New Financial Year Resolutions

So I totally don’t get it why we have to have to have the “new” Financial Year starting in the MIDDLE of a regular year, but whatever. I suppose it gives me a second go to set up some of those silly resolutions about improving your life and what not.

I was on holiday this New Year, and I had no intention whatsoever of wasting time coming up with resolutions. Or maybe I did, but I if I did, I’ve forgotten them so let’s pretend they never existed.

SO.

I will use this arbitrary date to think about arbitrary life goals…

Goal One: Save Money

For what? I dunno. A house maybe? Although at current market rates, the word “house” may require a mention in an interpretation clause that refers to kennels in order for the phrase “save enough money to even think about a deposit for a house” to logically make sense.

I’d like to take a holiday somewhere nice … Melbourne particularly since there’re are a bunch of people I want to visit over there, but I don’t think there are any flights 😛

So we’ll leave the What for later and look at the How, shall we?

I could stop buying nice coffee; I could stop buying new clothes; I could stop going to the theatre; I could stop buying books and go to the library instead; blah blah blah.

That sounds horrible, doesn’t it?  Drinking Department-provided Nescafé, wearing the same boring suit every day, sitting at home reading books other people have probably taken to the loo with them.

FUN!!!!

Not.

I know, I know — frugality is the New Black, I should be totally more serious about this to save the world and the economy and stuff…

But the thing about black? It’s depressing.

So let’s scrap that and think of a new one…

Like…

…

Goal One: … … … ???

Nup.  I got nada.

A little help, guys?

domestic ungodnessness

I love croissants. The light, flakey buttery goodness of them make my knees weak. But with the whole gluten-intolerance palaver, I am no longer able to enjoy them because I know I will be ill later. After being inspired by Mrs Grendel’s results, I decided I should try to make a batch with the recipe she used, but using White Wings Gluten Free Flour, which I have found to be rather fabulous for all baking except bread.

In theory, it was a fun weekend project.

In practice, this weekend I have been chained to the kitchen bench, rolling and folding and chilling and waiting and rolling and folding some more. And that was last night. Because you have to leave the dough overnight before you can even START making the actual croissants — a process which takes another hour PLUS 2 HOURS RISING TIME before you can even START BAKING.

This better be fricking worth it.

Tell ya what. As much as I try, I am totally NOT a domestic goddess. I made cupcakes for the Judge’s birthday on Wednesday. Did that Tuesday night after staying at work til like 7, and while the cakes themselves were fine (probably because I used packet cake mix!) the icing was a niiiiiiiightmare. Forgot to take the butter out of the fridge before work so it could soften, blah blah blah.

Working women do not have the time to bake. I don’t even ficking have kids to deal with. How the HECK do they do it????????

Update

Hrm. They didn’t rise and go all puffy and soft and lovely like Mrs Grendel’s did; I blame the gluten-free flour. Just as when you make gluten-free bread, they were heavy, almost like shortcrust pastry or something. Might make a quiche base with the other half of the dough?

I have learned something though (other than “I will just have to normal, gluten-filled croissants and be sick but hey, it’ll be worth it”). Gladbake is NOT the ultimate be-all-end-all of baking that I thought it was. I tried rolling the dough while it was sandwhiched between two sheets to avoid getting Mrs G’s (M’s mum, not Mrs Grendel) benchtop all buttery, but I just ended up losings hard-folded layers of pastry as a tried to peel it off. Flour on the rolling pin is much more effect. Old school = best. Who’d’ve thunk it?

The Quest

Looks like my coffee addiction has returned. I think I picked it up while thesising last year, but after the glorious condensed-milk coffees I downed like water in Vietnam, nothing else was palatable. While it’s not fair to judge countries like Cambodia on their lack of coffee-brewing and growing prowess considering they still haven’t properly recovered from the 20th century’s other genocide, I just took that as an opportunity to be healthy and try to kick the dirty habit.

I’d been drinking various white, red and green teas for a while after I got back, but really needed something stronger and tried to be satisfied with Clipper organic Indian Chai. ‘Tis delicious and warming and soothing, but I dunno. I was still falling asleep.

So, despite knowing that coffee is bad for you, and that none of the CBD places seem to use fair trade beans, I kept sneaking into Rosso Espresso on my way up from the SCt carpark to grab a skinny mocha with two on the way to work.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. So freaking good. There is a line out the door and onto the footpath every morning at that place, even when it is raining, for a REASON.

Best. Coffee. In. Perth.

Or is it?

I decided that I should shop around to see if I could find better since they’re not fair trade (yes, I’m a hippy), kinda pricey, and yeah, the fricking line.

This survey is extremely under-researched, just saying what I happen to see in relation to everything but what the mocha tastes like.

So.

This morning’s sample was from jango in King Street. They sell fair trade chocolate and all their food packaging is recycled-looking cardboard or recyclable plastic, and they have cool juices and drinks and stuff, and they take EFTPOS, but the mocha? Bah-bow. (Think Bert’s Family Feud, here, people. Survey’s not happy.) Bitter, totally not sweet enough, and the large is way too small.

Next.