milk or dark chocolate (whatever you prefer is fine), roughly chopped
150g white chocolate, roughly chopped
3 eggs
1/4 cup caster sugar
300ml thickened cream
2 tbs Baileys - optional

6 clear glasses - roughly 3/4 cup or 200ml size

Whip the cream in a bowl (only to just soft peaks, not hard peaks) and then set aside.

Melt the milk chocolate first, either in a microwave or on the stove top. (I always melt chocolate in the microwave on 20 second bursts and stirring each time). Set aside to cool slightly.

Beat the eggs and sugar together until they are pale, light and fluffy and have roughly doubled in size. Separate the egg mixture evenly into two bowls.

Fold the milk chocolate into the first bowl until combined. If you want at this stage you can mix through the Baileys. Then gently add half the whipped cream (don't stress about being too specific!) Try to keep as much lightness in the mixture when you combine the chocolate with the whipped cream.

Divide evenly into 6 glasses and let set in the fridge for about an hour.

After 55 mins melt the white chocolate and set aside to cool.

Using a hand whisk whip the egg mixture again quickly to make sure it is still light and fluffy and well combined. Add the white chocolate to the egg mix then gently fold through the remaining cream. Pour into the glasses over the milk chocolate mixture and leave to set in the fridge for a further 1-1/2 hours.

Before serving, sprinkle with chocolate buttons or grated chocolate.

Peppercorn and Mushroom Sauce recipe and Top Deck Mousse recipe both adapted from awesome Australian recipe site www.taste.com.au 

Please be upstanding...

So I celebrated my day off today by taking myself off to the movies (I am constantly impressed with how grown up I am when I manage to do that).

I had settled down in the comfort of my own home this morning to watch my 90 cent copy of new release 2012 and being the clever shopper I had asked the lady at the shop to show me the quality of the copy and was impressed to see that it was a DVD copy, not cinema filmed. But alas it was not meant to be, when I started to watch it I discovered that she had pulled a massive swifty on me by showing me a good copy of the movie only to send me on my merry way with a cinema-filmed version. Bitch.

Foiled by the subterfuge of the DVD shop lady (because who would ever have thought that people selling pirated DVD's would be dodgy??) I decided to be brave and take myself off the the movies to see it myself, on the big screen.

Tickets to the movies here are super cheap, we paid 200 pesos to see New Moon on Saturday, which works out to be roughly $4.50. Turns out cinema sessions are priced according to popularity or time of day because I ended up paying the princely sum of 115 pesos or $2.65 to see 2012. Who doesn't love a bargain!

Being the anal person I am, and knowing that it wasn't assigned seats, I arrived about 20 mins early and settled down to read my magazine and eat popcorn (it was BBQ flavoured...yay!) while I waited for the movie to start.

Turns out all my planning was in vain, because there ended up being only 10 people in the whole cinema. However, I was there all alone when an announcement suddenly flashed across the screen...

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE BE UPSTANDING FOR THE PHILIPPINES NATIONAL ANTHEM.

WTF? Is this a joke...seriously...am I being punked? I've been to the movies here before and this has never happened. Not wanting to be rude, or shot, or kicked out I stood and gave the national anthem my full respect. It was played and then I sat down again...still not a soul in the theatre. I turned around to see the projector guy leaning out the window just staring at me...perhaps he just put it on to amuse himself and see what I was going to do, or rather perhaps I am being paranoid and this is just something that happens all the time!

Either way, it was slightly disconcerting.

Fuck off John Coates

John Coates you make me so mad. I understand you have a job to do, but you are being utterly ridiculous and I believe that you are wildly over-exaggerating the importance of Australian gold medals to the Australian people.

We are a country of 21 million people, we frequently punch above our weight in the Olympics medal tally and now it is being predicted that we will finish eighth in London. Now correct me if I’m wrong but eighth sounds pretty respectable to me.

And I’m ashamed at your narrow-minded view of Australian people. Matthew Mitcham, Steve Hooker and Ken Wallace mean a lot to the Australian people, and I’m sure of you surveyed them on the street then they would be more than happy to tell you exactly what they all won medals for…only would they really?

Perhaps the Australians who you seem to think will collapse under the enormous weight of shame from only earning 46 medals could think of a better place to put this money? Let’s not divert it from sport, we all agree that sport is very important and intrinsic to our culture and identity, but perhaps these average Australians would like the extra $1 billion dollars you are asking for to be invested into making sure that every Australian child has the chance to play sport?

Do you know how expensive it is for kids to play sport these days? What with the boots, mouth guards, pads, uniforms, registration fees and everything else they need.  How about we use that money to ensure that every child in Australia can play the sport of their choice every year for the next 10 years?

How about we invest heavily into training and education programs in schools to make sure every child gets access to proper nutrition and health information at school. There’s an obesity epidemic happening if you didn’t know John and they say that it is important to teach kids from a young age.

I’m not saying that the AOC doesn’t deserve any money, I think it is great that we provide an avenue and support to athletes and potential athletes to pursue their dreams, I’m just asking you to temper your request a little and take a step back and realise that there may actually be more to life than winning medals.

Because here is the ridiculous thing, we still actually win medals, we’re just worried that we won’t beat the Brits.

We’re Aussies, we’ll support our Olympians no matter what, we’ll cheer them on and celebrate their triumphs. And then the Olympics will be over and people will go back to caring about things that actually make a difference to their day to day life, like whether or not their child can play the sport of their dreams and actually one day become an Olympian. But if they can’t afford to play John, then where are you going to get the next wave of Aussie legends?

Married!

Ok so this is what I do...I get energised and feel the need to write everything down and then have periods of nothing at all.

Our wedding was amazing...the ceremony was brilliant and the reception was smashing. I am so lucky to have so many amazing friends and family and Reece and I were truly touched and grateful for all the love and good wishes we received.

I'm still going through the wedding photos but here are a couple of my favourites...

 

 

I'm back...maybe

I really feel like I should say something hideously cliched to mark my tentative return to the world of blogging, but really, the 5 people who read this blog are also frinds of mine on Facebook and read my 10,000 status updates and are therefore well aware that life has been a little hectic.

I do have stories, but I am wrestling a litte with homesickness and husband-sickness (he's in the US, not diseased) so am finding it a little hard to be chipper and upbeat enough to write them down. I am working on writing down a novel about my experiences getting a medical, but I'm not feeling nearly funny enough to do that story justice at the moment.

Life has been piling on top of me and I have been thinking so much about writing that it toally got in the way of actually writing. It wasn't until I wrote a long and impassioned vent to my darling friend back home (and sent her a text message telling her to check her FB immediately) that I reliased that I just had to pull my finger out and just put keyboard to HTML screen.

I've learnt a lot in the past weeks...

• Moving to a foreign country is an excellent way to test a week old marriage
• Life is never what you expect it to be - and I am being punished I am sure for crowing about my planned life of housewifely bliss by finding myself employed 3 days after I arrived in the country
• I hate lunch food here much more than I hate lunch food back home
  
• I am never going to find somewhere that sells good sandwiches or salads for lunch (and I don't particularly like sandwiches or salads), so am consigning myself to obesity or starvation...stay tuned for what I choose
• There is simply too much good American TV on late at night for someone who has to be awake at 4.30am
• The peso is not manopoly money, and I am not rich with 4000 pesos in my wallet
• There are varieties of BBQ flavoured chips here that I never even dreamed of
• Australia is pretty cool. Being paid to teach people about Australia is so cool that it sometimes doesn't even feel like work, even with the 4.30am starts
• I am obsessed with the fact that I have to wake up at 4.30am and feel the need to mention it obsessively
• It really does take FOREVER to get anything done - case in point, our airconditioning has been broken for nearly TWO WEEKS 
• I am much more resilient to heat than I ever believed possible
• I am learning to be very specific...and to be patient...and to speak slower
  

*This is why I will never be a millionaire*

So I'm taking inventory for our impending Manila move and am pondering to myself how I ever managed to get through life without knowing how much a good queen sized bed costs.

For thos of you who are astute, you will realise that I have never parted with my hard earned cash for something so monotonous as a bed.

Now the baking goods and pots and pans section I could name down to pretty much the last dollar.

I'm like the Carrie of baking goods...I'll never be able to put a deposit on a house because I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars outfitting my kitchen and absolutely no money on mundane things like bookshelves.

*Image from Thousand Hobbies*

Oh and one other thing...

I had my second last dress fitting today and my dress needed to be taken in 2 inches around the waist and 4 inches around the hips! Very exciting!

It's really all happening!

Wow...what a week! I have finished work for the forseeable future and was so lucky to have a fantastic send off...much better than the last job I left!

It hasn't quite sunk in yet that the last pay check I received yesterday could be my last for some time. It is truly terrifying to me to be relying solely on another person for my upkeep! Luckily it is Reece and he is fabulous and makes everything seem so easy!

I really just feel like I am on holidays at the moment. I think it will hit me when all of our furniture arrives in Manila that I really don't have gainful employment and that I have to find some other way to be an equal in the relationship...I really hope this means that I don't have to do the dishes forever, cos that would really suck.

So I'm sitting here in my dressing gown, scrubbed to within an inch of my skin and waiting for my lovely make-up lady to come and hopefully not turn me orange!

It is my hens tomorrow and amazingly I still don't know what we are doing! I'm really impressed that every single one of my fabulous friends has managed to keep it a secret!

Anyway...just wanted to check in and not let this blog languish while life continues to speed by. I have a fabulous cupcake recipe to post soon...maybe I'll find the strength to do it on Sunday in my hangover haze!

Rewards

So I lost another 1.3kg and 1% bodyfat and to celebrate I am eating Lindt for breakfast.

Don't worry...I shared with my office. I want them to miss me when I am gone.

Disasters and the media

So you might have seen my irate tweets and facebook status updates over the last few days. In the interest of sanity, I thought I should elaborate.

I have absolutely no issue with aid going to Samoa, American Samoa or Sumatra. I think that it is horrific what is happening to each of these nations because of national disaster and want to help everyone!

My issue is that because no Australians were killed, the Manila floods were largely ignored by mainstream media. I think this is a really appalling state of play. I understand that news has to be relevant and newsworthy, and that Australians affected by disasters make for a better news story, but I think it stinks. The Manila floods were just as newsworthy, over 250 people died and 480,000 people are without homes. Add to that the significant level of Australian business over there, and to me that sounds like something people should know about.

I guess my issue is with how the media reports on natural disasters in general. More than once during the Victorian bushfires I had to change the channel, or the radio station because I was appalled at the evident delight displayed by journalists that they got to report on a "story of their careers". The willingness to exploit those who had lost everything sickened me...and it was all in the name of reporting back to the people.

For shame, Australian media. People's lives are not a juicy piece of gossip and the relevance of a foreign story should not be measured only by how many Australian were involved, but rather on the merit of the story itself.

Baking project...

Ok so the wheels are in motion...and my trip to Taren Point last Sunday was a superb success. Next stop...Cake Decorating Central in Castle Hill for further supplies.

I can't do much on it at the moment...but am going to rip it up when I finish work next Thursday and need something to fill my lonely days.

For those of you playing at home...the baking project includes these in numerous quantities...

Get excited...

I have a new baking project brewing...not quite sure what direction it will take, but I'm bloody excited about it!

Ring ring...

***Disclaimer. Despite what you are about to read, I can actually be trusted with expensive pieces of jewellery. Please don't confiscate my shiny ring...***

FUCK! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

It was like that scene from Four Weddings and a Funeral, only slightly less British. Only it wasn't a movie, this was me at 7.15am this morning as I tore the house apart looking for my engagement ring.

Utterly convinced that it was gone for good, I rang my mother in a fit of despair. I woud have rung Reece, only it was 5.15am in Manila and something told me that he wouldn't have been all that happy with that wake up call.

So the situation was this...

I arrived home on Sunday afternoon and timed it perfectly with the brief but intense hail storm in the afternoon. I was going to wait it out in the car, however I realised that every single window and door in my house was open and I panicked and dashed across the street to close them.

The issue is that my ring is perfectly sized in Manila, when my fingers swell with the heat, however in Australia, when I am soaking wet, the ring is loose, like very loose, like could fall off my finger loose.

At this stage, with the last time I saw the ring flashing through my mind I was convinced that it was gone for good.

Cue breakdown on the phone with my mother. (She said to me tonight that she wishes she was there so she could have slapped me to snap me out of it.) "Go outside and check the garden," she said. "I'm not wearing any clothes," I sob. (I had only just gotten out of bed!)

So after much posturing I finally managed to get dressed and comb the front garden and sidewalk on my hands and knees. Still no ring.

By this time I was inconsolable.

I came inside to call my boss to tell her that I was going to be late and something flashing in the corner of my living room caught my eye.

It was my ring! It would seem that when I was shedding my soaking we clothes the day before it had gotten caught and flicked off.

Moral of the story...I probably can't be trusted with shiny, expensive things, and the second I get back from Manila I'm getting the little fucker resized.

Sorry Reece.

Success!

So being a typical bride I am in wedding countdown (5 weeks to go, today) and I'm stressing about how I will look on the day.

I've been on Lite n Easy now for a total of 9 days and I'm very impressed that I've made it this far to tell you the truth. My record with sticking to diets is not great...I'm very good at the first two days and then the Toobs call to me and I go running back.

Lite and Easy has been a success so far. It is fairly tasty, although there seems to be a preference towards capsicum that makes me slightly mad and after the first two days I haven't really been all that hungry.

The reason while it has been a phenomenal success so far is that I jumped on the scales today after 9 days on it and I have lost 3.3kg. That screams success to me! I'm certain that it won't last and I will plateau, hopefully still losing at least 1kg a week.

Anyway...so often women complain about their weight and we tend to discuss the bad stuff, not the good stuff. It somehow seems easier to put ourselves down, and i would rather be self-depreciating than be seen to gloat.

Well fuck it. I lost 3.3kg and am now 85kg...I haven't been that weight for god knows how long and I'm feeling jaunty about it.

If you ever feel like gloating...please know that you can always come here and gloat! It's healthy!

Ok I'm clearly obsessed

I've been playing around with this blog for like 4 hours now...so much fun! I'm hoping this will become a long-term thing, but those who know me will attest that I tend to burn brightly and fizzle out quickly.

I think this is going to come in handy over the next 16 months, what with the move to Manila and all. I'll try not to rant too much...though ranting is something that I hold near and dear to my heart.

Hopefully I can keep everyone up to date with various shenanigans in Manila and around Asia as well.

I'm also getting married in October...so I imagine I will have updates about the wedding and the whole marriage thing.

On another note...

Does anyone else find it strangely therapeutic to speak to an imaginary audience. Only when I walk around the house "blogging out loud" (read talking to myself) I think I am a nutter...but when I'm writing somehow that is acceptable.

Anyway...I should really go.

A spoonful of sugar

I'm practicing my photo uploading and thought I should show some of my baking projects...in future I will try to post recipes as I bake.

Blog this...

So, clearly I'm blogging. And I've avoided my existential crisis nicely by not including my surname in my blog title.

Stay tuned...who knows what the fuck this blog will end up being.