Couscous Salad

About a month ago, Miss A's school had it's Sports Carnival.  I spent the day at the oval as I'd volunteered to help out for the day.  At lunch time, one of the other mum's gave me a taste of her Couscous Salad.  Yum!  I couldn't stop thinking about it, so last week I asked her for the recipe.

A couple of days later she presented my with a beautifully typed up recipe!  I made it for dinner tonight and it did not disappoint :)  Thanks Maria!

Couscous Salad

• In a glass bowl put 1 cup of couscous
• In a saucepan put 1 cup of water, pinch salt, 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder.  Bring to the boil and mix well together.
• Add to the couscous, stir well and cover the bowl with cling wrap - leave for 5 mins
• Thinly dice - spanish red onion

                            - red capsicum

                            - spring onions

                            - celery (stems and leaves (if you like))

                            - cherry tomatoes (take out the seeds)

                            - Avocado (optional)

• Finely chop - fresh coriander (optional)

                             - flat leaf parsley

• open a can of chick peas - rinse and drain well.
• Once the couscous has absorbed all the liquid use a fork to seperate the grains making the couscous fluffy.
• Add all your chopped ingredients, season to your liking with salt, olive oil, red wine vinegar and squeeze some lemon juice and mix well.

Did she really eat it for dinner? - not a chance







A day in the sun

Today Miss A's school had a Pupil Free Day, so Mr D organised the day off work and we had a family day out.

First port of call, Harry's Cafe de Wheels for lunch - a first for my girls!  Miss B l.o.v.e.d. her sausage roll.  In fact when asked at the end of the day what her very favourite part of the day was she hugged me and said, "my sausage roll".  Simple pleasures indeed!

We then drove down to Nielsen Park at Vaucluse.  What a beautiful little part of Sydney.

 

And today it was perfect. 

Sunny, warm and a weekday, so not many people around. 

Don't kids just love the most simple things.  Give them some water and some sand and you could just spend a whole day having fun.

Unfortunately we didn't have a whole day, just a couple of hours, so after an ice-cream each it was off home again.

Oh, and I found my new house!

The Gardener's Cottage at Nielsen Park. 

Even as a child I dreamed of living somewhere like this.

Picturesque isn't it?!

boy sewing................

is not something I've had much opportunity to have a go at. 

But recently a cousin of mine gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, so I jumped at the chance to make something hand made for him. 

Ive been crushing on the tie shirt tutorial posted by Emily over at Saltwater Kids ever since I first came across it so knew straight away I'd be making a tie shirt onesie for the little fella.  I decided to pair this with a matching pair of shorts. 

I used the baby bloomers pattern from the book making children's clothes by Emma Hardy.  The idea was to use the same patterned fabric for the tie and the cuffs around the bottom edge of the pants. 

As usual though I managed to stuff it up and attached the cuffs to the top edge of the pant pieces. 

As I'd lopped 2 inches off the main pants pieces I couldn't just unpick and re-sew though.  And as I have been trying to use only fabric in my stash for projects this year I had squeezed the pant pieces out of a very small piece of blue cotton I had left over from this dress so cutting the pants again wasn't an option.

 

After much cursing and chastising of oneself, I decided the contrast as a waistband was a fabulous idea and that adding a couple of matching knee pads was only fitting as the little man will surely be crawling by the time he fits into this spiffy little number!

I have to say I am very happy with the end result, and if the need to make another little boy outfit should ever arise again I will do it just the same :)

I'm also happy to say my cousin seemed genuinely delighted with this little piece of hand made and I thouroughly enjoyed an afternoon of snuggling and cuddling the latest addition of my extended family.