Category: Food

January 2026

April 12, 2026 by Katrina·0 Comments

Holy late post Katrina. Oops.

NYE fireworks at Bis’s apartment. It was so cold out.

Wingspan with Michael and Gina. You can see the birdhouse that Bis printed for us because our cardboard one was wearing out.

We played free pickleball in Bayswater and then got suburban Malaysian food for dinner. Scott got asam laksa and I got sar hor fun, which was sooooo gloopy but… I love gloopy!!

Bis needed some help assembling his new shed so Scott and I went over for a day to lend a hand. It reminded me of my childhood at the cottage. He had to over-engineer it to stand up to the gale force winds they get on their balcony so there are a lot of extra pieces and A LOT of rivets.

We got the strangest pizzas I’ve ever seen for dinner afterwards from a Korean pizza shop. This one had corn shaped mashed potatoes on it.

The girls came over for a sleepover! We went swimming at the pool with waterslides, watched Wicked: For Good (so much squealing at the scene with Elphaba and Fiyero in bed omg), and ate chicken nuggets spaghetti and red velvet cake (with secret beets).

We had a Second Christmas at Jemma’s house. Many presents and treats. My brother-in-law looooves Nanaimo Bars.

We went to the outlet mall and bought five pairs of shoes at once. Scott’s Vietnamese fake Salomon shoes did not hold up.

I mistakenly bought tickets to Opening Week of the Australian Open which is actually the week BEFORE the Australian Open starts. However, Jemma’s family also had tickets so we all went in together on our day off and it turned out to be quite good!! And it only cost me $5! You can do all the AO activities with no lines, and there are still some good matches going on for qualifying. You can also watch the top people practice, but I found that quite boring. I also got to see a bit of the One Point Slam which was quite funny, and Myles and Damien got a free legit tennis racket each as well. Would Opening Week again.

I spent a whole afternoon building a collapsible lightbox for product photography. Why? I don’t know, but it was pretty satisfying and it works really well. I did a combination of about 4 different Youtube video tutorials.

Then I spent another entire day taking pictures of every little bit of wool that I have and cataloguing it on my Ravelry account. Again, why? I don’t know, but It tickled my neurodivergent brain just right. So organised.

I went to Phillip Island for a night of the January long weekend. Sonika had organised an Airbnb and we played tons of board games. 12 Rivers had a fun mechanism where you get to yank a barrier out at the top and all the balls roll down into different areas. Whirling Witchcraft had the worst rulebook I’ve ever seen but was actually quite funny once we figured it out. I taught the group Orleans, which they liked. And The Hobbit: There and Back Again was fun but quite difficult for me and Bis to play with our aphantasia.

I went to the Churchill Island farmers market for a focaccia and a fruit sorbet.

Always looking for vegan soft serve. This one was half ube and half avocado in the CBD. Not too sweet. I liked it.

I got Scott and I tickets to see the Hoodoo Gurus at the music bowl. I didn’t really know the band before but it seemed like they’re an Aussie equivalent of The Tragically Hip. It was a very pleasant evening of lounging around on the picnic blanket with snacks and margaritas and live music.

Summer knit projects! Socks and gloves. I still loooove making socks, but I didn’t really enjoy gloves. So fiddly.

2025 In Review

January 2, 2026 by Katrina·0 Comments

Good things that happened in 2025:

Scott got the hole in his spinal canal patched up and successfully got through the no-BLT time and recovered back to normal! He also started working again.
Rosemarie and I ate our way around peninsular Malaysia and had the best time. We ate kaya roti twice in 12 hours. We didn’t die on the world’s longest zip coaster.
Rosemarie came to Melbourne and we played 4000 board games and twinned at pickleball, which they have still not recovered from.
Scott and I finally got to go on a real holiday together. We went to Hanoi for six jam packed days of fun and eating and shopping and sweating. I survived crossing a parade line clinging to the back of a scooter.
Dad and Diane finally made it to Australia! Two family visits in one year, what a treat! I won a game of Wizard!
I found out that I am neurodivergent. Maybe confirmed is the proper word.
I started going to Bodypump and pickleball drills sessions.
Made some new friends through pickleball. Many fun meals out and lots of laughing.
A lot of games days and crafternoons and trivia days with my pals. My friend Bis prepared the most epic New Years Eve hot pot party that put me into a food coma, but I did actually stay up until midnight this time!

Favourite Books:

I actually only rated one book 5 stars this year and that was The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne, another sad book, I just found the way the parents interacted with the son really funny.

Other good ones were:

You Are Here by David Nicholls – nice story about people walking across England
Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy by Lisa See – historical fiction about life in China in the 1900s
The Women by Kristin Hannah – historical fiction about American women who served in the Vietnam War
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton – a thriller that talks a lot about nature
The Trees by Percival Everett – a wild book that is kind of funny and also ultra depressing?
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (audiobook) – cute story
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid – easy read, good story
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett – easy read, good story
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (audiobook) – nerdy science entertainment

Board games:

I played 27 games this year, with 20 different people, in 13 locations.

11 were new games! Critter Kitchen, Finspan, Qwixx, Uno No Mercy, Deep Sea Adventure, Nekojima, Farkle, Micropolis, Wayfarers of the South Tigris, Verdant and just snuck one more new one in last night: Flamecraft Duals.

Critter Kitchen was definitely my favourite new game. It’s so cute and unique and fun! And Wingspan on Steam continues to be our go-to game, we played even more than last year. I played Wingspan 65 times and I have improved my win rate, I am now at 49% and Rosemarie down to 38%. Muahahaha.

Great new recipes: The Moroccan slow cooked lamb shoulder I made when dad and Diane arrived was probably my favourite new recipe, but it’s from the Recipe Tin Eats cookbook so I can’t really link it.

This beef rendang was also delicious. And I finally made Singapore carrot cake (black style) using a combination of this recipe and this recipe (and advice from Doreen).

Favourite bird pics:

I am not actually that happy with any of my bird pictures this year. I saw a lot of cool stuff through my binoculars but by the time I got my camera in the right spot the bird would be long gone. This is ok, I like seeing birds with my eyes too. I do wish you could just take like a screen capture of what you can see in the binoculars though.

Knitting:

I knit one sweater, one tank top, two beanies, three pairs of socks, and one pair of fingerless gloves! I just posted individual pics on my Instagram here.

I learned how to knit with mohair, how to alternate skeins to avoid colour pooling, and a new way to do really neat folded collars.

2026 Goals: I didn’t make any resolutions last year! We had enough going on. This year I’m resolving to PHONE LESS KNIT MORE. I have uninstalled all the dumb games on my phone.

Last years thoughts: “2024 wasn’t our best year. Unemployment x2, injury, chronic illness, saving up for trips that might not actually happen, and leaving weightlifting. But alas, we truck along. Hopefully we can get things back on track again in 2025.” I think we did.

This years thoughts: A much better year. We are healthy. We got to travel, spend time with family and friends, eat delicious things, and play A LOT of pickleball. What more can you ask for.

November 2025

December 29, 2025 by Katrina·0 Comments

November was more exciting! It seems like every year my November is actually way crazier than December. Everyone wants to get the celebrations started early.

We had my work Christmas party like a week and a half after our Halloween Bake Off haha! It was delicious. I picked steak for my entree for the exact opposite reason our boss doctor didn’t pick the steak: “I could have steak at home!” (We never have steak at home.)

Our second pickleball tournament went better, but it didn’t get recorded in DUPR so did it even happen?

And then our third tournament went very bad. We lost every game and it was quite discouraging. I was a bit pickleball depressed after that. (Better now.) We haven’t signed up for any more tournaments yet.

This group of friends had been talking about going out for peking duck for literally years and we finally went. We went to Hua Lu in the CBD and it was amazing!! As usual I was too busy stuffing my face to take any pictures of the epic amount of food. We had duck pancakes of course, plus the extra two duck courses, a mushroom dish and two types of tofu. Yum.

Naomi had the old work crew to her place again for a Christmas catch up gossip and pizza lunch. It was too cold for the pool this year but the bird show made up for it. :D

Scott planned a #smaj where we went to the driving range and then got Vietnamese food. The last time I hit a golf ball was with the Monnon’s when I was probably like… 11. Scott is a pretty good instructor but I was still extremely awkward. I missed the ball a lot and hit the ground many times. I can see why people think it’s fun though.

I got my hair cut and then went to a meetup with Discord friends. It was a pretty small gathering compared to some other meetups and I already knew everyone so it was pretty chill. Someone was talking about Caesar salad earlier in the day and then I had to order it for dinner. Hit the spot.

I had a really big fun day where first I went to an anime movie with Maz and Candace. I haven’t watched much anime before but I said yes to this outing because I’m Taking Charge Of My Saturdays (Scott always has bowls) and also it looked quite cute. It was called The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store and was about a department store where all the customers are different animals.

After the movie we got delicious Indonesian sandwiches for lunch and then walked to the Design Market. There was tons of cool stuff and I was able to get a lot of cute Christmas presents. Quite enjoyable.

Then we caught the bus to Bis’s for games, crafts, and dinner. I opted to do hand building with Jen and made a cute sturdy scalloped ~~ash tray~~ dish.

We got fish and chips for dinner and then I finally headed home. A big day.

We got a Ninja Creami from Costco during Black Friday sales. (I sold the big compressor ice cream maker because we weren’t using it much.) I think the Ninja Creami is fitting our lifestyle better. My favourite mixtures so far have been strawberry sorbet (pictured), which was just cooked strawberries and a bit of maple syrup, sticky date protein ice cream, and mango sorbet. It’s nice that we can make them with healthy and lactose free ingredients.

It rained A LOT and then we had a couple random super hot days so everyone’s yards went bonkers. Love how we have more stuff growing outside the garden boxes than inside.

Flying along on the pastel tank top. I really like the way she designed the neckline and sleeves. Took a while to do the sewing but it’s sooo neat and tidy.

Nanaimo bars ready for Christmas! I used a new recipe this year and I was quite pleased with how they turned out.

Unpictured stuff:

We had lunch at Jemma’s on Melbourne Cup Day for April’s birthday.
I went to the Western Treatment Plant with the birdwatching group but I’ll make a separate post about that.
We had another #smaj where we went to The Jar and rented a pickleball ball machine and tried to practice our drives (I am still quite bad at forehand drives.)

October 2025

December 28, 2025 by Katrina·0 Comments

October was a pretty routine month… lots of pickleball, trivia, a lot of appointments. We had two catch up #smaj events, one was a wine tasting evening at Scott’s bowls club, and the other was writing wills, lol. I didn’t take pictures of either.

Scott and I signed up for three successive pickleball tournaments. The first one was in October and we did… fine. We won two games, and lost three games including getting pickled in one. We didn’t make the finals. Some fun was had.

We went to a pen convention with high hopes of seeing cute stationary and picking up some Christmas gifts. In reality we barely saw anything because it was sooooooooooooooooo crowded. And Scott battled through the crowds to finish the stamp rally but they had already run out of prizes, like an hour after it opened. Then we got heavily rained on. Not the most successful outing.

I started knitting a tank top. It’s a 4-ply blend of merino wool, alpaca, and silk. Rosemarie thinks a wool tank top is funny but it’s actually very light feeling!

I finished the neon barf hat. This one is hand-dyed merino wool and it’s super soft and cozy.

My first time cooking with jackfruit. I made a jackfruit bulgogi bibimbap, which would have been vegan if I didn’t plop a fried egg on top haha. It was delicious!

My work held a Halloween Bake Off and this was my entry. It had a brownie base and spiced butter cookie tombstones, with Oreo dirt and coconut grass. I thought it turned out pretty good! I got a lot of compliments but didn’t win any prizes.

August 2025

October 16, 2025 by Katrina·0 Comments

August was a busy month. Scott worked his first graduations days, and we went to Vietnam for a week, and in between we squeezed in lots of activities and some tasty meals.

We went hot air ballooning, and then went out for breakfast at Warung Coffee. We got a beef rendang toastie and a mie goreng toastie and they were ridiculous and salty and delicious. Yes that is a sandwich full of noodles.

I made Scott come with me to a birding photography outing to Muckleford and Newstead Cemetery. It was a cold but pleasant day. We saw a few new birds, but I didn’t get any particularly great pictures. At least now I know where to come back to try to see the rainbow bee-eaters this summer though.

We knew the steam train would be passing through around noon so everyone stopped birdwatching and changed their camera settings and got into position to best photograph the train… and then waited… and waited… and then finally fifteen minutes later it slooooooooooooooooooowly came around the corner. I think you could walk faster than this train haha.

Trivia. It was so loud. We didn’t do well.

Malaysian food all day every day. We went to Pappa Laksa again and had Pappa Special Laksa and Beef Rendang Nasi Lemak. Delicious.

RTE Pork Adobo and cucumber salad. Tasty, and affordable!

Trying out different methods of Brain Off time. Paint by numbers was pretty fun. Good ol’ Kmart.

Tiny bit of progress on the cable knit blanket.

Slow progress on Lauren’s hat. I only manage to get a couple rounds done at a time on my lunch breaks at work. And the pink thing was a project for Lara which I have now abandoned. Knitting it was going way too slowly, and crocheting was turning out way too heavy. I think a sleeve scarf would be a better project for someone with a knitting machine. (Can I buy a knitting machine??)