Free Art

Beautiful Free Art. Check out the website for more details. These are some that i am loving

http://indiefixx.com/Feed_your_soul/index.html

Bedroom Inspiration

I have plans to eventually redecorate our bedroom. It has a lot of potential to be a really lovely room. with a fantastic enclave built into the back wall, which fits our bed, with bedside tables built into the side on the enclave. The roof also has lovely floral cornices. The walls are painted white with a pleasing feature wall in the enclave.

What i also love about our room is the wrap around windows that run along two of the sides. I think these would look fantastic as wrap around benches that double as additional storage.

Right now it is just an idea. But here is my 'inspiration board'

1. I want to put a chandelier motif above the bed on the feature wall, in white.

2 & 3. Two examples of the link of wrap around benches that i want. My window looks very similar to number 2

4. I looove Amy Butler fabric, and would adore a quilt made from this beautiful fabric.

So, what do you think? A girl can dream can't she?

Recipe - Herbed pork with roasted pumpkin, apple and onion on a bed of Pak Choy

This morning i went digging through the freezer and spied some chicken breast, which i pulled out to defrost before i headed to work. I was planning on making Honey Mustard chicken, as i have had a masterfoods packet sauce in the pantry for a while and wanted to use it up.

However two things prevented me from cooking that meal this afernoon.

• The first being that my husband called to let me know that he would be home late from work and not to expect him until about 7. Thus meaning that i had alot more time to prepare dinner
  
• The second.. and main reason... was that i realised once home that i had in fact lifted out pork, not chicken. It is a timely reminder to mark my meat next time.

I did a spot of gardeing while i was deciding what to cook, and picked a large bunch of Pak Choy from our garden. I decided that i definately wanted to make something using our fresh Pak Choy.

Once inside i had a fossick through my cookbooks, and came accross a recipe for corinader and garlic pork in my old faithful Donna Hay. This was perfect as i had a bunch of Corinader, mint and basil wilting away in the fridge. I wanted to keep the carbs down so i pulled out some butternut pumpkin, and needed that all important sweet component that i believe is a must for pork, so grabbed some apple and and onion. I was on my way.

Corinader, Basil and Mint marinade (in Donna it is corinader only) with Pork

1 cup of above herbs - finely chopped

4 garlic cloves - crushed

olive oil ( the recipe stated 2/3 cup but i try to keep the fat low so i added about 2 tablespoons)

Mix all of the above together. Add pork, toss until well coated. Set aside.

Once the other veggies are nearly done, i put a frypan on medium heat. Add the pork and cook for approx 3 minutes each side.

Pumpkin, Apple and Onion

For these i peeled the pumpkin, and chopped into chunky pieces.

Took the outer skin off the onion and cut in half

Washed the apple. Took the sticker off (a very important step might i add!)

I drizzled the lot with a small amount of Olive Oil, and also drizzld a cap of Balsamic onto the cut onion. I put it in a Pyrex dish with a lid

Popped in a slow oven (approx 160) and bake for over 1 hr. Take the lid off in the last 15 - 20 minutes and turn up the heat to help it brown a bit

Pak Choy

Chop up leaves into large pieces. Slice the stems. I then popped it into a pyrex bowl with alittle water and some of the pork marinade (before the pork was added of course). I put it in the Microwave and cooked for about 4 minutes.

VOILA!!! It sounds WAY more complicated than it really was. The Pumpkin you could cook for less time in a hotter oven, but i knew i had over 1 hr so just popped it in on low until Hubby was nearly home. It was VERY tasty, with the pungent hit of herbs and garlic mixed with the sweetness of the pumpkin, apple and onion. Yummo!

Photo Wall continued ...

After finding the paint i got to work. I firstly laid out the frames in front of the wall that they were to hang. Here i sorted and arranged them into a rectangular shape. Some of the frames i was keeping with their timber finish, while others i was going to paint. The frames were varying sizes so it made it a little bit more complicated to arrange.


Next i went through my wedding album and chose what photos i wanted to print out for the frames. Once this was decided i was ready to start painting. I painted the frames with about 3 coats of paint. (I am rather pleased with how they look, although they are by no means perfect).


I printed out the photos to the right size and use my trust guilotene to cut the paper and mounted the photos into the frame.


The last step was to hang the photos. This is where i know i have no talent at all. I have no sense of straight or crooked, so i handed this task over to my lovely husband! his is where his perfectionist qualities come to play, and he busily set about measuring out the spaces and carefully mounting the frames. We used 3m velcro strips, which are great forgetting the perfect position.

Once up we also added our L.O.V.E letters to the wall that we used in our wedding.

Beautiful...

Photo Wall Madness

I LOVE photo walls. I think i get it from my mother, who created huge photo walls long before they were fashionable. In my family home she had photos lining the walls on either side of the hallway as you entered the house. On one side were photos of her family through the generations, and on the other side my fathers. It gave me a lovely sense of family heritage; I loved pouring over the photos, looking at the different clothing and stern faces.


In the lounge room there was a second photo wall filled with photos of our immediate family.


I knew that when i had my own home i too would have a photo wall feature. When we moved in it was one of my first decorating projects. I brought two packs of frames from Target at 50% off and got to work.



I find the hardest part of the wall is getting the right balance of photographs, with everyone that you want represented. I had a half finished wall up for a while until i had found the last key photographs for the wall.



Through the school holidays i got to work on my wedding photo wall. This one was to take pride of place on the wall near the kitchen, off from the hall, leading into the lounge room. I had spent a while trying to work out how many frames i would need, what colour etc. However one huge concern was the cost of frames, with me realising that even with cheap frames it was going to most likely cost about $150 - $200. Cue my Mother, who i remembered had a huge stack of unused frames last time i was over. A quick phone call later and i had secured the unused frames.

My only glitch was that some of the frames were black. Now black frames are lovely, but i don't really use black frames in my house, as the colour scheme is mostly white, creams and mint green. I did not think these would look nice against my pale green wall. Luckily, as fate would have it, i also remembered that the previous owner of the house had left tins of paint in the garage. After a dig i found white paint.


My next photo wall project had begun...

Fluffy ANZAC morning omlette

My husband and i woke early on ANZAC Day. We had a busy day ahead of us, with two birthday celebrations to go to.

Earlier in the week i had made my own super fluffy omelette and had been keen see if i could replicate it. It seemed a miracle that i had managed to make a successful omelette, given that all previous attempts has been a dismal failure, with me turning it into a scrambled egg mixture instead.

However i used my old faithful Donna Hay cookbook this time around, and my wonderful KitchenAid!

Lo and Behold, beautiful fluffy golden omelette!

I love the ceremony of breakfast, and like to set myself up with a tea cup, a pot of coffee or tea, and my milk jug. There is something really wonderful about starting a weekend with a wholesome lazy breakfast.

Fluffy Omelette for two

4 eggs - Separated

1/2 cup milk (I used skim)

1/2 cup cheddar cheese

salt & pepper to taste

baby spinach

deli ham

1. Place yolk, milk, cheese, salt & pepper in a bowl and mix to combine.
2. Put egg whites in a clean bowl, whisk until soft peaks form
3. Fold through yolk mixture
4. Heat fry pan in a non stick fry pan over medium heat ( i used a wok! worked just as good and gave me room to flip). Spray pan with oil
5. Pour mixture into fry pan, turn heat down to low.
6. Put any ingredients on top (i added spinach leaves, ham and extra sliced cheese)
7. Cook for 10 minutes until the base is golden. (I also put a glass lid on over the top to help steam the spinach a bit)
8. Fold omelette in half onto itself. Carefully slide out of pan onto plate,

It is beautiful served with hot buttered toast!

It was a wonderful start to the day, and provided great sustenance that kept us going through the birthday celebrations. This was the first time in my memory that i had been out of the house on ANZAC Day. My parents had always spent the morning watching the march until the couldn't sit for any longer, then they would do some work around the house, before heading back in for more march viewing. As i grew up i followed much the same practice.

Being a history teacher I think I feel the reverence for the day all the more deeply. I often think back to the images that i have seen over and again of the soldiers of Gallipoli, and remember all the lives lost within such a small patch of ground.

I also take a moment to reflect on how the day has changed. Many historians argue that the true ANZAC legend is about the dead soldiers, not the living left behind. Whilst i think this was certainly true in the beginning i would acknowledge that it has become more than this. I know that when I ask my own students what the day means they often refer to all wars and how it is about remembrance for all lives lost for their freedom, but also to respect all those living that have also fought. I like this shift and I think it is the key to the day continuing on for generations to come, as a reminder to us all for the heavy price of freedom, and the cost of war. After all - Lest We Forget.

Donna Hay - Spicy Pumpkin soup

I thought seeing as this was originally meant to be a food blog i should really post some food item.



Now that the cold weather is starting to kick in i have been turning to my winer warmer dinners, soups, stews, curries and so on. For me the classic winter warmer is pumpkin soup. My husband and i were out shopping the other day and decided to stop for lunch at the food court. We were hungry but didn't want anything too heavy or junky. We spied a sign at Sumo Salad advertising their soup and roll/wrap deal. It was the perfect solution. I in particular liked this option because i always have a case of wanting a bit of everything, so being able to have a soup AND a choice of a roll was great.



I chose the chicken and corn soup and a ham and pesto roll, while my husband chose pumpkin soup and a chicken schnitzel wrap. Eating our soup got us talking about how much we both loved pumpkin soup, and so i put making a pot on my to do list!



Fast forward to last night, when i finally made the said soup. I had seen a curry pumpkin soup recipe in one of my Donna Hay books that i had been wanting to try. I is basically a normal pumpkin soup recipe but with a bit of red curry paste and coconut milk added.



I didn't have red curry, so i used green instead, and i also used low fat coconut milk. If you want an even lower fat option you could also use coconut evaporated milk.



The resulting soup was full of flavour with a yummy creamy spicyness... mmmmm. Leftovers went in the freezer and the recipe has been marked for a do over!



Spicy Pumpkin Soup



1 TBLS Green Curry (Original recipe said red)

1 kg Pumpkin - Peeled and Chopped (I used 1 small butternut, and also added a carrot and sweet potato)

4 cups chicken or Vegetable stock

1.5 cups Coconut Milk

1 Chilli (optional)



1) Fry the curry in the pan for 1 minute

2) Add the stock and pumpkin, stir. Put a lit on and let it cook for approx 6 minutes or until soft

3) Blend until smooth (either in a processor or with a stick blender)

4) Add coconut milk, stir

5) Sprinkle optional chilli on top.



I made the soup up to step 3, blended in the processor thn put it in the fride ready for dinner that night. Then i just poured the contents into a pot, added the milk and reheated it. Add some toast or croutons and enjoy!