Happy Mother's Day!

Last night I stayed up untill 2am cleaning and starting the cooking for today. (and looking for tim's combi keys!!!!)

I made a quince and coconut cake for brunch (click the link to find the recipe on my cooking blog)
I have never used quince before and was surprised at how long they needed to be cooked for, I poached them in sugar syrup for one and a half houres and they turn from a pale creamy yellow to a lovely rich pink colour. They have a high level of pectin in them which made the syrup go all jammy. Then the baking time in the oven made them caremelise a bit too.



I also made a quiche or asparagus and greek fetta tart. So simple but surprisingly delicious. Luckilly I did my usual over catering trick, Tart, bacon, organic sausages, fried onion and tomato, "mock snapper" as my granny used to call them or you may know them as hash browns or Potato Latkes ,a herb salad, champagne and juice, tea coffe and cake and cream. So there will be leftovers for tea tonight. which is good because I was up again at 9 and was cooking until 11 when Mum and Ron arrived for brunch. so now we can graze on left overs for the rest of the day and I won't be doing any more cooking!

Bantam boy and Chicky babe gave me some lovely pink wine glasses and tumblers and some tulips as seen featured the photo of the table. I got to use my crochet edged tablecloth and new place mats.

I also got a new CD- Lamb Chop ,very listenable...

Now I intend to listen to my CD and play a bit on my computer for a little longer then have a bit of a nap. I feel increadibly tired today and don't even have the energy to crochet a single square for my rug! Maybe I will after a nap.

Funny...ridiculous

But it just had to be done! The children 'chatting' over the new wireless network!

I had the family all here for dinner, as I mentioned before I was trying to make amends for my inadequacies. Well at least I can cook! My sister and her family, my mum and ron me and the kids and tim. 12 people in all. It was a lot of fun. We managed to avoid an argument between mum and myself about ANZAC day. I think it is important to remember that war is a terrible thing but I object to the glorification of war that can creep into this day. I also think it should be a day where we think of maintaining peace and how conflict can be resolved rather than explaining why we are still involved in conflicts today that perhaps we shouldn't be. I've typed and untyped my ideas here but I think that this enough said. Or we may all end having arguments here too!

Then I nearly put my foot in it again because I said I was shocked that our school chaplin- who is supposed to be working at the school in a completely non religious sense said a prayer at the assembly and invited the children to join in if they like. We are a government school and I thought that years ago there has been a directive to say there should be no prayers said at assemblies.

"What's wrong with a prayer?" asked my niece.

"Well I don't think school is the place for it. It's something you do at home if you want to."

Oops! My sister actually goes to church and her children attend a catholic primary school.

However my sister did call last light to say how much she enjoyed the dinner and that she loves me!

Phew....Now onto something safe. I'm knitting a new capelet, I saw this one and loved it. I have been inspired to make one of my own. Although my wool is purple not charcol and considerably less chunky. It is so nice to feel that I decided to go with it anyway, it's a merino and silk blend.

This is going to be a coral necklace similar to the flower garlands. I have some tiny red glass beads to sew onto it, and am playing with sea creatures that I might add- starfish and snaily things are the front runners at present.

Finally "Crochet Rocks" I've seen these about in blog land and thought I'd give it a go. One of my friends and her daughter (chicky Babe's friend) both thought it was one of the most ridiculous things they'd ever seen. Laughed so hard, called it thoroughly post modern and the daughter pretended to steal it. So I gave it to her as a birthday present. She was so pleased.

Pablo

Sarah at with a cherry on top tagged me to post about the 6th photo in the 6th folder. Well actually it's the 6th in the 7th folder, the 6th was actually Chicky babe's photos and not really my place to post them.
This is my pal Pablo. He's about 9 years old now. It's Pablo as in Picasso not as in the coffee as some suspect. (I hate instant coffee and that stuff is pretty bad! So I am a tad insulted when people think I named him after a cheap coffee brand!) I didn't actually name him he named himself.
I didn't really want to have a dog- one more thing to take care of, but Chicky babe did and she kept on and on at me.
"I'll brush him every day and wash him on the weekend." (yeah right!)
'I'll feed him" (Maybe once every now and then!)
"I'll pick up the poop!" (Bahahahah! Now that's funny!)
Anyway I used to get dragged into pet shops all the time. Then one day while the cherubs were with their dad I walked past a pet shop and had the strangest urge to go in. I was puzzled as it really wasn't something I did for a lark. So in I went and there he was. This funny puppy with the motley coat sitting with his brothers and sisters -all sleek and black with little white dabs on their chests. "HI" he called "look at me I'm really cute. Take me home! Take me home!"
I found myself hypnotised and enquiring about his breed (German Coolie, retriever cross) and cost. Soon I came to my senses and left.
Then about 5 days later I walked past the shop again, this time with Chicky babe, who knew nothing about my earlier encounter, in tow. "Can we go in mummy?" "OK...." If he's still there he might just be supposed to be ours and I'll think about maybe buying him.
Well as soon as we walked in he was there hanging over the glass of his cage saying "HI! I new you'd be back." So after some considerable damage to my credit card we took him home.
Once home we started to try out different names on him. Each time we said Pablo his ears pricked up and he turned his head. Anything else we tried had no reaction at all so Pablo it was.
He is a beautiful dog with a sweet, gentle kind nature. One day a friends baby had him caught by the ear and he just stood there pleading with his eyes for help. If told not to touch food he won't even if afore mentioned babies press yummy morsels into his nose.
He shares my bed, protects the house and collects socks one at a time depositing them where ever he's going leaving us with no pairs of socks! It's the retriever in him he always needs something in his mouth when he gets excited. Especially when going in the car or to answer the door- socks or my D cup bra! Now that was embarrassing! He leaves tumble weed clumps of dog hair blowing across the wood floors (Chicky Babe does not brush him every day) and he is most definitely a girls best friend.
Actually this was fun to do. A bit of a random thing. So if you fancy giving it a go too consider yourself tagged!

Things I hate and christmas but not in that order and not really in the same sentence...

Merry Christmas!
And best wishes for a fabulous 2009

Although I had mixed emotions arround the whole christmas thing Christmas day was quite stress free round here. The kids woke at a reasonable hour (7am-chicky babe was excited about the arrival of her new red iPod) , I then went back to bed for a nap. I woke up about 10ish and started to leisurely prepare Christmas dinner. Mum and Ron came for dinner about 6pm. I had crayfish for entree and we had roast rack of lamb with potato salad, a green salad with roasted pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and almonds and warm green beans blanched and tossed through fried onion and pancetta. We had fruit mince pies with brandy butter, cream and/ or ice cream. A super easy spread! This was followed with a game of poker sparked by a mini pack of cards found in one of the crackers! Mum won! She is so competitive!

My sister and her clan came up from the country for breakfast- not lunch as originally planned, on the Tuesday before Christmas. Most of the cooking had to be done the night before because alas I am not a morning person! I made stuffed mushrooms and ricotta pancakes with brandy butter and berries in syrup the night before. I found some organic sausages(that I could eat) to have with scrambled eggs and bacon which we cooked in the morning. (It cost me a bloody fortune! But no-one goes home hungry on my watch!)

Boxing day!

ONE THING I REALLY HATE:

Tangled cords. I hate them they stress me out! I don't know why but one look at a tangled mess of cords leaves my shoulder muscles cramped up and heralds the beginning of a tension headache! I decided to have a look for the printer CD to reinstall the printer and the modem one in order to fix my wireless connection in doing so I came across a tangled mess of cords many of which I had no idea what they were for!

So I spent some time tidying up the area (gathering up the empty choc milk cartons and lolly wrappers- this is one reason I am desperate to get my laptop working again) and doing this....

As many cords as I could label I did with a little masking tape tag to tell me what it is for.

They are now all sorted into snap lock bags under the appropriate headings so it won't take me forever to work out which cord does what when I want to add photos to my blog or download pictures from my phone. I just hope that my little chicks decide to play along and remember to put them back in the right bags! (Note the label on the largest bag at the back!!!! I'm too worried to throw them away just in case we discover we need them.)

Then , so I don't have to look at them at all they are tucked into a shoe box with a lid!
I still can't find the right information to fix my wireless modem connection- I am so close to going out and buying another modem just to get it going again but I know it would be such a waste of money!!! BUT I WANT MY WIRELESS TO WORK AGAIN!!!!