what's cooking wednesday

School holidays huh. Yep, again. Only consolation is that there's no rushing around to after-school activities to take into consideration when plotting the meals. So here's what we'll be noshing on this week:

Wednesday: chicken and lemon risotto. I'm going to poach some chicken breasts in herb-laden chicken stock and cut them into chunks. Then I'll use that stock to cook the risotto. I'll stir in the chunks of cooked chicken at the end, make a paste with an egg yolk, parmesan and lemon, and stir that in before serving. Hello.

Thursday: We're having friends over for 'duck night'. Duck confit, and I'm going to make a caramelised pear, potato and crispy pancetta to serve it with. I'll also do peas and lettuce cooked in chicken stock. Yum.

Friday: It's my father-in-law's birthday so we're headed up to Maitland to help celebrate.

Saturday: we're sleeping over at my in-laws then heading off to Hunter Valley Gardens to check out their easter options. Bless. We'll be home late so I'll just have a couple of steaks in the fridge and buy a baguette on the way home and serve up steak sandwiches.

Sunday: I haven't done a lamb roast for yonks. Best. Shall do my seven hour lamb - on the bed of lentils, with roasted carrots - purple and orange {my coles has the purple carrots - they are awesome. My gal took some to school in sticks for fruit break - big success!}

Monday: Orichette with broccoli, anchovies and crispy pancetta. Mmmmm.

Tuesday: No french lessons during holidays so I'll finally be able to watch Survivor live rather than sitting up till 1am watching the replay on Saturday nights {our DVD doesn't record HD programmes - that sucks}. I'll do a fish dish, with rice, and lotsa greens.

And that'll do.

the king and queen of camp

I desperately need to get myself to England at Panto time. Honestly, I think I would explode at the fabulousness that is Joan Collins and Julien Clary on stage beclothed in much feathers, fur and sequins.

Bless.

I found this on Julien Clary's twitter feed - which made me realise how much I miss him...

And Joan - bless her - would you have a look at how well she's carrying off wearing a gigantic fluffy animal on her head? Legend.

vive la france

Tonight's the end of the first term of my second year of French lessons. I'd love to say that I'm becoming more fluent in French, but, seriously, it's a damned difficult language to learn. And my brain is ridiculously resistant to learning new stuff.

But as tonight's the final night of the term we always have a wee party - with food, and champagne. Fingers crossed that the bubbles will loosen my tongue and help engage my brain!

i ♥ kate spade

There are some designers that I have an ineffable affection for. Kate Spade is one. I ♥ her so. Look at these pretty purple patent pumps - so pretty.

Love.

in short

I find the concept of formal shorts amusing.

However, these silk, Gucci harem shorts are HYSTERICAL.

So hysterical that they totally distracted me from finding my shoe of the week. Selfish.

an organised linen closet

This is not my linen closet - oh, but I wish it was. My linen closet is a black hole, a very large walk-in cupboard, probably the size of most house's second toilet - if not slightly bigger. It's got shelves around three sides that go way up to the ceiling - over 12 feet. Sound like a dream? Well welcome to my nightmare.

Of course the larger the linen closet, the more crap you store in it. Ideally it'd be stored in lovingly organised piles, tied with pretty ribbons if I had my way. But no, it's horrendous.

See, my linen closet gets a clean out three to four times per year: when the summer school uniforms are due, when the winter school uniforms are due, and when I need to find the Santa Sack for Christmas Eve.

Every. Single. Time I swear that "THIS IS IT" I am going to get that closet organised and sort things out. And I do. Currently I have lovely piles of pale bath towels, dark bath towels and beach towels. On the shelf above I have pillow slips, single sheets, double sheets and queen sheets. Then blankets. Sounds v Martha doesn't it? Well, sadly, that's where the organisation ends and the hell begins. Oh, no, hold on, I do also have the two shoeboxes - one with cards and one with gift-wrapping ribbon. That's good.

Now, for the bad. There are bags, and bags of clothes in there. Small bags. Bags with snow gear, bags with outgrown, sentimental clothing {I just found my gal's first pair of Mary Janes - bless!}, out-of-season clothing - and, apparently, out-of-season uniforms {and two limited edition Barbie dolls still in their boxes - I need a pool room for those...}

After two hours the floor of the closet's tidy. Picnic baskets and punch bowls on one side, overnight bags, three cricket bats {there were four, I whittled him down to four. How long since he's played cricket you ask? Well, let's put it this way, our daughter's never seen him play. Our 11 year old daughter...} camping chairs and sewing machines around the others. I've also dragged out bags of photos - now I have a scanner that's a new to-do task. I found heaps of stuff - just not my gal's winter uniform. Thankfully tonight's the first official night of the school holidays - and I've got two and a half weeks to pop on a miner's hat and find* the damned thing. Wish me luck - lots of it...

* Found it. In a bag, on a shelf with ALL the other bags of clothes. Right next to the door, in a bright red bag I'd obviously decided to overlook earlier. I know... Next stop, buying lots of clear plastic containers for the clothes. With labels. I know...

sweet, sweet sunday

Oh wow, it's one of those spectacular autumn days here today. Crisp morning, blue sky and a bit of heat in the afternoon. Parfait. I survived yesterday with my gal's solo trip with friends to the movies. She enjoyed it, although she had a 3D headache - seriously, what IS it with the fact that every damned kids' movie has to be in 3D - deserved or not. I can't bear it, they always give me a headache, and I hate sitting there with those glasses on waiting for one dodgy thing to come out the screen at me. Big whoop. {sorry, had an accidental rant there...}

Anyway, today we're off to the Farmer's Markets. My favourite baker in Newcastle, Alice from Baked Uprising, has a stall so I shall be stocking up. Yum. I also need gozleme for lunch - and some farm fresh fruit and veg.

Late yesterday afternoon I took off on a solo bike ride. It was nothing like my husband's lycra-clad 70km extravaganzas, nope, it was slow, meandering and just glorious. This afternoon I'll be taking the gal for a pedal around the streets of our suburb - and a few neighbouring ones. Only the tree-lined and gorgeous ones of course.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend. xx

sunny saturday!

Oh, there's a blue sky outside, birds are singing away and I've got a BIG day planned. Netball first, with two of my girls umpiring. Now, I don't know if you've ever been anywhere near a netball game, but let me tell you - there are times when umpires aren't treated with the utmost of respect. Mine will be. I'll be there, and my co-coach will be there, to make sure these 11-year-olds who are umpiring a game of 9-year-olds receive nothing but encouragement and respect from those on the court and the sideline. It's something I've drummed into my girls when I first started coaching - and should be the first thing ever coach insists on.

Then it's our second game of the season before the school holiday break {oh, school holidays... so long...}

This afternoon I'm attempting not to be a helicopter parent, and am letting my gal fly. She's off to see the new Justin B**ber movie with 15 girls from her school - and they're going in alone. Yep. I'm nervous, but the parents who are driving will be right beside the theatre, in a café - and there are a lot of responsible girls there - my own included. I think the only problem will be the assault to the ears of the patrons in the cinema when the Beebs walks on screen, cue to much squealing.

Wow, they grow up so fast. Parenting's such a fine balance of knowing when to hold them back, when to hold them, and when to let them go. Wish me luck - and remind me to breathe...

and ahhhhhhhhhhh

The fact that it's FINALLY the weekend deserves a fabulous frock. A fabulous VINTAGE DIOR frock nonetheless. I found this over at Greige and am utterly besotted. Besotted.

Hey, you know how on Monday I found my ideal renewal of the wedding vow shoes? Well, hello, how's this for a frock to match? {Why yes I will have to have a few ribs removed to fit that wasp waist, but pshaw, ribs, what have they done for me lately?}

Now, if you'll excuse me there's some wine in the fridge that has been shouting out my name since, oh, I don't know, 10am... {I know, at least I've ignored it till official drinking hour}

flowers for friday

My heart stopped beating for more than a moment when I spied with my little eyes, something beginning with fabulous! Red and pink - my two favourite colour-combinations - peonies - my favourite flower. I know - get OUT.

If this resided in my humble abode there's a damned fine chance I'd weep tears of joy whenever I spotted them. {And my husband would weep tears of "How on earth could you possibly spend over $100 on flowers...} C'mon, how can you put a price on perfection?

oh arthur

I'm not normally a fan of remakes - unless the casting's genius. Which is why I'm dead keen to check out Arthur. Nobody else could play the role of Arthur as well as Russell Brand, and I'm loving the concept of Helen Mirren as his 'butler' {damn, that's brought on my butler cravings again. Explain to me why I don't have a butler?}

I love Helen Mirren. And this photo, where she's looking fabulous as always, cracks me up - don't you love how she's pointing to her teeny tiny head in the poster? Cute. Apparently she and Russell Brand have incredible chemistry too, so I'm keen to see how that plays out in celluloid.

Bless.

easter hat parade

It's our Easter Hat parade at school today. Bless. And I can say "bless" rather than "dammit" because only the kinders take part in this parade, and they make the hats with their Year 6 buddy's help. As my gal's a Year 6 buddy my only role in this effort was a quick trip to Spotlight last weekend for fluffy chicks, a glitter hat, lotsa pom poms, glittery easter eggs and ribbon.

So today I'm taking my lunchbreak late and going to watch my gal hold her buddy's hand and check out the glittery, pom-pom-ridden creation.

And cry... just a little bit...

what's cooking wednesday

It's that time again, that time when I plot out all my meals, hopefully to follow them for the next week. Last week I finally managed to cook up something that's been sitting in my mind, and unmade in my meal plans for weeks: prawn and chorizo risotto. Perfection. I made a simple risotto base {garlic, white wine, arborio rice and lotsa chicken stock} and then fried up slices of chorizo. Then, in the same pan, I cooked up 250g raw prawns till they were pink and plump. These were tossed through the risotto before serving. Now, for the genius bit. I said to my gal, who was helping cook, "Should we add parmesan?" and mini masterchef said, "No, you can't have parmesan with seafood..." so instead, she made a gremolata - lemon zest, parsley and garlic all mushed together and sprinkled over the bowls of risotto. Heaven.

This week this is what we're eating:

Wednesday: Steak, pumpkin mash and broccoli with almonds and anchovies.

Thursday: Chicken sausages, wilted garlic spinach, sweet potato chips and mashed potato.

Friday: Glazed salmon, potato rosti and asian greens.

Saturday: Pork and noodle stirfry.

Sunday: Standing rib roast and vegies.

Monday: Chicken pot pies, mash and peas.

Tuesday: Beef and barley soup.

Sounds okay by me...

concentrating on the sweet stuff

It's easy to focus on all that niggly, annoying or downright horrid stuff - but instead, I now chose to focus on the sweet stuff. Instead of moaning or groaning that I have to put away freshly washed clothes or dishes, I'm going to smile about the fact that they're clean. I'm going to look for the good in every option - and celebrate it.

In fact, I might celebrate it so much that I might make a lemon chiffon cake {um, hello, yumminess!}

monday i have friday on my mind...

Oh weekends, why do you fly by so, so, so quickly? Honestly, just another day would do me the world of good - particularly with school holidays advancing on us so rapidly {eek!}

But, I'm not thinking about this. Instead, I'm thinking about pretty shoes - these pretty shoes. Exactly what I'd wear on my feet if I had my wedding all over again. Ahhhhhhh.

sweet, sweet saturday

I'm sorry, did I nearly deafen you with my sigh of relief that it's the weekend? Sorry about that. Ahhhhh, but it's the weekend. Today is the first day of the netball season, and luckily my girls play at the very respectable time of 10.45am - that makes me happy. So we've got a bit of time to potter around before leaving today.

Only a few things on the planner today. My gal and her bestie need to have a shopping trip to buy Easter bonnet materials to make bonnets for their kinder buddies next week. So we're off to Spotlight and the $2 for lots of sequins, sparkles and feather boas. I think I'll show her Mrs Woog's efforts with Jack's hat - now that was an easter hat {I do so covet a hat complete with miniature disco ball - genius}.

Then there's the usual stuff: housework, gardening, a bit of work...

You?

flowers for friday

The simple things in life really are so so spectacular aren't they? I can't imagine anything prettier than lovely flowers in jars, jugs, teapots or bowls. In fact, I find it hard to put a bunch of flowers in a vase these days - it seems a bit like putting a fabulous hat on while you're wearing tracky daks.

Now, hands up who can believe it's the end of the week? Do you know that in just three months I'll be flying to the UK, then to Paris, and then to Provence? I know - shut up. It's zooming up on me so quickly I'm fearful that it'll fly by just as fast. I want to suck in every moment, I don't want to spend any second stressing or worrying - I just want to enjoy.

Same with life really. Why not enjoy it?

scent-sational

Apparently I'm going through a "oooh, I need that" period in my life. And you know what I need? This. To celebrate the one year anniversary of Balenciaga Paris come these adorable purse-sized parfums.

Did I mention the scent is chypre violet? I do believe that it has PPMJ written all over it.

Available at David Jones, which is where I'll be headed on the double.

covetous moments

There is just so much to love about this image. That utterly magnificent red frock, an ice green Smeg Fridge {seriously, before I die I just do need one of those} and the perfection that is Sophie Dahl. Isn't she just exquisite?

Ps: those sundaes? Rocking my world. I so need to make a pink pudding...

what's cooking wednesday

Oh lordy, seriously? Wednesday again? Already? Okay then. Well, my gal's recovered from her illness that saw half the school felled in one swoop - honestly, these gastro bugs sure do know how to take hold don't they? And of course, just as her fever abated mine began. Of course. But I've been good and rested up so hopefully I'll get through today okay...

Here's what we're eating this week:

Tonight: netball training so there will be a beef and red wine casserole bubbling in the slow cooker. Served with mash. I need some comfort.

Thursday: I've got a craving for chicken noodle soup - heavy on the garlic.

Friday: Now, so far as I know we've got NOTHING planned this weekend. This makes me happy. After last weekend when the gal and I weeded the front yard I'd love for us to get out and do something in the side yard. So to sustain us, I might have to cook up a seven hour leg of lamb*. Yep, I think that'll do.

Saturday: steak and vegies.

Sunday: Roast chicken. Last Sunday we couldn't find a freerange chook, so we had pork rib roast instead {mmmmm}. So this week I'm determined to roast me some chicken.

Monday: Prawn and chorizo risotto. Would you believe that the other week The Essential Ingredient were all out of risotto rice? Well, except for these enormous sacks that would take us years to plough through. So this is back on the menu again. With a lemony rocket salad on the side.

Tuesday: French lessons. Think I'll make beef kebabs, a rice pilaf and honeyed carrots.

And that'll do us for the week I think.

Seven hour leg of lamb recipe*

1 leg of lamb, including bone, and preferably shank

Garlic cloves

Anchovies {I know, but wait...}

1 cup french lentils

1 onion

1 carrot

bay leaves

white wine

With a knife, pierce the lamb's skin all over, to a depth of around 3cm. Wiggle the knife around a little to make the pockets a little bigger. Now, peel and slice your garlic cloves lengthwise, and cut your anchovies in half. Place a garlic sliver and a piece of anchovy in each of the pockets. I like to do plenty - probably around 20 on the average leg. Push them right into the skin - if they peek out they burn.

Cover the lamb with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Now, I like to cook this in my cast iron Le Crueset oven - but if you don't have one, use a baking dish and cover firmly with foil. Place the chopped onions and carrots in the bottom of the dish and then sprinkle the lentils over the top. Toss in a few bay leaves and then cover this with white wine {probably only around a cup}. Place leg of lamb on top, cover with a lid, or two layers of foil - you want to keep the steam in.

Place lamb in an oven on its lowest setting - around 130 degrees to 150 degrees and leave it to cook for seven hours. That's it. After seven hours the lamb will fall from the bone, and the anchovies will have melted to provide the most incredible flavour. You'll also have a yummy side-dish with the lamb-infused lentils.

Serve with mash.