30 January 2010

Drawing from Life

Anya loves to draw – this week even her new teacher remarked on it, after knowing Anya for just three days. Lately she has begun drawing "real" pictures – sometimes from memory, sometimes by looking at what she’s drawing. I find this so exciting – that she doesn’t just draw a figure and call it a girl, or a particular shape and call it a box -- but rather, really observes what the features are, and includes them in her drawing.

Last week she amazed us with drawings of Wall-E and Eva, complete with the right body shapes and hands correctly including just two fingers per hand. This week, she drew Totoro, with the right body shape and v-shaped markings on his chest, and the bear claws on his paws – and she wrote his name next to him, as well. She told me that she wrote his name herself without asking anyone how to spell it. This just blows me away!

29 January 2010

Everton Park Hotel



One of the mothers' group's favorite hangouts -- coffee & cake, an enclosed playground, and attractions on special days like a bouncy castle and a merry-go-round.

21 January 2010

Bat-crazy

The evolution of a fad in our household can sometimes take some strange turns. Our kids are already, for some strange reason, enamoured of bats (see the post about the Baby Bat game). Combine this with a memory for that nutty song, Banana Phone, and what do you get?

First David showed them a YouTube video of Banana Phone, and they begged for repeat viewings. Why this video is so appealing, I'm not sure.

Next, out of desperation for a change, I showed them another YouTube video, which was listed in the "related videos" to the side. From there we hopped from video to video, almost all featuring babies with real faces and cartoon bodies, singing parodied versions of actual songs, usually about poo or farts. (Thanks a lot, Flowgo...not!) One of these was less scatological and merely featured a baby Batman, which they loved and wanted over and over.

David then decided to show them old Batman TV episodes from the sixties, and I followed that up with Batman and Spiderman cartoons. They totally don't care that the videos look so grainy and discoloured, especially on our large screen HD TV!

14 January 2010

Photo Theme: Curves


More experimentation with my little camera phone. It is terrible at long shots but fun for close up work.

12 January 2010

Photo Theme: Red Light Green Light

This morning I decided to experiment and took a photo every time I was stopped at a red light on my route to work. The images below are cropped from the originals. Not sure if the result is interesting but it was fun fooling around.

Holiday Recipes

I know, the holiday season is over. This post is more about simple recipes we prepared while away at the beach house -- in other words, when we didn't have a lot of ingredients handy.

Herb Infused Roast Chicken
This recipe idea originally came from a cookbook and I have tried lots of variations. This version is the result of about 10 years of experimentation. It is simple and delicious!
(1) Finely chop about 2 sprigs rosemary & 2 cloves garlic, or grind into a paste using mortar & pestle. Tip: sprinkling the pile with a bit of salt helps stop the pile from flying away while you chop or grind. Note for absolute beginners: don't include the twiggy stem of the rosemary!
(2) Rinse the chicken inside and out, and pat dry with paper towels. Gently loosen the chicken skin over the breast and break through to the area over the drumsticks as well.
(3) Spread the rosemary-garlic paste evenly between the skin and the flesh where you have just loosened the skin. Also insert a few fresh basil leaves here and there.
(4) Rub the chicken all over with a drizzle of olive oil, freshly ground pepper, and salt. Insert half a lemon into the cavity. Place in the oven at 180C (or 350F) or 160C for a fan-forced (convection) oven. If you don't have a convection oven, I highly recommend you use a vertical roasting dish.
(5) Halfway through cooking, squeeze lemon juice all over the chicken. Tip: the chicken is done when the legs feel quite loose when you wiggle them. Note for absolute beginners: timing depends on the chicken's size, of course, but usually an average chicken takes at least an hour to roast.

Simple Chicken Burritos
My husband has occasionally yearned for Mexican food, but I tend to avoid preparing it because I don't want to sully my memories of the Mexican meals I had in LA. However, to satisfy his craving I recently made up the following.
(1) Toss chunks of chicken in seasoning mixture. You don't need to buy special "burrito seasoning" -- you can just use a blend of Cajun spice mixture (something we always have to hand), chili powder, all-purpose seasoning, and/or paprika.
(2) Fry up the chicken pieces -- approx 5 minutes on medium-high heat.
(3) Serve as a buffet for "roll your own" with tortillas, lettuce, chopped tomato, shredded cheese, refried beans, sour cream, sliced capsicum (bell pepper), and avocado. Tip: it's nice to spread the tortilla with the warm items (chicken, beans & cheese) and heat briefly in the microwave before adding the fresh ingredients and rolling together. Alternatively you can place rolled burritos (without the sour cream) in a bakinng tray, sprinkle with cheese, bake to heat through, then garnish with sour cream and salsa upon serving.

Potato Pizza
This sounds odd until you taste it. I often order a local pizza caffe's version of this and decided to try making it at home.
(1) Make your pizza dough (very easy!) or use a good pizza base.
(2) Thinly slice one potato, place in cold water in a pot, and boil for one minute. Lay slices around the bowl of a colander to drip dry.
(3) Spread your pizza with the following, in this order: tomato paste; shredded cheese (I like a mixture of cheddar & mozzarella); finely chopped rosemary & garlic; finely sliced onion; slices of potato; shredded ham or Pancetta; more cheese to cover lightly (how cheesy do you like it?) and a sprinkle of grated Parmesan (optional).
(4) Bake at 180C (or 350F) on the lowest rack of your oven until cheese looks melted and crust is quite firm. Move to the top rack to brown the cheese and finish. If you have a fan-forced (convection) oven then you can probably just place it in the middle!

11 January 2010

Xmas 2009

Xmas 2009

Massive piles of presents, first at home then at the bigger family shindig. (Click on the photo to browse through my flickr album!) I won't bore with the whole gift list, but the ViewMasters were a surprise favorite.

We had a great Xmas day, opening presents, feasting on a potluck meal, and even got to go swimming. Neighbours have been kind to us this year, first on Xmas day when we swam at the neighbours', then all through the after-Xmas period when we were up the coast. We swam at the next door pool whenever we felt like it, thanks to a neighbour who was away and said we were welcome to use the pool. Why would we swim in a pool with the ocean right there, you ask? Well, I have often wondered myself why anyone living at the beach would have a pool, and now I know.

For days when the undertow and sweep are too strong, or the weather is just too blustery. For days the water and sand are littered with bluebottles (stinging jellyfish). Or just because it feels great to swim at the beach and follow that with an extra dip in the pool. Or, have a pool session in the afternoon because you already went to the beach in the morning. Besides, you can do stuff in the pool like: blow all the air out of your lungs and sit on the bottom with your legs crossed; perform jumping tricks like twists, splits, and the old classic, cannonball; play Ring-Around-the-Rosy; and so on.

I couldn't believe how huge Anya's confidence became with swimming daily in the pool! (She was doing all the above, and more.) I just wonder what their new boosted confidence will do to their swim instructors. Swimming with Callum was quite tiring as he had no fear of lunging every which way, secure in the knowledge that we would keep a hold of him. His lunging about included shoving and kicking us in the guts, since we were only his lowly diving platforms. He also got pretty bold when Anya was jumping off the wall with her cousin Isaac, and joined in for several jumps.

As for David and myself, we brought a huge stack of books, an HD media player loaded with kids' movies and our own stuff, my laptop (no internet, though), and went op-shopping several times (op shop = thrift store). Mainly, though, it was a big change of pace to swim every day (sometimes 2 or 3 times in one day) and spend most of our time plotting a chance to grab a nap (a fiercely contested privilege between the two of us). Anya and Callum flourished in having both of us, and their grandma, on tap almost the whole day, as well as our in-laws (including 3 cousins) who were staying downstairs.

We also had one night out on the town to see Avatar 3D. I was really transported. The story was fairly unoriginal, but with the beautiful world and people and animals, I became very involved in the environment. When we left the movie, I felt like I was in some sort of different headspace, and it took me almost half an hour to come back to myself.

Woodford 2009

I was lucky to go along to the Woodford Folk Festival again this year and enjoyed it very much, only wishing that there were some way that Anya and Callum and David could also come and enjoy it. Unfortunately the cost (almost $100) means that it's not worth going for only part of the day.

Some cool moments/events were: Men Wot Sing conducting an a capella singing workshop; Circus Cabaret (I also caught "Oni the Haitian Sensation" again by chance later and she was the most amazing hula hooper I have ever seen -- which is saying a lot, because generally I think hoops are just difficult to do, without actually being that impressive to watch); Daniel Champagne followed by Kim Churchill ending with a blues jam with both of them (is it still a jam with just two?) including a moment with stilt walkers joining the mosh pit; Angie Hart (ex-Frente lead singer)...

...and a completely nonsensical ending to my festival day wherein I got lost trying to leave the site, realised I was on "Ridiculously Close" (yes that's the name of the street), and caught the tail end of an aerialist on a lyra, followed by a gruff entertainer who didn't do a whole lot but had the street audience of kids lapping up his act. Why do kids so love obnoxious characters (eg. Oscar the Grouch)? This guy - for example - said, "I need someone to hold this tray," and as all the kids in front clamored, "Me! Me!" he looked at one boy and said brusquely, "Not you. I need a cute one." Which only made the boy laugh all the harder and press in to see what would happen next.

Woodford 2009