Banana Reviews

Some of you may know that the big online store, Amazon, is now selling groceries. The grocery side of the site has the same functionality just like the normal Amazon store, even down to the ability to review the goods and add them to your wedding or baby registry. Some of the reviews are very funny. Check out the banana ones. And some of the others. ;-)

Walnut & Garlic Sauce

CW asked about the sauce I made for the pasta in the previous post. I saw a recipe on one of the food blogs I read, La Tavola and wanted to make it. Unfortunately it is in Italian and Babelfish had some trouble translating it for me.

Bablefish gives me:
200 grams of gherigli of walnuts
50 grams of pinoli
1 forelock of maggiorana toasts you to furnace
1/2 segment of garlic (or prezzemolo) 1
100 latte grams of curdled (or annealed)
1/2 oil glass.
IN ORDER TO FLAVOR:
60 grams of butter 8
80 grams of grattuggiato $parmesan

So I ended up doing this:

200g toasted walnuts
50g toasted pine nuts
Chopped parsley (2 tablespoons I think I put in)
3 cloves chopped garlic
cream (original recipe also suggests ricotta which is lower in fat)
olive oil
grated parmesan

I put all except the cream, oil and parmesan into a blender and whizzed it to a pesto consistency. Then I added the cream, oil and parmesan to my taste.

Then I drained the pasta and stirred it in.

Homemade Pasta

100g high grade flour
1 egg
(for 2 portions of pasta)

(Edited to add: This process took us about an hour I think. It took longer than otherwise because DS was "helping"!)
1. Break the eggs into the flour and stir with a fork.

2. Knead to a smooth dough.

3. Form into small "patties" and flour generously.

4. Unless you have an Italian grandmother & her rolling pin handy, pass the patties through a pasta machine.
5. Keep passing the dough through the machine on sucessively higher settings until you have a thin "tongue" of pasta dough. Lay on a floured surface and leave to dry a little. Continue with the remainder of the dough in the meantime.
6. Sprinkle some flour over the long tongues of pasta and pass through the pasta machine again using the fettucine blades.
7.Leave the noodles to dry slightly in little nests.


8. Bring a pot of salty water to the boil and cook pasta until al dente.
Serve with a sauce of your choice. The one displayed here is Walnut and Garlic Sauce.

Organic Veges

This is my second order of an organic fruit and vege box from Naturally Organic. Both times I've been really pleased with the quality of the fruit and vegetables, as well as the prompt service. It's a small family size box filled with random, seasonal produce. It cost me $39.50 (delivery cost of $6.95) so I think that is pretty good for a week and a half worth of produce.

This box has curly kale, mixed lettuce leaves, spinach, asparagus x2, bananas, golden kumara, carrots, apples, oranges, pumpkin, beans, beetroot, spring onions and kiwifruit. You can specify if there is any vege/fruit you don't want included.

If anyone is interested in ordering from them, I have a discount code for a new customer to get free delivery. It seems a shame to let it go to waste, so if you want to give it a go, send me an email and I'll send you the code! They sell more than just vege boxes; organic cheese, dry goods etc etc are all available too.

Oh - and just because it was on the same batch of photos I uploaded - here is a tag book I made for my uber boss who retired after 26 years of service.
I wish I'd taken pics of the inside now, but I was in a hurry that morning to take it in so people could sign it.

Gorne....

The long weekend that is.

I did manage one solitary layout. I'm not super happy with it; the title did not work like I imagined it, but I'm not going to go back and change it.
This was done with the Basic Grey Lily Kate papers I got through Kiwiscraps after winning some credit in a monthly challenge. I also used a ghost clock I got from the Tarisota collection which happily came last week! Am very much in love with the papers in that pack!

It was a busy and tiring weekend. The neighbour's car alarm went off from 8.30pm to 4.30am every 2 mintues. Needless to say, our sleep was not restful on Friday night. Obviously, they had gone away for the weekend and set the alarm to be so sensitive that a cat peeing on it would set it off.

On Saturday we took a little train trip into Newmarket for DS's benefit. He's very interested in trains; it makes his day when we see one on the way to work/daycare. The station closest to us didn't have trains running that day, so after that discovery we drove to where they were running from. We waited 30 minutes and finally we were off! The look on DS's face was a treasure to behold.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing all those normal weekend things. I am happy to say that I managed to spring clean the lounge/dining room. A big job and one I've had bugging me for ages. Now I can move onto the next room. Is this nesting? Possibly too soon for that. But I know it won't get done once the baby is here!

Edited to add: Did anyone read the Canvas magazine in the Saturday Herald? In the article about SAHMs two scrapbookers are mentioned, Trina McClune and Nic Howard. I was so excited.. "I read their blogs!" I exclaimed to DH. "Uh-huh" he says, not looking up from the paper. He just didn't get it. LOL!

International Breastfeeding Icon

I'm a big fan of breastfeeding and the promotion thereof.

Wanna vote for an international breastfeeding icon? It seems like theres one for parents room and stuff, but none for showing where there is a breastfeeding friendly place.

So - here ya go. Vote for an icon here.

Thanks to Amy for pointing this one out.

Librarians of old

I just loved this old vocational movie about librarianship. I had to laugh at some of the commentary :-) Have we really changed since then? I think our objectives are the same even if the means by which we deliver them are different.

More on RSS

Janine's post reminded me - I've been meaning to post a link to an explanation of RSS that another librarian, CW, alerted me to:

How to explain RSS the Oprah way

or "how to stay sane in the blogosphere" ;-)

If you are still clicking side bar links to read blogs, then you may find using an RSS reader like Bloglines will make your life easier.

I feel like scrapping tonight!

Looking forward to my little group getting together tonight to scrap. Pity my Tarisota isn't here yet - I know, I know it's too soon but I'm getting anxious to fondle the stash!

Went to a primary school reunion on the weekend. It was actually quite interesting despite my initial misgivings about it. A few of our year turned up. It's funny how people look the same but somehow grow into their adult faces. I have some great memories from that school.

I was thinking about something that happened afterwards and now feel ashamed. One of the people from our year who turned up was someone who used to be a bit of a pariah. You know how cruel kids can be about people who are a little different. Well, this person was a bit different. The family were quite poor so this person didn't always have the nicest clothes, and sometimes cleanliness was a bit of an issue too. The silly thing was we found ourselves reacting to the presence of this person in exactly the same way as when we were 10 year olds. I don't think anyone of us said hello or anything either - not good, I should know better.

Interestingly, this person has obviously found a partner and has a child. If you had asked me if I thought this person would ever find a life partner I would have been sceptical. There's a verse in the Bible (Prov. 30:19) that talks about some things that are hard to understand, and one of them is "the way of a man with a maid"... and it's very true. We don't always understand what attracts one person to another, what other people see in someone else. But I'm glad to be proved wrong, and that they have found someone who can share in that special bond between two people.

eating humble pie....

Things are getting back to normal - Yay!

Thanks for the well wishes folks *heart* I'm happy to report that things seem to be back to normal for DS. He's certainly normal enough to return to ratbag behaviour! I forgot to post about my beanbag saga - heh.

During the course of the week the beanbag got puked on so I naturally wanted to wash the cover. So I filled 3 boxes & 2 nappy buckets with the beans and plonked the cover into the machine... simple you would think. Come to hang out the washing later and I discover that I *should* have zipped up the cover before washing it since there were beans still hiding inside. I hate to think of how many beans are now floating their way through the water ways courtesy of ME! *blush*

Fast forward another day.
DH staying home to look after our poor sick boy.
Witness another puke+beanbag incident.
DH thinking: "Must clean up bean bag again; how to do this efficiently?"
DH carrying bean bag outside. Turning on hose. Squirting beanbag to clean up!!!!
Me coming home: "Why is the beanbag on the back steps all wet?"
DH (sheepishly): "It seemed a good idea at the time!"
Beanbag gets emptied again of the now wet polystyrene beans. Cover goes in wash.
DS getting better. Decides that his Mobilo blocks should be buried in the boxes of beans.....

The result - I spend pretty much all morning cleaning up the mountain of beans that have escaped and coated our loungeroom. The beans are now back in the beanbag and they are staying there!

Need an energy injection

It's been a @%$&# of a week.

DS woke up 2.30am on Sunday morning vomiting, and as the day progressed, developed diarrhoea. This continued on Monday, and Tuesday morning I took him to the dr. A sample was taken and on Thursday the verdict came back... campylobacter. Which is a notifiable disease. So now I feel like the worst mother in the world. I've no idea where he's picked it up - could be daycare, could be some chicken we had, could be some bird poop he's got on his hands etc. DH and I have escaped it so far. Which is just as well. Ministry of Health is supposed to call me, but so far I've not heard from them.

My poor little boy has been lying around the house hardly knowing what to do with himself. He does seem to be on the mend thanks to the antibiotics.

Now I need something for the lethargy thats getting me. Sleepless nights, helping my folks move into their new place, low iron - it's all catching up on me.

Stuff about Blogger Beta

Good Things

• The ability to add labels to my post... saves and extra step since I used del.icio.us before. I know it's the librarian in me to want to categorise!
• The layout editing function is nice, sort of. I can't seem to add my gecko picture to the header yet. Will have to work that one out. Might ask my workmate who knows more about xml than me. But it is easier to add things like javascript etc to the sidebar now.
  
• Dashboard is nicer and tells me how many posts I've made... only 66 so far.
• Comment notifications in my email tell me which post the comment comes from - before I'd have to guess.

Not so good things
Karen tells me she can't comment. Karen - you can still comment by choosing the "other" category and pasting in your Wordpress address I believe.
I thought I had a problem commenting on non-beta-blogs earlier but now it seems fine. According to the Known Issues For Blogger in Beta Blog this bug has been fixed. But I don't know about non-blogger users.

If you're thinking of switching I'd say go for it if you're comfortable playing around with your blog a bit afterwards to customise it. If you're not so comfortable with the "playing" then I'd leave it a bit longer so they can iron out the issues.

NZ Dare #9 Challenge

This is my take on the NZ Dare # 9.

It's fairly simple like most of my layouts! I can't seem to get the scan saturation right - if I get the green the right colour, the orange looks wrong and vice versa!

PP is Basic Grey Oh Baby Boy, cardstock is Bazzill and some mysterious paper I had in my stash. I used some buttons from a RAK Scrappy Girl sent me (thanks Debs), and some clear page pebbles I've had for ages.

Incidentally - has anyone seen those clear page pebbles anywhere? My friend wants some and all we have seen are ones with patterns or writing in them. The ones I have are K&Company but they are ages old. Maybe they don't produce them anymore.

moved to the beta

I've made the move to beta blogger. Hope this doesn't mess up anyone's feed.....

Am off to discover the new things it offers.

Overheard from the kitchen

Today the Fulton Hogan folks have been doing works along our street much to the delight and amusement of DS. Here's what I've been hearing from the kitchen while he watches in the lounge.

"Come here digger!"
"Come to my house my digger!"
"I need you digger"
"Where's you gone digger?"
"He's coming"
"I got a digger in my sandpit"
"Come to my sandpit"

:-)

Crazy Christmas Card Day

My friend Rachel, (who has a little shop at her house and who is a stamper/scrapbooker), is holding an event some of you Aucklanders might be interested in. This is a shameless bit of advertising for her! LOL!

Christmas Card Making Extravaganza
Saturday 4th November 2006, 2-6pm
Mangere Bridge Memorial Hall, Domain Rd

Early Bird by 28 Oct $10.00, after that date $15.00

Basically it's an event where you can spend some time making Christmas cards. Rachel lists the following:

• All afternoon to make your cards
• Bring your own craft gear to try out the ideas
• Lots of Christmas ideas with example cards on display
• Demonstrations
• A goody bag for all
• Christmas Card Competition
• Spot Prizes
• Supplies to purchase for all card making needs with specials on the day
• Christmas Stamps available to use
• Christmas afternoon tea
• Catalogues available for ordering

Rachel is an excellent demonstrator and she does lovely work. I'm hoping to attend to get a head start on my cards, and also to use some other stamps because I only have a few Christmas themed ones. Why not get together a table of friends and come along? :-)

If you'd like more info, or would like to come you can contact Rachel at:
CraftyR
I also have her phone numbers and address if you'd like to contact her that way... let me know.

Waiting for the 15th Oct!

Feeling excited and impatient!
I've finally succumbed and subscribed to this month's collection from Tarisota for the first time. I have been putting it off because of the money thing... trying to justify it to myself until DH came home with a pack of photo paper which cost him a fair sum. As he pointed out, I will use the paper from the kit so it's not like I'm wasting the money. And even with the exchange rate and postage, my package will cost less than his photo paper! heheheh

I didn't sign up for the 3 month/6 month though. I want to see if I will use all the paper in a reasonable time or not. Plus, there are a few other shops around that do this sort of thing, and I'd like to sample them too. Like this one...

I love online shopping! :-)

And I discovered from a friend that Woolworth's Online will give you a free delivery for a month (?) after the baby is born. How great is that!? Must consult their site and see how to set it up.