how long has it been?

Yeah - I've neglected this blog for ages.... you know what.. I'm not even gonna go there. Lots has happened since my last post in April (?!) and I couldn't begin to cover it all.

In 1o points:

1. We lost many of our furkids. We are now down to three permanent residents. However, that said, we've just taken on a foster - pregnant female (was) ... so we currently have Shi (mummy) and her ten darling 5 week old babies. They are separated now (rats become sexually mature at 5-6 weeks, so we separate a bit before 5 weeks to be safe). We're trying to adopt out as many as we can - but I think we'll keep a couple + mum.

2. D and I went for a trip (in Sept!) to visit my brother in Perth. We had an awesome time, and also saw the Phoenix play (read: horribly lose) while we were there.

spooky pic of my bro @ Freemantle prison on a night tour!

the beautiful Combo

It certainly gave D and I inspiration to do a whole lot more "real" travel when work and finances allow!

I promise I didn't make him carry the bags alll the time!!

3. I got a new job... or perhaps two new jobs since I last posted. I'm still within the same company, but I've now moved to IT. Which is amusing for some, as I'm not exactly an IT guru. I'm doing ok - and really enjoying the change. There are some big changes afoot in my company - so its an exciting time to be involved.

4. I'm still Guiding.. its been a full on year and I'm really proud of our girls. We've been on two camps this year and have achieved so much! We awarded four senior Guide awards and our unit has grown from 20 at the start of the year to 35! This is awesome - go Girl Guides! Its especially cool because this year we celebrated 100 years of Guiding!

5. D and I have the camping bug I think! We've been slowly acquiring gear so that we can go away camping on our own! Our car getting broken into and all my camping gear getting stolen didn't help matters - but we're getting there. We've got leave in Feb next year, so hope to go away and "rough it" for a week.

6. The whole weight-loss thing isn't going so well right now... I was really good, but I rolled right off the wagon! Back on I jump - I'm back at the gym and trying to eat well - December is the worst (yet best) month!!

7. I've still been baking up a storm and have had some great success with new cupcake variations. I'd like to get into the habit of baking a new thing once a week... so I can take pretty pictures and feed my work-mates!

chilli-choc cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing


birthday cake I made for a colleague's daughter

8. I've bought D a couple of cook books (I know, I know, gifts for him that are really for me!) and we're trying to cook two new things a week. Its been fantastic and we feel all chef-y! I definitely need to make/find us some funky aprons to style us right.

borscht (beetroot soup)

sweet potato frittata

9. I removed my 101 list... it was big! and long! I think I need a shorter list - both in term and number of items. I haven't deleted the list - I still want to work on it - but it was daunting and made me not visit my blog. So watch this space for my new short term goals!

10. I finally gave in to Facebook - so if you know me in real life - look me up! I hear its cool to have lots of friends. I've even uploaded some photos.....

That my dears, is it for tonight!

x x xM

cupcakey goodness

I made cupcakes. D and I both had morning tea commitments at work - what better excuse to bake?! These ones went down a treat - the green ones have green tea icing which everyone loved! This surprised me as when I talk about green tea flavoured stuff, everyone goes 'yuk'.

There would have been a lot more cupcakes if a certain kitchen disaster hadn't happened! Something went very very wrong with my vanilla cupcakes. Though, for the life of me I cannot figure out what!

I also made D some cupcakes with a red bean paste and green tea icing. Red bean paste is a traditional asian sweet and D loves it in the sweets he buys from the asian food store. D was very impressed and now wants me to try and make mooncake......

Bedtime for me...

M

vege bean soup + green tea custard...

Today I made some yummy vege soup for dinner, and also to freeze for lunches. I basically just threw in all the veges we had in the fridge into a soup. This includes; celery, carrots, capsicums, canned tomatoes, and spinach! Once it had simmered away, I pureed it up and added some cannelloni and butter beans. I made enough for 6 servings - and only 1 WW point per serve! (That is, if you don't add that teaspoon of ricotta....)



It doesn't look that pretty - but its tastes damn good.


While I was on such a domesticated bender, I made some green tea custard for dessert. (Low in points too!!) The photo REALLY doesn't do it justice - it was much brighter green in real life.



I have plans for green tea related things... and also for adzuki bean related things....



M

i love sushi train

I love Sushi Train. D & I go to this Japanese sushi bar quite often and its the first Japanese Restuarant off my 101 list. Its so fun sitting at the bar, deciding which plates to get. (You pay by the plate) Sashimi is my usual favourite, but this week I discovered a new favourite in the deep fried tofu. Its extremely yummy and melts in your mouth. To finish off, we shared a plate of Green Tea Ice-Cream. ~Yum!

It was a early start to the weekend today as Sconey, D, and I got up to do the garage sales! We did have one amazing find in the form of a crochet pattern set! Talk about fantastic motivation for me to learn to crochet! As it was a joint find - we are going to 'share' it. There are hundreds of funky old-school patterns for us to try.

I'm progressing through my list of books & movies, but haven't actually crossed anything off my 101 list! Hopefully on Tuesday my sewing machine will be ready to be picked up and I can cross that off!

And as usual, my blog is a construction zone while I play with the html....

M