My Bloggable Day

Liebster Awards

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Bec

Liebster Awards are like chain emails in the blogging world, you get tagged, answer some questions and then send some blog-love back out into the interwebs. I have been nominated by the lovely Liz from I Spy Plum Pie (a must read if you are a food loving vegetarian).

As Liz said “you’re supposed to answer the questions given by the person before, then ask 10 questions of your own and nominate some other bloggers to answer them! It’s a lovely way to find some new blogs to read too!”

Here are my answers to Liz’s questions:

1. If you had a mild super power, what would you choose?

Well I was going to say invisibility, but I’m not actually sure what the benefit of that would be… I suppose I could overhear some juicy conversations but still, probably not worth it. Actually, I’d want to be able to eat everything I want in humongous quantities without gaining weight. Is that incredibly vain of me? Oh well!

2. What’s the strangest food you’ve eaten?

Umm kangaroo tail cooked on a fire. It still looked very much like part of a kangaroo and still gives me nightmares.

3. If you could go anywhere in the world right now where would you choose?

Well this is just cruel! Anywhere in Italy, or maybe Paris? Or somewhere in South America I’ve never been before! Or the States! This is hard, I have very itchy feet at the moment.

4. Cheese or chocolate?

And the cruelty continues. I love cheese and I love chocolate. So, cheese.

5. Do you have a noise you can’t stand?

The scraping of cutlery on other cutlery or on bowls and plates *shudder*.

6. What’s your drink of choice?

Champagne (preferably) or sparkling wine. Always.

7. Worst job you’ve ever had?

I lasted one shift in a call centre selling newspaper subscriptions to the Sunday Telegraph. As a result I am never rude to telemarketers now! It was awful.

8. What (or who) is guaranteed to make you laugh?

Old school Simpsons episodes. I’m currently re-watching the likes of season 4 and 5. Nothing beats those early episodes, unfortunately the later seasons went seriously down hill. I can’t watch the more recent stuff, so cringe worthy.

9. Do you have a party trick? If not, what’s the best party trick you’ve seen?

No but recently I saw a guy try and fail hilariously at doing the worm. It was a painful looking reenactment of a beached dolphin.

10. Backstreet Boys, 5ive or N*Sync?

Backstreet Boys, purely for the Backstreets Back music video.

I nominate:

Em from Emily Braham
Kara from Mind Klosett
Ibbs from The Lobster and Me
Felicity from Pursuit of Felicity
Caitlin from Caitlin Rakers Photography
Kaz from Daisy Scented Dreams

Your questions:

1. What’s your most embarrassing memory to date?
2. If you could be invisible or fly, which would you choose?
3. Would you rather knowingly eat ox tongue or unknowingly eat lambs brain?
4. If you could live to 1000 years old, would you? Why/why not?
5. What’s your favourite annual holiday and why?
6. Would you rather walk around with your skirt tucked into your knickers for half a day or walk around with toilet paper stuck to your shoe for an entire day?
7. Name one item you always have in your fridge?
8. You can only save Beyonce or Taylor Swift, who and why?
9. Where is your most favourite destination in the world?
10. On a scale of 1-10 how annoying have these questions been?

Looking forward to seeing your answers!

Posted in Misc | 4 Comments

BBQ pulled pork sandwiches

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Bec

I’d never even heard of pulled pork the first time I had it. I was in Williams, Arizona on Route 66 on the way to the Grand Canyon. We went into some place on the main street and the pulled pork was outstanding.

Williams Main Street.

Anyway, after one disastrous attempt at making it (the butcher gave me the wrong cut and I ended up wasting about $40 of meat…) I was determined to get it right. We used 1kg of pork shoulder or ‘pork forequarter’.

My friend Dave sent me this recipe which basically involves throwing everything into a slow cooker and walking away. My kind of cooking.

I put the slow cooker on at 2pm in the hopes of having pulled pork for dinner, which was a bit ambitious. So we ended up having it for Sunday lunch, after a good 22 hours of cooking.

This is what we got after 22 hours:

Yessss.

Delicious, melt in your mouth, gooey, sticky, sweet pork.

Mouth watering

We had it in rolls with crunchy cabbage and pickles.

It was amazing! Well worth the wait. How was your weekend?

Lunch date at Beaten Track Brewery

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Bec

Do you like beer? Do you like bacon? How about beer AND bacon?!

I know. Winning combination. On Saturday I went to a lunch Zach aka The Ginger in the Kitchen put on at the Beaten Track Brewery.

When I arrived there was a plate of bacon just waiting there, like a beacon of hope after only two hours sleep the night before. A bacon beacon. Paying homage to the salty-sweet trend (salted caramel anyone?), it was accompanied by a vanilla custard dipping sauce. But the bacon was cooked to perfection so I preferred it on its own.

The bacon was crispy and delicious.

The bacon came with the Great Eastern Wheat beer.

Zach, the Ginger outside the kitchen.

The lunch was beer food to be shared among friends and strangers. Oddly, I was seated in exactly the same spot as I was at the degustation dinner. Opposite these two:

Deja vu. Tristan and Emily.

Along came a plate of beer battered onion rings with a midi of Gibb River Rye.

How I do love onion rings.

Yes I do.

Then we had house cured smoked salmon sous vide with dill oil and leek cream with Ora Banda Bitter.

Pretty

Next came the Gun Barrel IPA with 12 hour marinated (with fresh rosemary, parsley and garlic) chicken wings that were done in the sous vide and then deep fried and sprinkled with salt and dried basil and parsley.

Gun Barrel IPA

The wings were my favourite. I hadn’t had chicken wings in ages!

Wings.

Group shot

Beer explanation

Oh you thought we were done? HA!

After the wings we had chicken sandwiches that were made in a hollowed-out cob loaf with Nitro Beetroot Lager. Made with real beetroot! and nitrogen!

Clever!

Finally, we had Carnarvon king prawns cooked in garlic, coriander, kaffir lime leaves, chilli, shallots and lemon grass with a Heles Bock Lager.

I LOVE prawns.

They were delicious! But I loathe peeling prawns, so I didn’t eat as many as I would have otherwise. Probably a good thing at this stage!

It was a really lovely afternoon filled with really delicious food and beer. Thanks for having us!

Afterwards I had barely enough time to sleep off my food coma before driving to the Coolgardie cemetery for a ghost tour. I didn’t see any ghosts, thank goodness.

Posted in Food, Misc | Tagged Beaten Track Brewery, Beer, Food | Leave a comment

Who’s been sleeping in my house?!

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Bec

I’m going through a bit of a history obsession at the moment and luckily for me, the West Australian Goldfields is abundant with fascinating history. We’ve moved into a very old house and I’m determined to find out when it was built and who lived there.

A friend who lives on my new street said their house was built in 1896, so I’m hoping ours is from about the same year. I’m going to head to the Historical Society soon to do a bit of digging, but in the meantime I’ve found out a bit about a man who lived in our exact house in 1937:

I blurred out the street number, so I don’t get mobbed by crazed fans. Obviously.

Sounds like a normal Saturday night out to me! I wonder if Sydney slept in my room or Bec’s room? I also wonder where the Majestic Cafe was.

This article is from the Western Argus newspaper. I found it by trawling the Trove website, which is an amazing online resource put together by the National Library of Australia. You can search old newspapers, diaries, photos, archives, maps and much more.

This is really fun! Can’t wait to find out more. Do you know who lived in your house before you?

Posted in Misc | Tagged History, House, Who's Been Sleeping in my House? | 5 Comments

The inaugural meeting of the esteemed Parmis of the Goldfields club

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Bec

“What’s a parmi?”, you ask? Also known as a parma and more commonly, a chicken parmigiana, the dish comprises a piece of deep fried crumbed chicken, sometimes draped with a piece of ham, which is then drizzled in a herb tomato sauce and topped with a good smattering of cheese. It’s an absolute pub staple in Australia and even more so here in the Goldfields, where it’s often deemed the only ‘safe’ option on the menu (steaks tend to be so far overdone they require at least 3 hours dedicated digestion).

Over dinner last Wednesday night my friends and I decided it was high time we formed the Parmis of the Goldfields (POGs) club and go about taste-testing all the parmis the Goldfields has to offer. From Leonora to Esperance, Coolgardie to Kambalda, the POGs will leave no parmi un-tasted or un-scrutinised in our quest to find the best.

On Sunday we held our inaugural meeting.

Location: The Tower Hotel
Cost: $20 (the lunch time price, at dinner it jumps to $28… Welcome to regional WA!)

The Parmi

Not wanting to reduce our eating options for later in the day, Bec and I went halves. It’s also worth noting the ambiance of the beer garden was top notch.

Inaugural POGs Punters: Claire, Abby, Jordan, Scott, Kadn and Bec

You may be wondering why we deem ourselves qualified to be the foremost authorities on parmis. Well. We just are. We eat them all the time. We can identify a lacklustre sauce and a soggy situation a mile away.

Some would deem this good cheese coverage, others would not.

Personally, I deplore a parmi that arrives resting atop a side of chips, thus leaving a bevy of wilted potato underneath. Others love it.

Getting down to business.

Clean plates.

Verdict

The Tower is widely considered to be the purveyor of the finest parmi in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder city limits, so we went in with high expectations and most were not disappointed:

Claire: “It’s a good parmi, I’ll give it a 4”
Abby: “there wasn’t too much tomato, so that was a bonus for me, I reckon a 4 as well” (imagine this in a northern English accent, especially ‘bonus’)
Jordan: “good size, good chicken: 4, we’re off to a good start”
Scotty: (the most experienced parmi connoisseur at the table) “mine was actually not that great, there was not enough cheese and not enough sauce, too much exposed breast: 3.4”
Kadn: “I thought the chicken was quite moist and well cooked, but mainly moist. Moist. I liked the crispy edges, the salad dressing was a little disappointing.
Bec C: I liked the side salad, nice thick fresh breast, I appreciated the taste of the sauce: 4.2″
Me: “I was happy with the parmi, nice crispiness, happy with the sauce and cheese situation but I won’t go halvies next time, good price though: 3.8”

Score: 27.3 out of a possible 35 points

Well done to the Tower! Everyone was very generous with the points, it will be interesting to see if people tighten the point purse strings as time wears on.

Over and out.

Posted in Food | Tagged Chicken Parmi, Chicken Parmigiana, Goldfields, Kalgoorlie, Pub Food | 4 Comments

Sunday snippets

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Bec

I can’t begin to explain how much I am loving having a backyard at the new house.

This morning I drank my tea in the dappled sunshine. Birds were actually chirping, white butterflies were milling around and bees were hard at work on the purple flowers.

My friend Claire found a hilarious Meerkat ornament in the garden that I hadn’t yet seen. There’s also a cockatoo.

English Breakfast or nothing please.

Are you ever embarrassed by the cover of a book you’re reading? I’m reading a book, apparently a #1 NY Times bestseller, that has the daggiest cover I’ve ever seen. You wouldn’t catch me reading it on public transport. The book turned up at the place I used to work at for review ages ago, but ended up in my collection at home. I grabbed it off the shelf the other day when I was struggling to fall asleep. It’s called The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber. It’s pretty vanilla so far. Perfect sunshine breakfast reading.

Breakfast on the grass.

I finally put the bunting up. So now it looks like I’m celebrating a jubilee indoors and outdoors. Wonderful.

Yes we have an outhouse in our backyard. Our house dates back to the very early 1900s/late 1800s. I haven’t used it yet. Maybe I’ll save it for special occasions.

Lazy Sunday mornings are my favourite. I hope you’re enjoying your day.

Posted in Misc | Tagged Sunday | Leave a comment

The 7 most baffling things about last night’s episode of The Bachelor

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Bec

It’s a concept as old as time, one man and his concubines engage in a range of social niceties until one by one the concubines are ~~killed~~ voted off until one is left to claim her prize.

Yesterday I was struck with a bout of bloggers’ block and so I asked the Facebook world what to write about. Prue suggested I put all feminist values aside and blog about the The Bachelor, which is on air at the moment.

I was hesitant, because I knew nothing from my brain would match the wit and hilarity of Rosie Waterland’s weekly Bachelor recaps on Mamamia. But, nevertheless, I shall give it a good old fashioned try. Now I did watch the very first episode of The Bachelor, but I haven’t been back since. So I had some background but was pretty much going in fresh.

Here are the things that baffled me the most:

THE SHOW BEGINS

1. Now, remembering that I’m putting my feminist values on ice for the moment… Are none of the girls allowed to leave the house to have their roots touched up?! For a dating show based purely on looks there are some very dull part lines hanging around…

2. Louise (the one with the worst roots) is going on a one-on-one date with The Bachelor. Like me you might be confused and think all dates are one-on-one. No. These ladies are used to ‘group dates’ not unlike those taking place in polygamist Mormon sects. The baffling thing here is that the other girls are regarding Louise with equal parts disdain and maid of honour style glee. One moment they are squealing and helping her get ready, but then they watch her from the balcony, staring daggers as she leaves on her super yacht date with Bachelor Blake. Such mixed emotions. So complex. So many split personalities. They are also under the impression that Blake plans the solo dates, PAH!

3. One of the brunettes (Chantal?) is saying there is no way bad-roots Louise will end up with the Bachelor because she’s always wearing red lipstick. “Everyone knows men don’t like red lipstick”. I think the words “danger zone” are also thrown in. Whatever you need to tell yourself, Chantal! Pretty sure I wear red lipstick AND have a boyfriend.

4. Speaking of boyfriends, who would actually want to end up with Blake? Sure he’s nice enough and decent looking, but he seems to completely lack personality. Also, he’s a former hen’s night stripper! Bit hard to introduce to the folks. Especially if he’s given your mum a lap dance before. Apparently Blake was quoted in Woman’s Day as saying he’s not ashamed of his stripper past, in which case he won’t mind me sharing this photo:

What. A. Catch.

This was taken at a hen’s night my housemate Bec went to. I also have two other friends with similar photos from other hens’ nights. Western Australia obviously has a very small market for hen’s night strippers.

INTRUDERS ARE INTRODUCED

5. Six new woman are introduced to the mix and the nine ‘original’ girls start collectively losing their sh*t. There are tears, swearing and detached retina inducing eye rolls. I haven’t seen such devastation among dating show contestants since the final episode of There’s Something About Miriam in 2004, when the dudes found out the exotic woman whose love they had been vying for was actually a pre-op transsexual (now there’s a plot twist).

What baffles me here is that a) the girls seem to have completely forgotten there are cameras there to capture their childish behaviour and b) they can’t seem to grasp that the new girls would have been through exactly the same casting process at exactly the same time as them! That the producers chose to keep them quiet and introduce them a few weeks in, is no fault of theirs. But no, the girls are ‘devastated’, their ‘trust has been broken’ and Canadian Amber feels like she has ‘depreciated in value’?! Not sure at this stage if Amber is a commodity or a Fortune 500 company.

6. Amber runs upstairs to cry and roll her eyes some more in the girls’ quarters and the cameras chase her upstairs. Here we see a dingy hallway and dorm rooms akin to the dodgiest backpackers hostel you’ve ever stayed in. Very telling. Clearly the entire renovation budget was spent downstairs on fancy wallpaper and excessive light fittings. It’s a nice metaphor for the entire ‘smoke and mirrors’ value of the show’s contestants.

7. Things are tense at the rose ceremony. This is the part when the Bachelor announces which broad he wants to keep around a little longer and hands her a rose. Amber, who’s back downstairs now, decides not at accept the rose and runs out. Embarassingly, she returns about 3 minutes later hand-in-hand with Blake, a cat-that-got-the-cream expression plastered across her tear stained face. Is she not aware the entire nation is now convinced she is bat sh*t insane, or does she not care? Maybe we’ll find out next week. But I doubt it.

Do you watch inane reality television? The Bachelor?

Posted in Misc | Tagged Australian Television, Dating Show, The Bachelor | Leave a comment

26 things I’ve never done at 26

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Bec

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining about what I haven’t done, I’m certainly not! I just like taking stock around my birthdays and I thought the things I haven’t done made a more fun (and less boastful) list than the things I have done. So here goes:

1. Had a credit card. Debt scares me stupid.

2. Been arrested, cautioned, received a move-on notice or had any interaction with the police (other than for work).

I gave a statement once though because I unknowingly witnessed a kidnapping when I was 17, which I thought was just a big public fight between a couple. I had been walking home from school at the time and when I walked past the same spot with my dog later on there were police taking photos, so I asked them what it was all about. A detective came to the house to take my statement and halfway through Mum brought in some ‘study snacks’. I was so embarrassed.

3. Sky dived. Never never never nothankyou.

4. Bungy jumped. As above.

5. Been to every state in Australia. But I only have one left! NT I’m looking at you.

6. Got a speeding ticket. Or lost a demerit point. Nana driver over here.

7. Kept a perfect diet for more than 3 days. Has anyone? I had scones for lunch…

8. Been to a high school reunion. Are they traditionally after 10 years? If so I have two years… Are they still as fun with Facebook around?

9. Been scuba diving. I don’t think my crappy ears would cope with the pressure.

10. Broken a major bone in my body. Fracturing a finger doesn’t count.

11. Been to Mexico. But it’s high up on the list!

12. Been anywhere on the African continent.

13. Been tattooed. I like tattoos… on other people. I couldn’t handle that kind of commitment.

14. Made it through an episode of Game of Thrones. Without falling asleep…

15. Had my wisdom teeth removed. Because apparently they all fit!

16. Shaved my head. For a cause or otherwise, it’s a weird phobia of mine.

17. Made anything from protein powder. My Instagram feed is full of protein balls and other weird items made from protein powder that look digusting.

18. Played an angel in the Christmas nativity scene. When I was 4 I was the donkey and my best friend was the angel. Not. Cool.

19. Spoken French. I don’t even know how those letters put together can make those sounds.

20. Found the perfect hiding spot during hide and seek and not had to immediately go to the toilet. My bladder is the reason I’ve never won a game.

21. Seen a ghost. But I’m pretty sure they’re out there…

22. Tried to be a vegetarian or vegan. Except for that one day after reading Skinny Bitch.

23. Seen all the Star Wars movies. I think I’ve seen about half an hour of the first one…? Or maybe it was the second?

24. Stayed in a caravan. Tents or cabins, never a caravan or an RV.

25. Dyed my hair a crazy colour. When it comes to my hair I’m more conservative than Rush Limbaugh.

26. Had to try so hard to think of things I’ve never done. That was hard!

What have you never done?

Posted in Misc | 17 Comments

Le Weekend

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Bec

Bonjour!

Turkey, France and Sweden are the exotic locations I visited at the weekend through the power of party streamers, imagination and alcohol. Andrew’s mates have a strong tradition of hosting ‘World Parties’, whereby 3-5 hosting houses pick a country and party-goers are treated to the food, music and alcohol of said country before ‘flying’ to the next destination (often via a layover at the pub). International ‘travel’ without the associated jet lag (but with an inevitable hangover)? Yes please!

So we decked out Andrew’s place in French flags and fairy lights, bought a stack of croissants, half a wheel of brie and put sparkling wine on ice (well, in the fridge but that doesn’t sound as chic) before heading to the Qantas Club Lounge (the park with an Esky) to kick things off.

The rest of the evening’s events are helpfully documented in this wonderful video Niki made of the occasion:

So impressed. The amount of footage I’ve shot with the aim of creating a video like that before never getting around to it… Niki has put me to shame! Be sure to look out for the hilarious attempt at ‘The Worm’ at 4:21.

Andrew and I

It was an excellent night. Thankfully because we started so early (4pm) we finished rather early too, so getting up at 8am for a World War I re-enactment march on Sunday morning wasn’t so bad. It was a pretty moving ceremony, then straight after I went to a Vietnam War veteran’s memorial ceremony. Hearing the Last Post twice in one day was fairly full on though, it usually brings a tear to my eye on Anzac Day.

Then last night, just to truly cap off a weekend of bizarrely different events, a bunch of us went to a Science Week event at the pub called Profs and Pints. A panel of really interesting science people like Dr Chris Smith from the Naked Scientists spoke and answered our questions. It was fascinating. particularly the stuff about infections and Ebola and how quickly we can transport deadly viruses. Nice! Afterwards we got the only food available in Kalgoorlie at 9pm on a Sunday: kebabs.

Sunset from the balcony at Profs and Pints

How was your weekend?

Posted in Misc | Tagged Weekend | 8 Comments

Moving House

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Bec

Last weekend my housemate Bec and I spent three days (took a ‘moving day’ on Friday and had the day off work, god bless the public service!) moving 1.5km down the road to our new house. Luckily we had a small tribe of burly men help with the heavy lifting.

So burly.

Obviously there were plenty of Ross (from Friends) “PIVVVOOOOOTT!” jokes. Mostly from me.

After two truck loads we shouted the boys a big breakfast using the funds we made from selling our old fridge. I had pancakes with bacon and maple syrup.

Then we headed home to face this:

Ughhhhh

On Sunday we unpacked the kitchen. Unwrapping our newspaper clad items was like one long, boring game of pass the parcel. ‘Wine glass! Wine glass! Wine glass. Wine glass… Another wine glass… Wine glass. Why do we have so many wine glasses?!’ – my internal dialogue.

But it looked pretty cute when we were all done:

My birthday flowers, still going strong.

I only just finished clearing random stuff of my bedroom floor last night, so now I can see the glorious, freezing floorboards!

I bought some $7 slipper boots at Target yesterday to keep my feet warm. I also bought this cute mirror:

More birthday flowers going strong

I think I’ve mentioned the house is decked out with some pretty fancy light fittings, this is the one above my bed:

Surely a lampshade around a chandelier makes the pretty dangly things redundant?!

This is the view from my room into the hallway. I had a lot of fun arranging that bookshelf.

This time we’ve aimed for more actual books, less ornaments (believe it or not)

And this is a photo I took out the front as I was getting into my car this morning for work and the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and trees were swaying gently in the breeze: