More Cooking

I'm loving that I've rediscovered the cooking mojo. Although I am rapidly running out of room in the freezer(s)! Today I've made a batch of super yummy pumpkin and carrot soup and I've tried something a little different that I came across on Pinterest when I was looking at some slow-cooker recipes. One of the links I followed led me to this post.

Rather than (or perhaps, as well as) freezing the finished dish there seems to be a bit of a move towards freezing everything at the beginning of the process. Basically you chop up all of your ingredients, chuck them all in a big freezer bag, seal it up and throw the whole lot in the freezer. Uncooked. Then when you want to cook it you simply move it from the freezer to the fridge the night before, and in the morning pop it into the the slow cooker to cook away all day long. How simple does that sound?

Look I know the slow cooker makes life a whole heap easier but, for me, this is even better. We've been making use of the slow cooker now that I finish work and get home so much later and it's been a life saver. But I'm still running around the night before or, even worse, that morning, chopping everything up. This way I can do all the chopping when I have spare time on the weekend or my days off and not have extra stuff to get through when I'm already rushing around. And what's even better than that is that I can make as many meals ahead of time as I want and cut down even more on the work.

I've two lots of Beef Goulash in the freezer - one for this week and one for another time. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Yes! I Surprised Him!!

Woot Woot!! It's Hubby's 40th birthday and I managed to totally blow him away with his present.

This morning we all woke up and did the pressie-unwrapping thing in our bed - it's a family tradition, all birthday's start off in our bed for the unwrapping of the presents. The kids gave him a hoodie with his football team on it, I gave him a really nice watch as the 'something to remember your 40th by' present and then we gave him his main present. It didn't look all that big or special. But it was.

I gave him a gift bag, you know the kind that you'd put a bottle of wine in? And on the little tag I'd written, "So... pretend this is a bucket." He looked a little puzzled but nodded. I reached into the bag and pulled out a rolled up sheet of paper that was tied with a ribbon and handed that to him. It read... "Hubby's Bucket List" and then had a numbered list down the page that looked like this:

1. blah

2. blah

3. blah

all the way down to 25.

But at number 11 I'd written "BATHURST"

 (For the non-Aussies - 'Bathurst' is the Bathurst 1000, a 1000 kilometre (620 miles) race held annually at Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. Bathurst the town is over 3000km's away from us. Or to put it another way, it's a four hour plane ride followed by a drive of about three or so hours. Bathurts the race is known among fans and broadcasters as "The Great Race", and is widely regarded as the pinnacle of Australian motorsport. Since 2000, the race has been run exclusively for V8 Supercars and is now a round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series. This year is the 50th Anniversary and it's kind of a big deal, if you're into that kind of thing - which I'm not but the boys in my family are.)

Again with the puzzled look but there was also a dawning comprehension, followed quickly by a 'nah, she wouldn't have done that' kind of look.

And I handed him the next piece of paper. This one had all the details for a trip I'd booked for him. Or more specifically for him and four of his mates. It told him that the flights were booked, the accommodation was sorted, the hire car was arranged and they were all off on the most awesome boys weekend. Sure, he has to wait till October for the race to be on but he's off to Bathurst. And it was at this point that his grin got bigger and bigger and bigger. And I may have been declared the best wife in the whole entire world. Ever.

And then we handed him some little toy cars, with his mates names written on them. And if I thought he'd looked pleased before, well I didn't know what pleased looked like!

So we celebrated his birthday by going out for breakfast with kids, picked up a few things at the grocery store, hung out at home and had the parents round for birthday dinner. I made Chilli Mussels for entree, Caramelised Chicken Cutlets with a garden salad for mains and finished it off with Mini Passionfruit Cheesecakes for dessert. And what's a birthday without a cake? I made this yummy chocolate cake and it fit the bill very nicely. Though, as you'll see a little further down, it was a decidedly wonky cake.

So a fab birthday present that was a complete surprise and shocked the heck out of him, a nice day with the family and a yummy birthday dinner. What more could a Hubby want? 

Here are some pics of the day.

Birthday Surprises

Tomorrow is Hubby's birthday. His 40th birthday. Which means that his present - his pretty darn spectacular present - which has been a huge secret for the past four or so weeks will finally be revealed. FINALLY.

You don't know how hard it has been to keep it a secret. I talk to him about everything. And he's the one person I never, ever, ever keep secrets from. Even when I try to not tell him something I end up spilling it. And I have had to bite my tongue, change words mid-sentence and just walk out of rooms more times than I care to admit this past month. 

Thank goodness a couple of good friends are in on the surprise. They've been my sounding boards as I fleshed out the details. They've shared in my excitement and helped me to pull it all together. And they've been the ones I've run to when I've been about to burst with the hugeness of keeping it all a secret.

And tomorrow I get to tell Hubby all about it. And I can't wait! I can't wait to see his face when I surprise him. I can't wait for how excited he'll be. And I can't wait to not be keeping secrets from him anymore. I'm obviously not made for a life of crime or espionage.

And I'll tell you all about it. Tomorrow.

Breakfast or Dessert?

Wow, I made these delish pancakes for dessert tonight and to say they were a big hit with the kids would be a HUGE understatement!

I served mine with a scoop of stewed apple (with some brown sugar in it) and a good shake of icing sugar over the top. They'd be yummy for a special Sunday breakfast too. Either way, I'll be making them again!

Loving the Easter Weekend

School holidays have started here in WA but not for me. I've got a couple of days off here and there but I've been making the most of the four day break over Easter. I've been catching up on sleep - a marathon effort of 11 hours one night followed by a two hour nap the next afternoon. I think I might have been a bit burnt out. I've been playing with the kids - multiple games of Guess Who with Offspring #2 this morning. And I've been cooking. Man, have I been cooking! Yesterday was all about a triple batch of bolognaise sauce and the choc chip banana cupcakes. Today was a double batch of slow cooker curried sausages and chocolate slice. And tomorrow? I'm thinking a double batch of slow cooker lamb something and maybe an apple pie. Cos I'm in a pastry making mood. Oooh and maybe I can use one part of the lamb whatever as pie filling? I love it when a plan comes together.