Comfort food

Been watching lots of Jamie Oliver lately, as he is opening a new Fifteen restaurant in Melbourne. I actually really enjoy his style of cooking, but is it just me or does the guy swear a lot?? I mean, I think he swears more in five minutes that I do in a year! The thing I like about his cooking is that its guylike, you know, no precise measuring – more like a handful of this, and a dash of that. Good tasty, hearty food. But I’m also thinking that hey it can’t be that hard to be a TV chef. You know, I think that after my surgery when I change careers, I might consider becoming a TV chef. I can see my name lit up on the tv screen now, “Rog’s Kitchen”. I mean it really can’t be that hard. Can it?

Today I’m gonna cook a simple comfort food, for those days when you’re at home, veging out in front of the TV and you want something quick, easy and tasty to eat. I’m too lazy to go shopping for food, so I’m just using what’s in the kitchen. My ingredients: some light wheat bread (great because it is wafer thin and goes nice and crunchy when toasted), hot chilli sauce, thinly sliced onion and mushroom, some fresh baby spinach from the garden (chopped into approx 1 inch pieces), and some grated tasty cheddar cheese. I’m also going to use a sandwich grill (because its quick), but you can use the oven if you want.



1) So first of all, lay a sheet of the wheat bread on top of the sandwich press. Spread the chilli sauce thinly over the top.





2) Sprinkle the onion and mushroom over, and then pack the spinach on top. Pack it nice and high – when it cooks it’ll shrink down.





3) Cover with the grated cheese and some freshly ground pepper






4) Put the lid of the grill down, so that its just above the food, and cook for about 2 minutes (or until the cheese and spinach are nice and cooked)




5) The finished product.






It looks and smells terrific. As Jamie would say, “it’s @*&*%$@! great!” And it seriously tastes good, have it with a nice cold beer! And the best thing, Yvette will do the dishes when she gets home from work tonight! :o)

Silence of the herbs

Not being able to over-exert myself due to my dodgy heart has been a pain in the arse, but at the same time it has some benefits. I’ve found plenty of spare time for gardening. Getting your hands dirty out in the vegie patch is great fun, and very relaxing. It’s easy just to have my mind wander off while I’m weeding or watering. Now hold on, I hear you say. Isn’t gardening a woman’s job? Well yes, I guess technically it is. But there is a very good reason why the lady of this house doesn’t do the gardening. Let me tell you why…..

It was a long long time ago, in a place far far away (well actually it was only last year), when I had to go to Austria for work (and play!) for two weeks. I left Yvette in charge of watering the herbs, which of course she didn’t do the entire time that I was away. The day before I returned home she got into a massive panic, and hurriedly cleaned the house. She also remembered the herbs, and went to check on them. Noticing that there were some weeds, she kindly pulled them all up! When I got home, I immediately went to my beloved herb garden, and found entire rows of baby coriander plants lying withered on the top of the soil. Someone had mistaken two neat straight rows of coriander plants as weeds!! Suffice to say, Yvette has been confined to indoor duties ever since!

Insomnia strikes

We all have them. Restless nights where no matter how tired we are and how hard we try, sleep just doesn't come upon us. Counting sheep, reading supermarket catalogues, midnight snack of ham and cheese toastie, listening to our partners murder the silence with outrageous snoring. Nothing works.

Whether it is the after dinner coffee, or the glasses of wine, or subconscious thoughts about impending heart surgery, I just can't sleep. I'm completely exhausted, and can feel tiredness throughout my entire body, why can't I sleep?

All I can say is that the internet is saving my bacon. Instead of lying in bed, to be overcome with far too serious thoughts on life and mortality, I am trawling the net for trash. Senseless browsing reveals some funny stuff. The obligatory porn sites often pop up, but the pop-up killer is stopping them from hassling me too much. On one page I have the cricket score updating each minute (Aus are thrashing NZ in India), on another I've found a website devoted to Hollywood gossip trash. I've also found a great conspiracy website detailing how financial institutions are crippling the world's economy and that the US are about to launch an all out pre-emptive strike against Iran. My favourite website for the night? A funny little blog I came across during my travels. :o)

The better half?

There's a list of unwritten rules that come with living together with someone. They range from levels of cleanliness (read rosters for doing the dishes and vacuuming) to concepts of personal space (read the girl gets the entire wardrobe, and a large portion of storage space in the bathroom!). While most of these rules are quite obvious, for the average man they constitute a minefield that must be navigated with great care - any false step can lead to serious repurcussions (read crazed irrational screaming fit!).

Take for example tonight. It seems that I accidently used the wrong toothbrush. Apparently, this is considered extremely gross in some parts of the world (the female parts). Me? I don't see the fuss. But no, this insignificant incident is enough to launch into a hissy fit of epic proportions! I can't help but imagine if this is seriously how major arguments around the world begin? Maybe Saddam accidently used George's toothbrush? Or vice versa? Maybe the real reason for Brad and Jen breaking up was an innocent toothbrush mistake? And they call themselves the better half?

Doggy bag

Gotta love moms. Took mommy and daddy out for dinner tonight, to say thanks for looking after me (actually more like wrapping me in cotton wool). We went to a classy restaurant, one of the best in the city. Nice ambience, very friendly waiter. The food was great, wonderfully presented, nice size serving (none of the gourmet one bite of food per plate rubbish) and very tasty. When it came to dessert, mom was pretty full so she ordered dessert le petit, which was two pieces of fudge and two lemon shortbread. Mom struggled to get through the first piece of fudge, so she decided to take it home for her nextdoor neighbour (they go walking and go for coffee every day). She started wrapping the piece of fudge in her used napkin. Sometimes mums do things that just make you cringe, and want to disown them. I mean hello, classy expensive establishment, is there any need to take food home wrapped in a used napkin??!! Obviously disowning mum there and then was out of the question, so I joked that the waiter was coming. She quickly covered her arms over the napkin and looked both ways! haha Mums are so gullible!

So finally mum has neatly wrapped up the three things in her napkin so that they aren't touching each other (so cute), when the waiter comes back. So she's hiding her napkin package in her lap as the waiter delivered our coffees. Finally its put into the handbag, and I'm relieved that my mother hasn't been caught out and embarassed us all. Gotta love moms.

Oh Canada!

My goal was to get to 100 visitors on my blog before my surgery, and I've made it! Hooray! I have no idea who most of the people who are visiting are, but hello to you all! Thanks also to anyone who has been refreshing their browser in an attempt to get my counter to increase (including me!). Unfortunately it doesn't work that way, and the counter only counts an IP address once every 24 hours.

So the consensus of 100 or so people is that I'm a little bit nuts (come on, who writes a blog about rubbish bins and tax returns - I blame it on stressing about my heart), kinda funny, obsessed with sex, and everyone hopes that I get better soon, which is nice!

So who are the 100 people who have been visiting this site? I bet you'd all like to know who else is viewing this blog (we're all naturally busybodies aren't we??). Truth is, I don't really know. But I did find out that there are some very nice Canadian people who have visited, and since I know who you are, a special hello and thanks to Number 5 and Number 7 of 9 (yes these are siblings 5 and 7 out of nine - that's one busy momma and poppa!). And while its been unsaid so far, I can read between the lines, and yes I would love to accept your kind offer of a paid holiday to Canada to visit you when I'm better! Thanks so much for offering! :o)

Dilemma, dilemma

Went shopping for a new rubbish bin for the kitchen on the weekend. We broke it a while ago, replaced it with a crappy cheap one, but that only lasted a few months. So now we are on the lookout for a new rubbish bin. Not surprisingly, rubbish bins aren't like bras. There aren't many different types, and they all look pretty crap.

We've decided on one of the brushed steel ones, with the foot pedal. But isn't it always the way - either you can't find what you want, or you find two equally good ones and have to choose!! So our choices are:

1) very swanky looking 15L brushed steel rubbish bin, with black plastic body. Very nice, but a hefty $59.95

2) plain brushed steel 20L rubbish bin. Boring but comes with a free 5L brushed steel rubbish bin, and on special $39.95

Oh decisions, decisions. Now I know how a housewife feels! haha

Taxing times

As if having a dodgy heart wasn't enough, it's tax time. And my tax return is due today! Having said that, it's not so bad since in Australia we can submit our tax return electronically.

My tax return is looking nice and easy this year. No added complications - kids, dependent in-laws, Swiss bank accounts... Until i get to capital gains tax. There are four methods for calculating capital gains tax, obviously some of which give a better outcome than others. These are discounted, indexation method, other method (very descriptive) and CGT concession amounts. What do these mean? How the hell am I supposed to know?? So obviously, my total capital gains for the year is calculated by adding all these together, but what is my net capital gains?? I spend ages and ages reading the tax pack guide, but to no avail. Finally I go and see our family tax accountant. He's also puzzled, so goes to look it up. Finally, after much scribbling of numbers and arrows over my notes, he has figured out that I need to divide a few things by 2, and then add them all together, and that is my net capital gains for the year. Makes sense right?

So my tax return is complete, just need to submit it electronically. But I can't get through the firewall at work, so I go home to submit it. But at home, it won't connect to the tax office website! Probably because every man and his dog is trying to submit their tax returns at the last minute! Completely frustrated, I decide to have a beer and watch Neighbours.....

A glass and a half

The worst thing about this whole situation is not knowing when the surgery is going to be. I can fully understand why the hospital can't set a date for my surgery, but instead will give me a weeks notice. But it's hard to put life on hold indefinitely. And the waiting is killing me.

However, in the meantime, I am making good use of my time to prepare for the surgery. Mum has mixed up an ancient Chinese concoction made from boiling roots and plums. It looks like the colour of tea, and tastes somewhat similar. It's supposed to "heal my breath". Sounds like a breathmint to me! My breath isn't that bad, is it??

Everyone has warned me that I can't catch a cold. This actually makes sense, gonna be hard to recover from chest surgery if I am coughing and sneezing all the time. I wonder if i'll cough and sneeze under general anaesthetic during the surgery as well?? So i'm taking vitamin C tablets every day.

I'm also concerned about the whole cracking my ribs to get to my heart scenario. To counter this, I have started drinking a glass of milk everyday - gonna get my calcium load up to heal my bones after the surgery. I was allergic to cow's milk when I was young, and was given goat's milk (really really gross - scarred for life) or soy milk instead. Luckily, I have gradually grown out of my milk allergy. However, it means that I never learnt how to drink a glass of milk - it's a very Australian thing to do, but I just can't do it. After one sip I feel sick. I wanna mix something with it to make it taste better - Quik strawberry or banana would be great. Maybe make a hot chocolate. Kahlua and milk, on ice, would be lush! But then I guess it won't be the same. I battle my way through 3/4 of the glass of milk. Not bad for day one.