Happy Saturday Night

I love Saturday nights.

Middle of the weekend, sleep in tomorrow, life is grand.

Tonight the LOML is out doing his thing until dinner-time and I'm home alone.  Which means the music is cranking....(lucky the neighbours are two doors over)....and I sound amazingly like Adele herself ....I can't keep up with your turning tables....

...I have quinces on the stovetop slowly working their magic.  We ran out of quince paste, horror of all horrors, so immediate action had to be taken.  Considering how much I made last time and we've now gone through it, I should be thinking twice about doing another batch...

The fire is raging....is that the Ekka winds making an early appearance, signalling the end of winter (if early)?  I'd forgotten about all those gaps around the doors and windows, but hopefully they will blow away soon - the Mulberry tree out front is telling me that spring is not that far away now (the fruit starting to form, oh the fruit!!!).

The washing has been done and is now waiting to be hung up.  In winter it goes on the clothes airer inside because I'm not home early enough to get it off the line before the sun goes down.  Bring on Spring and sun-dried, warm-air-dried clothes.  Mmmmmm......!!!

And a loaf of bread is on the go.  It feels like forever since I've done any form of baking (in reality, 4 days.  Forever.)

In the meantime, a glass of wine is in need of a re-fill and plans for dinner have been made and are about to be implemented (tonight, a brussell sprout-cauliflower-bacon type carbonara al-a-Donna Hay Magazine - I made it last week.  It was so good I'm making it again.  yummmmm!).

Aaaaannnnndddd I've been playing with the photo editing apps on my phone - enjoy :)

Happy Saturday night!

And Happy Birthday to my friend Lady J!  I hope your night is as snug and warm as mine xxx

Wall Art

Photos in albums are so boring and not-looked-at.

I much prefer to laminate mine and stick them on the wall for an every-day reminder of all the fun times.

The only trouble is finding a wall free for the next lot of memories.

Tis the season for it

The nights are getting cooler now, as we head deeper into winter.  I'm not complaining at all this year about the temperatures we've been having.  Dare I risk jinxing it by saying it out loud but, it's hardly been cold at all.  I mean, it's not warm by any stretch of the imagination.  Just, not as cold.

Expect snow any day now. 

The fire has been getting a good workout regardless.  Nothing warms like a wood fire.  Except maybe a big hug.  And nothing creates ambience like flames dancing on the logs and making shadows on the walls.

Pikelets are the fashion of the season this year too.

I love pikelets.  Good thing too given the amount of them I eat.

Easy to make, easy to eat, quite often I'm to be found in the kitchen at 9pm whipping up a batch for supper and next-day morning tea.

Next thing I know I'll be making ice-cream and fruit salad to go with my pikelets.  It doesn't feel that cold this year.


Truly, I'm not kidding you, don't be surprised by news reports of snow around these parts tomorrow.

Sugar High, Sugar Low, Sugar very very low

So as it happened, the other night we got the invite for dinner from my sister and BIL.

My BIL was a chef in a past life.  This sort of invitation is not something one passes up lightly.

Given that his facebook post of the morning mentioned his visit to the Asian grocery store in town for the purchase of some essential 'Thai' ingredients, our invitation acceptance was forwarded mighty fast.

It was a feast.  Table groaning with a selection of curries and stirfries and rices and condiments....I think I may have eaten too much.  I certainly didn't have the mind to remember to take piccies but trust me, it was good!

And then dessert came out.  The most delicious baked sticky rice pudding (not authentic Thai I'm sure, but very Thai-esque), served warm with a generous helping of creamy icecream.  

And I thought I was full before dessert!!

Amazing!!!  I only wish I had remembered my camera!

Unfortunately for me, well unfortunately for the LOML, my comedown off that much sugar in one hit wasn't pretty.  Nor was it funny.  The LOML was very wise not to laugh at me until well after the sugar-low had subsided and I was able to laugh too.  About 24 hours in all.  For-ev-er.

Clearly my sugar-free life is well and truly entrenched now.  

But that sticky rice pudding was worth it.  Oh my, it was worth it!

In My Kitchen: July 2012

Joining Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for her monthly In My Kitchen posts - pop on over to Celia's and see what's happening in the kitchens of other bloggers....why not even join the fun yourself!

In My Kitchen this month.....

...time has been a'ticking away so very quickly. So quickly in fact that all of a sudden the middle of the month has been and gone and before I know it we'll be onto August already and then it's Spring and then Christmas and then, OMG, 2013!!! (yes, you do detect an edge of hysteria there - I feel like time is escaping me! so much I want to do, so little time to do it!).

[Deep breath in, deep breath out. Calmness restored.] 

As you may recall, last month my kitchen saw the preparation work for a big-number-that-shan't-be-revealed birthday cake for a friend...(missed it? here it is again). This month has seen the finalisation of said cake....

Tools were assembled...

Flowerpaste was cut to size, marked with a toothpick and then placed in formers to shape...

I left the flowers in the formers, placed in sealed plastic containers for the week in a vain attempt to get them to dry.  Considering it rained every day, I was living in hope but they held their shape enough for me not to panic too much come assembly time!

Before any assembling could take place though, colours were measured ready for some serious dusting...

...and then, once the cake was covered and stuck to the board, I added the ribbon and did some decoration around the board edges....

Then came the fun part - putting on the flowers!   I must admit that when I started I had a design plan....but too soon the excitement took over and I started to make it up as I went along!  Lucky for me it still looked alright at the end!!!

Finally, time for the finishing touches and of course the writing of the message...

....taaaadaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

Unfortunately, circumstances out of our control meant that the LOML and I couldn't make the surprise party but I'm told the birthday gal was over the moon with my edible gift to her and may have cried a few tears of happiness as well.  I'm so glad she liked it - plenty of love in that one right there!

Next month, I think my kitchen will be icing-free and not anywhere near as pretty....but you never know!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Of Cottonwool Fog and Abs of Steel...

I'm feeling a little miserable at the moment.  

Healthwise that is.  Two weekends ago I came down with a flu-cold-virus thing and it feels like I'm getting better so slowly, sooo slowly.  

All that I have left now is a cough that sucks the life out of me, takes my breath away and deprives my vital organs of oxygen.  Always nice (not).  I do hope all of this coughing results in a tightening of the abs and not just bruised ribs and a back in need of chiropractic care.

I feel like I've lost this month so far - all of a sudden it's not just July, it's mid-July.  Sheesh.

The weather isn't helping my mood either.  

This morning the fog on the way to work was thick like cotton wool.  It sure was pretty to look, and I would have enjoyed it much more had I been sitting in front of a fire looking out a window at it.  

But instead I was dodging potholes in the road, trying not to run up the rear end of vehicles that seemed to jump out in front of me suddenly and fighting the urge to peer off into the edges rather than watching where I was going.  

It felt like I was flying through the clouds instead of driving to work.  Eerie.  Very eerie.  But pretty.

I sure would like to see the sun again soon.