Recipe: Friday Night Favourite - Sweetcorn Fritters

If you spend any time in our house, you'll know that we are BIG corn fritter fans. They are one of Noah's most requested meals and a great easy Friday night picnic fare. Mark still says to this day that back when we first started going out, it was one of the first iconic Kiwi meals I cooked him. I'm actually amazed he ever ate it, since he wasn't great with any kind of veges back in the day. He must have been far too in love and too polite to say no!

Anyhow I digress. Back to the recipe....

The classic Edmonds cookbook (which every NZ household surely has!) provides a great starter for a classic fritter recipe, but we add our own ingredients to give them a bit more pizzazz. You can't even taste the grated courgette and it is a great, secret squirrel way of adding greens into the meal for kids.

So without further ado...

Sweetcorn Fritters..Our Style


3/4 cup flour
2 eggs
1 tin creamed corn
1 tsp baking powder
Good pinch of salt
Optional extras (any or all of these!)
1 grated zucchini (courgette)
1/2 chopped red onion or 1 chopped normal onion
3 rashers cooked chopped bacon (either on the side or chopped into the mixture)

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
Add eggs, tin of corn and salt and all the optional extras.
Mix together until combined.
Drizzle olive oil in pan. When pan is medium hot, drop dessert sized spoon fulls (or whatever size suits - we sometimes do smaller ones for the littlies) into the pan.
Cook until just brown and flip over.
Keep cooked ones warm in oven till ready to serve.

It really is that easy!

Great served with sweet chilli sauce, mayo, tomato sauce, sweet fruit chutney or a combination of all of these for garnish.

Goes nicely with salad fresh from the garden in summer or a homemade rataouille in winter.

Best eaten on your knees around the coffee table on Friday night picnic night ;-)

Punch Buggy

I love creating family traditions. The best ones are so unique that no-one outside of your family would necessarily enjoy or understand. Our latest creation is Punch Buggy.

Intrigued? Let me explain.

Back in August, when our UK family came to stay we did a fair bit of driving around, and often the boys (Mark, his bro, cousin Jack and Noah) roadtripped in one car whilst us girls and Mylo drove the other.

Uncle James and Jack were constantly punch bugging each other, and it really caught on with us. It's an easy game - the first person to spot a VW Beetle (a VW Bug ) gets to 'punch' the other person (in jest of course, no real violence intended!). Apparently James and Mark used to play it when they were little. Mark can't really remember it, but we reckon that's probably because he was at the receiving end of most of the punches from his big brother!

Anyway, it's become quite the tradition with us - mostly cos Noah is always on the lookout. At every opportunity - on the way to work or home, to the supermarket, football, you name it, every car trip is a potential scouting opportunity.

And now I can't stop looking for them everywhere I go! Aaaagggggh.

Even walking to work after dropping the boys at daycare finds me taking a pic and flicking a quick What's App (iPhone/Blackberry application) message off to Markie with the picture and 2 words.....'punch buggy'!!!!

What unique traditions have you and your family had fun creating?

What's new with you kiddo?

At fourteen months, Mr. monkey britches (as he is affectionately known) is:

• Signing and saying 'cat'. We've been doing baby sign with him (although not as religiously as we did with Noah) for the past month or so, and his communication has come on loads. He tries to sign the word for cat and says 'cat' whenever he sees Murphy. He can also sign more, milk and giraffe. A man of few words and a lot more action.
• Being stubbon about walking. He will walk holding onto just one finger and even walk along kicking a football if you hold both hands, but the minute you try to extricate your fingers he just drops to the floor. A word that rhymes with hazy springs to mind?!
• Quite happy climbing though?!

• And posting his bunny out the window, or into the kitchen cupboards and drawers. Lucky we have a spare bunny as I can see bunny could well go on some big solo adventures in the near future. Whether he returns or not is another story!
• Totally wishes he could feed himself all the time. And is pretty good at getting the food in his mouth with the sppon when he does. Finger foods are our friend! We try to distract him with some kind of finger food (usually fruit) long enough to shovel another mouthful of dinner in when he's not paying attention.
• This is what I call his West Virginia hillbilly 'woodcutter' look.

• Tried a sip or two of a fluffy (frothy milk) and is not that impressed. Noah on the other hand couldn't get enough fluffies at this age!
• Experiments with either spitting his food out or throwing it on the floor when he's getting bored...yay for messy mats!
• Would rather spend his time either 'naked just nappy' or outdoors. Let's hope we're not bringing up a naturalist hey ;-)
• He totally gets 'high five'. Has quite a good slap on him too.

• Crawls around the house with his favourite friends (bunny and giraffe) in his mouth. Perhaps some strange craving to become a puppy?

• Still obsessed with wheels.

• And the need to open/close open/close open/close E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.

• Which (ahem) ended in a bit of a mishap today. Can you guess what happened? See anything missing from this picture...um yep that would be the catflap door. It's not the first time it's seen a tube of superglue...probably won't be the last either.

Excuse the drool....focus on my cool dude eyes instead!

Loves, loves, loves his cat. And amazingly he HAS finally learnt the art of gentle. His favourite past-time is to use Murphy's tummy as a pillow.

Weighs bang on 10kg, and is nearly a whole kg lighter than his big brother at the same age. Pint-sized with personality plus!

• And capable of a whole lotta loving!

Confessions of a working mum

I'm feeling the need to come clean (or not as the case may be). I have a few friends (in face-to-face life and blog life) who have said 'how do you do it? This working full-time and being a mum-of-two lark?'

But I equally think 'how do YOU do it? How do you cope looking after often multiple young kids at home and manage to entertain them, provide a fun, loving environment whilst running a household  and (if you're like some of my bloggy friends) still have time to spend in creative thought making some amazing creations?'

I think as a woman and a mother you just rise to whatever situation you find yourself in, no matter how many kids you have, and whether you're working/not working or some combination of the two.

And it would be fair to say that whatever our circumstance we each feel, at times, jealous of the other. Especially when we're having a bad day and are wishing we could either 'leave the desk even just for five minutes to go cuddle little Jonny' or the opposite 'Aghhhh - get me outta this house...I really don't think I wanna see little Jonny for the rest of the day!'

So I thought I'd just demystify a little on how a working mum tries to manage the juggling act, hopefully you aren't too horrified by certain standards of cleanliness when reading on (Sadie the cleaning lady I am definitely not!):

• Vacuuming (or hoovering as it is known in our house) = once a week (main areas) and every 2nd week (the whole house). With two sets of stairs across 3 levels, it takes45 minutes to do the lot!! When we just had a cat and no kids in our older, smaller house, sometimes we would stretch it out to 3 weeks...disgusting aye! Although sometimes I wonder why we even bother at all when 2 seconds after finishing there's more clumps of cat hair on the ground. Fluffy cat = instant mess. Sigh.
• Our lounge constantly looks like a Chinese laundry with 2 clothes horses full of clothes 7 days a week. Thank goodness for the dehumidifier wich helps dry things within about a day and a half. I know we could make life easier and just chuck it in the dryer every time but we're kinda staunch about not using it? Mad aye.
• Therefore, the boys don't wear pristinely clean clothes to daycare. If it passes the once-over, i.e. no visible food, and not covered in paint/sand, generally we go another day (or three).
• Toilets = once a week and full bathrooms = only every 2nd week
• Dusting only generally gets done once you can write your name in the dust
• I don't iron. Fullstop. And I try not to buy clothes that do need ironing. Hubby does his own shirts - usually two weeks worth at a time (10 in one go). I occasionally sneak the odd thing into that pile and he very graciously does them for me. And that is the extent of our ironing.
• The sheets get washed about every three weeks, but more if you're the littlest dude. As you can imagine sleeping on one's tummy and constant snotty noses = a dirty sheet in no time.
• The kitchen gets a proper spring clean about once every six weeks (remember my Beware the Leprechaun post?)
• Dinners are made on the fly by the King of fast, delicious and nutritious meals - a.k.a. Markie. He usually gets a meal on the table within 20-30 minutes of us all walking in the door at 5pm.
• Saturday morning = our grocery mission. Yes we have heard of online shopping, but we actually prefer to go ourselves. One of us takes both kiddlywinks usually about 8.30am to get there before the rush, while the other stays home racing around like a blue-ass fly getting through all that week's housework in the hour or so we have to ourselves. Today's post was kinda inspired by the fact it was my turn today. Cleaning both bathrooms, hoovering and changing/washing 2 lots of sheets all coincided on this one day. But with some great new music blaring on the iPod as I went (The Afters - Light up the Sky - love love love), I almost enjoyed myself?!
• Teamwork is essential. EEEEE-ssential. We would never be able to do what we do and both remain relatively sane if we didn't both take on as much responsibility as the other. Hats off to Markie, I got a goodie there. Actually, I know I have his Mum & Dad to thank there - very well brung up he was!

I know we could probably make life a heck of a lot easier by a) getting a cleaner, b) using the clothesdryer a lot and c) doing our shopping online, but we're just not those people?!

Anyway, our funny little routine works well for us. I'm not sure how many other full-time working parents with 2 kiddies would be able to say they could do the majority of the week's chores including shopping and be done by 10am on a Saturday morning. And I like to think of it as spending the minimum time getting the maximum done so that we then get to enjoy the rest of our precious weekends with our children.

I only hope you haven't been too shocked and horrified at our standards to boycott a visit in the future!

Hammer Time

Let me just qualify this post by saying hubby and I have a great relationship. We get on really well most of the time. Sometimes we're like dogs with bones though and neither of us are prepared to budge an inch. Classic example, let me just recount today's events to you....

Picture the scene, me in Just Jeans trying on some jeans (for my Christmas present) and deciding to send photos by iPhone to get a valued opinion before purchasing. (aahh the beauty of modern technology!)

I call Mark for the verdict and also happen to mention I'm planning to buy another pair of what I would probably now call 'knickerbockers'. After this was meant with a blank 'huh' I tried to describe them further by comparing them as being similar to someone else's pants that we know. We end the phone conversation and having FALLEN IN LOVE with these pants, I walk out of the shop pretty happy.

I got back to work and so it began....

My email to him:

Subject: Thanks for bearing with....

Mission accomplished. I'll ask M&D for some money towards today's purchases as well as you for Christmas, jeans were on sale (yay) for $xx and other pants were $xx.

Reply from hubby:

So you didn't get my text then?

I dig my phone out of my handbag and read the text message which had been sent whilst I was still in the shop:

Please don't buy the other pants. Honestly I think they look crap. Everytime I've seen someone wearing them I've thought how terrible they look. Think about it please. M

My email reply:

Obviously I didn't get that text......

His reply:

I'll stand by what I said, I think they look terrible. I will see what they are like on you, but I class myself as a good judge of fashion. M

p.s. Even the lady who got out of the car before us at daycare had some on and she looked terrible.

My email:

They don't look anything like what that lady had on...reserve judgement please....

His:

As I said I will, but not impressed, especially at $xx. Wow.

Me:

If I only ever bought everything you 100% liked and consulted you on I may not have bought half the things I've had in my wardrobe....

AND PAUSE FOR A BIT, whilst we regroup and take a breath from the barrage:

His reply an hour later:

How's it going 'hammer time?'

To which I sweetly replied with:

Great, thanks for asking and attached a photo of me in said pants having changed into them at work as I was loving them that much!

His reply:

Have you got an 80's dress up party at work today?

My reply:

Nope it's called a 'wear whats currently in fashion and see how many nice comments you can get in one day' day today!

And FYI I've already had loads of nice comments.

I'm not seeing the similarities myself. I blimin like these pants.

Oh we are a right pair, we are sometimes. Real special like. Loving to niggle each other, taking advantage of the saying 'it takes two to tango'. But you know what?

We're also like peas and carrots (hmm, maybe not peas as Mark has never eaten peas since deliberating throwing them up when he was little and hasn't eaten them since). Let's rephrase that.

Most times we're like icecream in a cone. The perfect match. Thank goodness hey!

This post was brought to you by Meghan C Hammer (as I got called this afternoon).

p.s. Can't touch this.

Reasons why I love Summer #1

Pillow fights in the near noody roody

Jumping, crawling, and jumping some more. Feeling the wind whistle past your body while you fly through the air.

What a wonderfully free feeling it must be!

Wordless Wednesday: What I Got Up To in my lunch hour!

OK so I found this application on my PC at work today and thought hey I'll do a Wardrobe Wednesday post.

But then I found some even cooler stuff. And got a bit distracted. I was hooked.

This is avocado on toast for lunch.

Even though I have a kinda straight face here,

oh boy did I howl with laughter when I saw myself in these shots!

The top three are called stretch for obvious reasons.

The bottom left one...well she's my Siamese twin.

The bottom centre I could be Randall from Monsters Inc

And the last one totally reminds me of an alien from the X-Files.

And then I thought how cool would it be to be able to travel the world from the comfort of my desk.

So I transported myself to Yosemite National Park

Swam with the fishes in the Maldives

Hung out on a beautiful beach in Fiji watching the sunset

And went on a scary rollercoaster. 

In hindsight, I so should have taken this one with my mouth open screaming!

Then I thought, I wonder if I cloned myself would I get twice as much work done?

Probably not, but it was a nice thought.

And you know what, I actually kinda like this one.

If you're a friend on Facebook, you'll note it's my new profile pic.

P.s. I did get some work done today, honest.

The show must go on!

Friday night could have been a flop.
Friday night could have been a failure.
Friday night could have been a fiasco.

Or a fizzer.

But it was none of the above (well technically the fizzer part is actually true). Why? Because we fearless Wellingtonians held firm in spite of the facts!

Friday dawned beautiful blue skies but with the ominous weather forecast 'Evening rain, and a strong southerly'.

Me being the weather freak I am, spent a good part of the afternoon watching the rain radar on the Metservice website advancing its way up the South Island with force. I willed it to 'please slow down!' All the reports said the weather was due to hit Wellington at 9pm, just when the fireworks display was scheduled.

I wouldn't usually be worried, only that we had planned an extra-special night for Noah to stay up for the first time to watch the fireworks and enjoy some special one-on-two Mummy & Daddy time. We'd arranged a New York Wholly Pizza takeaway and all.

After getting the weekly shop out of the way (just so we could get free parking near the pizza shop) Noah and I picked up the pizza deal and headed back to the car. I struggled to carry the pizza box down the street (have you seen the size of these boxes!) and it took up the whole front seat of the car!

As we arrived home, the wind was really starting to get up, and by the time the shopping was all indoors and we sat down to pizza, the heavens had opened. We felt for sure the fireworks would be off, but kept a watching eye on Stuff. All reports were optimistic that it might still go ahead.

Amazingly (Thank you Lord!), there was a lull in the weather at about 8:30pm. This was just long enough for us to brave our own sparklers and a few fireworks in the bitter and bracing wind. The temperature had dropped about 10 degrees in an hour and it felt like mid-winter.

Then it was back indoors for some toasted marshmallow (I love em black and crispy on the outside and gooey in the middle!) before we headed up to our room to view the main city display.

Poor Noah (who is normally in bed between 7-7:30pm was nearly a goner by the time the display kicked off at 9pm, and was so tired he couldn't even stand up to watch it and kept asking to go to bed throughout. Still, we made him make the most of it cuddled up on our bed oohing and aahing at the brilliant colours before Daddy carried him downstairs to brush teeth and crash out in bed.

And here's the official pics of the night http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4315507/Weather-holds-off-for-Wellington-fireworks.

If the show had been cancelled, it would have been the first time in sixteen years. It just goes to show you can't get the better of us here in Welly, we're made of pretty tough stuff, we have to be!

p.s. The raging winds and full force of the southerly hit about 10 minutes after the fireworks finished and continued throughout the night. So I had the fun experience of sleeping in a shaking bed upstairs on my own. I've been banished to solitary confinement so Mark can keep away from my germs (the conjunctivitis was just the precursor for a MEAN-as headcold that I've been keeping at bay (barely) with a constant cocktail of drugs. But I'm so OVER the constant headaches, fuzzy headedness and bogeys (sorry way too much information I know!). So you see the fireworks date night really HAD to go ahead. It was about the only ray of light in an otherwise VERY mediocre week!

Wordless Wednesday: Thankful

Although laid up in bed for 3 days with a nasty virus which started on Sunday and had me looking like some kind of alien life form:

I'm still thankful.

For this beautiful view from my sickroom



For this morning treat, the perfect latte made by me, just for me.

For the chance to catch up on some required reading.....yawn...

And some more reading for fun....now that's more like it.

For having a few of these left lying around to complete....

For just missing my scheduled cable car.

Which meant I had a few more minutes up my sleeve

to  glory in the profuseness of pink

For these wisps...someone's hair might be getting closer to a cut..

NOOOOOOOOO..........................say it isn't so......

Celebrating the first fruits of the garden (or vegetables in this case)

Remembering how much I love this necklace (thanks English Dad!)

And the fact I could almost pass for human again.....phew.

Sight for sore eyes

One very swollen, oozing, painful, bloodshot eye is peering along with the good one at the computer tonight. So I'll make this quick. And no photo evidence sorry, as I am truly a sight for sore eyes. I know this because Mark keeps wincing when he looks at me :-(

The past few weeks have taken their toll - meeting some additional deadlines by working from home in the evenings as well as a few too many late nights blogging all adds up to one run down body telling me enough is enough.

So whilst I find I have pretty good mental endurance to keep going and going like a poor Everready bunny beating its drum, its always my body that finally gives out one way or another. It knows (far better than I do) that it is the only way to make me stop when I would otherwise just keep going at 100 miles an hour through life.

Combine the most wicked case of conjunctivitis I have ever seen on anyone (yay for me!) with the rather underwhelming dining experience that we had at Gusto on Friday night (shame as we hardly ever get to do 'dinner for two' and we were really looking forward to it), and it makes for a forgettable weekend.

I'm off for an early night with my tea bag compress, and a trip to the doctor in the morning awaits.

I hope you all had a more upbeat weekend..!