Wednesday, 16 March 2011

Teriyaki Chicken Pie

         Today I am writing about my Famous Teriyaki Chicken Pie that I used to always make in Melbourne. Basically all you need is MasterFoods Recipe Base. These things are soooo good! And it makes it so quickly as well. So grab one of these, follow the directions with cooking the chicken etc. Then to make it a pie, grab a pie dish, put puff pastry down, put the chicken and things inside. Create a lid and whack it in the oven for about 15mins at 200oC or until the pastry is how you like it. In terms of what to put in it, well I change it all the time. So today I make it rather plain with oregano and mixed veggies. Other times I put mashed potato as the top and/or with cheese. There are really no rules except make sure the chicken is cooked properly before putting it in the pie.
Easy as pie!











yummmmm...

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

My famous Banana Cake.

People have asked me for my famous banana cake recipe. But is it really my recipe! The truth comes out!
No its not! In fact it is from the all famous in New Zealand Edmonds cookbook!
So I'll type it up and include some pictures for you all.









Banana Cake
125g butter, softened
1/4 Cup sugar
2eggs
1 1/2 Cups of mashed ripe banana (they can be frozen for up to a year i believe)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tablespoons hot milk
2 Cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
I use chocolate icing just using icing sugar, cocoa and water to a nice consistency and flavour.

Directions: Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease a 20cm round cake tin and line base with baking paper. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add mashed banana (I just throw my banana's into the mixer whole) mix thoroughly. Stir baking soda into hot milk (use a large mug if its your first time you'll get a surprise!)
Add to the mixture. Turn into prepared tin. Bake for 50minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Leave in tin for 10minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. When cold, ice!
Note: The mixture can be bake in two 20cm round sandwhich tins at 180oC for 25mins, The two cakes can be filled with whipped cream and sliced banana or something similar.

Thank you Edmonds! This recipe is constantly providing a good result!


A picture of my containers - Plain flour etc. these containers have measurement cups on the top!
My final result, I made a double recipe this time. One for me, one for work
Scraping the sides after mixing in the eggs.
look out! cooking!...its a science experiment too!
If only there were never dishes!

Monday, 14 March 2011

The End of the World?

Let me start out with this blog will obviously be based on my own opinions and I do apologise if I ramble a little bit but here goes.

What The Heck! What is with all these natural disasters that are happening!?!
Is this is the end of the world?
I have never been one to make too much sence of the book of the bible Revelation, but there is lightning and thunder and all these horrible things that are predicted to happen before Jesus returns.

One thing I do know is:
There are many different characters of God
Many people view God as a Judging God disliking those who sin against him and they turn away thinking - thats too hard I wana just live my life.
Many Christians focus on the Father heart of God, the loving and caring God that will provide and protect us.
And even though these are characteristic's of God, i believe that we can't allow on own perspective to get skewed from what is real.
So today think about the Just God, the Majestic God, the Almighty God, the God that is capable to shake the earth to wake us up a bit.
Hello he says, he is there, don't turn away from him! That's just foolish! This is a time where we need this Almighty God on our side! Adore Him! Realise his power! Realise that he can actually use his power to make your life better!
What if you have been hit by a tragedy?
Well I believe God does allow tragedies to happen to his people too. Not because we haven't been good enough, but because he has a bigger picture in mind and he is moving you to a difference place in your life, new opportunities that you may not have faced on your own.
Something simple - every person you meet, you meet them for a reason, its not a mistake. And these tiny moments with these people build up moments that build your life (along with other things too of course) but you see what I'm trying to say. Gods got it all worked out and we have no idea! We just have to be obedient to him and life our life at its best.
I look at the news, especially over the last few weeks and it brings me to tears, I feel sorry for the peoples lives that may be lost or broken, and feel sorry for people that may loose things close to them.
But God tells us not to hang on to earthly things!
When I was listening to the radio this evening, I heard that a group of Australians in the army went over to Japan today to help. And that this is their 5th natural disaster mission this year. But this is what its all about people. This is an opportunity to bring people together in ways they have never had the chance!
This gives us the chance to stretch our faith. Gives us a motivation to pray more! (Because aren't we just so lazy sometimes!)

Today I asked my Grandmother why does she think that these disasters are happening?
And her response to me was "It is a reminder to people that life is very fragile, we need God to live and to survive, because this earth will not last forever."

Don't be ignorant and brush it off! You know you need God.
Don't let an issue of trust hold you back!
God is willing to be in a relationship with anyone anytime!
He is so amazing he loves each one of us individually!

Think about it.



A News article:
THE warnings travelled quickly across the Pacific in the middle of the night: An 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan spawned a deadly tsunami, and it was racing east as fast as a jetliner.
The quake struck Japan's east coast at 2.46pm on Friday (4.46pm AEDT), triggering a 10-metre tsunami in the city of Sendai.
After the quake, it took 45 minutes for a four-metre wall of mud to invade the coast of Japan, tearing up the local landscape and killing hundreds in its devastating path.
Giant waves carried away houses, cars and even light planes. Fires burned out of control. A ship was caught in the vortex of a whirlpool at sea. Tokyo was largely shut down.
A cooling system failed at a nuclear plant and radiation levels surged to 1000 times their normal levels, prompting calls for the evacuation of thousands from the area.
Worst hit was the Japanese city of Sendai where hundreds have been found dead and the toll was expected to rise sharply.
The tsunami sent shipping containers, cars and debris through the streets of Sendai and thousands of homes have been destroyed.
Gas was cut to 300,000 homes, more than eight million homes lost power and mobile and landline phone systems broke down.
The Japanese Government declared an atomic emergency evacuating thousands of residents living near a nuclear plant in Fukushima.
Tsunami waves hit the North American shores of Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington and Mexico.
Tsunami warnings were issued for Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Indonesia but were lifted.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii measured a 1.5-metre tsunami crest at the central Pacific Midway Islands.
Boats were damaged by waves at Crescent City, California and a man was reportedly swept out to sea while taking pictures of the tsunami.
Australia's Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said contact had been made with all prefectures except Miyagi, where the danger and damage has been the greatest.
Communications in Sendai were severely degraded, the Foreign Minister said.
Soon after the quake hit, sirens blared in Hawaii, warning of a tsunami that swamped Hawaii beaches and pushed waves into hotel lobbies on the Big Island. The West Coast pulled back from the shoreline, fearing the worst. Residents were warned to stay away from beaches. Fishermen in northern California took their vessels out to sea and safety.
Docks were ripped from harbours in California and Oregon, and outside Brookings, Oregon, four people went to a beach to watch the waves and were swept into the sea.
All either got out on their own or were rescued. In Crescent City, California, the Coast Guard searched for a man who was swept out to sea while taking pictures.
In Oregon, hotels were evacuated and shops stayed shuttered in the northwest tourist town of Seaside.
But in the end, relatively little damage was reported outside Japan.
Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie said the islands were "fortunate almost beyond words. ... All of us had that feeling that Hawaii was just the most blessed place on the face of the Earth today."
The AFP office in Mexico City says the tsunami from Japan's earthquake washed up in Mexico and Central America. The first waves did not cause any major damage but Chile, Ecuador and Peru were taking no chances and ordered evacuations of coastal areas and extra precautions for outlying islands.
In Taiwan, authorities said minor tsunamis reached the island's east and northeast coasts but they measured only around 10cm high, causing no damage. The alert was later lifted as no more tsuanmis were expected.
New Zealand's Civil Defence issued a tsunami marine warning, adding that no threat to land was expected as the tsunami arrived at around 6.23am (4.23am AEST).
Australia dodged the effects of the Japanese quake.
Tsunami warnings were extended to a number of areas in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Latin America, including Japan, Russia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Chile. In the Philippines, authorities ordered an evacuation of coastal communities, but no unusual waves were reported.
Latin American governments ordered islanders and coastal residents to head for higher ground. Coastal officials from Mexico to Chile hauled boats from the sea, closing ports and schools and preparing to evacuate thousands of people ahead of the tsunami's expected arrival.
Thousands fled homes in Indonesia after officials warned of a tsunami. In Guam, the waves broke two US Navy submarines from their moorings, but tug boats corralled the subs and brought them back to their pier.
In the Canadian pacific coast province of British Columbia, authorities evacuated marinas, beaches and other areas.
Small tsunami waves hit the Philippines hours after the massive quake struck, but there were no reports of local damage or casualties, its chief state seismologist said.
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology director Renato Solidum reported waves ranging from 30cm to one metre.
Residents in Indonesia's eastern areas - including Papua, Maluku and North Sulawesi - were placed on tsunami alert.
The quake impact was felt in places such as the Marshall Islands where disaster management officials downgraded an earlier alert to a "tsunami watch" and the Philippines.
Scientists said the quake ranked as the fifth largest in the world since 1900 and was nearly 8000 times stronger than one that devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month.
- with AAP, The Associated Press, Agence-France Presse and NewsCore
http://www.news.com.au/world/follow-japans-tsunamis-path-of-destruction-triggered-by-massive-earthquake/story-e6frfkyi-1226020295801

The Nerf Project - part one

So Adam has seen some cool pictures of these Nerf guns that people have pulled apart and painted and reassembled. And yea they look pretty cool.
Here is an example I would on the internet. The top gun is the basic one you get from the store and the blue one is, one that someone has painted!
I looks pretty cool.
So this weekend Adam and I started our project by pulling one of the guns apart and started sanding it.
Below are a few pictures of Adam pulling it apart. We still have a long way to go yet, i'll be updating as we go.

Sunday, 13 March 2011

This week. What a week.

Wow, I haven't blogged since Tuesday!
This week has been so very busy. And so much driving to get to places really quickly.
Then this weekend, I did almost nothing just because I was so exhausted.
This week i'm going to try and pace myself a bit better!
On Friday night, I made a Thai meal for my new housemate Mimi, and also for Adam and myself.
I found some kaffir lime leaves at a fruit and vege store close to uni. They are awesome for Thai curries. The leaf by themselves taste bitter but spicy at the same time, so weird. But they bring great flavour to the dish. I added a photo of what the leaves look like because I think it looked bizarre. They are like two leaves joined together to make one.
One thing that was a bummer when making this dish was, at the supermarket I could not find fresh corriander!
Woolies did not have any on the shelves! How rude! lol.
So yeah I had to go the paste. It was ok, You could taste a difference.
Corriander is so important in a Thai dish, remember that!


On Saturday night, Adam and I made Gnocchi together. This time it was just packet mix gnocchi, which i reckon is still good. We couldn't decide what to put in our gnocchi, there wasn't much ingredients in the house. But this is what we ended up with. Onion cooked in a bit of olive oil, then to make a paste I mixed sweet potato and cashew dip with sour cream! Yes that is weird, but tasted amazing.


yummmmmmm

Tuesday, 8 March 2011

Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday, That's today, the day where traditionally you use up all the fats and creams and things similar. Most popular name for today is Pancake Tuesday! Ash Wednesday is tomorrow and that is the start of Lent, traditionally the fast from meat, eggs and dairy products. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday it is customary to fast for the day, with no meat, eating only one full meal, and if necessary, two small meals also. Traditionally, on Easter Sunday, you may cease your fasting and start again whatever was given up for Lent, after they attend Church on Easter Sunday.
So now we know the basic of the tradition, how does that effect us in this day and age?
Well I do believe in the importance of fasting for a few different reasons. - To bring us closer to God, - to remind us not to get caught up in earthly things, - To cleanse the body - its very healthy to fast! -A state of mind eg: I control food, food doesn't control me. -To sacrifice something to remember the ultimate sacrifice. And many many more reasons.

What am I going to do for Lent if anything?
This year I am going to have only two small healthy meals on both Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. I will also cut out most of the fat, butter, and some sugar and dairy products until Easter Sunday.

And Yes I did enjoy my pancakes today!!

Monday, 7 March 2011

Dwight Schrute Meet Ivan Pavlov

Today in class we learnt about Classical Conditioning and Behavioral Theories.
We learnt about Ivan Pavlov and the Pavlovian theory. The original and most famous example of classical conditioning involved the salivary conditioning of Pavlov's dogs. During his research on the physiology of digestion in dogs, Pavlov noticed that, rather than simply salivating in the presence of food, the dogs began to salivate in the presence of the lab technician who normally fed them. Pavlov called these psychic secretions. From this observation he predicted that, if a particular stimulus in the dog's surroundings were present when the dog was presented with meat powder, then this stimulus would become associated with food and cause salivation on its own. In his initial experiment, Pavlov used a bell to call the dogs to their food and, after a few repetitions, the dogs started to salivate in response to the bell.

All throughout lecture today I thought about 3things. This is such a cool theory and it is true, I'm hungry his name sounds like pavlova and thirdly I could not stop thinking about the office. Dwight and Jim are so funny and they have a reference to this example of Pavlov's dogs!


Season 3 - Episode 15
"Phyllis' Wedding"
Written by Caroline Williams
Directed by Ken Whittingham

Jim: Damn, lost another file. Going to have to reboot. Again. [Windows reboot sound] Hey, Dwight, do you want an Altoid?
Dwight: What do you think?

Jim: In school, we learned about this scientist who trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell by feeding them whenever a bell rang. For the last couple of weeks I've been conducting a similar experiment.

Jim: [Windows reboot sound] Dwight, want an Altoid?
Dwight: Okay.

Jim: [Windows reboot sound] Altoid?
Dwight: Sure

Jim: [Windows reboot sound] MintDwight?
Dwight: Inbwit? Yes.

Dwight: [Windows reboot sound] [Dwight holds out his hand, sighs]
Jim: What are you doing?
Dwight: I...
Jim: What?
Dwight: I don't know. My mouth tastes so bad all of a sudden. [nasty, dry mouth-smaking noise]
 
Source:
 
 
Sorry that the quality of this video is so bad, but its the best I could find on youtube.