Party People

Andy and I are both introverts, and we get along well because of it. But I'm more social than Andy is - I like being around people, in small, conversation-centric settings, and I especially like hosting.

When we signed the contract on our new house, we were drawn to the big patio area with a shade sail over the top. A week later, a tornado came through Townsville, and the wind knocked a tree branch on to the shade sail, rendering it unusable. We will replace it, but luckily it's autumn, and the patio is really only sunny for about 2 hours in the middle of the day, thanks to a tree.  For me, the patio is the perfect entertaining area, especially once we visited the second-hand shop for a table and chairs.

Having a patio and a new house strikes me as a good opportunity for a house-warming party, but less-social Andy is less enthusiastic about the idea than I am. I'm still working on a proper housewarming party, but last weekend we had a little get together with some people I work with. Visitors from Denmark, a long weekend, and nearing the end of semester all seemed like good excuses for me to do some baking and have people round for drinks.

I made "Elvis Blondies", from Vegan Bake Sale, which are of course peanut butter, banana, and chocolate. They were a bit underwhelming in the peanut butter category, but I was the only one with that complaint.

And coconut cookies, also from Vegan Bake Sale. These were really yummy, and super coconutty thanks to coconut oil, coconut milk, and shredded coconut.

Green fruit - honey dew melon and star fruit - were also popular. The flavour of star fruit isn't anything special, but how can you go wrong serving star-shaped fruit, really?

We rounded off the table with hummus and crackers, an easy party stand-by. It was exactly our kind of party - a dozen people, food, interesting conversation, and everyone was gone by dark, leaving us plenty of time to unwind. I think Andy enjoyed himself. So although our house hasn't been properly warmed yet, I think our patio has proven how enjoyable it will be for future parties. In the meantime, it's also a great place to read in the afternoons.

Loooong weekend.

Last weekend in Australia was a 5 day weekend - 5! That's as long as a typical work week!  Although I'm not religious, and observe neither Good Friday nor Easter, and although I have yet to attend a dawn service or otherwise make a big deal out of Anzac Day, I am not one to turn down a 5 day weekend - or an excuse to theme bake.

So how did we spend our 5 day weekend?  It would have been a good opportunity to travel somewhere exciting, but I was in the final throes of revising, and then submitting, an application for a postdoc.  So we stayed at home, and got up to some fun but low-key activities within bike-able distance of home.

But mainly, we ate.  I started Friday morning by making a batch of Hot Cross Buns.

I followed the recipe in Vegan Bake Sale, but used all dried mixed fruit.  And I threw everything into the bread maker, instead of bothering with kneading.  After 10 minutes of mixing, Andy decided I should make two batches - so we could freeze some, you see - so I quickly rushed around to get another lot put together, so they could go into the oven at the same time.

The buns themselves were wonderful - soft and fluffy, full of fruit and flavour.  The cross mix didn't work out for me - it was too thin, and blobbed out of my makeshift piping bag, resulting in messy white squiggles instead of dainty crosses.  And then when I put them into the oven, the crosses all but disappeared.  Oh well - the crosses are not the best part of the hot cross bun, anyways.

We picked up a bookshelf we received via freecycle, and found a home for it in the kitchen, housing our cookbook collection, some appliances, and Nacho's food.  Nacho digs it, even in its half-filled state.

We rode our bikes up the river and spent a few hours watching some waterskiing competition.  Can you make out the person flying through the air in the photo?

Mostly though, it was just nice to spend some time outside in the sun, next to the lovely river, after such a long wet season.

We tidied up the garden a bit.

And planted a few seeds, now that we are coming into the better growing season in Townsville.

We also read books, and I crocheted some stuffed toys for friends who are having babies soon - more on these after said recipients have received.  I decided the long weekend would be a good time to take up the Couch to 5k training program - I am determined to learn to like running, and I've heard good things about this program.  But I promptly got a sore knee, so have temporarily canned my running attempts - until I get some new shoes. 

 We went for a ride around the Anderson Park Gardens, especially interested in the tropical fruit orchard there...

And then I made Anzac biscuits, to wrap up the weekend.

Now it's Saturday, and I am gifted with another long weekend - that means three short weeks in a row.  Monday is Labour Day in Queensland, and I'm looking forward to another few days of pottering!

Graduated

Hey, so remember how last year I submitted my PhD thesis?  Well, after 6 months of examination, then a few corrections, I made it through!  My thesis was officially passed at the end of February, about 2 days before the deadline to attend the graduation ceremony.  That ceremony finally happened, on Friday.  And I officially became Dr Theresa, PhD.

JCU's academic dress is a bit ridiculous - blue and red wizard robes, a blue velvet bonnet, and a wand (just kidding - I felt like I needed one, but no wand was provided).

I opted for plain black underneath, but splashed out and bought myself a pair of red Melissa shoes to go with my silly outfit.

After getting dressed and taking photos, I was led into the ceremony - the doctoral grads sit at the front of the room, off the side of the academic staff. 

After all the undergrads and masters students were presented with their diplomas, they called out our names, announced our department and our supervisors - who stood up, and we 'doffed' out hats at one another.  Then I walked forward a bit, and as a guy put my hood on me, another guy read a short summary of my thesis.  Then it was on to shake hands with the Chancellor of the uni, have a little chat, and get my diploma.  Andy sat as far back as he could, so I don't have any good photos of this, but it was pretty exciting (for me).  A really important ritual - and when I was announced to the crowd as 'Dr Theresa' I really felt like I had completed my Phd.

So anyways.  The next day, I joined with a few other postgrads to celebrate the graduation - not just for me, but for another friend who completed her Masters degree.  We spent Saturday afternoon drinking beers, experiencing an earthquake, and eating too much sugar.  My contribution took the form of:

Orange-blossom water cookies.  Basically snickerdoodles, but with orange blossom water.

Gingered chocolate chip cookies, from Vegan Bake Sale.  These were a crowd favourite.

Caramel apple upside down cake.  So sweet - a good cake to share, so you don't get a sugar coma from eating too much.

And a non-sweet, sundried tomato and cannellini bean dip.

All up, it was a great weekend.  (And p.s. - the earthquake was no big deal.  There was no damage anywhere.  Me and two others at the party felt it, while no one else noticed.  Those that did notice joked that it was an earthquake but thought it was my friend's kid jumping around on her wood floors.)

Sweet

My new job is only part time - 50% of a regular full time week - which is a little bit less than ideal in terms of my paycheck but I was actually looking forward to the free time that came with it.  Instead, I have found myself spending the last two weeks working 5 days a week, for 6 to 8 hours a day.  And the semester only started this week, so I've got 14 weeks ahead of me in which I will need to write lectures, run tutorials, mark assessments, and somehow manage to keep on top of my own research.  Basically, I'll be working more than I'm getting paid for, which is not that cool but is something I guess I need to do this year!  Next year will be easier, since I'll have already written the lectures, so for now I just need to embrace being busy.  But anyways, today I have taken the day off and I am sitting at home, baking bread and blogging (and reading a few chapters from my textbook in preparation for my lecture next week, but nevermind).

Luckily, I am supported by Andy, who is pretty good at cooking and baking, and who is very generous, especially when I am the most tired.  The weekend before Valentine's Day, he baked me a big cookie.

It was a coconut choc chip cookie, recipe from La Dolce Vegan, baked at a lower temp and for much longer to cook through, and it was pretty giant - much larger than my head.

I know I look naked, but I was wearing a sarong - it's been hot here.

 

Compared to the cookie, my bites look very small.  But we managed to finish it off in two sittings, because we are greedy gutses.

Giving & Getting

Although I'm a supporter of the ideas behind Buy Nothing Christmas, I still like to partake in the gift exchange surrounding the December holiday time.  What can I say, I'm part-anthropologist - gifts and rituals are our bread & butter.

The obvious solution is to give homemade, and preferably edible gifts. This year, I decided to make little bags of spiced nuts to give to the people Andy and I find enjoyable.  It was pretty easy to put together, and cheap (but shh... don't tell the people I gifted!)

I got a big bag of peanuts, and smaller bags of cashews, almonds, pistachios, sunflower seeds and pepitas from the asian grocery store, so they were not very expensive.

I mixed the nuts with a good drizzle of olive oil, a spoonful of golden syrup, and a generous pile of the Ethiopian spice mix Berbere, freshly ground for the purpose. 

Mix it all up, spread into a baking tray, and cook at 180 for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10.  Once they're toasted, and then cooled, I scooped them into little clear-plastic gift bags we got from the craft store (our pack of 25 cost $2.50, and contained 37 baggies - score!).

Tied off with pretty cords and adorned with a bow, they were ready to go.

My friends must know how much I love edible gifts, because the things we received in the annual gift exchange were pretty delicious.  My supervisor had a similar idea with spiced nuts, hers flavoured with chilli and garam masala.  And my wonderful friend Mel shared some fantastic cookies, all yummy with spices and macadamia nuts and white chocolate.

 I'm always looking for new ideas for homemade gifts - what are your faves to give or receive?

Christmas Cookies

Hi everyone,

This is a short break in my PNG travel posts to tell you about a little Christmas Cookie Extravaganza happening over at Nuestra Cena blog.  Millie, the creator of this blog, has enlisted a range of guest bloggers and together are posting a bunch of cookie recipes in the lead-up to the December holidays.  Whether you celebrate christmas or not, I think cookies are something that we can all celebrate, so hop on over to Millie's blog for a look through some delicious recipes.  And tomorrow, my own recipe for Hop Scotch biscuits, a deliciously spicy-boozy-peanutty-chocolatey cookie, will go live on the site.

The best laid plans...

My blog-buddy, facebook friend and email penpal Hannah has recently been subjected to an icky time.  Travelling the world sounds pretty awesome, but she came back to Australia to be met with surgery and a terribly unpleasant housesitting gig.  So I decided to send some cookies, because that's kind of what I do.  (And how appropriate that I am posting about this today, on Hannah's birthday.)

I thought and thought about which cookies would be best to send.  Then I remembered Hannah's appreciation for peanut butter + chocolate, and thought Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chunks would be appropriate.  Then I had a flashback to my pregan undergraduate days, when the university catering services provided the most delicious peanut butter filled chocolate cookies at special events.  It was like a light bulb went off in my head -- that was what I was going to do!

I made two batches of dough, both following recipes from Vegan with a Vengeance.  For the peanut butter, I followed the "crunchy peanut butter cookies" recipe; for chocolate I made the dough for "jam thumbprints" -- minus the jam, of course.  I let my doughs rest in the fridge overnight, as I do with all cookie doughs, so the flour can properly absorb the fats and flavours.

When it came time to bake, I decided to be more creative than just one type of biscuit.  I had half-and-halfs; choc-filled peanut butter biscuits; peanut butter-filled choc biscuits; swirls; and other fun designs.

I baked them, pulled them out of the oven and let them cool on the pan for a few minutes.  Then I started transferring them to a cooling rack, and that is where the proverbial cookie crumbled.  The peanut butter was not crispy -- in fact, it sort of dissolved upon contact.  It was like loosely-bound flour with a peanut butter flavour.  FAIL.

I was very sad that my wonderful idea didn't work, but I managed to salvage enough cookies whose foundations were chocolate -- the firmer of the two biscuit components -- and sent a few off to Hannah.

Andy and I were forced (oh the horrors!) to eat the remaining biscuits.  They were tasty and a good idea, but in future I'm going to try different peanut butter cookie recipes and will hopefully not get such a failure.

Falling...

Queensland had a string of long weekends in April/May, and instead of hanging around the house wondering what to do with ourselves, Andy and I decided we were going to hike on one of these days.  One of the things that is so wonderful about Townsville is how close we are to some very beautiful and very diverse natural areas.  We picked Alligator Creek as our target for the 17km hike it offers.

We prepared by making some granola, along with Urban Vegan's Super Sonic Sunflower Squares, some gingernut biscuits, and bananas for snacking on.

And for lunch when we finished, I made some chickpea flour breadsticks -- because we were out of plain flour, so these are gluten free.  They were a bit stale by the time we ate them, but they were yummy fresh from the oven. (Note: they are shaped specifically to maximise dipping potential.)

We also made sure to look up the route, to make sure we had an idea of what we were in for.  

 

Then on Monday morning we set off bright and early with a backpack full of suncream, insect repellent, and food.  

 

We had walked the first 2 km of this hike one Christmas, which brought us up to Cockatoo Creek.  Based on that first leg of the hike, we expected slightly hilly and undulating terrain, but in fact the first two kms were probably the most difficult of the whole walk.

After crossing Cockatoo Creek, the ground levelled off and mostly followed the powerlines.  The trail crosses the creek several times, and most of the creeks were still full of water -- thanks to a drawn-out wet season.  Most of these we were able to cross without getting our feet wet by using stepping stones.

Some, however, were wide and stone-less.

They were also deceptively deep, and cold to boot.

 

We had to get our feet wet three times before we reached our destination.  

 

We munched on granola and bananas as we walked through forests and grassy areas.  At the very end of the trail, there was about 10 minutes of climbing over boulders and suddenly we happened upon Alligator Creek Falls.  The first view of it was impressive.

But then we climbed around a tree for a better look and realised it was huge, and gorgeous.

A bit more scrambling over boulders and we found a comfy place to lounge, eat food, and watch the falls.

We were visited by a few yabbies, who tickled my feet as they dangled in the water, and then nommed on some granola with us.

I did some yoga stretches to limber up before the walk back.

And then we headed out.  By the time we got back it was nearly 3 pm, and I was starving.  We grabbed the picnic out of the car boot and chowed down.

We were very tired when we got home, and our legs and bums were sore the next day, but we have decided that we need to go hiking more often.