My Signature Dish

A little departure from my usual simply because I took these photos... I will scrapbook them eventually (though not in this lifetime the way things are going lately!) but for now just thought I'd share my signature dish....

Sweet Chilli Philli Pizza

I use Romano's Crispy Pizza bases which are pre tomato and herbed. I give them a generous slathering of crushed garlic. Then I fry up some decent sized chunks of skinnless chicken breasts- they just need to be browned off but there's nothing wrong with giving them some crispy bits.

Slice up a bunch of Vegies; red onion, tomato, mushroom, and red, yellow and green capsicum. You could add your own fave pizza vegies if you wanted to but this is what I like. Odd the fastest cooking vegeies to the bottom building up to the slowest on top.

Chuck the chicken on top of all these vegies. And then add great big dollops of Phillidelphia Cream cheese... I use the spreadable 'lite' as it reduces the guilt a little and only Philli will do! D

Slather in Sweet Chilli Sauce and I mean pour it on baby!

Top with piles of cheese. (We use edam) and cook...

Then consume... (yeah, I forgot to take a photo before we started consuming, too good to wait!)

Marathons, Olympics and Rugby

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Ole Espanol!
(Sorry about any spelling issues there... I have no idea what I am saying!)

Being the last week of term there was a bunch of stuff that needed to be done not the least of which was the mini sports albums. We did these the year that Les coached Kieran's soccer team. I did one for each boy. Since then I do one for the kids and one as a thanks for coaches and team managers. That meant two for Hockey, three for Rugby, and I did 5 for netball as there's a couple of other girls on the team who are pretty special to me.

Each album has a picture of each team member (in action) and the coach/manager, a small selection of general 'action shots' and if possible a team photo. I normally include the years results and the 'Players of the Day'.

So I made 10 albums each page and each photo has rounded corners... 1200+ corners all up and each photo has 4 photo splits... over 800 in total that needed to be stuck down and then the tabs pulled off. Hmmmmm I think i have RSI.


The Olympicathon was on Tuesday last week, the kids were both in Spain, which was very handy for me as I had to make a run to get album supplies in the morning and I had an RNZAF 'feedback' session to be at at 1pm, and our old DP, Judy, was visiting school that day so I was keen to see her as well. As the kids were both in red you'd think they'd be easy to spot but no, because over half of the countries chosen for the Olympathon teams had red as one of their country colours.

Feather Races

The teachers did a super good job in the set-up for the day... you could tell because they didn't all look exhausted and over worked (like on a normal school day) ... the senior kids actually did the running of the events. I spoke to a couple of my old students they said they were "over it!"








Thursday was Kieran's last Rugby tournament day of the year. Due to the third day being rained off and points difference Whenuapai made it to finals day for the first time in forever. The two winning teams at this final got to play the curtain raiser for the 'battle of the bridge' game on Saturday... we're talking dream come true for Kieran here. Let's not spend to much time talking about the results... the five games looked a lot like this....

That's Whenuapai in blue chasing the opposition scoring AGAIN.


There was at least a chance to win a ball autographed by the North Harbour team...

... but despite looking like a demented bridesmaid at the bouquet toss Kieran unfortunately missed it.

He did at least manage to score some autographs and a poster.

I was going to join in with Ali Edwards documenting a week in my life but this week is going to be a little intense. We have Kieran's friend Jake here for 3 days out of the next 5 and I'm sure we will have some added girls too. Sylvia arrives for the night before Scrap camp on Wednesday and there's other stuff in the mix as well. So I'll leave documenting a week in my life for when school's back on. I am hoping to make Merenia a skirt though, like these (I want one myself) and get started on my Christmas creating for my teacher gifts... we'll just see how all that goes though. I also have a slight yearning to make my hair go like this... but I"m dithering... or maybe I just can't concentrate long enough to go get the dye.. I'm not sure. As an aside.. that art, is by Emily from the black apple, she makes VERY cool stuff and if I was to have a girlfriend she is my dream girl.

The end of September is upon us, Christmas is looming, enjoy your week!

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ATC's

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ATC stands for 'artist trading card' it's a little piece of Art 2.5 x3.5 inches and on one of the scrapbooking lists I am on we have been having some ATC swaps. The first was 'Circle of Friends' and we had to have our photo on it....



The second was Olympic themed I decided to make mine look what I thought looked Chinese and each has a word that I associate with the Olympics in Chinese on the card; Sport, Spirit, Unity and Peace.

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Something for your Sunday

When I was little we had mixing bowls a bit like this but instead of blue and white stripes they were kind of terraced and just all cream. I did have a little one until recently when it got broken. We had one that was huge... the sort you could make 4 Christmas Cakes in. It looked really good with a HUGE load of proving bread dough in it... my favourite thing to make on a Sunday Morning.

We also had good old baking tins like this....

When I was in Home Ec. at school I was something of a teacher's pet so when I left I was given a measuring cup and measuring spoons set (still have the cup). When I 'left home' some of my first purchases were a cake mixer (hand held, I still lust after the free standing type) and mixing bowls. And finally all sorts of tins, for making all sorts of things like Cinnamon Oysters, Jewish cake and Meatloaf. It took me ages to find a good one for Cinnamon Oysters for some reason it has to be round bottomed I still don't have a good square Christmas Cake type one. The one below extends out it's perfect for making...

GINGER BREAD LOAF

Not to be mistaken for gingerbread biscuits that we also enjoy making around here in the shape of men, elephants and other fun stuff.

The recipe for this comes from the Prestcold Refridgerator Recipe book. I remember very well when we got a NEW fridge when I was a kid. I remember the new fridge smell. The BUTTER CONDITIONER (the height of new technology) and the egg holder shelves. It came with a new jug and a recipe book. I doubt that my Mum cooked from it much but I do remember she made this....

And it's Easy and it's GOOD which is why I am recommending it to you. Here's the recipe...

Notice the spots on the page... becareful when pulling the mixer out of the mixture. :-)

You can do the custard or the stewed apple if you wish... but personally we just eat it, as is straight from the oven, still warm.... mmmmmmmmm

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Cause I'm the kinda girl who takes photos of Asparagus on a Friday afternoon.

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• Summer's Coming, YUM!

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Something for your Saturday...

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Here's my recommendation for today...

• Magazine; something good with substance and a balance of fluff, motivation, inspiration and stimulation- eg NOT a 3 month old Women's Weekly. I choose Next... unfortunately this is the March issue (I'm up to April now... just a little behind in my reading)

• Banana Split;

1. Split a not too ripe banana from end to end and place in a bowl or even better a boat shapped dish.
   
2. Spoon a generous helping of crushed pineapple in between banana halves. DON'T skimp on the juice.
3. Top with French Vanilla Ice Cream- three medium scoops.
4. Top with Chocolate sauce.
5. Top with whipped cream.
6. Top with a sprinkle of cinnamon and/or a crushed Chocolate Flake.

• Enjoy both somewhere outside in an area devoid of children... perhaps even devoid of other humans full-stop.
• Take your sweet time about it!

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Why we'll be eating wheat biscuits when it's all over.

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To be honest with you from the start this is a gripe post. You may remember back here when Kieran got VERY excited because the 2008 Weet Bix Stat Attack Cards were out in supermarkets.

Last year when Sanitarium did this they had sales that newspapers described as 'boyant' I heard somewhere something about a 60% rise... but don't quote me on that.

This year...

• As well as having the cards in the Weet-bix they also have them in the 'Fruity' and the 'Crunch' (two of their more expensive brands). More profits.
  
• They have staggered the release of the cards- so for the last month or so we have been getting the same old cards. = More purchases, more profits.
  
• I believe they have released fewer of the more sought after 'super stat' cards and some others. I don't know for sure but it does appear that way. = More purchases, more profits.
• They have changed the trading card site. Last year if someone had a card you wanted they matched you up and gave you their email address it was a simple matter of emailing them and most times they emailed back to say yes or no to a swap. genreally took a day or 2 This time the process takes 10 days and you can't withdraw your card if you swap it elsewhere. We have yet to make a successful trade on the trading site, in fact I don't know anyone who has. = More purchases, more profits.
• They have codes that you enter to play the online game. Some of the codes don't work though and their email replies to our questions have been at best pathetic.
• For the first time we have had to purchase cards on trade me... More purchases, more expense.

And that is why we won't be buying Weet-bix when this is all over. Cheers Sanitarium, thanks for not much really!

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Recent favourites

• Just because...

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Don't Try This at School...

Ok so I got these Christmas decorations 2-3 years ago and finally got them done on the weekend. They are Basic Grey Blitzen. Each ball is made of 20 same size circles, pre-scored with triangles.


I am in the process of trying to figure out cool end-of-year gifts for the kids teachers including Merenia's last year teacher who didn't get anything cause I was pre-oocupied with our impending arrival.


I saw these ones which I thought were cool. And figured I could make 3 of the Kaiser style ones and 3 of the Basic Grey ones for each teacher. But that's nine balls... 9 x 20 = 180 circles to punch, score, fold, glue and ink... I am crazy but I'm not stupid.



Quick instructions incase you want to try...

You need:
Card (multi coloured or patterned as you wish)
Circle Punch (the bigger the better)
Embossing tool or other to score with.
Bonefolder or other to burnish edges
Glue; Fast and clear drying I used tombo green.
String or ribbon to match your card.
Optional; beads, ink. (I used lipstick red Chalk ink)

1. Punch out 20 circles (the larger ones were easier to deal with).
2. Score an equilateral triangle on each with all three points touching the edge of the circle.
3. Fold the edges of the triangle in to the centre and burnish with a bonefolder or similar for nice creases.
4. Choose two sets of five to be the top and bottom.
5. Glue each set of five together so they all meet at a central point (like in the picture above).
6. Line the remaining ten up in the order you wish. Place each circle so that the triangles alternate between pointing up and down.
7. Glue the adjacent sides together so you have a row of circles with alternating triangles. Then...
8. Glue the end of the row onto the start so you have a ring.
9. Glue the top section (from step 4 & 5) onto the ring.
10. Make a loop of string or ribbon. Pierce a small hole in the top of your ball and thread it through.
11. You could also repeat step 10 on the bottom section before you glue it on with a string of beads or similar.
12. Glue the bottom section on.
13. Ink edges if you wish.