junky

Some more cool street art from the backstreets of Newtown.. I like this guy! What creative use of an old can and bottle tops. We can all only hope to be reincarnated with such style :)

Radicchio

I'm really in love with this vegetable at the moment. The lettuce-like leaves are surprisingly sturdy and so can be cooked. It has a strong, bitter taste that adds a lot of depth to any dish. I recently had it quickly stir fried with some chickpeas, cumin and garlic, as a side to some fish. I have also quickly grilled it, with some other vegetables such as asparagus, tomato and corn, and dressed with a simple yogurt and lemon dressing. It goes well with goats cheese and other rich creamy things too, as it's sharp flavour is a strong contrast to their richness.

I was really looking forward to drawing it too, as it has such beautiful colours and lines. It will be a nice flash of colour for my calendar, amongst the large amount of orange and green that is more common in fruit and vegies.
Even though I've drawn it in October, it's in season in May, so I'll put it in that month in the calendar.

miso easy!

My brother went to Japan recently, and brought me back a cool new contraption.. a sieve for making miso soup!


Simply place the miso paste in the sieve and then lower it down into the soup. Paddle around with the little spatula and the miso is dissolved and distributed evenly. It's so much easier and effective than just trying to stir the paste around into the soup. I always end up with one big salty spoonful at the end.
Thanks bro!

avocado

Avocadoes are beautiful at the moment, and pretty much go with everything in my opinion.
Some favourite combinations are:
- avocado with corn and blackbeans
- avocado mashed with miso! (try it.. it's great)
- avocado in a salad with tahini dressing.. incredibly creamy and indulgent
- avocado on sourdough with lemon and salt.. it's nature's butter!
- avodado with tomato and cheese

They seem to have been around for most of the year but at the moment they're extra creamy and don't seem to bruise or go off as easily. I have been mainly buying the black hass variety but saw the big round green variety in the supermarket the other day. I've had one of those off a friend's tree which was great.. but somehow don't trust those from the supermarket. They seem just a bit too big and too green!

composting

Recently I set up a compost bin for my block of units. I was unsure of how to go about it but I did a workshop with the Watershed, which was really helpful and I came away with a free compost bin as well! It's great to see the Sydney City Council encouraging people to live sustainably with intiatives like this.
Here's how I set up my bin:

1. I put the bin on a patch of dirt so that it will attract worms, slaters and other little creatures that will help to break down the food waste. Ideally, it should be in the sun as heat helps the composting process. But if you don't have a spot in the sun (as I didn't) it's OK, the process will just take a bit longer.
2. Put down a layer of green, or carbon matter. This includes hay, paper, dried leaves, hair etc.
3. Put down a layer of brown, or nitrogen matter such as food scraps.
4. Put down another layer of carbon matter and sprinkle with water, then cover with a hessian sack, also sprinkled with water.

I've been maintaining the bin by aerating it twice a week, much easier now I have obtained a compost corkscrew! I can already see some good compost soil forming in the bin, so it must be working! Hopefully more and more people in my building will start using it. Since I've been putting my food scraps and peelings in there I've dramatically reduced my waste. I barely fill one plastic bag of garbage now. Well on my way to zero waste!
The Watershed have some other interesting workshops on that I'm keen to check out, such as Natural Cleaning, and Eating Sustainably.