All the yums

I had a very long, slow day in the kitchen yesterday.  I've been thinking a lot about poutine recently, and the fact that we haven't had it since shortly after arriving back from Canada early this year.  We had a dinner party soon after arriving home to share our new-found Canadian food faves with some friends (poutine and beaver tails) but we haven't had it since.  This is mostly due to the fact that cheese curd is almost unheard of in New Zealand.  (Although I have found one supplier down south).  This makes me a little sad.  However, I had been craving poutine for some time and decided that the best way to go about it would be to make my own.  I found a recipe some time ago that sounded simple and straightforward, although it needed raw milk.  Again, raw milk is a little hard to find.  You can get it, but it takes some prior organisation.  I decided to try it with whole organic pasteurised milk, but didn't have much luck.  Deane managed to salvage some of it and make some mozzarella, and I kept the whey to use for waffles, pancakes and scones.  Then I wandered down to the supermarket and bought some more whole milk, found another recipe, and got stuck in.  It took allllllll day.

But you know what?  It was perfect :)  Chewy, squeaky cheese curds with seasoned potato wedges and poutine gravy.  YUM!!  I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner, and happily shared with extended family that happened to invite themselves around when they heard what was on offer.  While I was making the cheese curds I also made a batch of English muffins and some chocolate hazelnut larabars.  Both turned out rather excellent, if I do say so myself ;)  And we had apple crumble for dessert, with hokey pokey ice cream.

No new oatmeal trials so far this week, since the one I'd planned for this morning (chocolate hazelnut oatmeal) required hazelnuts, which I ended up using for the larabars.  Plus I had the English muffins to chomp through so I had those instead.  I must say I'm looking forward to tonight's dinner - stir fry beef, but the sauce is made with kiwifruit and apple.  The recipe came with this week's Foodbox.  I'll let you know how it goes :)

On Tuesday we went out for lunch, to somewhere just a little bit out of the ordinary.  Hard Luck Cafe on K Road.  It is amazing.  If you ever happen to be up this way and looking for somewhere different for lunch or dinner, seriously, you should go there.  Go.  There.

In other news for the week, I took Deane with me for a lap around the Cornwall Park sheep trail on Tuesday.  Slowest run of my life!  But fun all the same.  The lambs and calves were out and about, so we snapped a few pics:

Clearly, I do not possess any photography skills...

This morning I went for a 6.5km run, but went a slightly different route to the usual.  Instead of heading up the stairs at the top of Jacob's Ladder that lead to Waitemata Street, I crossed over to the other side of the walkway and continued down the path that runs alongside the Northern motorway.  I was very surprised to find how much noise was cut by the plexi-glass wall.  I followed it all the way around to the back of Point Erin Pool, then turned up Sarsfield Street, continued onto Stack Street, Cremorne and Argyle, before turning up Clifton Road (phew, what a hill!) and running back down Jervois Road and College Hill Road.

I can't wait until I'm back to regular longer runs.  I've been having some fun creating runs I'd like to do on the Walk Jog Run website, like this half marathon to Cornwall Park, around the sheep trail, and back again.  Or this half.  Plus it's fun to see running routes other people use or have created, and trying something a little different, maybe in an area you wouldn't normally run.  I'd also like to give this run another go some time - Ayr Street kicked my butt last time!  This Sunday I have planned an 18km, and I'm not sure yet if I'll be doing a ParkRun on Saturday.  I'll be sure to avoid all alcoholic beverages and watch my food intake regardless!

The boys have been enjoying some time with their uncle this week, who is visiting from Australia.  He bought them a gift each, in the form of these awesomely cute sock monkeys:

The boys have named them Monkey Man and Monkey Ninja.  They are made by a young mum in Napier, and she sells them for the ridiculously low price of $20 plus postage (or so I believe.  You may want to check with her on that).  If you're interested, I highly recommend you get in contact with her via Facebook.  Her business is Revamp Vintage, and she crochets, and does amazing stuff with old furniture too.  Clever girl :)

Well, it is time again to get back to the daily grind.  I've done no study this week, and hardly any knitting.  I guess that's what happens when you have out-of-town visitors!  I have a pile of clean laundry beckoning me - it needs folding and sorting.  Hurrah.

Have a lovely weekend :)