Vegeterian rice salad. Happy birthday to me...twice

I have been thinking lately about a proper post to enclose my last days in Canberra. I couldn't come up with one and decided to leave it until we arrive in Peru next week and start again writing there. But I felt like an incomplete puzzle. There was a missing piece. I had to end this period with one more story.

Maree, my mother in-law, switched on the light in my head - I usually need someone to do it. Unintentionally, she gave me the idea for my post when she kindly handled me a birthday present and a card last Monday in Melbourne, just when we were leaving her house of Canterbury road at 6.30am to catch the plane back to Canberra for our final week. I gratefully kept them in my handbag, excited like a child. 

The card and the gift were meant to be opened this coming Monday, 15th of September, when I am a year older - but "wiser", my dad used to say. However, my surprise was when I was on the plane and heard  a little voice saying To our dear Esther...Aurelia got bored during the flight and curiously opened my gift and the card!

Suddenly, while I was listening to Aurelia reading my birthday card, with a thoughtful message written inside, I realised that the lost piece of the puzzle called "transitory period in Canberra" was precisely my very last day in Canberra, the day of my birthday, same day we take off to Peru. And I should honour that day with this story.

I am not intending to write about the celebrations I should have on that special occasion, but I wish I did because I do love the paraphernalia of celebrating a birthday, I mean, having my favourite cake - a moist flourless chocolate cake -, a party with some colourful balloons suspending on the air, or perhaps a special dinner with my family and fabulous food cooked by someone else but me. A present? Yes, please, a drawing card by my kids and a few words from my husband would be lovely.

Nope, I won't talk about that kind of happiness. I will write about the fact that next Monday I will get up at 5am to head off to the Canberra airpot with three sleepy children in the car, and an apprehensive mum. When I have to fly, my anxiety level arises every 15 minutes and my stomach is closed in a tied knot, not letting the mouth to swallow any food until the journey is over and my nerves disappear. 

The journey itself won't be that long....The flight to Sydney is only an hour, Nick said, but then we will wait for three hours at the airport to connect to the flight to Santiago de Chile, which is thirteen and a half hours. We will spend the night in a hotel near the airpot in Chile and the next day, on Tuesday, we will have another flight of 2 hours to Lima. 

Happy birthday to me, what a nightmare, I thought. Let me tell you that Australians consider "short" a flight of 5 hours. So you can understand why my husband really believes that our journey is not that long.

I am a half full glass person and instead of thinking that I am going to spend my thirty eighth birthday on two planes with tired, grumpy and bored children, and equally their parents, suffering the side effects of the jet lag, I am trying to remind myself that we will arrive in Chile on Monday morning. It will be Monday again, and my birthday again, isn't that great? Twice!

I will forget the tedious travel we just did and I will delete that "black" Monday from the calendar to place a new empty space...the day of my birthday will be a memorable day, as my mother in-law says in the card, a new beginning in Peru for the McCaffrey Tolmos family. 

I will take you into a fascinating adventure through the pages of this blog.

Vegeterian rice salad

My husband is a bit reluctant when I serve vegetarian dishes as a main course and not as a side dish. This time, he had second servings.

This recipe is from the kiwi Emma Galloway, adapted to my taste:

• 5 carrots, peeled, cut into 1 cm thick diagonal slices
• Some chopped coriander stalks
• Olive oil
• A pinch of cumin, coriander, paprika and chilli powder

• 1 cup of arborio rice or any short grain rice, washed
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric, to give it the yellow colour

• 1/2 cup dried sultanas
• 1/2 cup lightly toasted pine nuts
• Large handful of coriander leaves, chopped and Italian parsley chopped
• Crumbled feta, a soft one, to serve on top

Dressing:

• 60ml lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Place carrots, coriander stalks, olive oil and the spices in a bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Mix well and spread out in a single layer on a baking tray. Roast for 30 minutes until golden, turning often. Set aside to cool
2. Meanwhile, cook the rice until tender, but not soft. Let it cool to room temperature.
3. To make the dressing, whisk together all the ingredients. Pour over cooled rice, stir in the roasted carrots and any spices from the tray, sultanas, pine nuts, coriander and parsley. Adjust to taste. 
4. Serve with some soft feta on top (I used Persian feta and some of the marinated oil)