Green Mango Chutney

We have a large Mango tree just outside the back door in the yard. this tree is frequented by large fruit bats this time of year and they eat the fruit or worse just chew on the mango's a little and drop them off the tree into the yard. Much to Hermione's consternation, and she often gets up and goes into the yard an 2am to bark at them and try to chase them away. Much to my consternation. Anyway this year we thought we would harvest them green, since they never make it to picking ripeness anyway, and make Green Mango Chutney. Green Mango Chutney is great as a condiment with a good Indian curry, just with popadoms or on a cold lamb and cheese sandwich. Mmmm I feel a cold beer and a hot curry coming on? Andrea made a batch, that recipe is below and then I had a crack with the next batch of diced mango see end of this post.

Andreas Green Mango chutney

Ingredients

4 tablespoons of Malt Vinegar

6 Cloves

6 Peppercorns

1 Tablespoon of Cumin Seeds

1/2 Table spoon of onion seeds (also named Nigella Seed or Klonji)

Salt to taste

175g Sugar

450g Green Mango (Peeled and cubed)

1 5x2cm piece of fresh ginger finely sliced

2 cloves of garlic

Peel from 1 orange (sliced thin)

Chuck it all in a pot, bring to the boil, simmer on low heat till all ingredients are soft. 2 hours?

Let cool, then spoon into sterilised jars and wait at least a week before trying (yeah right!)

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2.0, 1/30sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2.0, 1/15sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2.0, 1/40sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2.0, 1/13sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 @ ISO 800, 78mm f2.8, 1/25 sec

Waynes Green Mango Chutney

Ingredients

8 tablespoons of Malt Vinegar

6 Peppercorns

1 Tablespoon of Cumin Seeds

1 Table spoon of onion seeds (also named Nigella Seed or Klonji)

Salt to taste

200g Palm Sugar

400g Green Mango (Peeled and cubed)

2 x brown onions diced

1 tablespoon ginger powder

Peel from 1/2 orange (sliced thin)

250 g Raisins diced

1 tablespoon Mustard Seeds

Tablespoon dried chopped chillies (mild)

Chuck it all in a pot, bring to the boil, simmer on low heat till all ingredients are soft. 2 hours?

Let cool, then spoon into sterilised jars and wait at least a week before trying (yeah right!)

33rd Wedding Anniversary

The 33rd Wedding Anniversary does not have any traditional materials or Symbols associated with it. Whew! No gifts required. But a Contemporary or Modern 33rd anniversary gift has a theme of Amethyst. Hmm... lets keep even that quite .. .

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/160sec (SB900, SB600 and pop up Flashes)

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f5.6, 1/160sec (SB900, SB600 and pop up Flashes)

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f5.6, 1/160sec (SB900, SB600 and pop up Flashes)

Off camera flash setup below. 1 x Nikkor SB900 1 x Nikkor SB600 and D300 Pop Up Flash for fill in all at 0.00 compensation.

Diagram via Stobox for the iPhone

Nexus One - Close, but no Cigar

While the Nexus One gained a great deal of attention for its announcement analysts seem to be in agreement that they still believe Apple's iPhone has the advantage, thanks mostly to the resounding success of the App Store. Apple announced this week that more than 3 billion apps have been downloaded for the iPhone and iPod touch. Disappointing as competition is needed. On the day of the Nexus One's launch Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs is quoted as saying “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

Unfortunately this is no iPhone killer.

Crepe Myrtle

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/1600sec

Happy New Year 2009

Life is a process of becoming.

A combination of states we have to go through.

Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it.

What you are is what you have been.

What you’ll be is what you do now.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow - Buddha et al

AVATAR 3D - Well it was interesting but . . .

Very nice imagery but not the ground breaking leap it's touted to be. The storyline is trite, and the characters are only moderately developed.

When you consider films of this genere like Final Fantasy from 2001, which was beautifully rendered and completely computer generated, even the voices. No human morphing, voiceovers or anything like that, totally CGI. This film also had a trite storyline unfortunately and did not do that well.

I was expecting a real generational improvement from Avatar, but while it was entertaining and visually spectacular I was expecting better considering how technology has progressed in 9 years+.

If you don't know about Final Fantasy, and you may not have seen or heard of it as it was a box office bomb. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was a computer animated science fiction film by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series of role-playing games. It was released on July 11, 2001.

The story follows scientists Aki Ross and Doctor Sid in their efforts to free Earth from a mysterious and deadly alien race known as the Phantoms, which has driven surviving humanity into "barrier cities". They must compete against General Hein, who wishes to use more violent means to end the conflict. The film was the first attempt to make a photorealistic rendered 3D feature film.Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is set on a future Earth infested by Phantoms, alien life forms. The remaining humans live in "barrier cities" all over the world and are engaged in an ongoing struggle to free the planet. Two scientists, Aki Ross and her mentor, Dr. Sid, are searching for eight life forms which they believe possess spirits capable, when joined, of defeating the Phantoms. Meanwhile, a general named Hein is determined to use a powerful space cannon to destroy the Phantoms, though Aki and Sid believe the cannon may destroy the Earth.

While the film does carry the name Final Fantasy, it is only vaguely thematically related to Square Co.'s popular Final Fantasy series of games. - source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirits_Within