sixteen days before

Okay so again I am posting another recipe. This one is just for damper, cos I think it's a good one and is fun to stick on the end of a twig and cook over a fire.

This isn't entirely an original recipe of course. Aussie bush blokes wouldn't have had chilled butter (or any, for that matter) or self raising flour even. But for the sake of the kiddies, I think it will taste better.

This recipe apparently feeds four, but we'll see how we go.

Damper

• 450g (3 cups) self-raising flour
• Pinch of salt
• 80g butter, chilled, cubed
• 185ml (3/4 cup) water

Make dough, stick on stick, cook over fire.

Drizzle (or dip, if you are sweet-of-tooth) in honey or syrup. We always had syrup as far as I can remember, but maybe bush honey was more traditional.



And for all of you sitting at home thinking back to your school camping days and the damper you ate (or even if you aren't), then I do recommend you make this. It's so simple you (really) can't go wrong. Cook it in the oven if you don't have a fire but it won't taste as good, i know.

pictures: Lara Stephenson (skilled artist and all-round person)(obviously a person)(not that she is all round)(rather, an all-round good person)(and not in the roly-poly way either)(though that really doesn't bear mentioning) she's good.

http://placidus-sinistra.deviantart.com/

seventeen days before

i'm delegating farewell organising to someone else. too stressed to make any decisions hehe.
BBQ? Dinner? Picnic? I don't know!

*smile*


My Gran's ANZAC biscuit recipe. This is mostly for my benefit, in case i am called on to cook them for any American kiddies, but also because my Gran's the best.

1 1/2 cups of rolled oats ,1 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 cups plain flour, about 3 to 4 tablespoons syrup, 4 ozs (110ish-grams) melted butter, 1 teaspoon of bi-carb in 2 tablespoons of boiling water.

I won't insult my intelligence by writing out instructions but if you want to know just ask :)

eighteen days before

I feel like i should be imparting some hidden knowledge to you before I go - that writing here gives me some special whatsit to enlighten you with - but i can't really think of anything so i'll keep on quoting people.
feel free to add your own quotes :)

I turned west against my imagination

to the searing plains

and my outstretched hands. (e)

nineteen days before

"Do what you do for the sheer joy of it,
Do what you choose, not what someone else chooses for you." 

Neale Walsch

twenty days before

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." 

Neale Walsch

I like this quote. My Uncle (Farmer Dave) showed me this guy, Neale Walsch.

(So, these are the bottles of pomegranate liqueur I made on 6.03.10.)

twenty-one days before

best smell in the world? Arctic Fire tea with honey and milk.

<3 autumn

i.bake.bread. (tuscan fig sourdough)

twenty-two days before

"our life is frittered away by detail. simplify, simplify."

Henry David Thoreau

twenty-four days before

You can’t know better until knowing better is useless.

This is something very important which I picked up from the book Looking for Alaska, by John Green. In retrospect of many events in our lives, we often lament over not knowing better. How often the phrases “If only i knew...” or “If only i had known better...” are hopelessly repeated. It is when you accept that you can’t know better - and contemplate that even if you did know better; would you really be better off? - that you can be free to move on.

I have found this particularly relevant since developing carpal tunnel syndrome, and then proceeding with surgery. That in itself didn’t cause me too much grief, but after 3 months of non-recovery post-operation, these things seem to get to you.

Through this time I have remained adamant that I should not feel regret or despair over this temporary disability. And I truly believe that. It is one of the things I have kept as a steadfast belief and it helps my healing.

These challenges concentrate your wants, desires and ultimate questions in life. I always imagined myself going to university and working in some high-paid law job, or at least something highly paid. That, of course, I still intend to happen. However, how I go about making it happen has changed. The things I love and ultimately enjoy are some of the simplest things. Cooking. Gardening. Travelling.

And so it is these things which I will aim for in life. And these are the things which I will make work for me.

Here’s to travelling…

twenty-six days before

People are basically good.

I came to this conclusion some time ago, when I thought about why people did things. People’s motives to do something are generally to satisfy some urge, or for some specific reason, which, on the whole, is ‘good’.

We eat because we are hungry; it does something good for us.

We get into the car and drive to the shops because we need bread; we eat it, it helps our body and therefore is a good action for us.

We speed on the way to the shops not because we want to cause damage or harm to ourselves (and therefore others), but because it is often tedious to go slow, and speeding gets us there quicker - which is in turn ‘good’ for us.

The result of our actions – actions which, whether we consciously intend for them to be good or just are ‘good’ (as above) -  are then determined by extraneous forces which may alter them to become “bad” or undesired, either for ourselves or as perceived by others.

Such as, hitting and killing a bird (or dog, or person…) whilst on our way to the shops to buy bread for ourselves to eat.

I won’t call this notion which prompted our actions as a good intent, as such, but rather just a simple ‘goodness’ which drives most of our actions, despite whatever the outcome may be.

Moonbeam (MB)