Crazy Carrots

Carrots have been a little over-priced here lately and really not that good a quality. Well the other day on our way home late from the movies I saw a sign at a road-side vegie shop advertising 10 kilos of carrots for $7.99.

Well I thought that was such a bargain that I asked The Pig to grab me a bag the next day on his way home from work.

What on earth was I thinking ... 20 kilo's ... that's nearly 45 pounds of big orange carrots, to my US friends.  Around 10 am I started and at about 1pm I wasn't even halfway through peeling, cutting and blanching them.

Maybe 8 kilos of carrots ... ahhhhh, not even half-way there!

I soldiered on and in the end probably froze about 17 kilos of them. 1 kilo went down to my mother-in-laws and of course some went into the fridge for later use.


My hands ended up orange, and my nails are still so terribly stained. Even my feet hurt from standing in the kitchen all day. The only time I stopped was to make lunch for the kids!


I have given The Pig permission to tell me what a plonker I am if I ever suggest doing that many again. On the plus side we do now have prepared carrots for quite a while. On the down side I never really want to see a carrot ever again!!!!!

Home Sweet Home

The Fashionista was looking for something to do, so I suggested she make something for the wall of her cubby house.


We found a piece of wood in one of craft boxes, (that I had bought some time ago to do something with, that I obviously didn't ever get around to) and she painted it white.

She had me sketch Home Sweet Home and some flowers onto it with a pencil, and then she sat quietly and painted it for the next hour or so. She didn't have any help from me with her colour choices etc.; I was simply the sketcher.

Here is the finished product proudly displayed in the club house.

Daddy has the job of putting a hook on the back and hanging it up. Currently it's rolling on the shelf across the club house wall.

Is there a Doctor in the House?

There is nothing more that my daughters enjoy than dressing up. We have accumulated quite a few costumes over the years and we don't restrict ourselves to "girly" stuff either. Along with a Japanese and swiss costume, cat, lady bug, beetle, pig costume, they have a cowboy costume, along with Superman and Spiderman.

It is a really good activity for children as they make their own plays and it is stretches their imagination. Also in mixed age groups everyone still seems to be able to play along. Role playing comes naturally to children and therefore it is great to fill the dress up box with normal, positive and inspirational costumes, along with those princess, faeries, etc.

Yesterday we picked up a surgeons / doctors outfit from one of those shops like the $2 shop.

The Fashionista in her new scrubs.

Agent Smelly is the receptionist / nurse.

The Dr. had to place a bandaid on her nose as there was the tiniest of scratches.

Note the lolly pops given to the "good" children (dolls) after their appointment.

 

They turned their club house into a doctors / hospital.

 

Often The Pig or I get called into one of the roles (when we aren't being made to sit and watch one of their performances) and today was no exception. I was given a "physical" by my doctor and nurse with them using all their little plastic doctor tools on me. Their stethoscopes are in fact real and they loved listening to my heart and then "yelling into each others". I even let them place some of my eye drops into my eyes, which they found totally fascinating (and helped my tired dry eyes). There were many giggles especially when they kept taking turns hitting my knees with their hammers, which despite being made of plastic actually hurt ... apparently my cries of "ouch" are giggle-worthy and mean hit even harder next time!

 

At the end I was given a prescription that reads as follows:

cold cream medison (what can I say, they have a bad spelling teacher)

Pretty good but come back next week for an eye check

Okay     The Doctor

 

I had to see the nurse on the way out and produce a "card" to pay for my appointment (she actually pretended to swipe  piece of cardboard on an invisible swiper) and then was booked in for my next appointment as per Dr's orders.  Between us though, I am not sure that I will return for next weeks check up as I didn't get a lolly pop after my appointment!

Sweeeeeet ... potato that is

Due to all the public holidays and hence some food getting close to it's use by dates there have been a lot of fruit and vegie bargains. I recently picked up 6 x 1kg bags of kumara (sweet potato) for just 67 cents a bag.

Kumara can be frozen if you blanch it. So I cut up about 3 kgs into roast size pieces and blanched them for 10-12mins. This filled 2 very large zip lock bags.

I also cut another kilo into chips which I blanched for 5 mins and then froze them in a large zip lock bag also.

I also plan to make our niece's Kumara and Bacon Salad this weekend which is simply delicious. Hopefully I will remember to take some photos and post the recipe once I have made it.

So I am set for kumara for a while now ... hhhmmm, what shall I freeze, can or dry next?

Ponies, a little girls passion

Both my girls have been riding horses since they were small. They absolutely adore horses and yes, we have agreed to get them a pony each once we have stables, a horse trailer, etc. We aren't leading them up the garden path, these are things we do intend to get one day. Animals are a beautiful thing to have in your life and both girls have been obsessed with ponies since The Fashionista was around four years old.  They usually have a lesson one afternoon every fortnight, it is sort one of their homeschooling sports if you like.


For the past couple of years our girls have been attending lessons with Meret. Meret is a grandmother originally from Switzerland who runs her own farm and has been around horses forever. She is a slight, small woman who has so much energy and drive that she makes me feel very lazy in comparison. Meret has a number of ponies so the girls do get to ride different mounts every so often.

Well today for the first time the girls met her at the Tuakau Pony Club, instead of the farm, for their lesson as she was going on a trail ride afterwards with the group and her grandchildren. Both my girls were "uber" excited at being at the Pony Club and had a really enjoyable lesson.

The Fashionista on "Allada", a flea-bitten grey

Agent Smelly on "Spirit" ; she is such a cute little pony