Australian classics...

 

I am the sort of person who waits until a day or two after daylight saving shifts to change all the clocks. I need a day or two to adjust to the idea, even though it happens twice a year.

Same with a new year.

Now that it is well and truly 2012 I have updated my reading list. 2011 is still there with a few comments on the books I did get around to reading. Some good, some great, some so so. Some I couldn't finish.

Here's something to look forward to in your reading year. Text Publishing is producing 32 Australian classics in paperback form, cheap at $12.95 (cheap for an Australian book - don't get me started on book prices here).

In this thought-provoking opinion piece Michael Heyward, the head of Text Publishing, bemoans the fact that many of Australia's best literary works are now out of print - and even the entire works of some of our best authors.

He has an excellent point. I studied English Lit at school - not at university unfortunately -  and would consider myself pretty well read but many of the books and authors he mentions I haven't read or (cough) recognise.  2012 should change that.

The full list has not been released but will include Careful, He Might Hear You,  David Ireland's The Glass Canoe,  and Henry Handel Richardson's The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney.  

The scheduled release date is May. You can read more about it here on the publisher's website in the coming months.

Friday door, white on white on white...

A Friday door that's fresh, crisp and spells summer.  Apparently they're not having such a crisp sunny summer in Auckland where I spotted this door before we left last year.

We have summer in spades in Melbourne this month. It's been so hot that on occasion my older son wants to leave Australia. It's only 35 degrees I tell him. Toughen up, next week it could be 42.  Of course when it hits that we'll both be melting into the same greasy puddle.

It's also been a week of few words on the blog. Life is busy isn't it? I don't mean to join the competitive 'I'm busier than you are' conversations that people delight in. And I'm not importantly busy at all... not solving any Big Issues or raising seven children while working full time. Or even cleaning my house. Hell no.

I did go back to work yesterday on a public holiday - Australia Day -  and fought to get a car park among all the people gathered to celebrate their Australian-ness.

That's the trouble with journalism. We journos may be bottom feeders but we have to work on all the best days and because we're not saving lives nobody cares. That's why every summer you see those  'There Are Too Many Public Holidays' stories in your newspaper.

We whinge on hoping against hope that someone somewhere will care. Anyone?

Mouse in my house...

The little guy on the right is coming to live at my place... to hang around, sniff cheese, read a little.

You can buy him here along with a lot of other pretty little critters.
Thank you Miss Jones.

Yummmm Cha

Yum Cha.

Absolutely the best family Sunday lunch option.
One eats his weight in prawn dumplings, the other waits for dessert.

Villa love...

This was my favourite Auckland house, not mine of course.

Fit for a princess, it's in one of the city's most expensive suburbs and those beautiful windows look out over the water.

When I first moved to Auckland it was a little rundown with peeling paint and a neglected garden but over the two years we were there it got a little love.

And a lot of love from me, from afar.

Simple Sunday supper

This is our simple Sunday supper of choice at the moment... a delicious tomato pasta that everyone from 2 to forty (or nearly) loves.

This makes more than enough...

Two tins of good crushed tomatoes
Olive oil - about six tablespoons
Garlic - 2/3 cloves
Vegetable stock - 250ml
Salt and Pepper
Pasta  400g of whatever you like.
Basil - if your kids eat green stuff, lucky smug you, long may it last!

Slice garlic and add to cold oil. Garlic straight into hot oil loses the subtle fragrance and becomes bitter.
Cook on a medium heat until the garlic is just starting to brown and you get that fabulous garlicky aroma.

Add the tomato and stock (tomato first as hot oil and water is not a good combination)
Season and turn up the heat and cook uncovered for ten minutes or so until the sauce has cooked down and is lumpy in the pan.  Meanwhile cook the pasta, then stir it through the sauce and serve with parmesan and fresh basil.

Delicious with crusty bread and peas - the only green thing my youngest eats with gusto. Even better in the summer with quickly qrilled prawns.

I think this started life as a Nigella recipe and has been changed a little. It's certainly not something you need to follow to the letter which surely is the point of a simple Sunday supper?

Friday door... from Hobart this time...

My Friday door favourites are back in 2012.... some I have found on my travels, some from my new Melbourne neighborhood and some oldies from Auckland.

This is the door of one of my favourite Hobart houses. I pass it on every trip back and always think how much I'd like to live in it.

This time when I passed with my new camera in hand it had been given a new coat of paint and some smart new pots.

I like what they've done to the place.

May your Friday the 13th pass without incident.