Cooking with Parvin

What seems like a lifetime ago now (maybe December 2024?), Steve and I went for a date night at A Taste of Saffron at Stones Corner. It was a Persian restaurant that we had never been to and the food was delicious. The highlight of the night was an amazing eggplant dish with some kind of yoghurt toping. Couldn't tell you the name of the dish, but I took a photo of it. We had recently had some people from Iran join our church and I thought maybe they would recognise it. 

Parvin did recognise the dish and was happy to tell me about it, so I asked her if she could teach me to make it. She was so excited, but of course, by the time I had shown her the photo, it was late January, and then we left for Japan six weeks later. Fast forward to February of this year and, I finally had the pleasure of learning how to make this Persian eggplant dish with Parvin. 

It was so special to be cooking with this lovely lady. What I thought was going to be an hour or so, was actually more like four hours. We soaked the eggplant, cooked the yoghurt, chatted and sewed. Then finally got to the main cooking. It was delightful to be learning from her. The kind of thing I wish I could have done with my own grandparents. 

I was a little emotional about it, thinking of so many things. The wisdom that comes from the older generations, the traditions they can pass on and stories they can tell. The perspectives that come from people who had to flee their countries, how they continue to cook food that reminds them of home, and keep their culture alive in a new place. How our generation is missing these slow moments of connection in our busy consumer driven lives. Even thinking about God's kingdom and desire for every nation to be one people. 

When we finished cooking, Parvin insisted we go and buy Turkish bread from "the only place in Brisbane with the best Turkish bread" together. The shop was in Moorooka and had lots of Persian products that Parvin told me about as we walked the to the bread section. The whole afternoon/evening was good for my soul and I'm super thankful for it. 

 

Bunting and Cake

Steve and I have entered the phase of our lives where the people around us are all having mile-stone birthdays. Turning 40 and stuff. I guess our turn is soon enough, but it was definitely a moment for consideration. 40? Really? 

Anyway, as with any big party, while most other people are thinking "Who do I invite?" or "What do I wear?", I'm thinking: do we have bunting for this? (Well, firstly "What food will we make?" of course, but the bunting is a very close second.)

Sarah was turning 40 and obviously needed bunting for her party. Even though I'd made bunting for her 30th, they were going for a "fancy cocktail theme" this time, so wanted some matching bunting for it. I didn't promise, given the "middle of term" nature of the party, but when it came to it, I did find six hours to sit at the sewing machine and make a new batch of bunting to suit. 

Bunting. So great. 

Our local Spotlight was actually closing down (just relocating) so I managed to get a good bargain on the fabric which was good. When you are trying to make specific themed bunting, it's much harder to source the material from stuff you already have. In the end, I was going for a black/gold look and I think I achieved it? 

Sarah liked it in any case. 

Ironically, when I asked her what cake she wanted me to make, she asked for the same one she did for her 30th - the Black Forrest Cake. I didn't think to look for that recipe at the time, but I still managed to find and use the exact same one, but with a few adjustments to make it more "actual cake" and less "goopy mess of cream and cherries". 

The little mini cupcakes were actually vegan friendly. I made them with the usual Shadowlands Cupcake recipe from Sophie's Bluey Cookbook, but added some of the cherry mix for flavour and then decorated to tie it in. Actually delicious and the fresh cherries were pretty sensational. 

Success for cakes too! 

Happy Birthday older sister! I guess if you are now 40, I'll definitely be there soon. :P 

Greek Easter

Taking a break from sewing, here is a post about food! Greek, or Orthodox, Easter is something that my family have always celebrated to some extent. Sometimes it lines up with "normal" Easter and we enjoy the long weekend at the same time as the regular folk do, and other times (more often than not) it's on a completely different weekend. 

This year, it was at least a month after Easter was celebrated by most Aussies. My parents had skipped the country on another travelling adventure, but I still wanted to have some Greek Easter festivities. So for the first time in my life, I made the Greek Easter Bread (Tsoureki) and the Greek Easter Biscuits (Koulourakia) and dyed the eggs red. 

It was honestly really strange doing all of these things myself since my mum has always been in charge of them, and before that, her mum or aunts. Greek cooking is very matriarchal it seems. The girls helped with the short bread (below), which again, was special to share with them. 

It was a real delight to have family and friends over to share the roast lamb and all the other things I take for granted at Easter time that others have never experienced. We all said the Greek greetings and had fun cracking the eggs. It was honestly just so great to be together with people we loved too, and felt very much "out of Covid" at last. 

Yay for Greek Easter. I'm honestly so lucky to celebrate what Jesus did for us twice every year. 

Bluey Fest 2023

This was possibly one of the most fun things we did at home this year. Lots of just hanging out, but so much quality time together. 

For some back story, Bluey is an Australian kids show, aimed at four to seven year olds. My girls were either on the older end or older than the target demographic when it came out, and we don't watch too much TV as it is (Play School all the way), but gradually we found ourselves enjoying the Bluey. As far as children's TV goes, it's so quality. Both the writing and animation is great, not to mention the topics covered and portrayal of kids imagination play and positive parenting just blows every other kids cartoon out of the water. Suffice to say, we love it. 

I'd seen a fair few episodes and had even started using them in the music classroom (such quality music, both original and remixed classics) but Steve had been missing out. Somewhere towards the start of 2023, we started watching the episodes together whenever we needed a bit of a break. It was really nice to sit down every now and then to watch a few episodes and just enjoy the good quality humor that was Bluey. 

At the start of November, ABC announce they would run "Bluey Fest" which was where they would play Bluey episodes all day from 6am to 7:30pm. People were encouraged to vote for their favorite Bluey episodes for the count down of top 100. 

We voted. 

And also planned our day. 

Sophie had bought a Bluey Cookbook, which I've mentioned before, and since we had seen all the episodes, we had a lot to choose from. We planned, all our meals around food that appears in Bluey, including snacks, though Steve vetoed another Duck Cake. We also printed the charades cards that Sophie coloured and I laminated. 

Rachel helped cut out the fabric to make a Bob Bilby puppet. 

I printed Bluey bunting. 

Even though it sounds like the actual day was going to be a lot of TV watching, it really wasn't. The girls did watch a bit before breakfast (proffertjes), but then we ate and went to church just like normal. When we got home, we popped it on again, but the girls were also colouring some Bluey pictures while we watched and chatted. 

We took a break for our Bluey themed lunch (sausages and capsicum salad with Aunty Mary's dressing) and Hugo came over, so the three kids went off to have a swim together at our neighbor's place. 

Steve was sadly missing most of this day, since he and his brother went to Bundaberg for the weekend to help his dad move. He made it back for the last hour of Bluey though, so did get to see the top ten. It was so fun to watch together and we all agreed the top episode (Cricket) was an excellent one. 

Still not sure why the grannies episodes are so high up though. 

One of Those Cakes

Some days, you've just got to make a cake. Rachel went off for a play a couple of Saturdays ago, but upon arriving at her friends house, things unfortunately did not turn out as she had hoped. Her friend was there, with nothing to do, but it still being only 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday, didn't feel ready to actually have a play. Poor Rachel came home in tears. 

What's a mum to do, but suggest some quality one on one cooking time. Surely cake will fix everything? If not, it will come pretty darn close. Coincidently, a day or two before, Rachel had seen this video of cake making on YouTube, and so requested to make something similar. Why not? 

We made a very thin chocolate and vanilla cake (as well as a round of cupcakes) and let them cool. Then she cut circles and stacked them to make mini layer cakes. 

We had fun making a ganache to cover them (Rachel was pretty excited when she found out she could ice a cake with something made of chocolate and cream) and then I let her go to town decorating with icing and flowers that we had in the cupboard leftover from her birthday. 

This cake was just what we needed. Especially starting back to school for term three that week. Just what the doctor ordered. If the doctor were me, and cake were medicine. 

Getting ready to write this post, I realised the last spontaneous cake we made was the Duck Cake back in 2021! And before that, was the Just Because Cake in April of the same year. The world needs more cake. 

Could be though, that we haven't been making as many because Sophie has been in the kitchen much more. She made a spontaneous purchase of a Bluey Cookbook (I think back in the Easter holidays) and has been quite inspired in the kitchen ever since. 

Another reason could be that we have all been too busy reading to need to make a cake "just because". I for sure, know of no better escape from reality and am so glad to have this shared love for books with my family. 

More on that reading next time I hope. See you then!

Misc Memories

As the year comes to a close, I'm doing a bit of organising and have some final memories to share. These are just the small moments that happened in these last three or four months that I've captured with a snap (most times just the one quick pic) that I'm thankful for now, or they likely be forgotten all together. 

We took the girls to seem Mary Poppins at the Lyric Theatre. This wasn't their first musical there, but it was the first they were genuinely excited about. They had seen a school production of it a couple of years ago but were so keen to see the magic on the big stage. 

Steve's brother's dog had puppies and we got to see them grow from tiny squirmy things to these fun little balls of fluff. They did end up getting twice this size before we had to say goodbye, but it was loads of fun to have cuddles with them before that. 

Sophie got a red stripe at Jiu-jitsu! Red stripes are for leadership and are pretty hard to come by. We were so proud of her for getting this one. 

My school music concert was themed "TV and Movies" this semester, so I dressed in Steve's Jedi costume from four years ago and told all the students I was a "Jedi like my father before me."

The girls went on a guide camp the week before our 14th wedding anniversary, so Steve and I took the opportunity to have two nights away in the city. We ate delicious food and stayed out late, did an escape room and watched the Black Panther 2 movie. Lots of fun just being together in beautiful Brisbane. 

For the first time ever, we actually did our street proud with Christmas lights. Could be the addition of the front fence, but it was so exciting to now put up those lights. Steve got excited and got them all wifi connected timers and also went security conscious with them too. No hacking our lights! 

The girls went to a ginger bread house making afternoon at my parent's church where they were very excited about all the lollies on these little houses. They actually made six in total, four of which were shared with the street kids as soon as they came home, because there was a dance practice for the street party. 

Oh do I love to see the street kids organise themselves, practice and perform their dance at our street party each year. Three years in a row, and it's not getting old. Speaking of performance, these girls also did their first on stage performance with Rachel's music school. 

Proud of their performer lanyards, Rachel played piano and Sophie accompanied on ukulele. They also got their faces rather spectacularly painted. Their music school is moving next year to the other side of the river, but we are luckily retaining the fantastic piano teacher Rachel had and he is now coming to our house to teach both our girls. Whew! 

Sophie's compassionate nature scored her this free pineapple plant from Bunnings. We were walking through the garden section while she finished of a sausage on bread when we happened to see a pineapple that was just lying out of it's pot. Sophie told the people at the front and took them to see it. The Bunnings lady then said that instead of repotting it herself, she would just write it off and give it to Sophie to take care of. Free pineapple for us!

Rachel got a geode rock science kit for Christmas (early present since my parents were traveling) and had loads of fun being a scientist with it. Her favourite thing to do was smash open the geode that came with the kit, but she also enjoyed the other things. This crystal growing one didn't turn out quite as we hoped, but it was still fun. 

I've been reading lots of books. Some to check to see if the girls would like it. Shinji Takahashi and the Mark of the Coatl, Ronia the Robber's Daughter, Enola Holmes and Dragon Rider all fall into that category. I've also read the second Dragon Rider book and am currently in the third. The first was good, but the other two are a bit busy. Still, the author has taken the time to add a thought provoking quote at the beginning of each chapter which I truly appreciate. 

I've done lots of sewing, and cleaning/culling/sorting of stuff that we need to get rid of, and other things that I guess I'll blog about soon enough. The garden is growing and the weather at the moment is beautiful. We are planning 2023 and some fun things to do there. 

I also type this with joy, because when I post it, it will mean I've finally made my goal of posting five posts a month for a whole year. I don't think that means I'll change things up next year. Maintaining is just as important as improving in some cases, but it's good to know I'm there. Maybe next week I'll think more on resolutions but for now, thanks 2022 for all of these little memories and more. 

Here's to 2023, whatever that may bring. 

Christmas Swim

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to Jesus! 

This year's festivities are bought to you by a Christmas swim at our neighbour's who conveniently went to Stanthorpe to celebrate, and my first ever maple glazed baked Christmas ham. 

May the time you have spent with your people be a joyous and relaxing as you can manage. 

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Somedays you are just too sick to bother writing a whole post, and it's all you can do to make gingerbread men for the kids lunches. 

 

We Were in Iso

Can't even remember how long ago now (two weeks? Three?), Steve had a sore throat on Sunday morning and took a RAT before we went out to church. Just in case. Turns out he was right to test, because he did indeed have COVID-19. 

This news, with the current restrictions, meant that everyone in the household had to isolate for seven days. At day six, the rest of us would test and if anyone new tested positive we would then reset the seven days isolation and keep going. Steve would be free at the end of the seven days, and not be able to contract the virus again for 28 days, after which he was able to get it again and would have to go through the same procedures if he re-infected. 

I was so sure that either the girls or I would get it from him, and we would end up in at least two weeks, if not three or four, of isolation. Maria was with us, but she had only just recovered from her own bout with COVID-19 two weeks earlier, so was still in the 28-day infection free period. 

I panicked about all of my classes and what on earth the students would learn (especially since this backed onto a week of cancelled school thanks to a mass rain event which caused flooding all over Brisbane). Then I spent three and a half hours on the Sunday afternoon planning the most easy to teach but still musically relevant lessons I could. 

And then we got on to isolating. 

Starting with a round of D&D, while Steve was still functioning, and then progressing on to making tents in the living room, lots of Lego, reading and lying around (mostly Steve).

By Monday lunch time, Steve was spending the majority of his days in bed, sleeping away the fevers. He still ate with us, and every time one of the girls mentioned a sore throat I dreaded what it would mean for prolonged isolation, but nothing ever came of it. 

I should explain that my dread of prolonged isolation was not because I didn't like the isolation. On the contrary, the isolating was great, aside from Steve being sick. But this term had already been so crazy, two weeks delayed at the start, and then nearly four weeks where I ran lessons outside, because you couldn't sing unless you had a 4m2 around each child. Added to that was the week that school was cancelled for nearly four days thanks to extreme weather and flooding. I just wanted to go back to school and teach kids music!

Anyway, since I couldn't and we were stuck at home, with most of us healthy, we just had a lot of fun. We taught Maria how to play Take Two. 

I made bucket hats for myself and the girls. The photo is not great, but Steve assures me this hat doesn't scream "music teacher!" too loudly, but rather "eccentric jazz musician", which I'll be happy with. The outside of the hat was the final bit of fabric I had left after making these chair bags last year. The green my mum found in a remnant bin for $2. I'd used it once before in a skirt for a friend's kid, but was glad to use up some more of it in hats. 

The girls progressed from a fort behind the couch (with tent entry way) to "soft land" after they discovered the old red rug which was stored under our bed. They pulled out all the blankets, sleeping bags and cushions and almost lived in this square of the living room for two and a half days. 

Our builders kept working and we have the beginnings of our small front veranda, which was very exciting. Even going outside this far was delightful. The girls and I being well the whole week, I made us lots of delicious lunches and dinners, thanks to Maria and my parents who did some groceries for us. 

When the girls started playing in Soft Land on Thursday, I thought I'd use the time to get some sewing done and see how much I could get done until the girls needed a break. Girls played for seven hours straight, and it turns out you can get a lot of sewing done in that time. I'll blog about that one later. 

On Friday, the girls and I all tested negative, much to my complete shock. Was isolation really going to be over with just a seven day stint? 

Sophie did complain of a sore throat again on the Sunday or Monday (can't even remember properly now!), but still negative. Steve's theory is that I actually brought the COVID-19 home in an asymptomatic way, since he pretty much never leaves the house these days, (he had even been taking a week off jiu-jitsu because of a thumb injury). We also theorize that the girls had it, but their symptoms were so mild and the RAT isn't super accurate later in the game that they never tested positive. 

I wonder if the theory is right, but without a blood test I guess we won't know. The biggest inconvenience though has been that Steve finished his previous job on the Friday before he tested positive, which meant he couldn't access any of the 8 weeks sick leave he had stored up from there. He had Monday to Wednesday off, but started the new job on Thursday, when he was still feeling pretty rubbish. He was a champion to get through most of his induction and initial meetings with everyone at his new work while still recovering. 

I made lamingtons and we celebrated being released from isolation, which really, aside from Steve being sick and me wanting to go teach kids music, had been pretty great. Chip the guinea pig enjoyed our isolation too, mostly because he got to spend lots of time in the house with us, keeping us company while we kept ourselves busy. 

Creative Rachel

Sometimes things just fall in to place. You wake up and have some egg whites in the fridge that need using up, sugar eyes in the cupboard that have no purpose and a Rachel who could use a little something to do while Sophie is out. 

So you make meringues. Dip them in chocolate and add the eyes for fun.  

All is right with the world.