A Gay Balloon

Vintage, Richard Scarry ABC Word book

How to: Cut a whole pineapple

You will need a sharp knife with a blade of at least 15cm/6" for safest and best results. 

I have used an IO Shen utility knife.

As a child I observed my (Indian) mum many times cutting up a pineapple, and thus I learnt how. 

This style of pineapple cutting apparently is quite well known in Asia. 

Unlike commercial methods, very little edible material is wasted.

1. Remove top
2. Shave away skin
3. Remove base
4. Make shallow V shaped cuts 

to remove the 'eyes', 2 or 3 at a time.
Keep on cutting around the pineapple. 

The V shaped cuts should mostly connect up into channels all around it.

5. Cut up pineapple into slices.
6. For easy storage, cut slices into quarters, and cut off fibrous core from the corner
7. Most efficient packing suggestion in a square, 1L container.

Teff

Hey kids! Are you tired of breakfast being worth getting up for? Are you sick of hearing about the latest superfood being jacked up in price and availability because all of the hipsters are eating it? 
You need teff porridge!
Guaranteed to taste like last year's cardboard moving box after being soaked for 24 hours in a laundry bucket, even when doused in maple syrup. With a flavour like that it won't be on Instagram or at your local cafe anytime soon. 
TEFF! 
It's good for what ails you.
Probably.
#teff #doyourselfafavour #supergrain #nope

Street Art: Brunswick, Royal Parade underpass

Brunswick, Royal Parade underpass

October 2018

How to drain, open and deflesh a coconut.

I learnt how to process a mature coconut via my dad. Use a corkscrew to drill out two of the 'eyes'. Flip over and sit over a glass to drain the water.  Use a wood saw to carefully cut in half. You can create a perimeter or just cut right through. Rinse sawdust off with water. Use a butter/table knife to remove flesh. Start from the cut edge, score the flesh then push the blade flat against the shell and twist. It will pop right off with the edible brown skin. If you don't want that you can shave it off with a knife or peeler. 

Concrete Block Street Art

Western end of Bourke Street Mall, August 2017.

Plumbing the 80s

Or possibly late 1970s

#tapthat

Found in a bag of kids' trading cards at hardwaste earlier in the year.

How to: decorate indoor pot plants with old bonbon cases

A little brainwave I had today and thought others would appreciate. With the festive day approaching, consider saving used bonbon cases to decorate your small indoor plant pots next year. A home potted up plant decorated with bonbon cases would also make a nice gift 🎁

Peel apart and break apart the case into three sections. You only need two sections to complete a pot wrap 

Use the existing paper tab and slot to join two sections together. Alternatively a little sticky tape can be used.

Cut off the zigzag edges. I've used a stainless steel ruler and cutting knife for the neatest result but scissors are fine if you prefer. 

Check height fit on pot and trim back so cardboard won't get wet when watering your plant.

Tape in position tab side first.

Tape end snugly in place.

All done! 

You can coordinate your pots by using the different designs/colour ways from the same box of bonbons. 

🎄✨Merry Christmas!✨🎄

Dr Rabbit

Is in the uncanny valley...

Would you like flies with that?

Pants with pockets

I kinda want to see these pants because, to be honest, I haven't seen an octopus wearing track pants. Enquiring minds wants to know.

Please do not feed the birds

Especially the ones with human heads.

See you at the bitter end.

"There's lemons on sale again."

#mondegreen #lifeonmars #ripdavidbowie
Today would have been David Bowie's 70th birthday :(

There is some debate as the whether the real song lyric is Lennon or Lenin. Liner sheets say Lennon.

Weird window prop

At Michael's camera shop in Melbourne CBD. Not sure how this prop is relevant to any of this and it's just a weird/creepy prop in of itself.

Stencil art cat.

Stencil art cat, off Flinders Lane, Melbourne CBD.

Crystal ball dog

Victoria Street, Fitzroy, 2016

by Putos

We are here.

In a residential bluestone lane in Footscray.

How to cut up a pumpkin

Back in June in a cycling accident, a car cut me off and my arm was broken, in a sling. I got my brother to help with things around the house including cutting up a whole pumpkin.

Whole pumpkins are an easy way to avoid plastic while still enjoying pumpkin. They have a good shelf life uncut if stored in a cool, dark place. After cutting the pieces will keep for days in a container the fridge, or you can roast then freeze it. I do a bit of both.

My brother improvised the following technique using my paring knife which is usually a big no-no with pumpkins. I was a little worried he'd snap it! I was so impressed with the process, I have documented myself doing it - with a 16cm chef's knife - so you can. Essentially you carve out just the stalk and cut it up into segments and clean up as usual. The key is how you deal with the stalk as it's the hardest part to cut through. With this you don't cut the stalk at all.

Use the tip of the knife to make a series of cuts about an inch deep, close around the stem angled towards the centre. The number of incisions determines the shape created and is dependent on the diameter of the stem.  In this case, for a Kent aka Japanese pumpkin, it's in the shape of a hexagon. Lift the stalk out and you have a pumpkin diamond! Once the stem is gone it's like cutting a big round carrot. Cut along each groove into wedges then do whatever it is you do with pumpkin.

I use a peeler rather than a knife to peel, as there is less flesh wasted, it's quicker and safer. Hold pumpkin wedge in one hand and start peeling from the corner, then flip it around to do the other end. An inline peeler as seen here or a Y shaped peeler are equally good; it just depends on what is comfortable for you.

Vegetarian Baked Potato

1 washed potato, jacket on

1 avocado

1 clove of garlic, in skin

3 tablespoons Greek yoghurt

A handful of greens to wilt eg baby spinach, chickweed etc.

A twist of lime juice

A small nob of butter (optional)

Freshly ground salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 200C

Skewer potato 

Put potato and clove of garlic in oven proof vessel and bake. 

Remove garlic after 15 minutes. Squeeze out from skin.

Bake potato for an hour or until cooked.

While potato is baking combine lime juice, roasted garlic flesh, and yoghurt in small bowl.

Wilt greens in microwave, or in a pan with a lid or by washing over with boiled water.

Put potato on plate, and cut in half then - depending in size and shape -quarters or sixths.

Place small dabs of butter in cut potato.

Distribute greens over potato, then slices of avocado.

Dollop yoghurt mixture on top.

Season to taste.

Compulsory Palm Oil Labelling in Australia

Here we are at Federation Square, Deakin Edge last night to help promote
the petition to make labelling palm oil compulsory in Australia.
Parliament will decide next month, so it's important we get as many signatures as we can now. Hoping to get 100,000! Please help by signing and sharing.

The orangutan is the gardener of the forest, spreading seeds to create more forest, an umbrella species that others like tigers and rhinos, and countless more rely on.

#labelpalmoil #iwantthechoice #dontpalmusoff #turnmelbourneorange #inyourpalm #orangutan #endangered

Melbourne Zoo , as organisers of both the petition and event, donated 1000 orangutan plush toys which were hidden outside of Deakin Edge, and seated throughout the auditorium. The plushies were for everyone to find, as a reward for attending and promoting this important petition. These toys represent the real live orangutans lost to unsustainable palm oil production every year. At this rate they will be extinct within a decade. Attendees were actively encouraged to take selfies with their plushy, and use the hash tag #labelpalmoil when posting it on social media. Also there were bags of oranges kindly donated by Orange World. Thanks for the juicy evening snack Orange World!

Afterwards we were instructed to swarm/surround Livinia Nixon doing the weather report. I mimed my plushy Kiani, to also do the weather report. I hope we were in frame because it would have been HILARIOUS.

The lower left corner image is a live study of Maimunah, using an enrichment puzzle at the Royal Melbourne Zoo. You can see this drawing on Instagram as the initial live study if you're on there:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLHZd1NhS-I/?taken-by=patriciadenisartist
I'll be posting an exclusive work in progress shot here.
And the final drawing here first.

Finally there is a free shopping app. for your phone to help you shop ethically now, by avoiding unsustainable palm oil. Read about it here.