How are you feeling going into the new decade?

It's the time of the year where you wonder why you get so much condensation on your windows. 

Condensation happens when warm moist air in your home hits a cold surface.  It turns from a water vapour (water as a gas) and becomes water droplets on cold surfaces. Windows are often the first place you will notice it but it will also be on cold uninsulated walls, metal window frames and sometimes even door-handles.

In celebration of the fabulous work that 1MW have been doing for the past 10 years they're having a 'Love Earth' birthday bash in Sydney this weekend.

I'll be presenting a workshop on how to set up a simple worm farm for waste warriors/worriers.

If you don't know the work of 1MW - sign up now. They are doing excellent things (in many ways just like worms - quiet revolution and evolution).

This delicious warming blend of spices is easy to make yourself. The secret is in the use of cardamom ... and for a true masala chai, you have to bring the milk to the boil..

This ice-cream is the easiest, creamiest and most delicious thing. No crazy churning, no freaky custards, no time-wasting machinations - just 4 ingredients and 5 minutes is all it takes to make. And HEALTHY! It's like egg-nog, only colder!

Ingredients:

I’ve always found comedy in the excessive production of utterly useless electric appliances. The butterfly tin opener replaced by the electric can opener, ugg boots replaced by heated slippers, a trip to the pie shop replaced by a pie making machine and only a few years ago rug-crocheting grannies were trumped by the introduction of the heated electric throw blanket.

It's just like an electric blanket but instead of being restricted to your bed, you can use it anywhere there is a powerpoint! 

Oh, how I mocked the early adopters of that technology.  What would our pioneering grand-women make of such folly?

Windows are panes (owwwww, the pundamonium) when it comes to trying to make your house energy efficient. They are the weakest 'thermal' link in your house and account for a huge amount of heat loss and heat gain. 

If you live in a cold climate, you know you have to insulate your windows to keep your house warm in winter.

Double (or triple) glazing works well but is often expensive to retrofit but there are some really simple ways of trapping a layer of still air using plastic window insulation film.

I'm doing a few shows at the fabulous floral festivos of Floriade again this year. In the 'Tasting Plate' kitchen under the theme 'The other flour festival' I cooked up some treats. Here they are. Good luck with them and let me know how you go.

MANDARIN AND (SNEAKY) CHICK-PEA CAKE

Here is the fabulous recipe from Chrissy Freer's book 'Super Legumes'. If you like the idea of incorporating the super vegetable into all manner of recipes, this is a great book.