My Birthday Weekend!!!

Yesterday was my birthday! Traditionally I like to plan as many special things as I can for my birthday. This year I decided to make the whole weekend my own! Here's what I spent my time doing...

- Fun times with the adorable besties!

- Tasty breakfast at Xwray in Fremantle
- Beautiful coffee and delectable juice at The Attic in Fremantle
- Hitting up a bunch of op-shops to start my brand new record collection :)
- Receiving my very first gorgeous Petunia Picklebottom handbag!

- Chilling in the aircon at my family's house
- Chicken schnitzel, cauliflower cheese, potato wedges and salad for dinner (my favourite foods, cooked by my amazing Mum!)
- Double choc strawberry pavlova birthday cake (again, made by my amazing Mum!)

- Buying The Hunger Games for my Kindle
- Receiving shoes, perfume, jewellery and my very first record player from my great family :)
- Sunday morning breakfast with Chris at Betty Blue Bistro on the foreshore
- Birthday present mini-shopping-spree at Rockingham shops, where I scored a couple of Body Shop gifts and some iPod speakers
- FINALLY picking up a replacement Kindle for Chris (his broke a few months ago)

Things left to look forward to today:
- Popcorn, Coke, and The Muppets movie
- Grant Nosworthy speaking at Church

It's a good weekend to turn 26!

Chive and Parmesan Crumbed Lamb Cutlets

It's the middle of the week, and as I mentioned yesterday I've just started a new job. Anything that can make life simple and delicious on a Wednesday night in such circumstances is alright by me. Enter these bad-boys. They may not be pretty, but they pack a tasty punch and are super quick to whip up and serve with a little salad.

Before I go on with the recipe though, I want to talk to you about making your own crumbs. Do it. The beauty of making your own crumbs is that you control the texture, and you know they're fresh. Plus, I just freeze the ends of every loaf of bread that I buy and lightly toast a couple of slices when I need crumbs. This handy tip = free breadcrumbs! My crumbing tool of choice is my mini food processor, officially my most well-used kitchen appliance! Making the crumbs for this recipe was easy - I just tossed all the ingredients in the processor and held the little button down. And look:

Rustic, pretty home-made crumbs! You can still totally make this recipe with store-bought crumbs, it just requires a bit of fine chopping. But I'd still eat it, if you served it to me. Even if your chopping wasn't up to scratch. I'm a terrible chopper.

Anyway, I feel like I've diverted enough. Read on for the recipe!

Chive and Parmesan Crumbed Lamb Cutlets

Ingredients:

10 lamb cutlets

1/2 cup plain flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 slices bread, torn into chunks (pref not anything with whole grains in it)

Handful of chives, roughly chopped

1/4 cup parmesan

1. To make crumb coating: Combine bread, chives and parmesan in a food processor. Process until mixture resembles fine crumbs.

2. Put flour on a plate. Place egg in a shallow dish. Spread crumbs on a plate.

3. Crumb the cutlets by covering them with flour, dipping them in the egg, then coating with crumbs. Press the crumbs lightly onto the cutlets to ensure they stay put.

4. Refrigerate cutlets for at least 30 minutes.

5. Heat approx 2cm vegetable oil in a flat pan on medium heat (see note). When oil is hot, cook lamb cutlets (approx 3-4 mins each side or until cooked through).

6. Serve with salad.

My notes:

- Your oil must be at a good heat. If it's spitting, it's too hot and your crumb coating will burn and your cutlets will stay kinda raw. If it doesn't even sizzle when you drop your cutlets in, take them outtttt and let the pan heat up some more, or the cutlets will end up oily and soggy.

- For prettier cutlets than mine, strip all the meat and fat off the part of the bone that you hold. They'll look much daintier. I'm just lazy. Like I said, it's the middle of a big week!

Hope you enjoy this simple and tasty dinner!

My New Year Has Arrived!

I know, technically I'm fashionably late. But today, January 10, really does mark the beginning of a new year for me! So much has happened since I last blogged (December 1, seriously!?) Namely, I quit my crazy theme park job. No more answering phones for the craziest place in Perth! Today I returned to my favourite job that I've ever held, at my Church. So while the first few days of the year were nothing out of the ordinary - working Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, the year has taken a sharp turn in a much better direction. The thing that makes my new job even more exciting is that Chris will be coming on board with me later this month! We'll be working in entirely different fields, and predominantly different buildings, but we'll be co-workers! Yay!

So, happy new year! I've been thinking non-stop about 2012 and all of its promises, and here are a few that I'm personally hoping to see happen...

1. God: He deserves so much more from me than I've given. This year, a life-change needs to be set in motion.

2. Debt-blowing: we have wayyyy too many loans. This year we're seriously focusing on blowing those debts out of the water and getting that little bit closer to financial freedom...

3. Health: I need to catch onto this whole healthy-eating/exercise thing pronto. I want to feel amazing, and I want to be in great shape by the time we think about having babies a few years down the track. Seriously, I need to get my head in the game.

4. Fussy-busting: I'm still growing out of the fussy-eating mindset that I developed as a kid, and each year I like to challenge myself to enjoy a wider range of foods. The last couple of years have seen me master the tomato, the prawn, the olive and the avocado, and this year I'd like to increase my tastes a little more. Maybe conquer a bunch of seafoods? Game meat? Hmmm!

5. Socialise: Since getting married, I've fallen into the trap of spending lots less time with friends. And spending time with my friends is fun. So here's to lots more good times with the amazing people in my life.

6. Craft: I have a whole stinking craft room, and the only reason I've set foot in there at any point over the last year is to hunt for fairy lights, and to store things. Mad. I love craft. I need to do it more.

7. Positivity: I've become jaded over the years. I miss the 18-year-old version of me who was psyched about everything, who didn't get grudgey, who didn't get stressed. She's someone to aspire to.

8. Be intentional: I need to be intentional about spending time and connecting with the people I love (Chris, my family, my friends) rather than taking it for granted that things will fall into place.

9. House-keeping: I'm not the greatest house-keeper, and as a result of this I'm embarrassed to have people in my home. Crazy, since one of my huge loves is entertaining. I need to get in better habits so that I, and my friends, can actually enjoy my home.

10. Dress better: It's time to start putting some effort into my appearance - not just for special occasions or nights out, but for day-to-day life.

Thanks for reading through! I'm hoping this year that my blog can really reflect some of these changes as I bring them about in my life.

In other news, did you know that I turn 26 on Saturday? Old. Old. Old.

Summer

Well, Summer is officially here. I have a bittersweet relationship with Summer. If Summer were a person, I would spend my time avoiding her because I can't stand her in all her hotness. But inevitably I would end up at some party, minding my own business, when people all around me start exclaiming "Summer is coming! Summer is almost here! Ohhhh look! It's Summer!" Then Summer would arrive, and her adoring fans would get deliriously happy about how hot she is and I would grumble and groan because Summer is not, nor will she ever be, my friend. But inevitably, I would also get a little bit sucked in by Summer. I would laugh at her jokes and begrudgingly be psyched that she brought grapes and cherries and mangoes with her. My friends and I would inevitably create the kind of memories together that only Summer can bring. And while I will be the first person to ecstatically wave her off when she decides to leave the party, and I can get back to my love of all things cold and rainy, I can accept that Summer brings some pretty unique things to the party that nobody else does quite as well.

So these are the things that I am thanking Summer for:
- Christmas. The greatest thing in the world!
- Grapes, cherries and mangoes
- BBQs and salads
- Sunshine into the night (now if we could just get daylight savings like the rest of the world...)
- Public holidays
- Shorts, dresses and wedges
- No mud being trudged all over our white floor tiles!
- Herb gardening
- Iced coffees
- Chilling in the aircon
- Sun tanning (not that I ever get much, but, you know...)
- Date nights on the foreshore
- Icecream
- Brunch
- My birthday
- Cocktails

When Summer rolls around each year, these things get me through the sweating and the painfully hot car seats. Just. But talk to me in February and I'll tell you that I'm ready to smack Summer right in the mouth. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to enjoy a morning of eating grapes and decorating for Christmas!!!!

The Art of Remembering

Hi there! I've been pretty quiet on this blog lately, as people have started to remind me. Sorry! I think my 365 is starting to bum me out - I let it get soooo far behind that it's getting harder and harder to write about the photos that I took all those months ago. Depressing that at the tender age of 25, my brain is forgetting the very details of day-to-day life that I set out to remember by taking on this project! When I was a kid, we travelled to America a few times. Those were some of the greatest times of my life! My Mum got us in the habit of keeping a travel journal from day 1, but being a kid I'd sometimes go for a while without writing anything in it. Then weeks after the trip, I'd finally pick up my travel journal and start writing in it again - back-logging all of my memories and writing about each day as if it had only just happened. It didn't matter that a whole month had passed, I still remembered what we did, what we saw, what we ate on every single day. I still remembered the name of the tiny little towns we stopped in on our road trip, and I knew every event in chronological order, too. Crazy right?! A couple of months ago I noticed that I would come into work on a Monday, and someone would ask what I did over the weekend, and for the life of me I couldn't remember! I would have to think hard before remembering a hen's night, brunch with friends, dinner dates. I mean, wow. These things are the highlights of my days, and yet they escape my immediate recollection so easily. What's with that? Crazy cakes, that's what it is.

So those are the thoughts that I leave you with. I hope that you can relate on some level. Otherwise I'm clearly losing my mind!!!

Insanely Beautiful Shoes: Poetic Licence

For something completely different, I'm going to babble on about shoes. Recently I've discovered my new favourite shoe brand - Poetic Licence. Each one of their shoes is like a pretty little fairy tale for your feet. But I'll let them do some talking for themselves...

Two things I love: my dogs, and pretty shoes. Do you ever wonder if maybe a brand was designed exactly for you??? Love!

What I Did 365 - Day 264

I think you know by now that I'm a cold-weather fiend. What can I say? Nothing beats a wet, Wintery day!  I think that my values have influenced those of my little golden curly boy, too! Truthfully, Cupcake adores any opportunity to snuggle and the cold weather really lends itself to that purpose. This was one of the cutest snuggling moments of all time. What a baby...!