Flowers

Some beautiful flowers around the neighborhood.

Artichoke dip and Crackers

So my next attempt in the kitchen went I think well, but Seth thinks I went lemon crazy. The artichoke dip I made consisted of 1 can of artichoke hearts, the juice and zest of half a lemon, one packet of Neufchâtel cheese (cream cheese) and half a chili pepper. The "crakers" or flat bread was almost 2 cups flour, about a third of a cup of olive oil and a half a cup of water. I tried making crackers with cream and butter the other day, and they were nice, but a bit thick and flakey. The oil seems to have made it much easier to roll out into a thin square and was much easier to work with. They also came out much more cracker like. I did however forget to score the dough so instead of breaking into nice little squares, you get the odd shapes.

Who knows what I'll try next.

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

So I found this amazing recipe at Smitten Kitchen for their Rich Homemade Ricotta. It was amazingly simple and soooo good! I used the 3.5 cups of milk and half cup of heavy cream. I let it sit in the cheese cloth for about two hours, and noticed that it seemed that there were a lot of curds left in the whey so I'm currently running the left overs through the cheese cloth for a second time. I'll let you know how that batch comes out. The original batch came out so smooth. I was worried about using the lemon, but there is only a small hint of lemon flavor, and it's amazing.

Anyway, here is the finish result. Back in Oz a favorite breakfast of mine was banana bread with ricotta and honey. When I first saw it on a menu I thought it would be horrible, but I was so very wrong. Just try it for yourself some day and you'll see.

The walk to work

The trees are in bloom and spring is officially here (at least in Oz).

Me on the radio

So I got to go on the radio the other day to talk about my research, but then didn't talk much about it at all. Anyway here it is.
So I couldn't figure out how to easily upload just the sound, so here is the interview with some random photos that I have taken.

back to Blue mountain photos

Some fun Pics

Another Day in Sunny Cairns

Although Cairns is an incredibly packed full of tourist, it still is a beautiful area. If coming here though, I would suggest going a bit north or south of town and go to some amazing beaches.

Some of the local wild life.

We saw some more mud skippers and had a tiny tiny lizard visit us in the hotel.

It's gone to the birds

Crabs, Crabs, Crabs

Three different types of crabs...

Boats and sky

The clouds finally lifted in Cairns, nice weather, but more of a sunburn risk.

Run, Run, Run, Far away from Hides in Cairns

The hotel that we stayed at this last night (and unfortunately tonight, but at least this way we wont get docked any money) is the Hides in Cairns. It was possibly the worst hotel I have ever stayed in. The knobs for the shower were out side of the shower, and not within arms reach, at least not for me... But with our sob story in hand, we were able to get a room at the Hilton, and not just any room, but an upgraded room to the second highest floor, with a spa bath! So all is good.

Okay, I think I might love the camera

On the way to uni today I saw two kookaburras and I was able to grab my bag and get the camera and get some photos. I still really miss the raw file system, but the small size is great.

I really miss the raw mode...

New Point and Shoot

So I went and got a new point and shoot camera so that I could take more photos more on the fly. Not sure how I like the photo outcomes, but we'll see. I think I'm just missing the raw capabilities. Then again maybe this will make me learn how to better use the manual settings. I wont be able to "fix" the photos like I use to... Here are some of the first takes.

A window