A bit of this and that - whatever's going on in my life. Wish I could be blogging about some crazy backpacking adventures but instead it's likely to be all food, wine, more food, knitting, Wellington and whatever else takes my fancy. Chevere?
Do you know what is really REALLY annoying?! Deciding to whip up some pastry before going to bed so it can rest in the fridge overnight, ready to turn into spectacular, yummy goodness in the morning, and then finding you don't have the most crucial ingredient in the pantry even though you swear you picked up a can at the supermarket.
I have a class shared lunch on Monday with a Pacific theme. I'm making pineapple pies as they're basically an empanada but with coconut cream in the pastry. COCONUT CREAM. The one thing I don't have on hand. Now I have a bowl of butter rubbed in flour sitting on the bench that I can't do anything with until the supermarket opens. Even more annoying is that I had to make a special trip to the supermarket already tonight to get tinned pineapple for the filling.
Grrr.
On a more positive note my grandparents arrived in Wellington bringing goodies from mum.
one bag of lemons that will become lemon curd
lots and lots of rump steak (empanadas in the making!)
roasts (must be time for another dinner party...)
a cake mixer (which I am so excited to use and is so big it will live under the table)
Tonight I have plans to watch The Orator or O Le Tulafale as it is called in Samoan. It's the first ever feature length film filmed in the Samoan language and New Zealand's first entry into the best foreign language film category at the Oscars.
I've been waiting for it to open for months, and finally the day has arrived! I am so excited.
It's set on beautiful Upolu Island where I am headed in just 6 weeks time (hooray for Pacific Blue happy hour and $90 each way fares to Samoa!).
People often ask me why I choose to learn Samoan of all languages. After watching the trailer, don't you think it just sounds beautiful?!
Hopefully my next post will be about how amazing it was. If you want to see it yourself, I know the best cinema in Wellington (otherwise know as Embassy Theatre) will be showing it for a couple of weeks at least. That best cinema part is not all bias either - it just got voted best by the Capital Times again :-)
It was a little bit of a dream come true, really. Ever since I was a little girl I really loved native birds and one species in particular, the kakapo. Tonight I got to meet the most famous kakapo in the world (and one of only 129 in existence).
After his infamous mating with someone's head on the BBC he's now a household name. Luckily for us Wellingtonians, he's hanging out at Zealandia for a couple of weeks giving people like me an opportunity to see a bird that is incredibly rare and confined to offshore islands.
He's such a handsome chappy. A hungry one too - he spent the first 10 minutes with his head in the feeding box stuffing his face with special kakapo pellets. After that he hopped on the scales with a promise of macadamia nuts before climbing up onto his handler's shoulder to eat grapes off her head. What a cutie!
I took a couple of photos but they aren't very good due to not being able to use a flash and the cheeky parrot moving every line I lined up a shot. I gave up pretty quickly preferring to just watch him as you never know, this might have been the only chance in my life I get to see one. Hopefully that's not the case though!
And I couldn't help myself...I might have come home with a little kakapo too.
He was only $5. Seeing Sirocco cost $40. I also joined up to Zealandia for a year as seeing Sirocco gave you a 25% discount so it was only $39 (just one entry to the park and visitor centre costs $29 so even if I only go a handful of times, it was money well spent). I'm hoping to make going for a walk around the sanctuary a monthly habit as not only is the scenery lovely, it's a fun way to get exercise, there's a lot of wildlife to see and it's only 10 minutes from the CBD. It's easy to forget what gems we have right on our doorstep.
P.S I also heard both a male and female kiwi calling tonight. The bird geek inside me was very happy!
On Sunday I headed up to Palmerston North for the day to see Argentina kick some Georgian butt. Well, that was the plan, but not much butt-kicking was done because of a combination of a poor first half performance by the Pumas and Georgia putting up a very decent fight. Still, we won, and it was a fun day out.
We (my sister and I) had flags and facepaint. I think we looked pretty awesome. She wore her flag as a toga. We had to hunt around for facepaint as the entire city was just about sold out of blue and white!
The Argentine fans kept up the singing and chanting throughout the match. Mostly this tune:
Soy Argentino, es un sentimiento, no puedo parar. Ole ole ole, ole ole ola, ole ole ole, cada dia te quiero mas!
Which means: I'm Argentine, it's a feeling, I can't stop. Ole ole ole..... every day I love you more!
I took a thermos of mate tea and shared some with random Argentines on the street. My sister didn't want to try any though. Not after the last time. With mate you put a whole lot of leaves (the yerba) into a cup (the mate) and then pour hot water over it and drink it with a special straw (the bombilla) that acts as a strainer. You keep pouring water over it, drinking it, pouring some more water etc until it loses its flavour and that's when you top it up with more yerba. Now the first mouthful can be very strong for the uninitiated. The last and only time my sister tried some she got this first taste and was gagging into the kitchen sink haha.
There was also a free asado (bbq) in the square. It was well worth the wait in the queue. They'd also organised a small market/fair type thing with empanadas and even churros filled with caramel. I ate three!
After the game we headed to a pub to watch the All Blacks and what a game that was! I can't wait for this Sunday as I am lucky enough to be going to the Wallabies vs Springbox quarterfinal (haven't decided who I'd rather win that) and then straight after that I'll be watching the All Blacks vs Pumas - I think I will do All Blacks facepaint with my pumas jersey for the occasion although I'm certain the All Blacks will win easily. They may be without Dan but Argentina is without both Hernandez and Fernandez Lobbe and don't have a kicker than can actually get the ball between the posts more than 30% of the time. I hope they don't lose by too high a margin.
One of the easiest and tastiest Peruvian dishes you can make is palta rellena which just means stuffed avocado. I whipped some up tonight as I cooked a chicken dish and of course the pommy flatmate couldn't eat that.
Simply combine mayonaise, diced red onion, a tin of tuna (you can use shredded chicken instead), spring onion, a splash of lime or lemon juice and a pinch of chilli in a bowl. Half an avocado lengthwise and remove the stone. Spoon the tuna mayo mixture into the hole left by the stone. And that's it - it's so incredibly easy. Serve 1/2-1 avocados per person. It makes a great entree or light lunch. I didn't write down any measurements because the recipe comes from my head and I never measure anything (which makes writing up recipes for staff to follow at work soooo difficult!).
I forgot to take a photo before it got scoffed, but here's a photo of a similar one my grandmother in Buenos Aires made. Her's has a different filling but it gives you the idea. Even better avocados were only 60c this week. Fingers crossed they get cheaper yet because I could happily eat one every day!
Tonight we did our fortnightly grocery shop at Pak n Save.
In honour of the occasion I prepped most of the dinner before I left for class
so all it needed was to be popped into the oven for 30 minutes when I got home.
We had the vegetable crumble from the Comfort: Food for Sharing cookbook. If you don’t already own this
book, buy it! Mine’s well-thumbed already – the lemon curd recipe is especially
good.
Basically all it involves is a crumble topping – wholemeal
flour, cheese, rolled oats, butter and herbs – and the filling is garlic, onion
and pretty much any vegetables you have on hand with a tin of tomatoes chucked
it. It’s perfect for using up leftover vegetables at the end of the week (makes
a nice change from slow cooker ‘end of the week’ soup).
Because dinner was ready so early I had time to give the
fridge a good clean and the freezer a de-icing while watching Shorty before
heading off to do the shopping. It’s so much easier to do when the shelves are
getting a bit bare!
The reason I’m boring you with the ins and outs of my
grocery shop are because of an article I read on stuff today. There’s been a
lot of talk lately about budgeting, rising food prices and families not being
able to afford to eat healthily. We are most definitely not perfect in any way,
but I thought I’d share some of the ways we keep our costs down while still
enjoying healthy and most importantly, TASTY food.
·Write a shopping list. This is stuck to the
fridge so if you use the last of something write it up straight away. If it’s
not on the list, it doesn’t get bought.
·If you do run out of something, IMPROVISE.
·Always keep milk powder in the pantry to avoid a
dash to the dairy if you run out. If you live with someone who doesn’t like the
idea of powdered milk, put it in the old milk bottle and they’ll never know the
difference. We also buy enough milk for the two weeks and stash a bottle in the
freezer until it’s needed.
·On that note, use your freezer. If you’re
cooking, make extra and put it in the freezer for a rainy day. I also
buy a tin of tomato paste and freeze it in ice cube trays before tipping it
into a snap lock bag so it’s always on hand and nothing gets wasted. If you
bake a cake or muffins, freeze half for later. Sometimes I don’t quite finish a
bottle of wine – if you freeze it in a snap lock bag it’s great for adding to
gravies, risottos and tomato sauces. I
also grate ¾ of the block of cheese and freeze it to make it last longer –
stops anyone slicing off massive hunks.
·Don’t waste anything. Make soup with any
vegetables that are starting to look sad and freeze it for lunches. Any fruit
that’s going a bit soft makes awesome crumble, smoothies or add it to some
baking.
·Buy everything in its least processed form; it
normally works out cheaper. I can’t believe people buy things like kidney
beans, lentils and chickpeas in cans. It is so easy to cook them from dry and
it works out at about a third of the price. As for ready-made pasta sauce,
what’s wrong with a tin of tomatoes, some tomato paste, garlic, onion and fresh
herbs?
·Making things from scratch is much more fun and
a lot more budget friendly. For a price of a jar of jam you can make several
jars – and they make a great gift for friends. All you need is a kilo of sugar
for each kilo of seasonal fruit (under $2 a kilo). I even ask my friends to
give me their jars instead of recycling them – saves buying any!
·Buy the house brand items if they are cheaper.
They normally taste the same. There is a couple of exceptions to this rule –
baked beans and bread.
Nothing beats Vogels but we save it for toast and use a cheaper sandwich bread
and even better, homemade bread for sandwiches.
·If you are going to be busy later in the week,
cook two meals at once and chuck one in the fridge/freezer – cheaper than
takeaways. Also jazz leftovers up and you’ve got another meal e.g. cook more
roast veges than you’ll need and chuck the leftovers on a pizza, through cous
cous, in a risotto or on a toasted sandwich.
·Don’t say no to anything that is free. Use your
contacts. I am very lucky to have parents that farm and fish – not paying for
snapper is a very sweet deal! This rule applies when hosting a dinner party
too. When people ask if they can bring something, don’t be afraid to ask them
to bring a bottle of cream or some berries for dessert for example.
·You don’t need to eat meat every night.
Vegetarian meals are often cheaper and nutritious too. We eat vegetarian or
fish the majority of the time because my flatmate doesn’t eat meat, but even
for all the meat eaters out there it’s worth having a meatless night once or
twice a week. Vegetarian food isn’t bland or boring. Lentils are your friend! I
recommend healthyfood.co.nz for recipe ideas.
·Invest in an easiyo maker. Less than $3 for a kg
of greek yoghurt and even cheaper if you nab the sachets when they’re on
special.
·Shop at a vege market if there’s one near you.
We do a supermarket shop once a fortnight but a vegetable shop at our local
school, weekly. The prices are a heck of a lot lower and $20 goes a long way.
You can also get 36 eggs for $6-7. Often you can get things like very ripe
bananas for under $1/kg – I chuck them in the freezer to use in baking. If
something like broccoli is really cheap one week I’ll buy a couple and parboil
then freeze it in snaplock bags – much cheaper than the stuff in the
supermarket frozen section!
·Buying in bulk sometimes works out cheaper (like
for a 5kg bag of flour or 10kg bag of potatoes) but not always, so check the
prices carefully. E.g. today I found 2x 500ml oil was cheaper than a 1 litre
bottle.
·Cleaning products – now this is where we save a
fortune! Thanks to mum putting me onto Wendyl, we barely spend a cent on
cleaning products at the supermarket. The only things we really buy are bleach
(very occasionally), cloths (the cheapest brand) and dish washing liquid. I’m
going to start trying to make the beauty products too – got to be better than
putting all those chemicals on your skin.
·In a flatting situation, do you all need
separate toothpastes?
·This one’s not to do with food shopping but not
having a clothes dryer keeps our power bill right down. Clothes racks are a
godsend (especially when you stick the dehumidifier next to it) and we try to
only wash the sheets/towels when the weather’s nice.
·Garden! Pots are cheap and I’ve managed to grow
silverbeet and herbs very successfully in them. Right now I’ve got lettuce on
the go too. Seeds are cheaper but you can’t go wrong with a 6 pack of vege
plants for less than $2 at Bunnings.
I hope that didn’t come across too preachy. We manage on
$30 per person a week ($90 total) including rubbish bags etc. We definitely
could cut that down if we were on the bones of our arses but that much keeps us
not wanting for anything (like cheese and butter and the occasional tub of ice
cream).
I love hearing new ways to save money and make meals go
further. The destitute gourmet Facebook page is a treasure trove of followers’
ideas. Is there something you do that isn’t on my list?
The t-shirts may read "Newtown; it's a bit shit" but when it comes to food, Newtown is far from it. We have pretty much everything from proper Italian gelato and frangipane tarts to the most amazing goat curries, french pastries, fruit markets with fresh pink taro and green bananas, the best fish and chips in Wellington and THE GREASY SPOON.
Since all three of us were home on Saturday we finished up the vege market shop by stopping in at the latter for lunch. It's basically a caravan sitting in an empty parking lot (well not so empty with all the chairs and tables - perfect for soaking up the sunshine) on Newtown's main street. As the name suggests they specialise in fry ups and staples like bangers and mash or steak, egg and chips.
They are also really cheap, which makes the food taste even better. The coffee is pretty darn great as well.
Normally I um and ah over menus for ages before choosing something to order but here it's easy - one bacon buttie with extra bacon please!
How to keep your table number from flying away (part of living in Wellington 101)
