Recipe: Spanish chorizo & potato frittata

I hosted a little brunch get together on the weekend with my gorgeous longtime girlfriends from high school.

(See pictures).

I kept the menu simple (so I could still enjoy myself too) and for a brunch quiches/frittatas are always a nice option. This recipe has been a favourite for a while. I'm a huge fan of tasty and quick. And really, with so few hours in the day, who isn't?

Spanish Chorizo and Potato Frittata

1 Spanish chorizo sausage, thinly sliced.
1/2 Red onion, thinly sliced.
5 eggs.
1/3 cup of thickened cream.
1/4 cup of grated cheddar.
300g of frozen rosemary and garlic potatoes (I think they are Birdseye brand? They're in a yellow bag).
1/3 cup grilled capsicum/peppers sliced (the Always Fresh brand are good).
1 Tbs fresh thyme leaves.
1 Tbs olive oil.
1 15 or 20cm frypan.

Heat half the olive oil in a pan, add sliced chorizo. Fry for about a minute then add the potato to the pan. Cook stirring until potato is cooked through but still firm. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Heat the remaining oil in the pan and add the onion. Sauté for a few minutes and transfer to the plate with chorizo and potato. Add eggs, cream, cheese and thyme into a bowl and whisk until combined. Heat pan and add potato, chorizo and onion mix.
Add grilled capsicum into pan and pour egg mixture over the top. Leave on medium heat for 5 mins. Then place frypan under a medium-high grill to set or until brown on top. Serve with a side salad and ENJOY!

Spending time with friends and family enjoying some great food really, truly is what life is all about!

On the bargain hunt.

Here's a pic of some of the bargains I've snapped up in the last week. Too good not to share.

Red skinny jeans $18.86 from Big Dubs. Don't mind if I do. And $12.99 earrings from Lovisa. Both purchases aren't my usual style but for the price who cares if I wear them once? Although, I have a feeling they are about to become repeat offenders in my wardrobe! Love me a bargain!

China in a heartbeat.

Ok ok, slack I know. I've been home a month and failed to so far blog about my trip to China. There is only really one word to sum it up; PERFECT! So I won't bore you with any more than that. The trip is exactly how perfect I imagined it would be, probably even more so.

I think pictures really do speak a thousand words, so here goes for your viewing pleasure.

This is me, getting mobbed. Yes. Mobbed. This happened almost everywhere we went and since I was turning 27 on the trip was most welcome for the ego. The translation our guide offered us was that I was "beautiful". HA! They really mustn't see many foreigners. 'Twas fun to experience being a movie star for a week however delusional they may have been.

Mumsy and I in the Forbidden City. Just spectacular and BUSY! You really feel all of the 1.3 billion people in the DPRC as your pushing through the crowds.

Ah, Peking Duck, my tastebuds did a happy dance when I saw this baby being wheeled out toward us. Delish.

The wall. Isn't she a beauty? It's so obvious standing on her that it really is a Great Wonder of the World.

This is me running the wall, full of enthusiasm. Little did I know I was about to face the original StairMaster 10000....on steroids.

Slowly running out of said enthusiasm.

Ok, this is getting ridiculous. Pretty sure I heard the phrase "f#$% me" in 56 different languages on ascent and descent.

Almost at the top!!!!!!

And the bottle of water I paid the equivalent of $6 Aussie Dollars for (as opposed to the 25 Aussie Cents I was regularly paying for water). Silly lady, could've charge me 50 bucks and I damn well would have paid it.

A 27th Birthday well spent, visiting the Terracotta Warriors in Xian. Ah-mazing! I'm not gonna lie though, felt very out of sorts to be away from my boys on such an occasion. Mum made me feel a little less homesick. But future note to self: Do NOT spend birthday's away from husband and son again.

Enjoying the cherry/peach/camellia? blossoms. Not sure which they are.

Xian street life. Probably my favourite pic of the trip. Really captures China.

The Bund. Shanghai. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this city. If you can see past the haze of pollution it's one of the world's truly great cities.

So that's about it, a small snippet of the 1300 pictures I took in a 8 days. Yep, I do love me a picture. Enjoy.

A little something that's worth sharing.

Here's a recent little snap of a gorgeous boy I know all styled for a friend's engagement party. If he's not cute then I'll eat my hat.

Trip of a lifetime.

Next week I am off to China with my Mum for 9 whole days. Yep. 9 whole days without Buddy. The longest I have left him since he has been here. I don't just want to do this long talked about, planned trip. I need to. To feed my soul long after she is gone. You see, my Mum, has for the entirety of my lifetime and most of hers, suffered a chronic illness, one that will most likely take her before her time. And well before I am ready. I have known this for my whole life and never does the thought get any easier to bear. 

We have talked about travelling together ever since I was little.

I remember her saying to me when I was 17, if I saved my part-time working money up enough to pay for a flight to Europe, she would cover the rest and we could have a magnificent trip together. I didn't. I squandered it away on clothes and other completely frivolous things (OH! if only I could go back and kick my 17 year old self up the BUM) and I completely let her down or so it felt. 

This is somewhat an apology and a dream come true for us both.

Yes, I am a mother BUT to feed my soul I am also being a daughter for 9 whole days. 9 perfectly planned, happy, memory making days with my Mum, the greatest lady I will ever know. 

To be your Mummy.

So here I am. Another "Mummy blogger". Writing my first blog. Scary. Exciting. A memory keeper for my little family. I'm Narda and I'm 2 and a half years into my mothering journey; to Buddy, my son, my love. An energetic, loving, sometimes challenging, little chatterbox (I can hear a collective agreement from all Mother's of toddlers). I want to record our journey together so I can, when I'm old and demented, look back and laugh a big belly laugh, cry and remember what it was like to be his Mummy when he was 2 and a half. 


Our life together started here. September 17 2009 at 3.04am. Our first moment together.

Buddy, what I want to tell you right now.

You were here and you were mine. I was so overwhelmed to hold this precious, little bundle of you that the tears started, from Daddy too. We have both loved you from that first cuddle right there. I remember Daddy whispering in my ear "we have a little boy" and the very depth of that didn't hit me until I wrapped my arms around your pink body and you stopped the screaming, looked up at me, your Mummy, we just stared at each other. Our first moment together. How I will never forget that moment. Ever.

2 and a half years later. Here we are. Our latest moment together.

Such a fun day on a recent little holiday.

And believe it or not I love you more than in that top photo. I didn't think it was possible but I do. And I love you more today than in that photo of us on the beach, taken a month ago. I didn't think that was possible either. Each day with you my love grows, almost doubles, it feels, than the day before. To be your Mummy, is the greatest, most wonderful thing in my life, Buddy boy.