J'en ai marre-melade

Hello!
The title of this post is a French pun, so unless you speak French, I'm afraid I can't translate, as they say in the world of subtitles "untranslatable French pun"
Well... I've been busy washing, juicing, slicing, boiling and simmering lemons lately for our bi-yearly school fete! It's this weekend! Usually my mum makes the marmalade around this time of the year, when she visits us, but she's not coming this year, so I took over :) 12 little jars, which means about 4 or 5 batches, I lost count, not to mention the one I messed up as my lemon peel to water/sugar ratio was a bit on the low side, oh well, more for us :) I go nuts about Lemons here... They are gorgeous, in Canada, you don't have a lemon tree in your backyard, and you don't have friends who generously give you bags of lemons when your tree is not producing enough, we do it with apples... Although my family did it with zucchini, my parents grew the largest zucchini I ever saw! They were actually in my brother's section of the garden, but I digress.
I thought I should show off my Lemon Peel Delight (didn't know if it would pass as marmalade, so I called it "Delight" a nice lovely word that covers a range of consistencies, which is EXACTLY what I made!!!). I learned a few tricks making this, how to sterilise your bottles and caps, and that it is a very sticky process! It was fun though.

Speaking of bi-yearly, like the Fete at the school... well... did you know that the English language makes no sense sometimes? Of course you knew that... there's no ham in hamburgers, and the like. Well... did you know that bi-weekly can mean twice in one week, OR also mean every two weeks? Here in Australia we/they use the word fortnight to mean every two weeks, it's a lovely clear word, IMO. Comes from "fourteen nights". Bi-monthly, does that mean twice a month, or every two months? It means BOTH ladies and gents! Yes, same with bi-yearly! Now this is one concept that made me and my hubby shake our heads in disbelief!!!!! You can pick up any dictionary and have a peek, and I bet you they will say I'm right. Well, in either case, they can't say I'm entirely wrong, can they? It's one, or the other, or both! :)

Food for thought, though I prefer marmalade!

My problems are very little...

I'm linking to another blog I found, via the blogs suggested by Blogspot when we log in. There are some absolutely amazing pictures which we will not see in the newscasts we get on telly. The blog is here: http://dancingwithkatrina.blogspot.com/ ... Pictures of Katrina's devastation in the USA. Don't even get me started about how badly this was handled by the USA Government!
Somehow, even if we got bombarded by the media, like they love doing, to the point of desensitising us I always feel we're not seeing everything, and sometimes, we don't really "see" it like it's another tv show, and not news. With shows such as CSI, L&O and the like, looking at corpses, mutilations, etc... Yeah, I know, it's "Hollywood" but still... I think deep down inside this is having an impact on how we see things in the "Real" world... So yes, we saw Katrina pictures on the news, but seeing the pictures from the blog, taken by real people, on the ground there, taking pictures of other real people, dealing with a very real reality... it sinks in better than on the "box". So that's why I think that blog is worthy of mention here.

I wanted/needed to tell someone about those images, and DH is out at the moment. So hopefully you will get something out of them too...

As an aside, I couldn't help bursting out laughing, a moment ago, when I realised I had put on my jumper (sweater for non-Aussies) inside out. I went to school this morning to drop off the girls, talked to some parents, and came back home, and never realised my top was on inside out! .... yeah, it's a very small problem...

Soup anyone?

Hi again... well, what I thought would happen did, hence you're finding me here again. I go on cooking sprees, make yummy food, and then forget what I made and what we liked.... Once I can remember the recipe it's not so bad as I always write comments in my recipe books (in pencil!) as to when I first made the recipe and if we liked it or not... and any other details.
Well, in hopes to inspire others, and to jog my memory, here are the soups we like:
(reminds me of the Kids In The Hall song "These are the Daves I know")

Beetroot (beet) Soup: from my aunty's recipe
Black Bean Soup: there was one I used to make, which I can't find, so now we like the one from Sundays at the Moosewood, in the North African section.
Succotash Chowder: this one is from the Moosewood Cookbook and is just delicious it's made with Lupinis (Ah! now I remember what those lupinis in the freezer are for! I always try to cook more legumes than I need and freeze some! Yay!)... ok, so the soup is made with Lupinis and potatoes, celery, great herbal seasonings and corn!
Fennel Bulb soup great when fennels are cheap and in season, they are also quite nice braised.
Gingered Carrot Soup also from Moosewood

This is all for now, the rest will have to wait until later. eventually, one day! As for now, that's all I remember. I might even come and edit this post if I ever get motivated enough *Ü*

Pizza Pizza Pie Olé!

Well, not really pizzas, but definitely pies, and soups, and yes, NOODLES!!

We're in the midst of Winter Holidays here in Western Australia, and I've been cooking a bit. It's pretty cold so I've been making soups. A whole bunch of different ones, and we eat half, and the other half goes in the freezer for when school starts or when neither of us feels like cooking (well, DH and I are doing the soup eating, the girls aren't big on those yet). The girls helped me and we made homemade noodles yesterday, it was great. I currently have a pasta maker on loan to play with polymer clay, but it's never been used with polymer, so I used it for pasta. Not sure it'll see polymer while I'm in possession of it!! The whole family ate the noodles!!

Anyway, I also made a pie and I burned the crust. The pie was nice enough but here are some links to check before I burn more pie!
http://www.fitnessandfreebies.com/food/pietrouble.html
http://www.baking911.com/pies_tarts/101_page3.htm (wear sunnies if you look at that site!)
http://www.fitnessandfreebies.com/food/pietrouble.html

but really, I think we need a better oven :)
more later... if/when I get 'roundtoit Google Search Result

Fennel Soup

I've been cooking a bit lately, I really like this soup: http://www.jfc.org.uk/recipes/fennel_soup.html
There's a couple other recipes I like but they are from magazines, and you can see more of my recipes (though this hasn't been updated in quite some time) here:
http://france.topcities.com/kitchenette/kitchen/ when it's not down :)
if you go only to http://france.topcities.com/kitchenette/ that's my Baby and Toddler recipes, that hasn't been updated recently either but the girls still like the meatballs, meat loaf and the banana bread... well, we're getting our carpets cleaned today, and lucky us, it's SUNNY! it's been raining almost non-stop here, for about two weeks.... while it's great for everything which needs water, it's a bit tiring after a while. I NEED my Vitamin D :)
bye for now.

Fun little site

This is a site which offers some interesting craft projects.
Again, using this blog as a notebook:
http://quidnunc.org/projects.html
I particularly was interested in the tins and pebble magnets. There's heaps of other stuff there too.

Here are my fairies in their little dresses. The only colour picture I have to show at the moment. Véronique is on the left, and Cordelia on the right. They had a wonderful day.

Does size matter?

Well.... having grown up in the world of Letter or 8 1/2 x 11, and Legal or 8 1/2 x 14, it was nice to move to Australia and find that long thin paper that I associated with Europeans. It has a name, A4, and the smaller it gets, i.e. each time it's folded in two, the number increases; and when the paper is doubled, the number decreases. So half an A4 is an A5, etc. Gets confusing. I get confused, but most time I manage.
Recently I saw a reference to a card that was A2, but it was talking about small cute images (see Kokeshi Dolls Card) ... boggled my mind. Annette, whose album this is, is no dummy, so I had to ask, what is that A2 and why is it so small. Well, we're not quite sure what happened (i.e. sort of like the Beta vs VHS story!) but these links might help:
http://www.papergoods.com/ZProductDetails.shtml
http://www.cast.uark.edu/jpgis/jpps.html
or then again, you might be left scratching your head like I was.

So beware, if you order A2 card from Australia you'll get one thing, and if you order it from the USA you'll get something else.

Very very interesting...

Off with the fairies...

Well, last week, I visited the Pickled Fairy with my daughter Véronique after her speech therapy appointment. For over a year now she's been asking me for a Fairy dress. The bloody things are $40, and I need to buy two because Véronique has a twin sister, Cordelia... None of this "let's buy one, it'll last a few years, and then we can hand it down to the younger sister" in this house!!!
So, on Friday, I was back in Fremantle (can't remember what for) and found myself at Spotlight, and found some fabric, shiny purplish-pink fabric, at $1 a metre as there was only 2.5 metres left on the roll. Well, I HAD to go and check out the fairy netting, didn't I??? So $20 later I have enough fabric to make TWO Fairy Dresses.
I have so far made a "top" with an old sheet, made my own pattern because none of Butterick, Burda, McCalls or Simplicity has what I was after..... well, it fit! First fitting was perfect! I was overjoyed! The skirt will be easy to make, as long as I remember to make it wide enough so that the girls can walk in it and not be like Morticia Adams!!
Then I went and cut 42 little triangles of tulle!!! 21 for each skirt, I'm thinking of doing three rows, one pink, one blue, and one purple...
So this morning I start hemming the edges of the little triangles. I was worried it wouldn't work but it did... then, what should happen, my sewing machine became possessed and decided to go at FULL SPEED and would NOT STOP!!! First thought, YANK THE PLUG!!! wellllll...... even after the foot pedal cooled down, whenever I plugged it back it... bat outta hell again!!!
Well, my dear husband offered to make a phone call for me (while I finished another job I had started, which involved colouring in some stuff for Véronique to be able to play some barrier games to learn how to explain things and listen to instructions better) - good news... no need to get a new sewing machine, we can buy a replacement foot, lucky for us, there was one waiting for us in Fremantle. DH changed it, and now my sewing machine works a treat. Only 30 more little triangles to edge.
So far so good.
If they turn out nice, you'll get to see them!!!!!
I'm starting to think that $40 isn't that expensive for a fairy dress (if you have the money, or if you can't sew!!! even with the new footpedal though I'm still a few dollars ahead! and a working sewing machine which will hopefully last a few more years! *giggle*)

Sushi!

(edited 15 March to add Pickled Ginger to list of ingredients!)

I find it fairly easy to do. For the rice, I got the SunRice Sushi Rice the first time. Now I get the rice from a little chinese supermarket in Fremantle. You cook it as per the directions presented here except you use 3 cups water, not two (must make note to email them about this as the instructions on their packages does say 1.5 water for 1 rice).

I use an electrical fan to cool my rice, and turn it a bit more frequently than they say.

Then I vaguely used the instructions here to make my rolls.


Shopping list:
Bamboo mat (can use glad bake too apparently) to help roll your Nori.
Short grain rice
Nori sheets
Rice Vinegar
White Sugar (for Sushi Vinegar)
Salt (for Sushi Vinegar)
Mayonnaise
Soy sauce (I use Lee Kum Kee Salt Reduced Soy Sauce)
Wasabi
Pickled ginger

Fish (I use those frozen fish pieces or rolls, not brave enough to venture in the world of raw fish, specially not after having seen the series "Body Snatchers" on the ABC. You can use prawns/shrimp, tuna, chicken, egg...
Cucumber or Avocado (yum! but higher in fat, though they are good fats) or Carrots if you're out of everything else (DH didn't like the carrots very much, I didn't mind them one bit)

There's more recipes at Sunrice to inspire you, or do a search on Google for sushi recipes.
I have now taken the habit of looking at the display of the sushi take-out place near one of the bus stops in Freo, it helps with inspiration!

I think that's all, if you want more info, I'll be happy to add some :)

My very first ever homemade Sushi... note the very fancy (not!) soy sauce container, and the very small (indeed) spot of wasabi! I've noticed that wasabi is hot for a short period, unlike chilli which burns for a while...

Now I know why!

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (44%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (46%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

This explains everything. I always wonder why I forget things, why I make mistakes... it's because I'm only using 90% of my brain!!! hehehehehe!!! Actually, I just had to do this test that I found via Emeraldkitty who found it via Meggiecat (some feline pattern emerging here!). Basically I guess it means my brain is pretty balanced! Ha! I find that one funny.... but the questions asked made me think. I like order, but I like chaos. .... Probably stems from the fact that I'm Pisces with very strong Virgo tendencies...

Well, off to put the creative brain to the test, trying to find something to make for dinner... oooh, I wonder if it's too late to make sushi rice :) since my friend Ann G taught me how, I've been making it at least once a week.

Excellent, I just sent a picture of my first sushi plate, which should be right below here (or above, not sure yet). Enjoy.

links I want to be able to find again

Shabby Princess - gorgeous papers to print, and embellishments too
Great use of a stamp I own
Sarabande Press
The Golden Age Romance
Comics Archive
Meggiecat's Blog very good blog for paper artists), found via Emeraldkitty

Just to prove what I said below wasn't hogwash, here's an ATC I made for a Round Robin. Each fortnight one person is the recipient of ATCs in a theme she has chosen, sent to her by the other swap players. This is the first ATC I made for this RR and it's for Erica in NSW, her theme was Seaside/Beach. I don't know Erica at all, nor her style. I just hope she'll like this!

Too many swaps, too little time.

I'm in too many swaps at the moment! I always reach a point where I realise that. I'm on a Western Australia group where we have two monthly ATC exchanges, and sometimes a few other swaps proposed by members. I also joined another All About Me Trading Card Swap on StampHappy [an annual event], and I have to make 50+ ATCs for that one! Not to mention an Oxford Impressions Tag Book Swap which is due in... 17 days! Take off three days for postage... a fortnight is all I have left for that one! *gulp* Not very inspired these days to make anything other than ATCs... because they are small I think!!

Here's a little guy I created this weekend. The boy is from Oxford Impressions, the wings, FLY, and Harlequin backgrounds are from Collections Rubber Stamps.

Playing around with Collections Stuff

Well, here I am

I'm hoping this will be a nice way to log things that go on... like the girls losing their teeth, to my views on things and others (don't worry, I'm not very political!)....
Well, now it's time to put the girls to sleep, in a few minutes, and the dishes are calling.
I'll be back soon (I wonder how I can add pictures to this thing!)