Cold, wet and loving it...

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Well, it looks like the rain has set in for the day...
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...this is what M.O.T.H. (Man Of The House) will be doing...
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...oooh, I love the rain...
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...I'm gonna settle in and do some cross-stitch.
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Cheers - Joolz

Weber Pizza...

These were the bad boys we made tonight for dinner. I made dough in my bread machine. Mine (above) was napoli tomato sauce, salami, bacon, pineapple, green stuffed olives, anchovies, onion, philly cheese dollops & pizza cheese.

This is it when it was cooked.

This was Angus' creation. His had the Napoli sauce, cooked chicken breast with a Mediterranean rub and lemon zest, olives, fresh tomato, fetta cheese and fresh baby spinach with sour cream to finish...

...and they were good!



Cheers - Joolz

The Simple Woman's Day Book...

for today, Saturday 7th June, 2009

Outside my window...it is dark and it has just started raining again.
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I am thinking...keep raining, I love the sound of heavy rain on the tin roof.
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I am thankful for... Bri's friend, Samantha is okay. She had a seizure last night but she is doing alright.
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From the kitchen (outdoor tonight)...homemade pizzas cooked in our Weber kettle barbecue. Yummy!
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I am wearing...(earlier) blue jeans, black top and black heeled boots...(now) trackies and a windcheater and my pink slipper uggies.
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I am creating...nothing much creative going on today. I watched 'The Lake House' (Sandra Bullock & Keanu Reeves) early this morning. I enjoyed it as I didn't have any interuptions. This afternoon, after a trip to pick up Bri and her friends, I watched Anchorman. Funny!
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I am going...to have another quiet day home tomorrow. A bit of laundry, maybe some cooking/baking, watch TV and cross stitch, visit my mum.
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I am reading... Michelle Obama's (Wow, she's my age and the first lady of the US!) biography by Liza Mundy and The Girl Next Door by Elizabeth Noble.
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I am hoping...Kirby has a good week in Adelaide before she comes home for a week
for swot vac on Friday. She loves her new snuggly flannelette sheets I sent up to her.
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I am hearing...Angus saying cheerio to Wayno who dropped in for a few beers and Bri is watching 'The Breakfast Club'.
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Around the house...relatively neat and tidy. We moved a king single bed back into Kirby's room so she can be in her own room when she comes home.
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One of my favourite things...Angus cooking dinner on Sunday nights. Thank you!
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A few plans for the rest of the week...just going to work. We have been thankfully busy lately so there will be lots of nice paperwork for me to do. I like being busy at work. Oh, and I get my nails done on Thursday.
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A picture I am sharing...Bri and Kirby being cheeky for the camera before Kirby's Graduation. Naughty!

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Enjoy your holiday Monday and remember our dear Queen Elizabeth II. Long may she reign!

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Cheers - Joolz

Our favourite Chicken Pasta dish....

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Chicken Penne Pasta a la Joolz
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1 tblspn olive oil
500gms chicken breast (I use tenders), chopped small
1/2 brown onion, sliced thinly
1 clove garlic, crushed
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1 heaped teaspoon chicken stock powder dissolved in 3 tblspn water
10 sundried tomatoes, chopped finely
handful of mushrooms
large handful fresh baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped
1 carton of cream (you can use 'lite')
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon seeded wholegrain mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
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Cook penne pasta in boiling water until al dente.

 Meanwhile, heat oil in pan, fry off chicken, onion and garlic until chicken is browned. Pour in stock mixture then add in tomatoes, mushrooms and fry off for a minute or two on gentle heat. Add in carton of cream and mustards and honey and let it just come to the boil then reduce heat so it is just bubbling. Cook for 5 minutes to reduce the cream sauce slightly then add in spinach so that it wilts. Season with salt and cracked pepper to your taste.   Drain pasta and add to the sauce mixture.  Plate up and sprinkle a little parmesan cheese over.
Serve immediately. Enjoy!
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We have a RealFlame gas log fire which means we don't have to chop wood and have the mess of an open fire or slow combustion heater. We flick a switch and 'voila'! It does not produce the heat of a conventional wood fire but the ambience is lovely in our living room or 'good room' as we call it. Angus loves to sit by the fire, toasting his toes, watching the footy on a Saturday night. I love the fact that I don't have to have wood inside which might harbour a 'hunty' spider.
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Enjoy your Queen's Birthday Long Weekend. We have no netball tomorrow and I don't have much planned so will potter at this and that. I hope we get some more rain.
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Cheers - Joolz

Tablescape Thursday...

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DaisyMum at www.daisymountain.blogspot.com has started a Tablescape Thursday meme. Just post a picture of your dinner table each Thursday.
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This was ours last Sunday night. Only 3 bears home now so the table is a little bare! Dinner was yummy all the same.
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Join in the fun and show us your tablescape - perhaps you have a pic of your Christmas setting or some other celebration?
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Cheers - Joolz

A Down---to--- Earth plug...

(Rhonda Jean's hand made soap and home grown luffah)
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Lately, it seems every time I pick up a magazine, watch a lifestyle TV program or listen to the radio, the topic of 'going green' and 'living frugally' is up for discussion. People are wanting to and starting to go back to simple living, the way our parents and grandparents lived. While most of us will never give up our washing machines and dishwashers, we are trying to get on the "back to basics" band wagon. People are making/using green cleaning products and cooking simple, wholesome meals that cost a lot less and taste heaps better than expensive fast food. And more importantly they are seeking this information.

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I have been surfing the blogworld since August last year and one of the first blogs I stumbled across was dear Rhonda Jean at http://www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com. Rhonda lives in the mountains behind the Sunshine Coast in Qld. She is a fountain of information about living frugally (simply but not stingily), lowering debt, growing organic veggies, keeping chooks, re-using and recycling, knitting and stitching and cooking some wonderful, hearty, tasty and yummy things in the kitchen. She has opinions but she does not push them upon you, she complains little and is very content with her quiet but busy life with her husband, dog, cat and chooks and their great vegetable garden. She is a volunteer and is held in high esteem in her community. She is a doer not just a sayer. She really wants for nothing more than a greener, cleaner world. She and her husband, in their 60's, are in good health, debt free and enjoy their grown up family - (there's a wedding coming up soon). At last count, she has 1029 people who follow her blog regularly (and there must be countless others who are not registered as followers who read the blog), gleening information about living the down to earth lifestyle.

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Rhonda is in the throes of writing a book so it is an exciting time for her. I can't wait for the book to come out. It will be an invaluable resource about homemaking and green, frugal living.
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Do yourself a favour - if you haven't visited her blogsite, please do so. You won't be disappointed.
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Cheers - Joolz

Giveaway WINNER....

(web pic)

6 bloggers had a go at my quiz - Kris, Wendy, Pip, Becky, Kathy and Ande.....and the winner is...

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Pip from http://restisnotidleness.blogspot.com !

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Once I have an address I will post out a small gift prize.

(will show picture once Pip's received it)
Added: I posted the box off on Friday 5th June so Pip should have it next Wednesday or Thursday.

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Thanks for participating, it was fun!

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I had a lovely relaxing weekend. I went to netball with Brianna on Saturday morning. When we got home I suggested we go and catch a movie. We decided to see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past starring Jennifer Garner and Matthew McConaughey. It was okay but I really didn't like McConaughey's character - a sleazy guy trying to sleep with anything that breathed! The past, present and future catch up with him but it all turns out in the end. Thank goodness, I might have had trouble sleeping otherwise! We were home by 7.10pm and Gus had dinner on the go.

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On Sunday, I watched a couple of DVD's at my leisure ( Suddenly 30 and Shall We Dance (ooh, I do love Richard Gere!) In between the films, I cross-stitched and have realised that my eyesight has really deteriorated quite a bit! I plodded along and yes, I still enjoy it. I will get new glasses in a few weeks time - got to get my girls to help me pick out new frames.

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After lunch, Bri and I visited my mother. I cleaned out her air conditioning filters and also the exhaust fan cover over the shower. Then we took a quick trip out to the cemetery to put flowers on Dad's grave. She had a pot of cute, tiny yellow roses which will get watered by the rain and hopefully will last a few months. Then it was home for a cup of tea and chat then back home. Gus finally got the lawns mowed after about 4 weeks growth. All the mushrooms/toadstools are gone now - it was starting to look like a fairy city.

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Dinner was prepared by Gus (aren't I lucky) - Butter sage chicken. Yummy!

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I hope to have many more quiet weekends like this one now that the cold weather has set in.

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Cheers - Joolz