Making time for Best Friends, Punk Rock, and Connectivity.

my 36-hour secret surprise trip to melbourne entailed the following:

napping in my favourite ever bed in the world - thanks caitlin honey!

fresh produce lunch - asparagus, bok choy, oyster mushroom, bean sprouts, deep fried tofu, red cabbage, red chilli, soya dressing and fresh coriander.
caitlin!!! caitlin told me about how during the heatwave all the coriander in victoria melted, and in queensland's floods, all the coriander drowned and so it was particularly hard to come across fresh australian coriander during this time of hardship. which is a good thing if you're one of those people who think coriander/cilantro is a foot-smelling disgusting herb. fascists.


house show/closing party for a sharehouse where a group of my best friends have inhabitted for around 2 or so years. singing along to a rites of spring cover with Ex Spectator, surprising my besties and people that I love and miss entirely and without exception.

breakfasting at a minor place - henry's white beans, soy flat white (made perfect), dogs and big hugs.

attending a bushfire benefit hXc show and eating ferrer rocher truffles, sushi, rice paper rolls and a delicious banana chocolate smoothie all for the sake of raising much needed moneys for the homes and families of buishfire victims. also, all my circuits!!! what a wonderful, fun band!


coming home to my big happy warehouse and getting lots of hugs from my darlings
x

seven facts meme

dear vegans. here is the seven facts meme that noone tagged me for (well, lots of people tagged 'everybody'). in return, i am tagging NOONE.

1. This is important and relevent to know when reading my blog/talking to me about ethics or veganism: I DECIDED I WAS A VEGAN WHILST SITTING IN MY LIVING ROOM, STARING UP A CHIMNEY, STONED OFF MY NUT. I'm proud of this and I am never showing my blog to my parents. What had made me so stoned was a combination of (vegan) hash brownies and cookies that I had made. these same cookies/brownies had made a darling friend of mine a few days earlier, get really sick from being high and now she don't touch it. silly goose, they were fucking delicious. THE DAY I DECIDED I WAS A VEGAN, I HAD A BRUTAL BIKE ACCIDENT AND NOW HAVE A PERMANENT SCAR AND BUMP ON MY LIP, AND MY FRONT TWO TEETH ARE NO LONGER MINE. for reals. The last time I consumed flesh, it was my own (a piece of my lip was swallowed). I then couldn't chew food properly for about a week or so and so when I ran out of pain killers, all I ate was heated up hash brownies with soy milk and maple syrup.

2. I never finished highschool. I was a big (fat) nerd and I loved my classes and teachers and the library, but I got really bugged down with glandular fever and didn't complete. Also in highschool, I played a fuck load of sport.

3. I think meat is amazing and congratulate any omnivore who continues to consume flesh whilst knowing everything that is involved in the makings of a meat based meal. I really enjoy walking pass local butchers and seeing their layout and displays. there's a really good one near where I wait for the bus to work. but I think that's just an aesthetics/nostalgia thing..

4. I am legally blind, and don't wear glasses. Sometimes when I am meeting my partner at the airport or train station and am approaching him/being approached, I rely heavily on a couple of signifiers (the way he walks, his back pack, his shoes) to recognise him as I can't see facial details until they are less than 10 metres away, most of the time. Sometimes I can't recognise my parents from far away either. I've gotten pretty good at identifying how my loved ones walk and hold themselves so it's not caused too many problems (once as a child i held a strange man's hand thinking he was my father).

5. I wear a ring on my left hand's "ring" finger. My mother once asked me if this was a defence tactic so I wouldn't get hit on. The ring has a detail of an owl with his wings spread out, which I generally keep facing the same direction as my palm. I like keeping it personal like that. I wear it on that finger because I spent a really long time in the store I bought it from, discussing with the salesperson the merits of the ring on each finger. it looks best on this finger, is the decision that was made, and fuck traditions. The only person who has asked me if I'm married from seeing my ring was an old man who takes my bus.

6. I cheat on my coeliac stomach all the time.

7. I have a slight allergic to tea-tree oil and my mother discovered this when I was 5 after putting me in a bathtub with some in it and I flared up in a hive rash. I am also allergic to imitation strawberry flavouring, it makes me vomit almost instantly. My dad discovered this after I threw up pink coloured milk allover his bed when I was young.

it's like an albino carrot..

There is something about being able to make the favourite things for yourself that your parents used to magic up especially for you. Teaching yourself family recipes that used to stir amazement in your heart every time it was made for you is not spoiling the magic, but makes it even more special (like that time I made random-instinct no-bull bolognese on no-christmas day and it tasted EXACTLY how my mum makes)...
There are some family treats that I will never be able to recreate for the sake of my dietry choices and requirements (osso bucca just isn't going to happen). I take so much enjoyment from the fact that yesterday afternoon I got off the tram and craved this amazing winter favourite, had no credit to call my mother to ask how she prepared it, so I went by instinct. And, shit-damn...


Better-dreaming Parsnip Soup.
2 large parsnips, peeled and roughly diced.
2 thin celery stalks, finely chopped.
1 small white onion, diced.
a good sized knob of non-dairy butter
salt & pepper to taste
ground coriander, dried thyme & rosemary.

I sweat down these beauts with nuttelex in a large pot for about 5 to 10 minutes (when the onions/celery are transcluscent, you'll know it's time) before seasoning and then adding the stock

2½ cups prepared vegetable stock (1 teaspoon massel powder to 2½ cups boiling water, I like using stock but it is really easy to OD on it and have the flavour of the stock overwhelm the integrity of the vegetables, BE CAREFUL)
There should only be enough stock to make the vegetables float a little. This is a creamed soup and you don't want things to get too splashy when it comes to blending.
Cover the pot and leave it on a medium to low heat until the parsnips easily break themselves if you stab one with a fork. When this happens it's time to slowly transfer, bit by bit, the soup into a blender or food processor. If you have a hand-held liquidiser by all means use that but i think that's freaky. You can add a non-dairy milk or silken tofu or both if you like, to produce a creamier soup. I used both and also added nutritional yeast (get b12 in ya) for a nutty happening.

I'd say that this soup is pretty adaptable according to how your feeling or what your particular tastes are. I served it with more salt & pepper (because I am a fiend for flavour) and some fresh parsley from our faux-garden.