Mmmmm pavlova !

Well I haven't before blogged my food and quite frankly Scotty thought I was nuts taking a photo of it, but here it is in all it's glory, one of the things I can quite frankly say has never failed me. My pavlova. This recipe truly is the easiest thing to make and looks and tastes spectacular. Try it !


Easy Pavlova

Ingredients
3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
1/2 tspn vanilla essence
1 tspn vinegar
1 tspn cornflour
4 tblspns boiling water

Method
Place all ingredients into bowl of electric mixer, beat on high speed until mixture is very stiff (approx 15 minutes). Spread onto a prepared tray.

This mixture makes one 28cm approx pavlova.

Electric Oven
Bake in moderate oven 10 minutes. Reduce heat to slow, bake further 45 minutes, cool in oven.

Gas Oven
Bake in moderate oven 10 minutes. Reduce heat to slow and bake a further 1 to 1 1/2 hours, cool in oven.

Happy Happy Happy

What a terrific night last night. What wonderful two friends I experienced it with (albeit one wasn't even born when some of his songs were written!!!). Billy Joel is truly magnificent. I'm tired (all up 6 hours of driving), I'm hoarse from singing and screaming, my feet hurt from dancing, but I'm happy happy happy.

Great seats, great sound, great food (we went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner), great crowd, great company, what a buzz. I feel like I've got the biggest hangover today, without the alcohol!!

Happy happy happy. I feel quite blissful right now. :-)

One more sleep to go

The waiting is over. One more sleep until my date with the great man himself. Oh ... me and a whole stadium full of screaming fans.

Billy Joel concert tomorrow.

Stay tuned for an update, big trip to the big smoke!

DMC's new poster girl

Well what can I say, my apprentice went wild on the weekend. Stupidly I left my top half of my floss box on the floor and looked the other way. First mistake! So seems that Bo decides that she liked the colours or the taste of the card or the texture of the floss and thought green was the go. Note to self ... never leave floss box on the floor again.

Second mistake! Deciding to go get the camera (because one always must have consideration as to what one can blog about) rather than immediately rescuing my DMC 549. One second after this photo and teeth marks were right through the card and her paw had the cotton half pulled out unravelled.

Ahhh ... good help is so hard to find! Till next time.

I am blogless :-(

I have nothing to blog about. How sad is that for my adoring public! te he.

I have so many unfinished projects. Two quilts that all I have to do is the binding. The flannel quilt for my stepson half done. The knitted baby cardy out of the sock wool all knitted but not sewn. A knee rug half crocheted. I really need to have a day where I just finish things instead of craving to start something new.

Are there other people out there like that? That you have worked so hard on something, getting excited working out what you're going to do, picking colours, getting stuck into the pattern be it a quilt or knitting or whatever, then getting to a point just shy of finishing and then the craving starts for something new. I must I must I must dedicate a weekend to finishing things, that can be my new mantra.

At the moment my attention is turned to Christmas stockings. I love Christmas. I adore Christmas. I cherish everything about it. The traditions, the giving, the making people happy, the singing of the Carols, the getting cards in the mail, the whole build up to it. I love it. So of course my craft at this time of year turns to Christmas things and stockings are it at the moment. I sell a few here and there, give some as gifts also, there's nothing nicer I don't think than seeing stockings hanging across a mantle waiting to be filled with all the fun little gifties.

So here's a couple of my favourites I've made both last year and this year. My special favourite is the set of 3 santas that was made for 3 brothers, can you even imagine what they would look like hanging side by side.

Cows come in all shapes and sizes ...

Is there any wonder my poor girl Molly has her eyes shut? That I would subject her to such embarrassment? The other dogs in the neighbourhood are definitely snickering! Here we are in the middle of cow country and I have her wearing a cow print coat!!!


Well what's a girl to do? She is having a bit of a time of it scratching. Very gently of course, but she still is scratching none the less and I'm worried about her stitches. Her winter coat is okay on cold days, but once those odd sunny days have come out it's way too hot for her.

So I drafted a quick pattern of the coat, got some cool cotton drill in a funky print, and recreated her winter coat, but a lighter variety. Now she can wear this during the day and even if she scratches her nails won't catch on her stitches.

Seriously, she is coping extremely well with her wound. Unbelievably well. Every day she is brighter and more back to her own good self. Although our "outside dog" has become an "inside dog" and I'm loving it !!! Although heck, it's like having children, those first few evenings I was up and down 4 times during the night to check on her. Ahhh, it's all good. We have our beautifully natured girl back almost to her old spirits and a huge relief for us.

Relief

The relief I feel right now is incredible, like a big weight being lifted off my shoulders. Three little words from the vet on the phone yesterday.
"IT WAS BENIGN"
Oh Thank you God, Thank You. The vet went on to say that they were positive they got the entire lump and she will be fine.

I mentioned in my last blog that Molly had a lump and was getting it taken out. One little lump the size of a malteser turned into 25 stitches, 18cm long by 3cm deep.

She's been very good and only scratching very softly, but during the day we have her coat on her so she can't get at the stitches which come out in 2 and a bit weeks.

How on earth did this girl get so far into my heart? And everyone else who meets her. Unfortunately dad got the message muddled up when I spoke to him. I told him it was benign but the message he gave to mum was that "Molly has begone". Poor mum spent the entire day trying to get onto us frantically thinking that Molly had passed on.

So I am a happy girl right now, with my happy girl.