Polenta chips

Am I the only person in the world that hasn't been eating polenta chips? (or polenta fries, depending on your hemisphere) In fact, until last week I was a near polenta virgin. I think I have eaten polenta mash as a side dish at a few restaurants, and always liked it, but never really understood how it was prepared or cooked, so it seemed a bit mysterious and fancy schmancy.

I've had a Tupperware container of polenta floating around in my cupboard for years, but have only ever used it for baking corn bread, corn muffins or yummy cakes containing corn meal. Given my love of corn (and let's face it carbohydrates in general), it's surprising I've never tried making my own polenta mash.

Last week when the lovely Mary was down in Melbourne to celebrate her birthday, I was introduced to the wonder of polenta chips at Barney Allens. Crisp on the outside, soft on the inside and with a yummy dipping sauce. An instant win!

Mere days after trying these chips, I've been keen to go back for more. Since that was unlikely to happen, the next best thing to do was to try making them myself. Thanks to the wonders of google I found several not-so-daunting sounding recipes, so went ahead with one from allrecipes.com, with some slight variations, including baking instead of frying. Here's my version.

Baked polenta chips

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup milk
  
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
  
• 1 tablespoon butter
  
• 1 cup dry polenta
  
• Small handful Parmesan cheese (next time I would add more
  
• Chopped fresh parsley (grabbed from pot outside, unmeasured
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• Other spices to taste - I added Chilli flakes and paprika

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, combine milk, chicken stock, and butter; bring to rolling boil. Slowly whisk in polenta.
   
2. Turn down heat to medium-low, and continue cooking and stirring until polenta pulls from edge of pan. (I know this sounds confusing, and I had no idea what "pulls from pan" means, but it REALLY DOES!)
   
3. Mix in cheese, parsley, salt and pepper & whatever spices you are adding.
   
4. Spread polenta evenly over a cookie sheet, and refrigerate until cold.
   
5. Preheat oven
   
6. Transfer polenta to cutting board and cut into sticks.
   
7. Place on baking tray, spray with oil and bake in oven until crispy.
   

I served this with a salad and a dipping sauce made of geek yoghurt and chilli jam. It was yum! As I mentioned above next time I'd add more cheese, as I couldn't taste it at all. And don't worry, there will be a next time soon!!

RIP blender

The blender that I've been using for the last 10 or so years is truly a relic. It was given to my parents as a wedding present. They are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this year.



Ugly it may be, but for the last decade this blender has served me mighty fine smoothies, soups and cocktails. I've had no complaints.

However all good things must eventually come to an end. Although the blades still rotate, not much blending has been happening lately. My smoothies have been far from smooth, so finally I have bitten the bullet and decided to farewell ye olde ugly blender.

A parcel arrived on my doorstep not long ago.



Inside, a shiny new blender. Of course its red.



Now its no longer smoothie weather, but I've made 2 soups alone this week. Let's see if this one lasts 40 years. Somehow I doubt it!!

Rhubarb Jam

Last weekend I went to the St Kilda Farmers' market. This groovy little market is only a hop, skip and a jump from our house, so I don't know why it took me well over 6 months of living here before I checked it out for the first time. It's only on once a month, so miss it and you miss out for another 4 weeks. Ouch! (Although I've just noticed there is an Albert Park market on the 3rd week of the month which is still nice and closeby. I might try and make it there this Saturday!)

Even though I've only been about 4 times, I've already got myself a little routine. Must buy items are baby cos lettuce, tomatoes, blue cheese and a piece of brownie. Other items are negotiable, depending on what's in season.

One of the suprise items this time was a lovely looking bunch of rhubarb. I made part of it into a galette, and the other 2/3 I used to make my first ever jam.

I was going to say it was as easy as pie, but truthfully it's even easier. I adapted this recipe from taste.com.au to use part of the bunch of rhubarb, and a heap less sugar. I'm not really a jammy person, and would prefer mine on the tart, rather than the sweet side. I had no idea if these adjustments would effect the setting, but it didn't seem to make any difference. I love the way there are only 4 ingredients, and no fancy setting or gelling agents (is that normal for jam? I have no idea!)

Rhubarb Jam recipe

Preparation Time

10 minutes

Cooking Time

30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2/3 bunch trimmed rhubarb, washed, coarsely chopped
• 300g caster sugar (I used a combination of raw sugar and caster sugar, since I was running low)
• Juice of 1/2-1 fresh lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Combine the rhubarb, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in a large glass bowl. Cover and set aside to infuse for a few hours or overnight, depending on how patient you are.
2. Transfer the rhubarb mixture to a large saucepan. Place over medium-high heat. Bring to the boil. Use a large metal spoon to skim any froth from the surface. Cook, stirring, for 25-30 minutes or until the jam jells when tested (see note).
3. Spoon the hot jam mixture into clean, dry jars. Seal and invert for 2 minutes. Turn upright and set aside to cool.

Tips

• To test if the jam is ready, place 1 teaspoon of the jam on a chilled saucer and place in the freezer for 1-2 minutes or until cooled to room temperature. Lightly push the jam with your finger. If the surface wrinkles, it's ready.
• To sterilise glass jars, wash the jar and lid in warm soapy water and rinse. Transfer to a baking tray lined with baking paper and place in oven preheated to 100°C until dry. Use straight from the oven.

There you go, easy as!!! Next time I would try replacing the lemon juice with orange juice and reducing the sugar even more.

Here's how I enjoyed my first tasting: for breakfast on pancakes with yoghurt and coffee. Mmmmmm.



I've never made scones before, but I'm tempted to learn just so I can taste this jam on a warm scone with cream. Yum!

43things: Get a bike and start bike riding

I'm finally marking this goal as done! I’ve had my bike for over a year now. I’m by no means an expert cyclist and in that time I wouldn’t say its gotten the biggest workout ever, but I am using it!

The day I bought my bike!

In the last week alone I have ridden to:

• Port Melbourneto meet friends for dinner & drinks
  
• Step into Life class
• Sandringham beach and back with friends for a swim

I don’t know if I’ll ever be an everyday communter. That will probably depend more on proximity to work and shifts, but I’m enjoying what I’m doing for now. I already have dreams of other bikes I’d like to get – cruiser, racer, vintage road bike…..but that’s a story for another time and place!

Me on a recent ride taking a cheesy self-portrait

See more progress on: Get a bike and start bike riding

Decisions

Hurrah! Some of the uncertainty that hovered around during my last post has now been resolved.



I finally bit the bullet and made some long awaited decisions regarding 2011. I'm staying in Melbourne and just doing casual work. No specialisation. No exams. No contracts. No job security. Actually I'm hoping the casual work will find me not only in Melbourne, but country Victoria, the Gong and maybe even country NSW too.

Lest I celebrate too soon, there's still lots of things I need to do to make this a workable reality. My current work contract runs out in 4 weeks. In that time I need to solidify some of the nebulous options that hover in the wings. I need to sign up with at least one locum agency. Most importantly I need to line up some definite work for February. Bills to pay baby.

A big wide open horizon can be scary. But amazing possibilities!

Getting my butt kicked

For the last two weeks, I've been away getting my butt kicked in a metaphorical sense. Actually, more of a physical sense really. Or is it? I'm confused.

First up was a week meeting up with two good friends at a glitzy resort in Port Douglas. We swam in the gorgeous swimming pool, drank cocktails and ate copious amounts of Fantastic Delites by the swimming pool.



The few times we left the pool we went and did something fun like hike through the Daintree Forest, or go snorkelling out on the reef.

In that week of pure slothfullness, we did get our butts kicked by the Queensland sun. We were so good applying sunscreen what felt like 24/7, that for our day out on the reef we thought we had it pretty much covered.



What no-one told us was that swimming costumes have a funny habit of "riding up" as you're splashing around in the water snorkelling. All 3 of us had the craziest bum burn you'd ever seen. Made sitting down quite uncomfortable for a few days. No photos of that sorry!!

And then the major butt kicking began. I went to Ayung Sari Indah in Bali for 5 days of bootcamp run by the wonderful Marni Alexander. The meagre amount of exercise I'd been doing beforehand left me totally unprepared, I got my ass whooped several times, and handed to me on a silver platter, and whatever other ass-whopping colloqualisms you can think of.

In between ass-kicking I tried to camoflague myself into the rice fields.



We also trekked up a volcano in darkness to be greeted by a beautiful sunrise at the top.



Another proud moment was an ass-kicking I had no personal involvement in: seeing the aussie dollar outrank the greenback for the first time ever. A truly photo-worthy moment!



What a week! I loved it, ass kicking and all. In fact it's just what my ass needed. Now that I'm back, the hard part: I need to keep on doing it on my own.

If you're really bored you can waste time looking at the entire album of pictures.

Finally.....a "what i wore" post

I still don't know what job I'll be doing next year when my one year contract here expires. I had part one of a job interview today, so I guess I'm one step closer to finding out.

And thanks to the marvellous fact that my new digital camera arrived yesterday, I can post photos of what I wore!!

I didn't go too formal for this interview for a number of reasons. It's an internal job for the company where I'm already working, so theorectially it could have been held on a day I was already at work. The department I'm interviewing for is quite informal; pretty much everyone just wears scrubs to work, so a suit would have looked very out of place. Also I'm currently on annual leave and was going in specifically for this interview on a day off (ok maybe that's not a very good excuse, but I'll take what I can get).

Initially I was going to wear this:



Sorry for the blurry shot. New camera hiccup I hope!

But at the last minute I decided to swap out the black vest for a red top.



I felt put-together in this outfit, and definitely more dressed up from normal - it's officially the fourth time I've worn heels all year, and yes I am counting!! I still felt comfortable though, and felt more "me" with some kind of bright colour. I didn't feel out of place in the environment I was being interviewed in at all.

My interviewer even commented on the red vest and said it looked fun and that I looked "personable". I hope that's a good thing!

Stolen moments

I've been working night shift all weekend. So when I got home at 10am this morning, all I wanted to do was sleep the day away. Which I did quite successfully up until 6pm.

When I woke up, the sky was semi-clear, sunshine was occasionally peeking through the clouds, and for one of the first days all week, it wasn't raining. I decided to get ready quickly, and go for a walk along my usual beach path route before it became dark. I'm now officially on holidays for 3 weeks, so why not get it off to a good start?

By the time I had walked along the path and back, the sun was nearly, but not quite setting. What to do? Continue home and miss the first sunset I've seen in a week? I chose plan B and ducked into a suprisingly near-empty bar along the beach, bought myself a riesling, plonked down at my own beachfront table and watched the sun set with only the music of my iPod to accompany me.



I felt a little self-conscious walking into a bar and ordering a drink by myself. But you know what, the sunset was worth it. Some moments are too precious not to sit still and savour.

Two clubs

Yesterday I joined not one, but two clubs. Now these are metaphorical clubs; they aren't the kind of clubs that demand membership fees, a uniform and a sworn allegiance towards lifelong memberships, but they are clubs that I am proud to be a part of nevertheless.

Club # 1: the sore bum club

On Sunday I took myself off for a long overdue bike ride along the Bay Path to Beaurmaris and back, retracing a route I took earlier in the year.



The day was gloriously clear and perfect riding weather. Lovely and sunny, but not too warm to overheat and get all sweaty. It felt good to be out on the bike again, after a way-too-long break over winter.



Beforehand I was worried that I'd have forgotten how to ride with my fancypants shoes. Instead I should have worried about how my bum would fare. The last 15km or so were not pleasant indeed. Why oh why didn't I wear my padded shorts?

After a day or so, I thought I'd recovered as I was able to sit down without too much discomfort. Then last night, 4 days after the initial ride, I attended my first ever spin class at a local bike shop (cool idea hey!!). Getting up on the bike at the start of the class proved that my bum had not yet recovered. Ouch! My bum needs to toughen up, that's for sure!

Club # 2: the sandal booties club

Yesterday I received a package from Urban Outfitters containing my first summer shoe purchase: sandal booties.



After a fruitless winter-long search for over-the-knee boots I decided to give up and focus on building up my sandals wardrobe. Despite living in sandals for many months of the year, I only own a few different pairs. This is a vast improvement on a few seasons ago when I basically livied in Birkenstocks for 6 months of the year. Thanks to youlookfab my sandal wardrobe has expanded a bit, but still has a long way to go.

Enter the latest addition: a cross between a sandal and a bootie. Talk about the best of both worlds!



It's too cold to wear them out at the moment without my toes getting frostbite and dropping off, but I'm looking forward to the weather warming up soon (please Melbourne?), and these coming out to play.

---

One non-metaphorical club I am thinking of joining is some kind of bike riding group. Although I love heading out by myself, it's also great to ride with a group. To find new routes, to get encouraged as you go up hills, to chat as you ride down them, and then to stop for coffee at the end. My bike buddies are one thing I miss about Wollongong a lot!

I've searched on the internet and found a few prospects. My varied schedule makes it a bit tricky, but really it's just me being a big scardycat that's prevented me from actually trying out a ride somewhere. If I don't post that I've done so soon, can someone please keep me accountable and nag me about this?

A fine Autumn day

Ever since I've come back down south from The Gong, I've been moaning about how cold it is, and how worried am I about how I'm going to survive winter. Yesterday was gorgeous, and I had a great day out on the bike.

Now I know today is Monday, but given that I'm doing shift work, I had the day off. Since it was another beautiful day, I decided I really should make the most of it and get out in the sunshine while I can.



Today I took a stroll along the bay in the opposite direction than I went riding yesterday.



I know a lot of people disparage St Kilda as being touristy, and to some extent I agree. On weekends especially you have to dodge around people to walk along the esplanade, and finding a seat at a cafe along Acland st can be a bit traumatic. However on weekdays? Quite a different story.



I love being home during the week to take advantage of days like this.



And after the walk? What better than a tasty burger at one of my favourite cafes?



Normally chockablock full on weekends, often with a waiting list taped to the front door. Today it was half-empty, and I had a whole table to myself, no hassle. Bliss!

Things I love about Melbourne #2: Bay Ride

I know, I know it's been about a bazillion years since I posted here. In my defence, I've been away, I've been sick, and it's been cold. Any more excuses required?

Despite my slackness and sickness, I've been trying to do some stuff. Today I got out on my bike and explored part of the Bay Trail that extends from the west side of Port Melbourne to Carrum (wherever that is).



Here's the small part of it that I did today: 35km there & back according to googlemaps.



It was a perfect day for riding. Sunny, but not too hot. A bit of breeze in the air which I thought was lovely on the way down, but had to struggle against all the way back.



I am far from an expert cyclist, however I have recently made one important cycling purchase: clip-on shoes. I took my bike up to Wollongong on my recent jaunt home, and after lagging behind on hills, friends assured me these clip-on shoes were the way to go.



They look pretty groovy don't they? Tell you what though, it was like learning to ride a bike all over again, falling off the bike included. In fact 2 weeks later the bruises on my thigh are still healing! Ah well, no pain no gain!



To be honest, I have no idea how much a difference these shoes make. I haven't gone up any of the same hills since I've been wearing them that I struggled with earlier. I do like the security of having my feet always on the pedal though.

Who knows if it's all psyhcological, but anything that helps to get out and enjoy a beautiful day like today is worth it, isn't it?

First cold night

In a few months time I might be regretting ever saying this, but Saturday night I was a bit excited that it had finally cooled down enough to wear both boots and a jacket out to dinner.

I'm officially in love with this Boden dress, after having some initial doubts when I first received it. I love its breeziness. And the light material worked well with the leather jacket and boots.



The only thing I had to think twice about was tights/boots combination. It's hard to tell from the picture as it's so dark, but I'm wearing dark blue tights, which I think looked good continuing on from the blue pattern in the dress. However when I tried adding grey boots into the mix, the blue and grey together just didn't look right to my eye. I don't know if my instincts were right, or if I'd have gotten used to it over the course of the evening. Maybe I'll have to try it again some other time.



Doesn't my hair look all over the place? I think 6 months is officially too long to be without a haircut, so I'll have to remedy that soon.

And here's a bonus outfit from a few weeks ago featuring another light and breezy clothing item: a tunic top from H&M in Beijing. It kind of hurts my eyes looking at the pattern in this picture. Hope it doesn't have the same effect on others when I'm actually wearing it!

Chicken & corn chowder

Yesterday I finally cooked one of my favourite soups of all time: Chicken & Corn Chowder.

During some cooler weather, I'd bought leeks from the South Melbourne Markets nearly 2 weeks ago, with the express intention of making this soup. Of course now it's warmed back up, and soup doesn't feel entirely appropriate, but I'm starting working nights again tonight, and sometimes at 4am in the morning you need something nourishing, warm and hearty to remind you that you are human despite being awake at an ungodly hour.

I was planning on cooking this on Monday night, so went to the fruit and veg shop, and the supermarket to pick up the few other bits and bobs apart from leeks that I needed to complete the recipe. Sadly I forgot to buy corn!

Chicken & corn chowder just wouldn't be the same without one of it's eponymous ingredients, so I had to hold off on making it until I had managed to procure that final, but vital ingredient.

Worth the wait though!



Here's the recipe I used. I stumbled across the original at allrecipes.com, and have fiddled with it just a teeny bit.

Zippy Chicken Corn Chowder

Ingredients

• 2-3 chicken breast fillets, cubed
  
• olive oil, small amt for frying
  
• 1 large red capsicum, chopped
• 2 medium leeks, chopped
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed
• 4 cups frozen corn
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2-1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 1 tin light evaporated milk
  

Directions

1. Saute chicken in olive oil in a big soup pot, until lightly browned; set aside and keep warm.
   
2. In the same pan, saute the red pepper until tender. Add the leeks; cook for 1 minute. Stir in the flour and paprika until blended. Gradually stir in the broth. Add the potatoes; bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
4. Stir in corn, Worcestershire sauce, salt, hot pepper sauce and reserved chicken; bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cook, uncovered, for 5-8 minutes or until corn is tender, stirring occasionally.
   
5. Stir in cream and heat through (do not boil).

Easy huh? And so yum!

exercise program day 1 (again)!

I can’t believe I missed out on exercising yesterday. And I was going so well too!!

Instead I did the following:

• Went to physio – neck is close to being all sorted.
• Traipsed around a shopping centre for 2 hours. Quite productive actually as I got both a new swimsuit and a brand new swimming cap!
• Went out for St Pats. I’m living with an Irish lass – I had to!!
  

And of course I wore green!!

But really, I could easily have squeezed in a 30 minute walk if I really wanted to, so it’s my own fault for not meeting this goal yet again. That just means more exercise for me coming up, doesn’t it?

Today was a good first day back though. I roadtested the new swimming gear and it passed with flying colours. No wardrobe malfunctions, I could see where I was going and I was able to leave the house just as soon as I’d put on sneakers, shorts and a bike helmet. No fuss.

Here’s the course I did today.

Notice there’s a bit of to-and-fro’ing at the start. I got halfway there before realising I’d forgotten my goggles, so rode back for them. Can you believe the lazy beastie inside of me seriously considered just buying a new pair there to solve the problem instead. I’m glad I talked myself out of that one!!

Then I swam 1.1km. Go me!

See more progress on: exercise every day for 30 days

YLF challenge

Over on you look fab, there's another wardrobe challenge happening. I'm first up, having been challenged by the lovely Sarah to:

"try a look with trousers or trouser jeans while defining your waist line. If you don't have trousers or trouser jeans, a pencil skirt would be lovely. To make this a wee bit more challenging, try to incorporate at least one pattern, one textural element, and one "wow" accessory."

Talk about a challenge and a half! As an undeniably apple body shape, I *have* no waistline, and most of my wardrobe is spent trying to disguise that fact. My waist:hip ratio is > 90% - no waistline there baby! Surrendering the surrender of the waistline is enough of a challenge alone for me!

But I've endeavoured to rise to the challenge in two ways. Firstly with trouser jeans.



Now for the challenge elements:

• The buttoned-up waistcoat is an attempt to show the waist and "girdle" me up :)
• The pattern is the houndstooth print on the Me Too Swann flats.
• Textural elements? Hmmm do denim jeans, fabric/patent shoes and cotton tops count?
• Wow accessory - new long-strand bead/pearl necklace from Target & cocktail ring from H&M.
  

Next I wanted to try surrendering the waist with the new pleated skirt I bought from Cue. For bonus points I styled it 2 ways. This was a brilliant exercise for me to work out what tops I can wear with this skirt, something I had been wondering since I bought it the other day!



Challenge elements:

• Showing the waist: look, tucked top! Possibly a first ever! The pleats on the skirt pouf out my hips so make me look like I have a waist, yay!
  
• Pattern: microfishnets (tenuous I know!)
• Textural elements: microfishnets, leather shoes, ponte skirt, knit top
• Wow accessory - red antique beads from Ecuador, black booties from Hong Kong
  

And the biggest challenge of all for me? Pencil skirt + belt. Something I have *never* tried before. This belt came with a Stella dress I bought last year and that's the only time I've ever worn it. Not sure if I would be game to wear this one out of the house, but it is fun!



Challenge elements:

• Showing the waist: pencil skirt + belt. Oh my!
  
• Pattern: microfishnets, zebra print op
  
• Textural elements: microfishnets, leather shoes, ponte skirt, patent belt, cotton top
  
• Wow accessory - red BD booties, patent back belt
  

Whew, that was exhausting! :)