Chasing aurora & some thoughts on friendship

Plus an attempt to uncover the world's best lasagne.

It has been a month for spacenerds in Australia.

Sometimes it feels like the Northern Hemisphere gets all the fun; however, some parts of the country could recently view a solar eclipse, AND the Aurora Australis has been so active, it was visible from central Victoria the other morning.

The solar eclipse was a bit of a non-event unless you were in far north-west Australia, but us southerners got the aurora, so it all evens out in the end. Kinda.

Normally you have to be in Tasmania to see the Aurora Australis (or if you’re lucky, on Phillip Island or in Wilsons Promontory National Park, which are both in very southern Victoria). However, solar activity is so strong at the moment that the aurora could be captured just outside of Melbourne.

The photo I took above is from around a half hour out of the city. I couldn’t see it with thine own eyes and the show was at its tailend by this point, but my camera did manage to capture a bit of a glow(up).

The fact that conditions even aligned for this to be sort of visible seems freakishly fortunate. It was a clear skied night, the waxing moon was hanging out on the other side of the planet and it was a little bit warm to boot.

There’s gonna be a bit of activity over the next couple of years. If you’re in southern Oz, you can keep up with aurora alerts via BOM and cross your fingers we get some more clear nights.

Musings on friendship in the digital age

Friendship is something that’s been on my mind lately, I think because I will actually be seeing some of my closest friends for the first time in years, when I travel to Europe in a month’s time. Very exciting.

Routinely throughout my twenties, I heard that you make your friends in high school and largely university, then as you age, it is near impossible to initiate new people into your social circle.

I disagree with this, although I think some factors come into play.

It largely depends on where you live

Melbourne has proved to be a great city for making friends. My theory is that this is because most people who now live in Melbourne, are not actually originally from Melbourne.

In fact, I have found it hard to befriend born-and-bred Melburnians – don’t get me wrong, I’ve met some fabulous people who’ve always called this fascinating city home. But a lot of them have well-established circles that can be hard to break into.

Rather, most of my pals here are from all over the country (mostly Perth, does anyone actually stay in Perth?) or overseas. And it’s marvellous.

Melbourne does have an expat city vibe to it, as do places like London, New York, Hong Kong etc. So it is probably a lot easier to make friends in cities like these, rather than a small town or regional city in the middle of nowhere.

It’s important to know when a friendship has run its course

The bottom fell out of one of my longest, most intense friendships a couple of years ago. I’m still not exactly sure why it happened, but regardless, everything limped along for a little while, before coming to a standstill.

It’s hard to cope with these sort of events – it does herald the end of an important relationship, and with friendships, unlike romantic relationships, you often don’t get any sort of closure (I’m well aware you don’t get closure for many romantic relationships either, but there’s generally more societal guidance regarding the ending of a romance vs the ending of a friendship).

You and I both, at this moment, have have friendships in our lives now that unknowingly have an expiration date on them. Sometimes it finishes in a spectacular bang. Other times, they just fizzle out. And oftentimes, it’s for the best, as once a relationship curdles, what’s the point in stubbornly pushing forward with it?

You don’t need one-on-one time to have a strong friendship

While distance can be the catalyst for the end of a friendship (absence makes the heart go wander and all that), it isn’t always the case.

As aforementioned, most of my close friends live overseas and have done so for many, many years. Technology makes this easy – you can text and call for free, thanks to the internet. It’s also fun to kick it old school, sending postcards or letters. And any visits tend to turn into epic adventures, as you’re exploring somewhere new to you, or simply, somewhere you haven’t been in awhile.

The only necessary ingredient for this, is for both parties to make an effort. It ain’t any fun when you’re the one always texting and calling, while your pal is busy living out their life and perhaps too polite to say they no longer see you factoring in it.

Friendship is not age restrictive

This is what I love most about ageing – the way you pick up people from different walks of life.

While the majority of your friends are probably still within your bracket (mine are mostly in their thirties, as am I), it’s so enriching to have pals who are at a completely different stage of this journey of life.

Weirdly, I don’t have a lot of younger friends, but my oldest friend is in her sixties and there’s quite a few scattered around the late forties, early fifties mark.

They offer up a different life views, especially as many of them are cool Gen-Xers who lack the cultural cringe that plagues many people of my own generation.

You can be friends with exes – but should you?

I’ve long been fascinated by people who are able to stay friends with those they have dated/been intimate with, especially after extra long term relationships. I guess this is because I’m bad at it, very much taking on the mantra of ‘we loved, we lost, we moved on’.

I think it largely depends on how new relationships pan out and the level of trust within them. I remained close to my high school boyfriend for years after we broke up, until he got married. I don’t blame his partner in the slightest for the end of our palship – it was up to him to make a case for it. He didn’t and life goes on.

So, it’s extra nice to see a once-couple who are able to maintain a friendship, overcoming hurdles of a breakup, possibly jealous future partners, etc. It’s a nice nod to the fact that even though romantically things didn’t work out, there were initially shared interests or life values that drew you to one another.

I’d say it can only be done when the level of attraction is truly at zero, otherwise you could be paving the way for temptation/disaster. But a good solid platonic relationship with an ex suggests a maturity between you both (that I don’t have, but I’m personally okay with this).

I’d love to know how you feel about the various friendships in your life. Do you find it harder to make friends as an adult? Has the quality of your friendships improved as you’ve gotten older? And do you know the secret to being friends with an ex?!

The world’s best lasagne

Get excited, because we are starting a mini-series right here on What’s Cooking! Originally, I wanted to simply include this as a standalone section in this fortnight’s newsletter – however, there is such a thing as too much lasagne (who knew) and I didn’t want to put myself off my favourite winter dish, before the season had even begun.

So, over the next six weeks I’ll be sharing my three favourite lasagne recipes. My three favourite vegetarian recipes to boot. Feel free to cook along as you go, as I’d love to hear what you think of them.

This recipe originally hails from Adeline & Lumiere, a wonderful food blog, currently inaccessible online. This means I’m putting this recipe together from memory. Lord help us all.

Silverbeet & feta lasagne

What you’ll need

• 40g of butter

• 2/3 cups of flour

• 750ml milk (3 cups) – full cream milk (the kind where the cream plugs the top of the container OH YUM) tastes amazing in this, but I’ve cooked this meal with oat and soy milk too.

• 1 pack fetta cheese

• 1 tsp nutmeg (I’ve substituted with cinnamon but nutmeg is best)

• bunch of silverbeet, stem removed, leaves roughly chopped (kale also works well if silverbeet is not available)

• 1 brown onion, chopped

• passata sauce (I use about half a bottle if I have tinned toms, the whole for chopped toms)

• 400g tinned or chopped tomatoes (four or five works)

• can of tomato soup (I like Campbells)

• 1 tbsp italian herb mix (or oregano in a pinch)

• 1 tsp brown sugar

• lasagna sheets

• your favourite bakeable cheese (mozarella, or I often substitute for a vegan cheese I really like that I’ve only ever seen in my local IGA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

• OPTIONAL – more veg such as sliced sweet potato, eggplant or baby spinach to throw in between the sheets and keep it freaki(shly good).

Clockwise: add the silverbeet to the sauce, pour over a layer of lasagna sheets, cook the filling and bake in the oven with a generous helping of cheese on top.

What you need to do

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/350°F

2. Warm up a saucepan on the stove on low heat and throw in the butter. Once melted, add the flour and mix together. Cook ‘til the concoction begins to slightly brown.

3. Meanwhile, heat up the milk separately either on the stove, or in a microwave. Take the butter/flour off heat and slowly whisk in the milk until there’s no lumps and the sauce has thickened.

4. Chuck (or gently place, depending on your preference and/or quality of your cookware) the saucepan back on the stove and return to low/medium heat. Crumble the feta into the saucepan, add the nutmeg and chuck in the silverbeet. It will wilt into the sauce as things warm up. Keep an eye on it, stirring every once in a while, for about five minutes. Add a tiny bit of flour if your sauce isn’t quite thickening.

5. Line a baking dish with pasta sheets and pour the bechamel sauce on top. If you think kiddies will be put off by the stringy bits of silverbeet, let the sauce cool down slightly then blend or blitz it.

6. Splash some olive oil into a pan and add your chopped onion. Cook until slightly browned, then add the passata, tomatoes, soup, herbs and sugar. Leave on medium heat, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.

7. Add another layer of lasagna sheets with or without extra veg in-between. Pour the sauce into the baking dish. Depending on your preference, you can either spread your grated cheese on top, or chuck on another layer of lasagna sheets, before adding the cheese.

8. Place the dish in the oven and cook for around 30 minutes, until the cheese is slightly browned. Serve immediately with a simple side salad, or just eat a big chunk of lasagne all on its own. I have very much done this (in fact, it happens on the regular), so no judgement here.

The best thing I ate this fortnight

Not a lot of intricate cooking nor eating out this month as I’ve been lazy/busy and am saving my pennies for all the Spanish tapas and Scottish haggis I can feasibly consume in a month’s time.

So for once, am sharing a singular ‘best thing’, just as this section intended. This meal from Signal Box in Newcastle, NSW.

I know I just dedicated an entire section of this already lengthy post to lasagne, however, I’m actually not much of a pasta person. BUT – I bloody love seafood. My dear friend and I were eyeing off the same dish (banana prawn and blue swimmer crab linguine) and decided to pair it with their seafood risotto.

This is the opposite of a good photo. I was very keen to tuck in.

Their linguine is delicious and I essentially had a spiritual moment while eating the risotto. Topped with mussels, some of the goats feta had worked its way into the shell. I placed the cheese topped mussel in my mouth and cried tears of sheer ecstasy as it gently dissolved onto my tongue.

An added bonus – Signal Box is housed in a piece of local history, a Type O signal box which was once part of Newcastle Railway Station. It’s heritage listed and just lovely, inside and out (and wheelchair accessible too, by the look of it). Be sure to dine there if you’re ever in town. Newcastle has some great eateries!

That’s it for this fortnight. Catch you next time for part 2 of our lasagne extravaganza, where we answer the following question: what happens when you replace lasagna sheets with sourdough bread?

-Celine

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PPS. Rest assured, any puns are always intended.