The Oven Is On Fire

And it was, but it all turned out OK (Mum hadn't used her grill in a very long time). Big flames. The fritatta had bits of ash in it. Smoke billowed. Tom ran around yelling 'the oven's on fire, the oven's on fire', much to the alarm of the blokes at the BBQ. In all that, I don't believe the smoke detector actually went off. I think they might need to check their batteries?

All part of the fun & games at Theo & Neville's birthday brunch. It was a brunch because it was Grand Final Day (AFL) and people were off to parties (not me).

Here we have two Collingwood supporter sisters:

Much food included pancakes (with lemon, sugar, cheese, maple syrup, warm berries in syrup, cream, strawberries and there would have been melted chocolate but someone forgot to get it out of the microwave), bacon, toast, crumpets (nobody got around to eating them), hash browns, little Italian spicy sausages, fritatta (with ash), and probably more things but I forgot already. Oh, cake, of course.

The cake was a 'Torta di Ciocolatta Angela' from my 'The Commonsense Italian Cookery Book', which didn't turn out quite how I thought it would, but still very rich & chocolatey & everyone loved. There was only one cake so the gentlemen involved thought they'd pose as a married couple and cut the cake. Quite ridiculous.

And here's Bobby. Just because.

Domesticated animals, gratuitous machinery & a birthday

It's Theo's birthday & he loves cake.

He did also get roast beef, vegies & yorkshire pudding.

And due to his fascination with engines of all descriptions, he got a hot air engine.

On our recent Ballarat road trip, we saw & therefore couldn't pass by another old dredge/other giant machinery.

And everyone is interested in the new duckling. The chooks want to eat its food. Daisy runs around outside her cage at full speed pecking at everything, including the other animals, & makes the chooks freak out.

The dogs think she's a mouse and so can't be left alone with her. They also just try to sit on me all the time because they can never get enough attention.

And then there were three of them trying to sit on me, because we were dogsitting Hayley's dog, Roomie.

And the chooks enjoy the sunshine :). And dirt. (Note the lemons which I have not turned into lemonade. Um).

So I sit down. The cat sits down. The chooks peck me, the dogs sit on me, the duck pecks everything, the chooks run away, the rabbit watches on & the other cat hides in the shed. I'm surrounded by crazy animals & it makes me very happy ;)

To Ballarat & Beyond!

On the Queen's Birthday weekend, Theo & I went to Ballarat to visit his brother Nathan & his wife Sharon. It was meant to be a surprise for his dad's birthday, who was driving down to spend the weekend too, but I forgot/got confused/somehow wasn't told (probably just forgot) and spilled the beans to him the week before. So we decided to keep the cake and birthday tea a secret, but someone else let that one slip LOL;) 

Here's Theo at the lookout at Mount Buninyong. Too foggy to see much of anything & I had a bit of a freakout about the tower and heights LOL but it was fun anyway ;)

We ate lunch at a little cafe which had good food and pots of tea & lots of pink. And it's name was pretty good: 'The Cupcake Cafe' :) 

We had a trip in the afternoon to Nathan & Sharon's new house they're about to move into. There's a shack on the property that has been propped up and bits added on for the last hundred and something years, the house is more recent. Local rumour has Peter Lalor (of Eureka Stockade fame) living on the property, sometime after the rebellion. 

(Notice Theo freezing in one of the above photos, because he volunteered his jacket to me:))

And here's a pretty, unknown berry (currant?) bush that was growing on the side of the road on the way home.

And I finally got to visit The Lark in Daylesford, whose blog I like to read. Where I admired lots of interesting things & bought this little poodle handbag mirror, which is vaguely reminiscent of 70's and 80's swap-cards. 

Did you do swap cards at primary school? I must admit I hadn't thought about them a whole lot since then, although I do have a stash in a special childhood box somewhere. But, on another tangent here, I did a little bit of googling & found this website. To think of all the internet-window-shopping trouble I could get into here.....

Christmas Food & Festivities

This Christmas we have a tale of one gingerbread house, shortbreads starring bunnies with bling, a journey starring santa in an upside down dunny, two and a half christmas trees, much cooking and even more food, and two birthday cakes.

I have to add the cheesecake, fruit cake and mini mudcake christmas puddings to the cake tally, because we are still eating those. Can I count rumballs as cake too? Pudding? Pavlova? Trifle? Three fruit pies made with fruit stewed up from the christmas fruit and vegie market?

We Love Wicket

Wicket the Ewok. Well, I finally finished him (he didn't take that long to crochet, it was all the embroidering his little face and everything that I procrastinated doing for ages, because I'm not so good at that!).

My sister loved him (a birthday present) and while she was unwrapping him (a slow process) the rest of us who knew what it was sat there with these intent looks on our faces, slightly hysterical, trying not to laugh, and my little sister did let out a manic giggle which set the rest of us going for a while. We're all used to crazy otherwise inexplicable behaviour.

So, he was a hit.

The pattern came from here.

And here he is.

If you are still in the dark about who exactly he is meant to be, you need to watch Star Wars (the oldies) and even better, Caravan of Courage, a movie masterpiece from the 80's.

Crocheted Cupcakes

My mum was very pleased with her latest birthday present. (Thank goodness for that). It's actually a pincushion, but the bigger white and pink things are just beads, sewn on. The rest are lovely pearly pins.

And the real cake wasn't too bad either. (Chocolate and Clinkers, you can't go wrong there.)

Older still

Another year older. Well, I like the excuse for a family dinner :) There was a surprising absence of menfolk. My mum outdid herself with the pink cupcakes (my favourite), I was speechless. (I think I was also quite hyperactive?) Some Scenes from a Birthday Tea.....

Wonderful cupcake tree

Presents :)

Much eating enjoyment of cupcakes

Indiace and his Nanna