Recent Site Pictures + The Magic Melt

Realizing that there haven't been many 'big-picture' photos lately, we'd like to give you a refresher on what it's all looking like on the larger scale.  So we present you with a couple snapshots taken from a few steps back. Starting with a view from the study roof, we'll take a virtual walk around to the street side to see the new SuperAdobe progress that has been taking place. 

Taken from the roof above the Study looking at the pop-up and 'green' roof area.

From the north east point of the section, the home looks solid and dynamic.  The tarped piles are clay that we have been using in the EarthBags and earthen plasters. 

Here you can see the second tier of SuperAdobe bag that went in last week.  The wall is 'toothed' / 'stepped' at the moment to remain flexible in its form to accommodate the garage's final position.  In other words, the second wall is going to be higher and longer than it is in this shot.

 

 Looking towards the awesome front door crafted by Simon Guest (master joiner) you can see the ramp we have put in place on the top set of steps to run the wheelbarrow up and down.

 RECIPE TIME!

Working with SuperAdobe for long hours builds up quite an appetite, and this past week saw the AltShift boys on a skint budget with limited ingredients.  A new holy grail of food was discovered under the circumstances, and we'd like to share it with you.  Dubbed 'The Magic Melt', the creation is a combination of garlic bread, stir-fry, and avocado melt.  

Basically without going into too much detail (but feel free to ask questions), take a nice oversized piece of bread (preferably focaccia or ciabatta) and toast it lightly so it is a bit crispy.  Make yourself some garlic butter by melting a good 3-4 tablespoons of butter with 4 cloves of garlic on the stove.  Drench the bread with the garlic butter. Take an avocado and mash it up to create guacamole and spread it on the bread Then prepare some stir-fry with your favorite vegetables (we had mushrooms, broccoli, carrot, and kumara (sweet potato)) and place them on top of the avocado spread.  Next comes a slight fork in the road where you can choose to take it to a new level, or just throw the cheese on and call it good, but if you want to experience the full magic you'll need to fry two eggs.  Attempting to keep the yolk liquid-y, place the fried eggs on top of the stir-fried vegetables, and then blanket it all in a few slices of cheese. Then pop it into the oven to grill for a few minutes to melt the cheese and then bust out the fork and knife and prepare yourself for a treat- you won't be disappointed!