nest

Playgroup

I've been attending the same playgroup since we first moved here. Tom was one and I was newly pregnant with Jules. About a year after I joined the group I became the coordinator and have kept that job until today. I had my last day at playgroup today.

 

When I had a baby and a toddler I NEEDED playgroup. It was one of my only outings and I'd look forward to it all week, planning my outfit days in advance. Playgroup saved me from depression, loneliness and a feeling of utter incompetency in this parenting caper.

  

No matter how bad my week, I knew, that on a friday I had friends to listen and understand, I could have a cry and a laugh and I would come home a bit saner than I had left. What was even better was when I found that others had had a much crazier week than I had. It helped me realise that the antics in my home were normal for a family coping with an energetic toddler, a new baby and a sleep deprived mother. The tears were NORMAL (mostly mine). Allowing a two year old to watch TV all day was NORMAL (I just needed a break!). Vegemite sandwiches for tea was NORMAL (he's happy, he's healthy). While my parenting skills developed and the kids grew, I used my survival skills.

There was a large group of us a few years ago all with babies and toddlers which has now disbanded. Routines have changed, families have moved away, the toddlers have now grown and started school. Times have changed, our kids are growing up. I don't need playgroup any more.

There's a new group of mums now with babies and toddlers. It's their group, their outlet, their support network.

 

It was sad to say goodbye but a part of me was very grateful that I've left those days behind. The baby bit is over and the school bit has begun. I'm excited about that.

I'll miss going to playgroup on a friday and I'll miss the families who I've met... I'll also miss this view...

and the classically CWA style tea cups....

I'll leave these things behind but the friends I've made are friends for life, I'll take them with me.

 

Food Memories

Last night on Masterchef there was a challenge to recreate a childhood food memory. Which got me thinking, what would I do? And without hesitation the first thing that came to mind was Shepherds Pie. The comfort food we were given by Mum as kids... and even now. It's a cuddle on a plate.

Here's the Masterchef episode if you missed it...

Sunday week 2 2010 masterchef.
 

When I was much younger we always had Shepherds Pie the night after we had a roast lamb where the left over meat was ground in a hand mincer like this one...

 
Funny that that image came from a museum website. But I think the one Mum used was Great Grandfather's...

Then she'd make a gravy for the meat, place sliced tomato on the top and mashed potato over that then bake it until there was crunchy bits on the mash. But for the last... million years... she's been using beef mince. And this is about the only time she ever uses tomato sauce (or ketchup) for anything. A mixture of tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce is added to flavour the beef mince and gives that savory-sweetish pat on the back that only true comfort food can give. Mum calls it a 'Mummy-loves-you' meal. She'd serve it with a crunchy green salad, often with sliced orange in it, and a garlicy lemon based dressing, on the side. You'd drizzle (POUR) the dressing over the salad and over the meat oozing out of your serve of pie. The dressing is always served in the jam jar (or similar) that was used to combine the dressing ingredients by vigorous shaking.

The round, pine table. The embroidered table cloth. Ten legs under the table.

It's my birthday today.

I'm making Shepherds Pie.

So I bought a small half leg of lamb and baked it this morning with garlic shoved in on a bed of sliced onion.

And I cooked it on about 160 deg C for an hour then covered it for another hour then added some water and uncovered it for a bit longer.

Or whatever.

Then I took it out and it looked like this...

Oh the aroma.

When it was cool I chopped it with my new sharp-as knife (as I don't have a mincer).

I also chopped that divinely sweet onion and added it to a saucepan with Australian olive oil and finely chopped garlic... and cooked it. I then added the liquid from the baking dish... and cooked it. Then in went the lamb...

Gosh it's hard to get a good photo of inside a pot.

Some dried mixed herbs went in too, and some tomato sauce and worcestershire. Just a bit of each, and some dijon mustard.

Then I mashed some spuds with a couple of garlic cloves in the water and mashed through.

And sliced some tomato. 

Then assembled...

Dobs (?) of butter on top.

Then in an oven at 180 deg C until the insides are hot and the top has brown, crunchy bits on the peaks of buttery mash.

Yum.

That was a birthday treat from my childhood. A cuddle on a plate. 
 

Back With a BANG

Well, two bangs actually. I've had some time away from blogging, a few weeks, and contemplated giving it up all together but found I really missed writing and missed the blogging 'community'. Tom's first year at school has opened us up to a new world of activities, new friends and never ending routine. It's five days a week, you know. Every morning and every afternoon. He needs lunch packed like, EVERY DAY. The teachers expect clean uniforms and shoes. Library is this day, swimming is that day, don't forget something for show and tell the other day. It's full on and because I've taken the semester off from studying I have been able to volunteer for everything, everything I tell you. I may even have taken on a little too much... but that's the story of my life.

We've also been planning our overseas holiday, which brings me to the first afore mentioned 'BANG'.

Our European holiday looked like it may have to be put on hold when planes were grounded due to a volcano. Onya Mother Nature, way to surprise and inconvenience the public. And, I beg your pardon? What was that? Mount Eyjafjallajoekull? That looks like the words Juliet types out on the computer. If I'd written 'Ebsacihsihyfrvi' would anyone have noticed? A fabulous name for an awesome spectacle.

 
(picture from here)

Our Icelandic friends certainly know how to use the alphabet. Not to mention how to put on brilliant lava-smoke-ice-lightening shows. That photo is amazing! What would the vikings have thought?!

And tomorrow, BANG, I'm 40.

 

We went out for dinner on saturday night and then had a family birthday today. So 2 cakes, as we like to do. Today I had a cake made for me by Rod and the kids (with Betty Crockers help, thanks Betty) with 4 candles, one for each DECADE (!!!).

Very yummy, actually.

Especially with ice cream. Full fat, of course. Life's too short to eat low fat ice cream.

Then we went to Brisbane's bayside area for fish n chips where the kids insisted on swimming in their undies in the ankle deep water. That tide goes out a LONG way on these sand and mud flats.

'Some people'believe that the whole bayside area should be dredged. MINE IT! 'they' say. Bugger the delicate ecosystem! And lets tow Stradbroke and Morton Island somewhere else too, anything to get Sydney-like beaches with waves in Brisbane. I don't know who would say such a thing... *cough*... but white sandy beaches with deep water and waves would be nice. Yes?

It doesn't stop hundreds of people enjoying the area though. There where maybe 40 of these kite things pulling guys on small boards across the top of the water. You don't need deep water for that! Or waves!

I've had a wonderful day on the eve of my 40th...

...with photos of the FABULOUS gift my WONDERFUL husband gave me to be posted to nest in the next few days. I just need to get it framed...

:)

I'm back.