My Next To Last Post...

Before I'm on a plane bound for the East Coast of the US of A.

*ALERT. THIS IS AN ALERT. AWESOME CUTENESS OF BEBEH CRITTER AT END OF POST*

I may or may not be able to keep you entertained whilst I'm away. I'll have computer access and be taking shitloads of pics so hopefully if nothing else I'll be able to get some pics up daily. No promises mates!

I'll have twitter and Skype access too. Ain't all these modern gadgets and technologies grand? Anyone remember back to when you didn't even think about going on a 400 mile drive without a mobile phone? Anyone?

Now for today, I'll be quick. I haven't had a chance to finish up the pics from Cave Gardens (with it's CATS and bees) nor go through the ones at Umpherston's Sinkhole.

But I have tweeted a few pics randomly throughout this week so I guess these'll have to do, eh? How does some 12 Apostle pics from The Great Ocean Road sound?

But first, a food pic. This is actually proof that I make my own cheese. This wheel was feta. Emphasis on the "was" as it sure as heck didn't hang about!



Now just doesn't that look tasty? It sure did to myself, Wifey-Poo, and MIL. BIL doesn't eat weird kinds of cheeses and he considers anything that isn't cheddar to be weird. Yes, HE is the weird one!

I am now going to throw up (BLARF) some random pics from The Great Ocean Road. You are very welcome.

First is the standard pic of the 12 Apostles that every Aussie should have. I may have shown you this previously.



Nextly is a nice medium zoom in of the aforementioned 12 hunks of rock.


Somewhere along the road...


Somewhere else along the road...


Watch out for that first step, it's a dooooozy!


Why? Because I can, that is why.


Ahhhh, the wide-eyed excitement of youth in contrast to the tiredness of the parent.


I'll try to get the rest of the Cave Gardens pics done and the start of Umpherston's Sinkhole for you tomorrow.

Blue Lake to Cave Gardens

is only slightly less than 1.5 kilometres than the kookaburra flies.

Yes, Mt. Gambier South Oz is not exactly the hugest nor largest thriving metropolis out there, but at least it is Out There! Not for me though, heck I think Naracoorte is too big. A place just about my size would be Reedy Creek. Heck, it's close enough to that big smoke of Lucindale for me! Can you tell I like small towns? BTW, whilst we drove "thru" Reedy Creek I noticed there was only 1 (one, uno, einz) building visible from the "road".

Yeah, I could handle living there! The fact that the single building was a CFS (Country Fire Service) depot/shack made me feel right at home. Wifey-poo however feels that Naracoorte is more her size. Harumph.

*screech* go the brakes as we shift gears!

Hey look, I can cook. Here's proof:


And if you'd like to make the dish by your very own oneses, I have explained how to do that right here.

The above sentence is highlighted, it's what is called a LINC in the biz. Pardon me for showing off my skillz.

Back to The Limestone Coast and Mt Gambier! Here's some info (in case you were interested about Blue Lake):



And here is a picture PROVING (or proofing depending on the context of course) that whilst it was raining...


... Blue Lake is still really *bleepin'* BLUE!

No, there are no (as is NONE) photo enhancements done to nor on the above picture. Trust me.

Lake water is not supposed to look that colour when it is overcast, rainy, and the angle of the sunlight still only 2 hours after dawn. Oops, who's chasing Dawn????

Next stop: Cave Gardens!

Cave Gardens was the original waterin' hole for this particular area. And when the Europeans got to this area (after killing the original inhabitants of course) they also used it as a water source. The town of Mt. Gambier was built around the water source, hence Cave Gardens is right smack dab in the middle of the hustlin' bustlin' downtown Mt Gambier! Don't worry, rush hour is very short.

See what I mean?



But before we get to the first bit of Cave Gardens, I just have to share with you my not-so-latest 3d stuff. I'm assuming that all my loyal readers will have seen or perhaps at least heard of the second X-Dude movie. You know, the movie based on a comic called "X-MEN" where all the really cool "X-MEN" were not "MEN" but were actually "WOMEN"?

Anyhows, did anyone of you think that the inky-poof teleporting-in effect for Nightcrawler was nifty? I did. So I quite naturally did what anyone who thought that Calvin (from the comic strip) was just not using his imagination enough would do.

Hereupon I humbly present to you (dear reader) an here-to-fore unknown gem from the master of imagination (that'd be Calvin, from the comic strip) of... well... something...



I shall now take a bow. And I shall take that bow and shoot an arrow with it.


Alrighty, enuff stupidness and sillytude from me. It is far past time to let Momma Nature (who has had so much more practice than myself) show off her beautiful work!

Cave Gardens, Mt Gambier.














And what would life be like without a video?




Did any of you notice a particular critter in some of those pictures or a part of that video? Something that was perhaps not bipedal and non-hairy?

Perhaps this will help refresh your mammaries...



Next up: The Birds and The Bees of Cave Gardens!
don't worry, it'll be safe for work. maybe

Fine then, BE that way!

And see if I care!

Harumph

Obviously my lame-assed attempt at audience participation udderly phailed.

Well, I've now got a pic that will pretty much guarantee comments! Would you like to see it? Of course you would:



Mmmmmmm, that makes me hungry mates! In fact, I may even may roo burgers today.

And no, roo pies are NOT like cow pies! But if you are wondering what that "type" of roo pie looks like... think moose nuggets! However, Aussies aren't crass enough to varnish em and sell em to tourists like Alaskans do! But you can get small purses that at one point in time housed a male roo's testicles.

Yes ladies, you CAN literally carry around the privates of a male! I'll bet Alaska's Worst Governor Ever would like one to keep Toady's junk in.


Next picture up is a sneak peek at a 3d seen (whoopsie, "scene"; darned tiepoes!) I'm working on. Keep in mind that every single bit of this picture is FAKE. The rocky desert landscape is FAKE. The crashed ship is FAKE (but have a squizz at the cockpit wreckage, it's great!). The steam plume from the engines is FAKE. The ship circling around is FAKE. The crappy looking engine tail glow (still working on that!) is FAKE. The clouds are FAKE.



Everything in the photo is FAKE! Which is exactly like the persona of The Creature From Lake Lucille, FAKE!


Oh, wait a sec mates! You probably can't make out the ultra cool detailing from that little pic.

Here's a much more bigger and much more better one!



Thoughts? Ideas? Snarky remarks?

From Wifey-Poos Store of Useless Information

And before any of you get upset at that, I'm not the one who calls it that! She does. I tell her it's not useless! Nothing with Wifey-Poo is ever useless, trust me on that.

Now if she's reading this then I won't have to sleep on the couch tonight!

First though, how's abouts a birdy pic from the backyard? Kids, don't try this at home!


Just HOW do they do that?

Back to the information from Wifey-Poo.

We were watching a show on the telly the other night. The show was from the year 1981 and I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out by reading what Wifey-Poo said whilst we were watching it.

Wifey-Poo: Did you know the lady playing Trillion was married to Peter Davison and they had a daughter named Sophia Miles who was engaged to Tennant so she was not only the wife of The Doctor but also almost his Mother-In-Law?

Yours Truly: Ummmmm... Yes dear.

I made some more braided bread the other day. Some of you may have seen this on me twitter timeline, but it may to new to many of you:



Pretty cool looking, eh?

The Masses Have Spoken!

And it was much more of a whisper from two very nice ladies than the voter turnout I was hoping for. But hey, no worries mates. I tolds ya I'd make up me own Holiday Feast Menu if I needs ta.

And food is one thing I's guud at. Along with the shoppin', plannin', cookin', and such like.

Beefour you get to read the menu, I thawt I'd tells ya a few things dat I's tankful fer.

A walk-in pantry.

2 refrigerators.

3 freezers.

Gas stove top.

Gas oven.

6 burner outdoor barby with a 7th side burner.

Ok, I think that sorta just about covers it. Well, foodwise it does.

Onto The Holiday Feast Menu of 2010/2011!

We'll be starting on the summer solstice of December 21th. That'd be the winter solstice for my non-Southern hemisphere readers and it'd be December 20th since we're a day ahead of you. So there.

It will last till January 5th, that'd be Twelfth Night, BTW.

Why? Why not?

And as a bonus for you I've sorta kinda like halfway grouped the dishes into various categories. Sorta. Kinda. Like.

You may also notice there aren't enough main courses to get us thru 17 days. Nor are there enuff side dishes. Plenty of dessert though! The lack of enugh mains is because of the magic of "Leftovers". If I was on Iron Chef and the theme ingredient was "Leftovers" I would seriously kick some serious butt. Seriously.

And side dishes seem to take care of themselves so I didn't feel the need to right down every single one, just some of the special ones.

So pull up a chair and bring your appetite cus here, we, go!

Mains (not an exhaustive list of course)
Polynesian Pork Ribs
Roast Chook
Various Sushi Platters
Grilled Basa Fillets
Banana Leaf-Wrapped Marinated Pork Shoulder
Homemade Pizzas (great way to take care of leftovers)
Mexican Feast (leftover pork shreds great!)
Maple Syrup & Pineapple Glazed Ham
Numerous cold platters
Beer n Brats

A few of the planned side dishes
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Char-grilled Eggplant
Green Beans n Red Bell Peppers in Peanut Sauce
Potato Salad --both hot and cold varieties
Herbed, Baked Potato Pieces
Lots of green salads
Marinated Onion n Cucumber Salad
Homemade Teriyaki Beef Jerky
Toasted Chilli n Garlic Almonds n Peanuts
Nacho Platters (DUH!)
Various Cheeses, Feta, Camenbert, Bleu, etc
Dolmades

Dips
Hummus
Miti
Guacamole
Lots of different gravies
Tzatziki
Hot Fudge Sauce

Desserts!
Satan's Trifle --h/t to Michelle for the name of the dish
Frozen Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Hot Fudge Sauce
Champagne and Strawberries with choc sauce for dipping
Devonshire Cream Tea
2 or 3 loaves of Cinnamon Bread
Pineapple Pie
Waldorf Salad (me mum's secret recipe)
Pineapple Sherbet
Banana Tarts
Pineapple Dip/Topping
Highland Oatcakes
Shortbread
Irish Whiskey Fruitcake
Christmas Pudding
Pineapple-Coconut Pie with Meringue Topping

Booze
Homebrews (Got a few cases of different varieties ready!)
Father O'Learys Velvet Cream (like Baileys but better)
Red Wines
White Wines
Champagne
Cream Port

I think it'll be a very nice feast this holiday season. What are your thoughts?

So what do you all think of...

... the new song that's playing in the background on this ole blog?

Don't worry, I won't leave it up too long. I promise, you betcha! *wink*

Some of you may find one of my food recipes tasty: Bananas wrapped in bacon slices with chocolate sauce poured over the top!

I made it. Seriously. It tasted good. Seriously good.

Here's the post from my food blog --which, by the way, is now more popular than the blog you are reading now!


*****************************************************************

Bacon Wrapped Bananas with Chocolate Sauce



And doesn't that just sound AWESOMELY delicious? I know it does "it" for me! Seriously, what dish can't be improved by adding bacon?

I got the idea for this from a yoga teacher in New Zealand who has a cool food blog called Couscous & Consciousness. In one of her posts she asked folks about what trio or trios of food combination go well together. One of the ones I mentioned was bacon wrapped chocolate that gets battered and deep-fried. She thought it sounded ok but suggested some with bananas to go along with the bacon and chocolate.

Hence, this beauty of a recipe was born!

I made it last night, we all loved it. And that includes BIL who has a very fussy palate. In fact, he licked the plate clean!

Dingo Dave's Original Bacon Wrapped Bananas with Chocolate sauce with thanks to Couscous & Consciousness for inspiration.

What you need:

For the bananas and bacon:
One banana per person
1 to 3 slices of bacon per banana depending on size of slice

For the chocolate sauce:
175 grams of dark chocolate --that's 6.141592654 or pi+3 ounces
2 heaping tbsp butter
1/3 cup cream
1/4 cup cream port (or regular port, or a sherry variety)
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/8 tsp cayenne powder (I usually double or triple this, but that's for when it's just me)

What you do:

Put everything for the chocolate sauce in a small, thick-bottomed saucepan. Your saucepan should now look like this:




Put the saucepan on the lowest heat possible and stir or whisk it while it heats. Make sure nothing sticks to the bottom and that it's well mixed. This should only take a couple of minutes.

Turn the heat off and cover it.

Now to assemble the bacon and bananas. Ummmmmm, this is pretty simple, just wrap the bacon around the bananas. If you need to secure the bacon with toothpicks the go for it.




Then cook them till the bacon is done to your liking. Be gentle when turning them as you don't want to bananas to break apart.




Remove the toothpicks if you used them and liberally ladle the sauce on top!

Notice how I used one dark plate and one light plate so that the color balance in the photo is way off? Yeah, I did that on purpose. Maybe.

And the obligatory closeup:




Use a sharp knife and a fork for eating. Why a sharp knife? So that you don't mush down the banana as you cut a piece.

You'll have lots of leftover sauce, I'm sure you'll think of some use for it.

Oh, next time I'm going to roll the bananas in brown sugar before wrapping the bacon around them!

This was yesterday's food post

Since I hived off my food blog a few years ago I tend not to cross post. I think I've done it once before now. So make this 2!

Why? Cus I think y'all will like this.

Australian Sausage Rolls --With BACON!


Cus, like, seriously folks: Doesn't bacon just make any food that much better? I can picture it now... bacon flavoured ice cream... Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Ok, enough of that.

Sausage rolls are very Australian. Like SERIOUSLY Australian! If you are in the US then think of things like this:

mom & apple pie

baseball & hot dogs

nachos & beer

hot dogs & beer

football & beer

burgers, fries & beer

beer & beer

TV & beer gut

Ok, you all sorta get the message! Sausage rolls & Aussies just go together like any perfect combination you can think of.

What is an Aussie sausage roll? Did you know there's this thingy called "google"? They even have an image search function! I suggest you try it!

My homemade sausage rolls are a bit different from the norm (just like me) in the fact that mine include BACON! Bacon, sausage, and puff pastry! Can't beat that!

Here's what you need:

6 thin Aussie sausages (snags or bangers)
6 slices of Aussie bacon (12 if you use tiny US bacon slices)
3 sheets of puff pastry

Nice, short list of ingredients, eh?

What you do:

You first need to half-cook your sausages. If you are using hot dogs (BAD!!!!) then you can omit this step. Here's what a plate of half-cooked aussie sausages look like:





If you are curious, I use Slape n Sons sausages. Tasty, local, fresh.

Let the half-cooked sausages cool, and then wrap each one with a slice of bacon. If you use Aussie bacon, then you'll only need one slice per snag. If you use US bacon, then you'll need 2 bacon slices per snag. Here's why:

Just make sure you trim the rind (skin) off.

Don't forget to make fried worms with the bacon rinds!

Here's what your plate should now be looking like:

Don't worry if the bacon isn't tightly wrapped around the snags. Why? Cus bacon shrinks whilst cookin', doncha know.

Cook the bacon-wrapped, semi-cooked snags on 2 sides till they look something like this:




Let them cool and drain them of cooked bacon/snag fat. Just make sure you keep the drained fat for future use, of course. Once they are cool you get to break out the puff pastry sheets! Wee-Hoo!







Just peel off 3 sheets and put the rest back in the freezer, no worries.




Obviously, let the puff pastry sheets thaw. {insert serious DUH factor here} It shouldn't take long for them to thaw, 30 mins maybe. by the time they are thawed, the 3/4 cooked, bacon-wrapped, Aussie sausages should be cool enough to handle with no worries.

Cut a pastry sheet in half. I use a pizza cutter, BTW. Wrap the half sheet around one of the snags. You'll find there's around about 2 inches you'll need to trim after wrapping the sausage.




Continue till they are all wrapped. Place them some sort of baking sheet or tray.




Do you remember the trimmed off-cuts of the puff pastry that you trimmed after wrapping the 3/4 cooked, bacon-wrapped, Aussie sausages? You should have a nice pile looking something like this:



DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Heat some oil up and toss them in the hot oil. 30 to 40 seconds a side. You'll find the puff up HUGELY! A very tasty side snack, they do make.

Put the rolls in a hot oven (220 C or 440 F) until they look like this:




At this point you can just pick one up and eat it --let it cool a bit as they really hold their heat-- or you can put em in the fridge or freezer for later, no worries.

And they taste ohhhhhhh so good!

More Australian Lorikeet Pictures

Plus some other stuff and quite a bit of rambling from Yours Truly --That'd be me; don't swoon ladies, I'm human! BTW, does not ANYONE want to know where the saying, "don't swoon ladies, I'm human" came from? Anyone?

Well, let's git on whit some birdie pics!



Some folks think lories have evil eyes...




This next pic it NOT a photo of the birdie in flight. It is a photograph of the lorikeet that is hanging onto the chain. Just look at the body angle compared to the feet! It seems to be so "off" that if this was attempted to be sold to a major pic library they'd say it was a piss-poor photoshop job!




Let's change some gears! {insert sound of gears grinding here}

What kind of food does Yours Truly (don't swoon ladies, I'm human) really like? I mean REALLY REALLY REALLY like?

Why, that'd be sushi, of course!




Contest forthcoming!

Like, right now.

What critter is in this picture and where is it?




I have an announcement to make.

I shall make said announcement now.

*clears throat*

Once Le Tour has finished and Yours Truly has caught up on sleep, I shall be live tweeting and live blogging an event. What sort of event might this be, I hear you ask from afar.

I ain't tellin' yet, but suffice to say it shall, of course, involve beer.

Anyone wanna guess as to the nature of the event?

I Am Still Here...

... and you are not! HAHAHHAHAHAHAH

I joke, of course.

I think I'll survive July this year, especially since Cadel's got a broken elbow. The Pyrenees are looming... Caffeine is my bestest friend right now.

Got some pics and some kapshuns for you, hope you enjoy them.

Have I mentioned how much I really really really like sushi? If not, then I have now.

Those are my mushrooms, BTW. All the other veggies are local.


I think everyone ought to have these:




This was taken at the beach a week or so ago.



I make the world's bestest homemade chips. Or pomme frites, or steak fries, or french fries.

No, I DO NOT make freedom fries!


My BIL is a very good modeller. He has several articles published about kit conversions, scratch builds, casting his own parts, airbrushing, etc. He also works parttime up at the Flinders Uni paleo lab painting and airbrushes fossil castings. He's pretty darned good. Here's a pic of piece of a cockpit for some model that HE HAND PAINTED!

Yeah, I'm impressed too.


Hey, you'd be looking pissed off too if you had this branch stuck somewhere!


Naturally, a predicament like that tends to attract a crowd and everyone offers their advice for extrication.




I have a new toy!!!!! Guess what it is!




Why, of course it is a...




You just plug it into a USB port, press the switch on the back, hold it in your hand and it massages away all the aches from typing and mousing all day!




It's also very good if your neck it tight or stiff. Have you ever had a little knot in your upper back around the scapula? Works for that too!

In
fact
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has
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whole
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uses!

A
veritable
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if
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please!

There's one particular use I just LOVE to use it for!

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,

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You can tell it works cus of the stain on the shorts!