mouse menace

Ah yes, the bucolic idyll in the country continues or as some may say the mouse plague continues. Whilst it does provide moments of humour like this little fellow who reminded me of Winnie the Pooh getting stuck after eating too much honey


or this sight that I saw in camel pose at yoga (It's like a mouse solarium)

the rodents have really worn out their welcome. It's not as if I have woken up with a mouse nibbling on my face like a local woman or caught 200 mice every night like some people. The mice have had a rather unexpected effect on our girls.



I was horrified to learn earlier this year that a chicken will eat a mouse if given the opportunity. If that mouse has eaten enough poison then the chicken is likely to feel 'unwell'. And so one by one the chooks have been struck down. Pop the ducken remains suspiciously unscathed and puzzled by his sudden rise up the pecking order.

a relaxing evening out

On the Sunday night we went to the club for a Chinese meal. Yes, you guessed it. Prawn toast, spring rolls, sizzling steak and honey prawns, chow mein. Ah, country Chinese food. But before then we had a bit of a wait. It seemed like everyone else in Junee was there for a feed as well. Luckily I had textas for Jack and Scarlett

and Chels had a friend.

When the textas get dull, you can always play with Mum's phone.

bouncing cousins

Part of Jack and Scarlett's quality cousin time was spent on the trampoline...

...just like last time

Visitors!

On the June long weekend we had some visitors. We met them at the airport with a sign that Jack and I made. They met us with a ricotta cake from Haberfield (bliss!).


My brother came for a visit with the fam aka Aunty Loulou, Chels and Scarlett. In preparation I visited Smiggle to stock up on art supplies and a late birthday pressie for Chels. I bought these fab liquid chalk pens. Just the thing for writing on cement and glass. And some other craft bits and pieces.

wrong cupcake

Last Saturday night I went out to dinner and the movies with friends. Such fun! Afterwards we decided to go to Uneke (not a typo) for coffee or hot chocolate as it turned out. I could not help but check out the desserts. And then I saw this cupcake. WTF? And I'm not talking about the price.


I sent a pic to Lorraine, how could I not and she told me that she has seen the molds for them here.Is it just me or is a blue sleeping baby on a cupcake completely wrong?

Cake Pops!

Last Sunday it was Professor Pant's (aka Jeannie) birthday. I wanted to make her something yummy for a work morning tea but couldn't decide what and then I saw a pic of cake pops and I knew they were perfect. I had seen cakepops on bakerella's blog. Hers are fabulously detailed and very impressive. I was going for something simpler. While I say simpler it did seem to be a long process as I baked cakes, then blitzed them in the blender, added frosting, formed them into balls, 'sticked' them, froze them

nude pops!

and then dipped them in melted chocolate and sprinkles. The dipping was tricky as the chocolate (and I use that term loosely) was quite thick especially after I added the pink colouring. Quite a few pops dropped off into the chocolate or fell apart so I put those aside for us to sample later.

discards - yum

I think I finally got the hang of them by the time I dipped the last four.

freezer pops

Jeans was very excited though so it was worth the effort. The pops were accompanied by honey joys and rice bubble slice and cupcakes. A festival of sugar!

more bermagui

For all of us shivering away (although today has been beautifully sunny) here are some pics from Bermagui. The wetsuit is still getting a workout at Jack's swimming lessons in the slightly underheated Junee pool.

artwork

Jack's drawing has really come along in the past few months. I can totally see what he is drawing.
And like his mother, he is a fool for art supplies and loves nothing better than some new paper and a purple texta (except maybe chocolate). Here are some recent drawings.

Humpty Dumpty (looks nervous doesn't he?)

an elephant

a pig



a bear (please note the scary teeth grrr!)

Scarlett (on left) and Jack



and this is um..well...a clock apparently....

supacalacalorific!

A little while ago I read about these biscuits called Pillow Cookies on Bakerella. They look so unassuming until you realise that the choc chip biscuit is hiding a chocolate brownie. And yes, Bakerella is American. I mentioned them to a friend and she made me promise that I would make them for her birthday. In my defence I have to say I had been doing lots of baking. I made a birthday cake for a friend's daughter, then made two kinds of cupcakes and brownies for a fundraising morning tea. So when it came to making the pillow biscuits I didn't look up the recipe online. I just used a recipe for choc chip biscuits that I happened to have nearby. I moulded what seemed to be extravagant amounts of dough around each brownie and baked them. Due to their size I only manged to make about eight biscuits out of a recipe that usually makes at least twenty biscuits. I checked on their progress as they baked and was dismayed to find something resembling a cowpat instead of gently domed biscuits. They still tasted okay though and the birthday girl was very happy.

nigella's chocolate brownies

the evil (but oh so tasty) marriage of biscuit and brownie

ready to go in the oven - they may look normal
but are actually each the size of a tennis ball




ta-da cowpat biscuits