"A place of light"

Here it is, my latest painting!
It's not easy to find time for your hobby during the busy routine in the day of a mother, but when I do find the time, I really enjoy it. I love painting. Art is a part of me, painting is the way to express my thoughts and emotions, to tell a story about who I am in colours.

This picture is called "A place of light"

"Namaste. I honour the place in you where the entire universe resides... a place of light, of love, of truth, of peace, of wisdom. I honour the place in you where when you are in that place and I am in that place there is only one of us"

- Mohandas K. Gandhi

Movie night. "The sisterhood of the travelling pants"

I am not a big fan of comedy or comedy-drama movies, to watch them I have to be in the mood for it. And I am always sceptical when I hire them out.
So I was with this one.
But I am so glad now I have picked this movie from the shelf in the DVD store! The film is absolutely brilliant, I loved it so much, I even want to get a copy for my home movie collection!

It's not a very new movie, many of you have probably seen it many times by now.
But I'll give it a quick description any way, fot those who have not seen it yet.
This movie has got two parts: original ("The sisterhood of the travelling pants" 2005) and a sequel ("The sisterhood of the travelling pants 2" 2008). After seeing the first one I could not wait to see the next one.
The story of the number one is about a friendship of 4 girls, and the first summer they have to spend apart. The part two is similar only girls got a bit older, and some things have changed in their lives, but the friendship was still there. And this is what both the parts are about: the friendship, helping each other in the difficult moments, life challenges of young women, romance, love, travel, being apart and together. This is a fresh, heart warming, good feel movie.
I would give it 4,5 out of 5.

P.S
It is a girly movie, so the best way to watch it is by yourself or with a best friend or two and a bowl of ice cream :P

Savoury 3 veggies and cheese muffins

These muffins are an easy way to feed your kids much needed vegetables. They're tasty and can be a part of lunch or just as a snack with tea.

Ingredients:
2 cups self-raising flour
270g medium carrots, coarsely grated
250g piece butternut pumpkin, peeled, deseeded, coarsely grated
100g zucchini, trimmed, coarsely grated
3/4 cup coarsely grated cheddar
100g ham
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs, lightly whisked
3 tbs butter, melted
2 tbs chopped fresh chives
2 tsp dry oregano
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Oil for greasing


Method:
Preheat oven to 210°C. Brush 12 medium (1/2 cup) muffin pans with melted butter or oil to grease.
Sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl. Add the carrots, pumpkin, zucchini, cheddar, ham, oregano, chives and black pepper. Toss to combine until the vegetables are well coated with the flour. Make a well in the centre of the vegetable mixture.
Whisk the milk, eggs and butter in a large jug. Pour into the centre of the vegetable mixture and use a large metal spoon to fold in until just combined. Don't overmix or the muffins will be tough.
Spoon the mixture into the greased pans and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Cut muffins in half and spread with butter. Sandwich back together and wrap individually in plastic wrap. Place in the freezer until required.


Tip:
1. Keep in the freezer for 7-10 days. Pack the muffins for lunch while frozen - they will defrost and be ready to eat by mid-morning.
2. You can adapt this recipe as a low-fat, by using low-fat milk and switching ordinary ham to fat reduced one. Instead of butter you can use low-fat margarine.

My husband's favourite hearty steak pie!

This recipe is taken from Jamie Oliver's book "Jamie at home". It's a very nice and delicious meal full of different flavours. Ideal for a warm winter dinner, but can be cooked any season you wish, I guess :) My husband absolutely loves this one!
The downside of cooking a pie like this one is that it takes a long time, so best to cook the meat in one night and bake a pie on the next day. 
It tastes amazing!

Ingredients:
3 medium red onions, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
30g butter, plus extra for greasing
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 sticks of celery, trimmed and chopped
4 field mushrooms, peeled and sliced
1kg brisket of beef or stewing beef, cut into 2cm cubes
A few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
1 x 440ml can of Guinness (no lager, please!)
2 heaped tablespoons plain flour
200g freshly grated Cheddar cheese
500g best-quality ready-made all-butter puff pastry
1 large free-range or organic egg, beaten
Olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:
In a large saucepan, heat a glug of olive oil on a low heat. Add the onions and fry gently for about 10 minutes – try not to colour them too much. Turn the heat up, add the garlic, butter, carrots and celery and scatter in the mushrooms. Mix everything together before stirring in the beef, rosemary, a pinch of salt and a level teaspoon of pepper.
Fry fast for 3 or 4 minutes, then pour in the Guinness, stir in the flour and add just enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer, cover the pan with a lid and leave to simmer on the stove for about 2½ hours. Give the stew a good stir time to time, make sure it won't burn to the bottom of the pan. Cook until the meat is very tender and the stew is rich, dark and thick. If the stew is to liquidy just take the lead off and cook for a bit longer until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in half the cheese, then season carefully and leave to cool slightly.
Cut about a third of the pastry off the block. Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll both pieces of pastry out evenly with a floured rolling pin to the thickness of a pound coin. Butter a deep pie dish, then line with the larger sheet, leaving the edges dangling over the side. Tip the stew into your lined dish and even it out before sprinkling over the remaining cheese. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little beaten egg.
Cut the other rolled sheet of pastry to fit the top of the pie dish and criss-cross it lightly with a sharp knife. Place it over the top of the pie and fold the overhanging pastry on to the pastry lid to make it look nice and rustic. Brush the top with beaten egg, then bake the pie directly on the bottom of the oven for 45 minutes, until the pastry is cooked, puffed and golden. Delicious served simply with peas or mash vegetables.

Tip:
Instead of a big pie you can also make several smaller ones, you can even freeze them for later.

Movie night. "The Jacket"

I love watching psychological thriller movies, the ones which make your brain think. The ones, concepts of the story lines of which make you scared, they're the really good ones! When your brain goes wondering, and you start imagining things, trying to figure out what's going on and why, that's what makes a movie truly interesting to me. I don't like to be frightened by jumping onto the screen things (whatever it is), or by spilled all over the screen blood. I like to think and imagine. So therefore I find the psychological thriller is one of the best genres of scary movies.

The movie I am writing about tonight is "The Jacket", 2005 psychological thriller film directed by John Maybury.
The story is set in 1991 in the mental institution where as a result of previous circumstances Gulf War veteran Jack Starks became a subject to a psychiatric experiment, he's been injected with drugs and put away inside the morgue drawer in the straight jacket.
Inside the drawer while trying to figure out what's actually happening to him and why he's being here, Starks starts seeing a visions.
I won't tell any more details about the story, instead I recommend you to see this movie for yourselves.
The concept of the movie is quite original. The film was done in the style of "12 monkeys" and "Butterfly effect". Some parts of it remind me a recent movie "Shutter Island", but knowing that, don't forget that "The Jacket" came out first.
All together, it is a great movie, well worth watching, I would rate it 4 out of 5.

Heavy rain and cup cakes

The weather lately is being really sporadic, it's been rainy and cool for about 2 weeks and then it got quite hot and sunny, and today it turned rainy again. The rain today was so heavy that our house nearly got flooded. But lucky it slowed down.

Me and kids ended up stuck at home again so we decided to do some craft, drawing and card making :) And later in the afternoon we baked cup cakes.

Here are the pictures of today:

Rain in our backyard

(: Yummy cup cakes :)

Chinese style beef stir fry with broccoli sprouts

Ingredients:
500g lean beef steak cut into thin stripes
250ml Honey, soy and garlic marinade
1 carrot, chopped
1 brown onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, finelly chopped
a handful of baby corn
a handful of baby asparagus
a handful of snow peas
a pack of fresh noodles (for 4 serves)
Chinese 5 spices
Ground cinnamon
Ground ginger
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sesame seeds
Olive oil
Broccolli sprouts to serve

Method:
First, marinade the meat for at least half an hour before cooking.
Heat the oil in the fry pan. Fry onion and garlic, until golden, add beef and cook together for a few minutes, then add carrot and baby vegetables. Sprinkle it all with spices according to your taste. Cook until ready.
Prepare the noodles as it says on the back of the pack.
Serve all together with broccoli sprouts on the top.