Thinking About Yourself

As I embark on a 30 day photography challenge, I've been thinking about who I am for tomorrow's self-portrait photo.




http://www.flickr.com/photos/beth19/4627578764/

I love words and photos, light and the ocean. The colour blue is 'my' colour. I'm an optimistic - sometimes annoyingly so. I find hope from God and love alone time with a great book. I'm a dreamer but I want to be a doer. I am a wife, a daughter, a friend, a colleague, a blessed child of the Almighty.

Blend Carrots, Get Orange

Carrots are so cheap and as it turned out, go very well into a soup. This was my first attempt and it will be recreated!

You just have to be okay with orange food!

Carrot & Ginger Soup

•  3 large carrots
• 1 apple (trust me!)
• chunk of fresh ginger
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 4+ cups of vege stock
• sour cream (to serve, optional)
• delicious bread (also optional)

1. Saute chopped garlic and onion in bottom on large pot with bit of oil.

2. Add in the chopped carrots, apple, fresh ginger and cook a few more mins on medium.

3. Throw (carefully!) the vege stock and simmer it until all the veges are cooked.

4. Put it in the food blender until smooth, then return to pot and heat til warm enough to serve.

5. Add your preference of salt, pepper, fresh coriander, sour cream.... Easy, peasy - orange goodness!

A Womens Job?

I'm all for girl power, women can do anything...etc, etc.

But I also love that I can be in charge of the cooking, like women mostly have been through the centuries, and my Man can take out the rubbish and fix the car (or just drive it to the mechanic).

Bing.com

Unfortunately my Man is away again, helping in the Christchurch earthquake response and the car needs a wing mirror fixed. Now it's not a big deal but I hate, hate doing it!

I'm such a damsal in distress, wishing I could get someone else to fix the situation. Which is silly because all I have to do is drive it to the shop and pay them the money...so, go girl power!

At the End of the Day...

At the end of the day, I am:

• a nana - yes, I like an early night with a good book okay?
• a child at heart (I can be as silly as a eleven year old on sugar)
• defined by God (luckily)
• a resilient soul - I have come to know and believe this after a few very rough years
• a peacemaker - not always a good thing
• a listener
• a wife - sometimes successfully, sometimes with much, more more to learn

• an aspiring mother (if God has that in my future)
• a dreamer - too many good ideas
• strong-willed
• stubborn
• messy
• lazy
• positive - sometimes I surprise myself
• at peace with the world

Caramel Sauce (only missing the dessert to pour it over)

I have a thing for caramel. It was my first love, you might say. Well, not quite...

Caramel Sauce (v. 1)

•  1.5 cups brown sugar
• 150g unsalted butter
• 235ml creame
• dash of vanilla essence

1. In saucepan, heat everything over medium heat.

2. Stir until melted and dissolved.

3. Simmer 4-6 minutes (or until slightly thickened) and use immediately.

Note: If you cook for too long you will end up turning it into hard fudge/toffee which isn't great poured on top of puddings or ice cream or whatever you so lovingly prepared earlier.

Banana-na & Cara-ra-mel

Mmmmm. Banana and caramel; one of life's great couples. I'm about to start a sugar elimination from my life (necessary for making my Crohn's get better) but I had to have one final goodbye. And boy, was it gooooood!

Sticky Banana Puds with Caramel Sauce

Makes 10 (I halved the recipe successfully ... though halving an egg is difficult so I added 2)

Get yourself:

• 3 ripe bananas (skin on)
• 180g unsalted butter
• 180g sugar (I used caster)
• 3 eggs
• dash of vanilla essence
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1.5 teas baking powder
• tiny pinch salt
• make caramel sauce (post to follow)

1. Get yourself some cute ramekin dishes (the cuter the better)! Grease and pour 1-2cm of caramel sauce into the bottom of each.

2. Put oven on (I did 150 degrees C but my oven is hot. Probably 180-200 would be best).

3. Put bananas on tray and roast with skin on. When bananas feel mushy take out. Wait til cool then take off skin.

4. Beat sugar and butter in a bowl until creamy. Add eggs, beating well after each.

5. Add banana flesh, vanilla and mix, mix, mix.

6. Add flour, baking powder, salt into the mix. Combine.

7. Spoon your mix into your cute ramekins. Cover each with tinfoil.

8. Now grab a roasting dish and fill it 2-3cm deep with hot water. (Water should come half way up your dishes) Put the ramekins into the dish and then cover the whole dish with tinfoil.

9. Put in oven (careful!) and cook 30 minutes until all spoungy and nice.

10. Remove from oven, take off tinfoil. Turn upside down and pour over caramel sauce. Ohhh, la la!

Shaking a City

Oh, Christchurch. Oh, Christchurch.

Stuff.co.nz

 

Earthquakes...who can understand them? Tragedy...who escapes it?

Christchurch, what a beautiful city, but you have shaken too many lives, too many futures this past 6 months. And then, again, today ... you shake some more. More injuries, more collapsed buildings.


What can one do but pray?

Silly-ness, my friend.

Have you ever had a week, a month, a year like mine? I bet you have and you haven't.

Each one of us lives moments entangled with joy, with grief, frustration and satisfaction. No one escapes beauty or pain, fear or silliness.

No matter the awfulness, the struggles, the tears that fall, there is a temporary cure: silliness, nonsense.

http://quote-book.tumblr.com/page/13

Tonight Mr. and I had a night of silliness - tickling and playfighting, jokes and general immaturity. Oh - the joy silliness brings to a tired soul!