Pancake Tuesday

Hmmm well yes - this week is Pancake Tuesday and normally these things pass un-noticed, except this time Mamabear mentioned it - which means we just HAD to make some.  In fact the boys are pretty good in making them in the first place - they often make them for their breakfast or lunch and of course the top price is the various fillings.  There is nothing better then a freshly made strawberry mouse with a dash of whipped cream and  a dash of sherry over the top then flambéed!
O R
one can do something with Mushroom/garlic/onion/ capsicum all sautéed in white wine and thickened with fresh sour-cream - ohhh yummm - I am getting hungry just thinking about this! 

Seem to remember one year we had a youth group in our place and we made pancakes for 20 or so kids - went through 5 liters of milk . . . . . .

Gotta go or there will not be any left - have fun



 

Campblanket with New Zealand badges

Right - so I have this crazy idea! It goes like follows:  most towns in New Zeland have a cloth type badge of their location and I have collected a good number since way back.  Recently I was given a brand new blanket at Christmas - my retirement present from Scouting from Mamabear (there was a big hint there).
Anyhow the plan was to sew these badges on to my new camp blanket (the original already being full with scout badges) - so I have been collecting and been on the look out for more of them. (recently acquired a lot of badges from our last trip to Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook) I had to order some badges in from overseas for places we have been to previously, most notably Europe!  Anyhow - try as one might - you cannot get a badge from the Coromandel area - which is R E A L L Y crazy as it is a very touristy area in New Zealand.

What to do - what to do indeed!

Ding - I know - I make my own!!  On the left is the finished result - not half bad - given I had no pattern to work with.  Well - that's not 100 % exactly true.  I had a picture up on the wall of a place in Shelly's Beach (incidentally that I took during a recent trip there) - just north of Auckland and the pohutukawa flowers came from - well - a pattern - but I placed them in the 'right' place.   I even pinched the cloud idea, I made from one of my earlier Teddy-bear cross stitch'. Even managed to get in the word Coromandel - I was worried there is not enough room on the ribbon for it.
So yeah - I am stoked with this Pohutukawa cross stitch pattern - it turned out ok! 

Now just need to sew it on my camp blanket - along with the other 30 or so badges.


PS - if you know of a place that sells them let me know - I'd love to have an
 "original"


pss - 19 Feb - late afternoon

I managed to wash a icon image of Tauranga (filched of the net)  through a software program and came up with something that was stitch-able - 
took a while and ended up a tad bigger then visualised - but hey - its better then not having anything at all!!  I was even foolishly enterprising and to start with hand stitched the border - but  run out of hand eye co-ordination and ended up running it through the Singer using the Button-hole sewing function! Not great - but ok-ish.

Wonder if I can do the same with Waiuku and find something that is stitch-able? ? ? ? ?

 

Waitangi Day in New Zealand

I have been making this rocket stove - and now that it is finished I have used it to cook on a few times already!!  Today - a public holiday - Mr Schick came round at lunch (he missed the inaugural fire lighting ceremony) and shared in some 'light' lunch.  Basically we had whatever you can put on a skewer and - well - grill it! yummy!  Then we sat and chatted for a while! All in all a nice relaxing way to celebrate New Zealand's Waitangi day.




From up top = two skewers cooking away and yes there is a lot of heat coming out from the chimney stack!






Front on - (ok forget the crappy paint job) timber goes in on the top shelf - fresh air feeds the fire from the bottom - brings a new meaning to the words - "Fire in the Hole"  Cooks very efficiently




  


Even mamabear got in on the action and managed to NOT flambé
her marshmallow.  (hehehe last time the heat was so intense that after 3 seconds her marshmallow caught fire!!)

 Left overs - and Max got the occasional treat too

New Zealand bookmark doubles as a cloth badge

I have left active duty with Scouting and am now "officially" well - what we call an "associate".  Among many things - it means that my camp blanket will see little service and will gracefully retire - apart from the fact it is actually already full with badges.  Soooooo - I decided to start on a new blanket and to this end father Christmas was very kind and sent me a nice new woollen dark navy blue blanket!!
Hmmm - what to put on, what to put on indeed?!?!  - hey wait a minute - I got some of the badges of places we have been to during our travels.  That will do.  Ok so I got only a handful. No problem - we can get some more! - Yeah right.

Some of the towns we been to either never had any or have run out long time ago and no longer stock them! What to do, what to do?   AHHHH yes - I could make one just like the Mitre Ten Peak Bookmark and double it as a badge - that will work!!  I can easily do them - just need the time and cash to purchase.
Anyhow after a few days work I got one made for Arrowtown!  Lovely small place just outside Queenstown. Old and Quaint - a former gold mining town.  In autumn the colours are just stunning - everything turns golden / yellow. Just brilliant.
Anyhow without further ado - here is the finished product.
 
I am thinking of using some yellow braid or so and make a outline of NZ map on the blanket and place/sew all the badges of places we have been to, near approximately to where the actual town would be. 
Then there is room for any overseas places we have been to - already have been given one for Amsterdam (thanks Kes) but my Austrian / Italian / German trips will be more difficult - I am no longer the local Jonny on the spot!!

There are some so many to go and collect . . . . . . .

Tudeloo