June Chilies

Today I was annoyed by a fella riding my tail. It was a cop, so I opted to pull off the road at the first good pull off. And the place I pulled off was a farm stand shop. I went wild in there, even though I was running late. Five minutes later I had a mountain of yummy food.

Mushrooms, courgettes (which is how I think they spell zucchini here), yellow squash, broccoli, peppers, parsley, kiwifruit, spinach, bok choy, red mystery fruit, and an impulse buy -- chilies! I love it when my impulse buy is something like a bag of red chillies!


Okay, my other impulse buy was this fruit to the right. I am sure there is someone out there that can identify it for me - and reassure me that it is edible raw, cuz I just ate a bunch!

We took them home and attempted to recreate the spicy leek chicken dish we love from our favourite restaurant. The chopping is easy enough, even if I still hear grumbles about my idea of 'bite size' pieces, but I get lost when it comes to nuances stir fry flavours. So I pass that bit on to my handy fella...

While Trav mixed, tossed, and danced about the hob (kiwi for stove), I kept myself busy with the chilies.






Trav mumbled that we wouldn't have any fireside activities to do after dinner if I strung all the chilies before tea. I laugh, because our only source of heat in our partially insulated flat is a 10 inch space heater! There are times that I do curl up to it like a fire, but not to do 'fireside work' tasks - more like try to stay warm as I pull socks on in the morning

At any rate, here are the fruits of our labours tonight..



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Small victories..

One of my favorite comic strips is the K Chronicles by Keith Knight (the politics link is a classic involving a beehive - it ran a few years ago if I remember right). On a reoccuring basis, he runs a comic about Life's Little Victories.

One of my recent victories doesn't have the humour factor of those he shares with the world, but is definetely a victory for me and my wallet.

minor drumrol please - I have managed to go 3 months now without lossing my monthly bus pass. Yes the $95 dollar, irreplaceable pass that lets you travel all month long, without worry of transfers or reciepts, the only caveat is that you can't lose it. This is a huge challenge for me. But here if photographic evidendence that I have manage a three month streak of brillance and responsibility

My secret... I now store my bus pass in the clear plastic sheath in my wallet designed for your driver's licence. Seems fitting given that I never have to show my driver's licence (never ever been carded here, after a near 90% carding rate back in Massachusetts. HOnest, I haven't drawn any lines on my face or anything) but show my bus pass several times a day as I move about the city. Such a great system, no swiping of cares or making change, just flash the card and the drivers nods me on to the bus. It is like having a powerful VIP pass that lets you go anywhere, well so long as you limit yourself to the city limits, smallish parcels, and don't mind standing now and then.

The AAC clinician me has a secondardy goal - to save as many as I can for inspiration on what symbols to use to represent the various months - Boardmaker is very American-centred. I mean what kiwi kid is going to associate September with school starting, June with graduation caps, and October with Pumpkins. Any October pumpkin here has either had a very long journey or a scary run in with aggressive gardening techniques!

Simple foods and sights

Today I decided to challenge myself.. not too much mind you, just a little. It is after all my first Queen's Birthday and I wouldn't want to carelessly invent a holiday tradition that I wouldn't be able to maintain in years to come. No I trod carefully today. I choose a simple task. What to do with the persimmons a friend gave us yesterday. I've never really experienced this fruit before. It is a bit like peeling an apple to reveal firm melon flesh. I also hear that persimmons must be ripe or you'll face an unpleasent astringent bitterness.

Luckily, these were tasty and ripe, although a flavour I still an unsure of.

In the end, I adatped a few recipes...

.. to come up with a tolerable persimmon tea bread with walnuts, cranberries, and ginger woven through. It was quite nice with slabs of butter (grandma ketty style) and a cup of T's homemade spicy chai

The simple fare acommpanied the view nicely. Each day the tree fern frons

changes a bit. I try not to forget to notice.

Latest Kingsolver Book

I look with a touch of sadness at my coffee table...

... because there are no more pages left for me to read in this book. I was yearning for a good read, one that mixes nonfiction with everyday life with a touch of inspiration, and this compeltely fit the bill. I've been more conscious of food since moving here. My budget requires it. I also am more picky about how things taste. This is Kingsolver's look at her family's choice to eat locally for a year and it fit very well with my current mental wanderings. It of course doesn't hurt that it is penned by one of my favourite authors who somehow makes me long for childhood while being inspired to reach for tomorrow.

I highly recommend it and find myself refering to it constantly in conversation - you have been warned. Read it, becuase it sounds much better coming from her than when I attempt to talk about what I learned myself.

I reckon that my motivations might not be what you are looking for in your next read, but this book has truly a bit of everything... so if you are interested in gardening, cooking, Italy, turkey sex (this is when the book became a page turner for me - honest!), the things kids/younger people say... there is probably something for you. warning, you may suddenly develop an interest in seeds and heirloom breeds of cattle. trust me, it is actually a possibility with this book, and you will be glad of it in the end... If you want a glimpse of the book, here is a link to an excerpt from NPR.

While not particularly local or seasonal, here are some of our kitchen adventures from the past week.

Traveler created a very tasty califlower soup, which not only used up some of the linger white wine in our fridge but the entire head of califlower we scored at the farmers market.

He also has been experiementing with his chai tea recipe. Definetely not 1369's, nor local in ingredients, but very lovely nonetheless as he perfects his recipe- particularly as the nights get darker sooner and the draftiness of our windows add a chill now and then.

And for any of those who wondered about the bright red sticker on the cover of the book, no this isn't a sticker from the local bookstore (e.g., Borders with its standard 20% sticker on the top right corner), but shock of shocks is that its from the city library. Here there is a custom where the most popular books can only be checked out for 1 week AND cost $4. On one hand, it means that you don't wait forever to see books that came out and you don't have to pay $40 for a paperbook at the local bookstore that you then have to store on bookshelves you haven't saved up to buy yet, but it still seems odd to pull money from your wallet before you even the library your book. I vowed I'd never do this and would just wait until it was shelved with the other free books... but just like that new release DVD you've been waiting months to see, I grabbed it and raced to the check out line for fear someone else would tackle me and take my precious loot... okay maybe the world isn't as batty as me, but they should be over good books. as winter sets in for me, feel free to pass on the books you've been enjoying, I'll be eager for some good reads.

Lazy Saturday...

Today we wandered down to Lyall Bay for a lovely breakfast. After a scrumptious meal, we walked a bit and then sat down to ponder the sea and airport for awhile. No surfing to watch today...

you would hardly guess that just yesterday we were experiencing blustery wind and touches of rain. As they say, can't beat wellington on a good day... and today was good.

Te Papa - the national museum

We also made it down to the Te Papa today.

It doesn't charge admission fees, just asks for a donation, which makes for a leisural outing. We actually only stayed for about an hour today. Here are some highlights (click photos for larger images) -

Bush city is a small nature garden complete with a cave, sand pit (with hidden fossils), mini creak, swinging bridge, and of course a waterfall littered with boulders of various rock for those geo geeks out there.

There was an exhibit on ecological footprints. I thought this display on the components of trash was well done:

It break it down into paper, compost, plastic bags, glass/plastic bottles, cans, and styrofoam and explains how much of each is tossed by kiwis (and how long each takes to decompose - if ever).

Then a hit with all ages is the spinable water ball. This huge stone ball is suspended with water so that you can roll it with your hands. A clever way to name sponsors too whos names are etched on the side of the ball.

Better yet, I reckon if you put these outside bathrooms or schools with a bit of soap tossed in, you'd have little need remind kids to wash their hands.

And outside is a skatepark and a bit further along the harbour the playground I mentioned a few posts ago. Here are a few more details from that playground.

A sand pit with coffee nearby for the parental units is good...

.. but adding water to make wet to sand is even better (with bathrooms and water spouts for the parental units again nearby for their comfort and sanity)