Friday 24 February 2012

The View

I flicked over channels and came across a show talking about a beautiful home. They went on to show viewers the 'sky deck' which allowed visitors to admire the 'stunning view'. The house was on a hill, the view was of thousands of homes underneath them.
I was quite stunned by this smoggy view of other peoples washing and rooftops. Sure it was vast, but 'stunning'? Really?
It doesn't help that I've grown up with hippy parents, but for me stunning views means untouched forests, coastline, endless ocean, natural anomalies..

I find this issue in many new houses being built today. They choose the top of a hill for the view. But the top of the hill just shows everything that is underneath it - more and more houses.
Perhaps 'view' actually means 'vast area of visibility' and all they need to get rid of is the 'stunning'. 'With A view', perhaps. Or 'with an expansive view'. This 'stunning' business is what the problem is.

Maybe I'm just bias. When I look at my window I see the trees that completely surround my yard, held together by a tall, old wooden fence. When I look beyond the trees that block out my neighbours I see the hills in the distance that have yet to be covered with houses. I suppose I'm just lucky that I have family members who wanted to make my view look like this. But others are perfectly capable of doing the same (at least to some extent)..

Am I the only person in the world who doesn't want to look at their neighbours underwear?

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Road Trip!

My partner and I have decided to travel the state - I feel it completely unacceptable to discover the world before I've understood what my little island of Tasmania is really like!
We decided to tackle the East Coast this summer, however so far our plans are changing as quickly as we're making them! So instead, we've decided on a no-plan trip and are going wherever the road may take us.
Being low on cash I felt the sensible thing would be to cook a tasty, easy to eat and store, snackable food.
Unfortunately, this only occurred to me the night before we were leaving. Uh oh. That rules out anything with a rising time or anything with ingredients not already in my cupboard: no pulla, no blueberry muffins.
I did some hunting through my recipes and decided on banana bread and brownies! I'm not much of a brownie fan but I've wanted to try this recipe for a while and anything with chocolate in can't turn out too bad. And I've had some bananas in my freezer waiting for me for months.
They were both pretty tasty, my partner admitted he's not raving mad for banana bread, but mine was enjoyable, tasty. He said the brownies were too 'nutty' (aka not enough chocolate), but my brother loved them.

Moist, Travel Safe, Banana Bread
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/The-Best-Banana-Bread/Detail.aspx
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 6 bananas)
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C, line a loaf tin (9x5 inch approx) with baking paper.
Cream margarine and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, then bananas. Add flour and soda, stirring until just combined.
Pour into prepared tin and bake for about 1 hour (or until skewer comes out clean).
Remove from pan and let cool.
Note: original recipe states store in fridge or freeze, however it lasted just fine in and out of my eski while on the road!

Happy Travelling Brownies
http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/flat-belly-diet/flat-belly-diet-recipes-82
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp (pinch) salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup choc-chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C, line a small brownie/lamington pan with baking paper.
Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Combine brown sugar, oil, egg and egg white, and vanilla in a small bowl. Whisk until smooth.
Pour into flour mixture and stir until blended.
Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
Spread batter in a thin layer in the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm and inserted knife comes out with a few moist crumbs.
Let cool completely and cut.
Note: I didn't let cool, and these travelled great!