The Parlo Family

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!!!

Homework

Ash — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:47:56 +0000

For my drama homework I have to study a person and the way they walk and talk and behave for a week. When I got home I told Dad about it. We were talking and Dad said would it be like stalking? Then i said not really.

Dad then said maybe I should write you a note, and i was like what? And he said “Dear Ms Tobias, Ashleigh couldn’t finish her drama homework as she had a restraining order put on her.” Mum thought this was very funny.

Picture

Jase — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:15:08 +0000

Here’s an image I made for the front of a card to farewell my graduating catechetics class :

Pilgrims

Jase — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:04:40 +0000

Here are our new friends from Chile, who came for World Youth Day :

The Passing of a Legend

Jase — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:07:21 +0000

Sad news in the Parlevliet house. Our 1975 HJ Premier is no longer on the road. There’s a lot of bits and pieces she needs done, needs new brakes and calipers, has some significant panel rust that needs work. We had been toying with the possibility of fixing her up properly, a full cut back and fill and respray, sort out the mechanical issues over the next 12 months, but the final nail in the coffin was body rust in the chassis rails and other places that will just be too expensive to fix, if they even can be.

It’s a sad day for us. As I drove her for the last time today, my heart ached for such a classic old girl, part of me cried out ‘No, I changed my mind!!’ but there’s just too much to do for us to be able to afford to restore her. She’s got just shy of 495000 on the clock. So close….

Haven’t decided yet whether to wreck it or just sell it whole. Mark knows a guy who races HQs, he can use the doors off a HJ if there’s no significant rust, so if we wreck her we can at least be sure that part of her will have a respectable fate :)

Meanwhile, I now have a 95 Lancer that we got from our trusted mechanic so it’s as good as a 13 year old car can be, is plenty roomy for a little car and that’s all I need, and will be cheaper on petrol than the HJ was on gas. But it’s just not the same is it?

Home Brewing

Jase — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:58:15 +0000

We were talking over dinner about how you age wine, and how to brew beer and stuff. I was saying how it brews fastest in the barrel if you keep it at around 25 degrees, which is room temperature. The problem being of course that unless you are going to wrap it in an electric blanket you have to do it inside, and your wife might object cos it smells a bit funky. Connor pipes in with “You’d have to chuck your wife out.”

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!

35

Jase — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:41:21 +0000

The day before my birthday we were chatting idly, and Monique says “So…35 tomorrow…”

“Oh OK”, says Ash. “I won’t have to wear tights under my dress”

Nothing like kids to give you a bit of mental whiplash!

Road Trip

Jase — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:29:06 +0000

We’re going on a road trip for Easter, more specifically a Great Ocean Road trip :)

We’re ditching all our responsibilities, Easter masses will cope without us, families and friends can see us another time, the grass can grow and the household to do list can remain undone, cos we are having some time away from it all. Pics and stories after Easter!