Sucky September Story

The vacuum cleaner died. It was over 30 years old. It only had a 2 year warranty - its final demise was brought about by plastic fatigue on a little clip that kept the bit of foam filter in place. I don't have any photos of the Sunbeam Volta - but it was a gem.

This meant that my first "few hours of just me in the house on a Sunday" that I had cunningly negotiated with V was spent instead in an electronics store. I browsed vacuums ferociously, and went over the pros and cons of many a model with the salesman. I mentioned old, deep carpet, a moulting cat, my own locks and children, one of whom is partial to mysterious coughs and rashes on occasion. I also mentioned a serious aversion to Electrolux (I have a whole series on the joys that particular company has given me over the years).

He mentioned Turbo Head and extolled the virtues of a model that had "Volta" in its title and I was sold.

When I got home, I found the warranty has Electrolux on the top despite not being on any external labelling. It sucked - very well. The turbo head went wonderfully - for one whole vacuum of the house.

And then the turbo head bit died. Less than a week old, killed by long hair and complete lack of access to clear the turbo bit of the crap it collected... The rest of it works.

Have to dig out the Electrolux warranty and work out how many levels of hell we will be put through for the bit I bought the bloddy thing for...

August-us the grate...

Is August nearly over? I am pretty sure I am fairly nearly over it.

Not that anything earth shattering has happened in my little part of the world. But nothing very earth shattering happened in the areas where a little earth shatter could have helped, and the areas that didn't require such seismological assistance appeared to shudder more often than they should.

I will be back in September.

B-lime-y (otherwise known as the July post)

It has been a while, has it not?

I have started new job and it is good - and busy - and full-time, full-on, dive in deep and come up for air in a positive way. I joked for the first few weeks that I was "Chief Effervescence Officer", but in actuality my job is more about facilitating export, so rather than putting the bubbles in, I am blowing the bubbles all around the world!!

Otherwise it is all systems go here - 'Salina gets older, wiser and, very occasionally, more teenager; Paris gets older, wise-cracker and, very occasionally, wiser; V is doing amazing things to gardens and Eddie is still THE cat.

One thing that has recurred a fair bit over the last little while has been the need to use the many limes that our little tree has produced - I plucked the last 6 from the tree on Sunday and am contemplating another round of these - although the girls do pronounce them a little too tart - which in adult speak is "delicious"

Lime Cupcakes

Firstly, you can to the BHG website and get Fast Ed to show you how to make these (watch the video here) - I tend to make them in mini-muffin cases, as they are so rich and sweet and the perfect mouthful - this recipe made over 70 last go around!

Ingredients

• 125g butter
• 3 eggs
• 200ml milk
• 360g caster sugar
• 175g dessicated coconut
• 225g self-raising flour
• zest of 6 limes
• juice of 6 limes
• 140g sugar

Method

• Melt butter
• Mix in
  • eggs
  • milk
  • sugar
  • coconut
  • flour and zest
  and spoon into muffin tins to 3/4 full
• Put in pre-heated oven and bake until cooked (depending on size - generally 12-15 minutes)
• Meanwhile, mix juice and other sugar in a saucepan over heat until all sugar is dissolved
• Prick the cupcakes with a skewer when freshly out of the oven and spoon hot syrup over them
• Enjoy!!

Reports from 5.46am

Its cold. And dark. And way too early on a Sunday morning - but since I woke at 3.30am I have not been able to go back to sleep.

It played like this:

• 3:?? dream I can hear Paris yelling out to me.
• 3:??+1 realise Paris is yelling out to me. Get out of my warm, warm bed and go to check on her. She is freezing (of course), upside-down in bed and wants her Mummy. Aww. Turn her, tuck her, sing her a song.
• 3:26 return to bed.
• 3:27 Can't sleep. Realise that to ensure a sleep in, I probably should have changed her nappy. Realise that, although there was a discussion about bringing up some nappies from downstairs, there was no action plan.
• 3:28 Make heartless decision about leaving her in wet nappy even though I have hit the above lightbulb moment.
• 3:29 My backside is cold. Toss and turn to try to find best butt-warming position. Nasty little voice inside my head tells me that if I think my behind is cold, imagine how it is for a 2.48 year old with a wet nappy.
• 3:30 Contemplate what going down to get nappies would actually entail. Decide against it as it would require layering up and the potential of waking the baby to do the change.
• 3:31 Paris takes the decision out of my hands by requesting my presence again. Guilt urges me to scrap the against points on the whole "get out of bed and freeze" discussion I have just had.
• 3:31 Rug up, reassure child, go OUTSIDE the back door into the cold, down the freezing back stairs, into the naturally-refrigerated laundry, find spare nappies, reverse journey, get back into house.
• 3:33 Discover that not only are we dealing with a wet nappy situation, it has upped to a wet trousers, wet shirt and wet singlet situation.
• 3:34 Enter a futile conversation with Paris about the benefits of putting on the stripey shirt and lose.
• 3:37 Golden moment of discovering that, despite the soaking of all outerwear, Paris has not wet the actual cot sheets!! Tuck her, sing to her, return to bed.
• 3:38 Can't sleep. Brain has started to whir about things I cannot affect at this hour of the day. Try to sleep.
• 3:41 Still trying to sleep. Think about all the work stuff I have to get through this week.
• 3:52 Still trying to sleep. V wakes, goes to the bathroom, returns to bed and goes straight back to sleep.
• 3:55 Try to toss and turn really quietly so as to ensure at least one adult gets a decent night (or morning)
• 4:01 Start to whir about how I am going to fit in everything that needs to happen in regard to work stuff (more on that in a future post, no doubt) over the next 10 days.
• 4:09 Try to switch my mind from all the frustrating things regarding the current work situation and contemplate the great things regarding the impending work situation
• 4:14 Planning overseas holiday. I will need to get us all passports. What about 'Salina's schooling? Hmmm, when should I budget this all in? Where? Should we fix V's knees before or after? That reminds me, I must check on the our Health Insurance. I have to do the budget. When will I get the tax organised? Do I have any appointments I need to diarise? Oh no, back to the current work situation and my lack of time to deal...
• 4:26 Cat is digging his litter tray really loudly.
• 4:28 Still.
• 4:29 Okay, I will get up and let you out, Eddie. Darn it, might as well stay up now.
• 4:35 Make a pot of tea, justifying it by thinking I won't hit the coffee until a reasonable hour
• 4:27 Realise that I have not had a pot for so long, I had forgotten the one golden rule of pre-warming the pot. Drink cool tea in penance.
• Surf inanely on the web
• 5:01 Shut the back door as my butt AND whole back are cold from the draft. It makes me a bad, but warm, cat owner.
• 5:07 Think about another cup of tea but scrap that idea due to tepid response from last one.
• 5:15 Think how, if we hadn't made the decision to sleep in today, 'Salina and I would be getting ready for our walk now.
• 5:24 Read blogs by people I haven't read for years. Some of them haven't added to their blogs for years. Mourn.
• 5:31 Think it is a good thing we didn't go for our walk, as it is freezing cold and still very dark.
• 5:46 Decide to blog.
• 6:16 Realise that I have written a very crappy post, but at least I have put it out there...

How are the mornings of the rest of the world panning out?

Coriander Orange Pulled Pork with Pureed Sweet Potato

(Okay, I confess - sleep time was at a premium last night, so this only got half done. Bear with the edits.)

Dinner tonight last night was DOUBLE-YUM!! (So was tonight's, but more on that later...)

I am a super-frugal shopper at the best of times, and so it had to be pork, because pork is currently on special at the local IGA.

It also had to happen either quickly and easily courtesy of V - or slow-cooked with quick preparation and quickish delivery at the other end courtesy of my "how many jobs can you fit into a day" Wednesday.

I chose the latter. As you know from my previous post, I got some goodies to try out last week.


(Other people also got goodies - their trials are listed here)

Anyhow, where was I? Oh yes, inspiration provided, limitations acknowledged, time to prepare a feast.

When I was a wee lass, I loved, loved, LOVED recipe books. I scoured and devoured (in my imagination) the whole 640 range at the school library, and when I learned that Sunrise would send you a FREE cookbook just by giving them a stamped envelope, I could not wait until I had one in my hot little hands.

One of my favourite finds courtesy of that cookbook many, many (many) years ago was the marriage of orange and pork - and one of the beautiful things about living in Paradise is its proximity a wonderful citrus growing region (and my belief that what I buy in the local store must come from there, because who would be so foolish as to import oranges when they are grown just near by, really?)

So, with these...

a slow cooker,

and a heap of time, I created this:


Coriander Orange Pulled Pork with Pureed Sweet Potato
ingredients

• Pork Shoulder Roast (we skinned as much of ours as possible beforehand, because you don't get crackle, you get gelatinous gloop)- ours was about 2 - 3 kg with bone
• 1-2 tablespoons Gourmet Garden Coriander
• 1 tablespoon Gourmet Garden Garlic
• 2-3 teaspoons Ground Cumin
• Juice of 1-2 oranges
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• a few bay leaves
• Sweet potatoes
• steamed or salad veges
• fresh limes (if available)
• toasted pita bread to serve

Method

• Mix the coriander, garlic, cumin, juice and stock in a jug
• Scatter bay leaves on base of slow cooker, place pork and pour above mixture over
• Put on low and cook for 9-10 hours
• Pour off the juice and put in refrigerator
• Shred the pork, removing all skin, bone and fatty bits and put into the dog's dish
• Peel, boil and mash (I went all Masterchef and sieved) the sweet potato
• Skim the fat off the juices and reduce to 1/3
• Serve

Yeah, my photography doesn't get better than this - I wouldn't quake too much, professional food bloggers!!

(Still, you can't ruin some photos no matter how hard you try!!)

Oh - and tonight, we had enchiladas with the leftover pork - mmmmMMMMMmmmm!!