Egg and Bacon Tart

Last night for dinner we had Egg and Bacon Tart. I "think" the recipe was from SFI but I cannot be certain... The kids loved it and thats all that matters. Even DH was approving and he is a fussy bugger to please!


1 sheet frozen short crust pastry for quiches – just thawed
6 slices short cut bacon chopped
6 green onions finely sliced
4 eggs
375ml can evaporated milk
2 tablespoons chopped chives
½ cup grated tasty cheese

Preheat oven to 180c (fan). Grease a 4.5cm deep, 20cm base pie dish.
Line with pastry and trim edges.
Line pastry with non stick baking paper, fill with uncooked rice and bake for 10
minutes
Remove the paper and rice and bake for 10 more minutes.
Heat a non stick frying pan over moderate heat.
Cook and stir bacon until crisp.
Add onion, cook 2 more minutes. Cool and scatter mix in pastry case.
Place the eggs, milk chives and cheese in a jug. Season. Mix to combine.
Pour mixture into pastry case. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until filling is set.
Cool slightly before cutting.

And I a scrapping again!

Woo hoo! My new little mousie friend showed up Friday courtesy of the postie dude. I am now able to scrap again - I was previously stuck with the mousemat thing on my lappy and it was just not doing it for me!

So I am now 18 pages into the 2004 photoalbum year and feeling much better about it.

Here is one I did of my boy and his Nobbie (his bear gift from my parents when he was born).

Nobbie still sleeps with Jack at night too (and he will be 5 in April). Its been through the washing machine a few times so he is not quite looking as good but he is still the favorite...

Scrapbook catch up project.

Well one of my goals for 2009 was to catch up on 5 years worth of family albums - done digital scrapbook style - the goal is to get them to the final completion stage which is printed/bound etc ready for "coffee table" presentation!

My old scrapbook programme had issues on my vista run laptop so I had to search for a new programme to use. The one I found that seems to suit my needs is FxFoto which can be found at http://www.fxfoto.com/. (note I am not advocating the software just highlighting one I found out there in webworld... So far its interesting. Learning as I scrap.

One of the first layouts was of my husband and myself when we were 8 months pregnant with our firstborn - Jack.

Looking back, comparing what I know now, I was not that big but at the time I felt HUGE! But its interesting to note I a m still wearing boots with heals and normal tops - not maternity ones.

So that took me to March 2004. Only another 100 or so scrap pages to be done for the 2004 year...

Staying organised...

I get asked often by people how I managed to stay organised with 4 rather young children and a husband who works nightshift and as a consequence sleeps a lot of the days (or tries to with the kids noise).







I also get asked how I cope. The answer to that one is easy - I have to so I do - but in saying that the two concepts go hand in hand.







Its an ongoing battle for me - staying organised. I have a natural tendancy to get overwhelmed and end up doing absolutely nothing. I am slowly learning that this never helps me. I am also a perfectionist at heart who tends to not do something unless it can be done entirely or perfectly... I am also slowly learning to shake this attitude too.







Meal preparation and laundry are the key areas in my particular household. If these are up to date or in some sort of organised chaos then the rest of the household seems to run smoothly. I highly recommend menu planning - saves you time and money...







In my laundry - I have a sorting station set up above my dryer. Things get taken out of the dryer and immediately either folded or hung up.

Three piles across the top. Jack, the twins then Ally. All items that are folded when away. Hangers are acquired from bedrooms before sorting and hung immediately (kids only) Adult stuff is folded bottom left and socks to be sorted bottom right... So far its working nicely - even whn I get behind and it piles up - it still is organised at least... I just cannot get more than 3 loads behind cause then its toooo much. Which is generally a good thing..

Now one thing I have learnt from this post going up today is not to write it over a few days cause its hard to keep track and on topic. If its confusing - that is why. Mental note to write blog only when I can start and finish in the one sitting...

Recycling... and a new"ish" bed :)

I love the idea of "another 'persons' trash is another 'persons' treasure". I love op shops and ebay and freecycle... in my own house I am often moving things around from one use to another. Drives my husband insane at times but hey - thats part of who I am.

So when I am thinking about something like how to make a new bedhead for example cause we don't have one and it bothers me, and then something comes up on freecycle that is just perfect and my "style" I am rather excited...

So we acquired this.

We already had the mattress (we had a king ensemble but I hated the base part personally) so as they were giving away a king wood base set I snapped it up :)

Now we just need to find out the stain so we can work on matching drawers and other such things :)

Yippee to new looks in a house :) Its almost as good as a holiday :)

The best present this christmas...

A few weeks after christmas its always interesting to take a look at just what the kids are still playing with from the influx of presents!

The winner this year appears to be a car race track that Darling Hubby bought home a few days after christmas...

Daddy set it up, and the kids all put cars on it... and the backward truck won! I think the girls use it as much as Jack but thats ok cause he likes their Pony Castle too! I will show you that in action another day when it becomes the more popular toy!

Menu plan 6 Jan to 12 Jan 2009

I am still finding it hard to believe its 2009 already but thats not the topic here. I menu plan - and stick to it most of the time. When we have more "spare" cash I tend to deviate from it - and by being accountable here I am hoping to avoid this extra indulgence which we do not actually need... at the moment I only really plan dinner. I will later start to include lunch and breakfast.

Tuesday 6 - Sausage pasta bake and vegetables
Wednesday 7 - Haystacks and salad
Thursday 8 - Spaghetti bolognaise
Friday 9 - Fish and chips (home made) and salad
Saturday 10 - Quiche and salad
Sunday 11 - Silverside, mash and vegetables
Monday 12 - Apricot chicken, mash and vegetables

So far this week I have spent $137.97 on various groceries (including personal items). Up until a couple of weeks ago I was spending almost $300 EACH week. Granted this was leading up to christmas - but it scared the crap out of me. So I am trying to think more about what I buy and stretch things better. So far so good. I expect some weeks will be worse than others when I need to stock up.