Lego!

Right on schedule Jack has left behind the Wiggles and Thomas and has taken to Lego and Star Wars with gusto. During the holidays he attended a Lego workshop at the library which he thought was very cool. The reason for this is that of course it was Lego, but also it was run by Batman (aka Tobes who I work with).

 Now Jack makes Lego creations which I have to photograph to show Tobes.
We also saw the Lego movie, which I thought was full on but funny, Jack loved and Ganma and Nonno both managed to have a power nap. 

Poor Gigi!

Good Friday farm visit

School Holidays

So we survived another school holidays, though delivering Jack back to school a day early was probably not necessary. We find it best to schedule lots of activities for Jack, otherwise some high pitched squeal inducing squabbles can erupt.

Jack got to make easter craft, a clay triceratops, a panda face mosaic and some kinetic sculpture!Photos to follow.

We also had a visit from my parents which meant lots of fun in the form of trips to the roundhouse museum, the movies, the wagga botanic gardens and zoo (including the miniature railway) and multiple easter egg hunts.

Stubble Burning

Every year about this time I get cranky as farmers across the region burn their stubble. Not only does it create a pall of smoke that lingers (and is terrible for asthmatics), it creates a stampede of rodents looking for shelter (sigh) and is terrible for the environment. But this is the way things have always been done and will continue to be done.

The only upside is the extraordinary sunsets due to the smoke, which my phone camera fails to capture (even with all those nifty instagram filters).

weekend jaunt

For Christmas I received a voucher for a Red Lantern dinner party cooking class at the Sydney Seafood School in April. I also got a voucher for a breadmaking course at the Bourke Street Bakery. I decided to make a weekend of it, to catch up with people I hadn't seen for ages and to see Madama Butterfly with my friend Soph.
The weather fairies were smiling on me as I avoided fog, which would have delayed my flight, and rain, which would have made watching the opera very soggy indeed. In fact everywhere I went I was early, which is a very unusual thing for me to do, but then maybe when you aren't chasing two small people, more likely.

 
We arrived very early for the cooking class on the friday night. I settled in thinking with slothlike delight that this would be a watch and feed kind of class, which I was just in the mood for (I had sore ankles as I was breaking in a new pair of boots). After the rest of the class arrived (mostly glamorous women wearing gold and sequins) we were told that we would watch Mark prepare the dishes, then go into the next room and repeat. Drats. Mark, as you would expect, made it look easy, but we soon discovered, with two gas burners down and no one watching the caramel, that it was not. We eventually ate at 9pm and gave up all thoughts of sneaking over to star for a messina gelato, as we were chock full of snapper salad, crab and vermicelli soup and red sticky rice with (ahem) coconut caramel sauce.

The next day I caught the red bus to Marrickville for my breadmaking course. I met up with Pants and Smella for morning tea and a schoolfriend that I haven't seen since our reunion. And I forgot to take photos of everyone.
The Bourke Street Bakery breadmaking course was fantastic. It was fun, well organised and I left with lots of bread (cooked and uncooked) as well as a small amount of starter. Normally in every cooking class there is a smarty pants who just wants to show off but there wasn't in this one. Delightful.

Afterwards my parents turned up to collect me and we had lunch at one of the communal tables out the front. Dad seemed bothered by the hipsters sharing ours but they were really quite sweet with not an ironic bun or jar to drink out of between them.
And I got one of these for afternoon tea. Like I was hungry!

Hot cross Buns

Growing up I was never really a fan of the hot cross bun. I found the smell absolutely intoxicating, but was ultimately disappointed by the peel. Now that I am adding starter to almost everything, I thought maybe I could make some sans peel. I searched for sourdough hot cross buns and eventually found the perfect recipe on cityhippyfarmgirl . As she has acted as a sort of sourdough mentor, I should have just gone there first.
The boys requested chocolate instead of fruit and who am I to argue? They seemed quite pleased with the results.

sunday mornings

Sunday mornings have changed from tennis to Auskick which means instead of a trip to the Junee bakery, we get to visit Ajanta in Coolamon afterwards. Since I started working again at the library I've had to forgo the weekly trips to our favourite cafe so this was indeed a treat (I had a rhubarb and ginger cupcake, thanks for asking).
Since playing last year it seems like a switch has been flicked inside Jack's head. He still dances around like an extra on West Side Story but he's also more engaged with the play and as S stated in his typical fashion, was in danger of getting leather poisoning (from touching the ball too much!).

Leg-opener Loaf (this post should come with an M rating)

Ahem. Years ago S read a memorable review of the Australian Sparkling called Jansz that referred to it as a bit of alright and a leg-opener. Ever since then we never seem to be short of a bottle (thank you S). Recently, much to my shame, we had half a bottle left and as I hate wasting anything (where that phrase could be replaced with the word hoarder) I decided to add it to my sourdough.
I googled recipes on the interweb as there seem to be recipes using sourdough starter to make almost anything, but came up with nothing, nada...zip.Surely I couldn't be the only person to think of this...but then most normal people would probably just finish the bottle*. So I just replaced the amount of water with Jansz and bob's your proverbial uncle. The Jansz seemed to give the loaf a little extra something (it has that effect on me too) and I was really pleased with the results, as were the Friday bread munching crew aka my co-workers. So accustomed have they become to my weekly loaf that some of them now skip breakfast on a Friday so they can have a particularly thick slice of loaf slathered with butter.

*Jetlagmama would like to remind readers to drink responsibly and never waste their Jansz.