This is how Circe drinks tea

In sickness and in health, really ?

In sickness and in health, are we really supposed to, I mean that's really hard sometimes.

If you've ever had to look after someone you might hear where I'm coming from, otherwise you might think I'm a selfish bitch.
I feel like all I ever do is look after people, wipe noses, clean bottoms, change wet beds and bodies, figure out whether that foot ache, head ache, pass out, croupiness, snoringess, hard of hearingness need to see a doctor.
I cannot cope well when it's the husband that is moaning ( and not in a good way) when he is sobbing when he is down when he is limping or vomitting or crouching or even sleeping. Haven't millions of years of evolution meant that I need a strong and healthy mate to help me cope?

I am feeling ever so selfish here for feeling this way. I know of women who have cared for their sick or dying husbands till the end, they never complained at all, they got on with whatever they had to do and were always there for their soulmate.
My partner is off work and has been for a long while now, I know he is struggling, he has had it rough. He is stumbling from one injury to the next with brief periods of feeling good and strong. A knee injury several years ago has impacted his life greatly, it has all of our lives actually.

A recent injury to his back, caused by none other than me, and again ( not in a good way) has thrown him off course again. Before you go thinking of the ways I could have injured his back, I'll just tell you. We have a mouse, a mouse that has twice now been rescued from the mouth of our wanna be cat ( the neighbour's cat wants to adopt us) so this time Eliza had said mouse in hand when said cat came into the house. Hubbie and I ran to stop a third mouse in cat's mouth saga. This hubbie of mine has a weird dress sense, on this particular day he was wearing a floor length yellow blanket around his waist, why?  anyway I stepped on the back of the blanket kind of stopping the blanket under my foot whilst his momentum grind ed to a halt. Needless to say we required an ambulance, and a three day stay in the hospital, all over that.

Of course I have to let him recover, I have to give him time, I have to remind him to take the painkillers and he won't let me put on his socks for him ( that was a rule we made, 17 years ago) I wanted to put on his socks in fact I am better like that, I can do all the bring you tea and food and water and stuff. I just can't cope when he requires no feeding or watering, when he is dopey when he sleeps for 15 hours or when he is just shut away.

Now he's only half better but writing resumes and doing endless hours of research, in his garage/ study,I barely see him. He comes in to the house at night and is crabby and tired and down, I don't even leave him lists anymore of what to do around here like I used to. I haven't even been able to cuddle him at night I'm so tired,  he gets to bed after me, I am beginning to feel a little lonely.

I am needing a little more in health, I am sick of the in sickness part.

Meringues from whites and Gnocchi from yolks

I like it when the night before's leftovers become something else the next day.

Today i used up last nights leftover mash potato from our finnish meatballs from this book and mash dinner,which if I had photos you'd see that they were just like the Ikea ones, only better! I used the mash, which i made tonnes of in my potato gnocchi, which were just yummy, and as always the kids get so excited to eat gnocchi.

Without even planning it as such the gnocchi required 4 egg yolks which I happened to have from this afternoons meringues with berries. I loved that it just happened that way, no waste makes me a very happy girl.

 Potato gnocchi.

1 kg mash potato
Big handful parmasen cheese
1/4 tsp nutmeg grated
4 egg yolks
300g flour
Salt
Just mix all your ingredients together, knead on a floured board adding more flour if necessary till the dough is soft but not too sticky.
Divide the dough up into about 8 or 10 portions, roll these into long sausages.
Cut the rolled out dough about 1/2 thumb size bits.
Lightly flour the gnocchi and then press a finger into them as you roll them one by one.
Drop into salted boiling water, they are ready when they all float up to the surface.

Enjoy them with whatever sauce you like, I love a homemade simple Napoli sauce and lots of fresh parmasen on top.

What do you do with your leftover whites or yolks?

august ten-on-ten

With the usual love to a bit of sunshine, here's roughly ten hours of my day, in photo form.

Stephanie Alexander came to our school today!

Today was the launch of The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation program at my children's school.

There was such a vibe and buzz in the kitchen. The children were so excited and wanted to help out however they could. Many yummy dishes were made and served by them. What an event for them, and so exciting for our school community.

The program is just wonderful, our school has worked so hard to qualify for it.  You could see at the opening that it has been made possible because of the dedication and support of the teachers, parents and community.

It's just so great to see something like this take shape, to be a part of it every time I come along to volunteer does my heart good. 

Jerusalem artichoke soup with brie and walnut

This is a soup I created from a bag full of Jerusalem artichokes we bought back home from a recent food swap.
Funnily enough in the same week I  had tried them on Friday in Kitchen garden at my kids school. We made Jerusalem artichoke provencale, a simple sauteed dish containing  just onion, garlic, tomato and toasted breadcrumbs in olive oil and parsley and parmesan, the kids on my table loved it, my son.... well he faked a sickie.

60 g butter
8 Jerusalem artichokes scrubbed and peeled, chop to thumb sizes
5 medium potatoes washed and peeled, quatered.
1 brown onion diced
3 cloves of garlic crushed
1 lt of stock veg or chicken
500 ml of water
salt pepper to taste

In a pot, heat the butter, saute the onion and garlic, careful not to burn.
Add the jerusalem artichokes and potato, toss it all around for a few min
Add the stock and water.
Cover and cook for 45 min or till vegies are tender, add more water if needed.
Puree the soup
then add salt and pepper to taste.

Dish it up ,placing a good slice of brie, sprinkle in some walnuts just crushed in your hand.
Some parmasan if you like and extra black pepper.

Enjoy this hearty soup outdoors in the crisp cold whilst watching your partner gardening, hand him a bowl of it to get instant love.

The one about the rainbow cake

When I first saw this cake , I knew that I'd make it some day.

It was several years back, on Martha Stewart's website, that I saw it.  And the waiting began, for the right time.  Well the day came, and my what an epic cake it was. '

It's like ticking off "do a marathon' on your bucket list.

The ingredients (or more so the quantity of ingredients) is a little lets say, shocking. Like 19 egg whites, 5 1/2 cups sugar, and 750g butter. We didn't have an ounce of butter in the house Monday morning.

Then you have the food dye... You gotta let all your nature mamma go if you want to make this cake, just forget it.

I really enjoyed the process of making this cake, and I followed the recipe to the tee, unusually for me.  The texture and softness of the cake is really good, the icing is a swiss meringue, lovely in small doses. The wow factor is really worth it.

Eliza had seen me assemble the cake, as much as she tried to avoid it, so she knew what is was going to look like.  But seeing her face lighting up as that first slice and  came out was just worth every free-range egg white.  And the days of custard that followed, not that the kids (or Aaron) complained.

Although Eliza saw the cake, I will tell you that we like a little secret party crafting round here the night before the party, after she'd gone to bed. Eliza's big sister Beatrix and Aaron and I stayed up way too late crafting pinwheels (that made our fingers bleed and wouldn't spin at night, but somehow did on the day) and ribbon sticks.  Bea had been with me buying the ribbons and embarrassed me in the fabric store, chortling loudly "Mum don't you know the colours of the rainbow?" when I wondered aloud what colours to get. Ahh I love it when she knows more than me.

The party was a big success and so much fun.

My recipe for the perfect rainbow party:

Punch balls in rainbow colours
A string of balloons aranged in the rainbow spectrum
Ribbon sticks in either a bright or pastelly rainbow hue
Pinwheels, just because they are so pretty
Some big sidewalk chalk
(I didn't need games with all this for everyone to play with!)
and of course
Rainbow cake..