The Rowe Family

Week 2

mrowe — Thu, 19 May 2011 20:11:34 +1000

This week was mostly about eating.

Monday

Kian cooked nachos for dinner, including making guacamole from scratch! Yummy.

Tuesday

Dad made shepherd’s pie again. Also yummy. I snuck some mushrooms in, which the children didn’t seem to notice. Until I told them about it the following day, when they claimed they knew all along.

Wednesday

Or Whacked Out Wednesday, as we like to know it. I got home from work in time to drop Kian at basketball training, came home and put some pasta on, which I gulped down while Temma and Grandma took their time to enjoy. I raced back to basketball to pick up Kian, and he ate dinner when he got home.

Thursday

Chicken strips and steamed vegetables. I remembered slightly too late that the flour goes before the egg. Doh. A bit of back and forth and it was all good.

Actually, eating wasn’t all that happened. Wednesday was Open Day at school, so Temma made some “citrus delight” cookies Tuesday night. Our oven managed to burn them a bit, so we had to “cull” a few… but a dozen or so actually made it to school. Kian was playing violin in The Trillers, so he gave us a sneak preview.

Grandma went up to school to take part in the open day on Wednesday morning. She was very impressed with the friendliness off the school community, including being offered a lift home by the school council president. And also with Kian’s violin playing.

There was more special activities on Thursday: Japanese Day and the inter-school cross country race. Natalie brought around a kimono for Temma to wear for Japanese Day, which was very cute.

Kian was one of the team representing the school in the cross-country. He came 29th out of about 80 kids, which was a pretty good effort. I think he could probably have done better, because he wasn’t nearly tired enough Thursday night.

I guess that about wraps it up. One more day of school and work, and an evening of cleaning the house… then a very early morning to pick up mummy and Dal from the airport!

DSC_0181 - Version 2

mrowe — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:09:12 +1000

DSC_0181 - Version 2

Weekend #2

mrowe — Sun, 15 May 2011 21:31:26 +1000

Kian had another great game of basketball. They were playing the other Apollo team, but were obviously better drilled and kept an easy 10 point margin for most of the game.

In the afternoon I dropped Kian at his friend’s sleep-over party, so it was just Temma and me for the night. I offered to take her to the movies, but there was nothing on she wanted to see so she rented some Disney cartoon on iTunes. We had left over lamb shank soup for dinner (don’t worry, Jo, there’s still some in the freezer for you!) and “mug cake” (see recipe below) and ice cream for dessert.

I once again failed to go for the 7 am bike ride. Next week for sure. But Kian was getting dropped off around 9, so I probably wouldn’t have made it back in time anyway. We picked up Ben for a play, and the boys entertained themselves with various combinations of Wii, Minecraft, Nerf and running around the park while Temma expanded her repertoire of lego creations. It’s quite amazing the things she’s making out of Dal’s duplo.

We made another Mug Cake for the boys, since they missed out on the previous one, but this time I used butter instead of oil. Much much better. Highly recommended.

Also highly recommended is the chilli I made for dinner, in between picking up Grandma and dropping Ben home. I cooked the beans from scratch, rather than using a canned, for a change, which definitely made the whole thing taste fresher. I also made a few other tweaks to the secret recipe. The end result got a huge vote of confidence from everyone, with Kian having seconds, Grandma cleaning her plate and Temma actually finishing hers before everyone else! Too bad I didn’t write down what I did…

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

mrowe — Sun, 15 May 2011 16:52:04 +1000

This shouldn’t work, but it does. The original “cup” cake!

4 tablespoons self raising flour
4 tablespoons sugar (I use less)
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
chocolate buds (optional)

Add dry ingredients to a large mug and mix well.

Crack the egg and add it to the mug. Be sure to mix well to avoid any pockets of flour in the corners.

Pour in milk and oil and mix well.

Add chocolate buds if desired, and maybe a dash of vanilla essence.

Put the mug in the microwave and zap for three minutes on maximum power (for a 1000W microwave).

Take the mug out of the microwave and leave it to set for a few minutes. Tip the still warm cake out of the mug onto a saucer and enjoy! (You may need to run a knife around the sides of the mug.)

Update: I tried this again this afternoon with butter instead of oil. It’s slightly more like actual baking (you have to melt the butter), but it tastes infinitely better.

The school week

mrowe — Sat, 14 May 2011 08:15:29 +1000

A mostly uneventful week at work and school.

Natalie came over on Tuesday to use the oven and ended up making dinner for us. Yum! Temma had spent most of the day home from school “feeling sick” (which feeling mostly evaporated as soon as she was home) so it was nice for her to have someone else to talk atto.

I had chickened out of riding on Monday (still fighting off this damn cold), and worked at home on Tuesday, but I rode on Wednesday. Picked a good day for it, single-digit temperatures, rain, wind and hail. Nice. I lucked out and missed most of the worst of it, but got a good soaking ten minutes from home.

I worked at home again on Thursday, and made pork sausages with mashed potatoes and veggies for dinner. Good wholesome single dad food. Unlike the previous three evenings I didn’t have to mess around with house plans, so once the kids were in bed I got to chill out on the couch and catch up on some reading.

Friday was a half day at work so I could be home when the kids got home from school. I made pretty good times on both the ride in to work and back home, but I think that was more having a lucky run with the lights and traffic than anything else. We hung out for a while after school then I dropped the kids at Kezzie’s for the night and went out for a beer with Andrew. Go Cats!!

It’s Saturday morning now and still it rains. It’s what we do in Melbourne.

Our latest family photo.

mrowe — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:11:04 +1000

Our latest family photo.

Monday 9/5

mrowe — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:21:38 +1000

We found Kian’s toothbrush… at the back of the sofa, of course. Thanks Dal!

The weekend

mrowe — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:12:16 +1000

The storm of Saturday morning actually wasn’t so bad in the end. Everyone got up in time to be ready (notwithstanding Temma remembering breakfast at 8:50) and we got to basketball in good time. Kian had a great game. In fact the whole team did, with lots of tight, fast set plays that they pulled off. They won easily, 10-31, and it would have been even more except they let the other team get back into it in the last few minutes.

Temma seemed to like her new swimming teacher ok, so I guess she’ll keep doing the lessons. Yay.

We made a quick trip to the shops after swimming to get Kian a new toothbrush and find some peanut butter and other supplies. Coles is a HUGE pain in the ass on a Saturday morning, I do not recommend it for anyone. In the afternoon we went for a pleasant family bike ride with Andrew B, from Eltham Lower Park up to Beasley’s Nursery and back (with a devonshire tea and a muffin in the middle). Temma did really well, she’s certainly getting her cycling legs. Then we just hung out at home.

The kids didn’t want a big dinner, so we had baked beans and eggs on toast. Suited me ok. Then Doctor Who and the remaining Sarah-Jane episode and bed.

I didn’t get up for the BSC ride Sunday morning, too tired and still feeling crap with this semi-cold. But next week for sure. I did however get around to setting up a minecraft server for Kian, which made him happy. But neither of us are sure what happens now. I think he wanted to get some of his friends to use it with him.

After brunch (bacon, eggs and avocado on toast—yum!), went into the city to drop the CF card off at the camera store and tried to see mum/grandma on the way back, but she wasn’t home. Probably should have called first…

I made some totally rad cottage pie for dinner. Those of you who are not here missed out big time. If there was any room in the freezer I’d save some for you…

Got around to potting Dal’s grapefruit tree, only a week...

mrowe — Sun, 08 May 2011 15:19:47 +1000

Got around to potting Dal’s grapefruit tree, only a week late!

Friday 6/5

mrowe — Sun, 08 May 2011 11:56:18 +1000

Friday morning, my first getting the kids to school and myself to work, went surprisingly smoothly. We left home a bit later than my target of 8:30, but not too much. I walked (with my bike) most of the way to school with them, then rode to work. I left work in time to be home when the kids got home from school (love half days! Until I see how little I get paid…). We all pottered around for a bit then I “cooked” dinner (boiled some pasta and heated up the carbonara sauce).

The kids watched a bit of TV before bed, and I read for a while. Then slept for eight solid hours. Nice.

Jo and Dal's Big Adventure—the home front

mrowe — Sun, 08 May 2011 11:51:28 +1000

Thursday 5/5

I’m going to try to post occasional updates from the home front while Jo and Dal are away travelling the world.

The big day. We were up early and rushing about to take Jo and Dal to the airport. Temma was ready very early, because we told her she had to get dressed and ready for school if she wanted to come to the airport. Such achieved this goal, although 4:30am was probably overkill.

Despite leaving (predictably) later than intended we got to the airport at about the right time. Traffic on the ring road was much better than I remembered from my days of commuting to Footscray. There was a long and slow-moving queue at check in, so we pretty much had to go straight to the international doors (after a last minute nappy change for Dal). A hug and a kiss and off they went.

The kids and I came back home before school because Kian wanted to change into shorts and I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss the Coles guy. I left a “back in 5” note on the door while I ran the kids to school, which was just as well because he was waiting for me when I got back. He didn’t seem to mind at all, and was very cheery as he unloaded the boxes.

In between catching up on a few admin chores and squeezing in a few hours of actual work, I put the lamb shanks and some veggies in the big pot to make soup for dinner, following roughly along with Stephanie’s “middle eastern” lamb shank soup recipe. The kids seemed to think it was ok, which is lucky since there’s tons left over.

Missing Dal

mrowe — Sun, 08 May 2011 10:50:37 +1000

I think Harry misses Dal at least as much as anyone. He keeps hopefully sniffing the floor around the kitchen table, but there’s nothing there.

Jan Juc

joaskham — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:54:00 +1000

Jan Juc

Kian not getting swept into the sea at Jan Juc

mrowe — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:07:00 +1000

Kian not getting swept into the sea at Jan Juc

Kian’s new bike

mrowe — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 07:55:00 +1100

Kian’s new bike

Kezzie's Chicken Jalfrezi

mrowe — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 14:52:03 +1100

2 cloves garlic, chopped
750g skinless chicken thigh fillets, cut in half
3 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 onion, finely grated.
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
500g can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons oil
3 teaspoons ground cumin
3 teaspoons ground coriander
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
30g fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped
oil, for cooking

Heat about 2 tablespoons oil in a deep frying pan and fry the onion and garlic for 2 minutes over high heat.
Add the chicken, turmeric, chili powder and salt. Fry gently for 5-10 minutes, or until golden brown, scraping the base of the pan frequently and turning the chicken.
Add the tomato, cover and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Uncover and simmer for 10 minutes to let all the excess liquid evaporate and the sauce thicken.
Add the oil, cumin, ground coriander, ginger and fresh coriander and simmer for 5-7 minutes, or until the fat separates out from the thick sauce.
Serve the chicken pieces with the sauce spooned on top.
This dish could be served with Pulao rice, chapattis or naan bread.

Enjoying his new baby gym

mrowe — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 17:39:15 +1000

Enjoying his new baby gym

New hat and blanket that mummy made.

mrowe — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:06:23 +1000

New hat and blanket that mummy made.

Napping in daddy’s arms.

mrowe — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 14:52:11 +1000

Napping in daddy’s arms.

Kicking back in his brand new rocker.

mrowe — Fri, 21 May 2010 14:01:00 +1000

Kicking back in his brand new rocker.