Monday Movies.

THE DISH.

July 1969 the town of Parkes in western NSW was put on the world map for it's involvement in the relay of the footage of the moonlanding. This is the story of Cliff Buxton (Sam Niell) and his colleagues who work at the radio telescope who and coordinated with NASA including having someone from NASA come and work with them. It tells how the men worked together to overcome the obstacles in their way to keep the world informed.

This is a great little Aussie movie that I recommend that you see. I particularly reccomend it if you get Aussie humour. If you don't get Aussie humour then you should probably give it a miss as it will probably go over your head.

Food on Fridays

MACARONI AND CORN PANCAKES.

Serves 4

2 corn on the cob
4 tbsp butter
115 g red capsicums, deseeded and finely diced
275 g dried short cut macaroni
150 ml double cream
25 g plain flour
4 egg yolks
4 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
TO SERVE
oyster mushrooms
fried leeks

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil over a medium heat. Add the corn on the cobs and cook for about 8 minutes. Drain thoroughly and refresh under cold running water for 3 minutes. Cut away the kernels onto kitchen paper and leave to dry.

2. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a frying pan over a low heat. Add the capsicum and cook for about 4 minutes. Drain and pat dry on kitchen paper.

3. . Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil over medium heat. Add the macaroni and cook until tender, but still firm to the bite. Drain and lean in cold water until required.

4. Beat the cream with the flour, a pinch of salt and the egg yolks in a bowl until smooth. Add the corn and capsicum. Drain the macaroni, then toss into the corn mixture. Season with pepper to taste.

5. Heat the remaining butter with the oil in the frying pan over a medium heat. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the pan and press down to form pancakes. Fry until golden on both sides and all the mixture is used up. Serve with mushrooms and leeks.

Thoughts.

So what I was thinking, I have been doing some regular posting, woot. But I haven't done much just about what has been happening for me.

Basically I am still looking for work.

But what I was really thinking was that I was wanting to do a regular quiz like Ben's. However I don't want it to be the same thing exactly, I want it inspired by but not the same as, at one stage I was thinking of calling it Who, What when Where Why? and having a series of questions starting with one of those words possibly on the same theme for each week. I wanted to know what my readers thought of this idea and if they would partake of such a quiz.

I have also been thinking about doing this course. I feel that it may help to to further my career in the future. I would like to do it but I'm not sure. I don't feel that I am the most academically minded person and I don't feel that I am very good at writing essays which the assessments are. However I did quite well in my Diploma of Library/Information Services at TAFE so I have a basic understanding of the concepts.  I have prayed about it and I'm still not sure. I was originally gonna wait until I got a job to maybe apply but getting a job is taking a while so maybe I should just apply for it. I would like to to know the opinions of my readers.

Monday Movies.

THE PELICAN BRIEF.

Based on a John Grisham novel it is the story of Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) who is a law student and writes a brief about why two supreme court justices have been killed. She then shows the brief to her lecturer who is also her boyfriend. He then shows it to his friend at the FBI. Shaws boyfriend is then killed in a car explosion and she then turns to the friend at the FBI but he also turns up dead. Shaw then teams up Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington), who is a journalist who is also researching about the deaths of the judges. The two of them then expose who is behind the killings.

It was quite an interesting movie although I found it a bit slow in places and I found the ending a bit contrived. However if you enjoy Detective thrillers especially John Grisham novels then I recommend that you watch it.

Food on Fridays.

LASAGNE

Serves 6.

2 Tablespoons oil.
1 clove garlic
1 large onion
500 g minced topside steak
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 x 140 g tomato paste
3 cups water
1 x 240 g packet instant lasagne sheets
1 x 500 g carton cottage cheese
1 x 250 g packet siss or mozzarella cheese

Heat oil in a very large pan over medium heat, chop onion and fry until transparent. Add meat and crushed garlic and fry until brown. Add salt and pepper, tomato paste, water and rosemary. Stir until well mixed. Lower heat and let the sauce simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180 C. Spoon a thin layer of sauce onto a pan and cover with half the lasagne sheets. Cover lasagne with more sauce and evenly spread all the cottage cheese over the sauce. Add half the cheese slices. Cover with remaining Lasagne sheets and pour on the rest of the sauce. Finish with the remaining cheese slices.

Monday Movies.

THE BLACK BALLOON.

16 year old Thomas Mollison (Rhys Wakefield) has many issues to deal with. His dad (Erik Thompson) is in the army and the family has just moved to a new town; his mum (Toni Collette) is pregnant and his older brother, Charlie (Luke Ford) is austic. Thomas meets and falls for Jackie (Gemma Ward), from school, but because Charlie is embarrasing for him this causes obstacles, paricularly when Jackie drops round to their house, when the three kids go for a walk in the bush and when she comes round for a birthday dinner. Can Thomas enter into the world of teen romances or will having to look after Charlie get in the way of his life?

Wow! I found this a really beautiful and powerful movie. I especially loved that it was another Australian movie. I also loved that it dealt with issues that are in the world but not necessarily in the public eye. I really reccomend that you see this movie.