Hello once again everyone :)
First up, my apologies for these updates being more sporadic than I had planned, I've had a few nights recently when I've been late home and just too busy to post, and a couple of nights that haven't gone so well and I really haven't felt up to posting anything.
So! Lets see, what's been going on recently...
Well, first up this week turned out to be Cauliflower week. Mostly at least. Monday I think I just ended up with noddles since that was all I could make quickly enough to fill my stomach after SCA Fighting training (plus I kinda had an empty pantry).
Tuesday I had a go at SCA Rapier fighting as well. It's.. interesting. Very different to Heavy, and a whole lot of old Kung Fu reflexes started kicking in, since we spent a lot of time concentrating on footwork and specific stances/ways of moving. I think I'll keep going (after uni exams at least, they're on brief hiatus while people go through SwotVac), and hope that my old reflexes help more than hinder me.
Oh, and also, very different muscle group usage in the arms. I can fight for several hours at Heavy without my sword arm being sore, but ten minutes into Rapier and it felt like it was going to drop off. Who came up with this "You must hold your sword up, unbraced and pointed at the enemy at all times" thing anyway??
Where was I? Oh yes, Cauliflower
I was sent this recipe by a friend from work, and decided to give it a try Wednesday (Kudos to Rachel!)
Also, please note that I haven't added any embellishments to this, this is exactly how she sent it to me...
____________________________________________________________________________________________
"Mash & Grab"
Serves 4
Honestly I didn't think all that much of it. The sausages were really nice, and the mash actually wasn't half bad, but the gravy didn't really suit it for me. Turns out that while I like onion flavoring, and onion pieces in my bolognese, I don't like fried onion much.
Still, well worth trying out, and chicken sausage and salad sandwiches make for a great lunch :)
Thursday I was out with friends and there was takeaway had, and Friday was just plain ole sausages, veggies and gravy (don't worry, Cauliflower was in that one :) ). Tonight is likely to be chicken and chips (don't worry, home made), so no Cauliflower there either, but I do plan to try a Shepherd's Pie tomorrow night using the mashed cauliflower rather than potato. Will see how it goes :D
Moving on from food, one new thing done during the week: Thursday lunchtime I went to one of the massage places attached to the vic market. Might not sound like much, but while I'm fine getting up on stage and talking in front of a few hundred people, I'm horrible at things involving making appointments and going to new places on my own. I even feel embarrassed calling restaurants to make bookings. So yes, this was actually a reasonably big deal for me (Kudos to Laura for both the idea and the recommendation of place to go to).
So swallowing my fear I went along to Sabai Thai at the market, and it was definitely an enjoyable experience. I had a half hour massage that was back, back of legs, arms, shoulders and head, and while Laura had warned me it'd hurt... yeah, it hurt. Most especially on the backs of my calves and the sides of my neck, and my back gave a couple of almighty cracks as well. I walked out having traded a pile of knots for a pile of bruises, a trade I think was well worth it.
I also made a booking for somewhere else, but that's not for a few weeks so you'll need to wait to hear about that one.
Friday lunchtime (I seem to be doing a lot of things in my lunchbreaks recently) I went along to the Vic Market in search of boots for my Continuum costume (Kudos to Lauren for both coming along, and scouting the place for me so we didn't have to scour the whole market). For those not in Melbourne, Friday was the day we had the massive downpour of rain, netting up to a month's rainfall in a day, with up to 100km/h winds. Dear lord am I glad the markets are undercover :D
Net result, boots have been acquired (Thanks for the offer Nicolai, but I won't need to borrow yours :) ), they fit, are actually quite comfortable, and while they are *loud* (oh gods the clicking!) should fit the costume quite well. Hespa however has warned me that if I think the boots echo on concrete, wait till I get to the Maskabolo ball that I'm making the costume for, and listen to them on the dance floor (Note to self, learn to tapdance)
Today has been remarkably productive.
I had my haircut (sorry mum, no fringe and no 'short top back and sides'), then headed up to Savers (big Op Shop) for costume bits. I've now got what should be a perfectly viable pair of white pants, and a blue dress that I'll be able to modify into Nemo's coat/jacket/tunic thing (must figure out a way to hide the back zip).
After that I scoured... seven I think different fabric stores (and ran into Rachel and her friend Mindy) before finally finding something that.. while it's not what is used on the costume in the movie, should be at least thematically appropriate.
Other than that, hair dye has been acquired to finally remove the pink from my hair (I think two months is long enough for the Leukemia Foundation), fingers crossed I manage to actually get my whole head!!
I've also done a couple of loads of washing (the second of which should just about be ready to be taken out of the clothes dryer now...) and picked up food (and Cider!) for dinner tonight.
Tomorrow's plan is to pick up some non-costume related pants and shirts that fit me properly. Hopefully that goes well!
First up, my apologies for these updates being more sporadic than I had planned, I've had a few nights recently when I've been late home and just too busy to post, and a couple of nights that haven't gone so well and I really haven't felt up to posting anything.
So! Lets see, what's been going on recently...
Well, first up this week turned out to be Cauliflower week. Mostly at least. Monday I think I just ended up with noddles since that was all I could make quickly enough to fill my stomach after SCA Fighting training (plus I kinda had an empty pantry).
Tuesday I had a go at SCA Rapier fighting as well. It's.. interesting. Very different to Heavy, and a whole lot of old Kung Fu reflexes started kicking in, since we spent a lot of time concentrating on footwork and specific stances/ways of moving. I think I'll keep going (after uni exams at least, they're on brief hiatus while people go through SwotVac), and hope that my old reflexes help more than hinder me.
Oh, and also, very different muscle group usage in the arms. I can fight for several hours at Heavy without my sword arm being sore, but ten minutes into Rapier and it felt like it was going to drop off. Who came up with this "You must hold your sword up, unbraced and pointed at the enemy at all times" thing anyway??
Where was I? Oh yes, Cauliflower
I was sent this recipe by a friend from work, and decided to give it a try Wednesday (Kudos to Rachel!)
Also, please note that I haven't added any embellishments to this, this is exactly how she sent it to me...
____________________________________________________________________________________________
"Mash & Grab"
Serves 4
Ingredients
8 chicken sausages
8 fresh sage leaves
spray oil
one large cauliflower
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
1 red onion
1/2 tbsp marg/butter
1 beef stock cube
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tbsp plain flour
175ml water
small handful blueberries
1 tbsp herb and garlic cream cheese
Method
-30 mins
preheat oven to 200'C. spray a roasting pan with non-stick oil, sprinkle the sage leaves over it and place the sausages on top. bung it in the oven to bake for 10 mins
-20 mins
wash the cauliflower, remove the outer leaves and cut it into 3cm chunks
peel the garlic and put it and the cauliflower in a large pot, cover with water and add a pinch of salt. boil for 15 mins or until soft
remember the sausages? turn them over to bake for another 10 minutes until they turn a nice shade of brown. give them a prod at the end and make sure your fork comes out hot.
-17 minutes
now, onto the onion gravy. finely slice the onion and fry in marg over a medium heat. sprinkle with salt and crumble in the stock cube, stir until light brown.
add the brown sugar (1/2 tbsp) and balsamic (1tsp) and stir for another two minutes
remove and set aside 1/3 of the onions then add the flour (1/2 tbsp) to the rest and stir for a minute to coat the onions
slowly whisk in the water (175ml) until you get a gravy consistency, then mash the onion with a fork
Add the blueberries and crush them using the fork
add the remaining onions and keep it all warm until you're ready to serve
-5 minutes
one the cauliflower is soft, drain it in a seive. use a small bowl on top to force out as much excess water as you can, then put it back in the pot, add the cream cheese and some salt and pepper.
an electric hand mixer is the best gadget to pummel the cauliflower to that mashed potato consistency, but one of those medieval hand mashers works well too
Dollop the cauliflower mash on a plate with a theatrical flick of the ladle, top with two sausages per person and drown them in your guilt free gravy.
Garnish with a sage leaf and tuck in.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Honestly I didn't think all that much of it. The sausages were really nice, and the mash actually wasn't half bad, but the gravy didn't really suit it for me. Turns out that while I like onion flavoring, and onion pieces in my bolognese, I don't like fried onion much.
Still, well worth trying out, and chicken sausage and salad sandwiches make for a great lunch :)
Thursday I was out with friends and there was takeaway had, and Friday was just plain ole sausages, veggies and gravy (don't worry, Cauliflower was in that one :) ). Tonight is likely to be chicken and chips (don't worry, home made), so no Cauliflower there either, but I do plan to try a Shepherd's Pie tomorrow night using the mashed cauliflower rather than potato. Will see how it goes :D
Moving on from food, one new thing done during the week: Thursday lunchtime I went to one of the massage places attached to the vic market. Might not sound like much, but while I'm fine getting up on stage and talking in front of a few hundred people, I'm horrible at things involving making appointments and going to new places on my own. I even feel embarrassed calling restaurants to make bookings. So yes, this was actually a reasonably big deal for me (Kudos to Laura for both the idea and the recommendation of place to go to).
So swallowing my fear I went along to Sabai Thai at the market, and it was definitely an enjoyable experience. I had a half hour massage that was back, back of legs, arms, shoulders and head, and while Laura had warned me it'd hurt... yeah, it hurt. Most especially on the backs of my calves and the sides of my neck, and my back gave a couple of almighty cracks as well. I walked out having traded a pile of knots for a pile of bruises, a trade I think was well worth it.
I also made a booking for somewhere else, but that's not for a few weeks so you'll need to wait to hear about that one.
Friday lunchtime (I seem to be doing a lot of things in my lunchbreaks recently) I went along to the Vic Market in search of boots for my Continuum costume (Kudos to Lauren for both coming along, and scouting the place for me so we didn't have to scour the whole market). For those not in Melbourne, Friday was the day we had the massive downpour of rain, netting up to a month's rainfall in a day, with up to 100km/h winds. Dear lord am I glad the markets are undercover :D
Net result, boots have been acquired (Thanks for the offer Nicolai, but I won't need to borrow yours :) ), they fit, are actually quite comfortable, and while they are *loud* (oh gods the clicking!) should fit the costume quite well. Hespa however has warned me that if I think the boots echo on concrete, wait till I get to the Maskabolo ball that I'm making the costume for, and listen to them on the dance floor (Note to self, learn to tapdance)
Today has been remarkably productive.
I had my haircut (sorry mum, no fringe and no 'short top back and sides'), then headed up to Savers (big Op Shop) for costume bits. I've now got what should be a perfectly viable pair of white pants, and a blue dress that I'll be able to modify into Nemo's coat/jacket/tunic thing (must figure out a way to hide the back zip).
After that I scoured... seven I think different fabric stores (and ran into Rachel and her friend Mindy) before finally finding something that.. while it's not what is used on the costume in the movie, should be at least thematically appropriate.
Other than that, hair dye has been acquired to finally remove the pink from my hair (I think two months is long enough for the Leukemia Foundation), fingers crossed I manage to actually get my whole head!!
I've also done a couple of loads of washing (the second of which should just about be ready to be taken out of the clothes dryer now...) and picked up food (and Cider!) for dinner tonight.
Tomorrow's plan is to pick up some non-costume related pants and shirts that fit me properly. Hopefully that goes well!
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