Biodiesel - The Way of the Future?

My friend Mick, has cottoned on to a source of bio fuel for his diesel landcruiser...olive oil! Now that makes me think..what is biodiesel, and how can we use it? Biodiesel is a form of fuel created from plant or animal oils, as opposed to regular diesel, which is refined from mineral oil. There are many sources of plant or animal based biodiesel, from vegetable oils such as soybean oil, or from waste vegetable oil (fish and chip shop waste oil). Animal fat sources are typically from fish oil, this has been used as a biodiesel in Canada. Biodiesel is one kind of biofuel, other kinds of biofuels include plant derived ethanol. One commercial example of biofuel is the E10 fuel that is widely available here in Australia. There are claims that using biodiesel can reduce emissions at the engine exhaust, my reading on this suggests these claims should be read with caution. It does appear that the fuel can have some benefit for modern diesel engine protection, provided fuel systems are cleaned regularly (the injectors and filters). As mineral oil is a finite resource, the world does need to look for alternative fuels. Also mineral oil production is controlled by a handful of countries, meaning if non producing countries can reduce their dependence on the producers, they can become more self sufficient. In my book, that has to be a good thing.

Winery Website on the Wane

It appears popular wine sales website, Winery Lane, is on the fritz. Their website is down, and their facebook page also cancelled. Calls to the telephone number are directed to their email address, which is also not replying. Winery Lane has been operating for around 12 months and specialised in internet based wine deals.

Dan and Andy's Tasty Fritatta

I whipped this up the other night, with new friend Dan. A fritatta is basically an Italian omelette, that is cooked in pan. 5 large eggs, room temp 2-3 tbsp milk pinch salt/pepper whisk together and set aside 1 medium red onion, sliced finely 2 cloves of garlic, crushed finely 2 or 3 roma tomatoes, diced 1 small or 1/2 large sweet potato, peeled, diced and microwaved for 2-3minutes until soft. sea salt extra virgin olive oil cracked black pepper 1/2 tsp dried italian herbs Method fry onion, and garlic in 3tbsp olive oil, until soft. Add your diced tomato, and sea salt, and continue to cook for 5-10 minutes over a low heat, until the tomato softens, and blends with the onion and garlic. The olive oil will carry the flavours beautifully. Add sweet potato, cracked black pepper, italian herbs and the egg mix. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Cook on low heat for 2 minutes, then transfer under a hot grill and cook the top until the fritatta is golden and puffy. Voila.

End of Holden

Yesterday was a sad day for most Australians. The end of local manufacturing of an Aussie Icon. Sure policy has played a part, the workers (who can blame them for trying to ensure a decent pay for what is mindblowingly boring work), and the lack of support from us Australians in purchasing decisions. There are many reasons for Holden's demise, but what to do about it? I believe we need to stand up to these multinationals, and nationalise car manufacturing. Why not? We can't stand back and watch these companies run roughshod over us..BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Coca Cola, The Banks, McDonalds, now General Motors. We need to fight fire with fire, if they don't accept our terms and conditions for trading here (and I mean decent wages for a decent day's work), input from State and Federal governments, our taxation regime (including heaven forbid, a carbon pollution tax), then we don't need them! We should build our own truly Aussie car again, perhaps a small 4 cylinder diesel or hybrid, using taxpayer funds in partnership with local car part manufacturers. Get the best brains in the land to design and build it. Then we can export to the Yanks and see how they like it!

Christopher Pyne

Interestingly Christopher Pyne's former school, Saint Ignatius College Adelaide, offers a range of co-curricular activities not available to kids at other schools: Trips to Europe, Gallipoli and Bathurst Island, Rowing, and Christmas Ginger Bread Housemaking! I wonder how much federal money goes into schools like this, and why Mr Pyne wants to be snobby with the money..

Wait there's more

Hot on the Heels of the Randall Investment Property in Cairns trip (RIP Cairns), check this out. After a trip to Indonesia and China, Senator Richard Colbeck has claimed $13,744 for overseas study in Honkers from 7-9 September 2012, for the Senator and his wife. That's expensive yum cha...

Pasta with seasonal vegetables

I'm down in Hay (southern NSW) at the moment, working on a cotton farm*. Suffice to say, it is hot, dry and dusty, and it is only spring.. This was a midweek meal I conjured up for my Fijian Flatmate, Swannie. 1 bottle of tomato passata (Italian brand, from the local IGA choose a good quality brand with herbs and a little garlic and onion blended in the sauce) 3 or 4 good quality fresh tomatoes, skin removed, deseeded and roughly chopped handful of button mushrooms, cleaned and halved 1 medium zucchini 2 tbsp olive oil, or in this case I just used canola oil parmesan sea salt all you do is toss the mushrooms in the oil in a medium saucepan for a couple of minutes, to brown them slightly add your tomato passata, skinned and deseeded chopped tomatoes season well with sea salt at this stage cook for 15-20minutes with a lid on, until the tomatoes have cooked and the sauce is fairly thick add your sliced zucchini and cook for 15minutes until the zucchini is done and the sauce has thickened. serve with wholemeal spaghetti, top with parmesan cheese and chopped parsley. swannie the fijian loved it.. *that's another story