Long Weekend

We've just had a long weekend here in Australia, for the Queens Birthday. Many Australians are staunchly in favour of a republic, but giving up the Queen would mean giving up a public holiday, and that is where the argument falls down. I don't mind the Queen so much. She is constant and fair, she's done a great job for a hella long time all the while putting up with a nut bag family, and she wrangles a herd of corgis. You've got to admire her.

Happy Birthday Lizzy! via
I don't know what the Queen did for her birthday, but here in the Chaos household it was a 3 day pyjama day. The weather was cold and drizzly, which made snuggling on the couch a very easy choice. Most of the family have a lurgy that is going around and are barking like seals, so taking it easy was the healthful thing to do. Lots of tea and DVDs, internet, a bit of pottering around and a bit of baking. Heaven, really.


Monkey Boy opened up a barber shop in the bathroom, but he only had one customer. I can't imagine why. Mr BC is such a sweety, he didn't want to hurt Monkey Boy's feelings so we all cheered Great Job, Monkey Boy!! and then Mr BC waited until everyone was asleep before fixing up the leopard print effect. Naww!



The garden is growing nicely, provided I do a caterpillar patrol every day. It's very satisfying feeding caterpillars to our piranha-like goldfish, and I hope the other caterpillars take note. Winter vegetables take longer to grow that summer vegetables, and the wait if killing me! Every time I grit my teeth at the supermarket and buy a cauliflower I come home and tell the garden to hurry up! The only problem is that I've forgotten what I've planted. Well, I know there is cauliflower, purple cauliflower, broccoli, something else, and two types of cabbages; but god knows what is what. I guess it will be a nice surprise when they are finally ready to harvest.



I whipped up this Cranberry Oat Slice, and it was dead easy. I've blogged about it before as 'Evolution Slice', which sounds a bit primordial and not very appetizing at all. The recipe is so adaptable, just put whatever you like in it and rename it accordingly.

Cranberry Oat Slice

Mix this all together. Then mix in the following,
Press into a slice pan lined with baking paper, cook in a medium oven for 20 minutes or so. Let cool before icing. 

There is a very thin icing glaze on this because when I went to use the icing sugar, it had almost completely gone. (rude shock!) Depending on what I've put in the slice, sometimes I use a thin lemon icing, or maybe just melted chocolate on the top. It's very adaptable to whatever you have on hand. You can see why I call this evolution slice!



In other news, we had to quickly revise our office makeover plan at the discovery that the bookcases we had planned on using didn't actually fit into the space. So the chest of drawers that was going to be painted black and sit under the TV in the lounge room, would now be painted white by Teenage Daughter (mostly) and be used as storage in the office. This is not a bad thing, but I sure do want the bookshelves out of the lounge room, and as yet cannot find anywhere else for them to go. 

The fold out table that is being used as a desk was taken apart and rejoined to be more of a desk shape and less of a kitchen table shape, while still keeping it's beautiful pine patina. This makes me happy, because we had planned on selling it and now we get to keep it. It's the first piece of proper furniture Mr BC and I ever bought together and it has a lot of memories. Plus, it's nice to recycle!

Monkey Boy created his own drum kit and impressed us with his musical talent, begging the question - should we put him in drum classes? Do we dare? The Gentleman wants to learn trumpet. I will need some heavy duty ear protection, I think.

What did you get up to over the long weekend? Did you bake, or do anything else exciting? Hope you had fun and relaxed, whatever you did.

xx
(linking to IBOT)

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