Palace Westgarth

Escaping the heat inside our favorite movie theatre; here to see the Fantastic Mr Fox:

Beans

My sister-in-law has been posting a lot of recipes on her blog, but they're all, you know, vegetarian, filled with twigs and acorns and such. Here's a decidedly non-vegetarian recipe for the best beans we ever ate, at the Democrats Abroad Christmas party last month. A bit labor intensive, but so good that I will have to actually try to make them some day:

Bill’s Baked Beans

Start with Slow Cooked Beans in 4 to 5 litre Crockpot Slow Cooker

375m White Beans (Great Northern or Cannelloni Beans) Big batch 500m size

1 large salty meaty ugly smoked ham hock ( the more white residue visible on the hock the better, it is not pretty, not meant to be – If I can’t get a good big hock, I use 2 smaller ones, (try for 750g to 1 kg total wgt) if using a 5 litre cooker, 500g to 600g if a smaller cooker)

The beans need to be checked for foreign material (rocks & discoloured beans removed), rinsed, then soak for at least 4 to 6 hours, then rinsed again before using. I add the hock to the cooker, (rinse in water only, the smoking process leaves lots of flavour), cover it with the soaked rinsed beans, then add water to cooker to cover beans by at least 1-2inches, even if it is almost to the top of the cooker

Slow Cook overnight, usually starting right before you go to bed. Then cook for 9 to 12 hours using the Auto setting on most cookers. (This is also a stage that they can be served as an especially good soup, but it is so good that you eat too much to finish the baked bean variety, you need to eat them as soup at least once in this experimentation process).

Let cool for at least an hour, then thoroughly remove Bones and Fatty outside from Hock (yes, you do get your hands dirty this way). Be careful as there are some small bones in most hocks, (usually like knobs from the ends of bones). While doing this, I tend to break up the large chunks of ham from hock into smaller pieces to distribute this slow cooked ham throughout the dish evenly

I then discard waste, then put remaining bean mixture to fill 2/3 of a large Pyrex baking dish (putting aside any leftover excellent ham hock bean soup away to have
on it’s own)

Then add to your mix

2 large cloves of Garlic crushed

1/3 cup of Smokey BarBQ Sauce (optional, use your favorite or KC Masterpiece from USA foods)

1 large onion chopped

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup Heinz Ketchup (Aussie tomato sauce poor substitute, but works in a pinch)

1/3 cup American Style Mustard

1 Small Jar Tomato Paste (or ½ of a medium jar)

½ Teaspoon Black Pepper

Combine all of the above ingredients into the bean mixture, then cover the entire top of the dish with the bacon (trimmed of thick rind if Rashers)

6. Large Bacon Rashers or 10 pieces of Streaky Bacon

Cook at 160 degree medium heat for 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes, (Just til the bacon starts to crispy up, but do not overcook til burnt, I tried it once, and not as good with burnt bottom of pan…

Variations to the recipe:

• I like these with less Black Pepper, but a good bit of Cayenne Hot Spice to taste…be careful
• As an addition, some people add a couple of Teaspoons of Worcestershire Sauce. (good this way)
• Two teaspoons of Jack Daniels, or any good bourbon never goes awry with this recipe

New Year's

New Year's Eve party at our friends', Brendan and Kim:


Much fun. Lots of cheek kisses at midnight, thanks in small part to a contingent of Italians (including a couple visiting from Italy who spoke no English).

Burgers

In honor of our 2000th day in Australia (Marjorie figures these things out in Excel), burgers shaped like Australia:

Boxing Day 2

Since Boxing Day fell on a Saturday, we got a bonus Boxing Day today. After house cleaning we took a ride up the river, as far as this Russian Orthodox Church:


Then, since we have a friend's car for the week, we took the dingo up to a fenced in area I discovered on an earlier bike trip, for a little rare off-leash time:

I wanted to write an end of year wrap up entry, but as it's been awhile since I've blogged, I was seeking inspiration so I "borrowed" this list from Krisalis, and modified it for my own purposes:

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Went to Africa. The trip to South Africa this year was amazing and completely easy. A good first trip, with more than enough awe to inspire me to return.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next this year? My resolution this year was to use a mug for take away coffee, in order to avoid the paper cups which just get thrown away. I've been pretty good about bringing my Keep cup to the coffee shop with me, and am happy to see many others doing the same.
I'm not sure if I'll have a resolution for next year. I'd like to run more or exercise more in general. I've been generally good about this for the past few years, but could be better, and could always do more.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Unless I'm forgetting about a baby (possible?) than no, not this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Depends on how you define close. My work mate, Matthew, died this year. Matthew and I had worked really closely together for awhile, and then he'd moved to a position in another office. He was a young man in the prime of his life. It was a very sad and unexpected loss.

5. What countries did you visit? Japan and South Africa.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? More time with family and friends.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? February 7th "Black Saturday" the date of the bushfires in Victoria.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I'm continuing to progress in my career, which I'm glad about that. And I just procured an 18 month project position (promotion) which starts in January. I've received positive feedback through the grapevine that I have a good reputation out in the service sector, and agencies are happy to work with me (thank goodness).

9. What was your biggest failure? Not taking better pictures when we were at Kruger. I guess we'll just have to go back.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? This has been a bad year, healthwise, for me. I was sick with every cold/flu that came into the office over the winter (probably had swine flu, though it wasn't confirmed). And my migraines have been horrible. Next year I'll start allergy shots, as I'm sure this will help the migranes.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Plane tickets to South Africa.

12. Where did most of your money go? Travel. There are worse things to spend your money on.

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Big suprise - our trips to Japan and South Africa, and seeing lots of new animals.

14. What song will always remind you of 2009? Grapevine Fires by Death Cab for Cutie because it could have been written about Victoria this past February.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:a) more happy or more sad? About the same
b) thinner or fatter? Again, same, it's post Christmas so I may be a little fatter, but I plan to lose this post haste.
c) richer or poorer? Not much difference. A little richer, as I recently got a promotion.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of? I didn't snorkel this year, so more time in the sea. More time at the beach.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of? I could have done with less time sick or feeling unwell.

18. How did you spend Christmas? A morning jog, open presents, cook, then pig out. Stress free, though a bit lonely without the extended family.

19. What was your favorite TV program? 30 Rock

20. What was the best book you read? I just finished Zoe Heller's - The Believers, which was good. I didn't read a lot of books this year, I read more articles on the internet or in the New Yorker (mag).

21. What was your favorite film of this year? I really liked The Wrestler, and it was nice to see Mickey Rourke make a comeback.

22. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? We had brunch at my favourite Mexican restaurant, Blue Corn, and then I got a mani/pedi (thank you Facebook for helping me remember!). I'm 39.

23. What kept you sane? Monthly massages. A bit of pampering we allowed ourselves once a month this year. It's unclear whether this will continue into the new year, but I vote yes.

24. What concerts did you see? This was a slow concert year for us. We did catch Lucinda Williams finally. She was fabulous. Also we saw one of my favourites, Aimee Mann, for the first time. And saw Elvis Costello play alone, and even though we've both seen him several times before, he was fabulous and energetic playing by himself to a sedate, seated, largely middle-aged crowd on a Tuesday night. To fill the gaps between concerts this year we saw some plays- Billy Elliott and Wicked.

25. What were the best restaurant experiences of the year? This was another really good year for restaurant discoveries. Some of the top ones would include St Jude's, Mutti's, and Yu'u. And we continue to enjoy old favourites like Borscht, Vodka, and Tears, The Horn, and Koliba. Melbourne is truly a foodie town, and we love it.

26. What was the best discovery of the year? Goove Shark and other music websites, music logs, and podcasts (most notably All Songs Considered) which have allowed us to discover heaps of new music and rediscover all sorts of lost treasures as well. Groove Shark is really great as it allows you to stream music immediately and save play lists. I have a new project/playlist I'm working on trying to track the 100 best songs of all time, which is a perpetual work in progress as it's obviously so subjective and there are always new songs and remembered songs to supplant others.

Mall

Braved the Westfield Mall today:


Meet the new mall. Same as the old mall.

Boxing Day

A great day for relaxing...

Xmas chow

Our Xmas day meal:








Just for the two of us! Our fridge is as stuffed as we are right now. (I made the sweet potato soufflé.)

Pierogies

Our Xmas eve tradition: gorging ourselves on pierogies...


Traditionally it's done at my grandmom's house, but obviously that's a lot farther these days than over the river and through the woods. Instead, Borscht, Vodka, and Tears has to suffice.

Ick

Woke up this morning to my eye looking like this:


How did people live before the Internet? Within seconds I was able to learn that it's harmless, often causeless, and will likely go away within ten days.

Sidewiki

Remember this idea I posted about, way back when, about a comment system that lets you post comments on any web page?

I actually forgot I had that idea so long ago. It's been percolating around since then, and I still hadn't found any inherent flaws in it. Recently, I ran it by a couple of coworkers at lunch, and they both thought it was a good idea.

So, finally, after two and a half years, I set a plan to at least work up a prototype over Christmas. Then, just the other day, I ran across a little company who had the same idea. For all practical purposes it's EXACTLY the same idea. It's been getting some buzz.

I've recently come to the conclusion that laziness is my defining personality trait, and here we have a classic example. I can't be too angry, to have come up with the same idea as the mighty Google, but of course it's a little disappointing. I'm mostly just happy that someone built it - someone with clout and technical competence - because the other reason I was excited about the idea was that it was something that I want to actually use.

Radio shows

When I was a kid, my mom and dad (hi, mom and dad) used to take us on long car trips every year, down to Florida. I think it was on one of these trips that my dad brought along cassettes of some old radio shows. I don't remember where he got them; maybe they were just rebroadcast some decades after the fact, and he taped them off the radio? At any rate, there were two in particular that I remember, quite distinctly in fact. I thought of them again the other day, and decided to see if I could find them. And I did. See what you think of The Thing On The Fourble Board and Three Skeleton Key (starring Vincent Price). Lots more episodes here and here.

Xmas in Oz

Xmas shopping in Bourke Street mall:





The crowd on the left is queuing for the window display, which is as close to pageantry as Melbourne gets:





A few cheesy animated displays. Don't mean to be a Scrooge, but it's more conveyor belts than the over-the-top animatronics you'd expect in America.

McDeco

This is the art deco McDonald's in our neighborhood:


I refused to eat at Mackers (as they call it here) for fifteen years prior to coming to Australia. Finally went back once while we were in a the middle of a hectic move, and one more time soon after that, but I decided it was gross and haven't been back since.

Behind this Mackers, there's a brothel (no lie).

M$ Xmas

At the Microsoft Xmas party last night, at a somewhat over-the-top nightclub called Silk Road:

Sauce

Think we maybe should've thrown this out a while ago:

Xmas party II

Marjorie at her office Xmas party, at Fitzroy Bowling Club:


Obviously bowling has a different meaning here.

Ahhhh

Weather was perfect today as I waited for Marjorie and our friends Tamara and Simon to show for our night out at Japanese restaurant Yu'u.

Xmas Party

A few lousy shots from my office Xmas party, same place as the Thanksgiving do we went to last week, and the same lousy weather... Fun, though.