fear of germs

i don't know why but for some reason advertisements for cleaning products annoy me more than any other ad. on tv. especially the ones where it's a mother saying how she doesn't want her children exposed to germs that may be on the kitchen counter, the sofa cushions or, heaven forbid, in the toilet bowl so she likes to spray chemicals which claim to kill 99.9% germs on these things and let her family be exposed to those instead. i don't know why those ads bother me more than other ads which are also using fear of something to get people to buy a product but they do. why don't people realize, most germs aren't going to harm most people and that breathing in or ingesting chemicals from cleaning products is likely to have some negative reaction in a person's body (even if it does happen slowly over many years)?

rain. and more rain.

somewhere under all that rain is melbourne and 128km of it's surrounds. so much for the great spring weather we've had most of the past 2 weeks. zac and i did have plans to spend our friday off doing something fun. i kinda just wanna curl up on the couch with movies and food now (and zac's still in bed).

tuna

zac insisted we go to yong green food for lunch the other day because he had gone there earlier in the week and had the tuna wrap and really wanted another one cuz it was so good. they've changed their menu a bit since the last time we were there (i think it was at least a few months ago). i wasn't that hungry when we got there so i just got a light lunch of rice paper rolls. they were really nice. for some reason i really didn't like the smell of the chili dipping sauce they come with but the flavour was nice. zac got the tuna wrap that he was craving (i think it replaces the fishball wrap they used to have on the menu-- i don't think that was still offered). i managed to get a bite of it and really liked it. lots of flavour with a slight "fishy" sort of taste. they've got a good selection of dishes of all sizes at yong green and most are vegan (or can be made vegan). it's a good place for a snack or meal on brunswick street (and much healthier/tastier than the chips we would end up getting if we stopped at a pub for a drink and snack).

munster haus

we've been going to munster haus (on the corner of barkley st and st. georges rd.) for lunch pretty much any time zac has a day off when i'm working. there's always lots of good choices for food. some days have more vegan choices than others (today the only non-vegan things were pizza and a quinoa dish that had some butter in it). i skipped getting rice in the bottom of my bowl since there were so many other things i wanted to try today. i got an eggplant miso dish (on the bottom of my bowl so it isn't in the photo). on top of that was some marinated tofu with salad, a rice dish (i can't remember what was in it), a sweet potato noodle dish with sesame dressing (my favourite dish-- can't go wrong with sesame flavour) and some broccoli and marinated tempeh (i think i've had the broccoli dish every time i've been there-- it's good). all the dishes are so full of flavour. i usually get the $8 bowl for lunch and it's a good, filling lunch. zac either goes for $8 or $11 bowl depending how hungry he is.

style

the first homemade magarita of the spring is always done in style with a proper glass (i LOVE these glasses, we were given them at our wedding. i'm so scared of breaking them though). after we get more into the warm weather home made magaritas will likely be served from the pastic-jug-with-a-handle-style cup it was blended up in.

bagels

yesterday i made bagels for the first time. i followed theresa's recipe. they're pretty easy and they taste really good (i think better than the ones that i've been buying). i used molasses instead of treacle (some websites say they can be used interchangeably in recipes, others say they can't). it worked fine. i just added a few sunflower seeds to this batch during the mixing/kneading process in the bread maker. next time i might coat them with toasted sesame seeds or maybe dukkah (which theresa recommends). i like my bagels fairly plain because i make sandwiches with them (today i had avocado and homegrown sprouts).

belly tanning

wombat enjoying some belly tanning time in the backyard (that pink belly will be black soon):

i think spring has finally arrived (only a month late)!!!

crêpes

last weekend i decided to make crêpes. they were so good i made them again this morning. i got the recipe from here. i've been filling them with things like berries, jam, chocolate spread and almond butter. we had a norwegian nanny for about a year when i was little and she used to make norwegian pancakes (which are basically crêpes). we would fill them with jam or a spoonful of sugar or some fruit canned in syrup and top them with whipped cream. it seems really funny to me now that we used these fillings when we had them served for breakfast or a breakfast-at-dinnertime meal but they were SOOOOO good (and we only had them every once in a while).

waste

that's our stack of phone books for last year and this year (not sure why last year's are still around-- this year's have been sitting by the front door since they were delivered several months ago). most of the ones that came wrapped in plastic are still wrapped (i think i unwrapped last year's white pages to look up one number probably before we got our new computer and the old computer took up to 30 min or more to get it started). i finally took 2 seconds to see how i could stop getting the phone books delivered and it's sooooooo easy. wish i had done it a long time ago. just go to this link. you just need to fill in your details and mark the phone books you want to stop delivery of (i stopped them all). hopefully i've done it in time to stop the delivery of the 2011 books. i feel bad about just chucking them all in the recycle bin but so far i haven't come up with any other use for them.

scamming

i got a phone call this morning from someone claiming to be from microsoft trying to tell me there was something wrong with my computer and he needed to fix it and would walk me through the steps over the phone. sounded completely ridiculous to me cuz i'm pretty sure no where have we listed our home phone number with any sort of registration of our computer. i was pretty sure it was a scam when he said something like "...and it will shut down your whole computer. you don't want that, do you?" he started to tell me to press some buttons to help fix the problem but i just hung up on him. after doing a bit of a google search, turns out it was a scam. here's an article from the age a couple months ago. if i did think there was something wrong on our computer i would be either getting a friend in IT to help or taking it to a computer repair place, not taking advice from someone who called me. i guess there are people who would just assume it's legitimate though.

chick cheez

i decided to make a cheeze spread yesterday. i opened up my uncheese cookbook to the front section where the spreads are and this was the first recipe i saw. on the side panel it's described as a "tangy" cheez with a "sharp, cheddary flavour." sounded good so i made it. it is amazing. most homemade cheezes i've tried are fairly mild. this one has a really nice sharp flavour (like aged cheddar) from the miso in it. vegan guinea pig posts the recipe here. the recipe also suggests making it into a sauce by thinning it with some nondairy milk-- it'd probably be really nice over broccoli or other veggies. i think this cheeze may end up being something i make often.

only in oz

so the AFL grand final went pretty much the same way as the election: nobody won. i think that's gotta be the only major sporting league in the world that a final game can end in a tie and "see you again next week for a rematch"
the up side is that next week we'll be able to watch the game at a pub with some friends. this week zac had a gig so i watched it at home and then ran up to the gig as soon as the game was over.

thai pumpkin

we got our veggie box today. it contained a large amount of coriander so i figured i should try to use as much as i can in the next couple days. i made some fresh salsa this afternoon and decided on thai pumpkin soup for dinner (there was also some pumpkin and ginger in the box and i had some chilies in the garden). i used this recipe for the soup. i love the flavours of ginger, chili and coriander together and it was quick and easy to make.

grumpy's

we ended up at grumpy's green for lunch today. they've changed their menu since last time we were there for a meal (it's been a while). the menu was much more vegan friendly than it used to be and everything that is vegan/can be made vegan is clearly marked (and gluten free items are marked as well). we sat up in the dimly lit closet upstairs so i couldn't get a decent picture of our food (i don't like using the flash). i had the chickpea and lentil dahl with naan bread which was really nice. the dahl was fairly spicy--i like it hot--and the bread was good too. zac had the tower burger-- it was a tower. zac was a little worried how he was gonna manage to get it in his mouth but he did it (after a bit of squashing). it looked really good-- tons of vegies sticking out. i loved the chips (i think crinkle cut just makes them taste better--or maybe it was just the salt-- but i couldn't stop picking at zac's chips). i love all the little things grumpy's does to be sustainable (local beer and wine, vegetarian menu with locally sourced ingredients and more). there were several things on the menu i wanna try so hopefully we'll get back there soon.

uncheese

i bought myself The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook as a birthday gift to me from the book depository. sooo many fun, "cheesy" recipes to try! i finally got around to making a couple things from the book this past week (i kept forgetting to buy more onion powder and almost everything i wanted to try required it). i made chickpea flour pizza (which is more of a herbed, gluten free flat bread) for a snack the other day (forgot to take a picture) and i really liked it. that was the first thing i've ever made with chickpea flour and i've been meaning to buy and make things with it for a LONG time. yesterday afternoon i decided to make french onion soup. i couldn't get a good photo though (i think it's almost impossible to get a good looking photo of a brown soup with cream coloured "cheese" goo on top). it was really good though. i added a vegan beef stock cube (cuz they've just been sitting there for a while not being used). we didn't have french bread or croutons so i lightly toasted some multigrain bread and cut it into cubes. i think next i'll try one of the "cheese" dips. so far i'm really enjoying the book.