Schnitzel Thyme

So hello again!

• Lots going on in this corner of Paradise - check
• Lots unbloggable - check
• All jobs going well - check
• Both children growing and amazing - check
• Husband reading my mind and anticipating my every whim - ha ha ha ha ha - check

Lovely to see you still have your sense of humour. V does pretty well, but half the time I have no idea what I am thinking, so he hasn't got a hope...

Still, we will keep the carnage we shall forever refer to as "THAT Mother's Day" close to our chests, and just enjoy the highlights of the week prior.

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So, the biggest material highlight of the week was bounty courtesy of Gourmet Garden! I occasionally meander into the Digital Parents site and pretend I am a real blogger, and there was an invitation for bloggers to sample products and create.

Now, I have a confession - this is not my first sighting of Gourmet Garden Goodies. I happen to know another blogger who uses these religiously. My mother is another with a stash (but unfortunately not a blog - at least, not one I know about.)

They are great to have in the fridge (or - shhh - in the freezer if you are too far from grocery stores and/or your children are too fussy to just roll with herbs and spices being used with abandon and vigour) - but enough of a plug. I am a serious product tester here. (ha)

Anyhow, besides the excellent new lunchbox esky, I am truly impressed with the fact that they arrived still cold!! Paradise is not exactly capital city territory, and a few folk have been known to take the fact that there is a lot of Australia falling into that category a bit too lightly.

So - my brief is to use their product in my everyday fare (or even create amazing dishes etc, etc, etc). Will do my best. Saturday night was my first opportunity...

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Crumbs
Due to budgeting, freezer and grocery restraints, chicken was on the menu on Saturday. I decided to test out a bit of an extension of the usual schnitty with my new goodies, and therefore the Gourmet edge to our dinner was to create awesome crumbs.

Being ever frugal, I had a few old crusts in a plastic bag at the back of the freezer, and so I threw them into the food processor with a squirt of the Gourmet Garden Thyme paste and about a cup of cornflakes (we were at the bottom of the cereal container, so there were some extraneous bits of cereals prior to our current cornflake obsession that found their way into the mix too) and whizzed it all up.

Please take note of the matching white crockery. That's called "Thought and Effort" folks. Admire.


I am not sure if our counter-space is enhanced by the vibrant yellow or diminished by the brown mini-tiled "splashback", but there is definitely an art to bashing breasts without hitting the cupboards above, the plates either side or either major appliance.


At this point in dinner preparation, it is always important to stop and appreciate the beauty available - it helps with the inner calm (and indeed the outer - Paris has been known to think about whinging and veer into "beautiful sunset" mode on more than one occasion). Ahhh.


Okay, so it being impossible to dredge, dunk, crumb AND photograph at the same time, so between the last photo and this one was indeed the dredge, dunk and crumb step. I am yet to discover the art of doing so without needing to do a degunk or two (or eight) between pieces. I once read having a wet hand and a dry hand was the secret, but I keep on forgetting which is which.

You may note the sultana pieces - lets pretend they are deliberate and truly gourmet, shall we?


A mix of butter and olive oil and sizzle away. The Thyme really packs a punch to the old olfactory system, but in an "oh yum, I want to eat you" way.


Yeah, well this is why I am in Paradise surrounded by a family that loves me and not on Masterchef - me and artistic talent nod at each other in passing and are fairly cool towards each other.

The verdict from my patrons, however, was a double thumbs up. The thyme really made this every day schnitzel into something smooth and delicious and very much something that will be used!!

Chicken Schnitzel Like What You Would Find If Jeanie Cooked For You
Ingredients

• 2 Double Chicken Breasts
• Plain Flour
• Salt and Pepper
• 3 Eggs
• 4-5 Slices Old Crust/Bread
• 1/2 tbsp Gourmet Garden Thyme
• 1 cup cornflakes (and secret other bits and pieces>
• Olive Oil
• Butter
• Steamed Veges
• Mashed Potatoes
• Fresh Lime Juice

Method

• Whizz bread, thyme and cornflakes until the right texture. I thought the thyme might make it too moist, but I was wrong.
• Cut breasts into half horizontally bits and bashed to even thickness.
• Have 3 bowls - the first with seasoned flour; the second with beaten eggs and a splash of water; the final one with crumbs - and with each chicken piece dredge in flour, dunk in egg wash and crumb.
• Heat oil and butter in pan and sizzle well on each side.
• Drain each piece well.

Serve with veges etc - our lime tree is really producing at the moment, so I can HIGHLY recommend a drizzle of lime juice.

Through the Digital Parents site, I also discovered Mummy's Undeserved Blessings does a Weekend Cookbook every Friday. This week she will be linking other recipes for the Gourmet Garden challenge.

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In other news...
Paris passed off wearing Pigtails with great aplomb. I currently get Fridays with her, and a few girlfriends and I had finally got our acts together to share some time with our charges (grandchildren in their instances - I cannot lie, I am of more mature mother stock).

You may note that I treasure the artwork that both of my children create - the smudge in the mirror is not mess, but rather "Abstract Interaction of Toddler with Dental Hygiene Products #52".

We kept those plaits in all night, because there is still that eighties child within me hoping that perfect kinky look will adorn my (or my offspring's) head with style, grace AND longevity. Yeah, right - that would be nought from two who have escaped the genetic doom that is hair that won't hold a curl.


Meanwhile, my elder offspring is well into being both stylish AND gracious without any resortion (is that even a word?) to the frizz. Here she is in a modern installation "Life Imitating Art" - posing with my Mother's Day present from last year.

(Mother's Day this year had high points also - just went very close to being ruined by some moody cow getting her nose out of joint at the slightest shadow...)

How was yours?

There was an old lady...

4.33am, and I awoke to a buzzing sound...

Do you know the buzzing sound of insects as you sleep, and the sudden terror you feel when the buzzing is REALLY, REALLY close to your ear and then inside your ear and then panicking inside your ear and then nothing?

That is the sound I got this morning.

So, serious questions:

Can flies walk backwards? Will they do so towards the light? Or the cold?

Where does one go for someone to look at and extract such things? How would they extract? Is THIS the job for which ear candles were invented?

(And at last resort) what sort of spider should I contemplate?

There are other answers I seek too (including "why does ABC Jazz play such a medley of songs that have no musical connection to one another?", "why does my husband leave ABC Jazz on to play all night?" and "why couldn't the fly at least do something useful and block out the ABC Jazz?"). Some are too gross to contemplate at this hour.

Anyhow - off to see if the cold will flush it out on our walk.

Starting the day

For the last few weeks, I have been up at 5am (okay, 5.12 alarm so 5.17 out of bed then) - over here, that is 3/4 to crack of dawn - checked 'Salina was up (generally she is, completely dressed and hair styled), got "dressed", pulled on sandshoes (thanks family for the lovely present) and left the building.

We walk up to the front - its 2 blocks from here - and then turn and walk along. Occasionally there is jogging attempted (far more often by 'Salina than I, I must admit) and we go as far as we can in 15-20 minutes - always trying to go a little further.

On our way back, we will find the best spot we can for our "meditate" and watch the sky get a little lighter.

I think its worth it.

We have actually missed 2 mornings.

The first it bucketed down (hooray) but there was a certain pallour over the slightly later-starting morning after affecting both pre-teen and mother moods - we both decided that we should go back to our original start time.

The second because 'Salina had a nasty head-cold. We went for our walk the next day mid-morning, but discovered that the quiet yet cheerful "good mornings" generally found in the pre-dawn lights had disappeared in the sunlight.

The only downside - it gets to Paris' naptime, and I have discovered I would be well served to adopt the same strategy with dealing with the day!!

Blessings from abroad

On Easter Sunday, Nana and Grandpa came to visit for a "picnic" - which was held in our living room, as nature was all promises and no follow-through in regards to weather.

One of the bounties brought by my parents was a parcel that had travelled from afar

Amongst the goodies was this most gorgeous little number:


No - not the child, but the colourful twirly dress that she models - isn't it the most fun?!! Paris fell in love with it and wanted to wear it right away - and again the next day...

Perhaps it was the chocolate wearing off, but she wasn't as forthcoming with photos the next day - and had no patience for Mummy and her cries of "show us the shoes" because cats are a favourite here - and she has great cat sandshoes that we thought would really be the last paw in fashion pairing...



Thanks Debby - it (and everything) has been much appreciated.

Misfiring

Back later

The tale of Miss Jeanie and the "Bad Fish"

I haven't had the blog groove happening for a bit - a combination of life happening and life happening - too much, too fast, too out of control and too crazy - fraying around the edges and not a lot of guts to keep all the balls in the air, so to speak.

So I know I have to get back to blogland, and Bush Babe's mention of the demise of the hapless catfish triggered a memory, and Debby queried and I figured I am up for a yarn...

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A long, long time ago (last century) (not even the last decade of last century) (1989 to be precise) Shop-A-Dockets* had just made their first foray into the supermarket checkouts of Brisbane.

At that particular point in time, I was a poor student in Brisbane, sharing with a flatmate called Hip and 2 cats called Des and Cairo in a half-house in a suburb that was about to be launched into renovators delight but at that point was better known for its semi-regular mention in the Fitzgerald Enquiry - we actually thought the girls who often washed their cars in bikinis down the road were just extra friendly!

Anyhow, these factors all collided in the tale I am about to tell... (well, okay, the girls down the road aren't in the story)

In the suburb that was about to be launched into renovators delight the first move into such delights was a brand new shopping centre, with a brand new supermarket - a way fancier supermarket than we tended to gather our folorn vegetables and home brand groceries, but although the delights it offered were ever so slightly more expensive we were tempted - by the proximity (and probably by the fact that they had these new-fangled Shop-a-Dockets - shhh) (the fact that they advertised "singles Thursday" shopping was in NO WAY a factor, however, and I will meet anyone behind the bike sheds who even thinks such a thing) and - well, by the proximity.

At the same time in history, lured - no doubt - by the offer of Yuppies galore, a pet shop a few suburbs away agreed to a Shop-A-Docket campaign.

The collision of these ideas occurred when we noticed their coupon - "Free Fish" - with ABSOLUTELY no requirement of purchase** (although it was limited to "one per family").

When we got our first coupon, we discussed the delights of such a promise. A free fish would be a goodly thing to add to our household - especially since the flatmate-that-never-was prior to Hip had left a fishtank that had held 2 inhabitants, Big Fish and Little Fish - but Little Fish had gone to that great fertiliser factory in the garden and Big Fish was sort of at a loss - that and there was never anything on the television that we really wanted to watch.

It takes a great deal of planning to think about adding an animal to a household - well, it takes at least a discussion of names. Once we had hit upon a name, we knew that coupon would be put to good use. The first fish was anointed "Con" - short for "Fish under Conjecture".

Before we had trekked to the relevant suburb however, manna in the form of another docket fell into our hands. The second naming was far easier - and marks to anyone who could give the reason that the second fish was named "Eric"...

As we were about to get into the car for the foray, our neighbour came to the door with ANOTHER docket - and an offer of being the person to collect on our behalf (she had an assignment due and was desparate for an excuse, apparently. She already had 2 well-named fish)

A hasty house meeting was called in regard to the all important name of the third fish - after 2 great names, what could the other fish be called? We ended up with "Gilla" - short for "Other Fish Singular".

We returned with the fish (from a petstore with a very grumpy owner - apparently the free fish were on the road to sending him broke - although we did purchase some weed, food, fish toys and a filter from him) and set up our new entertainment system.

The first few weeks of fishwatch were great fun, until the weed had well and truly won the battle of space - so we moved the tank from the front window (who knew photosynthesis would be so effective?).

With the additional space, it appeared that bullying was on the agenda for the remaining fish.

First Con attempted to gain the upper fin, as it were, and before we knew it, we had the blue lights out to investigate the case of Big Fish floating - and given the treatment Con was meting out, we thought we had an open and shut case.

Con (renamed Con the Killer Fish) was sentenced to life in the trough, and the next weekend I made the 10 hour trek to my parents property, Con was in the esky.

(At that point in time, life in the trough wasn't that bad - there were at least a half-dozen fish in there, with a tyre hidey-hole at the bottom and an abundance of constantly replenishing green slime that appeared to be superfood for the fish - Con, our biggest goldfish, was about 1/10th of the size of the hardtimers in situ)

However - the next week, Eric was found on the upside of the water, not quite dead but with half a fin missing and the bit of fin left over was pointing at Gilla (henceforth known as Gilla the Killer Fish).

Gilla got the next esky to the property.

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So, a bit of an anti-climax to the whole yarn there. Every fish (well, except for Big Fish and Little Fish - but they were support characters only) lived happily ever after. The girls down the road put some clothes on. Jeanie went on to have a fabulous career in Sydney** (and then went on to throw it away and enact the role of "Grasshopper", unfortunately NOT in any meaningful kung fu analogy) and Eric went on and had a long and healthy life with Hip, Des and Cairo.

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* Wow - I didn't realise you didn't have to actually do the "Shop" part of "Shop-A-Docket" these days - how classy!!!

** As part of my fabulous career, I once got a visit from a Shop-A-Docket rep, and mentioned the tale of the fish - apparently, it is part of Shop-A-Docket folklore and a firm reminder to all promoters of wares through such a method to add a "must buy enough to make the promotion worthwhile" rule of thumb.

Disaster Quiche

Yesterday was a big of an interesting day. Not bloggable interesting, but more a "lets see how different stimuli act in this test" type of interesting.

Anyhow, part of the experimentation that went on was me trying to think of healthy, edible alternatives for the girls for weekend lunches... I was so "involved" in the experiment that I even went so far as to whip up a batch of cheese and vegetable muffins.

There is a VERY good reason that you don't see any results here in picture form, and that is because they TRULY SUCKED.

They were dry, crumbly (a very brave V did say that they were tasty, but he had to swallow several times to get the words out - they were so dry, they didn't just have liquid deficiency, they created a liquid vacuum) and I spat the dummy (unfortunately not the first dummy-spit I had - nor the last - yesterday).

The girls ended up with toasted ham, tomato and cheese sandwiches for lunch. I make a mean toastie - obviously far more proficient than muffin maker.

So last night, the quiche I had envisaged got a unique crust - made of crumbed cheese and vegetable muffin - and was based on a lorraine recipe - so cream (okay, it was Philly light - but nearly cream) and bacon made an appearance - as did all of our vegetables because I was darned if we were going to go without a bit of time down at the front and it meant our whole meal could be in one pan cooking while we took advantage of the good weather.

I didn't take a photo of the beginning of the meal (mainly because my third dummy-spit of the day had just been incited courtesy of a child's carseat - don't ask) (and the wine still hadn't kicked in) and it crumbled into a million tiny pieces on the plate...

However - it was a success, because the crust was delicious (very rich - but will tweak the cheese and vegetable muffin mix and try again one day) and both girls ate enough to tick the vegetable quota boxes.

(Fear of my dummy-spits played no part in that, I have been assured).



It still looks disgusting, though!!

Saturday afternoon

This Saturday is the first beautiful (weather-wise) Saturday for it seems like forever.

I am inside looking out at the sunshine - but I have a toddler sleeping (still - shhhh) and plans to get out there when she awakens.

Although it is Autumn, there still may be a few Saturday afternoons at the beach - we can but hope.

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Regarding the last post - I am so tired of being negative.

I am time poor, I am cash poor and it seems for every great idea that flits, ever so briefly, across my psyche, I can crash it down into a whole big pile of never-going-to-happens.

A part of that is probably due to the weather - when you are cooped up because of impending, current or just upended rain, the humidity warps your mind as you are swelling to the edges of your shelter.

A whole lot of it is me. I can look at a wonderful situation and pick it apart to find all of the possible negatives. I have worked out it is no longer a gift, but a burden.

I am so tired of feeling negative. I always have the reason why not, the ready-made "but" - I know WHY I have that response, I just have to work out a way to still give myself room to make my life choices without kyboshing all of the possibilities.

I have decided that one of the ways I can chose to not be so negative is to take a good look at positives, and for at least a while, identify and acknowledge them.

I know that it isn't going to be easy (look at that - true to form, I find the excuse) because there is often a core reason as to why we do the things we do. I also know that, according to the books (or would it be blogs these days) it takes at least 28 days to change a habit.

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So I am going to try, for the next 4 weeks, to meet the world with a "whyever not" attitude.

I cannot promise that it will mean that I am going to be up for everything (just in case spammers want to offer me international roles or for me to act as their intermediary in getting back Mubarek's millions) but I am hoping that it means that I can live more consciously.

Gratitude

1. I am grateful that today, I woke before anyone (except Eddie) and got to have my cup of tea in peace.
2. I am grateful that I saw a link to a new post by an excellent blogger who always make me think.
3. I am grateful that the sun is promising a gorgeous day - I love rain, but have a thing about moderation and there has been little of the moderate of late with our weather.
4. I am grateful that yesterday was the start of the sunshine, and V ticked off some items on his looooong list of things he wants to get done. One of them was to dig out the Poinciana sapling that had nestled along the neighbour's fence and moved it to the centre of the back yard - not an easy task considering our back yard consists of large boulders slowly filtering anything looking like soil into the netherworld. We used to have one near the back (eastern) window, and the glow of red throughout the kitchen thrown by sunlight through blossom was so delightful - less delightful for our neighbours, however, who couldn't get their washing dry and were fearful of its roots interacting with their slab. It also was a rogue sapling from a previous poinciana...
5. I am grateful that today is Thursday, which means that it is the last day of my working week and I can look forward to spending time with my gorgeous girls and V.
6. I am grateful that I worked extra on Tuesday afternoon, so I can leave early this afternoon and collect 'Salina from school and have my precious one on one time with her.
7. I am grateful that she loves her new school and is enjoying the learning process - it is half the battle won!
8. I am grateful that, touching wood, neither of my girls are sick. We have had little niggly things dragging on around here, and I am starting to get jumpy about it all.
9. I am grateful that Paris is the sort of child who goes to bed without drama, and when she wakes she plays in her cot and sings songs until she is ready to face the day.
10. I am grateful for all of my extended family (including some very wonderful friends), living in this country, living in this part of the country, having enough work to survive, having enough food to not be hungry, having my own health, V (far more than one letter, really), being alive - gee, once you open up this gratitude list thing, it sort of grows, doesn't it?

Which, I believe, is my cue to start the day.

Have a lovely morning all.

Aaaaah insomnia...

I remember many years ago (back when I used to blog on a semi-regular basis) I had a recurring theme of insomnia.

But I got over it. I got busy. I got married. I got an extra child. I got a job. I got 2 jobs. I got another and extra work on the side.

The last few weeks, it seems to have returned - not every night so I could anticipate it, but enough nights for me to be very frustrated about it.

I know what is causing it.

Currently I have 3 part-time jobs (plus occasional work for my own little tiny business) and the third one has added a degree of theoretical logic that would make Douglas Adams proud.

Don't get me wrong - I love the new job, because it is a "feelgood" job - BUT I went from fitting 25 hours into 4 days to trying to fit 31 hours into 3.75 days - which is still doable (if you make your breaks the time travel between workplaces) but when you put a "you can't work more than 4 hours without a break, but must work a minimum of 2 AND can't start any of them before 8.30am" it starts making the calendar of activity I put on the wall for the whole family look very confusing.

And then my 20 hour a week job is having a few staffing issues and/or changes which mean that I am (a) dealing with new members of the team with little to no clue (and currently not looking like switching on before the person he replaces leaves) and (b) currently having to come in and close up every day (see the above paragraph in regard to timetabling - its another layer of logistics).

Of course, my few extra hours means a lot more load is falling on V to be the parent on hand with the girls - and hats off to him because he is doing well, but it means I get mobbed when I do appear and I get sad when I am away from them so much - especially at moments like this afternoon, when instead of having my afternoon pick-up after school with 'Salina I am going in to work AND after her last afternoon up there (long story - end result going in to Mum's work isn't as fabulous on Wednesday afternoons as it used to be on the occasional Saturday) she chose catching the bus home...

And I also feel like I am missing so much. Its 'Salina's first year at high school and she is going great guns - apparently, although I do worry about my little fish in that big pond. Paris has moved into a new room at daycare and suddenly has gone through a whole development spurt to suit.

Gee - uplifting much - hasn't cured the insomnia and still remains that I have 3 jobs to go to in a few short hours...

I miss my old insomnia whinges. They weren't so depressing. Or frustrating. Or tiring.