Red Dirt Mummy

Hello There

2011-03-10T14:29:00.000+08:00

I tried really hard to make this site work again but, alas, it's not going to plan. So instead I've imported the whole thing across to my new blog - On The Sunny Side.

I really hope that, if you're still checking in here, you'll come across and join me there.

I Am...

2011-03-10T11:07:00.000+08:00

eating banana cake and enjoying every single mouthful. I'm thinking there's gonna have to be an extra 4km walk fitted in somewhere today!

I'm not falling off the wagon again. I've made a deliberate decision to enjoy a small piece of cake and then eat carefully and sensibly for the rest of the day. The old me would have scoffed two pieces of cake, felt sick, then gone back for more later.

Gratituesday

2011-03-09T07:25:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was hectic so I'm sneaking this in first thing Wednesday morning.

As I said, yesterday was hectic. Hectic. HECTIC! I worked back late and raced home to grab in washing and get dinner on thinking I'd have to sacrifice my walk to make a meeting at 7.30 that night. Instead I arrived home to kids playing nicely and a Hubby getting dinner sorted. I did grab the washing in then chucked on my sneakers and took off for my walk and got back to dinner being served. When we'd finished eating Hubby wrangled the kids into the shower while I showered and dressed for my meeting and then headed out leaving him to do the bedtime stuff.

So, today, I'm really glad to have a wonderful husband who steps up when I need him to. Especially one who steps up without me having to ask.

Thanks Honey. I love you. xx

Warning: Gratuitous Kitten Post

2011-03-07T13:16:00.000+08:00

What is it about cats and comfy places to sleep? Spike is only 10 weeks old and he's already found the best place to nap.

Sadly for him the ironing pile is no longer there. It's all ironed and put away so he's had to settle for the couch instead. It's a hard life alright - sleeping, eating and no chores!

Oh. Hello.

2011-03-06T16:03:00.000+08:00

Sorry, it's been a while. I feel like I have lots I want to say but... time gets away and then I can't decide if I want to say it anymore and, truth be told, I miss Red Dirt Mummy way more than I thought I would. I'm still thinking about what to do about that.

In brief dot point,here's what's been happening:

- kids are both good. Badly behaved right this very second, but otherwise fine.

- I'm feeling very much over the whole motherhood gig right now. I need a babysitter and a couple of hours away from both the house and my offspring VERY badly. But it's not likely to happen anytime soon so I will just have to, as the saying goes, suck it up Princess!

- work is Flat Out. I hardly every manage a lunch break - lunch is snatched at my desk while I work furiously to get tasks done before yet more people arrive at my door with demands I can't meet. It's exhausting and my head spins the whole time I'm there. Sadly it means I think about work a whole lot more than I should when I'm not there too.

- Hubby has hurt his arm quite badly so, along with being a wee bit bad-tempered because of the pain, he is terribly frustrated by all the things he can't do. Not pretty.

- Further to that all work on the house has come to a grinding halt.

- The new kitty is growing nicely. He's cute and fluffy and purry and we're all slavishly devoted to him. I would however like if he would stop weeing on my bed. Yes, you read that right.

- We had a stompingly good storm earlier in the week. It was all rather exciting with massive rain, spectacular wind gusts, an amazing thunder storm and trees falling down all about the place. There was so much rain that the nearly-empty water tank filled up inside less than 30 minutes. It was all very exciting right up until the power stayed off for 30 odd hours and everything in the freezer partially defrosted resulting in it all needing to be thrown out. Also the kitchen ceiling at Mum's place cracked and partly caved in because of the amount of water that hit the roof and I had to deal with the housesitter and the insurance company in her "I'm on a lovely long holiday on the other side of the country and I won't be back till April" absence.

- And partly because of the stress at work, the lack of power, dealing with Mum's place and a lack of attention to detail I completely fell off the healthy lifestyle wagon this week. Like, I'm lying in the muddy path having been run over by the wagon's wheels, kind of fell off. So I'm beating myself up about that and feeling crappy.

Sorry. This isn't a remotely sunny side up kind of post but I feel a whole heap better having just spewed all that out. So I guess it kind of served a purpose.

And to borrow a phrase from Kim at allconsuming... onward!

Gratituesday

2011-02-08T21:18:00.000+08:00

Thing's I'm happy, grateful or otherwise thankful about this week:

The new little man who has stolen my heart (see previous post!)
That I'm sticking to my new 'healthy lifestyle plan' and, at yesterday's check in (ie weigh in) I'd lost 2 kilo's.
We've had no hiccups with school yet.
We added after-school care into the mix today and the kids were disappointed that Daddy arrived so early because they didn't get to have their afternoon tea.
I made some yummy Lamb Koftas for dinner tonight from taste.com.au and everyone liked them. There's one left and my boy has 'baggsed' it for his lunch.

Introducing....

2011-02-06T21:23:00.000+08:00

our newest family member. Spike.

He's six weeks old, slightly mental in the way that only kittens (and puppies) can be and has just about stolen my heart.

We saw him yesterday and Hubby, who is usually the hard-hearted one and had sworn he didn't ever want another cat, decided then and there that this little boy was the cat for us. He did some serious sweet-talking until I caved and so we collected him today.

The kids are completely captivated and if they don't kill poor Spike with kindess or wear him out completely with their 'playing' within the week I'll be pleasantly surprised.

An Excellent Day

2011-02-02T22:01:00.000+08:00

The kids both had a fantastic first day at school. My boy came home bubbling over about all that had happened through the day and my girl was just happy which makes me one very relieved Mummy. I headed back to work after two and half weeks off and also had a great day - busy, didn't stop, ran like a crazy woman all day long, but great. I'm very lucky to have an awesome boss who 'gets' the whole working mum thing and is very flexible so I was only at work for 4 or 5 hours today so that I could deliver and collect the kids on their first day.

And, being the loving Mum I am, I made their favourite meal for dinner. I really did get extra points when I served up the spag bol!

So a nice short work day, happy kids and the work/mum thing balancing nicely. All in all an excellent day.

Gratituesday

2011-02-01T20:35:00.000+08:00

School goes back tomorrow (and that's a whole lot of thankfulness all by itself!) and we stopped in to collect uniforms and find out about classes/teachers today. I'm so pleased. My boy has the teacher we were hoping for and the class I wanted him in. Yay, yay, yay. Here's hoping this year is going to be brilliant for him.

Cooking Mojo v Huge Butt

2011-01-31T20:34:00.000+08:00

The sixth season of The Biggest Loser Australia started last night and, for the first time in its history, I'm planning to not sit on my butt and eat chocolate while I watch it. I want to lose eight kilograms. It was six but Christmas added one kilo and then last week's road trip/bakery run added another. So now it's eight.

Tonight the first episode of My Kitchen Rules is screening on a different channel and I can feel my cooking mojo coming back. So not fair. But I will use my cooking mojo for good not evil and channel it into healthy, weight loss-y type meals.

In an effort to up my activity level I've walked around the block every day for the past five days. The block is 3.3 km's so not too bad an effort. And I'm doing it with a neighbour who fairly bolts along so we're doing it in about 20 minutes. And sweating a bucketload. I think we're just about ready to start doing the block twice.

Now to reduce my meal sizes and get rid of the rubbish. You know, the cookies and cakes that I love. And coke. And chocolate. Always with the chocolate.

Cook, Cook, Cooking

2011-01-30T20:46:00.000+08:00

Despite the absolutely revoltingly hot weather we've had over the past few days I've been busy in the kitchen gearing up for back to school and the need to fill lunch-boxes. My girl will be starting full time school this year so three days a week I'll be trying to get lunch boxes sorted for all four of us and the other two days I'll only have three lunches to organise. I know both the kids like variety so I'm trying to come up with a system where they can have sandwiches a couple of days a week and have different kinds of lunches to mix it up a bit. Since I already bake most weekends I'm just planning to get a wee bit more organised and bake something savoury for the lunchboxes as well as something treat-like that can be popped into the lunchbox a couple of times a week. The biggest challenge will be making sure I can freeze it. The grand-plan is that I'll make sandwiches the days I don't work (and in theory am less rushed in the morning) and grab things from the freezer on the days I do work. That said, it'll still be me directing the lunchbox filling. It won't be a free-for-all choose-what-you-want kinda thing. For one, they're kids so they don't always cope well with lots of choices. For two, my head would explode.

So to get through the first week and give us a bit of surplus to fall back on I've made meatballs, cheese and bacon muffins and our very favourite choc-chip cookies.

I figure the kids will eat two or three meatballs and I'll pack a small container of vegie and cheese sticks to go with them. The muffins can be sliced and buttered - and since they're a bit dry due to a touch of overcooking I think they'll need it - and I'll send some sliced vegies or perhaps some dried fruit to go with them. Add in their drink bottle and a piece of fruit and they're all set.

I have some more ideas and a few recipes put aside but I'd love to hear what you do for school lunches. Got any ideas you want to share?

Gratituesday (a couple of days late!)

2011-01-27T20:45:00.000+08:00

I didn't have access to the internet on Tuesday because I was traipsing 'round the countryside on the family road trip so this week's edition of Gratituesday should maybe be called Gratithursday instead.

The thing I'm most grateful for this week is being able to run away and spend time with my family. We had a ball on our short holiday - the kids enjoyed themselves (which was actually the main purpose) and Hubby and I relaxed and enjoyed just being with the kids. Here are a few playground pics of my lot having fun.

Road Trip

2011-01-26T14:39:00.000+08:00

We just got back from a three day road trip. We (okay, I) decided that we all needed to get out of the house for a couple of day and do some fun stuff so I sweet-talked Hubby into a quick road-trip. We stopped at playgrounds, snacked at bakeries, walked through the forest and saw more dams and weirs than the kids ever wanted to see in their lives. We found camp-sites that we're planning to head back to, tourist-y things that we'll see next time and tried to make sure that we finished off the school holidays with lots of fun. Photos will follow! You've been warned.

Lovin' The New Barbie

2011-01-23T20:59:00.000+08:00

Barbecue that is! Hubby has been perfecting the art of pizza-making in the hooded barbie. I'm torn between telling him how fantastic they are and telling him they're not quite right so he'll keep experimenting and we can eat more yummy pizza.

My favourite - Moroccan Lamb

The kids' favourite - Hawaiian

And a pic I couldn't resist adding - Daddy's girl loving her cheesy pizza.

Lunch With Friends

2011-01-22T11:15:00.000+08:00

This weekend we were supposed to be having a rather larger catch-up with a whole heap of friends from when we were teaching up in the middle of nowhere but it didn't quite all manage to come together. Several were away on holidays (it is after all the long summer hol's here), some couldn't make it and a few just didn't let me know one way or the other so when we ended up with only a very small number coming we made the decision to postpone the big catch-up to a later date.

So instead of twelve or so families to lunch we've got just one family coming and we're so excited to be seeing them. They live about an hour and a half away and, with five kids between us, a variety of full-time, part-time and shift work for the adults and the general stuff that keeps us all busy, finding time to catch up can be a little tricky.

The meal itself has been very much thrown together at the last minute:

Butterflied, marinated chicken cooked on the new bbq - courtesy of the butcher at Woolies.

A big garden salad.

Roasted garlic potatoes.

And for dessert - my favourite pavlova.

Add in the wine that's chilling, relaxing on the new deck and all the kids running around together and I think we're in for a lovely afternoon.

Brotherly Love

2011-01-21T16:56:00.000+08:00

My boy has been learning to play chess. Now he's trying to teach his sister. She's easier to beat than his Dad.

Just Plain Rude (Or Mandi's On Her Soapbox Again)

2011-01-19T15:30:00.000+08:00

We were in the waiting room of a radiology place this morning and, because I knew we'd be there a while, I'd thrown some colouring/puzzle books and pencils into my bag for the kids. They were so perfectly behaved and I was so proud of them - no fighting, yelling, pointing, staring, etc. Yes, we'd drummed it into them during the car-ride but still, I was happy.

It's a pretty big clinic with several areas to wait and as you check in at the desk you're directed to a particular area. My girl was sitting on the floor colouring and my boy was sitting on the chair next to me looking at a car magazine when three women came into the section we were in. There were only two spare chairs and as I went to ask him to hop off his chair he was already sliding off and getting comfy on the floor. Again with the Mummy-pride. I smiled a the lady nearest me, nodding towards the empty chair to indicate that it was free. And without returning my smile, nodding at my boy or indicated in any way at all that he'd just hopped up for her she sat down and carried on her conversation with the two other women who were now spread across the area.

I was kinda gobsmacked to be honest. I'm all for kids giving up seats for adults. But I also think that common courtesy dictates that the child is thanked for doing so. How on earth are we supposed to reinforce good behaviour if we don't even acknowledge it? For every rotten, spoilt, no-good kid that gets talked about I guarantee I can find you an equally rude adult who lacks basic manners. Just because it's a child not another adult doesn't give you a free 'rude' pass.

We talked about it in the car later and I told my boy that I was proud of him for giving up his seat and I was disappointed that the lady he stood up for didn't even say thankyou. He told me he knew that standing up for an adult was the right thing to do and that's why he'd done it. As for the lady involved not thanking him? As he said, that's just rude.

Gratituesday

2011-01-18T20:43:00.000+08:00

In case you missed the idea of Gratituesday when I started it a few weeks ago, here's the recap...

Yeah, I totally made that word up. But the idea behind it is something I'm planning to do each week. Working on the 'glass half full' mindset that I'm striving for I'm actively looking for the little things in my life that I'm grateful for, thankful for or otherwise just plain happy about. Of course some of them are big things. Huge even. But the little things tend to get lost in the day-do-day bits of living. My Tuesday posts are going to be short - a photo or two and a few words about whatever I'm feeling grateful for that week. If you want to join in on your blog leave a note in the comments and I'll come check it out. Or, if you're not a blogger, just leave a comment saying what you're grateful for.

So today's Gratituesday post.

Hubby and I took the kids to the movies today. We saw the new Disney movie, Tangled, which is based on the story of Rapunzel. We all loved it (and yes, I cried!) but what I loved most was when my girl climbed onto my lap about thirty minutes into the movie and snuggled in for a cuddle. She stayed there til near the end of the movie when my legs were completely dead and I had no feeling left in my feet and only hopped off after I begged her to go sit on her Daddy's lap for a while. And when we left the movie her little hand found its way into mine and stayed there.And that makes my heart feel good.

Girl's Day Out

2011-01-16T21:01:00.000+08:00

My boys were invited to a birthday party (the small boy as a playmate to the birthday boy and the rather bigger boy as a playmate to the birthday boy's dad!) so the girl-child and I decided a 'girl's day out' was in order. Among other things we planned to do a little shopping and go out for lunch but the first item on our agenda was the most important as far as I was concerned. And that first item? Getting the girl a haircut.

And so.... here's the before shot. Lots of hair and a cheekier-than-cheeky grin.

And the after shot. Neat and sweet and so much easier to get the tangles out.

Tonight's Sunday night hair-washing routine was about 148 times easier and drying it was even simpler than that. Gotta love that.

2011-01-15T07:58:00.000+08:00

It's been a little quiet here this week. With the tragedy unfolding throughout Queensland everything I thought of posting seemed trivial and a little ridiculous. As one of my cousins wrote on Facebook earlier in the week, "You can't complain about the rain when you're moving house when other people are having their house moved by the rain. Good luck QLD!!!"

But life does go on and it has been awe-inspiring watching people start the clean-up as the flood waters have receded. People who weren't affected are out helping their neighbours, young couples whose first house has been almost destroyed by the water have shrugged their shoulders, put on their wellies and dug in to start cleaning. I'm sure there are many tears being shed but the message coming across is one of strength and unity. It will take months for Queensland to get back on it's feet. In some cases, it's fair to say it will take years. But with nearly $50 million in donations from Australian people in just a few days, the support of politicians, the manpower of the army and of course the strength of the Queenslanders themselves one thing you can guarantee is that it will be rebuilt.

I was planning to donate to the flood appeal but have had a different idea instead. I'm going to buy gift vouchers for a group of nation-wide stores to the same value as I would have donated and send them to a friend in Queensland who knows some people badly affected - one of her friends had water three meters above her roof. She has a three year old child and their house is uninhabitable and Felicity is going to pass the vouchers on to her for immediate use.

Gratituesday

2011-01-11T20:54:00.000+08:00

I've been watching the news updates on the flooding in Queensland all day and can hardly believe what I'm seeing. A good third of the state is affected by the floods.You can see a map of how many towns are affected here. And we're not talking about a little bit of water. Whole towns are under water, houses have been ripped from their foundations and swept away, people are dead and families are missing. Toowoomba had a catastrophic flash flood this morning that has been called and 'inland tsunami' - watch this news report and see the sheer force of the water that swept through the town.

In my own state we've had a massive fire burning out of control an hour or so south of Perth after an arsonist decided it would be fun to the bush alight. Five houses have burnt to the ground and hundreds of acres have been burnt out. To the north, Carnarvon is dealing with the aftermath of two floods, the worst in the history of the town, in as many weeks with houses flattened, banana plantations destroyed and peoples lives ruined.

I guess for this Gratituesday I'm so thankful to be safe and dry in my own little house. I know where my family are and that they're all safe. I'm glad to be Australian and know that the people of this wonderful country will band together to help all those affected by the devastation.

*Edited to add, this is now the biggest disaster that Australia has ever seen. It has affected 75% of Queensland, an absolutely huge area. To put it into perspective it is approximately twice the size of Texas. The death toll grows each day as the water subsides and more bodies are found.

Inspirational People

2011-01-10T21:12:00.000+08:00

A loooong time ago I went to school with a boy called Clinton. Not so long ago we reconnected on Facebook and I've been following his progress to lose weight and get fit. Let's not beat about the bush. He is one big man. But, he used to be a lot bigger and sometime in the future he's hoping to be a lot smaller. Being the complete sloth I am, I'm in awe of the stuff he does - he's taken part in triathlons, done some seriously massive bike rides and even ran in the annual City to Surf race last year. A few days ago he posted that he'd decided to take part in a marathon. Seriously? A marathon? I weigh a little less than half of what he currently does and I can't be bothered getting off my bum to walk around the block. Sure, I can say that the block is 3.8 kilometres but really, that's just an excuse and we all know it.

Today he posted that he'd started a blog, Run Fatboy Run, proving that not only is he up for a challenge but that he can have a laugh along the way. I hope you'll go check out his new blog and join me in cheering him on from the bloggy sidelines. Who knows, he might even inspire me to actually get off the couch (or computer, as the case might be!).

It's Party-Time (All Year Long!)

2011-01-09T12:02:00.000+08:00

This is the year of the 40th's in my circle of friends and we kicked off last night with a girlfriend's 70's Disco party. They had decorated with mirror balls and mirrored walls and coloured lights, the food was 70's style with vol-au-vents, pigs in blankets (the prune wrapped in bacon thing), jelly moulded guacamole, cheese fondue, lasagna, and a whole heap of other fun things. We drank waaaay too much bubbly, laughed at each other's outfits, admired the guy's porn star moustaches, danced to some great 70's music and had a total blast.

I've woken up this morning to the startling realisation that while I feel like I'm about 28 my body is, in fact, heading for 40. Oh my aching knees after dancing in wedge heels all night long. Oh my aching head after one, or possibly two, too many glasses of champers. And oh my poor hair. I tried to do the Farrah-flick with not a great deal of success. Three different sets of curlers and half a can of hairspray later it looked not all that different to how it does every single day. Just a lot more gunk in it. Oh well, we've a few more 70's parties to get through so by the end of the year I might have managed to work it out.

Here's me and my man in our very glam disco gear. I'm loving his open neck shirt, medallion and hairy chest! I'm not quite so sure about the mo, but then again I haven't actually seen his naked chin in about 12 years so it's all a bit of shock.

Swapping Roles

2011-01-07T18:35:00.000+08:00

Despite the actual working every day part I'm quite enjoying the role swap that's going on in our house at the moment. I'm working full time for a few weeks while Hubby is on school hol's with the kids. Thank heavens this week is a short week - four days has left me worn out! But I've loved coming home each day to a house that has been tidied and dinner that's been prepared and is then cooked for me. Awesome. Let me say it again.... Awe. Some!

Tonight when I walked in he poured me a drink, asked how to make my fave Moroccan lamb pizza and set to it. It's now cooking on (well, in really) the bbq - I simply provided instructions, he did the whole lot - and I'm enjoying a glass of bubbles. Again with the awesome.

And on even more levels of awesome he also did the grocery shopping today. And put it all away. Bucket full of AWESOME!!

Sorry girls, he's all mine and I'm keeping him.

Making Excuses

2011-01-06T20:11:00.000+08:00

I don't normally drink during the week. Partly because I figure I don't need the extra calories and partly because I'm not that big a drinker anyway so it's pretty easy to save a nice glass of something for the weekend. But sometimes something special happens and a celebratory drink is called for. In this case it was the christening of a very special Christmas present. Something Hubby and I had been wanting for a long time but couldn't quite afford. Or couldn't quite justify. Or couldn't agree on. Or all of the above. And then we found it, the very thing that would make our lives that much better.

And the maiden voyage of anything, even the new barbie, calls for a glass or two of bubbly. Right?

Aaah, the serenity.

2011-01-05T20:23:00.000+08:00

(Name that movie for bonus points!)

The kids are fast asleep in bed, I'm eating chocolate and enjoying a cup of tea and all is quiet except for the steady drip of rain on the tin roof. And, because I stayed up too late watching a movie last night, I'm planning to have an early night. After a couple of weeks holiday the 6am alarm comes around way too early.

Gratituesday

2011-01-04T20:31:00.000+08:00

Gratituesday - Week 1

I love that, despite the expensive presents they received, the electronic gadgets and games they own and their never-ending wishlists for more STUFF, both the kids have spent literally hours playing with these inexpensive plastic hula hoops that Santa left for them. Tonight they spent an hour after dinner laughing their heads off and I couldn't resist grabbing the camera to snap some quick shots.

Kid Friendly

2011-01-03T20:26:00.000+08:00

I came across a recipe for chicken tenderloins that looked good AND seemed like one that would appeal to the fussy creature who resides in my house (no, nothing's changed there!). Of course, apart from the chicken, I didn't actually have any of the ingredients so I made it up as I went along and came up with a simple, tasty dinner that everyone in the house enjoyed. Even the fussy one.

Crunchy Chicken Sticks

Put 500g chicken tenderloins, halved lengthways, into a large bowl. Add one or two cloves or crushed garlic, 1 teaspoon ground dried ginger, a tablespoon each of soy sauce, fish sauce and honey. Mix thoroughly so that the chicken is properly coated in the marinade. Pop this into the fridge while you go about the rest of your day.

When you're ready to cook dinner preheat the oven to 180C. Then put three cups of cornflakes into a BIG ziplock bag and (making sure the bag is zipped closed!) give the bag to one of the kids and get them to smash up the cornflakes. When that's done to your satisfaction add three tablespoons on sesame seeds and mix them into the cornflakes. Throw the marinaded chicken into the bag and mix it all around until the chicken in nicely crumbed.

Line two baking trays with baking paper. Lay out the chicken pieces on the trays. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the crumbs are golden brown and the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with a lovely big salad and some sweet chilli sauce (or tomato sauce if small fussy children are involved) for dipping.

If you're really lucky there might by two or three pieces of chicken left that you can take to work for lunch the next day while the rest of your family enjoys the third week of their seven week summer holiday. That's right, they're on holidays and I'll be back at work. There is a sunny side - I'm glad I have a school teacher hubby who is on holidays at the same time as the kids. It makes child care arrangements a whole heap easier. I just might need to be reminded of that towards the end of the week when I'm dragging my butt out the door and they're all still in their pj's watching cartoons.

New Year. New Blog.

2011-01-02T20:56:00.000+08:00

Once upon a time I moved to the north-west of Western Australia and decided I should start a blog. That blog was Red Dirt Mummy and it served me well for four years - even after we'd moved back to Perth and no longer lived in the red dirt. Then my blog broke and, with it, my blogging mojo trickled away until I just didn't want to do it anymore.

I took six months away and came to the happy realisation that I really, really missed blogging. I missed sharing my successes (and failures) in the kitchen, the funny/clever/silly things my kids did and I missed the interaction with other bloggers. So, with the new year comes a new blog. I'm striving to do things a little differently this time round - a little less cooking and a lot more looking on the sunny side.

I've Found A New Home

2010-07-27T20:12:00.003+08:00

Yep, I'm giving Wordpress a try. Not althogether thrilled to pieces by that at the moment but give me time and I'm sure I'll warm to it. Here's where you can find me now.

Hope I see you over there.

Still Broken

2010-07-26T14:12:00.003+08:00

Well, the blog is still broken and I can't work out how to fix it. It won't do what I want, I can't load any photos and I seem to have lost half the buttons I need when writing a post.

I'll keep trying for a bit longer but... I'm a little bit afraid this might be the end.

Oops!

2010-07-21T21:43:00.002+08:00

I just broke my blog. I'm doing my best to get it sorted out but, with my somewhat limited technical knowledge, it might take a while. Please bear with me.

Chuffed

2010-07-20T20:08:00.003+08:00

I'm really feeling rather chuffed with myself right at the moment. First day back at school after two and a half weeks of sleep-ins, pyjama days and a complete and utter lack of rushing and I managed to get everyone ready, packed and out of the door on time. I worked today and for dinner we had a delicious Beef and Red Wine Stew that I'd popped into the freezer a couple of weeks ago. I'm working again tomorrow and dinner for then is taken care of too - Spag bol that I made over the weekend and froze for Wednesday night. School clothes have been laid out ready for the morning and I've bought fresh rolls for tomorrow's lunches. My organisational skills appear to know no bounds.

Don't worry, it's only the first week of term. I'm pretty sure we'll be hitting the tinned baked beans and toast for dinner, rummaging through the ironing basket and resorting to lunch orders at some point through the term.

Big Dreams For A Little Girl

2010-07-19T17:51:00.003+08:00

Offspring #2 has decided that she will be a doctor when she grows up. She's also decided that she will have a pink 'Herbie car' ie a VW Beetle, and a pink purse. These aren't new plans, she's been talking about them for at least the last four months.

Today she added to them. Her latest plan is that she'll live next door to me so we can have "lots of cups of teas together" and "we can talk to each other over the fence". Sometimes I'll even be allowed to go to her house for dinner, though I might have to cook it because she'll be very busy working, "being a doctor and fixing all the people who are hurt".

Those are big dreams for a tiny little four year old and of course she's going to change her mind a million time between now and actually being a 'grown up' but I'm loving these conversations.

Cheesecake With A Twist

2010-07-18T15:13:00.005+08:00

I'll freely admit that while this recipe had me excited it also had me a little perplexed. How on earth do you make a cheesecake without gelatine, or some sort of setting agent? Without a crust? And as for serving it warm? Well, that's just plain weird. But... this is easily one of the best desserts I've made. I took it to our Christmas in July dinner and it was absolutely delicious, perfect for a wet, cold winter's night and totally simple to put together.

Sticky Date Cheesecake

from The Australian Women's Weekly Cheesecakes Pavlovas and Trifles

This cheesecake can be served warm or at room temperature

1 cup (170g) dried dates, pitted, chopped

3/4 cup (180ml) water

3 x 250g packets cream cheese, softened

2 eggs, beaten lightly

2/3 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon mixed spice

1/2 cup (40g) flaked almonds

1 teaspoon cinnamon sugar

2/3 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar, extra

1/2 cup (125ml) cream

100g butter, chopped

Grease a 23cm springform tin; line base and side with baking paper

Combine dated and water in medium saucepan; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Strain dates over medium saucepan; reserve liquid, cool dates.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to moderately slow (160C). Beat cheese in large bowl with electric mixer until smooth; add egg, sugar and spices; beat until combined, fold in dates.

Place tin on oven tray, pour cheesecake mixture into tin. Sprinkle with almonds and cinnamon sugar. Bake in moderately slow oven about 1 hour, or until firm. Cool in oven with door ajar.

Stir remaining ingredients to reserved date liquid in pan, stir over heat until butter is melted; simmer, uncovered , 2 minutes.

Serve cheesecake with warm sauce.

Fun In The Kitchen

2010-07-15T19:54:00.007+08:00

Offspring #2 had a friend to play today and, as it's school holidays I thought we'd do something a bit special and fun. I'd promised her that when this particular friend came to play we could do some cooking and when I came across these gorgeous little cupcakes I knew we had to make them.

These were so easy but looked fantastic. I cheated and used a cake mix for the cupcake part - chocolate, of course. Then it was a simple matter of topping them with some green icing, rolling the edge in a little tinted coconut, popping in a lollypop 'flower' and using a halved spearmint leaf lolly as the leaves.

The girls had so much fun decorating them and were, justifiably, well pleased with their efforts.

No Time To Blog

2010-07-12T19:56:00.003+08:00

I have the mums here for knitting - they're busy with difficult things like jumpers (sweaters for you lot in the US) while I'm onto yet another scarf. At least this one is with fluffy pretty wool so it'll look a little bit different from the other 932 scarves I've made.

A Mid-Winter Christmas Feast

2010-07-11T18:18:00.005+08:00

As my readers from other lands are no doubt aware, here in the land Down-under Christmas falls smack in the middle of summer. Most of us have fond (or not!) memories of sweltering through a stinking hot Christmas made even hotter by the ancestors need for a 'proper', ie cooked, Christmas dinner. Imagine, if you will, all the stresses of hosting Christmas for the family while dealing with our summer days of 35-40C temps and cooking the full roast dinner, with steamed pudding to finish. Urrggghhh. I'm very happy with the current trend of salads, cold roasted meats and fresh seafood followed up by dreamy cool desserts like my favourite pavlova.

But... such a dinner has it's place and part of the fun of our Christmas in July dinner was to have all the warm dishes we simply don't want in the middle of summer. And my word, did we ever meet that requirement!

My soup course, though a little spicier than I'd anticipated, was well received and just perfect for a wet, rainy winter's night. Some natural yoghurt took the edge off the spice and Turkish Bread Croutons were something different to top the soup. I will definitely be making this one again.

I doubled the recipe for our dinner party but have provided the original version here. The photo is from the leftovers that Hubby and I enjoyed for lunch today.

Moroccan Sweet Potato, Carrot and Chickpea Soup

from taste.com.au - The Very Useful Winter Book

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large brown onion, roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon chilli powder

600g orange sweet potato, peeled, diced

500g carrots, peeled, sliced

6 cups reduced-salt chicken stock (I added some extra water)

300g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed

1/2 small lemon, juiced

Turkish bread croutons, to serve

1. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes. Stir in coriander, cumin and chilli powder. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add sweet potato and carrot. Cook, stirring often for 5 minutes. Add stock. Cover. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.

2. Add chickpeas and simmer, covered for 10 minutes or until chickpeas are tender.

3. Blend soup, in batches, until smooth. Return to saucepan over medium-low heat. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Heat, stirring, until hot (do not boil). Ladle into bowls. Top with croutons. Sprinkle with pepper.

Turkish Bread Croutons

Halve a Turkish loaf lenghtways and chop into 2cm cubes. Spray lightly with olive oil spray. Place on a tray and bake at 200C for 10 minutes or until golden.

Merry Christmas!

2010-07-10T16:40:00.004+08:00

No, I haven't gone completely loopy. I'm off to a Christmas In July dinner with a few of the neighbours tonight. There are five households involved and we 'made' the couple with the biggest house play host. Sounds mean but theirs is they only place we'll all fit comfortably into (and they volunteered for that very reason!). We've divied up the menu to come up with five courses and are taking/making a couple of things each - I've made two new recipes which is a bit risky so I'm hoping they'll be well received. The first is a Moroccan Sweet Potato, Carrot and Chickpea soup that, from this afternoon's taste test, is delicious but rather spicy. The second is a Sticky Date Cheesecake. That's the one I'm not sure about. It can be served warm or at room temperature and has a warm caramel-y sauce to pour over it. Fingers crossed it's going to come out of the tin okay otherwise everyone will be getting a scoop of gloop in their dessert bowls!

We've got enough food to feed a small nation, Christmas Crackers, Secret Santa gifts, drinks on ice and kids spending the night with their grandparents. Now I have to get myself showered and prettied up and then it's across the road and down a bit for FUN FUN FUN.

And The Winner Is....

2010-07-08T15:46:00.006+08:00

Congratulations Donna! I'll be in touch to organise your voucher. Can't wait to see what you get with it.

Many thanks to Buyster for providing the voucher for their online store for this giveaway. And many thanks to all of you for leaving such gorgeous comments - you guys rock!

Quickly Running In... To Whinge

2010-07-07T20:46:00.005+08:00

I've been working the past couple of days while the school-teaching Hubby has been enjoying the school hol's with the kids. Why is it that when he comes home from work it's to a nice tidy house, a nice meal for dinner and the laundry is generally pretty up-to-date but when he's home and I'm working I come home to house that looks like it threw up on itself. Okay, that's possibly just a bit of a bitchy over-reaction but dammit, the house was messier when I got home that it was when I left.

Is anyone else having trouble with facebook? I haven't been able to get in all day and I may well be suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Offspring #2 has a cold and has ever so kindly shared it, in varying degrees, with the rest of us. I'm doing my best to fight it but when you're allergic to pretty much everything that contains good doses of vitamin C it does make it a little difficult. I've hit my fallback position- hot tea and buttered toast. On the plus side she's had a cold for three days and hasn't had an asthma attack yet - this is actually HUGE news - it's the first time ever that she's deviated from the regular pattern of 'onset of cold followed two hours later by asthma attack followed by several days of misery and nights of wheezing, coughing, puking and no sleep'. I don't want to jinx things by saying that this is a massive development and we're a teeny little bit excited so I just won't tell you that.

Anyway, whining aside... don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already. It closes at 12noon (my time) Thursday so hop to it.

A Lovely Day For A Picnic

2010-07-04T20:32:00.010+08:00

We caught up with some friends today for a picnic up at Mundaring Weir. The weir provides water to pretty much all of Perth and, because of the lack of rain in these parts, is looking very low.

Miss Charlotte, who attended my morning tea a few weeks back, was there in all her sleepy, cuddly, 7 or so week old glory. She is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous and my friend C and I fought over cuddles throughout the day.

We had a yummy bbq picnic lunch and the kids played and kicked the footy, explored and even found kangaroos. Sorry, we didn't get photos of them but I'll head back later this week and get some special kangaroo pics just for those of you who I know will be eager to see them. After lunch we took a walk across the weir wall.

And then climbed steps, steps and more steps on the way back.

And we made sure we crossed the road at the safest spot!

And just to prove that sometimes I do manage to be on the other side of the camera... here's me, looking very glamorous (NOT!) on the drive home.

It was a lovely, if freezing cold, day (16C today, but blue skies and sunny for the most part) and a terrific way to start the school holidays.

PS: Don't forget the giveaway. It's open till Thursday.

No Time To Read

2010-07-03T20:17:00.003+08:00

I have never really understood when people say they haven't time to read. For me, reading is like breathing. A necessary part of life. Without something to read I feel adrift and deprived. I read every single day - thrillers, chick-lit, mysteries, romances, biographies, magazines and newspapers. I re-read old favourites. And re-read and re-read and re-read - some are on my regular annual reading list, some I read every couple of years. The staff at the local library know me by name, the lady who looks after the book department at Big W knows my face and is usually keen to recommend something new or suggest something that she thinks I'll like. Yes, she has an idea of what I like. I'm not sure if that says something about how good she is at her job or how often I'm there, or maybe a little bit of both.

I never really understood it until I hit June. You might have noticed that my reading list hasn't been updated for some time. I've been busy knitting and I really haven't mastered that well enough to be able to read at the same time - I can barely manage to cope with having the tv on while I'm knitting! I've also been working my head off and any spare time I've had has been spent wrangling the kids, sorting meals, trying to keep the washing pile contained in the laundry and of course digging up bricks, pulling out plants and ripping down rock walls. And reading in bed proved pointless - I was so exhausted by the time I fell into bed each night that I kept falling asleep with my book in my hand and clunking myself if the head.

Despite that I have snuck in the odd bit of reading but each book has taken far longer to get through than normal. I finally read a book that I picked up at a second-hand store ages ago. I also hit Chantalle's suggestion, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which I really enjoyed so I followed it up with the rest of the Millennium Trilogy. And I've just borrowed Lunch in Paris from a friend and can't wait to get into that. Thank goodness we've hit school holidays and, while I'll still be working a couple of days each week, things will slow down a wee bit. Which means I'll be finding some time to hit the couch with a book.

On a semi-related note, our state newspaper published a list of the top 100 books as voted by its readers this week. I've read about 40 of the 100 which I thought wasn't a bad effort but I was a bit annoyed that the first three on the list are each a series of books. The Twilight Saga, all the Harry Potter's and the Millennium Trilogy all count as one book each whereas, by my reckoning, there are 14 books in that lot. Here's the whole list, with what I've read hightlighted in blue. How many have you read?

Top 100 List
1 The Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer
2 Harry Potter 1-7, J.K. Rowling
3 The Millennium Trilogy,Stieg Larsson
4 To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
5 The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
6 Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
7 My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult
8 Sookie Stackhouse, Charlaine Harris
9 The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
10 The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
11 Lunch in Paris, Elizabeth Bard
12 The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
13 Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
14 61 Hours, Lee Child
15 Dragon Haven, Robin Hobb
16 Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead
17 The Silent Sea, Clive Cussler
18 Mao's Last Dancer, Li Cunxin
19 The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
20 Tuscan Rose, Belinda Alexandra
21 The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
22 The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks
23 The Pacific, Hugh Ambrose
24 Ransom, David Malouf
25 Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
26 Dear John, Nicholas Sparks
27 Magician, Raymond E. Feist
28 The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
29 House Rules, Jodi Picoult
30 Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
31 A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
32 Marley & Me, John Grogan
33 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, Jane Austen & Steve
34 Breath, Tim Winton
35 The Bronze Horseman, Paullina Simons
36 Cloudstreet, Tim Winton
37 The People's Train, Thomas Keneally
38 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
39 Truth, Peter Temple
40 Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
41 Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
42 The Host, Stephenie Meyer
43 The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
44 The Book of Emmett, Deborah Forster
45 Ice Station, Matthew Reilly
46 The Road, Cormac Macarthy
47 The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards
48 Persuasion, Jane Austen
49 Jessica, Bryce Courtenay

50 Atonement,Ian McEwan
51 Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom
52 The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follet
53 The Alchemist, Paulo Coehlo
54 April Fool's Day, Bryce Courtenay
55 Life of Pi, Yann Martel
56 Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
57 The Pact, Jodi Picoult
58 The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
59 Parrot and Olivier in America, Peter Carey
60 Always Looking Up, Michael J. Fox
61 Seven Ancient Wonders, Matthew Reilly
62 The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
63 Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult
64 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Burrows
65 The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
66 Solar, Ian McEwan
67 Fallen, Lauren Kate
68 The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
69 P.S. I Love You, Cecila Ahern
70 The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
71 Obernewtyn, Isobelle Carmody
72 A Fortunate Life, A.B. Facey
73 Handle with Care, Jodi Picoult
74 Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
75 Dirt Music, Tim Winton
76 It, Stephen King
77 Hourglass, Claudia Gray
78 Tully, Paullina Simons
79 The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
80 Shantaram: A Novel, Gregory David Roberts
81 The Princess Bride, William Goldman
82 Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
83 Requiem for a Species, Clive Hamilton
84 The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
85 Break No Bones, Kathy Reichs
86 Animal Farm, George Orwell
87 The Six Sacred Stones, Matthew Reilly
88 The Five Greatest Warriors, Matthew Reilly
89 Maralinga, Judy Nunn
90 Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
91 One for the Money, Janet Evanovich
92 Worst Case, James Patterson
93 Once in a Lifetime, Cathy Kelly
94 The Stand, Stephen King
95 Anybody Out There, Marian Keyes
96 The Secret, Rhonda Byrne
97 Temple, Matthew Reilly
98 All That Remains, Patricia Cornwall
99 The Slap, Christos Tsolkias
100 Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

PS: Don't forget to enter my giveaway. It's open till Thursday and you just have to leave a comment over at that post.

At 625 posts... My First Giveaway!

2010-07-01T20:13:00.004+08:00

Yep, you read it right. I've been blogging for almost 4 years and this is my 625th post. Time flies and all that, hey? Anyway, I recently got an email asking if I'd like to take part in a review or giveaway and since I love you all so much I figured I'd give it to you. I love that you read and (sometimes!) comment. That you offer suggestions for problems I'm dealing with - whether it's the kids, the garden or trying to find something to wear on a rare night out. That you have a go at some of the recipes I try and that some of our fave's have also become yours. I love that some of my real life friends read along and keep up on our news and that some of my cyber friends, or as hubby calls them - imaginary friends - have become my friends too. So, to say thankyou I'm going to pass on a $50 voucher from the lovely people at Buyster for their online store. They have everything from kitchenware to handbags to furniture like these lovely Melbourne bar stools.

So, the important stuff. How do you enter? It's easy-peasy. Just leave me a comment on this post. A comment about anything at all. You could tell my why you visit Red Dirt Mummy, what you'd like to spend the voucher on, or something that made you smile today. Whatever you want to say, I'd love to hear it.

Entries close 12noon, Thursday 8th July (Perth time) and, unfortunately, this is open to Australian readers only.

And Now He Is 8

2010-06-28T19:49:00.005+08:00

Which makes me the mother of an 8 year old! Wrong, wrong, wrong!!

Here's my gorgeous 8 year old boy on his birthday present. I think his butt might have to be surgically removed from the seat as he's hardly got out of it all weekend.

And because I feel compelled to prove, year after year, that cake decorating is just not my thing here's a photo of the birthday cake. It's supposed to be an Aussie Rules football field, the candles are the goal posts and the ball is a chocolate clinker.

In other news about #1, he brought home his school report today and it is BRILLIANT! He got great marks, fantastic comments from his teachers and a really positive comment from his classroom teacher. It hasn't been a particularly great year school-wise (in my opinion) and I am so so so proud of him. Now we're on the downhill slide to the mid-year school holidays and I can't wait for Friday!

Finding A Comfy Spot

2010-06-22T20:37:00.004+08:00

I was indulging in some kids tv with Offspring #2 this afternoon while I was folding some clean laundry. I wandered off to put the clothes away and returned to find #2 had a new chair. She was thoroughly engrossed in the tv show and had grabbed a cushion to make herself comfortable. You'd never guess there are two perfectly good couches in the room!

Yay for Rhubarb

2010-06-21T21:50:00.003+08:00

I found the recipe for this scrummy Rhubarb Crumble Slice in the newest issue of donna hay magazine. A crunchy biscuit base, sugary rhubarb filling and crumbly crumble topping . Seriously fabulous.

Go buy the mag, it's totally worth it!

Catching Up

2010-06-20T21:10:00.004+08:00

Whoa, has it been over a week since I was last here? Where did that chunk of time go?? Life here is a little hectic at the moment - with the work we're doing around the house taking up pretty much every spare minute and leaving me worn out at the end of each day, combined with work, running around after the kids and all the other things that being a wife, a mum and running a house entail I just haven't had a whole lot of free time. And the next couple of weeks look set to be even crazier as I'll be working pretty much every day. A totally insane decision that is already making me a little stressed but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Besides, after that I'll have two weeks holiday (at home, working on the house and yard!) to relax and catch up.

So what's been going on?

Offspring #1's thumb has pretty much recovered so at football today be managed to land on his shoulder. Yes, his shoulder. Luckily it doesn't seem to be more than a pulled muscle. His birthday is later this week and he's on a pretty big warning that if his behaviour at home doesn't improve there won't be a birthday at all. That said, I'm actually getting worried that his birthday present isn't going to arrive in time.

Offspring #2 has had a little leap in learning and wants to write every word ever spoken, written or thought. She has me making lists - parts of the body, things in a house, things we can see, etc, and then copies them all out, colours them in and generally has fun playing with letters and language. It's amazing to watch and so much fun seeing her little face light up when she works something out.

The reno work is progressing nicely. We've started the wall at the back of the house and I've been busy pulling out plants, ripping out the old coffee-rock retaining wall (it's hell on the hands and nails), pulling up brick paths (also hell on the hands and nails) and over the weekend I've put new plants into the tiered garden beds at the front of the house. As a result of all that I've not been doing quite as much baking and cooking as normal but I have tried a few new recipes. I'll try and get them up during the week.

And finally... I roasted a leg of lamb in the slow cooker for dinner tonight and decided to go the extra bit and do roasted vegies and cauliflower and broccoli gratin. I had plans to make a delish new dessert that a friend had shared with me but the kids vetoed that suggestion - they wanted marshmallows cooked on the fire that Hubby had going in the front yard. I said no, #2's asthma has been playing up and there was no way I wanted her out in the cold smoky air. Hubby to the rescue...

They simply toasted their marshmallows on the inside fire. And loved every single sticky mouthful. Thinking outside the square? Who knew it could be so much fun?

Oh Dear

2010-06-11T18:10:00.006+08:00

When I collected Offspring #1 from school yesterday he told me that his hand hurt. I threw it a cursory glance, declared that it was fine and started to lead the way to the car, grabbing his hand as I walked. Oooops, grabbed the sore hand. He yelled and cried and I took a closer look then realised it was actually quite swollen and, after a poke or two, that it was very tender. Decision time. Take him home and listen to the moaning (he's a total sook) or go straight to the doctor, pay through the nose for a visit, and get it seen?

Off to the doctor we went. Who sent us down the hill for x-rays. Who charges us even more money and then sent us back up the hill to the Dr so he could tell us #1's thumb was badly sprained but not broken. The hand was bandaged to provide it with some support and he was told to take it easy, not take part in his sports class today and that hopefully he'd be fine for the footy game on Sunday.

Luckily it's his left hand so all is good school-wise, just can't do sport. He decided to help me out and write the note to his teacher letting him know.

I thought it was super cute and simply added my bit on the end:

Dear Mr Teacher,

As Ben has so succinctly stated, he has sprained his thumb rather badly - x-rays show no break - and is not to do sport today.

Kind regards,

Ben's Mum

When I collected him today the teacher gave me back the note. He and his student teacher thought it was super-cute too and that I might like to keep it. They didn't know I'd already taken a photo of it this morning LOL.

Swirl

2010-06-09T19:55:00.008+08:00

The recipe for this delicious, though not without it's moments, cake has been torn from one of the recent foodie mags but I neglected to note which one on the page itself, so no credit given here. Sorry.

While I was making this I was pretty much convinced that it would be a disaster. The cake batter seemed to be too thick. The recipe stated that I should 'pour' half of it in the tin but this was just not of pouring consistency - more like scoop it out and shake it into the cake pan. Then I was supposed to swirl the jam through - really hard to do with a batter so thick it moves with the knife rather than letting the jam be dragged through it. But.... But! The end result was completely worth all the agonies I suffered - this is moist, delicious and wonderfully more-ish.

My whole family have fallen in love with 'the pink cake' - as you can see from the photo I overdid the icing just a wee bit LOL. I would suggest that you use a runny-ish sour cream, mine was very thick and I think that might have led to the difficulties I found with the cake batter. Otherwise, just persevere and trust that it'll all end up okay. Because it will, I promise.

Strawberry Swirl Cake

Melted butter, to grease (or canola spray, like I used)

150g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 eggs

2 cups self-raising flour

300g carton sour cream

1/2 cup strawberry jam (raspberry jam worked great)

2 cups icing sugar mixture

15g butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons hot water

2-3 drops pink food colouring

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Lightly brush a 2.5L (10 cup) capacity bundt tin with melted butter.

2. Use an electric beater to beat the butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Use a large metal spoon to fold in the flour and sour cream, in alternating batches until well combined.

3. Pour half the mixture into the prepared pan. Spoon over the jam. Use a skewer to make a swirl pattern. Top with the remaining cake mixture.

4. Bake for 45 minutes (mine took another 10 or so minutes) or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Sift the icing sugar into a medium bowl. Add the butter and water, and stir until smooth. Stir in the food colouring. Spoon icing over cake. Set aside until set.

Why I Should Stick To Scarves

2010-06-08T12:50:00.004+08:00

My knitting skills are coming along. I'd say they're coming along slowly rather than nicely but they are coming along. I can cast on without thinking too much about it, I've got knit and perl down and I'm very proud of my casting off. But the counting stitches kind of sucks and attempting to create anything more interesting than a row on plain knit or plain perl is generally less than successful. I've made several scarves - a couple for Offspring #2 who loves them, one for me and I'm onto my second one for #1, he chose bright red this time round.

I did finish the dress I'd started for #2's teddy. It was miles too big for Teddy so one of her babies is wearing it instead. I especially like how the bobbles on the straps of the dress look more like nipples - charming. Not!

And I think that it illustrates perfectly why I should indeed stick to scarves. Or maybe I should teach myself to crochet instead.

Oh, hello!

2010-06-06T19:40:00.007+08:00

Sorry, I've been a wee bit busy this week and by the end of each day I could hardly move enough to deal with dinner, baths and bed never mind about such things as blogging. What have I been doing? Well, I think I'll make this one a bit of a photo essay.

Remember the turf we laid last weekend? We ended up liking it so much we thought we'd do some more. So we had another big pile of dirt delivered...

Then I ordered the turf and arranged for Hubby to collect it after work on Friday. Which was kinda dumb because it meant I had to get the dirt spread during the week. So I hopped to it and got to work...

The turf was duly collected and we had to do a few last minute bits of preparation, including compacting the soil so that the turf could be laid upon it. As with any job, safety equipment is vitally important...

As is shadowing the person whose jobs you would like to take over...

And by mid-afternoon on Saturday we had us some new lawn. And some aching bodies.

My Girl Loves Me

2010-06-01T12:02:00.004+08:00

Her: I love you Mum.

Me: I love you too baby.

Her: I love you more.

Me: I love you forever.

Her: Yeah? Well I love you for 16 years and that's a lot lot lot.

Hmmm... I guess that means she thinks she wins. But I know I'm the winner really.

Tales from Reno-land

2010-05-31T19:49:00.007+08:00

We spent the weekend shovelling dirt and laying turf. And this time, for a very rare change, when I say WE, I really do mean WE. Generally the 'we' really means hubby. Fabulous, wonderful, very clever and very capable hubby. But this time we were on a deadline - the turf has to be laid within 24 hours and the soil was delivered only an hour or two before the turf arrived so we had to move. Fast.

So I was handed a shovel and told to get to work. Three hours later, the soil was spread and I had some seriously aching arms and shoulders. Then hubby laid down his shovel and got busy laying the turf while I fed and watered the troops.

And when we woke up the next morning...

Shame we've got this much more to do. Ummm.... yeah, that's this weekend's job.

And the front wall is progressing nicely. Here's the tiered section on one side that is just about done.

And now we are (okay, he is) heading down the side and towards the back. This is what it looks like right at the moment.

Again, yeah that's this weekend's job. I think the shovel and I are going to become very close. Maybe I need to give it a name so I feel a little more friendly towards it?

Biggest Morning Tea (at Lunch Time!)

2010-05-29T20:19:00.003+08:00

You might remember that I hosted a Biggest Morning Tea in support of the Cancer Council right around this time last year. Over $10,000,000 was raised last year through events just like mine where people got together with some friends, enjoyed a cuppa and donated just a small amount. Well it was so much fun, and for such a great cause, that I decided to do it all again this year and despite a few hurdles - like having to change the date not once but twice, and having it at lunch time rather than mid-morning, as well as all the other going-ons of last week - it finally all came together on Friday.

A few of the kindy mums, neighbours old and new, and some old friends attended and we had two very special guests, 15 day old Miss Charlotte who is the new daughter of one of my oldest friends and 16 day old Master Seth who is the newest foster baby of the former Mrs Across The Road. To say that the babies were warmly welcomed would be a massive understatement - they were cuddled and burped, exclaimed over and passed around and both teeny bundles behaved beautifully.

We had a lovely couple of hours catching up on news, exchanging gossip and getting to know new friends a little better. There were heaps of yummy treats to nibble on and I'd organised a door prize as well as some raffle prizes to help boost the funds being raised. Last year I had 15 people attend so I was a little bit disappointed to not have quite as many this time round (though to be fair that had more to do with me having to change the date than anything else) but we managed to raise even more than last year's total. This year we've already come up with over $100 and I still have a couple of people who are planning to contribute as I see them over the weekend. I'm thinking we'll end up with about $120 and I'm thrilled to have raised that for The Cancer Council simply by having a few friends round for a cuppa and a chat.

Will I do it again next year? You bet!

The Lighter Side

2010-05-27T21:31:00.004+08:00

You kind of have to have first hand knowledge of the workings of a a four-year old's brain to fully appreciate this one but... here goes.

We broke the news to Offspring #2 who didn't miss a beat before asking if that meant we were going to get another dog. Now.

I told her yes, we would be getting another dog but not right now.

She wanted to know when.

I said later.

She asked if that meant we were going to have afternoon tea first.

And through the tears, in that first couple of horrible hours, her Daddy and I laughed.

He's Gone

2010-05-26T19:39:00.004+08:00

What we had thought (hoped?) was an infection in Max's gums turned out to be the cancer spreading at a ferocious rate so, sadly, the vet agreed with us. Hubby and I stayed with him until the end, just patting him and loving him.

I'm sure you can imagine how sad our little house in the hills is tonight but we're also remembering lots of fun times as well as the funny things that Max did and we're managing to have a gentle laugh too. Thank you for your kind thoughts and words here, in the emails and on facebook. They really do help.

Getting Ready To Say Goodbye

2010-05-25T20:07:00.006+08:00

Our beautiful Max spent some time at the vet's having some tests done during the last school holidays and neither Hubby nor I was particularly surprised when the results turned up some bad news. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer that spreads quickly and we were told he probably had about a month left. Two if we were lucky. Looking at him, no one doubted that he was getting old but this crazy dog who pranced like a hula dancer when he saw his dad after a three day absence? Who ate everything put in front of him and eyed the kids toast through the glass door to make sure they left their crusts for him? Who followed his family around the yard, lying right in the way of whatever chores they were doing?. There was no way he was that sick. No way at all.

We were told to take him home, love him lots and do our best to keep him comfortable with a drug regime that would help control the growth of the tumour on his neck and hold his old-man aches and pains at bay as winter approached. Our very lovely vet offered us lots of support as well as some advice and a common sense approach.

So we did as he suggested and all was fine for a good few weeks. The drugs kept the tumour small, Max was his usual silly self and, what we laughingly call his 'old man drugs' ie, cortisone, eased his aches and pains enough that he even ran, yes ran, down to the front gate to bark at the postman. That was a very proud moment - even the neighbours were excited. But... you knew there had to be a but coming. The last week or so has seen a very sharp decline as the drugs no longer seem to be working. His tumour has grown enormously, he's just about lost his voice and, while his appetite for food is undiminished, his appetite for life is slowly waning. And so, tomorrow we're heading back to the vet. I'm still in a land called denial and am desperately hoping that the vet will tell us he's fine, that he's got a while longer yet and that we should take him home again. But I'm pretty sure he won't. And my heart is breaking - for Hubby whose boy he is, for the kids who don't get what's happening, for Maxie himself who has been such a loving, loyal, wonderful part of our lives and for me who, despite not liking dogs, or wanting a dog, fell completely and utterly in love with him from the minute we met.

So we're getting ready to say goodbye to the beautiful boy who has been part of our family for more than 12 years. And I'm just not ready for that.

Browsing Some Blogs

2010-05-24T19:38:00.003+08:00

I have been meaning to tell you about some of my new favourite blog reads for ages but other stuff just keeps getting in the way. It goes without saying that the blogs listed in my sidebar are ones that I love reading but variety is the spice of life so on occasion I go searching for something new. Sometimes I stumble across a new-to-me blog in the comment box of another, sometimes I'll follow an intriguing link from Twitter and sometimes I'll go looking for who has left comments for me. The blogs I'm sharing today kind of cover all bases. Go check them out - there's a little bit of something for everyone.

Bush Babe -she's like the Australian version of The Pioneer Woman. Life on the land, beautiful photos and interesting content. If you like Ree you'll love Bush Babe.

Chicken Willow - This is a relatively new blog and I'm so envious of Hannah's crafty talents. Posts about her family, the things they get up to, gorgeous photos of Hannah's crafty creations and what has become a highlight of my week Forebear Friday where she shares old photos of her ancestors. Go tell her hi from me!

An Ordinary Housewife - this one has been through a couple of incarnations and I'm loving the latest one. She's a fellow Perth-ite!

City Girl In A Red Dirt World - well the title says it all doesn't it? This is fast becoming one of my very favourite blogs. It's pretty much brand new and chronicles the adventures of a city girl who has moved lock, stock and stiletto to the middle of the red dirt all for love. She's in one of the towns I have lived in (but not the most recent one) and I laugh myself silly at her adventures, and mis-adventures. Mostly because so far they've all been terribly familiar! I know a couple of my readers will love this little bit of nostalgia and when you add in that it's well written and she has a fantastic sense of humour (and the photos of the red dirt don't hurt at all) it's a must-see.

Frills In The Hills - I only found this one a couple of days ago but I am LOVING it. Lovely recipes (I have a bundle I want to try), gorgeous kids and a generally beautiful site. I'm looking forward to taking some time and thoroughly exploring this one. And adding it to my sidebar too.

Hmmmm...

2010-05-23T21:58:00.004+08:00

So, what do you think? I'm pretty happy with how it looks but I haven't quite finished tweaking. And while I was busy doing that, I learnt how to put a watermark on my photos. You know, just in case I end up famous and people try to steal my pics. Yeah, yeah - delusions of grandeur, I know! Bush Babe has a super-easy tutorial on how to watermark your photos - look, even I can follow it.

Just Playing

2010-05-22T20:45:00.001+08:00

I'm about to start playing with the blog. You know, making a few changes, tweaking bits here and there and generally messing about with stuff I don't know a whole lot about. I'm really hoping it's all going to work (and I've got to go work out how to back it up before I start, just in case it doesn't work out so well) and that it will look sparkly and new in a few days time.

Just so you know in case you drop by for a visit and it's gone kablooie.

Friday Night Dinner

2010-05-21T19:10:00.003+08:00

I've told you about Fast Food Filthy Friday before. The food for dinner is fast, but home-cooked not of the fast-food drive-through variety, and the kids get to skip their bath thus the filthy part. Sometimes we have eggs on toast, toasted sandwiches, a meal from the freezer or soup but a regular favourite is homemade pizza.

The pizza dough I make is so simple that it easily fits into the category of fast - 4 cups of self raising flour, a good pinch of salt and an equally good pinch of whatever dried herbs are handy and one can of beer. Mix it together then turn in out, give it a fairly gentle knead, cut it into three portions and roll out three pizza bases. Yeah, three seems a little excessive but it takes care of lunch (or breakfast!) the next day.
The kids always choose ham, cheese and pineapple for their topping. It's pretty much the only time they get pineapple and I secretly think they choose it just because they know I can't eat any of it!

Hubby and I mix it up a bit with the toppings. Tonight we had some leftover slow-cooked lamb shanks so I was wanting to use some up on the pizza and after a bit of quick googling came up with some ideas. Passata on the base and a scarce scattering of grated cheddar cheese just so everything sticks to the base then: char-grilled capsicum, some blobs of basil pesto, olives, lamb, crumbled feta and some pine nuts. After it was cooked we decided it needed some more salt so we added that and... fabulousness on a pizza.

More From The 'Hiding Vegies' Files

2010-05-18T20:10:00.006+08:00

Sorry, this week's been all about food and picky kids. Actually, just one picky kid. The other kid is an absolute champ when it comes to food. Anyway, the food and pickiness posts continue.

Tonight I made a tuna and potato bake for dinner and was working with one hand tied behind my back from the very beginning. Hubby's gastric reflux is playing up at the moment and we have, through much trial and error, discovered that onion - both raw and cooked - is a major trigger so I took the onion off the list of ingredients. Offspring #2 has been so great with her dinner the past couple of nights that I didn't want to serve up something she was going to refuse to eat and destroy the pleasant-ness we have achieved so next I went looking for ways to hide some vegies in the dish.

First step: again following Jo MacD's tip (sorry Jo, I spelt it wrong yesterday) from the comments box I added some steamed mashed cauliflower to the mashed potato. Then onto adding something to the tuna part. I substituted some sauteed celery for the onion and added some mixed dried herbs, grated carrot and grated zucchini to the frypan to fry gently for a minute or two, then added a large tin of tuna, let it warm up a little and splashed in some cream along with some salt and pepper. Then I just popped the tuna mixture into an ovenproof dish, topped it with the mashed potatoes, add some grated cheese and bunged it into a moderate oven for about 25-30 minutes.

Whinging: 0 / Mum: Winning the fight!

She Shoots, She Scores...

2010-05-17T19:50:00.004+08:00

and she has a big win at the dinner table! Okay, I'll stop referring to myself in the third person and come back down to Earth.

Lat night's dinner? Fish, chips from the freezer and steamed vegies. Offspring #2, aka Miss Fussy Bum, aka the pain in the butt who I fight with at dinner every single night until I want to scream and run away from my whole family, ate every single bite without a single complaint.

Tonight's dinner? Meatloaf, steamed vegies and mashed potato that I took Jo Mc's hint with and hid some steamed mashed cauliflower in. Again, she ate every single bite without complaining. Alright, one small whine about the bean on her plate but she subsided when I reminded her to have some potato with it to help it go down better.

Then I served up apple and apricot crumble (using some of the stewed apricots that were prepared and frozen back in January) with icecream. She tasted some apricot, pulled the best 'medicine face' I've seen for ages - it involved a whole body shudder which was totally entertaining - and decided she'd just eat the ice-cream and let her dad finish off the crumble.

People, are you holding your breath? Then, she turned to me, thanked me for dinner and announced that it was "alishus". Could a mother be any more proud?

There Goes Another Weekend

2010-05-16T19:31:00.005+08:00

For a stay-at-home, nothing-special kind of weekend we seem to have fitted heaps in and once again Sunday draws to a close leaving me exhausted and looking forward to both kids being in school tomorrow so I have a chance to catch my breath.

We had a very special visitor over the weekend. Sprinkles the kindy teddy-bear came home with Offspring #2 on Friday afternoon and has been dragged along everywhere so we could write about all his exciting adventures in his special scrapbook. Here's Sprinkles and #2 playing playstation. Apparently he wasn't very good at it. But she didn't score at all so I'm not sure her opinion is all that valid.

Saturday saw bright sunshine and no rain. Yes, a good chance to catch up on some washing - exciting stuff. The we ran down the hill to visit with Hubby's grandmother, Mumma. I had a bundle of home-cooked meals in the freezer for her and, having spoken to her the day before on the phone, wanted to get them to her as soon as I could. Mumma's about as fussy at #2 when it comes to food so my general rule is that if #2 likes it, Mumma will. That said, Mumma flat out refuses to eat spag bol so she got a couple of portions of cottage pie, some vegie soup, pea and ham soup and some frozen stewed apricots. All were welcomed and more meals have been requested, a request I'll be very happy to fulfill.

This morning was Offspring #1's footy game. Three games into the season and the team is starting to work as... a team and they kicked a few goals and a few more points today. The first game they scored nothing at all so they're definitely improving. #1 took a couple of good marks, made a few great kicks and got into the thick of the action more than he has till now, all of which was lovely to watch. Then after some lunch and baskets and baskets and baskets of ironing we wandered across the road to drink some bubbly (I know, any excuse!) and eat birthday cake. Then home again, dinner, baths for the kidlets, the obligatory yelling that goes with hairwashing and now the kids are in bed, Dr Who is on tv and my lovely Hubby has made me a cuppa to go with a slice of seriously yummy banana cake I baked yesterday.

And your weekend? How was it? What did you get up to?

Easy Peasy Meatballs

2010-05-15T20:18:00.005+08:00

The May issue of Good Taste Magazine is getting a total workout in my kitchen. I generally make a few things out of each foodie mag I buy but this issue is one of those rare ones where I flicked through and found page after page of recipes that I was hanging out to make. Recipes that I've wanted to try, or that I knew Miss Fuss Bum would like, or just something a bit different for the dinner table.

This meatball recipe is a total cheats version, tastes fab and Hubby and I loved it. Offspring #1 was unhappy because it had olives in it and didn't believe that you couldn't really taste them, while #2 gobbled hers up after I'd removed the offending huge piece of olive not even noticing the smaller pieces still happily encased in the meat. Next time I'll add some salt and pepper to the meatball mixture and we did sprinkle some parmesan over the finished dish but apart from that I wouldn't change a thing. I especially loved that we got in at 6pm and I had dinner on the table at 6.28pm and that included wrangling small people into baths/showers/pyjamas.

Greek Meatballs and Pasta

from Good Taste magazine, May Issue

400g dried penne pasta

500g lamb mince (oops, used beef mince)

120g Always Fresh Antipasto To Go Continental Mix, drained, finely chopped

1 tbs olive oil (I used the oil from the antipasto pack - thrifty and tasty!)

700ml bottle passata

1. Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling water following packet direction, Return to pan.

2. Meanwhile, combine mince and antipasto in a bowl. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls. Heat oil in a large deep frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook the meatballs, shaking pan often, for 3-5 minutes or until browned.

3. Add the passata. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through and the sauce thickens slightly.

4. Add the meatballs to the pasta and toss to combine.

Mash with a Twist

2010-05-13T19:37:00.005+08:00

Who doesn't love mashed potatoes in the middle of winter? Warm, filling, comforting and a perfect complement to winter hotpots, casseroles and bakes. They also go well with some tasty sausages and gravy and that's where this little recipe comes in.

We decided on Bangers and Mash for dinner a few nights ago but we needed some other vegies to round out the meal. Offspring #2 is being so difficult foodwise at the moment - I'm almost at my wits end and if it is indeed a phase I'm hoping she gets over it quick smart - so I was looking to get some vegies into her into her using stealth as my weapon. Where could I hide some vegies in a way she wouldn't notice but would still eat? Flicking through the current issue of Good Taste I came across this version of Irish Colcannon and figured it was worth a try. I told her they were really special mashed potatoes with extra stuff like bacon and that she'd love them. Well, she ate them so that's a success in my books and regardless of what she may or may not have thought - we all loved it. So this will be on the menu again and we'll see if she likes it next time round.

Just so you know, I halved the recipe and it did the four of us happily but I'll put the original measurements below.

Colcannon

from Good Taste magazine, May 2010

1. Boil the potatoes

Cook 1kg potatoes, peeled, coarsely chopped in a large saucepan of salted boiling water for 20 minutes or until tender. Drain. Return to pan. Add 80ml (1/3 cup) milk, 60ml (1/4 cup) pouring cream and 20g butter. Mash until smooth.

2. Cook the cabbage

Meanwhile, melt 20g butter in a saucepan. Add 3 cups finely shredded savoy cabbage and 3 chopped rindless bacon rashers. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes until cabbage is tender and bacon is cooked. Add to the potato mixture. Stir in 2tbs chopped fresh chives. Season with salt and white pepper.

3. Serve the colcannon

Colcannon tastes great with pies, grilled lamb or pork chops or slow-cooked casseroles.

Making Myself Laugh

2010-05-11T20:23:00.003+08:00

Hubby left a bowl of choccies in front of me on the kitchen bench. Then he went and sat on the couch. Then he realised all the choccies were in front of me. You know, on the kitchen bench.

He said, "I bet you can't throw one of those choccies over to me here on the couch."

And I, the ever loving and supportive wife, decided that I should show him he was absolutely right. So I threw them everywhere but at him. Completely and utterly on purpose. And then laughed myself silly at the look on his face.

I crack myself up!

Never Trust A Man With A Chainsaw...

2010-05-08T14:36:00.005+08:00

Hubby headed into the backyard with the chainsaw last weekend. There were a few big wattle trees that had become somewhat overgrown and needed some trimming and thinning out.

"Don't worry," he told me. "You'll hardly be able to tell the difference and you still won't be able to see the back fence. I'll just thin them out a bit to make room for the new apple tree and see if we can get some sun on the passionfruit."

My reply was something along the lines of a grunt and a nod and away he went.

Upon completing the job he wandered in with a slightly concerned look on his handsome face. It seems the trees covered quite a bit more of the back fence than he had thought and, "ummm.... well, it looks a bit different now."

Yeah, you can totally see the back fence, the back neighbour's water tanks, sheds and privacy screen (which he really put up for our benefit so we didn't have to look at his collection of junk outside his shed - he's a very nice man).

The positives in this? Hubby is pretty terrific to have done all that work so he could plant MY apple tree. The passionfruit actually get some sunshine now instead of being in the shade 24/7. Yes, we do see the back fence but it has really opened up the yard and it's not that bad. Hubby's concern that I would hate what he'd done. Gotta love him just for that one alone.

Done In

2010-05-06T20:47:00.004+08:00

I worked the first three days of the week and just about died of exhaustion by Wednesday night. I know many of you work full-time, have kids, get meals on the table and do all the other wife and mum stuff but, Lordy, I am stuffed. My feet hurt, I have no energy left and my brain has turned to mush.

And I'm going to do it all over again next week. By the time I get finished I'll be a gibbering wreck. But I'll be a gibbering wreck who can buy another truck-load of crushed limestone.

Keeping it Simple

2010-05-04T20:37:00.004+08:00

I picked up some asparagus on the 'throw out' trolley at my local supermarket the other day. Two bunches that were still beautifully fresh for less than $2. Bargain! Then I couldn't decide what to do with them so they sat in the fridge for a couple of days before I stumbled across this simple and wonderfully delicious way to add them to tonight's fish and steamed veg dinner. They were simply divine and, as I halved the recipe and used just one bunch, I think we might have this again tomorrow night!

Asparagus with Basil Butter and Parmesan

from Good Taste magazine, May 2010

Serves 6

40g butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (I had parsley handy so used that instead)

2 bunches asparagus, woody ends trimmed

20g (1/4 cup) finely grated parmesan

1. Combine butter and basil (or parsley!). Season with salt and pepper.

2. Cook asparagus in a deep frying pan of boiling water for 3 minutes or until tender crisp. Transfer to a serving platter.

3. Top with the butter mixture and parmesan.

Footy Star

2010-05-02T20:40:00.005+08:00

Here's my little football player.

He had his first ever 'proper' game of Aussie Rules football today. No more Auskick for us, he's in the under-9's team and is LOVING it. Proper training one afternoon a week and a real game with quarters and water bottles and oranges and an umpire with a whistle and everything. He had an absolute ball at today's game and I don't think anything could have wiped away the enormous grin on his face. Just gorgeous.

Fancy Beans

2010-04-29T19:45:00.004+08:00

I found this delicious recipe for beans in the current issue of donna hay magazine and immediately decided that we were having that for dinner. The original recipe was for 8 so I fiddled with the measurements a bit to get it to suit us,. I also fiddled with the spices a wee bit, toning it down ever so slightly so as to not shock my poor children into oblivion. With the obvious exception of Miss Fussy, we all LOVED this. It was warm, hearty, full of flavour and pleasingly spicy. That said, the little miss did eat up every little bit of pasta in the bowl so it can't have been too bad. You can ramp up (or down) the measurements to suit yourself, I've included the original recipe and added my measurements next to it.

Chorizo and Beans

from donna hay magazine, autumn 2010 (issue 50)

2 tablespooons olive oil (2 tablespoons)

2 chorizo, sliced (2)

2 red onions, sliced (1 )

4 cloves garlic, sliced (2 )

1 teaspoon chilli flakes (1/8 teaspoon ground chilli)

4 sprigs oregano (2 )

2 x 400g can chopped tomatoes (1 x 400g can)

1 tablespoon brown sugar (1/2 tablespoon)

3 x 400g cans white (cannellini) beans, rinsed and drained (2 x 400g cans)

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (1/2 tablespoon)

crusty bread to serve

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the chorizo, onion and garlic and cook for 8-10 minutes or until golden and tender. Add the chilli, paprika, oregano, tomato and sugar. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes. Add the beans and balsamic vinegar and cook for 2 minutes. Serve with crusty bread.

We nixed the bread and went with hot cooked pasta stirred through and grated parmesan cheese sprinkled over. Fantastic!

Merry, Merry King of the Bush Is He

2010-04-27T20:57:00.005+08:00

Here's one of the loud, laughing kookaburras who likes to hang out in our yard. They seem to be having a bit of a territorial war at the moment and there's a whole lot of fairly aggressive laughing going on, a bit of flying at each other, the odd tactical retreat and then they start all over again. If they're not doing that they're very busy taking fly-by dives at the fish pond and stealing the baby gold-fish.

And yes, I do get fed up with the noise because they can be loud. Like seriously bloody LOUD. Like loud enough for people on the other end of the phone to ask what the heck all that noise is. But then I pinch myself and think about how lucky I am to live on an acre block with lots of trees, in the metro area. And how I totally take that for granted. And I think about how so many people never get to hear a kookaburra laugh and I hear it just about every single day. And how that's kind of unreal and spectacular.

I.

2010-04-24T12:02:00.007+08:00

Here's a meme I found floating around ages ago. It's been sitting in my inbox waiting ever since. So for an easy Saturday read, here you go. If you decide to do it, let me know and I'll come check it out.

I am finally getting over this rotten cold.

I think that I should go hang out the washing while it’s sunny.

I want a pair of flat, knee high boots. But I can’t find any I like or can afford.

I have meringues in the oven.I dislike when people cut in line.

I miss my friends from Red Dirt Central.

I fear I will never have a career again. A job, sure. But not the career I crave.

I feel excited and nervous about turning 40. Lucky I still have some time to prepare.

I hear the kids running around outside.

I smell freshly cooked Anzac biscuits.

I crave things that are never in the house when I want them.

I usually say the wrong thing.

I search Google for something at least once every day.

I wonder if we will ever get the reno’s and extensions done on the house.

I regret not doing my Masters when I got in.

I love my family. They are my everything. Even when they annoy the crap out of me.

I care too much about what other people think of me.

I am always worrying.

I worry about pretty much everything.

I remember before I had kids.

I dance to The Wiggles.

I sing only when the music is turned up REALLY loud and no-one can hear me.

I don't always do what I should.

I argue with myself.

I write lists. Lots of lists.

I lose stuff all the time.

I wish on rainbows.

I listen to kookaburras laughing their way round my yard.
I don't understand maths.

I can usually be found at the kitchen bench. It’s where the computer is.

I am scared of the dark.I need quiet to be able to function.

I forget lots of stuff. It’s not always a bad thing.

I am happy, most of the time.

Leftovers, Or Two For One

2010-04-22T09:10:00.004+08:00

I mentioned the other day that I'd bought a new slow cooker recipe book called Slow Cooker, Easy and delicious recipes for all seasons and it's by Sally Wise. I love it, for a whole bunch of reasons that I'm planning to go into another time, and tried another version of corned beef from it earlier in the week. I didn't take photos - seriously, how many photos of corned beef can one blog need? - but thought I'd share the recipe with you. This was totally delicious and had lots of flavour to it. Even the fussiest family member gobbled up her serve. Though not until she'd drowned it, and everything else on her plate, in tomato sauce.

The next night we had lots of leftovers. Lots. We'd all had corned beef sandwiches for lunch and serving up sliced corned beef for dinner seemed a little repetitive so I was searching for a different way to use the leftovers and decided on a recipe I found over at taste.com for Corned Beef Hash Cakes . Delicious! In fact they were so delicious that I forgot to take photos (ok, I was sick as a dog too so I did pretty well getting dinner on at all!). But there are photos over there and yes, that's what mine looked like too. I cooked them in a pan on the stove and served them up with steamed vegies - comfort food at it's best.

Corned Beef

from Slow Cooker by Sally Wise

1 onion

1 carrot

1 stalk celery

1.5 kg piece of corned silverside (I used a 2kg piece)

1 teaspoon mixed spice

8 cloves (I only had ground cloves so used 1 teaspoon)

10 peppercorns

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons vinegar

Peel and chop the onion. Peel the carrot and cut into chunks. Slice the celery. Place the silverside, vegetables, mixed spices, cloves, peppercorns, brown sugar and vinegar in the slow cooker.

Add enough water to come two thirds up the silverside.

Place lid on cooker and cook for 4-5 hours on High or 8-9 hours on Low (I cooked mine for 5 hours on High).

Ah-Ah-Ah.... CHOO!!!!

2010-04-21T10:22:00.003+08:00

Remember the raging sore throat from a few days ago? Well it's turned into the head cold from hell. I am so glad that both kids are at school today and I get to have a bit of a break. After I finish this post the most energetic thing I'm planning to do until pick-up time is use the remote to change the tv channel.

The real bummer is that now I won't be able to make it to the blogger's meetup tonight. I was really looking forward to going and had everything arranged so it could happen but with a totally snotty nose, stuffed up head and next to no voice it's the last thing I feel like doing. Oh, and while I'm reasonably generous I don't think this is something I should be sharing.

Blogger's Meetup

2010-04-19T08:34:00.003+08:00

I've finally managed to get all my planets aligned and am off to another Perth Blogger's Meetup this week. I've been trying to make it back for, oh.... about 18 months, but generally life has conspired to keep me away - that and I'm secretly a quite shy homebody so the thought of trekking into the city, at night, to talk to people I don't really know is kind of daunting. That said, the few times I have attended everyone has been really friendly and welcoming so I'm just being a big wuss really.

Anyway, if you're in Perth and you're a blogger of any description - new, long-standing, foodblogger, mummyblogger (or daddyblogger!), technoblogger, whatever-your-interest-is blogger, come along. It's a terrific way to make some new friends, ask bloggy-type questions, get some advice and help and of course find new blogs to read.

The meetup is at The Brass Monkey (upstairs on the balcony, but just ask the staff upstairs and they'll point you in the right direction), this Wednesday night - 21st April, at 7pm.

Amanda and Ron - I'm looking at you!!!

I'm also looking at trying to organise a meetup for Perth Mummybloggers - I'm thinking a casual dinner somewhere that we can have a few drinks and no-one will care that a bunch of women are all talking at the same time. If you're interested let me know.

Sunday Morning Randomness

2010-04-18T09:41:00.003+08:00

I have a raging sore throat. The kind where it hurts to swallow, feels like your throat may be on fire and while you want to clear your throat constantly doing so will result in instant decimating pain. Buckets of hot tea, along with hot buttered crumpets dripping with honey do seem to have some restorative qualities but only for as long as the tea and crumpets last. Then it's back to firey pain.
Along with that I appear to have lost my voice. Well, it comes and goes. Makes life interesting when I go to tell the kids off and nothing comes out. They're still at the stunned wonderment stage of that but I can see it morphing into crazed laughter in the next few hours.
Went to an outdoor concert last night - Jack Jones, Tears for Fears and Spandau Ballet. A huge 80's night that I dragged hubby along to for a rather more expensive than usual date night because I LOVED Spandau Ballet way back when. Jack Jones was boring - I admit I didn't like him back then either but he was playing acoustic 'arty' versions of his songs so you couldn't entirely tell what the song was anyway. Tears for Fears were spectacular, Spandau Ballet were less so. Ok, that's not really fair - they were great they just didn't play many of their big hits, which really, is what I paid a heck of a lot of money to see.
Have discovered (after last nights concert) why I don't go out very often. People shit me. Especially one man who sat behind us and talked at the top of his lungs the whole way through an outdoor concert so we were forced to listen to his views, opinions and thoughts on every conceivable topic from how Gary Kemp is the greatest song writer to what started the war in Iraq to how to buy the best fish. No I'm not kidding. I came very close, as the encore started, to suggesting that since he talked the whole way through the concert he might consider shutting up so we could listen to just the last two or so songs. I didn't do it but I kinda wish I had.
Hubby, the wonderful handy-man that he is, fixed my broken clothes drier earlier in the week. Then my washer died. Then the drier died again. Fun times with pouring rain and two children who insist on filth-i-fying themselves constantly. The repairman was called and arrived yesterday. $200 later both machines work again. Much better than $1000 to replace them.
Due to the previous item I rediscovered the laundromat. The local one is actually very nice (in my previous life as a young single in a close-to-the-city suburb they were kind of dodgy and not all that nice). And I discovered a newly opened second hand book exchange that was also very nice. I may rhaphodise further on this in another post.
My children are currently playing with their Beado's. Quiet bliss. Until they have a fight over something inane and pointless.
I have been giving my slow-cooker a working out this week. It's responding well to the challenges and boy oh boy have we been eating some yummy meals. Even Offspring #2 has conceded that some of them were okay.
The backyard is looking somewhat jungle like and is in need of some serious attention. Sadly I am lacking the motivation to provide that attention.
School is back this week and I am torn between relief and sadness. I have enjoyed having hubby and the kids around, lazy mornings, getting stuff done around the house and doing things together. But I will enjoy the return to routine and the possibility that the house might stay clean longer than four minutes.

And now I better hang out some of the washing that my newly-repaired machine is churning its way through as I attempt to catch up. Then it's onto the ironing. Fun times here!

Soup Weather

2010-04-15T19:50:00.005+08:00

Well our long, hot, dry summer appears to be well and truly over. This past week has been wet, wet and wet! The temps are dropping, it was only 19C here today - still not actually cold I know but well cooler that we've been used to for some time. No, we haven't lit the fire yet but I can feel it coming! However the urge to eat hearty warming meals has well and truly taken hold and as I had a huge chunk of pumpkin I figured some soup would go down a treat. Well, with everyone except Miss Fussy Bum, aka Offspring #2. Honestly, that child does my head in. Her brother has always been a fantastic eater - as a wee one the only things he really refused to eat were lettuce (odd, I know) broccoli and cabbage. And since he ate everything else and I totally agreed with him on the cabbage I just counted my blessings and got on with feeding him up. #2 is an entirely different story. She'd happily eat the same things every single day - weetbix for breakfast; banana, sultanas and crackers for morning tea; polony and sauce sandwich for lunch; pear or watermelon for afternoon tea; sausages with tomato sauce and a token smattering of raw chopped carrots, cucumber and cheese for dinner. Unless spaghetti bolognaise is on offer. She'll take that over just about anything. I do try to introduce new foods but she turns up her nose and declares them to be 'ewwwwww' without even trying them. I insist she try one bite, get her to try with something else (for example putting a pea with some mashed potato) and still I get the 'ewww'. Doing. My. Head. In.

Anyway, back to the point of the post. Pumpkin soup. Yummy, creamy, warm, filling pumpkin soup. Delicious.

I'd seen a friends facebook status saying that she had pumpkin soup in the slow cooker and I was a little puzzled. I mean, come on. It's not hard to make and it doesn't take long to cook so why on earth would you put it in the slow cooker? Then I bought a new slow cooker book that I'm just a little bit in love with and it had pumpkin soup in it so I thought I'd give it a go. Look, the soup was delicious but so is my usual recipe. I can't really see the advantage to using the slow cooker to make it - I still had to chop everything up for the pot and then get the stab mixer (bamix, whatever you call it) out to puree it but I can see it might be good on a day that you're busy in the garden or, for us at swimming lessons after school, where you can pop it on, go do what needs to be done and then come back to it some hours later. Anyway, if you're interested in trying it out, here it is. And for the record, Hubby #1 and I loved it and #2 had a peanut butter sandwich because I got sick of arguing with her.

Pumpkin Soup

From Slow Cooker, Easy and delicious recipes for all seasons by Sally Wise

Serves 4

750g dark fleshed pumpkin, such as Jap or Butternut

1 onion

1 1/2 cups stock, or water with 3 teaspoons vegetable stock powder

1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup grated tasty cheese (I forgot to add this, but we didn't miss it)

Peel the pumpkin and cut into 2cm squares. Peel and dice the onion. Place in the slow cooker with the stock. Stir to combine

Place the lit on the cooker and cook for 4 hours on High or 8 hours on Low (I did it on High and it took about 3 hours, I also added more water to thin it out at bit at the end).

At the end of the cooking time, puree and stir through the cream and grated cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Post-Easter Traditions

2010-04-13T19:52:00.005+08:00

The first post-Easter tradition is an obvious one. Scoffing lots of chocolate. And hot cross buns.

The second post-Easter tradition is less obvious but just as much fun. After sufficient scoffing time, in the case of my kids a couple of days is generally enough, gather together all the chocolate that's left. Put it into big zip-lock bags, expel the air and zip the bag closed. Then hand each kid a bag and a rolling pin and cover your ears.

When they've finished smashing and bashing find your favourite recipe that calls for choc chips and get baking.

The third part of our post-Easter tradition is the recipe itself. We've made these crunchy, crispy chocolate cookies for the past three or so years and they are always well received. And just so you don't have to go clicking all over the place to find them, I'll put the recipe right here.

Chocolate Crispy Biscuits
from Australian Table magazine, April 2007

125g butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups rice bubbles
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup milk chocolate chips
½ cup shredded coconut
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C. Line 3 biscuit trays with baking paper.
2. Place butter and sugar in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add remaining ingredients. Stir well until combined.
3. Place heaped tablespoons of mixture on trays, allowing room to spread. Press down gently. Bake 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Store in an airtight container.

A Birthday Of Epic Proportions

2010-04-12T11:50:00.006+08:00

Well, not really. Though we did all end up completely exhausted! Hubby's birthday was yesterday and a birthday dinner wasn't really on the cards. We would be at the zoo all day on his actual birthday then had family coming for birthday cake when we arrived home so dinner was more likely to be tasted sandwiches (in reality it turned out to be tinned soup and toast!). So I thought I'd do something a bit nice the night before.

On Saturday we had the following conversation:
Me: (with freezer door open) Hubby, what do you want for dinner tonight?
Him: Marinara.
Me: (pulling a face of extreme distaste, and with a pack of frozen chicken thighs in my hand) So... chicken then?
Him: (pulling a face back at me) Chilli Mussels .
Me: Right. So chicken then.
Him: Why do you even ask me? You never make what I want anyway... rant... rant... rant. (I kinda tuned out at then point)
Me: Well, honey you know I don't like marinara and the kids probably wouldn't so I'm sorry but it doesn't tend to end up on the weekly menu. Also it smells bad and I don't like cooking stuff that smells bad (yeah, the orignal seafood hater is married to the man who likes to catch and eat fish. Wrong on so many levels. But we make it work LOL).

Anyway, then I felt all guilty about never making food that he likes (because apparently all the lovely things I cook? He doesn't like?? I don't think so!) and decided to up the brave and make his damn chilli mussels. Especially since I actually do like chilli mussels. I think because the chilli bit disguises the mussel bit.

And so I did. They worked out okay - I cobbled together a few different recipes I found and despite them not being quite 'chilli' enough he was very happy and we called that his birthday dinner. I am going to make them again and play around with the recipe a bit until I get the end result we're after. Then I'll share it with you. But for now... this is what they looked like when I remembered to grab the camera (after we'd eaten about half of them!).

Offspring #1 lived up to his reputation and happily tried them, declared them to be fabulous and tried to eat the rest of them while Offspring #2 lived up to her reputation and declared them to be "ewwww" just from looking at them. Although I messed up the timing somewhat we treated the mussels as the entree and I made Crunchy Parmesan Crumbed Chicken with steamed vegies for main so everyone was kept happy.

Hubby chose his own birthday present, collected it, assembled it, used it and approved it. Then we wrapped it. I wonder if you can guess what it is?

And then we spent his actual birthday at the zoo. Normally we hire a buggy to cart the kids and all our stuff but we decided that #1 probably wouldn't fit in the buggy anymore and #2 was big enough to walk it. Great decision as there were no buggies left when we arrived. We didn't cover the whole zoo but we saw all our favourites - from the giraffes for #2, to the crocodile for Hubby and we found the new-since-we-were-there-last penguin area where the penguins were busy racing up and down their tank which had the kids enthralled and in fits of laughter. We took a few pics of our fave's but didn't go overboard.

And then, on the walk back to the car at about the point both kids were too tired to take one more step we found a playground. The rejuvenating powers of a playground should never be underestimated!

For a low-key kind of birthday I think he did okay!

We're Back

2010-04-10T21:20:00.004+08:00

We had a ball on our brief getaway. We caught up with lots of friends, played with the kids and did fun stuff and have come home absolutely exhausted.

There's lots going on at the moment with Hubby's birthday tomorrow and a trip to the zoo, another week of school holidays to navigate and negotiate, promised sleepovers for one child and playdates for the other to follow up on. As well as new recipes I'm wanting to try, more yard work than I want to even think about and some pretty new wool I bought so I can get back to doing some knitting.

For now though my bed is calling to me. LOUDLY.

Around The Corner

2010-04-05T13:17:00.004+08:00

We ran into a slight problem with the engineering of the retaining wall and its construction ground to a screaming halt. But it's all sorted now and Hubby is back to work, mixing, measuring, building and hooking up string lines all over the place.

Here are the latest pics of his progress so far. He's rounded the front corner and started on the three separate walls that will create tiered garden beds.

I'm so lucky to be married to the kind of bloke who not only knows what he wants to do but also has the know-how and ability to make it happen. I might be whinging about the amount of sand being dragged through my house but I know how good I have it really.

In other news, we'll be away for the next few days so I'll see you sometime over the weekend. Cheers!

Not Quite According To Plan

2010-04-03T19:14:00.007+08:00

We have been having the most glorious weather here. It's the beginning of April and we're still enjoying temps in the high 20's for crying out loud. Yes, we desperately need rain and yes, I'm kind of sick of salads and am looking forward to the kinds of foods that cooler weather brings but we've been determined to enjoy every last minute of sunshine and warmth while it lasts. With that in mind we thought we'd head out for a picnic on the river and take the boat out for a run.

All went well until we hit this point. See there, where the boats are moored?

That's where the boat stopped. Yes, stopped. Dead in the middle of the river. Phhttt. And, despite Hubby's best attempts (and possibly some not terribly polite language) it wouldn't go again. I think every person in Perth who has a boat was away for the Easter weekend. The river was the most quiet we've ever seen it. We sat there for ages and no-one went past. Finally Hubby decided he'd pull out the oars and row. He made it to the markers (on the edge of the pic) before the wind picked up and, regardless of his valiant attempts, we were being blown backwards and into seriously shallow water.

And finally someone came to our rescue. They were in a boat that, by rights, shouldn't have towed ours. It was a gorgeous little thing that reminded me of the kind of groovy speedboats you'd find in old-fashioned Elvis movies. They dragged us over to the boat-ramp and, after we had given them our heartfelt thanks, we waited for Poppy to come to our rescue. He collected Hubby, drove him to the boat ramp where the car and trailer were parked, several km's away, and then back Hubby came to collect the boat, the wife and the kids.

And then we went home again. Don't say we don't have adventures!

One A Penny, Two A Penny...

2010-04-02T18:52:00.004+08:00

Yep! We've been baking Hot Cross Buns. The first recipe was a bit of a fizzer. They tasted okay but they were quite stodgy and turned stale super quickly - like within a matter of hours - and didn't exactly look like the regular kind of hot cross buns we're all used to. The second version was much better; fluffy, light and they look the part too. I got the recipe for these ones from one of my new favourite blogs, Destitute Gourmet. I halved it to end up with an even dozen buns and the only thing I'd change is to add in some sugar as we all prefer ours a little bit sweeter. I wouldn't add too much though, a couple of tablespoons would do the job. Just enough to sweeten them up a little bit and give them a bit more oomph.

For Your General Hilarity

2010-03-31T18:46:00.004+08:00

So I went along to one of the local high-schools to do some relief teaching today. It was my first real day of relief back in a high school - the days I did earlier in the term were all in the VET area and I was doing work placements. That's where some of the kids go out to the workplace one or two days of the week. It counts as a school subject and towards their graduation. I was sorting the placements and setting up paper trails, etc. It's what I love doing and generally involved 1-1 contact with the kids with the odd quick info session thrown in rather than up-front proper teaching of a subject. I've also been doing the odd bit of relief at the local primary school - the very one my kids attend - but that's an entirely different kettle of fish.

Relief teachers are, as a general rule, paid well and treated badly. They get the grunt jobs, the rotten classes, playground duty and no breaks. That's okay though because, in my case it's only a couple of days a week, and like I said you get paid well. you also have the added bonus of no lesson prep or marking to do. Just walking in, teach it, and walk out.

So, my day today?

Form class - take attendance, read notices and wait for the next bell to ring.

Period 1 - Yr 8, SOSE, or social studies for those of us who went to school 20 or so years ago.

Period 2 - Year 10 Dance

Recess - 20 minute break - run from one end of the school to the other to go to the loo, gulp half a cup of tea and a biscuit and then run back to the other side of the school.

Period 3 - Year 11 Dance

Period 4 - Year 10 Maths - the TAGS group (Talented and Gifted, as in seriously smart kids)

Lunch - 20 minute break. During which I have yard duty.

Period 5 - Year 9 Dance

Does anyone see the problem(s) here?

Me teaching DANCE? I'm a huge klutz. HUGE. With all the rhythm of a stumbling baby elephant. No problem - we'll make the kids work on the computer and do some research instead.

Me teaching MATHS!!!! Umm, yeah. See numbers really aren't my thing. I don't play card games because of the adding up stuff. And I've got the TAGS group. Who are doing algebra revision. HAHAHAHAHAHA. And they're foolish enough to think I can help when they get stuck! Oh the sheer hilarity. Luckily I did what all good teachers do and turned it around on the kids and had them explain to each other - I had about three kids up the front with whiteboard markers instructing the kids who were stuck. It worked a treat.

The SOSE bit I should have been able to handle - it was my minor after all and they were doing an assessment so really I just needed to shut them up and supervise them. One small problem. Part of the assessment was creating a graph from data that showed both temperature and rainfall. Hmmm, back to the maths thing really. Luckily it was an assessment piece so I wasn't allowed to help them.

By the end of the day I was starving and my brain hurt. I have never been so glad to see 3pm.

Happy Birthday Anne!

2010-03-30T17:41:00.005+08:00

Remember me talking about the across-the-roads? They are our favourite ever neighbours, great friends to the whole family and generally terrific people. Yeah. Them. Well, they up and moved just before Christmas and, while we still love them all heaps, they're not exactly our neighbours anymore. Luckily they didn't move too far away, a mere 10 or so minutes in the car, and the kids all still go to school together. And also luckily we all get to see each other lots - the kids organise playdates, we all catch up for a meal now and then and Mrs-former-across-the-road and I have 'coffee' every few weeks. Though the coffee date is more often a cup of tea (English Breakfast for me, green for her) and there's usually cake involved.

Normally when it's one of our birthdays we would simply run across the road to exchange gifts, have a cuppa and share some birthday cake but now... well, we have to organise things in advance. Again with the lucky - lucky I ran into her at the shops yesterday. It saved me a phone call LOL.

So Anne and the kids came round this afternoon and we caught up on all the news, the kids played and yes, we ate cake. Yum.

Something Warm

2010-03-29T20:11:00.006+08:00

As the weather cools down after a long hot summer in our part of the world it's almost a relief to be looking to warm dishes for dinners. I remembered making this tuna pie some time ago and thought I'd blogged it at the time but, apparently not. I don't know why I didn't - I wasn't wrong in remembering it as being tasty, filling and just the right thing as summer turns to autumn.

Be warned - the recipe serves 10. When I made it I halved everything except the tin of tuna and had enough for about 6 serves.

Creamy Fish Pie

from an advertising feature in Australian Table, July 2007

425g can tuna in oil

1 large leek, washed, thinly sliced

2 medium carrots, diced

2 tablespoons chopped dill

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

finely grated rind of 1 lemon

1 egg lightly beaten

2 cups (500ml) thickened cream

500g potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced

1 cup (120g) grated extra tasty cheese

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Drain tuna, reserving 2 tablespoons of oil. Heat reserved oil in a non-stick frying pan and cook leek and carrot for 10 minutes until tender. Transfer to a large bowl. Add tuna, herbs, lemon rind, eggs and cream. Stir gently, breaking up largest chunks of tuna. Pour into a 15 x 25cm baking dish.

2. Spread potato over top, overlapping. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle with cheese and bake for 30 minutes, until cheese is bubbling. Serve.

What's This In The Laundry Basket?

2010-03-28T16:57:00.004+08:00

Don't panic! It's just my turn to wash the doll's clothes for kindy. But it gave a few people cause for thought when they saw that laundry basket during the week LOL.

Easy Roast

2010-03-27T10:23:00.005+08:00

I cobbled together a few bits and pieces to come up with a simple, quick yet tasty dinner the other night. There's nothing hard about it, and I'm sure you could all come up with the same thing without my help but for the cooking-challenged among you (Hi Jodes, I told you I'd come up with some just for you!) here it is. The measurements are fairly much guess-timations so feel free to work with what you've got.

Roasted Chicken Pieces

1kg chicken pieces, skin on

3/4 cup white wine

olive oil

a few bay leaves

4 cloves garlic

3 medium sized potatoes, each cut into about 6 pieces

2 tsp dried tarragon

2 Tbsp finely grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 180C.

Place the whole lot in a large bowl and toss gently to combine. Pour it into a good-sized oven-proof baking dish.

Cover with foil and cook for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake a further 45 minutes.

Serve with steamed beans and carrots.

Just Wondering

2010-03-26T17:48:00.006+08:00

Why is it that one child believes that an answer of 'maybe' really means 'probably not' while the other child is convinced that the same answer translates to 'sure, let me stop what I'm doing right this second so I can do your bidding, oh mighty one'.

At Least

2010-03-25T16:51:00.004+08:00

when she has this much crap in her room...

I have an excuse not to vacuum! (yes, she does normally have bed linen. It was wash-the-sheets day.)

Offspring #2 spied the brightly coloured bag on the top shelf in my wardrobe and, being the inquisitive child she is, had to find out what was in it. Upon finding out a tent lived in the bag she nagged and nagged until I finally got the thing down and, amid much muttered swearing, set it up in the living room. Then she wanted it in her bedroom. Her tiny little bedroom. Cue more muttered swearing as I dragged it up the hallway and shoved it through her doorway.

So that's where it is - literally squeezed in between her bed and her shelves, full of teddies and babies and blankies and toys. And she's spent most of this past week turning it into a school-room, a hospital, a 'holiday place', a bedroom for babies and a princesses castle. I love watching her imagination at work.

Family Fun

2010-03-24T19:54:00.008+08:00

We had grand plans to take the boat out on Sunday but the Daddy of the house developed a streaming head cold and wasn't up for it so we decided to have an 'at home' kind of day - playstation, some dvds and just hanging out. Yeah, right. The aforementioned Daddy of the house has a bit of an issue with sitting still so that plan didn't last too long. Then he announced that we should grab the already purchased picnic food and head out for a drive. Being the good wife I am I promptly agreed, packed the picnic and the kids and away we went. Well, nearly. I kinda have issues with spontaneity - Hubby says I need two weeks advanced warning that it might be called for and, where possible I should be given clues as to what direction it might take LOL. So, after fussing about and worrying about every little thing that could possibly go wrong... I pulled it all together and then, away we went.

We headed out towards the Swan Valley and found a spot by the river for our picnic lunch.

We watched boats go by, kids fooling around with a truly cool looking rope swing and had some nosy, and noisy, visitors join us on the river bank. The kids were intrigued (and possible a little bit terrified) by the geese but happily threw them chunks of the leftover bread roll. From a distance they deemed to be safe.

We hopped back in the car and did a bit of exploring. We wandered out to Houghton's Winery and had a look around. I was completely unaware that they open up their lawn area for picnic-ers on the weekends. There's a huge grassed area with big shady trees and picnic tables, for those who choose to bring their own meal and a cafe for those who don't. The menu consisted mostly of shared platters but they looked good. Of course you could also do a little wine tasting and choose a bottle to go with your lunch. I think we might be heading back there sometime soon.

We also visited a section of the river that, in winter is a raging white-water monster that is an integral part of the Avon Descent. On Sunday, before the big storm that hit Perth the very next day, it was simply a rough and rocky river-bed. And we got to see exactly why so many boats come to grief at this very spot.

Our final destination for the day was the Margaret River Chocolate Company (aka the Chocolate Factory) in the Swan Valley. But I'm saving that post for another day!

Don't You Hate...

2010-03-23T10:45:00.005+08:00

... when you make something yummy for dinner, everyone* gobbles it up happily and you think to yourself, "mmmm, I'll be making that one again" only to have the recipe vanish from the face of the earth!

I made a Pumpkin and Feta Frittata sometime last week - the title would suggest it had pumpkin and feta in it, and I remember it had eggs and some finely sliced bacon but as to measurements? Meh, don't know, can't find 'em. I know it was started on the stove-top and finished in the oven but for how long? Wouldn't have a clue. I know the recipe was a page torn from a magazine but which one? Got me stumped there. Anyone out there know where I got it from? I think it was fairly recent if that helps. Anyone????

Well, here's the photo anyway...

*In the interest of ummm, like, honesty... I must disclose that while Offspring #1 went back for seconds, and then thirds, Miss Picky aka Offspring #2 took one look and declared the whole thing to be 'yuk' . She did, under threat of death, taste the frittata but made such a fuss that I fed her all the carrot sticks from the accompanying salad just to make her shut up. Bad Parenting Technique #4627.

Home Again, Home Again

2010-03-21T09:03:00.008+08:00

The engagement party was last night and it was lovely. The venue was on the beachfront, about an hour away for us, and we laughed because we hadn't seen the ocean for the longest time. Mental note to self: must ensure children occasionally see ocean! I was truly excited that we'd be there for sunset - there's nothing like watching the sun sink into the ocean - and I am pained to admit that I missed it. I was too busy talking and by the time Hubby nudged me it was gone. Oh well, I guess we'll have to head back again soon.

The party was for a younger cousin of mine who has been away travelling for a couple of years. She looked gorgeous and glowy and in love and we met her fiancee who seems very nice. Hubby and my brother gave her the third degree "what does he do? how old is he? where is his family from?" etc, etc, etc. Hilarious when you know what a terror my little brother (and hubby too, for that matter) was in his younger days. It was really nice to catch up with family I haven't seen for ages. Between us moving around the country-side and life in general we worked out that one of my cousins hasn't even seen Offspring #2.

So, how was my outfit? Pretty much perfect I'd say. Better dressed that some, not quite as jazzed up as a few of the pretty young things. Some of the teeny little frocks were gorgeous and my sis-in-law and I had fun ogling (and coveting) some seriously beautiful shoes. Now I need to find some fancy places to go so I can get dressed up again!

Not Happy, Jan!

2010-03-19T16:44:00.003+08:00

Let me start by telling you how much I love the delicious. magazine. It has contributions from lots of my favourite foodie-types, both local and international. In every issue I can find something to make for dinner that very night, something special to serve and impress guests and something interesting that will challenge me either in the cooking arena or taste-wise. In fact I love it some much that about 18 months ago I asked Hubby for a subscription for my birthday. It was duly organised and now I get my copy of delicious. delivered to my door each and every month. And that's where I start being not quite so pleased.

There's no discount on the subscription. Lots of mags offer a percentage discount when you subscribe, you know 10% off or 3 free issues or some such. Not here, but that's okay because I love the mag so I'd buy it at full price from the newsagent anyway, right?

Generally the current issue has been in the shops several days, or on some occasions two full weeks, before my issue arrives in my mail box. I used to subscribe to a scrapbooking mag and they made a big deal of the fact that it arrived at your house before it arrived in the store. And it always did. This one? Not so much.

You know the freebies that sometimes come with mags? Yeah, subscribers of delicious. don't tend to get them. We get the odd thing - the free calico shopping bag a couple of months ago was one that we did get (nice and all but nothing I don't already have 15 or so of). But the salad servers sometime last year or the recipe booklet this month? No, they didn't go to subscribers. Why not? I don't know, but as an unimpressed subsriber I guess they figure they've already goto our money so they don't have to entice us with pretty things.

So tell me, why would I bother with a mag that treats its subscribers so poorly? Any other magazine I've bought has made a big deal of its subscribers - special offers, discounts, lots of freebies, etc. I guess it's a good thing that I really do like delicious. month after month. I certainly won't be renewing my subscription but I'll probably continue to buy the magazine. The day it comes out, with freebies attached.

Wordless Wednesday... On Thursday

2010-03-18T13:41:00.002+08:00

For Your Approval

2010-03-17T13:39:00.007+08:00

Awww... you guys! Thanks for all your advice and words of wisdom on what to wear. I carried it all with me when I went shopping today and I present my finds for your approval.

As suggested by Trish: pretty shoes. I'm loving the peep toe and the buckle.

I was considering the 'going out' bags I already had and came to the conclusion that most of them should probably go into the dressing up box. There's nothing wrong with them except that they were fashionable about 10 years ago and were last used about 8 years ago. So... a pretty little up-to-the-minute clutch purse.

And I love the material lining. Pretty, pretty, pretty.

I vetoed the suggestions on dresses and skirts. I'm just not comfortable in them and, while I will be a little outside my comfort zone simply by dressing up I don't want to be so far out of it that I feel like a freak. Even if I looked okay I'd feel weird and that would just put a downer on the whole night. I found a pair of black pants that are just gorgeous - they're just regular black pants, pretty much the same as every other pair I already own except that they fit beautifully - skimming my butt and thighs rather than sticking to the lumpy bits - and just sit really nicely. I tried really hard to buy something sparkly. Really hard. But nothing fitted / sat nicely / stayed where it was supposed it / covered the bits that really should be covered / cost less than my fortnightly mortgage payment. Then I found a plain black T with a lovely ruffle. Not too ruffly that it messed with my head but big enough to add some interest to the top. The t sat well and looked good too. And to go over it a 3/4 sleeve, long-line cardy with ruffly bits too. The photos don't do it justice - it looks better on a body than it does on a hanger. Promise.

I'm going to wear my big gold hoop earrings and check out what I have bead/necklace wise, and make a raid on a girl-friends jewellery box if I need to, and that's what I'm wearing! It should be dressy enough to look the part yet still close enough to my comfort zone that I can enjoy the evening.

Any positve feedback would be most welcome, criticism not so much - the credit card is smoking and I don't have time to exchange anything anyway. But again, thank you. Your advice really helped me out while I was looking for ideas and trying stuff on. You guys are the best.

What To Wear?

2010-03-16T08:36:00.003+08:00

Arrggghhh. I've got an engagement party to attend on the weekend and the dress code is cocktail attire. Help! I'm a not very dressy, not very girly, nearly 40 year old Mum. I do jeans, t-shirt, 3/4 casual pants... all very casual and all very suited to my casual lifestyle. I'm going to be surrounded by 20-somethings who, from the pics I've seen on facebook, are gorgeous, slim and used to dressing up.

Any suggestions for what I should be looking for? I'm not comfortable in dresses so I'm thinking more along the lines of black pants and a sparkly-type top. At least then I can pretend it's jeans and a shirt, so long as I don't look at myself in a mirror.