The beginning of a Mexicana Fiesta.

It's been awhile since I've updated the blog, mostly due to lack
of camera, because my father always takes the family camera to
take photographs of more grass, and more trees, and more machinery.
Exciting hey?
Tonight is the first night of our Mexicana cuisine week, where we'll be
eating Mexican food for dinner every night.
We all love Mexican food, a love that grew stronger when we stayed there
and got to taste the real stuff. We feel very fortunate to have sampled
international cuisine so we can bring it back to our kitchen to try
and replicate it others. Food is one of the best ways to experience
a country. It's almost like the food represents the feel of the country,
with Mexican you have the eclectic range of bright colours, mixed with
deep, intense flavours, and anyone who has experienced Mexico would
have to agree the culture and energy is very similar.

For the first night, we decided to have chili and cornbread, a favourite
of ours from California. It's not quintessential Mexican, but it still embodies
the Mexican flavour, while being a little more Westernized. Nevertheless,
it is an amazing dish, that is so rich and filling.

This is a simple version, with kidney and butter beans, chick peas, corn,
sweet potato, onion, garlic and chili. I used the usual seasonings, cumin,
cinnamon, paprika, oregano, salt and chili powder, but instead of red wine
vinegar, balsamic which added a little kick to it. I used a nice red chili I found at
the supermarket, it wasn't too intense, but added a lot of flavour to the mix. I asked
the fruit and veg boy especially, which one of the two chili's on offer is hotter, and
he recommended the green. It's lucky I bought both, because the green turned out to be just
a little capsicum.
Mum was in charge of the cornbread, mixing the polenta base with freshly
ground spelt flour, and honey instead of sugar. She mixed in real corn, straight off
the cob, it turned out beautifully.
See, chili is one of those dishes that looks a little like vomit, especially when you
mix sour cream in with it as we did. But it is so filling, and warming, and just beautiful.

For lunch the other day, I made a nice little eggs on toast combo, but with garlic grazed
over the toast, and avocado on top of it. I haven't eaten avocado in awhile, due to it being so
hard to find organic ones, but god, it was divine. I love making my own guacamole with it too,
it's such a versatile fruit. I decided to mix it up a bit by having potato and beetroot crinkle cut
chips. As you can see, a few of them turned a bit charcoal-ey, but the majority were so good.

I just used a crinkle cutter Zane found in the art room boxes awhile ago, and cut the
potato and beetroot really thin, to rival Smith's. Bit of olive oil and salt works a treat..

Mum and I had a good joke over the lunch she prepared for my father while
he was out working on our farm. We called it 'rustic'. A cappuccino in a jar..
and a nice little sandwich. Rye bread, with a poached egg, avocado, tomato,
rocket and balsamic vinegar. Pretty impressive, it definitely shoots off
competition like 'Mighty Angus' and all those try-hard fast food health
ticked bullshit.

My lunch was more simple, sourdough toast with a fried egg, garlic which you cannot
see and potato chips. I do love my carbs and starch!

Coming home food.

I came home hungover from Melbourne after a friends 'tea party' to find
my mum in the kitchen, with amazingly exquisite smells wafting around
all over the place, from her sage and garlic stuffed, perfectly roasted chicken, to the
roast potatoes, silverbeet, beans and broccoli steamed, and little cup fulls of rice,
with caramelized onions. It was amazing as you can imagine.

The contrasting colours of food, isn't it amazing. When your eating chicken,
the stuff that has been pumped with hormones and chemicals has an odd
transparent look to it, and the taste is not nearly as fresh as good chicken.
Look at the colouring of it, and if you eat conventional chicken, compare it to
what you are putting on your plate..
We never usually eat jasmine rice, but there was some in the pantry, so it
was a nice change to have it. I do love brown rice though.
Mum and I were watching My Kitchen Rules and as soon as the
deserts were being described and served I could tell she was contemplating
what was in the kitchen that she could make desert from. Mum and Dad are desert fiends,
especially ice cream. I remember when I was younger, my mother told me that dads
vice was ice cream, and not fully comprehending the word 'vice', I, for a long time, associated
it with only sweets. My vice was Snickers bars, much to the dismay of Mum.
So what did she whip up? Bottled cherries, homemade vanilla ice cream and custard.
I had one helping, she had a bit more..

While Mums Away, We Come Out To Play..

Dad just made me a drink we became aware of in County Cork, Ireland,

when our friends Grainne and Derek made them for us.
It is called a Baby Guinness, not because it's a tinsy tiny pint, but because
when you combine the two ingredients, Kahlua and Baileys (and sometimes
cointreau), it looks like
a tinsy tiny pint. Beautiful with a bit of ice on a summers day..
I'm enjoying one right now!

Friday, simple and slight.

My little sister Pearl has a habit of putting weird and wonderful
things onto watercrackers. Today it was mint, yoghurt, butter, cheese
and agave syrup. I was hesitant to taste it, but did, and it was actually
really yummy. Suprise? Yes!

I splurged today on a cocoa shaker, so now I can make cappuccinos.
In my mind it is most definitely worth it, just look at that baby..

My mother went to Melbourne tonight with a big group of her closest friends
who have all known each other for 25 years, but before she left she ate all the
tomatoes in her lunch, with left me stranded with few ingredients, so I got a bit
inventive, and bought some tuna.. The sourdough bread was a gift from Darren
at Bendigo Wholefoods, I coated it in olive oil and garlic, then made a poached egg,
garnished that with basil and garlic, and on the other piece had some cheese and tuna,
all put together to make a nice little lunch sandwich, with rocket dressed in olive oil
and balsamic vinegar.

For dinner I decided to go a bit simple. As mum is a totally gluten free eater,
we rarely get to have any pasta unless it's buckwheat or gluten free, and that
tastes like cardboard to me, so I decided to make some penne pasta, with an
old combination of mine. Stir-fried tuna, corn, kidney beans, onions and garlic,
garnished with basil and oregano, a little paprika, salt and pepper, olive oil of
course, and some port to add a little sweetness to the mixture. Cheese on top,
and voila, my old pasta favourite.

Thursday, coffee and carbs.

I had a very nice morning yesterday, getting up at 10 to
do laps at our local swimming pool, and coming home to
make a nice big coffee. I have a Gustav Klimt percolator
that I received for my last birthday, and this birthday I
got a proper frother, so now I am making my own lattes
and LOVING IT! My favourite coffee for home is the Global
Cafe Direct Organic Coffee in the Africas, it has a beautiful
strong taste. Usually when I go out for coffee I try to drink
soy, because of my sinus issues, but we have raw milk at
home which doesn't do anything to me, except mum and I
have observed it help you loose weight. Funny what no
pasteurisation and homogenisation can do..

I had some lollies left over from my trip from Melbourne on
the train. I know it's disgusting, but I love fizzoes and chocos,
just little treats every once in awhile..

My little sister had a fairy party to attend
at one of our neighbours houses, so my mum
decided to make some 'Fairy Meringues' that
were absolutely delicious. We were only allowed
one each, as they were for the party, but I absolutely
loved the patterns she put on top of the meringues,
they look so cool..

For dinner we had a beautiful fresh meal, most of which
came from our garden. There was the roast potatoes and beetroots,
with rocket and an organic goats cheese mum splurged on at
Bendigo Wholefoods, it was so yummy. The salad was made up of
tomato, apple, cucumber and red onions, garnished with basic and
garlic, and a nice simple balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing.
Due to the warmer weather, it was a perfect combination of heavy and light
ingredients.. The starch hit my stomach straight away though..

Mums favourite television show, Thank God You're Here, was on,
so she decided to make some vanilla ice cream, and at the last minute
a speedy sticky date pudding. We didn't really have any room left to
eat after that massive dinner, but somehow found some especially for this.

It was a particularly good food day .. more tomorrow.

Eat Bon Juju.

Yes, this is a food blog. 

I have spent my entire life consuming only the best of food,

so why not share my, and my family's, ideas and creations?

Eat Bon Juju =

Eat Good (Bon is French for good) 

and then

Juju?

It stems from the French joujou (meaning toy) and has

been used for years by West African people to refer to

supernatural energy. But you may have heard people

use it to describe bad feelings, or energies, saying,

"Oh, that just had some bad juju."

I've always like the saying, and a friend, Rhiannon,

and I created a bit of a habit of saying it when referring

to our food, and the energy we were putting into it. 

You put bad energy (or Juju) into your food,

it will affect the people that eat it. 

But if you are eating food that has good energy,

or good Juju, it completely changes what you are 

consuming.

So there you go, there's the name taken care of.

And me?

I'm a seventeen year old, Year 12 student from

Bendigo, Victoria, who loves to create..

And cooking is one of the most creative outlets

I have found yet. 

I will be uploading photographs of what I am 

eating pretty much every day, from our more

extravagant feasts to simple eggs on toast,

making each of the items on display a little

piece of art, the art of gastronomy ..

A bit of my families history goes as follows..

I live with my mother, father, sister, brother 

and grandmother in an 140 year old home with

a beautiful gardens surrounding the entire premises

all cared for by my 86 year old grandmother, who 

has dedicated the last 40 years of her life to providing

only the best food from her garden to her 12 children, 

36 grandchildren and almost 29 great-grand children.

My father is a permaculture designer and teacher, my

mother an actress, musician, cook, wife, creative creator

at it's best, and they both made the conscious decision

to eat organically and live sustainably as possible over

twenty years ago, separately, before meeting through the

yoghurt at our local organic store, Bendigo Organics,

where my father was, at the time, the manager,

and combining their ethics and values to create a business,

Australia Felix Permaculture, three children and

spread their message across the world, 

dragging us three kids around with them.

My father is an ex-chef, mum is just an amazing cook,

and I've inherited their passion for real, good food.

We eat totally organically, growing our own as much

as we can, making whatever we can ourselves (Mum's

gone crazy on making ice cream, and is trying churning

butter next and Dad loves his bottling), and support

as much local produce and productions as we can.

It's so much easier than a lot of people think, organically

grown local produce is becoming more and more easy

to access as time goes on, because there is more demand

for it..

I was reading an article, in some terrible Australian women's

magazine I won't bother mentioning, about Organic food and how

some research had been conducted at some hoity toity university,

that was no doubt funded by chemical companies, (I wouldn't

put the effort into researching it further, nor sending a letter

of complaint to the magazine) about how conventionally grown

food had shown to be no worse for people than organically grown. 

Am I alone in thinking that just sounds ridiculously stupid?

How is consuming products that have been pumped with all kinds

of who knows what any good for your body? It's not. 

The next day I went to see my friend, Em, who had just eaten Chinese

in Melbourne's CBD and had developed a harsh red rash all over her

face. Em's family are also fairly conscious eaters, and she had had a reaction

to the genetically modified food, her system just wasn't used to the amount

of chemical crap that was in that food.. Great example of how 'shit magazine'

was very, very wrong.

Anyway, it's back to my International Studies work for me,

I'll upload todays delicious photographs tomorrow.