Happy Easter, everyone! Wow, I don’t even know where to begin with this post. I could just ignore all the crazy that’s going on and be like hey guys, how cute are these meringue kisses?? Or I could open the floodgates to all the thoughts I have about this situation – from the actual disease, … Read More →
As a parent, you typically have two moods which directly impact the way you view your kids. First one, you’re pretty free, you feel like you could cuddle or play with your kid: in this case, they’re super cute. Second one, you’re really busy doing whatever it is you’re doing: here, they’re a pain in … Read More →
This is going to be too much info for y’all non-parents but for parents, this is everyday, even dinner, conversation: Sofi does not poop regularly. When they say that once you have kids, you obsess over their shitting and eating, they were not kidding. But as you know, Sofi has that eating side sorted (see … Read More →
Something for you to ponder if you have waaaaay too much time on your hands: I made these yesterday and christened them matcha brownies. Yes – brownies – but someone pointed out that actually, are these not blondies? Because, they’re not brown? But wait, they aren’t blonde either, technically, so are they actually greenies? Hmm. I don’t know. To-mah-to, … Read More →
So. I have this amazing brownie recipe. It’s been tried and tested literally dozens of times and makes the moistest, fudgiest brownies, and every single person I’ve made it for has raved about it. The recipe uses good quality dark chocolate (Lindt or Green & Black, at a minimum) and I’ve always believed that the … Read More →
Note: if you’re here just for the recipe, scroll down to the very end, I won’t be offended, I promise. This post is pretty much going to have nothing to do with Christmas or cookies, and definitely nothing to do with Christmas cookies. I’m just going to talk about myself for many many paragraphs, mainly … Read More →
I’ve been freelance writing for a while now and one of (if not THE) tenets of writing of any kind is to pick a topic and just stay with it. Don’t go off on a tangent, don’t get distracted, just stick with one idea. Well, we all know how bad I am with that. When … Read More →
I posted this photo of my spaghetti and meatballs on Instagram the other day and made everyone hungry. Hah, so humble, me. No really, so many people liked it, but I wonder if they’d still like it if they knew these were healthy baked meatballs with hidden veggies? I suspect the mums are all like … Read More →
Oh my God, honey joys. Does anyone even remember these things? I’m pretty sure that finding the recipe for honey joys on the side of a Kelloggs Cornflakes box resulted in my maiden foray into baking. It doesn’t get any simpler than this: butter, sugar, honey, cornflakes. And the results are seriously delicious. I hadn’t … Read More →
I got a slow cooker for Christmas last year. I’m usually anti-having another huge appliance in the kitchen (read: NO Thermomix!) but I’d been sold by the promise that a slow cooker would answer all the big questions in life. The main one being of course: how do I get huge output with as little input as … Read More →
There’s this show on TV at the moment called This Is Us. Have you seen it? It started playing on free-to-air here in Australia probably three months ago. I stumbled upon it purely by accident (believe me, I do not watch TV at night because I’m usually in bed as early as humanly possible but that … Read More →
I’m stuck at home today because we have tradies over, and my lunch options were looking pretty dismal. I had some sliced ham, some cheese… sadly, no left overs of last night’s delicious beef rending. It looked like I was heading down the glum road towards a ham and cheese sandwich when I was bitten … Read More →
Baby, you had me at condensed milk. I kind of feel like that’s all I need to say about this recipe, except that actually there’s a lot more to say about this recipe. Firstly, it only uses four ingredients. Four! And honestly, you can drop the sugar all together and call it a three-ingredient recipe. … Read More →
I’ve been giving Sam more treats lately. Not every day and certainly not every meal, but you know, I’m like he’s three, almost three-and-a-half. He can have a damn cookie. So he gets treats like Tiny Teddies, Hello Panda and the occasional Ferrero Rocher (only when he’s been very very good mainly because that’s my … Read More →
I’ve been blogging now for six years here at thecattylife. Prior to this, I was on blogspot, and even dabbled in Xanga in the early 00’s. Wow, that makes me feel old. I’ve always blogged for myself – I say this truthfully, I don’t really write with an audience in mind, I don’t think about … Read More →
A couple of weeks ago, my mother-in-law loaded us up with lemons from her tree before she headed off on an overseas sojourn. I’m not really a lemon-buyer in general, I just don’t know what to do with them, but when I become a lemon-receiver, I (a) share the lemon love with friends and (b) … Read More →
Every birthday boy deserves a party, even if he doesn’t actually know what the heck is going on. Last Saturday, we celebrated Sam’s 1st birthday (as well as the fact that we’ve survived a whole year ourselves) with beautiful sunshine, friends and family, and lots and lots of deliciousness. One of Sam’s favourite things (inevitable … Read More →
So. I’m officially well into my second week of work. How am I feeling? Lots of people have asked, mostly hesitantly because they just don’t know how I’m going to react. Considering my previous post on motherhood, there’s a real possibility that I might break down hysterically over the demise of my maternity leave. So how am … Read More →
I don’t really make ‘the best’ anything. I make lots of stuff, and mostly it’s good… I think. But the best? Never. Despite being raised by a tiger dad, dare I say I don’t aim for stratospheric awesomeness. I just aim for what makes me happy, and as result I’m not really the best at … Read More →
It’s winter. It’s cold. I’m cold. I looked at my wardrobe the other day and felt utterly uninspired by everything I saw (and trust me, there was lots to see, this is my first world problem). What on earth did I wear last winter? Do you ever get that? At the start of every season … Read More →
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Mags came over and cooked dinner for Panu and I. She made Cambodian pancakes, which were delicious and I am insanely grateful that anyone would want to come and cook me dinner. But the dinner conversation kind of put me to sleep. You see, Mags and Panu are … Read More →
No one ever tells you this but one of the biggest sacrifices you make when you have a baby is not sleep. It’s not your social life. It’s not even a good hot shower. It’s baking. Yes, baking. Because when you’re on demand by the little one 24 x 7, you don’t have time to … Read More →
On Wednesdays every week, I go along to a mothers group. It’s not a ‘community’ mothers group (which they harass you into joining when you give birth); it’s just six of us friends, who so happen to have had babies a couple of months apart. Yep, we totally planned it that way. Going to mothers … Read More →
Happy new year everyone! How did you guys welcome the new year? I… well, I hang my head in shame. I went to bed at 9.30pm with all the intention of waking up for the midnight fireworks. And hey guess what? It didn’t happen. Such is life with a three month old who still wakes … Read More →