Despite

having got up this morning and gone to the gym and the market, I am wrecked. My partying has finally caught up to me and I am in a momentous amount of pain.
Oh, and I threw up a few times.

So, ambitiously, I made this to bring to my friend's birthday of food and drinks and sadly, I can't move. And I think if I have thrown up, other people should probably not be exposed to this. Even though it is a really good salad.

*Sad face*

Excuse the shitter than usual photo, I kind of didn't care by the time I finished and this is the strange lighting we have in the house in the late afternoon.

Don't eat this unless you want to contract the plague in your brains.
Um, but feel free to make it.

1/2 pumpkin, cleaned, skin still on, diced
1 red onion, halved and sliced
1 stalk of rosemary, stolen from the neighbour's front garden
sage, torn
2 cloves of garlic, diced
salt
pepper
salt
oil

1 handful of hazlenuts
half that of walnuts
A few big handfuls of baby spinach leaves

1/2 a block of feta (don't ask me what type, I just stood at the counter asking the person at the counter at the market until I liked one...I know, irresponsible blogging), diced

Dijon mustard, the dregs in the bottom of the jar (probably 2 teaspoons)
Extra virgin olive oil (a few glugs)
salt
pepper
juice of 1 small lemon
honey (to taste)

Preheat the oven to 200 and combine the pumpkin, onion, salt, pepper, sage, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper and oil and place on a baking tray. Bake for 20-30 minutes.
In the last 10 minutes, throw in the nuts.
Meanwhile, whisk together the mustard, oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice and honey until you have a dressing balanced to your liking.
Crush the nuts.
In a large salad bowl, throw in your spinach leaves and the cooked pumpkin and etc. Stir to wilt the leaves a little. Mix in the nuts and the feta and dress with the dressing so that it is coated, but not leaving a pool a the bottom.
Serve with crusty bread and apologise to your chicken friend.

Still uninspired.

So, my variation of raw vegetables have now turned into chopped up vegetables with other shit in a bowl.

I can only blame these concoctions on my hours at the gym. I am convinced my body craves these things, the way that your brain says you want sweet things when you're actually thirsty. If it is any consolation, it is pretty damn tasty.

So, where has my enthusiasm gone? I know for sure that it isn't escaping out of my toes, because I don't wear thongs. It's not draining from my fingertips either, they have always been uncovered. Hell, I am so unenthused that I didn't bother really taking a photo.

And why did I chop everything so small? I don't know, for some reason I felt like eating with a spoon.

Would anyone like to pass me a beer?



Some salad thing
Serves 2-3 people

1/2 a spanish onion, diced
2 ribs of celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 handful of parsley, finely chopped
2 handfuls of mungbean sprouts
1 handful of almonds, roasted and roughly chopped
1 large can of tuna in chili, oil drained, flaked, chilies reserved
1/2 a lemon
3 hard boiled eggs
1 head of cos lettuce
hummus

When dicing all the vegetables, make sure they're the same size. Mix together with the nuts, sprouts and the tuna. Finely chop the reserved chilies and add them to the mix. Season with salt and pepper and the juice of half a lemon. Stir and serve in bowls.
Peel and quarter the eggs, lengthways and allow an egg per person, and arrange on top of the salad. Dollop with hummus.
Take the leaves of the lettuce and use them as spoons to eat the salad with.

If you haven't just spent a couple of hours counting the calories you have just burnt, or have balls, add some oil to finish. It didn't really need it. Same goes with crusty bread/toast.

And to quote my housemate, "Eat the shit out of it."

I like to repeat myself.

Remember when I made this?

Well, I happen to be living off it when I don't know how the weather is making me feel. Here's a picture of it, I think the only difference is that this one has parsley and more celery...just because I felt like it.



Oh, and I am all smiles now, because I realise the Slow Food Market is on this Saturday and I can restock on certain crazies.

Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes.

And did I mention that eating that salad is best done during dusk while listening to Charlotte Gainsbourg's The Operation?

You can use that as dip!

Verde Provedores make a range of organic dips and they have a stall at the Slow Food market. I find it very cute how they prop up a sign saying, "Extend the GM Ban" against their stall.

This week, despite my feelings about buying dips, I got the carrot, parsnip and the harissa. In the past, I found the beetroot dip not beetrooty enough, how sad-face.

I am a big fan of the harissa. It contains roasted red capsicums, carrot, olive oil, lemon, juice, garlic, chili, ground cumin, coriander and sea salt.

I never really thought of harissa as a dip, moreso a condiment. Funnily enough, it seems to go with everything. In complete desperation, I made a salad and slopped on some harissa and yogurt over the top.

I feel like a slob, but that is what humidity does to me.

I'm a fatty
Serves 4

3 ribs of celery, sliced
1/2 spanish onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 an avocado, diced
1/2 can of canellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
extra virgin olive oil
zest and juice of 1 lemon
harissa
yogurt

Mix the celery, onion, carrot, avocado, lemon zest and beans together and season. Add the juice of the lemon and some oil. Plate it out and then put 1-2 tablespoons of the harissa and an equal amount of yogurt over the top and stir it into the salad.

I ate it with a couple of 9 grain vitaweats and a litre of water. I am the ultimate slop-master.

Macbeth Murdered.

I went to see Melbourne Uni's Shakespeare Co.'s version of Macbeth tonight. My friend 'won' free tickets in some essay competition. My first thought when she told me this was worst prize ever. This isn't because I dislike theatre, it is that I already know the quality of it.

We started off with drinks at Markov Place. She got some crazy red girly spritzer thing and I kept to my Shofferhoffer Kristal. She had just come from work and I had come from...well, work and exercise.
Despite my crazy adrenaline, she coaxed me into ordering something with her. She ended up getting the wild mushroom and manchego bruschetta, and I ordered an oyster with a red wine vinegar and shallot dressing.

Go team oyster.

So, then, without the opportunity to get sloshed, we ran off to see Macbeth. The production was very immature. I assumed all the good actors had been exhausted with the recent runs of Zombie State and Botulism. Anyways, the only good actor in the show was Lady Macbeth who was played by Leeor Adar. She was actually able to deliver Shakespeare the way you were to read it, unlike her counterpart, Macbeth (Seamus Barker) who spoke as if he was William Shatner with tourret's if you turned up the volume and broke the knob. I don't understand how a company could possibly make all the characters of Macbeth, who were not Lady Macbeth annoying.
Hats off to you.

I understand now, why Lady Macbeth kills herself.

The thing that rounded it all off was "Love Will Tear Us Apart" playing during the curtain call.

Let's not get started on the three witches.

Alas, I have made it home on a Friday night, and it is before midnight. I somehow don't think an oyster is good as a dinner after only eating a piece of bread and a tomato today. Anyways, it's sultry...it's salad time.

Omnomnomnom
Serves 3

2 ribs of celery, diced
1/2 spanish onion, diced
1/2 punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 an avocado, diced
2 small cans of Serina chili tuna in oil, drained and flaked
1 can of canellini beans, rinsed
1/2 lemon
salt and pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl 9up to the lemon)and season to taste. Serve by squeezing the juice of half a lemon over the top with a drizzle of oil and a piece of toast.

It's Friday, have another beer.