Food fashion

I heard recently that more quinoa needs to be planted to keep up with the new demand for it. Quinoa’s so hot right now. Kale seems to be too, I’m seeing it everywhere. I recently bought a packet of kale chips because they were reduced to a price that was merely three times (rather than seven-ish) the cost of regular potato chips, so I figured I’d give them a burl. They were pineapple and coconut kale chips, and reading the ingredients made my mouth water; alas, upon my first mouthful my taste buds suffered a shock from which they never recovered. I must have thought that kale was seaweed-y rather than spinach-y, and also that the ‘chips’ would look like actual chips, rather than vegetables that had been dried and then vomited on. Both expectations were hastily dashed.

I tried tricking Mo into eating them (“Hey, little buddy! You want some of these super awesome tasty chips I bought yesterday?!”) but he was understandably wary (When does Mum ever save me chips?) and refused to try more than one, so Hazel finished them on her own.

You know what else I’ve noticed? All pork is ‘pulled’ now, and all caramel is ‘salted’. What happened to regular pork and caramel – where are they right now? I miss them. Their adjectivey counterparts are too pretentious for my liking (yummy, but pretentious). Do foods know that their fame will be shortlived, or is it profoundly upsetting for them when their names are wiped from café menu boards and they realise that everyone’s moved on? I worry for them. Is there a Support Group for Foods that are No Longer Trendy (SGFNLT)? A place where sundried tomatoes, cabanossi and pickled onions are currently meeting weekly to cry to and cuddle each other? I hope so.

Study #[insert whatever number I'm up to here]

My course has started. I flipping love it. I get to watch TED talks and videos of Carl Rogers! I now know stuff about brains and neurons! Kind of! My first assignment is on whether or not punishment is an effective behaviour modification strategy in children! This is the stuff I get to study! It’s a crazy amount of work, but it doesn’t feel like work (it just feels like crazy). 

Admittedly, the class has been going for all of 5 days at this point.

I've been too busy to shave**

The class has now been going for 9 days, and all I can say is HOLY CRAPBALLS*. There’s so much reading I’m now surprised “reading for pleasure” is a thing. What’s that you say? I was reading for pleasure less than a fortnight ago? I DON’T BELIEVE YOU.

///

* I asked Alan which was more offensive, “holy crapballs“ or “holy crapface,“ but he didn’t know. Maybe it’s the “holy“ part that needs to be dropped, but I only ever feel creative with the second part of my exclamations... I shall add “Find less-offensive replacement for ’holy crapballs/face’“ to my list of things to do when this first subject finishes (at the end of February).

** This actually isn’t me (the photo’s from here). But speaking of photos of me, Alan took one that I actually liked! But did Moses and Hazel notice that I was dressed up (for a change) and that Daddy had the camera (for a change), and decide to do their utmost to get a snap we could maybe even frame and put up in our lounge room?

They did not.

Summer holidays

My summer holidays are nearly over. They’ve been mostlygood!

Hangin' with Henry (Lawson)

We were in Grenfell for Christmas, with Alan’s parents and sister and brother-in-law. We went bushwalking and ate coloured popcorn and went for a drive to see the Christmas lights on houses around town (either that or it was a tour of the places where Alan’s mum’s been to garage sales – I was confused. Also confusing was the fact that she took along her GPS but then directed us by looking at a map with her mini torch.)

The main street of Grenfell

Our time in Grenfell was tainted by the fact that Alan and I were in the middle of a fight while we were there. I told Alan I wanted to talk about the problem before we left home because I didn’t want us pretending to like each other while we were there, but we didn’t have the talk, nor did we pretend to like each other while we were there (win win…?). It was a fight where I was convinced he was in the wrong and needed to apologise and he was convinced that I was in the wrong and needed to apologise, and so we found ourselves at an impasse. For about a week. We’ve never had one of those kinds of fights before; it was weird and unsettling. Anyway, life is easier when we like each other, so we both apologised (with fingers crossed) when we got back to Sydney, and then enjoyed the rest of our break together.

We’ve spent a LOT of time bike-riding (and by we I mean Moses), and have also enjoyed swimming (all of us), drinking water straight from the kitchen tap (Hazel), and watching copious amounts of Parks and Recreation (Alan and me), among many other things of which I have no photographic evidence.

I was able to scratch a few books off my reading list over the holidays (by reading them – was that clear?). I also read a couple of novels that weren’t on my list and that I wish I could go back in time and not read so that I could instead read something I really wanted to. I start my course on Monday, and from the look of things I won’t have any time for non-study reading (or non-study anything, really) for the next 6 weeks.

4 of the books in my to-read tower have been borrowed from friends, so they’re now at the bottom of the pile (until I start geting harassed about returning them). I’ve finished the top one and am most of the way through The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. 3 of the books in my pile are books I borrowed thanks to references to them and/or their authors in All Joy and No Fun (why did you make them all sound so very interesting, Jennifer Senior? Whyyyyy?). I’m happy to take the Jaclyn Moriarty novel back without reading it; I borrowed it because it was recommended by Liane Moriarty (Jaclyn’s sister), and I love her so much I just do whatever she tells me to. Alas – I’ve run out of time! Sorry, Liane!  What do you reckon the chances are of me finishing the other 5 ½ books from my pile in the 3 ½ remaining days before holidays end? I’m going to give it a red hot go.

///

Yesterday morning I absent-mindedly picked up a cornflake from the bench while getting my breakfast ready, and after registering that the cornflake was far less crispy and far more salty than I’d expected, my mind finally woke up and explained to me that I was currently chewing on playdough. This has nothing to do with holidays, but I wanted to let you know. That’s one more for my list of food mistakes.