Valentines Eve Dance- Rock and Roll Style!

Do you live in South-East Queensland? Are you looking for something fun and romantic to do for Valentine’s Day? Do you like dancing? Mission Watoto presents; a Valentine’s Eve Rock-and-Roll dance! A fun filled night of rockin’, rollin’ and dancing till you drop! All profits will go to the building project of the 2010 Mission Watoto Travel team. There will be a real live rock-and roll band, plenty of refreshments, a raffle with lots of prizes, lucky door prizes, games and of course, an award for the best dressed male and female; so be prepared to go all out!

Book a table (of either 8 or 10) or come with that special someone, bring your mates, bring their mates, we are sure to have a rockin’ good time!

When: Saturday 13th Feb from 7.30pm
Where: St Michael’s College Hall, The Abbey Place (off Bribie Road), Ningi
Why: To raise funds for Mission Watoto’s next building project in Uganda
Cost: Adults $15, Students $5

The 2010 Project- update.

Don’t forget, every Friday, The 2010 Project gets updated!

SUPER HIGH BOUNCY BALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Home-made super high bouncy balls. The epitome of awesomeness!

And they're multi-coloured!

Harder to juggle with than you'd think. But still awesome!

Need I say more?

Woodford Folk Festival 0910 New Year’s Eve

My sister’s and I all wore our masks’ for New Year’s Eve at the Woodford Folk Festival this year. And all five of us (my brothers included) decked ourselves out in almost 300 glow sticks. Made for some pretty awesome pics. All taken with my Nikon D3000 and Nikkor 18-55mm lens. No post editing, bar the compression for uploading.

"Timmy"

ISO- 800
1/30sec exposure
f/5

"Bek"

ISO- 1250
1/30sec exposure
f/5

"Johnny Ackleberry"

ISO- 1600
1.3sec exposure
f/3.5

Spinning Lights

ISO- 1600
1sec exposure
f/3.5

Wearing the mask!

ISO- 200
1/60sec exposure
f/3.5

At the end of the night, we joined all the glow sticks up and hung the chain one-and-a-half times around the tent!

ISO- 100
30sec exposure
f/3.5

A string of glow!

ISO- 100
10sec exposure
f/3.5

So there you have it, a little bit of the gorgeous-ity that was my New Year’s Eve. I had lots of fun experimenting with long exposures for the glow stick photographs, and am keen to try some more out when I have a night free at home next week, using the leftover glowsticks. And yes, believe it or not, there were leftover glow sticks! Thank-you E-Bay

Fire Twirling at the Woodford Folk Festival 0910

Two going at once!

It looks like it's cutting him in half.

I thought this one looked like two dragons snaking through the air.

All taken on Shutter priority mode (on my Nikon D3000) with a 2-second-long exposure. It was the only time I went and saw the fire-twirlers are the folk fest, and I’m glad I had my camera with me. Just wish I had a bit more time to experiment, and a slightly better vantage point. Still, they look pretty cool! No post editing, bar a compress to make them easier to upload.

Rainbow

Because a little bit of colour never hurt anyone!

I'd already eaten all the yummy black ones!

The inside of my favourite dress. Very blurry I know.

Photographs taken with my Nikon D3000. I love it, can you tell?

That pumpkin thing (I haven’t named it yet!)

Everything you need to make a delicious and filling winter meal.

A winter meal in the summer time. Smart eh? But vegan, delicious and filling! Oh and plenty healthy too! And as with most of the things I cook, it makes for great leftovers! This is an invention entirely of my own. Inspired by my nutty uncle, my mum, and my own weird cravings one day.

Serves 3-4
Ingredients: (As pictured above)
2tsp Rice bran oil (or olive, or vegetable, or whatever oil you prefer to cook with)
1tbs Minced garlic
1 Can of coconut cream (light if you like)
1 Can of pumpkin soup (preferably concentrated, and for vegans, no cream. Heinz does a vegan pumpkin soup. A yummier, but slightly different alternative, use cooked, mashed, fresh pumpkin. Tastier, but with a different texture)
2 tbs crunchy peanut butter (heaped tablespoons)
1 cup of rice (uncooked. I mean, obviously you cook it later…)
2 Spring onions (entirely optional. I was using them for the same reason I used them last night , so that dad doesn’t have a green slimy mess for me to clean up next time I visit)
1 medium sweet potato, peeled
1 large potato, peeled
2 med carrots, not peeled (wash em if you like, but they are better for you if you leave the skin on)
1/2 an onion (A whole one would be nice too, but I was working with what was in the fridge)

Method:
1. Cook the rice . Normally I’d use a rice cooker, but dad doesn’t own one. However, his method of cooking rice is my favourite, as the rice come out slightly sticky/gooey but in a good way. This works for any sensible amount of rice: in a pot put the rice, and twice the amount of water., bring to the boil and boil until the water is level with the rice, cover and simmer for 10minutes, take off the heat, stir/fluff up with a fork, let it sit for five minutes and serve.
2. Chop everything up. See pictures:

Onion (white), Spring onion (white/green) and Garlic (the vomit clolured puddle in the middle!)

Carrot, Sweet potato and Potato

3. Brown the onion, spring onion and garlic in the oil in a large saucepan. Try not to burn it. The last two times I’ve made this, I’ve managed to burn the onion. Turns out, it actually doesn’t matter much taste-wise, but black flecks are a bit off-putting in the presentation.
4. OH! And it’s probably a good idea to boil the veggies first. I forgot to tonight, and had to cook the whole lot for longer. Still worked though.
5. Add the peanut butter and coconut cream to the onion. Stir until peanut butter is melted and everything is thoroughly combined. Then add the pumpkin soup (or mashed pumpkin), and stir until everything is the same colour:

Yum!

6.  Now cook until it’s hot all the way through (if you, like me, forgot to cook the veggies first, add half a can of water and boil for ages, or until the veggies are as soft as you want them to be).

The veggies, cooking as fast as they know how.

7. Serve on a bed of rice. Doesn’t that sound fancy? Just chuck it on top of a spoonful of rice, and mix it all together Enjoy!

The final result!

A good extra to add to this dish is cauliflower. I nearly put in some zucchini tonight, but I don’t think it would have worked.  Great for winter, even though it’s summer here! And just for a change, photographs taken with my Nikon D3000 and Nikkor 18-55mm lens. I really, really like the last pic.

Oh, and 26.5 million points to whoever names this mystery dish! It needs a name!

Vegan Pasta and Sauce

Three bowls of delicious pasta

Spag Bog. Yum. And if you are a vegetarian or vegan? It only gets better. I made this last night for three people, and I’m eating a bowlful of leftovers as I write this. And there’s still a bit in the fridge. And it was pretty easy to thrown together too.

Ingredients:
A 500g packet of pasta/spaghetti
2 small cans of diced tomato (or 1 large can, or a bunch of fresh tomatoes)
1 medium carrot
1 medium zucchini
170g of tomato paste (or nearest amount in a can: 200g or 150g is fine)
1tsp of minced garlic (fresh or from a jar)
Half an onion
1 spring onion
A splash of you favourite cooking oil ( I use rice bran oil, tastes nicer than olive, and is better for you)
Herbs to taste (something like dried Italian herbs, or those squeeze out of a tube herbs. I made it at my dad’s house, where I don’t know where anything is, and used a tablespoon of green pesto instead, and that worked really well too.)
Grated cheese (if you aren’t vegan of course!) to top it all off

Method:
1. Boil some water and cook the pasta. Don’t ask me how, I manage to overcook it every time, and still have some really chewy not-quite-fully-cooked bit in there too. While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce.
2. Chop the onion, finely. Chop the white end of the spring onion finely also.  Chuck the onion, spring onion, garlic and oil into a saucepan (make sure that pan is big enough to hold everything, I nearly spilt it on the stove several times last night) and cook at meduim heat for a few minutes, until the onion is brown or you get bored.
3. While the onion mix is cooking,  grate the carrot and zucchini. As I was feeding adults last night, I used the normal largish size grater. If you’re feeding kids, or grown-ups who don’t like veggies, use the really fine grater. The carrot will take on the texture of mince (sort-of) and nobody will know it’s in there. If you want to, finely chop the green end of the spring onion too.
4. When the onion mix is browned nicely, add in the tomato, tomato paste, carrot, zucchini, spring onion, herbs (or pesto). Stir thoroughly and keep stirring (to prevent burning) until it’s hot all the way through.
5. Drain the pasta (do this earlier if it’s ready, like I said, I can’t cook the stuff!) then serve with a huge dollop of sauce on top. Add grated cheese if desired. Enjoy!

The sauce freezes really well, so if you are cooking for one it makes an easy leftover, simply thaw and re-heat. I have no idea what freezing pasta will do to it though…. The recipe is really flexible too. For example, the spring onion was just an added extra (because I know if I leave vegetables in the fridge when I go, there is a small possibility that they’ll still be there when I come back in a few months… sorry dad, but we both know how your fridge gets sometimes!) and the pesto was an on-the-fly substitution. Id you don’t like zucchini, take it out. If you like a bit of a different flavour, add some bbq sauce. It’s that easy Oh and it makes 4-6 servings but I wouldn’t try to feed more than 4 people without doubling the recipe. Pasta in both my home always means second helpings!

Perfect for one, two, three or more!

And just for something different, photographs were taken with somebody else’s Nikon D3000 and Nikkor 18-55mm lens.

Not

Beetroot and Bean Salad

Looks strange, but tastes great!

Beetroot and Bean salad is one of the easiest, most filling meals I know how to make. I’m actually not a big fan of baked beans, but I’ll more than happily eat them like this. Best served chilled (if you can wait!) and fresh, as the longer it sits, the more purple everything gets! Great for summer picnics or bbqs. My mum used to make it for Christmas lunch. We’d have cold ham, prawns, potato salad and beetroot and bean salad. Then I learnt how to make it, and I eat it whenever I want!

Ingredients:
1 can of baked beans (plain tomato sauce works best)
1 can of beetroot (diced if you can get it, as cutting it up is the hardest part of the whole thing!) (oh, and it doesn’t matter what size can you use to make it, as long as the beetroot and beans cans are the same size as each other)
Frozen peas (as much or as little as you like. I use about a cupful if I’m using the big cans)
Optional:
Some fresh chopped basil. Just gives it a bit of edge. My dad puts chopped onion in his. Just chopped brown onion… yeah.

Method:
1. Open the beans, empty them into a large mixing bowl or tupperware container.
2. Open the beetroot. If you managed to find it pre-diced, then just add it to the beans. If not, grab a sharp knife and stick it in the can. Beat it violently until the beetroot is all hacked up. Make it as chunky or fine as you like. Add to the beetroot.
3. Tip in the peas. If you are adding basil or onion, chuck it in too. Then mix everything all together. If it needs more peas, feel free to add more in
4. Refrigerate for a couple of hours, until cold. I’m impatient, so I don’t know how long this takes, as I end up eating it straight away. It’s not bad warm either, I think the frozen peas help with that.

It is perfect for leftover lunch the next day, and although it will still taste fantastic, just be warned, people *will* look at you strangely, because it kind of looks like you are eating chunky purple vomit. Not to put you off or anything ! Yes, I was that weird kid at school

Messy deliciousness!

And as always, photographs taken with my Nikon D3000 and my Nikkor 18-55mm lens.

Vegan Choc-Chip Banana Cookies

Mmmmmm, chocolate and banana, is there a better combination?

I baked about a million of these the other day. And yes, they are indeed better than my Death-By-Chocolate cookies. No, really, they are! The first lot were for a Mission Watoto meeting regarding our website (which will be up and running by the end of the week!) and after tasting eating them all I decided that a double batch was required for a trip to the beach the following day. One batch makes 24 cookies (even if you “test” some of the dough!) and the recipe I borrowed from here.

Ingredients:

185g (3/4 cup) margarine (to make them vegan use nuttlex, otherwise normal margarine will work. Won’t be as good for you but it will work)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 cup caster sugar (I use normal sugar, does the job well enough)

1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 medium size overripe banana, mashed

1 & 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted (or not sifted if you cook like me and couldn’t be bothered!)

1 cup chopped dark chocolate (any form of chocolate/choc-chips will do, for a vegan alternative that isn’t an awful bitter chocolate, I used the Black and Gold dark cooking chocolate, no dairy but plenty of sugar! A vegan carob would probably taste good as well.)

Method:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat margarine, vanilla essence and sugars in a bowl until combined. Beating with a fork works, so don’t waste electricity by turning on your electric beater!

2. Add banana and mix until thoroughly combined.

3. Add sifted flour, mix, then add chocolate chips and stir thoroughly.

4. Cover bowl and refrigerate dough for 1 hour, or until firm.

5. Preheat oven to 180 celsius. Don’t do what I did and pre-heat the oven before you start mixing the dough! Wait until it’s out of the fridge!! (Don’t worry, I realised pretty quick and turned it off, but still…)

6. Place heaped teaspoons of mixture on lightly greased baking tray, or a tray with baking paper on it, and flatten slightly (the dough will be very sticky, so wet your hands to flatten dough balls, it actually works!).

7. Bake at 180 celsius for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

8. Allow to stand for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool.

Don’t worry too much about storage, trust me, they won’t last long enough to need it!

Delish from every angle!

Up close and smelling *great*