Gilbert Blythe You Legend

WARNING: spoiler alert.... I highly recommend that you immediately close this screen for approx. 12 hours and watch CBC'S films  Anne of green gables, Anne of Green Gables: the squeal and Anne of Green Gables: the Continuing Story. Yes all 1, 2, & 3 of them. You will not regret it! Oh why your at it you could begin reading the eight books in the L.Motgomery "Anne of Green Gable" series

Okay now that you have done that small task you can continue reading this post. Lets begin reminiscing on our extreme love for the movie trilogy and your romantic affair with Gilbert Blythe.


It only came to my knowledge yesterday after enjoying a walk with my friend that this week Johnathan Combine had passed away at the age of forty eight years old( the actor that 'was' Gilbert Blythe in the movies based on the L.Montgomery “Anne of Green Gables” books). I didn't know how to react. I was not obsessed with him, I hadn't yet dedicated the whole design of my room to his face and I had not yet planned our wedding day because I knew that was a bit out of reach for me as a 16 year old and not at all knowing where he lived or if he already had a family and possibly a daughter my age. But I can defiantly say a little bit inside me was crushed.

I cried profusely Every time I watched the scene with him on his death bed....

Gilbert Blythe: Anne, There's not going to be any wedding anymore. 
Anne Shirley: You're gonna get well, Gil. I know you are. 
Gilbert Blythe: I called it off. It wouldn't be fair to Christine. There would never be anyone for me but you. 

Those words break my heart every time (in a good way).

Although Gilbert Blythe (Johnathan Combine) the handsome and dreamy character in the classic "Anne of Green Gables" series is 48 and therefore old enough to be my father, I will still fantasize about him falling head over heels for me, showing his affection by calling me "carrots"(even though I do not have orange hair at all) and then continue asking for my hand in marriage repeatably until I say I will. 

Gilbert Blythe: Maybe you don't think I'm good enough for you now, but I will be someday. Anne Shirley: No, Gil you're a great deal too good for me. But you want someone who'll adore you. Someone who'll be happy just to hang on your arm and build a home for you. I wouldn't. Gilbert Blythe: Anne, that's not what I'm looking for at all. Anne Shirley: We'll end up like two old crows fighting all the time. I know I'd be unhappy and I'd wish we'd never done it.

I love Anne she is my favorite character of all time but ohh how wanted to shake her in the above scene and tell her she deserves him and that she made a huge mistake ignoring him for three years.

I could go on forever quoting the whole movie because it all is worth being in this blog post but for the sake of your family and friends wanting to see you the next few days I will not.

I should now stop writing this post in Food tech class and begin dreaming about going home and eating porridge, whilst watching all the movies over again and again with a box of tissues by my side. Remembering the legend that was Johnathan Crombie.

 - Grace

Discover. Cook. Then just show the world

 

A Jamie Oliver Feast

Roast Chicken breast 4 ways

I found myself past midnight and once again rummaging through Jamie Oliver cookbooks. I have to admit, it was a moment of weakness and lack of sleep. Marking many pages with little animal sticky notes, I finally came to the conclusion that roast chicken breast from Jamie's 'Cook with Jamie' cookbook, would satisfy my families taste buds. 

 Step by step I worked my way through every section of this recipe following Jamie's every command.  

 Roast chicken with cherry tomatoes and asparagus

Trimmed asparagus 

Cherry tomatoes sliced in half

The ingredients needed to complete the chicken recipe

Un - cooked and ready to bake

                                     

I found this one the most simple out of the four, but that didn't undermine the taste of the dish. 

                                   

Roast chicken in pancetta with leeks and thyme

A sharp knife was used to slice the white part of the leek into 1 cm pieces.

White wine, Olive oil, Salt,Pepper, Butter, Pancetta, Leeks, Fresh thyme.

Pancetta wrapped chicken in a foil baking dish.

This was my favorite dish of all as I forgot what leeks taste like; juicy and complex in flavor with a simple touch of thyme and butter. 

Roast chicken with creamy butternut squash and chilli

A little butternut pumpkin chopped in four. 

Only a few ingredients, but it is ready to assemble.

Cosy and stuffed prepared before roasting. 

I love pumpkin immensely so this dish had no fault in my eyes. Mhhh I enjoyed scoffing this one down. My lack of obtaining chills was no distaste to the dish.

Roast chicken with lemony Bombay potatoes

Odd ingredients for roast chicken. Sliced lemon, Lemon zest, Parsley, Lemon juice, Capsicum, White potatoes, Sweet potatoes, Olive oil, Turmeric, Nutmeg.  

Beautifully served and organised to cook to perfection.  

This was a lovely Thai flavored dish and all in all, it was my favorite chicken flavor, This I think is because it was rubbed in turmeric and nutmeg before baking.

 - Grace

Discover. Cook. Then just show the world

Tomato Pasta Sauce Making

Being the Italian I am and seeing as it was the end of the tomato growing season long ago, my family had decided it was surely the time to have the annual sauce making day to have available yummy tomato pasta sauce all year round.

My uncle came down from Ballarat to help with the cooking. With my Dads Zia Lina and my mum, all four of us boiled, cooked, peeled, smashed and simmered the freshly grown and brought roman tomatoes.

Here are some action pictures
**sorry the recipes is confidential as its a family secret**

 To begin

TOMATOES,tomatoes and more TOMATOES

Over a hot roasting FIRE we boiled the juicy tomatoes

Zia Lina pureed the tender Roman tomatoes

 My Nonno made this little device for pureeing tomatoes.
It amazes me the brain that was in his head because this machine makes pureeing tomatoes 100 times easier.

It was nice to spend my morning making the delicious sauce I eat almost three times a week.... Its going to run out quick !

- Grace

Discover. Cook. Then just show the world

STORY TIME

Short story written from the perspective of a woman living during the Vietnam War era, 1950's-1970's

Written by me, Grace Mazzarella 
I was asked to write this piece as an assessment extension class for English in Year 9.
The task was to write a perspective piece from a different era in Australian society.

Beep! Beep! The alarm echoed through the silent room.

6:30am:

I wake, entangled in a heap of sheets alone, still confused at what exactly happened between John and I last night. He’s only been home 3 months but nothing is the same as it used to be. I know it’s not him that’s changed after his return from Vietnam, it’s me. It’s like this all over town, husbands leaving wives, wives leaving husbands nothing is the same - I’m surely not. Women were different then. Before the war begun I was raised to believe the concept that a woman was there to cook, clean and watch their children, nothing more, nothing less. This was how woman were treated, we were not intellectually equal to men, now I can see that we also were sex objects and domestic slaves in a man’s world.

6:39am:

I drag myself out of bed just like every other morning since 1965. This was the year John left as a soldier in military to support the United States in the civil war against North Vietnam. Whilst dressing myself in a simple cotton button up dress that sat just below my knee, I rack my memory for the details of the events from last night.

The previous night 9:54pm:

My two eldest were out with friends and little Tony was fast asleep. John and I had never been as distant from each other as were at that very moment. We lay motionless between the covers. I don’t know how it came about but I remember the fight that’s for sure. Twenty years of marriage and I had never gone against his word or disagreed with his ideals. He screamed at me and I screamed back. I could tell that he was a bit shocked by my abruptness and was wondering how I could be so rude. He spoke of how he was unable to fathom the reasons of why and what had changed me. Was there another man? Was I no longer in love with him? He knew nothing and yearned for answers. I laid there for a moment and fiddled with the sheets, wondering what exactly to say. Suddenly John ripped my hands away and demanded I talk. Looking him in the eyes I saw the pain and disloyalty he felt towards me I thought the least he deserved was answers. I explained there was no other man and I still loved him and that I was different, the country was different and I wasn’t no longer going to sacrifice my happiness for the lifestyle he wanted. He didn’t understand and with not even a second glance he dressed and left. As I heard the front door ajar and then slam abruptly tears flooded in my eyes.

2:26am:

A sleepless night lay ahead. Thoughts kept rushing in and out of my mind.

I had changed; I know what I want, I have independence and I have freedom. The 18 year old me that John had married before the war was gone, I no longer agreed with women not being equal to men and being bound to their home as a family housewife. The women of Australia had to adjust to life with the little support we were given whilst our husbands were away fighting for our country and we did it. As a consequence to the struggle we were put through we changed, we grew stronger and adapted to a life lead by women. I don’t know many of us who wanted to go back to the old times.

Present day 7:05am:

I wonder whether John will ever come back. I knew he didn’t believe in any of my new beliefs and my dream to enroll in university and make a name for myself. Through his eyes it was as if I no longer loved him or cared for our family and that I was a completely different person… which I was, I suppose. He still wants to be the one running our family and to have the control over me and my decisions as he used to, but now I know that I’m not ever going to let him.  I am a new woman, Australia is a different place and I’m not going to let any man, even my husband, depict my actions and the way I spend my time. I love my family but I’m now my own person with my own mind.

In a man’s world woman need to take authority and that’s exactly what I intend to do.

- Grace

Discover. Cook. Then just show the world