Christmas advent is just around the corner

I got the calendar prepared and hung for another year. A couple of changes this year...
- for the Bible readings we are using the 'Christmas unpacked' issue of Table talk/XTB
- for the gift/treat they r getting a combined gift consisting of individual parts of the Angry Birds boardgame so they have to wait the whole 25 days to have all the pieces to be able to play. (along with the usual days of special activities eg. Ice creams, movie afternoons)

Roast toast

Occasionally when I go to the Asian supermarket I indulge in buying some of the Asian bakery items (we developed a taste for them during our time in China and Singapore). Today I tried a new one 'roast toast' it's basically a slice of Chinese style bread that has been buttered and sugared and then baked until totally dry (like a rusk).

Kiwi kids

Here is Ben and Joanna walking home without shoes...a common scene with kiwi kids.
(it its not unusual for kids to go to school with no shoes at all - and it's nothing to do with economics)

Big girl Naomi

It was Naomi's 3rd birthday today... and just so happens to be Labour Day here in NZ as well, so she got a public holiday for her birthday!

After breakfast we opened her presents and then started cooking up a feast - she wanted curry, so I cooked an Indian lunch (curry, naan and onion bhajis).  And that was followed by a very large frozen cheesecake (seen as Naomi loves cheese and chocolate!).

Brisbane festival laser light show

This is the 2nd year we've gone. I thought they'd improved on last year as far as quality, but Ben thought it was too short. There was also lots more people this year which made it harder for the kids to see, but that might have been because we didn't go during school holidays last year.

Biltong!!!

We bought a food dehydrator a couple of months ago... and we hadn't managed to do much with it yet other than some dried bananas. I was keen to try some biltong... And this is the result.
A 458g pack of casserole meat has been turned into about 200g of decidedly tasty biltong! (The scales are showing after I'd had a couple of taste tests!)


(Recipe here)

Magnificent Mt Ruapehu (again!)

It's that time of year again - time for Mel and the kids to go to Brisbane, and me to go up a mountain!  Last year I had a fantastic trip up Mt Ruapehu, camping up near the top.  I enjoyed it so much that I went and did it again... so here's the report.

We left Hamilton nice and early, intending to get to the chairlifts shortly after they opened.  Once up at Knoll Ridge (~2000m asl), we headed up towards the Pinnacle Ridge for a slightly more technical and hopefully more spectacular route up to the Plateau.  On the way up, I thought it would be good to cut up on top of the ridge early... which wasn't a good idea.  I ended up slipping and sliding down the ice for about 30m before my ice axe finally gripped and stopped me.  I did manage to lose a bit of skin on my elbows and left hand though.

Once we got higher up, the clouds started rolling in and swallowed us up before we'd managed to find the Tukino-Te Heu Heu saddle that we were aiming for.  We kept on going up and managed to find it without falling off the cliffs on the other side. We popped up on to Tukino Peak, seeing absolutely nothing in the clouds, and then descended down the ridge towards the plateau.  There were a couple of other groups there - one in a tent, the other attempted (rather unsuccessfully) to dig a snow cave.  We set our tents up and got some hot food going, before going to bed with the plateau still enveloped in cloud.  It was certainly cold, but probably not quite as cold as last year (so maybe only -10C or something!).  There was a bit of a breeze blowing during the night, but when I poked my head out before dawn, it was perfectly clear, so I hopped out and went for a walk around, taking photos.
After breakfast and packing up, I pulled out the cricket set, just for a bit of craziness!  One of the snow-cavers couldn't believe his eyes but absolutely loved the idea.  After that, Sebastian and I popped back up to Tukino Peak to see the views that we'd missed out on the day before in the cloud (wow!), before we headed back down to Knoll Ridge via the relatively easy Restful Ridge.
Another fantastic weekend - the perfect morning made up for the cloudy afternoon/evening.
(Some more photos are here, not all of them are uploaded yet!)

Travelling pharmacy

Went to the Dr this morning.  Now the female side of the family all have a round of antibotics and prednisone to take on holidays with us!  As the Dr said, hopefully we won't have to use it, but it brings some peace of mind and reduces the logistical nightmare (and expense) if we do need to use it.

Tasty cabbage

My memories of cooked cabbage growing up aren't too favourable.  I remember much preferring to eat it raw than cooked and I most disliked cooked shredded cabbage as a side dish/vegetable.  As an adult, I have come to appreciated cabbage cooked into dishes such as pork dumplings or other asian meat dishes, but have still avoided cooking/serving cooked cabbage by itself.  But after my adventure last night I think I might be cooking cabbage as a side vegetable more often!

I'd been given a cabbage at bible study and while cooking dinner last night, realised we needed some vegetable to go with it.  So I went in search of a recipe for braised cabbage with flavour (I'd seen braised cabbage done on MasterChef a couple of time and was willing to give it a try).  The recipe I decided on was Cabbage with sesame, cumin and fennel seeds (looked quick, easy and I had all the ingredients in the cupboard).  It was really, really good - lots of yummy flavour.  The kids even both commented that it was favourite part of dinner!  I think I will be taking more advantage of the cabbages that are currently in season (and hence at the farmer's markets) around here at the moment (and I might try growing some of my own next autumn/winter).

Joanna's 5th birthday

Was a few weeks ago now... and since then, we've had at least someone in the house sick.  Ben was first, then Joanna, then Mel, then Naomi, then Joanna again, then... well, today it's Joanna's turn to be home sick.
Anyway, we haven't got around to uploading details of her party and other birthday celebrations (which, thankfully, was before the merry-go-round of sickness).  First up, on the Friday before her birthday, she had her "kindy birthday", where they get to sit up the front and everyone gets to see pictures from their time at kindy and play a game and sing happy birthday.  Looking through the photos, Joanna really has changed in that time!

Then, on Saturday, she had her party.  It was a "chef" party, with all the kids getting to cook their own lunch (pizzas and salad) and decorate cupcakes.  They all had lots of fun and enjoyed wearing their aprons and playing with the play kitchen as well as the real cooking.

Sunday, her actual birthday, was a calmer day, going to church in the morning, then opening presents in the afternoon before special birthday dinner - she chose to have chicken, mashed potato and peas.