Jammin'

P made his second batch of Cloud Garden raspberry jam today (although apparently the Cloud Garden has changed it's name, I'm not sure what to - I couldn't read the handwriting) after a very productive picking session with some visitors from Sydney.
The children weren't so pleased about the trip to the garden today - although they both enjoyed a duck & chicken hunting expedition. It ended up being rather fun for them though, when we were leaving V & S's ute got mightily, inextricably bogged. This necessitated a trip to the owner's house, a ride back to the ute in the back of the owner's 4WD ute and joy of all joys, a chance to sit on the tractor for each of them. The ease with which that old tractor pulled the ute out of the mud and up the hill was almost comical, it might as well have been pulling a feather. V took pictures of M on the tractor pretending she was the one who pulled them out of the mud. I hope she emails them.
That's all folks. Raspberry jam on fresh sourdough for breakfast for them and on left-over gluten-free kefir pancakes for me.

No pot roast

Well, at least not yesterday. It's in the oven today. Somehow I doubt A's fever was teeth related since he came out in an awful rash. We thought it might be chicken pox but to me it looks more like excema. Sigh, who knows. We haven't been off to the doc because (apart from that one hour of fever on Monday night) he has been perfectly happy and hasn't seemed sick at all.
Of course, along with a sick baby what do I always get? Mastitis. Ugh! Yesterday I was feverish and out of it all day. Hence no pot roast. I think I did well just keep the fire going and give M some pasta for dinner. Today is better but still sore and low on energy.

Tomorrow I will learn how to cook a pot roast

Or I will try at least. I deleted my facebook account, so now I'm forced to share my inanities here.
My boy is feverish too. Teeth I hope.

Real Food, Real Kitchen, Real Parenting

Inspired by Calamity Jane's post on "real kitchens". Here is my kitchen after an afternoon of cooking with two small children in tow. Lasagne, beef and lentil stew and chicken stock if I remember correctly, plus assorted snacks for the larger child and myself.


And after an hour (yes, an hour) of cleaning...

Quinoa soup?

In an attempt to move away from the excesses of the solstice period I made a menu plan today. Tonight's fare is Peruvian Quinoa Soup. I'm not sure it'll be a hit.