Catherine’s Blog

Shark Fin Dumplings

Originally uploaded by LPM

I have eight cousins. Well, technically nine cousins. Two on the Currie side we don’t communicate with. The others are Duggans, there are M Duggan’s lot, Steven, Bruce, Robert and Anne (dec) and then there are the K Duggan’s lot; Sandra, Mark and Wayne. We range over ten years, including Michael as the youngest. I am a similar age to Robert and Wayne who are the youngest of their families. We are a mixed bunch with our own heavy burdens. Sickness, marital breakup and curve balls have littered our adult lives. Michael and I grew up in Ballarat whilst the Duggan’s grew up near each other in Melbourne so as a result they are closer.
So why am I telling you this? Well, you will see I have one girl cousin, Sandra, I still remember her playing dolls with me when I was young. I still remember some of her boyfriend’s and the fact she always time form her cousin who was quite a bit younger than her. I think it is 8 or 9 years, she will correct me if I am wrong. She is about as close I have a sister in blood relation. She also reads this blog.
I don’t have a huge readership but Sandra has always read this and when life his rock bottom she sent me an email. Not much besides she and the family were thinking of me and that was a nice boost in a tough time.
Thursday night I caught up with Sandra, she is now very successful having worked her way up from a filing clerk to high up in a well know Australian company. She has two little boys who were toddlers when I last saw them and a delightful husband who has had some really tough battles over the past years.
We strolled around South Melbourne market, shopped a bit and caught up. It was really nice, the steamed buns so good we went back for seconds. It was great to chat to someone who has seen marriage break ups from a family perspective and talk about the genetic heritage we share. We have a common Grandmother, Alma, who was a ruling matriarch until she passed away and even in death manages to keep the family together with trips to Castelmaine.
Chatting with Sandra, made me think, I really should get to know my cousins better. They are all at different points in their lives to me but I should make more an effort. One thing I have learnt of the past few years is family is important. They are the rock that stops you being drowned. Family put up with the odd balls and embrace them. There are very strong personalities in my family and it causes clashes but I suspect as we get older we find ways around this.
My first step to that is facebook stalking them all. Sorry Robert, you can’t hide.
They may not want to have much to do with their little cousin, I have changed a lot, I am more jaded and cynical, I have a more bleak out look on life and that is a great pity. But then again that maybe for the best.
One thing is for sure. I am going back for those steamed buns.. Thank you Sandra for reading.

We managed to get out of the house pretty quickly Christmas morning after we opened presents.  Anthony was pleased with his presents, I gave him a Snowboarding Wii game and a map of the London underground with the station names replaced with words meaning drunk.  I got a Wii game and a Voltire CD.
We made great time up the motorway with my flagrant disregard of the speed limit.
The company and food was brilliant.  My nutroast apparently is Anthony’s culinary highlight of the year.  The goose was wonderful and I have a stash of fat.  The potatoes were crunchy and fatty!  E’s parents liked their presents.
We lit lights for Chanukah and open more presents!  Then there was communal Wii games and general mayhem.
It was a lovely Christmas, and although I missed my family it was great spending it with a family that through them selves into the festivities.

The sun is shining today but it is very cold outside.  I have bought myself a new fangled thermal layer from Uniqlo to see if it works and have the gloves and scarf and have to find my ear muffs and hat.  There was snow on the ground when we woke on Sunday morning.  Maybe there will be a white Christmas?
Okay so this weekend…
Friday was Anthony’s birthday, he got a nice haul of presents this year.  Joyce sent him TimTams and a frog.  I gave him wine and snow boarding lessons.  Of course there was gin and cufflinks earlier in the month.
Friday night we saw Sigur Ros at Alexandra Palace, Anthony enjoyed himself and I was pleased I wore my gig shoes.  Three inch platform Sneakers.  The show was very good and their music lovely as always but I think I prefer them in a more intimate venue.
Saturday Anthony went to Reading for a Microsoft conference and I pottered at home, doing shopping and cleaning.
I pop into Peter and Sarah’s house warming and caught up with people.  Still fighting off the cold I did not stay for long.  It seems Bibbett the houseguest cat will have somewhere very nice to go live in.
Sunday Ela arrived and we cooked up a storm for our guests, Andy and Eline.  Andy had designed the FrogMort logo for me so I wanted to pay him back.  We also talked about a professional website for photography.  He has better ideas that putting it together using Flash.  There was lots of food and huge amounts of GIN!
I am back at work feeling a lot better but taking it slow this week, must get back into the cross stitch.

This weekend is a long wekend in England.  Anthony and I have been staying with Ela’s family.  We have had a relaxed weekend.

Saturday was a little stressful as we cooked a buffet for ten people and we manage to come up with some stunning repices.  Duck eggs being the bomb and are just wonderful scrambled.  We drank just a astounding amount of wine and we possibly should have had hangovers in the morning.

Today we walked to the supermarket and picked up cooking supplies and wandered back.   Ela and I pottered in the kitchen and managed to pull out a wonderful meal.

Tomorrow we are heading back to london and on a diet to make up for the massive but brilliant amounts of food.

Not that much exciting stuff at the moment. Micheal and Natalie are on their way to Japapn and Joyce and Arnie are looking after the boys.

Last night, ela came over and we were going to cook a qucik meal and relax. It did not turn out that way and it appeared we preped and cooked meat from about 7 onwards till we fell into bed about 11.

Ela’s mum needed help, she was having people to dinner today and only found out last night. So we marinated a lot of meat, stuck some on skewers and generally had fun. I think we made five seperate marinades and surprisingly my kitchen holds most of the ingredinets into for this carry on.

Our dinner was satay beef and quorn for Anthony.

This morning, after freezing the food in the new whizz band freezer, we had to pack it up. We only have cooler bags, thermal bags for wine. And we had a lot of food. In the end it all went in a suitcase and Ela was on the train with a movable feast!  Very funny.

It does give pause to think what other people have in their suitcases.

It is the little things, I have said it before and will say it again.

Last night I went to the pub as I normally do on a Thursday, I get together with a group of London Goths off the web. We vote on the pub, but if it is your birthday you can choose the pub and pleasingly I chose a pub and lots of people attended. There were Everything2 people and work colleagues; it was great fun besides the very loud music. I got cards and all which was very sweet.

Today was a bummer because I could not find Jeans I liked. Humph.

I had a nap on the couch when I got back and Anthony gave me a surprise. He had bought duck eggs and blue goats cheese at the Borough Market. That is a little thing, but so thoughtful. I discovered duck eggs last week and tonight we had duck egg omelette with goats cheese. Divine!!! Oh, there were chives as well.  This is the little thing, four duck eggs, 35p each but thoughtful, knowing my love of cooking and how much I enjoyed the last eggs last week and because there was meat involved he had not had a chance to try it.

I also have found the most amazing photo of myself. Simon took this at Vagabonds, a club night, last month. I have not had such a lovely photo in a long time.  Thank you Simon.

So along with the photo, duck eggs we have opened one of the wines from Australia, tucked away for a special occasion. A Blue Pyrenees Late Harvest, yummy, full of home memories and love.

Not a bad start for my Birthday weekend.

Week Fourteen, originally uploaded by LPM.

Well, I am catching up so big post. This is this weeks picture, a tad lazy but i was dry for Ideas, I have some for this coming weekend.

Well, last weekend was pretty okay.

Friday was good fun, Ela and I cooked up a storm, producing three new recipes.
Saturday was a bit of a fail getting things done for me. I did get my hair cut but I am not that impressed with the results, the last cut was nicer. We bought a beautiful walking stick for anthony but failed to find black jeans for me. M&S only had charcoal coloured ones. I suspect the black will be back for autumn and I have coped with one pair this long.
I spoke to my brother and that removed some pressure I had put on myself. Also Ela and I have booked a holiday away together, very excited about that, we are going to stockholm for a week.
We also cleared out some of Anthony’s clothing and in the process completed my White Mischief outfit, which will be either very cool or me looking like an extra from Oliver Twist.
I had a what to wear fail for Vagabonds, a club night, I oddly got lots compliements but had just thrown stuff on.
Picture here.
Vagabond was lovely, it was great to see all those familiar faces and some faces that I have met recently and have had the good fortune to see again.
Unfortunately it was not a good night sleep had at the lilypad , anthony was unwell and is only just coming right now.
Sunday was a bit nerve racking and although turned out well, I still having fits of nerves. I am thinking long and hard about it. I think this is going stay vague, there is a project in the wingsd.
This week I have finally put together one sets of cards for selling on esty.com.

• food
• sunburnt country
• hands
• London
• water falls
• dragonflies
• African animals
• and a couple of others I can not remember.

I have huge lists to do this week, I am not going to have motivation wibbles, well, will try not to. So in no particular order I have to:

• cut out some patterns
• cut out fabric,
• order photos,
• purchase some white fabric for taking photos with and providing a background,
• get my rss feeds under control,
• find some stuff on taking portraits,
• work out if I am going to bother about my birthday this year, frankly it is getting me into a state in my head,
• sew stuff,
• order feathers for costume,
• write up at least two recipes,
• tidy my side of the bedroom and bring order to that chaos,
• tidy the lounge,
• lose another ½ kg, (I did until this morning, opps)
• clean up my email inbox
• Take a self portrait
• take portrait of Anthony

The weather has been up and down here, from rain to bright sunlight, it is quite warm today. Tonight I am working late, so not going to the pub.

The weekend was reasonably relaxing catching up on jobs, I have almost uploaded all the photos I want from the trip to South Africa.
Friday I night I went out for cake with Ellie at Coffee, Cake and Kink.  I had a slice of their chocolate fudge cake with ice cream shaped like a breast, it was divine as always, scrumy.  Ellie and I chatted about many things before deciding the night was young, we really had not other plans and headed of in search of a bar that Ellie had heard about.  We found it just near Euston station, caught the tail end of the burlesque night and generally had a relaxing night.
Saturday was a quick nip into Camden and then in search of tripod for my camera.  We went to two shops and in the end bought a second hand Manfrotto one, which I am pleased about and will have to practice with soon.
Saturday night I cooked a favourite meal of butternut and feta risotto and we went off to the movies.  We saw There Will be Blood which I am still unsure how I feel about it, I think there was a lot cut from the script.
Sunday I spent mainly on the phone and playing with photos, the long running saga of the South Africa trip.
The other highlights I have missed were the discovery of a nearby Green Man Pub which was lovely and cooking Chicken Orange with Ela.  All in all a good week.
This week I am working late at work twice and seem to be pressed for time which I am not liking.  No major plans for this weekend.

I am rubbish I have not updated in an age.

I promised to let you know what happened with the dinner party, so here it is in glorious technicolour.

First, the making of the involtini, using Natalies recipe which I have written up for all the world to read here .

The rolling of the involtini was fiddly and messy but fun and tasty!

Don’t they look pretty? The sauce is yet to go on.

The starter was a vegetarian tapas, very pleasant and tasty.

From L-R Grilled marinated halloumi,  spinach and chickpea dip, goats cheese and herb dip, cannelloni and roasted red pepper dip and rosemary and raisin bread.  There was dry biscuits and almonds as well.

The main meal was involtini with green salad.

I forgot to take a photo until we ate almost all of it!

Sweets was apple and raspberry pie served with whipped cream.

It was a very good meal and made even better with good company of Anthony, Phil, Lucy and Julian.

I have enjoyed the weekend.

Friday night was spent at home as Anthony was a work thing and I decided to try and do the final shopping for the dinner party and mooch around. I must admit to being bored of sitting at home on my own, the tether has been reached.
Saturday was an early start because the postman rang the bell. Then I pottered around catching up on the washing Anthony had bought home with him (I have no idea how he manages to fill the basket up so quickly), I figured I would dry the clothes outside. Yes, dear reader, you read that right London was unseasonably warm, the temperature is above 10 degrees and seen n the street today were people in t-shirts. It was lovely to open the house and let it the fresh air and surprisingly, warmth in.
Sooo, most of the rest of my day was spent pottering around and getting everything cooked for dinner. I do enjoy this sort of thing and it was quite stress free because I had done so much preparation before hand.
So, the menu for the first dinner party of 2008:
Pumpkin soup made with butternut squash and crown prince pumpkin with a small can of coconut milk. Garnished with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of sage. (No photos)

The main meal was individual leek, blue cheese and chestnut pies and for the meat eaters the surprise ingredient was chicken poached in sherry and vegetable stock. Each pie had a message on it to indicate the ingredients.

This was served with scalloped potatoes (which got a little burnt) and a super salad with pickled ginger, goats cheese and peppadews in it.

Dessert was individual apple crumbles served with whipped cream.

All of this was washed down with lots of wine.

Then we moved onto the final course which was the cheese course that also had gin tasting in it. We tasted three gins, a new one called Juniper Green which was not that well received, followed by the favourite Hendricks and then the wonderful Bombay Sapphire. The cheeses were an English Brie, smoked cheddar and Wensleydale and cranberry. This was a lovely round off for the evening.

The guests also rate a mention, we had the witty if slightly ill Andrew and his delightful girlfriend Iza and this was rounded out with Mitchell (the ex housmate) who was in fine form and Rachel, who realised that she was the only English person at the dinner!

Sunday I possibly woke with a hangover but got up and spoke with Michael, Natalie and Fergus who told me about his swimming lesson.

Then I went down to Camden to rubber neck at the fire. It has burnt out a large area including one of the Markets and the pub that appears to be famous for Amy Winehouse drinking there. While away Anthony attacked the mess left over from the night before.

The mess from the fires was not that visible but click on the picture to get to more photos.

The other exciting thing that happened was that Anthony and I moved furniture around and the bedroom is much better with the removal of the freestanding wardrobe into the spare room. Very pleased.

This week is packing and getting ready to go to Scotland for the weekend as well as getting down and dirty with the South African photos. I am going to neglect the house work and focus on the pictures!