Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts

I'm Not in Kansas Anymore

Thursday, May 17, 2012 3:42 PM Posted by Mimi and Joe
I have been trying desperately to clean up my photos folder on my hard drive as I have been taking load of photographs of the food I have been making. For the food blog.  That I am starting soon.  Really.  I mean it.

I have an excellent filing system (as one might imagine) that includes such folders as "Random Pics", "Random Sydney Pictures", "Random Food Photos" and "Random Nature".  Are you sensing a theme here?  Anyway, I've run across a whole bunch of Aussie themed photos that I had taken that I have been meaning to share here.

Please enjoy my "random" collection:


This is the Kookaburra couple that likes to sit on the rooftop of the building next to us.  It's close enough that, were the roof flat, I wouldn't be at all nervous to jump onto it from our window.  So, that means that they are very very very very loud!  This has also become their favourite place for "couple time" if you know what I mean.  It's quite violent and frenzied and a very good reason to close the curtains...


Also a favourite spot for this adorable Lorikeet couple.  These birds are just so gorgeous to watch, not only because of their plumage; but because they have really cute personalities.  This couple in particular seems to have a husband that is a bit of a loudmouth and a wife who just shakes her head at him.  I'm sure there are lots of us who can sympathize!!


This is an insane flower that Joe and saw on our way to breakfast one weekend.  It was just down the street from us.  I know it looks a little suggestive; but climb out of the gutter for a moment just to admire the absolute coolness of it.  I didn't feel that this picture adequately captured the size of the bloom, so.... 


I had Joe provide a sense of scale.  Every time I see a familiar plant here, I always notice that the one here looks like it must be taking steroids.  I'm sure it's mostly to do with the climate and I'm certainly not complaining.


This is some "street art" that is out at a place called Cockatoo Island.  It's in the middle of the harbour and it used to be a heavy industrial site.  It's been closed down for some time and, instead of tearing everything down, they've left it all as a canvas for very interesting art.  You can take a ferry out and tour around the island on your own for free.  Very often they have exhibitions there; but even when there isn't, there is some permanent stuff that is very cool.  They also have a bar there during the summer, complete with lawn chairs and astroturf.  It's an absolutely amazing place to go with friends to spend an afternoon drinking G&T's and watching the water.  I've never gone with the express purpose of wandering around the island - I'd like to do that next time to see all of the industrial art.


Autumn brings colder weather which really stinks; but it also brings incredible sunsets which doesn't.  This is one of my favourite ones from a few weeks ago.  Purple water yo!!

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It's Spring!! I'm Cheerful!!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011 12:00 PM Posted by Mimi and Joe
One of the best things about living in Sydney is the glorious weather.  I know... that sounds dramatic - but I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.  A place where it was not uncommon to have snow 6 months out of the year.  A place where summer only lasted a few weeks each year.  Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit; but as someone who is always cold, moving here was like a lifetime dream fulfilled!  No Snow! Ever!  At worst it gets down in the 40's during winter! Heaven...

Granted, now that I've been here for 2 winters, I'm starting to feel like 40 degrees is actually really really really cold!  Oh acclimatisation, you are a cruel trickster!

Anyway, I can't decide if it's all the excellent sleep I've been getting or the fact that Spring is truly here that is making me in such a stinking good mood - but, who cares?  Life is awesome!

I do think that the warmer weather has a lot to do with my happiness though - Spring in Sydney is scattered with these really lovely signs of growth.  I know I have posted about the Jacaranda Trees in the past and I know I have posted pictures of them; but I just can't convey how gorgeous it is to look out of our windows and see dots of brilliant purple all over the cityscape.

This is not my picture - I found it on-line and stole it...

The sky is crazy blue every day - a blue that you will. not. believe. until you actually come here and see it for yourself.  It's warm enough to sit outside on the ferry in the mornings on the way to work.  The past few mornings it's actually been a bit too hot to sit in the sun on the ferry and we have had to seek seats with some shade (well, Joe thinks it's too hot - I think it's glorious!).

It's still light out now when we leave for work.  The windows are open in our bedroom now and so we are being woken up by water, sail boat and bird noise.  Not a bad alarm clock if you ask me!  Basically, everything is sunny, warm and beautiful! (see what all this extra sleep does to me?  I am so annoyingly cheerful!)

Summer in Sydney is festival time.  Every week there are new tents, signs, and exhibits being set up in Hyde Park.  We just finished up with the Crave Food Festival and it's attendant Night Noodle Markets.  Joe and I went last year; but had to give it a miss this year as it was taking place right during the week of surgery stuff (see previous post). The events for the Annual Sydney Festival have just been announced and already my calendar for January and February is chockers with events.

 Heaps of flowers have been set-up in the forecourt of St Mary's Cathedral as they are every spring and summer.

There is just something so awesome about looking forward and realising that from the beginning of November to about May it is just going to be lovely outside.  Realising that you have a full six months in which to spend your weekends on beaches or sprawled out on blankets some where watching an outdoor cinema or listening to a free concert.

Jealous yet?  Want to visit yet?  Seriously, Tourism Australia should hire me to market to cold mid-westerners!

Basically this taunting is fully intended for my family.... Come visit! Soon!
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Thanksgiving!! Oh wait....nevermind..... Something Else!!

Thursday, December 2, 2010 11:32 PM Posted by Mimi and Joe
Well, this is my third or fourth attempt at blogging in so many days....  I have a sea of abandoned drafts that I have left in my wake - badly written and very very plodding.  I'm hoping this entry won't end up in the graveyard with them tonight... I'm trying to tip the odds in my favour by writing this at our brand new dining room table instead of half-slumped over in bed.  Hopefully the austerity of wooden furniture will keep me focused better than a pillow-top mattress can!

But, back to the table.... Most of you will know that we have been slowly buying furniture for our apartment (and for those of you who didn't... welcome! we are slowly buying furniture for our apartment) and; up to this point, we had been using a patio table as our eating space. 

** Crap, I'm already so distracted... I was trying to download photos that weren't there and then I had to spend 15 minutes stalking a big black beetle around the apartment with bug spray until I finally cornered it.

Ok, so my whole story about the table was going to be a lead up to a nice little tale about our fabulous ex-pat Thanksgiving; but now it appears that my photos grew legs and wandered away.  I can't bear to write about the golden and delicious turkey without some sort of visual aid to help me along, so that part of the entry will have to wait for another time.

But, luckily for me, since I have been so completely negligent about blogging lately, I have a whole slew of other topics that I can cover.  Well, maybe not a whole slew; but at least one or two little things....

I mentioned several posts ago about a fun weekend excursion we had had. My excuse for not blogging about it directly after it happened was the fact that I took no photos of it; and was dependant on others photographic generosity. Well, I have to admit, I'm feeling a bit guilty... I whinged and whinged until I got the photos I needed; and then proceeded to put it off til now (and, to be perfectly honest, if I had my Thanksgiving pictures at hand, I would be putting it off further still!)

The event we attended was the Red Bull Flugtag that was held in the Botanical Gardens overlooking the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  For those of you who have no clue what I am talking about, let me explain:

Red Bull sponsors a competition in which people build contraptions, machines, etc... that they hope will fly when they run them off a giant ramp over the water.  To give you an indication of the types of things we were seeing, the teams and their aircraft (and I use this term lightly) are judged in the following three categories:

1. The distance of "flight"
2. The design of the "aircraft"
3. The costumes and the dancing.....

I'm sure you can see where this is going - not much flying per-se; but plenty of entertainment!  The week preceeding this event had been plagued by a constant rain so we didn't have our hopes up for too nice of a day.  We headed out early with a picnic lunch and a tarp to hide under our blanket blanket to sit on.  I tried to be "prepared" and so went wearing a tank top, a mid-length sleeve shirt and a light sweatshirt.  Joe and I both wore jeans as it was very cold in the morning when we were getting ready to go. We hadn't even gotten halfway to the event before we all started peeling off layers!  It was hot - really hot.  Poor Joe had only worn long sleeves so he had to go buy a $20.00 Red Bull Flugtag T-shirt from one of the vendors.  Of course, not one of us had thought to bring any hats or sunscreen.  We realised it was a seriously rookie mistake as we looked around at all the Aussies with their sun protection.  Well, that's actually only a half-truth... At first we (or at least me) thought the sun was great - it was warm and cozy and it was drying the ground. We (again, really only me) basked in the sun, working on our (my) first tan of the season.  In all fairness, I am coming out of two winters in a row and I don't deal well with being denied sun exposure as frequently as possible.

Well, I'm sure you are seeing where this is going...  We all got burnt.  Badly. Technically, there were varying degrees of badness...  Fellow Blogger Val got burnt the worst - really, one of the worst sunburns I have ever seen! Joe came in second with a burn that was just about the worst I had ever seen on him.  I came in third with what I would consider a medium burn for me.  Not too bad; but gone in a couple days.  Fellow bloggers husband (incidentally the person kind enough to have taken all these photos and to let me use them in this entry) didn't actually burn at all and was the luckiest of us all.

We had some other issues with horribly rude people standing in front of us and obscuring our view of the first few crafts; but after Joe found us a new place to sit, we were able to enjoy the view un-impeded.  After a couple hours in that spot, we had to move under the shade of a tree - at that point though, the damage had been done!

When Joe and I got home, we threw open all the windows and took off as many clothes as possible (I know, I know... move along) as the burn really started to set in.  I think we were a bit sun-addled - Joe decided to take a nap in the spare room (why there? I have no clue?) and I figured I would lay next to him and read.  Well, we both ended up passing out from sun exposure falling asleep and woke up after dark with a freezing cold wind coming in all the open windows - if you have ever been burned you know that horrible feeling where you are really cold; but the burned parts of your body are on fire and having the both of them at once give you constant chills?  Oh yeah.... I had that for the rest of the evening.

But, I would have done it again in a heartbeat - the experience was incredible!  I'm going to leave you with a little video that I am stealing borrowing from You Tube so that you can all see how we spent the afternoon!

(and yes, that aircraft is a cupcake and yes they are wearing giant chef's toques!)





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Eastern Coastal Walk - Part 1

Thursday, September 30, 2010 1:20 AM Posted by Mimi and Joe
It was a beautiful day last Sunday and I had been bugging Joe for a while to do the "Bondi to Coogee" walk. This particular trek is one part of a beautiful walk along the beaches and cliffs that stretch from the mouth of the Sydney Harbour down to a beach called Maroubra.  The walk in it's entirety is called the Eastern Coastal Walk so I suppose the title of this post is slightly wrong - however, I do hope to complete the entire walk eventually and so have parts 2 and 3. 

The portion of the walk that we did was 6 kilometers long (just shy of 4 miles) - it didn't seem all that long; but there was a lot of stairs and climbing involved so it did take us a couple of hours to complete.  In this first picture you can see the approximate route that we took.  It's not a great indicator of scale, so, in this second photo, I backed the map out so you can get a better idea of the length of the walk. 

It was an absolutely perfect day with bright blue skies - I took about 70 pictures in total and then whittled that number down to 30 once I got home and started editing.  Just a warning:  I'm not sure how I am going to pick only a few photos to add to this entry.  There may be multiple entries with lots of photos on each one so be prepared!
We started by taking a bus to Bondi - I have to admit - not a great way to spend a morning.  It was crowded on the bus (the Bondi buses are always crowded); however, we were lucky to have boarded the bus at the first stop so we did have seats for the entire trip.  The last time we took a bus to Bondi it only took about a half hour.  There was so crazy traffic on Sunday though, so we were in route to Bondi for almost an hour.  Once we got there we sunscreened up and we were off.  The beach was already starting to be really crowded (even though it's just early Spring here) and we weren't in the mood for crowds after our bus ride. 
It was very crowded to begin with - there seemed to be a lot of people just strolling up the first hill to get a better view of Bondi beach in it's entirety or maybe going up to the famous Bondi Icebergs Club (so named because their members swim year-round... yes, even during the dead winter) to see the salt water swimming pool.  Either way, Joe and I were ready to take off at a good pace so that we could get away from the worst of the crowds (again, we were pretty sick of people at this point).  Well, to be completely truthful, Joe was ready and I kept lingering behind to take pictures.  I couldn't help it really!  I have been stricken with shutter-bug-itis!
The surf was crashing up over the corner of the Icebergs swimming pool and everywhere I looked there was blue water, blue sky, white rock and green foliage.  It was very very hard not to take many more than 70 photos.  Heck, I would even venture to say that only taking 70 photos showed great restraint on my part!

Once we rounded the first cliff thingy ( I don't know what to call them - maybe a curve?  Yea, that sounds good). So, once we rounded the first curve in the cliff walk we could see down the coastline for miles. 

It was incredible to see people on the cliffs so far away looking for all the world like tiny ants and to think that we would be standing there too in about an hour. 

The beginning of the walk by Bondi was very challenging.  There were dirt paths and lots of precarious steps that had been hewn in the rock.  Sometimes the steps were more like divots so it would be tough keeping your balance.  There was also a great disparity in the size of the steps - there would be a couple that were about 6 inches, than one that was 10 then two that were 3 then.... well, you get the idea.  Murder on the calves I tell you. 

The rocks along the walk were particularly beautiful - they had that distinctive "erosion" look to them... that softness of line that can only come from years and years of the harsh elements facing the Tasman Sea. Some of the rocks were a golden colour that was really beautiful up against the blue sky; but my favourite were the white and grey rocks.  They were just so stark and dramatic against all that blue.  It made the coastline pop out at you.  This one was an accidental dead end that we got to - I think it was meant to be a lookout of some sort... or maybe just a resting place.  We only had to retrace our steps for about 10 meters to get back to the main path. 


I'm certainly glad for the wrong turn though as this was one of my favourite photos that I took the whole day.



Well, the next beach on the walk was called Tamarama Beach.  I had a little information card talking about the walk and it proclaimed this tiny little beach to be where "all the most buff, tan bodies" were in Sydney.  Yikes!  Once we got down there though, we realized that it wasn't anything special...  I think once you start actively advertising a specific beach as a place where all the hot people go to get half naked, than all of the not-hot people start showing up to gawk.  Once that happens than it is just a regular beach....  After the walk, when I was doing some googling research on it, I read that Tamarama was actually considered to be a gay beach.  I have to admit, it just looked like a regular beach to me... 

After Tamarama, we walked on to Bronte Beach which was about the half way point in our stretch of the walk.  I liked Bronte the best - it seemed very family friendly without being overrun by unruly children.  Plus the sand looked completely gorgeous.  I made a mental note to keep it on our list of beaches to frequent this summer.

I did read later that it can have some pretty dangerous undertows/rip tides etc... so maybe it will be a beach where we lay on the sand and wade in the water - not a "swimming" beach.  Not that either of us are major swimmers but.... I digress..

We stopped at a little picnic shelter in the park overlooking Bronte to eat our packed lunch of sandwiches.  We had bought them at a stand in Circular Quay earlier that morning so my hopes were not high.  Rightly so, they were just ok; but we were pretty hungry by that point so we really didn't care.


I am going to go ahead and cut this walk into two posts. It's already one in the morning here and I have to work in the morning.  I love you all; but not that much.  I will add the rest of my photos down below; but you will have to make up your own stories to go with them!












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Another Year Gone

Monday, September 20, 2010 1:10 AM Posted by Mimi and Joe
I am feeling only slightly guilty for not blogging all weekend - It was my birthday weekend and one of the presents I gave to myself was the permission to slack off on blogging, taking photos and everything related.  I hope you all will pardon the absence.

I've been saving up some fun news for a few weeks and since it is finally official I can spill it... 

I got a job!!  Whoo-Hoo!!  I am actually going to working at Joe's company.  It is very very part-time - only a day and half a week to start; but then going up to two and a half days in November.  I'll be handling culture and publicity exclusively till November when I will pick up the extra day doing some work around the accounts receivable/invoicing process.  It's nothing super-glamorous; but it is fun, interesting, engaging and will get me out of the house a bit more.  Don't expect to hear much about the job though as a lot of my new co-workers read this blog!  Anything I post here would be the same as talking about it in the office.

So, I had made plans earlier in the week with two other couples to have a picnic on Saturday - I honestly didn't realize until it was pointed out to me that it was actually my birthday that day.  I really hadn't planned on really celebrating it because I was too worried that it would make me homesick.  Since I got a birthday package from Joe's Mom and Dad that had some Montgomery Inn BBQ Sauce in it, I decided to have a Southern themed picnic.  I made devilled eggs, sweet tea, pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw and potato salad.  One of the girls brought apple turnovers (so so so so so yummy) and the other brought Bloody Marys (so so so so so yummy).  Really, it was a perfect day.  Perfect.... seriously.  I can't think of anything that would have made it better!

I got flowers from one of the couples - so thoughtful!  They also took some pictures throughout the afternoon and you can view them on their blog here.  Joe's boots even made it into the photo collage!!  It was a truly wonderful afternoon spent lounging on the blanket, drinking, talking and laughing.  Did I mention laughing?  We had so much fun, in fact, that we already have the next picnic planned  for two weekends from now.  I can hardly wait.

All of my worries about being homesick were completely unfounded - it was a great day.

Sunday (today, I guess - but since it's after midnight - not really.  I digress!) was a busy day.  It started slow with me sleeping in far too late...  We had discussed doing the Bondi to Coogee walk; but it was overcast and a little chilly so we decided to postpone that till a nicer day.  We decided instead to catch a bus for Manly beach with a little picnic dinner and some books.   We walked by the exhibition grounds on our way from the bus to the beach and got to see/hear a Scottish Pipe Band competition...  Awesome!

It wasn't the sunniest, warmest day; but it was so nice to lay on a blanket, smell the ocean and hear the waves for an afternoon. 




There is something that is just so wonderfully calming about the ocean...


Then there is the sand....  It gets on the blanket and it gets in the food.  You find it in your house months after your excursion - and, even though you are wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt, it somehow ends up in your underwear.



The views from the blanket were awesome - just imagine how much greater it would be on a sunny day.



And yes, I need a pedicure... and I have a blue ladybug on my toe...



When we got back into our neighborhood we had the choice of waiting a half hour for the bus or just walking home - wisely, we decided to walk... and since I had my camera, you will now be subjected to two artsy pictures that I took on our way home.




The End!

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Picnic On The Reserve

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 10:30 AM Posted by Mimi and Joe
Saturday we had friends over for a picnic in our front yard at Kurraba Point Reserve and it was lovely.  Joe and I took a little picnic dinner down there weeks before; but it was chilly, it was late, there was a mob of crazy teenagers and we sat on a rock.  So... this time - sitting in the sunshine on a blanket with lovely friends, beautiful food and delicious wine was one of the nicest Saturdays we have had since we got here.  I think I am going to make this a weekly tradition - in fact, there is another one planned for this coming Saturday.  We are having over 2 fellow blogger/ex-pat couples that we have met and liked immensely.  The theme of the picnic is "Southern Style Food" complete with sweet tea, pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw...... Yum!

Guess we'll be enjoying this view again in a few days...

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Getting Settled

Sunday, September 12, 2010 7:50 PM Posted by Mimi and Joe
Well, I am finally settling down for a much needed break from laundry and trying to catch up on my online life.  Ever since our stuff showed up on Wednesday, I have been going with all cylinders.  Most nights I have been rolling into bed past midnight - trying to fit the last bit of organizing/cleaning/moving in before our poor neighbors complain.  If I were smart, I would probably try to go a bit slower and prolong this Christmas feeling; but my need for order is winning.

The stuff showed up Wednesday morning - after everything was carried up, the guys started stripping all the wrappings off the furniture and pictures - it was like mayhem for about 15 minutes and somewhere in these piles of packing material was the hardware for our black desk.  I didn't realize that till later, of course....

After they left, I basically skipped around the apartment for a half hour taking pictures of boxes (yea, I ended up deleting them - they were very boring) and looking at our unwrapped photos.

I decided to formulate a plan...  There were several things I wanted to accomplish before Joe got home from work - I wanted to put together his desk and set up his computers for him and I also wanted to have a place where we could sit down and have dinner together.  So, I began; but at first it just looked like I was making the mess much much worse!  It was difficult unpacking the monitors and hard drives.  They were all really heavy, double boxed and wrapped in three layers of packing material; but I persisted and got the whole thing set-up.  Of course, I didn't actually run any of the wires or plug anything in as I had no idea what type of cables or anything to use. 
It would have been a disaster, and besides, Joe thinks stuff like that is fun so I left the wiring for him.  The desk turned out rather nicely though - The office definitely has room for a couple book shelves as well so that should help with giving us some storage options later on down the road.

So, before we left the states, we decided to invest in a patio set from Ikea - it was flat packed so it wouldn't take up much room in the crate and it was really cheap. 
So, the set consists of two chairs, a two seater bench and a table... after we got our apartment (with no balcony and no outdoor space) we decided that we would just sell it once we got it.  However, considering we don't have a dining room table or couch, we opted in favour of setting all of it up and using it as temporary furniture.  I put the patio set together and then started unpacking my kitchen stuff.  It was absolutely incredible to open each little carefully wrapped bundle.  It was the longest Christmas that I have ever had - a Christmas that lasted for days! 

It went this way:

Me: (unwrap, unwrap, unwrap) Oh look - it's a mug!
Me: (unwrap, unwrap, unwrap) Oh look - it's a pan lid!
Me: (unwrap, unwrap, unwrap) Oh look - it's a wine glass!

You get the idea...  There was only one casualty and I am not letting myself get upset about it for two reasons - firstly, there could have been multiple broken items and secondly, it could have been something truly meaningful and sentimental.

That's about all I got done on Wednesday... it was enough though - I was so sore and tired by bed time!  It didn't help that I was sick already so my resident Rock Star gave me a back rub and a foot rub for all of my hard work...

Thursday was the perfect day for staying in and getting some serious work done... It was crummy and rainy outside - not super cold, just dreary and drizzly.  I got a bit artsy-fartsy with my camera and took these two pictures out our big picture window.  I focused on the skyline for the first one and on the window for the second - just some cool perspectives. 
I haven't really been using my camera as much here since I have to cart it around in my purse/backpack - it's much easier to use my phone; but my phone can't do cool things like this!

Anyway - Thursday, I decided to concentrate on getting the kitchen set up completely.  I had already decided weeks ago where I wanted all of my stuff to go once it got here (yes, I spent A LOT of time fantasizing about having more than two mugs and two glasses) so it was just a matter of getting it set up in a pretty way. 


Well, I guess it doesn't really matter how things look inside the cupboards; but there is a set of open shelves in the corner of our kitchen that I had earmarked as a great place to put glasses and mugs.  Since it is so highly visible I wanted to make sure that I really set it up right - plus, I can't reach the top shelf without a step-stool so I wanted to make sure that all the the types of glasses were accessible.  I think it ended up looking rather "cafe-like".  Once that was done the rest of the kitchen seemed to fall into place pretty easily.  Jen and Theresa - your pieces of art got pride of place as they rightfully deserved!
I got all of the rest of the kitchen done - including setting up a step-down converter on top of the microwave to plug the espresso maker into.  What that also means is that whenever I want to use my crock-pot, mixer or food processor from the States; I can just set them up on that counter, plug them into the converter and then go to town!  It was quite exciting that night to make dinner (Lamb Tikka Masala) in my beautiful kitchen with all of my things around me.  Using a pan larger than a cereal bowl was also a great experience!


Well, I'll post a bit more tomorrow and include some more pictures - I am afraid if I don't stop now then I never will...  Besides, the laundry calls...



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For the Love of Lentils

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 10:12 PM Posted by Mimi and Joe
I am convinced that lentils are a food that I should just automatically like.  Most of my family likes them, they always sounds really good to me and I generally like that sort of thing anyway.  I have such a texture problem with them though - they either seem overcooked and mushy or sort of undercooked and grainy.  But I digress...

So, it was a rainy, cold and dreary day here yesterday; and, even though I wanted to hang out inside to stay warm and dry, I really needed to go out to buy espresso since we were out (and being out of coffee in this house is not ok).  So, I was halfway to the shops when I realized that I hadn't taken anything out to defrost for dinner.  I went to LiquorLand (where they had my favorite champers on sale for $15 for 2 bottles!) and then started roaming the aisles of Coles to see what I could find.  I happened across this really beautiful bag of French Lentils... Ok, but, before that happened, I found these M&M's!  Orange? Mint?  Cool...  I mean, except for the fact that they both look kinda gross; but I wanted to show you anyway. 

Also, before I get distracted again - this was one of the articles in the local weekly paper.  The article was an interview with four local students - for us in the States they would be called senior; but they are called something different here (I can't remember what though).  It was slightly embarrassing to read these boys opinions.  They were so articulate and well thought out - these boys obviously followed politics and cared about who they were going to be voting for and why.  I was no where that interested in politics my senior year; and I didn't even feel that prepared the first time I went to vote!  Anyway - really just loved the headline!

So, back to the lentils....  They were french and they had a cool name.  So, I picked up the package and read an interesting recipe that included lots of oil and red onions.  Looked nasty; but the red onion started me thinking....  I had a fresh block if feta at home and even a red onion. My only stumbling block was what type of meat to serve with it.  I know, I know... It didn't really need meat; but if you are going to try to tell me that than you don't know my husband!  So, I bought some fresh Spanish Chorizo from the deli and home I went.

It began in a rather promising manner.  I was sipping pink champagne, there was music on my Itunes and once the lentils were rinsed they looked like a pile of miniature shellfish:


They purported to cook in only 25 minutes which was not true (I also don't have measuring cups so I was eyeballing the amounts and I may have had it all wrong); but it didn't matter anyway as Joe was late getting home from work.  They smelled delicious while they were cooking - nutty; but with a hint of spice.  While they were going I assembled my master plan:



 How can you go wrong with such a great combination of ingredients?  They looked even better once they were all chopped up in my bowl.



So, the red onion, Roma tomato, Lebanese cucumber, scallions red capsicum (pepper) and feta cheese got a bit of olive oil and lemon juice sprinkled on them and then waited patiently as I pan fried (not much choice as I only have 2 pans and one was cooking the lentils) the chorizo.  It was really greasy and I think next time I'd like to roast it in the oven? or something that doesn't involve it spattering grease over my clean stove.  So, once that was done I caramelized some garlic and onion, added the lentils and sauteed till they couldn't look or smell any better.


Voila!  Mixed all to combine and served with a green salad.  Joe really liked it (or at least he said he did and took the leftovers for lunch); but I have to admit that I wasn't impressed....  The flavours were great; but the lentils really ruined it for me. Same texture problems, I'm afraid.


So, I figure it will be another couple of years before I find a recipe or something that will make me think "Maybe I'll like lentils this time?". 

If I do, I'll let you know.
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