Steamboat.

My mum gave me her old steamboat ages ago, and it has been gathering dust (decoratively) ever since.

My friend Lily who is Chinese was asking me about it last week when she saw it gathering dust on my shelf, and I had to admit that I have never used it.

She gave me a few instructions, and I began to warm to the idea.

Fast forward to this morning when I checked out a blog my sister recommended to me and BAM, the universe is pointing me in the Steamboat direction again.

I will HAVE to give it a go now. Stay tuned.

Hare Krishna Food.

We are having a bit of a dahl phase in this house, (a.k.a. "Hare Krishna Food").

You can eat it cold as a dip with poppadums, rice crackers etc..., or hot as a meal, with anything you like added to it.

Last night we ate it with spinach stirred through and it was YUM, even for Dave who hates spinach.

I use my mum's recipe:

Dahl

1 cup red lentils
1 tbs oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp red curry paste
2 cups water
1 tsp salt

Wash lentils under cold running water and set aside to drain

Saute onion and garlic until soft. Add spices and curry paste and stir for a couple of minutes.

Add lentils and stir for a couple more minutes.

Add water and salt and bring to the boil.

Lower heat and simmer gently, stirring occasionally until water is absorbed (about 15-20 mins).

ENJOY!!

And enjoy the price even more. Red lentils cost about $2.00 per kg !!!!

Woodwork.

We bought a bag of wood scraps on the weekend (we paid $4, is that expensive for scraps??).
The kids have had a great time with them.

Sarah proudly took her creations in for school news.
What else do 5 year old boys make??
We have only had one ice pack on one thumb so far.

Wow, 100 posts already!!

I started this blog last year as a place to share my crafty spoils with friends and family. It seems to have evolved into something else, I am not really sure what. Maybe this blog has a bit of an identity crisis going?

A little bit crafty, a little bit foody, and a lot of just my daily life as a mum/student/wife/friend/member of society....... So maybe it is just, me.

Very soon this will become a 'homeschool blog' too, of sorts. Yes, we are going ahead with the crazy idea and pulling the kids out of school at the end of this term.

We are totally at peace with this, and are really looking forward to our new lifestyle.

The kids are so excited and can often be heard saying, "When we homeschool, can we learn about XYZ...?"

I have been reading lots of books, blogs, and chatting to other homeschoolers, and am preparing my 'program' for our official Board of Studies visit.

I was thinking a giveaway would be approprite for my 100th post, but I am in the middle of massive Uni assignments, so might have to leave this til' a bit later.

Thanks to everyone who reads and comments, it is lovely.

Oh, and I would like to introduce a brand new blog of a friend of mine in NZ, Jen. She is one of the most talented crafters I know. Enjoy.

Perfect Pesto

This recipe is from my friend Kim who is a wonderful cook. It works every time, and you can vary the ingredients a bit.

I have started using macadamia nuts instead of pine nuts because of cost, and food miles etc...

I also used pecorino this time instead of parmesan. You could also use walnuts and rocket, or anything you like really.

Recipe:

1 cup basil firmly packed

30g pine nuts

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

pinch salt

60g grated parmesan

The best part is the eating, usually on crusty Italian bread, or stirred through pasta.

Blue...

Not my team.

Red...

I ran out of time to take some photos today, so here are a few from the archives.