How to follow this blog (so you don't have to check every day, because I know you love me and do)

I have added a few elements/want to point out a few elements to make it easy to follow this blog. This way, whenever I update it you will either see if on some sort of RSS feed, like facebook's wall updates, or you will get an email.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW/GET ANNOYING EMAILS
1. to the left there is a black bar that comes out when the mouse is waved over it. Click it.
2. At the bottom of this box there is a box like this

click on it.

Click subscribe by email, and add your email. Its that simple!

Hope this is helpful. 

-Jer

Palvova: New Zealand's National Dessert!

But really, wouldn't you eat that?

For my neighbors birthday the kiwi's made pavlova for dessert. It is like an angel food cake with cream frosting covered with fruit. Except it is meringue and not cream that makes up the cake! Pretty good.

Here's the recipe (by the way, someone needs to make me make this when I get back, it will probably flop, but it should be delicious.

INGREDIENTS:

4 egg whites 1 1/4 cups white sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons cornstarch 1 pint heavy cream 6 kiwi, peeled and sliced

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Draw a 9 inch circle on the parchment paper.
2.	In a large bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Gradually add in the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat until thick and glossy. Overbeaten egg whites lose volume and deflate when folded into other ingredients. Be absolutely sure not a particle of grease or egg yolk gets into the whites. Gently fold in vanilla extract, lemon juice and cornstarch.
3.	Spoon mixture inside the circle drawn on the parchment paper. Working from the center, spread mixture toward the outside edge, building edge slightly. This should leave a slight depression in the center.
4.	Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a wire rack.
5.	In a small bowl beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form; set aside. Remove the paper, and place meringue on a flat serving plate. Fill the center of the meringue with whipped cream, sweetened if desired. Top whipped cream with kiwifruit slices.

ITS AMAZING!

Jane helping make the Palvova

Beware the hand, it is going to snatch it!

Kiwi Hosts with Kiwi treat!

Visit to Speights Brewery- 3 course meal!

As part of my program we do a number of events. So this Thursday we had a three course meal at the Local (actually its quite large) brewery. It was amazing! I had a 3 course meal. Soo good!

Here is the Menu


SOUP OF THE DAY
Chef's choice of fresh home-made soup. Served with Ale House Bread.
SEAFOOD COWDER (G*)
Seafood bound in a beautiful fish stock, delicately flavoured with fresh herbs, served with
bread.
************************
BLUE 'N' GOLD
Southern Blue Cod, lightly fried in Speight's beer batter, served with fresh garden salad
and fries.
PORK RIBS (G)
Pork ribs with our own marinade, served with salad greens and steak fries.
BLACK CHERRY CHICKEN (G)
Tender chicken breast pocketed with soft cheese and cashew nuts, wrapped in bacon and
oven-roasted. Laid on kumara mash with a black cherry sauce and garden salad.
DRUNKEN STEAK (G*)
Prime Otago rump steak, cooked to your liking, served with fresh garden salad and
golden fries. Accompanied by your choice of topping: Creamy mushroom sauce, Roasted
garlic, Fresh green peppercorn sauce or Ale House gravy.
VEGETARIAN SKEWERS(G)
Char-grilled vegetable medley with feta cheese and oven-roasted garlic. Topped with
field mushrooms. Served with kumara fries, salad and walnut lemon vinaigrette.
SHEARER‘S SHANK(G*)
Tender and delicious, oven-roasted with Central thyme and garlic, topped with Ale House
gravy and mint glaze and served on potato mash with a medley of Otago vegetables or
with fresh salad.
***********************
BERRY MERINGUE MOUNTAIN (G)
Layered berries, ice-cream, meringue and cream, topped with golden praline.
CHOCOLATE MUD-CAKE
Rich, moist chocolate cake, served hot with a decadent chocolate sauce, ice-cream and
cream.
PECAN TART
Served warm with hokey pokey ice-cream, cream and caramel sauce.


So I got the Seafood Chowder, and the Highland Lamb (not on menu), and finally the Berry Meringue Mountain. It was so delicious, and lets just say I had a full meal

So, pictures

the Bread had SB (Speights Brewery) stamped into it!)

Seafood Chowder

I should have gotten the Cromwell Peach Crumble, it looks so delicious. 

My Berry Meringue Mountain!

Post Card Mania

I was told that I need to mail some postcards back to America, so I finely went out and got some! (Don't expect some any-time too soon, it is about $2 to mail them, so I am just doing a few at a time). I do have to admit though, that they are fairly pretty. My goal is never to buy the same postcard twice while I am here, so far this is proving to be successful.


I am going to attempt a story through the postcards, sorry it is bad, just look at the pictures then, and not the story

I arrived in New Zealand and have seen sheep but no Kiwi Birds on my field camp. 

After I got back from field camp I could have gone on this train ride, but I signed up for tickets too late (gone too long) 

Bye the time I am done here my perception of New Zealand may be that it is that large. 

Speaking of large, that is a large Maori vessel, sadly I have not seen one yet. 

The views here can sometimes be stunning, or 

they can be overwhelming when I stop and ponder that I am on a small Island country in the sought Pacific (speaking of which, has anyone seen that musical?)

I would also be overwhelmed if I met them on the beach

Maybe I should watch the beached of my Harour

Or maybe I should watch the road insead of the geology. 

I really need to cover this area well while I am here. 

I hope that while I see those areas I will also see this 

and eventually come back to Dunedin- My Town!

Maybe I will also travel and see these! They are giant concretions and AWESOME!

It might be tricky covering all of this land 

Especially if I "do it naturally" and hike it. 

This basically describes the extent of my time so far. (no need to talk here).

But when it comes down to it- I am still over-indulged in New Zealand.

Finally done with that awkward story thing, sorry for that, couldn't resist. 

Second week of classes, and I am already starting to feel busy

Me being who I am, which is at times overly ambitious, I have signed up for 5 classes at the University of Otago.Now that I have finished one week of classes I can freely comment upon them.

1. GEOL 344- Advanced Field Studies, came here early to take this class, it gets done halfway through the semester!
2. SURV 208- GIS or Geographic Information Systems, this class will (hopefully) be very useful when I do a senior thesis, also GIS is very good for the job market. 
3. GEOG 289- Geomorphology, the study of landforms and their development, so far not a bad class, except their was that 2,500 word lab report for the first week, that was not so much fun. But I just went to the beach for a lab so that is definitely a plus! 
4. ENVI 311- Understanding contemporary Environmental Issues, this class is somewhat similar to a class I had with Joe Nevins, but it is a more from the New Zealand side of things, anyway I love the present lecturer and this is my fun class, because I deserve one of those every semester, right? 
5. GEOL 363- Hydrocarbon basins and basin development, so I am learning how oil is made! Also looking at a bunch of micro-fossils, not so hyped about that bit but it does have interesting portions, I will have more to say after lectures tomorrow (that's right, I have three hours of lecture and another 3 hours of lab for this class tomorrow, but at least I am done then, its a one-day class!). 

I either like these classes, or think that they will be very useful, so now I have the problem of trying to decide if and which class I should drop.  I guess I will see how the work load is and decide from that. Anyway, four at the end of the semester doesn't sound too bad.