Late Lunch

If you read yesterday's post, you may have noticed that it was almost 1am when I hit the 'publish' button, which meant that by the time I finished my pre-bedtime routine and climbed into bed, it was well after 1.30am, and close to 2am before I closed my book and turned out the light.

I fell asleep instantly! As I do most nights.

Much to my surprise, it was after 9am when I opened my eyes this morning, but for a change, I didn't hang around in bed for too long.

I actually went for a trike ride. It has been a few days since I've been for a ride and as I was riding over a small rise, I was struggling to pedal and wondered how it could be so difficult after just a few days away from the trike. I was riding into the wind, so I used that as an excuse. Then I arrived at my destination and discovered that one of my brakes had been on for the entire journey! No wonder it was hard work!

My first stop was to deliver a storage container to the Mini Farmer. She had made a batch of olives for me to try .. even though I told her that I didn't eat olives .. she claimed that home made olives were very different from the shop bought olives. So I trusted her judgement and took a container of them from her.

Even Adoring Husband, who enjoys olives, didn't like them. They tasted even more olive-y than normal!! blurgh I was honest and told her my opinion of her olives (in the nicest way possible).

Coffee was my next stop. While I was there I bought some avocados to make chocolate mousse to have with fresh strawberries.

On my way home I delivered some photos to Old Yellow Hat. He'd asked me to take a photo of his block of land, which he'd sold, before the new owners began to build on it. I had all sorts of trouble trying to print it at home - our printer obviously doesn't like glossy photo paper - then I kept forgetting to take the usb stick into town to have it printed, so it's been a while coming for him. Unfortunately he wasn't home, so I left it on the chair beside his front door.

I stopped at The Motivator's (who is currently in Sydney), because her partner, The Fisher King, had the crab sign displayed on the front lawn and I bought 5 crabs.

It must have been around 11am when I arrived home, and I began quite a productive day.

• I shelled the 5 crabs and put the meat into a container in the fridge.
• Cleaned the main bathroom and toilet and then used my new Lorraine Lea bathmats (they look lovely!)
• Did 3 loads of washing, including all of the old bathmats.
• Swept the floors.
• Made a baked dinner with a leg of lamb, sweet potato, potato, pumpkin, carrot, onion, snow peas, beans and home made gravy. A late lunch at 3pm.
• Made chocolate mousse to have with our strawberries.
• Did some screwing with Adoring Husband - nuts and bolts (get your mind out of the gutter!)
• Sprayed some peppermint oil in an attempt to get rid of the ants (must be going to rain, because the ants are back!)

The football started at 3pm and that's my signal to sit down and relax! It's super Saturday and there are three games of footy today. So far, the only blemish on my footy tipping week, has been my own team, Broncos, losing to Penrith Panthers. Luckily, everybody else in the tipping comp selected Broncos too, so their loss makes no difference to the standings.

Tonight, while I'm watching the footy, I need to make a list of all the plans I have for my office, and then tomorrow, I hope to begin marking off some of those items. I still need to make the strings of beads and hang some crystals and hearts between the scarves.

I also have to practise the chalk painting on the photo frames and then plan the wall gallery, which will include some of my photos, family pics, quotes and other artwork.

My dinner tonight was coffee and crab meat and I'm feeling rather sleepy ... funnily enough, that usually happens when I eat crab or prawns. I must research that and find out why. It's possible I won't get to see all of the footy tonight.

I'm done.

Nite all.  

A Ghostly date

I just want to declare that I LOVED 'GHOSTBUSTERS'!

I don't remember the original movie very well, because I was never a big fan. I certainly didn't hate it, but I could never understand the hype that surrounded it. We bought the original movie on dvd today and will watch it over the weekend. That should trigger my memory and I can make some comparisons.

This new movie makes me want to BE a ghostbuster! If it wasn't already way after midnight, I would write a full review here, but it's late and I'm tired and I'm off to bed.

I just want to make it clear that the preview of the movie does not do it justice!

Nite all.

Another Date!

Another date day with Adoring Husband today.

We watched the new Star Trek Beyond movie and loved it. AH is a huge Trekky (although he doesn't dress up like the real Trekkies) and he declared it to be the best Star Trek movie yet!! I thought it was a touch long, but I enjoyed it very much ... and I am NOT a Star Trek fan.

Afterwards, we had a couple of hours to kill before picking up our FROG box, so we decided to lunch at Aquavue, not realising that their renovations have moved into the kitchen area, so there is only basic food available, like sandwiches and wraps and such.

We moved on and because we had such a a good car park, decided to check out the cafes and restaurants across the road.

We stumbled upon Cafe Tapas, which looked interesting from the outside, with mood lighting and a variety of seating areas to choose from. The menu showed that there were GF options, so we took the plunge and tried something new!

We chose three dishes. Lamb cutlets with pesto sauce, skewered king prawns and button mushrooms stuffed with blue cheese.

Absolutely delicious. The male waiter who served us was very efficient and friendly. The seating was comfortable. The atmosphere was very relaxed and the background music was easy listening. We were pretty happy with our choice and will probably return for future lunches. It won't be our favourite, the way Aquavue is, but it will certainly go on the 'good option' page.

We were home by 2.30pm and I put Hanain Chicken on for dinner. We spent the next couple of hours in separate areas of the house, reading! Adoring Husband sat in the Alfresco area drinking coffee and reading a book, while I sat up in bed with coffee and a good book! We've never done that before, but the peace was lovely ... AH usually has the TV blaring most days.

While AH was at SES training tonight, I got to chat briefly with Chicklet and Vegan Chickie. We talked about the movie 'Ghostbusters', which AH and I are going to see tomorrow. VC has given it an excellent review, so I'm looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, AH's Mum was admitted to hospital with a twisted bowel earlier in the week. They seem to have fixed the problem, but she has not coped well with being there. She panics and her dementia becomes considerably worse, so it is difficult, if not impossible, to treat her because she cannot communicate and she becomes aggressive toward the staff. It's a very tricky situation.

Well, we have another early start tomorrow, with yet another list of errands to run, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Awesome Hump Day

We were out of bed by 5am, in the car by 6.10am, and on our way in the dawn darkness.

Sexie Coffee was our first stop where Adoring Husband is on a first name basis with the girls behind the counter and was greeted with splendiferous joy by them all!

We left there with our heart starters, which was a good thing, because, for the next hour, we had some pretty thick fog to contend with on the drive.

We arrived near our destination earlier than expected, so we continued on to Kunara Organic Marketplace, where I stocked up on my Super Multibiotics. I didn't even look sideways at the rest of the store, otherwise I would have wanted to grab a trolley and begin filling it! I pretended to be wearing blinkers and exited the building with my two bottles of life saving capsules before I could be sidetracked.

I was ten minutes early for my dental appointment and only waited for five when the dental assistant called me into the room.

My shoe broke on the way down the hallway. Brand new pair of shoes only worn once, and that was yesterday! Luckily, I had taken a spare pair of shoes, because I was worried that I might get blisters, wearing new shoes two days running ... how lucky was that!?

The dentist and I spent ten minutes relating shoe stories to each other before she began cleaning my teeth. She showed me, with her tiny camera, the little bit of plaque that I had inside my bottom teeth and also showed me how healthy my gums were. She said that there was no sign of the chronic gum disease that I had carried into her office 8 months ago.

It took her about ten minutes to clean and scrape my teeth. I showed her my dentures, explained how uncomfortable they were, and showed her where they caused pain. She set up her little filing drill and filed down both sides of the denture until they fit in my mouth without causing pain.

My appointment was for 9.30am (I was called in 5 mins early) and I was paying the receptionist by 9.50am. Very efficient.

Next, we drove to Noosa Civic, where we bought a small saucepan, which was the final piece to our set, and which the original shop didn't have on hand when we bought our set more than a year ago.

Three takeaway coffees, two lemon meringue tarts, a french coconut meringue and a raspberry petit four later, we loaded the goodies into the car and headed to the Chicklet family's house.

One of the gifts that we brought down for Chicklet this visit, was a Batman costume. She put it on straight away and spent quite a bit of time admiring her reflection in the mirror, flexing her muscles and flapping the cape behind her. I think it was a hit because I just received a text from Vegan Chickie telling me that Chicklet wore her Batman costume to bed.

We only stayed for two hours today, but in that time, we ate our goodies, played Batman and Batwoman (that was me), played hide n seek, played tag and I got a short lesson on the game of Minecraft on the iPad.

The Library Guy (who is actually a woman and also my x-sister-in-law) was there too, enjoying her last day of holidays. I didn't get to spend much time with her, but it was nice to catch up, even if it was brief.

We said our goodbyes. I had to peel Chicklet off me to leave and then headed to Gundiah where we were dropping in to visit Best Cousin in the World on their new property.

What a nice drive in a very picturesque part of the world. Their driveway was very easy to spot and it was just a short drive to the house. We met a few family members along the way ... ones that go 'moo' ...  and by the time we reached the house, BCITW had locked the 11 (I think) dogs away, so they wouldn't jump on us.

She showed us around the grounds - the ginger crop, the shed, the old railway station building and pointed out the approximate boundary lines of their rather large property.

By this time, Marco Polo had returned to the house, so he filled the ute with a bag of beer and took us for a 4WD bash around the property to show us the best bits .. such as the view from the highest point, the resident Wedge Tail Eagle, the amazing rocks and boulders, picturesque dams and water holes, the river frontage and the beautiful old abandoned disused bridge.

We saw LOTS of bunnies hopping around. Plenty of birdlife and wildlife. It's a beautiful spot and it's understandable why they call it their 'happy place'.

I'll definitely take my camera on the next visit.

Next, we got a tour of the ageing house. It's obvious, at first glance, that the house is very old and it's been a long time since any real work has been done to it. Peeling paint, broken windows etc., but it's a solid old home with some fabulous original features.

The panes in the in old timber framed windows are just gorgeous and I doubt that you could ever replace them, with their unusual patterns and ridges - even the huge sliding room divider in the lounge room has the same panes except on a much larger scale. Gorgeous old bathroom with fabulous tiles and the original old vanity unit and bathtub.

Lovely high ceilings, solid timber floor boards and the bedrooms are all cosy but generous. The front verandah is even a comfortable size - enough for the barbecue and plenty of seating, but there is heaps of room to extend and renovate, which they intend on doing once they are properly established.

We enjoyed a drink on the verandah and were introduced to some of the furry friends. We fell deeply in love with Libby and apparently we would need to go on a long, long list of possible future homes for this precious pet. What a beautiful and gentle soul she is. Everybody falls in love with her.

Two hours later, we were once again in the car and heading in the direction of home. The drive was made all the more enjoyable with Mother Nature putting on a spectacular show at sunset ...

I'd forgotten to get anything out of the freezer for dinner, so we stopped at the supermarket on the way home and bought some lamb loin chops. It was after 6pm when we pulled in our driveway. Our fur babies were happy to see us, though not as noisy as usual. I made a quick salsa salad to have with the chops and by 7.30pm Adoring Husband was dozing off in his chair.

It's been a pretty big day, full of fun and excitement and now it's almost midnight!

I believe that I will sleep well tonight.

Nite all.

Tidying Up a Little

I bought some hooks today, to hang over my dressing table mirror, to drape 'some' of my necklaces in a more orderly fashion.

Originally, they were tangled in masses over each end of the mirror, ridiculously strewn in messy piles on top of both of my jewellery boxes and sadly looped over stands that were meant for short necklaces.

Something had to be done!

Retail therapy doesn't seem to be working for me. I could just about open my own dress jewellery store! Seriously!

Now that I have the long necklaces sorted, I need to spend some quality time sorting through the rest of my jewellery and tidying my dressing table ... again!

Thought I'd share this 15 minute video with you. Adoring Husband should take the time to watch this too because it has some interesting references to Parkinson's.



Mark P. Mattson is Chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program National Institute on Aging. He is also Professor of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University.

I'd best head to bed. We've got an early start tomorrow. Sorry girls, to be missing our morning tea. Have a lovely morning.

Nite all.

I'm on a Mission

Adoring Husband and I recently discussed changing our ageing bedroom furniture. It's quite outdated, much darker than any other furniture in the house and doesn't go with the beachy decor of everything else in the room.

I did a bit of research and found a style that I quite liked, though it wasn't perfect.

When I related this to my cousin Nellie, she told me about a fairly new craft item in the market place called chalk paint. She is currently chalk painting her bed and has already completed a side table that she inherited from her grandmother.

Because our current furniture is still strong and is good quality, I've decided that a facelift with chalk paint is the way to go. It will cost a fraction of the price of new furniture, will hopefully look amazing and will be a creative outlet for my itching fingers!

Chalk paint is easily accessible from places like Spotlight or other craft stores, but there is a better quality brand available, called Annie Sloan. Stockists in Australia are limited, so I have to order on line and wait for delivery.

Using this paint is an easier way to create the shabby chic or the distressed look on furniture. Where you once had to prepare your furniture with sanding and undercoating and then paint and then use sandpaper to remove the dry paint .. with this, the only preparation is cleaning the furniture.

The paint itself is so soft that you mostly use a rag to create the look. Sometimes, very soft sanding is required, but with little effort. The wax mixing and coating is what sets the paint.

It's also non toxic and has no smell.

I found a few videos to show some techniques and here is one



... and go here to see the finished product

This is what I'm going to do with my bedroom furniture, except mine will be more of a distressed, almost shabby chic look. I'm not sure what colours I'm going to use yet, but these will give you an idea of how imagination and effort can create something special ...

... or maybe a bit more colour and imagination

I'm going to buy some of the cheaper craft paint and practise my technique on some picture frames before I do the furniture. I'll also change the knobs on the drawers, if I can find something suitable or interesting or unique.

I will take 'before' and 'after' pics!

So that is my mission, which I hope to have completed by the end of August.

Thanks for reading.

Nite all.

Slow Sunday

It was a slow start to the day for me on this lovely, damp Sunday morning. Adoring Husband bought my coffee and then made me breakfast in bed ...

I got out of bed at lunch time and made lunch which was rib fillet with a red wine jus, caramelised onion and served with broccoli and kimchi...

I bought this meat a couple of weeks ago at the markets in The Bay. Organic beef and quite delicious! Unlike the beef cheek that I got from the same place, which turned out like shoe leather ... which may have been my fault in the way that I cooked it!

Instead of using the slow cooker, I did it in the oven, on a very low temperature for almost 3.5 hours. My recipe stated 10 hours in the slow cooker or 3 hours in the oven. I think my oven runs a bit hot. Perhaps I'll try the slow cooker next time.

My Sunday has been very slow and unproductive. I watched the football and 'thought' about all the things that I'd like to get productive with ... like chalk painting, ceramics, beaded strands for my bohemian curtains, catching up on reading all of the health books that I've bought in the last two years and have only skimmed over the pages, finishing my Susan Howatch novel 'Cashelmara', playing my guitar and so much more.

Hopefully, by the end of the month, I will have moved my studio/office to the back room and I can get started on a few of these things. When we go into The Bay on Thursday, I'll have to check out the craft shops to see if they have the chalk paint that I need, otherwise I'll have to buy it online. That's something that I'm really looking forward to!

So, as you can tell, my brain has been very active, but my body has been very inactive, however, I have thoroughly enjoyed my lazy Sunday and I'm looking forward to a busy week!

Just before I go ...

This video is frighteningly awesome! The power of Mother Nature!



Nite all.

Tasty Tastings

A bunch of us had a nice afternoon at The Blonde Bombshell's house for some tasting of delicious balsamic vinegars, flavoured olive oils, dukkahs, spice mixes and other such deliciousness.

I'm not a fan of adding anything, that's not fresh, to my food and quite a few of these blends had added sugars, but everything else in the mixes seemed pretty safe. I must admit that the balsamic vinegars have taken my fancy.

I already have the Raspberry Chocolate Caramelised and Coconut Mango Lime vinegars. Today I ordered the Coconut Caramelised & Spiced Rum Balsamic Vinegar. I could drink that one by the glassful!! I also ordered the Wild Lime Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I currently use the Asian oil from that selection.

The consultant, prepared a number of dishes in the Bombshell's kitchen, but I found some of them a bit bland. Her kitchen skills were left wanting and she neglected to add any basic seasoning like salt and pepper to the savoury dishes, or sweeteners to the sweet dishes. This meant that the food didn't do justice to the mixes.

I agreed to have a tasting afternoon in October, on the proviso that the consultant stay out of my kitchen (only because I don't like anyone else using my kitchen or appliances), and I get to prepare the dishes myself. She seemed pretty happy with my suggestion and will email me with some of her recipes and ideas. I'll attempt to tweak them and hopefully I won't stuff up!

Overall, it was a really nice afternoon, where I met a couple of new faces and spent time with good friends. A pretty decent way to spend a windy, rainy, Wintery afternoon.

I found some funny tweets made my husbands and wives and thought that I'd share the good ones here.

*My wife wanted two kittens, but I'm the man of this house so we got two kittens.

*My husband still talks about that one time he loaded the dishwasher correctly, like it's going to get our kids into Harvard!

*Sorry. I was late because I had to find all the things that were in plain sight for my husband.

*My husband is home sick from work today and it's like having 1000 babies!

*Know those adorable little idiosyncrasies you loved when first dating? After 20 years of marriage, they become what the police refer to as 'motive'.

*MARRIED SEXTING: I'm not wearing any underwear ... because you didn't put the laundry in the dryer like I asked you a hundred bloody times!

*My husband is on the roof - only a few inches away from an insurance claim that could completely change my life!

Finally, this very quick and easy recipe looks delicious and healthful ...



It's still raining. It's quite heavy at the moment. I'm told it will clear tomorrow and we will have sunshine again, but the weather app on my iPad tells me that the rain won't clear til Monday. I guess we will wait and see!

The rain is lovely and as Adoring Husband said this afternoon, it's nice to have some days that actually feel Wintery - they don't happen too often in this neck of the woods. Falling asleep to the sound of rain on our roof is also lovely.

I'm off to watch 'Sex and the City'.

Nite all.

It's Wet

It's very wet. I can hear the rain hitting the front windows of the house and the wind sounds a little gusty out there.

It's also well after midnight, so this is a short post with nothing much to report. Have I ever??

The Romance channel on Foxtel is having a Twilight marathon tonight. The first movie started at about 10.30pm and the final movie in the series will finish at 8.30am tomorrow. Tempting though it is, to stay up all night watching it, I won't. I have them all on dvd, so if I want to watch them all, I can at any time.

I believe tomorrow will be another long lazy morning in bed, especially if it's still raining!

I bought some bananas with the FROG box order last week and found these recipes today. I think they might be my project for the weekend!

Frozen Superfoods

That's it from me.

Nite all.

Movie + Therapy

I had a very good day today, with Adoring Husband.

"Independence Day: Resurgence" was a great movie! I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially Liam Hemsworth, and even though I was never a fan of Jeff Goldblum, in my eyes, he has improved with age and having seen a couple of his interviews, I have definitely warmed to him.

The special effects were pretty amazing too.

My bucket list of movies has grown somewhat:

• Ghostbusters
• The Legend of Tarzan
• Star Trek Beyond
• Central Intelligence
• Bad Moms
• Bridget Jones' Baby
• Dr Strange
• Finding Dory

Half of these haven't even been released yet, but there are four from the list that I need to see in the next couple of weeks before they finish.


My retail therapist called after the movie, so AH dropped me off at Stocklands, while he visited the dreaded Bunnings, and I enjoyed an hour of therapy.

We picked up the FROG box on the way home and I cooked a late lunch/early dinner because AH has SES training tonight.

Sadly, Queensland lost the State of Origin game last night. Some controversial decisions were made by the refs, which are still being discussed by various media outlets today, but to me, it really doesn't matter, because QLD won the series and the game meant little. Apologies to any NSW supporters out there who are basking in the glory (that would be Adoring Husband!).

How many of these videos have you watched? Check out how they were made and how you got tricked!!



Gotta get to bed before I turn into a pumpkin.

Nite all.

SOO Finale

I am sitting on my couch, wearing my State of Origin t-shirt, my Queensland necklace and my maroon dressing gown. I decided against wearing my State of Origin dreadlocks.

I don't know why, but I'm feeling incredibly tired tonight and could possibly end up in bed by half time .. unless of course, I get my second wind .. which has been known to happen.

It was a great morning with the girls for our weekly morning tea. Only three of us missing, but it seemed like a much bigger gap than that. There were a LOT of tourists about, filling the tables and all drinking coffee, which made for a noisy atmosphere and meant that we had to lean forward to hear each other and talk loudly to be heard!

The girls making our coffee were wearing interesting costumes. The NSW supporters were very animated in their giant cockroach outfit and cheer leader colours. It makes me wonder where they can find their enthusiasm every year, when their team gives them nothing to cheer about.

I thought the same thing tonight, when they showed the blues supporters in the crowd at the stadium. There have been so many losses, yet the fans turn up on a freezing cold night, wearing their blue wigs and their jerseys. That's dedication for you.

Queensland has already scored, just 8 minutes into the game.

I bought and downloaded a new app today called 'Minecraft'. Chicklet is obsessed with this game and has called me twice to excitedly explain everything that happens in the game. I said that I would get it so that we could play together, but now I have no idea what to do next!! This will be interesting!! I may need to google it, to learn how to play.

Adoring Husband and I have a movie date tomorrow to see 'Independence Day'. BGWLBH saw it last night and gave it a good review, so I'm looking forward to it.

Bubbles gave a good review for the movie 'The Legend of Tarzan' too, so I might need to squeeze that one in somewhere. Next Thursday, our date will be to see 'Star Trek Beyond'.

One might ask ... what has my life become??? Haha.

Anyway, I'm off to focus on the game.

Nite all.

Midday Rising

Yes, that's what time I chose to start my day.

My good intentions of going to bed at the early hour that I announced last night, kind of fell by the wayside, when I got all involved in the idiot box and those TV shows that I mentioned. It was almost 1am when the TV screen went black and I immediately fell into a deep sleep.

So, it was 8.15am when I opened my eyes and Adoring Husband kindly heated up a cup of chicken bone broth for me, so that I could sit in bed reading and facebooking and youtubing and generally having a gloriously lazy and blissful start to my day.

At midday, I showered and dressed and hopped on my trike for a ride in the sunshine ... and oh what a perfectly wonderful day it was outside! The temperature was mild, the breeze was slight and the sun was putting a sparkle in my world.

I took the long way to the shops where I bought a few items, including a coffee, and then I took the long way home. While I was riding, I closed my eyes and raised my face to the sunshine ... how lucky that I live in a quiet little town, where I can do that with a low degree of risk! It felt good.

Adoring Husband and I watched the two Miss Congeniality movies this afternoon. They were a bit of fun.

I thought you might find this story an interesting read ... My Story ... it's one of those 'let food be thy medicine' success stories. I love reading them. They are inspiring and give me hope for our future.

Well, again, it's after midnight. Adoring Husband doesn't like it when I post after midnight. He gets confused with the dates!

Nite all.

On The Down Side

Well, I didn't quite get to bed as early as I'd planned last night, but it was still well before midnight when I finally got there. I didn't even get to see the entire first set of the Andy Murray final.

I decided last night that I was going to make a concerted effort to quit coffee and alcohol for the duration of my second attempt at the Paleo 10 week program. So, this morning, I heated up a nice big mug of chicken bone broth and after drinking some lemon water, I sat up in bed sipping my broth while watching a movie length video "Ethos Time to Unslave Humanity" .

It was a nice slow and comfortable way to start the day.

Soon, I realised that I hadn't made up this fortnight's dog food, and I had no pumpkin, so off I pedalled in search of the vegetable.

There are two farmers in town who sell their pumpkins from home. One usually has a timber box full of pumpkins and pineapples, stationed on his front lawn, but of course, it was nowhere to be seen today. The other has a wheel barrow full of pumpkins on his front porch, but it appears that he is away indefinitely .. he has a hessian bag covering his sign.

This meant the local supermarket was my only option. I was in luck! Quite reasonably priced too.

By the time I'd finished making the dog food, filling the containers and cleaning up the mess, I had a headache that would kill an elephant!! I'd only made it to 3pm and I pleaded with Adoring Husband to fetch me a coffee. I would prefer to drink a coffee to ease the pain, than take a pain killer.

Funnily enough, I could physically feel my body responding to the caffeine with the first mouthful and by the second mouthful, the pain had eased significantly. It was a very strange feeling.

I still plan on quitting coffee, but I won't go cold turkey, as I did the last two times. I'll increase the time between coffees a little each day, over the period of a week, and see if that makes it easier.

Recently, I saved a recipe from my Facebook feed, called 'Gluten Free Brazilian Chicken with Coconut Milk Reduction'. It came from the Inspired Eats website, but the site is having problems and the recipe cannot be accessed through any link or even directly from the site.

I found the same recipe in Pinterest, but the site could still not be accessed. The photo in Pinterest had the ingredients listed below it, but no method or instructions ... so I had to make it up, using the photo, the ingredients and my imagination.

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon salt
pepper
4 boneless chicken thighs
2 Tablespoons of coconut oil
1 onion chopped
1 Tablespoon minced ginger
2 garlic cloves minced
1 can coconut milk
1 cup chopped broccoli

So ... I mixed the first 5 ingredients to make a rub for the chicken, coated each piece and rubbed it into the flesh. I heated the oil and browned the chicken on both sides, partially cooking it.

I removed the chicken from the pan and gently fried the onion, garlic and ginger, then poured in the coconut milk and simmered it gently for about 20 minutes until it reduced somewhat. I added the chicken to the coconut milk and simmered for another 10 minutes until the chicken was cooked through.

I steamed the broccoli separately and then stirred it through the sauce at the end.

It was nice, but I think it needed more heat, so I'll add some chilli and maybe cayenne pepper next time. Adoring Husband seems to think that it would be nice with duck, so I'll try that too.

I'll also keep trying to get into the site to see how this dish should be cooked. Hopefully,  they will iron out their problems soon.

I forgot to mention that I made chicken liver pate on Sunday after everybody had left. I'd taken the chicken livers out of the freezer on Friday, but didn't have time to make it for the party. I didn't want to waste 1kg of organic chicken livers.

It's the first time I've made it and it's quite delicious! I added some white port to the mix. It was supposed to be Brandy, but I didn't have any, so I improvised!

I'm disappointed that Murray defeated Raonic in the Wimbledon final last night, but I'm glad that the tournament is finished. Two weeks on minimal sleep is quite enough for me.

The US Open starts at the end of August and goes til the 11th September, but I'll be babysitting, so I won't be watching any of that one. My sleep will be valuable and I will need my wits about me! I'll definitely watch the results with interest.

I wonder how successful I will be, in getting to bed early tonight? Two of my favourite shows are on tonight 'Love Child' and 'Grey's Anatomy'. I guess I could try that modern idea of 'recording' the shows and watching them tomorrow. Just a thought.

A couple of bad Dad jokes ...

So what if I can't spell Armageddon? It's not the end of the world.

What sort of exercises do lazy people do? Diddly Squats.

Sorry :)

Nite all.  

Empty Nest

It's very quiet in our house now.

Our visitors are sleeping in their own beds tonight and I'm happy to report that they all arrived home safe n sound.

Needless to say, we'll be eating leftovers for a week!

We fed them a good hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato and mushrooms before they headed off. Let me rephrase that ... Adoring Husband fed them AND he bought everybody a coffee this morning. I spent the morning relaxing and chatting with everyone while he did all the hard work. He's a good man.

Right now, I'm tossing up between climbing into bed for an early night, or staying up to watch the Wimbledon final between Andy Murray and Milos Raonic.

I'm looking forward to this movie being released in Australia in August! It looks like a lot of fun.

Ok, I've decided. I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Party Time

I woke up at 8am, to discover a coffee on my bedside table ... thank you Adoring Husband.

Even though I had a stack of things to do, I didn't get out of bed til after 9am and decided at 9.30am that I had to attend the local markets to get some more coconut mango lime balsamic vinegar. The woman on the stall had a LOT more stock to show this week, and I bought some Asian oil and some Wasabi Dukkah.

There was a new stall in the hall where I bought some Aloe Vera juice too.

I picked up a couple more groceries from the local shop and headed home at about 10.20am.

I had four hours to complete my set tasks, but ran out of time and the last two things on my list didn't get done.

• Pear, rocket, feta and walnut salad
• Garden salad
• Moroccan carrot salad
• Rice Salad
• Potato Salad
• Guacamole with vegetable sticks - capsicum, celery, cucumber and carrot
• Cheese platter with strawberries and smoked salmon
• Smoked salmon & cream cheese roll ups on cucumber discs
• One plate of GF crackers and dip
• One bowl of potato chips
• Cabanossi
• 20 Red velvet cupcakes, iced and topped with toffeed pecans 
• Pork & chicken meatballs
• Chicken liver pate

I didn't get photos of everything but here's a couple ...

I blew up 3 red balloons and set Best Cousin in the World's present (a good bottle of Merlot) on the table with her card and party hat. I set both the dining table and the outside table because we weren't sure how the temperature would hold out for the evening.

We ended up staying outside for the entire night. Everyone, except BCITW and I, were in bed by about 10pm. We sat up til midnight solving some of the world's problems.

The food went down a treat and Adoring Husband did a cracker of a job cooking all our meat on the barbecue.

Between us all, we drank five bottles of wine and about ten stubbies of beer. That's not bad for six adults! Only one of us was a little the worse for wear by bed time .. and it wasn't me!

I had a really nice night. BCITW and I decided it was bed time at about 12.30am, but it's now almost 1.30am!

Chunky's team made it into the Grand Final today, but unfortunately lost it 7-5. Thankfully, he wasn't too upset about it, but Mum needed a stiff drink to drown her sorrows!

It's time for me to get some much needed sleep.

Nite all.

Sporting Chance

Despite watching some of the Wimbledon lady's semi-final tennis last night, I did get to sleep much earlier than any night in the past ten days. It was still around midnight, but I enjoyed a solid seven hours of sleep, which made it easier to get up earlier.

As promised, Adoring Husband and I drove into The Bay to watch the kids play touch football in their carnival.

Both kids are all round superstars. They have the brains and motivation to top their classes at school, the physical fitness and prowess to excel in any sport they choose, a relaxed and easy going manner to make friends wherever they go and are both popular with their peers, leadership qualities that I'm sure will take them far in their futures and both of them are physically and spiritually beautiful human beings ie inside and out.

'Moopoo' is sixteen years old and today played on Field One in a game that was live streamed on the net. Her team lost. They entered the tournament to be competitive, but did not expect to do well against more experienced and more successful teams in their age bracket. However, they have done better than expected and are enjoying themselves.

'Chunky' is fourteen and his team is, so far, unbeaten. They are expected to win the tournament for their age bracket. They are a young, experienced team who have played together for a couple of years now and so they know each other's game well and it shows in their play. The pressure is definitely on them though!

It's a massive tournament and there were thousands of kids of all age groups in attendance there today. All of the car parks were full and cars were parked for more than a kilometre along every street leading into and out of the sports grounds. It was crazy!

We were lucky enough to nab what we call a 'rock star carpark', when we drove into one of the full car parks right on the edge of the grounds and as we gave up and turned to leave, somebody was backing out, so we drove straight in! We were literally a two minute walk to the field.

After Chunky won his game, we left the grounds to do our shopping for the weekend. Again, there were people everywhere in The Bay, and Stocklands was incredibly busy. The supermarket was buzzing with activity and I admit that I was feeling pretty stressed by the time we got to the checkout! Couldn't wait to get out of there!

I would, however, like to give a big 'thumbs up' to Carol on checkout 4, who was incredibly friendly and efficient and whose packing skills were exceptional! She definitely eased my stress levels .. in fact I am going to email Coles to tell them how great she was!

I'll be right back ...

Done!

We now have a fridge and pantry full of goodies and I have a plan in my head for all the dishes that I'm going to prepare. It would have been easy to get carried away, but I want to enjoy tomorrow night with everybody else, so I'm mostly making food that can be prepared in advance and Adoring Husband will cook the meat on the barbecue.

So I have a cheese platter to prepare, I bought two dips and will make one of my own, I'll do smoked salmon & cream cheese discs, I've selected four different salads to make and I've decided on a GF red velvet cake for Best Cousin in the World's birthday. We also bought her a gift, which I won't reveal here, just in case she reads this.

I'm on it!!

Now, at 11.30pm, I am going to bed to watch Roger Federer play Milos Raonic in the Wimbledon men's semi-final. They are one set each and I'm pretty sure that I will fall asleep before I know the outcome of this one!

Nite all.

Shed De-cluttering

Adoring Husband decided to mow the back lawn today. He only mowed it on Sunday, but the little bit of rain that we've had caused it to grow considerably in a few days, so it's now looking trim and tidy.

His next job, was to de-clutter and tidy up the shed! I seemed to get sucked into the vortex and firstly, I listed the 250 odd vinyl records that have been stored in a box for about 12 yrs. There are 78s, 45s and 33 1/3s.

Fabulous oldies like Liberace, Jamie Redfern, Doris Day, Winifred Atwell, Judith Durham, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Morcambe & Wise, Harry Belafonte, Louis Armstrong and Joan Sullivan.

Musicals like 'The Sound of Music', 'The King and I', 'Carousel', 'Calamity Jane', 'Showboat' and 'Hello Dolly'.

Some of them are real treasures.

The next box contained jewellery. Unfortunately, it was mostly junk dress jewellery, some of which I kept, but most of which I tossed.

My final fun job, was to sort through some small notebooks, all of which were filled with very small handwriting, describing Aunty E's daily 'goings on'. Starting with the time that she woke in the morning, collecting the morning paper, all of her phone calls to her sister, grocery shopping trips, visits to the bank, paying the bills, meals, plant watering, hair tinting, toilet visits, drives in the car (Ford Escort), how much she paid for petrol, what she watched on TV, visits to her sister, the temperature range for the day and the weather.

It actually reminded me a lot of this blog!! Every day there is some 'same old, same old' that gets repeated with every post and none of it is very interesting or exciting .. but I just couldn't stop reading it!

She had soup and toast OR fruit and ice cream for dinner every night. She froze huge numbers of cheese sandwiches, but never seemed to eat any of them. She loved to watch English church services on TV and collected the New Idea and Woman's Day magazines every week. The Daily Mirror was her favourite newspaper and the local rag, The Leader.

She listed the medications that she took every day, her doctor's visits and hospital visits, collecting the mail from Caringbah Post Office, the bus and it's number that she caught to Miranda Fair, what nationality the driver was, how she was feeling, physically, each day.

Aunty E was aged in her mid 70s for most of these notebooks and she lived til the ripe old age of 97. She was born in 1917 and we also possess the golden key from her 21st birthday, which she celebrated in 1938. She enjoyed lots of international holidays with her two sisters over the years, and ocean cruises and camping trips around Australia.

She lived a very long, full and exciting life and I wish I'd known her. By the time I met Adoring Husband, she was already in a nursing home and quite ill with dementia, so I never got to meet her, but there are many many albums full of her holiday photos, so I feel really good energy whenever I think of her.

So my day was pretty much filled up with those activities. At 5pm I began preparing dinner. Mostly leftover chicken with a few extra salads. Fresh grated beetroot with shallots, dressed in chocolate, raspberry balsamic vinegar, carrot salad with roasted almonds and cranberries, garden salad, buttered mushrooms, rice salad and sweet potato chips (which I just this minute realised, I left in the oven! Doh!).

I was worried that there wouldn't be enough food, but there was plenty, and everybody was sated and full of compliments.

Tomorrow, AH and I will go watch the kids play a couple of their games and then we'll do a big shop for Saturday's party.

This means no tennis for me tonight! I was up very late watching Roger Federer pull of a miraculous five set victory in his match, to get through to the semi finals. It was about 2am when I fell asleep.

It's now 10.45pm.

Nite all.

    

A Day in the Bay

We had a couple of false starts, but eventually, we arrived in The Bay to enjoy a delicious lunch at Aquavue on this glorious day.

The kids took advantage of the sunshine and walked along the beach after lunch, while Adoring Husband and I visited our favourite shop for ice cream! We bought two tubs of Raw Chocolate Coconut Ice cream, because there was no salted caramel in stock *insert very sad face here*, but they DID have something new!

A box of 4 ice creams .. very similar to Magnums .. but with coconut ice cream! Coated in delicious dairy free chocolate and almonds. Adoring Husband and I ate all four of them in the space of about twenty minutes!

We arrived home at about 4pm, at which time I got straight onto dinner. Our new favourite, Hainan Chicken was on the menu tonight and it was a winner! The kids gobbled it down pretty fast and were excited to have dessert waiting for them.

Chocolate mousse made with avocado, covering a layer of chopped strawberries and then topped with a whole strawberry, a scoop of raw chocolate coconut ice cream and sprinkled with crumbled freeze dried strawberries. Completely devoured!

So everybody left the table totally satisfied .. except for me! I was SOOOOO full, it has taken four hours for my body to finally feel comfortable!

The men in the house, did the dishes and tidied the kitchen when we were finished eating ...

Everybody, except me, headed to bed for an early night. The family need to be in The Bay at 7.30am for a start to their touch football carnival, but luckily I get to stay warm and toasty in my cosy bed til I'm ready to rise.

I must admit that I am feeling decidedly weary tonight. It has already been a big week and as I sit here watching my favourite, Roger Federer, losing his quarter final tennis match, I'm thinking about my warm bed.

It's fifteen minutes away from midnight. It will definitely NOT be a 3am finish for me tonight.

I got distracted and now it's ten minutes past midnight!!

Nite all.

They Have Arrived!

This is just a short post, because it's 1am and my need for some solid sleep is on the high scale right now.

I lasted til 3am watching the tennis last night - I know right!!?? You didn't think I would last after all that hard work!! - and I was awake at 8am ready to tie a few loose ends before the family arrived this afternoon.

I baked two chickens so that we could all sit down and have dinner when they arrived. Just a simple chicken and salad with a nice glass of wine.

The conversation hasn't slowed down for the entire six hours that they have been here and Nellie Noo has only just gone to bed herself.

I have morning tea with the girls tomorrow, so I'd best get some sleep so that I can be fresh for that. Afterwards, Adoring Husband, the fam and I are heading into The Bay for lunch.

So here is a photo of some of the fam ...

I bet you wouldn't recognise those feet if you saw them in a different setting! Ha!

Nite all.

Been Workin' Hard!

Right! What a day! Almost a complete Spring clean in one day! Surprisingly, I still feel quite energised, although I think I've worked some muscles that haven't been used in a while.

Between Adoring Husband and myself we have:

• Removed the bedding, washed it and remade the beds in three bedrooms. Vacuumed and dusted said bedrooms.
• Cleared the middle bedroom of all my new study decorating paraphernalia (the new study will be revealed some time this month!)
• Pulled the washing machine out to clean the floor under it and the wall behind it, as well as the floor to ceiling window and sliding door beside it. Cleaned the laundry tub.
• Removed all the furniture in the outdoor area, pressure cleaned the concrete floor, washed down all the furniture and then returned it all.
• Cleared out the fridge in the kitchen, pulled all the shelving and drawers out to be cleaned, tossed the old food and returned the good stuff.
• Cleared out the spare fridge in the garage and cleaned the drawers and shelving.
• Pulled everything out of the very large, very full pantry, tossed the out-of-date stuff, cleaned the shelves and then re-organised everything.
• Cleared the clutter from the kitchen bench, cleaned on top, under and behind the big dehydrator at the end of the bench.
• Wiped down all of the kitchen appliances (electric kettle, toaster, blender etc)
• Emptied the vegetable box, cleaned it, tossed the sprouted onions and sweet potato and returned it to the bottom of the pantry all spick and span.
• Washed the bird cage.
• Did two other loads of washing. Folded the clothes that were already on the line.
• Put the fresh batch of bone broth into containers in the freezer.
• Cleaned the main bathroom and toilet.
• Vacuumed the tiled floor ready to be mopped tomorrow.
• Planned the menu for Best Cousin in the World's birthday party on Saturday night.
• Got the ironing up-to-date - took about 40 minutes.
• Cooked lunch (well actually, reheated beef casserole and steamed some broccoli & snow peas).
• Stacked and unpacked the dishwasher three times!
• Filled an extra 8 ice cube trays in preparation for Saturday.

I think that just about covers it.

At 8.47pm I made the decision to have an Epsom Salts bath. I'm not a fan of baths, but I could feel some muscles beginning to complain, so I added some lavender essential oil to the mix and lay there for about 40 minutes reading my Susan Howatch book, "Cashelmara".

Right now, I'm sitting on the couch in my pyjamas, feeling very much refreshed, munching on some raw macadamia nuts and watching Wimbledon! Nick Kyrgios is playing tonight, but first Roger Federer is playing Steve Johnson, then Serena Williams plays Svetlana Kuznetsova and THEN Nick Kyrgios plays Andy Murray ... I feel that it's going to be a long night! Right now I feel great, but I wonder when I'm going to hit the wall?

Let's hope Roger and Serena both win in straight sets!

I thought I would share this music video with you. The girl is the daughter of one of The Motivator's girlfriends. These two have beautiful voices and the song is reminiscent of my youth describing the drama and uncertainty of those early relationships.



I wish I had a tub of Zebra Dream Salted Caramel Coconut Ice cream right now! I've earned it!

Nite all.