Well, the prelude is dead, or very nearly so. Daryl decided one day last week that it would be okay to drive it to work, and the pleas of wife and daughter went unattended. He drove out the driveway, and we watched him go, shaking our heads and wondering why he thought it was a good idea to drive it to work when it clearly wasn't working properly.
Two minutes later, a very sheepish Daryl appeared back home, and informed us that the car had refused to change out of first gear, and thus couldn't go any faster than 40km/h. He had managed to turn around in a side street along the road and drive home.
Kyla and I did an admirable job of not looking smug or saying "I told you so".
So, one car down, and kid's after school activities means that Daryl has joined the users of Public Transport. I am sure he is really enjoying the ridiculously long travel times. Today he discovered that the bus he had taken (to meet us down at the pool for kids swimming lessons) went via Glendene... not exactly direct.
This foray into bus and train travel is set to last for a while however, as he has decided to buy a Mazda 6 from a workmate who is leaving to return to Ireland. The catch is that she doesn't leave for another 6 weeks, so it is just as well Daryl is good at sleeping on trains and buses, as he is set to spend a great deal of time on them in the next 6 weeks. The kids were a little concerned to hear that he sleeps on the bus/train as the fear he will sleep too long and miss his stop completely. We have reassured them that he cannot really end up too far away from home, and will be fine.
I have yet to make a new dish this week (I have done lots of variations on tdishes I have done before but don't think that counts), so will have to get organised as we are out tomorrow (home group) and Saturday night (Family birthday celebration for Jordan), so I suppose inspiration will have to strike on Friday. Watch this space.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Oops, this one is a bit late
Well, this is actually the new recipe for last week, but I didn't actually make it till tonight.
We have been busy the last week or so. The kids are on holiday, and last week was spent amusing them so they didn't kill each other. We went swimming, roller blading from Mission Bay around to Okahu Bay, and spent part of a day with Nana as the power supply company were supposed to be replacing a transformer and this would leave us without power (and therefore running water) for most of a day. The power company did not manage to do this replacement however (due to weather) so we will have the same problem another day I suppose.
Today, Kyla, Braden and Lauren had their first day of Soccer. They will be at the soccer coaching Monday to Thursday this week, and it runs from 9am to 1pm. Daryl decided to take today off work as his car has been playing up, refusing to go into 4th gear and flaring when it goes over 60km/hr which clearly is a problem when SH16 has a spped limit of 100km/hr. We took his car to a mechanic specialising in Automatic gearboxes, and it appears the news is not good. Now we have to figure out what to do as clearly it is difficult for him to get to work without a car. His choices are limited to a 1 1/4 hour bus trip, 1 1/4 hour train trip or 1 1/4 bike ride. No fast option.
Anyway, after picking up the kids from soccer, we asked if they were tired, (apparently they were not) and gave them the choice of going to Muriwai beach, or mountain biking at Woodhill Forest. They opted for the mountain biking option. We chose the beginners trail, which was only 6km long. It took us 48 minutes, (actual riding time) and by the end Lauren was pretty much shattered. They all enjoyed it a lot, and are keen to make it a regular activity. This is probably going to happen, as on Friday night (with Rebekah and Jeremy Opie visiting) I committed to joining Rebekah and Katie (Jeremy's cousin) as the third member of their team for the Day-Night Thriller . This should be lots of fun, and a good incentive for me to get a bit fitter.
After the fantastic effort put in by all three kids, we came home to have dinner of chilli (meat and vegetarian options) with wraps, salad and corn chips. Having had that many times before, it was clear the new recipe would need to be dessert. Yum.
Last night we were watching Iron Chef America (a slightly over dramatic cooking show, but it still fun to watch) on the Food Channel. One of the dishes put forward by the winning chef consisted of bruleed figs, with mascarpone cheese and sweet biscuits. This looked really good (except the figs which we have tried once and were not inspired by) and the chef mentioned that the dish would be just as good done with almost any kind of fruit. I decided to try this with Tamarillos, there is not really a huge variety of fruit in season at the moment, and the supermarket in Waimauku is fairly limited in it's range.
Dish of the week
Bruleed Tamarillos with Vanilla Mascarpone and Sponge Finger Biscuits. The mascarpone (thinned slightly with milk and flavoured with vanilla) had a sweet balsamic drizzle, however the flavour of the balsamic was overtaken a bit by the Tamarillos. The sugar caramelised on the fruit worked okay, but the Tamarillos were quite juicy, so the crust of toffee was not as obvious as it would have been on something like peach or nectarine. The sponge finger biscuits were good- really nice and crispy and a great contrast to the creamy mascarpone and tangy fruit.
The verdict- very tasty, but would be even nicer with peach or nectarine. Oh well, summer is only 6 months away.
We have been busy the last week or so. The kids are on holiday, and last week was spent amusing them so they didn't kill each other. We went swimming, roller blading from Mission Bay around to Okahu Bay, and spent part of a day with Nana as the power supply company were supposed to be replacing a transformer and this would leave us without power (and therefore running water) for most of a day. The power company did not manage to do this replacement however (due to weather) so we will have the same problem another day I suppose.
Today, Kyla, Braden and Lauren had their first day of Soccer. They will be at the soccer coaching Monday to Thursday this week, and it runs from 9am to 1pm. Daryl decided to take today off work as his car has been playing up, refusing to go into 4th gear and flaring when it goes over 60km/hr which clearly is a problem when SH16 has a spped limit of 100km/hr. We took his car to a mechanic specialising in Automatic gearboxes, and it appears the news is not good. Now we have to figure out what to do as clearly it is difficult for him to get to work without a car. His choices are limited to a 1 1/4 hour bus trip, 1 1/4 hour train trip or 1 1/4 bike ride. No fast option.
Anyway, after picking up the kids from soccer, we asked if they were tired, (apparently they were not) and gave them the choice of going to Muriwai beach, or mountain biking at Woodhill Forest. They opted for the mountain biking option. We chose the beginners trail, which was only 6km long. It took us 48 minutes, (actual riding time) and by the end Lauren was pretty much shattered. They all enjoyed it a lot, and are keen to make it a regular activity. This is probably going to happen, as on Friday night (with Rebekah and Jeremy Opie visiting) I committed to joining Rebekah and Katie (Jeremy's cousin) as the third member of their team for the Day-Night Thriller . This should be lots of fun, and a good incentive for me to get a bit fitter.
After the fantastic effort put in by all three kids, we came home to have dinner of chilli (meat and vegetarian options) with wraps, salad and corn chips. Having had that many times before, it was clear the new recipe would need to be dessert. Yum.
Last night we were watching Iron Chef America (a slightly over dramatic cooking show, but it still fun to watch) on the Food Channel. One of the dishes put forward by the winning chef consisted of bruleed figs, with mascarpone cheese and sweet biscuits. This looked really good (except the figs which we have tried once and were not inspired by) and the chef mentioned that the dish would be just as good done with almost any kind of fruit. I decided to try this with Tamarillos, there is not really a huge variety of fruit in season at the moment, and the supermarket in Waimauku is fairly limited in it's range.
Dish of the week
Bruleed Tamarillos with Vanilla Mascarpone and Sponge Finger Biscuits. The mascarpone (thinned slightly with milk and flavoured with vanilla) had a sweet balsamic drizzle, however the flavour of the balsamic was overtaken a bit by the Tamarillos. The sugar caramelised on the fruit worked okay, but the Tamarillos were quite juicy, so the crust of toffee was not as obvious as it would have been on something like peach or nectarine. The sponge finger biscuits were good- really nice and crispy and a great contrast to the creamy mascarpone and tangy fruit.
The verdict- very tasty, but would be even nicer with peach or nectarine. Oh well, summer is only 6 months away.
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