Happy New Year! Slightly belated I know, but have some pictures from England where I spent most of December/January:
Honey roasted almonds
This is so simple it barely counts as a recipe, but it makes a great healthy (and sticky) snack when I get bored of just plain almonds.
Oh yeah and some hazelnuts got in there too
Honey roasted almonds
Ingredients:
- 1 cup almonds
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil, melted
- 2 teaspoons honey
Method:
- Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius
- Spread the almonds over a tray lined with baking paper and drizzle the oil and honey over. Stir them around until they’re evenly coated.
- Bake for 10 minutes, stirring halfway.
I spend too much time on the internet
Here’s a few things I’ve been loving recently:
- This is why I want to go to Disney World
- I just tried this Fancy-Ass Hot Chocolate – I don’t think it would be exaggerating too much to say it changed my life 🙂
- If you’re not watching Cereal Time yet, why not?
- I just watched The Princess Bride again so this was a great read – apparently Mandy Patinkin actually bruised a rib trying not to laugh at Billy Crystal’s Miracle Max!
- #HarryPotterAMovie – Snapes on a Plane!
- Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?
Brisbane
I had a fantastic time in Brisbane for my birthday weekend last month! There was so much on – a food market, flyovers and fireworks on the river… all that just for me 😉
I ate sooo much at the Eat Street markets. We couldn’t decide on just one thing for dinner so we each chose something from a different stall and ended up sharing about four or five different dishes!
We kept getting buzzed by this SUPER loud plane when we were walking round South Bank. We eventually realised it was doing rehearsals for Riverfire the next night.
Unintentional matching t-shirts yayyy
Goodbyeee!
Waiting…
Gah, it’s been so long since I wrote anything. Kind of a slack blogger. My motivation just goes up and down, sometimes my mind is so full of things to write about that I hardly know where to start, then sometimes I feel like I never have anything to write about. Then I go through the usual options: recipes? No recipes. Travel? Haven’t been anywhere. Something about crafts? Haven’t made anything.
So I just decide to write about what’s happening in my life right now:
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
A Mysterious Package
I got home on Friday to find a Mysterious Package waiting for me…
I opened it to find a lovely package of wool and needles, courtesy of Knit Picks.
Look at all the pretties!
Actually I don’t think I ever mentioned it, but I started learning to knit last month. So that Ravenclaw scarf that was going to be Tunisian crochet? It’s now being knitted.
The wool is so nice, not colours I would have chosen normally, but really lovely, and I’m so excited to find projects for them. And did I mention they’re super soft and squishy? Cause they’re super soft and squishy 🙂
Oh, and another thing…
I got ratties! They’re two little girls and they’re so sweet. Except when they try to eat my fingers. But apart from that, they’re cute.
(I just realised it’s actually the same one, Geraldine, in both these photos, the other one was asleep).
And hard to photograph.
Edit: And here’s Milford. (I think. They look pretty much exactly the same except for their eyes)
Paleo Frittata Cups (and wool joy!)
Heyyy you guys… My wool arrived!*
*Happy dance*
I just got it yesterday and I’m so happy with it. I’m especially loving the Hazelnut colour. It’s got a little more red in it than I expected, but it’s just divine. I can’t wait to start my scarf!
I can’t think of a good way to transition from wool to eggs, so I’m just gonna go ahead and jump straight to the recipe now, okay?
Paleo Frittata Cups
Ingredients:
- 1 rasher of bacon, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 cups zucchini, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup each of capsicum, grape tomatoes and fetta cheese, finely chopped (kinda getting sick of saying that)
- 1 spring onion… you guessed it: finely chopped
- 4 eggs
- Oil for frying
- Pepper to taste
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius
- Fry the bacon in a little oil
- When the bacon is almost cooked, add the zucchini and capsicum and fry until soft, then place on a piece of paper towel to soak up any excess oil.
- Whisk the eggs in a bowl, then add all other ingredients except pepper and mix.
- Divide the mixture evenly between 4 large nonstick muffin cups (silicon works best), sprinkle with a little pepper and bake at 180 deg C for 20 minutes.
Enjoy! These are nicest fresh, but they’ll keep in the fridge for about a week. They’re great for breakfast or with a salad for lunch 🙂
Success! (And Failure)
So an update on the Ravenclaw scarf:
I’ve found a pattern that might work: Faux Knit Crocheted House Scarf by Jennifer Ofenstein. It may need a little tweaking, but yay for not having to completely improvise a pattern!
Annnd drum roll please… I found some wool that I’m happy with! Knit Picks Palette in Hazelnut and Navy.
Buuuut they don’t ship to Australia.
So I tried to get it shipped to my brother, who conveniently happens to be in the US at the moment. But the order just will. Not. Work. I don’t know why, but someone obviously doesn’t want me to get this wool.
Grrr. I’ve contacted them and I just hope they can sort this out before my brother leaves the US.
My life would have been so much easier if I’d just asked the hat to put me in Gryffindor. Or, you know, just made do with the movie colours.
Update:
I FINALLY managed to order it!
Turns out other people in Australia had been having the same problem. Knit Picks got back to me pretty quickly and were very helpful, so thanks Knit Picks.
Now I wait. Patiently. Very patiently. I just hope that it arrives before Gareth leaves the US.
Delayed Judgement
So I just caught up on Doctor Who, and you know what? Now that I’ve got used to the new Doctor, I think I actually do like him. I think somewhere between Kill the Moon and Forest of the Night I started to get where they were going with him, and I feel a lot more sympathetic towards him now. So you know, don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes or something. Or a Doctor until you’ve watched a whole series with him. One day I will manage it.
I was gonna put an Aragorn “but it is not this day!” thing in here, but then I had this Doctor Who thing I made so yeah.
Oooooh and changing the subject slightly, what did everyone think of The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies? Or is that a dangerous question? I actually really enjoyed the whole trilogy. OK, so it had its issues. Did they give up all pretense of even trying to follow the book? Mostly. Could they have cut the whole thing to about half of the length? Probably. Could it have been better if Peter Jackson had consulted me every step of the way? Definitely.But come on, Galadriel got to be awesome, the women of Laketown got to be awesome, Thranduil was fabulous, Bilbo was Bilbo, Galadriel got to be awesome. And overall, I liked it. And I fully intend to buy the extended DVDs. So there.
Ravenclaw
Several months ago I decided to make a Ravenclaw scarf. I had it all planned out. I couldn’t find any crochet patterns that I liked so I decided to improvise using Tunisian knit stitch. I decided to make the Prisoner of Azkaban style. And there was no question of doing it in movie colours. No, it must be in the original bronze. So off I popped down to the shops, to buy some blue and bronze yarn and a tricot hook.
Well. A tricot hook, anyway. Turns out bronze yarn, much like Ravenclaw’s diadem, is really hard to find. Unlike Ravenclaw’s diadem, there is plenty of it if you only want fun fur. I don’t want fun fur.
So on with the search!