A Village Life

OUCH!!

2012-02-26T11:20:00.000+13:00

It started out a wonderful morning. I was finally feeling better after a few days of a runny nose and congestion. I went out for a morning run with Rex; down to Matheson Bay, around the coastal walkway, down to harbour and back home. I was feeling great. We had a big day out planned with the whole gang. First we were off to Rita's swim lesson, then into Warkworth for some shopping, a quick visit to the library, and finally finishing up with lunch at a local vineyard. We were waiting for Rita's friend Kaya to be picked up so I peeked into the construction site of a garage downstairs to see how it was all going. I had an idea of where to put the bar fridge and a little kitchenette setup so I called Pete over to have a look. And that's when it happened...........We pulled the wrought iron bed out from the wall where it was leaning and SLAM: the bed frame came flying down and bashed me in the face! I screamed, Pete and Tui looked at me in shock and blood started pouring out. Pete grabbed a towel, mom got some ice and I went straight to the couch to try to ingest what was happening. I kept thinking I didn't want to go to the hospital, I wanted to go out to lunch at the vineyard and pickup the library book I ordered. Funny what runs through your head in a time of emergency and shock. Pete asked me if I thought any of my facial bones were broken and then started in on if I was concussed and what was my name and what day was it. I am Megan stupid and it is Saturday! I am not concussed dammit! Pete called the doctor and made me an appointment then took Rita to her swim lesson while I sat for over and hour with an ice pack on my face, taking copious amounts of arnica to hopefully reduce any bruising. I was pretty certain I was in for a black eye. The scenario was all too familiar as some years back when we were doing a ski season I was pummeled by a large Russian man and ended up with stitches across my nose and two black eyes. The verdict this time around: quite a large slash under my eye but thank god, no stitches. Just a few butterfly strips and off I went. It hasn't bruised or swelled up as much as I anticipated but I do look as though I've been in a pretty good fight.
As for lunch at the vineyard, it was postponed for a day so off we go today all bandaged up and ready to taste some much needed wine!

Renovations in a small town

2012-02-08T11:19:00.000+13:00

Project garage conversion is on the go. (Well, actually it is probably on hold for the weekend; Pete is picking up our new boat today so I imagine he's going to want to play with the new toy for the best part of the weekend.) Anyway back to the garage conversion. I finally convinced Pete that instead of adding on a whole extra wing to the house all we needed to do was throw out a heap of junk that was sitting in the garage and convert it into super deluxe guest quarters. First off was purge-o-rama. Ute loads of stuff we no longer used were either dumped or given to op shops. Closets cleaned, shed reorganized and new storage spaces created inside. We scored a perfect-fit ranch slider off of trademe that happened to be just down the road from us. When does something like that ever happen on trademe? We usually end up truckin' down to Auckland to pick up goods! The local electrician came by and yes he wired the whole place when it was remodelled 12 years ago so he knows the place inside and out. He remembers so and so who used to live here, etc. etc. He's got a plan for how to do the lighting and where to put all the switches. The plasterer also stopped by for a cold Steiny and to add his two cents about the project. Oh yes, he did all the plastering 12 years ago and knew the people who sold the place and why they sold and where they moved. No worries mate, he can sort us out when the time comes. And by the way he is the husband of the head teacher at the preschool. Did I mention it's a very small town? We are talking 500 people max. Everyone knows everyone and everyone knows who's doing what. The ranch slider gets fitted in with some help from visiting friends. Now on to the re-lining the walls and ceiling, plastering the floor, finishing off the architrave, painting, carpeting, furnishing.....Jeez and I thought this project wasn't going to be a major!
So once it's a job done, we'd better have some visitors; invitation open......almost.

from garage......

to ripped apart half storage area cum construction zone....

at least the doors are in and we can lock it all up again!

Coming soon.........Super deluxe guest quarters completed (wishful thinking on my part).
To be continued...

Schoolol Girl

2012-02-02T10:18:00.000+13:00

This is our very proud school girl on her first day. We walked up to school and she shot off without a glance back towards me. I yelled out to her twice before she actually gave me a dismissive wave. The principal walked by at that moment and said, "it looks as if she's settling in well". Yes indeed. At the end of the day I picked her up eager to hear what she had to say about her first day at "big school". "Fun as", she told me. But she "didn't really learn that much yet". Swimming was her favorite part and she and Pipi were the only ones who could actually swim! There are 8 kids in her class. Yes folks this is one very small country school.

Intentions

2012-01-27T20:31:00.000+13:00

Every morning I wake up with intentions of writing a new blog post. I have thoughts, ideas and photos all ready planned to post. But something gets in the way every single day and nothing ends up happening with the blog; that something is life with 3 kids on summer break. No way, not going to happen. It is pretty much impossible to sit down on the computer and write something comprehensible with photos uploaded to boot. Life around here is changing quickly and I can barely keep up. Rita is off to school next week. Gone, dusted, 9 to 3, 5 days a week from now on. Gigi is talking; and when I say talking I mean talking. She narrates everything she does just because she can. She re-lives stories over and over, tells me who she likes and who isn't her friend (usually me), and which songs and dvd's she likes. It is hilarious and exhausting. Tui wants to walk. Today she actually took a step on her own. She isn't even 9 months old. She wants to walk around holding my hand all day long. This evening she climbed up on the rocking chair by herself and thought it was so funny to stand on the seat and rock away while I nearly had a heart attack trying to rescue her from across the room. My garden is in full bloom and if anyone has ideas for what to do with cherry tomatoes it would be much appreciated. How did I manage to plant 8 cherry tomato plants? I was sure there were some beefsteak and roma in there. We've been running and running. Pete is training for the coastal challenge and I am training for the beach to bush. 6km through the bush the other day totally worked me, how will I manage 22km? I've been working, the kids have swimming, and then of course the usual laundry and dinner, etc. So, how the hell do these mommy bloggers manage? I honestly don't have a second to spare to get on the computer. Tonight is the exception: it is past 8 o'clock and I am usually collapsed in bed as soon as the kids are down. They are down early tonight!
With all the best intentions of keeping this blog current, all I can hope is that once the kids are back in school I might just have a few hours to myself each week to post something worthwhile. Until then........

Merry Christmas

2011-12-26T09:44:00.000+13:00

Pee-U

2011-12-15T21:41:00.000+13:00

I’ve been on a quest to find a “natural” non-aluminium deodorant for years now. I have tried every product on the market and so far nothing has come up successful. I’ve spent many a day thinking, “man, I stink”. It’s not so much the sweating that bothers me just the smell of stinky hippy body odour. Lately with all the kids in the house I’ve taken to just swiping my pits with a baby wipe when I feel a bit stinky and callin’ it all good. At some stage though something has to give and there just has to be a product out there that can help without giving me cancer or some other serious ailment associated with environmental chemical use. Some of the deodorant and brands I would put in the stinky unsuccessful basket are Jason’s, Tom’s, Australian Tea Tree, the salt crystal either in block form, roll on or spray on, Kiss My Face, Aubrey, the list goes on. Recently I splurged on Weleda’s Citrus Deodorant. This actually worked but I found the spray-on a bit wet, enduring a 5 minute dripping pits session before getting dressed every morning. When Soapwalla came to my attention thanks to Estelle I was more than happy to give it a go. While I waited patiently for my Soapwalla to get sent to my mom in California who then forwarded it to me in New Zealand, I kept up with my dripping Weleda pits, not unhappy with them but not entirely pleased either. Soapwalla arrived just in time for a few long days of work in a hot kitchen, no better test for a deodorant than conditions like that. The application is a bit strange rubbing cream into your armpits but I quickly overcame that. No big deal actually, it’s just like rubbing body lotion onto your skin. Soapwalla has exceeded my expectations. It’s brilliant! It smells delicious like creamy lavender cake or something yummy and sweet that you’d want to eat. As far as the stink factor goes, I haven’t had even a whiff of smelly hippy in the 2 weeks I’ve been using it. If there was one natural deodorant I would happily recommend to people, this would be the one.

Annie

2011-12-11T06:47:00.000+13:00

The sun will come out, tomorrow.........
Remember this? Yesterday we received the Annie DVD in the post for the girls to watch. I was so excited to put it on and re-live every moment of this story. Mrs. Hannagan. Daddy Warbucks (was that his name?). Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. I think I watched the film 50 times at least, when I was a kid. We played "Annie" with the girls who lived next door to my grandma and spent hours singing every song from the movie. Of course everyone always wanted to be Annie. It was a huge part of my childhood, this film, so I couldn't understand when Pete said he had never heard of it and it seemed like his worst nightmare, all the singing and stuff. The girls gave me funny looks as I sang every song word for word. But slowly as the film played the girls became more and more entranced until they were both sitting in their chairs right in front of the TV screen staring at this all time favorite movie of mine. I hate to say it but I am going to put it on again today and hope that they are seduced by the charms of Annie just as I was when I was a little girl!!! They are real singers my little ones so I am just dying to hear them sing "the sun will come out..." in their sweet little voices!

My how your garden grows!

2011-11-19T16:08:00.000+13:00

A progress update on our new veg garden. It is flourishing! We've been snacking on strawberries, eating lettuce, broad beans and carrots, making pesto and cooking up spinach galore. Not long till we are popping tomatoes into our mouths and having snow peas and cucumbers in our salads. The courgettes have bloomed and the flowers are just waiting to be stuffed, dipped in batter and fried.

New and improved rainbow climbing wall up and running.

And that's not all that's been growing....

Yoga Classes in Leigh

2011-11-08T09:23:00.000+13:00

All levels welcome

Tuesday nights

6 - 7:15pm

Leigh School, House of Learning

$13 casual, $88 term

end of term: 13th December

Before and After.....Bargain Project!

2011-11-04T13:31:00.000+13:00

$5 dresser scored at the Gala +

$100 worth of paint = bargain toy dresser (not)

Isn't he clever?

2011-10-25T13:00:00.000+13:00

Isn't my husband clever? In the space of 2 weekends he whipped up my new handy herb garden and 3 huge vegetable beds! What a treat. We're all planted and ready to go. Here's to a bountiful summer garden. Tomatoes, snow peas, cucumbers, courgettes, strawberries, basil, butternut squash, and carrots.

New herb garden right outside the kitchen.

New raised vegetable beds in the perfect sunny spot.

Don't forget the stain!

Great helpers too!

Oops...I almost forgot: leeks!

2011-10-19T07:10:00.000+13:00

Back to iron chef with Elleinad Spir and this week's secret ingredient of leeks. I relied on the jalousie once again to highlight this delicious vegetable. Puff pastry filled with sauteed spinach and leeks and topped with goats cheese. It was perfect for an impromptu lunch with the in-laws.

Succcess....well, sort of

2011-10-09T07:48:00.001+13:00

Just what the doctor ordered; a dark beer from The Sawmill and an oozy very ripe Camembert.

Local Bordeaux blend wine from The Vintry to accompany the meal

The stuffed mushrooms. When I opened the package of "chevre" it was actually mozzarella! They put on the wrong label, dammit. It still tasted good but was totally different than the goats cheese version I was trying to make.

Jalousie. Best dish of the night, says Pete.

And after 3 attempts the panna cotta set with agar agar actually came out with a nice smooth soft texture. The first two attempts were like hockey pucks. Note to everyone: only use a tiny amount of agar as a setting agent, like 1/4 of what is recommended in recipes.

Anniversary Day

2011-10-08T10:11:00.000+13:00

6 years ago today we had an amazing wedding in San Remo, Italy with 35 close friends and family. One of the highlights of the day was our lunch at Ca' Mea, a restaurant in the village of Badalucco in the Ligurian hills specializing in mushrooms. 10 courses were served, each with mushrooms as the main component. It was beyond memorable; it was absolutely amazing. In honor of that day.....

Am I being too ambitious trying to cook this menu today while looking after the two littlies? Time will tell........the results to be posted tomorrow!

Let the kaimoana fest begin again

2011-09-30T10:09:00.000+13:00

It's that time of year again when I lose my husband to the sea. Scallop season has opened, daylight savings has begun and Peter has finished building his smokehouse. This translates into diving on the weekends, fishing after work until the sun goes down and collecting, harvesting and killing anything and everything that can be smoked. We've actually had lots of dinner parties and food occasions lately but when you've got 3 kids, there's no time to stop, take the camera out and document the fun. You've missed out on rooster enchiladas. No, that's not a misprint. A friend had some roosters she didn't want so Pete gave them the chop and I whipped up some handmade corn tortillas and a rich red chile sauce and ta da...rooster enchiladas. Those went to a housewarming party. For the All Blacks France game we made oxtail stew served on homemade papardelle with a chocolate caramel tart for dessert and pork crackling as a midnight snack. (I had to prove Pete wrong for his comment that "there are some things vegetarians can't cook and pork crackling is one of them".) Here are some feasts we did manage to get on camera....

caramelized citrus pork belly

Family lunch with Peter's Turbot and Michael's amazing sourdough bread (which didn't get photographed but was picture perfect and left me a bit bloated 2 loaves later).

The Main Event, speared by Pete whilst on a scallop dive.

New Season Scallops with Sauteed Silverbeet washed down with the King of Beers.

Helping stoke the fire in the new smokehouse.

The finished goods: snapper, snapper heads and mussels.

Stay tuned for plenty more.....the season has just begun!

Secret Ingredient: Beer

2011-09-28T00:12:00.001+13:00

Today I am linking up with Danielle at http://www.elleinadspir.com/ for her Tuesday recipe link. And today's secret ingredient is........Beer! (I feel like I am on iron chef).

My Gramps used to make his own special barbeque sauce with a secret ingredient of beer. With nothing to go by but taste memory I experimented to come up with my own version of Gramps' sauce. I found some pork ribs for Pete to trial it on and I slathered mine thickly on some pan fried tofu. The consensus was......absolutely delicious as shown here:

Ingredients and Method:

steinlager, king of beers

mix it all up

cook it up

1 small onion grated

1 clove of garlic crushed

1/2 bottle of beer (the other half went down a treat for lunch on Friday)

1 small tin of tomato paste

a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup white vinegar

1 tablespoon mustard

1/2 cup brown sugar

large dash of soy sauce

big pinch of salt

chili powder and black pepper to taste

Mix up all ingredients and cook down for about 30 minutes over simmering heat.

Pretty easy, eh?

Spring Fever

2011-09-21T13:05:00.000+12:00

Amidst preschool politics, sick children and windy cold weather I have somehow managed to come down with a serious case of spring fever. Seed mix in hand I planted out a variety of seeds today: watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, cavolo nero, basil, borlotti beans, the list goes on.

fingers crossed, I've never been that great at growing from seed

awww, Rexy

I can't wait to get planting. I spruced up the veg bed the other day (ripped out all the weeds actually). Pete has brought home a bunch of timber that was due to be thrown out from his work so my new front yard vegetable beds are making progress already. We have started our summer list as inspired by Estelle at Under A Pink Moon. It seems hard to avoid it being a list of jobs rather than a list of fun things to do or accomplish this summer. Nonetheless we are working on our list and it is revving me up for an awesome summer. Yesterday I moved another quite large piece of furniture into a "much better location" after seeing an idea in a furniture catalog. The day before that I experimented with something I had never made before: hokey pokey (honeycomb for the non-kiwis). When I showed it to Pete he responded with "oh, it didn't work".

melt together sugar and golden syrup, then boil for 2 minutes

add baking soda and voila!

I thought it did work and was quite proud showing him the result. My idea was to use it to make homemade violet crumble bars with dark chocolate. It is still in my plan but I think I'll try making a bigger batch of the hokey pokey to work with. I'll call this one the first attempt. Anyway, lots happening here due to this fever of mine and if anyone has any summer list suggestions I'd be love to hear from you!

HFMD

2011-09-19T12:30:00.000+12:00

Have you ever heard of hand, foot and mouth disease? Well we've got it. It sucks. Mouth ulcers and fever are two physical symptoms but it actually turns your little children into complete nightmares. It really does. I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. Even I've got it. I thought I was just imagining it but no sure enough they are real blisters on my hands now. What the ? So annoying!
We are on day 4 of being home tending to sick kiddies. Ugh! Sleepless nights, snotty noses, fevers, general malaise, irrationality, whingeing and whining. It's just about the most challenging thing we've ever done. Luckily Pete got to go back to work today; well lucky for him. It was a long weekend with not many high points for either of us. Well I take that back. We did watch Ireland beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup tournament. I pray that tomorrow they are well enough to drop off at preschool for the day. I need a break from 4 long days of making cozy sick beds in the living room and changing DVDs from one annoying kids program to another even more annoying one. Yesterday thinking they were on the mend I decided to try to do some baking with the girls. It went down quite well actually and here is the result...

OK so it doesn't look as flash as Estelle's but it does taste pretty good and the lemon curd did stay in the center. Rita really wanted to make "that cake that Estelle made for Jen's birthday". My daughter who doesn't even like cake, who scarfed down 2 pieces of Estelle's masterpiece. Last night when it was time to dig in she ate a few bites and then said she wanted to save the rest for later. Obviously it didn't live up to the one in her memory!

And now back to being nurse....

The Birthday Girl

2011-09-17T08:23:00.000+12:00

Gigi turned 2 on September 13th. She didn't really have a clue what was happening but we prompted her to say "2" when asked how old she was. She knew something was up and seemed pretty stoked when she kept getting gifts throughout the day. At preschool they had a little party for her and she wore the crown and cape and sat at a table in front of the other little kids. Gigi was a bit freaked out about being in the Queen seat and then became disappointed when Zane hopped up quickly and blew out the candles on her cake. We re-lit the candles and she blew them out, this time on her own. Nana and Pa came over for her birthday dinner that evening; homemade papardelle with tomato sauce and flour less chocolate cake with Charlie's gelato. The excitement of the day mixed with the sugar and caffeine in the dark chocolate cake and gelato took its toll and she was awake all night! Welcome to two our dearest little Genevieve.

new shoes from grandma

what the heck is this all about?!

whoopie pies for all

I think Rita is more excited about the bike than Gigi

and a sleeping bag from mum and dad

another cake for me? (dark cocolate polenta cake, yum)

More California

2011-09-13T11:48:00.000+12:00

cute buns

baby face

cheers to the girls...and more margaritas!

Gigi

the big race!

picture perfect moment

what up homes...this is my bike

3 years on since the last time they frolicked in the grapevines together

AOK swimmers

crashed out...too much holiday fun

breastfeeding mamas

playing ball with auntie mikie

could I fit one more on my lap?

California

2011-09-09T12:21:00.000+12:00

There is so much to say about our California holiday that I don't even know where to start. So I won't even go there. Here are a collection of photos from my favorite moments over the past 3 weeks.

meeting up with old friends

all of our children hanging out together

smores!

visiting with papa steve

swimming

happy grandma, happy baby

yummy cake for jen's birthday

To be continued........

And now with a great sigh...

2011-09-06T09:33:00.000+12:00

We fall back into the routine of our simple life. It was a whirlwind 3 weeks in California but we enjoyed and savoured every single moment. Each year we go back I see more clearly how far apart my two worlds really are. The place where I was raised, where all my old dearest friends and family still live and where I have some of my fondest memories versus the place where I have settled, am making new friends and where I am raising my own family. The two couldn't be more different. This morning as I walked home from preschool in the brisk sunshine, I heard the sound of birds. And that was it. No cars, no construction work, nothing but birds singing. I saw the woman who works at the shop (there is only one shop), I said hi to my neighbour who noticed we were away and laughed uncomfortably when I suggested that it would be a bit noisier in the hood now that we were home. I hung out the washing to dry on the clothes line and picked a carrot from my garden. There was no jumping in a car to head off to do something or go somewhere. I am just home and doing laundry, thinking of what to cook for my family tonight and writing preschool committee dates on the calendar. Yesterday after I rearranged the furniture in the living room (spring is in the air) and unpacked the kids' suitcases we went down to the beach to play. We ran into another family from the preschool so we strolled the beach looking for shells, watched the ducks play in the estuary and played on the playground. The other mother and I talked about our children and families. I learned she has 6 girls! I counted my blessings that I only have 3 to deal with. It was a glorious few hours in one of my favorite spots. The sun was shining, the water was blue and the hills were green. Oh how I love my simple life!

It's official

2011-07-31T06:51:00.000+12:00

After 2 weeks of paternity leave, Peter has officially turned into me.
He used to give me a hard time for losing my patience with the kids. He would also suggest I let Rita help me in the kitchen when I cook. Well....after a few times of cooking with the kids I heard him say "Rita, get your hands out of it, you are making a huge mess. If you don't stop touching everything, you are going to have to leave the kitchen." At the end of the final week I also overheard him raising his voice in frustration at the children being children. He was saying things that I have heard myself say to the kids before. He started cleaning windows just to keep himself busy while inside with the girls on a rainy day. I must say that he has done an amazing job keeping up on laundry and other household chores. The icing on the cake was coming home after a morning in town to find he had rearranged the living room furniture! That is such a 'me' thing to do, I couldn't stop laughing. On Thursday I worked most of the day and when I arrived home, Pete looked absolutely knackered. This was partly due to the fact that Tui won't really take a bottle so he spent the morning holding and cuddling her while she cried that her real food source was nowhere in sight. Even when I am home with the baby I am either sitting on the couch breastfeeding her or walking around holding her trying to get her to sleep. There isn't much time spent hands free that's for sure.
I have seen our life through his eyes and vice versa which has been quite insightful for all us no doubt.
And now back to life as it was pre paternity leave. Dad at work, mum at home. Lucky Pete.

snapshots

2011-07-23T08:50:00.000+12:00

sleeping Tui

a morning at Matheson Bay

our local stomping grounds never fail to amaze me; stunning!

the 'widow maker'; Pete's fishingboat. nice name, eh?

clean, clean, clean

always wanting to cuddle baby sister

helping daddy make fish fingers

my spinach gnocchi look like the photo; success!

Good Morning

2011-07-14T10:36:00.000+12:00

Woke up this morning with 4 out of the 5 of us in our bed. It was an indication of the type of night we had. Good thing we opted for the king sized bed!

Memories in the Making

2011-07-11T09:51:00.000+12:00

This past week began with a suggestion from Pete that Rita and I go to the movies together (mother/daughter bonding, you know?) Her reply: "No, I want Pa to take me!". My feelings weren't hurt. The big "date" was set for Saturday and off they went to see Cars 2 together, just Rita and her grandfather. She got all dressed up looking like a gypsy girl in a long purple crushed velvet skirt and beaded chiffon lilac tank top. He told all of his mates at the pub on Friday night about his movie date with his granddaughter. I don't know which one was more excited. They shared a chocolate bar, Pa managed to stay awake for the whole film and Rita proclaimed that she didn't get scared at all. So cute!
Gigi, the terrible two toddler monster had a week of highs and lows. She kept waking up at night for no clear reason which meant Pete was up in the wee hours and even spent 2 nights sleeping in the girls' bedroom with them. On the other hand she has decided that she wants to use the big toilet like Rita. She's done a poo and a few pees which weren't just flukes. Progress towards a single nappied child household for us, happiness indeed. We are still trying to figure out what she means when she says "hotmama". I am pretty sure she's not calling me a super fit mummy but it is not clear what her intentions with the word are. Pete thought he made a breakthrough and that it was her word for marshmallow but we've since come to the conclusion that it isn't that. More to come on what the hell she is trying to say.....
As for our wee Tui, well she slept from 8pm last night till 4am this morning. I'd say that is pretty much sleeping through so lets hope she keeps it up. She isn't really into big naps during the day which is challenging for me but I'll take the 8 hour stretch of sleep at night for sure. She's just starting to get a bit too big for her newborn clothes now. It's going too quickly for me. At 4 am this morning when she wouldn't go back to sleep I put her in bed next to me and we stared at eachother. She was smiling and cooing and I was eating it all up as before we know it she'll become that toddler monster thing and this precious moment will gone forever. A distant memory.
Yesterday Pete had to get out of the house before he went crazy. The girls already had gone crazy. He took Rita and Gigi out on his boat for a tour around the harbour. This is him trying to make them want to be his fishing buddies. I think it's working. I stayed home with Tui and worked on my newest crochet project. I am trying to make myself a jacket/chunky sweater thing. So far so good but I might run out of yarn. Pete suggested making the arms a different color. Um.....no, but thanks for the suggestion. I finished making a baby pouf and the girls love it but my filling of using cloth nappies is a bit too heavy so I need to make some adjustments before I post a photo of it. In other news I went for a run on Saturday morning and managed to run all the way to Ti Point and back. Pretty good effort but slugging along slowly it took me about an hour. We'll see if I can pick up the pace a bit this week....if the weather stays fine long enough.
We've got our eye on the weather in California. The countdown has begun, just over 4 weeks till departure. I've already been looking in the baby clothes for a swimsuit for Tui!

Sorry about the poor quality photos, we are hoping to pick up a new camera while we are in the States!

Project Complete

2011-07-01T10:38:00.000+12:00

Life must be getting back to normal. Recently I picked up my deserted crochet project that had been on the go months before little Tui came along. It was at an almost finished stage so I decided to finish it once and for all. It started out as a door mat using leftover bits of yarn from my stash. Then I realized that I had messed up the pattern and it was way too big for a door mat. I decided to call it a rug instead. Then I realized that it wasn't really going to be a great rug either. This is so typical of all my crocheting endeavors. Luckily my crafty sister in law Anna saw it and suggested making into a lumbar cushion. Perfect! A cushion it would become. It only took a few days to finish it off and once I did I discovered that it actually doesn't suit anywhere in our house. It temporarily is in the kids room on their little settee until I find someone to give it to or until the next time we move house (probably never) or redecorate (most likely not going to happen in this decade).

It wouldn't be a good post if I didn't throw in a picture of chubby chops herself....

Want Monster

2011-06-27T12:55:00.000+12:00

I am not normally a 'want monster' who wants to buy all these material possessions but something caught my eye and now I really want one of these for our upcoming trip to California......
this is from Swanwear on Felt.co.nz

I especially love this one from Anthropologie

or maybe this one would suit my body more

At any rate I am in love with the maillot swimsuit for the upcoming season. I think it is age appropriate now that I am closing in on 40 and my body has spent 30 months out of the past 5 years being pregnant. Another 18 months of breastfeeding on top of that. Time to hand in the bikini for something that covers up a bit more.
What do you think?

Milestones

2011-06-14T11:00:00.000+12:00

Tui spent her first night alone in her own bedroom on Sunday night. She did amazingly well. I on the other hand was a total wreck. I spent all night with my ears pricked listening for her every sound and movement just in case by some fluke sleeping in there might cause death or something. No, it doesn't funnily enough. The main reason I decided to move her out of our room is quite silly really. This is why.....

A friend of ours gave her these adorable handmade wall letters. Now that they adorn her bedroom wall I though the room was looking too cute not to be using it! Good enough reason if you ask me.
Our dear friends came up from the Waikato where they are dairy farmers. They brought their 3 girls ages 6 months, 2 years and 3 and a half years old and they spent the weekend with us. 4 adults and 6 little girls under the age of 5. You can only imagine the fun we had! There seemed to always be someone breastfeeding, someone taking a nap, someone having a nappy changed and someone throwing a fit.

Tui is now even more full of smiles and actually giggled at me the other day. What a joy to hear.

This afternoon might be a totally different story. We are off to have her 6 week immunization shots. My heart is already breaking up. It is worse for me than for her. I said to Pete that he has never had to take any of the kids to get their shots and how lucky he is. It is agonizing watching them but it has to be done. At the same time Rita will be getting her before school check. My oh my how time flies. It seems like just yesterday she was the little 6 week old getting her shots!.
And as for Gigi well.....

She can just keep entertaining us as usual.
Now as for this post baby body. Anyone have any advice on melting 5 kg of fat off my body? I went out running as I have been trying to do and I was horrified feeling the jiggle wiggle with each step I took. Honestly it was gross. I am not one to bypass food so I guess hitting the pavement will be the only way to get back to normal. Whatever that is. I guess normal now is droopy, stretched and unable to hold the pee in my bladder.

my 3 little chickadees

2011-06-10T09:39:00.000+12:00

dad multitasking: laundry and baby duty all in one

How's it all going you might ask? Well, it's bloody hard work with 3 kids. I call it a success if we make it through the day just doing the basics: laundry, tidying up, nappies changed and snacks made, dinner prepared; you get the picture. If I manage a 30 minute jog and a peaceful hot shower, it is deemed hugely successful and productive. At the same time as wanting all of this to hurry up and get easier, I find myself cherishing every moment with my newborn. I actually savour it in slow motion because I know I will never go through it again. At night when I feed Tui, I stare in amazement at this little bundle who is wholly dependent on me. As my toddler screams and asserts herself and drives us all crazy I try to give her all of my attention and eat up this adorable 2 year old stage of learning to talk and communicate. Gigi tries to get herself dressed and undressed, she has definite ideas of what she will and won't eat, what shoes she will wear (only the pink hello kitty crocs) and which cup she wants to drink out of. She has to speak loudly if she wants our attention as we read books and do puzzles with the 4 and a half year old and spend hours and hours feeding and changing the newborn each day. It's hard work being the middle kid. Even more so when you can't quite talk yet. But everyday Gigi has new words and I don't want to miss a moment of her changing from a babyish toddler to a little girl. Rita will be off to school in 6 months and I can't believe how much she is growing and changing. We expect more from her as the oldest and sometimes the poor thing just wants a cuddle and a kiss instead of having to help us tend to the younger ones. We have overheard her playing mums and dads and saying that she'll be the baby.
How can we possibly split our attention equally? It will get easier, won't it? And then before you know it we will have 3 teenager girls to deal with! For now I want to take it all in and cherish this moment that will soon be a distant memory.

We are all tired these days

2011-05-30T09:59:00.000+12:00

Gigi's way of blocking out the world so she can sleep; use dad's beanie!

Tui on the left, Pa on the right.

4 weeks on and we are learning to cope....or rather learning to live in chaos. I realize that I have virtually no control in my life. But that is fine and that is what I have come to terms with. The goals for the weekend were achieved: I got to go out each morning for a jog on my own. We took the kids for a walk around Ti Point; turned out to be quite manageable. Pete mowed the lawn and vacuumed the house and was able to sneak out to watch the rugby at a friends house. I made homemade pasta one night and we all made our own pizzas the next night. So you see adding a third to our brood hasn't shaken us too badly. Tui is fitting in quite well. But that's not to say that we aren't all totally exhausted as you can see from the photos.

The week in Review: Week 3

2011-05-20T10:11:00.000+12:00

Well, this week has been full of ups and downs. It is my first week on my own with all 3 girls. Pete is back at work. The chaos started Saturday morning. Peter was out fishing, as you would be. I was getting the girls ready because we were all heading into town to run some errands. As I was brushing Rita's hair I noticed the horror of all horrors: Lice! Yuk! I panicked and text Pete to come home straight away so we could go to the pharmacy to get some sort of seek and destroy treatment. In the meantime realizing that all bedding had to be washed I stripped the beds and started decontaminating. Our whole weekend was spent doing washing and picking out lice and eggs from each other. Nice one, eh? 3 treatments later I think we are finally rid of the little buggers. Monday we had a visit from the midwife. All is well and Tui is gaining weight rapidly. Then we were off to Rita's ballet class which is just a drop off situation, thank god. Was able to leave the other 2 in the car and they were easily entertained with mommy sitting in between them. The high point of the week was finally having Tui smile at us. No more constant blank stare, she does love us after all! Low point: being at home trying to do baths and dinner with only 2 big people desperately trying to tend to 3 little people. Lots of screaming, crying, laughing, messy house, total chaos basically. Wednesday I was pretty chuffed that I was able to do all of my preschool Treasurer duties and organize birth announcements and thank you cards in the morning while miraculously Tui slept and Rita and Gigi played together nicely in their bedroom! Wednesday evening Tui and I went to the Preschool Committee Meeting which usually lasts 2 hours. Tui slept in my arms the whole time and the chairperson, Pam, managed to keep things moving swiftly so we were out of there in just over an hour. God Bless you Pam! Chaos on Thursday again. Into Warkworth with the two littlies to post some letters, get passport photos taken, buy a birthday gift, go to the supermarket and take Tui for her newborn hearing screening appointment. Gigi was a champ walking all over town but since she had been up since 4am, she was getting exhausted and kept tripping over. This meant I was wearing Tui in the front pack and carrying Gigi on my hip half the time. Passport photos were a success, got things posted off and even the supermarket wasn't too bad. My body thought otherwise about my busy day and I started to notice a sore breast halfway through the morning. Blocked ducts I thought. I would go home and apply heat and massage and that would cure it. At 6:30 I was facing a raging headache, extreme fatigue, aches, chills. Oh shit. Mastitis. I knew it right away, it hits you like a brick wall. I text Pete who had taken Rex for a walk down to our friends house that he needed to come home straight away. Our friend had some antibiotics that she sent with Pete for me to take if I needed to. We called Sally (poor lady) and she gave me instructions on what to do. I managed through the night with a throbbing boob and now must make my way into town to pick up more antibiotics.
So all in all, we've managed to make it through the first week of being back to life as normal although it has been far from normal. Gigi is saying more words everyday, Tui is smiling, Rita is clear of lice and Pete and I are exhausted as usual. Could we be so bold as to think this weekend might be a bit more relaxing? I doubt it! But we have a lovely family now and this stage goes quickly right?
Pete told me at 3 this morning about the instructor who is teaching his first aid class that he is taking today. The man has an 9 year old and 8 year old and a 7 month old! Seems that vasectomy aren't always 100% dependable. Pete is quite worried about this.....as you could imagine.

Tui's Birth Story

2011-05-11T14:14:00.000+12:00

13 days past the 'due date' and 24 hours before Grandma flies back to California. We went to see Sally yet one more time. Pete said he was sick of the birthing centre already and we hadn't even had the baby yet. She hooked me up to the monitor to see how the baby was doing and of course baby was just fine. I was about 2 cm dilated, a bit more than the previous visit. Sweep number 5. Sally suggests that if we really want baby to come soon we could try castor oil. Hell ya, let's get this baby out of here. Pete then overheard Sally tell the girls in the office that I was taking some castor oil and would most likely be in tonight to give birth. There was only one more bed available at the centre and Sally's other client was going down to the hospital to be induced. I was determined that that bed was going to be mine. We stopped by the pharmacy and I sent Pete in for the castor oil. I thought it would look too ironic to see the pregnant lady waddle in to buy some castor oil. Pete dropped us off at home and went back to work. No point starting paternity leave until we actually had a baby in our arms. I took one dose of oil at noon and laid down to rest and read. An hour later I took another dose of oil. At 2pm I phoned Sally to say that yes indeed the oil was doing the trick. I was having solid contractions every 5 minutes. We got the girls all packed up to stay the night at Nana and Pa's and my mom got all showered and pack to be picked up by the taxi at 2:45am to go the airport. I was trying to take my time and as they say "stay at home as long as you can". I made a cup of tea and had a shower but the contractions were coming on stronger. Sally had mentioned to come in when I was getting 3 in 10 minutes. That was where I was at. Pete came home and picked us up. The ride to Bill and Noelene's was pretty uncomfortable. Contractions while sitting in a moving car are not a good thing. With Gigi's birth, we arrived at the birthing centre to find out I was only 2 cm and Sally told us to take a walk to get the contractions working more. I was determined to be further along this time when we got there so we took a walk up and down Bill and Noelene's road. I called Sally who said there was no point waiting any longer that we should go in and see what was happening. We arrived at 6:20pm. I was 3 cm, yippee! We all settled in to the birthing room; Peter, myself, Sally and the student nurse, Zara. We all kind of sat around while I bounced on the exercise ball and they recorded my contractions. We put on some music and chatted and made bets on how much the baby would weigh, time of birth, sex, etc. It was all quite cruisey and relaxing and totally surreal. At 8:30pm Sally ruptured the membranes with the crochet hook; I was fully effaced and about 4cm. I felt a few trickles but not much of a gush. I wandered around the room some more and after a few strong contractions felt more of a gush. Sally suggested I lie on the bed with the lights dimmed to try to get the contractions more intense. Immediately upon lying down they started to get stronger. 10:15pm I want to get in the pool, right away. Contractions are lasting a minute now. 10:35pm contractions are 4 in 10 minutes and getting very strong. 10:40pm feeling pressure in bowels. 10:50pm contractions are almost unbearable now and I tell Sally that I need to push. 10:52pm start pushing involuntarily. The final few contractions before I felt the urge to push were super intense. I knew at this stage that it was almost over so I wanted the contractions to come so it would end but I didn't want to go through another at the same time. Being the 3rd time around I knew for sure this was transition and wouldn't last long but you still don't want to be there doing it. Once I felt the urge to push, it all gets very animalistic. You can't stop your body from doing anything. It naturally and involuntarily is going to get the baby out of there. I had one push, then at the second they said the head was out but the chin was stuck. Pete ran around the other side of the pool to catch the baby. He said the head was out then an arm flew out and another arm and then slip slop out came this baby. It was literally about 5 pushes and it took 5 minutes. Tui was born at 10:57pm. Pete took off his shirt and they put her on his chest while I got out of the pool to birth the placenta. Darn placenta took nearly an hour to push out! Baby was on my chest for a while feeding until Pete took her again to cuddle. After about an hour he declared that she would be called Tui Ann. We phoned Bill and Noelene and told them to bring my mom in to see the baby before her taxi arrived to take her to the airport. Mom came around midnight and she got to come into the birthing room to see her weighed and measured. They then went with her into the lounge while I took a shower and went into my room. Tui had arrived just in time to meet Grandma. My mom was over the moon. Pete and I had a lovely first night together with Tui at the birthing centre and his parents arrived the next morning with the girls to introduce them to their new baby sister. They were pleased as punch. I was truly amazed that the birth went as well as it did. It certainly wasn't a breeze but I don't think it could have gone any better than it did.

Almost 2 weeks later, we are settling into our new routine and Tui is gaining weight and becoming more alert. The girls are finally settling down after all the excitement but they still want to cuddle Tui every chance they get. It is just beautiful to watch.

Gorgeous Gifts

2011-05-06T10:38:00.000+12:00

I am jumping the gun here a bit since I haven't even posted about our beautiful new arrival, Tui Ann Browne, but last night I received a gorgeous gift from a friend that I had to share right away. Zeti has been hard at work sewing this amazing quilt for Tui. I don't know how she manages as she herself has 5 children at home to tend to. The colors and design that she chose are absolutely perfect. What a treasured gift for Tui!

Another very cherished gift was this blanket that my mom crocheted for the baby. I love the colors and the pattern of crochet technique that she used. It is a perfect little swaddling blanket and is oh so soft.

And I couldn't write a post without including a few photos of our in house entertainer, Gigi!

41 weeks 4 days

2011-04-26T17:40:00.000+12:00

Come out already baby!!!!!!!

pop

2011-04-15T10:00:00.000+12:00

The due date is here. Now I wonder when this baby will decide to make his or her entrance? I am certainly ready to do it so fingers crossed it happens soon.

Sneaky little bugger

2011-04-08T06:30:00.000+12:00

Over the past few weeks we have had these mysterious cat food boxes showing up at our front gate. No one could figure it out. Then finally the other day....aha!
One of the girls who lives in the apartment below us came home for a quick stop and left the gate open since she would be leaving again soon. A few minutes after she arrived I looked out into the backyard and there was Rex just sitting down to tuck into a full box of cat food. We retrieved the box and growled at Rex and realized we had some serious neighbour relation issues to address. The following day Pete went around to the neighbours directly in front of us and yes indeed they had had a few boxes of cat food gone missing. The funny thing was that she was blaming her husband for not telling her that they needed more cat food and the time before that yelled at her kids for hiding the food. Turns out that Rex was actually going INSIDE their house to get the food! And they never even saw him do it. Sneaky little bugger!

In other news, we have had a few culinary creations worth writing about in the past month. Pete went out for a dive and came home with a crayfish that he wanted to showcase. I was very impressed with what he came up with. Herbed savoury crepes with a hint of lemon zest filled and rolled with mayonnaise, homegrown lettuce and morsels of perfectly cooked crayfish.

I've been continuing on with my bread baking, making a loaf just about everyday now. One day I switched it up from the usually brown or grain bread and made a brioche loaf. It was divine especially with a slathering of butter and homemade quince jelly courtesy of my sister in law Anna.

Cocktail Cravings

2011-03-31T06:26:00.000+13:00

As with my last pregnancy, by the time I've reached this point I am absolutely gagging for a cocktail. I daydream about cocktail hour g and t's, refreshing unusual concoctions served in fancy glasses and cold sweet baileys on ice for dessert.
Recently we splurged on a night out at Clooney Restaurant. Pete started out the evening with one of their specialty cocktails, the Little Ladybird. Sounds a bit feminine I know but it was incredibly delicious (I swear I only had one sip). Belevedere pomarancza, dubonnet, campari, sugar syrup and citrus. It was the bomb. In our post dinner reflection I had another look online at their cocktail menu. Yes, I know I am obsessed but I am not an alcoholic I promise. This cocktail definitely caught my eye and I will be making it just as soon as this little one stops feeding off my placenta.

Lady In The Dark
Belvedere, lillet rouge, pomegranate molasses, fresh beetroot, grape juice.

Anyone want to join me for cocktails?

And don't you think Lillet is cute enough to be a baby girl name?

Prediction update

2011-03-23T08:20:00.000+13:00

Since I was going on about the birthdate I might as well fill you all in on what sex we think the baby is. Well, we have no clue at all and are probably even more in the dark after yesterday. The doc said before he even did the scan that he could give us a clue as to what it might be so we thought 'ok, go ahead, what can he possibly tell us without even looking at a scan'. 70% of breech babies are girls. Well then, it's most likely a girl knowing our track record and that statistic. No, but wait...after the initial scan...twice the doctor referred to the baby as a boy. First he dropped a 'he' in and then he called him 'little man'. Both times he corrected himself quickly. So where does that leave us? Completely stumped. I tried to find his 70% statistic online but couldn't find out much. It will surely be a surprise!!!

Prediction

2011-03-23T06:13:00.000+13:00

So now that we've got the baby flipped (which I will get to in a minute), I have a prediction about the baby's birth. There will be a full moon on the 18th of April. I am due on the 15th according to my dates but the first scan showed EDD as April 19th. Rita was born 5 days late and Gigi was 4 days late. I think this baby might be here on the 18th. Just a guess of course but that would suit me just fine.
Back to the big flip. If anyone has to go in for this external cephalic version, I hope you might be as lucky as me. I think even the doctor was shocked at how little he had to do to get this baby to budge. With one hand shoving the bum out of my pelvis and another hand behind the little one's head forcing it down, it was one movement and not even 30 seconds later that the baby moved into place head down. Honestly it was so easy and quick, we were all a bit stunned. Pete was sitting next to me holding my hand getting ready for me to squeeze away while they tormented my belly and alas there was no discomfort whatsoever. Huge relief to say the least.
Now if I could stop waking up at 5 in the morning I would be a happy chappy. Until then, here's hoping I can sneak a nap in while looking after 2 kids at home today!

Small Changes

2011-03-21T11:43:00.001+13:00

We've been making a few small changes around the place in preparation for baby's arrival. Got rid of the old bulky antique rocking chair that didn't quite suit our new, smaller and more modern house and replaced it with an Eames replica rocking chair. Down in the laundry I had stashed away some cushions and one of them just happens to be a perfect match for the new rocker. Loving it and hopefully it will make a nice seat for baby and I to spend many an hour rocking, feeding and bonding.

The cluttered kitchen bench has been bothering me for ages and Pete and I had talked about putting in a new shelf to move some stuff off the counter. Well, voila, a few weekends later and Pete has built the perfect little shelf easily reached by us shorties. It tidies the corner up perfectly.

Nice Loaf

2011-03-20T11:42:00.000+13:00

Crap camera and photo but awesome granary loaf. This has been week 2 of baking our daily bread. We had a back log of different flours in the freezer so I decided to stop buying bread at $4 or $5 a loaf and make our own for a fraction of the price. So far, so good and not too much effort to get it done thanks to Mr. Kitchenaid.

4 weeks and counting...

2011-03-18T11:24:00.000+13:00

Here I am at 36 weeks.

Finally hit that really uncomfortable stage. Walked the kids to preschool then came home exhausted....at 9:30 am. I'm not sleeping that well and I'd really just love for the baby to get into the right position for birth. Then I could relax and think 'bring it on'. Can't wait to meet the little sucker but the wait won't be for very much longer, I hope!

Figs continued.....

2011-03-07T12:44:00.000+13:00

I forgot the best part of the whole fig story!
So, Peter was out in the yard one day and picked a bunch of ripe figs, about 8 of them or so. He got sidetracked doing something else so he put them all down in a pile on the lawn in the meantime. When he went back to get them to bring them inside, they were nowhere to be found. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied our dog Rex looking very sheepish. Apparently Rex has quite a thing for figs. Since then I have noticed Rex sitting under the fig tree quite often eating those that have dropped to the ground. Has anyone else heard of a fig eating dog?

Fig Mania

2011-03-06T13:39:00.000+13:00

Our fig tree has let loose and luckily the birds haven't beaten us to the fruit. We are getting a bowlful each day of beautiful subtle flavored green figs. This has spurred a 'what can I do with figs' kitchen workshop. After eating countless figs fresh from the tree I tried making a fig and blue cheese tart with hazelnut crust. Very good but perhaps it needed some marscapone to dull the sharp blue cheese flavor.

Looked good before it got loaded with cheese and went into the oven

Served with corn on the cob and grilled crayfish

We had some friends over for a make your own pizza contest. Emma's pizza had fresh figs and feta; very yum but no photos. Pete's creation actually won the contest but I gave Emma thumbs up for creativity. Next up was fig ice cream, recipe courtesy of David Leibovitz blog. Super jammy and really easy. We are still enjoying what's left of that.

Rita modeling fig ice cream on a cone

And alas when I found a bag of figs in the garage downstairs left after a party the students had last week, we decided it was time to try drying the darn things. They came out pretty well considering we did it in the oven. Don't really want to think about what it will do to our power bill this month!

Dried figs after about 2 days on and off in low heat fan oven.

What is your life expectancy?

2011-02-28T13:11:00.001+13:00

I am reading a book called The Island of the Ancients, The Secrets of Sardinia's Centenarians. It is a wonderfully interesting read. What makes us age? Is it genetics or lifestyle that keep us living a long life? I personally think lifestyle has more to do with it than genetics. Sure a whole family might have all been killed by cancer but if they grew up together with the same diet, habits and lifestyle than who is to say it was genetics that gave them cancer? This is the story in Sardinia. Some researchers are studying their DNA but others are studying their extraordinary lifestyles. Hard working physical people, natural chemical free diets of homemade breads, cheeses, meats and homegrown vegetables and don't forget the wine! I don't know what the conclusion will be at the end of the book but it certainly made me think about what sort of life expectancy I might have taking into consideration stress levels, diet, exercise, etc. The Sardinian's live a simple life but they are hard workers. There is little pollution and low levels of stress. Is that the answer? Is our modern world killing us?
To find out your life expectancy go to this website.
With any luck the 101 that it calculated for me will be correct!!

Belated Valentine

2011-02-16T12:00:00.000+13:00

Valentines Day isn't celebrated that much in New Zealand but we did make a slight effort to acknowledge it. I wanted to make a really nice meal for us so I asked Peter for a special request. I was thinking something special with maybe a fancy chocolate dessert to finish with. Hamburgers. Yes, that is what he requested. If your wife is a chef and asks you what you want for dinner, would you really say hamburgers? Anyway, hamburgers it was and I baked an apricot frangipane tart to satisfy my desire to cook something special. Dinner ended up being horrendous. The children were demanding and whingy and all the typical things they do at that hour. We tried to keep things calm and sip on a glass on nice red wine but there was no changing the atmosphere from the complete chaos that it was. I haven't mentioned the sweltering heat of the evening that topped it all off nicely like the cherry on top of a mud cake. But the day wasn't without romantic gestures. Peter told me to remember to pick up the mail because he was expecting something for work in the post. It didn't really occur to me that he never receives work mail at home but I did think it was a bit of a strange request because he never cares much about the mail. I picked it up and low and behold he had written me a very nice Valentine letter! Extremely thoughtful gesture that made my day.
So, yesterday I fulfilled my craving to cook something a bit more refined and/or romantic. I made a vegetable, pesto and cheese strudel in my heart shaped le creuset pan and we had a deliciously fresh garden salad. We ate on the deck so we weren't melting in the heat and even enjoyed another glass of the yummy shiraz from the day before.
Perfection and relaxation and a belated Valentines Day meal.

Before and After

2011-02-11T15:05:00.000+13:00

I love good before and after photos. I have quite a few before and after projects nearly ready to go but for today I can proudly show your our new and improved dining room! One week after putting my foot down and suggesting we rip the carpet out of the dining room, voila...c'est fini! That's quick work, isn't it? We had to get it done while the in-laws were away on their boat so we could crash at their place during the project instead of trying to live amongst the chaos. It also happened to be the hottest days of the summer which meant Peter was inside sanding with all the doors and windows shut so as to not blow the dust everywhere. Poor guy nearly died of heat exhaustion! But I must say I am so impressed with his work. I just love the floors in all their whiteness. So far it hasn't been a problem keeping them clean and most importantly they are extremely wipe-able as opposed to the food encrusted carpet that lay there previously. The guy in the paint shop thought we were crazy to sand particle board and paint it white but I think it looks amazing. Much better than the lino he was trying to talk me into.

Painting the interior white before we had actually moved in. Notice the grey carpet throughout.

New clean white floors!

Received

2011-02-10T11:09:00.000+13:00

Now that my friends have received their gifts in the post, I can finally give everyone a peep at the projects that had me occupied for a few weeks.
I found a quick and easy crochet pattern for a baby granny square throw. It looked so soft and cuddly that I had to give it a go. The first one turned out soft and girly, perfect for my friend Estelle at Under A Pink Moon and her daughter Emerson. Funnily enough I finished the blanket on the same day that I received a package of hand me down clothes from Estelle and Emerson for my dear little Gigi. A perfect thank you gift to send to them.

My next throw was crocheted with autumn hued colors in a much more masculine scheme. This one seemed perfect for my dear friend Tiffany and her household of boys. Having limited amounts of each color of yarn, I had to guess if I'd make it all the way around with a certain color or not. This combined with my 2 girls running around me while I crocheted, picking up balls of yarn and unravelling things meant that I kept making mistakes and had to pull out row after row to re-do the blanket. I must have gone back about 5 times before I realized that I should only crochet once the children have gone to bed. Lesson learned.

And hopefully 2 happy friends in far away places are taking comfort in my little projects!

The Big 3 0

2011-02-04T08:34:00.000+13:00

Today I hit the milestone of 30 weeks. Finally. At least I'm not still stuck somewhere in the middle of the pregnancy. I feel as if I am over the hill and on the downside ready to slide into home base.
As much as I hate posting photos of myself....here it is. I looked for a comparison photo from one of the other pregnancies but all I came across was a photo of me at 30 weeks sanding the bathroom walls with a sanding machine and mask. Not exactly what you should be doing at 30 weeks. Funny though because yesterday I spent the morning ripping linoleum out of the kitchen. It must be something about that 30 week itch that makes me want to completely renovate our home!
Coming soon, photos of the kitchen and dining room makeover. New floors for both rooms. It has to be done before the new baby arrives....right?
Poor Peter

Random bits n bobs

2011-01-23T17:30:00.000+13:00

Today was the calm after the storm. A tropical rainstorm blew through last night. Down at Whangateau, a lake was born (or rather there was a seriously flooded rugby field). We took the kids out for some field boarding. Take a look..

Yesterday before the storm arrived, we headed out to the Warkworth A and P show, a sort of agriculture/farming/craft/carnival type thing. The kids loved it and we thought the sheep racing was pretty hard case....

Last week I had intended to write a post about using my abundance of garden tomatoes to make a tomato and basil soup but I only got as far as taking a photo of the tomatoes pre-roast.

The soup was delicious; just some roma tomatoes roasted with garlic and thyme and blended up with some homemade chicken stock and loads of fresh basil. The following day I used the leftover soup as a pasta sauce and it we gobbled it up on fettucine with grated parmesan, super yum.

To Peter's horror I rented a few dvd's while I was in town to keep us entertained this week. The horror part is that they were all foreign films with subtitles. The first one we watched was a brilliant film "Seraphine". If you haven't heard of it I would highly recommend watching it. I am now obsessed with this woman's art but have yet to find somewhere to purchase a print of one of her beautiful paintings.

And last but not least, I have gotten the crochet bug once again and have yet to put down my hook for a single evening over the past few weeks. Two blankets and 3 beanies later I am still going strong. Once I finish a beanie for each family member I will post some photos. At Twinset and Pearls in Warkworth, Charmaine has helped me find some unique beautiful yarns that will hopefully suit us all once winter arrives.

Cheerio for now

Only in New Zealand

2011-01-18T14:13:00.000+13:00

On Sunday night, a friend of ours was at the Leigh Fish 'N Chip Shop (just down the road from our house) and who did he run into but John Key, the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Fancy seeing the man who runs the country in your local fish n chip shop! Rob said, "Hey John, how's your holiday been?". No beefy security, no paparazzi, nothing, just John Key picking up some kai for his family.
Imagine walking up to the President of the United States (if you were ever able to get that close to him through his security entourage) and saying, "hey Barack, how's it going?". Would never happen. One more thing to love about New Zealand, a casual laid back leader who is just your typical Kiwi bloke.

Lucky Us

2011-01-10T10:58:00.000+13:00

Last week I was very busy helping out Lindy at Feast Catering. As usual, wedding dates doubled up which saw us catering 2 weddings both on Friday evening. Lindy took the sit down dinner party for 55 and I went to the canapes for 120 party. We were flat out all day Thursday and Friday making 1500 canapes and prepping salads and mains for Lindy's sit down dinner. As we nattered away in the kitchen, she mentioned how lucky it was that Pete took notice of her commercial kitchen whilst he was on her property a few years ago doing some work. How would she be managing if she hadn't found me to help her? So...the story goes.....Pete was water blasting her house a few years back, which was the business that we used to own, Mobi-kair water tank cleaning, repairs and water blasting. Being the typical curious peeping tom tradesman, he poked his head into the out-building on her property and noticed there was a full commercial kitchen inside. He asked Lindy what she did in the kitchen and she said that she ran a catering business. "Oh, my wife is a chef" yada yada ya....I've been working for Lindy for the past 3 years now. Funny how these things happen, isn't it? Then I got thinking about it and actually I found Pete's job for him as well! I am involved in a coffee group of mums who met at prenatal classes. We started with a mums and bubs meeting once a fortnight which continued through the years although much less frequently now that our babies are 4 year olds. At one of these play dates I mentioned to one of the mums that Pete wasn't that happy running his own business; it was lonely, full of long hours and physically demanding. She knew our background of working on yachts and said that there was a job going at the Leigh Marine Lab for a technician. It involved diving, trips on the research vessel, maintaining the water systems, etc. Sounded perfect and with one week before the job applications closed, I suggested to Pete to sort out his C.V. and apply. Nothing to lose, right? After a month or so of reviewing 30 or 40 applications, they came down to the final cut of applicants who would be interviewed. Pete was one of them. On the day of the interview he was so sick with a cold or flu that he wasn't holding out much hope. He came home and didn't think it went that well. What a surprise it was to find out after agonizing for months that he did indeed land "The Best Job in the World". It suits him down to a tee. Lucky for us we even managed to sell the Mobi-kair business not long after despite the downturn in the economy.
We are now happily living in Leigh just down the road from the Lab and Pete gets to spend much more time with the kids than he would've if he was still self employed. And I couldn't have picked myself a better job either! It's part time, pays well and Lindy and I get on like a house on fire. It is so much fun!
Lucky us, we found each others dream jobs..... for each other!

Feasting

2011-01-08T09:33:00.000+13:00

Just a few of the meals we enjoyed from the kingfish......

kingfish sashimi with lemon and olive oil
marinated kingfish skewers
and of course ice cold steinlager

served with haloumi and rocket salad with sumac pita crisps

grilled kingfish steaks with spicy mango slaw

The King Fish

2011-01-05T19:18:00.000+13:00

After declaring the Mahurangi bad fishing grounds, the boys were raring to get back to their normal stomping grounds in Leigh to catch some fish.

How's this for a good start to a New Year:

On the evening of the 1st of January, Pete said he was going out fishing. He "felt like he was going to catch a big one" he told me. "Whatever" I thought, as usual. Off he went after putting the girls to bed. I collapsed on to my own comfortable bed after a hot shower to enjoy an hour or so of quiet reading before dozing off. Just as I was getting sleepy, the phone rang. Usually nobody calls us after 8 pm because I am always in bed very early being a pregnant mum of 2 small children. Someone must have died I thought to myself or why would anyone be phoning us at nearly 9pm (not very late really I know). Pete, on the other end of the phone, tells me not to go to bed yet (too late for that) that he was coming home with a whopper, a huge kingfish. See you in 20 minutes he says. Really? In 20 minutes I will definitely be asleep. Well, I stayed awake. Wrapped up in my robe, I waddled out (no, I'm not that pregnant yet actually but it sounds quite good) to the backyard. Low and behold it was a pretty mighty fish, weighing in at 15kg. Check it out.

Apparently some guys in another boat watched Pete reel in the fish and on his own wrestle it into his very small dinghy. Before he came home he called in to his mate's house to show off the first big catch of the year, of course.
Stay tuned in to find out how we managed to get through 15 kg of kingfish flesh in 3 days. We've calculated that it fed close to 50 people. It also had 4 decomposed fish in its stomach that Pete used as bait. With that bait he caught another fish. I don't know whether that is amazing or disgusting but it certainly is frugality at its best.
One more interesting thing; the fish was tagged by the Ministry of Fisheries and the tag says reward - please measure and sex. He joked that he thought about having sex with it but decided against it.

Lazy Days

2011-01-04T18:19:00.000+13:00

We've just spent 4 days staying at a bach in the Mahurangi with some friends of ours and their children. Who would've thought we could actually totally relax in a small house filled with 4 energetic little girls? Well relax indeed we did. Hanging about reading books and trashy magazines, trying to do crossword puzzles, sipping on chilled white wine, feasting on all sorts of summer delights, swimming in the lagoon, boogie boarding at the beach, hiking, the list goes on....
It was the perfect holiday escape. The men hunted and gathered and fished and speared with not too much success but they had fun doing it. And the women lounged and read and sipped and swam. The kids exhausted themselves swimming and mucking around in the lagoon, played "house" and Barbie for hours and chatted endlessley until they had to separate themselves so they could actually get to sleep.
But in the end it is always nice to come home too!

Celebrating Rita's 4th birthday with chocolate cupcakes

Bath time the old school way

The Bach

The whole gang

What a view!

Sunday Lunch with Friends

2010-12-20T06:20:00.000+13:00

Pete has taken to calling it "our blog" now because of all of his seafood adventures and experiments. So, yesterday we had some friends over for lunch and Pete worked hard on recipes for nibbles and for the main course. He loves trying to smoke anything and everything (I'm not talking about drugs here). He caught quite a good sized snapper the other day and as he was cleaning it his mind started churning as he noticed the huge roe and the liver that would have been so wasteful to just be tossing in the bin. So he smoked them. We didn't even know if the liver of fish is something edible but he went for it anyway. Browsing the internet for recipe ideas, he came up with the tradition Greek dish for smoked cod roe, taramasalata. He chucked in the liver as well and proclaimed the whole thing delicious. For the main course he went for a lemon and ginger scented crumb crusted snapper fillet. This got me into action wanting to produce something nice too, not just for our friends but for "our blog" as well. I came up with a Persian omelette called Kuku made with courgettes, mint and feta. For dessert, I took the beautiful fresh NZ apricots that we had just bought the day before and made them into a tart with a macadamia nut frangipane sort of filling. The whole meal was really delicious. Have a look for yourself.

My Food Hero, Darina Allen

2010-12-17T08:19:00.000+13:00

Last weekend there were two write ups in the newspaper about Darina Allen's new book, Forgotten Skills of Cooking. On closer inspection I noticed that actually she was going to be in New Zealand doing a book signing at Cook the Books, a bookshop in Auckland specializing in cookbooks. I promptly ordered my ticket for the event and spent the past week feeling incredibly giddy inside at the thought of seeing Darina again. Back in 1997 after travelling around Europe with some friends, I hopped on a ferry from France to Ireland after learning that I finally had scored a coveted spot at the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School. People questioned my going to Ireland to learn how to cook but Darina and her mother-in-law, Myrtle Allen were way ahead of the game back then. The school is set in the middle of a 100 acre organic farm. Students live in little cottages around the farm and all the food for the school is grown or reared on site. It was magical, to say the least. This was real cooking, french technique, with real food. I had only read a paragraph about the school in the Guide to Cooking Schools that is published every year and this sounded amazing. After spending 12 weeks living and learning how to prepare every type of food imaginable from soups to desserts and everything in between, I was ready to get stuck into working in the industry. Darina's passion for fresh food served simply but elegantly is infectious. People looking for chefs go to Ballymaloe to scoop up the newest students who are willing to work all over the world. Fresh from the course, I headed first to Switzerland as a chalet girl. This opportunity was great while it lasted and very hard work but unfortunately I ended up back in California doing physiotherapy after a ski accident ended my chalet girl career. I spent the next 3 months desperately searching for more exciting work and once again Ballymaloe came through. I flew up to the Shetland Islands north of Scotland to work at the Burrastow House. After this summer stint I spent time on a yacht in California as a temporary stewardess, I worked at The Organic Farm Shop in Cirencester, UK and then I went on a string of interviews in the UK all thanks to Ballymaloe. The highlight was my interview with the Queen of Greece! I chose to take the job that was in the most interesting location and headed to Brunei on the island of Borneo to be chef to the British High Commissioner. After a year and a half working that post, I went off to work on yachts and the rest is history. Now back to Darina. I ran into her once years ago at the Culinary Institute at Greystone in California and she seemed so delighted to run into one of her past students. Last night's event was the bit of inspiration I needed after a challenging day at home with the kids. She was as infectious as ever and so passionate about her new adventures. They are now running a year long horticulture course and her new book highlights lost arts such as butter making, foraging, smoking foods, plucking and skinning birds and animals, preserving and bread making. She is an ambassador of slow foods and sitting down with your family to enjoy a meal of real wholesome, nutritious, homemade food. Nothing flash, just simple honest food. Of course I had to refresh her memory of who I was after nearly 15 years since my course but she was just as delighted to see me as she was in California. She introduced me to Annabelle White who took this photo of us.

Also in attendance was Lauraine Jacobs, a well known Kiwi food writer.
If you ever get the chance, head to Ballymaloe. They run day courses, weekend courses and week long courses as well as the 12 week diploma course. It will change your life, as it has mine. Their philosophy cannot be ignored.

Dinner Party Part 2

2010-12-13T09:25:00.000+13:00

What to do when you have an overabundance of kaimoana and produce? Have friends over for dinner. This week's work schedule for Pete included obtaining a large pack horse crayfish whilst diving to free up an anchor and collecting 40 odd scallops whilst doing something else 'work' related. We also doubled up on vegetables since Pete stopped at a produce stand on his way back from Tauranga and I thought I was doing well to stock up in Pt. Wells after work on Thursday.
Alors....voila, le dinner party part deux........

Juicy scallops fresh from the sea

Tasmanian cheeses with artisan sourdough baguette

Crudites and crayfish, tomato/cucumber/feta/mint salad and bbq'd scallops served with homemade wasabi mayonnaise and hummus

Garden Bliss

2010-12-05T11:55:00.000+13:00

courgettes

roma tomatoes

snow peas

cucumbers

mystery self seeder

rhubarb

my favorite, hydrangea

I even transplanted a rose bush successfully!

the ever beautiful succulents

artichoke

We've got potatoes, basil, goji berries, aubergine and lettuce too!

Comparisons

2010-12-03T11:50:00.000+13:00

22 weeks pregnant with Gigi

19 weeks pregnant with Rita

I thought it would be interesting to look at old photos of myself at the same stage of pregnancy as I am now. Well, that was a bit depressing! With Rita, I barely look pregnant at 19 weeks. With Gigi, I am smaller at 22 weeks than I am now at 20 weeks. What a difference a few years and a few babies make! Hope it isn't that much more difficult to bounce back after baby number 3 but something tells me it will be. But it could be negated by all the extra running around I'll be doing come April when I have 3 kiddies to chase after, bathe, feed, change, comfort, discipline, clean up after, etc. It makes me tired just thinking about it. It'll be a workout in itself carrying two littlies around!
It's all worth it in the end right? (Or maybe that's just what we try to tell ourselves.)

20 weeks

2010-12-01T09:35:00.000+13:00

And here it is.....the obligatory pregnancy photo.....taken by Rita!

Free Junk

2010-11-30T16:08:00.000+13:00

Saturday after a visit to the farmer's market, I spotted these rolls of retro vintage wallpaper amongst a pile of free junk outside someones house. Immediately I thought "score!". Now I am thinking, what the hell can I do with them? Anyone have any suggestions? Nothing too fiddly or time-consuming please!

15 months and 4 years

2010-11-23T08:18:00.000+13:00

I woke up a few nights ago and couldn't get back to sleep. I somehow got thinking that my girls are almost 4 years old and almost 15 months old which are two milestones when it comes to immunization shots. Realizing that in the very near future I would have to take both of them in to have their immunizations updated, I lay in bed stressing out and wondering how to make this happen without a huge drama. Can you even comprehend what a daunting task this is? It is horrible to watch your baby get a large needle in her thigh, on both sides actually, but to have to convince your 4 year old that it would be ok for the nurse to stick her as well!!! When I took Rita in for her 15 month shot I remember the nurse saying to me "this is the last time she won't know what's happening". That seemed like not that long ago and now all of a sudden here I am with my daughter who will know what's happening. Gut wrenching for me to say the least. And of course the mom gets stuck with these jobs because dad is "at work". Well, the sooner the better I suppose so off I go to schedule an appointment with the nurses for tomorrow morning. Wish me luck.

A Budding Chef

2010-11-15T08:09:00.000+13:00

My mom recently sent me some things she had found when she was cleaning out her office at home. One of them was this little treasure: a recipe written by me when I was probably about 8 years old. I remember being in the kitchen of our house on Loma Alta whizzing things up in the blender and serving them to my family in special glasses with little umbrellas and garnishes. It was serious business to me back then, the whole cooking and serving thing. And I suppose not much has changed!

Just like Christmas

2010-11-12T14:17:00.000+13:00

Yesterday Peter and I drove down to Auckland. Pete had an appointment with an eye specialist and I had to pick up my new double sport buggy. All week I have been so excited about this dumb buggy. It was as if I were going to get a 2 hour massage and full on pamper day or something. But no, just a new twin stroller to push my kids around in. I couldn't wait to see it in real life. It was purchase on trade me so it is new to me but it is second hand. I bought one about 6 months ago that Rita is now too heavy for and as we walk down the street we are nearly tipping over with the kids side by side, Gigi's side almost in the air with Rita so heavy next to her. It was cheap and that's why I bought it but I really did want the double sport buggy. So for the past few months and especially with number 3 on the way, I've been watching them being sold and bought on trade me. And finally I found one that was in excellent condition and a good price. Yippee! We had our first stroll this morning and it was such a delight to push, honestly, as stupid as it sounds, I was having the happiest walk to preschool that I've ever had!
Sorry for going on about it but it did feel like Christmas. Since we were in the big smoke, I managed to drag Pete and poor little Gigi along to some shops where I convinced Pete that yes, we did need 3 very large terracotta pots and some bougainvillea and another test pot of paint for our house. There was barely enough room, seriously, in the car for Rita when we picked her up at Bill and Noelene's on the way home. Pete had a miserable time no doubt but for me the day was absolutely delightful. It didn't end when we got home either because then the buggy had to be reassembled and tested, the pots had to be put into different locations and admired and the children were bathed and we all needed some sort of meal sorted out for dinner. Hectic day for some, satisfying for others.

and alas Dad can rest....well, sort of

Dinner Party

2010-11-11T06:34:00.000+13:00

Last night we had some friends over for a mid week dinner party to help us eat up the snapper that I caught on Sunday. A bit of a late night for the kids but well worth it. Peter had scored some scallops at work yesterday, as you do, so we had some nice nibbles on offer as well. Sauteed scallops with ginger and garlic.

For the main course, we baked the snapper whole in a salt crust, leaving the scales on to provide a barrier from getting too salty. 40 minutes in the oven and out came deliciously moist snapper. Emma made a very nice potato salad and a mixed bean salad; perfect accompaniments to the fish. Unfortunately I was so busy sitting on the sofa chatting with Emma that I didn't get a photo of the fish! La piece de resistance was my special dessert. Well, actually I got the recipe out of the Sunday paper and had to give it a go. It was a mix between pavlova and tiramisu. 3 layers of cocoa dusted pavlova meringue sandwiched with Kahlua and marscapone cream and sprinkled with chocolate chips.

Rob and Pete went back in for seconds and after licking her plate we just couldn't keep Tessa away!

Delightful evening indeed.

Family Day

2010-11-08T08:37:00.000+13:00

Yesterday we had a much needed family day of relaxation out on the boat with Nana and Pa. Probably not so relaxing for Nana who was busy entertaining the girls the entire day! After a few bum fishing spots with no luck whatsoever, we finally found a winner spot by the afternoon and I caught a whopper snapper. Catch of the day. The day ended even better than we could have imagined when we spotted orcas frolicking in the Mahurangi just near the mooring!

strapped to a bunk and crashed out

another one bites the dust; napping on Nana

Little Things

2010-11-06T08:23:00.000+13:00

We've been in our house for about 6 months now and although we've definitely made it "home", I always have an idea of what I want to change next. This week I was lucky enough to make 2 changes that have been bothering me for some time. The first one was to replace all the handles in the kitchen so they match the appliances and make it look a bit more modern (disregarding the hideous lino of course). The second change was to cover my grandmother's table with a sensible oilcloth tablecloth. Wipeable surfaces are a must with my 2 messy kids. The finish on the original table has taken a beating and it is almost in disrepair. Instead of investing in getting it professionally refinished which is something that makes sense once our children are grown, I decided to cover it up!
What do you think?

echino fabric by etsuko furuya from fabricworm.com

Next up....painting the exterior of the house; that is, once we can decide on a color.

Lately I've Noticed....

2010-11-02T12:23:00.000+13:00

So, I've been doing a lot of pondering lately as I step back and take a look at our lives...

When did my 1 year old become that WT (pardon the expression) baby that walks around dragging her bottle everywhere and having little "snack" drinks of formula.?
Did my 3 year old really just say to me 3 times when I told her she lost her bedtime story for being naughty "I don't really care mom, I don't really care, I just don't care"?
When did I become that fussy eater mummy who cuts the crusts off of sandwiches and buys little pots of sweetened starchy crappy yogurts for my 1 year old?
How did I get so blase to allow my baby to smash food all over the house and not care or to let my daughter sit on the couch when I can see her feet are crusted in dirt?
Speaking of feet, when did my kids become the typical Kiwi children who never wear shoes, ever, no matter where they are, even at school?

I guess with one more on the way I've given in to the fact that Peter and I will be the minority and our children will and already do rule the roost.

Halloween Kiwi style

2010-10-30T17:20:00.000+13:00

Halloween isn't very popular here in NZ yet but it is creeping its way into the culture. This afternoon there is a Halloween party at the Lab where Pete works, put on by a fellow American of course. Pete and the girls dressed up makeshift style. There aren't many costume shops around or Halloween costumes in the shops at all but Kiwi's are traditionally more improvisational; you know the whole Kiwi ingenuity thing.
Voila.....the nappy monster and his 2 fairies! (Pete came up with the nappy thing on his own and if you can't tell from the photos, he has one on his head, one on each elbow and knee and then the big one safety pinned on like a loin cloth?!)
And off they went to the party while mama has a rest before going back to work. Bum deal.

And finally a day to relax

2010-10-28T11:30:00.000+13:00

Monday was Labour Day here in New Zealand. All this means to me is that nobody has to work; I am not sure of the true significance of this day or what exactly it represents. Wanting some sort of family day where we do something that we wouldn't normally do, I asked Pete for suggestions of what we could do the four of us. His main priority of course was fishing which he did early that morning with Rob. Pete came up with the idea to visit a local sculpture trail and vineyard that we hadn't been to before. Great idea! I made a reservation and organized with Emma to meet there once the boys returned from fishing. One barracuda and one john dory later we were on our way. It was absolutely delightful. The sun was shining, the kids enjoyed the walk and playing together and the adults nibbled on vineyard platters washed down by a bottle of pinot gris. It wouldn't have been complete without a stop at Charlie's Gelato Garden on the way home.

Gala Mania

2010-10-26T12:39:00.000+13:00

So the big preschool Gala is finally over, phew! It was a wonderful day, the sun was shining all weekend long and we had lots of people come out to take part in the action. I was inside all day working the hamper raffles but I ditched out for a pee break and ran around with my camera to snap some of the events. Pete was flat out on the sausage sizzle all day. They served up fish burgers, lamb burgers, sausages, falafel, ceviche and mussel fritters. Hungry people out here in Leigh. Nana and Pa stepped in to look after the girls while we tended to our stalls; thank goodness for grandparents. Here's a few photos of the day, not great photography but I only had about 5 minutes to check it all out.

The final takings count, completed and banked today, was around the $10 grand mark! Big money for a small preschool. All proceeds will go toward upgrading the Leigh Preschool playground with new soft fall matting and sun shades.

The quick fire raffles were the big money makers

all the booty laid out to entice the punters

bouncy castle, aka: hero of the day for all the children

the slides or the big bouncy castle as Rita called it

face painting and coloring competition

the food man

tigress who kept wandering off from Pa!

The Big One

2010-10-18T07:00:00.010+13:00

Friday night I went out to the cinema to see Eat Pray Love a new movie (in NZ) starring Julia Roberts. Girls night out. It was a long movie, good, but long. I didn't get home till 11:30pm! That is a seriously late night for me these days. Pete had arranged with Rob to go fishing the next morning very early but they were warned by both wives, Emma and myself, to be back by 10am. I had a long day ahead of me running preschool gala errands in the morning and then working at the restaurant for lunch and dinner service and wanted a nap before going in. Well, Genevieve woke up at 5:30am when Pete was getting ready to go so he plopped her down on me in bed and headed out. Time to wake up after only about 5 hours of sleep. Definitely not enough sleep for a sad old pregnant lady like me. The girls and I went off early to the market chasing up Gala donations and around 9:15 I received a message from Pete saying he would be home in half an hour. Perfect I thought. Well, we got home and no husband in sight. Baby down for a nap, Rita in front of the television and mom on the couch trying to rest. Still no Pete. Finally I heard the ute pull up and out got Pete yelling for Rita to come out and have a look. I couldn't be bothered getting up to see what he was going on about. As he came up the back steps I yelled out that he better have a good reason for being late. Glancing over I saw the proudest man ever holding up this huge snapper with a grin as if 'is this a good enough excuse?'. Well hell no, it wasn't, not for me. I am a vegetarian anyway so I could care less what he caught, I wouldn't be eating it. I was tired and about to head to a restaurant to slave away for 9 hours standing up with my little pot belly getting in the way!

So after a very long dry spell with no fish being caught, Pete lands a whopper. 19.5 pounds.

As a side note: my lack of sleep seriously affected me at work that night. Cam, the head chef, would read out a new order and by the time he got to the end, I couldn't recall a single thing he had said. I was an absolute wreck and by 8:30pm he told me to go home! Next weekend being labour weekend we are going to get slammed so I better get my act together so I can last through dinner service!

The Name Game

2010-10-17T06:44:00.000+13:00

A bottle of delicious local Matakana Coast wine to whomever can come up with the winning name for baby number 3!!!!
We have a few boys names in our pocket still but our girls name list is definitely depleted this time around. We are looking for suggestions, boy or girl, (we will not find out the sex of our baby till birth day) to help us out this time around in finding that perfect name. Not too trendy, not too common, not too unusual. It must sound good with a last name as boring as Browne and shouldn't clash too much with big sisters' names, Rita and Gigi.
Have you heard of any good ones or perhaps there was a name you loved that you didn't end up using for your own children's names?
Any and all suggestions welcome.....

Sunday Stroll

2010-10-10T18:48:00.000+13:00

Daniel's Reef at low tide

Phat Bach Hill

Watercress patch

Up, up and away

Flax Avenue

Hope these guys had better luck fishing than Peter and Rob!

Rexy cools off in the stream

Home to re-pot my succulents

Peppermint Patties and Kina

2010-10-07T14:10:00.000+13:00

Before this ends up becoming Pete's Food Blog, I had better get some of my own culinary conquests posted. This week's project for me was to cook up some sweet treat for our coffee group visitors. I was thinking churros until I came across this recipe for peppermint patties on the website of Saveur, my all time favorite cooking/food magazine. I haven't dabbled much in candy making but it seemed simple enough so I went out and bought the ingredients required. It wasn't until I got home that I actually read the recipe. Get out your marble slab, it says. Great, no marble slab here so a baking sheet will have to do. I must say it was very simple to make; no stirring involved, just boil up the ingredients and with the help of a candy thermometer dump it all out onto your slab when it hits soft-ball stage. Because I used a metal baking sheet, I'm not sure if the texture would have been different because the marble would have cooled it down much faster. Saying that, they were excellent! Pete ate about 5 the first evening and my coffee group friends gobbled down another 15 at least. We still have plenty left to enjoy after our evening meal for the next few nights.

So voila, I have been cooking and it's been damn good.

Not to be outdone of course by Pete's most recent kaimoana experiment: kina scrambled eggs. Kina aka sea urchin. While he was out "working", he managed to pick up a few kina on his dive.

Thanks again to Al Brown's book Go Fish, Pete found a simple recipe for scrambled eggs with kina. I can't even show you the photo of the finished product because it looks so disgusting but Pete reckoned that this dish is the bomb. Try it if you like but I think I'll leave it to him to eat these weird and wonderful sea creatures.

And on a totally irrelevant side not, my nearly 4 year old daughter just said to me, "whatever mate" as only a true Cali-Kiwi could say.

Another of Pete's culinary adventures

2010-10-05T15:32:00.003+13:00

Murray, a co-worker of Pete's, bought a bucket of mutton birds, a sort of Maori speciality. He doled out a few to the more adventurous lab employees. Pete, of course, was one of those. Mutton bird. Hmmm. Just sounds dodgy, doesn't it? Mutton is what they call an old lamb so that grosses me out to start with. Then to think that it's like mutton but in bird form? Not sure about that. Anyway, Pete was very excited about it all and finally appeared home one day with this bird in hand. It is actually preserved in a salted manner which means you have to soak it in water to dilute the saltiness. With Murray's advice and a quick glance in 2 Maori cookbooks, it is decided that we will boil it for an hour changing the water 3 times and then stick it under the grill to crisp it up. To tell you the truth it just looked like a small duck. It smelt like something really foul and wrong, especially during the hour of boiling. Then to the crisping up of the skin and voila, c'est fini. As he fed this mutton bird to my children, I sat cringing. They loved it. Rita wanted a bone. Pete declared it delicious. I was horrified. The meat was very dark and very fatty. I'll leave it at that. More culinary delights on the way....

Food snob

2010-10-05T07:06:00.001+13:00

I was at a friends house having an impromptu play date yesterday and she told me a funny story about my almost 4 year old daughter. A few weeks ago when Rita was around at their place, Pam offered her a piece of cheese. You know the kind, wrapped in plastic, a single slice of processed cheese. Rita handed it back to Pam and said "no thanks, I only eat real cheese". Oh dear, I think we have a food snob on our hands. (But secretly I am quite happy about it).

Marine Life Update

2010-10-04T19:06:00.000+13:00

The leopard seal made its way back to sea at high tide. In the meantime, another phone call from my husband alerted me to a pod of whales just out from our house. I had a quick look but didn't see anything until a few hours later when I was chatting to a friend on the phone and suddenly lots of blow hole fountains and random splashy movements just off the coast. Very exciting to watch, especially from the comfort of my living room. Lovin' this seaside village life!

News Flash!

2010-10-04T13:17:00.000+13:00

Live from Goat Island Marine Reserve....
A leopard seal was found on the beach early this morning. Apparently it's not that well, but it is alive. They are usually found in Antarctica but do travel up these ways in the summer.
Check it out:

Will keep you posted on what happens to the poor guy.

we've been busy

2010-10-01T11:39:00.000+13:00

We have been busy in this village, just check out what we've been growing.....

Our newest little monster, due mid April. We are very pleased to have had a normal and healthy 12 week scan and to see that baby is growing well.

Snapshots of Leigh

2010-09-29T09:27:00.000+13:00

It was such a beautiful day yesterday that I ended up taking 3 walks! One of those I admit was to go to the shop and pick up the mail; wink wink or perhaps an ice cream. Down at the harbour I ran into my husband launching boats to go out fishing for work. Nothing like life in a small town!

Baches and boats at the harbour

Mural by Leigh Lomas

Outside the shop

Leigh fish and chips

Playhouse revisited

2010-09-28T13:39:00.000+13:00

So in a matter of 2 days, we have whipped our backyard into shape. Starting with the playhouse of course. It was full of rocks and dirt from making mud pies and who knows what. The cute little kitchenette was a shambles and the tea set looked as if it was never to hold an imaginary cup of tea again. Out came the scrub brush and bucket and loads of soapy water and I got stuck into it all like a madwoman. We cleaned and swept and vacuumed and primped. New carpet was laid and everything put back into place and voila, what a beautiful sight. Rita picked out some flowers for her front balcony as the icing on the cake. Now poor little girl has a serious set of cleanliness rules to obey if she wants to play in her house. No gardening tools or dirt inside and none of the kitchen set is to come outside. Wipe your feet on the mat before you enter......

and if you need to make a phonecall

The second part of the big cleanup was sprucing up the vegetable bed. Pete got stuck in and removed all the gnarly roots that were taking over. I added sheep pellets and we got a ute load of compost. With Rita and Gigi in tow we picked out our seedlings from the garden centre. Today whilst the little one had a nap and Rita spent time with Nana, I proudly laid out my garden plan and got the seedlings in the soil. The photo doesn't look much because they are only tiny babies in such a big mess of soil but I am one proud mama.

Springing into life

2010-09-25T09:59:00.000+12:00

Just a few photos of my favorite moment of spring. My beautiful fig tree that is brimming with fruit buds and newly unfolding leaves. Let's hope we can get the fruit before the birds do. I think we are going to net the tree once they look close to ripening so we can enjoy the bounty ourselves.

Have I ever showed you Rita's playhouse? Wouldn't you have loved to have one of these as a child? We used a tent when I was a kid. No need to look inside this cute little house though, it is an absolute disaster zone. It's on my must do list this summer. Can you imagine how cute this could be? Flowers planted in the planter box out front; I can just picture it.

blah blah blah

2010-09-22T09:52:00.000+12:00

Spring is in the air. Sounds great, right? Well not by New Zealand terms. Spring means changeable weather, lots of rain, random storms, cold wintery winds one minute and sunny warmth the next minute. You can't depend on anything! Hang the washing out when it looks fine and black clouds roll in five minutes later with a squall of rain. If I go out for a walk, I am wondering how long I have till I get hammered with a random rain shower. You can tell fine weather is about to come because you have some days that are beautiful and sunny but.....it's not quite here yet. And in the meantime we are still trying to shake off the winter ills. Pete has the worst of it right now with a sore throat that won't go away and all we all have snotty noses that keep us up snoring at night. Sorry for all the doom and gloom but this is our reality at the moment. In fact even our computer is quite sick. We were doing some things with itunes and suddenly our computer only moves at snail's pace. Absolutely frustrating. I've spent the last few days running every scan and file and disk cleanup program I can find but to no avail. I think it is time to call in the professionals. Pete keeps telling me he will ask the IT guy at his work for help but he never gets around to it which leaves me with another day trying to use a very sick computer. Screw this, I'm ready to pay someone however much to sort this out once and for all. But I did have a thought that perhaps I should go computer less for a week or so and have a break from tech overload that is so prevalent in our lives these days. Do you ever have a day where you don't get on the computer? Perhaps we should all give it a go.
With spring on our doorstep I've been ready for a change and what better way than to get a haircut? My mother in law was only available to look after the girls on Monday this week so I dropped them off and headed into town to find a salon that could take me on short notice. Come to find out most salons in the area are closed on Mondays so it left me with one choice. I went to a place that I had been before and not had a good experience but I was desperate to have it done so I thought I'd give them another go. She could take me right then and there, perfect, right? I explained what I wanted, nothing drastic just a trim and shape up so I wasn't so frumpy looking. When I walked out an hour later, I was pissed off! What the hell did she do? She chopped the hell out of the back and one side and left the other side virtually untouched and long and straight. Did she mean to do that? It was hideous! I should've made the drive up to Wellsford and had my friend do it properly because she knows me and knows what I should look like. I am trying everyday to sort something out with my hair but a ponytail is the only conclusion I can come to.
In other news, the kids are pretty good. This is the last week of school and then we have a 2 week break. Holy shit, what am I going to do with them to keep them busy for 2 weeks, especially if the weather is crap. Must pawn them off to nana, I think. Since Gigi is up on her feet now, she's really on the go and happily plays away with Rita. Her favorite thing to do is walk around the house and gather things from drawers. Usually she gets our toothbrushes and toothpaste and walks around sucking on both of them. Sounds gross I know but if it keeps her entertained, who cares. The only issue is figuring out where she's put them at the end of the day!
Well best get off my arse this morning and get dressed and ready for the big ballet recital this afternoon. It's pretty casual actually but I love seeing what Rita wants to wear to ballet. Not the usual ballerina stuff but just whatever takes her fancy at the time. This can include jeans, skirts, 3 different shirts, anything. Pete will be videoing the show so I am sure you'll get a peak.
I bid you farewell; perhaps making scones will keep us busy this morning while we wait for the rain to pass.
Ciao

more culinary conquests

2010-09-15T10:48:00.000+12:00

So my hubby's obsession with kaimoana continues. I forgot to mention the paua he brought home from work the other day. Paua is the Kiwi name for abalone although in true fashion abalone are much more American sized and paua are a smaller variation. Anyway, they are setting up for a big paua experiment at Pete's work. He made a trip north to pick up 400 of the suckers for the lab. Thinking they looked pretty tasty and they probably had more than they required, a co-worker and Pete set about picking out some prime eaters to take home.....only to get caught red handed by the academic who was in charge of the experiment. No worries, he said, so Pete brought home his little stash so he could taste the goods. Thinly sliced and fried in butter. Delicious, he proclaimed! Then a few days ago Pete was out spearfishing at work......as you do. Of course he had to bring home something from the day so he proudly showed off these guys: a butter fish and a yellow eyed mullet (I could be wrong with the name of that one but I will carry on with the story anyway).

Butter fish are vegetarian so they only eat algae or something like that which gives their flesh and bones a greenish blue tinge. Quite intriguing. We've yet to fry this guy up but Pete's parents cooked theirs up using a recipe from Al Brown's Go Fish book, a must have for any Kiwi fisherman. Parmesan crusted butter fish fillets with butter bean puree, tomatoes and basil.

The yellow eyed whatever it was proved to be tasty by just grilling it on the grill pan and serving it au naturel.
Ever so thrifty and frugal, my husband cleverly threw together a smoked fish pie (with the leftover fish from the weekend) for the girls last night, once again following a recipe from Al Brown. It was topped with a kumara and mashed potato mixture with buttered croutons on top of that!

I am watching a seafood culinary obsession unfold before my eyes. What will be next?

the swap

2010-09-14T07:00:00.001+12:00

The fishing scene has been a bit quiet around here for a while. Not that Pete hasn't been trying but there just haven't been many snapper around. So this has got him experimenting with all sorts of strange catches that people normally don't eat...and for a good reason. The first unusual catch that he cooked up was an eagle ray. Eagle ray 3 ways. He smoked some, fried some and poached some. All good except the ammonia after taste. Bad. Someone told him after the experiment that you are supposed to soak them in water a few days to get rid of that ammonia taste. Next time perhaps? Have a look at the creature fresh out of the sea; scary looking thing, isn't it?

Then Pete went on to catch a bastard cod. No one he talked to rated it very well but he cooked it up nonetheless in a home brew batter. Bland and mushy was the consensus. Gigi seemed to like it though so at least someone got a feed out of it.
We really wanted to do smoked fish rolls for the birthday party but we definitely weren't finding anything suitable to smoke. Then out of the blue the other day a co-worker texted Pete that he had a bunch of gurnard if we wanted some. Within the hour, another friend texted me wondering if we wanted some kahawai. What luck! Pete went around and picked up about 12 gurnard from Murray's place, took some over to Rob's and traded a few gurnard for 2 kahawai. Then we rang Pam and asked if they wanted some gurnard. In exchange for some fish for their family they gave us a dozen eggs and a bagful of oranges and grapefruit. Who needs cash? Looks like trading is the way to go. And we had some lovely smoked kahawai to serve at the party!
Tomorrow Pete is off to have a dive for some scallops. Scallop season has just opened. I'll let you know if he has any success!

Gigi's Party, what a hoot!

2010-09-13T08:07:00.001+12:00

We woke up yesterday morning to gray skies and rain; not good considering we were planning to have the birthday party at the beach. After checking the forecast all morning on the computer we finally made the call to have the party at our house. Pete made a quick trip down to Matheson's to confirm our decision and yep, it was a soggy mess; not very practical for a children's party. We rearranged the furniture, started blowing up balloons and put the final touches on the lunch food. As 11am arrived, the sky cleared, the sun came out in full bloom and it was absolutely gorgeous and warm. The guest of honor had a long morning nap; what a convenient surprise! Slowly the guests trickled in from near and far.

Two sets of twins and their families showed up at the same time! Kids everywhere. The birthday party was a resounding success, declared by all! Good food, lots of sunshine and great company. We feasted on bbq pork shoulder, a spicy sweet tangy coleslaw, smoked fish, ceviche, tofu for some, lettuce from Noelene's garden, a pile of fruit skewers and an assortment of rolls. There was lots of cold beer and wine as well. My Malay friend, Zeti, brought along a delicious treat of glutinous rice balls topped with palm sugar and coconut. Yum!
After the feast we went outside to have a go at my homemade pinata.

All the strong and able kids took turns whacking the decorated beer box with a stick. It was hard going as I used quite a lot of packing tape on the box so Pete made a few more incisions and debilitating holes in the owl and the kids finally got it open. Out came all the candy and party poppers, stickers and toys. Just as the kids finished gorging themselves on chocolates and lollipops, we headed back in for some cake.

We sang happy birthday to Gigi and she seemed to enjoy the attention. Rita and her mates blew out the candle and then got stuck into the gifts which they ripped apart in the most unorganized fashion. So much for personalized thank you cards for everyone. I have no idea who gave Gigi what!

A delightful day indeed.

And by the way, did you notice my 'theme'? Check out the matching pinata and cake. Doesn't that owl look familiar Estelle?

Gigi's First Birthday

2010-09-05T07:49:00.000+12:00

Someones first birthday is just around the corner. We've decided to have a party. Now, I am not one of those mom's who puts on great kids parties mostly because I can't be bothered, it seems like a lot of effort and the kids just end up high on sugar and you spend way more money than you think it's going to cost. There's kiddie food and adult food to plan and prepare, games and goody bags to organize and in the end you have a bunch of tired kids jacked up on sugar and you haven't even had time to chat to anyone or have a sip of your much needed wine. Nonetheless I am going for it this year. I even have a theme! I won't disclose the details yet because I have been hard at work making, yes making, a pinata and planning a beautiful cake and some tasty food that suits kids AND adults and I want it all to be a big perfect surprise on the day. We will be going down to the beach provided the weather holds out for us (pretty risky move here in NZ). But to tell you the truth, I am kind of excited about the whole thing. Who would've thought I might turn into a mom that throws a cool kids birthday party? Well I guess it hasn't happened yet so the proof will be in the pudding as they say. Let's hope it doesn't turn out like Rita's first birthday party. Our oven caught on fire and we had to douse it with the garden hose which left us oven less with 2 huge trays of enchiladas to cook! Bbq'd enchiladas were actually a hit and after we got our insurance payout I ended up with the oven of my dreams. Not such a bad birthday after all!

Farmers market bounty

2010-08-28T16:43:00.000+12:00

This morning I thought it'd be a good idea to take the girls to the Matakana Farmer's Market while Pete was out on a marathon fishing session (what every kiwi bloke does on Saturday mornings apparently). We loaded up in the car and headed off. After about 2 minutes Rita started complaining that it was taking a long time. At that point I should've turned around. Matakana is only 10 minutes down the road, not like we were in the car for half an hour or anything but the complaint carried on the whole ten minutes. Because we were a little late getting going this morning we arrived in Matakana just at the same time as half of Auckland did. Another 10 minutes spent driving around looking for a parking space. Now with hefty Gigi on my hip and Rita clinging to my hand, we walked down to a jam packed market to scope out the goods. I was pleased to find lots of fresh dark leafy greens that I immediately snapped up. We wandered through checking out some delicious Sicilian food, homemade pies, smoothies, churros, breads, you name it. The Whangaripo Valley Buffalo Cheese was most enticing and I left with a slice of Marin Blue and a bit of St. Malo, a pecorino style buffalo cheese. They will introduce their mozzarella next weekend. Hooray for local cheese makers!!! Stopping for a bag of potatoes, an assortment of small bread buns and a newspaper, I had about all my arms could carry. But of course Rita spied the ever present Kiwi sausage sizzle which she convinced me she needed. Juggling now a little girl with a white bread, sausage and ketchup sandwich, my goodies from the market and a very heavy one year old I just barely managed to make it to the car without dropping everything and causing a scene. Back home I collapsed in a heap and decided next time PETE WILL NOT BE FISHING ON A SATURDAY MORNING and instead he will come and help me so that I can actually enjoy the wonderful farmer's market we have just down the road!

Child's Play

2010-08-26T11:41:00.000+12:00

I think my mother in law may have a bit too much time on her hands. Not that I am complaining. Just look at these adorable doll clothes she knit for Rita's doll, Barbara.

Should I start taking orders?

Little Treasures

2010-08-21T20:25:00.000+12:00

After a family illness imposed hiatus, I am finally back in action.......sort of. We are nearly there; a bad nappy rash lingering on, a few slightly runny noses, the end of the chesty coughs and one eye infection almost cleared up.
I've been waiting all week for the chance to sit down at the computer and tell you all about this wonderful little treasure Rita came upon this week. She spotted this little unassuming book on the bookshelf and came to show it to me. I have no idea how this ended up in my hands because I don't remember it at all but it made me so happy. I opened it up to find my grandmother's maiden name written inside and as I looked through it, I realized it was a French book with a variety of short stories for language students. My grandmother had marked in pencil throughout the book, little notes about the stories and translations of the vocabulary. I had no idea she spoke French! And just as I start my new French class, Rita digs out this priceless treasure! It was copyright 1924 and seeing that my grandmother had written her maiden name, Genevieve Mendonse, in it means that she probably would have used it around that time. She also had written a quote on a blank page inside the cover, 'music is love in search of a word'. What a beautiful little book indeed.

My husband also proved to be a bit of a little treasure himself this week. A few days ago Pete left work early to come look after the kids so I could go to yet another doctor appointment for this damn eye stye. When I returned about an hour later, Gigi was down for a nap and Pete and Rita were in the kitchen making a quiche for dinner, homemade pastry and all. He had out the Ballymaloe Cookery Book and was following a recipe for quiche lorraine, despite the fact we didn't have cream or bacon or half the other ingredients it called for. I watched trying not to give too much advice as he rolled out the pastry, blind baked it, filled it up with his improv filling and baked it. Well, voila, who would've thought he could produce such a fine quiche?! The pastry wasn't too thick, nice and buttery, quite short; the filling delicious despite using milk and cream cheese instead of cream. A little treasure of a man I'd say.

Kitchenaid whole wheat yeast bread

2010-08-17T13:12:00.000+12:00

This one's for you Mel. It is a quick non messy way to make a good loaf of wheat yeast bread. This loaf can be sliced for sandwiches and is more like a traditional loaf than the denser no knead recipe I posted before. I use my kitchenaid mixer so if you do it by hand it will be more laborious for sure. Here are the ingredients required:
2 cups water
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp dried yeast
3 cups plain white flour
2 cups 7-grain or wholemeal flour
1 tbsp salt
These are not exact measurements because you may need to add more or less flour depending on the flour type and the humidity in the atmosphere.
Put the 2 cups of warm water (not hot) in the mixing bowl. Add the honey and the yeast and let stand a few minutes until it forms a foamy layer on top of the water. Give this mixture a stir. Add in all the flour and the salt. Put the bread kneading attachment on the machine and turn it on to 1. Don't mix any faster than level 1 or you can ruin your machine. I found this out one time when I was working on a sailboat and had my dough kneading of full throttle and the whole kitchenaid took flight off the bench and landed on the galley floor. Only worked on top speed after that. OK, back to the recipe. Knead the dough (or rather let the machine do it) for about 10 minutes. This is where you gauge if you require more flour or more water. The dough should not stick to the sides of the bowl. If it does, add a bit more flour, perhaps a 1/4 cup at a time until the dough is not sticky but more elastic. If your dough was too dry, it would be crumbly so add a bit more water, just a tablespoon at a time. Every few minutes, I stop the machine, scrape the dough off the hook then restart the machine, just to make sure it is getting a full thorough knead. When it looks shiny and elastic and is not sticking to the sides, take the bowl off, cover with clingfilm and put it somewhere warm to rise. I use the hot water cupboard and it works a treat. I leave it at least an hour and up to 3 if you have time or get distracted. It will rise to 3/4 the height of the bowl. Take the clingfilm off and release the dough from the sides and make it into a nice ball again. Generously oil your loaf tin AND the dough and form it into a cylinder that will fit in the tin. Now once again put it back into your warm spot (if that sounds gross to you then get your mind out of the gutter) and let it rise for at least another 30 minutes but more like an hour if you can. It should be well above the sides of the tin. Bake in a hot oven, 200C or whatever that is in Fahrenheit, 400 or so? for 30 minutes. Take the loaf out of the tin, turn off the oven and let it sit INSIDE the oven for another 15 minutes. Should be a winner!!!

Weird Asian Things and Frozen Marshmallows

2010-08-16T07:28:00.000+12:00

The other day I had the urge to make some of those glutinous rice type of Asian sweets. They're not every one's cup of tea but I love that mochi like texture and subtle sweetness. The only problem is that I didn't have the glutinous rice flour. Instead I had some tapioca flour so I searched through endless recipes looking for something similar that I could make. In the end I gave up my search and decided to 'experiment'. I mixed up the flour with some pandan extract, some water and a bit of palm sugar until it was a sticky mess. I knew I had to cook it somehow and usually they steam this sort of thing. I spread it out in a glass pan and fit it into the wok with some water at the bottom and gave it a good steam until it went from a cloudy green to a bright green. When Pete came home from work he asked me what the rubbery green stuff was. I cut the rubber up into squares and rolled it in coconut and palm sugar. They actually tasted quite good. Kind of the result I was looking for but not perfect. A few days on and the texture keeps changing, no longer rubbery but now quite firm. Next time I think I'll stick to a recipe and the right ingredients but it was quite fun to have a play with some unusual ingredients.

The next experiment we tried in our house this week was frozen marshmallows. Rita's favorite treat is a marshmallow and if she's been really good, Pete toasts it for her. He had a clever idea to try freezing them to see what happens. Well....they were just very cold marshmallows, not really frozen because there is so much air in them. The best part was the noise they made when you bit into one, a funny squeaking sound. Once again I am pretty sure we won't do that one again.

Yesterday I finished off the week by baking a loaf of kneaded wholemeal yeast bread. I don't really follow a recipe for this and sometimes it shows. This time it was a huge success. Check it out...

Instructions on how to make this loaf comg soon!

hier soir

2010-08-13T11:18:00.000+12:00

So, last night I did something that I've been wanting to do for years. I had my first proper French lesson since University days. It was a small class with just 3 of us and the instructor. 2 hours of pure bliss! If I had known how much fun I'd have doing something like that, I would've signed up ages ago. We chatted in French, did grammar, pronunciation, etc. The funniest thing (which I've noticed a few times over the past few years) is that the Kiwi representation at the class was the minority. I was the American woman (hard label to wear), there was an Irish woman and the instructor was actually from Holland. One solo Kiwi amongst us. So for the next 6 weeks we will meet for 2 hours every Thursday night and I can live in my dream of being a true Francophile. And yes girls, I will be the team leader and schedule master on our trip to Paris.

And alas, here is my beautiful table runner?! or whatever the hell it is. It actually fits nicely on my legs when I am sitting on the couch and have my legs extended to the coffee table. Damn, I wish I had had enough remnants to make an actual blanket that looks like this. For now I will keep it because it makes me smile and everyone gets a good laugh out of its awkward shape. I mean, what could it be really? I have no idea!

Up at the crack of dawn

2010-08-12T08:00:00.001+12:00

Yesterday morning my youngest daughter woke us up at 4:15am. Now we are early risers, but that's just that little bit too early where having a coffee and starting your day at that hour just seem wrong. Nonetheless Gigi didn't think so and up I got to fix her a bottle. There was one consolation: the view from our bedroom at dawn break.

The other thing that eased the pain of waking up that early was something else that my eyes are also drawn to from my bed, some new wall art courtesy of Estelle. Last summer Estelle bestowed upon us these beautiful gift books that she made for our circle of friends, each wrapped in the most incredible wrapping paper. I kept the paper (my grandmother would have been proud) and just the other day I finally put it in a frame and hung it alongside the sheet music from the musical South Pacific, one of my favorites. Once again the ever so thoughtful Stella scored that one for me too. Don't they look delightful hanging next to each other?

Ta da!

2010-08-11T06:09:00.000+12:00

In association with Estelle over at Under a Pink Moon, today is the unveiling of the long awaited ripple afghan projects. I can't say I am over the moon about this one because like Estelle this has been a long project with episodes of 'I hate it, I love it'. At the moment I hate it again and want to pull it out and start again. The thing is that I used the leftover bits to play around with and I love the result so I want to refashion the whole thing into the new style. I don't know what will happen but for now this afghan is getting much use on our sofa during these cold winter nights. It is quite heavy and dense and warms you up like nobody's business. So here it is:

Coming soon will be the 'table runner' that is making me think I should take this blanket apart and restyle it completely. We'll see what you think before I do something brash.

Now, with no relation to the above story I wanted to tell you about something that made me so happy yesterday. I went to the post shop to pick up our mail and there in the post was my 1 kg bag of award winning espresso beans from Hayden at Rush Coffee. These beans make the most delicious coffee you will find in all of New Zealand, I promise. Hayden used to hand deliver our beans to us when we lived up north nearby his roasting business. Now I eagerly await our delivery by post. Thanks Hayden!

Do Not Try This At Home

2010-08-09T11:04:00.000+12:00

Does this look dangerous to you? She's not even 11 months and this is her favorite activity to do. Nothing like living on the edge!

Yes, that's a rocking chair and yes, she is rocking away.....on her own.

Birthday Bliss

2010-08-06T08:00:00.001+12:00

Peter recently turned 37. Not that exciting of a milestone but we did our best to make it a special day. Birthday cards, lotto tickets, gift vouchers...and being the good little wife I baked his favorite cake (carrot cake) and brought it to his work for morning tea to share with his co-workers. Hey, I am no professional baker here but the cake was delicious and I tried my best to make it look the part. The result....

Ok, well perhaps cake decorating classes are in order but it was good enough for our purposes. Later that evening we had the rare opportunity to go on an actual date. We pawned the girls off to Nana and Pa and headed to the cinema to see A Single Man, a movie by Tom Ford of Gucci fame. This movie is serious eye candy. Absolutely beautiful to watch, each and every frame of it. Peter and I drooled over this house where the main character, played by Colin Firth, lives. Set in the 1960's, the film was styled by the same set designers who do Mad Men. Anyway as we were watching Julianne Moore do her magic on stage, I had a serious moment of "aha, so that is what Estelle was talking about". Voila Stella, I finally caught a glimpse of this infamous princess phone!

Estelle and I visited the Alameda Flea Market last month. Clever Stella had a list with her of things she was looking for....a globe, a princess phone and a few other random items. We didn't find anything that actually ticked her boxes but it was fun having something in particular to look for. I had no idea what this 'princess phone' was that she kept describing to me. Until I saw this movie!