Did ya miss me?

Howdy peeps,

Well I'm back, hope u all missed me. It's been quite a while since my last blog. Lots of things have been happening, the most frightning was having my lil baby in hospital for a few weeks.
I guess like any mum you know when something is not right with your baby. He started with a runny nose and a bit of temp, which turned into one very sick lil boy in just a matter of hours I took him back to the doctor who immediatly sent us straight to hospital. I have to hand it the staff at the Royal Childrens Hospital, they were great. We were seen straight away and every test they could do was done. We got admitted to a ward that night and that's where we stayed for 11 days.

When the results came back it turned out my baby had a strand of bacterial meningitis as well as some other virus that is transmitted by adults and they don't even know, i don't know all the fancy names for it, all i know is that i've never been so worried in my life (Moral of the story: WASH YOUR GOD DAMN HANDS PEOPLE).  After countless tests they decide to keep him in for a week or two to make sure all that could be done was being done IV antibiotics, scans, xrays and every hour they would come and flash a torch in his eye. The worst thing was he's so little and every time he saw a nurse he knew that they were there to take blood or check his drip or to do his obs. I don't think i've ever felt more helpless in my life. The nurses were lovely, they would all do their best to make him comfortable and to try to make him smile. Their main worry was that it's very hard to keep a drip positioned anywhere on a toddler, in his time there he had two in his hand one in his foot and the last one was in the inside of his elbow, not at all enjoyable for him.

I don't think i would have made it if it weren't for the constant support and wonderful thoughts that we had from everyone, (the flowers and teddy were from my work who were great through the whole thing), it made being stuck in isolation just that little bit more bearable. 

The good news is he's almost back to normal, when I say almost I mean he's not as steady as he was on his feet and he thinks the whole world revolves around him. The steadiness , the doctors say will come back with time, but the constant craving of attention is the tough one to get around, I mean how do you wean a kid of his mummy's hugs? I thought I would also throw in picture of the world class cuisine that was served to us in there, and no that is not cat food, cat mince maybe but not cat food.

So any ways back to the real world now....

Talk soon 

Dez

Accent Vlog

I just saw a really neat new thing. A friend of mine posted a vid called an accent vlog. Basically you say a bunch of words and answer a few questions and you post the video. people have done this all around the world, it's fun to hear the different accents and terminologies for the same things.

so here's mine......



here's a copy of the words and questions so you can do it too
Say these words:
Aunt, route, wash, oil, theatre, iron, salmon, caramel, fire, water, sure, data, ruin, crayon, toilet, New Orleans, pecan, both, again, probably, spitting image, Alabama, lawyer, coupon, mayonnaise, syrup, pajamas, caught

And answer these questions:
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that curls into a ball when you touch it?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you use to change the TV channel?

Hey Pesto I'm sick again

So yesterday i had this great idea to make a pesto stuffed chicken breast with a white wine and orange sauce. first to prepare the pesto. I thought i might do something a bit different and instead of pine nuts i was going to use cashews instead. So first i googled to see if basil and cashews go together. Thankfully i found a whole heap of recipes that had basil and cashew together so i thought good stuff will go with that then. So into the blender went fresh basil leaves about a cup or so then half a cup of unsalted cashews and two loves of garlic. Whilst this was blending away i slowly added the olive oil and a little bit of butter to add some creaminess to the flavour. Once i had done this i started on cutting pockets into my chicken breast. My first breast i had grabbed was quite small so the cutting part was no problem it was the not going all the way through that was my issue.Who cares if i go all the way through, I'll just have to wrap this one a little tighter with the prosciutto.

 After mangling the breast to resemble pockets for me to stuff them with my neck starts to get a little tight, my arms start to ache a little. I begin to spoon the mixture in to the breasts, once in i fold over the flap of skin to join it back up. After laying out 3 strips of overlapping prosciutto i roll the stuffed breast to hold them together. I then start to feel like the pan is really heavy, and I'm getting a bit of a headache. Where is this coming from, i thought, I'm really not feeling great, i can't be sick i was sick just last week and now I'm better..... I AM NOT GETTING SICK. Into the fry pan they go just to seal both sides, just for a few minutes then into the oven on a lined baking tray for about 25 min on 195 degrees. While that's cooking i thought i would attempt a white wine jous to drizzle over the chicken i thought i would de glaze the fry pan with some white wine i had in the fridge left over from a recent dinner party. Then i would add some orange rind and some butter to caramelize the flavours. By this stage i was freezing and my body ached all over. My wonderful husband had just arrived home to find a pale achy sick wife standing at the stop stirring the amazing sauce for his dinner. OK so amazing is definitely not the word to describe this sauce, vile, yes vile that's the word. i tasted it and the wine was sour and the butter gave it an oily texture a bit like sipping tanning lotion.

 By this time i had gone down hill so fast i could barely stand i tagged teamed my husband for him to serve his own dinner and make Ethan's dinner. I had every intention of making a side of sautéed spinisch and a bed of creamy mashed potato. By the time the chicken had finished cooking i was a shivering ball curled up on the couch under a quilt. The good news is that even though the sauce was a failure the chicken was a success. My husband said it was lovely and juicy and had lots of flavour. Maybe next time I'll get to try some. So it's off to bed for me to get some rest.

Until next time....

Talk soon Dez

Squeeze Every Minute Part 2

When I've had days off in the past I've always tried to get a whole heap of things done in the one day. If i was going to a certain part of town i would arrange times through out the day to see as many people as i could to squeeze ever minute out of my day, yesterday was no different.

After my first morning as an honorary mothers group member, we headed up to our local play centre to meet with another one of my friends. My son hadn't had a nap and i wasn't sure how long he would last but i thought we'd give it a go and see. After getting there and finding the very last spot down the end of the car park (did i mention that it was the last day of the school holidays and ever parent and their child had come to play too) we went inside to try to find my friend. The noise was deafening and the chaos was almost frightening, the children were screaming with joy, delight and couple in pain. Some were crying because mummy had an appointment and  they had to go, others were crying because "he took my glasses and ran away with them and i couldn't see". some were better at sharing then others and some just needed an afternoon nap. There were kids that had, had great adventures and "just went down the slide really fast and it was so much fun oh my god I'm gonna go again.. bye"

Amongst this chaos was my friend and her two girls, my how they had grown. one had grown into a beautiful young lady and the other was no longer a baby any more. The greeted us with big smiles and cuddles and wanted to hold Ethan and play with him straight away. Now most babies would be a little wary of people he hardly knew but not Ethan he loves free hugs.

 I sat down and snacked on a plate of hot chips that my friend had ordered, Ethan helped himself of course. He would pick up a chip and judge whether or not he could fit it all in to his mouth at once then he would shove it all i and see if he was right. very cute! Later some other mothers joined us and went to order their food, only to come back somewhat shocked. "they have no more chips"one of the mother said, I'm sure they'll just run down to the super market and get some won't they"?. Now mind you this happened at about 12:15. right on lunch time with about 150 children ready to have lunch. Long story short they never went to get any more chips instead they made a sign to put on the counter and watched the customers walk away in disbelief, so i went with a hot dog lol

Before my lunch came i thought i might try Ethan in the jumpy castle thing, why not he loves jumping on the couch, in his cot, and on my bed, why not in a device especially designed for jumping. No he did not like the device especially designed for jumping in fact he hated it and couldn't crawl off it fast enough, lucky i was close by to catch him as he came flopping out. Then i thought "hey ball pit! i loved the ball pit when i was a kid, in ya go ethan whoop"so i passed him in like football. In an instant fear washed over his face, when he realises where he is, his eyes dart from corner to corner of the pit frantically looking for a way out, in the mean time sinking in an endless sea of brightly coloured balls. I dive in straight away to scoop him out only to loose him in the after wake of me diving in. i finally grab him and he holds on tight, then tries to climb over my shoulder on to me head to get as far away from the balls as he can. We emerge from the pit o hell safe and sound, i hold him tightly to let him know that i am here and that your mean mummy will never do that again"". To make up for it i give him a kiss and biscuit and he's all better big smiles and a sloppy crumby kiss to say i forgive you. time to go home i say, so i say goodbye and pop him in the car before we turn the first corner he's already asleep in the safety of his car seat.

Well what a busy day we had i truly believe i did squeeze every minute out of this day. I had fun, Ethan had fun and I learnt a lesson about babies like and don't like,(memo to me no ball pit next time lol). Until next time...

Talk soon

Dez

Squeeze every minute

So i said i would also talk about all the things i would do on my 2 extra days. I recently got a message from on old colleague of mine to say that she had 5 bags of clothes that didn't fit her son any more (all of these are designer labels and have only ever been worn once of twice), and that if i wanted them i had to come and pick them up in the next few days. She mentioned that she was having a mothers group meeting around her house on Monday and said that i should bring Ethan along.

Now i know that i have a couple of friends with babies and we make play dates and i love it but this was different, First of all i had never been to her house before and second i didn't know any of the other mothers. Having known this lady for a few years on my drive over i had time to imagine what type of house she lived in, My first thought was that she was a shrewd business women so i imagined glass coffee tables and art deco minimalist furnature. i had thought of almost a sterile environment, where children were to be seen and not heard. Then i thought no, come on she has a 3yr old and her husband is quite flamboyant and fun, so then i pictured a "Richie Rich"type house with a roller coaster in the back yard and their own Macdonalds. What i found was a beautiful modern earthy house with browns and creams and greens, open plan sprawling back deck for entertaining and lots of little toys on the carpet. Her house was justl like a display home of what my house could one day look like.

The other mothers were lovely my friend had made raspberry tartlets with cream and little tea sandwiches with cups of freshly brewed coffee, We swapped stories of teething, poohing and our kids mischievousness. Only sometimes did Ethan disappear to rooms that were not for kids, and only some times did i have to stop him from knocking over expensive vases and pulling bottles of wine out of wine racks. All in all it was a great day, Ethan had fun and I got to relax and enjoy some adult company and good conversation.

Talk soon
 Dez

La Famiglia

Hi All,

Family is something that is very important to me, and is a big part of me wanting to go part time. The idea behind me wanting these two extra days a week is so I can spend more time with my family as well as learn new things. For a long time I've wantted to learn the traditions of my family and embrace my Italian heritage. One of the more well know traditions of Italian cooking is Ravioli.

So to recap on last weeks blog I taught my self how to make fresh pasta. So when I decided I was going to take it one step further this week , i made sure of few things first. The very first thing was to make sure I had a rolling pin. I was actually able to get the one i had in high school home ec class (even still has my name on it lol) and secondly i needed a pasta machine. My mum gave me her automatic one that she's had for a couple of years , that was still in the box never used..

During the week i had come up with a recipe in my head for what i was going to make for this weeks project. I decided on a pork, basil, sun dried tomato and crumbed feta Ravioli. Sounds amazing right? Lesson one i didn't know that you had to cook the mince in the ravioli first, I thought you just mixed it all up in a bowl and spooned it on, who knew huh. lesson 2 Work fast, once you've pulled the dough out of the fridge after resting then cut into half after you've rolled that half thought the machine get straight onto rolling out the other half, if not the pasta dries out on the edges and it makes it harder to press together to seal the ravioli before boiling. And finally lesson 3 DON'T BE IN A HURRY!!! "How long does fresh ravioli take to cook?" i hear you ask, well the answer to that is as long as it takes. i was in a hurry after every batch we put in the water, i was constantly pulling a piece out to see if the pasta was cooked enough. This resulted in some great tasty soft pieces.... and some slightly bitey some what not so soft pieces, meh live and learn. But i will say one thing the flavour was as amazing as i had hoped for. The sweetness of the tomato, the fresh basil and the creaminess of the feta worked beautifully with the pork mince, yay me I'm actually kinda good at this.

The great thing about this little project was that I got to do at my mums house with my mum, then my brother and his girlfriend came over and before we knew it we had an assembly line going of people rolling, filling and the sealing ravioli. It was great to do it all together as a family, made me think that maybe somewhere in Italy there was a family sitting around a table making pasta at that very moment just like us. Hope they had as much fun as we did and at the end of it all had a great big family dinner and beautiful memory that will stay with me forever.

So onto plaining next weeks meal, I may update you all midweek to let you in on what it might be. Until then...

Talk soon
Dez

My First Blog

Welcome to my first blog.

I can't say that i really know how to blog, or even what to say for that matter , but i know how to to talk so i'm just gonna do that. Recently i have gone from full time to part time and now i have 2 extra days to do what ever i like. so i figure what better to write about then what i will be doing with those days.

The very first thing i'm going to do is start learning different cooking techniques, and learning about different foods, I have taken a great interests of late in Indian food. I've always liked Indian food but had never tried to make it, so i'm checking out different recipes online and giving them a go.

To start my Indian journey i went to spice market and bought all types of spices. Did you know that Indian food uses BLACK salt? i didn't , so i now i have black salt and eager to use it, don't know what in yet but when i do i'll let you know,

Now being that i am of Italian heritage i decided it's time to use be inbuilt skills and cook Italian food as well.

My first attempt was to make home made pasta and sauce. Lidia (the nice old lady on the food channel) did it with such ease so i thought "i could do that". Side note, i don't have the magic of television in my kitchen, my dough came out a lot stickier then hers and i also didn't have a pasta machine like her either, in fact i didn't even have a rolling pin (i swear i had one, it's just disappeared, but by the time i had realised i was rolling pin-less i had already made the dough.).So rolling pin-less i carried on and used a glass bottle instead. after rolling the dough into sheets i rolled it up into tubes and cut my pasta into strips, trying to keep them all the same size.
This, i must say does take some practice, but once i got the hang of it i was off.
Afterwards i layed the pasta out to dry a little and set to work on my sauce, now the two most important ingrediants in the sauce are love and time (no not thyme like the herb) time to simmer almost 2hrs is perfect, and love, well that's just for the people your making your food for.

So i know your all dying to know how it turned out, well i'm pleased to report not only was it not a total failure, but one critic said that it was possibly the best fresh pasta she had ever eaten and the sauce was amazing. Yay

Well that's all from me for this Tuesday, I'm off to attempt a beef curry recipe i found online, fingers crossed it turns out as good as it looks in the picture.

Talk soon
Dez