A new system and aprons to make...

Well, I love to cook - I'm not quite sure where that originated from. I didn't grow up in a family that spent a huge amount of time in the kitchen...but I absolutely love it. I think I like it so much because it is another outlet for me to be creative. My friends and family know me well and often for my birthday and Christmas I receive a new cookbook. So, my collection is getting quite large. Sometimes I enjoy just flipping through them, for no other reason than to see the lovely pictures of well displayed food and delicious ideas. But with this growing collection of recipes, I tend to forget which ones I've used and if they were good or not. So, I decided to try a new system - not very sophisticated, but easy. I bought a packet of the coloured star stickers and after each recipe, Craig & I will have a chat and rate it. Gold is for amazing, silver is for really good, blue is for good, green for ok and red for stop! (ie. never do again!) I'm even starting to write down little comments or changes to the recipes directly in the books. Some people may not like that, but I think there is something great about looking at an old cookbook of an older relative, seeing that it has been used well and even documented. It's like a little piece of history. Here's what dinner looked like last night, thanks Donna Hay!

Changing the subject now...in two weeks I have organised a 'Gingerbread House Construction Party' at my house for a group of girls from church. Usually we do this as a church event running over two nights where we see around 120 women constructing and decorating gingerbread houses to take home to eat or decorate (or both). This year we aren't having one at church, so I decided to throw my own party, although there will only be about ten of us. It should be heaps of fun. I decided last week that it would be extra fun to make Christmas aprons for all the girls coming, so when they arrive they see an apron on their chairs that they can wear and then take home afterwards. I've cut all the aprons out of a dark apple green coloured curtaining material, I just have to sew them now. I've got just under two weeks, so I have to stop procrastinating and get to them! Here's what they are starting to look like. More photos later.