Banana "ice cream"

Ice cream with one ingredient and only two steps?!?! I'm in!!!

Cut the banana in pieces and freeze.





Blitz in the blender.




Yep, that should do it!! :)

nb It takes a bit to move from the chunky lumpy stage to the smooth and creamy part - be patient! :)


A VERY healthy and refreshing treat. Great for your dairy-intolerant types! And quite nice with a dollop of chocolate ganache on top ... or so I'm told! :)

Indoor Breakfast Picnic

My quarterly 'dinner party' for my fabulous PST (Prayer Support Team) was forced to move to the breakfast time slot last month. There's a lot more pressure on a 'daylight' dinner party ... the ambience created by soft candle light also covers a multitude of sins! :)

I went with an indoor picnic theme. Simple and fresh.

The lilies were fresh from my enormous bushes in my backyard - which totally makes me sound like a real gardener!! I love that! :)
(Note to non-gardeners - lilies cannot be killed - trust me, they never die - get on it!!)

 The cutlery and napkin pouches are made with simple brown lunch bags, paper doilies and Ikea's version of washi tape (red with white spots).

 The savoury course consisted of baked breakfast bowls (ham, mushrooms, caramelised onions, capsicum, corn and eggs in a hollowed out bread roll that I baked to get it crispy and solid) - the bacon 'flowers' were a happy accident - trying to work out how to put 24 pieces of bacon in the oven to grill!! :) - the hashbrown balls were baked in muffin tins.

Breakfast quesadillas were inspired by this post and were delicious - slices of bread spread with cream cheese, rolled up and then dipped in melted butter and cinnamon sugar then baked in the oven -  poached pears and peaches.

I love hosting this amazing group of people! They are the most grateful 'customers' and always great company. I'm already planning our next menu and 'theme'. 

Packing Progress

I am fortunate enough to travel interstate and overseas fairly regularly. I'm blessed to have seen some amazing parts of the world - such diverse experiences, cultures, landscapes, people ... and packing requirements!!!

In the neverending quest to pack the perfect suitcase I chanced upon a 'brilliant' idea before my last trip ... and it worked!! :)

These are in the "SKUBB" range at IKEA - (www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/40192634/) -only $9.99 for the whole set (they also come in other colours).

I had one each of the large and small of these left over from use in my drawers and put them in my suitcase.

The smaller one I used for my 'smalls' ...

And the larger one I used for miscellaneous things that have a tendency to 'wander' around the suitcase in transit. Books were kept snugly (no dog-eared corners), adaptors, spare tissues, large jewellery pieces, hairbrush, zip-lock bag of nail polishes etc, medicines, face wipes ... and on the way home? A whole lot of chocolate, fudge and nougat! :)

The first win was keeping all those things neatly contained. The second win was providing a bit of structure to the rest of the suitcase. I found that even when the suitcase wasn't completely full (on the way OVER) things didn't move around so much.

I just dumped the contents of these out so I could quickly share them with a friend who's going overseas tonight. I'll get her to report on the success (or otherwise) when she's back! :)