Jammed

Homemade strawberry jam in a minute. This is a blatant rip from Play School I saw recently, but my husband was so impressed I had to write it up!!

In a glass bowl or jug, put as many cut strawberries as you can afford - I like to buy from Aldi, about half the cost of Woolies or Coles! Diagram 1, shows cut strawberries for anyone living under a rock.

Add a squeeze of lemon juice, and as much sugar as you like - I think we used about 3 tablespoons for the amount of strawberries.

Put it in the microwave for a minute, stir and check consistency. If its not yet Jammed just nuke again until its ready! Diagram 2 is homemade jam and Diagram 3 is homemade jam on homemade yogurt - but that's another blog entirely...

Dont just Live. Be Alive!

Rub your tummy and pat your head

My newborn used to get pretty bad wind, especially after mummy had indulged in a pizza with garlic and onion.

The burping technique for a baby with wind is to rub and pat their back and until they burp; apparently!  I'm beginning to think it's a bit of an old wives tale, contrived just so mothers feel in some way that they are helping the natural order of things.

Think about it: - how many times have you had a big burp develop by someone wacking you on the back? some, none? Or, is it more that the positions we put the baby in are actually conducive to burping anyway? Sitting up slightly bent over for example - next time you feel like a burp, lean forward and listen to the almighty sound propel from your hole!! There is only one way to help a baby burp and its not rubbing your tummy while patting your head.

Its Infacol!!

A little bit Avo!

I had been craving a much loved meal from one of my favorite restaurants that deliver; but that's not the only reason I like restaurant; and last night I got to order it!

The dish is Chicken Avocado. It's not a 5 star dish, but it appeals to my pallet and when it's done correctly the blend of nutty avocado, creamy sauce and chicken are a win! I had my taste buds drowning in my watering mouth as I waited for the dish. Unfortunately, 7 and a half minutes later, my tastebuds were left thoroughly deflated.... not unlike after eating a family size bag of salt n vinegar chips....

The subtlety of chicken breast cries out for perfect execution of the cooking technique chosen.  When accompanied by fresh avocado, again with its light flavours the marriage between the two ingredients can only be sealed by an expert sauce. On this occasion, sadly, the bath of cream - barely salted, did not cut it. And there is the problem! If the sauce can not "cut through" the subtleness of the chicken and avocado; well then the whole dish is just a little bit 'avo"...

So with disappointment in my mouth, I was determined to right a wrong and re-do the dish myself at home. , I set off sauteeing my breast of chicken .... then adding some white wine to the pan to poach it along. Nothing worse than hard breast...

Once the chicken has finished poaching in the wine and a lovely caramel is left in the pan, I removed the chicken and rested it in foil. While I continue slugging white wine around the kitchen I remembered that I had actually opened the bottle to use in the sauce and donated some to my pan to deglaze. A bit of cream at the end and pour over the splayed avocado and chicken and Yum YUM chicken dinner!

Sometimes it really is better to cook it yourself at home...

its just soo ... Vanilla

So many people sing the praises of the most classic flavour of all, "Vanilla". But there's a reason the English lingo has adapted this word in context of describing something 'plain', 'generic' or 'boring'.  With so many other wonderful flavours available, why would anyone willingly chose Vanilla. In my mind, the only thing Vanilla has done for the culinary world is lend itself in some artifical numerical form to "Creamy Soda" soft drink. I'm sick of the pons that Masterchefians are going on with, flaunting their expert vanilla bean scraping technique. Frankly I would rather take that scraper and pierce myself in the neck with it, rather than eat vanilla....

Utterly utterly rotton to be Ginger

Homegrown ginger freshly plucked from the garden! I feel a curry is in the pipe... Which is odd because that usually happens after it's eaten...

FFishy fishy ffish

... I always smile at that movie catchphrase!... Recently we inherited a Goldfish from my sister, because he had eaten a hole in her other 'more favoured' fish; and he .. well he had died as a result. So all packaged up with feed, a bowl, and some plants - a goldfish meets his new mummy and daddy, and toddlder.

A little trip to the fish supply shop to help build the momentum of a new fantastic pet, saw us decked out with new pebbles for the bottom of the tank and a couple bottles of fandangle chemicals or salts or whatever, which is apparently what goldfish prefer... But while stockpiling the goodies into the basket, we spy the big Goldfish tank and stop to think that if we are buying all this other stuff anyway - we may as well buy our first inherited fishy a playmate to keep him company. The pet shop owner reaches in and picks the fish from the tank, not the fish I would have picked - but I kept thinking 'they are so small - are they worth such a fuss!?"

Two beautiful goldfish swimming in our tank,
one got grumpy and ate the other ones crank... shit joke.
At first I thought Sticks (one was Sticks and one was Fingers - as in Fish Fingers and Fish Sticks) was just waiting diligently uptairs for the feed to come in. Then I thought he might have been having a nap before dinner - but upon some rapid finger tapping and some "ffishy fishy fish" tunes, I sadly realised Sticks was probably not just faking it for some attention. Crap. Now I had a situation on my hands as my toddler had noticed my vigorous attention at the tank. "Whats happened mummy"!!???

"... umm Sticks has died", sounding folorn yet trying to keep it upbeat. Like when Abba try and sing a ballad. But still not a lot of response from my toddler and I wonder just how much I should push the message of death and finality before trying to convince her that fish and chips is still a tasty Friday night option. In the end I asked my beautiful husband to use the fish n chip scoop to rescue Sticks from the tank in time for a fitting burial. Fingers was looking a little too hungry for my liking. Little fishy Sticks was now encased in an empty matchbox in my fridge ready for the burial the next day.

I thought my toddler might have wanted to 'send him off' or something, but appparently with every new dawn comes a new adventure and there has been no mention or recollection of that once-upon-a-time fish "Sticks' swimming around our tank. Well Sticks certainly got his comeupunce - he ate my sisters fish, got moved across town to my house and inherited a new flat mate - who may or may not have led to his demise. Needless to say fish "fingers' is now a solitary figure and will remain so for some time. At least until I get around to disposing of the dead fish in the matchbox sitting in my fridge. Seems my toddler didn't remember at all... small miracles!