Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone. This is the second ever pumpkin that I have carved. Last year I went for cute, this year I went for evil. Hence the John Howard eye brows. Hope you have a great halloween everyone!

Skelebones Ghost Tour Adventure

Righto, made up a second Skelebones for a birthday. She loved him. So much so that for her birthday celebrations we did a birthday tour and brought Skelebones (his new name) with us. Above we are all chillin' before the tour. Myself (in silver), our ghoulish tour guide, birthday girl-holding the slightly scared Skelebones and finally our never speaking door man. It was a great night with a beautiful meal and drinks at the Yongala Lodge. Skelebones needed some liquid courage. We continued through to the upstair section of the restaurant where 2 or more spirits were supposed to be. Armed with EMF detectors (mine kept going off randomly and it seemed to freak a few of our new found buddies out) we checked out the rooms. Heard the back story of how the Yongala was built and stories of sightings on the verandas and in the rooms. We were also warned not to be last down the stairs or we may get a little help...guess who went last down the stairs. No I can not explain it, yes I did get a little help. Creeped me out.



Next, we were off to the West End Cemetery and heard the many stories of sightings from the little girl called Alice to the lady with the black cat. From their we went to the old convent in a building where the current tenant lives out of only one downstairs room. The rest of the old massive 2 storey house he refuses to go in. As we travelled upstairs we found all the bits a pieces that people have left behind over the past 40 years. Clothes, furniture, toys and even companies paperwork. You can see Skelebones sitting in the old 'prayer room' and holding the EMF on the green chair where a nun apparently sits.





To finish off the tour we went to the old morgue and hospital sights which was creepy. But heard the stories my aunties used to tell me from when they worked on both sights. When I was a kid I thought they were making it up. But, pretty much the tour guide said the exact same thing they did. It was a fun night overall and Skelebones enjoyed his adventure.

Slow Cooker Satay Chicken

Finally found a 'Peanut Satay Chicken' Recipe that I can do an tastes amazing. For those who don't know, I LOVE my slow cooker. Chuck food in, mix it around and a few hours later amazing yumminess. This is the first time I have done this recipe and I love it, even Scott has asked that I make it again this week. So here is my new discovery.

Satay Chicken
Serves: 4-6
Cook Time: 3 hours


Ingredients
- 1 kg of chicken breast or thigh
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 heaped tbsp smooth peanut butter
- 5 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 tbsp tomato sauce (ketchup)- 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
- 3/4 cup of coconut milk
- 3 tsp cornflour (optional)
- steamed rice and seasonal vegetables to serve *

Method
1. Remove any fat from chicken and cut into strips. Peel and crush garlic. Place in slow cooker with the peanut butter, soy suce, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, sweet chilli sauce and coconut milk. Stir and combine.

2. Place lid on slow cooker and cook for 3 hours on High.

3. If necessary, mix cornflour with about 2 tbsp of cold water until paste like. Stir through mixture to thicken sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. Serve with steamed rice and seasonal vegetables.

*1 hour before serving I added celery, carrot, zucchini and shallots to mixture to let the veggies cook in the sauce. They tasted great.

If you do try this tell me how it goes. I have it all packaged up ready for lunch tomorrow at work :) Happy cooking all.

P.S. Sorry there is no picture of what it looks like. It is just after smelling that for 3 hours I was STARVING

Sneak Peak

Working on a few crating projects for swaps at the moment. The bird sewing project should be a lovely afternoon of hand sewing. The other will take a little longer and be a little more fiddly. But, it is still exciting to be crafting again. Here is a sneak peek at what the projects looks like.

YYYIIIPPPPPPEEEEE!

My Swapbot products arrived today. Rachel has kindly sent a package to people who donated to her charity run. It was so exciting to see all these cute little buttons, stickers and pc's. I managed to squeeze all the buttons onto my work bag :) I love Ernie the Envelope, he is SOOOO cute. Anyways, here are the PC's I am getting ready to trade. All so exciting! Just had to share.

Spooktacular!

So I have finally finished one of the crafting projects I have been working on in the past 3 weeks. This little guy is for a friends birthday. She is very much into Halloween and Skeletons. I got the pattern from Dolls and Daydreams Etsy Store. I love her patterns and ideas. I just need to get used to working on them. So many choices so little time.

This weekend may be heading on a ghost tour of my local town. Kinda freaky so will take some pics and let you know how it went. I scare easy so I am sure I will have a great time. Until then...BOO!

Newbie Friendly Recipe Swap

Hello blogging world and readers. I have just put up a new simple swap for recipe lovers who are both old hats at swapping and to help those new and up coming swappers. It is called the,'Newbie Friendly Super Secret Recipe Swap' because we all have to start somewhere. So if you have wanted to start swapping or enter the swapbot world I talk about come and have a go. You must have a fully filled out profile (a little bit about you, what you like, dislike, what you would like to receive). Just click on my name (the host) to see what I have done. Remember the more detail you give, the more likely you will receive something you like. Come join the fun!

Backyard Vistors

A few of our birdie friends that swing by each day. In order, Bower Bird, Lorikeets, Cockatoo, Pale Faced Rosellas. They are great fun to watch and with our nectar eaters product we are hoping to attract a wider variety.

Pft Summer is here...Banana prices are finally dropping...SMOOTHIE TIME

Okay, short version of the story. Banana crops in Far North QLD were wiped out by Cyclone Yasi which has caused the prices to sky rocket. However, the first crops of the newly planted trees are being put onto supermarket shelves which means price reduction.

So to celebrate my favourite fruit being affordable again and the oppresive heat rolling in as summer kicks in I am making Banana Smoothies in class tomorrow! We are doing a healthy snack unit and this is the example I am showing the children. Plus, I get to finish off my school day with a yummy smoothie. What more could a teacher want. Here is the recipe I use.

Banana Smoothie
Preparation Time: 3 mins

Ingredients
2 cups skim milk
2 banana’s roughly chopped
½ cup natural yogurt
1 tablespoon honey
½ tablespoon cinnamon
Ice cubes

Method
1. Place all ingredients in the blender.
2. Blend until smooth
3. Serve in 2 tall glasses.

Busy Dust bunny Filled Weekend

Congrats to Manly Sea Eagles for taking out the NRL 2011 Grand Finals. I felt bad for the Warriors because they had so much more flair. But, Sea Eagles stayed constant and had some brilliant ball handling skills and bone crunching tackles.

On to my weekend here at home, it has been random. I have been working hard on a new softie for a friend and am almost done. It has been fiddly for me and because I am working with new materials challenging. I am proud of the work so far and hopefully can post completed pics tomorrow or the next day. I have also managed to get hold of some small Christmas Cross Stitch kits (on sale) to make up for my Grandma and my own Christmas Tree decorations. In terms of cooking I have been lazy just my stock standard food and even a few sandwich nights this week. Weather has also turned to the soul destroying heat so motivation to stand near an oven or stove has evaporated. Break out the salads :)

My biggest accomplishment was starting to re order and sort through ALL my stuff in my home office. School stuff, fabric stuff, notecards, paper work EVERYTHING is in the process of being categorised and organised. I had to battle many dust bunnies and had my side kick bravely standing beside me. Sadly though Delenn decided dust bunnies were to be played with and ended up becoming a very grey kitty. So she needed a bath...here are the hilarious pics. I give you RAT CAT! She was soooooooo not happy with me.