For this weeks Flickr Faves Mitsy set us some homework.  This week’s theme was set for us; Self Portrait.  We were tasked with finding images that represented who we are.  So without further ado here’s the 9 images I chose to speak to who I am at this moment in time.  The lists is by no means definite or exhaustive. It’s just 9 somewhat random images.

1. gnome – This one is a no brainer in some ways and yet in others it’s surprising.  My gnome “fetish” was well over a decade ago and yet I still have this link to gnomes.  It’s one that I propigate through my own choices, but it still amazes me that these little guys keep coming up in my life.  Sometimes the gnome thing is really random and then at other times it seems apt.  I’m sure when I move on to the next stage in my adventure a gnome will adorn my body’s final resting place.  I just hope it’s a tasteful one, like this one, and not some $2 Crazy Clark’s job!

2. Colored Pens #8,- I love stationery.  I’m a mad pen collector.  I might not drink coffee, but I have a coffee mug collection that grows just to house all the pens I acquire.  I love notepads, blank paper, wrapping paper, envelopes, cards, stickers and the list goes on and on.  There’s nothing more thrilling than a fresh notebook.  That first beautifully empty page.  I love the beginning of a school year when school supplies litter all the shops.  I love stationery!

3. Groovy Rainbow Cupcake,- Food.  I’ve had a constant battle with food.  I love to bake and I love to eat.  Two things that have not been conducive to a healthy lifestyle.  My relationship with food is changing and evolving and I want to be able to still have fun with my food and enjoy my life through my enjoyment of food.

4. star dust and rainbows. 156:365, – I love rainbows.  I love colour.  Lots of colour.  Bold colour.  I also love Converse Chuck Taylor shoes and mad socks.  Rainbows are happy.  I love to be happy.  Happiness is a state that I want to be in for the largest chunk of my life.   I love this image.

5. Tattoo pioeuvre 9,- Much to the misunderstood amusement of my friends and family I love tattoo’s.  I have four.  Two rather large and prominently placed and two smaller pieces.  I will get more.  I love them on other people (when they’re done well); regardless of their age, race, size or subject matter.  To me they’re like a living canvas.  I love the images that people chose to carry with them.  The stories behind them.  The technique that is used to make them.  I love them.  I will continue to think that people that have them are beautiful in their own way, and that the tattoo doesn’t distract from that.  I don’t regret mine, and I hope that those that get tattoo’s don’t regret theirs either.

6. I Want To Read: cover,- I’m a bookworm.  I love a good book.  Although I suspect what I consider to be “good” is not to everyone’s taste.  I love getting lost in a book.  I love the sense of accomplishment when I finish a book.  I love listening to people read from books.  I love going to bookstores and wondering the story picking up and caressing various books.  I’m a bibliophile and proud of it!

7. Girl Painting a Rainbow,- First off, I love the name of this image.  It sounds like it should be a Rollingstone’s song.  I love being creative.  I love to take objects and re-purposing  them.  I love the imagination.  I love seeing what others come up with.  I love the design revolution that’s happening now.  I love spending hours looking online at what people have created and how they incorporate the design trends and their own quirky style into their homes.  I love getting my hands dirty in the creative process.

8. A-Maze-Ing Laughter, – A day without laughter is like a day without sun.  It’s not right.  I can’t get enough of laughing.  I love to laugh; I love to make others laugh.  I love hearing a child just cracking up with their own laughter.  I love watching other people laugh.  I love infectious laughter that flows from one person to another.  I love a good joke.  I love a smartarse comment.  I love a witty insight.  A good pun.  I love a fart joke.  I want to laugh.  I believe our bodies were built for laughter.  I believe laughter is the sound of love.  I want to see this sculpture in person!

9. Macro Game Piece Monday – I’m an online gamer.  I’m addicted to playing an online game.  I love it.  I love playing board games and card games with my friends.  I love strategy and I love the escapism.  I love games.  I love nothing more then a good meal, great company and a few rounds of various games as a good night in.  I love trivia nights.  I love competition.  I love playing.

I loved this task so much it inspired a redesign of my blog theme where I chose photo’s from my life that I have taken that I feel represent all the great things in my life.  (With the exception of friends and family because I didn’t want to use their images without permission.)  I also realised that I used ‘love’ a lot in this task and I think it’s reflective of where I am at the moment.  I’m loving life.  Are you loving your life?

♣♣♣♣♣♣

Wanna see more wonderful self portraits?  Or maybe you want to submit your own.  Head on over to Artmind where Ms Misty is hosting the Flickr Fave party.  Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Image source: Gnomeangel, In Game – World of Warcraft

Who said nothing brilliant ever came from playing World of Warcraft?  Tonight my fellow Guildies helped me out with a domestic crisis; what to have for dinner!

I was talking (i.e. whinging) in Guild Chat that I didn’t know what we were going to do about dinner; “The cupboard is bare and I don’t want to head to Woolworths.”

A few minutes later Cromonztro tells me he’s sent me a recipe in game.  I thought he meant a WoW recipe.  No, he meant an actual recipe.

Turns out we had everything, with a few minor tweaks, that I needed to make what I called “Cromonztro’s Dalaran Delight” but is actually known as “Impossible Pie”.  It’s like a quiche without the carb and calorie loaded pastry.

When I’d gotten it ready to go in the oven I sent my Guildies a little preview.

It came out of the oven golden and perfect.  HUBBY was so impressed that I’d managed to whip up dinner without him knowing, or without having to send him into Woolworths.  It tastes awesome and it’s so filling, even if you’re not missing 80% of you stomach.

For those of you that want to try it out at home here’s the details:

Ingredients

6 x Eggs

1 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup Flour – sifted

1/2 Cup Grated Cheese

Handful of Bacon Bits or Cooked Chicken (I used diced ham as we had no bacon or chicken)

1/2 Diced Onion (We didn’t have an onion so I just skipped this bit)

1 Sliced Tomato (We only had about 10 grape tomatoes so I just halved them and used that instead)

Directions

Combine Eggs, Milk and Flour and mix well.

Add cheese and mix well.

Add bacon/chicken/ham and onion and mix well.

Pour into a well greased tin. (I used a slice tin and just doused it in cooking spray)

Place tomato slices on top.  Be careful not to let them sink too far, they should “float” just don’t jiggle the pan too much.

Bake for 40 minutes in a 180 degree Celsius oven.  (I baked at 160 in a fan forced oven.)

Can be eaten hot or cold and served with green salad.

Serves 6. (Or 4 hungry people!)

Thanks to Rainie and Cro for the awesome dinner!

(Sorry for the quality of the dinner images, they were all taken on my iPhone.)

Today has been a hive of activity.  Inspired by the woman at Brown Owls I’ve started on my Ginger Beer Plant.  I’m following the very helpful instructions posted over at Meet Me At Mikes.  It’s kind of an interesting looking mixture.  It reminds me of the fluid that we put in the fly trap for the backyard.  The smell is rather potent as well.  I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that at the end of this adventure I’ll have twelve liters of drinkable fluid and not just something to pour over the plants.

I also got out the CWA’s cookbook and made some chocolate biscuits.  I just love and adore chocolate so I couldn’t resist getting this close up shot of the milk chocolate melts.  The biscuits were baked and ready in under an hour.  They’re not bad, but a little dry.  I’m going to make some ANZAC biscuits tomorrow.  I’ve been craving them for the past couple of days, I’m hoping they’ll be a little better than today’s batch.

I’ve also been working on my Dolly Donation.  I’ve finished the girl and I’m half way through finishing the boy.  Hopefully they’ll be done by Monday and I can put them in the post.

Today I’ve spent a lot of time amusing myself and avoiding the chores.  That’s going to have to change for tomorrow…

Wanna see other people’s Creative Spaces? Head on over to Kootoyoo.

These are an old school favourite of mine.  I just love them.  It’s been ages since I made a batch so I thought I’d wipe up a mix for an office afternoon tea that was being organised.  The recipe can be found on the back of Kellogg’s Rice Bubbles packets, but for those of you that don’t have access to our version of Rice Bubbles I thought I would share it on here.

Ingriedents

4 cups Kellogg’s Rice Bubbles ceral

1 cup desiccated coconut

1 cup icing sugar

250g copha

3 Tbsp cocoa

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix Kellogg’s Rice Bubbles ceral, icing sugar, coconut and cocoa.

2. Slowly melt the copha in a suacepan over low heat.  Allow to cool slightly.  Add to Rice Bubble mixture, stirring until well combined.

3. Spoon mixture into paper patty cases and refrigerate until firm.

Makes about 24.

I didn’t use the regular size paper patty cases, I used my Multimix Patty Pans Mini Coloured.  (Available at Woolworths for AU$1.99)  Using this size patty pan meant that I got 75 chocolate crackles and they were just the right size for a bite.  A nice little sample of chocolate crackle goodness.  It also meant that I had a wonderful rainbow of cool.

What do you do for one of your gaming buddies when it’s their birthday? Why you bake a World of Warcraft themed cake of course!

I’m quietly chuffed with how this turned out.  It’s really simple to do.  Just find a Horde insignia, like this one here.  Blow it up to the size of the cake.  Print it and then cut out the logo.  This leaves you with a stencil.

Position the stencil on top of the cake and then pour your sprinkles all over the stencil.  Gently push the sprinkles into the frosting and then tilt the cake and let the remaining sprinkles run off into a baking tray.

The trickiest part is lifting the stencil without doing too much damage to the frosting or spilling surplus sprinkles all over the cake.  Once you’ve managed to lift the stencil carefully using a knife to tidy up the frosting.  When it’s done put it in the fridge to let the frosting set.

This image is just before it went into the fridge.  Once the frosting has set I’ll move the cake to a clean plate and get ready to serve.  Thank goodness he plays Horde and not Alliance, their insignia would have been hell to do!

This will make a nice little addition to the day we’ve got planned to help him celebrate.  A LAN party – we’re all getting together to spend the day playing World of Warcraft.  Perfect!

Oh, and what do you give a World of Warcraft addict for their birthday…

Loved this gift so much, I got one for myself.  As I said to HUBBY when he accused me of being addicted to t-shirts, “I’m a t-shirt connoisseur!”.

I’ve been at home for the past week dealing with some health issues. To keep my mind off things that are going on I’ve been doing some little bits and pieces around the house.  I thought you might like to know what keeps me out of trouble, so here’s a top five list of things to do when you find yourself with some unexpected free time on your hands.

1. Craft – One of my 101 in 1001 tasks is to finish all the cross-stitch that I currently have in the house either half done or not started.  So I’ve spent the last few days working on the Antique Linen Rose Sampler from DMC.  I love this pattern as it appeals to the old fashion streak I have and I dream of it being one of those things that gets passed down the family line.  The only thing I have discovered is that counted cross-stitch probably isn’t that great a thing to do when you’re under the influence of a lot of pain medication.  Needless to say I’ve had to unpick a fair chunk of work that I did yesterday as I’d managed to get the stitching out of alignment.  Whoops!

2. Cooking – I had the biggest craving for potato bake on Thursday, so HUBBY was wonderful enough to take me to Woolworths so I could do some shopping for ingriedents.  I found a potato bake recipe on Exclusively Food.  It’s really simple, which appeals to my current state of mind and delicious which appeals to my tummy!  (Images from Exclusively Food.)

3. Reading – I picked up a copy of The Time Traveler’s Wife and I’ve been slowly knocking it over.  It’s not something I would normally pick up to read, but I’ve had a lot of people recommend it so I thought, “what they heck try something new”.  I’ll finish it, but I don’t think it will be in my top five books of all time.

4.  Movies – The obvious boredom buster – movies!  I loaded up on painkillers and met a friend to see Julie & Julia on “Family and Community Day”.  (It’s the ACT’s holiday for the Melbourne Cup.)  I had previously tried and failed to read the book.  The movie was much better than the book.  I really empathized with both characters, for surprisingly different reasons.  Of course the movie made me long for being able to cook and to live in Paris.

5.  Blogsites -  I’ve been so grateful to all the wonderful people out there on the internet that devote their time to maintaining blogs.  I’ve spent hours surfing the internet and daydreaming about all the amazing homes, places, projects and humorous things that are out there in the world.  If you’re looking for somewhere to start just check out my links on the right hand side of the site.  I highly recommend them all!

Mission: 15 minutes to cook a casserole for two using Leggo’s Italian Beef Casserole Simmer Sauce.

Accomplice: Alivicwil

Materials:

• Leggo’s Italian Beef Casserole Simmer Sauce
• 300g Diced Beef
• 1 cup of sliced Zucchini

That’s it.  Unless you want to serve it with mash potatoes, rice or bread.  If you want it to be accompanied by some complex carbohydrates you’ll need to acquire the needed materials and prepare to your liking. I’ve chosen to go with a simple mash.

Obsticles: George & Tyson

Time starts now…

When Alivicwil arrives get her straight on to kitchen duty.  A word to the wise, you’ll need to keep a close eye on her as she gets easily distracted by shiny things and the internet! To help keep her focused, and us amused, we decided to put VH1’s Karaoke on in the background.  Everything in life is better with sing-a-long to Abba!

To give you a little taste of the magic that Leggo’s inspires in our house – I give you the gnome and Alivicwil performing to Abba…

Ok, so that might have been from Muriel’s Wedding, but it was very close to that in our kitchen! (Minus the cat fight.)

Back to the task at hand.  As Alivicwil had purchased rump steak it needed be diced.  Lucky for us Alivicwil is skilled with a knife… and a fork?!?!

It’s at this point that I’m reminded of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine catches her boss eating a Snickers with a knife and fork. It’s also at this point that George and Tyson decided they would try and wear Alivicwil down and get some steak love.

What they hadn’t counted on was Alivicwil’s skill at knife throwing.  (Well she’s not so much throwing as “dancing”.)

Once everything is prepped it’s really simple.  You just brown the meat and throw together the vegetables with the Leggo’s Italian Beef Casserole Simmer Sauce.

We made mash potato at the same time that our casserole was simmering.  Once it was all done and ready Alivicwil then gave it the old Master Chef touch and plated it up.

The meal was surprisingly tasty.  Given that one of the best things about a casserole is the amount of time the flavours have to soak into the meat and become one with the sauce.  The Leggo’s Italian Beef Casserole Simmer Sauce seems to come with that goodness already in the packet.  We added carrots to the mix as it’s a bit light on the vegetable side of things, and they were a yummy addition.  Good thinking, Alivicwil

The real question is did we succeed in making it all in under 15 minutes.  No, end-to-end it took 30 minutes.  With the mash potato side dish we needed the extra time, and really you couldn’t have this meal without some type of accompaniment.  I think the extra simmer time also came in handy, it just gives the zucchini and carrot time to soften up.

We may have flunked on the time component of the mission, but we ended up with a really yummy meal that I would happily make again.  Even George ended up with a little Leggo’s Italian Beef Casserole Simmer Sauce magic of her own…

♣ This post was sponsored by NuffNang.

I thought I would give a Toffee making a go.  I don’t know why but I’ve had a hankering for old school confectionery.  So I hit the cookbooks and managed to find a recipe for toffee in my trusty “The Blinky Bill Cookbook”.  The cookbook was a Christmas gift to my Brother and I in 1985 – which makes it 24 years old.  Bloody hell!  Anyways, here’s the recipe:

2 cups white sugar

1 ¼ cups cold water

¼ cup vinegar

1. Mix sugar, water and vinegar in the saucepan and bring to the boil.   Let it boil gently for about 30 minutes.

2. To test whether the mixture is cooked, drop a teaspoon of it into cold water. When the drop has cooled, test whether it will break.  If it only bends it needs a little more boiling.

So I assembled all the needed materials.  I made a slight amendment to the recipe and added food colouring. (Mixed red and blue to create purple!)  I let it “gently” boil for over an hour and it still didn’t pass the cold water test so I decided just to pour it in to the patty pans.  I sprinkled the tops with 100s & 1000s and put them into the fridge to set.  (Well after Alivicwil scrapped all the dribbly bits off the tin!)

I’ve yet to sample any – but George has had a field day licking all the spilt 100s & 100s off the kitchen tiles!  So that’s another recipe added to the list for #34 of my 101 in 1001.

This week saw our friend, family member and all round cool chick, LEE LEE turn 40.  To celebrate COUSIN planned a surprise party.  It’s the first surprise party that I’ve been to since my Father turned 40 when I was 18.  It was brilliant!  COUSIN did an amazing job and LEE LEE had no idea that it was happening. In fact, she’d spent all week calling all of us bad names and cursing our existences because we’d all declined her party invitation.

When the party was originally being discussed it was going to be a big bash at a restaurant in town, but due to personal circumstances the girls ended up calling it off to save money.  When we first started talking about it the girls had been to Cakes of Your Dreams to order the birthday cake.  Unfortunately the cake shop was closed over June.  At that stage I was trying to enroll in a cake decorating class at the Canberra Adult Education campus.  I didn’t end up doing the course, but that didn’t stop me from volunteering to make the cake when the canceled party became a surprise party!

When COUSIN and I talked about it I’m sure I uttered those famous words, “How hard can it be?” and “It’ll be a piece of piss!”

So once we’d agreed that I’d make the cake, COUSIN sent through the requirements:

Ok, the cake challenge if you’re up for it…LEE LEE’s dream cake is a cherry ripe mud cake from Cakes of Your Dreams (closed till the 24 June) and it would be beyond her expectations if you were able to craft a long rectangular cake i.e. 15cm wide by 50/60cm long with white frosting and black lines to represent a timeline that has figurines/toys/cake bling to denote significant events along the timeline as follows:
·        birth (plastic naked baby of some sort) at the very start point
·        sports (cricket bat, balls, wickets etc – she was always into sports and women! (maybe a weenie gay pride flag?)
·        houses & travel – like a little toy plane and house (i.e. 20’s and 30’s)
·        a big ‘4’’0’ (possibly the actual candles)
·        and then a gradual decline to old age…not sure if it could be summarised as a walking frame or just a few dot dot dots (i.e the gradual fade – I thought a coffin may be a little too morbid).

So that’s what I started working towards.  What did we end up with… well there were no houses, planes, cricket bats or babies on the cake! But I thought it still rocked!

I now have a new appreciation for cake artists!  I had originally planned to make and decorate the cake on Friday night for the party the next day.  Through some good fortune that didn’t happen, here’s how the week played out:

I thought I’d best google some cherry ripe mud cake recipes as I’d never made one before and had no specific cake recipe books at home.  I found a few versions but in the end I went with the recipe I found on Cakes and More. 

Cherry Ripe Mud Cake

Est Prep time: 35 minutes
Est Cooking time: 1 & 3/4 hours
Oven Temp: 150C
Serves: 9″ round

Ingredients
250g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
1 & 2/3 cups coconut milk
200g dark chocolate chopped coarsely
2 cups caster sugar
3/4 cups self raising flour
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 x 85g cherry ripe bars chopped coarsely

Instructions
Preheat oven to 150C and prepare cake tin.

Combine butter, coffee, coconut milk, chocolate and sugar in a large saucepan and stir over heat until butter and chocolate melts and sugar dissolves. Cool to room temperature.
Whisk in sifted dry ingredients, followed by eggs and essence.
Stir in chopped Cherry Ripe.
Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake in slow oven for approx 1 & 3/4 hours.

Additional Info/Comments
This cake tastes best if cooked a couple of days in advance.

After reading through the recipe I thought it might be best to make the cake a few days before the party.  So I thought I’d give it a try that night so that if anything went wrong I had time to “fix” it.  So that afternoon after work I ran around and purchased the ingriedients and hired the cake tin.  (I also went to about five different places chasing figurines, candles and fimo alternatives to making fondant figurines!)

I hit the jackpot with the store (Annie’s Cake Place) that I hired the cake tin from.  They sold premade fondant, which was brilliant!  I was so worried about having to make fondant.  I talked to the lady at the store at length and she advised me that I’d need about 3.5kg of fondant to ice the cake.

When I’d picked my jaw up off the floor I ordered 4kg of fondant (just in case!) and hit the road with cake tin in hand.

I got the ingredients on the stove at 6pm.  By 8pm they’d cooled enough for me to stir in the dry ingriedents.  (I broke the whisk trying to mix it all together!)

To fill the cake tin I had to make double the mixture, which was amazing.  Nothing like mixing in 4 cups of sugar to make your arteries harden!

The cake tin was prepared with butter and flour.   HUBBY and I poured the mixture into the pan by 8:45pm and it was in the stove by 9pm.  Due to the mixture being doubled it took a fraction longer to cook.  The cake was cooked through by 11pm.

As per the advice of the lady at Annie’s I left the mud cake sit in the tin overnight.

I woke up bright and early and rushed to the kitchen like it was Christmas morning!  I turned the cake out on to the cake board I’d purchased at Annie’s Cake Place.  Tapped the bottom of the tin three times and waited.  After hearing (and feeling) the cake hit the board I lifted the tin up.

*holding breath*

The bloody left hand corner had stuck to the tin!  I could have cried.  The upside was that the cake looked moist and it gave us a chance to taste the cake and make sure it was ok.

I’d only hired the cake tin for a night.  So HUBBY was a sweety and returned the cake tin and purchased a cake tin of our very own.  He also got some more sage advise from the cake lady on how to prepare the tin to stop it sticking again.  (Coat it in non-stick spray, then line it with baking paper and coat it again with non-stick spray!)

Due to work commitments I took a night off from making the cake.

I hit the supermarket again and purchased the ingredients for cake 2!

This time the cake was in the oven by 8pm – only problem as it was a different cake tin and I’d tripled the mixture it wasn’t ready until 12:30am.  HUBBY and I were trying to stay awake on the couch while we waited for it to cook all the way through.

When it was done we took it out, left it to cool overnight and headed to bed.

This time I approached the kitchen with trepidation.  I turned the cake out on the board, tapped it three times and waited.  The cake slid out and I lifted the tin…

*holding breath*

Perfect!

I couldn’t believe it!

I managed to get lucky enough to leave work early and head out to The Style Emporium.  I was able to pick up the much needed fondant dyes, shape cutters and some pre-made black fondant (apparently black is really hard to make).  I also headed back to Annie’s Cake Place and picked up a fondant modeling tool set, edible markers and a circle cutter.

I headed home and contacted my cake decorating partner, Alivicwil.   While I waited for her to turn up I prepared the fondant.  The thought of having to roll out 4kg of fondant was scaring me.  Not to mention trying to get the colour in the fondant consistent.  But it’s ok, Alivicwil was bringing her vast talents with her.  Our first job was to cover the cake with a frosting to help the fondant stick to the cake.  Alivicwil volunteered for this task.

I rolled out the first layer of fondant.  After carefully measuring the fondant to make sure it would cover the cake.  Only thing I didn’t factor in would be incorrectly positioning the fondant. Doh! Once that fondant touches the frosting it ain’t going any where!  Alivicwil used her skills with a knife and an angel and managed to patch up the fondant shortfall.

The fondant is supposed to sit on the cake for at least 24 hours.  So while we waited for the 24 hours to pass we set to work on making the figurines.  (Remember that list….)  I’d decided during the battle to roll at the fondant that there was no way I was going to be able to make the multiple figurines.  I thought a good medium would be making a figurine of LEE LEE and their three dogs.

Having never made a fondant dog we decided to google ‘how to make a fondant dog’.  We hit the jackpot with How to Make a Fondant Dog – Part 1 and How to Make a Fondant Dog – Part 2.  Not only did she provide us with a brilliant set of instructions, she also added extra laughs by encouraging us to speak with her accent.

We ended up making three dogs – two for their current puppies, and one to represent their dog that passed away in the last couple of months (we even gave her a halo and wings).  We were so happy with how they turned out, but they took forever to make.  We finished late Friday night and decided to call it a night.

I woke up bright and early and decided to finish the cake off.  I coloured the last kilo of fondant with green, rolled it out and covered the cake hoping and praying that it didn’t crack like the first layer had.  It worked like a treat! Woo Hoo!!!  I wrapped the cake with the ribbon, placed the fondant animals and made some letters to spell out the message.

With the cake done I took the time to relax and then head over to help out COUSIN with the pre-birthday preparations. The surprise party went amazingly well – it was awesome!  The birthday girl was so happy.  Everyone commented on the cake and it even brought a tear to the birthday girl’s eyes when she saw the puppies.

We cut into the cake and it was perfect.  Moist, chock full of cherry ripes and AWESOME!  Alivicwil loves fondant, so I saved her the corner and she loved it.  (See above!)  I’m so glad I made the cake and decorated it, it was an unusal experience but well worth it.  I’m so enrolling in the cake decorating class held at Annie’s Cake Place next year!  Who knows I could be the next Bakerella!

On the weekend I did up a meal plan for our week.  Last night I was too shagged after being at work for the first time in nearly three weeks to cook.  So HUBBY made dinner.

But tonight I got home and got straight into the cooking duties.  Tonight I decided to make “Garlic, Vegetable and Rice”.  (The details are at the end of the post for those of you that might want to try it out.)

Interesting fact I learnt tonight: Pyrex shatters and explodes when exposed to a naked flame.  Before you all start sending HUBBY sympathy cards, I didn’t learn this first hand.  I came real close though!  The ovenproof dish I have is a pyrex one.  I figured pyrex are brilliant so surely I can put it on a direct flame.  So I got the dish out, put it on the hot plates and fired up the gas.  As I stood there watching it get hot I had a niggling feeling that I’d heard or read somewhere that pyrex can shatter.  I tried assuring myself that it was only when the hot met cold that it would do this.  I continued to watch.  A few seconds passed and the niggling got the better of me and I turned the flame off and jumped on google.

Enter the search terms: pyrex naked flame. This is what was returned:

It will not only shatter but explode. The only casseroles I know of that can go from stove to oven are the enameled cast iron ones like Le Creuset makes. If you don’t have one like that, Brown the chicken in a skillet, place the chicken on your casserole then add a little liquid to the hot pan to get all the yummy bits out of the bottom. Pour that into your casserole and proceed with the recipe. Happy cooking!

Lucky I listened to my inner niggling voice or I would have had some more stitches to take care of!  Sometimes I’m surprised I haven’t been nominated for a Darwin Award!

1 bulb garlic (70g)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium brown onion (150g), sliced thinly

1 medium red capsicum (200g), sliced thinly

1 medium green capsicum (200g), sliced thinly

4 medium tomatoes  (760g), peeled, sliced thinly

125g green beans, trimmed, halved

2 small baby eggplants (120g), sliced thinly

¼ cup (35g) dried currants

1 teaspoon ground sweet paprika

1½ (300g) long-grain white rice

3 cups boiling vegetable stock

1. Place unpeeled garlic on oven tray; brush with a little of the oil.  Bake, uncovered, in moderately hot oven about 30 minutes or until slightly soft.

2. Heat remaining oil in large flameproof baking dish; cook onion, capsicums, tomato, beans, and eggplant, stirring about 10 minutes or until vegetables are just soft.  Stir in currants and paprika.

3. Sprinkle rice over vegetables; pour stock over rice.  Place garlic in centre of mixture; bake, uncovered, in moderately hot oven about 30 minutes, stirring halfway during cooking or until rice is just tender.

Source: Great Vegetarian Food; The Australian Woman’s Weekly Cookbooks.  Page 210