This weekend I'm grateful for.... freebies and almost freebies

This week's Maxabella-inspired Grateful Post comes after a week in which my wallet was left a bit plumper than usual. So I'm grateful for:

- freebies: the postman came knocking twice this week, leaving a frequent shopper reward bottle of wine and a lucky winning of three recipe books (thank you Expatriate Chef, for whom the postage to Australia wasn't so free). Both are good things to have in the house once the kiddos are in bed.

- almost-freebies: it was the week that I rediscovered my old student hangout, Thresherman's Bakehouse in Carlton. A $5 slice of quiche was massive enough to feed two hungry boys, and $7 gave me a loaf of bread, four Turkish rolls and four mini-quiches for the freezer from the baked-today bargain table. Then, this morning we happened across a "megagarage" sale, and for the princely sum of $7.10, walked away with two "never hung" Maisy prints, a Captain Feathersword outfit and a My Little Pony coveted by Big Bro, who has already had his 10c-worth brushing out its Rapunzelesque mane.

Image from http://www.ahajokes.com/

This weekend I am grateful for... a beach holiday

Another Maxabella-inspired grateful post, and this week I've been grateful for the chance to have a few days with B and the boys on the Mornington Penninsula. Good weather, child-friendly beaches, pick-your-own cherries and strawberries, a few mazes to solve, dolphins to swim by the Queenscliff ferry, some great places to eat and eat (and when all else fails, it's hard to go wrong with the occasional fish and chips), a back yard with a play structure, and those wonderful people at information offices and taking the tour of Cape Shanck Lighthouse who are genuinely enthusiastic about answering questions they probably face fourteen times a day: yes, I'm grateful!

And refreshed!

And very overdue with APrADa posts!! It's still happening!!

The construction and rocket birthday

November's birthday festivities peaked last Saturday with The Party. 24 kiddies plus associates, in a local park. Not too hard... until the weather set in.

On the bright side, it was a pretty clear decision to relocate the party to our house. It was loud, but everyone stayed happy and ate lots. What more could I ask for?

In the planning side of things, I realise that I made the mistake of heading for a double-theme. Big Bro wanted a rocket cake (and so did I after seeing one with "blast off" sparklers in Donna Hay), whereas for Little Bro, a construction-site cake seemed the most appropriate. It was a bit messy, but these were the centrepieces.

A bit hard to see here, but the candles on the construction cake were these witches hat/construction cone candles from It's All About Kids. They sneakily pointed out to me that they had construction-theme section, where I picked up a few hanging decorations, and bought a bit of yellow cardboard to make some "warning" signs (and forgot to take photos. Just think of the pictograms for "balloons ahead" and "party hat zone".) Didn't go as far as to get yellow and black balloons.

Rockets lend themselves a bit more to themed food, so out came the Biskart star cutters and the star-shaped foil containers from Aldi ages ago. Add jelly or mango pudding (made with agar agar for the vegetarian guests) and there are plenty of stars to go around.

The best moment of the day was of course singing happy birthday to my two little fellows- their official graduation into their next year, and the best thing about the day was that lovely sense of "I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful friends". (Oops, I missed my Grateful post this week...)

The funniest moment was busting Big Bro and two little friends tipping out the party bags. It was too cute, and too much a sense of disaster-averted, given they were only onto bag number 4, to be cross.

I'm still catching up on a bit of sleep from a week of late nights cooking, but all in all we had fun. More importantly, I'll do it again next year!

This weekend I'm grateful for... just about everything

Cartoon by Nicholson, originally published in The Australian: www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au.

For this weekend's Maxabella-inspired Grateful Post, I had started building a list early in the week. Then on Thursday and my list was blown apart by a seminar by Professor Jonathan Carapetis from the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin. He presented a lot of facts to describe the challenges faced by Indigenous Australians, especially those living in remote communities in the Northern Territory. In some ways I knew the rough gist of the facts, but to have them presented in a clear, single package in a format I understood, and without obvious political undertones, was sobering.

Completely sobering, and depressing. Especially because the problems are so big that it's hard to see many immediate fixes.

To think about how being a mother with two small children in suburban Melbourne differs from being a mother in a remote Northern Territory community makes me extremely grateful for just about everything. And I suspect that anyone with the means to be reading blogs can feel the same. Not preaching, just suggesting...

I was most affected by one of the first pictures- small children, like my kids, joyfully playing in water in a remote Northern Territory community. All very nice, until we realised that the water was an open sewer. And the hard facts weren't any easier to take.

I've had trouble finding a single source for all the facts I remember from the seminar, so I'm just going to repeat what I remember- with an apology if there are glaring inaccuracies- and refer you to the ABC Indigenous Health site and the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet for more information.

How can I be anything but grateful for what I have when there are Indigenous families facing:

- a child death rate TWICE that of non-Indigenous children (and not much better than adults). And a sobering fact that in any Australian population, the less education a mother has had, the higher her children's risk of dying. Completely scary fact.

- overcrowded housing where in some communities the average number of people sleeping in a two bedroom house each night is SEVENTEEN.

- diseases like rheumatic fever and parasitic infections which have been eliminated from non-Indigenous populations.

- a substantial proportion of babies being born to already-malnourished teenagers, resulting in long-term health problems for both the mothers and the babies.

- the standard growth curve for children in remote communities being fairly normal growth to around 6 months, and then weight gain in the average child STALLS until around one year, presumably because of the inavailability of appropriate infant food. Forget about worrying about when to introduce wheat or dairy, or whether you're feeding your kids organic or not- it'd be insignificant if you had to decide whether you have any food suitable for your baby.

What can be done? Good question- Closing the Gap is a start, but the message I got from Prof Carapetis was that there is no doubt that even more money is needed (even though we are already spending huge amounts of money), and this money needs be spent in carefully considered and monitored ways to ensure the most benefit per buck rather than political gain per buck. More than that, it's too easy for all of us in the comfortable suburban blog-belt (and our neighbours) to forget what's happening in other parts of our country, making it easy for the inequities to persist.

Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes

If I were a good blogger I'd do NaBloPoMo and post every day in November, but two Novembers in and I've fallen into the same black hole both times where life catches up with me and sucks out my blogging impetus. It's birthday parties, it's Christmas, it's the garden picking up speed, last year it was our Swedish trip, this year it is the whole career change bizzo. November just doesn't leave much room in my head.

So excuse me if I do the occasional (or more) cheaty post, which tonight is just showing you something I bought, not even looking any better than when I opened the box.

Cookie Cutters from Bisk-Art.

Cross-cultural anecdotes #1: Anglo-Indian Breakfast

A soft boiled egg and last night's garlic naan (cooked on the barbecue, no less).

Cut the naan into fingers and dunk.

I had added some salt to the butter-garlic topping for the naan, and it blended perfectly with the egg.

And yes, we have an egg cup shortage (and yes, Christmas is coming, hint hint)

Bean round the full circle

Just as Chez Ilipilli have finished their broadbean harvest, ours has started. Over a month after last year's, I note- why? Did I plant later? Maybe; must get better at keeping records... Because the weather has been cooler- definitely a possibility. Because I planted different varieties- perhaps: last year was Coles Dwarf and Early Long Pod. This year was Coles Dwarf and Aquadulce*, thus removing the "early" element, and so far just the Coles Dwarf have produced. Looking around the plot, there are plants at all stages from flowering through to harvest-ready:

First harvest: 350g total weight, 100g of edible beans. (About the same as last year's first harvest)

Like last year, I can't think of a better recipe to start the season than Consuming Passions' Bean Feast (recipe here). The first taste was sublime :) Hello spring!

*there's a prize for anyone who remembered that last year I considered getting crimson flowering broad beans this year. They turned out to be way more expensive than Aquadulce, so I stuck with frugal white. Maybe next year...

Oat cuisine: how much would you pay for muesli?

Not long ago, a friend posted on Facebook that she had just spent $90 buying 3kg of muesli (granola) online. I was more than a bit stunned- why did she need to buy muesli online when there are heaps of mueslis on the shelves at the supermarket? And what did they put in $30-a-kilo muesli that wasn't in my apparently adequate under-$5-a-kilo muesli from Aldi?

After a quick Google, I discovered that in Australia there are almost as many muesli varieties available online as there are on a given supermarket's shelves. There are even companies that make custom muesli mixes to order (eg here, here and here...). Evidently many Australians take their breakfast seriously!

It got me thinking- what makes muesli taste good? And more importantly, does muesli become better the more you spend on it? And so my Great Muesli Taste Test evolved.

A few tentative enquiries to friends and cousins revealed that I could assemble a crew of curious tasters (Thanks!). A trip to the supermarket got me a range of mueslis that all fitted the "natural muesli" description, and a few enquiries brought me three donations of gourmet muesli (This Growing Life's budget doesn't stretch to minimum-spend-$75 purchases!) And an evening in front of Four Corners game me time to de-identify my ten candidates into ziplock bags.

The tasters were asked to give each muesli a rating from a standardised scale where, for example, 0= "This was so bad I couldn't eat it" , 4="I didn't really like this muesli but I would buy it if the price were right", 9="this muesli is great and I would definitely buy it", etc. They were also asked to specify anything they particularly liked or disliked about the mueslis. The tasters ranked their anonymous muesli samples, and the results between tasters were surprisingly consistent.

Budget mueslis: Under $2/500g

Coles Smart Buy Muesli- this no-name, no-fuss muesli with sultanas, dried pineapple and banana chips didn't do much to arouse the tasters. One commented that it was surprisingly fruity for something that looked grey, while the "evil banana" sealed its fate for two of the five tasters. Average score 5.2.

Golden Vale (Aldi) Fruit and Nut Muesli- this is my every day muesli, but the tasters found it bland, boring, and were unconvinced by its "tropical theme". Average score 4.2.

Low cost mueslis: $2-3/500g

The Muesli Company Premium Muesli- the consensus on this muesli was summed up in the comment "lots of fruit and seeds- a nicely balanced blend". Its average score 6.8 belies its popularity, and it would have scored 7.75 (and been outright winner) if we ignore the date-hating taster's big thumbs down to its sliced dates.

Lowan Swiss Muesli- this was described as a "good basic muesli", though some objected that it was too sweet or had a strange taste. Average score 6.

Mid-range mueslis All $4.99/500g

Carman's Natural Bircher Muesli- Carman's is a brand that seems to get a lot of word of mouth promotion- I was put onto it by several enthusiasts. The tasters all enjoyed its cinnamonny flavours- a trademark Carman's aroma- though there were comments that it was too rich for every day and a bit goopy in the mouth from all its sesame seeds (denture-wearers beware!). With an average score of 7.5, it was equal most popular.

Just Organic (Aldi) Cranberry and Almond Muesli- this muesli uses finer oats than most of the others, and also stands out with a large volume of puffed wheat. The tasters' consensus was that while there was a large volume of additives, they were very limited in variety. Average score 5.8.

Specially Selected (Aldi) Continental Natural Muesli- the third competitor from the Aldi stables was the most popular with "heaps of fruit, nuts and seeds", and was only criticised for containing whole almonds ("a bit of a mouthful") and too much banana for a banana-hater. Average score 7.5.

"Premium mueslis" $10-11/500g

Whisk and Pin Leura Natural Muesli- this was easily the most visually appealing muesli, with a range of oversized chunks of dried fruit and nuts, including mango slices, whole wild figs, dried oranges and cashews. However, these impressive elements were also this muesli's downfall, with it being declared a mouthful, tough and too chewy. Our tasters were certainly keeping breakfast time practicalities in mind, and with an average score of 4.2, Whisk and Pin's muesli was the shock loser of the night (equal with Golden Vale).

Willow and Stick Natural Muesli- this gourmet muesli was repeatedly praised for its fruit and nut mix, and cinnamon flavour, though there were less favourable comments related to its fruit being a mouthful and it being a bit rich. Still, with an average score of 7.2, it was joint runner up in the popularity stakes.

Brookfarm Natural Macadamia Muesli- our tasters liked the macadamias and cranberries, but criticised this muesli for being soft, flaky, sweet and rich. With an average score of 7.2, it was a close second-favourite.

Putting this information graphically to show the spread of scores for each sample:

The budget mueslis were the worst performing category, but mueslis from the other price ranges fared equivalently. The two most popular mueslis overall were the mid-range Carman's and Specially Selected, ranking just ahead of Willow and Stick and Brookfarm, all of which received universally positive rankings. Interestingly, though, Carman's and Brookfarm both received comments along the lines of "nice, but too rich for every day". The rest of the mueslis had their scores split between the "like and dislike".

The surprising dropout of the day was the premium muesli from Whisk and Pin. It was certainly the best looking product, with large chunks of dried mango, whole dried figs and wedges of dried orange. But these impressive inclusions were Whisk and Pin's downfall, with the consensus being that it was too hard to eat.

So what do I conclude about muesli?

Firstly, if our results are anything to go by, while budget (<$2/500g) mueslis skimp on taste, above this price range there is little to be gained in the pure taste by paying more. The two mueslis topping the overall scores were from the mid-range Carman's and Specially Selected, scraping ahead of two of the three premium mueslis, Willow and Stick and Brookfarm.

Of course, average scores don't show whether a muesli was liked by all but one of the tasters (as was the case for The Muesli Company's Premium Muesli). The highest individual score of 9, meaning "this muesli is great and I would definitely buy it" was awarded by two different testers, to two mueslis- Willow and Stick Natural Muesli and The Muesli Company's Premium Muesli.

Of course, our results also don't say anything about the value of factors other than taste, like organic ingredients or appearance. But at the end of the day, I don't feel inclined to rush out to shop online for gourmet muesli. The mix-your-own mueslis sound like a fun gift, and I may yet venture into the mid-range priced mueslis, but that will do me.

What about you? What is your favourite muesli, and would you shell out online for breakfast?

Declaration: mueslis from Whisk and Pin, Willow and Stick and Brookfarm were generously donated by the companies on request.

The mango ad that heralded hope for our species?

I catch the train several times a week, and as I gaze out the window I am often struck by the near-universal junk food theme in station advertising for food. Chocolate, pies, chips, caffeinated drinks of various persuasion and a bit more chocolate- it's easy to know what the advertisers want people to feel like eating when they get to their destination.

So I was impressed today when I spotted this bright sign in a prominent location at Jolimont:

I love it: it tells you that a good mango is something special, and worth waiting for the season. And now that it's mango season, there are plenty to go around. Let's all go to Woolies Safeway and eat mangoes.

The highs and lows of a vegie patch

It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny weekend- well, gorgeous if you were human, not so gorgeous if you were one of three tomato seedling that had been potted out on Friday and neglected.

I felt a bit bummed to see their withered corpses when we got home on Sunday evening. Even more bummed when I found Minnesota Melon #2 with a broken neck and bite marks within 24 hours of being potted out. Bummed enough to not take any photos- that's bummed! Melon #1 had withered unexpectedly when I had potted it up, so I was feeling pretty down about my prospects of getting a melon this year -continuing my failures from previous years.

More generally I was wondering why I bother trying to grow vegies from seed when I could just roll down to Bunnings and pick up some fruiting beefsteak tomato plant

Then yesterday I pulled up two thumb-size carrots and picked three pods of peas.Not much at all, so I popped them in a bowl for my no-raw-vegetable boys to eat stare at. Little Bro sampled a pea and a carrot, and rejected them as usual. But Big Bro declared the peas delicious and snaffled them up.

Then, wonder of wonders, one long carrot became this:

And suddenly I remembered why I have a vegie patch.

The Not-Quite-Fridge Chronicles

Maxabella, Queen of Linkies (by my estimation), has been running The Fridge Chronicles for several months, which I excused myself from on the basis that we have a non-magnetic and therefore barren fridge door. I have been granted an exemption from the letter of the linky law, so I'll show a couple of pictures of what might be on my fridge if it were stickable... the fact that I don't blutac anything onto it probably suggests I'm not a fridge door type personality... and besides, the kitchen cupboards have way more surface area for covering...

Most of what we post is kiddie art work. I put up my favourites of the reams that come home from kindy (do us parents reduce their recycling costs?)

First up, "My weekend" and Untitled, both by Big Bro, and which I liked in a Picasso-esque way. They demonstrate two stages of Big Bro's artistic evolution: Untitled is his abstract style, which explores the textures and melding of the media (ie, he evidently spends a lot of time testing of mixing colours and different ways to colour, as well as creating abstract masterpieces like "Blue Pencil Line on Recycled White Invoice Sheet"). "My weekend" is a response to the demands of institutionalization for normalcy and representative art (ie, when I complimented him on the people in the middle, Big Bro replied "the teacher told me I had to to draw pictures, not scribble any more". Fair call, I thought.)

Next, a bit of ancient and modern: the top are Big Bro's pre-2 art, while the bottom was fairly recent. I thought it was a digger and a truck, but apparently the purple is a rainbow, yellow is rain, the green is a house and the blue is water running off the roof into a rainwater tank. Atta boy!

A bit more art, in a picture of Dada- glasses and all, drawn in one line by my experimental artist (he needs an etcha-sketch?), plus the most exciting things we get in our letter box- the occasional post card, in this case all from my mum. Big Bro still doesn't understand the postal system, and wonders why she dropped them off without saying hi.

Then there are recipes around the place. Ilipilli's sourdough bread is on a postit elsewhere for quick reference, while this caramel slice recipe from the side of the condensed milk tin was intended for a guest who hasn't yet come back... And the (few) birthday invitations Big Bro receives take months to remove. I only removed last year's version of this invitation a couple of weeks ago.... did I mention this will probably be my only Fridge Chronicles, as things won't change for ages?

Finally, odd little notes and aide-memoires, again without expiry dates. This book recommendation- Cinnamon Gardens- is from a Sri-Lankan-Canadian visitor in early 2009. I have actually bought it for B's parents who didn't say whether it was any good so I suspect it wasn't... (hmm, must read it myself?) Evidently the stick of the postit ran out so rather than discard such a vital piece of paper, for some reason I used extra sticking. Y- why- indeed?

I think by this point you're seeing why a non-magnetised fridge is a good thing for clutterbugs like us?

10 things I love to do in the garden with my children

Little Garden Helpers issued an open invitation to post about 10 things I love to do with my children in the garden:

1.Run, jump, roll and everything else you can do on a lawn. People might call it "green cancer", but by watering it with bath water it's not using too much water and it's worth the effort of mowing when we have a space to play.

2. Discover hideyholes. I love the idea of secret gardens, walled gardens and sunken gardens- that idea of your own secluded space to commune with nature. Growing up in a fairly free-range manner I would find spaces under bushes or up trees to hide. My boys live in a much more constrained garden complete with fences and gates. We don't have a permanent cubby house, but instead occasionally put up our beach tent (which has been used more in the garden than at the beach). Better still, I hope the boys can find their own spaces; at the moment they are enjoying crawling in and out of the Westringea hedge.

3. Planting out seedlings and seeds. Currently not the easiest activity, given Little Bro's quest for dominance in the shovel department, but we manage and I still enjoy being part of this cycle of plant life.

4. Pick fresh food. One day the boys might even eat a leaf...

5. Talk about how plants "work": the leaves breath and make food, the roots drink water and eat dirt, etc. Big Bro is fascinated by plants' favourite food being animal poop.

6. Find critters. Worms and earwigs seem to be appearing in droves. Yay for the former, boo for the latter; at least someone enjoys seeing them.

7. Watch birds. Even though most of the birds visiting our garden are mundane introduced species like Indian mynahs and blackbirds, there's something exciting about seeing them. The boys go quiet and stare; the awe in which we watch reminds me of D.H. Lawrence's "A snake came to my water trough..." poem, except we try not to scare the birds away. Once the boys are bigger, we'll take a torch out on summer nights and spotlight the ringtail possums that run along the fence and the flying foxes that plunder the fig tree.

8. Dig, dig, dig, and better still, find buried treasures from bygone eras. Well, I like the treasures best; I think the boys just like to dig...

9. Put a flower in my hair. The boys think this is hilarious; I find it quite charming that they will bring me flowers to wear.

10. Eat outside. Barbecue. The weather has warmed up in the last week and the temperatures have crossed my threshold for outdoor dining. We're lucky enough to have a covered deck meaning that you can enjoy the outdoors without the full blast of the elements. With Little Bro being an enthusiastically independent, and thus messy eater, I can't deny enjoying the easy cleanup outside via the hose. And the same goes for the barbecue- carbonizing the hotplate is much more relaxing than scrubbing pans. And there's also Famous Five motto, "food always tastes so much better outside".

What are your 10 favourite things to do in the garden?

This is part of the November AMB Blog Carnival.

Root Crops

The radishes were ready to be pulled, but the carrots have a while to go... but thinly sliced they make a crunchy topping for a salad.

Technicolour salad

Pretty, isn't it? This was adapted (downsized) from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion.

Orange, Mint and Radish Salad

1-2 oranges

4 radishes, grated and squeezed to remove moisture (about 1/2 cup grated)

1 tbs (or so...) mint leaves

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp lemon juice (optional)

salt, to taste

1 tsp chilli powder (optional, or to taste)

Cut the peel from the orange, then use a knife to cut the flesh out of each segment, leaving the membranous skeleton behind. Reserve any juice. Arrange the orange segments on a plate, scatter over the radish and mint. Whisk the olive oil with about 2 tbs orange juice, adding lemon juice, salt and chilli powder to taste, and pour over the salad.

Homemade Baked Beans

I've had dried beans from last summer sitting around the kitchen ever since. They were a mix of brown epicure runner beans, white bush beans and black and pink scarlet runner beans. I had initially planned to use them for next summer's crop, but was concerned about whether the bush and runner beans had cross-pollinated, meaning that I might get bushes where I wanted vines and vice versa. Besides, I still have plenty of the original seeds left, so I decided the dried bean harvest could be considered edible, supplemented by some less-local ones.

Baked beans were my recipe of choice. If you cringe at that thought, wait a minute: homemade baked beans are on a planet far removed from Mr Heinz (and friends') best tinned beans. The best recipe I've found so far is adapted from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion.

Baked Beans

375g dried beans, soaked overnight
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, diced
50g ham hock meat (I had some in the freezer) or 2 rashers thick, streaky bacon (or pancetta), chopped
3 red or green capsicums, chopped
1 400g can chopped tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1 sprig thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tsp dried mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons maple syrup, treacle, golden syrup or honey


Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

Rinse soaked beans, then put into saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then strain & rinse with cold water.

Heat oil in a large casserole and saute onion, garlic, carrot and meat.

After 5 minutes, when onion has softened and meat is sizzling, add capsicums. Add tomatoes to casserole with beans remaining ingredients, except maple syrup. Mix well. Add sufficient cold water to cover beans by 4 cm. Transfer casserole, tightly sealed, into oven and bake for at least 4 hours. Stir well after 2 hours, checking that it is still reasonably sloppy ( if too dry, add a little water and reduce oven temp). After 4 hours, stir in maple syrup, extra salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. The beans should now be in a rich sauce. If too thick, add a little water; if too runny and the beans are tender, increase oven temp and continue to cook.

Delicious served with toast and cheese on a cold night.

Democracy for Dinner

We took the boys to the local primary school to vote today. I had prepared Big Bro (partly as it's likely he'll go to that school in a couple of years) but every time we discussed going to the school to vote he wondered "is there water? Where is the boat taking us?" He also found the concept of voting a bit abstract. The best I could do was offer that we were saying who we liked best (how do you explain government to a three year old?) The post-vote sausage seemed much more easily understood!

After a day of questions I proposed we have our own election, to decide on tomorrow's dinner. Four ballot papers were quickly printed and the not-so-secret ballot was taken.

Returns Officer Big Bro and scrutineer Mama agreed on the vote: Pasta-3, Salad-1, Rice-0. Pasta wins on first preferences.

Human Power: solution to a bike repair saga.

Big Bro's balance bike popped out one of its bolts on the street a few weeks ago, and I couldn't find it. I must say I didn't look that hard: when it wasn't immediately obvious I thought "it's a bolt, I'll just get another at Bunnings next time I'm there". Even easier, it was one of a pair so I knew exactly what I was looking for.

Well..... so I thought. First stop Bunnings. There I discovered that this was one of the rare hardware items Bunnings does not stock. The guy was pretty helpful, however, referring me on to a specialist bolt shop up near LaTrobe University. Well, it would have been helpful advice if the shop stocked the bolts. I did however learn that I was looking for a "bed bolt" (it screws flat against the bike so there are no projections for knees to bump). And I was sent on to a furniture store. Still no luck.

At this point the ever-logical B asked "why don't you just go to the bike shop where you got the bike from?" The bike was from ALDI, who don't even answer their phone let alone send off for spare parts, but the idea of a bike shop seemed good. Certainly better than trawling homemaker centres!

We tried a couple of bike shops in our area which didn't stock anything similar. One guy lectured me about how bad balance bikes are and how Big Bro should be riding a scooter for balance and a pedal bike with training wheels for learning how to pedal (actually, he can already pedal on a tricycle). A sales pitch wasn't what I was looking for, just a bolt, so I moved on.

Not long after, we were at CERES and for the first time I realised they run a bike repair shop, The Bike Shed. I pulled the bolt out of my handbag and asked them what they had, and- free of charge- they dug up something of the right diameter and length. Unfortunately, when we got home and tried it for size it wasn't quite right. Push on.

Then I remembered something about a bike shop in Thornbury mentioned on The Bourgeoi-Vieve, which is very pro-balance bike (so I figured they'd only hang out in balance-friendly territory!) so our next stop was Human Powered Cycles.

Seeing their slogan: "if you can ride it we can fix it", I knew I was at the right place. Fix an ALDI bike? No problem. And the boys were even allowed in the workshop to watch. Of course this was hard work, so our next stop was the adjoining Human Powered Cafe where the boys got their usual babycino (with a real grated chocolate dusting, very swish), I had a pleasant mocha, and we shared a yummy toasted cheese and vegemite foccacia.

And the end result:

Mission accomplished!

Big Cook, Little Cook

We changed our Foxtel plan a few weeks ago, which gave us period of access to channels we hadn't seen before- including CBeebies, the BBC kids' channel. The boys don't watch a lot of TV, but for Big Bro the novelty of new programs has taken over what was his iPad time. His favourite has been Big Cook, Little Cook, a series in which two cooks (Big and Little by the magic of television) cook appropriate dishes for the characters who come through their cafe- a zucchini plane for a pilot, a traffic light sandwich for a police officer, and a hairy spaghetti for Rapunzel. BBC seem to have been keeping close hold of their copyright, so most of what appears on YouTube isn't a good representation of the real show, but here is Big Bro's favourite part (usually minus the signing!):

We've cooked a couple of the recipes, or variants- they're not too bad in the nutrition stakes, with plenty of vegetables appearing. And each episode features a "how is it made?" segment where the preparation of one ingredient is shown- in one case inspiring our alfalfa growing. Yes, it's television, so I won't get too excited about its virtues, but as far as TV goes, Big Cook, Little Cook is definitely at the better end of the spectrum.

Salad Season

It's not really been salad weather- maxima of 12-15 degrees most days and rainy periods (not that I'm complaining!) are soup and casserole weather in my book. But it's perfect salad-growing weather- my lettuce always bolts at the merest hint of summer! Here are a couple of versions I remembered to photograph:

Lettuce, radish, grated beetroot

Lettuce and alfalfa

All homegrown!

Vue de Monde takeaway breakfast

B and I enjoyed a rare child-free lunch by visiting one of Melbourne's top restaurants, Vue de Monde. The meal was amazing, but one memorable element were small brown paper bags presented to us at the door as we left, with the comment "here is your breakfast" (probably makes a little more sense when you have finished dinner rather than lunch!)

Inside each bag were a mini loaf of brioche, two eggs (Green Eggs, a brand name, not their colour), a bag of herbal tea and two cookies, plus instructions for making scrambled eggs on brioche toast, and French toast. Given that, according to the Vue de Monde website, their philosophy is "to provide a dining experience that cannot be created at home", I thought it was a nice way of them saying "you can make good food at home too". We cooked both recipes for dinner with the boys (we weren't especially hungry!!), and it was really good. A great way to end a special dining day.

For the record, the recipes were:

(nothing especially difficult)

Vue de Monde Scrambled Eggs on Brioche

Slice the brioche into [1.5cm thick] slices

Toast until golden

Crack the Green Eggs into a saucepan over medium heat with some butter and stir with a wooden spoon until thick (please don't overcook!)

Remove from heat

Season with salt and chopped chives

Place the eggs on top of the brioche

Serve with caviar or smoked salmon

Vue de Monde French Toast

Combine green eggs with 125mL milk, 60mL creme anglaise or cream, a teaspoon of sugar, a pinch of nutmeg and a pinch of cinnamon.

Slice brioche into [1.5cm thick] slices

Coat each slice in egg mix

Heat a pan over medium heat

Add a knob of butter

Gently cook the brioche slices on each side until golden brown

Serve with maple syrup.