Kids are checklists

I have just realised that my kids are checklists (and of honesty at that!). Now those of you who really know me, will know that I adore lists. It's just how my day/week/life unfolds without actually unfolding (the unravelling kind of unfolding I mean).

So it was with keen interest that it suddenly dawned on me that my kids actually provide these checklists. Now I don't mean provide as in create - because as a parent I know that indeed they (and their Father) are the greatest creators of tasks for me to do. Endless at that. Feed, tidy, play with, water, wash, feed, toilet, feed...well it's as infinite as a straight line is long!

But, really, this is how it sounds being recorded:

Please carefully note: It ALWAYS starts with "Mama". ALWAYS. Really, always.

I shan't translate it into my list because I'm sure you can see where it's going, what it requires. If you can't...email me!


And you know how we (read that as 'I') always complain that time is not enough. I can never get anything done in the time I have. That times passes too fast and before we know it we've run out....for chores, for being on time, for getting the toddler to the toilet in time (okay luckily I basically didn't have this problem but I understand this one and was making reference in support), for LIFE.

Well I have discovered over the past two weeks that time is my friend and the more I relax the more time I seem to have to manage things. Like lists and list of lists and kid lists.

Just look at this embracing the celebration of time:

But then when it comes down to it the throwing back and forth of verbal lists is very regularly interrupted by something that always demands an immediate answer. A response that flows naturally off the tongue and immediately quells all qualms, queries, questions, and provides faith and security in this ofttimes faithless and insecure society called 'the world'!



I love you two. The End.

Cherry Brandy

Cherry Brandy

2 cups fresh cherries, pitted
1/2 cup sugar
1 litre brandy

Pack cherries into a sterilised jar. Add the sugar. Pour over the brandy to the top, ensruing cherries are completely covered. Seal the jar and then turn jar upside down to dissolve sugar and dislodge any air bubbles. Store upside down for one week. After this, turn the jar the other way every so often to move the cherries about and release more flavour.
After one month, strain through a sieve and rebottle without cherries.

The cherries are perfect (and perfectly potent) in cocktails, sauces, cakes and as an ice-cream topping.

The syrup is perfect for drinks.

It makes a delicious spritzer flavouring. Add to soda water as a refreshing summer afternoon drink. Or add ice cold water and ice cubes, crushed mint leaves, and a long handled teaspoon and you have a lovely sharbat drink.


I shall be leaving mine for a few months to see how it macerates. I know that these can be left for a year or more and are incredible!

Shall post again about this upon sampling my batch!

Have you ever made this, or have you a good recipe for it? I'd love to hear from you!

Treadmill or clothes hanger?

that is the question (I ask myself on a daily basis).

I have come to the conclusion that I am old, well getting old anyhow. I seem to be losing my get-up-and-go, my oompf, my 'yeah baby let's do it' (no not that, that's private and I promise something never to be discussed (though I can't promise my birth stories won't be filled with a little nudity (ha no not mine of course....my babies'))). Just as they don't come with an instructional manual (dammit to heck) they also do not come fully clothed and ready to go (dammit....though I do enjoy choosing and buying their clothes so that's lucky)! You see? I have, I mean have a mama's brain because they are now invading my post about my beautiful new (pre-loved though I think more in the loved-to-look-at sense rather than pre-loved used sense - yay for me!) treadmill! Which was incidentally bought because my lower half decided that it would pudge-out whence babies were created! I'm not too fond of pears so it's such a shame that I have to resemble one (here I am below mid-treadmilling, and before you ask...no I am not green per se, it was my full body suit (you know...for encouraging sweating and thus greater weight loss) btw for those interested, the pink headband - following my eighties comeback trend - is from Nike :p)!

I must create a page about my experiences with weight gain and loss (and 'again' again :p) because it really has been rather interesting how I have felt about and experienced weight gain and dealt with loss. But also about my body image. Something I have always considered and of course like most women I know I have always cared for and maintained my health engine and fitness as best suited me. But to face what so many women face, accept, struggle with, or embrace, has been quite a strange and humbling, and at times very much a debilitating experience for me!

So my darling TM (treadmill) greets me every morning (as I pass by on my way to shower!!!). I pat her (she is a her because I only have experiences with female weight and exercise dramas of which she is apart of) and promise to spend some undivided attention with her later. Luckily for her, but not always for me, I tend to stick to my word because most normally my decision-making and will-power are unremitting - yup basically I, as a physical being, have absolutely no power over me, who makes the mental decisions (double dammit). Still I suppose it is useful to be stubborn!

Anyway, I endeavour to return to my beloved TM once a day for between 20-30 minutes. I haven't had her long and have not had any regular set exercise aside from running round after Master 5 and little Miss 2, for a few years, thus I am taking it easy. Taking it slow. Breaking in the babe bod (okay not babe just bod) slowly. Building up my momentum so to speak. Finding my exercise feet isn't easy - by the way do not, I repeat do not try to actually look at your feet, or close your eyes for that matter, while treadmilling. Apparently this is a no-no. Not that the warning labels actually state this! Endured owie on my ankle bone last week from thinking that was possible!

As usual I digress (in terms of me digress means brain wanders away, way, way ahead, way, way too fast and thus I am left at a loose end until I catch up! Okey dokey....caught now!). I have Sundays off, not because it is the 'big guy's' day of rest, but because there are too many beings around to interrupt or appear needy as soon as they hear the purr of my TM's engine! That also happens when I am trying to work, take a shower, or a relaxing bath (yeah like that ever happens) or watch my favourite programme (haha yeah like that ever happens either). I haven't had a favourite programme in years! Though I do enjoy Brothers and Sisters and Drop Dead Diva, oh and The Mentalist (sigh) - and sometimes I actually watch them (no, not really....rarely).

So while I do exercise almost every day, I face the persistent question from TM of 'will she love me today or not?'.

Yesterday I finally found my cell phone headphones (I am so tidy and efficient that I efficiently tidied them so as not to be able to find them in order, I must subconsciously have decided, that I could not once again leave them laying on the bench!) and managed to enjoy treadmilling so much more with good music in my ears. Pretty sure I couldn't treadmill to Bach or Chopin but lord do the eighties make the most perfect treadmill music ever ever! Here I am to the left multitasking as only women can do so amazingly well - it always amazes me how a cartoonist can sketch me without seeing or knowing me...pure genius! I'm not sure where the yellow bottle was bought but the red one is a Camelbak one (another pure genius invention).

Today I was enjoying myself so much and feeling a little sleepy as I used TM that I contemplated closing my eyes (okay I actually did again - even after last week's lesson of no closing eyes on treadmill ever again) and taking a nap. Not. Recommended. At. All.

Ed. loves TM.....TM 4 Ed. (tomorrow is a new (sweaty TM) day).

And after weeks of lovce and hate...wait for it...the treadmill became a clothes hanger! But I suppose at least it wasn't just a dust ledge!

Admit One...but not to a film.

I think it might be time to admit one something - kind of big and kind of (okay very) shameful (I'm not judging others by that point btw but am saying because I find it shameful of myself).

I use television, dvd's, youtube, and other forms of children's visual entertainment to entertain my children. I will make no excuses for this because what sounded perfectly rational in my head at the time of doing it (and even up to 10 seconds ago) now sounds totally, utterly, and completely pathetic. Thus SHAMEFUL BE MY NAME!



Sometimes, I want to get something important done, without interruption - step up to the plate TELEVISION.

Sometimes I just need a shower - say hello to DVD number 352!

Every now and again I just need space - Ladies and Gentlemen please put your hands together and make welcome the one and only YouTube (kid-friendly viewing only!).

Occasionally when I have to cook dinner - Welcome your host for the evening: Tom Bergeron - because no one entertains the kiddies like American blunders (ouch).

As a mother who is passionate about education, I feel defeated sometimes, because sometimes I just throw my hands up and say whatever (often in the early evening when I am trying to prepare dinner with two kids who need my undivided attention as they either jump off the dining table or dig up the most important book that must be read with urgency in the middle of the kitchen floor as food and trays and hot ovens going flying over the top of them (bugger).

Thus it is with great great huge gigantic dismay that I realise that tomorrow I must stop this before it becomes a permanent pattern of entertainment for the children too. I need to revert back to my nanna ways of entertaining that I so greatly enjoy. Designing homework for afternoon busy-ness and participating, limiting the television to sometimes great shows and watching together, and to let them play yet another game on the lounge floor even though the last one is still in mid-play and play too. Okay so I usually do these things and I don't let the kids watch that much television but you will get the idea of where my overexaggerated panic-filled dilirium comes from if you read on:

Today, as is usual with Sundays, I made homemade pizza for lunch and prepared a gingerbread man recipe for baking when cooled later. Romeo came into the kitchen carrying some of Persia's dolls utensils. Waving one around he said 'I've got my spatula!'. 'Oh great, so you have. Where did you learn that word?' I asked eagerly - hoping it was from cooking with me for a few years, or wow, great, from school talking about the scientifics of baking (since thay had been talking about knitting the other day (studying textiles and making clothes so that at least makes sense).

'I learned that from Spongebob!'

Crap, buggery, shirts and trousers, shot down!

Defeated. By. Spongebob.

This, as I blog while my children watch Sesame Street on the television that I turned on in preparation 10 minutes before it was due to start!

Shameful.

Byebye winter chills and ills I greatly despise you. I have been inside for 5 days with a very sick baby. I need air...

On the first day of Christmas my true-self gave to me...

a way to be happy...

...except I haven't a photograph of that because, well, because, and so I give you this as a sweet sub:

I absolutely love being a parent. I thrive on the struggle and find it easy to remind myself that the struggle 'won't be forever'. Christmas is one of the times it is easy to forget how tired one is, how hard things can be, and makes it easier for me to feel excited about life and parenthood to the extreme.

I absolutely adore Christmas. I always have. I love the renewed and different sense that Christmas adopts when you become a parent. It makes everything even more candy-coated and chocolate-centred and I love that.

For me, Christmas starts with all the thoughts of the impending season. So pretty much anytime from July onwards. But November is exceptionally exciting as I am able to start to introduce the excitement to my kiddies because they won't have to wait too long or lose patience as the countdown is manageable.

Anyway, Christmas is way over and is not actually the primary point for this but more the instigator and thus certainly worth mentioning!

I am still feeling relatively satisfied with the aftermath of the happy season lingering. It's easier here in New Zealand I suppose because we have summer holidays coinciding with Christmas and so an extended period of holiday fun. I have taken a different kind of advantage of this feeling.

I have been quite the cranky lady lately (read that as the past year or so). I have tried vitamins, dietary changes, limiting who I socialise with, how I respond to negative attitudes, and every other thing I could think of.

Except I realised I was tackling everything EXTERNAL TO ME!!

But this past holidays I came to realise that the only way to not be cranky was to FORCE MYSELF to be otherwise. The kiddy-bids were being affected by it and I was a shouty lady when I just wanted to be chilled mama. But when so much pent-up unhappiness/busy-ness/craziness/sleeplessness/relentlessness reigns sometimes it is almost impossible to be relaxed.

I am so glad that my concerted effort to enjoy life, not rush, not panic, not push, and not shout, has been very successful.

I have found ways to get things done in a relaxed manner, have not shouted at the kiddies, and the entire household has been a very pleasant holiday home to be in.

I have done this as follows (because I love lists and bullet points):

• First and foremost I declared to my loved ones that I was on holiday for 7 DAYS and was not taking requests for anything aside from my little family's needs.
• Zipped my lips and spent much more time listening and not interrupting
• Not retaliating with equally mean words when I didn't like what I was hearing
• Smiling
• Responding with extra enthusiasm to the kids
• Sitting and playing more with the kids
• Watching television sometimes instead of wasting time on the computer
• One week without the computer
• Taking more time to think before I did or said anything

There is a certain amount of humbleness in knowing that one's behaviour, and being in general, affects the entire household, and that being able to maintain that in a positive way is greatly beneficial to everyone, including myself.

A very interesting side-effect is that I have actually ended up with more time to get things done!

Sometimes it is hard being the primary caregiver, it is a 24/7 role afterall; but it is equally humbling to acknowledge that the role is extremely significant in the well-being and happiness of one's family. We know that, but sometimes it isn't until something big changes or is different that we ourselves realise this.

I look back on my photographs from Christmas 2010 and realise everything was different. The same but different. Because I was different. I had truly forgotten (and ignored too I suppose) how much my attitude, how I interacted, and how I responded to people and situations affected everything around me. And most of all that change had to come from within.

Thank you Christmas 2011 for giving me insight into happiness again after a long, crankypants year, and to me, for having the foresight to hijack the feeling and make the most of it in a positive way for myself and my children and family.

Happiness is seeing what you portray reflected in your children in a positive light.



A little sweetness is good for the soul. Trust me, I know.

I love taking a bath with my babies; reading to them at night tucked up in bed, together; seeing them smile when they accomplish something - because you can't see that if you aren't there (and that doesn't just mean physically there)!

Just taking time to be with them. Just taking time to be with me. Stopping wanting what I haven't got and being grateful for what I have has been paramount to feeling good about my life - because what I have is love and health.

When I Grow Up I want To Be...

Happy? To know what happiness is and how to find it when its definition and trajectory alter?

Today's reading...by Persia!

I never grew up 'knowing' what I wanted to be. I never had those girly childhood ideals about marriage (yes or no), weddings (definitely vs. hell noooo), babies (with the right man maybe?), or probably even life beyond...this day I... I never remember thinking about the future or what tomorrow was about. It saddens me a great deal that I hadn't those naturals ideas/feelings/thoughts and that they were never taught/encouraged/stimulated to any extent. Even at University I didn't know and went with what I excelled at. And why couldn't that have been engineering instead of archaeology??? Seriously! This inability, lacking innateness, has, and still does to some degree, make my life and defining my goals, difficult.

These thoughts and plans, and ideals, are something that we talk about with Romeo and Persia often. About life, dreams, how to be (good and bad), about being moral and just, right and caring. Blah blah, yada yada. I know. I am still trying to find what makes me  happy and here I am trying to instill in my children the very things I am still not 100% sure about sometimes. (I am sure about the happiness thing though!)

But, and it is a very big but, it is important that they think about things beyond this second, beyond themselves, beyond life, beyond the four sides of the very square box that can become ones comfort zone or bounded box! Of all the people and families I know, ours is less coventional. Our boxes exist sometimes, but are generally different. We are a multi-cultural, multi-belief family, which makes for interesting, mixed, similar, different and opposing ideals and ideas.


Romeo currently loves playing Rugby!

We have something that is great, though, we are parents. Parents with an ability to recognise what is important to us for our children, and to define what was great, but also where we lacked something that seems important or where we 'went askew'. Being able to highlight the good, bad, evil, and darn right ugly, helps us better guide our children in life's trials and tribulations.

We are able to come together (for the most part) to make decisions that are right based on our children and life as we live it in our house.

Our children are happy, well-balanced individuals at this moment in their lives. They think, they question, they challenge, they judge, and they are able to make their own decisions supported by us, their guardians. We will continue to do what is best and will encourage and support them in their changing lives as growing, changing individuals.

Romeo wrote this note for Persia. It kind of says it all about how our family esteems to support each other!

For about 2 of her 3.5 years of life, Persia has shown something that I never personally experienced with any great esteem. She is drawn to something of great interest. All things human life and body. I mean, since before she was 2 years old she has shown a keen interest in injury and health with an attitude of solving the issue at hand. Since then she leans closely over her brother's or her own (oft bloody) injuries with fascination. *Squirm*

She looks at human anatomy and biology books alot and does not skim the pages but looks in great detail at what is what and what goes where. My favourite question is 'what is this?' (luckily for me she already has the books in front of her so I can casually skim the pages for answers before she realises I don't actually know). In saying that, I sometimes find it necessary and beneficial to say that that is interesting but I don't know so let's find out together. It gives us some quality bonding time and we learn too.

One of the questions I get the most is 'what is inside our bones?'. That a 3 year old is interested enough to wait for the answer is amazing to me! I appreciate all the colourful diagrams that our books have, with the myriad of information and answers that even littlies can comprehend (to a degree at least). Soon I will introduce her to the world of human biology and anatomy online. I am sure there must exist Ipad apps for people interested in such topics.

Today we have been revisiting what is inside the human bone and it is fascinating. Compact bone, spongy bone, bone marrow (makes 200 million new red blood cells every day!),....Doctor Persia? I wonder. I encourage. I label (probably shouldn't). I support her interest.

Me: "What do you want to be when you grow up, Persia?". Persia: "Umm, a farmer!" Perfect! That is her other crazy fascination. See an animal..."I want to pick it up!". Yeah, farmer suits. Perhaps we could tweak the two and how about being a veterinarian Pershi baby?

Did you ever experience such notions of the future, dream your future? Become what you dreamed for your future?

Loulabel's Zesty Cupcakes

Lemon & Orange Cupcakes

Sunday is the perfect day to dabble in a little baking. Especially if you have friends and family over, or have lunches the week ahead.

The two-week school holiday break is finishing tomorrow in New Zealand and I wanted to try something new for Romeo and Persia for school and kindy lunches. If I only made blueberry-banana-chocolate muffins forever they would probably be happy but I like to attempt new recipes.

I love Lemon Sour Cream Cake, and I love lemon and orange for baking in general. This recipe is the perfect excuse to combine both flavours. It is super easy (and as always I adjusted things to my liking yet again as I went along - so feel free to play around with my recipe below).

Lemon & Orange Cupcakes

230grams softened butter
1 c sugar
4 eggs, beaten
2/3 c milk
3 and 1/4 c flour
2 tspn baking powder
pinch salt
2 lemons and 2 oranges - zest and juice

Turn oven on to 180C.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Slowly add 3/4 of the zest and half the juice and mix well. Slowly add the eggs and milk. Once mixed, add the sifted flour, baking powder and salt. Fold gently to combine.

Spoon into cupcakes papers (I put mine inside muffin tins to support the sides), or into muffins tins, to about 3/4 full. Bake for approximately 20 mins or until light golden and springy to the touch. If unsure, use a skewer to test whether cooked.
Remove from the oven and cool slightly before turning out on to a cooling rack.

Once cooled ice them.

White Chocolate Lemon & Orange Icing

Melt 1 cup of white chocolate. Slowly mix about half a cup of icing sugar with the remaining lemon and orange zest and enough of the juice to make a slightly runny mixture. Add some yellow colour and then mix with the melted chocolate. Spoon over the cooled cupcakes, let set, and serve.

I additionally decorated the iced cupcakes with icing pens and Romeo and Persia had fun helping (and eating as they were iced). Delicious (and extremely well-received!).

I hope you enjoy making and sharing these as much as we have. What recipes do you enjoy baking most? Do you have any other uses for lemon and orange in baking. I'd love to hear your comments and receive your favourite recipes!

Food Gems - CAKE POPS!

'Cupcake' Cake Pops from Martha Stewart

CAKE POPS are, to me, the chance to make little bites of heaven on a stick!

The cupcake version above looks pretty, yet classic elegance. I can see these served equally perfectly at a little girl's birthday party and at a high tea in town. Could you imagine a mixed bunch of cake pops as bouquets on wedding tables? Pretty and yummy!

Photos from Bakerella.com

Cake Pops that say I love you!

Just thinking about it, your imagination is limited only by your creative spirit! I can think of a gazillion different ideas for cake pops that would be a hit with everyone. I am already envisaging my Christmas Cake Pops of colourful baubles and tiny decorated trees. Not only is the creativity of presentation fun, but you can use different cake recipes and different types/flavours of icing inside the pop.

I absolutely adore contrast in colour and imagine my lemon sour cream cake recipe mixed with a melted white chocolate ganache would make a perfectly delectable pop centre surrounded by beautiful pastel coloured chocolate shells. Piped white or dark chocolate or sweet little flowers would make the perfect finish simple. My Christmas ones I think will be moist fruit and chocolate cake rather like fruit and chocolate truffles with colourful bauble shells.

I'm that excited about the endless ideas and potential of Cake Pops my mind is buzzing......bees...

and watermelon summers...mmmm

Have you ever made Cake Pops? If you have, or have some cake pop ideas that you want to share, Loulabel is always excited to receive your messages!

Loulabel ponders parental attire in Frankly Fashion...

...because pants are important aren't they? Or are they?



When I was pregnant with Romeo I threw out almost all of my clothes. I had shortly before been a mature (read that as 20-something) university student and was very comfortable and confident in my jeans and tight pink tee. I kid you not. That was what I felt good in. Jeans and tees are brilliant throw on and run to uni clothes and this usually translated into my everyday life for ease of thinking outside of 4 crazy years of study where I completed 4 degrees. I nearly died, I kid you not. I think my jeans saved me from the imploding translating externally.

Thus jeans were my friend and then I got worried. Really worried. Can a mother wear jeans? Shouldn't she wear matching sweaters and cardigans with slacks or something. You know what I mean right? The beige slacks with a matching sweater set in the colour of salmon(?) with sensible but still foot-in-fashion ballet flats.

So along crept pregnancy fat and the whole notion of being a mother....and my conundrum of what to wear. WHAT. TO. WEAR????

What does being a mother mean in terms of clothing and dressing yourself when you have a child?

Seriously, this passed through my mind and still does. I didn't think jeans and a tee were parent material (pun intended). I was afraid that I'd be the mutton dressed as lamb when I turned 60 and was still dragging on jeans and a tight tee. Pink no doubt. Pink no less!

So, I donned fairly acceptable mother maternity jeans and pants and gained another person and a whole new body. Ugh. Oh and lest we forget Ewww. This is not right.

Of course, Romeo's birth was a disaster and the experience just so sad that I had very limited thought about clothing other than that it wouldn't hurt his tiny delicate premmie self and I could sit comfortably for hours on end comforting small, hurt child.

Once we were home I donned the proverbial post-baby attire of trackies and t-shirt and sweatshirt. Yes, I did. The place I swore I would never journey to had just become my permanent holiday destination. I justified the long weekend break with the fact these were top athletic brand clothing items and thus I was wearing them in order to prepare to exercise - not because I wanted to be comfortable. I was mentally preparing for the time I would get back into shape, teaching my young boy the importance of health and fitness. What a RUSE! Kidding no-one, not even myself. Big, Fat LIAR.

It wasn't simply about dressing as a parent but dressing as a different person, with a different body, who felt different in every way. Who felt like she was drowning in life itself.

I continued to drag on my maternity jeans and pants.

Oh and I wore skirts. So often and in public that my family looked at me like 'we thought we knew you, but we just don't know who you are anymore. You strange-person-wearing-skirts-weirdo'.

I had only worn skirts if they were covering jeans or pants in the period where this might have been a short-lived fashion that I subscribed to occasionally. Maybe.

Then as my life metamorphosed along with my body in parenthood, so too did my ideas about fashion and body-image and life.

I went through phases of subscribing to what others said was in fashion. Sometimes I subscribed to what I liked and felt good in.

I currently am in a very different place. Where pants are my main stay but so too are skirts and dresses, equally as much.

I wear what I like, what I understand suits my body, what I feel is timeless, classic, chic even. I subscribe to me style. And that makes me feel good and confident and I hope that translates in my appearance. Though I feel no concern for how others view my style.

My question is : what pants does a 30-something year old woman wear?

I subscribe to the black business-but-casual-ish slacks that have dress-me-up or dress-me-casual avenues to walk down. Sometimes I wear black slacks with pretty sweaters and ballet flats and sometimes with something like a heavy crocheted hooded cardigan and my echo light casual sport shoe. I like both but that doesn't mean these are right, or good, or happy, or something special.

It's spring and I feel that I have to search out camel-coloured slacks or beige-ish ones.

and I find these:



and think yes, I could feel happy in these.

or these:



and then I think, yes. Beige pants are okay for Spring and then everything in my world of style and fashion freak-outs is okay...

for another 5 minutes.

Loulabel off to relish those 5 minutes of fashion freak-outs-over for at least 1 of those 5 minutes.


What are your ideas on pants/slacks/jeans/trousers? Do you prefer them to skirt or dresses? How has your perception of personal fashion changed? Flick me a message, Loulabel loves to hear what you have to say!

Food Gems 'Friends'

Food Gems presents its own (of sorts):



... need I say more?

A coffee house [insert sigh of great thirst]. With muffins {insert a sigh of huge desire}.

I don't know about you, but I used to enjoy the 30 minutes of light entertainment (and stupidity-resulting laughter) that the Friends sitcom used to provide (and still does thank you to the invention of the re-run!).

The show not only provided light-hearted insight into the possibility of friends and what fun we might aspire to find in our own friendships, but how fun and happy-go-lucky [American] life seemed. How it all seemed so desirable, perfect even, and yet totally attainable and achievable; and still makes so many foreigners want to fill in lottery applications for Greencards.

What I noticed, as a perfectionist (however imperfect I am), was Monica's cleaning behaviour and her cooking skills. But did I actually consciously realise that much of the show revolved around food? Oddly, no! I never really considered the fact. Until. Yesterday.

Perusing the local thrift store I happened upon a shiny dust-jacket-covered book. It was, or more precisely they were, staring blatantly at me like, grab...I'm great. And you know what, it is! The cast of Friends stares at me from the dust-cover and I love that! This is my newest-most-favourite-cooking-book. Ever.

The food gems in this book are fantastic and so far being half way through the book, I want to try each and every one. Thus far, there is no complaining that I have bought an album because it had a single I just had to have but omg I can't stand hearing the rest of the album and so have the single on replay and why didn't I just purchase the single? Because. You. Know. That. Happens. All. The. Time. Dammit.

No. I am loving this book of I want this one, and that one, oooh and that one and this. And I might try that for dinner....and how about THAT for dessert after this crazy-delicious salad? Wait, ooooh cookies and biscotti!

So, because I am loving this book's recipes, and the fact that they are so simple, creative and yet straightforward (and likely quite adaptable), I have to share a recipe in tt&e's first food gems post.

Smoked Salmon Canapes with Dill Cream Cheese

1 square loaf pumpernickel bread, sliced
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill leaves, plus more for garnish
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 pound thinly sliced smoked salmon, slices cut in half

Preheat the broiler. Cut the slices of pumpernickel bread on the diagonal into 4 triangles. Toast the triangles under the broiler until crisp. Beat the cream cheese, dill, lemon juice, and pepper with an electric mixer or heavy spoon until well combined.
Spread some of the dill cream cheese over each toast. Lay a piece of salmon over each toast and garnish with a tiny piece of dill. Serve promptly or chill for up to 2 hours.
Makes about 60 canapes, enough for 15.

This is delicious as an appetiser but I have to admit to wanting this as a lunch.

Happily lost in the depths of Friend food tt&e is sure to provide many more recipes from this book for your consuming pleasure.

tt&e salivating at the thought of things to come in food gems...

Changing with the seasons

I love Spring...

It is a season of sweet smelling change.

The weather swings from winter to blooms of flowers; warm rain showers and the smell of fresh earth; the warmth of the sun while laying in a hammock reading.

The temperature is more even; not too cold and not yet the heat of summer. The beginning of lazy Sundays that resonate with the smells of freshly cut grass, the laughter of children as they venture outdoors, the soft hum of DIY tools, the promise of barbecues to come.

The promise of beautiful weather days for months to come.

Spring is the season of pretty change and the promise of more to come.  

One likes to clean, clear, declutter and refresh our winter-sodden souls and winter bodies (not to mention our abodes) with light, airy, fresh scenes of pretty.

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Spring cleaning

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Fresh salads

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Fruit salads

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 Exercise

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this edition of Photographic Reflections presents:

Happy Spring...

Spring is the promise of happiness. Because with sunshine comes a feeling of health and well-being. Spring is the cleaning of our winter soul. Spring brings a little bit (more) of HAPPY. And that is a little bit NICE.

tt&e celebrating the beginning of Spring happiness in the southern hemisphere.