rhubarb & white choc muffins

* egg & (almost) dairy free *

Yuuuum. This morning I got to town early enough to buy a muffin for breakfast. Raspberry & white chocolate. And then I was reading a post at pioneer woman about rhubarb cobbler.

Bam. It hit me. Rhubarb muffins. Perfect with apple sauce to replace eggs.

So when I got home from work this evening, instead of the millions of things I actually need to do, I got my bake on. Checked out a few recipes online, but meh, who needs a recipe?

All ya gotta do is roast some chunks of rhubarb sprinkled with a little brown sugar for about 1/2 an hour til they look like this...



Then dump them in a bowl which already contains a sticky mixture of SR flour, brown sugar, applesauce, water and cooking oil.


Add in some white chocolate chips, mix gently, then spoon into muffin cases. Bung it in the oven for another 1/2 hour or so*.


Eat one straight out of the oven, you know, just to check. Then take some photos. Then offer to your housemates. Then eat another.


Decide that this muffin invention is worthy of a blog post. Stay up past your bedtime editting photos and trying to think of witty things to write.

See? Not difficult at all! If you're one of those sensible people who like quantities, here is roughly what I used. Tweak** to your heart's content.

3 stalks rhubarb in 1cm chunks
2 cups SR flour
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on rhubarb
180 mL*** applesauce
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup white chocolate bits

bake rhubarb with sprinkle of brown sugar at 200C for 30 mins
mix SR flour and brown sugar
add applesauce, oil & water. mix.
add rhubarb & choc bits. stir gently til just combined
spoon into 12 muffin cases
bake at 200C for 20-30 minutes or until knife into centre comes out clean.



* 'so' means 'cooked'. The usual, people, knife comes out clean, lightly brown on top... yada yada.

** tweaking is the bomb, cos you get to eat/share many batches of muffins.

*** which is (fun fact) 12 tablespoons unless you live in australia (like me) where it's 9

a tea party and cake

A good friend had a tea party yesterday for her 21st birthday. I took my camera. Apparently I am incapable of taking a good photo of a person, but here are some tea cup photos for your enjoyment.

There were many teas and teapots.


This one is basically straight out of camera. Can't believe it turned out so well. Also, the cake was amaaazing.

I was mega dainty and lady-like in my jeans.


Note to self. Don't sit facing the sunniest window. Makes for... interesting light.

pumpkin pie, tassie style

Step One. Decide that it's a good afternoon to cheat, and buy pre-made pie crust.


Step Two. Make pumpkin pie using awesome and super simple recipe.


Step Three. Realise you have boatloads of pie mix left over. Add a bunch (that's an exact amount, no really) of SR flour and make pumpkin pie mini-muffins.


Step Four. Stare in horror at the mess you've made. Decide to blog instead of cleaning up.


Step Five. Eat pie for dinner (no-one wants a photo of that).

because it was on special and I was having a crappy day...

And I cooked a stirfry in it tonight. Waaaay better than a tiny frying pan!

Wok + glass of red with housemate + chocolate = much less crappy day.

while waiting

a review, of sorts

I just finished reading The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson. By the end I couldn't put it down, so that should speak for itself. But actually, it took me a couple of weeks to get into it. I read only a couple of pages at a time and wasn't really sure if I'd read the whole thing.

My problem? The world Sanderson has created is just so different from ours. It's rich in detail and culture and such, but my goodness it's complicated at first. It was overwhelming. By about 1/4 of the way through I had it figured out enough to really enjoy the story and characters, so I'm really glad I persevered, but it really took a while.

That's actually all I'm going to say. You should read it.

lazy day

Today was good. For the first time in aaaages, I had absolutely nothing on. And so I achieved absolutely nothing and it was amazing. Messed around with photoshop, went for a down hill walk with Mum (Dad picked us up so we didn't have to walk back up the hill in the rain), watched a DVD I'd already seen and read a book.
And now Mum's cooking dinner, so I don't even have to worry about that. Takes me back to simpler times.
I am SO lazy.

i sort of wish i was a food blogger

It turns out that I have a slight Joy the Baker obsession. Not weirdly, and it's only slight. But I love her recipes, and it would appear that they're the only things I've cooked lately that I've taken photos of.

(cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread)

It's possible that most of the rest of what I've cooked has been toasted sandwiches, but I digress.(mustard roasted potatoes)

Anyway, again with the pretty new camera and photoshop. It's quite hard taking food photos at my house because there's not a lot in the way of natural light. We live in the shadow of a mountain in half a house with very few windows. And according to practically every food blogger I've ever heard talk about photography (which is THOUSANDS*), natural lighting is best. Luckily, photoshop is my friend.


* Joy, shutterbean and the pioneer woman. Ok. Three.

sum fotos

I bought a new camera a couple of months ago. Have I said that? Anyway, I've been experimenting a bit, cos it's a digital SLR and has about a thousand settings to play with. And then there's photoshop :)
Love.
Anyway, thought I should show y'all a few.

Not quite in focus. Silly little moving insects.



Saturation!

Actually, I think I'll post the rest later, they're mostly food-y.

rambles

I finished the Codex Alera last night, at 1am. After finishing the second last book the night before at 3am.
Books, such an issue.
Home all week this week, which is nice. Should sleep more, but somehow I'm busy every night. Seriously, how is life so full? I don't even do that much stuff!

back from another work trip

Good bits? Excuse to buy magazine, free food (booyah premium economy flights), nice hotel room.
Not so good bits? Night shift. When I get tired it's hard to distract myself from thinking how much one of my bosses looks like a Sontaran.

itchy feet

I've started buying travel magazines and looking at cheap flights and wishing I had more holidays. Europe again? Roadtrip USA? South America? India? Pacific islands? Alone? With someone? A month? Leave without pay?
I want to buy a HUGE map of the world and stare at it.

Realistically, this isn't going to happen for a looong time, but it's nice to dream and plan and read :)

my drug of choice

Umm, yes. Lack of posts.
I would officially like to blame the Codex Alera. It's a series of books by Jim Butcher. Go put them on hold at the library. Or, you know, buy them. I'm not sure why they're so good, but they are.
I've realised that books are like drugs. For me, anyway. As in, when I have a good one I forget to eat. And even when I'm forced away (work, who needs it?) I keep thinking about it. The story, the world, the characters.
Anyway, the Codex Alera. Genre? Fantasy. Cool world. The hero is very... heroic. Too perfect really. Smart, kind, loyal, warrior-ish, handsome, good... all that stuff. Doesn't seem to have a fault. But somehow that isn't annoying? I don't know. Usually I would. But he's so well written that I still like him, still get sad when crap stuff happens to him. I still get so caught up in his adventures that I forget to eat, and I'm still twitchy because the next book is on hold and I have to wait.
Drugs, I tell you.

still in bed on a work day

Taking a sick day today. A slightly pre-emptive attack, since although I feel crap I'm not on death's door yet, but I've been sick twice in the last 6 weeks and I don't want it to happen again. But it's my second sick day since I started. I feel bad. I don't get how people can pull fake sickies, the guilt would kill me.*
So I'm snuggling in bed, extra thankful to finally have the internet. Started watching The Guild (once again, I'm super late to the party), drinking lots of water and taking vitamin C. Gotta be better for Dr Who at youth group tomorrow night!
If this was Twitter, that last paragraph would be hashtagged 'geek'. Or possibly #unashamedgeek


* I had no issue skipping half my lectures at uni, go figure.

some good blog posts recently

I'm sure there were more, but this'll do for now...

• Advice for those turning twenty-one (actually, good advice for everyone).
• Garbage in, garbage out (or, deciding not to fill your head with crap)
• Lemon-blueberry pancakes (yum!)
• God isn't emo

good movies

I watched Where the Wild Things Are the other night. Quite good. Also, randomly, Red is good. What else have I watched? Dunno. Will edit this when I remember.

a change is as good as a holiday

I dyed my hair a reddish dark brown last week. Heaps of people have failed to recognise me, including my own mother. Most people say it looks good, but I kinda feel like you're obliged to say that when someone obviously changes their appearance. One of the ladies at church said she liked the blonde better though. I like her honesty.

new camera

Having muchly fun playing with my fancy new camera. Took this on Saturday night at Humphrey's birthday party.

how to cook bolognese for 30 people

1. Put the call out on Facebook and borrow a massive pot from a friend

2. Spend $47.05 at the supermarket and hope you’ve judged the quantities vaguely correctly.

3. Chop up a bunch of onions. How many? I bought five, but one was icky, so four. Four is good.

4. Dump them all in the pot with some oil. Add some more oil when you realise you didn’t put enough in initially.

5. Add half the mince to brown.

6. Give up on the whole “two batches” thing and add the other half.

7. Get an arm muscle workout stirring the mince.

8. Get really lucky and have browned mince with no burnt bits.

9. Start chopping up a bag of carrots.

10. Get frustrated with your rubbish chopping skills and decide three carrots is enough.

11. Add carrots.

12. Curse your can opener as you open a big tin of diced tomatoes. And another one.

13. Add tomatoes.

14. Fail at opening the tomato paste container. Attack it with a knife. Add paste.

15. Be enormously thankful you bought minced garlic. Add a few teaspoons.

16. Realise you’re gonna need more diced tomatoes.

17. Curse your way through another can opening. Add to pot.

18. Glance at your hands halfway through opening the 4^th can. Pray that it’s all tomato, not blood.

19. Thank the Lord that the tins of beans have ring-pulls.

20. Add some beans.

21. Hear the message tone of your phone go off and spend 5 minutes searching your tiny house for your bag.

22. Find bag on kitchen table.

23. Taste sauce and decide it needs more garlic. Add, then realise garlic is one of those flavours that gets stronger with time.

24. Put lid on pot and walk away.

25. Walk back and stir it a bit.

26. Stare at washing up, wishing for magic dish-washing powers.

27. Decide to write a blog post and wash up later.

pretty :)

Pumpkin Muffins

I thought today would be a write-off, considering how exhausted I’ve been every evening after work this week. Instead, I’ve been in a rare mood – motivated. Pinky and I went to another rental inspection this morning, then popped into town quickly. This afternoon I’ve been grocery shopping, done laundry, cleaned my room and cooked pumpkin muffins so that I have some snack food to take to work next week. And I’m not tired yet. Gill’s coming soon – I have plans for chocolate dipped strawberries :), then dinner with Alan.

Supermarketting was so good today, knowing that I had money in the bank for the first time in 3 months. It was probably the first time I’ve done a decent grocery shop in about that long. Fruit, vegies, meat and a few treats – the way shopping should be. If only I had enough space to store all this yummy food! I dream of nice, big, clean pantries. Yes, I am weird.