It's beginning to look a lot like (a budget-friendly, sharehouse) Christmas...

I'd like to say, 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas' in an appropriately sing-songy tune (when else can one be so cheesy as at this festive time of year?), but as the shopping centres have been all over Christmas since October that would be a lie. Instead - and for your benefit I'll just write it rather than sing it - it's looking rather like Christmas in my living room.

This will be my third sharehouse Christmas. The kind of Christmas where no one is actually at the house, because they've all gone home to families, so a tree is probably an unnecessary cost. I took this attitude for my first Christmas out of home - rather than going to the trouble of a tree I set up a Christmas staircase. I still do this for novelty value, just a little more pared back now that I have a tree as well. You can wind tinsel or lights or something similar - I have used a wrapped and beaded wire - around the bannister and then hang decorations from that. The little wiry twists that come with garbage bags can be used to affix decorations directly to the staircase - just put one of the wiry pieces through the loop on the decoration.

As I said, I have a little tree now, just a plastic one bought from a homewares store a couple of years ago. It seemed a tad ridiculous to buy one of the 8ft trees when there would be no one opening presents underneath it. I suspect trees of that stature have to be earned, you would need to prove to the sales person that you had enough people coming to your Christmas to justify that amount of tree. I have to admit that I miss the smell of the pine, but am forever scarred by an image from my childhood of a grand and beautiful green tree taken down in the New Year and left by the house to wither to a sad brown. It turns out there is a service for people like me (besides therapy) - a great business in Melbourne called Eco Christmas Trees that rents out living, potted trees to those that want the best of both worlds - a lovely scented tree that doesn't die AND can be delivered to your door. It's up to you whether you keep the tree or return it after Christmas, and if you're the sentimental type you can even have the same tree back year after year.

Once you have the tree sorted, you'll be wanting to light it up all pretty. If you're feeling green, LED lights are apparently the most friendly and least energy-sucking. They aren't the most attractive Christmas light, but you could make it fun, like this rather handy, design savvy person did. For those still stuck in an 80s/90s glitter nightmare, tinsel goes on next, as chunky and lurid as you can possibly make it. Decorations next. If you like the luxe look for your tree but have a sharehouse budget, buy brightly coloured wired ribbon and tie the ribbon into bows and affix them to the tree. If you like to update the look of your tree each year, but don't want to waste last year's decorations, you can change the colour of the ribbon. This year I've used red ribbon with gold edging.


The Christmas warehouses can be a good source of inexpensive decorations, although I would suggest limiting your time in those places as they tend to divide people into die-hard elves and Scrooges. Alternatively, if you're feeling organised and perky, pack your best armour and pushiest friend and hit the post-Christmas sales at a department store like Myer in preparation for the year to come.

More Christmas posts to come.

2010: the year of living recklessly

After careful consideration, I have decided that 2010 will be the year of living recklessly (obviously the careful consideration and reckless bits are somewhat at odds, so reckless behaviour will commence after that last careful consideration).

I've taken the first step. My contract at work has just expired, and they kindly offered to make me a permanent member of staff. My stomach sank, my marrow screamed 'no'and two weeks later I said no - somewhat less emphatically than my marrow had. Significantly less emphatically, actually, as they weren't quite convinced that I had resigned. It took two tries and that letter to leave.

I don't ordinarily follow/pay attention to/place significant weight in the words of horoscopes, except, of course, when they match up with what I want. But a colleague, upon hearing that I was departing, emailed me a rather detailed description of which moon is moving through which sign, who is orbiting who and so forth (all sounds a bit rude really), the short of which is that apparently this is a time when we can expect radical change. Rather accurate really. And not just for me, either. The fortune of Mr Anti Choice himself, Tony Abbott, for example, has vastly changed. Those ears were just meant for politics and newspaper caricatures.

So, universe, I have opened up a giant and expensive chasm in my life. Now if you could please oblige by sending something radical my way, I'd be most appreciative.

Since it's not quite 2010, the recklessness is quite tame at this stage. This weekend's act of recklessness is to pulp three perfectly lovely mangoes and risk spoiling them for the potentially happy outcome that is sorbet. The other potential outcome, of course, is sad and ruined mangoes that would have been wonderful just as they were until I got all reckless on their loveliness. On reflection, this could be a terrible allegory for what I have just done to my employment prospects: pulped.

If you would like to pulp things I would recommend starting with mangoes before chucking in your job.

This is pretty much a Tessa Kiros recipe, from Apples for Jam (I've just used a little less sugar).

What you'll need...

2-3 ripe mangoes
1/3 cup caster sugar
juice of 2 limes
grated rind of 1 lime

The how to...

1. Peel the mangoes and chop the flesh into small chunks.
2. Tip the mango into a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, then stir and cover. Leave overnight - this draws out the mango juice.
3. The next day, blend until smooth. Sieve the mixture if it is stringy. You can add sugar a little at a time if you like, for more sweetness.
4. Top up with water to make about 2 cups of mixture and then pour into a container with a lid. Stick it in the freezer. After an hour, pull it out and give it a whisk then put it back in the freezer for a couple more hours, before pulling it out to whisk again. When it is nearly firm, pull it out for one last whisk then leave it in the freezer to set. If you have an ice cream maker you can circumvent the in/out/whisk thing.

Will post a picture tomorrow if it turns out pretty. This is supposed to serve 4-6 people, but I'm inclined to thinking that on a hot day it is enough to make one person very happy.

Dear Kate Moss,

Regarding your recent comment that 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels' (Women's Wear Daily, Fri 13 Nov), whilst I appreciate that you have founded your career on being a controversial angular waif, I would like to suggest - ever so politely - that you are wrong.

I think that the pro-anorexia critics have covered this sufficiently from a health perspective in the last few days, so I don't plan on rehashing that part of the debate.

From someone who knows, I would like to offer a list of just a few things that taste better than skinny feels.

1. Green & Black's Organic Chocolate

Their milk chocolate is to die for. With a higher cocoa content than your average chocolate, it is the perfect compromise between milk and dark chocolate. Every good supermarket will stock it.

How to eat: share it whilst chatting on the couch with your girlfriends.

2. Anything from Sparkle Cupcakery

The fittingly festive iced pumpkin cupcake is amazing. I'm going back to try the lavendar and honey, and lychee and rose. Don't even try to stop me.

How to eat: when a lovely man picks one up for you and brings it home in the late afternoon in the gorgeous thick paper bag as a surpise , risk spoiling your appetite before dinner and share it. Then eat dinner.

3. The freshly made eggplant, onion and roasted almond ravioli from The Pasta Gallery

You can buy it on Saturdays from the Eveleigh Market, or pick it up from their kitchen, or wait for delivery day.

How to eat: have dinner with the man who surprised you with a cupcake. I cooked it up and served it with a butter, lemon juice and sage sauce, tossed with finely sliced zucchini and fresh spinach and rocket.

4. Breakfast at Cafe Giulia on Sunday morning

Eggs scrambled with haloumi, mint and tomato and served with kefte, or smoked salmon rosettes with hash browns, perfectly poached eggs, spinach, lemon, and some kind of delicious mayonnaise type condiment - these are just two of many offerings.

How to eat: a knife and fork will generally see you through. Nab one of the bigger tables in the courtyard and fill it up with your nearest and dearest. Don't forget the coffee.

5. Lemon Calippo

Icy, lemony confectionary goodness. 99% fat free - Kate, I promise that the odd one of these won't have you out of your skinny jeans anytime soon.

How to eat: wait for a hot day then embrace your inner five year old - run off the beach, skip up to the nearest corner store, tear off the foil, slurp away and definitely don't share this one.

So perhaps enjoying food means I won't be starring in a Yves Saint Laurent mini-movie (and yes, Kate, congratulations are due, you do look unrealistically and unattainably beautiful) but it certainly tastes better than skinny feels.

With kind regards,

A happy girl at a healthy weight

P.S. I've included a gorgeous vintage advertisement titled 'If you want to be popular, you can't afford to be skinny'. Just something you might want to think about...

Consumerist kitten

Consumerist kitten does battle with the Visa. Rather exemplifies my love-hate relationship with my credit card. Love at shopping time, and hate at bills time. Kitten moves through the motions a little faster - in all of 11 seconds, actually.

I suspect she was shopping online, looking to import a mail order man(cat) - one of those sexy sleek Siamese, or perhaps one of the more rugged Russian Blues. The neighbourhood cats don't quite cut it. I expect a designer diamond studded flea collar or three and a year-long supply of Tetsuya's tuna sashimi will arrive in the next week or so also.

Stabbing it out in the kitchen with Jack and Jill

For the first time in my vaguely grown up life, I am celebrating All Hallows' E'en.

As a kid we did the trick-or-treat thing - under the watchful gaze of my parents, in a clearly defined perimeter, and with strict instructions not to perform any tricks if treats weren't delivered. It was all about who could bring home the biggest teeth-rotting haul, and who could consume said haul fastest without spewing up a technicolour dream.

This year, I am celebrating with jack 0'lanterns that I have carved myself. That's right, my idea of vaguely grown up Halloween is being allowed to use sharp implements for fun. Despite the howls of the anti-America brigade, Halloween is taking off in Australia (a note for said haters: it started out as a Celtic pagan celebration, a kind of festival of the dead, not an American Hallmark card). The practically hollow 'gourd' pumpkins were stocked by Harris Farm this month, and decorations and costumes are easier to source than ever. So maybe Halloween isn't strictly an Australian holiday - but why be patriotic when there are ghouls to be scared off, cult horror to be absorbed, pumpkins to be carved and a sugar free-for-all on offer?

Should you wish to partake in the Halloween spirit, pumpkin disembowelling is a particularly festive option. And easier than you ever thought, too. The pumpkins are mostly hollow, very unlike the Australian varieties. Arm yourself with the best knife that your kitchen has (a challenge in a sharehouse, I will admit) and follow the instructions of a person who has done this many more times than I have. I would encourage you to scoop out the seeds and stringy membranes with your hands rather than a spoon, as this is much more fun. Don't forget to keep the seeds. They are damn tasty after some toasting - see my recipe below. Also, if this is your first go at carving, designs with straight lines are much easier to work with than curves.

Off with his head!

Mmmmmm, brains....

Toasted pumpkin seeds!

You will need...

Pumpkins (the Halloween kind)
Olive oil
Salt

The how-to...

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees, and put a saucepan of well-salted water on to boil.
2. Take the seeds that you have scooped out of your pumpkin and separate them from the stringy stuff, then give the seeds a good rinse.
3. Tip the seeds into the boiling, salted, water, and turn the heat down until the water is at a simmer. Leave it at a simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Empty the contents of the saucepan into a colander, and shake all of the excess water off the pumpkin seeds. Spread them out on a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil.
5. Pop the tray into the hot oven and keep an eye on them. They should start to brown within 10 - 20 minutes, pull them out a couple of times in this period to give the tray a shake, and then for the last time when they are toasted to your satisfaction.
6. Let them cool properly and then taste for seasoning. You can add a little more salt at this point, and serve.

Cat in my hat

Come springtime, fashion - and all those who worship at its altar - turn to hats. Hats are the make or break factor in any races outfit, and it seems they are also the latest in bed wear. At least, according to Miss Molly, who won't be seen lounging on my bed without this stiff cream net number.

Simplicity is all the rage this year, says this fashion forecast, and Miss Molly has customised last year's hat appropriately. Gone are the fussy pink and black spotted feathers of last season. They were ripped out of the hatband and devoured like the inanimate-reminiscent-of-bird-prey/fashion faux pax that they were. Feathers are to be replaced by brooches or gemstones, apparently. This might explain the accruing collection of dead cockroaches in the house that kitten inspects frequently, turning them over with her paw before rejecting them for small flaws like scratches and crushed shells. If you were to look closely, they have a certain shine and brooch-like shape to them. If nothing else, the legs would probably adhere quite well to the stiff net of the hat like cicada shells on a tree. A little has been done to making the hat smaller and more structured than it was, in the way of some artful claw-work. There is definitely less hat than there used to be. Kitten hasn't quite gotten to re-colouring the hat yet, but luckily for her cream has been tipped as an elegant option this year.

It may not be her finest piece yet, but at least she will trump Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat, with his Where's Wally colour theme and penchant for the ridiculous. Not that I'm one of those pushy and competitive (kitten) stage-mothers, but between you and me, I imagine the Cat would probably grin less if he knew exactly how outdated his oversized and multicoloured headpiece would be amongst the pillboxes and bejewelled headbands at this years Fashion on the Field contest.

Do the noodle dance

Not exactly sure what the noodle dance would look like (perhaps a sperm-like wriggling, coupled with jumping?), but a number of people (myself included) did a spontaneous jig when getting close enough to the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Park to smell the noodly-goodness.

The Night Noodle Markets are an institution at the Sydney International Food Festival (previously known as Good Food Month). Of all that is on offer, this is one of the most affordable and accessible ways to take part in the food festivities. For two weeks in October, Hyde Park is transformed into a series of upmarket hawker stalls. Free entertainment abounds, elegantly costumed women dance on a central stage set amidst lanterns and light shows and parades of Chinese drums and Lion dancers snake expertly through the tightly packed tables, chairs and crowds.

We arrived at 7.30pm to find the park heaving with people. Queues looked revoltingly long, but once we made up our minds about which stall to eat from (East Ocean Restaurant for yum cha style food) it was an easy 5 - 10 minutes to the front of the line. We ordered one of the many meal deals on offer - salt and pepper squid with a 10 piece dim sum for $25 - and it was handed over steaming hot and fragrant within seconds. Despite the crowds, we quickly scored a table and chairs for 9 people, and this seemed to be the case for most.

The offering from East Ocean was good value, comfortably feeding two hungry people. The dim sum included a selection of the the less expensive items - deep fried spring rolls and pork buns - as well as a couple of nicer pieces like steamed prawn dumplings. It is possible to purchase the dim sum items individually for $2 each if you only want your favourites. The salt and pepper squid was the winner though; the batter was light and crisp, the balance of salt and pepper was just right and the squid was tender, with no stringiness to speak of.

Healthier options are also available at the markets if you are so inclined, my flatmate ordered a gently spiced, lemon-laced, seafood and salad plate from Seafood and Eat It. If Asian cuisine is not for you, there is a token gozleme stand amongst the hawker food. Toby's Estate and the delightful Serendipity ice cream also have stalls, and there are a couple of bars - including a Coopers beer garden - onsite too. The only critique would be that although the festival had advertised that they were taking a green approach this year some vendors were still serving food in plastic containers, rather than using the recyclable plates.

The loveliest aspect of the festival, and this alone is worth going along for, is being able to experience a beautiful part of Sydney made into a functional and vibrant social space for people to come together - and on a weeknight, no less. My only regret is not leaving space for noodles.

The 2009 Night Noodle Markets are on Oct 12-16 and 19-23 from 5.00pm-9.30pm in Hyde Park. Head to the official site for more information about what is happening during the Sydney International Food Festival.