Food, Glorious Food

Recently I have been enjoying a website called TasteSpotting, and I thought it was about time that I shared it’s existence with you.

It is a site to which people sign up and then submit the next image. The next image is normally associated with a blog entry and recipe. I have found it to be a great way to find new food related blogs.
I know, I know, I’m such a glutton.

You can vote for each post by giving it a star and you can sort the recipes/entries by date or ratings. If you just want to browse you can use the site’s randomizer.

The only complaint that I have about the site is the sheer quantity of daily entries. You should carefully consider how you are going to enjoy the glorious array of food and recipes that come through it’s portals. I kid you not, I have received somewhere in the region of 1600 entries through my RSS reader since the beginning of April.

So why would I recommend it then?

Because we all eat with our eyes and there is certainly no lack of talent in the food photography department. For those who may have difficulty “seeing” the end result of recipes, this is a good visual helpmate.
And where else will you come across such diverse entries in one place:

• Sushi Art - Entry #13682
• Vitelotte Noir - Entry #8408
• Easter Cheese - Entry #11095
• Fanesca - Entry #10716

Go on, take a look. Honest, you can’t get fat just by looking.

Bon appétit

My birthday present from Miss O

The material things in life came in the form of the latest Ella Fitzgerald compilation CD and a birthday card with Miss O’s own inimitable scribbles.

The more important, and intangible, things in life came in the form of trying to stand up on her own for the very first time.

Mr O was the first to experience this as his daughter used him as a climbing frame only to let go once she had reached her full height. An exciting moment passed as father and daughter stared at each other, and then - plop - down she sat. Naturally this was accompanied by frantic calling out to Ms O, who was in another part of the room at the time. Unfortunately the moment passed swiftly and I did not see this first attempt.

But little Miss O is not one to do things once. The evening was littered with attempts to stand alone, using either parent as a climbing frame, or casually letting go of the ottoman with that lightly touching hand.

What a wonderful birthday gift that was. I really couldn’t think of anything better.

Goals Update: March (very belated)

I don’t know where the time goes, really I don’t. Please forgive the very sparse posting over the last month or two. I had hoped that we had turned a corner on that issue, but apparently I was not looking at reality when I came to that conclusion.

Anyway, I am here now and this is my brief recap of March.

Parenting

Introduction of solid food

This is going well so far. The only total reject has been avocado. Banana isn’t particularly popular on its own, but hidden in with other things it is just fine. We are getting used to more chunky bits, although this wasn’t a popular change. With two bottom teeth now we may attempt to re-introduce finger foods. This also wasn’t popular - perhaps because the items are cold. Miss OWW has a definite preference for warm food.

Begin potty training

What was I thinking? Okay, maybe in a month or two but not right now. Far too much to do as it is.

Have a happy, healthy and active daughter

This is a definite success. Miss OWW is generally only unhappy when tired or having a clingy week. Fingers crossed, we haven’t had anything to concern ourselves about her health. And on her activity levels - the current fad is cruising the living room furniture and attempting to use anything that looks even slightly solid and tall as an aide to standing. Of course this makes for a bit of “follow-the-leader” where Miss OWW is definitely the leader and her mother definitely the follower.
We took a month off from organised swimming classes, and are now debating whether to return to them through winter or find another activity to replace it.

Get more sleep

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I’m a comedienne.
We are waffling between waking once and twice a night now. The odd day of multiple waking occurs, but seems to be becoming less regular. For my own sanity I am putting this down to “a phase” on the grounds that over the last month the little Miss has learned to sit, crawl and stand. Add to that the arrival of her first two bottom teeth within days of each other, and I think I have hope to call it a phase. I predict that this phase will continue through April.

Creativity

We’ll just agree to call this a write off. The only photography I have managed was during our family trip to Wellington (see Flickr album in the side bar). I will post the couple of B&W photographs that I took during that trip shortly.

Personal Pleasures, Treasures and Measures

Read 24 books or more

I managed to squeeze out another book this month, taking the year’s total to: 3 books.
Not quite whizzing my way to the 24, but at least I am plodding along.

Work

Create the new website

This one has been very stop-start. I find it hard to achieve much in the 45 minute - 1.5 hour daytime sleeps that Miss OWW takes. With a dodgy memory and suspect concentration, this makes for a fair degree of frustration on my part. With the assistance of Bruce I have been looking through the possibilities and am hopeful, Miss OWW’s daytime sleeps willing, that I will get something solid moving shortly.

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Right, that would be it for the moment. If you’ve read this, thanks for hanging in there with me.

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Yesterday was Anzac Day, here are my previous posts about the day and also a link to a friend’s experience celebrating abroad on this day (ANZAC 2008, Kuwait).

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They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Mother’s Memory Aides

A little while ago I mentioned that I would post about some simple memory aides for the sleep-deprived and memory challenged new mother. Well here you go, take a look and see what you think.

The first of these is for pre-natal use and is very basic.

It’s the Kick Chart recorder.

Then there is the newborn feeding and sleeping recorder.
If you aren’t planning on using a bracelet or similar as a memory aide for breastfeeding, this may be a useful alternative. I have put in an imaginary entry at the top for you to see how I would use the form.

The originals of each of these were created in MS Excel, but WP doesn’t support the format. If you are so inclined, drop me an email and I can send through the spreadsheet for you to alter as you see fit.

My experience.
I found recording feeding times, lengths and sleeping times to be extremely useful for when our midwife asked about the baby’s patterns. Prior to writing things down I was pretty much guessing at what we were actually doing. So it should be no surprise that as soon as Miss OWW had a week of next-to-no weight gain shortly after joining us I began to write everything down. It gave very quick clarity to the fact that she was sleeping for long periods and therefore was not feeding as often as she needed to for optimal growth.

There is no need to panic about these things, but being forearmed allows you to see clearly and without the memory haze that can accompany a new baby. It also allows for patterns to be viewed clearly and for you to track alterations in behaviour that may be the cause of difficulties. While I never needed to show my scribblings to our midwife, I always had them available for her expert eye if things had not improved.

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If you have other resources or links to similar ideas or a story to share, please feel free to leave a comment.

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A Question of Death

In keeping with my current need to read small snippets at a time, I have returned to an old favourite… Phryne Fisher.

Her creator, Kerry Greenwood, has a collection of short stories with lovely illustrations and the odd suggestion for recipes appropriate to the era (1928).
It is called A Question of Death.

I can quite happily recommend this for a spot of light reading.

If you are looking for something more modern, but in a similar vein, you could try the Corinna Chapman series by the same author. This may be somewhat more fattening should you take up the recipes offered.

My rating: 4 out of 5.

Very easy reading. Nice setting. Fun heroine.