Little sisters.. creating chaos where there was... already chaos?

"Oh my god, I just scared the baby, his little legs are going like mad!".

That was the moment last night, via Skype, when my sister finally checked her ticket and realised that she  had her travel dates out by a day. Out in the wrong direction - as in Eeeeeek, I'm supposed to be on a plane in Zurich tomorrow morning!.  She must have squealed loudly enough to alarm little 2 month-old G (Force). I also went immediately to oh-my-gosh-ville, because that means the infiltration of small, high-energy relatives begins on Friday, not Saturday and I don't, in fact, have good Friday - when The Programmer is off work, to get shit ready.  


I can't judge really. I once checked a plane ticket in Palermo, Sicily and realised I was supposed to catch my flight back to New Zealand the next day, from Rome.  Yeah.. that was a costly lack of forethought... but I digress..

There is some rather serious organising to do in the next day, including actually finding a second spare bed.  Stay posted.  I'm sure this will be amusing (maybe can make one out of the box the TV came in?).

In spite of the panic, there was still other stuff on the to-do list. First thing this morning I rang the vet to see if Monty really needed to get re-plastered. Yes, they said, he does. If he doesn't, the bones could heal in the wrong position and he'll have a permanent limp. I have to say, I have never seen a cat less amused about anything. He spent several hours trying to get it off, but obviously the vet did a super-duper catproof, bombproof job this time. The Programmer devised a plastic wrap so at least we can let him outside to do his business in the usual cat way. He refuses to use any indoor 'catbox'. The cast has to stay dry for two weeks.. and the weather is not complying.

"one is not amused.."

So, before I go racing off to try and turn chaos into order in the house foyer, let's talk about dinner.

This is an aged beef, pumpkin and broccoli mix, tossed with a sour cream, red wine and mushroom sauce. It was yumminess.  What I did with the meat was:

• Cut it into medallion sized pieces and salt/peppered
• Seared the pieces in butter and olive oil then removed them from the pan
• Added to the pan:
• 3 cloves crushed garlic
• Chopped fresh thyme, marjoram, oregano
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1 cup red wine
• Then returned the meat to the pan and slow-cooked for 1.5 hours.

• Then removed the beef again, added four large, sliced portabello mushies, turned up the heat and let the liquid boil and reduce a bit and the mushrooms soften and absorb some liquid.
• I then took the pan off the heat and added about 100g sour cream. This makes the sauce. Stir it to mix but do not let it sit without stirring or it will curdle.
• Meat, plus any other veges into the bowl (one a bed of rice or noodles if one needs more carbs).  Stir the sauce through it. I didn't use much sauce because I already ate.. quite a bit of fat at afternoon tea time (70% Green and Blacks chocolate.. ). It's all the balance of the day, I tell ya.

This is one of those recipes that makes everyone think you are a culinary genius, when actually you just needed to cook something that you didn't need to babysit. :D

Oooh, aftershock. .. it wasn't a 'cat scatterer' though, so probably a .. 3.2?

Edit: It was a 3.7, 8 kms deep.  Do I get a prize for being at least a little bit right?