Chrstmas Holidays - Fun and Farm

Despite all the work involved in the flooring adventure we did manage to get in some fun activities during our holidays.

In between laying floorboards we went swimming.

Once the work was done we could play so we went boating.


Alex watched his father very closely when he drove the boat and first opportunity he got - he was copying how to drive.


The grown ups went water skiing - although some of us a better than others! ;-)




After being at the dam we went and had a few days at the farm in Central NSW where John's family live. In between yet more work (moving cattle and around 28 tonnes of wheat) we had plenty of fun - Alex enjoyed playing with his cousins and being allowed to roam free after being cooped up in the cot for 5 days.






This sign about 15 minutes from my in-laws always makes us laugh. See if you can spot what is wrong with it? (hint: think geography and social studies!)

Wedding Anniversary

OK it is not Wedding Wednesday but it was our wedding anniversary yesterday (points to those who can guess/work out how many years)



It was a very hot day (not dissimilar to today) - so pity the poor boys in their woollen kilts - but by the time we had been married and gone to get photos taken a storm was on it's way and up on the hill it was very windy. The girls weren't too flustered by this but the men were not so used to dealing with short skirts and high breeze!



These pictures are a testament to my parent's garden before the drought- for some years it was claimed that the last time it had been green at home was the summer of my wedding. That silver birch behind the beautiful bridesmaids did not survive the drought.


[For the record - we spent our wedding anniversary...... at work! Although we did eat out at home for dinner!]

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.

UFO update

I gave myself about six weeks to get through my UFO's. and the timer is up. I also promised to post some pictures on the web of the projects that I have done so here goes.

1. Mending (done, - but no pictures ;-))

2. Lavender Bag (I cheated and 1/2 filled with lavender and used rice and lavender oil for the rest!)

3. Cross stitched height chart

4. One double sided multi-textured mat (still one to finish!!!) (the fluoro pink is actually a fluffy fake fur, and the white is some sort of plastic coated fabric)

5. Cutlery Keepers (I actually made seven)

Number six on the list is still unfinished, but I am working on crocheting squares for that in the evening.

This means that I can now go on to all my other craft projects (knitting, scrapbooking etc) that I have flying around in my head!

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 Holidays - Flooring

After spending Christmas at my parents with my sister (unfortunately I have no photos of that) where my parents did much of the work - cooking, cleaning and looking after small child! - we drove across NSW to Burrendong Dam, where my in-laws have just bought a cabin.

Having just bought a cabin, the family have decided to extend it so that in total it will be about 4 times it's original size. The rest of the family spent the week around Christmas building the frame and putting most of the roof on. When we arrived, it looked like this:

We (by which I mean John, his father and brother) spend the next few days finishing laying the joists, laying the floor and then decking. I was designated as cook, scullery maid, housekeeper, painter (did I mention we had to seal the floor) and chief toddler entertainer!

Alex spent large portions of time locked with me in the cabin (due to welding), or stuck in the portacot outside (once the first section was done and it was no longer a hurdles competition to leave the building!). When he was allowed out, he thought he had better lend a hand.

We finished the building work late on New Years Eve (as in around 11pm) after drilling in 2600 screws in the deck and ~400 in the floor.

The finished product on New Years Day:

There is still some minor work to go - just little things like, walls, balustrades, ramps... etc, but is more accessible than it was (and more usable) so hopefully the rest of the family can enjoy it while they do some more of the building work!

Happy New Year

Hello and Welcome back everyone from their holidays.

We have taken a real (and virtual) holiday for the last three weeks. We had a good rest, both mentally and physically and were amazed at how much our little boy grew up in that short space of time. I hope that everyone else enjoyed their end of year break as well.

Yesterday was our first day back at work, so we are now back in some sort of routine, which means that I have the time and some inclination to blog. I'll probably spend the next week catching up on all the blog posts I have in my head and then go back to my semi-sporadic type blogging!