Musings

I've been writing and posting on my Facebook account and have decided to start posting them here as well, so to all those non-existent lurkers, expect some catch-up posts.

Career Day Musings

(Back posted)

It's half past ten in the morning and only a quarter of the stalls are (wo)manned, with a grand total of three being ready for students passing by to descend. The geneticists are friendly but obviously not set into their spiel, their main drawing factor being the 3D glasses carefully arranged in tandem with silvered pens and rugged bottle openers. A chat, some pamphlets and a competition entry later and I'm walking away. Pocketing my retro cardboard specs I ponder if they suspect my true reason for grabbing one, matched with my recently repaired 'hero' coat my second step to emulating the Doctor was completed and my rabid fangirlism was sated for another day.

Later, after being decidedly snubbed by the Unilever stall, joy was the first most feeling as I watched the previously snobby marketing stall be expertly manipulated for freebies by a obvious natural skeptic. He simultaneously questions the validity of their existence at this obviously educational institute while charming them into plying him with goods in the same breath. As he leaves the simpering booth babes I curse my natural fear of such a barbed tongue as sincere congratulations for such a feat was surely deserved in my mind.

Pamphlets firmly attached to the swag, warm smiles and a slightly conspiratorial air signified those booths used to their business of self-sale. They stood out clearly in the banality of fanned brochures and $2 store lolly bowls, Cookie Time swathing their stall in garish cookie-patterned fabric, ensnaring students after luring them in with free cookies and plush toys. ASB covers the table in miniature blue piggy-banks and delicate embossed paper bags to take them away in, at once combining the old-time sense of elegance banks used to have and a blatant use of the modern trend of plastic kitsch that so litters our lives.

How do stall holders expect to gather students without freebies, piles of bland filers and a obvious preference to converse with their co-worker than actually selling their company's idea? Turned away bodies, crossed arms and delicate grimaces scream 'Go Away!' to any nearby, empty tables and awkward office workers encourage viewers to pass by, sometimes a someone is tempted close enough to snag a free lolly or pen. These stalls have given up before the Fair even began.

On the opposite scale are the bright posters exclaiming plenty of time to “Travel and Play in the USA!”, with student exchange schemes aiming to attract students overseas. It's no wonder we are losing our graduates with rising study costs, student supports being shut down and the general negativity projected towards University students. Such pressure is enough to drive away even the most staunch kiwi fan.

It is disheartening, this thin veneer of promises barely cover the reality of our individuality being burnt away by branding, of futures filled with bumbling office encounters and the never-ending stream of paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. Far from being inspiring, this Career fair makes you want to give into the inevitability of it all, swapping graduation caps for hairnets and lecture theatres for a slot behind a desk, your only distinction from those surrounding you a misspelt name tag on your embroidered polo-shirt.

But, whether or not such a future will prevail, we will see. The majority of us will graduate, our qualifications a glorified signifier of a willingness to persevere. In such times it is said you have to shine, and what shines most of all is change, change the script, change your style, change the rules. For who of the successful was ever accused of being normal?

Recipe: Baked Apple Dumplings

Recipe Post!

I warned you guys! First up is apples smothered in cinnamon and sugar, wrapped in a sweet dough, baked and served with reduced syrup from the baking juices. I last made this for eD Sells (no, that is not misspelled) when he was staying with us. I mostly remember being deeply unhappy at the solidity of the pasty shells, then burning my tongue to try it when everyone else tried to convince me they were delicious.

I'm always the worst critic when it comes to my cooking, so I will generally comment both on how I think it could be improved and how everyone else viewed it.

On to the noms!

Baked Apple Dumplings

2½ cups plain flour

½ t salt

3t baking powder

50g butter

1 cup milk

5 medium sized Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored

1 cup sugar

1 cup hot water

cinnamon to taste

• Preheat oven to 190°C

• Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl, mix together.

• Rub in butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

• Slowly add milk while mixing until a dough forms.

• Knead the dough a few times, then cut into 5 equal pieces and leave to rest while preparing apples.

• Shape each dough piece into a ball then roll out into 20cm squares.

• Place a apple in the centre of each dough piece along with 1t of the sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

• Wet the edges of the pastry and fold around each apple, make sure there are no holes.

• Heat the remaining sugar and water over low heat until the sugar is fully dissolved i.e. can no longer be seen.

• Place the apples in a oven dish and pour the sugar syrup over the top.

• Bake for 45 minutes, or until dumplings are golden and delicious.

These dumplings are great served with vanilla icecream, but beware as they can still be quite hot even when the outside has cooled.

As I found out first hand.

Giveaway entry - Studio Fludd

I'd like to introduce you peeps to Studio Fludd, a craft group who love their geometric designs.

Imaginative Bloom are holding a giveaway for some of the studio's goods, the brilliant people that they are, and this quote from Studio Fludd is shamelessly stolen from them:

“We have a passion for the matter and materials, perhaps it’s for this that we tell unlikely stories about relationships with the English alchemist Robert Fludd.
From friendships at school, united by aesthetic harmonies, we we joined together, believing in the complementarity of skills and temperaments. So far we have ventured into projects ranging from illustration to graphic design, printing art to decoration of walls, to small carpentry works to realize little projects of self-design.

We are looking for a quality of doing, studying ‘the ancients’ and trying to cultivate our blog as a space for visual effervescence, where we also host little interviews with other European creative peers.
In addition to a stand on Etsy, we have just opened an e-shop of our own, full of spring products. We hope you enjoy!”

To enter the giveaway, you have to post a link to Studio Fludd somewhere, for me that is here.
Go look, marvel! Buy! Share! And perhaps even enter yourselves.

Cheerio,
Tamara

Well, I've rediscovered Blogger.

And I can't exactly say I am inspired, but I do have a lot of recipes and need somewhere to store and share them so that my family can use them now I've moved out.

Me update: I'm now studying as a first year student at Otago University in Dunedin, Otago under a Bachelor of Science, Majoring in Human Nutrition. I've become a frugal fanatic with a love of being spoilt, such is the mindset of a student.

I'll be mainly using this blog for recipes, showing off my crafting abilities, linking to cool websites and for posting the occasional thing I can't put on facebook, due to my young cousins and older relatives being on there.

Get ready for spamming, lots of spamming.

Eggnog

Here's the tried and tested Eggnog recipe I made for Christmas season . Some of the family preferred normal, everyday eggnog, I had coconut eggnog and soy eggnog was also deemed acceptable. So, here are the recipes:

Dairy Eggnog

• 6 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• I quart (945 mL) mix of milk and/or cream
• 1/2 t vanilla essence
• 1/3 cup rum
• 1/3 cup brandy
  
• Ground nutmeg to taste

Whisk the eggs, half of the milk/cream/mix, vanilla essence and sugar together in a saucepan at low heat until it reaches custard consistency*.

Add the rest of the dairy and slowly whisk in the rum and brandy, then cover and chill.

Serve freshly whisked and with a sprinkling of nutmeg.

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As I am gluten and dairy intolerant I had to make a GDF version, which I believe to be quite tasty.

Coconut Eggnog

• 6 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 4 cups coconut milk
• 8 T rum
• 6 T sugar
• 2 t vanilla essence

Slowly heat the coconut milk and sugar in a saucepan, whisking once in a while until the milk just begins to boil.

Remove from heat and slowly add small amounts of the hot milk to the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla, constantly whisking until half the milk has been used.

Then whisk the rest of the milk into the eggs all in one go.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and slowly cook until it is of custard consistency*.

Strain into a clean bowl, add the rum and chill in the fridge until serving time.

Serve freshly whisked and with a sprinkling of nutmeg.

* Custard consistency refers to when the mix coats the back of a spoon and, when a finger is drawn through the mix on the spoon a clear path remains. (Will try to get a picture of this next time I make a custard)

Welcome to my Recipe Blog!

Well, as someone who has been told by a doc that I have IBS caused by gluten and lactose intolerance I immediately searched for recipes and tips for how to change my diet to be healthy, delicious and indiscernible from a normal gluten and dairy containing one.

As a mix of a online recipe book and rant I hope that I will someday help others who struggle with the same confusion and to be honest, grief over the foods and life that I have felt.

A added challenge was making this food vegetarian for my sister as we will be moving out together in Feb 2009.

The first lesson I had to learn is this: Not all recipes will work.

2nd lesson: Experimentation is key.

3rd lesson: It's cheaper to make at home, but not always easier.

My first foray into Gluten and Dairy Free Cooking (GDFC) was a soy rice pudding. It was a total disaster, it burnt, it curdled and the rice didn't cook.

I was heartbroken, I have always been proud of my cooking skills and now I was in a area that I had only courted with to pass a assessment.

So now I've been dumped off the deep end and I'm here to record the failures and total successes of all my cooking experiments, Oh the humanity.