Rock Cakes and Weekends

Don't you just love Friday's? The only thing better is Saturday! Dh & Mr Busy are outside right now mowing the lawns...YAY! The kids can go outside and play now that the jungle has been slashed back to normal! I think I need to prune my apple trees today too...before they start budding!

Back to Friday's though. In our house, Friday means staying up late to watch 'Better Homes & Gardens'. Last night everyone was in the mood for something sweet, so Dh & the kids hit the kitchen with my trusty old 'Cookery the Australian Way' and produced these yummy Rock Cakes. A classic from my childhood that our children enjoy now too. Last night saw us entertaining Dh's oldest brother as well. He was biding his time before picking up his daughter so rather than drive all the way home he picked up some dinner for himself and a block of chocolate for us all to share and hung out here. The kids were very excited to see him....with fish & chips....and chocolate. I wonder how much of his dinner he actually ate on his own LOL.

Eventually he left, the children headed off to bed and we settled down to an evening of 'chick flicks' and catching Dh up on the news of the day. News like, Mr Busy's teacher and Miss Mischief's teacher BOTH had run-in's with our son during the day. Oh dear. He did have a rather bad day! Having a boy at school is so vastly different to the two girls who wouldn't dream of being 'naughty' and whose personalities are more malleable when it comes to being corrected. Mr Busy stated rather emphatically that his teachers were too tough on him, when only Mum's and Dad's 'are allowed' to be so tough! The poor boy was in for a rude awakening when I informed him that if he is naughty the teachers should be tough on him!

You just gotta love their logic!

Once in a Decade

Today was that momentous day once in ten years when I headed off to the dentist. Four and a half hours later I am reminded why I don't like going. My face is still numb. The scale and clean was more traumatic than the filling and I don't think she filed the filling down properly because it feels wrong.

Is it just me, or does the anesthetic last a whole bunch longer than they say it will? At this rate I think I'll be lucky to enjoy my dinner without feeling like everything will fall out of my mouth!

The good news is that for all my neglect (which is based on budget, rather than neglect, as such) the only work they had to do was to replace a filling that had started leaking. Pretty good going for avoiding the dentist, I'd say. Now what to do about the lump in my tooth!? The public dental system isn't as easy to work with as a private dentist, for an appointment.

McLeod's Who?

I am an unashamed 'McLeod's Daughters' fan. A rather disappointed one at this very moment in time. The very last season should be on TV, but after screening only a few episodes of this season it was taken off. For the Olympics. It's not on again tonight. I'm not sure what Channel 9 is doing but I'd really love to give them a little piece of my mind. Not too much....my mind is precious and vanishing quicker than I can keep track of! But I'd really like to be sitting down enjoying some good Aussie drama.

What is left, is a rather pathetic effort at television viewing for the evening. *sigh*

On Pizza and Having a Night Off

First of all, thank you all for your precious thoughts and get well wishes. We were ALL at school this morning. YAY! I didn't even feel the need for a nap by 9.30am. Woohoo, things are lookin' up folks!

Felicity, I would happily swap cooking meals if someone would come to mop and vacuum my floors. I keep looking at them thinking "must get to mopping one day soon". Sigh. We never skip meals though.....

Now, on to the reason for my post today. I have made a new discovery and it's really a bit of a double edged sword. It means my potential for night's off from the kitchen have dwindled to only one affordable option. The flip side is that our wallets will happily keep their contents. Bought pizza is now off the menu. Dh's belly doesn't like the ham. I've been having vegetarian pizza for quite some time because it doesn't like me much, but dh has just realised this for himself. I am quite disappointed in this development. Pizza is a healthier meal than fish & chips!

So I'm thinking that perhaps this should be one of the first things I teach Miss Sunshine to cook on her own. When I was her age I used to make our Sunday lunch pizzas for our lunch at the beach each week. I've gotten to a very very simplistic topping menu, so it wouldn't be too hard I don't think. Good plan, do you think? I might get to have a night off here and there after all.

So what is a post about pizza unless I tell you about our favourites? I make pizza dough in the bread machine. We prefer a thinner crust, so once the dough is done I roll it out and make the pizzas straight away. We do two 'family sized' pizzas and it's getting to be so that's almost not enough. One base is brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with crushed garlic and diced onion, and then topped with a layer of thinly sliced potatoes. A sprinkle of salt is a must The other is pineapple with bacon or pineapple with mushroom on a tomato base. We like oregano sprinkled on this one. Both get mozarella cheese, of course.

Mmmmmm, there's nothing quite like pizza made with just the things that delight you, and a pinch of Mum's love.

Monday's Menu Plan

Here we are again. A whole week flashed by and I missed most of it! Not only that but I also didn't cook for a few days. Hard to do when you're asleep! So I'm almost back to normal, apart from having a not so nice reaction to some cough syrup I took at 3am. I got up feeling icky, sweaty & lightheaded ~ but not coughing. That stuff was evil!

I have Mr Busy back at school, albeit with a cough. Today I have Miss Mischief home instead. She told me as we were walking out the door that she has an upset tummy. I dunno...I'm not seeing much evidence of that! She'll be at school tomorrow. I think she took advantage of my still not-quite-working-right brain. Anyway, an extra day to have a nap at 9.30am didn't do me any harm either. How pathetic is that. I get up and have to have a nap almost immediately LOL.

This week's menu goes something like this:

Monday: Sweet & Sour Chicken, Rice
Tuesday: Herbed Ricotta Fritters, vegies
Wednesday: Chicken Parmigana, hassleback potatoes, vegies
Thursday: Creamy Bacon & Mushroom Pasta
Friday: Lamb & Tzatziki Burgers (cross b/n burger & souvlaki I think)
Saturday: Roast Chicken or Cranberry Pork, potatoes, vegies
Sunday: Lasagna ~ will freeze half in preparation for a weekend away ;)

Actually, since I missed the chicken pie the other night I might do the pie filling over pasta instead of sweet & sour chicken. I'm still not feeling that much like eating. I think the sweet & sour would tip me over the edge. I hope by Wednesday I'm feeling gung ho again. I'm looking forward to that meal LOL.

The Other Side

After spending two days sleeping more than being awake I think I'm coming out the other side. I feel like I've missed out on half a lifetime worth of activities that I would've loved to have been there for though. Mr Busy has sat at my feet, on the other end of the couch and watched ABC Kids for two days straight too. Neither one of us has had more energy than that!

Why is it, I'd like to know, that when I get a cold it's not the kind where you take a couple of tablets every four hours and keep going. I seem to get whatever it is that lays you flat out and renders you completely unable to function. I haven't even been able to read!!!!

Hopefully by the end of the day, and with a bit of help, I'll be able to make dinner....a pot of soup.

Winter is Now Complete!

Mr Busy is home today with his cold. He was getting better and then he dive bombed again. He's not really sick, but it's cold and rainy today. That, and between me and my parents someone was going to be home all day. A good day for a little boy to stay warm and cosy and have a quiet day at home. This time I bought the big bottle of Dimetapp! And 'The Invisible Glove' hand cream....and some First defense nasal spray. I told the lady at the chemist I was about to empty my wallet right there.

Thanks to Mr Busy's coughing and spluttering I have now caught my first winter cold .... actually, my first cold in 14 months. So far it's just a bit of coughing and throat kind of stuff. Hopefully the First Defense will prevent a full blown effort. I get sick so rarely I'm not a very good patient!

I think I might find a rug and curl up on the couch for a little snooze. I've been reminded I'm not so good at being up in the middle of the night with kids, either. I don't go straight back to sleep like I used to so I've missed some important hours there for two nights!

So here's my 'funny' from 3.20am the other night:
Mr Busy: Daaadddd....I can't breathe properly.
Dadddy: Go back to sleep!

I finally realised he said 'breathe' not 'read' and thought perhaps 'go back sleep' was not such an appropriate response after all. I couldn't figure out what he might be reading in the dark!!!!! So I dosed him up with panadol, dimetapp, a couple of puffs on the ventolin kind of stuff and some Vicks on the chest.