Happy Nolan Boy !

Our little man is growing so fast now , he is real confident walking around with shoes now and is very happy and learns lotsa cool new things. Hes a bright little sparkle and has the greatest laughter and obviously makes us laugh a lot as well ! Have a look at this little collection of pictures of our little Nolan Huia.

Watching his learning dvd.

Walk in the garden with mum.

Watching his baby einstein dvd while mum cuts his nails.

Helping mum cook dinner, good boy !

DJ Bumcrack.

On the dancefloor.

RUN DMC playin.

This is the coolest picture ! click on it !

He loves this hand knitted jacket from Holland , thanx oma en opa Baarn !

Very confident walker now ! Cool shoes !

Borecole recipe. Good Dutch ethnic food.

How to make BOEREKOOL.

To me , Boerekool is the best of all dutch ethnic recipes, its my all time favourite ! Here in NZ it is hard to obtain but luckily being a proffesional cook i can get it through the wholesalers in certain times of the year. Last time i ordered it they asked me what I planned to do with it as the farmer said it was not fit for human consumption , he only fed it to his goats ! :) I replied that in the Netherlands they feed pumpkins to the pigs or use them for decoration, not many people actually consume them. (kiwis eat a lot of pumpkin , i love it as well now) Anyway , wash the leaves , remove the stem or stalk and only use the nice green frilly bits. Chop them as fine as you can, a foodprocessor would come in handy.. Scroll down to continue...

After the kale is finely chopped , just cover it with water (add plenty of salt to retain color) and boil for 20 minutes.

Strain the boiling water from the Kale and discard water. Put potatoes in large pot and just cover with water.

Place the cooked Kale on top of the potatoes and continue a slow boil for another 25 minutes. As you can see we are slowly warming up the "Rookworst" (dutch smoked sausage) in some simmering water. In the big pan we have fried off onion and bacon pieces.

If the Rookworst is hot enough you can rest it on top of the Boerekool mixture. As you can see i've made a tasty dark gravy to go with this dish.

Here comes the masher ! Mash the Kale and potatoes together after you drain all excess water off.

In the mash you add butter , a little milk and seeded mustard. Also season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add onion and bacon pieces to Boerekool either mix through or sprinkle on top. Slice Rookworst.

The gravy MUST go in a 'pool' created by the ladel dipping into the mash , this is very important and enhances the experience ! dont forget! :) Serve mustard for the Rookworst and some pickled gherkins on the side. You are ready to eat !

This is Nolans first Boerekool ! Exciting !

And... YES !! He loves it !! Good lil dutch kiwi boy he is ! :)

Have fun cooking everybody !

How is the garden going ?

Garden Update :

The garden is doing well i am pleased to say , the peas, cabbage and endive have really started to grow and the borecole is coming up nicely as well. The onions and carrots are going very slowly but that is to be expected this time of year. We had a massive hailstorm earlier this month but all my veges survived luckily, there is a picture below. Cuzzie Jamie gave me some sheep dung pellets that i have dug in around the plants. Thanx cuzzie ! I have found (in a skip) two old zinc/iron rubbish bins that are excellent to grow my mini gourmet potatoes in.

I still have some work to do with the retaining wall around the garden , im afraid that a good rainfall might cause instability. We also have lots of earthquakes here as we live right on the faultline (like everyone in wellington region) so that doesnt help the situation at all :)

A couple of days ago i have put my seedlings in , so i have now added leek , beetroot and cauliflower to the garden. I have covered some of them with old plastic bottles (with the bottom cut off) to make mini-greenhouses , a trick i got from some internet gardening site. Its all about the research for a city boy like me !! So far , so good ! Im keeping my green fingers crossed ! :)

6 AM , massive hailstorm ! NO !

My fragile seedlings are outside now.

Start of the retaining wall.

Cabbage going fast , endive , peas and borecole looking healthy !

Look ! a dutch garden gnome !

More updates as the veges grow !

The Honda CT110 Project UPDATE

So far the CT110 has proven itself most useful , i have lugged 80 liters of compost up Hungerford road (a very steep wellington hillroad) on the back of this beast without a problem. The bike is best described as a quad on 2 wheels, anyone who has ever ridden a quad knows what im talking about , all the bottom power torque that you need on rough terrain and smooth gear ratios with heaps of grunt. Topspeed is about 85/90 Kmph, it starts to scream too much after that :) Im having lots of fun in this part of town , we have a huge park in the next valley (1 minute drive) and the old rock quarry "red rocks" (8 minutes drive) at the beach where anything with an engine is allowed and its so much fun to hoon around. Offroading is something i havent done much before but i am really starting to like it a lot ! At least there are less cars around then on the road so i should be safer right? ;)

UPDATE
two cool links:
-the wikipedia page for ct110 , click here
-A cool story about a couple of kiwi guys climbing a mountain in NZ, click here

Anyway here are the pictures of the Beast , officialy nicknamed "Panzerfaust"
fun on wheels

The parts that i got off Trademe.co.nz , payed $70 for it.

The parts i got off econohonda.co.nz, payed $130.

Red Rocks quarry

Fun paradise !

See why they call this model "Trail" ? :)

The knobbly rear tyre is most useful

$320 total price. Nice.

Houghton Bay park

Houghton Bay valley, my playground :)

Nolans first haircut !

On friday we handed little bubba over to nana for a weekend sleepover. On sunday he was returned a boy. No longer lil bubba. Nana decided it was time for a haircut and took lil Nolan to the barbershop. Isnt he just so handsome? Thanx nana Otaki !

Handsome and happy !

Hugging dads leg

Yes that hurts...

Heavy boys :) (And YES i STILL have that hoodie !)

His squeeky hammer of joy

Our print of Anton Pieck's 'Hoorn" above a handpicked autumn bouquet

This was obviously before the haircut. He did need one didnt he?