It’s been one of those days

It took me about an hour tonight to offload to Adam all my angst about today. Poor man. Work was busy but good, though I was 2 cups of coffee short by the time I was heading back to pick the kids up from school. This may have had a detrimental effect on the rest of my afternoon. The kids were fighting before we’d left the school grounds (Again. Have I mentioned their tendency to do this?) – can’t blame the lack of coffee for that – and things pretty much went downhill from there. We had homework angst, hyper … Continue reading It’s been one of those days

Interview time

I’ve been a little slow with this one! Back at the end of January Liz at Eternal Lizdom invited her readers to request an interview from her, which I duly did. Shortly afterwards, her questions arrived in my inbox and I opened a draft post, began to write, got stuck and it’s been sitting there ever since. Today I determined to finish – and here it is. This is one of those pass-it-on meme type things so if you want me to interview you, leave a comment and say “Interview me!” and I’ll send you 5 questions to answer. Liz … Continue reading Interview time

Food and love (Part 1)

Some time ago Liz posted a piece titled Love You With Food, it ends with these lines: There is a legacy of love and food and cooking in my family. I’m so glad to be part of it and so glad it doesn’t end with me. I wish I could say the same thing about my family. It’s not that there was any lack of love, or indeed of good food, in my childhood – far from it! But somewhere along the way food became a problem instead of an uncomplicated celebration and the legacy I inherited could be better … Continue reading Food and love (Part 1)

Pork and beans?

Hmph! I wanted to embed the Weezer vid but You Tube has embedding disabled for it. Oh well, you all know it anyway don’t you? Moving along…. I was going to take it easy on the culinary front this evening and whip up some couscous with onion, capsicum, peas and corn to serve with grilled pork loin medallions…and then discovered I didn’t have any couscous. Oh bugger. So I had to improvise and it ended up turning into another Nanny Ogg type cooking adventure, here’s what I came up with: Mim’s Pork and Beans (as christened by Tom, Adam wanted … Continue reading Pork and beans?

Gingerbread House – Aussie style

Here it is, a definitively Australian gingerbread house, inspired by Megan, baked by me and decorated by my kids – with a little help from me and my Mum (ok, I confess, the kids got bored and Mum and I finished the job, the lolly encrusted sides are totally Grandma’s fault). Give me a home among the gumtrees With lots of plum treesA sheep or two, a kangaroo A clothesline out the back Verandah out the front And an old rocking chair There’s an outdoor dunny and a water tank (though it’s a little on the small side). We’ve even … Continue reading Gingerbread House – Aussie style

Construction Phase 1 complete

Tomorrow afternoon we will be making a Gingerbread House, but before that can happen the pre-fabrication of building materials must take place. So that’s what I’ve been doing tonight. Because sleep is so over-rated. I could have simply re-used the pattern from previous years but I was getting kind of bored with doing the same thing year after year. About a month ago Megan was musing on the question of how to do an Aussie gingerbread house and I got all inspired and stuff. So tonight I made a new pattern, this time of a house with a verandah out … Continue reading Construction Phase 1 complete

I’m going to read to you whether you like it or not!

Today I spent the whole day feeling like nothing was working out quite the way it was supposed to. I had planned to give myself the morning off, once I’d dropped the kids at school I was going to come home and spend an hour and a half doing whatever I bloody well wanted to and then pop up to the school 30 minutes before my Canteen shift began to partake of the Helper’s Morning Tea – a thank you from the staff to all the parent who have helped out at the school throughout the year (I’ve never been … Continue reading I’m going to read to you whether you like it or not!

Garlic prawn and spinach risotto

I went shopping this afternoon knowing that I wanted to make a prawn risotto but without having looked up a recipe. So I put on my recipe inventing hat and chucked in the trolley whatever seemed like a good idea at the time. I reckon it turned out ok. 2 tbspn olive oil500g garlic prawns (I got the De Costi ones)2 onions, diced50g butter2 cups arborio rice1/2 cup white wine (nicked from the bottle my dad brought to have with the meal)1 L chicken stock (made with salt reduced Massel cubes)400g can diced tomatoes with oregano and basil1 bunch English … Continue reading Garlic prawn and spinach risotto

Brunch

It was kind of hard to get out of bed this morning, Adam and I slept in but we managed to get the kids dressed, fed, packed for school and out the door with just enough time to make it to school before the bell. I popped in to the school office to drop some keys off and have a chat to a couple of people, then took Clara to the dog park where she had a wonderful time chasing, being chased and wrestling with Gem (a lovely 1 year old bitzer who has some staffy in her along with … Continue reading Brunch

Link-fest No. 6

Feel like reading something silly? There’s a new post up on yogabeans! A review of Deadwood on Heroine Content. Train your goldfish with a training kit from ThinkGeek. Ninja cat comes closer without moving PhysioProf and Dr Isis are engaged in a recipe war. I find it oddly compelling. The Vorkosigan Companion will be mine. My lovely friend Susan has a new blog featuring cats and vegan food porn for your reading pleasure. And lastly, The Rotund has managed to convince me that taking the kids to Disneyland/Disney World might not be a completely terrible idea. Caitlin will be ever … Continue reading Link-fest No. 6