homemade goodies swapping

to thank the neighbours for their grapefruits, we decided to give them a jar of our homemade marmalade. 

we've never met these neighbours but we know they are an old couple and they've lived in the same house way before we moved into the street. 

i was a little bit worried to ring their door bell. what if they are old and nasty? what if they don't like to be disturbed? we brought boo with us for good measures. also to make us look friendlier. 

a man answered the door and when we offered him the marmalade, he invited us into the house to meet his wife. we chatted and got to know each other and they even offered us a cup of tea! i think the man's name Tom but both Jim and I can't remember his wife's name. they are both lovely. 

turns out his wife made orange marmalade the same afternoon. made from their homegrown orange of course and before we left, she offered me a jar. 

i thought marmalade making was fun but food swapping in suburbia? that's more fun. i can't believe we swapped our homemade goodies just like the old days. i wonder if food swapping would make a come back one day? 

bank holiday lunch date

it was bank holiday yesterday. Jim and i have both worked for the bank for more than five years now. it has always been just another public holiday for us until this year. 

i've been looking forward to bank holiday since the beginning of the year. unlike any other holiday, daycare stays open on bank holiday. 

Jim and i took the opportunity to have some time to ourselves and decided to have a lunch date (our third date since boo came into our lives) at Jamie's Italian. 

the food was reasonably priced. the pasta was freshly made on the premise and the ambience was quite nice. we ordered a plank each for entree. Jim had the cured meat plank and i had the vegetable plank. both antipasti platters were quite good although Jim prefers the cured meat at Movida in Melbourne. 

we both ordered pasta for our mains. the pastas came in two sizes. we thought the small would have been enough because we've had an entree each but the serving was actually quite small. they were both tasty but small.

to finish the meal, we ordered a tiramisu to share. the mascarpone to sponge ratio was quite good and it wasn't too heavy. 

we had such a great time enjoying each other's company. we talked about what life used to be before boo, where we are now and our future together. 

the in laws will be arriving in Sydney in September and they will be staying with us for awhile. we shall take advantage of them when they are here and have more lunch date and date night. maybe we could try Momofuku next time. 

today you are 20 months and 1 day

oops! i lost track of time and thought it's the fourth today! 

_ you are getting more and more independent. most evenings, you would happily play by yourself while i prepare dinner. sometimes you even sing to yourself as you play

_ you are getting good at putting two words together. this month, you started saying: 'mummy draw' when you want me to draw on the magnet drawing board, 'daddy fix' when you want daddy to fix the train tracks on your train table, 'cank (thank) cue (you) mummy', 'mummy do' when you want me to do something for you, 'mummy cut' when you want me to cut you an apple, 'nen nen (milk milk) time' when you want your last bottle before bedtime. our favourite is still 'nice choo' (shoes) when we put on your shoes for you in the morning

_ you are not particularly good at sharing even though you know how to say 'share'. you don't like it when Joby gets close to you toys and you often say to him: my car, my truck, my choo (shoes)

_ you love 'beach, beach, sandy beach' by the Wiggles'. some days we watch the video clip over and over again twenty times

_ you started sleeping through the night from 8pm to 6am more consistently which i am grateful for because i'm not sure how much longer i can function with 6 hours of broken sleep

_ you love wearing your hat. some days, you wear it all day at daycare

_ you are such a little cheeky monkey and i love you so much! 

Sunday 'jamming' - grapefruit marmalade

before i start turning these 'locally grown' grapefruit into delicious marmalade, i did some research for recipe ideas. 

there are hundreds and thousands of recipes out there. some suggests that you slice the whole grapefruit before boiling, some suggests boiling it whole - skin, pith and all before slicing it, some suggests peeling the skin and discarding the white pith and some suggests soaking the peels overnight etc. 

apparently, the more pith you leave on the grapefruit, the more bitter your marmalade would taste. after reading all the different recipes, i decided to use the same recipe as the cumquat marmalade i made last week except this time i peeled the skin of the grapefruit and cut them into strips. i also cut away the thick white pith before cutting the grapefruit flesh into chunks and i added 2 lemons to it too.

after 2 hours of medium simmer, the peels finally soften and the chunky flesh becomes a pulpy mess. 

i added 8 cups of sugar and let the marmalade simmer away stirring it occasionally to prevent the bottom from burning. i watched as the colour of the marmalade went from light yellow to orange and finally, a deep amber. 

2 more hours of medium simmer later, the marmalade is finally ready. it definitely tastes different from the cumquat marmalade i made last week. it has a deeper flavour with a distinct bitterness to it. it is definitely an adult taste. 

i managed to bottle 6 jars in total and i gave one away to Myfanwy when she came by for afternoon tea today. i kept two for ourselves and the rest will be gifted. 

Jim is having them with some toasts tomorrow. 

setting up a worm farm - part three

we've got worms!! 

last weekend, my patience ran out so we finally bought a box of worms and added them to our worm farm. 

we bought the smallest box we could find which came with approximately 500 worms. most website suggests that we start with 1000 worms but i'm not confident with this new worm farm of mine so we decided to start with a small amount of worms. 

before i added the worms, i added another layer of shredded newspapers, some food scraps and a layer of cow manure. 

the worms have been in their new home for a week and i haven't fed them any food scraps apart from the two layers i added to their bedding when setting up the worm farm. i've been checking on them almost daily. some of them were hanging out on the top layer on the first few days because i could see them as i lifted the hessian to check on them. towards the end of the week, most of them have moved into the lower layer as i could hardly see one when I lifted the hessian. this is hopefully a good sign?!? 

i hope the wormies like their new home and will start munching on the food scraps in no time. according to the box which the worms came in, i'm now an 'enthusiastic environmentalist'! ha! 

// no worms in sight as they burrow deep into their new home //

// all snugged under the hessian blanket //

homegrown grapefruit

as i pull into our driveway yesterday, i spotted a box of grapefruit sitting on our neighbour's front lawn. 

as i parked the car, i thought to myself they would be perfect for jam making if there is such thing as grapefruit marmalade. after all, grapefruit is part of the citrus family and you can make marmalade out of any citrus right? grapefruit are not expensive in the markets but you never know what perticide were used in a commercial orchard and when it comes to jam making, i much prefer to use fruit grown in a home garden because chances of them being pesticide free is higher.

following last Sunday's cumquat marmalade success, i've gained confidence in jam making and i've been thinking what other jam i could make. 

i walked over to the neighbour's lawn to check out the box of grapefruit and saw a note on the box that says 'help yourself'. great! gotta love some neighbourhood love. i picked out three grapefruit with perfect skin and i start to wonder what grapefruit marmalade tastes like. 

looks like it's Sunday 'jamming' again this weekend. 

first of August

it's the first day of August. we are one month away from my favourite season of the year. 

as much as i like winter fashion, knee high boots, thick knits and winter coats, spring is definitely my favourite season. the weather is slowly getting warmer and the days are getting longer too. soon, boo will be able to play in the backyard after he comes home from daycare. we'll also be able to spend more time outdoor, take boo to all the different parks in the neighbourhood on the weekends and go for walks around the block after we come home from work. 

another reason why i prefer spring to all the other seasons is that my favourite trees, cherry blossoms, will be in full bloom which brings happiness to my heart. 

i'm so glad we're in the last month of winter. looking forward to spring already!