‘These woods are lovely,dark
and deep,
But i have promises to keep,
And miles to go before i sleep,
And miles to go before i sleep.
ROBERT FROST
There simply isn’t any time to crawl up into bed and sleep life away for a while, children are a blessing like that, i guess. They keep you moving, focused and in the moment and always on them; if it were to be any other way, i quite possibly might not get out of bed on this day.
“And you’ll always love me
won’t you?
Yes
And the rain won’t make any
difference?
No
Ernest Hemingway
This is a fabulous recipe that i have used over and over again. It is really easy, tasty and vegetarian. I like using a whole butter nut pumpkin that i just throw in the oven without any preparation and let it roast in the skin. It holds all the flavour and is really easy to slice and scoop out when cooked, defiantly a must try for anyone who loves roasted pumpkin. I used home-made fresh pasta however bought pasta sheets work just as well, if dried you will need to blanch the sheets for a couple of minutes in boiling water.
ingredients: 1 butternut pumpkin, 1 spanish onion,olive oil,500g frozen spinach,1/2tsp nutmeg,4 cloves garlic,2 can whole tomatoes,6+ fresh pasta sheets,50g feta,300g fresh ricotta,20g parmesan cheese,bunch of fresh sage, 1tsp raw sugar,sea salt,cracked pepper
method: Preheat the oven to 180°C, cook the pumpkin whole in a baking tray for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. when cooked remove and set aside. in a pan add olive oil and diced onion sauté for a few minutes then add cans of tomatoes with the juice, season generously with salt, cracked pepper and the raw sugar, turn heat to low at let sauce simmer for 20 minutes.
In a separate pan add olive oil and frozen spinach and the nut meg then season lightly, cook for 10 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated. Set aside to cool slightly, then add to the fresh ricotta and gently mix together. With a sharp knife slice the pumpkin length ways and discard seeds and skin, then scoop out flesh and roughly mash with a fork.
On a clean work surface , lay out pasta sheets facing length ways away from you. working quickly so the pasta doesn’t dry out, evenly divide and spread the pumpkin over the sheets. Then add a layer of spinach and ricotta and then crumble over the feta. Roll each sheet up and the cut evenly into four chunks and place facing up into half of the tomato sauce in a deep baking tray. Add remaining sauce over the top and place sage leaves and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in the oven until golden and crisp.
recipe slightly modified from Jamie Oliver,jamie’s italy.
just another day on the on the home front.. numerous cups of tea, Vegemite toast,endless amounts of washing,home-made ice-poles with water play, nose piercings, mess and afternoon tea. And we will do it all again tomorrow.
we headed off down the coast to Phillip Island for the easter school holidays. this is fast becoming our home away from home. We are fortunate enough to have a regular place to stay that makes it really easy to take very little with us, besides five kids packed into the car doesn’t leave very much room for too much more. So with just the necessities we make do, it’s a nice opportunity to live a little more simplified. It was a welcomed change spending our mornings on the beach, playing and forgetting our usual patterns of lunch making and school rush mornings. It was just the six of us this time, we left daddy behind to tend to the house and chickens.
We spent this welcomed Sunday simply hanging out at home reading, playing and reluctantly tending to the laundry, oh and eating an abundance of left over cake from a friday night birthday gathering for our two oldest girls. The whole family is enjoying our new pre loved couch that is so comfortable it’s almost impossible to get up off, which is not such a bad thing. We set up an outdoor room on our back decking that is providing a nice little hide away, one day we’ll transform it into another room and then we can all argue about who needs the space more. Nash, our 12 year old spent some much needed playing time with the babies which was really nice to see, this is a tough age to be, for us all.
As you may know we have been blessed with autism. It comes to us as a great gift encompassed in our Boo. this is a few of the things we have learnt so far on our journey,
you can never have too many trains
it’s alright to eat your breakfast cereal and milk separately
repetition can be like a meditation
it’s not always necessary to use words to talk all the time, communication takes on many forms
it’s always better to ask for a kiss or cuddle first
we don’t mind getting caught up at railway crossings anymore, it’s kind of exciting
people sometimes assume that certain behaviours are naughty… but the people who matter, know better
sometimes it’s better to take a nap instead of going shopping
don’t ever be too busy to pause for a cuddle if one is spontaneously offered
to love, love and love with patients
may our feet be strong enough to carry the weight of life.. let our hands remain open like our hearts
we spent a week of the summer holidays in Phillip Island, four out of five children came with me, we left dadda home working hard over his lap top in the unusual serenity of our house. I’m not sure he quite new what to do with himself in the emptiness other than work work work. we happened to be here over a heat wave, spending days trying to stay cool, reading books, lazing around with naked toddlers and plenty of icy poles. In the afternoons we headed to the beach spending hours playing in the sand and water and eating pizza. My big girls traded internet and social networking for endless hours of wandering through vintage and second hand shops. The children had a really good time, our Boo discovered a few more words… pizza, moon, beach, georgie managed to empty every cupboard and draw in the home we were staying in and my girls, well, i really think they appreciated the isolation from the demands of their teenage lives.. it was nice just being away, not worrying about routines, home work and bed times, pausing long enough to see the sun setting, watching the lightning in the thunderstorm, getting our hands dirty in the sand, even washing the dishes in a new sink had a sense of grace about it. Life on the whole slowed right down for an entire week. there was a sadness in packing up and heading home. Not because home isn’t wonderful and daddy is there of course.. but home means getting ready again for another busy year, early mornings and school lunches, long days and tired grumpy children,loads of washing, washing and more washing. If only i could find a sense of grace in those chores. We have decided to come again for the easter holidays.
Christmas day was celebrated at home this year, this being the first time we have been brave enough to play host to the whole family for a day. We set up a long table in the garden under the maple trees which turned out to be the perfect setting. Our big girls set the table with crisp white table cloths and hand made place cards, they picked herbs from the garden and put them into little green bottles, we used silver bone cutlery passed down to us from the nanas and drank Moet Chandon for the occasion, we served pork that we slow roasted overnight with a home made beetroot and apple chutney, lamb on the bone cooked for 6 hours in red wine, honey glazed roasted pumpkin and whole baby carrots. We ate way too much, laughed, shared stories, watched the children play, lazed about in the garden and in all had a really nice day
.
This is a fantastic quick weeknight dinner option and left overs for breakfast a couple of days later when the flavours have developed to their full potential, is even better. I tend to make this dish without the bacon most of the time to cater for my vegetarians and it really doest seem to impact on the flavour at all. We often have this dish with scoops of creamy mash potato and fresh bread, its real comfort food for those winter nights or it is just as yummy served with flat bread and sour cream.
boston baked beans
ingredients
olive oil,1 brown onion,4 rashes of free range rindless bacon,1 clove garlic,1 teaspoon of smoked paprika,2 tablespoons brown sugar,2 tablespoons tomato paste,2 tablespoons golden syrup,2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce,4 cans borlotti beans rinsed,3 cans of whole peeled tomatoes,season to taste
method
Using a large heavy based sauce pan gently fry the onion in the olive oil a few minutes then add garlic and chopped bacon if using, cook until bacon is slightly browned. Add paprika, sugar,tomato paste, golden syrup and worcestershire sauce. Stir for a few minutes until combined and fragrant. Add beans with the whole tomatoes, bring to the boil and then simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking. serve with buttered toast or mashed potato.
This day in November, early morning wake up for mamma and papa,COFFEE and CUDDLES in bed from BOO, freshly laid eggs for perfect SCRAMBLED, a little art from SKYE,WASHING, garden PLAY time,swim in paddle pool for little ones and COUS COUS lunch.
COUS COUS SALAD
Ingredients: cous cous, sultanas, flaked almonds, grated carrot, pumpkin seeds, olive oil, sea salt,table spoon of salad dressing if desired.
Method: prepare cous cous as directed, grate one carrot, mix all ingredients together and serve cold.
If there is anything I can pass onto my children with a hope they too will carry it on in their lives, it would be the simple act of giving.
Today we became proud parents. Parents to children we may never see, to their voices we may never hear, to their hands we will never hold, we may never be seen in their eyes as important nor will they ever know of us by name. We are taking care of these children We are becoming part of a movement where humanity matters Where children have the right to eat when they are hungry, the right to drink water that won’t make them sick, the right to be cared for and educated, and the right to feel safe and loved.
Today we gave.
It was the most beautiful day in Melbourne yesterday, for the middle of winter. We decided to pack up the children and head off to the Collingwood Children’s Farm for the morning. Once a month they hold a farmers market and sell everything from organically grown fruit and vegetables to wild flowers, home-made chai tea, giant hash browns, eggs, free range meat, sourdough bread even beer. This is a fabulous market to go to especially with the kids and the dog if you have one, there’s so much room for them to run. The farm itself grows all its own produce and the animals are hands on with the kids. They can watch a cow being milked at 10 am, pat sheep which are incredibly friendly, walk amongst the ducks, talk to the chickens, feed the goats and I’m sure much more. We had a really, good, stress free time here, which is a rare thing when travelling with toddlers and babies with an added bonus of a great coffee. If you live in Melbourne and have kids, pack up the gum boots, a change of clothes just in case and head there one weekend.. it really is a fun day out.
i have a habit of changing things around a lot, you could say on almost a weekly basis. my family knows this well about me and have gracefully accepted this trait of mine. there is the occasional frustration of not being able to find something, or the missing of bench space after i moved our island bench out of the kitchen, however, most of the time, the changes are pleasantly welcomed by our large household and happily embraced. it may sound funny but i find a new space or a fresh coat of paint on the humble wooden chair can often inspire creative new ideas to arise in all of us, even my two year old got excited about his toys again when one day they appeared on a new red shelf.
St GEORGIA & Boo 