It’s been a funny old week.
They’ve been a couple of difficult moments, punctuated as always by lots of laughter. Let me share some of the good bits with you…
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No matter what else is happening, I try to make a point of beginning each day with a mindful ten minutes, sipping hot chocolate from my Steve Sheridan tea bowl and studying the rising sun as it paints patterns on my dining room wall…
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My cousin Dilys needed to return an item to Costco, and while we were there, we encountered these giant 8′ bears. They were $290 each and there was no chance of fitting one into Dilys’ Honda Jazz…
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I caught up with girlfriends for lunch at Bistro Cocotte – lovely Jay saved a calf liver plat du jour for me…
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A 40th reunion of our year 6 class is being planned…(edit: in the end, we found everyone!)
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I had a perfect decaf piccolo at Coffee Alchemy in Marrickville. A blissful 15 minute break in a hectic week…
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Whilst I was in Marrickville, I stopped by the Black Forest Smokehouse and bought this bag of fresh chorizos. It’s a brand new product they’re developing for a retail customer (who has ordered 9,000 kilos!). The sausages are raw rather than smoked, and the flavour profile is slightly different to their regular chorizos…
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After years of reading about American half sheet pans, I was quite excited to discover them at Costco for just $10 each. I brought home a pack of two, and promptly decided to attempt a “sheet pan dinner” – I cut up a whole chook and combined it with potato slices, chopped tomatoes, garden zucchini and pieces of the fresh chorizo. After seasoning and tossing in olive oil, the pan was popped into the oven to roast…
It was delicious and sooo easy! I think I’m going to enjoy these sheet pans…
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We managed to catch the El Anatsui Five Decades installation at Carriageworks just before it closed. The renowned Ghanian sculptor creates large scale pieces from recycled aluminium and copper wire. This huge piece – titled Drainpipe – was made using the bottoms of tin cans…
Awakened uses flattened aluminium bottle caps (the screw on variety), “sewn” together with wire. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, most of these pieces are worth millions of dollars, so it was a great privilege to be able to see them for free as part of the Sydney Festival…
Finally, a video of the ethereal Womb of Time, which uses the same bottle caps as above, only with their silver sides out…
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Wishing you all a happy start to the new week! ♥
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
How big are your 1/2 sheet pans? I have two which only just fit in my oven, but I wouldn’t be without them and use them often for chicken or fish pan meals.
18″ x 13″. They’re a perfect size for my oven! x
And a very happy week to you, too, Celia. :)
THere are so many recipes (even cookbooks) for sheet pan dinners, I’ve been resisting not sure why – I guess I always think that things won’t cook at the same time homogeneously, but you proved me wrong…
lovely assembly of fun facts, loved those huge teddy bears! I laugh imagining our pups reactions if they could be around one ;-)
Have a great week ahead, Celia!
Sally, they were SO huge. I honestly don’t know how anyone got them home! :)
All in a week, wow! Thanks for reminding us to stop, and notice all the good things. We have discovered some raw chorizo from Pialligo Smokehouse. Celia, I must send you an email regarding my bread making attempts.
Chris, I hope it’s all going well! :)
How lovely your difficult moments were punctuated with lots of laughter.
Have a beautiful week ahead.
:-) Mandy xo
Thanks lovely! I was so sorry to read that you’d been unwell! Glad to know you’re on the mend now…much love x
Those teddy bears are huge! We have them at our Costco here too. The sheet pan dinner looks delicious. Summer is always a busy time, isn’t it? Have a lovely week!
M, it’s autumn here now but you wouldn’t know it! It’s been 30C for the last two weeks!
I have watched every episode of Ina Gartens Barefoot Contessa filmed in the Hamptons & I have been obsessed with her sheet pans! I notice that all the US TV chefs use these. I will now heck my local Costco asap. Thanks for the heads up Celia.
Kim, resist the urge to buy the full sized sheet pan – I have a giant smeg oven and it doesn’t even come close to fitting into that! The half size is a perfect fit, but as Amanda and Maureen have pointed out, best to check the width of your oven before you buy!
I’ve always just called them cookie sheets. I’ll have to try the ‘sheet pan dinners” looks easy and yummy. Thanks, C! Hugs, Maz
Maz, the American naming system is quite confusing! There’s half sheet pans, quarter sheet pans, jelly roll pans… :)
It was easy to pick you out from your school photo – you haven’t changed a bit! And the chorizo purchase made me smile – we made chorizo today…..50 of them ☺ hope the less good bits of your week weren’t too horrible xx
T, parts of it actually were a bit horrible, but it’s all good now. :) And homemade chorizo! You guys are brilliant!
I’m sorry about the horrible bits 😕 but I know you’re the kind of person who looks for the sunshine through the fog. Take care my friend
I was in 6 OC at Hurstville Public in 1966! In those days there were a girls’ and a boys’ school. I loved it.
Melissa, wow! Small world! :)
Oh Celia we may have met before the last time. I did a teaching prac at Hurstville Primary in either 1974 or 1975 or 1976!
Rose, we had Mr Patten in year 5 and Ms Hitchens in year 6!
Damn it! Tony told me later that it was South Hurstville.
Your fantastically busy week methinks is making all of us smile from your school days’ photo to the teddies who surely would need their own room in anyone’s home! Would have loved to have seen that exhibit . . . but more so had a bite of your calves liver: can only get lambs fry here! Sadly not the same thing . . .
Eha, the calf liver was absolutely divine! It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten one!
I have a Miele oven and a half sheet pan doesn’t fit in it. Grrrr. I have oven envy every time someone says they can fit a half sheet in. :)
The art is wonderful!
Grrr…that would make me a bit cross too. I had to take the full sheet pan back to Costco because there was NO chance it was going to fit! Hope things are traveling ok, darling one… xxx
Those Teddies are just outrageous. I am sad to have missed the exhibition even though I intended to go. darn. Your liver looks too delicious AND that is a lovely way to start the morning indeed
I’m so loving that 9, T. Thanks again lovely xxx
1/2 sheet pans are a term I have not heard of before, we call them baking sheets or cookie sheets! Looks like you had a good week. Love the giant bears!
Eva, there are whole cookbooks out on “Sheet Pan Dinners”. I’m keen to try a proper sheet pan cake though, I’ve been reading about them for years! :)
I should use my sheet pans more often. I usually use them for cookies or other baking. For some reason I use a large casserole for the equivalent of a sheet pan. I’ve had a bit of a hot chocolate habit for years now! Sometimes I even am able to enjoy it before the boys are up and making all sorts of noises.
Gretchen, in about five years from now, you’ll be telling me you can’t drag them out of bed! :)
Or they’ll be like I was and always an early bird. I like to think hat boys are better at sleeping in during their teens, it gets me through the early mornings anyway!
When they’re sixteen, you’ll be pouring water in their ears to wake them up…hahahaha
I’m going to quote you on that 8 years from now!
Large Teddy bears recently appeared here, too. I would have bought them for my nieces and nephews, to be sure. The little ones would have loved it but their parents would have had a devil of a time dealing with it. Hehehe.
I once bought my sheet pans at kitchen stores and paid handsomely for them And then I stumbled upon a restaurant warehouse site. Their aluminum sheet pans are sturdy, easy to clean, and cost a fraction of what I had paid at the shops. If something happens to one of them, I don’t fret. i just order more. :)
Did they have any 1/8th sheet pans? :) What wonderful creations those artworks are, appear fluid from something so solid, very nice. Is that the little bowl with the froggie in the bottom? Glad to hear you focussed on the laughing to balance things out. Very important! Take care, M
Fantastic! I too was able to catch that installation while it was in San Diego.