Oh hey you, it's been a minute!

Seems I left you with a delicious affogato recipe but return to you now with no bells, no whistles, no frills.  Just me on the keyboard.

The abyss between then and now is out.of.sight! Blogging was the done thing then but now it's saturated and Vlogging is more the style.  Perhaps that's also now no longer on point??

In any case, I'm not following those paths yet.  I'm here just to type away, share my thoughts, my DIYs, my tips, tricks & dare I say it "hacks".  To expend some excessive thoughts in this jumbled mess of a mind.

I'll keep this post simple and won't drill down on the events of the past 8 years but in an Austin Powers nutshell - I married in 2014; had two kids now 7 & 5 years old; gained enough weight to feel horrible about myself on the daily; my husband has been battling through PTSD, Depression & Hyper Anxiety for the last 3-4 years and my marriage has been on the rocks since. My daughter was diagnosed a year ago with Epilepsy and is waiting for brain surgery to remove a frontal cortical dysplasia.  She has developmental delays so we've gone down the NDIS path and now do Speech Therapy along with Occupational Therapy and she only starts Prep this year!  

Phew, it's been hectic.

Let's see where this next blogging journey takes me.  I'm sure it will be inconsistent at best, but I want to share some frugal ideas to help penny pinch, update you on some large & not so large DIYs, yibber away about nothing and everything and lastly document my voyage back to being mindful and filling my cup on the regular.

May the odds be ever in your favour.

This Nutt, Nat xx

Affogato

What goes hand in hand with Almond & Pistachio Biscotti?

Affogato of course!

Translated it means 'drowned' and that is exactly what you are going to do to the ice cream with the coffee.

Use: Good quality vanilla bean ice cream; hot espresso shot & (optional) a shot of your favourite liqueur such as frangelico

Do: Place one or two scoops of ice cream in a bowl or glass.  Prepare a shot of coffee (using an espresso machine preferably) and pour over ice cream.  (If using a liqueur, pour this over now aswell).  Eat with a spoon.

The juxtaposition of the hot and cold sensations in your mouth at once is sublime.

NomNom!

Backyard Evolution - Watching Grass Grow

So you might will call me crazy when I tell you that having your own patch of green lawn is da bomb!

Seriously though, it is.

Remember when I showed you the condition of our backyard when we moved in to our new home in 2011?

as it was in 2011

Skip forward two-ish years and we are now proud owners of one seriously green patch of grass...

Gah! totally love it, I could look at it all day.  (Ignore the surrounding garden beds, they are a work in progress!).

Our yard has gone from, pavers & rocks, to dirt & dust and now to the greenest of green...

Tell me you don't think it looks ah-mazeballs!?

I must confess we had a professional come do all the prep work & lay the lawn but it was money well spent.

Mr Nutt & I have spent numerous hours, since it was laid in mid March, just sitting on our deck with a cup of coffee watching the grass grow - literally.

So you might say we are chuffed... royally chuffed... and we are.  Seeing our lawn dream come to fruition means we are one step closer to finishing our dream garden.

We are now on the look out for a water feature to sit in front of the office window... I'm eyeing off this one from Masters Home Improvement.

Tropez Urn Water Feature

We're also out and about looking at different types of rocks for our pathways.  Mr Nutt has always been set on tumbled sandstone and we are both in agreement that the rocks below are fit for the job.

Slowly but surely the yard is getting there.

Until the next instalment of our backyard evolution I give you this...

Almond & Pistachio Biscotti

Let me admit to you, right off the bat, that I am a Biscotti novice.

Up until now, I had never cooked, nor even thought about cooking Biscotti.  I wasn't even sure I liked them!

But as you do on a rainy day, you break out your recipe book (or in this case, scour the Internet), raid your pantry and crank the oven.  So why Biscotti?  Why not!

Admittedly, I had some minor issues along the way, and they turned out looking like a Biscotti goddess had a serious run in with an ugly tree, but boy did they taste Deee-Lish!

Biscotti Use:

Biscotti Do:

(Rolling the logs was a little more finicky then I expected and they ended up to long and not thick enough)

From here on in I don't have photos.  I was concentrating so much so that my eyes could cut through sheet metal like lasers! Anyhoo...

5. Once cool, preheat oven to 160 degrees.  Using a serrated knife, thinly slice the logs and place flat down on a baking tray. (this was a little difficult because my log was still a little soft inside, I would suggest cooking the log in step 4 for another 5 minutes)

6. Bake for a further 5 minutes or so.  Be careful not to over bake as the Biscotti will become hard.

Devour!

As an aside, it's not all doom and sugary gloom with this biscuit; almonds & pistachios are a good source of protein, rich in dietary fibre, B vitamins, essential minerals & mono-unsaturated fats.  

With all sugary foods remember, consume in moderation.

For the original recipe click here