Tag: mil spouse

Hearty Beef Bourguignon

As with so many of my blogs, they really are random and varied in their subject topics and this one is no exception.

Several years ago, a wonderful friend of mine who was born in Paris but raised in the French countryside by her Parisian mother and Tunisian father, showed me how to make beef bourguignon. It was one of the most wonderful meals I’ve tasted. Over the years, I have made a few adjustments and even modified it for the crockpot and it has become a favourite meal in our house. According to my French friend, the difference between French country beef bourguignon and Paris beef bourguignon, is the potatoes, but I love them and wouldn’t make it without them as they give this dish the added heartiness it needs.

I’m going to do my best to share with you the recipe/process of making it but you must first understand that I don’t really measure anything when I cook, so you’ll have to go with my explanation of amounts and if your anal about your quantities, you’ll just have to make it your own by perfecting the measurements 😉. The great thing for me is that each time I make beef bourguignon, it has an ever so slightly different taste and each time is just as lovely as the prior one.

If you’re still here then I’m assuming you want to know more. This is a great family meal and can also be a great dinner party meal, which is how I came to writing this blog. We had guests over one Friday night and the menu was quite last minute, but it was a hit and I was asked to share my recipe, so here goes:

Obviously the first thing you need is the beef. I am not completely au fait with different types of beef, so I normally buy either a nice looking lean beef for stewing package (and still remove all of the fat as none of my family likes fat on any meats) or I buy a top sirloin family package and cut it into chunks (somewhere about the 5cm/2” chunk size especially if I’m doing it in the crockpot as the meat will shrink, basically, you want it to be bite size after it has been cooking. As far as the amount of meat, it really depends on how many you’re cooking for. The night of the dinner party, I was cooking for 8, so I used about 1kg/just over 2lbs, of meat.

I cook the meat in a large pan with olive oil on a medium high heat until just brown, then add the bacon. Again, I like the bacon to be nice and lean. I cut most of the fat off and have even used lean turkey bacon in the past. Either one works. In this case I used 7-8 slices of center cut pork bacon that I cut into very small pieces after I had trimmed the fat off. Then I threw in a variety of salts (pictured) because I didn’t have any ‘seasoned salt’ on hand, so just made my own. It’s important to add a little extra salt as you will be cooking potatoes.

I added 3 cloves of fresh garlic (refrigerated minced garlic is just as good – about 3 teaspoons) and lots of onion powder as well as some dried minced onion (note – I love cooked onion but my husband and 2 of my kids, do not. I find things need that onion-y taste, so have resolved to using a mix of onion powder/dried minced onion to give the taste without adding the texture they dislike so much).

This is a 1/4 cup that I used as an oversized spoon equivalent- don’t get too caught up on perfect measurements 😊

Next add a couple of heaped tablespoons (or 1/4 cups with a bit) of flour. This was weird for me the first time I saw it as I thought it would end up chunky/lumpy like gravy, but it works itself out. Stir the flour in, it will get thick and pasty very quickly so have your wine ready to go.

Thick and pasty after the flour has been added

 

I really like using the box wine for this. I have used different types of red and I guess it can’t really be called a bourguignon if you don’t use that wine, but semantics. Lol. The Franzia chillable red gives the dish a lighter taste (which my kids prefer, rather than a heartier red that continues to give it a ‘wine’ taste even after the alcohol is cooked). My friend used a heartier wine but added an equivalent amount of water, so I really find this does the job just as well. I did measure it this time knowing I would share the recipe with you 😊 and I used about 750mls of the Franzia and added  about 250mls of a cheap cab sav to find a happy medium in the sauce/stew. I gave it a quick stir and threw it all into the crockpot then added the tomatoes and tomato paste, 3 bay leaves and a huge spoonful of the beef stock paste you see pictured here. I love this paste. Best stock brand in America in my humble opinion. Find a good quality beef stock where you live and use it generously.

If you are cooking it in your pan, add these ingredients, put a lid on your pan and turn it down to a simmer, stirring regularly and cooking for about 40 mins. If you’re using a crockpot, set on low for 8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours, stirring it after about an hour.

Potatoes. In this particular meal, I used a 3lb bag of baby red and yellow potatoes. But I’ve used all sorts of potatoes and just cut them into bite sized pieces. You have some different options here as far as cooking them goes too. I like to cook the potatoes a little bit before adding them to the crockpot as I have had potatoes not quite cooked even after they have supposedly simmered away for 8 hours. Your other option is to cook them and add them at the last minute. I prefer the first method because they get the saucy flavour interspersed in the potato and it adds to the overall quality of this dish, but sometimes things don’t work out, so it’s always an option at the end. If you’re cooking this meal on the stovetop, then your only option is to cook the potatoes separately and add them into the sauce for a few mins. Make sure you taste it after you have added the potatoes to see if you need to add some extra salt, this goes for both methods.

To finish off this hearty stew meal, I throw a loaf (or two) of French bread into some foil and warm it up in the oven. Serve it with some real butter and let your guests dip away into this wonderfully warming meal!

Let me know what you think of this recipe and if you make it, how it goes down with your family and friends. This meal gave 4 of us seconds and lunch for 4 of us the following day, so it certainly went a long way.

If you enjoy reading my crazy, varied blogs, please subscribe here on WordPress. Sharing is caring, so feel free to share with your friends. I’m on Facebook: Aussie Mum’s Adventures. Come like my page and share it with your friends! You can find me on Twitter: @ozmumsadventures, on Instagram: Ozmumsadventures, on Pinterest: Aussiemumsadventures And please subscribe to my YouTube channel: Aussie Mum’s Adventures – it’s a work in progress though 😊

Ingredients

  • Beef
  • Bacon
  • Seasoned salt
  • Garlic
  • Onion
  • Wine
  • All purpose (USA) or plain flour (Australia)
  • Large can of crushed tomatoes (28oz in USA equivalent to 794grams metric – but don’t worry about being precise, just adjust your other ingredients to account for amount of tomatoes) and/or
  • Fresh tomatoes if desired
  • Tomato paste – small can or about 2 heaped tablespoons – be generous 😊
  • Bay leaves
  • Beef stock
  • Potatoes
  • Crusty bread

Challenge Accepted Day 35

Another interesting day in South Korea! I started out my day feeling like rubbish! Honestly, it was like my head had filled up with gunk overnight! Yuck. Not nice. We had a birthday party to get to and we didn’t get up until late, so it was a bit of a dash to ensure everyone was organized and ready to go. I forgot to buy a birthday card also, so the kiddos had to make one this morning as well. I hate buying birthday cards though. They are expensive, they get read then thrown away. I’d much prefer to just throw a small slip of paper into the bag/box/packaging and save a tree. Oh well, just personal preference. I had some cough/cold medicine that tasted awful and did nothing for me, followed with vitamin C and OJ, none of which did jack! Oh well, ‘big girl panties’ got put on and off we went. 
We headed off to the party which was to be followed by a work lunch for hubby. He had some VIPs who came in and they were trying to ensure they had a shopping and local dining experience that was relaxed and fun. The party was great. The kids had a blast and they had food, like real food. And good real food. We were full by the time we went to lunch with hubby’s VIPs. I was also starting to feel like rubbish again. We get to this all you can eat meat place where everything is so low key, they are not hounding us about the amount of food we are going to eat or anything! In fact, neither hubby nor I ate but I cooked Korean bbq style at the table for the kiddos and decided this was actually a good opportunity to try Soju! Actually, I thought it was more wine, but it wasn’t. It was straight Soju that I picked out. And no, not a midday drink. I tried to share it around but only two others would partake, so I packed the remainder of the bottle up in my bag and left it at that. It’s about the size of a mini wine bottle and it was just sitting there in the fridge; what’s one to expect? Not some sort of Korean vodka/whisky type thing anyway! 

  
I felt immediately better and told my hubby Soju worked much better than cough medicine any day! As I am writing, I am sneezing like a crazy woman! Not sure if tomorrow (our day at the beach) is going to pan out! We have a good time though wondering through the streets of the Osan ‘Ville’ – what makes it super interesting is I see this spa type store that has fish in it eating this girl’s dead skin! I’ve read about them but never actually seen one. How cool! Before I know it, I am saying, “Yea, I’m in!”

  
  
Very interesting! I’ve never felt anything quite like it. The fish tickled, felt revolting and amazing all at the same time! It was weird. They nibble away, they tickle, they feel refreshing, they tickle, they feel weird and revolting. That’s the best way I can explain it. When you get out (it’s a 10 minute thing) your feet and legs feel great! I would have liked something deeper that went about mid thigh. They really went crazy on my legs, perhaps because I had just shaved this morning? I don’t know. But my ankles/lower calves came out feeling amazing! And still look amazing 4 hours later. I may be on to something here. The legs rather than the feet needing the nurture? 😉
  

We came home and visited our temporary custodian cats; Luna still doesn’t like us but greeted us with joy nonetheless. Itty Bit (our 20 year old feline friend) was more enthusiastic and purred her love for us all. We spent a long time hanging out with them and showing them a bit of love, before heading back to the abode.

  
Tomorrow is still up in the air; With me feeling like rubbish, the lady who organized it concerned about air quality and various other ‘Korean’ factors coming in to play, I am still all a go right now but must hit the sack and attempt to get rid of this congestion! I shall keep you in the loop as far as everything unfolds!
Unfortunately there has been no T25 stretching today 😕 it just hasn’t happened and I haven’t pushed it given the crappiness that is filling my head right now. I hope you however, are feeling amazing and continue to do so! 

Have a wonderful day and or night no matter where in the worl you are!

Challenge Accepted Day 34

Hello and goodbye to Saturday! Not sure where you went, but you’ve gone! We had a busy, but not hectic day over here. It all started with my silly internal alarm knowing I could sleep in but not doing so. Awake at 0600, I was, not good! Dear son greeted me just after 7 and the day was off. Coffee, breakfast, washing, I thought about running and should have taken Luna for a run, but it just didn’t happen. We went and fed and hung out with the cats for a good half hour (we’re pet sitting for the next 10 days, and that was fun. They have a Luna too, but she’s not a big fan of little people unfortunately, unlike our Luna who loves everyone). It was all good though. One of the cats is 20 years old so she needs some special attention and Madison has taken it upon herself to make sure she gets it. She made her walk around, we fed them, the kids tried to get Luna to play a little with them, we made sure the old lady had her medication. It was all good, and the sweet lady we are looking after them for left all sorts of gifts on the counter. Individual gifts for each of my children and a bottle of vino for moi. I didn’t grab any of them though as I don’t think any of us should get anything until we’ve done a good job and until the job is finished. So I didn’t even show the kids anything. 
By the time we returned home, we had to head out. Hubby had to go to the airport at 1300 (also known as 1pm in the civilian world) and he had to pick up a suit he had made in the ville beforehand. Then everyone would need to eat and that would be our time with him today done. We parked and walked to the tailor shop and wow! That suit was perfect. The stitching on it was superb, the cut was identical to what we had picked out and it fit my husband like a glove (no, not a glove, like a Savile Row suit though) very impressive as was the price. If ever you need a suit, the quality here in South Korea is very good. Hubby had a suit made in Bahrain years ago and the quality of it was nothing on this one. I’m even thinking about getting them to make me a dress for the gala. Here’s one I found online: 

  

What do you think? I’m not sure of the dressmaking skills though, nor about how they would put together such an elaborate outfit so it’s probably not going to happen, but I can always ask and see what fabric/suggestions they’ve got. There’s a couple more that I have found too so it could be really fun. I’ll need to decide in time to buy some shoes though, can’t really get too much variety around here with a foot my size, so I either need to have shoes to match or need to order some online. God I sound like a bit of a diva! I’m not even really into all that stuff, more often then not you’ll find me walking around with ‘active wear’ (anytime I hear that I immediately think of the YouTube hit by the Australian women of the same title, if you haven’t seen it then it’s a must). Anyway, it’s either exercise gear because I’m about to exercise or have already (that’s my go-to outfit for the bus stop because I always work out in the morning) or it’s track suit pants and a shirt, soon it will probably be a pair of 3/4 pants or shorts, nothing remotely lovely. I also rarely wear makeup and like I told you in another blog, my hair is up in a ponytail or hidden under a hat, so that’s as far as my egocentric dress code goes. When I do have the opportunity to dress up, I take it. 

We ate lunch at an American style diner after checking out a South African place we had heard great things about but deciding hubby and I should return sans kids for date night there. It was literally called JJ’s American Diner. Well, I wasn’t too impressed. It was pricey for what you got, there were no drinks with kids meals (a normal thing Stateside) and my wrap did say tenders but I assumed that meant the cut of the chicken meat not actually chicken nugget tenders shoved inside a wrap with lettuce and tomato. And the avocado ranch was a little bit of avocado thrown into ranch dressing. I felt like I could have gone to the store and bought everything and made it for myself in a matter of minutes using all prepackaged store bought ingredients. Hubby had a panini melt and it looked good and he said it tasted great but it was basically a toasted sandwich with prosciutto, ham, and salami on it. Madison’s hot dog was awful! I’m not sure what meat they used on it but I would never again buy a Korean hotdog if that’s the standard to go buy. Yuck. We all broke a little off to taste it after she said it was disgusting and everyone agreed with her afterwards. We left there feeling ok to never return. 
We dropped hubby off, ran some errands then decided to check out the community activity center (CAC). Inside of there, Hunter guided us towards the pool (he had been there before with hubby) and we were all shocked at the size of the indoor pool. The kids begged me to take them swimming so how could I say no? Home we went to grab our gear and swimming it was. What fun, if a tad cold for my liking, but it was good for the kids and I to have some fun together. I’m normally the one who hangs out on the side whilst hubby plays with the kids in the water so it was good today for me to have to stay in there with them the entire time. We had a good time and I got a little bit of natural exercise in on my rest day. 

I made a concoction for dinner that turned out to be amazing! Yes, I shall give you my recipe though it’s definitely not a ‘healthy’ choice! 

Large pasta shells (entire box)

2 bottles of red pasta sauce – your choice

1 large can of white chicken breast meat – low fat

1 small container ricotta 

Other cheese (a couple of handfuls of the grated kind, I used 4 cheese Mexican mix) and about 1 cup mozzarella.

About half cup fresh Parmesan

Chicken salt or other seasoned salt, pepper to taste

Garlic powder

Parsley (fresh is best but jar will suffice)

Onion could be optional (I didn’t use it but had it just been me eating it, I would have)

Cook pasta shells about 9 mins as per directions. 

Get two large dishes and pour half a jar into the bottom of each dish (using and entire jar to do both).

Mix chicken, ricotta, half of 4 cheese blend (or equivalent), half of Parmesan and half mozzarella and parsley

Add salt and pepper to taste (literally taste it cold, you’ll know if you need more seasoning

Stuff shells with your mix filling up both dishes. Cover with remaining sauce (1/2 jar each) and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes in a medium to hot oven (400F/200C)

Yum! Enjoy

  

I haven’t really touched on the T25 or Rodan + Fields stuff today but I don’t want to bore you by repeating myself daily either. There was nothing new to report today. All went well with my face regime this morning, my skin is feeling really good, no sensitivity at all. And it was rest day prior to stretching tomorrow before beginning T25 Beta Monday! 
So, now I sit here, my eyes are closing, I am tired from my day of doing a lot but not doing too much. Tomorrow we have a birthday party to go to followed by who knows what other adventures! Have a wonderful day or night, wherever you are. 
If you would like to order your own products from Rodan + Fields (the number 2 Premium skincare Company in the USA mind you) then please go to my website:

http://www.slongmorescott.myrandf.com

If you want to email me directly then please email me at:

aussiemumsadventures@outlook.com

And remember to like aussiemumsadventures on Facebook. 

Challenge Accepted Day 33

Hello and happy Friday! First things first, today was supposed to be a sleep in day but instead I awoke before hubby’s alarm, needing to go to the toilet but not wanting to get up! Isn’t it crazy how we do that? You lay there thinking it might pass because you don’t want to get out of your warm, cozy bed, never fully comprehending (no matter how many years you’ve been on earth) that the urge isn’t going anywhere and eventually you will have to give in to it. Today I held out for over an hour! Unfortunately meaning I didn’t ever go back to sleep, but somehow won the battle with my bladder because I did stay in bed! So, got up to the pitter patter of little feet at about 7 and got on with our day, me in desperate need of coffee before being the nice Mummy I can be sometimes. Madison unfortunately tested me before coffee intake and lost that battle! I gave her two chocolate doughnuts, she wanted the last three, I told her she could have two, she went on about how unfair it was, I sent her to her room and told her to come back downstairs when she had lost the attitude and to start again, this time without any doughnuts! So she did. Seriously, pick your battles with Mummy! And don’t even begin them when Mummy hasn’t had coffee, on top of holding her bladder for forever! 😜

We breakfasted without further incident and I finally willed myself to go upstairs and work out leaving the children playing on their tablets. Again, I could have used any excuse under the sun not to workout and I was thinking of them all. Even when I pressed play on ‘Cardio’ (no TBC today) I was thinking of excuses as to why I couldn’t do a second workout today, but I ignored them and I did lower focus. I did have a little half-chuckle to myself at my very brief notion last night of doing some extra squats and lunges. Bwahaha! After lower focus, there was no way in hell this body was capable of any extra lunges or squats! But it was good, and I was thankful to have not listened to my inner voice and to have done both workouts today and, given I am now about halfway through the T25 challenge, I wanted to show you my results:

  
Well, what do you think? I’d love some feedback! Madison told me I look a lot more muscular in the after shots. So I’ll take that as a win. I know the scales are only saying about a one pound difference (that’s about half a kilo) but the body is actually speaking (minor changes, I know) in these pictures. Thank god! As far as my face is concerned, I know you really want to see some photos of me without makeup as a halfway point for the R+F challenge, but I’m just not sure the photos are capturing the differences so I’m going to keep you in suspense until the due date for those results. If you look closely on the body photos, I’m not wearing any makeup and there is definitely a difference, you may just have to trust me on that one for right now. 
I followed my workout with my morning regime with Rodan and Fields and guess what? No irritation after using the AMP MD last night! Please ignore everything I said about using the AMP MD in the morning, the ‘night’ renewing serum is meant for just that and my skin felt amazing again this morning when I awoke and amazing after my morning regime. Back on track, I am. Yes, please call me Yoda. 😆 
I walked out of the bathroom with fresh skin, knowing what I wanted to do today; I wanted to paint and I wanted to be inspired by nature and by beauty. I dragged the kids and the dog down to the rice paddies and snapped some photos and collected some small branches and got a little inspired. I really like the ‘Southwest’ (USA) painting style and I am ok at it, whereas water inspired stuff, doesn’t work for me, as much as I love it. Now, please understand, I am on painting number 5 in my life. I’ve never had any training, not even art in school after grade 8, so this is a reasonably new hobby. I’m practicing my painting of water scenes but I did one painting of a Southwest scene and gave it to a friend and their daughter-in-law wanted to commission me to paint something similar for her family once they bought a new house, unfortunately (or fortunately depending upon how one looks at it) we moved over here and they moved into their house at about the same time. Anyway, back to the painting today, I wanted to try something different. When we were in Australia, I saw a lot of 3D art and thought today I would attempt to make my own. It didn’t quite come out like I had pictured it, well no, let me rephrase, I had no idea what I was planning on so I guess it came out as it was meant to….

  
(This was my second painting ever (well aside from finger painting I guess).

  
My abstract 3D painting from today…..

The afternoon was followed with drawing another ‘Southwest’ picture, I may just start painting it shortly. We’ll see. I have to go with the vibe when it hits me and I know I’m accountable to all of you each and every day as far as my blog is concerned, so that takes priority, well, after my family of course. Our dinner was a wonderful roast beef, I’ve finally mastered the 110 voltage converters here we live out in town rather than on the base/post and there are 110v and 220v plugs with a built in converter somewhere), they aren’t very good and for whatever reason, the 110v are very slow, even the toaster spits out bread rather than toast. So the 110V slow cooker has to have a couple of hours added on to the time, today’s meal took 10 hours whereas stateside it would have taken 8 on low cook. At least I know and can be prepared from now on. Anyway, the dinner was wonderful, a very lean, tender roast beef, with a gravy made from tomatoes, onions, celery, carrot, organic chicken and beef stock as well as vegetable stock and a light red wine, actually ‘Le card Bordeaux’, Alessandra couldn’t stop saying how wonderful the gravy was! We had Costco bread rolls, broccoli, mashed potato and homemade oven chips (fries) with chicken salt. Wonderful. All five plates clean. So, it’s Friday night, and I am going to say adieu because I haven’t really seen my hubby for a few days and finally he is here and doesn’t have his nose buried in paperwork, have a great day or night depending upon where you are and I’ll see you on Saturday! I’ll leave you with some more photos from our walk today:

  
  
  
  
  

Challenge Accepted Day 33

Hello and happy Friday! First things first, today was supposed to be a sleep in day but instead I awoke before hubby’s alarm, needing to go to the toilet but not wanting to get up! Isn’t it crazy how we do that? You lay there thinking it might pass because you don’t want to get out of your warm, cozy bed, never fully comprehending (no matter how many years you’ve been on earth) that the urge isn’t going anywhere and eventually you will have to give in to it. Today I held out for over an hour! Unfortunately meaning I didn’t ever go back to sleep, but somehow won the battle with my bladder because I did stay in bed! So, got up to the pitter patter of little feet at about 7 and got on with our day, me in desperate need of coffee before being the nice Mummy I can be sometimes. Madison unfortunately tested me before coffee intake and lost that battle! I gave her two chocolate doughnuts, she wanted the last three, I told her she could have two, she went on about how unfair it was, I sent her to her room and told her to come back downstairs when she had lost the attitude and to start again, this time without any doughnuts! So she did. Seriously, pick your battles with Mummy! And don’t even begin them when Mummy hasn’t had coffee, on top of holding her bladder for forever! 😜

We breakfasted without further incident and I finally willed myself to go upstairs and work out leaving the children playing on their tablets. Again, I could have used any excuse under the sun not to workout and I was thinking of them all. Even when I pressed play on ‘Cardio’ (no TBC today) I was thinking of excuses as to why I couldn’t do a second workout today, but I ignored them and I did lower focus. I did have a little half-chuckle to myself at my very brief notion last night of doing some extra squats and lunges. Bwahaha! After lower focus, there was no way in hell this body was capable of any extra lunges or squats! But it was good, and I was thankful to have not listened to my inner voice and to have done both workouts today and, given I am now about halfway through the T25 challenge, I wanted to show you my results:

  
Well, what do you think? I’d love some feedback! Madison told me I look a lot more muscular in the after shots. So I’ll take that as a win. I know the scales are only saying about a one pound difference (that’s about half a kilo) but the body is actually speaking (minor changes, I know) in these pictures. Thank god! As far as my face is concerned, I know you really want to see some photos of me without makeup as a halfway point for the R+F challenge, but I’m just not sure the photos are capturing the differences so I’m going to keep you in suspense until the due date for those results. If you look closely on the body photos, I’m not wearing any makeup and there is definitely a difference, you may just have to trust me on that one for right now. 
I followed my workout with my morning regime with Rodan and Fields and guess what? No irritation after using the AMP MD last night! Please ignore everything I said about using the AMP MD in the morning, the ‘night’ renewing serum is meant for just that and my skin felt amazing again this morning when I awoke and amazing after my morning regime. Back on track, I am. Yes, please call me Yoda. 😆 
I walked out of the bathroom with fresh skin, knowing what I wanted to do today; I wanted to paint and I wanted to be inspired by nature and by beauty. I dragged the kids and the dog down to the rice paddies and snapped some photos and collected some small branches and got a little inspired. I really like the ‘Southwest’ (USA) painting style and I am ok at it, whereas water inspired stuff, doesn’t work for me, as much as I love it. Now, please understand, I am on painting number 5 in my life. I’ve never had any training, not even art in school after grade 8, so this is a reasonably new hobby. I’m practicing my painting of water scenes but I did one painting of a Southwest scene and gave it to a friend and their daughter-in-law wanted to commission me to paint something similar for her family once they bought a new house, unfortunately (or fortunately depending upon how one looks at it) we moved over here and they moved into their house at about the same time. Anyway, back to the painting today, I wanted to try something different. When we were in Australia, I saw a lot of 3D art and thought today I would attempt to make my own. It didn’t quite come out like I had pictured it, well no, let me rephrase, I had no idea what I was planning on so I guess it came out as it was meant to….

  
(This was my second painting ever (well aside from finger painting I guess).

  
My abstract 3D painting from today…..

The afternoon was followed with drawing another ‘Southwest’ picture, I may just start painting it shortly. We’ll see. I have to go with the vibe when it hits me and I know I’m accountable to all of you each and every day as far as my blog is concerned, so that takes priority, well, after my family of course. Our dinner was a wonderful roast beef, I’ve finally mastered the 110 voltage converters here we live out in town rather than on the base/post and there are 110v and 220v plugs with a built in converter somewhere), they aren’t very good and for whatever reason, the 110v are very slow, even the toaster spits out bread rather than toast. So the 110V slow cooker has to have a couple of hours added on to the time, today’s meal took 10 hours whereas stateside it would have taken 8 on low cook. At least I know and can be prepared from now on. Anyway, the dinner was wonderful, a very lean, tender roast beef, with a gravy made from tomatoes, onions, celery, carrot, organic chicken and beef stock as well as vegetable stock and a light red wine, actually ‘Le card Bordeaux’, Alessandra couldn’t stop saying how wonderful the gravy was! We had Costco bread rolls, broccoli, mashed potato and homemade oven chips (fries) with chicken salt. Wonderful. All five plates clean. So, it’s Friday night, and I am going to say adieu because I haven’t really seen my hubby for a few days and finally he is here and doesn’t have his nose buried in paperwork, have a great day or night depending upon where you are and I’ll see you on Saturday! I’ll leave you with some more photos from our walk today:

Challenge Accepted Day 31

Well what a lushful day! I have been nothing but a big lush all afternoon! I started off my morning in the right frame of mind; making my bed, cleaning, unpacking/packing the dishwasher etc, etc. I even did Total Body Circuit on T25, ok almost did it, the DVD cut out with 7 minutes to go and I’m not going to lie, this body was lying on the ground like a beached whale with Shawn T asking me to give a little more and do wide in/out abs with a squat and I pretty much wanted to tell him where he could shove those when the DVD cut out! What a shame! Oh well, sometimes one just has to go with it and listen to the body (& mind) & tell everything else where to go. Today was that day. I cleaned ferociously afterwards, so it’s not like I just sat around like a beached whale all day, it was only the one time with Shawn T watching…..
My friend Tawni came for lunch and lunch was wonderful, if I do say so myself. She too loves haloumi, so my balsamic vinegar chicken, avocado & haloumi salad went down really well. If I hadn’t been so hungry I would have taken a photo of just how awesome lunch looked, and tasted! I also introduced Tawni to ‘Le Card Bordeaux de Franzia rouge chillable’ or Franzia box wine Chillable Red’ it sounds so much nicer in French. I love red wine and white wine, in bottle form, in expensive bottle form, but this US box wine is scarily drinkable. They need to start paying me commission for the people I introduce to this very drinkable, very mild, very light, very refreshing, very summer, box wine. Seriously. Add new person today! And if any of you taste it just because of this blog then we need to start a new hashtag, possibly #Sheryn’sFranziaDrinkableRed ? Let me know what you think! 
So lunch was amazing. Don’t you just love it when you connect with someone immediately and it turns out all instincts are correct and you can connect with them immediately again and again? In military life, we need to speed up relationships because we’re always coming and going and so are other people, so we need to get right in there with people we connect with and enjoy their company whilst we can. That’s just how it is and any Mil Spouse who’s been doing this for long enough, understands those credentials. If they don’t, then they’re either new or have been lucky enough to be stationed in one place for so long they forgot what it’s like to move every two to three years or they’re just not worth being friends with. I sound harsh, but I’m telling the truth. This life is very unpredictable. We need to know what we want, know what we need, have our priorities in place (family first always) and get on with doing what we do and being completely and honestly ‘real’. It’s all about being real. No one wants to bullshit and most of us don’t have time for it. We like good old fashioned real people. Most of us don’t care about where you fit in to the military rank ‘spectrum’. We like you because we like you and nothing else matters. It’s our soldier spouses who have to worry about rank, not us. So today was once again refreshing because my gut instincts were correct (no that’s not why it was refreshing) and I met someone who was/is consistently real, consistently herself. 

My afternoon was almost over by the time Tawni left but what a lovely way to spend my day. I decided to go on strike as far as dinner was concerned, I guess hubby is just popping in to see us anyway before continuing his night at work, so leftover tacos will suffice for him and cheese pizza will do for the kiddos, as for me, well, perhaps, a taco also. I’ll go with the flow. 

Onto the Rodan + Fields side of things, well, my friend Sue enlightened me today by suggesting that my tenderness from using the AMP MD has stemmed from switching to the morning and following it with the ‘liquid velvet’ Night Renewing Serum. It’s called Night for a reason; You need the entire night to recover from using the AMP MD and the serum provides that overnight renewal, not necessarily your daytime benefits. She thinks my skin has become more sensitive because of this reason and that once I switch back to the night time regime, things will go back to normal. I should trust Doctors Rodan and Fields. Probably a good idea. Sometimes I try to make things fit in with me and it ‘ain’t necessarily so’. I need to be stricter with following directions and listen to the experts! 
Today’s blog is short and sweet. It was a wonderful day that ended with the not-so-great side of military life where hubby has to work into the wee hours of the morning. Kids are in bed. I am tired. Looking forward to the AMP MD tonight (with very light pressure of course) and to chilling by the tv with no interruption. I must say though, my kids all crack me up with their little stories/isms during the day and Hunter is obviously here with me the most, so I get to hear his more than anyone else’s. This morning he had his Avengers pjs on. I told him if he wanted to come to the bus stop, he would have to change, so he went upstairs and grabbed his Captain America track pants and gap sweatshirt, came down and took off his pjs and put those items on. I asked where his shirt was and he said he didn’t need one. I told him he would need a shirt as it was cold and he said and I quote, “Mummy, if I wear that pajama shirt underneath, I’m going to look like a weirdo!” Seriously! 😊
Have great day and or night! See you on the upside! Don’t forget you’ll never be as young as you are today, so make the most of it! 

Challenge Accepted Day 27 

Today has been fun, but not overly eventful. I didn’t work out. The idea of doing Total Body Circuit on what should have been my day off wasn’t overly appealing and we had to get to the bank before it closed, unfortunately, we didn’t make it because the last time they were open was yesterday! Oh hubby, check the times of the bank and don’t assume just because one bank is open, the other will be. We had to go on to the base anyway. Hubby had a lot of stuff that needed to go into his office and I couldn’t wait to get it out of the house. The amount of crap they have to carry with them just with their Army life, then the awards and other cool stuff they get down the line, all adds up. Needless to say, in this little tiny house, we needed the stuff gone ASAP. 

Off to his office we went and wow! Just wow. I took some basic cleaning stuff thinking it would be like his last office and need a bit of a clean but nothing major; I was wrong. Very wrong. It was pretty disgusting. I’m sure it hadn’t been cleaned in a couple of years and the layer of dust covering everything was somewhat overwhelming. The walls were dusty, the chairs were filthy, the whole place was just dirty. South Korea is amazingly bad for the amount of dust that seems to appear. I think I mentioned it the other day in my blog that it was just the worst I had ever seen. And this office was bad. I even had to clean the vacuum cleaner before I could use it. I wished I had another vacuum cleaner and could pull a Monica (Friends reference there), instead I got damp paper towel and cleaned the vacuum cleaner. Even after doing that, when I went to use the hand piece on it, I made a big mistake, dust went all over both myself and the carpet. Three hours later though, between hubby and I cleaning it together, we got it all looking nice, his stuff hung on the walls, the chairs all clean, the floor as clean as it would get given the vacuum cleaner situation, all in all, a successful afternoon.
It was a beautiful day here in SoKo too and we were stuck indoors for most of it. But on Monday when hubby goes into his office and it’s clean and his stuff is hung on the walls, it will be worth it. And tonight we went for our first dinner at someone else’s house. Someone who has nothing to do with my hubby, (I have to say that I love it when meals are shared and they’re not career related) and we had an amazing night! It was so much fun. We both had an amazing night. Hubby called it before we outstayed our welcome and with kids, and a wife who loves to have a good time (aka me) it was the perfect time to depart. We really did have a wonderful night and I think we could be couple friends, that’s always a nice thing particularly when you’re in the military because half the time that doesn’t happen. Seriously. I’m not sure how it works in the civilian world but in the military world it works like this; “I met this amazing woman, I really like her, her name is….” “I can’t be friends with them her husband is one of my soldiers.” Or…… “I met this amazing woman, she is awesome, her husband seems really nice…..” I’m not going to meet her husband sweety, that’s just weird….” Or “no!” 
So my husband met tonight with an open mind and I am so glad he did. I was a tad surprised when he met it with such an open mind, but he did. This all started with an ad about looking after cats, I’m a big cat person, my husband is not. My daughter’s are too. Son is not. I saw this ad and thought, you’re within walking distance, I’ve been there and needed someone to help me with my cat and had no one, so I want to help this woman with her cats. I responded to the ad and said yes we would help. It also added to bonus ad points that she said “will pay in wine.” What a fabulous woman to put that on a Facebook advertisement (just in our local village mind you). So we went and met her and she was frigging awesome, she’d also lived in Townsville, Australia for 6 years. Here I am in South Korea, understanding that I’m going to associate and live with both Americans and South Koreans but the chances of encountering an Australian or someone who has lived in Australia are minimal. First there was my cable guy (Aussie/Korean), who had never met another Aussie in the 8 years he had worked in Pyeongtaek (until me of course) and now this American who had live in Australia for so long! It was a sign. On top of that, I instantly liked her, so did my kids. Then she invited us for dinner and it just all seemed natural. And my husband went along with it. Definitely a sign. And what a wonderful night we had. I made pavlova because she had had it before and because my hubby is looking for any excuse to have it again. The kids had a great night, all in all, can’t imagine a better Saturday night, we really enjoyed ourselves and it makes for a better place when you find people you can relate to and enjoy their company and rank, place, position, whatever, doesn’t come into play. We also let our eldest sleep over at her friend’s house and this time I felt terrible for judging her dad when he can to my house as they both seemed like awesome people too. He’s just an extrovert, and the Mum/mom seems very cool and very nice, they just have that one car struggle too. All in all, a great day. The only thing that would make it better would be if my French friend answered her bloody phone, she asked me to call…. I want to speak to her 😊
Not too much to report on any front other than the night regimen went well. I used Redefine and all is good, having given AMP MD a miss today. Looking forward to stretching tomorrow with T 25, but otherwise all quiet on the front and as always, please like me on Facebook: aussiemumsadventures, and share my posts if you enjoy them. Also, if you want to try your own Rodan + Fields 60 day challenge, then go to slongmorescott.myrandf.com have a great night and/or Saturday!