In which Katherine breaks her silence to demostrate that she has in fact, been doing something

Some of the things I whipped up in my spare (!!!) time.  I got a bit excited and made 30 or so in various colours and styles. Unfortunately the pictures don't quite show the details - think glitter and sparkle.

In which Katherine attempts to summarize 2009 two full months after everyone else has

(My Apologies to all (is there anyone left who reads this...) for the scant posting in the last 1/2 of the year and the rather lame attempt to catch up with this...)

2009 was a very full year which seemed to get busier as the year went on.
There were good things:

scottish ball and a memorial dinner

• Visits to the Farm - which the little boy loves as it has all he wants; animals AND mechanized equipment.




• Visits away with friends (apparently it is necessary to light a v. large bonfire everytime we have visitors come away with us)

There were some not-so-good events, including the death of John's grandmother in August, and the death of some friends in a car accident in October. The ramifications of the second are still being felt as the custody arrangements for their little boy are not yet established.

There were birthdays, some of which were more "milestones" than others. We now have a combined family age of 62. (and yes, I did have a birthday party and no, there are no photos to show).

There was some card making and crafting - including this effort for Father's day. (Alex did the stamping and provided hand for outline.)

The latter half of my year was preoccupied with "baby-growing" which meant lots of sleeping (for nine months) and nausea (for about five months). The "baby-growing" project (the external part of which begins any day now... I hope) has meant that sleeping and "(unsuccessfully) trying not to throw up" have superceded "writing about life on the internet" on the to-do list.

We spent Christmas in (rainy) Sydney housesitting for relatives. Cricket, swimming and lazy around their pool were the order of the day.

Alex watching Aunty Jenny attempting to bat with 2 year old sized equipment.

One on One swimming lesson tuition with Daddy.

Somewhere in there we nearly bought a house, but reconsidered due to the building report.

2010 is shaping up to be just as full as 2009 with the much-anticipated addition to the family, John being committed to additional work responsibilities and extra-curricula activities - the latter of which includes a probable family trip away for a month in Europe - and the usual trips away. It remains to be seen if being on maternity leave gives me sufficient moments to update you on our life! But bear with us, we are still here, peering into the windows of your life, even if we don't quite manage to draw the curtain on our own that frequently!

Fabulous Foodie Friday

Cath asked me to post the recipe for the panforte that I made at Christmas time. The book that the recipe is from is English, so I had to modify some of the ingredients. My comments/hints are in italics.

Ingredients:
edible rice paper (I just used the sort for rice paper rolls you can get from the Supermarket)
60g walnuts
115g blanched almonds (I just used plain, unpeeled, unblanched almonds!)
105g hazelnuts
45g chopped dried figs
150g glace mixed peel (I bought plain mixed peel rather than glace)
50g dried apricots
2 tbspns grated orange peel
2 tbspns cocoa powder'
60g plain flour
1 tspn ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (175g) honey
60g castor sugar

1 tbspn plain flour (extra)
1/4 tspn ground cinnamon (extra)

1. Preheat oven to 180oC (350oC). Line the base of a 22cm round springform tin with the rice paper (you shouldn't need to trim it). Place the walnuts and almonds on a small tray and bake for around 8 mins or until fragrant. Transfer to a plate to cool, then repeat with the hazelnuts. When cool, tip the hazelnuts onto a clean tea towel and rub vigourously to remove all the loose skin. [I bought preroasted hazelnuts so could skip that step] Roughly chop all the nuts
2. Combine the nuts, dried figs, mixed peel. apricots and orange peel in a bowl. Sift in the cocoa, flour, spices and 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper and stir to combine, the make a well in the centre.
3.Combine the sugar and honey in a pan and stir over low heat without boiling until the sugar has dissolved (I did this step in a Pyrex jug in the microwave - less washing up as that can go in the dishwasher, you just need to use < 100%)
4. Pour the honey miture onto the dry ingredients, stirring until well combined. Transfer to the prepared springfrom tin and press in firmly. Smooth the surface with a wetted hand. Use a small seive to dust the surface with the combined extra flour and cinnamon. Bake for 35 minutes, then cool completely in the tin. Serve in thin wedges.

This makes a large panforte - I easily cut it into 16 pieces for my work colleagues. It is dairy and egg free if you have to cook for people with allergies as well.

Cath also asked for the recipe for the shortbread stars. I used the recipe from taste, but refrigerated rolled and cut it out rather than making a round shortbread. This is a very fine shortbread (uses icing sugar and cornflour), rather than a crisp one. The lemon and lime shortbread variation is also v. good.

Belated Christmas Cooking

I joined in the making of edible Christmas trees fun and made Christmas trees out of shortbread stars. The ones that were straight looked OK, but there were far more that looked slightly lopsided (and yes, I did study engineering!) My two tips for decorating are: use a spacer biscuit between the larger ones (this means you have to make a lot of little biscuits) and secondly, decorate with caucaus THEN stack.

I also made about four panfortes (not all at once) which is a (marginally) healthier Christmas baking option (no butter and only uses a little honey and flour to glue the spice, cocoa dried fruit and nuts together.) Fortunately with cellophane and fancy ribbon you can make any present look good!

Christmas Gifts

I made these small gifts for some of my work colleagues. They are short-bread stars and paneforte wrapped in cellophane with a Christmas covered ribbon.

As these are difficult to wrap and I am not good at that I bought some asian food boxes and wrapped a metallic pipe-cleaner around to make it look like a bow. I just added a "Merry Christmas" tag as well. [I made similar boxes for the ladies in my day-time bible study but I filled them with tea and chocolates]

I think that they look pretty good for minimal effort - that is definitely my kind of craft.

Christmas Cards

I have been busy recently assembling our Christmas cards for the year. They are not at all fancy - I made a potato stamp for the star and printed the verse from Isaiah with the computer. (Inside I printed the family newsletter) I just used paper and cardboard that I already had at home. Now all I have to do is write in them and send them out.

UFO update 1 and Christmas preparations

One week after I discovered the pile of UFO's which had been packed away when we moved, I have actually managed to finish the first one on the list - the rather large pile of mending. Unfortunately, the mending isn't very interesting to photograph (it has metamorphised into a pile of ironing ;-)).

As for my Christmas preparations, I put up our Christmas tree on the weekend. I waited until Alex was asleep, because it was not the sort of job one does with a 16month old about.

I know that if I was a true advent lover that I would wait until Christmas Eve, but we are going away for Christmas. It is also the first time since I left home that I/we have had a Christmas tree. (or decorations of any description really!)

According to some magazine I read there aren't enough decorations (apparently for a 180cm tree, there should be about 240 - I only have 80), and it is rather monochrome, but Alex isn't fazed. None of the decorations are precious, so it isn't a major drama if he does touch one. We are attempting to dissuade him but I suspect he will not remember.

I also wrapped the Christmas presents I have already acquired. They will not be staying under the tree as I fear that they will be far too tempting for a little boy, so they are ensconced on the top of our wardrobe. Instead, I have left a 'Christmas Train' - minus batteries under the tree - that one is ok to touch ;-)