Cooking Up A Storm

Well it is school holidays here which means 2 weeks of no alarm unless I'm working, and no running around dropping kids here, there and everywhere. Due to all this extra time I have been experimenting with meals in the kitchen, as dinner is usually on the run between various classes and commitments.  I'm not sure what's for dinner tonight, I may have to browse my magazines before I head out grocery shopping later.

I made my own version of smashed potatoes, with Italian chicken meatloaves and Italian dinner rolls. 

I also made some red onion relish to go with ham steaks.

And sinful brownies for dessert.

Some time ago I also  made cupcakes for Father's Day. 

More karate & calisthenics

We had our third calisthenics competition of the year recently & it was quite disappointing. However, we have one more local competition before we head to the sunny Gold Coast in November for the Pan Pacific Masters Games. That will be a different competition as there are heats to get through first, as well as a duo competition which has never before been available to masters. In fact, our governing body is running a practise competition tonight which my partner and I have entered. It should be fun.

Also, DS #2 has competed at what will probably be his final karate tournament of the year. I wasn't sure who would enter as it was a week before the Oceania Championships. I figured those who had been selected for that would either enter for one final practise, or rest up and avoid injury. Turns out it was a bit of both, and the #1 kata kid didn't enter. There were 9 other boys entered though so 4 rounds to get through. DS had been talking to a friend from another club and they kind of decided that if they both got through to the final, they would try a new kata they'd both been working on. They practise the same style, so it would have made the judges job a little easier. Funnily enough they did both make the final, but only DS decided to give the kata a go. He was a little worried as there is a spinning jump right near the end of it and he wasn't sure he'd land it. However he did, and managed to take home 1st place!

Then in kumite he drew the really good 11 year old that in some stroke of bad luck, he had managed to come up against first round in 2 prior tournaments this year. Thankfully they were taking entries on the day and another boy entered, meaning they had to redo the draw. This worked in DS's favour as he got a different competitor first up. He fought really well to take that round 3-1. Next up was a much bigger kid but he kept with him and the points were even until the dying seconds when his opponent scored. Had he won that round he would have made the final, but ended up fighting the same kid he beat in the kata final for 3rd place. Again he fought really well but lost 1-2. He was rapt as he fought confidently in all his matches and none were one sided. Not to mention he was the only 10 year old in the final 4.

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that.

Ok, first things first. Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there, I hope you get a relaxing, enjoyable day to do as you please. Just to make you smile, I'll post a pic:

On another note, I woke up yesterday and discovered this beauty. I presume it's just popped up overnight as I hadn't noticed it before, and it's pretty hard to miss.

In my final news, we had our second calisthenics comp of the year yesterday. We didn't do too well in our first one two weeks ago, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, although we were against mainly new teams. We do 6 different items and after the 4th one we were tied with another team for second place overall. Knowing we had our worst 2 items to come, I thought we would just miss the runners-up trophy. My fears appeared to be confirmed when the other team beat us in the fifth item, meaning they had a 2 point advantage going in to the last one. However, we shocked ourselves to win that item and grab the runners-up trophy. I'm afraid I was so shocked and excited that my speech was pretty embarrassing. This was our first comp ever where we won a medal in every item, gaining 2 firsts, 1 second and 3 thirds. Here's our trophy: