Trick or Treat

When I first started working at this company many years ago, there were a lot of things that were new to me. But I adapted. One thing I'm still trying to get to grips with is the 'theme day'. Now, I'm not sure if this is something that lots of workplaces do, but we do it. A lot.

I remember in my first month, I rang my mum in tears at midnight one night because I had to make an Easter bonnet, and it just wasn't happening for me. She told me to call an ambulance as obviously I needed psychiatric help.

I'm getting better at it as time goes on. Lord knows I've had some practice.

This week I even had a breakthrough of sorts. We had Halloween. I knew exactly what to wear. My 'Jacob is the New Black' t-shirt. And I knew just what to bring for the morning tea:

'Fred' ABC Cutters

And I looked around at my colleagues and what they were wearing and what they bought to eat. It made me smile. And I didn't feel like a freak at all. Despite the fact that I am a forty year old woman, advertising not only the fact that she loves the Twilight series but actually has a preference between a vampire and a werewolf for a boyfriend.

Maybe I've accepted this 'theme day' gig or maybe it's Halloween I love. But I am very happy today. And totally strung out on sugar.

Peanut Blossoms

Peanut Blossoms

Makes about 48 small cookies

1 3/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup shortening or soft unsalted butter
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
extra sugar
50 Kisses or chocolate squares

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Mix all dough ingredients except extra sugar until you have a smooth dough. A hand mixer works best for this.
Roll into walnut-sized balls (1 inch) and toss in extra sugar to coat.
Place onto ungreased baking sheets, about 5cm apart.
Bake about 10-12 mins until golden.
While cookies are baking unwrap your chocolate. Once the cookies come out, you need to work fast.
Immediately top each cookie with chocolate and press down slightly so cookie cracks around the edges.
Remove from sheets and cool on a wire rack.
The extra 2 pieces of chocolate? I can't believe you haven't eaten them already!

Lor Ann's Flavouring Oils

Vanilla extract is a wonderful thing. But sometimes you just want something different. And I don't mean fake strawberry. I recently dicovered Lor Ann Flavouring Oils and I am seriously hooked. I generally use them in buttercream (actually, every batch of vanilla buttercream I make now has a few drops of Marshmallow added in for fun and yum). These oils are readily available at a huge number of cake decorating and chocolate making stores here but not everyone has the same range. I usually order online from Inspired By Chocolate because they're really nice people and have about 50 flavours. I would suggest ordering the dram bottle to start off - a little goes a looooong way.

Here's a few of my faves :

Watermelon

Cotton Candy

Bubble Gum

Marshmallow

This was for a competition - I won! (sorry about the photo)

Bubblegum, Cola, Cotton Candy, Marshmallow

These oils really are a lot of fun and make for a nice surprise when people first taste them. I highly recommend starting a little (or big) collection.

My Poor Freezer

Before the boys came along, my freezer usually contained the following :

- a bottle of Absolut vodka. I never drank it, but a freezer needs vodka, no?
- several blends of coffee
- chicken carcasses waiting to be 'stocked'
- at least 3 flavours of gourmet ice cream
- maybe a packet of spinach pastizzi
- lots and lots of ice cubes

Nothing more, nothing less. Everything had it's place and sometimes I used to just look in there to make myself happy.
Now, my freezer contains the following :

The little yellow-lidded container is my coffee. How long does coffee actually keep in the freezer? Forever, I hope. Because that's how long that's been there. I'm more of an instant girl these days. Or if I'm truthful, iced instant coffee. Unintentional iced coffee.
And on the outside of the freezer, back then? Nothing. I used to be an appliance purist. But now?

All the mothers I know ask 'why didn't anyone ever really tell me what labour was going to be like?' I'm wondering why nobody told me what would happen to my freezer.

RIP My Wooden Friend

Many years ago, before I left home, I had a glory box filled with all the things that I would need when I married a prince and moved into a castle. There was the dinner set with the little country ducks around the rims. Why? That is actually a very reasonable question. And the answer is 'I dont know'. Maybe because it was 1987? That's my excuse for a lot of things. There was heirloom crystal, a set of silver cutlery, mixing bowls and a million tea towels. Pretty much nothing of any real use. Except a wooden spoon.

Of course, I didn't marry a prince but all my treasures came with me when I made my way out into the world. And all were unused except the wooden spoon. It was with me as I learned to cook - honey soy chicken wings with 2 minute noodles anyone? Time and time again it was packed into a box and moved with me or sat in the box at my mothers house while I travelled the world. I lost or gave away so many things over the years but that spoon was a constant in my kitchen.
Sure, I had other spoons over the years but every time I cooked, my fingers would instinctively seek out that particular spoon. Nothing else felt quite right in my hands. With time, the spoon grew beautiful. Smooth as marble and so full of love. It helped me cook every meal I made for S when we were starting our lives together, vegetable purees for my tiny sons, sauces, pasta and cakes. So very many cakes.
In honesty, I didn't realise how much I loved that spoon and possibly didn't treat it right - although I did rescue it from S's Secret Kitchen Drawer Downsize of '04. But now I think it should have had it's own special place in my kitchen. Not just shoved in the jar with all the other utensils. I put that spoon with a silicon spatula, for God's sake! I'm sorry.
Anyway, last night S was a bit cranky with the kids and was telling them that when he was little, he would get smacked with a wooden spoon and they were very lucky that didn't happen to them. To prove his point, he whacked my dear, dear spoon onto the counter.

And broke it's neck. I couldn't breathe. As tears welled up in my eyes, he said 'Hello? It's a wooden spoon. What are they? Like 89 cents?' I tried to explain what that spoon and I had been through together and he couldn't see that it wasn't just a spoon. And he didn't say sorry. I tried to point out that even he picked that spoon out of all the wooden spoons in the jar. Didn't that prove it's magic? Why didn't he picked the $20 beauty from Wheel and Barrow (because he would have got splinters from it, that's why. Shame on you Wheel and Barrow.)
He didn't say sorry. My spoon is gone. I may never cook again.

Adam and the Ants? What the ...?

Actually, after reading my last post, I thought some people might be wondering why my five year old son even knows the lyrics of a band who had its heyday a quarter of a century before he was born.
I've never been a fan of kids music and we used to have a pretty long commute to daycare. I tried but  I soon realised that if I had to hear one more Wiggles song, somebody was going to get hurt. Really hurt. For the record, I also won't listen to Play School, the Hooly Doolys, Justine Clarke or anything else kids normally find appealing. I was certain that I could find something in my varied music collection that we could all enjoy and by that I mean something I could enjoy. We've had some failures : Bjork, Madonna, Abba. But Adam and the Ants, Cypress Hill and the Beastie Boys (I did say I had a varied collection) have all hit the mark.
Sorry. I am a selfish mother. Which is why my kids think there is only one channel on the television. The Food Network. They love it.

Iron Maiden vs Adam Ant

My family came over for lunch the other day and the kids were all showing off, as they do. My 2 year old nephew got up on the coffee table and did the most hilarious rendition of an Iron Maiden song. Don’t ask me what, I won’t even pretend I know that stuff but it was a gruff-voiced, air-punching piece of delicious toddler comedy and everyone was in stitches. His father was so proud.

Not to be outdone, Big Boy started prancing around and stuttering the following :
‘Unplug the juice box and do us all a playberrrrr (sic)’
The room was silent. So Big Boy tried again :

‘Diddly qua qua, diddly qua qua.’

And he got diddly squat. I quickly changed the subject.

So Iron Maiden in all it’s gory horror is cute, but Adam and the Ants aren’t? I really beg to differ. What do you think?

Stinky Feet

Fletch is so cute. He ran into the kitchen the other night and screamed out 'Mummy, quick! Take your slippers off!' I thought there must have been a spider or something on them so I flung them off. He dropped to the ground and had the biggest sniff of my toes. Then he ran into the toy room and said to my husband 'Good boy Daddy! You were right! She does have stinky feet. Give me a high five!'. Did I mention I want a daughter?

Lovely Lentils

My mother used to make us eat lentils and it was so uncool. Nobody I knew ate them and I was always so worried Mum would make them when someone came over and I would just die of embarrassment. I always swore that when I was old enough to feed myself I would never, ever, ever eat lentils. And I didn’t for the longest time. Then I ‘accidentally’ ate a soup of lentils with tomato and vegetables and knew I had to re-create it. Mine has bacon (bacon makes everything better) and is more like a stew but just as yummy I think.

This dish will even tempt those who say they don’t like lentils and will definitely please confirmed lentil eaters. It requires very little prep but takes a while to cook so is the perfect thing to make on a Sunday afternoon for dinner through the week.

This recipe makes enought to serve 4 for lunch with a bit left over.

olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
3 rashers bacon, roughly chopped
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tin tomatoes
2 cups green lentils
3-4 cups water or stock (use low or unsalted as the bacon is salty)
1 medium zucchini, diced
8 medium button mushrooms, diced
chopped parsley
pepper

Fry the onion in oil until soft. Add bacon and fry a minute or two. Stir in garlic and lentils and stir until lentils are covered in oil. Add tomatoes and about a cup of the water or stock. Bring to boil, then cover and simmer, stirring occasionally. Add more water as the lentils cook as they absorb a lot. After an hour of simmering, add zucchini and mushrooms and return to simmer. You’ll need to taste the lentils to make sure they are soft, but after about 1 ½ hours, they should be done. Test for seasoning – you’ll want to add pepper and stir through chopped parsley.
As a variation, you could add some cumin or other spice and substitute the parsley with coriander.

My Drive to Work

I live in a beautiful place. But it's far away from everything. Really far. I wouldn't mind but it's really far from my work. And I go there five days a week. And back. In peak hour.

Luckily, the first twenty minutes or so are through a national park. So I get to drive through this :

And see things like this :

And then I hit the highway. And it looks like this :



So far so good. But that soon turns to this :

And then finally this :

But I don't mind. Because after an hour and a half (if I'm lucky), I get one of these :

Maxi skim mocha, just one small scoop of chocolate. Thanks for asking.