Day 2 I love to cook.

I love cooking. I always have cookbooks thumb-eared and post it-noted on my book stand on my bench. I am not the Master Chef type of foodie but I do cook most meals from a trusty collection of cookbooks.

I have included some of my several weight watchers cookbooks in this photo. They contain many family weeknight meals. Just so I don’t have to think about calories and portions. The whole family enjoys the meals. The black spine, Cookery the Australian Way was my year ten home economics textbook. Little did I know at the time that I would refer to it for years to come. I learnt the basics like white sauce and corned silverside from this treasure.

As I type, I am sitting close to a pot of simmering Rogan Josh which I made from scratch from Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food. I have always loved his cookbooks for their coffee table appeal, but found his recipes too fussy to follow. This book is different. It covers all the basics like making curry pastes, salads and dressings. Good thing really seeing his idea behind the book (and tv show) was to teach people the basics of cooking which are being lost.

Our family values food and I have never had fussy eaters because I have asked that they try everything given to them (and out of  respect never sat a plate of tripe in front of them). Our family rule has always been that the kids can chose one food item they choose not to eat. Only one. We try to eat together, at the table for evening meals. Sometimes we break the rules. Like last night when we ate pumkin, coconut milk and coriander soup with ciabatta, in front of the fireplace while watching Master Chef. All three kids love food, and the girls love to be involved in preparing food.

With two little people under my feet, I started to resent the food production line that motherhood can bring. I turned this around by thinking of the meals I produce as a gift to my family and saw cooking in a different light. It is a privelege to provide them with nutritious meals made with love. I have a wonderful friend B (I know she reads this too), who was and still is, an inspriation in this area. Her kitchen is the heart of her home and with four children, including twins under her feet, she still manages to whip up heart shaped sponge cakes and turn up to parties with butterfly cakes.

Most of all though, I love to cook without interruption. With a glass of wine, and music playing in the background.

Days One to Three. What I Love

A photo  a day projects are very popular and I love reading blogs incorporating this idea. I always feel that it will be one of those projects I start and then fizzles out. Well today I read about a project some ladies did last month, where they blogged daily, with a photo, but used a given topic for one month.

So I am going to give it a go, and yes I am already two days behind so I will catch up with three days worth today. The topic I am chosing is What I Love…

I am sure I will find this easy as mostly when I blog I incorporate photos of things I love right now anyway.

Before I even read the blog, I had taken this photo this morning:

I love this space. It is miss i’s space but I pass it to get to the kitchen and I love to have the door open, the blinds open, and just to have this visual feast every time I pass. It is a small bedroom and in such a small house, we have to share lots of spaces but she adores that she has her own space. We painted the feature wall for her tenth birthday as she chose the ikea bed linen and rug. The wall is painted in Dulux Red Box and I love its richness. I always struggle with finding ‘the perfect colour’ and therefore when we moved in, I opted to have the whole house painted in neutral. I am liking this option as I get to add colour in furnishings. When I do find a colour that I love, it evokes intense feelings in me. Colours I hate also evoke strong feelings in me. I have even been known to say that some colours offend me. Strange I know.

The black flowers behind the bed are also from ikea and are big stickers you attach to the wall. Overall it gives the space a more mature, yet fresh, feminine and fun feel. She recently finished the white cast on the wall at art and it suits really well. They made them from plaster of paris bandages and I like how it brings her personality to the space. She loves ancient Egypt and this reminds me of that period.

And of course there is the poster of Edward (a second poster of Edward and Bella was accidentally torn by master x), and you can just see a glimpse of her favourite teddies, unicorn and talking doll Jazzie on the end of her bed.

It is miss i’s dream to have floor to ceiling bookcases surrounding her in her dream bedroom so she loves having the wall of books in her room. I cleared the piles of books on her bedside table, on her bed, under her pillow and on the floor within reach of her bed, to take this photo. She had two ikea Billy bookcases filled with all her books. The ones that don’t fit are in storage boxes in the loft!

I must wake master x in ten minutes to go and collect miss i from her school camp. I have missed her and can’t wait to hear all about her time away. Her camp List of Things To Pack had one book on it. I found her smuggling five into her backpack. On enquiry she said “You can’t expect me to go for two and a half days with only one book?”  They are like her security blanket I guess.