A little Treloar update ...

So it's been a while :-)

We spent some time at Coffin Bay in the October school holidays. I had a school friend and her family visit and it was great to catch up over the long weekend.

Then we had a day visit from friends and the boys went fishing and caught some whiting for tea that night.

Then we had the Escape2Create mini retreat ... a great weekend by the sea scrapbooking.

Once November started I had two trips to Adelaide with firstly Jack and then Lachlan for cricket.

Jack had 4 days of cricket for SAPSASA - they came runners up in their division which was great.

I took Jack and a friend to the T20 match Australia Vs South Africa at Adelaide Oval. It's a great venue. Unfortunately Australia lost that match but the boys enjoyed their night out.

Then Lachlan's turn for EP Under 12's cricket ...

On the second day we headed to Adelaide oval for the last 2 hours of that day of the Sheffield Shield - SA vs Victoria.

I took this now very special photo of Lachlan and Phillip Hughes. Sadly a week later he was injured and later died whilst playing in the next Sheffield Shield match at the SCG.

The boys went up to the Victorian team for a few signatures.

 A sneaky shot of the professional pose ...

This photo was taken a second or two before the ball hit the stumps :-(

Lachlan managed some great bowling with wickets.

Now we are home and getting ready for Christmas :-)

A day out to Mt Greenly ...

Recently we had a great day hiking up Mt Greenly with the Halls.

At the top ...

Hannah and John didn't make it as Hannah saw a caterpillar 5 minutes in and started screaming! Maybe next time!

A selfie with Amanda :-)

Heading down ... Amanda, Georgia and I took a wrong turn and went down a different way to the rest of our group :-/ ...

We got to the bottom eventually after coming down this way!!

And some with my camera ...

Now we want to do the Marble Range, but after Summer / snake season!!

September ...

We have two birthdays in September in our house ... our oldest and our youngest!

Jack's cake ...

I also made another cake for when he had two mates for a sleepover ... a "pizza" cake from a recent Super Food Ideas magazine.

And Hannah's cake, that we had while spending the weekend at Coffin Bay with a couple of her friends for a sleepover.

It's great to be back spending time at Coffin Bay :-)

Not long now ...

Escape2Create 2015 count down continues ...

Escape2Create Registration day is coming ... YIPPEE!!

Every year registration day is SO exciting!! It is a wild one minute of emails zinging into my Inbox!! Then cross checking for proxies and writing down the names!!

Really looking forward to this Sunday when it happens for our 8th retreat ... still can't believe it is number 8 next year!!

Details can be found here ... E2C 2015 dates

New Pinterest recipes that I have tried ... quinoa

I wanted to make two quinoa salad recipes last weekend so I looked over on Pintrest and pinned a few to try ...

These are the ones I used ... 

Photo from Happy Hearted Kitchen

And here is mine :-)

Recipe for Moroccan Carrot and Quinoa Salad ... very tasty.

The Happy Hearted Kitchen blog looks to have lots of other delicious recipes too :-)



Then I made a Mediterranean Quinoa Salad from Closet Cooking

Photo from Closet Cooking

and my version ... this one tasted very good too :-) I added avocado just before serving.

A long time since there has been an update :-)

So what's been happening ... ?

We had two trips away in the school holidays ...

For the first one we stayed at Auburn and caught up with Mum and Dad (for Dad's birthday) and one of my sisters and her family.

Hannah and my niece Ruby ...

Rohan and my nephew Thomas ...

We stayed at a B & B in Auburn ... Rose Cottage It's hard to find accommodation for a family of 6 but this worked quite well.

We had lunch on Sunday at Burra at La Pecora Nera , an Italian Pizzeria & Osteria



And then on Monday we did a day trip to the Barossa Valley and had lunch at Vintners Bar & Grill. We also visited two wineries ... Penfolds and Rockfords. Tasted some lovely wine at Rockfords :-)

Then the second weekend of the holidays we headed to Melbourne for a family trip for a great aunty's 100th birthday!! So glad we went! The boys enjoyed going to 3 games of football and Hannah and I enjoyed the shopping!!

We also did a funny day trip while in Melbourne ... hopped on a tram "to go to Brighton" ... ended up getting off at the last stop, at the Nepean Highway! Then we jumped on a bus and got slightly closer to Brighton ... with a short walk we ended up at ... Middle Brighton where we had lunch at The Baths Cafe!

Then after lunch we walked back to catch a train into the city!

And now we are home catching up on home type things!!

Cooking via the Internet ...

Do you Pinterest recipes or post them onto your Facebook page so you can find them or print them from the internet?

I do!

And so lately I have been trying a few of these recipes.

And what do you know I have found some favourites that I have made a few times already.

Firstly this cake ...

Easy banana bread from Retro Mummy
- it is really good! I have only tried a small piece once or twice but my husband and children love it!
- I add about half a packet of choc chips and sometimes ice it with chocolate icing
- I find the cooking time in my oven is between 45 and 55 minutes so keep an eye on it
- it freezes really well
- I have used fairly brown/ black bananas and even black frozen bananas and they all work well

Another one from Retro Mummy ...

Best Ever Cold Frittata

- I have made it twice and cut it into servings and frozen it for quick lunches
- I added broccoli that I briefly microwaved as well as chopped red capsicum
- the second time I made it I only used a little bit of grated cheddar cheese on top and instead put cubed low fat feta in the mixture


And then this one that I found on Facebook recently that is in the oven right now ...

Apple Cinnamon White Cake

Photo from All Recipes 

- it smells good while cooking cause of that yummy cinnamon!

And my photo of it fresh out of the oven ...

I just had a small piece and it was very nice, really quite crusty / crisp on the outside and soft in the middle :-)

... I'll wait and see what the children think after school :-)

Oh and other than the Internet I am partial to a magazine for a new recipe.

At Easter I cooked this twice ...

Chocolate Meringue cake ... for the recipe on Donna Hay's site

A photo before I cooked it :-)

I highly recommend this one! The second time I forgot to put it in the fridge after baking (as per the recipe) and I think it was better the first time when it was refrigerated.

Recipe in the Autumn (Issue 74) copy of Donna Hay magazine.

Soft shell crab ...

So tonight we tried cooking soft shell crab ...

We bought them frozen from The Fresh Fish Place in Port Lincoln.

I Googled to find a few recipes ...

http://www.aww.com.au/food/recipes/2008/2/tempura-soft-shell-crabs-with-aioli/

http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/tempura-soft-shell-crab-fried-chillies

to get some ideas.

If you need to clean the crabs here was a short You Tube clip ... I discovered that we needed to clean ours :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytfb5yal5pM

We ended up coating our whole soft shell crab with a product sold through The Fresh Fish Place in Port Lincoln, by a company called Squid Inc ... lemon and pepper seasoning.

John shallow fried the whole soft shell crabs for a few minutes. I stir fried some capsicum, spring onions and brocollini with garlic, ginger, chilli and added a little bit of coconut milk at the end.

The photo doesn't look great but it tasted really good :-)

Wave clouds ...

We saw these wave clouds out from our back yard on 7th April ... amazing sight :-)