rocky road

i'm trying to simplify my life, trying not to buy myself 'things' and trying to to buy othe people 'things'. this is all very well and good but what do i make for my little brother when he turns 22? rocky road of course!

take lots of chocolate (but not quite this much... half is for me)
i made the mistake of assuming all Green&Black's chocolate was fair trade but isn't, i should have read the packaging instead of assuming...

mix together mashmallows, red rasberries, cashews and almonds

melt the chocolate and combine with the nuts and lollies, while trying not to think about the sugar...

then spread out the mixture, put it in the fridge and wait for it to set



cut it up into peices the next day and you end up with a huge bowl of rocky road, too easy! hopefully my brother takes his time eating it all...

there are lots more people taking a photo a day in august at The Byron Life.
these are my photos from thursday and friday ... i'm all caught up again!

an indian birthday feast

spices for the royal chicken korma

my favourite part of Indian cooking is the very first step of heating the oil up so that it glistens and dropping the cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and cardamon pods in, so they crackle, spit and pop around the pan. my nose twitches and my stomach does a little dance and suddenly my body, not just my brain, knows that soon it's going to get a tasty curry to enjoy!

royal chicken korma, saag chicken, spicy chickpeas

on wednesday ben's brother got a year older and to celebrate his mum and i made indian curries. she made a really spicy melt-in-your mouth chicken curry and i made a royal chicken korma with lots of cream and saffron, a saag chicken (i think saag can refer to any leafy green, mine was an untraditional silverbeet), and spicy chickpeas and potatoes. we didn't talk about what we where going to make in advance so we ended up with lots and lots of chicken ... but it was all delicious so it didn't matter.

it's one of our 'things' to get together with ben's siblings and eat an absurd amount of take-away indian ... usually until our bellys feel like they'll explode with tastiness! i don't want to be a take-away buying person anymore. i love cooking and can make indian almost as tasty as our favourite take away, it's just getting around to doing it that's the problem ... and learning how to make good garlic naan at home ... i've got no idea how to make good garlic naan at home!

there are lots more people taking a photo a day in august at The Byron Life.
these are my photos from wednesday, but they're a bit late again... taking photos everyday is pretty easy to remember, but posting about them is much more difficult!