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Retro Recipes – Caramel Walnut Cake

September 23, 2012 By Janine 7 Comments

One of the discoveries of getting through the unpacking of the many boxes (a Project 44 goal) were the old cookbooks that had belonged to my Mum and Nana. Flicking through the browning pages, the fading ink shared recipes and ingredients that have long fallen out of popularity. There's Tapioca Cream and Gelatine Pudding, an interesting thing … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cooking Tagged With: Cooking, old cookbooks, retro recipes

What’s Your Favourite Cookbook?

August 5, 2012 By Janine 12 Comments

There is a certain irony to writing a blog post about cookbooks on a night one child in your family is having a hotdog, the husband is having leftover pumpkin soup and yourself and the other child are heating up some frozen spinach and ricotta pasties - Sunday night is gourmet at Shambles Manor. However, disregarding our current culinary … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Cooking Tagged With: Book, Books, Cookbooks, Cooking

The Fridge Debacle

June 18, 2012 By Janine 9 Comments

On Friday 30 bloggers were invited to Kirribilli House to meet the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. I wasn't invited. Something to do with not enough reach or influence I suspect (although I would argue the ten of you I have left after the great blog move are highly influential people). It was blogger power to the fore as Julia learnt about the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: Cooking, Family, Family Living, Food Waste

Reading This Week – Love & Hunger – Thoughts on the Gift Of Food – Charlotte Wood

June 1, 2012 By Janine 8 Comments

Every month I take part in the Book Club on ABC Mid North Coast, which means I have books selected for me to read. It's like a literary lottery, you never know what you are going to get. You often find yourself reading books you wouldn't normally choose for yourself. This month we discussed Love and Hunger by Charlotte Wood. Given I'm not much of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Cooking Tagged With: Book, Books, Charlotte Wood, Cooking, Love & Hunger, recipes

I Make S’Mores

May 6, 2012 By Janine 29 Comments

The internet is a wealth of information. I'm sure if you search hard enough you could find the cure for cancer or the solution to third world hunger within its trillions upon trillions of pages of facts, figures and general whinging. In the six months I have spent trawling the internet in my quest for blogging glory I have learnt one thing, how … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cooking, Humour, What's for Dinner? Tagged With: Cooking, humour., S'more

Sunday

April 15, 2012 By Janine 8 Comments

Sigh, this is why I couldn't enter the Lifestyle category in the Sydney Writer's Centre Best Australian Blogs Competition. I try to do a nice photo of my Sunday lunch and manage to capture daughter's PJ's hanging on the clothesline in the background. Before I started blogging I used to be jealous of the beautiful blogs with the lovely houses and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Family, Family Living Tagged With: Cooking, Family, Family Living

5 Favorite Recipes for Entertaining

February 21, 2012 By Janine 13 Comments

I've never really done link-ups or memes before (watch me gettin' with the lingo) but liked the look of this one and let's be honest it's 10.13pm and I need something to blog about. Over atMoments That Define Life there is is the Listable Life a weekly meme which gives a choice of "lists" to create. There's a certain irony to this post. Given … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cooking Tagged With: Cooking, favourite recipes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Listable Life, Real Living Magazine

Christmas Come and Gone

December 27, 2011 By Janine 13 Comments

Well it's over for another year. Christmas come and gone in a mad whirl of shopping, cleaning, cooking, entertaining. It was hosted for the first time this year at Shambles Manor. We did successfully clear up enough room for people to be able to physically enter the house, OK it was never going to pass any sort of white glove test and the rumour … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Family, Family Living Tagged With: Christmas, Cooking, Family, Family Living, Life Experience

The Lunchbox Lottery

November 11, 2011 By Janine 5 Comments

Salmon Salad

Can the level of a mother's love & parenting ability be measured in the quality of the lunchbox she provides? … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cooking, Family, Family Living, Humour, My Favourite Posts, Parenting Tagged With: Cooking, Gwyneth Paltrow, humour., Lunchbox, Parenting

Cooking With Gwyneth

October 11, 2011 By Janine 5 Comments

Gwyneth Paltrow Notes From My Kitchen Table

Just a disclaimer to start, cooking is not my strong point.  Dinner party guests at my house have been forced to flee to the local Mexican takeaway when the fettucine bore a strong  resemblance, and taste, to Glag Glue. I once tried to feed six people with one potato (in my defence it was a big potato). And the first time my then boyfriend (now … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Cooking, Family, Family Living Tagged With: Cooking, Family Living, Gwyneth Paltrow

Janine Fitzpatrick is a personal blogger with an untidy house, imperfect children and no celebrity friends.

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Weekend Notes

WATCHINGI went to see Fiona O'Loughlin last night. She's the comedian who survived alcoholism, a two week coma from not realising, in her drunken state, that the heater in the dive she was living in was leaking carbon monoxide.  Then went on to spend … [Read More...]

Weekend Notes

Watching We headed to the movies this weekend and saw the latest Spike Lee film, BlacKkKlansman. It's the story of the first black cop in the Colorado Springs police force, Ron Stallworth, who in the late 70's managed to infiltrate the Ku Klux … [Read More...]

Sleepless

So I've been awake since 3.00am. In that time I've signed the family up for an organizing app which can run a joint calendar, shared shopping and to-do lists and has downloaded a series of recipes that are supposed to make my "what's for dinner" … [Read More...]

Grey stairs.

The Widow Goes On A Date

The last time I went on a first date Bob Hawke was Prime Minister, Liam Hemsworth was being born, Madonna was singing Vogue on the radio, Macaulay Culkin was being left Home Alone and Kevin Costner was Dancing with Wolves. It was a long time ago … [Read More...]

Father with two daughters.

Another Father’s Day

Hi Simon, How's things going up there? Did you have a beer with your Dad for Father's Dad? We blatantly ignored the day here. Just pretended it wasn't happening. We still think about you every day. I didn't post anything on Facebook because it … [Read More...]

Daisy flowers

Hellooo Again

  Hi, I'm just here unwrapping the dust covers, brushing down the spiderwebs and sweeping up the left-over dreams of my tiny little space on the internet. I know I've been gone almost 12-months. I'm not even sure how that happened. A … [Read More...]

A messy scrapbooking desk

Milestone Moments

Hey Simon, Despite my best intentions to ignore the milestones they keep on happening, with or without you. We celebrated your Mum's 80th birthday back in August. A rushed trip of some 1,850 kilometres all up with just four days to do the 9 hour … [Read More...]

Weekend Notes

What have you been up to this weekend? Watching  We caught Home Again in the cinema. It's the latest Reese Witherspoon film.  It's a fun little comedy. Reese plays Alice a just-turned 40 divorcing mum of two. At her birthday drinks she … [Read More...]

Picture of a beach.

Weekend Notes

  As the weekend draws to a close here's a little of what caught my eye in the last 48 hours. Watching Saw Battle of the Sexes the new Emma Stone movie about the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. Oh what a time … [Read More...]

A Bag of chips, wine, chocolate, lemonade and magazine. A parody of a bug out bag for the apocalypse.

Could You Survive The Apocalypse?

South Koreans are buying "survival bags" and turning to YouTube for tips on making it through a nuclear blast. The New York Times is writing articles on How To Survive The Apocalypse and the doomsday preppers are starting to look like the smart ones. … [Read More...]

chocolate and wine

Home Alone: The Empty Nest

The empty nest looms in my near future. One more year before the youngest heads out into the world without my micromanaging her every move. I can feel the rotor blades on my helicopter starting to slow.   I heard a whisper of what may … [Read More...]

Weekend Notes

It's a long weekend here in Australia.  So it's been a lazy time. Perfect for some catch-up TV, movies and reading.   Watching I've been enjoying Doctor Doctor it was shot in my old hometown of Mudgee and gosh it's looking … [Read More...]

iVillage

Janine Fitzpatrick is a personal blogger with an untidy house, imperfect children and no celebrity friends. Read More…

Grey stairs.
Father with two daughters.

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