sweet sweet scallops

from mure's on constitution dock, hobart.

passive agressive imaginary conversation

person1:
"so, how was your weekend?"

me:
"great, i didn't have to do any fun things, all i had to do was some extra work for work. best. weekend. ever."

person 1:
"that sounds awesome. catching up with people in your life is overrated. it is much more satisfying to spend it in front of a computer. so what did you have to do?"

me:
"it was really exciting and also interesting. i had to write a submission for a review of the [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Act. it's due on monday and this is essentially the first chance i've had to look at it."

person 1:
"wow, that is cool. it's a good thing they haven't given you any more people at work yet to help with these things. imagine if you couldn't do work on the weekend and late at night during the week because most things were covered at LRO."

me:
"yeah, that would totally suck. i mean, i really enjoy not being able to get things done and having to rush them through after deadlines have passed. it is really rewarding and sets a great example. the best thing is that it probably won't make a difference if we make a submission or not"

person1:
"yeah, that is good. it's not like you'd want to be doing all this work for a reason"

me:
"agreement"

person1:
"can i read it?"

me:
"cool your jets person1. having people read these things is not the point. it might put a curse on it or something. no one has read one of these submissions yet, and i'd hate to ruin the metrics"

person 1:
"k"

me:
"thxbi"

more autumnal than...

...fallen leaves. last night, i felt like cooking properly for the first time in a while - cooking mojo comes and goes. inspired by box 20, i made the slaw with purple cabbage, onion and apple (all from this and previous boxes) and dressed it with olive oil and sherry vinegar. i mashed to parsnips and mixed in some diced fresh pear, and i 'roasted' a chicken boob. it was sizzled skin side down for 5 or so minutes on a high heat to get the skin cripsy, and then to the oven for about 15-20 minutes until it was cooked. it was rested well and stayed juicy.

here is a photo...

it's not a great photo, but you get the impression. the parsnip and pear match was fantastic, the slaw was crisp and cool, and the chicken was tasty. thanks box!

p

vegetable redemption

today was pretty much balls all round. not literally. i copped a massive man-cold that started on bad thursday and lasted until i was due back at work. the weather over easter here was spectacular, but i was either sleeping or sneezing. i thought i was getting better, but now i have the consumption, and someone has stolen my absinthe (not really - it's a moulin rouge reference for your reading entertainment).

but, today was box day, so i headed off from work in the rain (this is a good thing) and collected said box from the designated pick up point.

here is box 20 in all its seasonal glory...

what an awesome selection, and the source of the vegetable redemption of this balls-laden (heavy would be the wrong adjective) day. this box contained two big bunches of chlorophyllic spinach, some sprightly bok-choy, a deeply purple cabbage (pronounced ka-barge), some crunchy green capsicums, some zucchini (in german), fungus, parsnips, corn, grean beens, punkin, spudadoes, pears (2 species), apples and a reptilian avocado. outrageous!

this box typifies what i love about this whole thing. the weather is wintery, so your stomach-mind turns to thoughts of soups, stews and roasty-things. as if by magic, the box delivers. of course, it's not magic, it's just seasonal. it makes perfect sense.

i predict some spanakopita, some punkin soup, a slaw (with apple and onion and a simple lemon juice and olive oil dressing) to be served with some roasted protein and the maggie beer parsnip mash with pears. yummo! bring it on!! as always, recipe suggestions are welcome.

cheers,

p

quinces...

...are probably the ultimate seasonal fruit (followed closely by nectarines and white peaches). monday was an incredibly grumpy day for me. no apparent reason, but it was best to take be removed from circulation. i left the LRO early and grabbed some lunch on the way home. i stopped by the local fruit and vege shop and picked up some things for dinner, and, some quinces.

it was a baking lead recovery. these happened to be the best batch i've made. they were roasted in slapdash sugar syrup with some lime juice, zest and vanilla for about 5 hours. the secret to success here was the use of a cartouche - a bit of baking paper over the top while cooking. it kept to quince bits cool (cool - really? maybe just leave them out of the oven if that is your goal...try covered) and allowed the syrup to reduce, just as maggie suggested it would.

here is a photo...

they became an even deeper red after cooling for a little bit. i ate some straight away with some honey and cinnamon yoghurt. delightful and uplifting on even the grumpiest of days. 

p

portentous...

..is the word.

so, there is a greek component to my family. this means, as a deeply non-religious person, that i get to enjoy all the benefits of greek easter but without any of the sacrifice. it is almost a perfect situation - almost, because if i am wrong, and there is a god, s/he won't be terribly happy with my usury here.

in any case, i won't know about this until it is too late, so i'll enjoy it while i can. a big greek easter feast was held and it was lots of fun as always. as part of the tradition, my sister in law read my coffee cup (love greek coffee by the way!). so, after it was done i turned it upside down and twisted it three times in a counter clockwise direction. it was then left to 'dry', in a contra-normal state for a couple of minutes.

here is the future...

so, what can you make out here? granted, you can't see the whole thing, so it is only part of my future you are looking at. what does the cup predict? what does it tell me about the current situation??? make your predictions in the comments and i'll award a prize to the closest prognostication.

p

boxes 18 and 19...

are overdue. box 18 was bountiful. see...

there was pumpkin, corn, zucchs, apples, two types of pear, shallots/onions, brocc, an avo, tomatoes, spuds, beans, shrooms, cos and some cavolo nero. this was a bumper box. i think it had a lot to do with collection the day before good friday, so they were trying to get rid of stuff. absolutely not a complaint!! 

the cavolo nero went into a white bean and winter green soup (you can find it on cuisine.com.au, another good dupleixian recipe). it's really easy and delicious. make some!!

i picked up box 19 tonight. it is not a prolific, but still a tasty collection of pro-dooce. here is a photo...

a curly leaved lettuce thing, beans, shroom, apples, pears, carrots, zucchs, broccs, onion and some feijoa! also, an obscene eggplant. look!!

it should have a name...it looks like grug

other suggestions welcome in the comments. also, some tips for a handful of feijoas are welcome. can you just eat them or are they better in things?

p