Brocolli / Brusells Sprout Solution - Princess (12/03/2003 7:37:09 AM)

You know something, as a good little kitchen bitch, I am going to share how to prepare brussell sprouts in such a way that you won't know you're eating them. Look in your vege bin, and grab some carrot, some corn (I actually prefer to use tinned edgel corn kernals) an onion, some fresh garlic, some brussell sprouts (and for the love of god make sure they are fresh) 2 should do, a potato or two, a nice lump of brocolli, and a yummy bit of cauliflower and whatever else you have in there (with the exception of tomato and lettice, they tend to be uncoth in this dish). Peel, Chop and prepare as usual, as for the sprouts turn them into leaves :-) steam it all for about ten minutes, or until the potato is cooked but firm. Now walk over to the freezer while this is all happening, and grab that puff pastry, while there, reach back into the fridge and grab a block of cheese (I find cracker barrell the best). Let the steamed veges cool while you get a pie tin and grease it, put the sheet of pastry into it. Poor the now coolish veges into a mixing bowl, add about two or three table spoons of sweet chilli sauce and about half a cup of grated cheese, fold it all in until even. Pour into the pastry shell, top with greated cheese, and put it into a moderate oven (180 degrees C for the boys, and kitten), wait for the cheese to go all golden brown and the pastry to be cooked. Serve a big yummy slice to yourself, and your guests. This is called cotage pie - it is quick, the while process takes about 30 minutes when you know how to do it, and it is yummy. It is great for when vegetarian budhist lesbian mothers drop by unannounced. I will also assure you that this is yummy cold on a picnic in summer, or as a soccer mother as a lovely little snacky lunchy thingy. Here endith cooking with the princess. Read more (2)

Brocolli - Porcupine (22/02/2003 7:52:34 AM)

I am not a vegetarian, though I have to admit that the idea of becoming one does present an inviting challenge. I can eat nearly any vegetable that I have come across so far. When I was a kid, the worst thing I could eat, after a Brussels Sprout, was Brocolli, and I carried this hatred of these two veges for a very, very long time. When my mass hit 95kg I started to look at my activity levels and the types of food I was eating. I didn't think I ate that badly. I was proud to count up to six types of vegetables per meal. But there are veges and there are veges. Ninja's girlfriend is studying to be a dietician and Ninja himself was pretty much into nutrition - the low carb high protien stuff, so we looked hard at what we ate. During this diet reflection I made it clear that I had a loathing for the afformentioned toxic demon plants from hell, which could not possibly have any nutritional value, and sole purpose was to make people retch. Any life form that can stomach the Brussels Sprout is obviously not of this planet, and really, the sick bastards that are farming that crap need to be locked up indefinitely and have their fields burned. Unfortunately, I have this book "What food is that? And how healthy is it?" by Jo Rogers, where I went to look up Brocolli. I knew we would find the food completely devoid of anything useful, similar to cornflakes. Instead, this is what was written: Brocolli Major Nutrients per boiled 60g serve Energy Protien Fat Carbohydrate Cholesterol Sodium 45kJ 0 0 1g 0 0 Dietary Fibre Vitamin A Iron Calcium Vitamin E Vitamin C 3g 250µg 0.6µg 46mg 1mg 34mg An excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C, folate; a good source of vitamin E; a moderate source of fibre, calcium, iron. Boiling reduces the vitamin C content by two thirds. but the vegetable remains a good source of vitamin C. It is a good source of vitamins for vegetarians. So I gave up my biases and added Brocolli to the list of foods for dinner. It was difficult, but covered in some cheese, it was palatable. It wasn't long before it was acceptable. Now, it's damned yummy. So for all you people who are Brocolli haters, you have to make the change. Join us. You'll be better off for it. However, it will be a cold day in hell before I try to get a taste for Brussels Sprouts. Read more (1)

Tibetan Kitchen - Porcupine (15/02/2003 4:40:02 AM)

The Tibetan Kitchen in New Farm is run by Punam Howard, wife of a Prof Peter Howard who used to work at the University of Queensland. This is the yummiest food ever. Nepalese ~ which is very close to Indian. It can be quite hot but mostly just tasty, if you are not into hot then just ask them and they will tell you what to avoid :). One time I went here and instead of buying a main, I just got one of every entree ~ absolutely yum! TIBETAN KITCHEN 454 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley 4006 (07) 3358 5906 Oh and for the best prices on flowers in Brisbane (sorry for being a day late) you gotta go to: ROSES DIRECT 40 Oakridge St, Burbank 4156 (07) 3849 8743 Fax (07) 3343 8965 www.rosesdirect.com.au

Coffee a problem? - Elsta (23/01/2003 12:02:16 AM)

I’m a big caffeine fan. I love the stuff. Adam and I started the ‘V’ revolution a good year before it became popular. Now I feel as though I maybe getting old. Now instead of drinking V or Jolt I start my workday with coffee, not just any coffee either. I drink Mr Bean’s double espressos with hazelnut, this is induced (for best results) around 10:30 in the morning and no real work should take place before this first dose has been administered. Then at lunch, the most important liquid of the day I go with another double shot espresso, this time in iced form more often then not with chocolate. By this stage in the day my head has started to rotate (see poltergeist) and ideas of shooting everyone in my office mingle with solid strategies on how best to solve world hunger and profound theories on perpetual motion mixed with nuclear fusion. Now around 2:30 I get what most of you would call a twitch but is more likely to be some massive body convulsion / aneurism manifesting itself in shaky leg twitchy eye syndrome. I don’t stop at that though, no fekkin way! At 5 to 4 just before the coffee trolley closes I’m there. One more coffee for the road I tell myself better not make it a double though cause I can already feel the pulse build up behind my eyeballs. This last shot does two things… firstly it ensures I won’t be sleeping before 1:00am and makes my bike ride home take 8 minutes instead of 15. Do I need help? Mr Coffee Read more (1)

Pepsi Blue - Morte (24/12/2002 4:05:18 AM)

By golly, as if lemon twists and vanilla and clear (what happened to clear?) weren't good enough, now they have to make pointless food colouration, and despite the assurance on the label that it is indeed cola and it does indeed contain caffeine (luckily for me it has sugar and no cancersweet/aspartame), and no phenylalanine, it sure as hell doesn't taste like cola. For sure it tastes sugary, but it tastes more like when you mix frozen coke and frozen lemonade (you know the blue stuff) and it melts and you get a sweet purply liquid which is nonetheless more watery than cola. Add a strange almost metallic aftertaste, turn the dark purple to light blue and you've got Pepsi Blue. A waste of their effort to make, and our money and time to drink. Not that it is cola, but have you seen the five different Fanta coloured drinks? I think there's original orange, rasberry red, lime green, lemonade blue, and possibly a passionfruit yellow, but I could be mistaken and it could actually be lemon. Some people in Coca Cola Amatil and PepsiCo drink development are just going crazy. And what happened to Jolt? We used to be able to rely on 7-11 to stock original, american creaming soda, orange soda, root beer, (and unfortunately cherry cola - bleugh). Now you're lucky if you can find original, BUT YOU CAN FIND A 7-11 on just about every two opposing corners of major CBD intersections! Why do Coles only sell Cherry, Creaming Soda and Original? Why did I see 'discontinued item' against the Jolt bottles in Coles when I was down in Sydney for a Disaster Recovery test a couple of months back? Why am I seeing TELEVISION ADVERTISMENTS for Jolt late at night? (where the guy and the girl are in the car, guy and girl kiss, girl asks guy "Who are you thinking of when we kiss?" Guy says "you, of course, don't you think about me?", takes sip of Jolt, girl morphs into vision of hot babe. Girl says "yeah, you of course", takes sip of Jolt, looks at guy, guy morphs into vision of same hot babe... OK. Jolt makes everyone want to be with hot chicks? Sounds like dangerous stuff. Also sounds like a guy made the ad without any straight women on the review panel. I think I'll give up on boutique cola and extra caffeine beverages soon. For me, it's 99cent bilo cola, or it's an expensive wank. Perhaps I am being communist? Perhaps I don't want the man getting all my money. Perhaps I want the man to give me some money, which is why I haven't left IBM yet. I had to give up on Pepsi Max about a year ago cos I was getting nervous tics (presumably due to the aspartame, but possibly also from the phenylalanine). Never again, that's NOT a good thing. Also, too much caffeine produces noticeable hand shakes, especially when I try to pick things up. Like the next glass of cola. You know you're gettin' old when you can't successfully process all the chemicals and toxins you stuff down your throat every day. Yep, over the hill. You know you're gettin' old when not only your liquor cabinet is full (and you HAVE a liquor cabinet), but your garage is stockpiled with cartons and cartons and cartons of wine you've personally collected on trips around the countryside, and you start saying things like "Yep, gunna need a wine cellar"...

Penguin's explanation for a huge night out - Purple Penguin (22/05/2002 11:10:19 AM)

OK. Penguin has had a huge night and is recording this record of the night’s proceedings in order to have a coherent explanation for the embarrassing events that occurred tonight. Including three separate homoerotic events, I’ve had a bad night. It was State of Origin – the perfect excuse to go out and for a few drinks with friends to celebrate the shating over of the boys from New South Wales. The night started going pear-shaped when Queensland lost. It got worse when some guy tried to pick me up in the front bar at the Caxton. Flattering – yes, but desirable – no. A long time ago, at high school, every boy learns THAT IT IS NOT OK TO LOOK AT ANOTHER GUY’S DOODLE while using the urinal. When another guy checked my package and followed with “hey, how you doing?” and a shameless display of lip licking, I knew there was a bit of a problem. When I tried to pass a third guy, while going to the bar, and had him say, “Sorry mate, I’m straight and not interested”, I started to wonder if someone had written “Gay” on my forehead. As if that wasn’t bad enough; while engaging in a SMS conversation with a friend, I accidentally sent a message to my boss, telling her that she sucked, and asking if she swallowed. This should have, in fact, gone to my friend. A fair mistake, since they are near each other in my phone’s phonebook. After another frantic SMS for clarification and a phone call, I discovered that I had, in fact, made a boo boo. Oh no. My boss seamed to take it well, but tomorrow morning’s meeting should be interesting... The moral of the story is get a sober person to check your SMSerage. Read more (2)

It's drinking time!! - Kitten (14/05/2002 5:29:57 AM)

Most of the time when we go out drinking, i'm usually the driver - but the past couple of times i have been a major drinking player in the game, which has been great! Most recently, on Thursday night we usually go to the great Fridays - and this is where we ended up last thursday..... for those of you who have missed out on the fabulous promotion going on in the city clubs THURSDAY NIGHT IS STUDENT NIGHT, where upon presentation of your student card, it grants you half price entry, El Cheapo drinks and lots of young drunk girls (i'm not encouraging that kind of behaviour though boys). Basic Spirits - $1.50 Cocksucking Cowboys - $4 Coronas - $3.50 (only if you're me though ;)) throw all of the abovementioned alcohol into a 56kg body structure and you have one FLOGGED little 19 year old, which also means one LONG NIGHT ... 9:30, 10:30, 12:30, 2:00am, 3:30am, 4am - and beck is dragged kicking and screaming from the club, not wanting to go home, but her boyfriend can no longer stand up, the fat army guy can't string a sentence together, the driver looks like he has been smoking up for about 6 hours, and the serbian is so flogged he starts swearing in japanese ... we realise it is time to make an exit. The trip home is usually the most exciting bit - all packing into the car, the city is still alive and kicking, which means that those of us who can still talk are screaming abuse and laughing at less fortunate people standing and waiting for public transport home..cries of GET A HAIRCUT, and THAT WALL ISN'T A TOILET are heard by most people walking down Mary St.... and to the couple that were up against the wall of the Vic - i hope you picked up that poor girls underwear before you went anywhere. oh well - what do you do?? Read more (2)

The Hard Mambooka - Purple Penguin (12/05/2002 6:36:27 AM)

The Hard Mambooka. What can be said. It’s lethal. It’s delicious. Four of them will generally put you on your arse. The only problem is that no one seems to know about it. I’ve searched high and low in cocktail books and on the internet to no avail. So here it is… It was a steamy January afternoon, many years ago when I went for drinks with my mate and his Centerlink, klingon co-workers. They were a strange lot. One of them looked like Lano. His mate looked like Woodly. Lano or Woodly asked me if I wanted a Hard Mambooka. As we had just left Brisbane’s premier gay-bar, The Wickham, I was a tad concerned. It turned out it was a drink – oh baby, what a drink. 2 shots of Cointreau + 2 shots of Malibu over crushed ice. We stumbled to the Jubilee Hotel. The barmaid was ugly. After two Hard Mambookas, the beer goggles came on. After four Hard Mambookas, even the gay guy we were with was ready to throw a leg over her. The Hard Mambooka – it’s all good! Read more (1)