and now, i see everything clearly
Posted on | May 18, 2012 | No Comments
this week, i have been embarked on adventure of a surgical kind : i have had a very big, very bad cataract removed from my young eye.
this thing had been hindering me for some time.
in february i went to the optometrist and was promptly sent on to an ophthalmologist.
i have one very shortsighted eye, one very longsighted eye and fast-growing cataracts in both.
no wonder i was having increasing difficulty with the simplest things!
i liked the steady look of the ophthalmologist’s hands, so i booked myself in to his next available surgery (may 16) for my worst eye.
it is a day surgery, done without sedative of any kind.
a half hour prep with drops to dilate the pupil, then i trotted into the next room for a local anaesthetic.
you haven’t lived until you have heard someone say : and now, i am going to make two tiny cuts on the surface of your eye.
the anaesthetic went into my eyeball, and i felt nothing.
pretty soon, the entire half of my face was numb, from hairline to throat, and i was wheeled in to say gidday to the steady-handed one.
my good eye was draped, all banter in the room ceased, and the surgeon got to work.
i could see lots of weird lights and shadows and liquidy squishy things, but as you can imagine, i didn’t move a muscle.
i am quite good at meditating myself away in times of medical stress, so i lost track of time.
eventually, the surgeon said he was all done and that it had taken ten minutes longer because my pupil wouldn’t dilate as much as usual.
we went home and i slept the afternoon and night away, waking for infusions of tea and vegetable juices.
the next morning, we went back to the city and my bandage was removed and my eye was careully opened.
things were a little blurry and weird, but a test on the eye chart showed marked improvement right away. last time we tried the eye chart, i coldn’t even locate the chart, let alone read anything upon it.
i went home clad in sunglasses, with two sets of eye drops.
by early evening, i was sitting on our balcony, drinking pots of jasmine tea and boggling at how far i could see! and how much detail! and the crisp outlines! and colours!
it was all simply amazing.
today my eye feels even better and i can see even more….it is hyper-real! individual trees! leaves on the trees! bits of bark in the mulch! a cat closing his eyes twenty metres away! birds flying two kilometres away!
there will be more improvement to come over the next few days.
i feel as though my whole world has turned into an apple retina display….it is incredible.
in ealy june, i will have cataract #2 removed.
then, for the first time, i will not require prescription glasses for anything at all.
i have one razor sharp eye for reading and one razor sharp eye for distance work….and there will be no cataracts at all.
listening to…
Posted on | April 22, 2012 | No Comments
sandrine piau singing beautiful vivaldi on an album called vivaldi: in furore.
she has such an effortless, light, trilling, thrilling voice.
and anything vivaldi will keep me quiet for hours on end.
some more vivaldi i have been listening to lately:
sergio azzolini: vivaldi: concerti per fagotto and concerti per fagotto 2.
all downloaded from emusic at very reasonable prices ($5 to $7 per album).
has anybody else got any vivaldi favourites that i need to hear?
seriously?
Posted on | April 20, 2012 | 2 Comments
as some readers may know, i am a fervent supporter of KIVA.
go on, click on the link, make a loan to someone (USD$25 gets you started)…i shall wait quietly here for you until you return.
now, what has got me so annoyed about KIVA this evening?
well, they have a person lined up for a $4200 loan.
a young man who lives in new york.
who left his corporate job in 2010, and started a ….wait for it…soap company!
now, i am not saying that he isn’t entitled to a loan if he requires one.
i cannot judge his requirements from here.
but i simply do not believe that KIVA is the place for first world privileged folk to be lining up, with their hands out.
in the first world, we have resources that people in burundi and uganda and the dominican republic et al, can only dream of in their wildest dreams.
how can this guy stand up next to a lot of shoeless cattle farmers in drought-ridden africa, or widowed 35 year old women with six dependents, and say, hey, i need this as much as they do?
sorry, mate.
you might have to get off the monkey bars for a bit and supplement your soap biz with some paid outside work.
we’ve all done it.
solar powered soap!
Posted on | April 17, 2012 | No Comments
after yipping and yammering on about it for literally years, we have finally earlier this month closed a deal on a grid-connected solar system.
it is a big enough system to run our house and the workshop, and sell a few kilowatts back to the electricity company each month.
i have been researching for ages….it is a minefield out there. so many new companies, so much stuff happening in china politically with solar panel manufacturing, so many packages and options, so many warranty fine prints.
ultimately, we like long term bang for buck around here. so we are paying slightly more for tier 1 german-made panels and inverters, with warranties to see us well into our sixties. well, me into my seventies actually.
i am thrilled at the prospect of generating our own power out of all that lovely tropical sunshine!
i rang my accountant to discuss the gst etc on the solar and she was all omg you are getting solar? who are you getting it with? what are you paying? can you send me some info, i haven’t got time to research all this and we want solar too!
so, i have made my first referral too.
a very long time between blogs!
Posted on | April 15, 2012 | 5 Comments
hasn’t time just been off on a wild gallop lately?
somehow, SEVERAL months have slipped by since i last blogged.
how does that happen?
in the interim, i have been to nz (for a family thing, and tremendous fun it was too), driven to melbourne to see geoffrey rush on stage (lady bracknell in the importance of being earnest….and it was just as sparklingly hilarious and excellent as you might imagine), taken up raw veganism (more on that later), endured a bathroom renovation (including a month with no shower or toilet in the house….but as everyone says, the inconvenience of renovation is all worth it in the end) and currently i am in ubud, bali (relaxing, and spending time with a favourite cousin).
it is a year and two days since i slipped on wet tiles and broke my leg so comprehensively, in paris.
i cannot help but look at the nicely-faded scars either side of my ankle, and ponder how deeply fortunate i have been, and what an interesting year i have had.
i have realised that a broken leg is a tiny thing in the general scheme of things….but when it is happening directly to you, it is quite a game-changer.
huge adjustments have to be made immediately and there is no rushing the healing process.
at one point i did wonder if i would ever walk again….yet, here i am.
i am so very grateful for the skillful surgery and care that i received in paris, and the great follow-up i had once i got home. my husband is a truly wonderful man and my parents are awesome.
i did some reading on the broken leg forum and other people’s stories moved me to tears….poor surgeries, shoddy care, permanent damage, health insurance issues, employment issues, no family support.
it certainly made me realise that if i had to have a broken leg, then i was having a really pretty good one.
in january, we signed up with some online friends to undertake a detox regime and support each other while doing it.
by the time we stripped coffee, sugar, wheat, wine, meat, dairy, and eggs from our diet, we were left with fruit, vegetables, nuts, herbs and various seasonings.
o and it was pretty much all raw too.
we started juicing, making green smoothies, and getting very creative with salads and raw nuts.
and the food was delicious.
then we started noticing how GREAT we were feeling….energised, positive, even-tempered, well.
we were sleeping better than we have in years. our digestion was wonderful. skin and tongues and eyes were clear.
i had an initial two days of horrible coffee headaches and after a week of drinking pots full of a detox tea of my own blending, i allowed myself the odd cup of green tea.
months later, i am still not drinking coffee at all…..and i feel so much better for it.
o how i used to love coffee! but it didn’t love me, i can see that now.
so, the initial three weeks came and went and we were both feeling so very marvellous that we just kept on with it.
while the intial discussions about the detox were going on, i enquired about the quitting of wheat.
i have always thought you either had a wheat and/or gluten allergy/sensitivity….or you didn’t. and that you were born with it. or not.
not so fast!
after doing some reading, i now see that there is a whole spectrum of intolerances to wheat and gluten, and things aren’t so cut and dried with regard to genetics. these sensitivities can actually be acquired.
travelling as a raw vegan has been less challenging than you might imagine.
in auckland i went immediately to the long-established harvest wholefoods shop, and stocked up on raw nuts and dried kale and dried fruit and wheatgrass powder….and i managed very well.
in ubud, there is a place (called kafé) which has embraced the raw and is offering several dishes and desserts. i have been going there to get my fix of celery/spinach/parsley/apple juice, with a carrot and turmeric shot on the side!
and there is always salad to be had.
also, my general policy is that while i can completely control the catering at home, while on the road it is ok to just do one’s best and not get hysterical if you are served a bit of fish or butter occasionally.
preparing this food has been a delicious adventure and i will have to share some ideas and recipes here.
trinkets and baubles
Posted on | November 20, 2011 | 4 Comments
my o my.
i’ve been waiting for some weeks, with impatiently tapping foot, for elizabeth taylor’s stuff to be shown online at christies.
i’ve waded through PAGES of awesome jewels and frocks and i’ve got a little something all picked out.
isn’t it gorgeous? wouldn’t the five brooches look FABULOUS pinned up in the right sort of hairdo?
i really like those old mine cut diamonds; such a soft glow to them, rather than a lot of jazzy flashy brilliance. not that there isn’t a time and place for that too.
on the whole though, i was slightly repulsed by the sheer amount of stuff.
how could you possibly enjoy so much stuff?
i bet that even out of that cornucopia of jewels, elizabeth herself had a handful of favourites that she wore over and over.
well, that bloody huge gorgeous krupp diamond was hardly ever off her finger.
if it was mine, i’d wear it all the time too.
but the rest of it? not so much.
and the nonstop work of storing and cleaning and repairing and organising all those clothes and jewels? fuhgettaboutit.
still, i had a most enjoyable couple of hours sifting through it all and if it had come to australia, i would have loved to have seen it all in person.
financial crisis? what financial crisis?
Posted on | October 25, 2011 | 5 Comments
i do wonder what kind of dual-economy madhouse we are all living in when i receive an email from a brand new retailer, on her second day in her brand new boutique, in a teeny weeny town (but i note that it is slightly larger than malanda!) requesting more soaps pronto pronto, because she has already sold out of my large wholesale minimum!
crazy times!
i hope she is taking photos….i had a sneak preview of some of her soap displays and i am hankering to blog them up!
listening to…
Posted on | October 9, 2011 | 3 Comments
….red hot + blue.
a tribute to cole porter.
i’ve had this album for a long time and i don’t think i’ve ever sat down and listened to the whole thing properly.
we were making soap in the workshop during the week and suddenly, i had to stop and run over to check the ipod….was that actually roland gift singing “love for sale”?
why yes, it was.
and it’s the tip of the iceberg.
too darn hot by erasure
night and day….u2.
you do something to me…sinead o’connor.
and my favourite: debbie harry and iggy pop duetting hilariously on well, did you evah?
well, did you evah?
steve jobs
Posted on | October 8, 2011 | 2 Comments
i came to computers late in life….about 34 years old.
i googled soapmaking and a whole world opened up for me.
online friends taught me how to do everything from opening a second window (omg!) to cut and pasting to emailing images and links.
i struggled along with various PCs for about 7 years, because that is what everyone had; and then i started paying attention to one of my cousins, who is/was an apple fanboi.
his enthusiasm was utterly contagious, and it didn’t take long for me to buy a macbook.
suddenly, computers made SENSE to me.
i could easily play with images, music, text. i could chat with people all over the world.
within weeks i had ripped my entire lifelong music collection to itunes, bought a few back-catalogue things (i had never managed to successfully do this on a PC…..i tried and i was billed, but i am still whistling for the actual music) and had bought an ipod classic.
the iphone 3 followed a couple of years later, and was about ten million times faster, cooler and more useful than the top of the range palm pre/pro (who can even remember?) rubbish i traded in for it.
nowadays, my office computer is a shiny new imac with lion osx….my husband and i travel with and play on an ipad each (because trying to share one of those things is im.possible)….he has an ipod touch with all of his music loaded onto it….and i’ve still got my original ipod classic and iphone.
we are an apple family.
we like finding recipes, taking photos, listening to music, emailing friends/family, chatting on the phone….pretty much every day.
steve jobs made a tremendous difference to the ease and enjoyment with which we do these things.
his designs and ideas have a huge and ongoing positive impact on myriad things i do for business and for pleasure every single day.
RIP mr jobs. we’ll sorely miss you, but we’ll remember you with gratitude every single time we see a luminous apple.
garlic lovers, rejoice
Posted on | October 3, 2011 | 5 Comments
we love garlic around here, but nobody adores the job of peeling the stuff.
after seeing the smart saveur clip below, we are now lining up to peel the garlic!
i’ll do it! NO, let ME!!
this really truly works, and is a great dinner party trick too.
and i use bowls that are about one fifth the size of the demo models, so don’t feel you have to dig out the gigantor bowls for this.
How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.
more photos from japan
Posted on | September 24, 2011 | 4 Comments
really old
Posted on | September 21, 2011 | No Comments
and then there was this weird little pottery pilgrim’s bottle.
10th century, liao dynasty, green glaze, gangwa ware.
i fell in love with the glaze on this piece and the shape of it, not to mention the sheer utility of it.
a bit of rope through the hole, hang it round your neck, and off you go on your pilgrimage!
it looks like it came out of the kiln yesterday.
it was a good thing that there was a sheet of glass between me and the pilgrim bottle.
i totally wanted to pick it up and feel it’s cool curves and slightly rough glaze.
i bet you do too, now.
really really old
Posted on | September 21, 2011 | 2 Comments
at the tokyo metropolitan museum, we spent hours poring over amazing samurai swords and pottery and kimonos and calligraphy and prints.
but these two items really captured me…..both of them ancient and both of them just kinda cool in that design-y way.
check these out.
first up is the 3500+ year old jia wine warmer from the erlitou culture, shang dynasty, dated 16th to 18th century BC.
that is hella old. and very beautiful.
big in japan
Posted on | September 20, 2011 | 4 Comments
we certainly felt big in japan when we visited our soap in a couple of perfect potion’s kyoto shops.
both are simply beautiful shops, with that unmistakeable perfect potion scent of blended essential oils as soon as you walk in….fabulous displays, and charming staff.
the temples and gardens were amazing, but seeing our soap here was a highlight too!
shop #2, with the gorgeous staff:
shop #2 with the gorgeous soapmakers:
shop #1 with the gorgeous staff:
lashings of soap:
the golden temple, kyoto
Posted on | September 19, 2011 | 2 Comments
this is possibly one of the most famous sights in japan, apart from mt fuji of course.
(we saw mt fuji from the train en route to kyoto and she was completely magnificent).
we were there on a boilingly hot late summer day, no breeze, just a bit of cloud cover….and it was difficult to get a bad shot of this amazingly beautiful temple:
fushimi inari taisha
Posted on | September 17, 2011 | No Comments
i took a lot of photos at this fascinating shinto shrine.
it is the main shrine to the deity inari, who is the deity of rice and foxes, amongst other things.
the foxes favourite thing to eat is inari sushi…balls of rice stuffed into fried tofu.
this is one of my favourite things too! coincidence!
bazillions of vermilion and black painted wooden gates (torii) form various tunnels that lure you hypnotically along the hillside.
as you walk through, the sunlight flickers above you, and the green foliage flashes through red and black torii.
the torii have all been donated over the years, as offerings to inari.
it is one of the strangest and most wonderful places i have ever been.
and i’ll be uploading more photos as i go along.
miso mayo
Posted on | September 17, 2011 | No Comments
i do have some photos of japan to upload and organise (temples temples temples and our soap in kyoto) but in the meantime, i want to talk about a very simple dish we ate a few times in kyoto.
it was simply miso (usually a lighter sweeter miso, not one of those dark and mysterious type misos) mixed with mayonnaise and served with sticks of carrot, celery, daikon, cucumber and big bites of cabbage.
we are absolutely addicted to it and have been making it at home since we landed.
i guess about 7 parts mayo to 1 part miso is pretty good and you can adjust it how you like.
i also add a handful of sunflower and pumpkin seeds to the dip….only because i like them in everything. they didn’t do that in japan, but the flavours work together.
we make a big platter of the vegetables and a bowl of the dip, and keep it in the fridge with a damp clean tea towel over it to keep everything madly crisp.
not that it gets much chance to dry out or get old around here.
matsuya ginza
Posted on | September 6, 2011 | 3 Comments
we arrived in narita late last night, after a slightly delayed, but otherwise uneventful flight.
maurice got us onto the jr express train to tokyo, then we hopped on a very short tokyo metro ride to ginza.
our exit was the furthest-flung imaginable and my leg had begun to play up, so the last bit through the almost-midnight strets of the ginza seemed to take foreverrrrrr.
maurice heroically shouldered both bags to give me some respite….he’s just lovely like that.
it was raining very lightly and gently, but warm; quite pleasant after the flight.
after checking in to our hotel, we showered and fell into a very comfortable bed and slept dreamlessly until 8am.
after breakfast this morning, we hit the streets with no agenda.
we window-shopped all the luxury brands and went to the matsuya ginza department store.
they have an underground food hall that has to be seen to be believed.
we paced the aisles, salivating and joggling each other’s elbows to look at the gorgeous presentations.
we looked at fabulous luggage and pens and shoes and handkerchiefs and kimono fabrics and furoshiki cloths and jewels and kitchenwares and ceramics and eventually ended up in the top floors at a restaurant with hot plates built into the table tops and no english menus.
we pretty much asked the waiter for her favourites: and noodles and pork and egg and yam and cabbage and stuff started rolling out from the big grill out the front for us to grill up a bit more on our tables.
we had iced jasmine tea in big glass mugs.
everything was delicious and none of it was like anything we had ever eaten before.
just perfect!
i needed to rest my leg by this stage, so we headed back to the hotel.
we thought we’d read…..two hours later we both woke up, dressed up, asked the hotel reception staff for a dinner recommendation, then headed out to a place called en, just around the corner.
the people on the street were all dressed to the nines and there isn’t a speck of litter anywhere.
and everyone is so polite and friendly. it’s just fabulous.
en is a japanese restaurant: shoes off, tatami mats, low tables, entire staff shouting out in unison when you enter.
we sat looking into the kitchen from a bench, and it was dinner theatre of the best kind.
nobody rushed or looked stressed. no voices were raised. food rolled out at intervals, in no particular order.
every dish was a work of art.
we had tuna sashimi, tuna and avocado salad in miso, chilled silken tofu, garlic rice, chicken sausage, yam pancake.
i had a glass of sweet plum wine on ice and it was divine.
we will probably go back tomorrow night….there were loads of other things we wanted to try!
we called back into the matsuya food hall on the way home and picked up a piece of chocolate layer cake and a gorgeous little fruit tart with grapes from some paris-based patisserie.
these were careully packed into a box so they wouldn’t move, there were two kinds of stickers applied, the receipt, a postcard….then another girl was brandishing a huge fancy heavy paper bag, to slide the whole shebang into…..at which point i drew the line in the name of the environment, and off we merrily went into the night with our boxed cakes, only to be caught in an absolutely torrential downpour.
the rain was bouncing off the footpaths, such was the force of it.
i cannot run of course, so i limped through the rain with maurice beside me and we had a pretty good laugh en route and got soaked to the skin within seconds.
then we couldn’t find the room key, so we rode up and down the elevator like dripping maniacs, looking everywhere (no key, no ability to choose a floor).
it was just lovely to get back to hot showers, hot tea, our cakes (made it through the rain unscathed) and dry sarongs.
tomorrow we’ve got a 3am start, and we are off to the famous fish market (gotta be there early early early to catch the action, apparently) and then on to some place maurice has been to before, for a sushi breakfast.
this and that
Posted on | August 30, 2011 | 2 Comments
o dear….it is like a ghost town blog around here!
i can hear the wind whistling through the empty streets and see the lonely tufts of tumbleweed rolling.
you must forgive me…i have been IMMERSED in google+.
and today, i deleted my google+ account.
why, you may ask, as you scratch your puzzled head.
and with good reason.
i was utterly delighted with the idea of google+ just a few weeks ago. and now, deletion?
i’ve been following the NYMWARS…..google’s insistence on members having their real name out there, preferably following an anglicised convention of first name + surname.
lots of people have been screaming about this and with good cause.
1. their online name might just happen to be their brand….and that may not actually be the name on their bank accounts or the name their mother calls them.
2. people are concerned about stalkers
3. google is gathering personal information, so they can sell us off to the highest bidder/s.
ok, so i read my way through the first layer of concern…i could empathise, but it didn’t affect me.
my name is also my brand and it’s also my real name. i like to keep things simple like that.
the second point…stalkers are scary, but kind of rare, and who would want to stalk a soapmaker who loves cats and gardens and travel, anyway? i figure a stalker would have bigger fish to fry, then someone like me. seriously.
but the third point grabbed my attention.
on the whole, i like google.
i use a lot of google products and i use ‘em daily.
but this all seems a bridge too far.
i read a lot about google wallet (google this for more information) and frankly it seems like nobody will be happy until we are all chained to a handful of huge bland brands.
me, i like choices. and handmade things. and supporting the little guy (whenever the little guy is producing a quality product). and less interference in my shopping habits, all round. because purchasing is ultimately what it is all about. and on the net….if you aren’t buying something, then YOU are the product.
so, strictly based on the third point, i’ve pulled my g+ account.
all of my content there has been wiped out as though i never existed.
my sincere apologies to anyone who is waiting for a g+ invitation from me.
……………………………………………………………………….
and in other news.
i took myself off to bali for 11 restorative days earlier in august.
i had my broken limb massaged daily, i lounged about reading and listening to music and chatting with people, and i ate a lot of very spicy food, and enjoyed myself thoroughly.
i confined my walking to a bumpy 100 metre strip of monkey forest road in ubud….everything i needed was contained therein.
i achieved my long-held goal of travelling with one small bag (cabin luggage only) and it was easier than expected.
i loved being able to pack up and go in a mere five minutes, and i loved not being at the mercy of an outside laundry.
i had a total of 11 separates and the holiday ran out before the outfit combinations did.
with my small bag, i even managed the tarmac debarkation of the aircraft in darwin with some aplomb.
i took barely any photographs….it wasn’t that kind of trip.
and i was in no shape to be crouching or climbing or leaning over for better shots.
all of this has encouraged us to continue with plans to visit japan next week.
we intend to visit the tokyo fish market, the osaka aquarium, a lot of kyoto temples and gardens, and to see the autumn foliage.
and get to grips with some sushi!
at least one thing stayed the same
Posted on | July 19, 2011 | 2 Comments
i saw my podiatrist yesterday and did the thing where you stand on the computerised pad and then walk over it and your bio-mechanics show up on a computer screen, all colour-coded and what-have-you.
he sucked his breath in when he saw my x-rays and was mightily impressed by the degree of dislocation my ankle suffered *quote: that is about as dislocated as you can get*
after the breakages and the surgery and the hardware and the swelling, i was expecting that i would need a new insole at the very least, but lo and behold, it appears that things are pretty much the same in the foot department.
i am strangely excited by this.
everything else in my leg has changed, all the way from my toes to my hip….but my flat foot remains just as flat as before, no worse and no better.
naturally, i am favouring the good leg a bit when i walk, but when i am standing, i am still very even with the weight distribution between the feet.
this is a good thing, apparently.
he very kindly gave me a complimentary consultation and of course i don’t have to cough up another five hundred bucks for a fresh orthotic….this year at least.
google+
Posted on | July 18, 2011 | 2 Comments
so, i guess you’ve heard all about google+ already?
i have been there for a few days, playing with the circles and checking things out.
it is easier and nicer than facebook, and not as shallow and demented as twitter.
if you would like an invitation, please send me your email address in the comments….i won’t publish it.
if you are already there and you’d like to find me, i am www.gplus.to/soapmaker
see you there, perhaps.
make your own pita bread
Posted on | July 17, 2011 | No Comments
my oven needs cleaning.
in fact, it is shamefully filthy and it is now smoking like a train whenever anything goes in there.
it’s just going to have to wait until my leg is really a lot better.
however, just because the oven is horrid, doesn’t mean that everyone around here is suddenly tired of warm, fresh bread.
o no, it does not.
so i scoured the webz and dug up a pita bread recipe, and a frybread recipe and sort of mashed the ingredients and the methods together and came up with something quite edible.
you will need:
2 tsp instant yeast
1 cup warm water
mix together and let it sit for five minutes.
add:
2.5 cups of flour
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp olive oil
mix it up into a shaggy dough.
now start kneading it, and add more flour as you go.
you want a pliable, satiny ball of dough and that will take about 10 minutes of serious kneading and about a cup more of flour.
when it’s done, cloak it, and roll it into an oiled bowl (so it gets a light film of oil all over) and throw a clean tea towel over it.
let it sit for an hour, somewhere warm, until it has doubled.
knead it for a further couple of minutes.
cut it into eight pieces.
form each piece into a ball, cloak it, set it somewhere warm and replace the tea towel over the lot.
leave them for about 20 minutes.
now, roll each one out….you might need a bit of flour to stop the rolling pin from sticking.
don’t go crazy with flour, keep it to a minimum.
they will roll into nice little ovals, quite naturally.
let the flat breads sit for another five minutes.
get your biggest heaviest cast iron frying pan out and oil it lightly, and heat it to medium hot.
i have a lodge pan that i bought on ebay some years ago….i love that thing.
now, cook up your pitas, one or two at a time….or more if they will fit.
2 to 3 minutes each side.
when you cook the first side, they will puff up fabulously with a big air pocket in the middle IF you haven’t cheated on the kneading.
when i flip them over, i flatten them down with a metal spoon, so they cook evenly.
otherwise i get burnt bits and raw bits together….unappetising.
stack your cooked pitas in the same old tea towel you began with, to let them steam and soften….or if you prefer crispy bits, leave them out to cool.
i made mine with freshly ground whole wheat flour, set to powder fine.
the breads are more tan than the commercial ones and taste especially nutty and tasty with all that bran and wheatgerm and good stuff.
there is a batch of yoghurt brewing and if i look into my crystal ball, i see raita with garlic and cumin and shredded carrot and a heap of fresh mint…..scooped up with refried pita triangles.
*drool*
a blast from the past
Posted on | July 16, 2011 | Comments Off
there has been some chitchat lately around the interwebz about soap makers all copying one another and who was first with a certain look, and then the copiers usually shout “but it doesn’t even matter who was FIRST and there is nothing original anywhere anymore anyway”.
there was a hideous blog post recently, with some woman calling out a bunch of etsy sellers as all copiers without an original thought between them, all the soap looked the same….i was horrified to see my own website there, just one amongst a heap of derivations.
i was going to share a link with you….but she has put a password-protection on her blog, on that particular post.
what the poster failed to note, was that my soap wasn’t derived from anywhere but inside my own brain.
when i first started selling my soap in late 2001, i had never seen anything remotely like it before….and neither had anyone else.
this is partly why we had such a huge and immediate success with our soap….if it had just looked like everything else, then how to explain how it took off like it did, in a small town in far north queensland, just after 9/11, when everyone was in shock-horror and tourism had ground to a complete halt locally?
when we bought an apartment in oct 2002, purely to make soap in (we had expanded out of our own kitchen and needed dedicated premises…and what is more, could afford dedicated premises)….i mentioned it online, and was publicly called a liar.
this was long before i owned a computer, or even a camera…..so i had to enlist friends to take photographs, upload them to the internet, and create a geocities site for me…..so i could at least show the doubters some photographic proof.
of course, geocities closed down a couple of years ago and with it went my images.
but this evening, in a moment of idleness, i considered the wayback machine and ran my old site through it.
lo and behold, this popped up, complete with images….the first recorded date they have is oct 12th 2003.
i posit that even this, almost 2 years after i had started making my unique style, and 11 months after i had started selling it, was still long before anyone else was making “my” kind of soap.
of course, if anyone has any images of this style that pre-dates mine…i’ll eat a bar of my own soap, provided you can show me where you may have posted those images online before mine were posted.
you can click on any of the images and be taken to my flickr page, where it clearly says: This photo was taken on November 12, 2002 using a Kodak DC290 Zoom.
and because we love photos:
new kittens
Posted on | July 11, 2011 | Comments Off
finally, some photos!
mr knut:
mr bolli bollason:
all together now:
google+
Posted on | July 11, 2011 | Comments Off
via my soapmaking connections, i finally wrangled a google+ invitation.
i’m here: gplus.to/soapmaker
so if you are in the neighbourhood, please add me and i’ll add you back.
so far, it seems a lot cleaner and a more intuitive user interface than facebook (which i never got the hang of anyway, and in a fit of pique, finally closed my account 2.5 years ago).
