Chicken Run

On Fridays, I have morning chook duty at the community garden. This means I head down there - with Phoebe in tow if we're sufficiently early - and let out the chickens, make sure they have food and water, and grab any eggs they happen to have laid. The last three weeks have been an egg bonanza. This Friday Phoebe predicted that we would get 10 eggs - and we did! Here we've added them to the remains of last week's haul.

I've been trying to use them up, so last night we made chocolate mousse and today we had eggs and bacon for breakfast. Might even hazard a souffle ...

Delicatessen

Here's the Omnivore's Hundred which I've been referred to by a number of foodie blogs. The ones I haven't eaten are in bold.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl - in SF, no less
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects - only by accident
43. Phaal - I don't know what this is ...
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine - and my mother thinks PB&J is gross
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake - in New Orleans, of course
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. - in my dreams - does Tetsuya's count?
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Babe

Last year I posted pics of Phoebe's Book Week parade outfits for 2005 and 2006. 2007 never made it into cyberspace, but it's that time of year again.

Apart from the fact that they belong to different species, I think Phoebe makes a rather good Olivia ...

The outfit consists of a repurposed $2 scarf (the red and white stripes), a work blouse of mine, a skirt that I found for $8, red ribbon and an abundance of safety pins.

Being There

Too much work. Not enough time. Blah blah blah. If I post regularly, I can somehow find something interesting (to me, if not anyone else) in the minutiae of life. When I haven't posted for ages, it just seems like a long list of boring, boring trivia.

1. Holden ran the City2Surf in 80 minutes.
2. Holden's soccer team lost their second semi-final in a penalty shoot-out but we had a great post-season party at our house anyway. I themed it orange to go with their soccer shirts because I am sad.
3. Phoebe doesn't like her new dance teacher because apparently she treats the junior dance group 'like babies'.
4. Phoebe's birthday party this year is going to be camping at The Basin, which we did for Hol's birthday a couple of years back (when I cleverly dislocated my elbow trying to keep the kids under control while the other grown-ups were playing guitar and singing bloody Fernando).

2001: A Space Odyssey

For an 11-year-old boy, Holden is quite interested in furniture and design. But only if it's mid-20th century modern. And red. Like this chair, which he got as a belated birthday present from his extravagant and over-indulgent mother (yeah, it's a fake).


Last weekend, Hol and Andrew did the Bay Run. They were so fast we missed seeing them finish.

Not to be outdone by the running boys, Phoebe had her school athletics carnival today and entered everything she was allowed to. Apparently she got 3rd place in one of the sprints, but in true Phoebe fashion couldn't remember what distance. This is her after the 800m.



This is her finishing - I think she expends so much energy bouncing UP that she doesn't actually move FORWARD.