Two REALLY easy meals

As promised, here is the info about the Donna Hay recipe (and another that I made up the other day) that I LOVE. I am not a food stylist, nor do I call myself a photographer (so don't let this top photo put you off), but I love these simple meals and so do my family. Maybe you'll enjoy them too.


Firstly "MOZZARELLA CHICKEN" (from 'No Time to Cook' by Donna Hay, p140).

I'll paraphrase.

Ingredients

• pitted olives
• cherry tomatoes
• olive oil
• chicken breasts
• mozzarella
• basil leaves
• pancetta (or ham or bacon)

Method

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius.
• Line a tray with baking paper and sprinkle on a good handful of pitted olives and a punnet of halved cherry tomatoes.
• Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 10 mins.
• In the meantime cut 2 chicken breasts in half lengthways, and top each with a slice of mozzarella and a couple of basil leaves. Then I usually don't have pancetta (which is in the recipe), so I sort of 'drape' the chicken piece with a slice of ham or bacon.
• Then just place the chicken pieces on top of the tomatoes and olives and back in the oven for 18 mins.
• Serve on top of green leaves.

Honestly, this looks great and tastes like a restaurant meal. And it's ready in 30 mins and there's only one tray to wash up.

Delicious.

The other recipe I have to share is for my "BBBBLT" (below).

It's simply a salad of:

• Bacon
• Basil Leaves
• Boccocini (I used baby boccocini because it was on special)
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Lettuce
• Tomato

Divine. I've had it three times in two days. Hope you like it too.

My parallel universes

I think I could be living one life in two separate universes. And they're both busy right now.

By day I do stuff like this (not every day, but it happened yesterday - all the while S was trying on each item of clothing I was trying to sort and B tried out her new bottom teeth on my ankle - I mean she's now literally an 'ankle biter').

BEFORE

AFTER

Read this quote today on the Simple Mom blog and loved it so much I had to print it out and put it on the fridge.


Pretty much sums up most of my days. Except it doesn't snow here, lately it just rains. And the grass grows and grows. So it'd probably be better to read "... like mowing while it's still raining." But then it wouldn't rhyme...

And by night I do this. Because I have to. Otherwise I'll go crazy. This one is for the upcoming Grammar Art Show.


And I've blatantly jumped on the Alice in Wonderland bandwagon and painted these for my 'homewares' line, and I'm happy to say they are now available at "The Chocolate Cottage" in Highfields. They also bought a lot of my other stock so I'll have to keep painting to add to my site asap.


I wish there was another part of the day that I could manage to get a little sleep in. What would you call it? There's 'daytime', 'night time' - and I think 'me time' is a total myth. And I've got the (lack of) hairstyle to prove it.

In other news, this Donna Hay recipe for dinner is SO delicious and quick, I'll post the recipe tomorrow.


Now to do some tidying up in this office. Goodnight!

Stop Motion Animation

Visiting APT6

This top photo from here.

A dear friend Sue, initiated Thursday's visit to the Asia Pacific Triennial at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. It was so fantastic that we simply didn't have enough time and have to go back and take the big boys.

There were rooms full of string and elks in glass balls and 400 little men holding flowers... most artworks/installations had messages, but most were simply so enjoyable - and so wonderful viewed through the eyes of my kids.


We'll be back before it finishes on 5 April! Guaranteed.

Zhu Weibing, Ji Wenyu | People holding flowers (detail) 2007 (above).

A Request

A little while back I needed a pincushion, so I put it out there (through the Meet Me At Mike's forum) and lo and behold the lovely Cherry made one and sent it to me!

So here's another request that I'm sending out there to blogland - I'd really like to do a painting of matryoshka/babushka dolls, but haven't been able to take an image I'm happy to work from.

Do you have an interesting photo of these dolls that you'd be happy for me to paint from? Whether it's one, or the full set, I'd be really keen to see it! I'm thinking of interesting angles... I'm painting a series called "Collectables" and love to use colour - does that help?

If so, could you please email it/them to me at anna@annabartlett.com. I'll be sure to send a special thank you if I use your photo.

OK Universe. Do your thing!

I LOVE this blog

Cake Wrecks - have I mentioned it before? Makes me laugh every time I read it.

Happy weekend! It's so foggy here that we're sitting in a cloud. Amazing I have any (wireless) internet access at all (didn't this morning). Everything is damp. Poor chickens too. But we need the water!

Creative Space Thursday

After seeing this post here, we're trying a spot of Glue Batik on a table runner I hemmed ages ago. So far the glue is on (couldn't get 'Elmers' so am trying 'Crayola') and has dried (it took all day in this weather). Next step is to colour with watered down acrylics. I really hope it works!

In other creative news, this was yesterday's haul from the vege garden (me thinks the carrots were pulled just a little too early) ...

And here's a creative pic of the rain coming towards us yesterday afternoon. We're very waterlogged here in Toowoomba, which is a welcome change as our dams were under 6%. They're hoping they'll reach 10% sometime next week. Fingers crossed!

Visit kootooyoo for more creative spaces!