Christmas left overs

There always seems to be food left over after Christmas. This year as we had two Christmas lunches, it wasnt too bad. Warren and I did have left overs for dinner each night. There was a small piece of turkey roll left and this is what I did with it a few nights ago.

I crumbled it and we had it with a salad, even managing to fit half a mango on the plate. Meat salad and dessert all in one.

Sweet Treats

I didnt make very many of these but I did make two just in case no one wanted what I had made for dessert.

These are a couple left over. The front in the front is what I called rum balls for want of a better name and my Mum always used to have rum balls when we went to visit, not sure if she ever put rum in them but that was their name.

I have made rum balls before and they are hard work and make a lot so i made my own version this year.

I had dates and blue berries both dried and I threw them a couple of handfuls each in the Annie thermomix then added some coconut and the rest of the cocoa that I had then about a half a tin of condensed milk. It was still a little sticky when I took the mixture out so I added some rolled oats, small balls rolled in cocoanut, done in less than ten minutes. As I hate rolling them, I got Warren to help so we both had sticky hands.

The Jelly slice was another one that Mum used to make regularly but I got the recipe from a Blgger that I follow. It was pretty basic and easy. One plain packet of biscuits crushed 7 seconds in Annie fixed that, 750 gms of butter? that seems excessive so I halved it and it set just as well. I dissolved some gelatine in hot water and added it to the rest of the condensed milk with some lemon juice and then when that was set added the red jelly on top.

I rarely follow a recipe to the nth degree, both these recipes had called for a full tin of condensed milk whereas I used one for both, now I have a tin left in my pantry.

From the same blogger I read about a Christmas cake/pudding and as that was so easy I decided to make it, I didnt think to take a photo though. We had it as a pudding on Boxing day and I gave some away. I just about followed the recipe!

This is it.

One 750 iced coffee (or you can make your own) I did using three spoons of coffee and two of sugar, adding hot water and then topping up with milk, to make 750 ml, it was about half and half.

A packet of mixed fruit soaked in the coffee mixture over night, mine was a big pack so i used two cup fulls.

Add two cups of SR flour ( I felt it needed more so added an extra half cup)

Then here is the best bit at this time of year.

Line a slow cooker with baking paper, add mixture, place a tea towel or similar between the cooker and the lid. Cook on high for one hour, reduce heat and cook for another three hours.

It is a practically set and forget, the cake of course comes out the shape of the slow cooker, mine is oval but thats fine.

I was making this for dessert for friends coming over and put it on to cook after lunch. Mid afternoon i whipped some cream and I thought i was using the jugs plug but I turned off the slow cooker so of course it wasnt cooked, so well it was good the next day.

Expensive Phone covers

Are they worth the money? I found out this morning that yes they are! Taking Lucy for a bush walk this morning, a park that we hadn't been to before again though it is quite close to home probably 10 kms away.
I must have got too close to a tree as I was checking my phone, got to love the GPS on the phone to make sure that we were going the right way, paths were intersecting all over the place and I didn't want to get lost or too far away from the car as that sun was hot even at nine o'clock.

Anyway i had my phone in my hand and then there was what I call a white flash of pain and I saw an ant, big buggar between my fingers and my phone. It was so painful and I was so shocked that i threw my phone down. It clattered on to the concrete path.

The ant was gone too and i had a red welt on my finger and worried that it would swell, I  tried to get my ring off but it was hot and I was in a hurry and that just made it worse. In the end, I didnt take it off and it didnt swell and now three hours later there is no longer any marks but boy oh boy did it hurt at the time.

Meanwhile my phone is still lying face down on the path, I didnt really want to pick it up, imagining a cracked face or worse. But No, it was all good, no damage done what so ever, working perfectly thank goodness. I have never dropped or thrown a phone before. Thank goodness I did pay extra for a decent case.  

The Ute!

Warren wanted to buy a ute!

So this is it!

After so to-ing and fro-ing, the owner wanted to keep the plates and therefore sell it to us un-registered, he was willing to take $300 off the price to do so. He was also going to deliver it to us and then take the plates. "A mate" had told him that he could change the rego from an existing vehicle to another one that he was buying as that one had WA plates. Started to sound fishy so Warren asked to see the rego papers, it was registered in his name. The story of the take the plates and put on the second vehicle came out after Warren checked that the papers were in order.

Warren being Warren went to the Motor Registry and found out that it is illegal to sell a vehicle with no plates. Several texts messages later, original price and we would get it with a road worthy certificate and plates when we picked it up. The guy had asked for cash, which apparently was a drama for the bank as they required a booking to get that much cash! What the....... they are a bank! 

We did get the money after a bit of sighing from the teller.

Collected said ute, handed over the money and drove away with Warren following. There was no functioning light on the left side and once we got home, he tells me that there is a six inch play in the steering wheel! So much for a road worthy.

Warren went to change the rego over and it was discovered that the road worthy guy had not entered his authority number of the documents! Sounding dogey? you bet!

Luckily there was an older version of computer at one of the booths and they were able to look him up. The new computer systems do not have that on there data base. We were going to have to go back to the seller and then to the RW guy but was saved from doing that.

The seller did seem genuine and said that he had got the road worthy done by an authorized guy and basically he washed his hands of it, he also told Warren that he had spent the money on his new vehicle.

We have the ute booked in for repair, Warren thinks it is a steering arm and it is probably going to cost a few hundred to fix it. I feel as though we got a reasonable deal as utes with more mileage and older were selling for more than what we paid. Ours has hail damage from several years ago and while there is slight dimpling across the bonnet, it does not affect the performance but did lower the price.

The ute will be used as the towing vehicle, in place of the trailer, bike hauler and basic second vehicle, it is manual so I wont be driving it.

Christmas Lunch

Plans change and we ended up being only six for Christmas lunch. Never a hot meal here at home, far too hot to go down that path. It was decided to make a trifle for dessert, some time ago Warren saw a bowl/dish that would make an excellent show piece for a trifle. I think I made one and found that it was just too big for just us. It was also too big yesterday.

I bought a kilo of prawns but I knew they wouldnt go too far so we peeled them and made a salad of them.

I like the colours.

Bush Walking

It was a cool morning and Warren suggested  a bush walk where we have been before. I didnt realize that he wanted to walk the whole circuit. I had said that I didn't want to go  10  kms. He assured me that we wouldn't be going far. The circuit was 4.4 kms

This was early in the walk a tree with massive knots on the trunk

Another tree with lumps and bumps

Coming to the end of the walk.

We were a bit naughty as we took Lucy, she loves going through the bush and we have been here before but accessed it by another road. When we parked there was a signs relating to horse and bike riders and then one at the bottom no dogs. We had checked on the web site and there had been no signs on the other entrance so we took Lucy in anyway but didnt go off the path or let her off. Didnt see any other animals, heard a few birds and we met four other walkers on our way around. 

Rescue dogs

We had some leakage/spillage from our new air conditioner, it was too bad but as it had been installed only a month ago, Warren thought they needed to came back just to check it out.

Two young guys arrived around the appointed time and the apprentice dropped something metal off the truck, poor Lucy jumped as though she had been bitten, she was inside at the time and seemed a bit wary of them because of the noise.

While they were working, I put her on the lead and took her up to the study/kids room with me as they were going in and out the front and back doors. The younger guy came up to ask me something and then asked if she was okay to pat, I said yes but she didnt like loud  or usual noises. he told me that he and his girlfriend had a rescue dog and was very timid. I explained Lucy's circumstances as a rescue dog and when they left, the other guy showed me a picture of his dog who looked a lot like Lucy and she had also been a rescue dog, they had had her about a year.

They put some more tape around the pipes and then poured water through it and we havent had any more spillage/leakage.

 Lucy keeping me company in the computer room, she is not always lying down but it is the easiest way to get a photo of her, otherwise she wants to sniff the camera and then she looks like she is all head and face.

Like this photo. She lay stretched out out on the mat the other day and it was amazing to see how long she was, I took note of where her front and back feet were and got a tape measure and measured where she had been laying, one hundred and fifty cms! oh my goodness! she is long!