Welcome Swallows



These birds were perched above my car-space at work one day a few weeks ago.

[Edit] My uncle tells me these are "welcome swallows".

It is Steve's birthday. To celebrate we had dinner at the ESS BAR last night with Kristina and Peter (it is also Kristina's birthday today). A fun day today!

Sarah Blasko


Photo by Ross Jenkinson

Last night I saw Sarah Blasko sing at Steve's work. She has a beautiful voice. I have her album "What the sea wants the sea will have" but I appreciate her talent more now that I have seen her live. The album doesn't do her voice justice. I could have got a photo with her but I was too shy to say hello. I received a parking fine because I was in such a hurry from work to catch her gig I forgot to buy a parking ticket.

Herb Barrell


Steve and I have been meaning to do this awhile. It's a half wine barrell planted out with herbs. We planted some parsley, flat leaf parsley, mint, peppermint, dill, basil, and rosemary. We'll add more herbs later.

Thai Fritters


Dinner tonight was Thai corn fritters with sweet chilli sauce.

Ingredients:
3 corn cobs boiled for 8 mins and corn cut off the cob.
1 garlic clove, crushed
small bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro) chopped
1 small fresh red or green chilli seeded and finely chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp water
75g rice flour or plain flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
salt and ground pepper

oil for frying
sweet chilli sauce to serve

Method: Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add spoonfuls of mixture making roundish fritters, turn over the fritters when they starting to bubble around the edges (Fry for about 1-2 mins each side).

Drain on paper towel to remove excess oil.

Honey Cinnamon Apples



Method: Cut apples or pears in half and cut out the seeds. Put a little butter on a baking dish and place fruit on top. Squeeze some lemon juice over the apples, sprinkle over some cinnamon, push in some cloves, and pour a generous amount of honey over the fruit and bake in the oven until golden and mushy. Very tasty with vanilla icecream!! I often bake apples or pears this way.