My Masterchef Career - how I know it's totally rigged.

I think I'm allowed to share this now. I was in the audience for Masterchef, on two recent occasions. We had to sign agreements not to disclose ANYTHING. Gosh, cos there was some juicy info. Like, how to make a cake. We didn't see the contestants at any time, so no danger of leaking any info about the competition.

The first time I got to see Gary make rice paper rolls, Matt make a pudding, and the judges doing an opening talk. We got to applaud madly for Curtis Stone (who was NOT there at the time we applauded).

The second time, I was a bit smarter. When they asked if anyone would like to wear a microphone and ask a question, I jumped up and down saying "ME ME ME!" And I got to see Gary make a cheesecake, and I asked questions, sniffed a rose geranium leaf, and got to taste the dessert (and it was truly great, and I'm not just saying that). That was pretty cool! We also got to see Kirsten Tibballs make a fabulous cake. Her demo was excellent.

It was fun but tiring, and I was super excited about seeing myself on telly, especially that second time. I heard about a call for audience on a third occasion, and it was on my day off, but I gave it a miss. Really too tiring, and I'd had my fun.

So finally, the air dates rolled around. I saw the first episode. Hey, where's the rice paper rolls? Gary made a curry instead! I was really looking forward to that recipe too. You could see me in the opening, so at least I could prove to my mum that I'd done it.

Then the second episode rolled around. There's that terrific cake. And Gary's making the wrong thing again! WHERE'S MY CHEESECAKE? I was barely visible in that episode. Bah! My bragging rights instantly dissolved.

Still, I got a few photos from the audience-wrangling area, which I thought was pretty fun. Makes up for the fact that Masterchef is clearly totally rigged, rigged to feature ME as little as possible.

Oh, and that third episode just aired, the one I decided not to bother with. Turns out it was only Heston Blumenthal for the whole episode, so it's not like I missed out on meeting anyone awesome or anything!

Check it out, mystery boxes ready for use!

Now THAT is a lot of oil!

Controlling Cable Clutter, Laing style

Well, that's a nice TARDIS you've got there, Mrs Laing. Does it, um, work?

Why yes it does! We use it to store all the cables we use for charging various devices in the kitchen (which turns out to be a handy spot to charge things).

The TARDIS was made for a costume, and now it's part of the household stuff... so any time one of us needs to dress up as the Doctor, we have a handy prop.

Not putting the fruit shop out of business...

... but I have been growing carrots! Here's the harvest so far.



















And here it is a few minutes later...

What to do with a real lot of bananas

Thanks to Bushy Park, the fruit and vegie shop I love to visit, I had a real lot of bananas to use quickly. And I hate waste.

I had a banana smoothie while I thought about it. Cake is so obvious, everyone likes cake. But for some reason, I decided to go a different way.

Here's a banana meringue pie! Practically sugar free. Except if you count the meringue, which actually has quite a lot.

It has been quite nice - not a new favourite or anything, but it was nice to have a go at meringue.

And here's all the rest, turning into delicious banana chips, for office snacking over the rest of the week!

Driving us mad ... to Chocolate

We have a learner driver in the family. Not only that, we are aware we will have two more next year. Catriona's been slow to get her hours up - after well over a year, she's nearly at the halfway mark. We mean for her to make it to 120 hours by January or so, so we can start teaching the boys.

Now, how do you fit in driving practice on the weekends? Well, nobody had anything special on today, so we went out to Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery for a visit. An hour's nice varied drive, then chocolate when you get there! Then another hour home. Sure, it's time wasting, but its for a reason.

We bought some gorgeous bars, with bush food ingredients, like the fabulous Lemon Myrtle (yum!). And we had better-than-average hot chocolates.

Next month is their Hot Chocolate Festival - a different posh flavour every day.









Here's our driver, about to hit the 60 hour mark. Hooray!

Thomas made brownies!

Thomas put his hood up, turned his back to me, and wouldn't let me take a photo of him cooking. But we have a hatch in the kitchen...


By the way, the Ghirardelli Brownie Mix you can get at Costco (6 packets in a box, works out to about $2 a packet) is really good.

Sticky Date Macarons!

Look what's on the table tonight!