THE VERY DARK BLONDE

Kent Baddeley sent Busted a recipe for all the mushrooms she has on her block. Should keep her entertained!

REBOILED

We had a bit a of do with a few mates this week. We used to have reasonably regular catch ups - sometimes over lunch - sometimes later arvo drinks. They were for reasons known only to us - called the Boil Ups.

Sadly the Boil Up Queen is doing her bit to promote one of the extractive industries in some poncy lair in Europe. (bout time she came home for a visit!)

So the rest of the crew met in her absence. It was a poignant event. Each one of us in one way or another has been effected by, involved in, or working to help Christchurch.

Most had Christchurch family or friends who have been affected by the quake and all of us suffered from the feeling of not "being there doing something." No matter how much money you give or how many emails and phone calls you dispatch and stuff you send - its hard to not feel guilty about not being on the end of a shovel in Bexley or Aranui.

We listened to each others tales and to a person it was the elderly in Christchurch we worried about most. They are of a generation where they dont want to bother people and think everyone is worse off than themselves. They are so self contained that they are not used to asking for or getting help.

However, we also talked about the need for the rest of New Zealand to keep going as well.

For some of the gang - life has chucked a few curve balls - as happens from time to time. But we were there for each other - buddies all. We shed the odd tear and we laughed out loud. We argued and debated.

It was just a good time with good mates.

It also helped that our venue, Logan Brown - was stellar, the food and wine was outstanding as ever, the service impeccable - despite the fact we served the staff up a moving feast of characters.

It was great to see LB very well patronised as a restaurant of its international calibre should be.

While this crazy old world of ours has wobbled while spinning so fast - it was good to get off for such a short time and take a breath and listen to the lives of others and just let them know that no matter what - they have good people in their orbit they can rely on.

On a lighter note we were a bit flumoxed by the above vision of loveliness on the wall at Logan Brown. Someone fishy channelling Roarprawn and BustedBlonde perhaps?

BUSTEDBLONDE - GETS A NEW LIFE

To all the loyal readers of Roarprawn. BustedBlonde is back but not here - well not much. She has been tweeting quite a bit for an old twat and she is now engaging in something a tad more serious. She has started reviewing wine for Grape Hunter - which of course means she will also gab on about good food as well. So if you want your wine reviewed then drop her a line at bustedblonde@gmail.com. But remember she is not a pro, just a committed amateur imbiber. And she is brutally honest.

However the Brunette will continue to expound on all manner of things that get up her proboscis

here at Roarprawn

love all - the Brunette...

BLUSHING PLUOTS AND STEAMY CRAYS

Today we discovered a new fruit we had not sampled before.

Its a Pluot.

It has a smooth apricot coloured skin with a freckled blush. Bite into it and there is none of the dryness one often associates with apricots, this is one bright juicy fruit. It is tart even on ripeness and we think excels the two fruits from which it was cleaved.

Especially if you like fruit with a kick.

And tonight we dine like kings - steamed lobster, dads new potatoes and a simple iceberg salad - and of course it was accompanied by a bottle of Wooing Trees blanc de noir - the fabulous - Blondie.

And the secret ingredient which is now very de rigeur - Highlander mayonnaise, as made popular by the chef who arguably best captures the heart of NZ cuisine - Al Brown. Athough we think mums version is better.

It was a short trip south but we have packed some of Central Otago's sunshine in our bag to remind us of our happy weekend. Sadly, tomorrow we are off back home to Wellington - albeit with about 20kgs of stone fruit which includes 15kgs of nectarines that Dad swapped for 3 muttonbirds and a big cray tail and some very good memories of food, wine and family.

BUSTED BLONDE'S THREE MINUTES OF FAME

Silly bobble head..... but we still love and miss her...

BIG DAY FOR THE BIG BLONDE

Well BustedBlonde has ended up with 62 bottles of Veuve clicquot. 60 ordinary bottles and a magnum. Well will keep you posted on whats going to happen next.

YAY ! NBR BACK IN THE GOOD BOOKS

This is a great outcome. Thanks NBR. bustedblonde is still blubbing in the corner...

And thanks to Team Bubbles... Whale, Cactus, Gonzo, Keepingstock,Clint Heine, Motella,Oswald, and of course Kiwiblog.

Now to organise a kick arse party!!!!

NBR apologises for Veuve Clicquot competition confusion

Todd Scott | Thursday August 26, 2010 - 10:04am

The National Business Review unreservedly apologises for the confusion surrounding our 40th birthday competition. It was never our intention to cause confusion about the voting for the Win Your Weight in Veuve promotion but people have expressed frustration and we have listened to their concerns.

The official winner (as chosen by the judges from the top 10 voted entries) will be announced, on schedule, in NBR print tomorrow.

In addition, the publisher will personally provide Busted Blonde’s weight in Veuve Clicquot to her to demonstrate that NBR will not allow its integrity, transparency or honesty in its dealings with its readers to be compromised in any way. She received the most online votes in the competition and NBR happily salutes that success.

As a responsible host, the publisher would, however, appeal to Busted Blonde to urge her guests to wear life jackets if celebrating their win on Wellington Harbour. Let the festivities begin.

THANKS FOR VOTING FOR BUSTEDBLONDE

She has recorded an astonishing 1072 votes to 839. She has promised that she will use the bubbles for a good charity if the judges agree with the public..

Thanks to all the great people who have supported her!

We will keep you posted if she gets the nod from NBR.

VOTE BUSTED BLONDE

CLICK ON THE LINK - VOTE BY CLICKING THE THUMBS UP.

Or send this link to your mates and ask them nicely to vote for her....

http://www.nbr.co.nz/40withveuveclicquot/127086

THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT...

TOP 5 suggestions

666

I weight heaaaps! So on the back of my successful 50th birthday in Wellington where I fed 50 people on Lobster and Bluff Oysters, I would hold a " Just be cause you can" kick arse picnic on a pontoon in Frank Kitts Lagoon. However, everyone would have to dress up and pretend to be complete wankers - which shouldnt be too hard!

bustedblonde • Share or email

Bustedblonde has hit the devils number 666 and now has a sizeable lead in the NBR competition to win her weight in Veuve Clicquot.

Click here to vote

and send this link to your mates and tell them to press on the thumbs up for bustedBlonde
.

BUSTEDBLONDE SAYS THANKS

She is still leading the NBR competition to win her weight in Veuve Clicquot. She aims to turn the event into a fundraiser.

But she still needs your help... please go to this link here and click on the thumbs up beside her party idea. Party Central Wellington!!!

and send this link to all your mates...

http://www.nbr.co.nz/40withveuveclicquot/127086

300,000 visitors

Since Roarprawn was started by BustedBlonde way back in August 2008. Since then we have had a couple of stops and restarts. BustedBlonde has gone. Now the star of the show is the Brunette. And the American Gardener pops in occasionally to dig at the nerves of some sensitive souls and Lamb Cut is always lurking.. We still get heaps of contributions from many people in many places..

So while there is something to say - well , we will keep saying it..

The Brunette

GROAN

We engaged in some culinary experimentation tonite with muttonbirds.

Not the well known salted muttonbird which is normally cooked by boiling it and replacing the water a few times to get rid of the excess salt.

No, we cooked fresh muttonbirds. They are not brined.

So what did we do?

Well first you have to catch your muttonbird and Bustedblonde did that a while back.

Then you gut it.

Then we did something we have never done before - we boned it out.

We removed the ribs and backbone and breastbones. So all that was left with the bone in were the legs.

Now muttonbirds are very very oily. More on that later...

We lay the bird skin side down on the chopping board.

Then we got some of our favourite salt - its a smoked herbed version and lightly sprinkled it over the meat . Not too much though..

Then we made the stuffing - its a traditional sage and onion stuffing with good old dried mixed herbs.. And a chopped up raw onion. Then we chucked an egg in to bind and then we used Fejoa and Apple juice to moisten...

Then added salt and pepper to taste.

Then we trussed it up .. ( sorry no camera but it look a bit like a mini version of the goose in the pic)

Then we scored the skin with a knife to let the fat out. This is really important.

Then we placed in an open baking dish with about 1/2 a cup of water.

It was pretty hot oven to start them we turned it down a bit and as the water evaporated the oil drained and roasted the birds for about 2 hours.

We took a cup of oil off when they were finished.

Now fresh muttonbirds have a propensity to dry out. Not these babies... They were divine..

Moist, meaty and rich and the bed of potato and swede mash a perfect sweet foil to the richness.

Just wish Busted had caught more of the buggers.

BUSTEDBLONDE

The Bustedblonde is no longer. Sorry folks but the feisty big titted gal is hanging up  her  blogging clogs.  Gone for good. She is handing over to a few good men and women.
 Roarprawn will continue with commentary on all manner of stuff. And we will keep the logo to remind of us who started Roarprawn off many many moons ago.

We hope that you enjoy the ruminations of the Brunette and  others such as the American Gardener who will blog from time to time.

TWO THOUSAND AND ONE

We have written 2001 posts since August 2008.  Phew.... 

BUSTED BUSTED

SIGH.......

WE ARE BACK

Hi y'all,
Yip we have decided to come out of hiding - after taking up a full time role inside a major govt dept we have decided that we can blog. We never made a secret of our political allegiances ( pretty hard when you have sought a nomination in the past we would have thought and at the end of the day we support National and the Maori Party. We have never made any secret of that. Anyway we will refrain from commenting on health issues and Maori issues. That makes it simple. For us anyway. And we have had a gander at the State Services Act and it seems that if we refrain from commenting on the dept we are working for we should be reasonably safe.

So we will be heavier on the social commentary and as we enjoy humour ( our own unique brand) then there will be more of that.

One lament since we went into recess was that this site was good to get to other juicy stuff on other blogs. We will do that more often with the new disclaimer that we dont necessarily agree or not agree with the opinions on other blogs but we find them interesting and worthy of your note.

And undoubtedly there will be new blogs that appear from time to time and we will give you a heads up when we find some we think you might be interested in.

And of course we wont be the frantic bloggers that we have been in the past - we are very busy these days with very important matters of state business.

So climb aboard for the ride ( again).

HAERE RA

Well folks its good bye from us. We were going to do all sorts of weird shit tonight to keep people guessing about why Roarprawn ceased operating at midnight tonight.

The simple fact of the matter is that we are going to work for a Ministry full time. Yip a public servant gig. As my mum says - a real job...We start tomorrow.

And the State Services Act is a bit of a bitch if you want to be a political commentator. Now we are fairly well positioned as a National Govt cheer leader but from time to time we have to put down our pom poms and give them a piece of our mind and , well you cant do that when you are a public servant. And we are not all that anonymous. After all we have been on telly.

We have had a ball blogging , its fun, outrageous and has ignited the old journo within. We were starting to get some decent numbers again too - up around the 1000 a day.

Now, who knows what will happen in the future - so we wont delete the prawn - but we will locked it away for a while. If someone wants to buy it - well email me on bustedblonde@gmail.com

To all my fellow bloggers, keep up the bastards honest.


Love you all...... BB

BEST RESTAURANT IN WELLINGTON

BB's kitchen was declared the best place to eat in Welly tonight. The diners where a wee bit biased - The kids were here. We had whitebait fritters, pan fried brill fillets, our amazing new potatoes, the fantastic zucchini salad, and a green salad of our lettuces and herbs.Followed by summer berries tossed with meringues and honey laced sour cream dribbled all over.
Brill is one of my favourite fish, it looks like a flounder that has run into the back of a whale and has a very light pinkish flesh- and we bought it on the bone from Moore Wilsons and filleted it .
Its was all moisty and melty - just how good fish should be.

WE ARE BACK!!!

More help, more brains, more fun, and much more than BB and a few part timers. Occasionally we will post really good erotica just to satisfy some of the carnal desires of some of our older readers.

Oh and just because we can be serious as well, a few political snippets.

Watch this space!

PS: Who saw Winston at Dockside yesterday???

And is it true the Hurdy Gurdy man is coming to town? And who will he be working for? And will he have the Energy to hack the Pace?