Bureaucracy isn't helping ...

We recently received a letter from the Victorian Electoral Commission who wanted to know who was enrolled to vote at our house. We weren't on the list while the previous owner still was. That's OK, I thought…according to the instructions we just cross off her name and put our names down … but for some reason (and I don't usually do this…I think I was just waiting for something to defrost) I continued to read the fine print.

So the full paragraph actually reads:

If there are people listed who are no longer living permanently at this address, please cross their names out and write in their new address if you know it. Note: This information will only be used by the VEC to invite the person to update their enrolment. If you cannot provide a new address, we must send two letters to this address to inform them that they are being removed from the roll.

So the electoral commission is going to mail not one, but two letters to the address of someone who actually doesn't live there anymore. Is there something wrong with this picture, am I missing something fundamental?

Since enrolling to vote is compulsory here in Australia, how many wasted letters are mailed out every day? In these days when governments at all levels are trying to jump on the sustainable bandwagon (with more or less success) surely there is a more sustainable way to deal with this issue. At the very least, if a letter really needs to be sent, surely one would be sufficient?

Can anyone help me understand what I'm missing?

On another, not entirely unrelated note, I recently discovered that one of my favourite authors, the late great Douglas Adams actually wrote the script for a computer game that was released in 1987:

As the main character, you must deal with a long and complicated series of bureaucratic hurdles resulting from a recent change of address. Your mail isn't being delivered, you can't access bank accounts and nothing is as it should be. The game includes a measure of simulated blood pressure which rises when "frustrating" events happen and lowers after a period of no annoying events. Once a certain blood pressure level is reached, and in typical Douglas Adam's fashion, the player suffers an aneurysm and the game ends.

Douglas Adams was known for his comic science fiction writing ... sometimes though he could strike very close to the truth!

A helping hand with chocolate cake

We have a new addition to the family…



It's a Kitchen Aid…an incredibly overpriced but very sexy mixer. We have always walked through kitchen stores admiring them from afar (they are always placed on the top shelves) and mildly arguing about what colour we would choose if we ever won the lottery and could afford one.



But now a bright red mixer is sitting proudly on our bench. We don't technically own it … we are looking after it for a friend who has decided to move back to LA for a while but we will certainly be putting it to good use while it resides under our roof.

At first I was a little scared to use it…it just looks so good and I'm always ruining things much to Sim's eternal frustration…a little scratch here, a bit of food there that no matter how hard you try just can't be removed. But after a batch or two of dough for bagels, I'm starting to relax (and hopefully Sim is too!)

What I really like about it, is it's simplicity. It's solid and heavy and only has two levers. I hate it when you buy something and it feels plasticky and light and eminently…well…breakable…usually just as soon as the warranty has run out. This mixer feels like it will be around for a while. Which is lucky as Sim went and bought the pasta making attachments for it! We haven't had a chance to try them out yet, but look out for that post…we'll probably be singing it from the rooftops.

Sim did make a delicious chocolate cake on the weekend with the help of our new friend and in typical fashion muddied around slightly with the recipe and pulled out an absolutely stunning rendition. It was warm and delicious and comforting and just so…indulgent. I had four pieces in a row and now I feel like I have to go running every night for a month…but hell it was worth it.

Old fashioned chocolate cake
Adapted from the Good Taste Collection - Chocolate by Anneka Manning

185 g butter at room temperature, cubed
155 g dark brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 eggs at room temperature

200g self raising flour

35 g cocoa powder

125 ml milk
50g dark cooking chocolate

Icing

1 ½ tblspoons cocoa powder

1 tbs warm milk

75g butter room temperature, cubed

125g icing mixture

1/2 vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Brush a round cake pan with melted butter to grease and line the bottom with baking paper. 

Use electric beaters (aka Kitchen Aid) to beat butter, sugar, vanilla essence until mixture is pale and the sugar dissolves. Melt the chocolate and add at this stage.

Add eggs one at a time, beat well after each addition. Sift cocoa and flour and add half to the butter mixture, then half the milk. Fold together [ no Kichen Aid required :( ] until well combined. Repeat with remaining flour and milk.

Spoon mixture into cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Set aside for 5 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, combine the cocoa and milk (in the Kitchen Aid!) Add butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence and mix until the mixture is well combined. Spread the icing over the cake and try not to eat too much in one sitting.

A warming winter curry

Last weekend it was our friend Gavin's birthday and we contributed a lamb and eggplant curry to the festivities. You can read about how it all turned out on Gav's blog: the Greening of  Gavin. But I thought I'd share the recipe because it's one of our favourites.

This recipe is actually a Better Homes and Garden's recipe from sometime last year (very possibly the same time last year) and it's the perfect winter meal when you've got some time to let the seeds and spices and meat and vegetables just simmer away for an hour or more. It's served with a tomato salsa and yoghurt and rice and it's warming and fragrant and delicious.

Curry Ingredients

Besan (chickpea flour)

300mls natural yoghurt

600mls water

Olive oil

4 small eggplants, cut lengthways and cubed, salted and rinsed

900g lean diced lamb

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp fennel seeds

2 tsp fenugreek seeds

2 tblsp black mustard seeds

2 brown onions, sliced

5 garlic cloves, chopped

3 long, red chillies (or to taste)

2 tsp tumeric powder

1.5 tsp cumin powder

1.5 tsp chilli powder

3 tsp salt

8 cm piece ginger, grated

1 can chopped tomatoes

2 sprigs curry leaves

Method:

It might look like a long list of ingredients, but it's really not too complicated. You just need to get everything chopped and measured out before you start cooking.

Combine the water and chickpea flour and whisk lightly

Add yoghurt and whisk until smooth

Heat the olive oil in a heavy saucepan

Fry off the eggplant until brown

Place on absorbant paper and set aside

Add a bit more oil to the same saucepan

Fry up the seeds for about 1 and a half minutes

Add a bit more oil

Add the onions, garlic and chilli and cook for about 2minutes

Add the spices and salt and stir through for a minute

Add the ginger and stir through

I can smell the spices now...yum

Add the lamb, brown and cook covered for about 10 minutes. (You might need to turn the heat down a fraction)

Add the can tomatoes, yoghurt mixture, eggplant and curry leaves and then simmer for at least an hour.

Just needs to simmer for a while

Salsa Ingredients

1 tbsp brown sugar

juice of 2 limes

1 spanish onion, diced

4 fresh tomatoes, diced

1 tsp nigella seeds

1/2 tsp celery seeds

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

4 cm piece of ginger, grated or chopped

Easy  - mix all that stuff together and there's your salsa.

Serve the curry with some basmati rice, some extra yoghurt and the salsa.