MMMMMM SORBET

Although I am sure this post will say the 1st November , being a Kiwi we are several hours ahead of the rest of the world and it’s actually the next morning… (just to clear that up)

I’ve become a little obsessed with my new frozen dessert. Home made sorbet, well I don’t know if you can officially call it sorbet but it’s YUM!
OK real easy.
Step one: Grab a can of fruit in syrup (the bigger the better!) Open can and eat a little of the fruit (as to make room for expanding in the freezer)
Step B: find an even space in the freezer and Freeze entire can
Step TORU: Take out can and using a kitchen whizzer thing go nuts
Step on me: EATs
VIOLA
Things I’ve learnt along the way: when freezing canned plumbs it is VERY IMPORTANT to take out the stones BEFORE you freeze!!! I only thought of this two hours AFTER I put the can in the freezer I ended up standing at the sink with the hot tap running, defrosting my fingers after every de-stoning. Old Ice cream containers are awesome for keeping your sorbet in. A drop of vanilla goes nicely with pears.

Today (NOV 2!!!) is also the lovely Jacob Cartner's first birthday. Hopefully Heather (from Hen's adventures in Oz) will be blogging about his party. WISH I could have been there.

Kisses to the Birthday Boy

Well I think that's my lot for today.

Red Hot Chilli PEPPER

AND NOW WITH PHOTOS!!!!
aaaaw bless!

I really hope I can survive NaBloPoMo.
Here is my first post of HOPEFULLY many...

Last night my son’s crèche had a party with the theme of "Healthy Eating".

As usual I went a bit silly with the costume-making and went “all out” with William’s costume. (I think I was up till 1am both Wednesday and Thursday nights making it!)

I started, as usual looking online for costume ideas, Being a big Red Hot Chilli pepper fan and quite liked this one: cute

When William woke up yesterday morning I said (drowning out his “leeemealooone mummy”) “Good morning my sweet boy. You get to wear your costume today” then later when I tried to get his track pants and jumper on he got cross with me: “That’s not a costume mummy”
Needless to say he went to crèche yesterday morning fully dressed in his costume making all in his wake smile or at least make that stupid raised eyebrow puckered lipped “aaaaaawww” face that most people make when they see ever-so-cute baby ducklings/kittys. I simply had to go to the crèche via my work to show him/my hard work off.

When we finally got to Will's crèche several of his teachers dashed inside for their cameras and many of his little friends ran to him laughing. One boy thought he was a DINOSAUR. lol

I quickly changed him back into his play clothes after he was suitably fussed over and made it into work a little shy of 9am.

We had a pretty good party. Each teacher had a table where they were making something yummy. We had fruit Skewering, pumpkin muffin making, sushi rolling and heaps of yummy activities. The highlight of the night was when I won a basket of fresh fruit (Raspberries, strawberries, a pineapple and a pawpaw, various packets of seeds, a lovely metal children’s gardening set and Kiwifruit body scrub). Yay me!

Those who know me also know I have a compulsion for being incredibly inappropriate and I can’t think of a social situation where I haven’t raised eyebrows. Liam’s crèche naturally is not exempt. Whilst sitting at the sushi rolling table William tried a piece of pepper (not to his liking but Good boy for trying it) I exclaim, probably too loudly “OOH William! That’s cannibalism!” You could have heard a pin drop!

Well this WAS a long post (Probably won’t last the Whole month posting this long!)

OK it's not the most exciting vid but don't you just wanna bite him?
YUM!

Stolen from Heather's blog. All about my lovely man.

1. What is his name? James (Jamie to his family)
2. Who eats more? Depends he can do more in a sitting but I snack a LOT
3. Who said, “I love you” first? Me. It took him almost a year to understand his feelings and then when he first said it he tried to take it back (I wouldn’t let him!!!)
4. Who is taller? Me I think but it’s close
5. Who drives most when you are out together? He does.
6. Who is more sensitive? Not sure
7. Who does the laundry? Me
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? James… I have to be closest to the door
9. Who pays the bills? Mostly me
10. Who cooks more? Me. The last time James cooked for his family he ended up in the A&E with pretty bad burns.
11. Who is more stubborn? Probably me but he sulks. Both of us get over stuff really quickly
12. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? I’m never wrong!
13. Who has more siblings? He has 2, I have 1
14. Who wears the pants in the relationship? We both wear pants. I’m dominant though… It’s the way James likes it
15. What do you like to do together? At the moment snuggling on the couch watching dvds. It’s soooo wet at the moment.
16. Who eats more sweets? Depends on the sweet, Cakes chocolates and cookies are my domain and he likes lollies.
17. Guilty Pleasures? Letting the washing up pile up so much we need to get takeaways because there is no room to cook (UM!!!)
18. How did you meet? In the student pub. Neither of us were studying at the time.
19. Who asked whom out first? Not sure… I think it was a mutual thing
20. Who kissed who first? ME!!! I totally jumped on him at the bar!!!
21. Who proposed? Erm… Probably leave this one blank or I’ll get in trouble.
22. His best features and qualities? He loves me (and his cute cute cute bum)

Sick, Tired and Cold

Well I've been really sinusy for over three weeks now.
I've given up milk and hoping to see an improvement any day now (sniff)

LOVING the Pseudoephedrine!!! I am also still using Otrivine before bed but am afraid my nose is starting to crack and will probably drop off in no time.

I saw the first Daffodils this week! That for me is like a glimmer of hope that soon the weather will clear and get warmer. It will be lovely to be able to hang out with my boys in the evening. I'm looking forward to picnics in Albert Park after work.

OK enough moaning about the weather lets talk about my awesome boy.


William is having a little trouble fitting in over on the big kids side at his crèche.
He’s been biting both people and his clothing. I read that biting clothing can be a sign of stress in a young one. To help him settle and also be there to prevent biting I’ve been going down and having lunch with him. The biting seemed to happen just before lunch when it gets crowded with a lot of busy little bodies finding their seets and I think he was getting overwhelmed.

I’ve also set up playdates outside of crèche to hopefully form stronger friendships which may intern make it a bit easier to break into the cliques.

Lastly I made William a necklace to hopefully stop him chewing up his clothing. Chewing on his clothes is a right pain in the neck because he gets wet down the front of his top and his sleaves.

I got a nice string and threaded it through some stretchy rubber tubing. (the kind the physiotherapists give you) Tied a nice chewy knot in the middle and tied the string ends together. I needed to cover the string in tape to make it stiff enough to thread through the tube. I then soaked the rubber in hot water, then mouth wash and then rinsed it off. This gave it a slight mint taste. Mmmmmmmmm

I made it just big enough to slip over his head.
Liam took to it straight away! Very cute. He calls it his “necka lalase.”

I must admit I’d love to give it a good chew myself. Both James and I are chewers. I just noticed recently that chew on the security swipe card that is hung around my neck.

Some people may disagree and think that I’m replacing one bad habit with another but for now I think he needs a little security blanket while he is having trouble adjusting to the move from the baby side to the over twos. PLUS if he has his necklace in his gob he hopefully won’t be physically able to bite others.

He happily settled into bed without any fuss on Friday afternoon. After he had his lunch I tucked him into bed and asked him if he wanted his necklace. He eagerly took it and snuggled under the blankets munching on it. For the rest of the day there were no incidents and we made a HUGE fuss over how good he was.

I’ll see if I can get a photo of William and his “necka lalase” soon.

Adventures in Baking

Well not really a "shrinking" topic is it???

I think I've been posessed by my grandmother! I'm baking up a storm.
It all started when I wanted to make cupcakes for my son's birthday in June. I wanted all his little friends to have a treat including the vegans.

I found this AWESOME recipe

Fluffy White Cupcakes
makes 22 cupcakes
1 TB white vinegar
1 ½ scant cups plain soymilk
2 1/8 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 1/8 cups sugar
½ cup oil
1 ¼ tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. coconut extract (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180º.

Spray 22 muffin cups with nonstick spray or line with paper cupcake liners (I like to spray the inside of the muffin papers with nonstick spray to help the cupcakes release). Set aside.Place the vinegar in the bottom of a liquid measuring cup and fill the cup with soymilk to equal 1 ½ cups. Stir well and set aside (the mixture will curdle).

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another mixing bowl whisk together the soymilk mixture, canola oil, and extract.

Add the wet to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth using a hand-held mixer, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Fill each muffin cup with ¼ cup of batter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack.

Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

I made several batches to "practice" and then for his and his friends birthdays.


My Fav. batch was for his wee girl friend's birthday. I piped melted chocolate on overhead projecter sheets with templates of Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet's faces on paper undernieth. Once the chocolate had set I pushed it into the iced cupcakes
They looked WONDERFUL



Other wonderfull kitchen experiments have resulted in what I like to call

CUP PIES.

http://homecooking.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/blcookie83.htm

I changed the recepie and replaced the peanut butter chips with just chocolate.
mmmmmmm

OMG
Macaroons!!!!

Little man LOVES them...

real easy. (off the top of my head)

Two egg whites
half a cup of sugar
a teaspoon of vanilla essance
2 1/2 cups of coconut

stir it all up in a bowl

Bung spoonfulls on a tray and chuck it in the oven at 170 for about 10 minutes.

AWESOME

I like to drizzle melted chocolate over them.
YAY

It's been WAY too long!!!

Well I thought I'dgive blogging another go.
I stopped because well I stopped losing weight (silly I know)
but this blog began as a way to keep track of my shrinkingness.

Well Who cares about that part... Lets get on to more important stuff...

On Mimbles latest blog entry she has the below list... so I thought I'd give it a go too.

Can anyone tell I used to study victorian lit???
=0P

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Put an asterisk next to the books you'd rather shove hot pokers in your eyes than read
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who've only read
6 and force books upon them ;-)

01. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
02. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
03. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
04. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
05. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
06. The Bible (as a child and I doubt I did it from cover to cover)
07. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
08. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
09. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare – Almost done!
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy One day I WILL!!!
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (I liked a thousand splendid suns)
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwel
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (HUCKK POOHEY)
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (well I started it about 6 times...)
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet- William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

The year is slipping through my fingers

WOW 2007 is nearly up

I'm suffering a small bout of depression and haven't had the energy to post.

The weekend away was lovely but exhausting. My brother-in-law and I managed a cool dip in the Kai iwi lakes but the McFadgen boys stayed out of the chilly waters... Here is a pic of my sexy man at the lake.















NO girls you CAN'T have him he's ALL MINE

=0P

Gosh it's getting muggy. I'm regretting having not lost another 10kgs. I've been up and down lately with my eating. I lost the plot tonight with a plate of sweet and sour pork (feeling pretty sick now)
Tomorrow night is the Staff xmas do (WOO)
I will endevour to behave myself.

More soon.

Love n Kisses
Yoda