mosaic road

THIRD TIME LUCKY - NOT !!!!!
Yesterday I attempted to finalize the passport application and DO YOU KNOW WHAT - rejection again. The passport photos - a new lot - taken by a store who does this as their job - were rejected. I had paid for a professional service and still failed - what must one do !!!

Once Upon a Time.

This is the tale of how 6, sad, uneaten and pretty stale hot cross buns were transformed into a custardy, vanillery bread and butter pudding. Lurking at the back of the fridge, crumbly and old was a pack of ancient hot cross buns. I sliced them up finely, soaked them in 2 cups of skim milk and 2 cups of close to its use by date vanilla custard.
A heaped cup of sugar and 5 smallish beaten eggs were added to the concoction. After about an hour of languishing fluidly in a large casserole dish, they received a heavy handed sprinkle of cinnamon sugar and entered a moderate oven for close to an hour. The result was an outstanding transformation, a glorious reincarnation and a rapidly consumed, with cream of course, dessert bearing no resemblance whatsoever to that former pack of neglected Easter buns. Those buns could have come to a green and mouldy end but no ! Quick thinking and even quicker actions on the part of the comfort food Queen ensured they lived happily ever after, at least for another day anyway.

Pronto Pizza Pzzazz.

On a Monday I go to work twice. I work the busy morning shift from 0830 at the clinic, come home at 12 then gallop back for the busy 3 till 6 slot. It does not thrill me and is only sort of temporary I hope. I do the rostering and due to staff shortages seem to always pick up the slack. So by the time I arrive home for the final time at about 6.45pm after enduring hideous traffic and swinging past school to get the sixth former {aka the patient} I am short on civility and large on hunger. This is when a pre made supermarket pizza comes into its own. They are pretty cheap and basic with cheese and a few salami slices loitering in a lonely manner but when you add rocket, avocado and buffalo mozzarella a star is born and ready to eat in 30 minutes.

Nikki in Elizabeth as Martha.

Here she is in her role in Elizabeth. I just loved seeing her last night. She was brilliant, beautiful and exudes talent and a very special ' je ne sais quoi ' ! Some people just have this quality and I always feel it is an honour to be in their company. She will go far !! When not on stage she is just as beautiful and I love her dearly.

Malthouse Theatre - ELIZABETH

You are invited, by Her Majesty’s appointment, to a right royal arse-kicking. Mid the comforts of her boudoir and the ministrations of motley cronies, Elizabeth has a few bones to pick. There are the constant conspiracies and assassination attempts. There are the boob-lifts and leech-o-suction. But most of all, there’s the lack of sex – er – Essex, first name Robert, who holds her heart in his treacherous hands. It‘s not easy being Queen.

via www.malthousetheatre.com.au

I went to see this play yesterday - well acted, storyline a little odd ! The reason I went was to see the actor's girlfriend who was Martha, the maidservant in this production. She was brilliant and the role was huge.

My Plans for the Coming Week !!

                                                                     
I am about to undertake this memory keeping project - time consuming but fun !! If I am MIA or the daily posts are less than ordinary or non-existent then this is the reason why !! I will be carrying my camera at all times, making lists and hoping against hope that at the end of the week I have got something of a vaguely reasonable standard to present, keep or destroy if need be. What the end result may tell me about how I spend my time scares me a little too !!! Domestic chores and going to work are not necessarily the stuff riveting memoirs are made of !! Do I want the world to see how many take away coffees I drink in a week or what I look like when I walk the dog in the dead of night or worse still what I look like when I emerge from under the doona. I may have to attach a disclaimer to these photographic memoirs so all those who proceed to wander through a week in my life steel themselves for some very nasty shocks.

Apple-Quark-Casserole - 414861 - Recipezaar

via www.recipezaar.com

Great recipe ! Click on above link !

Sweet Success with Semolina.

If you love semolina as I do then you absolutely must try making this Apple Quark Casserole. Once again , it is comfort food of the highest order and made with pantry staples except for the quark. You can substitute it with marscapone  or thick yoghurt, which is what I did., so you don't have to rush out madly hunting down a remote ingredient. I used lemon non fat yoghurt and it was wonderful, not too sweet, so good as breakfast, brunch or as a pud with cream, of course. Most people either love or hate semolina. Many feel it is nursing home food, grandma food or baby food even but I think it gives a rustic texture to cakes and dumplings without a dominant taste enabling other flavours like the fruit here to shine. You can find the recipe above.

A Quick Visit to the Undertaker !

After work last night I had a lovely glass of champagne at this cafe/bar/restaurant. It actually was once a funeral parlour, now revamped !! We sat outside in the warm evening  air and enjoyed hot bread, dips and tiny, tiny green olives that were just wonderfully soft and piquant. My friend drank a beer called Little Creatures from Western Australia. This, to me, is a name evocative of Wind in the Willows and a soft, woody, white wine and not right for a more lusty beverage consumed in great quantities on pub crawls ! But probably as a non beer drinker I may well not be qualified to make this call and I can already hear the howls of horror from ale drinkers far and wide !!                                              

Luscious Limes.

What a gift I have been given - a dozen or so fresh limes ! For me, this is manna from heaven. I am thinking longingly about lime delicious pudding, lime drizzle cake, lime and soda and adding some vodka to that as a reward after a horror day at work. Actually anything with lime in it is a reward for me and I am likely to add the zest to any savoury dish just to give it a Thai feel and top any sweet dish with the grated rind just give it a summery feel when we are in the midst of grey days. I am overjoyed to have these limes as whenever you really need one they are tricky to locate or exorbitant in price. I will be trying to make them last and making the most out of every precious drop of their fragrant juice and their tangy zest. And I may even take the advice of Jimmy Buffett who said 'if life gives you limes, make margaritas'. Now who can lend me a cocktail shaker ?