Burning Sausages. And Other Number One Hits.

I was being some kind of gastronomic genius in the kitchen tonight, cooking Tuscan chicken for Matt and I (that I picked up from my butcher already marinated - hello - I outsource, what's it to you?), and the kids culinary favourite... Sausages.

Simple task. Yes?

Er. No.

I got involved in some shopping of the online kind (Australian retailer FYI). Can you see where this is going?  I checked the sausages a number of times to ensure they had the right sizzle factor. And indeed they did have the right sizzle factor - in fact they were just at the right time to take them off - but instead I thought "Hey - they'll be really good if I leave them for another two minutes." So I did.

Approximately seven minutes later Matt looked at the kitchen and went "Holy cow". Or something like that. It was filled with smoke and my perfectly sizzled sausages were transformed into perfectly cindered sausages. Just. Like. That.

The next 7.5 minutes involved me cutting off the charcoal pieces so that my children would actually eat something instead of the nothing they would have preferred.

The chicken on the other hand was a complete hit.

Tell me I am not alone in burning dinner. I informed Matt that if I didn't from time to time burn dinner, no one would appreciate when I didn't burn dinner.

True? False? Don't care?

PS - Did you know there's something called the Burnt Sausage Sea Cucumber? Nope, me neither. Until I googled images for burnt sausages. Here ends our lesson. Class dismissed.

When Life Hands You.. Er, Oranges

Tonight Matt made dinner, we ate it (STOP THE PRESS), and then I was still a little hungry.


I have the loan of a Vitamix for a few weeks.
I made a cray cray smoothie tonight to share with Matt to fill the void:

The original Thursday night post-dinner smoothie:
2 x oranges
1 x banana
1 x stick of celery


Blitz. Like cray cray.

Bon appetit baby.

Super Coolio

Before Christmas I was lucky enough to win these three sets of placemats from The Lowercase via Daily Imprint  - and I have to tell you how cool and fun they are. We used the 'Punch and Pose' (moustaches) on Christmas morning, and it was so fun and funny. Trust me. I'm an expert.

These are such a great idea for entertaining, or getting the smalls to sit at the table (if you, er, happen to have that problem like us).

Merrily, I've just discovered that The Lowercase is offering 40% off ALL products. So you should totes get yourself some of that sweet action.

But Don't Worry Possums

Matt and I went to a fantastic dinner party on Friday night. It was super fantastic even. A grpup of peeps from Twitter. How fabulous!

Mushroom soup. Veal. The Women's Weekly pool cake. Great wine. Great company.

And there may have been a solo dance to Ceelo Green.

On the other side of the dinner party, I may have been wielding an almight hangover. Ouch.

For some reason I felt compelled to take a self-portrait. Probably because Matt never takes photos of me. Accordingly, I never appear in our photo albums. Unless I take the photos.

Conversation At Dinner

At dinner tonight the Doctor and I were talking. I mentioned that he might like sushi.

His response? "No thanks Mum, I don't like Italian food."

image via

Table For Two?

Good evening sir and mademoiselle. Table for two tonight? Yes we have the best seat in the house, great views, it will be perfect for a sibling catch-up.

Tonight I set up the smalls table outside to make the most of a beautiful evening. They pretended they were dining out together catching up (Tiny was a vet, the Doctor was a train driving scientist), I was the head waiter combining a double-shift with chef-ing. Matt? Well... Er... I think he was someone sitting at the bar waiting for a table..

Just Look What I'm Filing This One Under

Today we've been busy despite the omnipresent heat.

We nipped down to the nursery at lunch time to pretty up the front of the house. I was in need of colour. Some pizazz. Unfortunately I neglected to get a photo of our colour. Though it's not been potted up yet - it's going to be - yes, dear reader, I will finish at least one of my projects. Amazing I know.

Tiny kept escaping out our kitchen door. That baby sure loves to get filthy. Rather than the softest of pinks, I should really be dressing her in sand, chocolate and any other natural kind of shade so her escapades are camouflaged. Napisan and I are firm friends.

To keep her in one spot I popped a saucepan of water outside with her, along with mandatory wooden spoon, and her favourite - a pint-sized ball. Kept her still for - oh - two minutes.

My hot weather wear is one of my very favourite dresses that I picked up at the markets yonks ago - just a little cotton number with Steven Seagulls (or if you prefer, they can be Jonathon Livingston Seagull). Thongs - compulsory (sheesh, just realised that if you're a US reader, you may be thinking that I'm saying g-strings are compulsory - for you dear US reader, please read flip-flops).

And here's where I am expecting MENSA to come knocking. Matt, for some reason, felt the urge to buy not one, not two, but four loaves of bread on Tuesday - AND a dozen small rolls. Given this sudden influx of carbohydrates, I am currently going gang-busters trying to use it all up before it becomes at one with penicillin. On the menu tonight - individual serves of garlic bread. Nigella, need a sidekick? Talk about genius.

Crazy In The Coconut

We had one of those weekends with lots of zipping about the city.

Saturday zipping about deepest, darkest suburbia doing odd-jobs.

A hen's do on Saturday night.

Sunday we headed off to a wedding for one of Matt's good friends. I didn't actually take any photos at the wedding. In fact, the camera didn't even make it out of the car. But I captured some of the scenery as we zipped and zoomed. My testament to spending a proportion of my weekend in the car. A sad reality of life in the 'burbs - but at least the scenery is pretty!

All in all, a really fun/ny weekend with friends in lurve.

Now I'm into the grind of the week, things to do, heat to dodge, babies to woo, pre-schoolers to play with, dinner to cook (am I the only one that is so sick of dinner I want to delete it??).

What's in your dinner repertoire that's easy to make and keeps the punters happy?