Local Mission

I live in an outer suburb of Sydney, Australia. Not a wealthy town. A middle class town. Good schools, and some not so good. Good neighbourhoods, with family homes, lawns and parks. Some not so good neighbourhoods with more run-down apartment blocks, convenience stores and barred windows.

I rent a townhouse close to the University. It was an older neighbourhood with lots of single dwelling homes. As the older residents age and move out it is slowly being converted to town houses and luxury apartments. I love my neighbourhood. It is a perfect blend of students, families and professionals. On my street alone there is a fantastic little set of shops, a park with a great playground, a post office, two churches and a school.

I walk to the train station in the morning and routinely pass children walking to school, elderly couples walking their dog and mothers taking small children to the playground.

There has been a new addition at the station this week. A Church van has set up a BBQ and is handing out sausage sandwiches to the needy. It appears to be a coalition of several local churches and food outlets. It is a fantastic idea.

Just one hitch - since when do the needy live here?

I understand we are in a global financial crisis. In Australia we were lucky and blessed to have been led by the wise and wonderful Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during the worst of it and were the only Western Country to avoid recession.

The needly live elsewhere.

I see footage of neighbourhoods in America, boarded up houses and businesses. In England huge financial cut backs are occurring.

But here? Australia is the lucky country.

Why are there people in my neighbourhood who are hungry? Why are there people here that need help?

It is a hugely confronting reality. I am wrapped in a bubble with a great job, a wonderful husband, a warm comfortable (albeit rented) home, two cars and life's little luxuries.

The needy live far away. We sponsor children, and support charities, and buy wells and chickens from Oxfam at Christmas.

The thought of doing mission work right here on my street, is so alien. So heart breaking. The thought of my fellow Australians struggling to feed themselves and their families is devastating.

I think Hubs and I will be exploring some good works we can participate in right here at home.

Easy Risotto

There are a few competing tensions in my kitchen. I am a vegetarian, Hubs isn't. We are both calorie / fat conscious (he doesn't need to be and is, I should be more so...).

I love finding low fat vegetarian meals that G will eat as well. As far as men go he is very vegie-friendly. He will often choose vegetarian pizza or Thai food. I know he did this before we met as it was one of the selling points for the friend who fixed us up!

I hit gold with this easy risotto. It is an adaptation of a Weight Watchers recipe and that means eatability shoots right up the enjoyment chart and right down the guilt, regret, remorse chart.

This recipe calls for mushrooms and tomato.I have left out the basil and tomato and added asparagus and spring onion and it has been just as delicious.

Easy Mushroom Risotto

 5 points

Dice one onion and fry gently in a pan with three cloves of garlic and spritz of spray olive oil.

Inhale deeply. Family members will tell you supper smells great and you haven't even busted a sweat! Resist the temptation to serve supper right then. The onion and garlic combo smells good but lacks something in the presentation.

There is no greater smell in cooking than the intoxicating aroma of garlic and onions frying in a pan. The two go together like peaches and cream. In fact the original lyrics to that song were "like onions and garlic" but the record company thought it was unromantic. Or not.

Add in your chopped mushrooms. I went against all my environmental principles and paid a fortune for the ones already washed, peeled and chopped. Hey, I earn good money and my time is a commodity too. It would have taken me, like, minutes to chop all those.

Once the mushrooms have browned add in one cup of arborio rice and fry it off for about two minutes. Stir in one cup of water and a splash of white wine.

Stir in more water as needed while the rice cooks. Right about now your risotto looks and smells like something Shrek would cook up in the swamp. Resist the temptation to chuck it out and grab a burger. It will get better! I promise. Add salt and pepper now - as much as you dare!

Dice up some fresh basil and tomato and stir it in when the rice is tender. Throw in one cup of good grated Parmesan cheese. 

Top with more Parmesan cheese and serve to your loved ones. If your husband is anything like mine he will gobble it up and have seconds. If he is not, cook him a steak and serve the risotto as a side dish!

Spring has Sprung

We are into October and I can report with confidence that Spring has sprung in Sydney!

The days are sunny and beautiful. Daylight savings changed last week and the evenings are light and bright. It is almost 6 pm now and still as bright as the daytime.

I love Spring weather. It is warm enough for skirts without tights (although I rock opaque tights I HATE HATE lady lawyer grown up panty hose and refuse to wear them). The nights are lovely - cool enough for snuggling but warm enough to have the window open listening to the cicadas.

Our garden is alive with colour and anticipation. The bonsais are blooming! Hubs keeps bonsai trees and they are so beautiful this time of year. They give our little garden and patio such a peaceful zen feeling.

There are so many Spring things I love! My birthday is in Spring. Christmas planning starts in Spring. BBQ's on the patio, evening walks, al fresco lunches by the river. Do these things now because in 

summer it is TOO HOT! 

I am very happy to see Spring - but not quite ready for Summer yet!

Superhero Party

Last night we went to celebrate the birthday of one of my colleagues. Lisa is a person I met at work who has gone on to be one of my best friends. 

She is turning...30! She is devastated about this milestone so she did the sensible, mature thing and threw a Superhero party!

Each guest received a slip of paper with the identity of the super hero (or villain) they were to dress as. Lisa thought that if she did not allocate the characters she would end up with 20 Wonder Women and Supermen.

Lisa's favorite hero is Batman. As such he was prominent last night!

I was meant to go as Astro Girl. You know, sister of Astro Boy. Do you think I could find a costume? ANYWHERE?? ON THIS EARTH?? I had zero luck. I almost considered cutting my hair into the pointy robot style. Then I got stuck in a two day trial that is has gone nine days so far and have not had a moment or a lunch break to organise anything!

As such, Astro Girl did not make an appearance at the party.

Lisa was very sad. She then cheered up when she realised how committed my sidekick was to the project. G was allocated Flash Gordon. Flash! A-aaaaah!

He took it very seriously. The costume shop didn't have Flash Gordon, so they adapted a red military jacket and the lady sewed the special graphic for the front! That is a full service costume shop. Hubs go so into the character he made me watch the 1980 movie yesterday afternoon. Folks, that movie is, bad. Not even the soundtrack by Queen could save it.

Lisa LOVES the movie and it did give Hubs some great one liners to work into conversation. When we were leaving he told Lisa we had to go as he only had 14 hours to save the earth. (Straight from the film).

Here we have Chewbacca (sans the rest of the suit as he got very hot!) With his is Harley Quin (X men?) and the remnants of Sheara.

This is my beautiful friend Rowena. She is the Scarlet Witch. Her costume was amazing! We all want her to wear the bustier to Court!

Batgirl here is Lisa, the birthday girl. We got her a Batman mug and coosie that I found in the Father's day sale at Myer (our Father's day is September). We also gave her some Batman and Robin glasses that G's mum had. They were from a McDonalds meal from back when the Batman movie came out in the 90s. They are now collectors items! She loved them, almost more than the Mimco earrings.....

Rainbow Bright, Wonder Woman and I forget the third one. Rainbow Bright is Lisa's house mate Rachael. She was a GREAT sport and a super hostess. She had a bucket of sangria  rainbows that she scooped out for people.

We had an awesome night. Happy Birthday Lisa!

Cinnamon Buns

It all started on Friday afternoon. I was trapped in a stuffy, windowless, soul-less court room in a two day appeal that is now into day six! I was suddenly overcome with the urge to eat a cinnamon bun. This is odd for me. I do not have a sweet tooth. Give me cheese, potato, pasta, savoury crackers and 

anti pasto. I am not one for cakes, chocolates or candy.

So for some strange reason I craved a cinnamon bun. 

On Saturday morning I ran errands and hit the supermarket. I stopped in at the coffee cart and the donut place. No luck.

So I googled P-Dub's recipe and decided to make my own!

I stealthily assembled the ingredients in the evening, made the dough, rolled it out... and my husband busted me! My super-secret-surprise-cinnamon buns were now public news.

I do believe he was a little sceptical. Perhaps he remembers the great Nondenominational Bun Fiasco of 2010? Or 2009?

Well I proved him wrong! Aside from being a little crisp around the edges, my cinnamon rolls were PERFECT!

DELICIOUS!

I am vindicated as a wife and a baker. I earned my Jessie Steele Apron that day! 

As I only had one scrawny husband and not a ranch full of cowboys to feed I halved the recipe. It still made two pans of rolls and now I have them stashed in the freezer. Except for the one my husband ate... while we were cooking dinner tonight.

Sigh.

A Long Weekend

I left my Blackberry at Court.

I have had no Blackberry all weekend. A three day, much needed long weekend. In which I have had no Blackberry.


I am phoneless. Sans cellular device. Telephonically challenged.

Three days without twitter and facebook (yes I know I could go on the computer but that takes work). No sms messages. No instant weather updates and fast fact checking. I had to borrow my husband's iphone for a quick recipe conversion (the horror!)

It has been a huge non-voluntary technological hiatus. A wireless weekend.

I have survived! It has actually been kind of nice. Liberating.

Don't get me wrong. I will be waiting at the Court room door at 9 am to retrieve my Crackberry  Blackberry!

On the upside, Hubs and I went to Starbucks yesterday! He bought me this treat.

It is just like a Starbucks cup, only hard reusable plastic, almost like a Tervis Tumbler. I have been sipping iced water from it all weekend!

On Saturday we had the "Afterparty" for the students and their families. It was not very rock n roll as it POURED!. It has been raining all weekend. The expected crowd (50 plus) was much thinned but those that were there had a great time.

All the families brought a "dish", but we ended up with A LOT of chips and dips!

I made my usual Mexican dip, a garden salad and Pioneer Woman's pasta salad, potato salad and Asian noodle salad. Needless to say Hubs and I have been feasting on leftover salad this weekend!

One of the families brought this cake. It was a reproduction of the programme from the show. It was AMAZING!

I am back into the city to the District Court tomorrow. Sigh. 


I am trapped in an Appeal that will never end. It was listed for two days and tomorrow will be day 5 (with at least one more after that).  I had only anticipated being away from the office for a couple of days. I dread to think what awaits me in my in tray!

Again, an upside - I am almost finished The Girl Who Played with Fire. I was a sceptic. I admit it. My mother raved about these books and that made me go, "meh." We have such different tastes that I thought, if she loved it, I won't.

Then so many of you blogarellas also raved about it! So I have been reading on the looooong train trip (ok one hour but you know...) to the city. By the time this case finishes I will have polished off the Millennium Trilogy and moved onto .... War and Peace?