Menu plan 11 Aug 08

Thursday night was the only slip up last week, KFC for the second week in a row. I call that progress :P The apple and rhubarb crumble on Tuesday was awesome if I do say so myself, definitely make that again some time. Di and Bren came over on Friday night so I ended up cooking chicken burritos as well as tacos, then we watched Stargate: Continuum, was good :)

Monday
Steak, jacket potato and grilled veg
Fruit & yoghurt
Tuesday
Corned beef, onion sauce and steamed veg
Ice cream & fruit
Wednesday
BBQ chicken, prawns, salad & bread rolls
Crepes - lemon and sugar for me, maple syrup for the kids
Thursday
Lasagne & salad
Ice cream & fruit
Friday
Chinese takeaway
Fresh fruit
Saturday
Camping with the Huscarls - I believe the plan involves dead animals on a spit over the open fire
Sunday
Noodle/leftovers night - raid the fridge/freezer/pantry for whatever looks good, fall back plan is 2 minute noodles, except in Caitlin's case where noodles is her first choice.
Fresh fruit

Him

Meme time again, Heather's to blame for this one.

1. What is his name?
Adam

2. Who eats more?
I'm not sure, probably about the same for most things.

3. Who said, “I love you” first?
Him. In fact he said it to me on the night we "got together" (we went to the same high school so I can't say it was the night we met though we didn't really know each other before then).

4. Who is taller?
Him.

5. Who drives most when you are out together?
He does, because he likes driving and I don't care either way.

6. Who is more sensitive?
Well, I'm more likely to show sensitivity, I'm not sure that means he's particularly less so.

7. Who does the laundry?
The whole family! Adam and I are equally likely to put the washing machine or dryer on, or hang the clothes out, we make the kids help with the folding and we both iron...or not as the case may be ;-)

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
Adam at the moment but it's random when we travel and we've swapped several times at home when we've moved furniture around.

9. Who pays the bills?
Mostly Adam lately, used to be mostly me, that changes back and forth too.

10. Who cooks more?
I do most dinners, Adam is a dab hand at breakfasts (pancakes! omelettes!) and he usually makes the lunches for the kids.

11. Who is more stubborn?
I just don't see this as applying, neither of us is prone to insisting on having our own way for the sake of winning the fight, we negotiate decisions. Being stubborn implies to me that someone isn't willing to bow to reason or reach compromises.

12. Who is the first to admit they are wrong?
Um, the person who was wrong? It's not a competition.

13. Who has more siblings?
I have 2, he has 1.

14. Who wears the pants in the relationship?
Ok, this meme is starting to piss me off. We neither of us control the other, the mere idea gives me the creeps.

15. What do you like to do together?
Lots of things! We share interests in TV shows, movies, books, food, wine, various hobbies, I even like talking to him about his work. I love being on holidays together, long conversations in the car, being somewhere new and just spending time together exploring, relaxing and not having to deal with the usual routine. Cheese and crackers and a good vintage port in front of the TV after the kids are in bed. Going to a park with the kids.

16. Who eats more sweets?
I don't keep a tally.

17. Guilty Pleasures?
Guilt is overrated ;-) We do tend to spend a fair bit of money on wines and eating out which is certainly indulgent!

18. How did you meet?
We first met at high school, he was 2 years ahead of me and we had a few mutual friends but we didn't really have much to do with each other. When I was in year 12, one of those mutual friends extended her invitation to a party being held by another of Adam's friends to myself and a few of my friends. Adam was there, we danced, we kissed, he said "I think I'm in love" (see question 3 above) and I gave him my phone number which he promptly lost. Thank goodness for mutual friends!

19. Who asked whom out first?
There was no asking out per se.

20. Who kissed who first?
Oh, that was pretty mutual :D

21. Who proposed?
There was this whole thing where he kept talking about growing old and grey together and eventually I pinned him down and made him explain himself. He did the formal version some time later with dinner and a ring.

22. His best features and qualities?
He has infinite patience (all right, almost infinite). He's generous, kind and thoughtful. He has boundless enthusiasm for lots of different hobbies (without Adam as the driving force there'd be no amateur rocketry, remote control model boats and aeroplanes or historical reenactment in my life. And all those things are awesome!). He's intelligent and talented. He has enormous integrity. He's handsome and cuddlesome and, um...other stuff :) And he makes a perfect cup of tea.

That was a weird mix of reminiscence, relationship analysis and seemingly meaningless trivia. Wonder what Adam will think of my answers....

This meme is brought to you tagging-free with the usual invite to do it if you feel like it.

Well, there's nothing wrong with that

I had a long conversation with my daughter recently which was sparked off by a couple of things that had come up at school. It started with her recounting a conversation that took place when the word "gay" was used an insult by one one of the boys to one of Caitlin's friends, the friend responded by asking him if he knew what gay meant and he replied "Yeah, it means happy". Caitlin's friend said "No, it's when 2 boys or 2 girls love each other" and Caitlin chimed in with "Well, there's nothing wrong with that". Then Caitlin's friend came out with "Yes there is, it's disgusting and wrong!" (I believe that after a couple more "no it's not/yes it is" exchanges the subject was dropped without resolution.)

Sigh.

Next came the revelation that one of Caitlin's friends had told her that she (the friend) believed that other kids at school didn't like her because she looked different to everyone else.** This friend is Chinese. I was, rather naively I suppose, quite surprised and very saddened by this, as was Caitlin.

Sigh again.

Anyway, it all led into a long discussion about the problem of prejudice and the issues of homophobia and racism. David joined in too after a while. Both the kids were coming up with some great ways to explain their understanding of the issues. I even overheard them going over the same ground amongst themselves - Tom included this time - at the breakfast table the next morning (which had me calling out "Less talking, more eating, we're going to be LATE!).

Let me share one of the arguments they came up with.

They've learned about how left-handed kids used to get into trouble for writing with the "wrong hand" at school through their history studies, so when I explained that some people are just made differently when it comes to sexual orientation, they made a connection.

"Being homosexual is like being left-handed, you're just made that way, it's not wrong, just different. People used to believe that being left-handed was wrong, it's not, they were wrong. There's nothing wrong with being different."

I was proud that Caitlin was willing to take a stand against homophobia, I hope all my kids will be willing to speak out against hate and bigotry and I dare to hope that their doing so might help their peers to understand a little more and hate and fear a little less.

*I have gay friends and family, the kids are pretty disgusted by the idea of homophobia.

**My kids' school is a bizarrely homogeneous Anglo-Saxon enclave considering that there is quite a large proportion of Asian and other immigrants in the surrounding areas. There's a Chinese church one block from our house for one thing.

Vegan Indulgence

I received a parcel in the mail this afternoon. Inside it was this:


My very lovely friend Leigh Drew (aka ZB ) has had her first cookbook published. Leigh is an awesome cook, she is creative and adventurous and her enthusiasm for great food is contagious. When she talks about her cooking you can't help but be excited with her. This little book is packed full of taste-bud tempting treats and each recipe is illustrated with gorgeous photographs, makes you hungry just reading it :)

I was lucky enough to be involved in some of the taste testing of these recipes earlier this year and all I can say is YUM!

If you'd like a copy for yourself Leigh has posted a list of places where you can find the book on her blog, which I'm reproducing here:

Online
aduki independent press, for both Australian and international orders
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Cruelty Free Shop
Food Fight!

"Real" Life
Organic food stores, health food stores, book stores (such as Dymocks, Megalong Books etc) - go and ask if they carry aduki titles, or contact aduki for more information on stockists.

Leigh also teaches Vegan cookery courses through the Sydney Community College and will be running 2 Vegan Indulgence Workshops, the first on Saturday August 23 from 10am to 4pm and the second on Saturday September 13 from 10am to 4pm.

You can explore some of Leigh's other vegan creations on her blog ZB's Vegan Recipes.

Hmm, what to cook first...choc cherry squares?...passionfruit melting moments?...aha! Orange and fig slice, this I remember as being one of my favourites, think I'll start there.

Planning ahead

When I turned 6 on the 23rd of October in 1976 I got one of the best birthday presents I've ever had. The sun hid behind the moon. I remember being so excited. We made pinhole cameras and my dad explained what was going to happen. We even went on holidays to somewhere further south in order to be closer to the path of the totality (I can't remember where and it's too late to call mum and ask). I have a vivid memory of sitting in the car watching the dot of light in my pinhole camera being slowly nibbled away as the daylight faded to an eerie orange colour. It was just so cool. I think that's when I got hooked on all things astronomical.

Yep, a solar eclipse makes a great birthday present. As did the plastic pterodactyl I got on the same day, I kept that flying reptile right up to the week before I got married when I culled my "keeping boxes" and my parents decided to be helpful and threw out the box of stuff I wanted to keep instead of the one I wanted to discard. No, I'm not bitter, why do you ask?

This solar eclipse memoir inspired by this post on Hoyden About Town.

Now for the planning bit. Thanks to Sydney Observatory's upcoming sky events I can do some thinking ahead.

I've never been to Cairns and I haven't really wanted to go there either, but this seems like a good reason to head north. Except, November? In far north Queensland? I don't know if I can come at that.

Total eclipse of the Sun 14 November 2012

This will be the first opportunity to see a total eclipse from Australia since the South Australian eclipse of 2002. In 2012 the eclipse will be visible from North Queensland. The eclipse track will begin in the Gulf of Carpentaria, cut through Cape York and after moving out into the Coral Sea continue across the Pacific Ocean towards North America.

Cairns is on the path of the eclipse and may be the best viewing spot. Totality will occur at 6.40am Eastern Standard Time with the Sun 14 degrees above the horizon. Totality will last just over two minutes.

In Sydney the eclipse will be seen as partial beginning at 7.09am and finishing at 9.04am. Eclipse maximum will be at 8.02am with about 70% of the Sun's diameter covered by the Moon.

Path of the 2012 total eclipse of the Sun in Australia

And here's a good reason to stay living in Sydney. For the next 20 years. What's the bet we don't fare any better with the weather than poor William Scott.

Total eclipse of the Sun 22 July 2028

Should you be in Sydney on 22 July 2028 at 2.00pm you can view a total eclipse of the Sun. For 3 minutes and 50 seconds the Moon will fully cover the Sun, called totality, turning daytime into night time. This event is rarely visible from a large city like Sydney. Interestingly a similar eclipse happened on 26 March 1857. The astronomer Rev. William Scott travelled to South Head at the entrance to Sydney Harbour. At 6:50am he tried to observe the eclipse, for the 3 minutes that the Moon fully covered the Sun. As sunrise was at 6.00am, the Sun was only 9 degrees about the eastern horizon. Luck was not on his side as clouds made it impossible to directly view the eclipse.

Path of the 2028 total eclipse of the Sun in Australia

Something to look forward to hey?

Menu plan 4 Aug 08

Last week would have gone a lot smoother if I'd managed to plan the shopping as well as our meals. I was still on the uphill stretch from being sick (today is the first time I've felt like I had any energy) and I couldn't get my head around more than one day at a time. By Thursday night I'd dropped the culinary bundle completely, we had KFC for dinner *sigh*, then on Friday we had pizza (not homemade). On Saturday I bought Cornish Pasties and sausage rolls (I figured the kids weren't going to go for the pasties) and served them up with oven baked potato wedges, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce so that was a bit better, and tonight we've had ricotta and sundried tomato ravioli with mediterranean sauce and baby spinach.

This week starts off easy with things I already have in the freezer and I won't have to do any grocery shopping till Wednesday, assuming I've bought enough bread and milk to get us through till then!

Monday
Oven fish & chips
Fruit & yoghurt
Tuesday
Veal casserole, rice and peas
Apple & rhubarb crumble and custard
Wednesday
Lamb kebabs & couscous salad
Fruit & yoghurt
Thursday
Spaghetti Bolognese & salad
Ice cream & fruit
Friday
Tacos & salad
Fruit & yoghurt
Saturday
BBQ - steak, sausages, jacket potatoes and salad
Fruit & yoghurt
Sunday
Mango chicken curry & rice
Fresh fruit

Today in photos

Tom played soccer this morning.



We sat on the front deck enjoying the sunshine.



David hunted siblings

And then we went on a picnic with my mum AND Adam's mum, took Clara to a dog park for the first time (she was in HEAVEN), played basketball with the kids, and completely failed to take a single photo.

It's been a particularly awesome sort of day :)