So having written food posts on Sunday and yesterday, I didn’t write what we got up to on those days. Sunday I spent a few hours binge watching ‘The Resident’ while cracking lots of walnuts!
I enjoyed a lovely video call with my brother and his adorable girls in Wellington. Then I made some videos for te reo Māori teaching that starts this week. It’s not something all the kids will necessarily do, so I don’t want to teach anything new… just giving ways for students to revise and practise what they’ve done already. Here’s one where I act out the feelings… and you have to say what they are in Māori before I tell you the answer.
Antony took over the kitchen both Sunday and Monday as he was busy sorting out his crickets. Those that were in the freezer he cleaned, boiled then dehydrated. Then all the dehydrated ones he put through a special grinder to make cricket powder which he puts in his smoothies (for protein). The grinder is really loud and takes ages but after 2 solid days he has finished processing all the dehydrated crickets he had in jars and all the ones stored in the freezer, yay!
In top two pics below are the dehydrated crickets and about to be dehydrated crickets. Bottom left Antony is cleaning and boiling the crickets from the freezer, before they go in the dehydrator. Bottom right are the crickets getting ground up into a powder.
The Easter Bunny must have heard about our Zero Waste ambitions so didn’t visit us with eggs or other chocolate goodies this year. We thought brownie could be our chocolate-y treat instead. Antony had some brownie from a supermarket bakery in Denmark in December and couldn’t stop raving about it. The next month there we looked in supermarket bakeries across the country for brownie but it was nowhere to be found. We were staying with friends at the time who sent through this recipe for us on Saturday… so we had to try it (thanks Lilian)!
We made it on Sunday night… it is so rich and delicious that small pieces at a time is all that is possible. There was so much sugar required so it will be a once-a-year kind of treat I think. It is really good brownie and I love that it has walnuts (freshly cracked!). I had a bit of the supermarket one Ants raved about and personally thought it was so heavy and stodgy… this one is much better. Hardly any flour- lots of eggs and chocolate -anyway the texture is perfect. I just may have had it for breakfast this morning! (Forgot to soak my muesli!)
I spent a few hours on Monday creating a Quiz ready for our inaugural TimeBank Quiz Night this coming Saturday via Zoom. I’ve created 7 rounds on all sorts of things… it should be fun for everyone I hope with a good mix of easy and hard questions. Quiz night starts at 8pm NZ time – whoever joins in the Zoom by then will be put into teams (breakout rooms). We welcome anyone, anywhere, to join, not just TimeBank members so if you like quizzes and want to join, please do, it’s free. Click here to register and get the zoom link emailed to you.
Had a bit of a break from Les Mills fitness classes in the weekend but got back into it Monday with Body Balance and then this morning with Body Combat. Another sunny day today – we are getting so many it’s amazing! So I headed into the garden to prune and deadhead some of the natives and also the hydrangeas. I couldn’t get them all in one go as my sore hand started getting sore, so I will do some more tomorrow. All the hydrangea flowers are gone in this pic… but the hebe is only half done.
Flowers weren’t the only thing I pruned… after lunch today I pruned dear Antony’s locks. We didn’t have any hair clippers – just scissors, so clearly it is a bit patchy looking, especially at the back … but at least we’ve got rid of the shaggy fluffy look… and gone more for soldier!
Tonight we had our first TimeBank Teaching Tuesday – topic was Kiwisaver and we had a registered financial adviser Adam Stewart do a presentation and answer questions. If you are interested in joining any future TimeBank organised zoom events… then click here. In addition to Teaching Tuesdays we have Crafternoons on Fridays and Garden Q & As on Sundays.
Had a quick chat with a friend after the zoom event finished, cleaned up in the kitchen and tried my pear dessert concotions (pear cobbler again and baked pears). I then tried tidying up work bits and pieces before finalising this post. Tomorrow still plenty to do! See you all then.