Broome seems to be an extremely creative place. Musos, painters, photographers, textile artists all seems to love this place.  Its isolation – 2000kms from the nearest city (Perth, Western Australia) and its location on the outback coast with stunning beaches, seems to be a magnet for creative types.

If you go up there, each Saturday morning you can go to the Broome Markets. They are a hub of creativity, sounds and sights. We headed there on the Saturday morning with specific goal – to check out my school mate, Katrina’s stall.

Katrina and her business partner have embarked on a creative business venture, sewing adorable appliqued baby and toddler clothes. They are selling loads of these gorgeous singlets and bloomers.

My favourites were these “Stairway to the Moon” Singlets. How cute are they? And a great momento of a trip one of the most beautiful places on earth.

So, if you are up in Broome, go to the markets on a Saturday morning and pick up a mango smoothie. Say hi to Katrina for me. It was great to have a mini school reunion and meet up with Jenny, Katrina and Ros for lunch on Friday. It’s not hard to see why they love living in Broome.

And yes, there are still more Broome photos to come. You have no idea how inspiring the Australian outback coast is.

Mia
xxx

Our trip to Broome was filled with friends, love, happiness, sunshine, good food and laughter. It would be hard to have a better holiday. What really inspired me was the breathtaking landscape, the red dirt, the white sands on the beach, the huge expanse of blue ocean meeting the sky.
And I am in awe of these sand flowers. They make me want to paint, to print fabrics, to take photograph.

These flower-like patterns are made by the tiniest of crabs. The crabs make underground tunnels by rolling up sand into little balls and arranging it above ground. The crabs are smaller than the tip of my little finger.

Can you see the tiny little crab in the photo below? How perfectly camouflaged!

Hope you enjoyed these photos. There are more to come in the next few days. At the moment my days are filled with memories of Broome.

Mia
xxx

I have been gone a long time. I know I promised jewellery but May just went. I have a good excuse for not posting in the last week. Here it is….

I’ll be posting loads of great photos in the next few days.
Mia
xxoo

(Me and a black kite getting to know each other on the weekend.  Apparently he started sunbathing on my arm and it took his handler about five minutes to get him back, because he was just so comfortable there). 

I had a chat with a mate today and she asked me, “So, what do you call yourself, an artist, a crafter, an author, a blogger?”. And I responded after a little thought. “No I really just call myself a ‘creative”.

I truly believe that being a  ‘creative’ or a creative thinker is a mindset. It’s a way of being, a way of living. For me it is a way of thinking about possibilities. It’s thinking into the future and letting go of the past. It’s seeing a challenge and brainstorming 20 different ways to make that challenge work for you. It’s about finding an opportunity and running with it. It’s about sitting around with friends and choosing topics of conversation which are interesting, idea-filled, lively, animated and energising.

When you become a ‘creative’ you can take your creativity and put it into anything you like. For me,I have put my creativity into taking photos, designing clothing patterns, writing a blog, writing books, and using my hands to make lots and lots of different things. In the future, I may well write some music, finish editing a play I’ve written, write a novel and design a jewellery range. 

For everyone their creativity can be used in different ways.  One person may use their creativity thinking to improve their marriage, while another may use theirs to start a new business, or help solve a world crisis. 

Most of all, I think creative thinking is a way to make yourself happier. Ideas are so much more interesting than other sorts of thoughts. Ideas possess the most energy and forward motion of any thought processes. I think there is a massive link between happiness and being a creative thinker, who can rely on a supple mind with fluid thought processes and avoids black and white rigid thoughts with no movement.

Here are my top ideas on how to become a ‘creative’ and be happier:

• Brainstorm your challenges, don’t worry about them.  When you have a challenge in life, whether it is a severe illness or a financial crisis, brainstorm.  Take a huge piece of paper and a box of coloured crayons or markers and put on a stopwatch for 20 minutes (as you get better at it you might like to do it for 30 minutes).   In this twenty minutes, you have to scribble down any ideas that come to your head.  You are not allowed to judge them or not write them down.  Once you have finished you’ll find that you will have a few great ideas to pursue into the next phase.

• Give each great idea 20 minutes.  Following from your brainstorming, if you have one or two great ideas give each one twenty minutes.  You can do this in different sessions so that you don’t give yourself ‘brain overload’.  Brainstorm the idea as you have done before.  Then leave it for 24 hours to allow your brain to work its magic and start to make solutions.  After 24 hours, come back to the page and see if you will either make it a working project, put it aside as a future possibility or bin it.  Then either start on this or start working on another idea.  You can use this method to sort out solutions to a housing problem, solutions to a bad relationship or working out how to afford a year in France (yay bring it on!).

• Make a ‘Future Possibilities’ folder in your filing system.  Fill this file with your great ideas, whether it be a new invention, a business venture or a book idea.  This gives your inner creative genius, a space to work and encouragement to continue to work (this little genius needs as much encouragement as possible).

• Turn problems on their heads.  I can only give you this idea with an example.  A problem could be, how do I make my house repayments?  If you turn this on its head, you now ask a new question, how can I make my house pay for itself?  The answers could be many and varied.  You could move out and rent a smaller place and have someone else pay it for you for a while, you could rent out a room or take in a boarder.  You could look into subdividing your block, selling off the back half and paying your whole mortgage off.  You could start a daycare in your house and look after small children.   The ideas are endless but they are so fun to think about.  Another one, on a more personal level, could be, ‘how do I make my child happier?’.  You could turn this on its head and say ‘how can my child make me happier’.  The solutions could be hugging my child more often could make me happier, playing with him in the park each afternoon could make me happier, cleaning his room with him could help.  Now see if that doesn’t help improve your child’s happiness as well.   Honestly, I love this method.  It can get quite hilarious at times & it can throw up the most random, creative, incredible ideas which can then turn themselves into great possibilities.

• Choose your friends wisely.  Hang out with ideas people.  Keep company with people who are positive, upbeat and you can see them sorting through their lives bravely and creatively.  You will notice these people’s input into your life will help you enormously.  And talk about possibilities and ideas with people.  When discussing the world’s crises, don’t wallow in the enormity of it all, throw up possibilities to ponder, talk about and laugh at.  You never know, you may help!  You have my permission to do a cull of the friends in you life who pull you down.  If a girlfriend talks only about crises and things which are wrong while offering no verbal solutions to her only problems, seriously limit your time with that person.  I always say this to my ten-year-old ‘hang out with the people at school who are fun, happy, kind, playing sport, doing things, not the ones sitting around gossipping or complaining about teachers or whatever.’  I think it’s a great thing to learn from a young age.

When I talk about creatives, I am not talking about artists only.  Some artists are not creative thinkers in their own lives and some accountants I know are the most creative thinkers I have met (LOL, not mine).  It is possible to become a creative right now and develop these and other creative skills that will help you keep a positive outlook and bounce back buoyantly from life’s challenges!

Mia

xxx

Hmmm mmm.  We interrupt all this mouth-watering food talk to bring to you our first jewellery making video tutorial, via youtube.

As most of you know, I have studied jewellery design and manufacturing and I have run a jewellery business for several years. I love making jewellery.

I have included five great jewellery tutorials in my book but I haven’t included any tutorials on this site. I was just waiting for a good time to start.

For this tutorial you need:
1 pair flat-nosed pliers
1 pair round-nosed pliers
1 pair wire cutters
2 earring hoops
2 eye pins
2 large beads
2 crystal rondelles
2 small crystal beads

I hope you enjoy. If you guys want more jewellery tutorials I will make and upload more in the next few weeks.

Mia
xxx

PS We’ll be back with a great big upload in a few days time of more recipes and cooking adventures.  Until then, make a pair of earrings or two or three.

If you are like me, your whole life is contained within your iphone. I couldn’t live without my phone for an hour, let alone a day.
Well, did you know that there are great iphone apps available to take with you into the kitchen. How fabulous!  So, I’ve been going nuts with my iphone and have found some great cooking apps.
Here are my top four:

Quick Collection by Nigella Lawson. This app is only a few days’ old. It is Nigella’s brand-new classy baby and it contains a series of 70 recipes for us busy cooks. There are loads of videos also. Who doesn’t love Nigella and her decadent recipes? I love her style but these are not recipes for the weight-conscious cook.

Epicurious. This app is uh-mazing. If you buy one app this is the one, according to all the reviews and to my playing around on it. Epicurious has over 25,000 recipes, a shopping list and ratings from other users who have tried those recipes. This app is absolutely free – but the downside is that you have to put up with a number of advertisements.

20 minute meals by Jamie Oliver. This app is a little bit more expensive than others but it’s only $7.99. These recipes come with great photos. I love cooking with photos. Great for all the visual learners amongst us. There are 55 recipes. Great for quick after-work meals.

All Recipes Dinner Spinner. This is really great. You can put in which ingredients you want to use, how much time you have and then it lets you choose from a number of suitable meals. This app has thousands of recipes which is great too. If you are like me and try to shop at the fresh market each week then end up with some fresh ingredients left, this is great. It will help you find the suitable dish for them. Best of all, this app is free!

I noticed today that Megan of Not Martha has a free giveaway for How to Cook Everything app, the new cooking app from Mark Bittman. Visit her site and leave a comment.

I hope these make cooking so much more fun!

Mia
xxx

As April is Food Month over here at ohc headquarters, I thought I’d take a little time and give you the links to my all-time favourite foodie blogs.

Gluten-Free Girl. This site has been going as long as mine I think. It is filled with great gluten-free recipes and ideas. I know it can be seriously hard eating gluten-free (as I do). She has some truly great ideas and it is a fantastic read. And her cookbook is finished. How exciting.

Vegan Lunchbox. This is great for non-vegans too. Jennifer has so many ideas on how to fill lunchboxes with healthy great food. I am not vegan and I get great ideas from reading it. She hasn’t updated since January, I think but is still a great read with loads of posts from the last few years.

Kristens Raw. Kristen Suzanne is a raw vegan chef. I am neither a raw foodist nor a vegan. But I love her blog. She has been responsible for extending my food repertoire hugely. I now eat chia, quinoa and use agave nectar as a sweetener instead of sugar in some recipes. Because of her I have tried rice milk, hemp milk and am a regular drinker of a green smoothie in the morning. And her passion just lights me up. I am always attracted to anyone who is passionate about what they do.

Crazy Sexy Life. Ok this is not even a food blog but it has a lot to do with food. Kris Carr, started this blog after she survived cancer. She is a vegan and a raw foodist also. I am interested in her insights into food and the articles by those in the know on her site. I love being encouraged to eat organic foods and when I need a good kick to my diet, I visit here and always remember why I am eating a healthy diet, why I don’t eat junk food, why I eat lots of fresh fruit and vegies – and it just makes me feel good. I have made several of their Recipe of the Week dishes which are in the right hand sidebar – and they were very yummy!

I know these are all vegan and raw-foodist when I am not. But I really enjoy the different foods they try! I will include more links later..

Any good food links to share?

Mia
xxx

Tonight’s dinner was my favourite dinner!  This is just superb with the subtle blend of aromas and flavours.   And it is so easy to make.  It literally takes about five minutes to prepare and then you just stand back and watch the magic take place. 

This recipe comes from Neil Perry, my favourite Australian chef.  It is an chinese dish and you may find that the ingredients sound exotic.  But don’t be put off.  When you have time take a leisurely drive to an asian supermarket and ask the person behind the counter to help you find the correct ingredients.  Once you have stocked up on these ingredients you will be able to make the Master Stock Chicken more than once.  

And.  Once you have made the stock you can freeze it, thaw it, reheat it, add more ingredients and cook another chicken in it.  Apparently a good stock can be kept for years and years and they just keep getting better with age….  like a red wine.

Ingredients

1.6kc cornfed chicken  ( I buy a Mount Barker Free Range Corn Fed Chicken – it is delicious)

1 1/2 L water

1 cup light soy sauce

1 cup shaoxing wine

150g yellow rock sugar

2 pieces dried mandarin

2 sticks cinnamon

4 star anise

1 large nob of ginger, sliced and peeled

3 cloves garlic

Method

Place all the ingredients, except the chicken into a large saucepan.  Put the lid on, turn up the heat and bring the broth to boiling point.  Once it is boiling add the whole chicken, breast side down and simmer for about twenty minutes.  Turn the chicken over and cook it for about ten minutes on the other side.  I cook it with the lid on the whole time.

Remove the chicken from the stock, cut it into pieces and serve with rice.  Ladel some of the stock over th top and eat.  This meal is great when served with bok choy.

Please give it a go, let me know what you think…..

And don’t forget to freeze the stock, take it out next week and use it again.

Enjoy!

Mia

xxx

Pizza is such a great quick dinner. And can be so healthy. And easily made gluten free.

For this pizza I used two pre-made bases (well not me, Mr Steel, I’d better not take credit). When cooking most meals I try to use as many vegies as possible and make the dinner as colourful as possible because I just like pretty things.

When making pizzas, it is great to experiment as much as you like……

These pizzas were made with a tomato paste base. Smudge a thin layer of tomato paste onto each base. Then pile on the chopped vegies. We added onion, ham, sweet potato, sliced mushrooms, grape tomatoes, pesto sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese.

Other great ingredients for pizza are capers, goat’s cheese, pumpkin that has been chopped into small cubes and roasted a little in the oven, rocket, fresh mint, yellow, red or green capsicum, sweet corn….. Experiment with different flavours and top with cheese….

Enjoy!
Mia
xxx

At the moment the weather in Perth is wishy-washy. It can’t decide what it is doing. This has been great for me. One night I am making a fresh summery meal and the next, when winter peaks through like today, a hearty wintery meal. The best of both worlds.

I haven’t liked soup for long – a few years at most. But when I fell, I fell hard. Now I look forward to winter food mainly because of soup. There is nothing better for me to leave for work with a container of soup from the night before. And this is my favourite soup. I adore pumpkin, its sweet flavour, texture and versatility. This recipe calls for imagination. Pumpkin is friend to so many flavours like ginger, tomato, orange, paprika, coriander, bacon….

I used to stay away from cooking pumpkin, even though I loved it, because I found it too hard to peel and cut. Then Em (who’s a hand therapist) told me to place the pumpkin on high in the microwave for five minutes. This softens it and makes it easy to cut the skin off with a knife and chop it into chunks.

Pumpkin & Bacon Soup

Ingredients

1 medium-sized butternut pumpkin

2 or 3 potatoes

1 brown onion

3 cloves garlic

5 rashers of bacon

1 teaspoon of all-spice

Coriander to garnish

Method

First, place the pumpkin in the microwave and cook on high for five minutes to soften. Cut the skin off and cut it into small chunks. Peel and cut the potatoes into small chunks also. Chop the onion, garlic finely. Brown the onions in a large saucepan with olive oil. Add the garlic. Chop the bacon into small pieces and add them to the mix stirring in the all-spice and adding a little pepper and salt. You can also add a bay leaf or two, if you like.

Add the water to the mix, then the potato and pumpkin chunks. Give it a little stir then place the lid on the pot and put it on medium heat to simmer for about 40 minutes or until the pumpkin and potatoes are really soft.

To serve the soup, place small amounts into the blender. Be very careful with hot soup. Place a tea towel over the blender jug, then the lid. This lets the steam escape little by little. Then pour the soup into bowls and place some fresh coriander on top as a garnish.

What will the weather be like tomorrow? And what will we cook? Those baby beetroot need to be cooked soon and we have a load of bok choy and choy sum. I find they only stay really fresh and gorgeous for a few days. There is a bag of carrots, tomatoes, baby spinach, fetta cheese and broccoli. So much choice. Thanks for the ideas and Kate, I will be trying yours very soon…

Mia

xoxo

PS Happy Easter Sunday – hope yours is filled with family and chocolate!