Vindication and things in the mail

As I typed "vindication" all I could think was "vindication, kinda sounds like viticulture, which is related to wine, yummmmm."

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A while back I wrote about one my Experiments, the one where I chopped up some kumaras and who knows what else, threw some balsamic on it and possibly some basil, totally thinking that this was a legitimate side dish idea.  My failure convinced me otherwise, but this morning, what should appear in my inbox but an email from Chelsea Sugar with a recipe for Balsamic Roasted Vegetables.  Ha, take that kumara experiment, you are a real dish!  I was just missing a key ingredient - golden syrup - and I should have used rosemary instead of basil. 

I'm still learning my way around the herb and spice rack, clearly.  I have no idea what tarragon is, what it's used for, or why I have some, but I bought some at some point thinking it was a good idea!  Also on the list of mystifying herbs is sage.  Methinks some research is needed - yeah I'll just add that to my list of things that will never get done!

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This week started off with a bang when I got to play the Single Lady on Monday night and tried to make some minestrone.  That failed minestrone is still sitting in my fridge, waiting for me to decide its fate, which may just be the bin at this point. 

On Tuesday I got chocolate in the mail, which was brilliant coz I was in desperate need of a pick-me-up when rushing from work to home to pottery.


Please excuse my freaky pink fingers, they were excited for the chocolate too.

Notice the little kitty popping her head up over the chocolate?  That's Lucy, and she is a drama queen.  Not in the blatant meow-I'm-going-to-scratch-your-eyes-out-ifyoudon'tfeedmerightnow kind of way, but in the way she snubs us or refuses to eat anything but expensive treats when she's mad at us.  When we went away for four days and she couldn't get inside the house (don't worry we have a conservatory where they have everything they need and our neighbor fed them regularly), she wouldn't snuggle up to us for a whole week.  She's a real Aristocat.  Man I loved that movie as a kid! 

Lucy has to sleep IN my sewing stuff, while I'm trying to sew.  Nothing else will do.

It was one of my favourite weeks of pottery class - glazing!  You get to play with colours, mixing and double-dipping and getting dirty.  It's great fun.  But first you have to find your own pieces from among all the ones that went into the kiln, which is a bit like Christmas.  "Oh, I made that?!"  When most people say it, they find their pots to look better than they thought.  For me, they look runtier.  I'm still working on getting my throwing technique...ok I'm still working on getting any technique at all really.  I seem to pick it up one night and then completely lose it the next.


Find the most wonky looking pots in there and they are mine, guaranteed.

I got some wine in the mail too, that was pretty thrilling.  I had decided we needed some white in the house as it was getting warmer, and you never knew when you'll want a nice refreshing glass or three of a nice sauv blanc.  So six bottles ought to do for the next week or so, don't you think?

A bonus WineNZ magazine to read as I drink - guaranteed that I will not remember it!

I don't have any excuse for including this photo other than I think it's hilarious and I want to see if people can come up with good captions for it.  Sorry it's so orange, but she's an orange cat and she's sitting on an orange blanket.  I'm sure your eyes will eventually adjust back to seeing colours properly.



What should the caption for this photo be people??

Oh, and there was some baking, and some watching professional baking, and then some learning how to bake.  I am a Baker after all.  Coz that's my husband's last name.  Heh.  His bad jokes are rubbing off on me, I better stop now!

New year, new......

....Ok, I haven't figured that part out yet.  I turned 28 yesterday, officially the "late 20's", and ten years after I graduated from high school.  Like, really?!  How did ten years escape so damn fast?  And I'm married and live with a boy?!

And I live in New Zealand?!  I've just realized - my kitties are Kiwi!  If kitties had passports, then 3 out of our little family of 4 would have New Zealand passports.  I always thought I would grow up to have little American kitties, fat and happy, but no, Spice and Lucy are "kiwi as, bro".  Maybe that's why they seem to like Jonno better than me.

the missing SpiceGirl - Emo Spice

This is Spice, and she loves Jonno's lap.  As soon as we get home, she trots right up to him and starts her little "Hurry up and sit down on that couch so I can has a nap on your lap" routine - chirping and circling him like a shark until he finally plops down, and she promptly leaps gracefully onto his lap, does one wee doggy circle and settles exactly like this.  And then gives me this Look, lofty and scathing at the same time, firmly reminding me that she is Top Kitteh in our house. 

All the Kiwis in my house are banding together, grrr.  Well, I'll be a Kiwi too...in a few years!  If Immigration get off their bums and finally process my Residency application...  Maybe if I send them some of my baking it will speed up the process?  A little sugar could go a long way!  Here's what I made this past weekend for my birthday:

Oreo-stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Or I should say, Jonno made the Peanutbutter Chocolate Chippies (From Bakerella, although I can't find the recipe on her site, so I'll attach it here) and I made the Oreo-stuffed Chockies (from Amanda @ Amandeleine).  And MMMMMMMM they were damn good.  We had a smorgasbord of sugar set out on our coffee table - cookies, lollies, cocktails, and sugary sappy girlie movies! 

There was even more baking that occurred, but I will share that later because it deserves its own post.  Full disclosure: both recipes were blatantly used straight from their sources, as I have not yet gotten into the whole writing-the-recipes-in-your-own-words thing yet.  I take no credit for the recipes, but I did bake the deliciousness and take the photos posted here.