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dimanche 25 octobre 2009

Present

Shrek has gifted me with a timely present of a brand new freezer.


In effect he rejuvenated our one year old baby (the freezer that is) with a fresh breath of new lease on life by defrosting it. It is now ready for yet many more years of servitude to come.

Petit homme

Petit Suisse is easily embarrassed. He blushes profusely everytime I tell him that he is handsome or he appears like a little man.


He is such a sensitive soul and an impossibly adorable cutie but is prone to sulking and turning into a deplorable cry baby.

samedi 24 octobre 2009

Biological lesson

There are three factors that affect the degradability of food hence rendering it unfit for consumption.

These are temperature, time and humidity. It is said that at room temperature (it is aggravated in summer) natural humidity induced by the presence of moisture in food is an incubator for bacteria to develop.

At room temperature and with a normal ambient level of humidity (presence of water or other cooking liquid) the critical time is 12 hours. After said period has elapsed it is mandatory that one throw said food out.

I should have this lesson down pat by now but it seems that for some inexplicable reason (frugality perhaps) I still have not learnt my lesson.

It is a delicate subject matter.

Oh well as it is often said 'You are what you eat' I will proceed to improving this aspect.

I expect Shrek to improve certain aspects of his 'idiosyncracies' as well.

I want to pass on this important lesson to my children and hope that they will not have to endure the same predicament as me.

lundi 19 octobre 2009

Rack of lamb




Date lunch chez Lost

Rack of lamb with mashed sweet potatoes and mâche salad.


Château Coudert Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
1998

As can be seen, we are quite enamoured with racks of lamb here chez nous. It is wonderfully fondant and tender that it proves to be too much competition for steak.

samedi 17 octobre 2009

Murphy's laws bis

No matter the price paid for pairs of stockings I will always invariably end up with ladders in them.

Kids never waste your hard earned dough on buying expensive pairs of stockings that will end up ripping no matter how careful you are in handling them and caring for them. I have resolved to buy the cheapest brand and not regret the fact that it's only after the first use and I already have ladders.

dimanche 11 octobre 2009

Pipi

My whole house smells like an urinal and it can be traced back to one source : Baby Taz's toilet training is a work in progress. For every time he actually goes pipi in the potty there are two other accidents somewhere on the floor. He has not actually left a trail of caca on the floor as yet and that is the least of my worries.

Shall we say that Baby Taz is not mature yet and let's hope that this will change in due course or if I had my way it will speed up with my urgings and encouragements. He gets a big fanfare and Bravo and felicitations everytime he actually does the right thing by peeing in the right pot. He has a tendency to pee into our heater, on the floor and inside my thermos cooling bag...hmmm

I am fed up with touching caca, pipi and cleaning up after my kids. I must admit it does fray my nerves sometime especially when the whole orchestra starts screaming ensemble.

Favourite pastime

Shrek's absolute favourite pastime is sleeping. He can sleep for hours on ends and if it was not for his obligations that he must fulfil such as work he would sleep for the majority of his days punctuated only by his more primal needs of eating, drinking and filling his tummy in general, emptying his bowels and 'otherly pleasures'.

Shrek's second pastime (tie with eating) and favourite bonding activity with the kids is vegetating in front of the television. If Shrek had his way and did not have to answer to my insistences that they need more than just 'entertainment' and lobotomy he would allow them to sit and be couch potatoes all day long.

samedi 10 octobre 2009

Breakage, clumsiness and general gaff !

Lil Miss N should have her name changed to Miss Clumsy. She inadvertently bumps into corners, tables, chairs, invisible obstacles and objects. She also has a tendency to drop and spill food, drinks and goods in general. She is after all a kid whose fine tuning is still in the process of perfecting.

I am manic about dropping things and breaking them especially when it comes to costly valuables. I accidentally dropped a watch with ceramic links and will have to replace that link and the damage has yet to be determined. I chastised myself and am prone to self-flagellation over minor breakages etc...which does not bode well for my mental health according to Shrek. I suspect he might be right because I am une gaffeuse, guess that is where Miss Clumsy got her clumsy genes from and if every time something had to be replace I get worked up then it would spell disaster for my sanity and in the long run cost me my well-being and equilibrium which no material object or amount of money is worth fretting over.

jeudi 8 octobre 2009

Rotten chestnuts



It might sound trite and conceited but I have not learnt my lesson and so committed the faux pas of buying marrons when it is not in season as yet. It was a horrendous batch with more than half rotten and inedible and the rest barely passable. Most of all the skin did not peel off easily eventhough it has been roasted in a skillet. It was a waste of time, money spent and waste of stomach space. Petit Suisse who is a keen roasted chestnut fiend (aka marrons chauds) and self proclaimed avid fan told me to finish consuming the chestnuts because he could not swallow the awful batch. He usually wolfs down faster than I can peel them so if he turns away in disgust it means that the marrons were beyond repair.
The end of the season of anything also spells disaster beyond reprimand.

It is one lesson to always buy seasonal produce : taste wise it is better and more cost effective.

This general rule of thumb applies to all fresh fruits, vegetables and produce in general.

No exceptions to this rule whatsoever.

TB The photo displays what successful marrons chauds should look like,

mercredi 7 octobre 2009

Cost of things

Murphy's law dictates that whatever I buy 'en action' or at reduced price will be cheaper the day after. It encompasses myriad genres including but not limited to fresh produce, foodstuff, baby items and household articles...etc.


No matter when so I think I have scored a bargain only to find out the day or two after that it's sold at an even cheaper price. It irks me to no end.

The only exceptions are when fresh produce and food are sold at half price, it cannot get any lower.

Murphy's laws are full of anger and stress inducing self-evidence and yet much of it is paradoxical truism.

The potty saga

The newsflash for the day is that the potty is sitting pretty as decoration and waste of space for now. I have only managed to get Baby Taz to do a wee-wee in it at irregular intervals with much prompting and pain... No actual poo-poo has filled the pot as yet.


We still have a long way to go before he is toilet trained

mardi 6 octobre 2009

Creaming the ice !

After having spent the best part of over a year sitting idly in the corner of my kitchen my 'sorbetière' ou 'machine à glace', ice cream maker was put to its intended use for the very first time today. It marked the first ever batch of ice cream. It was a rather positive experience and I am sure that there will be many follow up home made ice creams and sorbets with a wide array of varying ingredients. I will definitely test out many recipes I have been dying to try and maybe will even come up with my own unique signature flavour .

The first leap has been overcome. The batch was a resounding success I might add and was a very heartening first effort.

It is a chocolate flavoured ice cream with undertones of coffee forever etched as a first successful batch.

lundi 5 octobre 2009

Weekly menu plan

Here are descriptions of what we had for our meals last week complete with pictures.

Monday lunch : sautée spinach, pork roast with abricot glaze and gratin


Monday night : my creation which was a great success
pizza cum tarte with leeks, bacon, onions, tomato and mozzarella topping.



Tuesday night : Shrek's rice with pan-fried Perche du Nil and button mushrooms

Wednesday lunch : Mac 'n cheese
Wednesday dinner : Pasta soup (either with alphabet pasta or Macaronis) an easy peasy meal to whip up that is always a big hit with my kids

Thursday lunch : left-over pizza
Thursday dinner : tomates Mozzarella and smoked salmon




Friday lunch : pan-fried Basa fillets, zucchini sautée and rice
dessert meringues and double crème de Gruyère.
Friday dinner : Vietnamese crab vermicelli soup with tomato broth aka bun rieu

Saturday lunch : tête marbré and pizza (store bought)
dessert Tiramisu





Saturday dinner : rice with roast chicken drumsticks à la Shrek (was dry and salty)
dessert gatêau aux amandes, crème vanille

Sunday brunch :picnic with smoked salmon, brioche sucrée au beurre, apples, seedless grapes, prunes, chips

Sunday dinner : penne avec sauce à la crème aux champignons de Paris
dessert assortiment of cheeses, yoghurts and left over tiramisu

dimanche 4 octobre 2009

Award scheme

I have devised a new system at home. Petit Suisse and Lil Miss N are to receive 2 stickers of their choice after one week of good behaviour, good marks/achievements and concerted efforts toward their schoolwork and or tyding up and helping out at home.

This is an effective tool because the rolls of 1000 stickers I just bought will come in handy. They can each have a log book and will be able to stick their stickers in one of the three columns 'Behaviour', 'Achievements' and 'Efforts'. It will give them a sense of responsibility . It encourages hopefully cooperation and instils a sense of pride in themselves.

There will be follow up reports of how that goes.

samedi 3 octobre 2009

Nomination

I hereby nominate Shrek for the title of

tuh ruh tuh duh duh duh

'Launderer of the year'.
as he has begrudgingly and obligingly but most important of all patiently and painstakingly washed cycle after cycle and load after endless load of soiled laundry. He also has a once a month rdv with the 'Pfaff rolling pin' for a session of being the designated ironing man. I admire Shrek and want to congratulate him on a job well done and am extremely grateful for such a wonderful partner.


Our Sibir Silence gets my vote for

'Washing Machine of the year'

vendredi 2 octobre 2009

Our beloved Sibir Silencieux

After about what seemed like an eternity and endless cycles of washing (in reality it was more like 20 or so machines) we seem to have come to the light at the end of the laundry washing tunnel.


Our machine deserves every accolades for having gotten through that ordeal.

Notre lave-linge est lessivé !!!

Time taken

Time to clear and tidy up toys sprawled on the ground, random objects strewn all over the floor and vacuuming plus mopping (intensive labour) : varies but can take up to one and a half hour.

Time for the whole process to be reversed aka Baby Taz wreaking havoc and thereby messing up the entire house : 5 minutes

Time for food preparations and cooking and putting together a meal and table setting : 1 hour (for simple dishes) and 2 hours or more (for complicated or elaborate dishes)

Time to gobble said food down : for a 'faim de loup ou on adore ce que tu as cuisinée maman' 5-10 minutes of wolfing, for a 'on n'a pas faim ou on detest le gôut de ça mais on doit comme même manger ' 45 minutes of slow motion force feeding.

Time for clearing the table and cleaning up pots and pans and loading the dishwasher and wiping the sink, induction (Ceran) stovetop and drying the pots, pans etc : depends on the number of pots and pans to be manually washed but up to an hour.

Time for loading cycles of washing machines, drying said cycles and then folding the clothes and distributing to its rightful owners : 1 hour approximately

Time for clothes to be soiled, stained and changed : can vary depending on wearer, on Benben probably 5 minutes, on Baby Taz 15 minutes or an hour if he plays in the dirt, does a big poo-poo, eats like a pig etc, Lil Miss N and Petit Suisse can also change at the slightest hint of stench or stain but generally half a day, Shrek and I tend to keep our clothes for the longest of time.

In short it takes much longer to construct or get things done than for it to be unravelled and reversed.

Career prospects

Careers I could possibly envisage are : drumrolls .... professional shopper and budget analyst.

I handle these two with poise, calculated risks and utter expediency and efficiency if I do say so myself.

If I was to be employed as a professional personal shopper I would save my clients truckloads of money on a small or large scale. I do price comparisons to the cent and will earn my worth with bargain hunting, executing catalogue examination/ruminification and exploiting deftly all the loopholes that exist in store or enterprise or organisations policies.

I can also possibly be a 'tutelle' for someone seeing is that I would enforce budgets and carefully co-ordinate all predictions or projections of spending. I can make very little money go and stretch a long long way. I have the know-how and expertise on how to minimise expenditure and maximise purchasing power. All my decision making are all based on careful deliberation and I leave nothing to chance.

I can even take it to the ultimate level of scrooginess but everything has its price and in doing so would end up alienating entourage, friends and foes alike. The trick lies in harmonising and keeping it all balanced and in equilibrium.

As a budget analyst I know exactly what goes into the account/credits and what comes out of it/debits. I have mastered the art of saving by spending less than ones income and it is directly affected by limited expenditure. See above. I can set you free from debts. It is Possible ! For more concrete advice I will only give that away when I am paid.