coffee

i love the keep cup... it's so pretty, so practical and not at all embarrassing like the thought of giving my clunky thermal cup to a barista is. good design is wonderful like that.

yesterday morning i bought a take away coffee. we had run out of milk and i wanted to walk ben to work through the botanic gardens, and everyone knows that a walk through the botanic gardens is much nicer with a cup of coffee to sip, so my thermal cup stayed at home and waste was produced...

i used to buy take away coffees all the time, especially when i was at uni or worked in more traditional offices. i don't think it ever accrued to me that i shouldn't buy take-away coffees because of the waste ... it accrued to me that i was probably spending too much money on milky caffeinated goodness, but that's a different kettle of fish. now that i don't have sit in lectures, work in a suburban house, and have a mortgage to pay i hardly ever buy take-away coffee. i wonder how many take away coffees cup i would need to not use to make up for buying a keep cup, probably far too many....

Anyhow, this is yesterday afternoons coffee (i promise i don't usually buy coffee twice a day). you don't ever get that much prettiness in a take away cup!

there are lots more people taking photos in august at The Byron Life. they're probably even taking one a day like i said i'd try to :)

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!