nettsu's photostream  

because playing with black paint seemed like such a good idea at the time...

and it's another in my homage series to pixel noir -> www.flickr.com/photos/pixelnoir/ and considering how much getting paint in my eye hurt - it might be the last ;)

Ingredients:
3 x 15ml tablespoons olive oil
8 anchovy fillets drained & finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled & finely sliced, crushed or grated
1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes or 1-2 tablespoons picked red jalapeno peppers (drained, sliced and diced), or to taste
500g spaghetti
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
150g (drained weight) pitted black olives chopped a bit (guess I forgot to do this!)
2 x 15ml tablespoons small capers, well rinsed & drained
2-3 x 15ml tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, to serve (optional)
salt & pepper to taste.

Method:
- Put water for pasta on to boil, though you don't need to get started on the sauce until it is pretty well boiling.
- Pour the oil into a wide, shallowish frying pan, casserole or wok, and put on a medium heat.
- Add the finely chopped anchovies and cook for 3 minutes, pressing and pushing with a wooden spoon, until the anchovies have almost "melted", then add the garlic and chilli flakes and cook stirring for another minute.
- This is probably the stage at which you will want to be salting the boiling water and adding the spaghetti to cook according to packet instructions.
- Going back to the sauce, add the tomatoes, olives and capers and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring every now & again, by which time it will have thickened slightly. Taste for seasoning.
- Just before the pasta ready, remove about an espresso cupful of cooking water, and reserve it. When the pasta is cooked as desired, drain and add the spaghetti to the sauce, adding a little pasta water (if needed). Scatter with chopped parsley, if there's some at hand. and serve in a slatternly style, preferably with an untipped cigarette clamped between crimson painted lips (this made me laugh!).

Source - Nigella Lawson's Kitchen

A friend took a candid photo of me and the girls when we were at brunch this morning - I've stolen it off his facebook ;)

So I had this brilliant idea that involved black paint and black fingernails... that brilliant idea completely failed (I was going to do a homage to Gabriel (Pixel Noir) www.flickr.com/photos/pixelnoir/ ) but yeah.. um.. really didn't work... although I did learn that cheap nail polish is cheap and a bit hard to remove... (there was also black paint involved but that also didn't work but that washes off pretty easily!)

it's a crappy photo I know but it's here for blogging purposes =P

Ingredients
3 to 4 cups vegetable oil for frying
1 cup (8 ounces) beer
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 firm-ripe avocados, quartered, pitted & peeled

Method
Heat the oil in a 4-quart pot or a wok until a deep-fat thermometer registers 360F.
Put the beer in a wide bowl and stir in the salt. Put the flour in another wide bowl.
Cut each quarter of avocado into 3 long wedges and dunk the wedges first into the beer, then turn them gently in the flour to coat.
Transfer about 6 avocado slices at a time to the oil and fry until a light golden crust forms, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain. Fry more avocado slices in the same manner until all slices have been fried.
Make tacos with 3 slices of avocado & the accompaniments.

Accompaniments
Warm flour or corn tortillas, lime-chipotle mayonaise (www.flickr.com/photos/nettsu/6633008121/in/photostream), chopped coriander (cilantro)

Source:
Shelley Wiseman's Just Tacos