I recently celebrated a birthday.

As you can see in the photograph, some friends at work gave me some food-related gifts. 

Do you like celebrating your birthday?

I love birthdays, especially the birthdays of my friends and family. I love hearing from friends and family each time I complete a circuit around the sun.

This year, Mum and Dad called me and sung Happy Birthday. I loved it. I loved it more because Dad sings as well as I do, that is to say, when I was in Sunday School, I was asked to mouth the words and later as an adult in the church I was attending, a friend said, “…it’s a good thing God gifted you with brains because He didn’t give you decent vocal cords”.

It was excellent hearing from friends and family, and while I’m not huge on the whole gift thing, it is nice to receive gifts that have had some thought put into them.

So, thank you so much to GC, MG, DL, LP, and MR for these gifts from The Essential Ingredient.

Sausage and vegetable traybake

I chose this meal after reading a post from Lorraine at Not Quite Nigella this week.

Rather than potatoes, chorizo, and halloumi, I went with eggplant, sausage and mozzarella. I also used some of my birthday gifts to add some extra flavour to the dish. 

Specifically, I chose the Mapuche Spice (Chilean spice blend) to rub my sausage. I splashed the Old Bones smoked garlic chilli sauce over the finished traybake at the end. I served a little of the spicy mango chutney on a piece of toast with the traybake. I also used the bottle of Rosemary and thyme extra virgin olive oil.

Ingredients

• Sausage—Sicilian style pork sausages
• Eggplant
• Capsicum
• Brown onion
• Broccoli
• Garlic
• Paprika
• Parsley
• Iodised salt
• Whole black peppercorns
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Sourdough bread
• Mozzarella La Casa Del Formaggio (Tradition of Italy) 

Instructions

1. Turn your oven on and set the temperature for between 180 and 200 °C.
2. Sharpen your cook’s knife and think about Proverbs 27:17.
3. Peel the eggplant and cut it into bite-sized cubes.
4. Slice your sausage into some bite-sized pieces.
5. Rub your sausage bites with some of the Mapuche spice, you know, one of the gifts from amazing friends.
6. Thickly slice the capsicum.
7. Cut the florets off a head of broccoli and cut the stalks into small lengths.
8. Smash your garlic with your fist and peel the papery skin off.
9. Pull the ball of mozzarella from its bath and gently break it apart with the tips of your fingers. Drain the pieces of mozzarella with a sieve.
10. Put everything into a large mixing bowl and splash with extra virgin olive oil (perhaps some of the gifted Rosemary and thyme-infused EVOO made from Canberra district olives). Get your hands in there and gently fondle everything to ensure everything gets touched by the oil.
11. Season generously with the flaky iodised salt.
12. Spread everything onto a baking tray leaving enough room for a slice of sourdough bread.
13. Pour EVOO (I used Cobram Estate EVOO) over one side of the sourdough bread.
14. Place the baking tray into the oven.
15. Cook for 10 minutes.
16. Remove the baking tray and turn the bread over and use a pair of tongs to separate the vegetables and turn them over.
17. Cook for 10 minutes and remove the bread.
18. Return the tray to the oven and check the vegetables regularly over the next ten minutes to ensure everything is tender.
19. Remove the tray and allow everything to rest for a few minutes.
20. After the sausage and vegetables have cooled, season with freshly ground black pepper and drizzle some of the gifted Old Bones smoked garlic chilli sauce over the sausage pieces and vegetables while the food is warm.
21. Transfer everything to a dinner plate and add the toasted sourdough on the side with a little of the gifted Spicy mango chutney spread on the bread.
22. Sit down with your meal and gives thanks to the Lord for dinner and your amazing friends.

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What did it all taste like?

I reckon the traybake without the addition of my birthday gifts would have been good. Adding the Rosemary and thyme EVOO, rubbing the Chilean spice blend on the sausages, shaking on some of the Old Bones smoked garlic chilli sauce, and spreading the spicy mango chutney on the toasted sourdough, made my mouth feel like it was dancing with joy. My tongue and lips were on fire but in a good way. No tears, just lovely flavours and spices.

Again, thanks to GC, MG, DL, LP, and MR for your kindness in selecting such wonderful accompaniments for my special meals.

More birthday words!

As much as I love to enjoy my birthday, I tend not to make a big deal out of it. That’s just me. I think it’s marvellous when a friend says she or he will take a day or a week off to celebrate. A friend this week said she’s taking a week off for her birthday. She and her husband will leave their children with her parents, and there will be fine dining and sightseeing interstate.

Introversion

I tend to feel embarrassed when people make a fuss. Another team had a little celebration, and one of my friends made a magnificently moist and not overly sweet caramel mud cake for my birthday. I enjoyed the attention on the inside, but I struggled to do or say more than thank you, eat my slice of cake, and slink away. Thanks, CH for the cake and thanks to AB, MW, KB, and AP for the celebration as well as MH who couldn’t be there.

I did a personality test last year, and it showed my introversion was >90%. I know I’ve always enjoyed my own company, and after a busy day, I do enjoy some solitude in my thoughts. Even before I knew what introversion meant—as a teenager—Mum would say, “you prefer your own company, don’t you?“

I think my level of introversion varies. It would have been at its peak last year.

The pandemic has revealed many exciting things for me. I’ve lived alone for most of the years I’ve been in Canberra, and I’ve gradually become more and more hermit-like. It’s provided me with a sense of comfort and ease. I’ll often say at work when I attend a meeting virtually rather than in person that I don’t like people. It’s more about the physical distancing and the desire to do other work while listening to the meeting. It also suits my introversion.

Social media and introversion

Oddly enough, my escape from a sense of loneliness has been social media. Without the need to meet with people in real life and experience the full richness (and harshness) of humanity, I’ve enjoyed a social media bubble that I can tailor and curate.

Last year, with the help of an honest and complete friend, my life changed. I returned to my faith in Jesus. While I’m still shy and introverted by nature, I’m relishing the things changing in my life and the new experiences and people I’ve been meeting. Rather than saying no to social engagements, I’ve been saying yes. I’ve been attending church and a bible study. Meeting people and making friends has made an enormous difference.

So what does that mean for me and social media? What does that mean for me and blogging?

Blogging is a hobby, and I love cooking and photographing food. The desire to cook, photograph food, and eat food hasn’t changed. So I’ll still blog (probably). As for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram? I’m not sure. 

A salient point came up when I was reading a thread on Twitter from Timothy Keller. He shared his impressions on a book by Chris Bail (Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing), who revealed the nature and characteristics of people who use social media platforms like Twitter.

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When I read it, I could quickly identify with the persona I’d generated over more than a decade on Twitter and the various accounts I use.

I still value these platforms because I’ve made connections with people. There are people in Canberra, across Australia, and other continents with whom I have a real relationship. Unlike the commentary from Tim, I don’t tweet politics and culture. I’m more about making a connection with people. On my main account and even on my food account, I’ve made friends. People who I will unlikely ever meet in person. But they are friends just the same.

So, I’ll probably still use Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram; however, as I engage more with real people in my local community, I’ll probably spend less time on social media. I want people in my real life to know me warts and all.

Curiously, a Tweep from interstate is visiting Canberra next month and wants to meet in person! 

Books and podcasts I’ve been reading and listening to

Timothy Keller

I’ve mentioned Tim Keller above, so I thought I’d share some of what I’m reading and listening to as part of this new phase of me.

Timothy Keller was the pastor at the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. The Gospel in life podcast broadcasts his sermons from the late 1990s to about 2017 when he stepped down as the church’s lead pastor. I only started listening earlier this year, and the series I’ve been listening to have been on the early church through the book of Acts, and currently, the series is on Tim’s sermons from the late 1990s on marriage. Why am I interested in marriage? I’m not interested in marriage per se, the sermons share so much more than about the one-flesh union of a man and woman; Tim expounds on human relationships. I’ve been learning a lot from these sermons.

I’ve been reading books by Tim on sharing faith with others.

RC Sproul on reformed theology

I’ve only just started listening to this audiobook. Many years ago, I’d read a book on the 5 points of Calvinism, and it formed part of the foundation for my thinking. I’m enjoying listening to this audiobook which uses less archaic language and gives more modern context. Here is a free alternative.

I also listen to his podcast titled Ultimately. 

I’ve also been reading and listening to other books. I find myself now with a hunger and thirst to read books. I haven’t felt like this for decades.

I’m loving life now and I hope you are too.

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