Poppalina

What Goes Around...

Creative Genius has a new baking passion...

The pineapple upside-down cake.

 

not least because

she gets to eat the leftover cherries,

and we all know how good they are...

Meat and three veg, without the meat, does not a dinner make.

Slowly, slowly, 

I am learning,

 

to cook meatless dinners

   

without tears.

And without having to spend ALL DAY in the kitchen.

Quiet Joys of Parenthood

I washed three loads of dishes.

I cleaned down the outside of the stove, the fridge door and the front of the cupboards.

   

I scrubbed the kitchen benches, and scraped dried cake mix from the food jars.

Finally, I mopped sticky sugar from the floors, the same floors that I had cleaned only yesterday.

 

If it wasn't for the fact that Mym's baked creations are disarming in their deliciousness and so very beautiful,

(her talent for cleaning, sadly, is inversely proportional),

 

I wouldn't let her

or any other teenager anywhere near my kitchen,

not even if you paid me

(little finger moves to side of chin)

one million dollars.

Blue Cake

I have to show you this

 

Because it's just too pretty not to.

In Heaven, the Pavs are Chocolate

And so, as I graciously accept my CWA Blue Ribbon Award,

 

Culinary Diva (Western Region),

 

for Freakishly Spectacular First Attempt at Pavlova (Amateur Division),

 

and, having wowed the Voting Public into a chocolate coma of medical-interventionary proportions,

the evening is declared, unanimously, a Resounding Success.

But really, I owe it all to Ramona's mum

for her inspiration,

and for pointing me in the right direction.

And a big Happy Birthday to my Creative Genius, who turned (WTF?!) fourteen, yesterday.

The Story of Egg

Egg sleeps peacefully...

 

Until SUDDENLY, she is woken by a NASTY SHOCK...

 

Which turns out to be DOG, jumping on Egg's head.

Egg is Very Annoyed.

 

Egg gets medieval on Dog...

 

Which makes Egg feel a bit better. 

 

And so, satisfied that Dog will think twice before he wakes her again like that, EVER...

Egg reassumes The Position.

 

Egg Art by Mym.

Any resemblance to events occurring this morning, as The Author slept, is purely coincidental.

The Subtle Art of Egg Divination

I was worried.

We've never had Sad Eggs at our house, before.

Neither do we do Emo Eggs,

- 

And never, ever Crying Eggs. Bloody Hell...

My Troubleometer starting blinking rapidly on Yellow Alert.

Until I spied the one remaining dude, sitting in the corner, laughing his silly head off.

I breathed a sigh of relief,

And let it ride.

 

Cake-baking sure can be an Intense Business, at Chez Poppalina. It's one of those Artistic Things.

Parkin

Cook Suse's parkin.

Trust me on that one.

History of Parkin can be found here.

And what a rich and extensive one it is.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, it's hot

Nothing left to do but drink these, with a double shot of espresso,

And faff vaguely about the kitchen, the one cool room in the house (upstairs is just incredible. We can forget about sleeping up there for the next week).

Try not to go out if it can be avoided. It was 32 degrees (or 90 degrees Farenheit) when I left for yoga at 5.30am.

Spend an afternoon musing on the possibilities of a silk/cashmere interpretation of Alison's Sumidity.

Hmmmm....

So, let me get this straight: yoga in the morning, drinking iced coffee and browsing knitting patterns in the afternoon.

As my mother often reflected, reclining on her own, personal tanning rock on the Yarra, in the days when bathers were redundant and the sun still felt good on your skin.....

I wonder what the rich people are doing?

Midnight Black Diamond Plum

I shit you not.

There is a plum named Black Diamond.

How groovy is that?