L is for

Love

Lots of people love you! That will never change.

Pink fades to grey

Happiness is a puppy

The gypsy girl and her boy have a new puppy and he is just the best. 

Temporada

I want to like this place, I really do. The fit out is lovely. Great tiles, high ceilings, industrial look mixed with a kind of bistro feel. 

The food is good, actually it is better than good. But you know, the food needs to be pretty amazing to make up for the service. Drinks forgotten more than once, food we didn't order brought to the table two times - and then trying to place an order? Near impossible. 

What may even be more unforgivable? Bad cocktails. The first time I visited both drinks were pretty average. A nectarine drink which was way too sweet and my sherry cocktail just…well…passable. On the second visit, my drink was alright, but an entire cocktail was left on the table nearly untouched. How do you stuff up a bunch of liquor that is placed in a jam jar anyways?

I'll forgive haphazard service in a few places in Canberra, I'll even forgive bad cocktails in a place with a good wine list. But Temporada - I suspect I'm not going to get a third time lucky with so many other good places around. Give me a Scarlet Johansson and a night at 86 any day. 

K is for

Karin 

That's me! One day we will meet in person, but in the meantime you can get to know more about me this way. If you could learn to say 'Karin is awesome' that wouldn't be inaccurate. Barney is in the photo too. Remember him from 'd is for dog'?

Thursday (early) morning sounds

The Breeders - Off You

J is for

Jordan 

Jordan is where you are born, but not really where you are from. It's good to be born and from two different places.

Canberra trolleys out of control

When fried ice-cream tastes like it is coated in schnitzel batter...

Turns out schnitzel fried ice-cream is not good. Bonus points though for the fancy food styling.

Roasted chicken with speck apple and potato

What do you do when you haven't had much sleep, have a messy house, no food and in 90 minutes your friends are coming over for lunch? Pick a recipe that has everything in the one dish and cooks all by itself and crack open the emergency dukka for starters (thanks http://chinatowntreehouse.blogspot.com.au) I've made this chicken dish before with both cider and sparking wine - adapted from the following:

700 gm chat potatoes, thickly sliced

1½ 2 Spanish onions, cut into thin wedges
2 3 pink lady apples, cut into wedges
10 Hand full of thyme sprigs, plus 1 tbsp extra leaves
80 ml (1/3 cup) olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
4 chicken breasts, with winglet attached (200gm each) 1 chicken chopped up with 4 extra drumsticks, skin on
8 thin slices of speck
100 ml dry apple cider / sparking wine
80 ml (1/3 cup) chicken stock
2 tbsp cider vinegar, or to taste

Preheat oven to 220C. Combine potato, onion, apple, thyme sprigs and 60ml oil in a roasting pan, season to taste and roast until starting to colour (15-20 minutes).

Meanwhile I pan fry the chicken to brown it, season chicken to taste and scatter with thyme leaves. Wrap each chicken breast in two speck slices, place on top of potato mixture, drizzle with remaining oil. Add cider / sparking wine and speck and stock to pan and roast until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender (8-10 30 minutes). Stir through vinegar, serve hot.

Last hint of Summer

So once I escaped from that negative lens upon which I was looking at life, turns out the weekend was pretty good. 

Animal beers and more pretty candles. Coffee and cake in Braddon on a day which felt like a Saturday in summer, then home for a walk around the block with the dog.

Then a drive while the sun set to a house filled with laughter, happily loud little voices and Hello Kitty Uno. Pizza, piano and practice cocktails and a speckled love heart to match the speckled ice-cream cake. 

Sunday morning the house filled with friends. Home made dukka, roasted chicken, yellow flowers, fresh figs and pretty pink watermelon cordial made from scratch. 

The house is quiet now, except for the soft sounds of Chopin mixed with the steady snore of the dog. The soft light of the afternoon sun reminds me that March is nearly gone and for me, right now - I wish it would just stay. 

Just like always

A difficult week full of busyness, sickness and a long trip to a city without seeing any city. Some nice things too. Friends, cheese, film, pho, ramen, and ending the week with tuna slop, animal beers, cocktails and making pretty things. There is nothing more relaxing than staring at pretty illumination patterns on the wall - like a very small enlighten festival exclusive to the yellow house.

But now for a second I've stopped and I'm trying to get my bearings because it seems life is catching up. All the tiredness but no sleep and the sickness that is still here and then all the things. Forever the optimist, I want to see the best in everything but every so often I need to chip away at that and I guess that time is now.

So this morning has been put aside to drink tea, eat toast and to do nothing but think. Stupid thoughts, sad thoughts, empty thoughts, nothing thoughts and everything thoughts. 

One thought is that there won't be many more mornings that look like this, which to be honest, just breaks my heart. It's hard to get beyond that thought but for now I think I'm allowed to get stuck on it long enough to stop being busy and make sure I spend enough time watching him run in his sleep, with his little paws twitching around. And it's nice to see that even though so much has changed these past months he still sighs his sleepy dog sigh and every now and then looks up to check I'm still here. Just like before. Just like always. 

I is for

India

So there is a bit of your Dad that is Indian and that means a bit of you is Indian too. Learn how to make pickles please.

Molly

The best person I know from Dubbo told me about Molly. And because there was a fire at the Wig and Pen we used my amazing directions and had a drink here. Directions as follows: 'you know the car park where I park my car - across from that and somewhere down some stairs'. Here are more robust directions for future reference but I would like it to be on record that my directions were faultless and we found the little red rope marking its entry straight away.

And do you know what? I like Molly. Problem is so will everyone else in Canberra and it really isn't big enough for all of us. It's a wonderful downstairs bar with dim lighting, a piano, big leather couches, and cute little tables. Such a great fit out, good drinks (freshly squeezed apple and whiskey) and they have a charcuterie station too - so if you weren't sold before. Hello! Bad photos - great place.