Home made butter

The morning started badly, and could only be fixed by a hearty brekky.

Sausages in the pan for the boys, fishcake for Rach, and big pot of water for poached eggs. And there was no butter.

Now in normal times that is no drama, walk to the shop and buy some. But this morning I couldn't be bothered, so instead I googled How to make butter and came up with this simple little way from Nourished and made my own butter.

Now this must be the coolest little trick in the kitchen, all you do is put some cream in a glass jar, put on the lid, shake for 5-10 minutes until in separates, poor off the buttermilk, add some salt to taste and spread it on you toast!. The boys were intrigued by what I was doing, and Rach was plain freaked out when she got out of bed and I showed her - but hey, great poached eggs ain't so great without butter!

Schmap guide

The good people of Schmap guides have just updated their guide for Sydney and included my image of Balmoral Beach pavilion. What great news.

Check out the Schmap guide in the sidebar or at Schmap

Vivid Sydney Light Walk

I finally had the opportunity to get along to the Light Walk in Sydney last night, and what a great event it turned out to be.

The Light Walk is a collection of 25 art light installations throughout the rocks/ opera house area with each individually designed by Australian and international artists.

The night started with heavy Friday night traffic into the city, but it is one of those events where you can't help but feel good there are so many different people out to take a peek at it. That said, i have never before seen so many DSLR's in the one place, there were thousands out to take some shots.

Anyway, my shots from the night are below

This one was called "Rainbow", and the lights slowly changed creating a great effect on the wall

This installation, in Argyle Cut, was a fantastic effect on the ceiling

href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/countrydan/3621740314/" title="Sails in bloom by countrydan, on Flickr">The Opera house looked great with the sails lit up

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I think this one was called Janus, couldn't quite work it out though

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The images in the rotunda, shown here, are from other parts of the world. Supposedly it is showing the conditions elsewhere, live

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Disposable cup art, love it!

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Bats...

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This was interesting, with the image on the wall made up of the people looking at it

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Big flower pot

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The MCA made a great canvas

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Lumenocity, the winner of the people's choice award, highlights the energy consumption in a city.

So, great night out, we had pizza at Caminetto and finished up a little before midnight.

For more info on the light walk visit the official blog

"The bay run" photowalk

Had a great morning shooting the sights of the bay run in Sydney this morning. The Bay Run is a 7Km network of walking tracks around Iron Cove in Sydney's Inner west.

I was out with Chris and Dean, relative newcomers to the DSLR world and it was great to be out trying some settings with them and learning from their questions as much as they were.

Absolute pro's

Please follow map link if you are curious of the the spot these images were taken. Map

The image of the fish above is one of a number of stone carvings on the top of a (big) waterside rock

Wall art

The great thing about the bay run as a photowalk destination is there is so much varied and interesting scenery. We started with sunrise at Rodd point, and had a great time shooting down the western side with varied scenery and light to keep us occupied. The big attraction, and what I didn't get good shots of, are the various rower's training on the water making great subjects to shoot.

We stopped for brekky at The Cove cafe and talked photo's over some great food and view's - it's a nice little honest cafe and a great midway point when you start out early.

A little scary but he has such great colour!

After that the Iron Cove bridge is an impressive and busy structure, and we then wondered past the various sports being played on the numerous fields.

A great morning shooting in a great spot and highly recommended to anyone looking for a spot to shoot for a few hours in Sydney.

More shots will be up on my flickr page in the new few days.

The staple diet of stress land

So there is nothing quite like a freshly brewed coffee in the morning. Personally I am still paying the price for buying my wife a coffee machine ("an appliance") as a gift many years ago now. You see, she has never used the coffee machine. Not once. Yet she enjoys at least 2 brewed and frothed gems a day.

I have started to branch out from the standard issue cappuccino and now enjoy the goodness that is a macchiato.

Another funny thing, but I have not had an instant coffee for about 5 years, what vile stuff. I can't believe they still sell it, i mean really. And as for paying $5 for an iced frappuccino at starjeans...

So really I have an interest in proper coffee. I use our coffee machine or a Bialetti Mocha Express (affectionately referred to as "the little Italian"). The Mocha express is a bit of a fav, and really great value, they do a great as-strong-as-you-like coffee on the stove and cost about $40.

Lastly, if you are interested in some different coffee types check out the wikipedia page, they have some good info.

Countrydans coffee steps

Step 1 Get coffee

Sounds simple huh, well yes and no. Good coffee tastes great if it's made well and really bad if it's made bad. OK coffee tastes OK when it's made well and really bad if it's made bad. So expensive coffee does not guarantee that you will get a good coffee, but poor technique will guarantee a bad coffee, so better to concentrate on that before shelling out too many hard earned dollars on top shelf coffee.

Step 2 Prep

Clean your machine properly - come on people, simple stuff...

Step 3 Make it

Don't put too much in the cup. There seems to be a never never land where all that good just vanishes. I mean a short black is great, a nice cap is good too. But the area in between is just awful, so leave room for the milk and don't put too much coffee in the cup.

Step 4 The milk

Froth me, baby. Milk is funny stuff, and as the son of a dairy farmer I can tell you I love the stuff. The trick with getting a good froth is to try and get the air in small bubbles. The other trick is to not get it too hot too quickly. Remember, if it's too hot to touch, it's almost too burnt to drink.

Step 5 The good bit

Drink it. Does not matter what type you make, step 5 is always the same. Oh and a pear muffin or slice of banana bread (recipe to come soon) does not go astray.

When a healthy coffee habit goes bad...

Gramma Pie

My Parents came to town recently, and after much demanding they finally dropped off a Gramma they had grown (I might be a city boy now but they are still very much cow cockies).

Anyhow, Rach and I made it into a Gramma Pie, with a sensational shortcrust base.

Now pumpkin pie might not sound great but it's got a great lemon taste and smoth consistancy.

Shortcrust Base, recipe from Steph Alexanders book

240g Butter

180g Flour

Pinch Salt

3T Water

Combine flour and Sugar and sift onto bench.

Press butter through until you have a breadcrumb consistency. Form a well and add water, and fold in (like mixing cement). Now form into a ball and smear away from you, reform and dust and place in fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Now roll out and line your dish and bake blind (Throw a weight in on baking paper and place it in the oven for 20 minutes)

Gramma Filling

Steam 1Kg Gramma (you can use butternut) and mash

Add juice and zest of lemons

Add 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk, 1 cup b sugar, half tspn nutmeg, 1 tspn cloves (ground), 2 teaspoons cinnamon, half cup currants and mix with pumpkin.

Poor into pastry, and bake for 25 minutes at 180.

Enjoy with a spoonful of cream!

Oh by the way, the leftover pastry makes great cookies with a spoonfull of sugar

Swinging into the day

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A while ago I took my 2 year old along to shoot the sunrise from Blues Point in Sydney.

It was pretty funny, he enjoys a sleep in but he shot out of bed and into the car and had such a fun time while I was taking photo's. This shot was after the sun had done it's thing and he wanted to have a play, and I really like the blown out background and tranqilness of it.

Some other shots from the morning.