Weekly Photo Challenge: Simple

Posted on 24 January 2012 by SJPONeill

My first (decent) cup of expresso coffee....

I almost missed this week’s photo challenge: I’ve been changing all my contact details to my new email address (part of the whole ISP change thing, shifting to an email provider that is not tied to an ISP) – this is not a simple task, believe me, and somewhere all the way I dropped off some of my WordPress subscriptions including the one for the Weekly Photo Challenge.

Carmen bought us a flash new coffee machine for Christmas – not many bells but loads of whistles – and now the creation of coffee in our home has become something of an art form. Simple? Nope!! Not at first for me anyway!! Let’s just call it ‘simple – with practice’…

A winning combination

Posted on 21 July 2011 by SJPONeill

I think mine looked better than these from the Greggs website…

Picked up the award for the best two course meal served in our house ever last weekend…just one of those chance ideas that rolled through the in-box a few weeks ago, curried kumara fritters with smoked salmon…simple as a simple thing to prepare…

Serves: makes 12 large fritters so 2-4 people depending how hungry they are – this is very filling…

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 7 minutes

Ingredients

4 cups grated kumara (approx 500g)
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp Curry Powder (medium strength)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Natural Sea Salt, freshly ground
2 Tbsp oil
125g sour cream
100g sliced smoked salmon
2 spring onions, finely chopped

Method

Place the kumara, red onion, curry powder, eggs and sea salt in a bowl. Mix well.

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Place tablespoonfuls of the prepared mixture into the pan; cook for a few minutes on each side or until the fritters are cooked through and golden brown.

Serve as a layered stack, alternating the fritters, sour cream and salmon slices.

Garnish with spring onion, slamon and a dob of sour cream on top.

Serve with salad.

I had enough smoked salmon left over for a decent omelette for two the following night – Carmen felt that the salmon tatse didn’t quite come through enough so I’d recommend using the fill 100 grams of salmon across the four stacks.

Dessert was pears poached in red wine from our very old ‘Favourite Desserts’ book (also the home of our world-famous in Raurimu butterscotch pudding):

Serves: two

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 pear, peeled, core and quartered
1 1/2 cups red wine (a stronger brew can be made safely with up to 2 1/2 cups of wine)
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
4 whole cloves
An inch of cinnamon stick

Method

Dissolve sugar in wine and water in a saucepan over medium heat.

Add pears, cloves and cinnamon stick.

Simmer until pears are cooked through

Remove pears and serve with ice cream. Pour wine juice to taste over ice cream.

The remaining juice makes a great semi-mulled wine served hot on very cold nights.

The original recipe called for six whole pears coooked whole with proportionally more ingredient – the first time I made this, the wine juice only penetrated less than 1/4 inch into the pears which didn’t really pick up the flavour plus there were way too many pears for just the two of us. This time we found that half a pear each i.e. two quarters with ice cream was heaps especially after the fritters…

Simple’s Good

Posted on 3 July 2011 by SJPONeill

I was a bit stuck for dinner tonight…we had roast lamb for lunch which was both simple and quite awesome but once everyone left I was on my own and still quite peckish – possibly because the main fire is misbehaving and so the house wasn’t as warm and comfortable as it usually is…

I’d come across this recipe a couple of weeks ago when I ended up with a surfeit of mince, cheese and potato which was largely a factor of what was left in the house when I was stranded here buggy and with a flat battery…then I got by with my trusty curry and beans recipe which keeps me going for 3-4 days…whatever I did tonight would have to do me tomorrow as well so I didn’t have to thaw out more food that I’d actually use before going to work on Tuesday…

It is very simple, very fast and very yummy…at the moment it is the Formula One of my culinary repertoire…

500 g minced beef

3 slice(s) white bread,crumbled

250 g cottage cheese

1 medium egg, beaten

1 small onion, chopped

salt, to taste

Then…

Combine all ingredients and fill into a baking pan.

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Bake for 30 minutes.

That’s it….uber-simple and served up with steaming hot root veges, tonight parsnip, carrot, potato and two different kinds of kumara…enough to feed four for less than $10…not just bargain food but yummy bargain food…

Next time though, I think I’ll spice it up some…toss in a teaspoon of coriander seeds and probably a good dose of tomato paste or tomato sauce (ketchup to the uncivilised)…

I always like to have a picture in each post but I had a bit of a disaster when I flipped the baking dish to set the loaf on a plate and it kinda went every which way on me so here’s a randomly selected pic to keep the tradition going…

Marines at Arlington

Masterchef Update

Posted on 8 February 2011 by SJPONeill

Serious advertising for NZ Masterchef 2011 has now kicked in…hopefully I’ll be able to schedule myself to follow it again this year – due to work commitments, I missed almost all of the last Aussie Masterchef except the final…

Meanwhile, here in the heartland, we continue to investigate buying a local cafe so that Carmen can live at home again and also do what she is so good at for a living…

In Colour Me Scared last year, I mentioned my foray into the scary world of combining chili and sardines – pretty safe really as chili, like tomato sauce, is a great ‘coverall’ for culinary not-quites…I hadn’t actually tried it again since then but late last night after a crap afternoon wresting with connectivity issues and losing the better part of a day’s productivity – and thus forgetting to take something out of the freezer to thaw – I gave it another shot… definitely a great but very simple and fast (longest thing is waiting for the rice to cook) meal for when you really don’t want to put yourself out…what’s left will be combined into a fried rice tonight…so is one less thing to worry about while I’m doing the home alone thing…

The big difference between home along last year and this year is that this year I actually have work to do and don’t quite so much have the luxury of time to spend in the kitchen experimenting…the absence of any fast foods in easy distance means that I still have to look after myself and plan ahead…my major culinary issue at the moment is what to do with so many damn eggs …

Secret Stash

Since we keep stealing, them the chickens have taken to concealing their eggs around their run…this one was buried beneath layer of blackberry and is a good week and a half to two weeks work for them…24+ eggs recovered here! Carmen took a bunch back up the road but, combined with what we had already, I’m really scratching for good simple egg recipes…had a great omelette on Friday night after I got back from a meeting with Hawkeye in Palmerston North that afternoon (and resisted the temptation to treat myself in Mr Models) that meet two key objectives: a. it took five eggs and b. it very neatly wiped out most of the leftover vegetables and venison left in the fridge…I can see scrambled eggs coming back onto the breakfast menu which will go nicely on a slab of freshly-made bread, followed up with muesli and homemade yoghurt (well out of the packet but just as good, if not, better than the prepackaged stuff)…just so long as I don’t become a creature of habit…

As you probably guessed, I having a bit of a no news day today – I’ve spent most of the day doing ASIC administration, psyching myself up to complete the draft doctrine review I had planned for yesterday…we’ve taken to using the NATO doctrine review template, which, although, involves more typing, promotes a far deeper review of a publication and which also provides the author feedback in a standard format that can be combined with similarly-formatted feedback from other reviewers…one of these days, I WILL complete that touch-typing programme…

Not quite

I mentioned in My Fellow Americans that I had first met Martyn Dunne while working on a number of Army clothing and personal equipment projects; one of these was reviewing the camouflage pattern then in use, especially the colours (of which there had been 17 distinct variations since it was first introduced)…needless to say, our testing and evaluation wasn’t as dedicated as this…talk about taking your work home with you…

Still…I guess if you’re looking at optimising for urban combat…

Masterchef New Zealand (2010)

Posted on 29 April 2010 by SJPONeill

Brett McGregor, Masterchef NZ

Last night, it was all over and we finally learned who had won the title of Masterchef New Zealand – past tense as the show was actually filmed in December last year. Personally, I’d rather see the final live (or as soon after as editing will allow) and not canned some four months later…big wows to Brett for taking the title out in a cook-off that was a nail-biter right til through with only two points in it at the very end…

TVNZ has already signed up for a second season and it will be interesting to see the hopefuls turn-out for this now that the ice has been broken…I don’t think this first NZ series was as slick as the Aussie version; for me, that’s mainly because the venue always felt like it was jammed in an abandoned warehouse somewhere, and that perception certainly wasn’t help by a Closeup item that showed the judges’ office where they make these life-changing decisions and it was a pokey thing where they could barely squeeze a guest judge…

On Breakfast this morning Brett said that he is about a quarter of the way through his cookbook (Christmas hint!!!) and that he plans on including a recipe from each of the other eleven Masterchef NZ contestants – a generous move – but has no plans to quit teaching and taking up cooking full-time…on ya Brett…!

Ray, Simon and Ross were great as judges as were the various guest judges (yes, including Mr Crayfish Rights!) and I have a long list of flash eateries around Auckland to work through when we head up that way…that’s one thing I do miss about living amongst the scenic splendour of Mt Ruapehu: ready access to more culinary variety than we have here. That’s not to say the eateries around here are not good, there are some exceptional ones here but there’s just not the variety of a larger centre….

For those interested in taking some of the Masterchef designs for a spin around the kitchen, you can find them in the Masterchef NZ Recipe Library.

Meanwhile @ Masterchef Raurimu, it’s hamburgers tonight…

In other news…

Sir Peter Jackson was knighted at Premier House yesterday…

“I feel incredibly humbled and the truth is making movies is not a solo effort – it involves hundreds of people, thousands of people, so I feel as though I’m accepting it on behalf of a huge industry,”

Sir Peter Jackson, 28 April 2010

I met Sir Peter during the making of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and a nicer gentler Kiwi bloke you couldn’t hope to meet…I’m really pleased to see him recognised for all his services to art and aviation…

That explains a lot

On Facebook, Michael Yon admits “…Major Payne is a big favorite. I just watch this movie over and over…”

Uh-oh

Gordon Brown discovers the joys of a hot mike which dumps him in the hot seat…

“Sometimes you do make mistakes and you use wrong words, and once you’ve used that word and you’ve made a mistake, you should withdraw it and say profound apologies, and that’s what I’ve done,”

His mistake? Getting caught, of course…

Colour Me Scared…

Posted on 23 April 2010 by SJPONeill

Aaaaah…the words of the great Sledge Hammer…in response to Mike Yon accusing me “…Simon — the writings on your website have been dishonest. You seem like a basically dishonest person…” I’m flattered to now be in the elite group as GEN McCrystal and others who have tired of the whining of a 19-year-old PFC who never grew up…here’s a guy who spent a whole four years in the Army in the mid-80s accusing professional soldiers of dishonesty and incompetence but who has yet to actually offer any positive alternatives to the current strategies…

I’m not a big believer in GEN McCrystal’s Cursed Earth approach and think that Jim Gant’s Tribal Engagement stratagem would be more suited to both the physical and human terrain of Afghanistan but I’m not on the ground in-theatre and GEN McCrystal is…if Mike Yon really cared – or had anything worthwhile to say – he would have joined the ranks of the COIN information militia to rub conceptual shoulders with the likes of Jim Gant, Josh Wineera, John Nagl and David Kilcullen in fora like the CAC COIN Center and the Small Wars Council…

This did scare me…

While I’m not working we’ve tightened the budget a bit and I’m working through ‘dead stock’ in the pantry to clear the shelves…my experiment on Wednesday night was Chili Sardines…yep, sounds scary alright and didn’t smell too hot while I was preparing it – thought I might have to cook via waldo for a while – but the result was worth the initial discomfort…

Ingredients

2 tins of sardines in tomato sauce

1 big onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons of vinegar (preferably malt vinegar)

50g of peanuts

1 tablespoon brown sugar

A bird’s-eye chilli or teaspoon of dried chilli flakes ( I used this much but next time will increase by 50-100% as the chili flavour was a bit inconsistent)

2 tablespoons of frying oil or peanut oil.

1 teaspoon of coriander seeds

Method

Heat the oil and fry the onion, coriander seeds and chilli together until the onion is golden, then add the vinegar, sugar and sardines all at the same time. Continue cooking for another 3 or 4 minutes and then throw in the peanuts and cook for a further minute until the peanuts are warm. Serve with rice.

Eyjafjallajokul

Amid much bleating and moaning from the airlines, air services across Europe are returning to normal – what’s the next show-stopper , Iceland, first the banks, now the airlines…maybe this?. I’m fascinated that the same airlines that are clamouring for compensation to cover the effects of the grounding are probably those that would have continued to fly until there were more safety incidents or a crash.

An insight already emerging from the chaos in Europe in the last week is the reminder that destabilising (irregular?) activities are not necessarily man-made: even only a week of the no-fly ban has placed even more strain on the tottering economies of Greece, Portugal and Spain, and further weakened the EU and the euro…Germany must be wondering why it just doesn’t ‘unify’ Europe the old-fashioned way and have done with it this time…

More disruptive than Osama Bin Laden

A rank outsider?

Posted on 6 March 2010 by SJPONeill

Many moons ago, I mentioned how much I enjoyed District 9, both as a movie in its own right and for the deeper themes within it. I’ve been following the District 9 Facebook page for a few months now and was rapt to see last night that it has been nominated for Best Picture for the Academy Awards this weekend…

Congratulations to producers PETER JACKSON & CAROLYNNE CUNINGHAM on their Academy Award™ Nomination in the category of BEST PICTURE for DISTRICT 9!

Did you know? Peter Jackson was originally going to produce Director Neill Blomkamp’s vision of HALO, but when that fell apart, he offered Blomkamp $30 million dollars to make any movie we wanted. District 9 was that movie.

District 9 is also up for Oscars® in the categories of Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Visual Effects. Watch the 82nd Academy Awards™ THIS SUNDAY March 7th!

The FB item links to this article Oscar shocker: Could ‘District 9’ win best picture?

“It would be nice if the Academy surprised us. They don’t surprise us very often,” says Betsy Sharkey, film critic for the Los Angeles Times.

“If something unexpected walked away with an Oscar this year, particularly in the Best Picture category, it would say volumes to the industry,” says Sharkey.

“That Best Picture prize sets the tone for whole Oscar show. An unexpected win would get people talking and make the Academy Awards more relevant than they have been in a long time,” she says.

I, for one, would really like to see an adventurous enterprise like District 9 pip the big studios at the post this weekend – not only would it send a message to Hollywood (although whether Hollywood is actually listening is another issue) that we do actually want original innovative and entertaining movies not endless rehashs and remakes of someone else’s good ideas but it is another score on the board for the New Zealand film industry and the magic Mr Jackson. I haven’t seen Avatar – it been a while since I have been in a city big enough to have a 3D screening of Avatar with time on my hands to go to the movies and Carmen’s description of it as “…Fern Gully on steriods...” hasn’t really motivated me that much – or The Hurt Locker yet but I think my second choice for Best Movie would have to go to The Hurt Locker if for not other reason than its topic and setting.

Bridgegate totters toward resolution

Michael Yon Facebook ‘Bridgegate’ posts in the last 24 hours…

After the Monday attack, the Generals are avoiding responsibility for security of the Tarnak River Bridge. Worse, nobody is claiming responsibility for the bridge this morning. Tarnak River bridge, three miles from me, is a strategic artery. The Commanding Generals failed on Monday. They are failing today. Confidence in RC-South and TF-K leadership is plummeting. Dark clouds for the upcoming Kandahar offensive.

U.S, considers Afghan command structure changes. (While they are at it, they might consider getting some generals down to Kandahar who know how to secure a little strategic bridge.)

This item links to an article on “…The United States and its allies are considering setting up an American-led command in southern Afghanistan to oversee operations in a key battleground province, U.S. officials said…” This is interesting and aligns with comments made when I was in the UK last year that the US war machine is very powerful and superbly organised to operate with itself and when you get right down to it, it doesn’t really need (from an operational perspective) much help from anyone to get the job done. Blistering coalition elements into US organisations often only creates unnecessary and drag-inducng friction, more so when those elements do not or will not (hello, UK, are you there?) read from the US playbook. While sharing command across other coalition members may make for a nice stand of flags in the higher headquarters and a strong ‘feel good’ factor for senior coalition staff, it is not an efficient nor an effective method of WARFIGHTING…”We’re not in PSO-ville now, Toto…”

Got a call out of the blue from the office of Brigadier General Ben Hodges. We will meet in 90 minutes at his office.I have only two questions. 1) Which Coalition partner was responsible for the security of Tarnak River bridge on Monday, before the explosion. 2) Which Coalition partner is in charge of security at Tarnak River bridge now.

That’s it. If the answer is fuzzy, the answer is that nobody was in charge of a vital bridge. Otherwise, the answer will be that X was in charge on Monday while X1 is in charge today. Simple questions, simple answers. We’ve got 20 minutes. Should take less than five.

It’s been astonishing that it has taken from Monday to Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, there remain combat leaders whose soldiers cross that bridge every day, who do not know who is in charge of not letting their soldiers get blown up.

Summary of meeting with Brigadier General Ben Hodges: The result was unexpected. General Hodges courageously accepted full responsibility. My respect for him doubled in about 30 seconds. Henceforth, Strykers will “own” the bridge. Bottom line: problem solved. BREAK. Something very important came up tonight, so will give accounting Friday. The accounting will include an apology from me to General Menard.

Working on dispatch with more details about the Tarnak River Bridge. There are many assumptions flying in comments — often talking (incorrectly) about assumptions made here. Surprises are coming. Suggest cease fire until facts are presented. Some folks are wedging into corners by making assumptions about ‘assumptions.’The detailed dispatch will contain email traffic. After facts are presented, it will be a simple matter for pros to check the trail. (Many pros on this FB.) Remains amazing that MSM missed the fact that a strategic bridge was hit, and instead focused so much on hockey.

Have meetings today with Special Forces and others re ongoing matters. Further details on Tarnak River Bridge will not be published today. Will present ASAP.

Yon’s final Dispatch on this topic should be released today and I expect that it will make for interesting reading…

Travels

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I was on the road the last couple of days on job-seeking activities: had what certainly felt like a very good interview in Taupo on Thursday, and a very interesting day yesterday exploring some alternatives that are closer to my heart, including a couple of left-field initiatives that had me buzzing the whole drive home.

I stopped for dinner, well, fish’n’chips anyway, at the Fastlane Takeaways in Waiouru which we used to frequent regularly when we were living there: sorry, guys, but that was YUK!!! Even the dogs weren’t too sure about the muddy-tasting fish…so you’re OFF the Eating Out list and I’ll be transferring my allegiance to the shop in Ohakune next to the Information Centre…

When things go well in the kitchen

Posted on 3 March 2010 by SJPONeill

I went into town this afternoon to get some cash for the wood man tomorrow, pick up some supplies for the man-cave from ITM (I had no idea deck screws were so expensive!!) and fill up the truck: I’m still refusing to support the local garage because they just don’t get what small communities are about (long story). It’s a 30 minute drive each way so I took the dogs for a ride as well (dogs get cabin fever too, you know) and also took the opportunity to progress my current Audible book, The Templar Legacy – man, it is so good to have an Audible-compatible MP3 player again thanks to the helpful young lady at The Appliance Spot in Taumarunui.

I got home with a real case of the munchies. Of course the munchies never hit ’til after the last shop on the road home otherwise I’d’ve filled the gap with the $10 Special fish’n’ships from the shop in Mananui…pottered around a bit, put my latest batch of pies in the freezer, ate the last one because it wouldn’t fit in the container but it just didn’t fill the gap…and I’m all outta other munchies in the pantry…

1 small onion diced into tiny pieces
2 cloves garlic chopped finely
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
1 teaspoon fresh mint
1 sprig of rosemary
1 teaspoon oregano
2 teaspoons chopped chives.
2 teaspoons coriander
1 tablespoon Carmen’s special chili relish (or local equivalent)
1 teaspoon gourmet pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
300 grams mince
1 tin spaghetti

Heat a non-stick pan on an element. When hot add onions and garlic and cook until onions are soft.
Add remaining spices and flavours – stir well with a wooden spoon (NO METAL IN THE TEFLON PANS) for 2-3 minutes.
Add mince and mix into spices and herbs – make sure that there are no lumps in the mince – cook until mince is brown.
Add spaghetti and gently mix into other ingredients.
Simmer for ten minutes.

Serve on thick slices of walnut toast.

Am off to a job interview in Taupo tomorrow and away down to Palmerston North to look at another opportunity on Friday (an early start and probably a late finish day) so there mightn’t be any updates til the weekend…

When a plan comes together…

Posted on 27 January 2010 by SJPONeill

….or, in this case, a recipe…

I don’t have many bread making disasters nowadays but it’s not often a loaf comes out as perfect as this – if only I knew what I got right this time!! Was it the fresh herbs or shaking up the flour that little bit extra…? Kinda like COIN when you think about it – even when you get it right, there’s no guarantee that it’ll work out OK next time…

And speaking of things going according to plan, the big Russian cannon, Trumpeter’s B-4 203mm monster, is progressing really well and is pretty well ready for its first coat of paint.

As I have mentioned previously, this is a delightful kit to build: it looks complex while being relatively straightforward; it is big (about 30cm long when complete) without being a shelf hog; and it was relatively inexpensive (in Singapore anyway) at $44.50.

Gripes? Only a few…the brass plates as a waste of time and couple be done as well in plastic – they would also stick in place a lot better – extra detail is nice but only if it actually adds some value and isn’t there for its own sake; the parts layout needed some more thought: although there are a number of very fiddly little pins in some places, they could just have easily been molded in place as they only represent a small bump on the model – on the other hand, the pins that hold the gun in place are fixed so that you can not add the gun as part of final post-painting assembly. This means that there are small detail parts that can not be added until after painting (Grrrr!) or you have to try to paint the gun on its mount which will be almost impossible. I’m going to paint it pretty much as you see it (once I replace the two detached – again! brass plates and trim back the gun mounting pins just enough so that I can pop the gun in as a final assembly…

Gripes aside, this is a great kit, interesting subject and good value for outlay. Good on Trumpeter for one again taking a punt and bringing us some a little different…tempted as I am but a what-if SP version on a JS-III chassis as suggested by the evil Mr Regan this early in the year would not be in keeping with my ever so sincere NY resolution regarding model procurements…I’m completing it in its towing configuration so am now on the hunt for any info as to what might have towed this beast…who knows – it might be something that I already have int eh stash…?

Next cab off the rank for production in the plastic media will be Trumpeter’s 1/32 A-10B Kiwi-ised

Curry and beans

Posted on 16 January 2010 by SJPONeill

I converted my South African spicy curry recipe to a vegetarian meal by simply swapping out the mince for a cup or so of red kidney beans – tasted great with no noticeable effect upon greenhouse gas production – this doesn’t represent any impending change in culinary philosophy and was just something I wanted to try…didn’t think it could be that simple and still work…

In order of appearance:

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon mild curry powder

1 1/2 teaspoons tumeric

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper (or maybe – still to be trialed – 3-4 pepper tree leaves)

1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger

2 teaspoons coriander, finely chopped (optional)

1 tablespoon butter (optional as it is only for frying the onions)

1 large onion, chopped real fine

1 (minimum!) teaspoon of minced garlic

450 grams of mince (or for vegetarian, one can of beans in brine)

1/4 to 1/2 cup sultanas

2 tablespoons of chutney, any sort

2 teaspoons of apricot or any other fruit jam (i.e. not a berry jam) or marmalade

2 teaspoons of vinegar

2 teaspoons worcester sauce (light or dark)

2 teaspoons tomato paste

1 peeled potato and/or kumara cubed (optional)

1 cup basmati rice.

Method from the madness

Heat and mix all the spices in a wok.

Add onions (and butter if desired) and fry until soft.

Add the garlic and fry for a minute or so.

Add mince (or beans), sultanas, chutney, jam, vinegar, worcester sauce and tomato paste; and stir it all about.

Add potato and simmer covered for 30 minutes. If you don’t use the potato, then simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Serve with cooked rice.

Serves 2-3. If I am on my own for a few days, Day One is as above, Day Two is as above reheated, and Day Three is all remaining fried up as a de facto fried rice dish. You could sprinkle tomato or chili sauce over the top but only if you have to as both of these will kill off the blended flavours of the spices.

Will remember to take a picture next time but, you see, I had this real bad case of the munchies….