Bumper crop of tomatoes

(tia with the crop, just before easter)

So i bought a burke's backyard magazine awhile back last year? and it came with some digger club tomatoe seeds. And it was some big hearty variety which i can't remember! (Not at all a miniature or cherry type) I was excited with my first lot of digger club seeds. Bought some potting mix on cheap and some seedling trays from the reject shop (mistakes 1 & 2)

I made the mistake of thinking potting mix after its useby date is still alright... i mean it is just dirt in a bag isn't it?!!! But no... apparently after this useby date the potting mix its very water resistant and down right crappy!

With Tia being into mud, dirt, making a mess (like she has for the past 5.9years) i thought seedling trays on the deck out of direct sunlight they will grow... and they did. About 3-4cms high and then they stayed that way for 2 months or so.. i weeded out the seedlings. I hadn't expected that each seed would germinate! I thru these seedlings on the ground.... and left them

its now after christmas and ive forgotten about the seedlings in the tray... they are dead anyways..

after christmas we started noticing all these tomatoe plats growing. (the ones i had thrown out!)
and now we have alot of tomatoes!!!! and will have until the frost comes in or if we get alot of rain with snails and it rotts/gets eaten.So i had to do something with them. We would find more in a day then we would eat them! It seems i was just in time as some had over ripened and burst a bit And one had started to get a tiny bit mouldy. yuk! I followed instructions to what i don't remember.

Basically boil tomatoes for a bit. Put the lid on, take off heat. Then take lid off pot. Drain water. Let cool to touch. peel off the skin (which was so unbelieveably easy! and somewhat messy fun!)
Then boil off any excess water and there it is! What i'd usually buy in a tin. Fresh from the garden ready for my meatballs (when i get around to it) Instead of mucking with jars and water baths etc i just froze it! :)

breville wizz mix professional stand mixer prezzie

Ive been using my new christmas present! :) and decided lol, i should probably blog about it.. seeing as its late feb already!

I had been eyeing off this beautiful kitchen appliance for quite a long time, waiting for it to be on special... or perhaps be released in green (Not going to happen)
If it wasn't green i was deciding between the silver/platinum look and the red... So many decisions..
It wasn't cheap so i did do my research into the best mix masters... and since my budget is only half? of that of a kitchenmaid...(which i'd have to hunt down to goodness knows where to buy) well.. i wasn't going to get one of those. Altho it would be a preference.. having all those attachments a mincer too?!! would save in the cupboard space but then how often would i make my own mince?!Altho style wise i dont like how the kitchenmaids look.. must say the attachments for the breville are funky!The pav in its mighty glory..... before it sinks after i take it out.. out of practice!


Goji berry cupcakes... late addition of vanilla.. how could i forget??!!Goji Berry cupcakes all mixed and ready to spoon out.

Choc chip cookies (recipe without PB) mix.. looking yummy!!!!!!
Out of practice again... giant thin, chewy, hand size choc chip cookies

My review: Its pretty cool.. many settings (think ive forgotten one?); folding, mixing, beating,creaming, whipping and the last one aerating (yet to get there)

I do find that when i'm creaming sugar and butter it sticks to the side, so when it comes to adding the egg it needs to be scrapped off the sides before turning on again. Only a tiny bit at the bottom usually is left un creamed or mixed, but so tiny u can mix it altogether and not notice.

Is awesome with the whisk attachment... can't leave cream on and walk away as its quick to whip! Pavs go stiff nice, easily and quick.

Its pretty quiet, compared to my mums old one (if she still has it.. must be as old as me!) and much quieter than previous hand held mix masters!

Easy to lift beaters out of bowl and no chance it will fall back down when your trying to scrape off the mixture.

Easy to take beaters off and on!!!! YAY!!!

Not much room when it comes to adding ingrediants into the bowl while working. So needs a bit of careful addition or just turn it off and lift attachment/head out of the bowl.

Love the big bowl and big attachments! I'll have to get around to making one of those 10egg whites pavlovas one day... lol!

am yet to use the dough hook... while i do appreciate and love using my hands to play with pasta dough (rare) and feel like a jamie oliver (visions of mixing in the egg yolks into a pile of flour on a bench.. yes why use a bowl?!! LOL!)

Happy Australia Day!

Hope youre having a good one!!!

Observations on how to celebrate being australian on Australia Day in our house:

-There was talk over wearing a aussie flag as a super hero cape & getting drunk (to a american xbox360 friend... Yes having a xbox360 is a VERY CHEAP OPTION FOR LONG DISTANCE CALLS/CHATS!!! ($299 console + $60 headset. lasts until 1) kitten chews thru headset cord 2)you have no broadband 3)xbox360 dies) so far the boys have had a few drinks... (but it is still only 5.30pm-ish here as a type!!)
it would be polish imported vodka they are drinking too.. lol.. shame its not the aussie made & exported sake made by Sun Masamune *link*( they usually drink. Go shu nama, Go shu blue & go shu... with the expensive Go shu 40 only at special occassions!)

-Someone had vegemite?!?! I found it left out.. not sure if someone just wanted to smell the australian spirit? lol!!! As people had for breakfast: cheesy baked beans n toast (boys), fruitloops (tia) and lite PB on toast for me. :)- Someone (no guess as to who eh!) had gone shopping and bought food! Coming back with the very australian.. wagon wheels, steak, white bread, frozen chips, some brand of salt n pepper squid and a box of beer battered flake... oh and the very cute finger buns in safeway today (4 for the same price of 1 at brumbys!!!!)So Lunch was steak sandwiches with white bread (tom sauce for me, HP sauce for the boys :/ yuk!) With the yummy rice bran butter or is it marg?! gah.. anyways its on special this week @ safeway 2 for $6 (save $2) and the oil is on special too $2.78?

I finally got a calendar for this year!!! Its actually a 17month calendar but those extra 5 months have long gone! (last year) Ive been eyeing it off at officeworks... i saw alike ones in k-mart etc but after christmas and the sales all that are left are boring calendars.. altho i did see a slow cooker recipe a day calendar you know the little ones the size of a post-it on sale at myer but still $20-odd! :/ and of course the day i had $0! ah well... ;) one that got away! hehe
anyways my calendar was $14.. it has 5 spaces at each day, stickers and a pocket for ("reciepts, coupons etc... lol) ive noticed it has international holidays marked on it e.g martin luther king & a coming of age day in Japan..

anyways have a good one!

Wrestling with time management.. etc

well..

wow..

its been awhile since ive sat down and blogged.. for me it feels like its been forever.. *fingers crossed this wont stay a draft..*

Ive been busy... and looking at that sentence.. i almost feel like its a half truth, (while trying to ignore my semi-dictionary mind telling me that is soo cliche) and boring. Seriously how boring would blogs be if all they said was "ive been busy.." or something along the lines of .. ive been absent, forgive me.. read me again.. i promise i'll try to be more interesting, more pictures, more often.. only for your concious telling you.. dont commit.. you can't do it.. nows not the time for a big blog project.. x.x And then for me i feel like i'm stuck.. in between what i want to do, what i want to achieve and what i know i can do.. and what other things take priority.

Which leaves me with time management..
and..
fessing up..
toTRUTH!

What do i spend my time on? Where am i most of the time?
(*insert noise of rusty cogwheels* as tiffany tries to remember what she did last week..)
hmm...
Well i cant recall exactly what i did all last week.. i can recall the weekend.. pfft! that is easy!
Saturday james and I played fable II. Alyssa had a good day but with a annoying trend of snack feeds at 5pm, 6pm, 7pm and 8pm before finally going to sleep.
Sunday james and i played fable II co-op doing the troll (like a very fat treeant), balverines (think werewolf) mission, spire mission (think evil gothic looking cornetto building). Alyssa had her annoying feeds, had a chicken satay stir-fry and the girls had a bath together.. it was hot and yukky..

but generally.. my week days..
i've worked out equal a load of washing every day. (not including towels or sheets)
generally some house work (not always the dishes.. as i loathe it..and put it off) my spring cleans i seem to be doing thru the weekdays end up with more mess as i dont always find a 'home' for something and i get distracted.. and it doesnt go anywhere....
Some relax time which includes lunch, watching the view or playing video games
do revolve around getting tia to and from kinder on those days..
do revolve around alyssa and whether she is happy fed, dry, comfy, entertained, cuddled and close by.. anything noisy waits till she is awake!!!!!!!
my weekends.. no housework gets done, i struggle to cook most of the time, generally do stuff with hubby games, dnd.. usually doesnt feel right either until we have all gone out to the shops together at some point during the weekend (even tho im trying to stop that 'want' as it ends up with blowing the budget and going on the evil (but not as evil as some) credit card!! x.x

lately been doing major spider killing.. and dead/dying spider avoiding.. i am completely paranoid. (i did wake up one morning and looked up to see a daddy long legs quite close to my pillow on the bed head bit.. too close for comfort!!!!) there was one daddy long legs (rather huge) that i never got around to killing as it was always on the move.. never stayed in one spot.. i did a dumb thing and watched it for a bit and then lost where it went.. i feel my spider woes make for a whole blog post in itself!!!!! EEP!!!!!!

What i'd like to get done:
Blog wise- New layout, colours, pictures, update side bits, twitter, visit & read more blogs more often.

Health wise- Manicure & pedicure, Wii fit every day, keep to planned meals, go to bed before 11pm no 11am and 4pm snacking on junk.. eating more salads (with help from growing our own)

House wise- Clean and organise and keep it that way! Kill all spiders, Work on folding & putting away clean clothes and not just have baskets of clothes everywhere.. Kill fleas in the house (where on earth did they come from??!!) start packing away winter clothes, blankets and wash summer stuff

Garden wise- Keep it weed free, grow grass back on nature strip, get my seedlings to grow bigger, get some lettuce & spinach seeds, encourage james to finish his backyard project, dig up a garden patch for veggies, get a lattice thingy for jasmine to climb, kill all red back spiders..

Family wise- have some planned outings, especially since tia is old enough to appreciate a trip to a zoo, movies or aquarim etc, more time with tia working on her sounds, counting etc. Get to church every sunday! Send out thank you notes (still), Stick to budget, take more photos & remember to upload it onto pc. find tia a dance class or activity to do with other kids. exchange details with the parents of tia's friends from kinder so she can play with them over the holidays

Christmas wise- organise & finalise meals/menu, organise sheets etc for guests, think about table piece, where christmas tree will go etc, find & do christmas cards, think about presents & budget, keep buying a few christmas food stuffs each week, Does anyone know a good whisky and brandy to cook with?????

Shopping wise- Stick to budget, buy only whats on the list, get some new shorts and t-shirts for summer, buy another fan for summer

hmm... think i will have to print this out and put it on the fridge!!..

Iron Chef Tia & Chocolate crackles!!!

Ah gotta love em..
Need:
250g block of copha, melted.
4-5 cups cocoa pops (my rice bubbles always go soggy?)
1/3 cheap cooking dark chocolate block, melted.
1 tbsp of good cocoa
1 cup of coconut
1 cup of icing sugar or mixture

Is she ill?

Out shopping today and Tia saw broccoli and had to have it.. she even couldnt resist trying to eat some of it raw?!
She usually will have it when we order chinese.. as both hubby and I detest broccoli (we call them 'trees'). Altho my mother-in-law once made a awesome creamy cheese broccoli and cauliflower bake-ish thing.. and i loved it.. however i havent liked cauliflower or broccoli since then..
ive never ever cooked broccoli before! I even manage to get stir-fry frozen veg mixes (altho rarely buy them) without broccoli...
guess i'll have a shot at cooking broccoli and make some belchamel sauce (mines really cheesey and i was bought up on it being used as a macaroni n cheese sauce etc..) from memory (watching cooking shows) broccolli is usually 'blanched', which is put into boiling water for a bit and then into cold water? Wish me luck...

bummed for fresh pasta fettucini ideas

Ive taken a liking to fresh pasta, the only downside i find is that it comes in a huge amount and i need to make a few meals of it b4 its no longer any good. i think fresh pasta somewhat is of better quality than the dried stuff, i quite like it..

i made a beef strognoff-ish dish. beef, onions, mushrooms, pepper and evaporated milk. that was yum with the pasta thrown in.. but yeah its been awhile since ive done anything italian noodle like. Any ideas?

6 days till christmas

Yup! Its under a week to go now!! Gosh!!!
Hubby finishes work well thursday, friday he will go to work (get paid etc) but everyone is cleaning the place and then theres the work sausage sizzle party at lunch.. and then home?
For work people im making like the picture above altho they are rocky road christmas tree chocolates i will be making cherry ripe chocolate trees. I think its better to do the cherry ripe snack size in the choc mix along with some coconut & glace cherries. Im not sure everyone would like what they suggest; marshmallows, peanuts & turkish delight. I've never been a big fan of turkish delight! bleh! Hahaha *just thought of lion witch and the wardrobe*

oh noes.. theres even a song about turkish delight.. lol.. enjoy!



and another thing i cant stop thinking about. I love victoria secret shows! i like some of the underwear but seriously screw that i want them to sell wings! LOL! check out the star at the end worn by heidi klum.. I enjoyed it probably more this year (not due to the spice girls, bleh!) but to the aussie on the show our Miranda kerr.. i remember it was when i was in highschool that she entered the dolly model contest and won! At that age none of us worked or got enough allowance to buy the magazines to we were always in the highschool library reading all the dolly and girlfriend magazines! wow we were dorks!! giggling over the dolly doctor and sealed sections.. its scary to think back to that section and realise how many girls out there have no idea about sex, stds etc.. and yet they are being sexually active.. yikes.. anyways back to the show, the wings, the pretty long legs and long hair... hahahaha!! i thought the christmas section was heaps funny! lol! (its a shame not all of the christmas section is in that vid)

anyways ive got some chocolate making to do and perhaps i will make a cheese ball tomorrow ;)

Portugese tarts

I sent some Portuguese tarts with DH to share at work yesterday.
I had used a different recipe before but i tried this new one which require cooking the custard, where the other one you only had to microwave for 30secs (and it apparently did something, not sure what exactly!) Don't have the microwave at the moment so it good to find a new recipe. This new recipe also called for lemon zest to be cooked with the custard and then removed which i think makes them even more awesome! Recipe from here and they have pictures

Portuguese custard tarts

Ingredients: 3 egg yolks, ½ cup caster sugar, 2 tbsp cornflour, ¾ cup cream, ½ cup water, strip of lemon rind, 2 tsp vanilla essence, 1 sheet of ready-made puff pastry

Steps: Preheat the oven to hot, 220 degrees Celsius. Grease a 12 hole (1/3 cup/80mL) muffin pan.

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a small saucepan until combined. Gradually whisk in the cream and water until smooth.
Add the lemon rind, stir over medium heat until the mixture boil and thickens. Remove pan from the heat, remove and discard the rind, stir in the vanilla essence and then transfer the custard to a medium-sized bowl.
Cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap (to prevent a skin from forming as the custard cools).

Cut the puff pastry in half, stack the two halves on top of each other and then roll the pastry up tightly, and cut the log into twelve 1cm rounds. Lay pastry cut side up and roll each round to about 10cm width using a rolling pin. Press the rounds into the prepared muffin pans with your fingers.

Transfer spoonfuls of the cooled custard into the pastry cases and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until browned well. Stand tarts for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool. Tastes best when served fresh!

Also a genius way of getting good pastry rounds! not as simple as using a circle cookie cutter tho (or a glass, cup, mug etc). i also prefer using filo pastry.



on another note, photobucket seems to be down. (like non-existant down) I also watched the toaster short its self out before it finished doing my toast on the weekend, so i have no toaster! (and keep forgetting to get another one)

DH 30th Birthday

it went well yesterday. I got a call early in the morning from DH telling me how his office was decorated with metallic big paper cut-outs of 30's everywhere, a cluster of balloons with the number 30.

Tia and i? well we were off to the beach, but we had to go to go-lo or reject shop to find a cheap bucket n spade for the beach!

Tia was sooo very happy and excited she was going to the beach! So i used a few times to remind her to behave.. or maybe i used it as a threat! hahaha!

We had to get home to order pizza online to arrive for DH lunch. DH asked me later how the pizza person knew it was his birthday and i said i had the name for the order as 'birthday boy' hahaha!

He had cake at his work that the boss's wife had made! (he bought home 2 pieces for Tia and i) I havent tried it yet, but its a orange and poppyseed with a strawberry and chocolate on top of the icing.


When we got home, i played some video games, cleaned the house, put tia in the bath. Then told her to get ready for DH birthday party and helped her into a cute dress. ;)

I put the bought yum-cha in the oven, started on a beef stirfry. I made sure we had some nice sauces for the yum cha, sweet chilli and plum sauce! I love my plum sauce. Unfortunately only the spring rolls did not contain fish or shrimp! Tia loved it, DH loved it. All good! ;)

I decided i'd do something light for DH birthday dessert/cake, i knew he was having cake thru the day, i knew i didnt want to be stressed or in the kitchen all day and i knew i didnt want anything 'heavy'. So i decided on a pav/meringue thing, i did have egg whites in the fridge BUT i dont have a electric beater, so i decided to be lazy and buy some nests all done! After dinner i decided to keep with the birthday cake tradition and so i put this interesting thing together with toothpicks, however they did crack it did hold altogether for as long as it needed to! I decided on caramel top n fill, since hubby isnt into berries that much.. he is a BIG caramel fan tho.
So i was surprised with Nestle top n fill caramel!(hadn't tried it before) i could pipe it! woohoo! And it tasted exactly 100% like the caramel filling from a bakers for caramel tarts or caramel eclairs etc. It was gorgeous! Its so deadly! I could so live on it! lol! only its not very kind calorie/fat wise! He blew out his candles, dished it out and put some double cream on top! yum!
DH got for his birthday: slippers with mario (a Nintendo character) on them(which he then told me he doesnt like slippers), A bottle of Galliano Amaretto & The godfather blackhand edition game for the wii. (he bought himself the game tenchu z for the xbox 360) and thats about it.

getting behind in my photos!

So i said i hadn't cooked in like 3 days? or more..
these were taken last month. =D so they are old, but still yummy.
1) roast beef, potatoes & carrots.

2) Chocolate self sauce pudding (i always mix with the recipe so i get more cake and less sauce and i also put more cocoa so it doesnt just taste like brown sugar & water glue!

3) Tiramisu= coffee, chocolate, biscuit, macarpone & cream YUM!
We have My grandparents visiting from canberra tomorrow, so Tia will get to spend some time with her great grandparents! So thats what we will be doing on melbourne cup day!
Im not into gambling, and not interested in melbourne cup day other than its a public holiday down here! YAY!!! (my mum joked that since my brother had visited for a few days, then my grandparents that they would come down and visit for the rest of the week! LOL!)

arent u happy

that you don't work where my hubby does?! hehehe! Mainly because i make the naughiest things ever and send them with hubby to be eaten. That way i can get my fix of playing with chocolate, looking at chocolate.. and then taking pretty pictures to remember chocolate?! ha! These are brownies, with added chocolate (in the mixture) with dark chocolate and white chocolate ganache (ganache is usually equal parts of cream & melted chocolate)Tiffs Brownie recipe: (been making them for years not sure what coook book they came from.. think it was a kids one!)
Ingrediants: (aus metric measurements)
200g butter
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
some extra chocolate if u want

Melt butter a saucepan, add cocoa. Make sure it doesnt boil! Take off the heat. add the brown sugar (+ extra chocolate) Stir. Add the eggs quickly and stir in well. Add plain flour and stir.
grease or line a laminginton tin/square cake tin with greaseproof (make sure its not the cheap kind as u dont want to be peeling the paper off each piece!)
Place in oven at 180 deg cel for 20-25 mins. Leave to cool , then remove.
(i cut the brownies up now to avoid that icing and crumb mess u get when u cut a cake etc and the icing isnt set or the knife isnt sharp/hot enough for a clean cut)

Ganache:
equal parts of heavy cream to equal parts of chocolate.
Add the cream to a saucepan and bring to slight boil/simmer. take off heat add chocolate and whisk til melted & combined. Pour into a bowl and place in fridge. Let it cool to a spreadable consistency. It goes harder with more chocolate or softer with more cream. ;) they also use this to make truffles or truffle filling! (but with quality chocolate)ah no wonder mine turned out a bit hard, i misread and thought they were meant to cook for 40mins! doh! i guess i will make another batch next week?? cooked for the right amount of time for soft fudge brownies!

thoughts

I've been busy lately, i normally use that term very lightly.. as in ive been busy... playing video games! or i've been busy shopping, cleaning and video games..
LOL! i dont envy busy people! But once in awhile i enjoy a day where i dont get to sit down and play video games or become a vegetable in front of a soapie.. (rare as that is)
Ive been busy shopping, then i've spent more time in the kitchen. (i fear this will be another bradly scatter-brain post) yesterday i made 4 batches of my fetta meatballs and put them in the freezer. I had to use up some ham i had in the fridge (as i bought more) so i made pizza pinwheels, 2 batches. One went into the oven, the other into the freezer! (as i heard a good tip was to freeze them beforehand, as i have trouble with it all just falling apart) The next day i took the pinwheel log out of the freezer and let it thaw for a bit til i could slice it up and the freezking trick worked a treat!!

I also can't get out of my head the best advice i heard for proving yeast. (needed in the pinwheel & my naan recipe) that the water used should be the same temperature of blood. It sounds gory to me now.. but fascinating and it does work ;) really well..
Today Tia went to her childcare/socializing session, i then continued to the shops, i walked past a cafe in the shopping mall (it usually smells like drool-worthy real butter on a warmed croissant) but today it smelled of bacon and reminded me that amongst all the tidying,organising of this morning i hadnt had breakfast.. so i avoided getting something healthy (as i would bawk at the price and get something cheap from maccas) and avoided deciding to get a roll at a bakery (as i knew i would end up telling myself that a cheese n bacon roll, pastry is healthy or end up with some yummy danish scroll!) so after getting sake, i was feeling dizzy.. (i dont usually miss breakfast) So i went and got the milk, decided on a breakfast bar of a nice kind (not a bowl of breakfast cereal compacted into a bar) one of those A.O ones? and a energy drink.. Mother, even tho i dont like it, it was cheaper than water, milk or juice.. and i thought i could do with a sugar hit.

Anyways got home (all fine and buzzed!) and now its time for operation laundry! 3 loads today! clothes, towels and bedding! (good thing my book is so interesting) I now have laundry hanging on my curtain rods and sheets hanging on wardrobe doors.. and duvet covers hanging over more curtain rods! As usual, it was lunch and right next door is the fish n chip shop! I could smell the burgers, i could smell the chips! argh! I decided i'd resist and just keep reading. Now i've eaten 4 pieces of lite peanut butter toast at home, but im trying to convince myself its better than 2bux of chips and a battered sausage (which i dont normally eat.. but the deep frying makes it taste better?!!!)

and my thoughts?

Well while on my childless walk to the shops.. 2 guys past me (at different places along the walk) and were friendly and said 'morning' or 'hi' it had me thinking.. i walk this way nearly all the time with Tia would they have been so friendly if she was with me? (does it really matter? i guess it does) without DH or Tia with me.. what do i look like? A university student? a worker on a day off? what do i look like when its just me, tia and the shopping trolley? are people judging me? (am i meant to care? do i care? should i care? why on earth do i care?) Ok, i probably look like a single mum, who cant afford a car.. (but then the buses around here are not the ones im used too.. its like they belong doing trips between cities or something! u wouldnt take a shopping trolley on them!) but then whats so wrong with being a single mum?
In this western society we are OK with divorce, so why arent we OK with single parents?, why do single parents feel so shunted and look down upon? and dont we live in a western society that believes that living with someone, not getting married and having kids is OK? yet if that relationship falls thru then they both can become single parents..

It just has me thinking..

We allow people to take their journeys, whatever it may be.. but then went they hit end of the tunnel, even tho we know a divorce with kids is going to lead to a blended family or a single parent family then people believe those kinds of people have some sort of shame? as if they failed? or something? and then that makes them beneath others who a) are married or b) are single??!! Or am i completely wrong? (i just agreed in my head with some sort of OK-ness with communism can u believe that?! lol)

Am i better than a single parent, just because im not?! Hell no.. but why does it bother me so? Is it because im being judged or feel like im being judged wrongly? or being shunted coz of someone judging me? *sigh* Is 25 still young? hell do i even look 25?! Theres this mum from the childcare centre, she admits to having greys and dying her hair.. and she is short! And she looks no older than a day past 15!! (but she must be close to her 30's!)

Well i had better run off and go collect Miss Tia (who will as usual not be happy about leaving)

I hope everyone has a great weekend! (and that u guys have had a great week!) apologies but no time to make my post all pretty and give it pictures ;)

Forgive me!

I have been very busy, how? i have no idea.. the same old cleaning, walking, shopping and video games.. making sure i email my mum who i will call tomorrow.. checking info on a event on the weekend in the city... perhaps look into a hotel room
i checked out the new tiger airlines they have melb to rockhamptop, mackay? and some other interesting places for under $50! like fully crazy but nothing to melb-sydney or melb-canberra or melb-townsville and the flights werent until next year?
anywhoos also been looking at rentals.. (online) but there dont seem like very many, looking at a 3 bedroom place, fenced, good spot (close to shops, schools)

Its been hotting up recently.. but theres always rain some time of the night/day... which is great!

I made time to sit down and draw yesterday. (above) from my Rozen maiden manga (japanese comic book).. which i will share more about laters when i get a breather! Her name is Hinaichigo and she is one of the 7 Rozen maiden dolls.

I bought savoiardi biscuits the other week (cheaper at the import deli store, made in australia tho!) along with some italian style cream cheese/mascarpone. Decided on doing a tiramisu (hubby loved the low fat one with fetta which i hated!) so this is the 100% naughty version.. altho when i went to make it i didnt read the recipe properly and added the sugar with the egg white (when it was meant to go with the egg yolk) so i threw the egg white n sugar mess in the toilet and walked down to the corner shop and got more eggs and started over again.. now since i dont have a electric beater.. its kinda soup looking.. i should have beated the cream more.. but i was lazy. and instead of marsala (like who has that in their pantry?) i used my butterscotch schnapps.. so we shall see how it all goes.. hmm.. i hope it tastes better than it looks!

I havent had time to fiddle more around with my blog. Im sorry if its hard to read. If so u can try highlighting it, then it should be easier to read. I had tried the background in a green version but u couldnt read it if the font was black, white, red, yellow, blue, pink... u name it i tried it. I think it has more to do with the type & size of the font. i've bolded the whole post, so hopefully that will help a lil.

As for taking pictures of the stuff i got in the city... well a few of the empty boxes of pocky got thrown out.. :( But the Tiramisu Mousse Pocky was great! Mousse means the chocolate/tiramisu bit is softer and more of it! yum! and hubby took the rest of his mens pocky to work to share /show with his friend. so that box is gone too, all i have left is the strawberry box, safely unopened!!!

Also someone got confused with truffles.
Did i mean fungi or chocolate? Isn't that cute! That person weirded me out when i said i got truffles and do we want to have them now. that person said they would like the truffle with something else.. (which i thought was weird) now i doubt u can buy little truffles for $1.50 each!! lol!

Thank you maria for pointing out to me the dinner with the iron chefs! (even tho it was like last week? when u did so) wow i'd love to go too!!! but $500?! for 7 courses! i said to DH if u take me to that i would eat every eel, crab, fish, duck, caviar and drink every yukky wine they serve with it (good no doubt but im not a wine drinker)! LOL! me?! eat that?! well.. yeah 500 bucks and cooked by those 2 awesome guys! gosh! And then the idea was tempting to DH. (well yes it would be to watch my face eating something fishy)

Thank you Tina for the fab award.. that has inspired me to think of new faces i can pull at the camera next time.. hahaha! :D

Did i mention this previously? not sure if i did or not. DH has been offered the spot at the general manager, his boss (the owner & current general manager/director) has been given awhile now to think about it, consider it.. DH just got a pay rise (we celebrated at maccas!!lol!) for completing a review of the company and since then he has completed the quoting system and is working on other databases too. This week he got put into the general manager stuff, hiring people, calling references and stuff which he is enjoying.
This means tho that i have to work harder at our project and do more drawing. (to learn) so i can draw for our project. *sigh*

thanks for all the help on the frozen milk. I appreciate it! I have found its ok to leave the lids on and all the milk in the bottle (they just inflate a bit) How do u guys defrost it tho? It seems to take a few days in my fridge!