nutty dinner

so you have eggs; lots of them from a bloger swap, a chunk of stale rye thats been driving you nuts and a whole heap of newly gathered walnuts from under, around and on the trampoline. A neglected walnut tree can be just as productive as a neglected quince tree. Tip: Dont peel walnuts from their green casing if you're about to go out anywhere special. The staining is so impressive it will rival a 20yr roll your own tobacco habit.

Also, there were people coming for dinner.

viola!
Pappardelle alla Pangrattato e Noci


Eye-tal-yan for pasta with crumbs and walnuts.
Delish.
I love this style of pasta - a definite lack of wet tomato or cream sauce, just oily, crunchy and very very tasty.


Quick and easy. well sort of...once everything is ready...ha! Make the pappardelle using a recipe that utilises lots of eggs, I always make pasta when i have a glut of eggs, and cut to thick ribbons and hang until ready to cook.
I use a Jamie Oliver recipe (500g '00 flour and 10 eggs makes enough pasta for 4) Mix until smooth and elastic. Cover and sit in cool place for 1 hour to let proteins do their thing before rolling out, I used a pasta machine. Hang pasta where you can (i use the clothes drying rack) or toss in semolina flour and keep moving it about so it doesnt squash itself and end up back in a solid. Here's a reality check if it all seems a bit too 'nice'...


Smash bread in manner to which you are accustomed until you have about 2 cups of chunky crumbs. Fry in about 4 tabs of olive oil until golden. Add 3 cloves sliced garlic, 3/4 cup chopped walnuts and cook for about 5 minutes more. Then add handfuls of chopped flat leaf parsley and about 1/3 cup grated parmasen cheese and salt and pepper. Toss through well drained pasta and add more olive oil to make mixing easy.

Olive oil, cheese , garlic and walnut heaven. Did you know that a straight from the tree, freshly shelled walnut is pale, soft and a little chewy?


We pigged our way through this and salad and white wine and then topped up the guts with scoops of Maggie Beer Burnt Fig Honeycomb and Caramel and a Vanilla and Elderflower ice cream . Earth Hour happenned in there somewhere.

Stuffed.

Leftovers were good too.

furry friend

I got the biggest shock this morning. Yanking open the back door, i marched out, my head down, intent on getting to the vege patch in record speed to do a quick round of watering before the bean woke up. I rounded the verandah, looked up and came face to face with a rather large male koala. Theyre not uncommon around here and we hear them in the trees all the time but we dont often get them in this close to the house and this beast of a boy wasnt in the least bit concerned about my abrupt appearance. He just sat there and looked at me, blinking and moving his head around appearing to take in the view. So i scooted back inside, let B2 know what was going on and to come look and grabbed the camera. His torso was lovely and brown and furry but his butt end was a very patchy white and grey. Must get a bit worn after years of tree hugging.

Haiku Friday

sitting still, thinking.
watching life pass below me
things hum, the phone rings.

One today

I nearly missed it! Taurus Rising has been around a whole year.
The best thing about blogging, what i love most, is the record of our time. Thats why i set myself a goal to blog daily. Not only can i look back and read my thoughts and feelings and reflect on where i/we have been on such an exquisitely microscopic level, but that there exists a wonderful 'album' of photographs to remind me of the time that's passed and where my thoughts and interests have wandered. Thats the icing on this blog adventure, that besides the development of a lovely online community and sharing thoughts, experiences and goals (life), there has been a rekindling of my love of photography which i have not indulged since my teens. I suppose blogging has given me a focus, a new lense. The powerful and evocative memories provided by the visual capture and the scripted timeline of my evolving self is priceless. Im definitely banking on Blogger and the internet not 'going down'. Thanks for being a part of this exciting journey and all your lovely, supportive, funny and insightful comments over this past 12 months. In spite of the highs and lows, well because of the highs and lows, I'm lovin it. Thanks for sharing.

fur coat fun

Si had an old fur in the cupboard, a leftover from european relatives long gone. I love the cool softness of fur so the coat got 'unpicked' and now lives on the couch as a warm throw. B2; the almost vegan (go figure) and i often 'wear' it as a blanket at the computer in cold weather; it still has arms! It reminds me of a very amusing product I saw on tv in the states, The Snuggie , that had me rolling about in fits of laughter. Thinking our recycled version is one up from the snuggie. We wear it inside out so the fur touches your skin. B1 wont touch it and gives it a very wide berth. The bean loves it.

much ado about [milk]

i gave a presentation last night, i think i can call it that?? picture a moment where speed dating met a Powerpoint presentation. It was a Pecha Kucha style evening. Each invited speaker had 15 slides to present, 15 seconds per slide, each with auto transition (so no cheating possible) on the topic of Milk. It was the third in a series of 15x15 events hosted by Mulloway Studio and speakers came from all disciplines; an art historian, an events organiser, an actor, an installation artist, a philosopher, an interpretive artist, an architecht, a nanotehcnologist, me and even a milk protein scholar, all gathered together in the vast concrete space that is k2-02; the South Australian School of Art Gallery. Sounds good in theory right?

Somehow I managed to pack an overview of animal welfare, environmental and health consequences of our addiction to cows milk into 3 minutes 45 seconds and still came out somewhat comprehensible. I segued my way from bovine mastitis to nursing caries to greenhouse gasses to breastfeeding rates to maternity leave and around to plastic waste, across to salma hayek and back to unethical dairy farming practices, commercialisation and globalisation at a whirlwind rate. Im thinking that the designer audience probably werent quite expecting what i delivered, especially the tale about 'choco-loco fresh cow colostrum with added organic russian keffir grains'. I mean seriously, how first world greedy, unethical, indulgent and totally OTT is that?

However the take home message for the evening was definitely a questioning about how much dairy we consume, its impact and our complex and compromised relationship we have with the white stuff. It was a good night. Not a reference in sight (that nearly killed me as Im sooo well trained) and Im thinking that I might just take up the practice to have a glass of wine with crackers and cheese before every conference presentation; it certainly lubricated the 'have more fun' vibe, something every dental epidemiology conference can do with!

quince

They dined on mince and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand on the edge of the sand
They danced by the light of the moon.

- From The Owl and the Pussycat.

quince and figs

my favourite season for fruit is right about now. i love the evocativeness of both these fruits and their contrasting personalities. Figs when ripe are soft, jammy and drip their sappy sweetness. The quince is firm, furry and floral. For me, their histories, their cultural associations, their scent, their texture, their ultimate uniqueness really draws me in. They're both romantic. My heart skips when i think of them, plotting how to eat them, sniffing in that incredible high note apple and that musty smug. Using them in the kitchen somehow connects me to the past; i feel part of a continuum of tradtion and brimming with life and its possibilities. Im humbled and grateful. Figs i love straight from the tree, a mouthful, stuffed and greedy. Quinces i love to hold and shift their weight from hand to hand and rub through velvet with my thumb. To eat, i love them baked and served with meats.

Sadly we have no fig tree; im going to have to change that soon, so for now i make the most of a few local roadside stalls and the farmers markets. The quince in the garden is fruiting. it looks beautiful, like an overhung christmas tree. It loves neglect. Its rarely watered, never pruned or fed, just surviving on its leaf litter foot warmers. Mediterranean trees love this climate and i love them too! I think this weekend i may cook duck with quince,bottle the current batch and perform the almost obligatory transformation of quince into paste (and eat with a runcible spoon!)

This was a very long and round about way to call out for your favourite quince recipe/ preserving method please...