Fruit Salad and Mixed Veg

Choc Orange Cake


I like oranges. I like cake. I like chocolate.

I made this cake last night. It's VERY simple

You will need:
100g butter (or spread- I used spread)
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of cocoa dissolved in 2 tablespoons of boiling water
zest of 1 orange
2/3 cup self-raising flour, sifted
2 tablsepoons of orangejuice (from the orange above)

What you need to do

• Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius
  
• Grease a cake tin (around 20cm in diameter) and line the base with baking paper
  
• Cream the butter and sugar.
  
• Add the eggs and mix.
  
• Mix in the cocoa and orange zest.
  
• Mix in the flour and the orangejuice
  
• Place the mixture into the cake tin and bake it for 45 minutes
  
• Cool the cake in the tin.
  

You can make an orange icing for the cake if you want to. All you need is some icing sugar and orangejuice, heat it on the stove until it is at your desired thickness.

(The basic idea for this recipe was taken from 'Cake Bible' 2006, Penguin Books)


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yummmmmm. Fruit! With porridge and sultana, it's even better That spoon is my favourite spoon. Eating breakfast using another spoon just isn't the same


Our cat has a new friend; the frypan. We got a new frypan(1) so the old one has been sitting on the floor for the last week At least the cat still likes the old frypan. What a nice cat!


(1) Woah, what's happening? It all started with a NEW KETTLE! Then a new toothbrush....then new slippers...then a new table and now a new frypan! Don't forget the 'new'/second hand suitcase on wheels either!


I have great news to tell you, but that will have to wait until next time

On Friday night there was a party thing at the apartment of the Americans. However, their apartment was filled with GERMANS! Their apartment is soooo cool! You can see for so far (they live on the top floor) and if you need to be sick, you can surprise the people down below waiting at the bus stop I like apartments. I never want to own a lawnmower!


Dodgy photos from the balcony

A German guy I was helping at uni was there too and even remembered me. The best part of my job is when people see me and say 'Hey, I know you... You're that girl who helped me!'

We played a drinking game called...well I don't know what it was called, but it was with cards. Each card had a meaning and..hmm it's hard to explain. blah blah blah and if you put a card under the tab of the beer can and the can opened, you had to scull ( or ex ex ex ex) the can of beer. Luckily I didn't have to; I would have been sick!

The game that I don't know the name of

Next we played a game called 'Bunny'. It's SOOOO funny! This website explains it and there are photos too!!

Then Mr M and Mr C from downstairs arrived and we played a 'Canadian' (?) game named 'Yee-Ha'. Mr M didn't explain the rules to us so it was a bit confusing at first. It's really funny watching 'smart' foreign students yell at 'Yeee Haaaaa' like a cowboy


Then we ate cake, which I baked for Miss M, as it was her birthday


Even though it was a packet cake, everyone liked it. Just look at their smiles!

Then we went to the pub where we met up with all the other exchange students.


Mr M went to the bathroom and we had to watch his beer. This is a photo of us watching the beer. I'm the green beer-watcher and the other beer watchers are from Bulgaria and Germany


Now it's time to find some food I guess...

Tuesday night I had a sore throat...Last night it got worse.

My sister told me that last time she had a sore throat she ate a mandarin before going to bed and it was better!

So, last night I ate a mandarin before going to bed and guess what?!

It was better in the morning! Only a tiny bit sore I ate one just now and I'll let you know if my sore throat goes away completely

--------

My mum got me some flax seed oil today I read health magazines and health articles quite a lot because I find them interesting. These articles are often saying flax seed oil is good for you.

What is it flax seed oil? Linseed oil

What are the benefits of it?
Increases energy levels and stamina
Increases metabolic rate -> easier to burn fat
Improves absorption of calcium (then I should probably consume some calcium for this to happen...)
Can improve function of liver
Can stop development of forms of cancer
And other stuff

It's full of 'essential fatty acids' which your body cannot produce. So, you have to consume these through your diet.

Flax seed oil is unique as it contains both essential fatty acids, alpha-linolenic (an Omega-3 fatty acid) and linoleic acid (an Omega-6 Fatty acid) in generous amounts. Flax seed oil is one of the richest sources of Omega-3 EFA’s. It has 57% more Omega-3 fatty acids than fish oils.

(See here)

--------

Today I was flicking through channels and apparantly avocado, pineapple and asparagus are good for increasing blood flow -> help fight against cellulite (if you read my blog you'll probably know that I'm paranoid about getting cellulite).

--------

But, after all of this 'health' talk...I still love cake! But, I love raw cake mix even more

Warning: The following post may offend some readers as it contains 'funeral themes'

Today I went on the first family outing of my holidays. No, I didn’t go to Disneyland…nope, I didn’t go to the beach…no, I didn’t go camping…I went to a funeral…how exciting…

The funeral was for my dad’s uncle, a guy I had met a total of 1 time. The service was scheduled to start at 1.30. I wanted to stop at a German bakery, but no, we couldn’t do that. From that point, I was in an angry mood all day (If my parents didn't want to put up with me, they shouldn't of had children!) We arrived in Strathalbyn (a town/village in the hills) at 11.30....

What do you wear to a funeral?? Guys wear a suit, shirts, trousers, black shoes…what are girls supposed to wear? My sister and I didn’t have a clue...


One of us looked like an office worker, while the other wore jeans and looked...out of proportion! (dodgy facial expressions, hence the circle)


This stuff is good.

When we arrived in Strathalbyn, we stopped for coffee/lunch at a café (strange place for coffee, eh) Seeing as I no longer consume dairy products, I just had free water while the rest of my family and step nanna (we had to take her there because blah blah blah, I can tell you about that later!) pigged out on cake-like-foods (except for my dad, he had a sandwich) I just looked at a magazine and thought about how I'd like to win a Canon EOS 400D (There was a fashion photography competition in Harper's Bazaar but it was an old magazine; entries closed in 2007)


White sugar=pooooiiiissssonnnn. The last bit of my mum’s cheese cake...she doesn’t need cheesecake! The café-it doesn’t have any character what-so-ever!

After about an hour, it was 12.30pm. We then drove to the church for ‘the viewing’ (which didn’t happen in the church, but we didn’t know) I refuse to look at someone in a box. I have a hard enough time eating beef (because I like cows; they’re so sweet and have interesting faces) so there’s no way I want to look at a deceased person (my sister didn’t want to look either). Therefore, we went on a bit of a walk.


The trees in the park have been eaten by parrots.

We returned to the church for the service. The window was opened and it was quite cold inside. We (well probably everyone except me) sang two songs. I refuse to sing; I can’t sing high, or in tune. I’m tone deaf! I don’t think I was the only tone deaf one there though

Then we had to drive to the cemetery….Then there was a wake (the bit where you eat food) in a community hall. The food was: cakes, biscuits, slices, pikelets (little pancakes), cupcakes and sandwiches. Most of the sandwiches were made with white bread…and contained ham (that ‘fake’ ham that you get in Australia)…egg (“an ovum surrounded by layers of membranes and an outer casing, which acts to nourish and protect a developing embryo and its nutrient reserves” (wikipedia) )…butter (dairy!)… The only ‘flavour’ I touched was tuna and lettuce on whole meal bread…but it contained mayonnaise and butter ! Then I ate a piece of fruit cake...because I like it.


Traffic jam in the church carpark. Some of the food on offer. This got me thinking about the food I'd like at my funeral...perhaps a BBQ! Bring your own meat-then you can't complain and blog about the food

We drove home and the journey was not at all interesting. I got ‘told off’ because I thought Gordon Brown was the Prime Minister of England. I was WRONG! He’s the Prime Minister of the UK! I apologized for my stupidness. We stopped into the hospital on the way home, but that story can wait for another time.