Julie, Julie, Julie......WHY?

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of Julie Goodwin.  She was the winner of Australia's first series of Masterchef and now she has a contract with Channel Nine where she goes on the Today show and shows people how to boil water.  She is not a chef, just a home cook and she knows squat about food.  She gives handy hints like telling people to watch what they're cooking in case it burns, and that when you  stir things you put the spoon INSIDE the bowl.
She is 41 and the mother of three children.  When I was 41 I had just lost 33kg and looked pretty good in a swimsuit but NEVER would I have gone on the cover of a magazine, even a crappy one like No Idea, no matter how much they paid me.  She obviously is wearing step ins under the cossie and is sucking in the top half.  And you can't tell me a lady of that size has no cellulite on her thighs, which have so obviously been airbrushed and even in this photo that was taken with Em's phone you can see the lines where they've digitally re sized the outlines..
I am not dissing large women, I'm rather large myself, although significantly smaller than I was in my late thirties.  But to put her on the cover of this rag next to a 28 year old, famous for marrying an ex criminal doctor, who has obviously had implants and our Miss Australia who is just naturally gorgeous at 20 is embarrassing for everyone.  They could have put a nice little short sarong on her to show a bit of leg maybe.  Cornelia Frances who is the fourth person is 70 and they had the good grace to hide her (at least in this shot, there are probably more inside) and to be honest she looks better than Goodwin.  Still at least Julie knows how to crack an egg so there's obviously a brain behind those vacant eyes.

We don't have a garden centre here, but someone could make a fortune by having one I think.  The only plants to be bought in Cootamundra are at the hardware store.  I went down to get a rosemary plant and saw something I don't think I ever have, or haven't noticed.  A bay tree.  I've always wanted one but of course renting kind of makes that hard unless you want to put a tree that will grow to fifteen metres in someone's yard and hope they don't mind.  Myself, if I was building a house would have to have a lemon tree, a lime tree and a bay tree.  And other useful plants that you can do things with, like lavender, and herbs.  We do have aloe vera, I bought a plant and put it in the back garden.  It's so great on burns and other skin irritations, better than any bought cream.  We planted a patio capsicum but I don't know how big the fruit have to be before we pick them, they're a different shape to the normal ones you buy in the shops, they taper down to a point but have the bell like tops on them.  We planted coriander and had a bit of success, but nothing like the glut we had in Junee when we planted them in an old concrete laundry tub under the back awning.  I'll plant another one in the Autumn.  So I came home and told Phill and we went down and got the bay tree, he said he could plant it in the big white pot we had sage in and he would put the sage in the vegie garden. They also had a kaffir lime tree but it was quite expensive and for the amount of leaves you'd use not really worth it. The vegie garden is looking good, we have (too much) cos lettuce, a rambling tomato plant that has yielded heaps of fruit already.
Two cucumber plants, and a fragrant Thai basil plant.  The leaves are so delicious, I'm going to make an Asian style dish and use them this week sometime.  We bought another chilli plant as our first one didn't do well down near the house, and also put the rosemary up there.  I have plans for parsley, both curly and flat, and some basil and mabye some shallots.  Not eschallots, but the green onion top ones.  I had them growing in the other house and it was so handy to just go out and pick one or two rather than having to buy a whole bunch and try to use them up in other things.  Although I like to have my herbs close to the kitchen, the soil seems really good up there and it will be exercise for me at least to walk up to the back of the yard to pick what I need.  As for eschallots, I use them quite a bit and can often get them at Woolies in Temora but not here (of course).  I usually buy a bag and just keep them with my onions for when I need some but I'm thinking of trying to grow them.  They grow like garlic apparently.  They look like pickling onions on the outside but once peeled they separate into delicious, tender purply bulbs that are sweet when used in cooking.

Our rambling tomato bush (which resisted staking) with the Thai basil in front.

Phill said the bay tree wouldn't grow too big in the pot so we'll see how it goes.  It's a really pretty foliage on it, I can use it in cooking but it's also good for pot pourri.

We have it on the front porch right by the front doors.

aircon on 24/7, and thank goodness for it.  I don't know we coped last year in the other house that only had a tiny hole in the wall one and you had to sit right under it to feel any relief.  It was the only house we've ever lived in, in the country that didn't have proper air conditioning. 

We had plans to bbq last night, and I made the wonderful satay recipe, but used the proper recipe which was three long red chillis and fresh lemongrass, I think I used bottled last time.  It was HOT!  And the lemongrass was a bit woody so we scraped the marinade off the meat before we skewered it and it turned out lovely.  Phill did those on the bbq for the kids, and we had our big thick rib eye steaks but I did those on the stove and finished them in the oven and then made a pepper sauce.

I made a Greek style salad and we had it with crusty French bread.

Today I am going to make a fresh tomato sauce using up all our tomatoes.  I've never done one before and I will go and search for a recipe.  I might do a passata if I have enough and a chunky one.

The agapanthus are out, all over town, it seems everyone has them in their yards.  They aren't my favourite flowers, they remind me of Triffids, but they're a good hardy garden plant and when the flowers aren't out the foliage looks nice.  We have them all along our front fence, this photo is down by one of the side gates and we've got them along the back of our pergola as well.