Smoked cheese spread, weekend, random notes and facebook

Entertaining always leaves leftovers in my fridge.  I had bought more cheese than necessary for our recent birthday lunch.  It went into a delicious cheese spread that saw us through a long weekend.  Sylvia had a holiday on Monday as well as the Melbourne Cup public holiday on Tuesday.  So here is an overview of the weekend interspersed by craft, the zoo and the cinema.  Oh and I have some random reflections to share as well.

I have already told you about the birthday lunch on Saturday.  On Sunday we had a quiet day at home. It seemed an excellent opportunity for some craft.  Sylvia got out her craft tablecloth and craft box.  She was keen.  We also got out the paints and she set about painting some pictures while I cut out some cake shapes for her to paint.  (Template from here.)

Meanwhile I started some birthday cake collages I had been keen to try. The idea is to rip layers of cakes from craft papers.  We have a ridiculous amount of patterned papers and this was a fun way to use them.  Though it did leave the loungeroom in a mess.

Meanwhile we needed lunch.  I had ambitiously planned to make cheese balls for the cracker spiders the previous day and had bought some nice cheese that never got used.  So I mixed it with leftover cream cheese and seasoning.  It was delicious, albeit quite rich.  It wasn't that easy to spread.  Perhaps a bit of butter would help that so I have added it as an optional extra to the recipe below.  It would be very good in a ball rolled in crushed walnuts for entertaining.

For lunch I made sandwiches with smoky potato salad, vegie sticks and kale chips.  (The leftover kale chips were great and I loved having some ready chopped vegies!)  It was so good.  Afterwards I had to finish the collages.  Sylvia had done with her paints so she helped me and even made some of her own.

For dinner that night we had hotdogs.  I have had Fry's hotdogs in the fridge for far to long.  Actually they were 2 months past the best by date.  Oops.  I wasn't overly keen on the hotdogs but I have never found a vegetarian hotdog that I like.  When I was young my mum would make hotdogs on weekends occasionally.  I have never found hotdogs that have the red colour and the crunch of the skin that characterised the hotdogs I knew.  These ones were good served with some cheese spread, kale chips and tomato sauce in the hotdog buns.

Finally on the Monday, Sylvia and I went to the zoo while E had to work.  I made a cheese and chutney sandwich for E with the spread and for me I made a sandwich of cheese spread, chutney and kale chips.  Sylvia had cheese and vegemite sandwiches.  I am not in the habit of taking sandwiches out with us a lot but now that Sylvia has come to appreciate cheese and vegemite sandwiches, thanks to school lunches, we do it occasionally.

We go to the zoo frequently enough that I just hone in on favourite animals these days.  The meerkats are always entertaining.  Not only are they so cute to watch but I really like the sense of community.  The little meerkat here is on the lookout on behalf of his buddies.  We went to see the seals who were a unusually inactive.

Two elephants in the pool.

The trail of the elephants is a favourite with us.  It is created to imitate walking through the jungles of Thailand and has lots of interesting jungle infrastructure as well as animals.  Many times we have walked this trail without seeing much of the elephants.  So it was fascinating to see quite a bit of them on this visit.  It was a warm day and we spent some time watching them play in the water.  Mostly submerged, squirting, cuddling tusks and ... er... pooing.

I had promised Sylvia an ice cream so we sat to enjoy it.  When we walked back past the elephants, they were out of the water and walking about.  It was quite amusing seeing one recalcitrant elephant refusing to come for its hay.  The little baby elephant (above) was very sweet.

The trail of the elephants also include the butterfly house and the orangutangs.  The butterfly house is mesmerising with so many butterflies fluttering about and landing on the watching people.  Sylvia was most displeased to have a butterfly land on her hat.  We enjoyed watching some of the orangutangs playing on the ropes and platforms.

As we were ready to leave we walked past the giraffes only to find they had gone to bed.  I was most displeased.  Sylvia was very pleased to buy a bag that came with colouring in pens to colour in the picture on the side of it.  The next day we went to see the House of Magic at the cinema.  It was a movie that was at times cute, spooky and heartwarming.  I liked it, only not as much as I thought I should.

Home made cash register at the cousins cafe.

Now I have some random notes to share:

• Great article about our relationship with food and cooking by John Lanchaster in The New Yorker.  I was struck by his comment "[f]or the most part, recipes are useful only when you already have a pretty good idea of how to cook."  A theme that rears its head in food blogging every now and again.  (Thanks for the link Lucy.)

• Sylvia was playing cafes with her cousins the other day.  They create a cafe in my parents' loungeroom and ask for customers to visit.  My dad came along and asked for a steak.  Sylvia had to ask for a steak to be pointed out to her in the plastic food items.  Then I asked for something vegetarian and my nephew had trouble finding something for me on the menu they had written.  All a learning process!

• I enjoyed listening to the Gough Whitlam memorial service yesterday.  And I have been watching a documentary on our former prime minister called The Power and The Passion.  One of the interesting pieces of trivia was that when he went to China in 1971 he forgot his brylcreem and after that never used it again!  Which explains the slicked back hair in earlier photos and the fluffier hair later.  Trivia aside, I still have that pang of what our country would be like if he hadn't been sacked!

• I was astounded to read on The Ecologist that the UK throws away enough pumpkin to make 360 million portions of soup, pie or cake.  It is even more surprising that the Brits need a campaign to educate them about recipes to use pumpkin.  But then again, I guess they didn't have pumpkin a few times a week on their dinner plate as a child like I did.  (Thanks for the link Kate.)

Roses in our garden - thanks to my mum who gives them lots of TLC.

Finally I wanted to reflect on Facebook.  This week I have reached 100 Likes on my blog page.  Thank you to those of you who have liked the page.  It feels good.  Though I read that it is estimated that my posts will only reach about 6% of the people who Like my page.  Wow!  I Since starting my FB blog page in August, I have found it has been another way to engage with readers but also another drain on my limited time for my blog.  However I have found it useful for following other blogs.  There are some blogs that don't show up in my blog list on the side bar that I use instead of a feed reader.  I have been able to keep up with these blogs through FB.  This has helped demonstrate the value of a FB blog page.

In a related note, recently I stumbled across a FB post where someone had shared the apple slice recipe on my blog.  It has been shared a gobsmacking 75,000 times.  (As well as lots of shares on Pinterest and gawks on FoodGawker.)  I had noticed the spike in my blog stats but it was impossible to see where it was coming from in Facebook until a friend tagged me.  I still get frustrated with the exclusive nature of Facebook.  Yet I also find it a useful way to share information and links.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: Apple and white chocolate blondies
Two years ago: Zaatar - friendly middles eastern bakery cafe
Three years ago: WHB Twice cooked apple cake
Four years ago: Afghans – childhood comfort food
Five years ago: The Cornbread that Stops a Nation
Six years ago: Soup from the Black Lagoon
Seven years ago: Easy Peasy Risotto Soup

Smoked cheese spread
Inspired by Martha Stewart
Makes a scant cup

100g good cheddar cheese
90g cream cheese spread
1-2 tbsp of butter or margarine (I didn't use)
1/2 tsp each smoked paprika, seeded mustard, worcestershire sauce
dash of chilli powder

Mix all ingredients and serve immediately or keep for up to 24 hours in the fridge.

On the Stereo:
American Industrial Songs: Pete Seeger