Sunday Morning at Home

I like poached eggs but I fail badly at cooking them the traditional way - dropped gently into a saucepan of gently swirling water. I've even tried the "wrap the egg in gladwrap" method with no success. Put vinegar in the water. No, didn't help. I bought two of these little gadgets yesterday and tried one out this morning. While maybe not perfect at the first attempt I will certainly be using them again. The result was passable and tasted great.

Served with bbq sauce, s & p and home grown tommies.

Satisfaction is a full feed bin. It means getting through the week without mixing more.

Meg is trialling some minerals for the two P's. Spoilt or what?

I have six clucky silkies sitting on around 30 eggs between them. Another hen is raising 9 chickens, not all hatched by her. As they've hatched I've taken them from their still sitting mother and nestled them under Hen 1. While she wasn't looking. She has no idea. It takes a village.
A barnie pullet, eating from the goats' dish while they're not looking. Sometimes you just have to grab a feed when and where you can around here.The garden is looking really bare now that all the pumpkin vines are gone. I've not been planting much either due to pest infestations. When I come back from our week away I'm going to try raising seedlings in boxes over at the house, get them to a certain size and then transplant and see if that helps with the pests. And I've run out of bricks.

This is my latest offsider. They don't hang around for long though. There's always something to chase. Whenever I water, several bedraggled mice make their way shakily out of their holes and scurry off to another burrow hopefully somewhere dry. That is if Coco doesn't get them first. Chloe is still working on her mouse catching skills.
Here's Princess Coco having a drink from the small split in the hose.
Am I Beautiful???

Chloe is becoming more and more adventurous. You can just make her out in the tree; she looks like a possum. The mickey miners were shrieking and screaming at her. Like most cats she just ignored them and went about her business.
See the bird to the right of Chloe? It gave her a right earful of abuse.

Off now for a week; Meg is at home looking after the fort.

Cookin' in the Kitchen

After an early start and a long catch up phone call with K (who was sitting on the beach at Nobbys watching the surf roll in) Meg and I mixed feed, fed up then went to town. After a pleasant couple of hours we came home and hit the kitchen. Gibbo had to dash to Beaudesert to deliver some poultry for tomorrow's auction.

Now some people might think that the art of making macarons is a difficult one and hardly worth the bother. Not our Meg. She did plenty of research, knew exactly what to look for at each stage of the process and produced this at the end!! Startling!! What I always thought was an untidy little rim on a macaron is actually supposed to be there - that's what is known as "feet". I had no idea. I'd never really looked at a recipe either, to see what goes into the making. Well it's quite simple really - a meringue mixture (using aged egg whites), icing sugar and almond meal. That's it (well that was all that was called for in the recipe Meg used). While there might not be many ingredients required, the process has to be closely monitored. Too much beating will lead to the mixture being spoiled and runny. The icing is easy - double cream and melted chocolate. It makes impressive patterns when you beat it (after chilling). Don't put the chocolate and cream on the stove to melt then sit on your mother's bed giving fashion advice while she starts to pack to go away; disaster averted, but only just. Follow the process below (although we forgot to take photos in the early stages).

Make the meringue mix and fold in the icing sugar and almond meal. Remember to take photos BEFORE you've cleaned out the bowl.

Pipe onto baking tray then leave sit for an hour to "set".


Bake in the oven, rotating the tray once.



Cool icing patterns.

Very impressive and they taste as good as they look!

While Meg was busy with her cooking I was splashing pumpkin soup across the kitchen. I used a recipe from a book by Jane Kennedy that Meg got for Xmas. It's a roast pumpkin soup recipe; other times I've made it, I've boiled the pumpkin.
Cut and peel the pumpkins.
Roast the pumpkin and garlic.

Blend. I didn't photograph this bit as I was covered in pumpkin. The next photo shows the soup finally in the pot, heating up with chicken stock.Served with crispy bacon and a baguette, it made a delicious hearty meal. Followed up by a macaron - well what more could you ask for really?

365

I'm really enjoying my 365 diary. I like to look back over it and be reminded of what's gone before. So often we forget the little things that have happened; they're lost forever in our memory. This way, they're with us forever. It's only two months old but already there's things to look back and smile at that might otherwise be forgotten. I guess it's a bit like blogging - a visual diary of sorts; I spend a lot of time between sliprail and 365 but I don't mind. Both these things make me feel good and that's better than feeling angst, anxious and antsy! They're both a real creative outlet; writing the blog and making a page look nice in the book. I haven't had a creative outlet for a very long time and I appreciate that I've found something that brings me joy.

I often see something that makes me think "I'll have to blog about THAT" or "that will be perfect for 365". I like to re-visit the scrapbooking shop to see if they've got any new supplies in that would be suitable (they haven't). I'm always on the lookout for something. Here's a small peek at some of the recent 365 entries.

I had the Blog Police onto me this morning about my two posts last night - and the spelling and grammatical errors found within. I'm usually VERY particular about my words but I let a few typos through to the keeper last night that were picked up this morning! I'm going to leave them as they are but I'll try harder next time. I promise. Sheesh.

One Month Today

Well that went quick. Sort of. It's a month today since my Drewy flew out of Brisbane, bound for Ottawa.

A lot has happened in that month that I haven't mentioned here for numerous reasons. Suffice to say, there will be some news to share in hopefully a week or two.

He is having a blast as evidenced by his emails, skype calls and facebook postings and photos. The homesickness has passed. School is going fantastically well, better than he thought it might. He is growing up and becoming more independent with each new experience he faces. Good on you Drew.

Now it's just 11 months until I see him, kiss him, hug him in the flesh again. Sigh.

Catching Up

Nearly Thursday already; hello? where has the week gone.

I went to Brisbane on Monday to our head office for a software planning meeting. It had never been my intention to attend; I am attempting to avoid the day to day machinations of the office, having enough other admin work to keep me more than occupied. However, developments over the weekend left me as the obvious admin candidate for the meeting so there I was, not exactly thrilled to be there. In the end it was a worthwhile exercise and probably good that I went. It meant that I missed my final PEB meeting; new office bearers were elected so I will have to meet with the new secretary to hand over all the files. When I got back I caught up for a coffee with Gibbo and Meg who were out for dinner with PD, one of our favourite people.

I had to run Gibbo over to Brymaroo early Tuesday morning so that he could get a lift with RF to Armidale for the latest AWA Board Meeting. The day he gets off the Board will be a day of rejoice for me. I went back to Jondy this afternoon (Wed) to pick him up.

We're off to the Gold Coast on Sunday for our Manager's Conference. G has to deliver three short presentations over the three days; that's our job for tomorrow and Friday, writing them. After the conference we fly to Sydney for two days so that G can play for Qld Over 40's at the SCG..........yes, you heard correctly, the hallowed Sydney Cricket Ground. All bow now please. The Qld boys will use the same dressing rooms as any visiting cricket team would.....so they will be in where, for example, the English team were during the last Ashes debacle...and I will get to sit where the English players sat. Woo Hoo.......more cricket. Just what I wanted to do on our wedding anniversary too!!!! Anyway, it should all make for an interesting blog post hey? Stay tuned.

Weekend at Mt Tamborine

Warning: photo overload. I will have the Blog Police (aka Megan) on to me for overdoing the pictures. Sorry. But I can't help it.

Meg is supposed to be writing this blog; I've invited her to be a Guest Blogger but she's busy painting her fingernails so I guess I'll have to do the update of her weekend away with Chris at Mt. Tamborine.

This is the chapel attached to the B&B where they stayed.

The Menu...Reindeer Ear....Really??? I can understand the others...but Reindeer Ear?? Uggh. I'll have the croissant please.

View from the balcony to the Gold Coast; not that far really.

Tea and Shortbread.

Om. Nom Nom.

Some retail therapy was had at Indro prior to their arrival at Hill Top. Poor Chris.

Check out those shoes! The feather boa is for a Roaring 20's 21st coming up in a few weeks.Fudge Heaven. I made myself feel a little bit sick today by over-indulding on the caramel one.

Fierce Crocodile.
Fiercer Chris. HaHaHa.Triple Cream Brie from Witches Chase Cheese Co. Made myself a little sick on this one today too.
Now THIS really is sick!!! Check out that blue.

Love these light shades.

This could be Mare and Gibbo, two old goats!!

Misso Soup.

Megan bought this little creature for me. It's from a collection called "Little People" and it's made from jacaranda, fabric, thread and gumnuts.