Project Life: Week 20

It’s definitely time for an update.  The end of Term 2 is upon us and I’m so looking forward to having some time to re-charge the batteries and do some things on my ‘to do list’… including getting my art room sorted out!

Meanwhile, here is Week 20 - May 11th to May 17th

The week after school camp was filled with post camp activities, lots of talking about camp and viewing the hundreds of photos taken on cameras and ipads.  In my class we also painted the backgrounds for our Autumn poetry.  We were also the proud winners of ‘Class of the Week’ at school.  The kids were really proud of the trophy!

On the home front, Mike has taken it upon himself to master the art of making mango lassie’s.  We had one at an Indian restaurant during Easter weekend while Mum was staying with us and Mike kept mentioning how nice it was.  Several weeks later he was still going on about it so I suggested he have a go at making one.

Keep in mind that it was a ‘suggestion’ and not a ‘challenge’!  Mike quickly jumped onto Google to find out how to make a good mango lassie and he went ahead and bought fresh mango as well as canned mango, yoghurt, cream and milk.  He’s in his element experimenting with ratios and quantities… and meanwhile I get to be the taste tester… not a bad job at all in my opinion!

Meanwhile, I was doing a bit of Googling of my own and stumbled across a blog that I really enjoy… it’s full of great recipes and wonderful photography and the woman who writes the blog is down to earth. ‘Little Box Brownie’ is exactly the sort of blog you can spend hours reading and I might just have to keep an eye out for her book as well!

In my own kitchen I’ve been adding some more magnets to my collection by Suzy Toronto.  I love her uplifting quotes and the artwork is fabulous.  They really do brighten up the fridge!

The cold weather really hit this week and we had a few frosts.  I didn’t think there was any chance of the tomatoes to ripen so Mike and I got stuck in and picked them all before they got spoilt.  We ended up with several kilos of green tomatoes and thankfully Google provided me with a fantastic Green Tomato Chutney to try!

I’d never made this particular recipe before but it worked brilliantly… I followed it pretty strictly since it was my first attempt and the resulting chutney is extremely moreish! Just right to go with cheese and crackers… or on a ploughman's platter.

First thing on Saturday morning we went down to the local market.  We hadn’t been for ages due to hockey but this weekend we made a real effort to get there.  There was one man selling guavas… the little ones just like my grandmother and great grandmother used to grow. 

When I was a little girl I would pick as many as I could reach and then I’d have to rely on someone helping me get the ones that were up higher.  I absolutely adored them although it’s probably good that I only got to have them once a week.  Anyway back to the market… I spotted the guavas and bought a bag to share with Mike.  He tried one and wasn’t keen at all so I got to have the whole lot… lucky me!  One bite of the little fruit and I was instantly transported back to my childhood memories.

After going to the market I took Mike to Vetro.  He’d never been before and there were a few spices I wanted to get for my chutney.  While we were there they mentioned that a ‘salami tasting’ was due to start at 11am… exactly the sort of thing Mike likes!

Since we had to wait a little while we bought a little tub of chocolate gelato to share and my oh my was it good!!  The salami was also delicious and we bought a few home with us.

On Sunday we decided to go for a ride on the Harley.  I mentioned to Mike that I’d always wanted to go to the cheese factory at Waharoa and he was keen so off we went.  We had a wonderful ride over and did a couple of stops along the way. 

Every time I’ve gone past this cheese factory it’s either been closed or I’ve been on a time frame to get somewhere so I’ve never stopped but it really was worth it.  We shared a cheese platter and I was really impressed… great value for money!  I also loved the atmosphere! Here’s what it looks like inside (photos from the internet):

Of course we HAD to bring some cheese home with us!  As we headed home on the bike I was thinking about what a great life I have… it was definitely one of those ‘feel good’ days.

To end the weekend we joined in with Krystal, Chris and Julie (Chris’s sister) for pub quiz night.  We had an absolute blast!  There were lots of questions we just had to guess at but there was also quite a few we got right.  It was a wonderful way to finish the weekend!

I’m planning on getting myself all caught up during the term break so keep an eye out for the updates.