its okay if stubby holders are your friends

good ol stubbie holders eh. who knew you could get so much enjoyment from a cheap piece of screen printed wetsuit sewed together?

i come from a long line of beer drinkers. real beer drinkers that is. none of this imported, cant pronounce it properly, i'm only having 1, designer bottle, low carb, low alcohol, light bubbles with a twist of lime bullshit. twist of lime! we're not in mexico anymore toto.

there is only one way to say beer in my family and that's 'VB'. those tasty hand grenades are unbeatable. but its not just about the beer. its about the culture of drinking beer. that fair dinkum sit down feet up kind of relaxation after a hard half day's work.

beer isn't beer unless it almost frozen. that's why, in our family, beer had it's own fridge. those kind of temperatures don't go down too well with bowling ball bogan lettuce and its distant cousin celery. uh uh.

if we were having a party the beer was moved out of the fridge and into iced packed eskies. as we all know, especially living in darwin, nothin tastes crisper than a cold one fresh off the ice. whoa oh oh its magic.

so you got your beer and its not only ice cold, its covered with small chunks of ice like a polar bear waking up from its chilly slumber. problem... how in jack frost's name do you hold this?

you could set it down on the table and watch it sweat an olympic size pool of water moistening elbows and shirt sleeves in its slippery wake. wait. hang about. why dont ya chuck some of this spare bit of wetsuit round its belly and keep ya hand from losing all circulation and put a bit underneath, catch some of that dripstone cliffs? great idea mate. you bloody beauty.

my dad got an old bit of piping, sealed off one end, cut a stubbie holder sized hole above the seal, nailed it to the wall. its stubbie holder dispenser. it fits like 10 regulation sized holders. ripper.

our humble little household they mean more, so much more. when my better half and i did a road trip from melbourne to darwin i took one photo a 1/2 hour in. then the camera went flat. we had no cord to recharge. dang.

oh i know. at every roadhouse, road stop, pub, club, hotel, motel, gift store, op shop, tip shop, tire repair shop (my fault) we would buy a stubbie holder to remember fondly (except that last place) all the fine establishments we visited to eat, drink, sleep or bomb the dunny.

what a fine collection we had saved. some would call it a practical photo album.

what's the moral of this story?

drink cold beer. tastes so good, once it hits your lips.

eating is never cheating

what did you have for breakfast? what's that you're making for lunch? have you been to the chinese emporium yet? do you think mango cake would work? did you know that you dip anything wrapped in seaweed? do you want to try this sauce? is carob and licorice not the best invention ever?

food is a topic, much to my partner's dismay, that i never get sick of. i am not a 'foodie' in the critic-sense of the word. i am just as excited by a banana rolled up in a peanut butter-smeared square slice of bread as i am by a twice-baked triple choc brownie for dessert. i love talking about food almost as much as i love eating food. sometimes talking about it is even better. my imagination runs wild and the combinations i create in my head are astronomically amazing.

there is nothing better when you meet other people that want to discuss at length what they had for breakfast that morn and how they plan to improve on it the next. for example here is an exert of an email i received earlier this week...

"this morning before riding to work I had tiny slice of toast (freshly made sour dough bread made by a friend) with a thick spread of vegemite, some avocado and tomato on top and a small cup of coffee. then got to work and ate muesli, banana, goji berries and LSA with yoghurt.  had a coffee with oat milk and just polished off a slice of toast with ABC spread and honey. did you end up making that haloumi veg stack for dinner last night?"

from job to job i have always sought out other people who share this passion for food. good food, naughty food, hot food, raw food, new food, old food... its all good. i have been lucky to find these food-loving souls in my last couple of jobs. felicity and her grated carrots, beetroot and herb freshness; oanhy and her roast pumpkin haloumi surprise. 

currently i am in a delightful group with the other half of i love lamp, coen and our mate carita, which we call 'the salad club'.  to be part of this club you must love the taste of raw veges fresh off the stalk and straight on the plate. when 12 noon shows up on my computer and i gayly skip down the hall to the kitchenette, i am excited by the unknown. what will end up in my tummy today?

its amazing how amazed people are to see such an array of veges on the same plate. the reactions from people are hilarious and everyone loves to comment: 'i have never seen beetroot that's not in a can before', 'health nuts', 'freaky vegetarians'.

my mum always said you should eat a rainbow of food everyday, and she wasn't referring to fruit loops. we were on a steady diet of mung beans and brown rice as kids. she even invented a fast food restaurant called McPriddican's which was similar to McDonald's in name only. McPriddican's only served lentil burgers, eggplant chips, and water with two tear drops of ribena.

if you want to know what we eat each day we pictured it for you... it kind of looks like mother nature spewed on our plates and we called it lunch!!

don't be afraid of food. talk about it, get ideas, try them at home. enjoy the taste of a crisp snow pea on its own without steaming, sauteing, mashing, stir frying it.

carita took our humble club to the next step and prepared a dinner feast for our tenderised taste buds.

i do love an all in chop fest of raw food but it takes consideration and time and love to put something together for friends in your home.

the quiona pilaf that we ate over a few bottles of wine was some the tastiest morsels i had moved from plate to mouth since i could remember.

nice work, carits. now let me share with our readers this glorious recipe. don't forget to add the love!

all measurements very rough... use your intuition
tspn fennel seeds
tspn mustard seeds
tspn ground coriander
tspn cumin seeds
tspn turmeric
chopped green chili
garlic
onion

fry this up then add cup of quinoa, fry for a couple of minutes
add 2 cups of vege stock then just stir until done.

add any veggies a bit later - last night i put in shitake mushrooms
add roasted cashews or almond on serving, and fresh coriander. currents would be good too.

i love lamp loves you too.