67/365 – Sigh.

7:23 pm, March 8th, 2010 | No Comments »
Posted in nothingness by Liz

She gets fed up with the camera sometimes.

Pretty lucky…

10:02 pm, March 7th, 2010 | No Comments »
Posted in girlthings by Liz

I am a pretty lucky girl. This week I got two bunches of tulips from two separate people. And tulips aren’t even in season.

Australian Citizenship

4:01 pm, March 6th, 2010 | 10 Comments »
Posted in girlthings, whinging by Liz

I was filling in a job application the other day and it asked me if I was an Australian citizen. I ticked the ‘Yes’ box, but then realised I still wasn’t sure if that was the case.

I started to sort this out a couple of years ago but after speaking to a very helpful person at the department of immigration who said that I was ’stuck between a rock and a hard place’ and just had to submit some forms, pay lots of money and hope for the best, I put it in the too hard basket.

I was born in Australia in October, 1986 to parents who were New Zealand citizens, but living in Australia under a permanent residency visa. My parents applied for and received their Australian Citizenship when I was 16, and I was not included on the documentation (not their fault), although apparently I should have been because I was under 18. So this leaves me having to qualify for citizenship. Checking out the proof of your citizenship page on the Dept of Immigration and Citizenship site, I thought I might fall under this category…

3. Born on or after 20 August 1986.
You acquired Australian citizenship at birth in Australia if at least one of your parents was an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Australia at the time of your birth.
OR
You acquired Australian citizenship on your 10th birthday if:
neither of your parents were Australian citizens or permanent residents at the time of your birth; you have been ordinarily resident in Australia for the 10 years since your birth; and your parents were not holders of diplomatic visas at the time of your birth.

Which sounds pretty easy, except that my parents were New Zealand citizens. Which puts me in a whole new category…

4. Born to New Zealand citizen parents
Children born in Australia to New Zealand citizens between 20 August 1986 and 31 August 1994 generally did not acquire Australian citizenship by birth.

Oh. And it probably doesn’t help that was I was 9 I acquired my New Zealand Citizenship in preparation for 2 years living over there (we arrived back in 1998). And I don’t actually know what my status is. I can only assume that I’m a permanent resident. The government don’t seem to have a problem with me living or working here.

So, then why not just apply for Australian Citizenship? Well, because I don’t seem to fall under any of their required categories. And then there’s this paragraph on the application page:

As a New Zealand citizen your eligibility for Australian citizenship depends on whether you arrived in Australia before or after 26 February 2001.

On arrival in Australia, most New Zealanders are automatically granted a Special Category Visa (SCV). This visa allows the holder to remain and work in Australian indefinitely. Up to 26 February 2001 the holders of SCVs were eligible to apply for citizenship.

On 26 February 2001, the Australian Government announced that New Zealand citizens are required to apply for and be granted permanent residence in Australia if they wish to access certain social security payments, obtain Australian citizenship or sponsor their family members for permanent residence.

So I can’t actually figure out if I need to:
a) apply for proof of citizenship and hope ‘being born here’ is enough.
b) apply for permanent residency because I’m a New Zealand citizen and then…
c) apply for Australian citizenship based on my permanent residency. OR
d) ignore it and hope it doesn’t come and bite me on the ass one day?

Any ideas?

65/365 – I just don’t think he’s taking this seriously.

12:08 pm, March 6th, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Posted in 365, photography by Liz

While Jarod agreed to this 365 thing, he’s always been terrible with someone taking his photo. I thought that he might get better once we started this, but he hasn’t. Today he refused to give me a ‘normal’ expression. So this gets put on the internet.

Statistical analysis.

11:25 pm, March 4th, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Posted in geekery by Liz

The combined Jarod and Liz RSS feed has 43 subscribers.
The Jarod only RSS feed has 8 subscribers.
The Liz only RSS feed has 9 subscribers.*

This can only mean that the people love cats more than they do bikes. Or they like cats and bikes equally. Either way, I’m a winner. ;)

Also, if you didn’t realise you could separate the bikes from the cats, it’s all in the sidebar. Which is in the middle of the page. So is more of a middlebar.

*All figures according to feedburner. Which if you ask me, can sometimes be dodgy.

62/365 – Chocolate, arm, milk, boy.

8:27 pm, March 3rd, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Posted in 365, photography by Liz

A total cop out 365 photo. But look, we’re *both* in it.

60/365 – polka dot pajama pants and jarod’s warm socks.

7:30 pm, March 1st, 2010 | No Comments »
Posted in 365, photography by Liz

I love this kind of weather. It’s bundle-up-in-warm-clothes-and-find-someone-to-cuddle weather.

It’s the first day of a new month, and the first day of autumn. I like it.

59/365 – Laneway Shenanigans

10:54 pm, February 28th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Posted in 365, photography by Liz

Jarod said: “You know what would be funny? If we went around to the back of rainbowtatt’s place and took our 365 there.”
I said: “Why don’t we just ask her to join us?”

10 minutes later we were in a dodgy laneway chatting about stuff. And giving chocolate mousse (or ‘dessert’) as presents.

2 and a bit hours later we’re home. The most entertaining 365 we’ve done yet. Thanks to Laura for being brave and catching up with us in the laneway (and for making us laugh ’til we hurt).

28 days of FebuSave!

9:32 am, February 28th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Posted in febusave by Liz

Today FebuSave draws to a close and it’s time to see what we’ve saved! Over 9000 women pledged to save money during February, which is pretty impressive. Out of my pay packet, not a whole lot extra was saved – but I anticipated that at the beginning.

Through our joint account we’ve managed to save around $300. This was achieved by reducing the random purchases (just sticking to the list when grocery shopping!) as well as not eating out or buying treats nearly as often. I can’t say we eliminated eating out and treats all together, but it was certainly reduced. Train’s food and kitty litter was also only bought when it was on special. We didn’t realise how much money Train costs us in just food and kitty litter – and she generally she doesn’t eat half of the food we put out for her either.

Jarod is also proud to announce even though he wasn’t *officially* apart of FebuSave, he restrained himself from buying heaps of bike stuff he didn’t *really* need. I’ve got my fingers crossed that he’ll continue that ;)

With the wedding planning just beginning, an extra $300 is going to go a long way.

Daring Bakers Feb 2010: Tiramisu!

10:04 am, February 27th, 2010 | 17 Comments »
Posted in daring bakers by Liz

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was about this challenge. Tiramisu is one of my favourite non-chocolate based desserts. Jarod is not a fan because it’s so creamy, but I was happy to take one for the team and eat this on my own.

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

This challenge was a massive learning curve for me – and completely confirmed why I’d joined Daring Bakers. There’s no way I’d ever attempt to make cheese in the past, but there I was sitting over the stove patiently waiting for bubbles so I could make perfectly good cream curdle (a process that makes me love cheese a little less). My first attempt turned into something resembling butter in consistency and colour, but my second attempt worked as it should.

I had two attempts at pretty much every part of it, except for the savoiardi biscuits (time limitation) and the assembly. As you can see, my first attempt at the biscuits kinda sucked, but I used them in my ‘little’ tiramisu, and then used store bought ones for my ‘big’ tiramisu. Having said that, I will definitely try and make them again in the future – I can happily eat them on their own, even if they have no nutritional value whatsoever.

While everyone on the forums were making amazing and tasty flavour variations, I was pretty happy with plain old tiramisu. It was interesting to see how the flavours changed – after 12 hours refrigeration the taste was very rum/raisin ish. By the end of the week, it had transformed into a lovely sutble lemon-y flavour that even Jarod thought was nice. And yes, I did eat the tiramisu over the course of the week. But I did save a quarter of it for Jarod’s mum, which is currently in the freezer.

Because I made this over so many days, I didn’t take as many photos as I thought I would. And then I started eating the ‘big’ tiramisu before I’d bothered to photograph it too, so here’s the final ‘little’ tiramisu.

Many thanks to Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking – I thoroughly enjoyed making and eating this challenge!

LADYFINGERS/ SAVOIARDI BISCUITS
(Source: Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home)
This recipe makes approximately 24 big ladyfingers or 45 small (2 1/2″ to 3″ long) ladyfingers.

Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated
6 tablespoons /75gms granulated sugar
3/4 cup/95gms cake flour, sifted (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp corn starch)
6 tablespoons /50gms confectioner’s sugar,

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C) degrees, then lightly brush 2 baking sheets with oil or softened butter and line with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites using a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add granulate sugar and continue beating until the egg whites become stiff again, glossy and smooth.
In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork and fold them into the meringue, using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over this mixture and fold gently until just mixed. It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding. Otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy.
Fit a pastry bag with a plain tip (or just snip the end off; you could also use a Ziploc bag) and fill with the batter. Pipe the batter into 5″ long and 3/4″ wide strips leaving about 1″ space in between the strips.
Sprinkle half the confectioner’s sugar over the ladyfingers and wait for 5 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Now sprinkle the remaining sugar. This helps to give the ladyfingers their characteristic crispness.
Hold the parchment paper in place with your thumb and lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess sprinkled sugar.
Bake the ladyfingers for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets and bake for another 5 minutes or so until the puff up, turn lightly golden brown and are still soft.
Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes and then remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and cool on a rack.
Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

MASCARPONE CHEESE

(Source: Vera’s Recipe for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese)
This recipe makes 12oz/ 340gm of mascarpone cheese

Ingredients:
474ml (approx. 500ml)/ 2 cups whipping (36 %) pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized), preferably organic cream (between 25% to 36% cream will do)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Method:

Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. If you do not have a thermometer, wait until small bubbles keep trying to push up to the surface.
It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.
Vera’s notes: The first time I made mascarpone I had all doubts if it’d been cooked enough, because of its custard-like texture. Have no fear, it will firm up beautifully in the fridge, and will yet remain lusciously creamy.
Keep refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 days.

TIRAMISU

(Recipe source: Carminantonio’s Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007 )
This recipe makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
For the zabaglione:
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar/50gms
1/4 cup/60ml Marsala wine (or port or coffee)
1/4 teaspoon/ 1.25ml vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

For the vanilla pastry cream:
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1 tablespoon/8gms all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup/175ml whole milk

For the whipped cream:
1 cup/235ml chilled heavy cream (we used 25%)
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract

To assemble the tiramisu:
2 cups/470ml brewed espresso, warmed
1 teaspoon/5ml rum extract (optional)
1/2 cup/110gms sugar
1/3 cup/75gms mascarpone cheese
36 savoiardi/ ladyfinger biscuits (you may use less)
2 tablespoons/30gms unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:
For the zabaglione:
Heat water in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, place a pot with about an inch of water in it on the stove. Place a heat-proof bowl in the pot making sure the bottom does not touch the water.
In a large mixing bowl (or stainless steel mixing bowl), mix together the egg yolks, sugar, the Marsala (or espresso/ coffee), vanilla extract and lemon zest. Whisk together until the yolks are fully blended and the mixture looks smooth.
Transfer the mixture to the top of a double boiler or place your bowl over the pan/ pot with simmering water. Cook the egg mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 8 minutes or until it resembles thick custard. It may bubble a bit as it reaches that consistency.
Let cool to room temperature and transfer the zabaglione to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the pastry cream:
Mix together the sugar, flour, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. To this add the egg yolk and half the milk. Whisk until smooth.
Now place the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling.
Add the remaining milk a little at a time, still stirring constantly. After about 12 minutes the mixture will be thick, free of lumps and beginning to bubble. (If you have a few lumps, don’t worry. You can push the cream through a fine-mesh strainer.)
Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the whipped cream:
Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer or immersion blender until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Set aside.

To assemble the tiramisu:
Have ready a rectangular serving dish (about 8″ by 8″ should do) or one of your choice.
Mix together the warm espresso, rum extract and sugar in a shallow dish, whisking to mix well. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese with a spoon to break down the lumps and make it smooth. This will make it easier to fold. Add the prepared and chilled zabaglione and pastry cream, blending until just combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Set this cream mixture aside.

Now to start assembling the tiramisu.
Workings quickly, dip 12 of the ladyfingers in the sweetened espresso, about 1 second per side. They should be moist but not soggy. Immediately transfer each ladyfinger to the platter, placing them side by side in a single row. You may break a lady finger into two, if necessary, to ensure the base of your dish is completely covered.
Spoon one-third of the cream mixture on top of the ladyfingers, then use a rubber spatula or spreading knife to cover the top evenly, all the way to the edges.
Repeat to create 2 more layers, using 12 ladyfingers and the cream mixture for each layer. Clean any spilled cream mixture; cover carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate the tiramisu overnight.
To serve, carefully remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle the tiramisu with cocoa powder using a fine-mesh strainer or decorate as you please. Cut into individual portions and serve.

56/365 – Angry kitty.

7:42 pm, February 25th, 2010 | No Comments »
Posted in 365, girlthings, traaiiiiin, wedding stuff by Liz

Sometimes Train will plonk herself down infront of/on my keyboard and then refuse to budge. She doesn’t want to be patted. She certainly doesn’t want to be left alone. Try and move her and you’ll get bitten. Try and lure her away and nothing will happen. But try and take photos of her… and she leaves. Success!

Since being engaged I keep being referred to various wedding websites. One of them is on the screen behind Train. A lot of them a great. Most of them have beautiful way-out-of-the-affordable-range things. And then sometimes, you stumble across something lovely and in your price range. Someone on twitter linked to weddinggawker (a spin off of foodgawker) and found these flowers by EmersonMade.

So pretty! I like substitutes to real flowers. I love Princess Lasertron’s work but think I might just like these even better. Of course, both EmersonMade and Princess Lasertron are based in the USA. There are some very talented crafty people in Australia, but the market doesn’t seem to be nearly as big. Yet.