Cookbook of the month - January

The cookbook for January is 'Grow It, Cook It' by Sally Cameron. I picked this book because the garden is going a little crazy and I desperately needed some new ways with zucchinis! We almost have them up to our ears with the plants going crazy (although they look like they might soon start dying back) and now the eggplant is cropping nicely so I need some recipes for that too.

Last month's cookbook of the month (to be found here) turned out to be a bit of a fizzer as I used the current edition of Australian Good Taste for most of my recipes as well as a few of old favourites. I did however make these shortbread biscuits from the book and the girls had a great time using the Xmas cookie cutters.

Cheers

2012 - A Year of Home and Health

They will be my focus this year, home and health.

Home because we have been in this (almost) lovely house for over 13 years and it still looks like we moved in last week!  So many unfinished projects, argh!

And health because last year I turned the big 4-0 and I have noticed everything is starting to slow down (let's not even mention the metabolism!) and, if I'm honest, I have never been the fittest girl on the block (is it OK to still call myself a girl? everything else sounds weird). So I joined the gyn in December, and Santa bought me a bike, which I (very) promptly fell off.

So there it is folks, what's your focus for the year? Do you even have one? I like the idea of having an overall plan for the year, especially now that I am a stay at home mum and it is so easy to not focus on something and before you know it 7 months have gone past and I still haven't achieved much. I know some in blogland have a word of the year and I tried it out but couldn't find anything to fit (they were all more than one word - stop procrastinating; get off your butt; just do it dammit, etc).

So stay tuned, I will be posting some of my projects, and maybe some of my very honest before shots as I work my way around this home. I think first up will be the enormous piles of paper in my office area, good grief I could be here for days!

Cheers

2011 in review

Now the year is drawing to a close I am looking back at the year that was 2011. For me 2011 had two big things, one of the worst and one of the best.

In May I lost my job, a job that out of the few that I have had was my absolute favourite. I worked at Borders, which for me was a wonderful bookstore. I remember the first time I ever walked into a Borders store and distinctly recall thinking that whoever designed the store had been in my head! It had everything a reader like me could have; a huge selection and comfy chairs, what else does a girl need? When one was opening up in my area I walked past the partly built store and laughingly said to my dad that working there would be the perfect job for me only to realise a few hours later it really was! Although I was perfectly content in my old job I decided then and there I would do everything to get a job at Borders and I did. I started when the store opened in December 2007 and stuck around for two years, then deciding that the crazy hours of retail weren't working for me or my family so I made the difficult decision to leave. Needless to say I missed it like crazy and lasted just over 7 months before I went back part time. 10 months later our store, and all the others were gone. And I still haven't gotten over it.

On the other hand, 2011 was the year I fulfilled a 27 year old dream by going to Paris and it was wonderful. I can't wait to go back!

Right now though I am looking forward to 2012, I have big plans for the year and no doubt some of those will be shared here. All the best for the new year for you and your loved ones and thanks for reading.

Cheers

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas filled with family, friends and love. We had Christmas lunch at our place for the first time in many years, after that it was the usual chaos getting to everyone's place to catch up. I love it, but I'm glad it's over because now I can catch up on some sleep! Our girls were up at 5.30 on Christmas morning, eager to get unwrapping. Both of them received new bikes from Santa as well as lots of other lovely things.

Christmas Day here was lovely, the weather was beautiful and sunny, something we haven't had much of lately and although it wasn't too hot it was warm enough for the kids to go for a swim. Boxing Day was spent with some great friends, out on the lake for a few hours of boating, tubing and wakeboarding followed by a lovely BBQ dinner.

But today it's back to the normal, back to catching up on the laundry and other chores, and back to the gym for me!

Cheers

I finally made something off Pinterest!!!

I am totally addicted to Pinterest, madly pinning stuff that I would love to get around to making someday, but I have finally bitten the bullet and made something! Yay!!

It certainly isn't as well made as the original one, but I'm not and never will be a professional cake decorator so I don't think it's too bad.

The girls and I had heaps of fun making them (not the biscuits though, we took a short cut and used store bought), and we decided that since snowmen aren't big in Australia at this time of the year we would call them 'Christmas in Australia'! Rather fitting.

cheers

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I love it when it is time to start the Xmas decorating. I try to start some time in November, but traditionally around here 1st of December is the day we start so I usually have a bit of difficulty getting Mr Homespun to start earlier, especially frustrating when I need him to get the tree out of the roof of the garage!

So the tree is finally up and over the next few days I will start adding other touches around the house, I'll admit I do have a few Xmas decos that stay up year round just because they make me smile! I would also love to add to my home made decos, I have a gazillion Xmas patterns and I can't seem to stop buying more, so hopefully I will be able to make time to do that over the coming weeks, although I have nearly finished this jacket so I will probably finish that first. And let's not forget all the baking to be done over the coming weeks... and the shopping...

Happy decorating!

Cookbook of the month

Another month has gone by so it's time to look at my cookbook of the month. Julie's book is a lovely book and although I didn't make as much from this book as I would've liked, I enjoyed the ease of the ones I did.

Stuffed chicken breast with prosciutto and apricot sauce

This book is probably most suited to those who haven't been cooking for very long as there are quite a few recipes that most of us that have been cooking for a while would already have (a favourite) under our belt, like Spag Bol, Lasagne etc. But the photos are lovely, the instructions very clear and for the most part, the ingredients are what we would already have on hand or at least have no difficulty getting.

Mum Goodwin's chocolate cake - not a great photo because...

...we had already tucked into it!

December's cookbook of the month is, and no surprises here, The Essential Christmas Cookbook!

Mine has a different cover.

I really like this cookbook and I have a few others from this series.

Cheers