'If you do what you love you'll never work a day in your life' Marc Anthony

I love what I do so in the words of Marc Anthony, I don't work. 

I fail and create.

I had a fail in the kitchen. Which really annoyed me. It was an oat, seed and nut loaf which should have been sliceable. It was far too crumbly. Some got eaten.

I added more butter and honey in the hope to make a type of muesli bar - which kind of worked. A bit more got eaten.

The original mix had made two 'loaves', so I still had more to use. Next came a topping for stewed apples. That got eaten. 

I took half a cup and added it to a bread dough. I wasn't entirely happy with the result but I put it out for breakfast and called it 'Failed seed and nut bread' 

Guests tell me 'It's not a fail!'.

It all got eaten.

The last of the mix has been made into Bliss Balls by adding dates and coating with coconut.  

So, from a failed attempt, the breakfast table saw five dishes. I'm taking that as a win!

On talk-back radio yesterday, the discussion was about the current Cost of Living Crisis. The hosts were reminiscing on their child-hood dishes of 100 ways with mince. I smiled as I was creating the fifth dish from my seeds and nut mix. I'm now actively thinking of another 95 ways to use failed oat, seed and nut loaf.

From the garden

I had a fail in the garden. As part of our weather event preparations I did take the pots off their stands and cluster them in a sheltered corner. The concern being that they would fall over and smash. While I avoided this sudden death scenario of my potted color I had not considered the slow drowning scenario. 

I have purchased  more succulents. These hardy friends will replace my choice of plants from last year. The re-invented set of draws into a flower pot looked fabulous over spring but the winter saw them
shrivel and withdraw to a state of looking abandoned. I had hoped they would come back over summer. Unfortunately our summer blew away this year!

I do enjoy our wee garden. I like the hands-on weeding and potting. It's physical and I enjoy the creative decisions of what to plant where. The reward of being able to pick my own herbs and create yummy stuff is very uplifting. I highly recommend it.

Most of the herbs used in our cooking are grown here at Toadies. It would appear herbs and flowers are the sum of my capability as a gardener. The silver-beet does pretty well and from three tomato plants I got three tomatoes. The beets died, the cucumber never saw the light of day.  However, I have flowers - I forget the name of most of them about five seconds after I throw the wee tag away. Interestingly, I can sometimes recall the names and sound quite garden-y. 

The fails simply become starting points for success.

Family, friends and guests

We  have amazing friends! Last weekend was Gareth and I's 17th wedding anniversary and our Napier friends rallied around to have someone on-site while we went off to Wellington. An awesome break which we are extremely grateful for.

Friday night The Cabana had a cyclone recovery fundraiser event. We rallied the guests and headed over for a night of dancing. Happy our koha was being gifted to a worthy cause. I would have liked to gift my hangover too but no-one wanted that. Note - breakfast was not late!

By far the highlight of the week was having my younger sister return to Aotearoa with her husband. They live in United Arab Emirates and we zoomed in to their wedding during covid. 

Toadies Tours whisked them to a couple of photo opportunity spots and gave them a brief history lesson. 

Kate Shepphard stands in bronze one block from the house!

Earthquake facts and why we don't have Marine Land any more were all covered at the museum.

The story behind Perfume Point - which is not as romantic as one may assume.

And then...mini-golf.  We were evenly matched. We were all attentive and really trying. We considered ourselves worthy of PGA Championship status by the end of it. The scores bounced round, each of us taking a turn at the top then the bottom. It all came down to the 18th hole. 

I had to buy the ice cream!

If this is the summary of my week, creating in the kitchen, gardening, hosting family, dancing the night away with friends and guests...I think Marc Anthony has a point.

I don't have a life of work. 

 Check out this mornings face book post.  The warrior traffic controller bought a smile to my face.