Beer butt chicken aka that time I sodomised a chicken

Using a beer can. Thought we better clarify that straight away.

We held a barbecue on Saturday and I made Cherry Ripe cup cakes AND a Jamie Oliver recipe called Beer Butt Chicken from Jamie Oliver’s latest cook book.

I thought this was all quite new and revolutionary, but turns out my Kiwi roomie has been doing it for ages. Another friend does it and claims the chicken tips over when it’s ready because the beer can is empty and can no longer hold it up. This I didn’t experience.

What I did experience was amazing feelings of shame and guilt and general repulsivness as I followed the recipes instructions.



Jamie instructed me to make a delicious flavoursum rub for the chicken, them use my hands to rub it into every nook and cranny inside and out. Oh Jamie, you saucy minx. You want me to put my hand up the chicken’s butt. Just say it buddy.

As I lift the chicken juice flows freely from its… well. It’s not pleasant. Neither is shoving my hand up it’s cold and… lets just stop this sentence here.




After you’ve let it sit for a moment, there comes the moment of truth. The moment you shove a half drunk can of beer up it’ butt. Jamie doesn’t mention yelling out phrases like “Take it, take it all!” but I felt that helped.






Then you just wack it on the barbie and 1.25 hours later, hey presto, deliciously beer flavoured chicken, steamed from the inside out. Yum-o.

70s goodness

When I first started this blog I did it because I get so inspired by all those amazing vintage fashion blogs. Such beautiful pictures! So many amazing outfits! Such awesome cats ( I’m looking at you Vintage Vixen)!

Sadly, I suck at taking photos and while I have awesome clothes thanks to years of op-shopping, when cameras and I combine, something happens. Batteries die, light flares occur, my eyes become slightly wonky and in an effort to look shorter but not get a double chin I both hunch and raise my head so every shot is a nostril shot. Awesome right? Also, I tend to lack the ease and glamour of those other bloggers. I cannot pose well, I cannot smile nicely, and I like to do the double thumbs up or pretend to be eating far away objects by opening my mouth real big in at least 70% of photos.

But I have decided to push aside my vanities and go for it anyway. I think you will get a real idea of my poise and class in these. They were taken at Splendor in The Grass this year.



Here I am before the festival pretending to play tennis at an old court with no ball. Needless to say, I won.



Scuse the makeup-less-ness, I was still having my first tea of the morning here.


This awesome dress is a great 70s find. I can’t quite remember where I got it, I think it was an op shop find? Correct me if I’m wrong Damsel Vintage and it was one of yours. It’s made of amazing polyester goodness and if I stand too close to an open flame I could spontaneously explode.



I got a huge amount of compliments, mainly from men, on this dress and I later realized in direct sunlight, it’s see through. Good times.

Horribly guilty pleasures

I have a confession to make. I like intensely bad shows. Like, really, really obscenely bad. So bad I have to covertly download them and watch them alone in my room in the wee hours of the morning.
Don’t get me wrong, I like good shows too. I have the complete Firefly, Buffy, Office (American and English), Black Books, Dead Like Me etc…
But I also own the complete OC. And at least three seasons of Smallville. And my current obsession is no less embarrassing. It’s Hellcats (move to the left, move to the right).



Pic courtesy wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aly_Michalka

The show stars Aly Michalka as Marti, who is a total babe but seems to play the same character in everything she’s been in, and Sharpay from High School Musical (another guilty pressure) or as she’s also known, Ashlee Simpson.


Again, thanks wiki! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Tisdale

And then there is a bunch of young hottie and babealicious babes. And the totally underrated Gail O’Grady as Ally’s character’s mum.

To give you an example of how cheesy, awesome, lame, unnecessary this show is, let me describe the events of one early episode.
Young hottie Marti, a law student turned cheerleader (but solely for the scholarship, cause she’s not into wearing skimpy clothes and cheering, despite her constantly exposing her midriff even off duty) goes to some fundraiser at the bar her Mum is running, then gets into an amazing street dancing spontaneous event BUT two guys that she came with are getting in a fight with some a-holes at the bar- a fight which also just happens to take place in time to the street dance music.

Amazingly, the two hot guys with Marti get put in prison for this fight, so Marti gets her hot shot law lecturer to say some fancy law terms and they’re released with nothing on their record! CAUSE THAT IS TOTALLY HOW THE LAW WORKS!

Throw in some of Sharpay being a good-girl Christian with a bit of praying (now with midriff!) a whole lot of cheerleading, an unnecessary musical number featuring the cast and a heated argument between a cheerleader and their Mum and you basically have every episode ever covered.

It is truly excellent.

Twisties are to my body like petrol is to my car

In the continued dieting in preparation for the wedding (ok, in preparation for life because I’m a little overweight) I recently went on a detox. It was called the Skinny Mini detox and while it didn’t promise weight loss officially it really insinuated it. I mean, it’s got skinny in the title.

It didn’t lie, I lost about 2 kilos on it. But I was also completely unsatisfied THE ENTIRE TIME. There was not one day during the five I was on it that I felt full. And this was a detox you still ate on, not the Lemon Detox Diet where you drink a crapload of maple syrup and lemon juice (lasted two day, spewed constantly. From both ends if you must know). On this detox you could have fruit and veg (limited amounts of pumpkin, sweet potato, potato of course) and some fish. Despite allegedly being able to eat, I was never ever full. I don’t care what you vegetarians say, you can eat five tones of lettuce and your stomach still be empty. It was about as satisfying as licking salad the entire time.




So after my detox, here’s how I celebrated. I went to Ribbits at Dutton Park. And it was awesome, despite the judging from waiters because I kept ordering more. Hey, it was all you could eat! And I had a week of salad to make up for.

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