Friday Five: Birthday weekend

It's not a 'big' or a 'significant' birthday, but I believe in celebrating them anyway. Any excuse for a good meal and/or a get-together with friends should not be missed. Him Outdoors and I are both exhausted after a very busy couple of weeks and moving house. More than half of our belongings are still in boxes, and we might have spent the weekend sorting things out, but that didn't appeal, so...

Five Things I did for my Birthday Weekend:

1. A blind gin-tasting. It turns out that my favourite gins are the most expensive ones. Who'd have guessed that?
2. Breakfast at Rocksalt, Hawker - smashed avocado, whipped feta, and poached egg on rye toast, since you ask
3. Celebrate the christening of the child of friends - it's on the same day as my birthday and sharing the love in the arms of tradition and community makes me happy
4. A bike ride, sussing out our new location, past vineyards, rolling hills and the river gorge - and not a single magpie swoop
5. Invited a bunch of friends round to our new house for home-made pizza and drinks on the patio: houses need cats, conversation, company and laughter to make them complete

Huevos Rancheros



One of life's pleasures is a lazy Sunday breakfast with cups of coffee and a peruse of the papers - that's one of the many bonuses of not having children. Often we go out for breakfast and the experience takes all morning. Otherwise we have it at home, on the patio in summer or by the fire in winter.

Eating at home narrows the options somewhat, however, as, much though I enjoy cooking, I can't be bothered to faff about in the kitchen first thing in the morning. So breakfast has to be a compromise of maximum effect for minimum effort and this version of Mexican ranch-style eggs sits perfectly on the menu:

4 x rashers bacon, finely chopped
1 x onion, pleeled and finely chopped
2 x Tbsp oil
1 x 400g can tomatoes (spiced or add your own)
2 x Tbsp finely chopped coriander or parsley
4 x eggs
tortillas or toast

Cook the bacon and onion in the oil in a frying pan over a moderately hot heat for 5-7 minutes until the bacon and onion are golden and very fragrant. Add tomatoes and coriander or parsley and simmer for 2 minutes.

Make four wells in the centre of the sauce and break an egg into each well. Cover and simmer for about four minutes until the eggs are cooked.

Serve an egg with a little sauce on top of a warm tortilla or slice of buttered toast.

You've got to be yolking!

This morning as I cracked my egg into the boiling water, I saw that there were two yolks inside the shell. I've never seen that before so I was mometarily diverted (yep, that's the kind of life I lead) until I looked it up on the interwebisation device and discovered that apparently one in a thousand eggs has a double yolk so it 'isn't all that rare' - well thanks for crushing my excitement.

So then I wondered whether this would produce chicken twins, but apparently not because there is not enough egg white to feed two yolks, so they/it wouldn't hatch at all. That makes me feel less guilty for eating it poached on toast with baked beans.

And then I wondered whether there is lore or legend surrounding the double-yolked egg and whether superstition decrees it is lucky or unlucky. As I said, it's a fine life... According to one site I looked at, "Throughout history and in different cultures, finding a double yolk has been considered to mean anything from an impending wedding to a financial windfall to a death in the family." Do I get to choose? If so, let's hope it's a financial windfall. I may let you know, or I may disappear to South America for a while!

Good things on the Kiwi box

I realise while I was ranting about the dismal advertising standards in this country, I may have seemed a little hard on New Zealand television. It's not all bad, and in fact there are some good things on the Kiwi box. Here are six of the best.

Outrageous Fortune: simply the best thing Kiwis have come up with in a long time – and, get this, they actually like it before someone overseas told them it was good! Great acting, Shakespearean plots, fantastic script-writing (Tim Balme take a bow) – I am glad this programme was made with the help of funding from New Zealand On Air. I would willingly pay taxes for this show.

Breakfast: worth watching for Paul Henry alone. Controversial and conservative; intelligent and outspoken – he’s what Michael Laws would love to be but never will. I wouldn’t like him but he’s a funny man who makes me laugh with his forthright opinions that he’s not afraid to voice.

He is the antipodean Jeremy Clarkson if you will. No one likes him – he doesn’t care. He has had a succession of interchangeable blonde co-presenters who attempted unsuccessfully to control him. The only one I can remember is Kay Gregory who gave him the ‘will you grow up?’ headshake he so richly deserves – the ensuing giggle proved not. I love a man who’s not afraid to giggle on live television.

7 Days: good but by its very nature it will outlive its potential very soon. The longevity of a panel programme based on Have I Got News For You? is clearly questionable when filmed in a country where the answer is no. It is, however, a great opportunity for Kiwi comedians (some of whom are startlingly good) to gain some TV exposure.

The Crowd Goes Wild: the daily half-hour programme delivers a round-up of the day's sport's news from around the world. It's slightly twisted and largely irreverent. Sure, they cover a lot of stuff that I don’t consider to be sport (X-games; beach volleyball) but it’s not just some Neanderthal banging on about rugby – I’m looking at you Murray Deaker. I particularly like Andrew Mulligan's intelligent and laconic delivery.

Off the Radar: This documentary series is now over but it was good while it lasted. Comedian Te Radar attempted to live off the land and be sustainable. Various episodes showed him rearing chickens, building a shed, planting potatoes, gutting a fish and simply trying to get by however he could.

He didn't claim to be an expert on anything and he didn't try too hard to be funny - he was naturally likeable and informative without getting all fanatical and born-again-earth-guru. He remined me of a younger Michael Palin with ginger hair and more of it.

The Cult: the jury is still out on this one. It's trying a bit too hard to be a mystical American drama and comparisons with the atrocious Lost aren’t helping as far as I’m concerned. Attempting to bring that fabled dark Kiwi edge to it is all well and good, but it runs the risk of being dull. The lighting has the too-bright, almost overexposed effect that works well for True Blood but makes this series a little monochrome. It features some good actors though – Danielle Cormack; Scott Wills; Renato Bartolomei; Kip Chapman - so I'll keep watching for now.