jamfancy

Hi
Ive been so lazy this year getting my pictures of some of the Christmas edible goodies up!  Paul made 730 hand made filled chocolates this year, so many that we couldnt fit all of them on the table I use to take photos on!  We still have a little tub left over too.
Here they are filling the table

and some pretty close ups



Made some new packaging for them this year too, Bandit Chef rides again!

The “this year with love” part of the text drew much hilarity as to what the emotion would be for next year or for previous years, “spleen” got a lot of votes…..well it got mine, its such a good word.

and finally our traditional iced Christmas cake, last year I branched out a bit from the usual Christmas stuff and went with “where the wild things are”, so I thought I might do that again and decided we would have a Totoro Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all and have a Happy New Year as well.
bye
Christina

Hi
Four new prints are in the Etsy store!




and here is a very exciting picture of our vegetable garden, the plants are so much bigger now and it was only a week or so back that I took the picutre, I have become completely obsessed by it too, Im always checking to see if things have grown and taking nibbles as well

We had our very first three stawberries the other day, a tiny repast, but it felt like such an achievement*L*
bye
Christina

Hi
Here are the foodie ceramics that I brought home from class the other day, a theme seems to be developing…

and of course that theme is macarons!*L*  These are for a set of glass domes I bought that turned out to be the wrong size!  Finally something to go in them.


and this is Paul, the Bandit Chef, holding a tiny little rose macaron, whilst standing in front of a whopping great big rose macaron that now holds our ipod and any other stray bits in the lounge room

well, its either a whopping great macaron, or a pink hamburger anyway

better start making some stuff to get ready for next terms class!
bye
Christina

Hello
Paul and I spent last weekend making raised vegetable beds for our upcoming kitchen garden, for some reason we are wildly excited about this and it spilled over into the every day
Look at our toilet for instance

I left it as a surprise for Paul to find, then I just got silly
Grumpy Toilet

and Sad Toilet

We had paid a trip to Bunnings for supplies and while Paul was working on the garden beds, I was doing more important things

with that done I went to help with the hard work, it really was hard, blisters, sore backs, but very satisfying to see a very long term dream coming together at last, now for the dirt and the plants!
Our first bed

all three

Oh and if you are in Australia and always wanted to grow your own vegetables I can’t recommend the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden book enough, so full of helpful tips and with recipes to boot!
Next stop, chickens!

Hi
Just put a couple of newish prints in the store
Farty Boy Hero

and this odd little girl with sausages as a pet

and now for the something to try at home.  Cant really call this a recipe, but I swear it tastes very nearly like cheesecake and is basically very good for you, I love how I feel like Im getting away with something every time I eat it.
Start with some Evia yoghurt, the plain full fat one, although I bought the low fat by mistake and it seemed to taste the same

sprinkle a good handful of Vogel Cluster Crunch breakfast cereal

on to about two heaped tablespoons of the yoghurt and then add a third of a punnet or so of blackberries

not sure you need a picture of blackberries…………but anyway, mush it all about a bit and be amazed at how healthy it all is and how cheesecakey an experience you are having!  It really is very good.

Hello
Went a bit Max on the Christmas cake this year, just finished him off this morning

I suppose the big question is, will we eat him?

Hello
It seems Lindt have their finger on the cute pulse when it comes to producing their Christmas chocolate tin range.  Last year it was Russian Dolls

and this year at the height of all things Alpine (I so want a cuckoo clock), they have brought out their “Children of the World” tins.

Lederhosen!  How adorable, look at those little deers on the boys outfit, Id wear that pretty much……………..anyway, I bought them for practical reasons, the perfect pencil/paintbrush holders.  There was a lot more of those chocolate reindeer by the way, loads actually………..but I scoffed them in about two days, couldnt even hold off till the pictures were taken.  I ate those two remaining ones right after the pictures were done as well.

Still, this had nothing to do with chocolate and everything to do with organising my messy work area.