With Love.....

The computer is doing strange things to me...
But at least it loaded the photos this time...(be it in a weird way!!)

Anyway...just wanted to remember a wonderful man...

I have been remembering the excitement that used to build before our Christmas party up the hill.  How we used to count down the time until we could run up...
How we would sit politely...waiting...waiting...but looking all around trying to find those hidden presents before we were told we could start the 'treasure hunt'...

I remember a mischievious twinkle in Mr Youldon's eye...and a wink at me...as I took my sisters presents and hid them in harder spots if I thought Mrs Youldon had been too kind!  I never did finish last...and Mr Youldon always knew why!

The wrapped up money under our plates...the 'fancy' food.

The Christmas day gift that we carefully carried down the hill and placed under our own tree.

The service when we wandered up for a visit "What can I get you to drink?  A half and half?"
Oh how I loved the old half and half...I am going to go and buy some lemonade and coke this week and toast a wonderful man!

The billy cart races...I remember sitting on my billy cart at the top of Mr Youldon's driveway and he was sitting on Lee's to race me..."Ready-Set"...and off he went!  Never saying "Go" so that he could get a head start on me...

At Christmas time it was our childrens turn...instead of half and half they were rewarded with a lolly from the lolly jar when they wandered up the hill...

I got upset when I went to see him at Christmas time and Mrs Youldon wasn't sitting in her usual chair...it just didn't seem right...at all.  We had a cry together and Mr Youldon said to me "We are like a pair of old shoes Jackie and I - one is just no good without the other"....

So now our hearts are hurting...a lot...but that 'pair of old shoes' are back together again...for eternity...it is as it should be...

Goodbye Mr Youldon...
We love you...
We miss you...xxxxx

Feta and Grilled Veggie Burgers-Mmmmmm

We went to Canberra to visit Mark a few months ago and he took us to a local burger joint. We ate an amazing haloumi and grilled veggie burger that was so good I had to try my hand at replicating it, with a few of my own twists.

Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients
1 red capsicum, sliced in thick strips
1 zucchini, cut into medium thick slices
1 eggplant, cut into medium thick slices
8 large mushrooms, stems removed
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 thick slices feta cheese
1/4 cup flour
Relish/pickles (I used homemade chili zucchini pickles but use any type you like)
Ciabatta

Easy Aioli
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 Teaspoon Dijon mustard
Freshly ground pepper to taste


Method
Mix all the ingredients for the aioli and store in a lidded container in the fridge until needed.

Preheat grill to the highest setting. Combine all of the vegetables in a large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil and mix to coat the vegetables evenly.

Place veggies in a single layer under the grill and cook until they start to brown. Turn over and repeat on the other side. Alternatively, the vegetables can be cooked on a BBQ.

While the veggies are cooking, cut each feta slice in half, resulting in 4 thinner slices. Spread the flour on a plate and coat both sides of the feta in flour. Heat the remaining oil in a saucepan and add the slices. Cook on each side until browned.

Cut ciabatta into 4, split and toast. Spread one side with aioli and the other with relish or pickles. Top with the cooked feta and veggies.

These are finger lickin good!

Just add water

Our Junior Master Chef's signature dish: chicken pot pie.

Spring

Spring is here, hurrah!





We've had some beautiful weather, the chooks are laying and the garden is coming alive.








I love it!

Sydney with School

There are so many more photo's but they have the faces of other kidlets in them and I cannot work out how to do the blur thingy. Oh well.

China town, Chinese Friendship gardens and a 3 hour train ride down and back...totally worth it!

To Fly

As a teacher and as a Mum I have the amazing privilege of making books come alive for kids. This photo essay with incredible quotes made me excited that possibly some day soon I may just have my own classroom again...and I can fill it with great books that allow all children to FLY and SOAR and READ.
Check it out.
http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/to-fly/

My Friend Albert

I think if I had have been around when Albert Einstein were alive he would have been one of my friends. In fact I would have tracked him down, baked him a carrot cake, made him some winged shoes and BINGO...we would have been the best of friends.

This one quote that I found today is the reason why I would want Albert around, hanging out with me and my peps.

"LOGIC WILL GET YOU FROM A TO B.

IMAGINATION WILL GET YOU ANYWHERE."

Seriously great quote right!

Anyhow here are some photos of a birthday present I made a sweet boy whose name begins with M. I made some for a sweet boy whose name begins with L as well (no photo's of those). And I am making some for a sweet boy whose name begins with H, but he may just have to wait for those for a little while. 

I hope that these boys with a little bit of help from their wings will let their imagination take them ANYWHERE.

Fifteen milliseconds of fame

Amanda and I made it onto page 28 and 29 of the local rag today, and we're the hottest ones in there!


The Geelong Advertiser had an article on 7Eleven's slurpee promotion where you paid $2.90 and could fill up your own container/bucket/swimming pool and the reporter on the street was asking people's opinion of it. Sluuuuuurp-sluuuuuurp-sluuuuuurp.

Apparently one teenage consumer didn't realise there was any sugar in her drink that was almost as big as her, oops.

I want to find out next time it's on and take in our chest freezer and fill it up, we'll have slurpees on tap for the Summer!