Tuesday, May 31, 2011

This could be a YamDaisy meal!

Pan Fried Fish Fillets with Rockety Salad and Oven Chips

My daughter is staying with me for a short while and has cooked some great meals. When she made this one she said "I think this would be a good meal for your YamDaisy Cafe". And I had to agree.

I am really sorry to say I can't remember what fish it is. I asked the woman at the fish shop and she suggested a few varieties, and I chose the palest. (Yes I am a fish wimp). Rose coated them with a dusting of seasoned flour, a dip in some egg, and then coated with crushed Savoy crackers and corn chips (making do with what was in the pantry).
Oooh they were delicious! Just perfect!

The salad went well with it, based around rocket but with lettuce leaves from the garden, red onion, cucumber and tomato. The lemony dressing was perfect.

And then she finished off with oven cooked chips, but mentioned that potato wedges might be a healthier version and a good alternative for the YamDaisy Cafe. Good point.

And this was our delicious plateful. How I would love to have a meal like this available to all the people who need a homecooked meal tonight, but just can't manage to make one for themselves.

Thanks Rose!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Songs of Freedom

I have been looking forward to this documentary, and it was wonderful to see it on TV (SBS) last night!
Check out the trailer HERE to see why, and I hope you might get the chance to see this sometime!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Cutest

Let's see if I can embed this video:




Yay I did it!
I am so reminded of my sleeping with my own baby in my arms!

Monday, May 23, 2011

World Turtle Day

This beautiful design comes from a cloth I bought from the women's textile group at Borroloola when I was teaching there.
Borroloola is in the subtropics of Australia in the Gulf of Carpentaria.  These long necked tortoises lived in the lagoons and hibernated in the mud.
But my favourite turtle experience when I was up there was seeing two huge green sea turtles mating (!) in the sea as our boat passed by them.

(I am using turtle and tortoise interchangeable as they mean generally the same thing used differently around the world).

Turtles took on a real importance to me a decade later when I used them symbolically.
I had left work because of my bad health... but I wanted to do something!  I decided to start a community development project for people with CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME/CFIDS) in my area.

But I knew I had to manage it carefully for the sake of my own health and for everyone who got involved.
I thought of 'Slow and Steady' wins the race and decided to call it the Tortoise project. That name would be a continual reminder for me to take it slowly and never to take on more than I could do.

What a difference to most of my community development work! It usually consisted of crisis after crisis and deadlines rushing at me headlong!

I thought I would be very slow and getting things done, and I was philosophical that going very slowly was better than not going at all.

But what I discovered was something quite different!

Tortoise behaviour: going step by careful step, actually resulted with things happening at a very good pace. With no crisis, no rushing to get things done before deadlines, less shortcuts and decisions made on the run, the project developed wonderfully!
Every decision was the best decision that could be made. Holding back and taking time to consider meant we moved forward in the most efficient, productive way!

Noting the same kind of philosophy by the Slow Food Movement I dubbed this style Slow Community Development. I champion it every chance I have! (Like this one!).

Thankyou turtles!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Life is a Steam Train!

But a slow day of sunshine is calling me!
We have had a couple of weeks of such wintery weather, but we are back to lovely Autumn today. That is my front door with the draught stopper rabbit my niece made holding it open, and warm sunshine puring in!

My life isn't always a steam train! But the last couple of weeks have felt just like one! Puffing and chuffing with whistles and steam billowing out! And saying to myself "I think I can, I think I can!"

Even getting used to winter clothing has ramped things up! All those extra layers feel cumbersome at first! And it is hard to get the warmth levels quite right!

Also, I still haven't got the last graphics for my YamDaisy Cafe folio quite sorted! And I am focusing my mind on the next step, it is not quite clear yet.

My daughter might be here for a week ~ such a treat! But I have to get the spare room sorted! Chuff chuff chuff!

The big new thing has been the possibility of working with a local organisation with their strategic planning. This one is in the process of incremental small steps just to see if we can work together. But I have been sorting and polishing my community development skills and preparing for a presentation. I am really excited about this, because if there is one thing to learn when living with chronic illness it is strategic planning!
I would so love to be able to contribute to my community in this way! Wish me luck please!

In the meantime blogging and cooking have fallen down to the bottom of my basket! Eep! Time to pull them out and sit them in their proper places! Yesterday I made a big pot of minestrone and today I am planning an eggplant curry and a cauliflower one! If I have got things right you just might see them in a blog post very soon!

Cheers everyone,
I am off for a walk in the sunshine!

Friday, May 6, 2011

YamDaisy and Fair Trade

It is Fair Trade fortnight in Australia.

Fair Trade is about making sure that our business exchange with third world countries is not based on taking cruel advantage of the difference in power and wealth of the countries. You can read more about it HERE.

This is something YamDaisy can really help with! While the main focus for YanDaisy Cafes is on local produce, there will be items we need to source from Fair Trade companies and we can proudly do so. As YamDaisy Cafes become a bigger organisation, these decisions will have greater power and do more good in the countries where they are based.