Tag: home-made is best

#2293 22 points on Easter ’22

  1. Baking hot cross buns in the morning to enjoy for breakfast… our self-made family tradition.

2. Baby girl still believing in the Easter Bunny. 🐰

3. Hubbie and I successfully convincing her to hide out in her room in case the Easter Bunny arrives.

4. Baby girl having a ball looking for eggs around the yard. 💖

5. Getting all the food ready in the morning to take to my parents (a feat in itself)

6. Having my parents well and healthy on this special day. 🙏

7. Enjoying an Easter feast together.

8. REALLY REALLY REALLY enjoying the Riccadonna. 🥂

9. Enjoying sitting outdoors on this breezy Autumn day.

10. Finding a plant in my parents yard from my childhood.

11. “Op, Op, Op, Op, Opa Gangham Style!” 💃

12. D&Ms.

13. Exchanging Easter treats.

14. Eating Easter treats! Chocolate mousse, droooool.

15. But first, COFFEE. ☕

16. Enjoying the cool change ’til light fades.

17. Bruce Springsteen songs that are fully self-indulgent.

18. Sharing the music love around the table. 🎶

19. Smacking mozzies silly with hands and sponges. 😂

20. Planning to leave by 5, but leaving after 7pm. 🤦‍♀️😂

21. Patting Mister F when we got home. 😻

22. But the BEST thing to end the day, was the beautiful kissing game I played with baby girl at bedtime. She had her lips on my cheek, but not doing the smacking kissing sound, just pressing her lips there, so I was kissing her all over her face, before she would grab my face and hold her lips to my cheek again, and around and around we went, cacking ourselves silly.

THE BEST. 💖💖

Happy Easter to all who celebrate today. 🐰💖🥰💝

#2000 Woo hoo!

I’ve made it to 2000 posts!

I considered some time ago throwing in the towel for this gratitude blog, just because I felt I had done what I set out to do.

That is, I now know how to practice gratitude daily in novel ways.

But a part of me feels like I’m not done in this area, not yet anyway.

So for now, I’ll keep going. 💪

How did I celebrate my blog milestone today? Well after not being sick all winter, my body went ‘stuff this’ and threw in its own towel today. 🙄

Enter panadol and tea.

But in true gratitude, glass half-full fashion, I made chicken soup, and Marion’s hoisen beef noodles, and I’m happy that I made some food for my body (and soul) that’ll hopefully get me back into tip-top shape.

There’s always worse out there to put your own woes in perspective, and remember, there’s always better waiting for you. ❤❤

#1979 Saturday night feast

Lockdown = baking. 😋❤

Omg, nom nom nom.

During the day I made this delectable new recipe, recently seen on Marion Grasby’s social media, the ‘bounty brownie.’

Basically she uses the bounty chocolate bar, along with a whole lotta coconut and other good stuff, to make this incredible version of the brownie.

This is oozy, gooey, soft, and just OMG. My heart. ❤ I originally made it with Hubbie in mind because he loves coconut with chocolate, but gee, I think it’s an all-round winner.

But that wasn’t ALL. Hubbie got a selection of yummy meats and prawns, mixed grill style, and we got them sizzling on the stove… accompanied with salad stuff and home-made oven chips, let’s just say I was feeling really content.

Happy Saturday night 🥰🥰

#1966 Chocolate slice and Ricky

Two things brought me joy today.

(Well, many really, but I gotta talk about something different now, don’t I? 😉)

  1. Cooking.

It was such an inside day, and I was happy to spend most of it indoors, willing the rain to rain down even more, so I could revel in the inside-ness, even more.

I did lots of cooking, and was most happy with this chocolate slice I made. It’s a recipe I’ve had for yonks but never tried. Honestly, I have a trillion recipes scattered in magazines, books and clippings all over the place, and need to go through them more regularly so that I can discover more interesting things to make.

It was good.

2. Ricky Martin.

I’ve been on a massive rock fest of late, and most of the time Queen is the only thing I play. But I put a song on YouTube tonight, a live Ricky Martin performance, and after that was done it gave me another Ricky Martin song…

And I just REMEMBERED. I mean, it’s not like I forgot. But you can’t love everyone at the same time, and you gotta play music according to your mood.

But man, I still love the guy.

I ended up finding a CD and pumping it up as I did the dishes, because that’s the rule in our house… whoever does the dishes, picks the soundtrack.

And it was a whole lot of ‘ola’ tonight!

Chocolate slice, and Ricky. Both so, so sweet. 🤣💖😉

#1961 Old is new again

I saw a lovely sight today. Something that brought me happy memories.

And the smell… gee, it transported me back to my childhood. I remember walking past it as a kid, and being hit hard by the smoke and mustiness of it all.

My parents old smokehouse.

Only it ain’t looking so old. It’s got a fresh lick of paint, a prime position in their yard, and it is in OPERATION.

It’s fascinating, how as kids all this homemade stuff isn’t fascinating to us.

Smoking meats, making sausages, home-made wine, other brews… 🤪😂

And yet as we hit adulthood, all of this stuff makes us happy! In my case, I will probably only try a tiny bit of smoked meat, but give me that sweet stuff before it turns into wine ANY day.

Most. Pronounced, M-O-SH-T.

Who knows? Maybe this new-found love for what is old-fashioned, natural and instinctive, will give rise to the next generation stepping up and taking a new interest in making these things…

Of course. It’s guaranteed. 💖💖

#1944 Saturday DIY pizzas

We’re enjoying our Saturday nights in more and more.

Maybe because we know we have our freedom, and can go out if we want to.

Plus, Winter, and that other thing, BALANCE.

When we knew we were staying in, Hubbie suggested we get pizza… and I was like, “but we have all that ham in the fridge!”

So he said, “why don’t we make our own?”

BOOM! Idea born.

It’s not the first time we’ve done it, but we definitely don’t do it near enough.

I went out earlier today with baby girl to buy the bases and some toppings, and I got several bases because they weren’t really huge to be honest.

This ended up being a blessing in disguise, because when it came time to the ‘decorating’ part…

Well, we each had our own! I got the toppings ready, and then we all set about constructing our own idea of a delicious pizza!

And man, it can vary, heaps. I did long strips of ham and big mushrooms chunks, with heaps of mozzarella cheese piled on top.

Baby girl wanted her mushrooms in teeny tiny bits, even breaking up bits of spinach into pieces that looked more like parsley garnish.

And Hubbie did loads of sauce, with hot salami on top of all the usuals, AND pineapple! I know!

It was so good, and it felt heaps healthier after, there was none of that heavy feeling or anything.

I think this will be a regular addition to our dinner menu. 😋

#1930 Lockdown food

Lockdown ain’t much different than a Winter’s night.

I don’t know. It just felt like, same-same to me today.

And though it isn’t Winter yet, we’ve gotten PLENTY of previews lately. We were planning on staying in tonight anyway, so when lockdown was announced, we just upped our Saturday cook-at-home plans, and put on the heater.

I made some vanilla muffins during the day from the Rachael Finch program…

I pimp these up with bits of chocolate, because make these healthy treats a little more ‘family-friendly’ that’s why, and also we have enough chocolate from Easter to last us ’til Santa comes around again.

And at night, I made a recipe I had bookmarked, perhaps last lockdown? LOL.

Marion Grasby’s Hoisin Beef Noodles

Now this, OMG. Droooool.

That is all.

The longer we are in iso, the longer I’ll just make more recipes, read and write more, and clean the house more in a mad frenzy (OK that one not so much, but a little more 🤣🤣)

#1891 Happy-go-lucky day

I was glad it was raining and grey today.

A home day is what I needed.

A day to do… whatever.

I had a ‘maybe’ playdate penned for today… but when I saw the sky, I messaged baby girl’s friend’s mum, and wrote “we’re staying inside today.”

It was just what the doctor ordered.

And what exactly was it on his prescription list?

Make some chicken soup.

Make some muffins.

Set up Monopoly on the coffee table and come back to it 3 times during the day!

Do a work out and lie on the floor puffing with jelly legs afterwards.

And then, for some balance… TAKE AWAY!

🤣

I got a wonderful surprise when I found out I had been published too! Not in the traditional ‘print’ form, this outlet is not your usual writers go-to… but nonetheless, EXCITING. 🤩

More on that soon…

But, today was what I needed. Doing whatever, whenever, just chilling and taking it easy. Because tomorrow routine starts again, proper, when I wake up earlier to take baby girl to school!

Waaaa! Holidays went too quick… 😒😁

#1852 My little chef

I’ve been making a heap of food tonight to last, and as I set about making my lasagna earlier, I tried to sell it to baby girl.

She LOVESSSSSSSSSSSS her pasta.

Lasagna, she does not.

The type of lasagna she would eat? A deconstructed one. Like, a sheet of pasta… some cheese sprinkled on the side, or perhaps a smear of bechamel beneath the sheet… and like a dollop of bolognaise sauce on the side, too, of course.

So really, just her regular pasta with bolognaise. 🤦‍♀️

But I’ve been trying to break it down to her lately, and tonight was my example I set for her. As I made the lasagna, I told her –

“Really, it’s no different to when Mummy makes bolognaise! There’s pasta, sauce and cheese, but just all layered all over each other!”

Anyway, I’ve found the best thing is when she watches me cook. She becomes very interested, tries to help out, add this, stir that. She loves to stir.

And she also becomes curious.

Willing.

Experimental.

Brave.

So I threw it in.

“Here, take a spoon and try the bolognaise, go on.”

And then later, when I was done layering the bechamel.

“Lick the spoon, try it.”

As the foil went over my oven-ready lasagna dish, she said with enthusiasm –

“Mmm, maybe I will try some lasagna!”

😁😁

Watch this space…!