What a Hoot.....

Housework that needs to be done:

• Hang out Washing
• Mop Floors
• Tidy the Play Room
• and as for that Desk! Well .....

But instead of doing that.....

I'm trying to make up for my exceptionally bad parenting yesterday by spending some time with the kids doing crafts.

I recently procured a whole stack of cupcake papers, so I thought perhaps there might be a fun craft we could do with them. 

2 minutes on Google (I do love the internet) and I found these delightful little owls. I figured they wouldn't be too tricky for me or Miss 3. Mr 1 3/4 also wanted to join in, so he just helped me.


30 minutes or so later here are our little hootie friends

And now the kids are happily playing with paper scraps and pilfering tomatoes from the bench. Hmm - better go and rescue those tomatoes! 

Oh dear - it seems like there was more to be worried about than tomatoes.....

Frozen Eggwhites - A Little Experiment

Housework that needs to be done:

• Tidy Kitchen and Family Room
• Put Away Folded Clothes
• Tidy the Play Room
• Deal with the Desk (yes, I know!!!!)

But instead of doing that.....

I'm performing a little experiment.

You see, it's like this....
I do a lot of baking etc that involves just egg whites, not the yolk, and while I can separate an egg easily enough, I always have a bit of a dilemma on what to do with the leftover yolks. I was brought up to not waste food. Yes, I know there is custard and the various things that it can be turned into but hubby DETESTS custard and with the quantities I would be making, the kids would end up hating it too.

So-o-o-o, imagine my excitement when I found frozen egg white at the supermarket. I promptly bought it and took it home to my somewhat overloaded, but highly functional freezer. It wasn't until today when someone else mentioned that the label says that it is not for whipping that I had that sinking feeling. Now I had a litre of egg whites (the equivalent of almost 30 egg whites) that may have no functional use for me. Well, there goes the guilt-over-food-wastage quota for another month!

Perhaps not! Afterall, we all know that food labelling tends to err on the cautious side. With nothing to lose, I have defrosted my little bottle of eggy goodness and am seeing what happens when you try to whip that stuff (which, by the way, is pasteurised and bottled for people to drink....ugh!)

My choice of experiment - Pavlova.

After making sure all of my equipment was "scrupulously clean" (don't I sound like a cooking show), I set forth into the unknown, following the Pav recipe from the New Zealand's fave - The Edmonds Cookbook.

Armed, dangerous and ready to go...

Unlike a cooking show, I didn't make sure the eggs were at room temperature before assaulting them, so that may have impacted the initial whip (they were still quite chilly). But they did froth up and get some volume. Secretly, despite my bravado about "all in the name of science" I was a bit pleased that I didn't have to throw anything out at this early stage.

The initial whip - egg only

Mr Edmonds' recipe adds water before the sugar. Not sure if that is such a great idea with these eggsicles, but that is hindsight. After adding the sugar  it took a lot longer than normal to get a fairly thick mix. However, it seemed to get reasonably thick. Still not 100% convinced on the volume front.

More whipping after adding copious amounts of sugar

But, onwards and upwards (or perhaps round and round and round).....
The meringue is a lot softer than usual so I don't get the same height that I normally would on the tray.

 

Ready for the oven

And now I wait....

Where it is at the moment

So far I think that I would be happy to whip my frozen egg whites, and even make some yummy, light baked goods with them. But there is some further experimentation to be done. Afterall, I now have 900ml of defrosted egg whites that need some attention or I will be racked with that wastage guilt.

Postscript

This is the end result. A bit flat, but certainly passable. Now where are the cream and berries?????

 

We Want to Know Q&A

Housework that needs to be done:

• Mostly the same as the last post, but fewer dishes and laundry!

But instead of doing that.....

I am going to reveal a bit about myself through Mamarazzi and Queso's linky party


The questions this week are:
1. What is the best advice someone has ever given you?
2. What is your greatest accomplishment?
3. Who do you admire?
4. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
5. How do you want to be remembered?

So, here we go.....

What is the best advice someone has ever given you?
To be master of my own destiny and to stop using my past as an excuse for crippling my future.

What is your greatest accomplishment?
Sometimes I think it is getting through each day! :)
To be honest, I can't give a definitive answer on this as it changes depending on what perspective I have at the time. And some things, such as my awesome little family, are not really what I would consider as my personal achievement. But I do think my hubby and kids are fantastic and they round out my life beautifully.

Who do you admire?
I really admire people who take control of their destiny through hard work, tenacity and integrity. I'm not so good at the whole tenacity thing, so I think it is marvellous that other people possess the trait. I also marvel at people who are people magnets with their beautiful personalities.

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
I would really like to be able to do social events better. I am terrible at social chit chat and I always feel like a real nonce in social situations.

How do you want to be remembered?
I hope my family & friends will remember me for loving them and respecting their individuality. I hope everyone else forgets me - I don't feel the need to be memorable. The thought of it makes me uncomfortable.

OMG - I've Found my Desk!!!!!!

Housework that needs to be done:

• Do the Dishes
• Launder the Clothes)
• Fold Laundry
• Put Away Folded Clothes
• Tidy the Play Room
• Clean the Floors

But instead of doing that.....

I have tidied my desk!.

I didn't do it because I really wanted to - honest. It's just that it is tax time and I needed to file everything so that I could find all of the documents I need. Surprisingly (given the utter chaos that I have lived in for the past 18 months), I am only missing 1 document.

Now, just to set you straight, I really detest having a messy desk. I am not proud of what my desk had morphed into - think Marjorie the Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock:



My friend Mamarazzi from Our Dandelion Wishes...

...hosted a VLOG challenge back in July asking participants to show something we would be embarrassed by if someone found it our house. My desk was it. In fact, I was so embarrassed by it, there was no way there was going to be photographic evidence of it so I didn't participate in the challenge! I have even hated having visitors because my desk is in a public place and the mess was just so unsightly!

I am not the type of person to clean surfaces by shoving things out of sight - things must be put away in their correct, organised places. When I lose control over the desk-monsters, this becomes quite a time consuming job and I have been putting it off. Well, after several hours (yes, hours!) I am now sitting at a desk with perfectly visible flat surfaces! Oh my!!!!!!

Now! Where is the floor in the Play Room????

I Like Cake

Housework that needs to be done:

• Do the Dishes
• Launder the Clothes (is it just me or do dirty clothes breed? I'm sure there are more clothes to launder than we actually own!!!!)
• Fold Laundry
• Tidy the Play Room
• Clean the Floors
• Tidy my Desk

But instead of doing that.....

I am giving in to the urge to bake.

Last night I went to a fantastic demo on making Sugar Flowers hosted by the Eastern branch of the Victorian Cake Decorating Society. The presenter was the very talented Handi Mulyana. Apart from him making it look so easy (yeah - we'll see once I get my hands on the right cutters and the correct gauge wire), it was a fun night where I got to meet a few more local cake decorators.

While I was there I acquired (through a very interesting trade system) a new book on making Macarons. I do have a book already but it takes quite a technical approach and I have discovered that telling me what can go wrong is a bit like putting a moth in front of a bright light and telling it not to go there! So I am hoping this book will work a bit better for me.

On top of that, I have already ("already" I say at almost 9:30pm) baked a Devil's Food Cake ready to dabble with my birthday present. For this year's birthday (which I'm sure was just a figment of my imagination) my dear, sweet, perfect husband signed me up to Cake Decorating Central's "Kit of the Month". This means I get a fab pack of goodies once a month and the instructions for a decorating project. I received the first one in April and still haven't done it, so I'm hoping I might have some success with it this weekend. Anyone need a cake???


On a side note, the housework is really behind at the moment because on Thursday I decided to escape the house and spend time with my munchkins. We spent most of the day at the zoo with some friends and it was great. See! They enjoyed themselves....

Sorry desk....you come last again!

Busy Busy Busy

Housework that needs to be done:

• Do the Dishes
• Launder the Clothes
• Fold Laundry
• Tidy the Play Room
• Tidy my Desk

But instead of doing that.....

I thought I would fill you in on what I have been doing for the last couple of months. There were sick kids, but they weren't fun so I won't elaborate further on that!

March involved a family wedding and a new baby nephew 2 days later, not to mention a month-long visit from my SIL who lives in the UK. It was a fantastic family time during which there was a bit going on. Woo woo.
So the list of completed projects includes:
* A 3 tier wedding cake
* A dress for me to wear to the wedding
* A baby welcome cake

April hit with a bit of a bang and we were busy every weekend with parties or other such things. It was also my birthday month, but the less we mention about that, the better. My April completed projects included:
* A covered treasure box for a christening gift
* My birthday cake
* A beanbag cover for my niece
* Homemade Easter Buns, which were yummo!

May was a really fun month which involved a number of wonderful family moments. The month started with a visit from one of my cousins from NZ. Yay! I really wish we lived closer to this particular cousin and his family. We also had a combined family birthday dinner with another arm of my family. On a sad note, a very good friend of my husband's family passed away, but his funeral was a joyous occasion. The end of the month was my son's first birthday, so for the week preceding the party my kids were totally neglected. Completed projects for May were:
* A nightdress for the girl-child
* Souvenir book of the boy-child's Naming Day completed and sent to be printed.
* One batch of bottled apples
* Copious amounts of birthday cooking and baking (3 batches of biscuits (cookies for any Americans reading this), 3 dozen savoury muffins, 5 litres of soup, jelly cups, individual trifles, sandwiches and all the other stuff that required packets to be opened etc)
* The Birthday Cake - an owl that stood 14" tall and was rainbow coloured on the inside.
* "Thank you" cards created and printed

So now it's June and I'm hoping things will settle down a little bit so I can get some stuff done. I have so many things that I want to do, I'm not really certain if I will get much of it done. Yesterday I bought a bag load of bits and bobs to start making hair clips for my girlie girl. I am going to have to make her an awful lot to make it financially worthwhile - I think I got just a little bit carried away at the craft store. Ooops! I also have a couple of bags of apples that need processing and I am considering turning some of them into a cake rather than bottling them. Hmmm.... decisions. Then there are the gazillion (yes that is a real word) sewing projects that I would love to get started on. , not to mention the half-knitted cardigan that has been hiding in a closet for the past couple of years and would be really handy this winter. We are also decorating the spare bedroom.

I really don't think my desk is ever going to get tidied!!!

Oh - and I'll try to get some pictures up at some point, too!

My Happy List

Housework that needs to be done:

• Vacuum / mop floors
• Launder the clothes
• Fold Laundry
• Change Sheets on all the Beds
• Tidy my desk

But instead of doing that.....

I have decided to participate in my beautiful friend Mamarazzi’s Happy List link up.


I am happy….
… that I know people like Mamarazzi. I met Mamarazzi years ago in some vaguely strange circumstances. We “friended up” but then managed to lose touch over the last few years. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook and my general cyber-stalking skills we were able to reconnect and that is just great!

I am happy….
… that I have made so many gorgeous friends. I’m not so happy that they are scattered all around the world. I do love the fact that you can not talk to a good friend for weeks, months or years yet when you do, the conversation flows as easily as it ever has.

I am happy ….
… that technology facilitates communication. This is partly because I hate writing letters and I don’t really feel the need to write letters these days!

I am happy ….
… modern technology has allowed me to see pictures of my new nephew without having to wait for a film to be processed.

I am happy ….
… to be playing in this linky party because it means I have to actually make my blog known to an audience wider than myself. This is quite scary for me, but I think the scare is good for me too!