bluemoon downunder

about me

I have been a Zaar addict for just over a year now and how quickly that year has past, yet how incredibly action-packed it has been! My Zaar-connection is something I now seriously cannot imagine being without. During the past year, I’ve taken part in so many fun swaps and activities, I’m a regular in a couple of Zaar games, I’ve met and befriended so many wonderful people, and discovered – and I’m forever discovering – so many fabulous new recipes.

For a while, during the 2005 Strawberry Swap I wondered if I’d ever be able to face another strawberry – but I have! The sheer deliciousness of strawberries – and other berries – ensured that! On the 2005 Zaar World Tour, I discovered an amazing array of wonderful recipes from countries whose cuisines I had never previously explored, I discovered some wonderful new Zaar chefs and their great recipes during the Pick a Chef 2005, and I made a serious effort to restore some health consciousness to my eating during the 2005 Healthy for the Holidays Challenge, which has left me forever conscious of the fat content in the recipes I make, for which I am most grateful.

In 2005, I participated in a magazine swap and a postcard swap – and still have some postcards written out but not yet sent! How embarrassing! Then I participated in the 2005 Christmas Stocking Swap and the 2005 Christmas Ornament Swap and was initiated into the unexpected, unanticipated joys of receiving some wonderful Christmas presents in mid January and mid March!!!!

When I joined Zaar, I decided to call myself ‘bluemoon downunder’. First, I really did see myself as something of a bluemoon cook: ever-busy, overloaded with commitments to work and my passions (I have always refused to use the word “hobbies”) and often cooking on the run as it were… At that stage, with no idea whatsoever of just how addictive I was going to find Zaar to be and, of course, with no idea of just how much cooking I was going to be doing and on such a regular basis, it seemed like an appropriate name.

Now I am wondering if maybe I should change my Zaar name…If the trend for others to call me “Blue” (which for some reason makes me cringe every time I read it) continues, I shall have to find a new – much shorter – name. Phoebe, perhaps…. For the moment, however, I am settling for accepting that my Zaar name is now ironic! I’ve long believed that the universe has a sense of humour - and my Zaar name is yet another example of this.

So all that is about me NOW.

To sum up the past half century: I was born in Adelaide, South Australia and have lived in Adelaide, South Australia; Armidale in northern New South Wales, Australia; in Oxford, England and finally in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Over the years, my passions have shifted from – or rather have made some room to embrace new passions; I’m not so good at giving up anything I’ve been passionate about at some stage, except ex-husbands – literature and the scriptures of many religions, to theatre to metaphysics.

My involvement in theatre was intense. For many years I ran theatre workshops, directed plays (sometimes two at a time), many plays from Sophocles to medieval plays to Shakespeare to modern Australian plays and I wrote theatre reviews – all with the commitment of a chain-smoker. Many of these plays were taken to festivals, including one that was taken to a festival on Norfolk Island. During this time, I was also involved in teaching Drama classes to teenagers and adults, and in producing performances, which showcased their achievements.

I could easily have continued in the theatre scene, but there were other passions that I wanted to explore: namely the whole Spiritual/Metaphysical/Alternative healing field. I continue my involvement there, but I have also been trying to make a stronger commitment to writing, something which I have been drawn to for as long as I can remember.

The ex-husbands – two of them – impacted on my cooking habits. The first was Israeli. When I was with him – in my twenties – I happily took it upon myself to learn to cook all sorts of Jewish and Middle Eastern dishes, at a time when – the seventies – most of these dishes were unknown in supermarkets and delicatessens. Only a handful of restaurants made these dishes at the time. I refused to cook basic things, but happily cooked these more exotic dishes.

My second ex-husband was English. What can I say? My confidence in my cooking took a major nose-dive during the twenty years I was with him, from which I have now, I am pleased to say, fully recovered. Whatever I cooked, he had suggestions about what was missing. “It was quite good, but….” He was an excellent cook. His spaghetti bolognaise and moussaka were the best I have eaten anywhere, but…. Constant criticism certainly inhibits creativity, and for quite some years I wasn’t even a bluemoon cook: in fact, I rarely cooked anything at all.

Now, I enjoy cooking for myself and for my friends, and I also do a lot of bulk-cooking that can be divided into separate meal portions for my parents who are in their eighties – dishes that are easily re-heated in the microwave.

In recent years, I have found a new enjoyment in cooking. I am, in effect, in the midst of a personal Renaissance, so Zaar is certainly the right place for me to be.

Like many others, I own far too many cookbooks. I have no idea how many. The one I don’t own and am looking at in a shop or catalogue always seems like the best cookbook I have ever seen, the one I MUST have, until I buy it and get it home. Then it metamorphoses into something quite ordinary: a quite good cookbook with a few good recipes. With the breadth of the recipe collection on Zaar, my addiction to buying another, then another, then another cookbook just may be over. I’m hoping so….

Postscript: April 2006 – I have probably bought less cookbooks since finding Zaar, but I am buying more cooking magazines than ever before, looking for good recipes to post on Zaar!

Favorite Foods:

I love recipes which include spinach, mushrooms or red capsicum. I love garlic and undoubtedly include more in my recipes than suits some palates. I don't like spicy foods and have memories of sitting for what seemed like ages in Indian restaurants in London, sipping grapefruit juice and eating the only non-hot thing on the menu: their prawn cocktail.

I love eating in Chinese restaurants, especially at New Year. Just love the lion dancers. And I love Middle Eastern, Italian and Greek restaurants.

In Melbourne, my favourite Middle Eastern restaurant is Dunyazad.

Participation & Awards:





Other Zaar Chef's Cookbooks - for easy reference:

Substitutions

- CaramelPie

Healthy Recipes I Want to Try Soon

- CaramelPie

Kittencal’s Appetisers

Rita L’s One Potato, Sweet,Baby, Mashed, Stuffed, Cake, Skins, Roasted, Fried

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