Muesli Bars
If it wasn’t for procrastination, I’d never get anything done.
Today the kids are both with grandparents, so it’s definitely time to focus on my Top-Secret Well-Paid Writing Thingy. (I’m not allowed to tell people what it is, but it’s super awesome). I prepared by getting all the current “Murder in the Mail” stuff sorted: I stamped and addressed ALL of the “7b” postcards, and have already packaged and addressed all the “8” parcels, which is the Very Last Parcel For This Mail-Out (it’s been a huge thing!), and I washed and put away a whole lot of clothes.
So today I’ve done two more loads of washing (mostly linen), cleaned the bathrooms, applied for a writing thing, invited two more people into the “Magic in the Mail: Feuding Fae” story (and sent them contracts, and chose two possible art options), arranged delivery of two paintings for the “Murder in the Mail” Exhibition (24 August until 7 September here in Canberra), rearranged my twitter profile, ordered contact lenses, arranged a dentist visit for Louisette and a checkup for the cat, and fed all the pets.
And I’m writing my second blog entry of the day.
In unrelated news, it’s 11am and I haven’t scraped up the courage to open the aforementioned Top-Secret Well-Paid Writing Thingy. Today is my last chance to truly focus for at least ten days (there’s another grandparents’ day approaching, but I have much doctor-y stuff to do that day).
So… let’s talk about muesli bars!
1/2 c honey (I used maple syrup, which definitely did NOT work as well)
1/4 c brown sugar
125 g butter
3 c rolled oats
1 c rice bubbles
1 c choc chips (the original recipe said 1/2 c but that’s clearly an error)
1/2 c desiccated coconut
1/4 c pepitas
1/4 c sunflowers
(with ANOTHER thank you to the grandparents for supplying the last two ingredients because I did not want a whole pack of either)
- Grease a slice tray.
- Add honey, butter, and sugar to a saucepan and stir for two minutes or until the sauce is nice and thick.
- Mix everything else in a big bowl (except choc chips).
- Add syrup and stir.
- Put in tray, sprinkle with choc chips, and press down firmly with the back of a spoon.
- 15-20 min at 160 degrees (or until golden).
- Cool on tray before cutting into pieces.
Like I said, maple syrup didn’t work as well as honey. . . but I ended up with a kind of granola which was actually delicious (I ate it dry, with a spoon).
It was impossible to get the kids to stop eating long enough for a smiley-style picture. I am okay with that!
Yum Factor: 5
Health: 4 (a pretty good snack)
Easy: 4
Will make again? I don’t know. It doesn’t have as much protein as peanut butter balls… but then again, I’m not as intolerant of these either. And healthier than Anzac Biscuits, I reckon—but somewhat less portable. I might do some syrup experiments, because these could potentially be a school snack that Louisette actually eats. (No peanuts at school.)
Are ya chicken?
And so we come to the “actual meals” part of my daughter’s class recipe book.
First, we have Sweet Chilli Chicken Skewers.
6 chicken tenderloins, sliced in half lengthwise
12 bamboo skewers, soaked
2 T sweet chilli sauce
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 T grated ginger (I got mine from a jar)
2 tsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed (jar)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
- Thread chicken strips onto bamboo skewers.
- Mix everything else and marinade the chicken in it.
- Bake in moderate oven for half an hour, keeping it covered with aluminium foil for the first twenty minutes, and turning once. (The original recipe said to char-grill or BBQ for 3-4 minutes each side.)
(I cooked some frozen chips to go with them.)
I wasn’t super enthusiastic about this—I’m against anything with chilli, as a rule—but the sauce was simply exquisite.
The kids enjoyed squeezing and sucking on the lemon:
TJ also enjoyed the sauce—as did I!
It was a rather nice dinner. TJ was enthusiastic (he likes novelty, and is going through a pro-unusual food phase, although he still likes being able to clearly see exactly what each item is—the sauce was thin enough that it fundamentally didn’t register as “other”). Louisette. . . not so much. We made a rule at the beginning of this adventure that she had to have at least one bite of everything we made.
Yum Factor: 4 (an excellent meal)
Health: 4 (loses points for only being a meat recipe, rather than a balanced meal)
Easy: 4 (no real skill required, but slicing the chicken and putting it on skewers is more work than I usually do for a meal)
Will make again? Probably not as skewers (unless I’m bein’ fancy-like), but that sauce was great and I expect I’ll make it again at some point.
Excuse my French
Regular readers will know I’m a sucker for punishment.
Allow me to rephrase.
It really helps my depression to have a win in life, and taking on something a little bit special/difficult/unusual really works for me (while also making all my near relatives—except my Mum, who also loves a good project, and my Dad, who is used to her—try to talk me out of it*).
In unrelated news, Chris and I watch the Tour de France each year.
One of the sexiest things about Chris is that his reaction to virtually any sport is to immediately and pointedly fall asleep (he’ll literally change the channel/mute if sports news comes on). The Tour is the one exception; something he inherited from his father.
For about three weeks each Winter, our household grinds to a halt as the Tour is on from 8:30pm until 2:00am most nights.
It has a bewildering, hypnotic beauty (once one becomes desensitised to all the lycra). There are castles, and coastlines, weirdo spectators, epic art, plenty of heroes and villains, complicated and ever-changing team strategies, sprinklings of French, and amazing feats of endurance.
Aaaand then there’s Gabriel Gaté. He’s one of those chefs that just adores his job. Each night he films a short segment meeting local restauranteurs* and/or farmers, and cooks a dish (the recipe is written out in full online) inspired by the region.
The first night was last Saturday, so he cooked a “perfect coastal dish”: Prawn, Potato, and Hazelnut Salad. You can see what he actually did here.
This is what *I* did:
Ingredients:
Boiled cubed baby potatoes
Boiled cubed sweet potato
Chopped hard-boiled eggs
Diced cucumber
Finely chopped cashews
15ish cooked and ready-to-eat prawns, defrosted overnight (did you think I’d cook them myself??) and chopped (except for several saved for garnishing)
Some walnut halves, for garnish
Sprinkling of chopped chives, for garnish
50mL olive oil
1/2 tsp lemon myrtle/salt mixture
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp sweet chilli sauce
I mixed everything from the first section of the above list (except the garnishes), put it into fancy glasses, drizzled the dressing (ie the last four ingredients, mixed) over the top, then garnished it, then served it.
This is what the dressing looks like. We actually didn’t need that much.
The great thing about salads is that it’s easy to adjust them for different people. TJ’s salad contains carrots and cheese instead of prawns (I also chucked in some water chestnuts, because why not?)
Louisette had… sausages.
Now let’s analyse the work of an international French chef using the same system I designed for 6 year-old home cooks:
Yum Factor: 4 (an excellent meal. Loses point for having no chocolate, and both kids refusing to eat prawns)
Health: 5 (vegetables and everything!)
Easy: 3 (no real skill required, but it took me a while to coordinate all the moving parts; 3 garnishes is just silly so next time I’ll probably just whack a prawn on top, sprinkle chives, and call it a 4. 4.5 because it can be prepped in advance).
Will make again? I was thinking ‘no’ during dinner (although it WAS nice to eat—and good to be able to do a bit and then sit down, and then do the next bit, then rest again, etc) but I think that’s mostly because of the process of adjusting the recipe as I went along. So, in conclusion, yes I do think I’ll make it again (with the changes to make it a 4.5 on the easy scale). I reckon I’ll save it until we have (adult) guests coming over, so I can be all fancy-like.
*Chris evaluates each project on its own merits, and on how exhausted I’m likely to be afterwards. That determines his emotional reaction along a sliding scale from “enthusiastic” to “terrified”.
*Is there any word that’s more FRENCH than that? HOW MANY VOWELS DO YOU PEOPLE NEED?
Amytriptyline
One of my meds is amytriptyline. I take it to prevent migraines.
I’ve always had migraines with my period (not that I knew they were migraines until relatively recently) and when I was pregnant for the second time I had pregnancy migraines. It took a long time to get them diagnosed because they were mostly expressed through an aura that was pretty much 24/7. So basically my vision was blurry, and I had a lot of headaches. Along with a lot of other pregnancy awfulness.
Pictured: The up side of that pregnancy.
The migraines continued after pregnancy, still every day, still mostly aura (but plenty of pain, too—and if I was in pain it usually went for three days straight) until I finally saw a neurologist. They mentioned that, among other things, I had some non-permanent brain damage (as I suspected, at that point – I’d had migraines every day for over two and a half years and definitely felt like something was wrong with my brain that wasn’t “just” mental illness or absent-mindedness or baby brain). The first med we tried didn’t work, and amytriptyline was only an option if I was NOT taking zoloft so I went through a really nasty period of getting off zoloft (for anxiety/depression) so I could try amytriptyline.
Fortunately, it worked—and at a relatively low dose, too. Amytriptyline is also sometimes prescribed for anxiety, but sadly it didn’t help me (so I now take pristiq for the mental stuff).
The early days on amytriptyline were super trippy. For the first week I’d get up in the morning too doped-up to walk straight. It got less silly after a bit, and I started taking the pills with dinner instead of when I went to bed.
Nowadays I still get aura relatively often—generally towards the end of a long day—and the occasional migraine (the aura is a warning; I take painkillers and chocolate and try to avoid physical and mental stress in order to head off the pain before it settles in).
Solving my migraines was a really big step toward functionality, but amytriptyline has some pretty intense side effects.
Firstly, I need to be careful of other meds containing serotonin (so I don’t take too much, get serotonin syndrome, and maybe die).
Secondly, it dries out my eyes. I now use eye drops every single day, but my eyes still water a whole bunch. I can’t wear eye makeup, and more importantly my eyes are in danger of going kablooey due to diabetes.
Thirdly, I sleep. A lot. I typically go to sleep around 11pm and get up at 7am (for those of you who don’t like counting, that’s eight hours each night) and also nap for around ten hours every week. Some nights I go to bed as early as 7pm, and sleep a full ten or twelve hours in a row. Then quite often have a nap the next afternoon. I used to be a night owl, but now I’m usually pretty wrecked in the evenings.
Since I started taking amytriptyline, three things happened:
My writing output dropped, and has never recovered. I still write more than most humans, though.
I can eat chocolate after dinner. This I like.
TJ sleeps less than I do, which SUCKS because I get almost no Chris-and-me-watching-TV down time.
It’s always super easy to get to sleep. Except every so often, generally when (like tonight) I take the tablet much later than usual, when I feel wildly awake. When that happens, I get up and watch TV or read a book until I feel tired enough to try again.
And that’s why I wrote this blog entry. At 2am.
One of the to-do lists I wrote recently was a medical one. There’s a lot of stuff on that list. I’m currently on a waiting list to see the neurologist again (I think the waiting list is about a year) and talk about other pill options. I don’t mind waiting because I know things might get worse before they get better. My mental state is fragile at best.
It’s clear I still have issues with migraines. It’s also clear that my brain damage hasn’t healed in the two years since I started taking amytriptyline (suggesting that the low-level migraines I’m still getting may be preventing my healing).
There is a very simple test for brain damage: I try to walk using ‘fairy steps’ – with each step, I touch the heel of the new foot to the toe of the previous foot. I’m now able to do it, but only if I use my arms to help me balance. If I keep my hands clasped together, I fall over. The physical lack of balance is nice and measurable, but I don’t know the effect this brain damage has on my writing or my ability to socialise. I’ve always been bad with names, but I’m really REALLY bad now. I also switch nouns (eg “Put the carrots in the laundry[fridge] please.”) and presumably my conversation isn’t as sparkling as it could be.
I used to be quite fond of my brain. Mental illness really doesn’t help with that, but brain damage is a whole new kettle of brains. Fish. Fish brains.
You know what I mean.
Isaac Biscuits
TJ insists that I’m wrong to call these “Anzac Biscuits”. Well, what would I know?
Ingredients:
1 c rolled oats
1 c plain flour
2/3 c brown sugar
2/3 c desiccated coconut
130g butter
2 T golden syrup
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
Method:
- Mix oats, flour, sugar, and coconut in a bowl.
- Combine butter and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir for 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir in bicarb soda (fun).
- Mix butter mixture with dry ingredients.
- Line a tray with baking paper.
- Roll mixture into balls and flatten slightly.
- 10-12 minutes at 140 degrees.
Having only eaten store bought Anzac biscuits (as far as she remembers), these were a revelation for Louisette. They were gone in 24 hours (mostly because of me rather than Lizzie).
Yum Factor: 4 (they’d be a 5 if I was a biscuit type of person, or if they contained chocolate)
Health: 3 (relatively healthy by snack standards, but definitely a treat)
Easy: 4 (hard to screw up. . . although I technically did screw them up by just mixing everything instead of doing the syrup properly)
Will make again? I reckon so. They’re quite similar to peanut butter balls (in terms of being oat-based and a relatively healthy treat that’s simple to make and has some nicely basic pantry ingredients), but with less protein and chocolate (sad but useful because I can’t eat too much peanut butter; I’m intolerant of nuts).
Plus I’m pretty sure that adding the bicarb to the syrup makes it fizz up in a fun way (and presumably makes the final biscuits even nicer too), and I’m annoyed to have missed that.
I reckon we’ll make these next time we run out of choc chips.
Bicarb is cool.
Today is Saturday. The kids woke up at 6am as usual and instead of turning the TV on (the usual morning routine, while Chris and I sleep) they decided to do our world puzzle together. Wearing beanies.
(For the sake of honestly I should mention that there were intervals of screaming rage before they settled down into this charming scene. Then there was some more screaming, which is why I was awake to take these pics.)
So, how’s the cooking project going? This is only the fourth official blog entry, but we’re actually up to Number 8 (of 18). The next FIVE are rather tricky for various reasons, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes (I’ve deliberately delayed the actual blog entries so they’re spaced out nicely).
One week of school holidays is DONE and OVER and no one has been hospitalised. So that’s good. The grandparents are visiting us today, which of course is fantastic. Nana is entertaining both kids, and Poppy and Chris are fixing various things around the house. They just walked through carrying the innards of our sofa bed.
Grandma’s Spaghetti
The Year 1 teacher who organised Louisette’s new recipe book wanted FAMILY recipes (with a strong hint of ‘multicultural, please’) and this one is a ripper.
My children are dead-set against anything to do with tomatoes (except of course, for tomato sauce, which bears little resemblance to the fruit*) so I knew that this was unlikely to be accepted with grace. However, any recipe that contains only three ingredients is a winner in my book.
- 500g spaghetti
- Tin condensed tomato soup
- Grated cheese
Cook the spaghetti, drain it, mix it with soup and sprinkle it with cheese.
Aaaand. . . you’re done!
TJ liked it (although I know from experience he’d probably refuse it next time.)
Yum Factor: 3 (I like grated cheese)
Health: 3 (passable as a meal, but is mostly made of starch and salt)
Easy: 5
Will make again? Probably not, because Louisette won’t eat it; I require more meat in my meals; and putting any red liquid near my 4 year-old is asking for trouble (especially when there’s also long, whippy, drippy noodles involved).
* * *
In other news, today I filled in my annual stall holder form for the Goulburn Waterworks Steampunk & Victoriana Fair. (Here‘s the facebook page for last year, and I blogged about it here, with pics.)
The fair (now called the Steampunk Victoriana Fair) has been getting much bigger every year, and this year they’ve gotten big enough to have “Stall Holder APPLICATION” forms rather than just forms.
What I mean to say is, they’re bringing in STANDARDS.
They now request details about the stall, and a picture or photo of what the stall will look like. If you’re connected to me on facebook (especially on either my ‘general‘ page or my ‘Antipodean Queen‘ page), you probably see such things about once a month, for example:
But since I’ve been stallholding at the Steampunk & Victoriana Fair for the last three years (before I had any books out, in fact!), and have enjoyed all my interactions with the divine (and divinely well-organised) Julianne, I decided to do a drawing instead. This drawing:
I feel there’s a raw honesty to my work that goes beyond the merely picturesque. I also feel that I probably won’t be a contributing visual artist to the “Murder in the Mail” and “Magic in the Mail” stories anytime soon.
*Or is it a vegetable? Argue away in the comments.
Moose?
My daughter had heard of moose, but not mousse. . . so when her dad and I discussed making chocolate mousse she asked, “Will it come alive when it’s finished?”
(Being scientifically-minded, she knows perfectly well that mammals have live young. . . but she also knows there are a lot of weird and wonderful ways to make life happen.)
Speaking of Louisette, she and I were talking today about what she wants to be when she grows up.
She told me that she wants to be a scientist, spy (a new kind who doesn’t spy on people), vet, doctor, nurse, police officer, firefighter, artist, writer and mum. “I have decided that I WILL be a Mum and I WILL marry a man.”
[I have told her that she can’t marry a family member, and if she marries a girl it’s slightly trickier to have kids.]
I said, “The most important thing about marriage is picking the right person. If you pick, for example, a bully—that would be terrible every day.”
She said, “I already have some ideas.”
Of course I wanted details, so she told me (names redacted, obviously):
Kid1, “because he likes science just like me.”
Kid2, “because his name starts with ‘L’ just like me.”
Kid3, “because he is kind.”
Kid4, “because he is funny and has all the best stories.”
Kid5, “because he is very very very very kind.”
I was very impressed with her logic, and with her choices (I know all of these boys; some quite well). I was especially happy that none of her choices have ever been mean to her (I do encourage her to be friends with those that tease her, within reason), and that only one is Caucasian.
We talked about how far away marriage is, and how marrying a good friend is definitely the way to go.
So that was fun.
Chocolate Mousse was always going to be a winner. (You can google your own recipe; I’ve typed enough today.) Vast amounts of chocolate and cream, with sugar added?
Yum Factor: 5 (so rich it’s deadly)
Health: -1000 stars
Easy: 4 (gotta use a dry bowl to whip egg white. . . which I didn’t, and it was still fabulous)… but it’s not easy to tell the kids they can’t eat it until the next day.
Will make again? Probably not, but maybe at Christmas (probably with Bailey’s added). It’s WAY too much cream for my system to handle, so I’d attempt it with lactose free cream (after consulting my also-low-lactose Mum about whether lactose free cream can whip). It’s gluten free (like my mum), so actually that’s helpful. A LOT easier than cake, and yummier too. So… probably yes, now I think of it.
Holiday Recipes
My daughter is getting three weeks of holidays between Terms 2 and 3. She’s a pretty great kid, but that still fills me with blinding terror.
A few weeks ago, her Year 1 teacher asked the kids for family recipes. Those recipes were typed, bound, and printed (with illustrations by the kids). There are about 15 recipes altogether, and I decided that Louisette and I would cook them ALL these holidays.
Yes, THAT will make everything less stressful! Come along and watch as I inevitably regret all the life choices I ever made to end up on this path to horror and pain!
We started with. . . us. Louisette’s recipe was originally from a low-FODMAP recipe book, and it’s a fantastic snack—high in protein, easy to transport (after it’s been cooled, it stays non-sticky even when left out), and still yummy!
I love the magic of SCIENCE inherent in this recipe; taking a gooey mess and adding elements that dry it out to a perfect texture.
Peanut Butter Balls
3/4 c peanut butter (cashew butter is good but stickier, so you gotta add more cinnamon and/or coconut if you cashew it up)
2 T maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c oats
1/4 c coconut
2 T dark choc chips
Method:
- Mix everything in a bowl.
- Using your hands, roll into balls (this gets very messy and sticky).
- Place in the fridge until set.
We make this recipe all the time (and of course we always eat one before they set anyways). It’s great for diabetics and low-FODMAP people (low salicylates, not so much). The above pic is the result of a double portion.
Yum Factor: 5 (aka “yes, it contains chocolate”)
Health: 4 (not exactly a salad, but a million times better than just chocolate)
Easy: 3 (heavy to stir but mixes easily; annoying to put into balls)
Will make again? Uh. . . yes. About three times a week until the kids move out. This is one of the five foods they eat willingly AND it counts as a treat (useful, since our household is a treat-based economy).
Reading My Reviews
It’s no secret that I read my reviews. I enjoy an enraged negative review, as a rule, and I pay attention if the same criticisms come up more than once.
Tin Man Games has an app called “Choices that Matter” on iOS and Google Play, which is an interactive serial story app. I wrote about half of the first story (“And the Sun Went Out”) with Alyce Potter and KG Tan, all of the second story (“And Their Souls Were Eaten”, set in the same universe as all my steampunk fantasy), and I’m editing the third story (“And Their Heroes Were Lost” by Phill Berrie). Google Play has a LOT of reviews, so I spent literally hours last night getting up to date. I made a collection of some of my favourites.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR “AND THE SUN WENT OUT”.
It warms my writerly heart to hear that interactive fiction is making people get back into reading. We hear this a lot!
I love the poetry of the first one, and the insight of the second. Gonna make sure KG Tan and the others see these ones.
This just amused me. More than once.
I kinda like it when people get hysterical with need as they wait for updates. ‘Heroes’ is still going strong, just slowly.
I adore making readers cry.
Chosen because it’s fun to see contrasting opinions right next to each other.
“Action-packed, intelligent stories shrouded in mystery” is quite the poster quote.
Yay, more crying readers. Love it.
Poor, tormented reader.
It’s amazing how positive and negative reviews say exactly the same thing (except in reverse).
I love interactive fiction for its inclusivity, particularly on gender and sexuality.
I love a detailed compliment. It’s always fascinating to see how people see the characters I’ve played a part in writing.
I wish I could reply and let them know that there IS a villain path in the third story.
That’s startlingly deep.
I love it when people favour “Souls” because of course it’s my baby.
I just love that last sentence. And yes, that is a sentiment expressed quite often. Yay?
I agree 🙂 Phill and I both have novels published.
It’s funny how many people want to turn stories (my novels, too) into movies. I think “And The Sun Went Out” is unfilmable because of Moti, but my steampunk novels could easily be a movie someday (if they caught the right person’s eye, which is vanishingly unlikely).
“And The Sun Went Out” makes a LOT of people cry, so hearing that “And Their Souls Were Eaten” had that kind of impact is absolutely wonderful.
The way it tells you how common your ending is, is a really cool & unique thing in this app. Kudos to Tin Man Games.
I love it when readers play a story over and over to get different pieces of the story or different endings.
Aw!
A LOT of people (including the writers) want a Moti-con. I like this review because most people automatically default to male with gender-neutral characters, but Wendy has defaulted to female. Yay!
I do write books! Comments like this are both great and frustrating, since I can’t immediately sell them a pile of my novels.
It’s funny (and good) how many people have an awareness of the game developers needing to be paid.
“Not epic” is a perfect burn. And then the next review is totally different.
*love*
Turning people gay is *takes off sunnies* what I do.
It’s funny to eavesdrop on a discussion of story methods.
Same. We writers are just as in love with Moti as the readers. And yes, we cried too. And we badly want our own Moti-con devices.
I am also human *wink*.
Not MANY children could write a 600,000+ word branching narrative, but sure. You do you.
Lol, that’s certainly an up side to interactive fiction.
I love that she assumes a female writer, and reckons my novels would “storm the shelves”.
I get WAY more reviews (literally thousands more) for my interactive stories than for my novels. It shows how lucky I am to have been born in the right moment to flourish in the digital interactive fiction sphere.
Felicity Banks 