More Christmas

Jaspa trying to open Jeya's Present!

Jeya opening her present (watched from inside by jealous Jaspa)

Janet opening her presents!

Christmas!!

We started the day with breakfast. As well as this fruit I also made a more eggy version of Nigella's Green Eggs & Ham. Which is basically eggy pancakes with green pesto mixed through, wrapped around a slice of ham.

Lunch - lots of food!

We provided the nibbles - I made Polenta cupcakes with pesto/creamcheese frosting, and wonton cups filled with avocado & tomato salsa.

Jeya was given a doggy cupcake from Lochie!

Our girls relaxing under the tree!

Look what I made...

Last night I gave up waiting for the Christmas cards we ordered to arrive. I sat down and made 20 cards. They were simple ones, but they look ok. Not bad for a last minute job.

So I sat down on the couch to wait for the glue to dry (this was about 8pm) and not 2 minutes after I had finished making the cards, a van drove up the driveway and the parcel lady dropped of a parcel at our front door. Guess what it was? Yep the Christmas cards we had ordered. So now we have a good supply.

I roasted a chook!

Saturday night Pam & Sid came over for dinner, so I decided to make a roast chicken. This was slightly stressful since I have never roasted a chicken before. I basically followed Nigella's recipe for Lemon Roast Chicken from Nigella Feasts. You rub the chicken with butter and put half a lemon inside it. I added fresh herbs from the garden (rosemary, sage & thyme) to the butter and rubbed this all over the chook, as well as putting some butter under the skin over the breasts. I also chucked some sprigs of these herbs inside the chicken. THen you salt the chicken and bake it in a 22o C oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let it rest for 15 minutes before squeezing over some lemon juice and serving.

I also par boiled some potatoes, shook them around a bit after they were drained, and threw these in around the chicken, as well as some separately for the vegetarian (that would be me :-) ). Along with some roast pumpkin and roasted cauliflower, it was really quite delicious.

I was most impressed with the way the chicken turned out! It looked just like a real one. And by all reports also tasted delicious.

For dessert I made mini pavlovas with strawberry & mango.

And then we all played a bit of tennis & bowling on the Wii.

Happy 90th Birthday Pa!!

On Saturday it was my Grandfather's 90th Birthday. I made the cake. I used my Gran's recipe for chocolate cake. It was the cake she always made us for our birthdays. I have written the recipe down in my recipe note-book as told to me by my Mum over the phone many years ago. THere is a secret to the recipe. The recipe says 2 eggs, but the secret Gran twist is that you actually put in 3 eggs and get a better result. This was an accidental discovery by my Gran, but it is the way I always make this cake. Its a simple, tasty chocolate cake.

MMMMM chocolate cake batter. I actually made this cake twice. I had a slight disaster with the icing during round one. So that cake ended up in the bin, and I made a second cake after a quick trip to Woolies for some more ingredients.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PA!!!

Busy Busy....

Its getting to be that busy time of year. How did Christmas get to be less than 2 weeks away? No idea!

I believe we are fairly organised Christmas-wise. We have our shopping done, aour presents wrapped, our tree decorated, and our lights up on the house. We have not as yet sent out cards. This is because, rather than make them this year, I thought it would be good to buy some from a charity so we could at least be helping out someone. Good idea, only I should have had it earlier, because the cards we ordered have not arrived yet. People may be getting New Years or Easter cards from us. Who knows!!!

This weekend I have some cooking to do, so I am planning to take some photos and do a little cooking-blogging. I am going to make my first ever roast chicken dinner, for Saturday night when Pam & Sid are coming round. I am also baking a chocolate cake for my Granddad's 90th birthday. So that will keep me occupied this weekend!

Short Road Trip

Yesterday (after watching the weather and determining that it was the most likely day this week of NOT having a storm)we went on a drive - destination Montville. We left very early considering we are on holidays, because we wanted to beat the traffic on the Gateway. SO we left here at 6am. We stopped at our usual service centre at Nudgee for some brekky on the way. I got one of those Bacon & Egg McMuffins with Avocado and Tomato. Minus the bacon & egg! Quite delicious!!

It was such a clear day that I decided we should go up to the Wild Horse Mountain Lookout to checkout the view of the Glass House Mountains. It is only a 700metre walk, but it is rather steep. Well worth it though - the view is excellent!

So after stopping for breakfast, climbing the hill and getting back in the car, it was still only just after 8. So onwards and upwards to Montville.

The idea of going to Montville came about because we were watching "The Great South East" and they did a story about the Candy shop up there - I wanted to see the guy making the candy - it looked really cool. Plus we thought it would be good to go and look in all the other shops up there. We got there just before 9, parked the car and got out for a wander. We were a little worried because nothing seemed to be open. Even the visitor information centre didn't open until 10. So we forced ourselves to sit down at a cafe for a cup of tea (or diet coke) and some Scones. mmmmmmm. Great scones! The lady at the cafe also was able to tell us where the candy shop was, since we failed to spot it during our wander down the street.

Eventually shops seemed to be opening, so we were able to have a bit of a browse around. The candy shop however didn't open until 10.30. And when we went in there, the guy saud there were no demonstrations happening. So that was a shame. But we bought some candy and continued on our way along the street.

Once we had had enough of Montville, we got back in the car and went to Maleny. We stopped at a lookout on the way - how green is it!!!

After parking the car (they had silly reverse in angled parking) We found somewhere for lunch. I had the best lunch ever. It was a tofu burger with the crunchiest, tastiest chips ever. The burger was on a turkish bread roll, which is always a fantastic idea, a slice of marinated tofu, with a delicious mix of salad, and satay sauce. Wow. I should have taken a photo, because it was truly wonderful.

Then it was back into the nicely heated up car and off to Caloundra. We wandered the main street, as is customary, and then we headed to sit by the water for a while.

We had thought we might stay up there and get some dinner, but it was only 3.30, and we didn't really have anything else to entertain us for a few more hours, so we decided to just head home. We managed to miss most of the traffic too - hooray!

shiny and new

I had to go this morning to help out in another brand spanking new Woolies store. So brand new that it still appeared that they were in the process of building it. And the carpark was virtually non existant. But at least now they have a lovely neat, tidy and filled toilet roll section. Beautiful! :-)

more soup...

so tonight I will have tomato soup for dinner. Only it won't use up any tins.......I found some frozen soup in the (where else?) freezer..... I think it is soup I made from (what else) tomatoes!

going dotty!

I finally worked up the energy to whipper-snip the yard. Not that it requires that much actual energy, but it is a very frustrating job, because it involves refilling the whipper-snipper with line, which is a very annoying job! And then sometimes, if I am stupid, I leave the line too long and it all winds around its-self and created a huge tangle. And other times I get a couple of metres of edge snipped and it runs out of line again. So anyhow, I got it done without too many dramas. Of course I managed to dong myself in the head with the power cord plug as I was carrying it back to the shed. And also there is the slight issue with my right leg now looking like I have the measles. Note to self : its not a good idea to whipper-snip in shorts.

On a different note, I just bought us tickets for next years P!nk Concert. In June. Gee next year is filling up already!

tomato soup creations...

I have recently discovered that we have 8 tins of tomato soup in the cupboard. This is because I kept buying it when it was on special. And then didn't bother to actually use any of it. So I see tomato soup featuring as an ingredient in many dinners to come....... Last night I made Janet crumbed veal (crumbed in breadcrumbs, fresh hers & romano cheese). And we both had spaghetti with tomato soup sauce. (not just tomato soup of course - it also had onion, garlic, zucchinni, capsicum and fresh herbs). What else can I see - I am sure spaghetti and meatballs will soon make an appearance (alongside spaghetti & not-meatballs - my creation of lentils and soy beans, which are quite delicious...I make up a big batch and freeze them)

Possibly some more home made ravioli will be another idea. And of course I can always make a stew-like creation for Janet - a bit of paprika fred up with onions and the meat before adding the soup is always a good move.

That is all I can come up with for now....... I usually only use half a tin in each meal, so that means 16 meals featurng tomato soup.

And I forgot the most obvious one.....tomato soup!! :-)

Advance planning.....

I bought us tickets to see Chicago (the musical, not the city). Next March. It seems like a long time away, but will probably be here before we know it. They are front row tickets and all! (thats as long as the map of the seating is correct). I have seen this show before, and of course have also seen the movie quite a few times. I don't even know who is going to be in it - maybe no-one knows, since it didn't say on the QPAC site either. Or maybe I am just blind. Whatever! it does not matter!

I now have something to write on next years calender.

I think my Wii arm is worse today. I should have played more yesterday! Instead I pedalled my lovely spin bike. Through Idol. That show really annoys me. I love to hate it. When watching Idol, I turn into the meanest person on the planet. They should give ME the job of the nasty judge. And they should get rid of Rikki-(its all about me)-Lee. Seriously.

Cool new STUFF!

We got a Wii!!!! yay!!!! They were on sale at Big W, so Janet bought us one last Thursday (she had the day off to go to the Dr to get a mole chopped off - ouchy!)

So we have spent some of the weekend becoming less un-co-ordinated on it.

I have been having fun on the Wii Fit. I don't actually think it would make you get fit, but it is certainly fun!

And Boxing was also good! We were punching each other - might be a good game if we have a fight!

So today I am at work suffering from a touch of "Wii-arm"

a Saturday night off the couch....

Last weekend we went and saw Colbie Callait at the Tivoli. She was supported by Kate Miller-Heidke, who we have seen before.... it was a good concert! I wasn't really expecting much, I hadn't even really listened to the Colbie Callait cd. But I liked what I saw. And heard.

Quite amazingly, I had to show id to get in. Come on, that is a little bit silly! There is no way I could be under 18. Anyway..... there were the usual drunk people there, I really don't know why you would pay money to go to a concert and then spend heaps more money on drinks? It was a standing only concert, so our old legs were a little bit cranky about that by the end - I mean there were 2 support acts and then the main act, so it was a long time standing in the same spot - its not like you could walk around, because you would then lose your good position. Somehow I kept ending up with people who would stand so close to me they were kind of leaning against me. But enough of that! the show was great!


This is Kate Miller-Heidke - I think we have her new cd arriving sometime soon - it should be good!


Colbie Callait - when she sang "bubbly" they had a bubble machine and bubbles cascaded from the ceiling! It was very cool, but they didn't show up in the photos. Just imagine them!
I tried very hard to get a smiling photo!

A Cat Fun Fair

Our new Cat tree, castle, scratching thingy, or whatever you like to call it arrived last week. We had some trouble attaching the ladder, and almost had to resort to using the new drill, but got it sorted eventually.

And just so Miss Jeya isn't feeling left out, here is a picture of her. Looking a little sad. I think she wants a doggy castle.

I am very impressed with myself!

We bought a drill last weekend and managed to put up some shelves! And they are still up to this day! Excellent!!

This one (well it is actually 3 shelves side by side, for all of my caps.


And this one, which is a "floating" shelf is for some of my snow domes.

Now, what can we drill holes into next..........???

Happy Birthday to Monty

Today is Miss Monty's 11th Birthday. She celebrated with a special "pouch" of food which she of course had to share with Jaspa. Jaspa promptly spewed it up on the freshly cleaned carpet. Fun times. Janet has ordered a new scratching post thingy for the girls - it looks like lots of fun - it has a ladder and all sorts of things. This house is turning into a theme park for cats!

The reason I needed the new bike....

We had a lovely weekend. Yes, we got a whole box of Dreamy Donuts. And ate them all. We chose 6 different varieties, and had half of each one. (we had a voucher - a mixed box for $10)The absolute best in my opinion is still the Cinnamon Glazed. I haven't found a donut I like better. The Choc topped ones suprised me with the large amount of chocolate, but they were probably my least favorite (and I absolutely LOVE chocolate.) We also tried the choc filled and the caramel filled. THey are filled with flavoured custard. I think they may be better if they were actually filled with chocolate & caramel. The last of the flavours was the traditional glazed, which was also great.

New Bike!

This is my new spin bike. Okay, so I have already broken it, but it should be back in working order by tomorrow! And hopefully the bruises I have on my arms from carrying it in from the car on the weekend will also be gone. (it is very heavy! it was quite an effort for us to get it inside).

Weekend Excursion

We went on a little drive to the BP at Stapylton. Strange destination? Well they sell Krispy Kreme's there, so we decided to go and try them.

We e-tolled our way down the motorway and had a delicious lunch at the servo (they sell great vegie burgers at the Flames shop there!!) and then dessert of Krispy Kremes. I had a cinnamon, Janet had a chocolate glazed. The verdict? Whilst they were indeed tasty (we haven't met a donut yet that we didn't like.....), Dreamy Donuts are way better.

Cute Mini Cupcakes!

I made these last weekend - my birthday cakes if you like (no candles though!!) I used the mini muffin tin that Janet gave me for my birthday. These were such cute little bite-sized cupcakes! (I used Nigella's fairy cake recipe from "How to be a Domestic Goddess" - so easy as you just bung everything into the food processor)