Taste the Alphabet

RECENT AQUISITIONS: 1. digital camera (chanukah/festivus/christmas gift). 2. gluten free alphabet noodles.
It has since been my goal to make as many different alphabet soups as possible. This morning's alphabet soup goes like this:

2 cloves garlic.
1 onion
1T olive oil
1 "beef" stock cube
2t paprika
4 small bay leaves
2-3 cups boiledwater
2t crushed dried sage
1T margarine
1.5T tomato paste
little bit of dried chilli flakes
pinch of oregano
as much salt & pepper as you like/need/can handle
vegan parmasen to garnish.

+ half a cup of alphabet noodles/however much you like as per your own soup:noodles ratio requirements.

Sautee the onion til transclucent, throw in garlic, stock cube, bay leaves, sage and paprika - combine well and then start pouring in the hot water, stirring as you go. When all water is in the saucepan and combined well with other ingredients, add tomato paste and then once all mixed, add noodles.
Add more or less water/noodles depending on what you think is going on with consistency in the pot and what you like specifically. When noodles are al-dente, lower heat to quite low and add margarine (not necessary, I did this for a creamy style thing) til melted, chilli and oregano. mostly for nostalgic reasons, I added parmesan to again recreate a creamy kind of tomato broth for the noodles.

Season as you will. This was really warming and simple. I don't know why I wanted to make it for breakfast, but at the end of things I guess I am a big bratty kid when it comes to food and I'll make what I want to eat whenever I want to eat it, if it is available to me.

More alphabetical soups are to come, I'm sure. I lit the first candle of chanukah this evening.

Chag Chanukah Sameach.

Let's Cocoa

Melissa Stringer is an old darling friend of mine who draws for dreams.(click image for adorable comic!)

For a couple of years, I have been obsessed with, though had never done anything about the idea of using chocolate and cocoa in savory dishes. The closest thing I've ever been served is a kind of mole-sauce. Chili and beans and cocoa, y'know, for dipping or as a sauce or side with other Mexican cuisine. Sort of a stock thing to do.

I had read about the luxury designer chefs that would pour chocolate over steak and chicken. Amazing. They probably use red wine in those sauces too. If nothing else I will adore anyones food if it has done well in sneaking booze into it. That's some sexy stuff.

Today I took the day off from my 11 hour school days I have on Thursdays and lay around imagining lunch. I wrote a couple of shopping lists and then I thought about astral-travelling to the store to make purchases.

I have never made a Shepherd's pie so why the fuck wouldn't i totally fuck up my own perception of what that meant.

I soaked some TVP with stock and sesame oil and mushroom sauce and chopped some red capsicum, leek and mushrooms and an onion. oh and lots of garlic. cooked it all and then. whole peeled tomatoes? done. tomato sauce? okay! gluten free gravy? sweet! sage, rosemary, thyme, coriander, a splash of cider vinegar and.

A TABLESPOON OF COCOA! fuck yes.

mashed what left i had of my butternut pumpkin and lopped it into a casserole dish into a preheated 180c oven for 20 minute and let the air-humping begin.

what was revealed was a big sloppy kiss of really earthy steak-like deliciousness. purple-brown and pumpkin yellow. my favourite colours in food. oh and there was cayenne pepper, i just remembered. fuck yes. will make this a recipe and force Riva to photograph it's worth and feed it to my love.

Eat the City at PLATFORM

Yesterday Pip and I met up so I might show her what my installation studio piece for college has grown into. The installation is a play with fruit and veg and ideas of preservation and domesticity..



Afterwards we met up with Sam and Rohan and went to have a coffee at Pushka and looked at the current display in Platform Group's window spaces.

The exhibition is called Eat the City, created by Bernadette Trench-Thiedeman, who has planted some edible and non-edible plants in architectural models (I think that are modelled from the streets of Melbourne's CBD). I found the models to be really delightful, though I do wish there were a lot more of them. There are a few really playful and smile-breaking tricks that Thiedeman has thrown into the mix to explore ideas of invasion and urbanization...

The exhibition started in the beginning of this month and you could see the poor plants suffering from being in the boxes. The show is for twenty-six days, so is probably due to close soon.