The Dog and the Husband

Minka

2012-02-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

Well.. it's been over a year since I put a post on this blog. One of our saddest days - last Thursday morning our gorgeous staffie, Minka passed away. She was 14 & 2 months exactly. She was finally so tired.. her back legs and hips were playing up for a couple of months but she tried ever so hard to keep us happy and we in turn cared and loved her.. carried her as much as we could up and down steps. And picked her up if she stumbled. Thursday morning she could not get up at all and for the very first time had no interest at all in food. I cried as then I knew she was telling us.. it was time to let her go. Dear oh dear...We miss her so much - she certainly was a special girl

The Bike

2010-08-21T22:52:00.000-07:00

The Yammie, the Gunmetal Ghost.

A word from Ian on his beloved girl...

I had spent my whole life hating the idea of motorbikes. My Dad was sustained injuries to his head (and some brain damage) when he piled his Ariel Square Four into a telegraph pole in 1939, and he spent the rest of his life paying the price. But in 1996, I was walking through a shopping mall in Richmond NSW, and spied a beautiful new two-toned Honda Shadow being displayed as the prize of a raffle. I thought it looked particularly retro, what with the colour and the spoked wheels and all, so I bought a ticket.

I’m one of those people that when I buy a ticket for anything, I expect to win it.

As the prize-drawing day drew near and past, I twigged to the fact that I had not won this bike. It played on my mind for a while, and one day I walked into the local Honda dealer and bought the bike.

As it happened, it was the very same bike that had been used in the raffle display, but not the bike that had been won.

So, I walked out of there as though I had won the raffle. Just nine thousand dollars difference!!

I didn’t know how to ride. I enrolled in the Stay Upright course, and in no time, I was staying uptight.

Because of my age, I was able to immediately ride a bigger capacity bike on the road, so away I went. I traveled all over. Melbourne, Adelaide; all around country New South Wales. The bike was big enough for me and met all requirements except one…..I couldn’t buy good enough after-market accessories to make Annette’s ride comfortable. That is, not a very good pillion seat available; no good footrests – all of that.

So, within a year of buying the Shadow, I was enviously looking at Harleys and the bigger Jap bikes. I decided that (at the time) I didn’t want to go through all the hoops that one had to go through to prevent my bike being pinched – and that was seriously on the cards if it had been a Harley that I’d settled for, so we decided on a 1997 Yamaha 1300cc V4 Royal Star Tour Deluxe. This was the beast with all the comforts for a pillion passenger, and all the weight and grunt to handle long haul holidays.

Here was my second-only motorcycle and I had opted for something that tipped the scales at nearly 500Kg!!

It didn’t take long to get used to the weight, and before too long, we had chalked up quite some miles on the beast. That was when I started in on some “extras” for the girl. For BOTH of the girls, I should say.

I bought a Corbin tour seat from the U.S. and installed an electronic cruise control. I had the whole bike painted in my own special colour combination, and had airbrush additions added to my own design.

Anyway…..

I haven’t conquered the Nullabor yet, and probably won’t after all my trips from Adelaide to Perth in a Beetle, but she’s done the rounds. At time of writing, there’s about 160,000 Kms on the clock, and we expect a lot more to go. She has seen roads from the frozen tarmac of Cradle Mountain in Tassie to the melting bitumen of the Hay Plain. She’s still going strong.

We’ve had a bit of a think about trading up, but I’ve believed that that would only be trying to keep up with mates who seem to have a new bike every year. We don’t see the point.

We are both very accustomed to the old gunmetal ghost, and she still purrs along beautifully or rockets along with a snarl, depending on how we feel.

In the intervening 13 years since we first threw the leg over her, we have had to replace 2 clutches (expected), one differential (expected at 100,000) and one rear brake disc (expected).

The Gunmetal Ghost is almost as much part of this family as is Minka and our Weber Barbecue.

Those Corbin 'comfy' seats

The Yammie, the Gunmetal Ghost.

Ian's cooking tonight.

2010-08-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well, Ian discovered something last night that probably EVERYONE KNOWS….or maybe everyone but me….

Vietnamese cooking.

And this is from Ian............

"I have known that in many cases, the Vietnamese don’t always use the wok in the same way as the Chinese and Thais. I’ve known that they often “part-stew” their chicken dishes in the wok by keeping heat lower and liquid up a bit. This has been a known, but I’ve never bothered to investigate it.

I once saw Luke Nguyen on tellie doing something similar and ignored it.

But I decided to follow the recipe last night of Pauline Nguyen’s Lemon Grass and Chilli Chicken (except for one SMALL addition – the soy sauce). And it was one of the best meals I have EVER cooked!!!!!"

500gm chicken thighs

2 Tablespns fish sauce

1 Tablespn caster sugar

1 lemon grass stem (white part), finely chopped

1 teaspn pickled chilli (I used sambal oelek)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 Tablespns vegetable oil

1 bird’s eye chilli, sliced (I of course, used 3)

½ small white or red onion, cut into wedges

125 ml chicken stock

1 small handful coriander for garnish.

+ 2 teaspns light soy sauce

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces (approx 3 cm)

Combine fish sauce, sugar, half the lemon grass, pickled chilli and garlic. And soy sauce.

Mix well to dissolve the sugar.

Fold in the chicken through the marinade, cover and refrigerate 4 hrs or o’night.

Place large saucepan or wok over medium heat. Add oil.

Fry remaining lemon grass and chilli until lemon grass starts to brown.

Add chicken. Stir and seal all sides.

Add onion and continue to fry for 2 minutes.

Add chicken stock, cover the pan or wok, reduce heat slightly and cook 5 minutes more.

Remove lid, increase heat and stir until liquid is reduced.

Serve with plain rice and garnish with coriander.

Bloody sensational!!!! Simple but gorgeous.

(other sins: at time of adding onion, I also added ¼ green capsicum, shredded finely.

I also added a tablespoon of finely sliced – shredded – mint leaves right at the very end).

Do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After Grace left

2010-08-14T01:13:00.000-07:00

Grace left after almost 3 weeks, about 3 weeks ago and we had a wonderful time, but after she left we realised how difficult it must have been for Grace to navigate herself around our kitchen! So Ian and I tackled our pantry and kitchen cupboards and did a massive re-think and re-organisation. We had already all our pots and woks hanging from a rail from the ceiling but what do you do with all the lids?? Well, I came up with a great idea!! It was a bit of a hassle to convince my 'installer", Ian, as was just too simple and he said no way would it work! So let me share.. free of charge! Am very proud of this and cheap as chips!

2 small cup screws and heavy elastic bands.. get it? Screw a pair onto inside of all kitchen cupboard doors at suitable width and height, loop elastic band on both and slip one lid through! See Pics! No rattling around and easy find! Ian had to agree was a great idea! Another one from me! Ha!
This is the gorgeous carrot cake I made.

carrot cake with cream cheese icing.

and this is what's left not long after - see the pistachios!

My Pete

2010-07-31T01:36:00.000-07:00

My favourite youngest son! We had dinner last night with Tash and Pete at what we thought was going to be a fantastic experience! Chutney's at Harris Park is a really good authentic Indian restaurant and they have opened one up in Blacktown..so off we went and met Pete and Tash there. Lucky we had good conversation because the meal and service was not so good at all! My entre came out last and after my main meal. The Dosa's were good but the fillings were a bit 'rough'! We all agreed we can cook better at home.. especially of course Ian's Indian meals! We make the best mini pani puris as well!

I am so jealous.. Pete has an IPad!! He shares it kindly with Tash... but has taken it with him to the snow for the week leaving Tash alone with normal lap top and normal paper books! Pete has gone with Billy and Karren and other mates for a week to the snow! Billy and Karren... now this is the first time they could get away after their wedding.. honeymoon with the friends! Will be lots of fun am sure! Pete and Billy do so many things together.. they love bush walking, camping and river rafting! Pete tried parachuting and also Paragliding.. all gifted by Tash!! I went to watch both times and now Pete wants more to do with Paragliding!
Pete very calm waiting to go up to come down by parachute.

Cooking

2010-07-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

My favourite show, Master Chef, finishes tonight and there has been so many inspirations from this show!! We wish both Adam and Callum lots of luck tonight!! And it must have influenced others as I went to buy Polenta yesterday.. I have always used it ... now all gone from the supermarket shelves!!
Ian and I both love to cook; he does more cooking as he works from home so has more time. But on the weekends I love to bake and fool around in the kitchen. Yesterday I actually made George's gorgeous Carrot Cake from their magazine.. and..it turned out so perfectly! Now, there are only the two of us here so we needed to share.. unfortunately our friends live too far away so Minka is our 'sharer'! And she just loves it when I bake especially when I make muffins! She watches the oven while they bake!!

Here are a few of Ian's dishes...

Ian, as mentioned before, loves to cook spicy food.. Indian, Moroccan, Thai, Malaysian etc!

And of course Minka, our 'sharer' also loves spicy food!

The Wedding

2010-07-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

My gorgeous favourite eldest son! Billy is married! 10.07.2010 10 am... what a wonderful fun way to spend a winter Saturday! Lots of colour and laughter! Billy and Karren made a gorgeous couple with so many friends and family with them. My favorite (and only) beautiful sister, Grace, made her way from Hobart, via Dunmoochin in Victoria to attend and share the day. She knitted a very delicate red garter for Karren.. who did not throw to the single boys.. threw bloomers instead! The story... all congregated outside of church.. was nice chatting to family and friends not seen for ages.. but boys running late and already after 10am! Lucky Karren running late as well! Then about 20 minutes later heard loud thumping of motors and here they arrived...in GT Falcons!! Huge muscle cars!! Main car had run out of petrol from Glossodia to Riverstone!! That's why they were so late! Laughed!

Ceremony... nice and teary (for me) so happy for them... girls looked stunning and boys looked a bit bleary-eyed.. (late night) but very handsome! Then off to the reception...big cloud of smoke.. squeal of tyres, smell of burnt rubber.. BIG donut left outside church! Oowah! And again one car ran out of petrol!! All good and reception was wonderful.. lots of yummy food and music.. and I got to dance with my sons!

Karren and Grace! The legs and the garter!

Proud Mum and Auntie Grace!