The Parlo Family » Stuff

My first pen

Mon — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 08:42:45 +0000

So it just happened – I used up my first pen from how many notes I take in my law studies. A whole pen in just over two months? It’s frightening really. Anyway we thought we should note this momentous occasion.

Dinosaurs

Jase — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:15:22 +0000

This Daisy Owl comic seems like the kind of thing that could happen at our house…

Chilli Hot Chocolate

Jase — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:28:23 +0000

Here’s a recipe Ash and I enjoyed making and drinking!

VIANNE’S SPICED HOT CHOCOLATE

Prep time: 15 minutes. Cook time: 10 minutes. Serves: 2.

Flavors of chili pepper, cinnamon and vanilla come through lightly in this hot chocolate from “My French Kitchen” (Morrow, $24.95) by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde. Harris is the author of several popular novels, including “Chocolat.”

1-2/3 cups milk

1/2 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise

1/2 cinnamon stick

1 hot red chili pepper, halved and seeded

3-1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, preferably 70 percent

Brown sugar to taste (optional)

Whipped cream, chocolate curls, cognac or amaretto, to serve

Place the milk in a saucepan, add the vanilla bean, cinnamon stick and chili, and gently bring it to a shivering simmer for 1 minute. Grate the chocolate and whisk it in until it melts. If you must, then add brown sugar, but do try to go without it. Take off the heat and allow it to infuse for 10 minutes, then remove the vanilla, cinnamon and chili. Return to the heat and bring gently back to a simmer. Serve in mugs topped with whipped cream, chocolate curls, or a dash of cognac or amaretto

Shamelessly pilfered from here

Scouts!

Jase — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:21:32 +0000

Ash and Connor are both members of the 3rd Croydon Scout Group. Ash has been there since she started cubs, and Connor started Joeys as soon as he was old enough. As well as being group secretary I just made our new website, which you should go and look at :) Mon and I also take turns being parent helpers at Cubs, and Mon does any camping that needs doing, cos I don’t do tents!!!

Water Use

Jase — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:02:33 +0000

I’d like to claim bragging rights for us :

We are four people with a small (vege) garden, using less water per day than a ‘typical’ two person household with no garden at all. Go us!

Finding Recipes by Ingredients

Jase — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 02:31:11 +0000

Ever have that thing where you really feel like cooking something that has certain ingredients in it, but your recipe books are only indexed by name or main ingredient? Or you only have a few random things left in the fridge/pantry, and don’t know what you can cook with them?

For ages I’ve wanted to set up a website that allowed you to enter a few main ingredients, and you could find recipes that had them. True to the maxim ‘If you leave it long enough, someone else will do it’, someone else has done it. Quite a number of someones in fact.

Mark emailed us the other day to point out Cooking By Numbers, which reminded me that I’d seen some others on Lifehacker, so I went back and searched them out.

Snacksby is ‘Like MacGyver, but for food’, (which I assume means, ‘does cool stuff with very little’, rather than ‘uses a lot of gaff tape’) but also a bit confusing and hard to find what you want. It’s more of a recipe sharing site than a dedicated ‘ingredients search’.

AllRecipes is the best one functionally, you can search by ingredients you want and ingredients you don’t want, as well as any keywords you’d like. You can also select from a variety of recipe types and sources.

The last one is FoodieView, also a recipe sharing site but the search is good, and courtesy of which we will tonight be eating Maple Chicken with Cream de Brie Sauce, minus the brie…