Did you see me in the paper?

Unless you live in Perth, and you actually read the newspaper, you wouldn't have seen me!

On Saturday I opened up the magazine section of the West Australian Newspaper, the West Weekend to find a rather LARGE photo of myself and some of my blogger friends. The photo wasn't a surprise, obviously, because we posed for it a couple of weeks ago in King's Park, the size of the photo however was a bit of a surprise, but luckily it was a pretty good picture of us all (although Ezra is scowling), so I didn't cringe too much!

There was also an article accompanying this photo, about Mum bloggers in Perth, and I was lucky enough to be included! I felt like I was babbling most of the interview and I was really distracted by Ezra trying to break the journalists dictaphone. I'm sure the recording included a lot of banging. In the end I didn't manage to sound too idiotic! It is nice that bloggers are getting more exposure in WA, sometimes it seems like the Perth bloggers are far away from all the east coast action!

The ladies: Georgia, Cie, Me and Taryn  : We make pretty cute kiddo's too!

 In the other photo on the left  is Jules and her kids from The Bumpiest Path. 

After the photo shoot Ezra ran back to his new friend Bridget asking to be picked up, the lovely and talented journalist that wrote the article. Ezra is extremely fond of her, can you tell!!

Karen xx

How to become an Aussie

So yesterday Joel sat his Australian Citizenship test.

Finally, he got things rolling and is fast on his way to getting his official citizenship sorted, meaning no more worrying about visas and he really wants to be able to vote seeing he has more interest in Aussie politics that a lot of Australians I know!

So, what does the Australian Citizenship test entail?

This was Joel's Facebook status last night. especially for all his American friends.

So, many have been wondering what was on my Australian Citizenship Test. Please use the following as a brief study guide.

1) Applicant must skull a Foster's and/or Victoria Bitter beer in 10 seconds or less. (one of our prime ministers had the Guiness record for 2.5 pints in 11 seconds)
2) Applicant must wrestle a crocodile and survive.
3) Applicant must use the word G'day in a sentence. (phrase

s such as "It's been a G'day today" or "This soup is really G'day?" qualify for immediate disqualification.
4) Applicant must wrestle a great white shark and survive.
5)Applicant must eat a full slice of Vegemite Toast.
6) A picture of an El Camino is shown (tricky one El camino is an american car). Applicant must call this a ute and must passionately desire a currently made vehicle like this in either Ford or Holden make.
7)Applicant must wrestle a Koala and survive.
8) To the question "Who is the best cricket player ever?" applicant must answer Sir Donald Bradman and know his test average.
9) Applicant must throw and subsequently catch a boomerang.
10) Applicant must pick a code of football to support and write a 1000 word essay on why all other types of football suck. (Applicants who pick Soccer as favourite will be deported immediately back to Europe)
11) Applicant must wrestle a redback spider and survive.
12) Applicant must eat a meat pie cleanly with no cutlery or serviettes (referral to these as napkins will cause loss of points)--Tomato Sauce (ketchup--see previous rule for translation demerits) will cost an additional 30 cents.
13) Applicant must wrestle a kangaroo and survive.
14) Applicant must recite all words to John Farnham's "You're the Voice"
15) Applicant must write five direct quotes from the movie The Castle.
16)Applicant must wrestle a platypus and survive.
17) Applicant must travel to Bali and own at least one Bintang shirt or desire to do this at some point in their life.
18) Applicant must cook the following on a BBQ to testing approval: Prawns, Lamb Chops, Beef Sausages & Rissoles
19) Applicant must wrestle the following and survive: Brown Snake, Tiger Snake, Taipan & Death Adder
20) Applicant must refer to a redhead as bluey, a bald man as curly, a tall man as shorty, respond to people whoshorten his name to an abbreviation if required (i.e. Gary = Gazza), and refer to all his best friends as bastards (this is let's them know he likes them).

There are some more things you may want to study like box jellyfish wrestling, names of australian super models,the lyrics to Waltzing Matilda, and how to ruin good bourbon with coke but these may or may not be on the test.

Good Luck!

Really it is a simple test of 20 multiple choice questions, but I think the above test is MUCH more authentic! 

Karen xx 

Mum & Toddler lunch: Cheesy Cauliflower soup

Last week we had some rainy and cold weather, and all I felt like eating was soup! I love making big batches of soup and eating it over the next few days when it is cold, it makes me feel all warm and homely. It is also a great way to get those lunch time vegetables into the toddler, and, well it is also delicious. Ezra has actually enjoyed eating this since he was pretty young, and it is still a big hit!

This is an adaption of mine from a Jamie Oliver recipe from his Ministry of Food book, which is used a lot in our house!

Ingredients

2 cloves of garlic
2 onions
2 stalks of celery
2 carrots
3/4 of a large cauliflower
1 chicken stock cube (salt reduced, and preservative free!)
1 cup of grated cheese
1 teaspoon of wholegrain mustard

Method:

Basically I just chop everything up into small pieces and crush the garlic.
Sometimes I just throw all of this stuff into the slow cooker for a few hours, and let it do its thing.
Other times I sauté the onions and garlic in a pan on medium heat for a few minutes,  and then add the other vegetables at cook for about 5-10 minutes until they are soft.
I then add about 1-1.5 litres of water and the chicken stock and bring it to the boil, then I let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
Finally, I add the cheese and the mustard and blend it all up into a liquid soup with my hand blender.

I usually serve it with a piece of whole meal homemade bread!!

All pretty easy, and quick.

It is a bit of a messy meal for a toddler, but Ezra LOVES this soup, and LOVES feeding it to himself. Meaning that he needs a clothing change and the dog gets called in as the clean up crew, but I try to do my best to make eating fun, and I know it is important to keep variety in his food. If there is a bit of mess, oh well, thats just life!!

Karen xx