I won a draw (and am slightly red-faced!)

To me, part of being a blogger is spending time reading other people's blogs. I follow a number of blogs - usually a mix of personal finance, simple living, home-making, gardening and fitness. And every now and then I encounter blogs which grab my interest. One of these is a blog titled Ramblings of the Bearded One. This blog is authored by Kim Ayres of Scotland who has an interest in photography and is also a very entertaining writer.

Recently Kim advertised a prize draw he was going to run. Basically Kim invited readers of his blog to submit a photograph to him and one randomly selected person / photo would have their photo enhanced by Kim. This was too good a chance to pass up so I duly sent off a photo of my mother and I and asked Kim to see what he could do with it. Well, I won the draw! To see the results of the enhancement work on my photo go to : http://kimayres.blogspot.com/2009/12/and-winner-is.html - watch the video (with sound) and see what you think!

All I need to do now is figure out how to copy and paste my wrinkeless photo onto my face! It is certainly interesting to see the changes that can be made - Kim is a very clever man! Thanks to Kim for showing me what can be done!

Yummy Portuguese Chicken Recipe

This recipe has been appearing regularly on our menu since we found it a month or so ago. The recipe is from the back of a Pams frozen chicken (Pams is a budget brand here in New Zealand).

Ingredients
Whole chicken
1 red chilli, seeded and chopped finely (or a good sprinkle of chilli flakes)
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup (125 ml) lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

1. Pre heat oven to moderate temperature
2. Wash chicken under cold water. Cut along both sides of backbone - discard backbone (or keep for chicken stock). Place chicken skin side up on chopping board, press down on breastbone to flatten the chicken.
3. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken.
4. Cook for 2 hours.

Now the bonus of this recipe is that we use the leftover carcass (including all the seasoning and leftover meat) to make chicken stock for rice risotto the following day. It makes a delicious risotto - quite spicy and very tasty.

Update on no-spend month - one week to go

With one week to go I thought it was timely to report on how the no-spend thing is going for me. As previous posts show there were some minor slips earlier in November but overall it's gone pretty well.

Until Sunday anyway.

We did go out for dinner as discussed in a previous blog entry, for my eldest son's birthday. Five of us had a wonderful meal at the Southern Cross in Wellington - this place was chosen because they do stone-grill which is a favourite of the birthday boy. To be honest I like stone-grill too - it's one way of ensuring your steak is cooked exactly how you would like. The evening was quite mild so we sat out in the garden bar. We enjoyed watching people who had turned up for the Sunday night free dancing lessons. None of us were game to join in but it was interested to watch.

The evening cost about $250 (eek!) but was worth every cent. That was for five adults including our drinks so not bad overall. After dinner we went home for birthday cake as shown below. Just so everyone is aware, my son just turned 23 but it's a bit of a family joke to have kiddie birthday cakes - last year was a race-track and this year the theme was Batman. My youngest son's girlfriend did a wonderful job with shaping and decorating the cake.



I will draw up a report at the end of the month showing exactly what was spent and maybe some tips on how to "not spend".

Sticky Gingerbread Recipe

This is a new recipe I came across. My collegues at work love it so thought I would share it - it's really moist and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 cup golden syrup (yes, a cup!)
1 teaspoon baking soda
100g butter
1 cup brown sugar (just in case there wasn't enough sweetness in the golden syrup)
1 egg
2 1/2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius

Combine boiling water with golden syrup and baking soda. Leave to cool slightly.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Mix in the golden syrup mix and then add the sifted dry ingredients. Mix until smooth.

Pour into lined loaf tin (don't try treat and just grease the tin - I did and it was not a good idea). Bake for 50 - 60 minutes or until cooked. If anything it takes a little longer to be cooked through.

The first time I made this loaf I sliced it all up and froze half of it. It was just as good after being thawed from frozen as it was fresh.

Enjoy!

One small slip and a big one looming

Today I confess that I bought my breakfast from a cafe - $7.50! It was delicious but it felt so wrong to be eating it. To explain how this came about...... I went to the gym at 5:30am (this is normal for me so don't panic on that!), drove to town and arrived at work too early to get in (7:30am). I then realised that I had an 8am meeting, a 9am meeting and a 10am meeting - no time for breakfast at work which is what I usually do. So I ducked next door to work and had some yummy scrambled eggs on toast with peppermint tea. Maybe this is a justified spend? Or maybe I should have planned things better.

The upcoming big issue is that it's my son's birthday on Monday. I planned ahead on this one and bought his gift last month and thought I was very clever. What I hadn't planned on was his birthday dinner. The way I work birthdays is to let my sons decide what they would like to do for their birthday dinner. I thought I could set things up for a dinner at home - food of his choice. But, when I broached the subject he was dead set on eating out at a stonegrill place. I very subtly tried to sway him but he was firm about what he wanted. So I have agreed - what an indulgent mother I am (some would say over-indulgent). But, you know, it is a long time since we were all out together for a meal (probably February!) so that is what we will do.