27 October 2009

Schmap Fame

Last year I was surprised to be contacted about a photo I took at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary – Schmap, an online travel guide, wanted permission to use it on their site. You can see it here: http://www.schmap.com/brisbane/toppicks_attractions/p=131702/i=131702_48.jpg

Recently another photo, from Luna Park in Sydney, was also selected for inclusion. You can see it here: http://www.schmap.com/sydney/entertainment_casinos/#p=116339&i=116339_85.jpg

Makes me feel like our family is achieving a tiny amount of fame!

26 October 2009

Best Ribs Ever

We have tried lots of different ways to cook ribs over the last few years. I finally managed to cook some tender, melting, more-ish ribs yesterday and it was really easy! No more worrying about marinating for hours, parboiling, pre-browning, arranging them on a rack over a pan of water, etc! In a nutshell, all I did was:

  1. Put the ribs in a bag with some sauce (more about that later), just enough to coat thickly. The bag keeps the sauce nicely surrounding the meat. I did this in the morning and put it in the fridge.
  2. About mid-day, I put them in the slow cooker on low. The ribs were ready to eat by about 6 or 7 pm but we didn’t get around to having dinner until 8. If you want to make this recipe by putting the ribs in the cooker in the morning before you go to work, then you probably should add about a half-cup of water to make sure the dish stays moist for the longer cooking period (or maybe just double your sauce!)
  3. Browned briefly in the oven just before serving, but I think this was actually unnecessary. I only tried it because of a recipe that I read. They tasted great over rice with some of the sauce spooned over. (This is the other great thing about this recipe – the marinade doesn’t go to waste, and gets reduced to a delicious sauce.)

The sauce I used was just a splash of vermouth, plus a motley crew of five dollops each squirted from five different bottled sauces: ketchup, teriyaki sauce, peri-peri sauce, kecap manis, and oyster sauce. I also included some finely chopped garlic (about 3 cloves). This just goes to prove that you can totally make it up. Mainly you are aiming to have some sort of alcohol (I normally use bourbon but we ran out), some tomato-ish flavor, and a bit of sugar content as well, and the rest of the flavor is up to your imagination. I also usually make sure to include a splash of oil in my marinades but since the ribs are so fatty I didn’t worry about it in this case.

I have read in other sources that slow cooking anything fatty like these ribs ensures that the fat becomes delicious rather than disgustingly greasy, and I can certainly attest that’s what happened in this dish.

06 October 2009

Tanglemania

I have to admit, I have been extremely geeky today. The number of portable devices that I carry around on a daily basis is not that huge: just a laptop and a phone. (I don't have an mp3 player, since my phone can play music, although I haven't even gotten around to buying a microSD card for it.) However, it drives me crazy that I have so many accessories for these two items. Headphones for each, mouse, cord for connecting the two devices to each other, power cords, network cable... It wouldn't be so bad if I only had to set up a couple of cords each day but I always end up deploying every single one. My approach so far has been to loop each one into a small ball and throw them all together into the soft pocket in the top of my backpack.

But the tangle drives me crazy and I have been thinking about getting some kind of wire management devices to keep all this under control. I looked around on Amazon and eBay to find a myriad of possibilities: cable turtles, silicone fishbones, earbud keepers, etc. But it was this geek tip, below, that convinced me that I don't need to buy anything. So I thought I would share, since it's pretty cool. Also, it has a fun name.

Geek Tip: Keep Your iPod Cords Untangled For Free ...

05 October 2009

How to Grow Up

Poor little Callum. First, at the start of last week, we decreed that dummies (pacifiers) would only be for sleep time. He coped quite well with that change, to my pleasant surprise. Anya told me she does think he is hitting her more often because "he's frustrated about his dummy." I'm not sure if that's true or if he's just being more aggressive generally.

Next, we cut his hair ourselves. This went all right until he got the urge to rub his nose, and the hair-covered cape was in the way -- you guessed it, the hair got rubbed all over his nose and lips and drove him wild while we tried to finish the haircut.

Last, we bought him some undies and had him wearing them as much as possible. This has resulted in some specatacular puddles, but still is a massive improvement over changing his nappies and handling a smelly nappy bucket. The slogan we are emphasising is "You don't wee on Ben 10!" (His undies feature Ben 10 in a different fist-punching pose on each one.)

So, our little boy is growing up. My heart just melted looking at him this weekend while he was watching TV: undies on, hair cut short, and leaning casually against the lounge with one leg crossed over.

01 October 2009

Hungry?

If you know me at all, you know that I love food. Unlike most people who love food, I don't even have a love-hate relationship with food, just love (and mutual respect). There was a time when having lunch out was an essential part of my day, and I also loved having dinner out when I could swing it. I like to think that some of my reviews got into the LA Zagat Guide.

However, I am finding that with my current work-life balance, although it's generally working out well, there doesn't seem to be time for food.

This is what I find myself doing lately: in the morning, I stand in the kitchen sipping my coffee and snatching bites of breakfast, partly because I am barraged with a continuous interrupting stream of requests for more food or drink or intervention from our kids, and partly because if I sit down, I am very likely not going to get to eat all of it (food on grown-ups' plates is oh so much tastier!) The only way out of this maze is to either prepare a giant quantity of something that we can all eat at the same time (pancakes are great for that but really only plausible on weekends), or skip it altogether and wait until I can eat in the relative tranquility of my office.

At work, where I only have six hours to focus, I tend to feel so far behind all the time that I just make a sandwich on the spot (I keep supplies at work to make going-home sandwiches for the kids), or I duck out and buy something that I bring back, or worst of all, I forget about eating until about 3 pm by which time it is too late to get food from anywhere so I just have a snack.

Luckily, at home we share the meal prep work, so there is a much higher likelihood of my eating a proper meal. If not for this I would probably start to disintegrate with this "food on the run" craziness!