Dinner at the Gardens

We took Monique's portraits (see here) one evening around dinner time; if we had dinner first and then went for photos it would be too dark, but if we got photos first and then came home for dinner it was going to get really late. So I figured some of us could go for the shoot, and the others could pick up dinner and meet us at the gardens, oh and then I was planning to walk afterwards. That was my grand plan for getting everything to happen, and at fairly reasonable times ;) The walk ended up being pretty short, but apart from that I think everything worked out :)

: : I think they were cold : :

: : Somebody didn't get a tan all summer . . . ;P : :
#firstworldproblems #whitepeopleproblems

: : Bryce takes every opportunity to kick a soccer ball around ;) : :

Jarrod's Birthday || Dinner at Bronco's

Since this year was his big 16th, Jarrod organised for the two of us and a few peeps from church to hit Bronco's (steakhouse) for dinner one night. 

I'm out of brilliant ideas for things to write so without further ado I present some photos to you.

: : Seriously this food is good. I could live off meals like this ;) : :

: : Group photo just before we left. And yes, the camera lens is dirty . . . sorry : :

Diana's Birthday Party || 9yrs || Part 3

Several of us have had Stampin' Up! parties in the last several years, and Diana wanted to have one as well. {Trying to remember now} I think she checked with our favourite demonstrator, who wasn't available, so asked me to demonstrate instead. In the end I managed to design two cards and prepare all the materials (with Mum's help) the night (aka early am ;)) before the party. I went with a pink design and a purple one to match the them colours for the party (picked by guess who).

: : All set up for the second card : :

: : Busy crafters : :

: : Cake time . . . : : 

: : Umm . . . scary : :

: : For dinner I made pizza (hooray for breadmakers that prepare the dough) : :
Monique and Katie made a salad (and I threw a dressing together)
Mum made chicken nuggets, and we bought a couple bags of potato wedges.

Eltham Trip {Day 4 ~ Saturday}

Saturday started early -- about 4:30am for me!! Jarrod and I went with Uncle Mike to his 4 Square to help with the baking and such that has to be done before the shop even opens. Several hours later the family arrived to get Jarrod (they couldn't get everything into the trailer without him apparently . . . ) and Danielle joined us at the shop. We all met at Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia's for lunch before hitting the road. We had a pretty good trip, stopping for dinner in Te Kuiti and arriving home around 8pm.

: : Laura with everything before it gets loaded up! : :

: : The queen of faces! : :

Chapati Bread || Recipe

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Ready in: 30 minutes
Serves: 10

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup hot water or as needed

Directions

In a large bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, and salt. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the olive oil and enough water to make a soft dough that is elastic but not sticky. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is smooth. Divide into 10 parts, or less if you want bigger breads. Roll each piece into a ball. Let rest for a few minutes.

Heat a skillet over medium heat until hot and grease lightly. On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin to roll out the balls of dough until very thin like a tortilla. When the pan starts smoking, put a chapati in it. Cook until the underside has brown spots, about 30 seconds, then flip and cook on the other side. Continue with remaining dough.

Chicken Curry || Recipe

Perhaps I've mentioned before that four of my siblings and I are each assigned one night per week to cook dinner for the family. Over the years, I have spent many pleasurable hours preparing various culinary creations, and several favourite recipes have emerged. I discovered early on that Indian cuisine is some of my favourite, and hence makes our menu fairly regularly! A few people have asked me what I cook, since there are ten of us to feed. Really, it isn't that hard because we've only ever gained one extra mouth at a time, and so the volume of ingredients has only gradually increased! I thought I would share a few of my favourite dishes, though. Pictured above are three curries: chicken, sausage, and vegetable, which I served {this time!} with Basmati rice and Chapati bread. The vegetable curry is just from the Edmonds cookbook currently available at grocery stores, and the other two curries, along with the bread recipe, I found online. Between three posts I will share the latter three recipes.

Chicken Curry

Ingredients

8 bone-in chicken breast halves, skinless

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 onions, peeled and quartered

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger root

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

1 tablespoon hot (Madras) curry powder

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (15 ounce) can coconut milk

4 whole cloves

4 pods cardamom

1 cinnamon stick

Directions

1. Rinse chicken and pat dry; season with salt and pepper to taste. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat, then saute chicken until browned. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.
2. Saute onions in skillet until translucent; add ginger and garlic and saute until fragrant, then stir in curry powder.
3. Return chicken to skillet and add tomato sauce, coconut milk, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon stick. Season with salt to taste and stir all together.
4. Reduce heat to low and simmer until chicken is tender and cooked through (no longer pink inside), about 20 to 25 minutes.

Liz and Lydia Over for Dinner

Liz and Lydia are our cousins somewhere down the line. They're from Wellington and we hadn't seen them for ages, so when they came to Auckland during the school holidays (uni holidays for them) we invited them over for dinner.

: : Bryce and Maria tried really hard to pull Liz off the chair : :

: : The girls have trialed a number of instruments themselves, : :
so throughout the night most of ours made an appearance!
Here Diana plays some recorder pieces (that she hasn't learnt yet) to Lydia.

: : Somehow the bath got forgotten about : :
Maybe the overflow thingy is blocked?!
The entire floor was covered!

Danielle's Birthday {11yrs}

Here's a photo recap of our family "gift-giving session" for Danielle's birthday:

Each of us down to Diana has one assigned night per week to cook dinner;
hence cookbooks have made it to our gift lists. :)

It may be Danielle's birthday, but the presents intrigue several children.

Random . . .

Happy Birthday, Danielle!

Day 5 ~ Friday ~ Driving Creak Railway

{Written by Monique; Used with her permission}

Today we did the washing and the dishes and got our stuff together, and we went to Driving Creak Railway, and had sandwiches there; and there were heaps of ants. And we dropped a piece of lettuce and so many ants came that we couldn't count them. And there was heaps of bird poo, but it was still heaps of fun.

After lunch, we pottered around a little bit while we waited for the train to come; looked around the shop a bit and bought our tickets. When the train arrived, we hopped on and found our seats and I was sitting with Maria and Bianca was facing me on the other side of the carriage. Jarrod was sitting next to Bianca.

Bianca took my camera and took photos of herself and anything else she could -- Maria, the grass, the bush, and everything else. When the train left everyone smiled because it was so exciting and at one stage we went over a bridge and it was kind of freaky because there was only track on wood and then there was also another train going underneath us. And there were walls [retaining walls] that were made of bottles and they were colour-coded (sorted into colours), they were bottle-retaining walls with dirt around them to the ends.

There were also tunnels and in some places there were tunnels with clay blocks making the walls on each side and pottery done into the walls, or put on shelves in the walls.

When we got to the Eyeful Tower, we went out onto a platform, in the train. It was kind of scary, and Mum said it was really freaky. The view was amazing and the tower was really cool. We stayed and looked around for five minutes and then went all the way back to the office/station. Then Mum bought an egg cup made by a potter, and then we went to the car, and had afternoon tea and left for home -- the tent.

: : New family photo! : :

When we got back it was quite late, so we got bacon and egg pie out of the freezer and put them in the microwaves that were at the campground. We also had coleslaw. Then we did the evening routine.

Mum's Birthday

: : Present from Maria : :

On each of our birthdays, Mum makes us a 'birthday dinner' (in past years we have chosen what to have, this year Mum just made something she knew we liked), dessert, a cake, and gifts (everyone gets to give something). For the last few years, I arranged something for Mum's birthday. This year, though, her birthday fell on a Wednesday, meaning I was at work, so Monique decided to coordinate something (as a surprise for Mum), with help from the little ones. Dad and I received numerous emails and calls throughout the day, with various questions. I received one email asking, "Bianca, how do I hide the emails from you so Mum doesn't see them?" A call involved talking to me from a bedroom, hiding the phone and running to the kitchen to check the instructions on the roast chicken packet, then back again to the room to tell me what they were. I think the girls learnt a lot that day (lol) but they did quite well, considering. :)

After work, Dad and I made a rush trip to several shops to buy presents. Then came the task of smuggling them inside and getting them wrapped, at the same time dodging children who wanted me to help with dinner and make dessert.

(Mostly) The girls made a roast chicken, roast potatoes, veggies, and gravy; for dessert I made blueberry crumble cake. When Danielle called me earlier in the day, I told her to make a quadruple batch of chocolate cake and put it in a large dish. Unfortunately, I didn't think to specify to use the one egg chocolate sponge recipe, so she followed the one titled chocolate cake. Basically, one dozen eggs were used, instead of four individual eggs. lol.

: : New cake server! : :

: : Presents : :

We gave Mum her presents after dinner, then had dessert. The cake had been made at the last minute so wasn't out of the oven until quite late; we left it for another night.

: : Blowing out the candles : :

Communion - Thursday

Written 1.6.12

This weekend is communion at our church; that means a service Thursday morning, Thursday night, Friday morning, Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Monday morning. Actually I think there are a couple of prayer meetings too... Most services are about 1 ½ hours long, but Sunday morning will be more like 2 ½. Lots of practice for young children learning to sit quietly!!

We actually don’t go to all the services, but it still takes enough time that I don’t get much school work done. I can’t remember the last time I did a full day of school work. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I can even remember what a full day of school work is. Hmm, might need to do some on Saturdays as well!

Due to the fact that we no longer all fit in the van (we have eight seats and eight children), one of us either has to catch a ride, or not go. So Thursday morning Danielle went to work with Dad.

We couldn’t stay long to talk after church (I reckon it was too cold to stay anyway!!!); the Campbells were coming to give Jarrod and Monique their violin lessons.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written 13.6.12

Most of us had lunch, Mum took the van for a WOF, the Campbells came and went (taking Jarrod with them to pick up some kittens from the SPCA; they would drop him back later on), I attempted some school work, Mrs. Bramwell rung to see if it was a suitable time to drop in for a chat, and finally, Mum arrived home.

The Bramwells did come over; my siblings enjoyed the chance to play with their friends!

Then there was washing to get off the line and dinner to make before I went to Bible Study and the others went to church.

John and Naomi Over For Dinner



Dinner; doesn't it look good? haha



On the 25th of May we had John and Naomi Smith over for dinner.

My siblings had a lot of fun (I forget what they were doing, but they were really loud! haha).

Meanwhile Dad went out for a while, and homeschooling became the topic of discussion for ages!



Talking with John and Naomi



Visitors for dinner

Note: I'm unsure of the actual date I wrote this...
~~~~~~~~~
 We invited the de Boer family to come to our place for dinner tonight, the 5th of May.



Most of the day was filled with the usual ‘Saturday things’: cleaning, vacuuming, washing, ironing. And I actually managed to bake(!), I made 5 Star Chocolate Chip Cookies and a couple of chocolate cakes. Later on Mum put the roast on, Danielle made a self-saucing chocolate pudding for dessert, and Dad organised seating for everyone. (Yes, our family alone fills our table, when extended, so we pulled in the table from outside for the little ones to sit at.)


They arrived, and after some conversation, we all sat down to enjoy our meal. One table seemed to express their enjoyment more vocally than the other!


The dessert mix hadn’t looked quite right while being made, and it didn’t look nearly cooked when it had five minutes to go. So, Mum decided to use plan B – tinned fruit, ice cream, and the red velvet cake Anne Roos had brought.


After dessert had been consumed, my siblings brought out their certificate albums and various history projects to show Amie (Dieuwe’s girlfriend). Dad brought out drinks (go Coca-Cola! Lol), and Mum reminded me to take some photos for my blog (how could I forget?!).


All to soon, goodbyes were said, our guests left, and bath time began for my siblings (Think: Noise and chaos! Haha) More housework (dishes and folding) was done, and finally it is now bed time...G’night! =)


PS: I’m kinda tired now, so hopefully this piece isn’t entirely void of sense! :P

Dinner with the Sonnevelds



Monique (11), Ruth (16), Bee (15), Essie (14)
The pavlova we made -yummy!

The Sonnevelds invited us to go to their place for dinner after our visit to the Botanical Gardens. Of course, we weren't about say no! haha After the Botanical Gardens, we came home to get the washing off the line, feed the animals, and all that. Then we went to the Sonnevelds'... Ruth and Es were cooking, and Monique and I joined them (many hands make light work! Well actually, I think it's more the talking, but anyway...).

So...for dinner we had potato wedges, samosas and spring rolls, peas and corn, carrots, and coleslaw.

Pavlova!!!

Everyone ate well at dinner, so it was a unanimous vote to wait with dessert!  That gave us time to do the dishes and finish preparing dessert...

For dessert we made pavlova (or actually, I think Es made it, we just helped put the topping on), and fruit salad (yep we made that too).

 After dessert, Mum and Mrs. Sonneveld did the dishes, and we four girls went upstairs with the guitars...actually we'd planned to play Bible Trivia (as we'd had fun playing it the day before!), but we actually didn't get that far!

Mum announced all to soon that it was time to leave!

Dinner out!

My cousins' family and mine have jointly owned a business since late 2007. Dad and Uncle Paul had been saying for a while that the business should fund dinner out for both our families. That became a reality on February 25th, when we drove in convoy (yes I was behind the wheel too!!! :P) to a Japanese/Chinese restaurant in the City.

The waiters and waitresses seemed very taken with all the young children!

It took a few minutes to get us all sitting around one table, but finally it was accomplished, and we proceeded to view the menu and decide on dishes. One of my favourites was the riblets we got. =) What cracked me up was how, with one of the dishes, some of my siblings and cousins energetically complained about how awfully spicy it was. However, I tried it myself and detected that there was some spice in it, but I didn't think it was over-the-top spicy!

Left to right: Diana, Aunty Yvonne, Madyson, Uncle Paul and Abby

Any lingering hopes of a quiet meal were dissolved, and dinner was consumed.

Finally it was decided that dinner had ended, and the table could be cleared. 

Much careful examination of the menu was done before ordering desserts!



before ordering desserts! I'm afraid that with such a large order, the staff had a few difficulties remembering each individual request, but eventually all was sorted, photos were taken, and the dessert was eaten. Yum!

My mocha =) Isn't it pretty?

At some point it was decided that we should leave, first though we had to gather everyone, pay, and (of course!) take a group photo. =)

Hope that wasn't too boring to read!! :P

<3 Bee

Group photo with Aunty Yvonne



Group photo with me