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To say that your life can be turned upside down in the blink of a moment is so true. But this last six months seems to be a series of many moments that have meant that this blog site is really, really neglected.
There have been good times....a trip to Thailand and a trip for a family wedding to Tasmania in September.
And there have been bad. No, I'm not seriously ill, although have been diagnosed with a form of arthritis that means that I'm on prednisone for the long term. There is hope that it will disappear after a couple of years, but who knows. Apparently, I am very young to suffer from it. Just my luck!
There have been family issues as well, but that's not my story to tell. Needless to say, the stress has been huge. If you are still here after all of this time then I thank you for your loyalty. I don't know if I'll be posting regularly. I'm going back to work full time in 2012! Scary and probably crazy given the arthritis (but now it's under control I do feel like a new woman....and have not had one migraine since I've been medicated. The migraines plagued me for years and I thought it was a post script of glandular fever back in the early 90s. Now I know!)
I have thought long and hard about deleting my blog but decided not to. I love my blog list and refer to it often to visit fabulous fellow-bloggers. I am thinking of turning comments off soon though.
So thanks again for all of your loyalty. Maybe I will be able to get in here and post more frequently...it will just depend on time and my energy levels! Wish me luck!
In memory of all of those who died on 9/11. May they rest in peace. And may their families be comforted by the fact that people around the world never forget them!
Some nasty little bug got into a gadget that I had on the side of my page and infected my site! Not happy! Unfortunately, the host gadget had to be deleted but hooray....my page is back up and running!
Despite all of this, I don't have too much to report! Life continues as normal....or as normal as it normally is! In the meantime, enjoy the fancy page that was in my nanna's cookbook! It's an ad for an old Brisbane department store, Bayards! I have vague memories of Bayards being around when I was a very very little girl. Each week, my mother would do a trip to the city to do her shopping.
In those days, the suburban shopping centres were few and far between and the city offered great choice for the astute housewife.....apparently! Often, we kids were left to fend for ourselves amongst the dangers of other generation x bubs in the Brisbane City Hall Kindergarten! Apparently, I loved it there! Mum would scuttle across King George Square, in the days when it was actually topped with real, green grass (boo to those politicians who got rid of it!) and make her way with my brother's pram and all, up the rather shaky elevator to the place that offered her a few hours of delightful, child-free shopping! Who could blame her??!
Brisbanites reading this would probably also join in memory searching with me to reminisce on the other city delights of our child-growing years: Coles cafeteria where you actually had to pay to go to the toilet. Lining up in Woolworths, a few doors up. A Queen Street filled with cars. McDonald and East....the other BIG department store. Just to name a few!
I must say that I do love the fashions of the newspaper clipping. Bayards were obviously up with the times, too....they did mail order! If they were around these days, they would no doubt be doing on-line ordering. It makes you wonder though....what will our kids be remembering in 30 years time!
For more memories visit my other site here: http://cookingnannasrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/09/defiance-coconut-drops.html
Do you remember the Palm Island Pie recipe that I posted a few weeks ago? It has inspired me! Not only did I attempt to reproduce it, lovingly as my nanna would have done, but I've also started a side blog! Yes, you read right... a side blog!
This blog is an attempt by me to (hopefully) recreate one recipe each week from my nanna's collection. It should be fun! I feel like one of those 60s cooking ladies....Julia Childs, eat your heart out! Lol!
No doubt I will have hits and failures and I will probably have weeks where posting seems like torture but I hope you'll stay with me while I pay homage to my nanna and her fabulous retro recipes!
To see my first recipe post....the outcome of the Palm Island Pie....click below:
http://cookingnannasrecipes.blogspot.com/
On the weekend, I raided my mother's recipe cupboard in search of old recipes of my grandmother's for one of my children's school project. I knew that my mother had managed to salvage the recipe books from the rubbish after my grandmother had passed, but I'd never really had the time to investigate her find.
What I discovered was a treasure trove of tidbits from the 50s and 60s that any housewife of the era would have been proud of!
My grandmother was a pretty amazing woman who had a pretty interesting life. She was born to Irish immigrants in Queensland but was put into an orphanage at a young age. After leaving the orphanage, she worked for the famous Brisbane Archbishop, James Duhig on his kitchen staff until she met my grandfather (in church, naturally!), married him and ended up having eight children! My memories of her were always of her cooking in her kitchen.....ensuring that we all knew that great Irish Catholic hospitality when we visited!
So back to her cookbooks....in amongst the many pages of the books that she had handwritten were many different recipes and bits and pieces that she'd cut out of magazines and kept. One of these was the Golden Circle recipe for Palm Island Pie. I couldn't resist taking a photo of it and am sending a big shout out to Fun & VJs as this recipe works beautifully with her pineapple inspired cooking theme! This recipe, as you can see from the photo, is pretty retro swish these days!
So in the interests of sharing the recipe love, I've taken a photo of the recipe for you all to have a try of. I am yet to have a go of it, but that is on my 'to do' list!
My niece-in-law, Bianca, has been lucky enough to become a finalist in the Ultimate Ford Focus Competition. Currently, she is running fourth.....being pipped by three blokes for the lead. So, in the interests of fair competition and girl power, I'm asking you to rock on over to the voting site via the link below and hit the 'vote' button next to Bianca's picture! Don't forget to secretly fist pump the air in front of your computer after you've done so and sing 'Go Bianc' to send her the sweetest vibes for success ever (not to mention the fact that you'll feel great for having done such a good turn!).
You can vote once a day, every day, until the end of the competition. If she ends up being the winner, she gets to keep the car so that she can drive those gorgeous little cherubs around to their various kindy dates until they are old enough to say, 'Gee thanks Mum, you drive us everywhere!'
Here is the voting link: http://www.carsales.com.au/ehub/ford-focus-ultimate-test-drive/blogs/details.aspx?BloggerID=6
And don't forget to follow her on facebook, via the link on her voting page!
Go Bianc!
