To Tame a Wolf

Have you ever gone to a book store and picked up a book only because you like the sound of the title? and a quick read of the prologue sounded good, well that's what I did a few years ago now, I was at a book store that sells books cheap from the big book stores, and it's all odds and ends of different books and I love wolves and anything to do with them, so I picked up a book just because I liked the title, To Tame a Wolf by Susan Krinard, and when I got home I put it in the book shelf to read later, well later has been quite a few years now, and the other day I was bored and picked it up and decided to start reading it, well it has been a great read and I am hooked, I'm almost finished and just cant put it down, so I decided to look the author up and discovered that I'm reading book 5 in a series O.O thank goodness although it's part of a series the story can be read alone, but now the search is on to find the complete series of her books =D so happy reading :) 

Black Birthday

It should have been a 'Happy Birthday' for my youngest daughter but it was far from it, her birthday was yesterday the 4th September and unbeknown to us the two girls decided to go on a road trip to NSW and do some sight seeing and take the coastal road back home to Melbourne, they did some tours through one of the biggest old churches and went to see the blow holes, so a nice trip.

We were expecting the girls home later that night thinking they were still in Melbourne probably partying somewhere for Rachael's birthday so we went to bed, lucky I had just turned over and saw the room light up, it was Tony phone ringing but he had it on silent it was around 11:30pm, Tony your phone's ringing, he answers it and its one of the worst things a parent wants to hear..... Dad I've been in a car accident *through sobs of crying* well my heart dropped as I could hear her in the silence of the room, Tony: are you ok? and is it bad? Rach: Yes I'm ok but the car's a write off Tony: What happened? Rach:  It had just started to rain and as I come around the bend the back of the car hit a oily patch and spun out, I couldn't control the car, I tried to gently tap the breaks but it only made it worse (BTW Rachael has her certificate in Defensive Driving so has been trained what to do here ) the car was spinning fast and we hit the ditch and went into the bush and hit a tree, lucky for them, they ended up hitting the tree backwards so the airbags didn't go off, they were  able to get out the drivers side and walk away, they couldn't open the passenger side door.

Now you have....two very scared and shaken girls whom has just had a car accident at night in the rain and miles away from home interstate...... what is the first thing you think to do???????? Ring the Police? because you need help right? and the police are there to help people when they are in a accident right? well unless you have a witness or you can prove someone else hit you...dont call the fucking police! why you ask? the girls did just that, they were scared and crying so they called the police, who come out and treated it more like a 'on purpose' than a 'accident', and said...." you have no witnesses, we can see you weren't speeding but here is a $415 fine for negligence diving" WTF? then the tow truck come and pulled the car out and towed it 5 to 10 minutes up the road to his depot and said his boss will be in at 8am in the morning and will give them a price on the towing fees but your looking at around $500 again WTF? are these the going fee's or are the girls being ripped off? 
OMG! so back to us at home, its now after midnight, and we are ready to jump in Tiny and drive 6 hours to pick them and the car up, so trying to find where to get a tandem trailer from at that time of night, and working out how the heck are we going to come up with that kind of money to bring them home, with the cost of fuel, trailer hire, pay the towing fee, food as its a long trip, looking at probably just under $1000 .... maybe I should start a 'Help bring Rachaels car home fund' lol 
Anyway sadly we just couldn't get the money together to go get them and the car :(   but one of Rachaels mates (a new red P plater) has kindly put his hand up and taken the long drive to NSW to pick the girls up, but the car is up to us, lets just hope they dont charge her storage fees :( 

On a brighter note the tow truck driver dropped them off at the 'Golf View Motel' it was late at night and they got a room for the night, and the owners delivered a lovely breakfast free of charge to their room this morning, so I'd like to put a good word in for anyone is looking to stay in Eden NSW there are still good people out there :) 

Now a few months ago Rachael had new (well they were second hand) tyre's put on the front when she got home I noticed they were odd tyres, what the hell?? who puts odd tyres on a car? it was a small tyre factory in Dandenong that one of her friends told her to go to.....

First picture is driver side front tyre, second picture is passenger side fron tyre, you can clearly see they are very odd 

 I told her to take them back and they said oh well once we get a matching pair we will call you, never happened! so my point being, I am now wondering if this may have helped when it started to rain and the spun out? 

Anyway the poor bugger has a black cloud over her, she had only got her car back from the panel beaters afew weeks ago from a young guy backing straight into her at a petrol station, who backs out from the pump? 

Please if you have any comments please make them here NOT on facebook 

 

A Thief

Yesterday the home owner (me) woke to find one large strawberry punnet missing from the fridge, and after interviews throughout the day with family members no one seems to have seen anything or knows the whereabouts of the missing strawberries? the officer (me again :) ) in charge of the investigation has started looking more deeply into the clue's to the strawberries whereabouts and still has one suspect to interview, this suspect is a well know offender and are eagerly awaiting her arrival home, at 8:45am AEST the suspect, known as Bronze Child, was cross examined and quickly pleaded guilty after evidence was brought forward of the empty punnet that was later found in the kitchen bin, she has been sentenced to one day with no sweets and put behind bedroom doors, it's believed she has escaped and is on the run so if seen please just hand over your strawberries and call the RACV because they care.

Friday Funny but are based on true event's.

Cheers Lisa.

 

The Day After Tomorrow

Well just watched a DVD 'The Day After Tomorrow', then looked outside and the sky is black and it's quite windy and cold and make's you think if these movies could be true one day? with global warming the way it is we should take note because even though it is a movie, who knows what we are heading for :( this winter is colder than it's been for a long time.

Anyway we had a lovely family night out, went out for dinner with the kids and invited some close friends and was alittle surprised when only one showed up, hmmm whats going on there, but it was a good night, and the trip home was a laugh then last night we had a wonderful dinner cooked for us, the yummiest Tandoori chicken roti, and tonight she is cooking us Butter Chicken, Cass who said you cant cook :) we are being spoiled, and I never knew how easy these dishes are to cook from scratch not out of a jar lol 
Well life is pretty quiet with it being winter, no one goes out much and most of us opt to watch a movie and curl up on the couch, so I don't have alot to blog about BUT I do have a great winter dish I cooked up a few nights ago for you, And as all my recipes it's quick and easy.......

PORK SLIDERS  (Will need a slow cooker for this one)

Before I jump into this recipe for you I just wanted to say this one takes abit of preparation time and you will need a slow cooker and a mortar and pastle.

Ingredients  
1-1.5kg piece of shoulder pork 
1 1/2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
2 teaspoons whole fennel seeds (I used Aniseeds)
3 teaspoons smoked paprika  (I used mild paprika as thats what I had)
3 teaspoons sea salt (again I used rock salt)
1 teaspoon each of ground cumin and all spice (or ground cinnamon)
(I used ground cinnamon in mine)
2 teaspoons ground chilli (or chilli flakes) 
2 Bay leaves 
1/2 cup red wine or stock - any type is fine ( I used 1/4 cup red wine and 1/4 cup of chicken stock) 
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tomatoes, chopped into quarters (I used a can of chopped Tomatoes drained) 
2 cloves of garlic crushed
Bag of coleslaw from the supermarket and I mixed half coleslaw dressing and half mayo
Bread Rolls, any you like but I got the crunchy mini rolls from coles.

METHOD  
1. Grind the fennel seeds and pepercorns with a mortar and pestle  (if using rock salt add in with the fennel seed and pepercorns) grind until fine almost powder like, then add other spices except for bay leaves and mix.

2. Rub the lot over the pork, rubbing well into the fatty bits, massaging it all over then put into the slow cooker insert, cover and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours (or over night for a stronger flavour) 

3. Place insert in the slow cooker and add the rest of the ingredients

Here you can see the pork after it has been in the fridge for just over 2 hours and has the rest of the ingredients added, you can see the tomatoes and crushed garlic.

Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours, I cooked mine on low for 8 hours, once cooked use two forks to pull the meat a part.

4. Make up the coleslaw and butter rolls and add some pork and coleslaw.

NOTE: once cooked I cut the fat/skin (what would have been the crackling) off then pulled the meat apart with two forks and left it in the liquid and used tongs to serve. 

Enjoy these are the best and will be doing these for our next 4WD trip I reckon :) 
Cheers Lisa.

Stayin in

Well its a very wet and cold Saturday here and I thought I'd play with my blog, I re-designed it yesterday and still wasn't happy with it, lets just say it wasn't user friendly, so I have changed it AGAIN lol I thought the rainy picture was good for this time of year, and if you notice, I have upgraded to google+ so if you like any of my posts dont forget to click on the g+1 at the bottom and you can now click on 'follow' beside my profile :)

And please leave a quick comment :(

Moving on and been pondering what to cook for dinner tonight????? girls just walked in the door from playing hockey, so going to be getting quite hungry and I have chicken breast out, got afew idea's but think I might go with the satay chicken and rice =D 

Think tonight calls for curling up on the couch and watching a good movie, we got the surround system working properly in the main living room and had the window's rattling last night with Saving Private Ryan, as it has the best start up scene with the gun's and bullets flying and bombs going off in the beach scene to test out any surround system lol so might give it another workout tonight, maybe a softer movie hahahaha 

Also need to wait out this wet weather as last week in the strong winds we have had here (no fart jokes please hahahah) we had our tree in the front yard blow over and through the neighbours fence, which hubby quickly fixed, but the said tree is still all over the front yard so I want it gone so we can mow the lawn, will make good fire wood if and when we get our fire heater, AND I'm still waiting to see some comments on that last post about your thoughts on the wood fire heater?? 

Anyway I think its time to put the kettle on and sit in front of the TV and will see you back here tomorrow or Monday.

Cheers Lisa

Help me decide

Hello Again, well the weather is getting colder this winter, we have had warmer winters the past few year's and I havent seen ice on the car window first thing in the morning for a while, but this winter has picked up and quite cold now, soooo we have been seriously thinking about getting a wood fire heater to save on the gas bill, I have been nagging hubby for years and years and he finally agreed to look at one....yippy :) but I would like to know if any of my reader's out there have one and what are the pro's and con's? I personally think just seeing the flames make's you feel warm already, where having the ducted gas heater going unless it's up on high all the time, the kids say it's cold, so I think the wood fire heater is a plus right there lol  and please leave a comment what brand of wood fire heater you have? we have seen and looked at quite a few but most likely get a Ultimate Radiant Cottage as it will heat the size house we need, but would love to hear what you think :)

Well I have been busy crocheting beanie's, and I will post some pic's on here in the next few day's when I finish my current hat and see what you think.

Now onto something else I am very passionate about, and that's 4 wheel driving and getting out and seeing our beautiful country......but....the government is putting more and more gate's up at locking us out! it's a outrage what they are doing, and have approved mining up in the werribee gorge which is near the wombat state forest, and the list goes on, so to take Tiny....

anywhere we have joined and are volunteer's for Victoria with...

so you will most likely see or hear from us around the place as it's time to be heard!! 

Anyway that's it from me, I really hope to hear from you out there so I know you are reading my blog :)

Cheers Lisa. 

Winter warmer - Chicken and Mushroom Risotto

Hello sorry it's been awhile but had afew friends put foot up butt :) (Thanks Sally and Em) and I'm back, yes been abit slack but hay it's winter so we all get alittle lazy and hence why I'm writting in red to feel warmer hahahahah is it working? lol 

Anyway whats been going on since I last posted? Hmmm well as you know we got our Tiny (the big girl) back and been hitting the tracks and she hasn't missed a beat :) last trip out got alittle hairy being winter now and wet muddy tracks and ofcourse the first patch of clay we hit I was driving and Tiny very gracefully slid sideways and plonked herself nicely next to the bank but not touching it, problem was, I couldn't open the door and there was a huge drop off in front of me :( so we had to get craig to winch us backwards and I have added a photo, might be hard to see but look closely you will see the straps going to a tree then up to Craigs car on the top of the hill...

Then later in the day we slid sideways again but this time to the side of the track where it drops off down the mountain :( very scary but we got her out after afew different attempts, and on other trips we have seen some great huts and history of our beautiful country, I got to tick Craig's Hut of my bucket list =D 

 So will let you know more of whats been going on later :)

Now I thought I'd add a quick winter warmer dish to cook up, we had this afew nights ago and I thought I'd make extra to have for lunch the next day, boy o boy was I wrong, it went in one go, needless to say it was a hit :)

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto 
This serves 4 so add extra for more people 

Ingredients 

400gm Chicken breast or thigh fillets, sliced..(I cut it in cubes)
100gm sliced mushrooms
1 small red onion, chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
300gm Arborio rice
40mls Olive oil (but who measures the oil hahaha)
1 tbsp butter 
1.2 litre's vegetable stock - I use half chicken stock 
1/4 cup basil leaves torn
1/2 cup white wine - I use whatever is in the fridge but sweeter white wines work better.
80gm parmesan cheese, grated - we use a small packet
sea salt and cracked pepper - I find it doesnt need any salt but still add cracked pepper.  (I also add finely chopped chilli but up to you)

Note: I warm the stock in a smaller pot ready to use as it works better if the stock is already warmed up.

Method 

1. Heat oil in a heavy pot (I use a large saucepan) and add garlic and chilli and add the chicken, toss until cooked, try not to brown the chicken too much, remove from pan and set aside.
2. Add the butter to pot, when melted add onion and Arborio rice and cook about 2 minutes until rice is translucent and each grain is coated in butter.
3. Add the white wine and reduce by half, add the muchrooms and then add stock one ladleful at a time, until all the stock has been absorbed stirring constantly, this will take about 25 minutes.
4. Return the chicken back to the pot and stir thoroughly and ensure risotto is thick and creamy - not sticky - add torn basil leaves, parmesan cheese and the cracked pepper to taste.
Serve immediately with crunchie bread yummo :)


And please leave me a comment I'd love to hear from you :) and tell me if you have made any of my recipes? 

Till next time stay safe :) 

Cheers Lisa.