anyresemblance

Christmas comes early

Since I am leaving for Brazil next Sunday at crack of dawn my girls brought mothers' day up a week.  It was pretty laid  back.  We thought about driving out to the country for lunch but you know, I hate to go far from home unless it is thousands of miles and takes 24 hours so we compromised.  We ate lunch in civic here.  We had the best seats in a raised section where we could view the rest of the restaurant and what was going on in the alley outside. The coffee was adequate. 

Then we stopped at the video shop (I know, old school but apple tv disappoints me with its crap australian content) and besides you can't buy maltesers on line.   Then we took young Charlie to the puppy park for a romp where he wallowed disgustingly in the mud.  He had a bath when we got home and I made macaroni cheese and apple crumble.  Charlie had a delightful bone and we watched romantic comedies and lolled on the sofa.

The kids bought me some hideous chocolates which they ate most of and a delightful Sophie Conran salad bowl without any massive hints from me.  All good with the world down here.

Carbalicious

I got up at 6 and replied to a heap of overnight emails.  If I were in physical proximity to these people, I would just wander into their offices and talk it over, but I am not so I have to use my written words.  I am only writing this as I am avoiding a spreadsheet that I was supposed to have completed yesterday.  I am begging my colleague if I can copy her homework...

Saturday night's spinach and ricotta canneloni loaded with carbs and fats with a modicum of spinach to dilute its calorific value.  I had to roll the pasta while daughter took the puppy for a walk and the combination of food and something dangly was going to be too much for him.  I had tons of left over pasta so last night I made lasagne.  These baked pasta dishes look deceptively easy and while I agree there is no effort in them there is TONS of washing up.  Good thing we have a dishwasher again.

Ok, work displacement activity over and back to the dreaded spreadsheet.

 

The Matrix

The nature of my work is exhausting at the moment.  The machinations of various special interest groups creates barriers to achieving the things I am measured on without enormous effort.  So much make work.  That is what had me lose my cool on Friday note and send a tetchy email to someone who ordinarily I like and admire.  It was the cause of a sleepless night on Friday and had me on the phone on Saturday morning to someone in Chile (still her work day) trying to work out a resolution.  It did get resolved and I was sorry to have been so sharp.  I traded a few emails on the subject over the weekend which meant work has been way too high on my priorities.

In between that I went to the dog park twice, walked to dog several imes, went to puppy school where our pup excelled in sniffing out which cup the treat was under.  In a house like ours, how could he not be highly motivated by food?  My oldest and I love puppy school, have a major fan girl crush on the teacher and love the other dogs.  While we were gone, youngest swabbed the kitchen floor which gladened my heart.

Last night I grilled salmon with tarragon butter and served it with champ, roasted asparagus, steamed spinach, peas and a sort of bearnaise sauce.  It was super yummy.  I questioned ganching later on the authenticity of my champ and was relieved to be assured it was acceptable.  I am not sure why spring onions have so many different names:  sybies in Scotland, scallions in Ireland, spring onions in England, shallots here in Australia where what I would call shallots are called eschalots.  Too confusing.

This is a short week with Anzac Day in the middle and I am taking Thursday and Friday off so have lots to get done so that stupid make-work stuff does not intrude.

I am listening to Dion Graham read Pelecanos while I walk.   He is an excellent reader.

 

Swissy goodness

Synchronicity amuses me.  You know, the way an actor you talk of suddenly turns up in everything yu watch or a colour, hitherto unnoticed, becomes this season's staple? 

I am struggling on the bread front and was bored with my high rotation of no knead bread or flat breads so I hauled out my old recipe for zopf.  Deliciousness all round and if you think, meh white bread, think again of its sweet dense taste.

As it turned out its author turned up in my facebook stream, and then in my twitter stream with a tantalising musing that maybe she would resurrect her food blog.  I hope so.  I have several of her staples printed off as my go to recipes.  Plus I miss my old friends from when blogging was a regular occurence.

Talk among yourselves

While I was gone this

turned into this

Still lovely but bigger with a more pointy face and able to reach up to hitherto unforeseen heights.  Observe.

I was trying to photograph the autumn bounty of my garden but Charlie decided there might be something edible in there.

Dog owning is lovely.  I am enjoying the social aspects of it very much but it has rather ruined by exercise routine and, despite claims to the contrary, 90 minutes of dog walking does not constitute aerobic activity.

Nothing much else is happening around here.  I was going to spend some money on a new car port and then thought that though would undoubtedly add to the overall cosmetic improvement of my house it would have zero impact on my daily life (there is a shabby car port in place) and that there were other uses for the money.  I am back on the Ikea kitchen planning web site and considering how much effort it would be to rip up those black and white tiles and sand the floor back.  Don't get me wrong, I love those tiles and the overall provencal look it adds but many are cracked and they are fitted around the current kitchen units.  Given that I need to rip the whole kitchen out (the configuration is all wrong and I want less cupboards not more) I have to redo the whole floor.

See, I no longer talk about clothes and high heels.  Instead, I wear grubby jeans and holey t-shirts as I consider home maintenance and dog training.  I promise the house is still very clean and that I brush my hair every day.