Sunday afternoon – the sun is shining and I can almost taste Spring.

I decided that such breezy perfect weather demands a freshly tossed salad.

I think salads are also for days when you feel like a magician. Toss together any combination of your fav ingredients, drizzle over abit of olive oil and vinegar and viola! Magical!

P.S. Only one more week till the official end of Winter.

Excuse the crappy photo. I was dying to eat these warm babies that I call porkie burgers. You can make a good batch of these for barbies (BBQ) or store them in the freezer for future burger emergencies.

Here’s how:

For 4 small patties enough for two people, take about 3 fist sized portions of minced pork.

Mix in a tablespoon of tomato paste, an egg and enough breadcrumb to combine the mixture.

Add mixed dried herbs, salt and pepper to taste. I usually use about a tablespoon or so of dried herbs to create a light flavour.

Mix it through and create small fist sized balls.

Cook it on a hot pan or the BBQ until cooked through.

Pssst… if you are cooking for meatarians (what I call people who are afraid to eat vegetables) burgers are a great way to disguise vegetables. In the batch I made tonight, I mixed in half a carrot (to 4 small patties). Carrots keep the patties nice and moist when it’s cooking and it gives the patties a sweet flavour.

Enjoy,

Ag

Sorry I’ve been missing of late. I’ve been running all around with visitors coming and I did a bit of travelling myself. Now I’m happily peaceful again, I’m looking forward to this weekend where I should have very little stress.

On that note, I thought I’d share a stress free and quick meal that we are all probably familiar and love, the humble stir fry.

I think there’s no need for me to elaborate on a recipe here. In my opinion, you should just chuck in whatever you fancy, there are no boundaries. The one in the photo was made with pork mince, wheat noodles, carrots, broccoli, green beans and baby corn. Sauce wise, I used soya, abit of sugar and my favourite Jimmy satay sauce.

So if you are hungry for a stir fry tonight, here are some of my tips.

1. Stir frying should be a quick whisk around the wok. Make sure your ingredients are semi cooked/cooked before putting them in. Do not overcook any of your ingredients or it will be mushy.

2. Use the highest heat level you can. This help produces what the Chinese call, “wok flavour”. Don’t worry, your wok is not melting into your food. The high heat point simply releases the flavour of the food and the oils creating an aromatic experience.

3. Use an oil with a high heating point such as peanut oil. Oils with low boiling points (like olive oil) does not produce that “wok” burst of flavour. It will steam and burn instead of bursting into flavours.

4. If you are cooking with noodles, check the instruction on the packet as you might need to drain this under cold running water before putting it in the stir fry. The draining prevents the noodles from sticking together.

]]> http://septemberdefined.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/peace-not-stir/feed/ 1 agify http://septemberdefined.wordpress.com/2008/07/13/too-many-puns-have-already-been-created-with-the-words-berry-smoothie/ http://septemberdefined.wordpress.com/2008/07/13/too-many-puns-have-already-been-created-with-the-words-berry-smoothie/#comments Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:52:29 +0000 agify http://septemberdefined.wordpress.com/2008/07/13/too-many-puns-have-already-been-created-with-the-words-berry-smoothie/ ]]>

Imagine this: It’s 11pm o’clock on a quiet week night. You had a long day at work. You are tired and all you really want is a refreshing smoothie. The kind of pick-me-up from Juice Bars in the likes of Boost. But (there’s always a but) it’s late, the shops are closed and you don’t know how much longer you have to live if you don’t reach for a refreshing smoothie soon *gasp* what do YOU do?

This scenario happened to me a few weeks ago and my solution was – simple. With the last ounce of energy left, I raced into the nearest supermarket and picked up some frozen berries from the freezer section, went home and whipped up my own.

Another life was saved!

If you want to whip up your own berries smoothie. Give this a go.

Throw into a blender:

- A handful of frozen berries

- Honey to taste

- A few scoops of yougurt

- Milk to top

Now blend…blend…blend!

Enjoy,

Ag

This post was actually from Wednesday but I just realised it didn’t post properly

Quick post here because I’ve had a long day and I’m buggered.

Last day of exam! Woot!! This exam kept on being postponed so I’m glaaaad it’s finally out of the way!

After exams, we had a “wonderful” drive up to Bondi Westfields to watch a movie as a “finally our exam room hasn’t been lit or fallen apart or moved because of World Youth Day so we can actually do an exam”, celebration. We originally wanted to watch “Kung Fu Panda” (it looks so cute – so great for the girls. And with a bit of action – good for the boys? I’m such a stereotyper).

BUT… it only comes out tomorrow.. Boo hoo…

So decided to watch this instead. The only movie with a suitable timeslot.

Movie Review:

As you can see… it’s about Genghis Khan and his struggles from childhood to his conquer of the Mongolian people. Blood were spilt, tears were wept, people were killed and wars were fought – I expected all of that.

What I didn’t expect was a sex scene… of Genghis Khan himself… *gasp*

The movie was surprisingly emotional with a drawn out romance plot. It was like the portrayal of Genghis Khan, the devoted father, loving husband and oh, also the man who can kill another man with his bare hands.

Don’t worry, there were still plenty of sword fights, blood spills and tidbits of moral lessons intertwined.

I also have to give credits to the children actors, especially the little Genghis Khan. He was cute but in a, “I’m going to kill you one day” kind of way – that, is one difficult character to portray and he did an excellent job!

I quite liked the movie and would recommend it. It was beyond the historical narrative and blood spill drama I expected.

If you do end up seeing this movie, let me know your thoughts!

Anyhow, until next time,

Ag!

I did it!

I made fall off the bone, smoky flavoured pork ribs at home! Like the type you get from steak and ribs house!! I’m ubber proud of myself

It was actually rather easy!

I’ll let you on the secret…

Easy Sticky Pork Ribs

1. Marinade pork ribs overnight in some minced garlic, BBQ sauce ( I used Masterfood smoky BBQ sauce), tomato paste and loads of honey.

2. Place the ribs on a sheet of foil and pour in the marinade. Fold the foil into a little parcel.

3. Place the foil ribs parcel in an oven preheated at 160 degrees Celsius for 2 hours.

4. Open the foil parcel and pour out the liquid. Coat the ribs with a fresh mixture of BBQ sauce, honey and tomato paste.

5. Bake in the oven (with the foil parcel open) for around 15 minutes on each side, basting frequently.

6. Serve!

Enjoy,

Agnes

I made these snazzy looking muffins a while back using a Betty Crocker mix.

The instructions were extremely easy to follow – mix with spoon and bake. It also carried with it the healthy promise of "low fat". I thought it was a dream come true! Hot, tasty muffins straight from the oven and not on my hips – come to mamma!

The muffins were moist, soft and perfect in texture (well, as perfect as a packet mix can be). There was a slight problem however….

Half way through the cooking process I noticed a horrid smell coming from the oven. It was the stench of artificial banana flavoring! Perhaps I’m being a little too critical because I simply dislike the taste and smell of artificial bananas flavoring. It smelt like those banana lollies – which I hate. It was a disappointment. I guess I have to stick to high in fat content muffin mixtures. Nothing can replace real butter and sugar *sigh*

The verdict? Go ahead and make this if you love the idea of easy to bake plastic bananas. I definitely will not try this again.

I don’t know if I’m having déjà vu but it seems the flared cut jeans are creeping in for a comeback. Well according to a prediction bureau from The Age , it’s meant to have hit Australia already? 

I did a quick google search and the hit rates indicate that this is far from being an established trend.

I did however find the three examples above. It ranges from the Citizen of Humanity, Tulip Hutton Jeans (for £195). The True Religion Joey Twisted Flare for $195. Then there’s also the Hipster Double Pocket Flares from Supre ($45 – with change left in your new hip pocket).

Perhaps Australia is just slow on the uptake. Apparently Kate Moss started doing skinny flares back a year ago? (And even channeled it into her Topshop label?) And is it true that everything Kate Moss wears today, all us plebs with be wearing in 2010? 

So, the bottom line? I think I might just stick to wearing skirts for now. All this jean wearing controversy is too much for me to handle.

Ha, until next time,

Ag ♥

Peanut butter cookie/pee-nuht buh-ter kŏŏk’ē/ , n.

1. A small usually flat and crisp cake made from sweetened dough containing a paste of ground roasted peanuts.

2. Study cure

To alleviate the pain from continuous study, I decided to make peanut butter cookies using this Kraft recipe. The dough was very very soggy after I whipped it up according to the recipe so I decided to add a handful of self raising flour to it. The cookies oddly turned out very cake like – soft and spongy. It did not taste like a cookie at all! Perhaps I should have used plain flour rather than self raising, ops. I think it would taste very nice with bits of white chocolate. I’ll try it again next time with plain flour, less liquid and white chocolate bits

Until next time,

Ag ♥

Examination/ĭg-zām’ə-nā’shən/, n.

1. the act of examining; inspection; inquiry; investigation.

2. the art of turning a university student’s brain into mush like matter, accompanied by destructive acts arising as a result of complete boredom and house/library arrest.

23 June 08, Tokyo – To encourage good study habits from a young age, toy manufacturers of Japan have created a range of zombie-like, study idol, keyrings. The idea behind this new sensation is that children are hypnotized by the adorable toy to surrender their brains and transit into zombie like study creatures. The toy is being highly praised by the Japanese National Teachers Association as "the revolution in teaching aid". The range of keyrings will be on sale from August 2008.

Blah – you’ve guessed it. I can’t stand being in critical exam state for much longer. It’s driving me mad!