Almost a health food - if you squint - banana and chocolate mug cake

I've taken this recipe as a foundation and built my own.

How it is different and now mine:
I don't use oil, vanilla or chocolate chips.
Instead of sugar, I use a teaspooned dollop of golden syrup and a banana (broken up and pushed into the batter last). I use raw cacao.
I integrate the peanut butter - mine is made fresh into my own jar at The Source Bulk Foods, from just peanuts so I add a dash of salt. Salt enhances sweetness as does the cinnamon for the banana. I microwave it for 2 minutes.

Banana and Chocolate Mug Cake

Serves One.
You will need 1 large coffee/soup mug

Ingredients
4 tbsp plain flour
1 dolloped (scoop and coat spoon) teaspoon golden syrup
2 tbsp. raw cacao
1 free range egg
1 ripe to over ripe banana
3-5+ tbsp water or milk for richness (quantity depends how pudding like you want it)
1 teaspoon peanut butter (optional) or dessicated coconut
dash of cinnamon
pinch of salt

Method
Combine flour and cocoa in mug.
Add egg and combine well.
Mix in rest of ingredients except banana. Ensure no lumps/pockets of dry flour/cocoa.
Break or cut up banana and distribute in batter.
Microwave for two minutes.
Let it sit for a minute then enjoy!

Notes
You can leave out the peanut butter and substitute dessicated coconut if you're allergic and substitute other flour if you have dietary requirements.
Cocoa will work if you don't have cacao.
I reckon molasses would work instead of golden syrup but I haven't tried that yet. Let me know if you do :)
Add more water if you're vegan. It won't be quite as light but it will still be very tasty!

Pasta with Basil Cashew Pesto and Wilted Spinach

This is my favourite, no fuss, minimum mess, vegetarian lunch when I have homegrown basil. If I don't have spinach or suitable greens likes chickweed, I increase the parsley, add oregano and extra garlic chives to get some green goodness in there. Garlic chives are very easy to grow in a pot or the ground, as is Italian parsley.

Serves One
Ingredients
a cup/handful of spinach leaves
a small handful of fresh basil leaves
a smaller quantity of parsley (optional, good for balancing garlic heat)
one to two cloves of garlic depending on size OR 5-6 of garlic chive leaves if you like a milder garlic taste
freshly ground salt and pepper
olive oil
a small handful of roasted, salted cashews*
raw pasta for one

Method
While pasta is cooking:
1. Rip herbs into smaller pieces and add to mortar. Grind.
2. Add peeled garlic and grind.
3. Add nuts and grind.


4. You should end up with a bright green, thick paste like this. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Add a handful of grated parmesan and a good slurp of olive oil. Stir with flexible spatula into a thick paste.
6. Put ripped or chopped up fresh spinach leaves into a colander. Drain your freshly cooked pasta through colander to cook spinach.

7.Tip contents of colander into large bowl, and stir through pesto. Serve immediately.


* or pinenuts or any roasted nut you like. Unroasted peanuts and macademias should work well

The Wild at Off The Kerb Gallery

These three paper butterflies will be in The Wild at Off the Kerb gallery.

'Off the Kerb is pleased to celebrate its 9th Birthday Show by inviting you into The Wild, where your imagination can run wild. We invite you into a utopian wilderness where there are 

no boundaries, freedom and beauty is bountiful, a place where love runs wild, wilder beasts and divine creatures roam free - you are fearless.....untamed....... 

Enter The Wild...

OTK celebrates its 9th Birthday with this group exhibition in support of Edgar’s Mission. 

Edgar’s Mission is a not for profit Farm Sanctuary that seeks to create 

a humane and just world for homeless, abused, injured or abandoned animals.

OTK will be donating the gallery commission to Edgar’s Mission www.edgarsmission.org.au'

The Wild

at  
Off the Kerb gallery.

Opening: Fri 8 April 6-9pm |

7 April - 21 April 2016

66B Johnston St, Collingwood, 3066

9077 0174 | 0400 530 464

info@offthekerb.com.au

Thurs & Fri 12:30- 6 | Sat & Sun 12 - 5

Free Entry

Meerkat Family at Werribee Open Range Zoo

Meerkat family at Werribee Open Range Zoo recently welcomed two new additions. A coworker of mine told me about it after seeing it on the news. I made sure I visited within a week to see these sweet little fuzzballs who grow up rather quickly. Both pups were suckling much less on my second visit. I saw one of the pups eating something solid. It was very keen not to let any other meerkat get too close!


A perched meerkat with its eyes shut - albeit temporarily - is a rare sight.


Week 2.






A chilled out sentry.

DIY Plant Markers

Icy pole and icecream sticks should always be saved because they are useful.  They can be used to stir a small pot of paint, to mix and apply two part expoxy resin aka Araldite, and with a pencil or waterproof pen/biro...

...they make biodegradable plant markers.

Pink Bounty Slushy with Bamix

Homemade #slushy with my #Bamix 

I call this one the Pink Bounty. It's a cup full of frozen #watermelon, a tablespoon of desiccated #coconut - have previously used fresh coconut - and a pinch of #rawcacaonibs with a cup of water

#plasticfree #thesourcebrunswick #ilovemybamix

Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid Party

'The Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid Party was a political party during the Regency era.' From http://blackadder.wikia.com/wiki/Standing_at_the_Back_Dressed_Stupidly_and_Looking_Stupid_Party

Louis Vuitton, Vogue November 2012

Chanel Toilet Roll Clutch

The title says it all. From Vogue, October 2013

WhiteNight Melbourne Map looks like...

I settled down to plan my WhiteNight this weekend. I laid the map out to one side and realised the main group of precincts looks like a penis.

Mean while The Big Top in red, in this new context resembles female gentalia with an engorged clitoris/piercing.

Normally it has those paths and another set which looks like a bra.

9 Abandoned Warehouse Street Art: The Warehouse Itself

Here is a series of shots taken in and around various locations at 

the abandoned warehouse, former jeans factory, thus concluding this series.  

This blogger here has done a more extensive post featuring images and history of the site. 

Like her I would not have explored as much as I did if I was alone. 

Fortunately I had a good male friend with me so I felt safe.

8 Abandoned Warehouse Street Art Won't Last

40 x 40 Art Prize

I have three pieces in the upcoming 40 x 40 Art Prize exhibition. It is so named because all submissions must be at a maximum 40 x 40 x40 cm including frames.


From left to right: Bonsai Tigers; The Resort at Al Biqa; Carmen.
paper collage on paper
29.7 x 21 each unframed*

40 x 40 2015 Art Prize
14 December 2015 - 16 January 2016
Opening Drinks and Prize announcements, 18 December 2015, from 6pm - 9pm
Brunswick Street Gallery 322 Brunswick St, Fitzroy 3065
Gallery Tues–Friday 10–8pm
Sat–Sun 10–6pm
info@bsgart.com.au


*Available to purchase in white frames measuring 39.5 x 32.

7 Abandoned Warehouse Street Art: Patrick the Starfish

Patrick the starfish from Sponge Bob Squarepants, as a painter

6 Abandoned Warehouse Street Art: Goat Skull

By Kaffiene

5 Abandoned Warehouse Street Art: Illustrator Style

Jackalope mask pays homage to Princess Mononoke.

Whale head on head of impaled figure. The first kanji character is part of the word whale or whaling, the last one might mean strength but I can't figure out more than that.

Unhappy girl.

4 Abandoned Warehouse Street Art: Poultry

Toothed duck peeking around a corner.

Another toothed duck. It's like Daffy Duck went on an acid trip or something...

Cigar smoking rooster. by Putos.

3 Abandoned Warehouse Street Art: Faces

From the previous post featuring abstraction.

Detail of face, with DOG tag digitally scrubbed back.

Simple linework face peeking through high, reinforced, frosted windows (in 'office' area?).

2 Abandoned Warehouse Street Art: Abstract Forms Part II

Monochromatic abstraction in silver and black.

Colour popping abstraction

Abstraction and stylised faces.

David Bowie Is - leaving Melbourne soon!

#sketch of #costume at #davidbowieis from his 1979 Saturday Night Live performance of #themanwhosoldtheworld resting on my David Bowie Is catalogue. There are worse 24 hour earworms to have - I'll have to buy the album to scratch that itch!
#drawing #drawingfromlife #davidbowie #acmimember #avantgarde #avantgardefashion — at ACMI.

For those interested, you can see my other drawings from David Bowie Is, as well as my other creative output, on my instagram here. I don't always do Follow for Follows but I try to make the time to Like for Likes :)

You can download a free David Bowie album from a selection of about 6 with your ACMI​ David Bowie Is card. Okay. I should have expected that I couldn't fill some of the gaps in my collection with a free download of The Man Who Sold the World, Lodger etc. You want me to buy those Bowie? That is fine! I completely understand. I've been twice and a nice couple - who said they have all of his albums - gave me theirs so I had four to redeem.

Or so I thought.

You can only redeem one album this way per Google Play account. Oops. I chose Earthling. Well played, sir. The promotion cards claim that 'David Bowie is all yours' but clearly he isn't! It's more accurately 'David Bowie is pimping his new album and bumping his less popular works up the Google Play charts' or more simply 'David Bowie is savvy'.

'I'm Afraid of Americans' is an epic song. It's in my top ten of favourite Bowie songs. I friggin' LOVE it. I saw the clip for the first time on Monday and thought that was clever too. A pity about the rest of that album - I am not a fan of drum-and-bass, it sounds a bit samey after a few songs IMHO - but maybe I'll grow to like it!




As for the exhibition itself:

No photography permitted, is not just signed but verbally instructed to every visitor. I have seen some sneaky mobile phone images online because some take this as a challenge to rise to rather than respecting Bowie's wishes. Why take a crappy pic on your phone to share on social  media when the catalogue is filled with beautifully shot images of all the artifacts (and a very interesting collection of essays to boot)? Why not just enjoy the experience rather than have proof you were there in a selfie? If it means that much to you, buy the book/postcard.

It took me all afternoon to visit the show on my first visit and I had _no_ intention of drawing that time! As you can see above I did do some drawing as an artistic challenge on my second visit. I read every label, listened to everything sound bite, watched almost every clip! Luckily that was on a Wednesday a couple of weeks after it first opened with few other people. On Monday there was quite a few people, with lines to view artifacts, so I didn't worry about consuming everything. I had to be considerate about where I placed myself to draw. What I love about drawing is that it makes you really look at things. You appreciate the form and detail of a thing to a level you would not absorb if you merely looked at it. I thought I knew his face but it was only after drawing from one of his life cast masks - they are dotted on seemingly random mannequins throughout the exhibition - that I knew it best.

It was wonderful to see so many iconic, unique costumes and finely designed outfits in the fibre. To think the great man himself once wore these and defined a moment in time was awesome... 

I had no idea he was such a talented mime, that he was so involved in all parts of his output, such a diligent, organised individual. I love that he kept all of these things, because either he's an organised hoarder or he knew that one day they would be of interest to other people. Probably both! It was a special treat to see the creative process in the material form of Bowie's song writing, on all sorts of paper with corrections and ch, ch, changes.

With almost constant sound and vision - I turned the sound down, took my head phones off or unplugged them because it was sometimes too much - it was an intense experience and I needed a nap after both visits!

Thank you to David Bowie for having the foresight to keep all of these things carefully, the wisdom to engage a collection curator to catalogue them, and the professionalism to approach the V&A Museum with said catalogue and offer free reign to tell your story in the best possible way through The David Bowie Archive. It was not wanting in detail or breadth!

1 Abandoned Warehouse Street Art: Abstract Forms Part I

This is the first of a series of posts showcasing street art seen at an abandoned warehouse in the western suburbs of Melbourne. I had the opportunity to explore this place over a year ago now, but the task of getting so many interesting images ready for the web was a bit daunting! The nine part series will automatically post weekly, until just before Christmas. Enjoy!

Setting the scene. There were many holes in the ground connected up to drainage. The warehouse was a former jeans factory. The last post in this series will highlight some of the architecture.

Cool, fluid abstraction

'I love my peoples'

Feel good abstraction.

Feel good abstraction, detail