Everyday Turkish Cooking

One of my bestest friends Simcha has just started a blog on Turkish cooking she is an Australian(now living in Turkey) that comes from the same small town as me.

Now if you loving eating Turkish food as much as me, get over to here and check her blog out for some of the authentic stuff.

Simcha is hoping to move back to Australia with her family soon & maybe open a little Turkish restaurant. I know already it would be a raging success, she was a fantastic cook(and friend) before she left. (maybe she will give me a job or at least share her cooking skills!!)

Simcha, remember our little escapades,when once we would put the kids safely in school for the day we would be off on an hours drive to West end for a little fix of Greek or Turk food or maybe a little fix at the hare krishna rooms, a stock up at the deli & then a frantic drive home -hoping all the time there would be no accidents on the highway to JUST meet the school bus in time!!

Hope we can have more fun times like that in the future, love to you & your family

Caroline xoxox

A Belated Happy New Year

We have been away since Christmas Eve, stuck in the floods.

Blessings to the wonderful people we were staying with & to my wonderful,

housesitter(who incidentally my dogs just adore)

I hope all my blog readers had a wonderful Christmas & New Year & a big thankyou to all my faithful followers from 2010.

Catch up soon

Caroline xoxo

Pot Roast Beef -Slow Cooker

Years ago I had a slow cooker, a very much loved slow cooker. This I know because, when I found it lying discarded on a dusty thrift shop shelf it had already seen better days.

While it was rather interesting to look at - as bright as orange as you have ever seen with a mass of flowers decorating the sides. It really was to small for my family to be practicable, living on a cattle station often meant I had the many mouths of Hungary ringers to feed. It eventually died, put a pot roast on one morning for the nights dinner, then went off to muster a paddock of cattle, came home late to no dinner. Broken!!

I then went for many years not owning another slow cooker. Then earlier this year sense prevailed me once again when I found this lovely on special. I already had a Target gift card & a Fly Buys voucher that I hadn't cashed in yet. So with all those small amounts added up I was able to buy this slow cooker for an outlay of only $29. What's more it's huge!! AND the sleek Stainless Steel is a far cry from my old 1970's orange horror.

So here is the pot roast recipe I tried to cook many years ago when my old slow cooker died.

POT ROASTED BEEF

1.5kg-2kg piece of Topside(remove outer fat)

1/2 cup Tomato Sauce

1 Onion

1Carrot

1 Turnip/parsnip

1tsp. Mixed Herbs

3tsps. Cornflour

1/2 Cup Good Red Wine

(I say good because I won't cook with anything I wouldn't drink. Oh! by the

way I always add a good slosh more!! He! He!)

Wash, peel & slice your carrot & turnip/parsnip

Peel & finely chop your onion

Place you meat in the slow cooker with the veggies surrounding the meat

Sprinkle your herbs over the meat & season with salt & pepper.

Combine 1/4 cup water, tomato Sauce & the slosh of your good red.

Pour over your meat.

Put the lid on the cooker and sloow cook on the low setting for about 8hrs.

Then remove the meat & veg- Set aside.

Mix the cornflour with 1/4 cup water to make a smooth paste. Use as much of this as you need to make a gravy of the thickness you like. (don't forget to check your seasoning)

(this photo is before removing the meat/veg to thicken)

Yummy!! I always serve more veggies on the side.
Caroline xoxo

Blue Hors Matine'

Even if you aren't a horse lover you may enjoy this.

Please take the time, broaden the horizons and take a peak at this.

Blue hors matine' is a show stopper an amazing mare who just simply loved to dance.

Dressage at it's finest!!

This video has been around for a while but this mare was simple amazing and I for one never get tired of seeing her talent.

Unfortunately she had to be put down earlier this year when she broke her leg while in her paddock.

Have a fantastic weekend

Caroline xoxo

Emerald's Health Update!!

Emerald will have her first operation mid-January(& hopefully her last) The surgeon is fast tracking her operation because of the severity of her aponea. He is fairly confident that he will be successful and she will not need to sleep on a machine. Please pray for that one!!

We are hoping that we can get some resemblance of normal back into her life before Uni begins in February. Em had a really bad day yesterday at work, having to rush of to be sick she then came home & slept for the next 6hrs. It's a hard balancing act trying to keep things relatively "normal" & making sure her health stays strong. Today has been a great day for her, Soldier boy came to visit and the three of them mucked around - just like old times. She is still bright as a bubble tonight and it's nearly 10pm. You just can't pick it. She did say she might sleep upstairs in her old room tonight though, so she may just be needing a little Mumma sooking saying that.

So I better be off this computer & go and clean her old bed off. That's where I have all the Christmas presents stacked atm.

I would just like to thank the lovely caring people who have left me such kind well wishes for Emerald over the last couple of posts & specially to you Simcha as I know you haven't seen Em in ages & we just can't wait for you to move back to Australia. xxoxo

Caroline.......

Results are in

We have just got Emerald's results back from her Sleep Study.

It seems she has Severe Sleep Apnoea, so severe in fact that at times during the testing she stopped breathing in her sleep, at some stages up to 6 times in a 5min period as well as having 3 Hypoapnoea's (very shallow breaths)

More than 1 episode every minute. No wonder she is becoming such a tired/sick girl.

They are saying it is quite rare in a child this age , hence I suppose their reluctance to even give her a sleep study in the first place. I am so glad I kept pushing for this even though her other blood/urine tests were clear.

They say she is a most unusual case as-

She is only 17

She has always been medically healthy

Is very fit & athletic

Has a perfect weight/height ratio-BMI

So now we are off to see a round of specialists the first being tomorrow. Thank goodness they have fast tracked everything (owing to the severity of her apnoea) otherwise with Christmas only next week we wouldn't be able to see anyone till at least mid to late January. We are hoping for the best case scenario that an operation will fix it. We are all praying that she will not need to have a machine to sleep on at night, that would be such a terrible thing for a young girl to have to do specially at an age when they have so many sleep overs with friends and maybe in the not to distant future, a relationship. I was a little frustrated while seeing her GP as I would have liked to have seen the full results of her study. I was craning my neck to read his computer screen, but we were at just the wrong angle.LOL! I hope I can learn more about things tomorrow.

A note to all mothers out there, please believe in your own motherly intuition/instinct regarding your children even if you have to push your way there & never hesitate about getting a second opinion. If I hadn't have kept pushing we still wouldn't have any answers.

Wish us luck

Caroline xoxo

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Lane-Austin

with love from us all.

MUM.....

xxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooooo

A Sleep Study

Please think of

my darling daughter Emerald

Whose health has been deteriorating for a while now, more rapidly as the year has progressed. It has been increasingly difficult with her having to complete her Senior studies & a Trainee ship she has had through her part-time job.

We have finally found a doctor that was willing to refer her for a sleep study, this is something that I have wanted for a while but most doctors are reluctant to send young people for them.

It is just NOT normal, some days if I was to leave her she would sleep 16-18hrs. She is finding it harder & harder to concentrate & retain memory of the things she is doing. Not good, for a normally high achieving student.

The photos are of Em getting "wired up" ready for her sleep study. These are only about 1/3 of the wires that she ended up having to wear. She also had them on her body & legs.

Her sleep study was done just before we went on holidays

so we are anxiously awaiting her results.

Be back soon to let you know how it all goes, otherwise, back to the drawing board!!

Caroline xoxo

Maybe, a little prayer -if that is what you do. Thank you.

Hi!

Long time no blogging.....

We have been on holiday here-

We are back from our Lovely, Gorgeous holiday,

it really is so nice holidaying with good friends.

November was such a crazy month with everything happening

all at once, but we are back ready to get into the next crazy phrase

of Christmas(hopefully a quiet one)

.

We still have a birthday in the family to get to before we get to Christmas though.

Thanks Cathy for sending me the email with that info. I will catch up with

you soon.

I hope your weekend is a peaceful one in the midst of this busy busy

season. Don't forget to nurture yourself & breathe....

Caroline xoxoxo

Harper Valley P.T.A. -Yippee School's Out

With Emerald having had her Valedictory ceremony last night I thought we would go out with a bang this morning with this song.

WHY?? because Emerald says the song reminds her of me, well what can I say!

That's a worry isn't it, Mmm! Em can we just settle for the "Same but Different"

I may have been just a little outspoken at SOME P&C meetings and have had to have the "Office Vultures" under control over MANY things & a lot of my friends & family know that when you have a child with a disability(my youngest) you have to stick up & fight for their rights every step of their school years (now that's a hard one that shouldn't have to be) but I've never had to complain over the things Jeannie C. Riley had to in this song. LOL!! Thank Goodness.

Of course, along with a lot of people think that Jeannie C. Riley is the only person that has ever been able to sing this song well. An oldie but a goodie!

Have a great weekend

Caroline xoxo