[Tamara]

No I mean the ones in the packet. the other ones are what you eat with fish or if you go to somewhere like MacDonalds. I meant the supermarket ones – Pringles (my favourite)! What do you call them?

Anyway, at the moment the snacks of choice for me are protein packed ones since I am on a mission to shift these kilos – all part of the plan…

[needlewoman]

Sarvi, Australians use the term ‘chips’ for a whole bunch of snacks – inc. dried banana chips, and corn chips. But chiefly, when we say chips, we mean the roundish shaped ones that come in packets – any number of flavours etc, and the wedge-y shaped ones that are made and sold at chicken and/or fish and chips shops. When I was small, you could buy the second kind at milk bars, too. The ‘chipped’ potatoes are deep fried, and are much less salty than the packet ones. The Brits usually call the ones in packets, “crisps”. The ‘chips’ served at MacDonalds or Hungry Jacks do not deserve the name as they are matchstick in shape, and about as tasteless. These places call them “French Fries”, so Australians are now familiar with that term/food. Not much help with what people serve for ‘snacks’ – just about anything goes. These days, the most common fall back is store-bought savoury dips with “crackers’ or corn chips. Packet chips often feature heavily. Olives – all different kinds are able to be bought at the increasing number of gourmet (smallgoods) stores are very popular, also. I tend to make cakes or chocolate slices to take to parties – known here as “bringing a plate”.

[Sarvi]

Ah yes, the ‘slice’ phenomenon, I read about it on a food blog. I like the idea of “bringing a plate” — sounds so convivial.

[with love Heidi]

Tasmanian Heritige Double Brie cheese with Arnotts seaseme wheat crackers! Are our favroute snack indulagnace.

Cheese http://www.tasmanianheritage.com.au/our-cheese/soft-white-cheese/double-brie/

Bring a plate is great, normally more food than you can poke a stick at (ie LOTS). I tend to make cocoa brownies. I think that “slice” is the same as the canadian “squares”, not sure about what its called in the US.

[Sarvi]

Yum, the double brie sounds great. Yes, here we call them bars or squares. But slice sounds more dainty 🙂

[Tamara]

We refer to the slice and whole thing and when cut it is a “piece”. A bar for us is like a chocolate bar – mars, snickers etc.

The whole bring a plate term has always had me amused. One lady brought the plate to church one time without the food on it – she suffered from dementia the poor thing – but it was so funny we all cracked up laughing even her which is good because she could have gotten quite sensitive over it.

With 46 degree heat we had yesterday all cooking plans went right out the window and we snacked on icy poles instead! Even the dog wanted one and that is saying something about the weather. He settled for his Schmackos instead.

Lightning have you ever come across dogs that suffer from separation anxiety? This pooch of ours howls every time we leave the house without him, even if we are just outside hanging clothes on the line. He asks to come in the car and I found him wandering up to fils house this morning when I was coming down the driveway toward our house. Just picked him up and gave him a ride home again.

What do you do to ease the anxiety in animals? I’ve been putting the telly on for company when I go to town and Murray’s not home. I don’t know if it helps or not. Too worried about leaving him outside because of the heat and his ability to wander – he’s so little he can get through our gate.

[Lightning McStitch]

Separation anxiety is probably one of the most common behavioural problems for pet dogs.

There might be some helpful reading amongst these links:

1: Dr Sophia Yin. veterinary behaviourist with a great blog. http://drsophiayin.com/blog/category/separation_anxiety

2: Dog Appeasing Pheromone. Some pheromone aromatherapy for the home that can help calm an anxious dog. http://www.dapdiffuser.com/

3: Reconcile. the veterinary licensed version of Prozac. Your dog may never require medicating, but they explain the principles of dealing with separation anxiety very well in their supporting literature. http://www.reconcile.com/

A GOOD dog trainer that can come to your home to see what’s happening and how you’re dealing with it can be a great step. But a loony bark buster or dog whisperer type can completely lead you astray. Your vet may do behaviour consults or may be able to recommend someone who does. Good luck

[with love Heidi]

I like your description of the difference between a GOOD trainer and the loony ones 🙂

The double brie is great!

[Lightning McStitch]

I could be taught almost any trick if the reward was Roquefort!

(unless it was Caesar Milan holding the cheese, I’d just bite him for the fun of it!)

[Nicole]

Smoked Salmon,cream cheese,capers on turkish bread,yum!

Brie and camembert……yum!

[Tamara]

Thanks Lightning for those links. Will grab a minute to peruse and use. It may not be that, or would I be dense in putting it down to the breed personality?

Oh cream cheese…. Yum! Forgot about that one! It is generally something I use in icing for cupcakes, but do enjoy it with crackers too!

[Sarvi]

Ok, I might have to go buy some cream cheese. I’m not a huge fan of the brick style — seems impossibly hard to spread, but the soft mascarpones or other varieties of soft cheese in the little tubs are luscious.

[Lightning McStitch]

Ashed chevre with crackers tonight. Oh and some bubbles,… and some red…..

No sewing.

[rastis]

what a horrible week last week was… we are all so tired here… our little community was hit by a terrible storm last week that resulted in 300mm rain in 24 hours, 130km/hr winds and lots of damage 🙁 we’ve only just had the power restored after 3 days without it… and believe me, 3 days being isolated without power, running water, phone connection or mobile phone phone connection feels like about 3 weeks… we had massive flooding and wind damage… many enormous fully grown gum trees were blown out by their roots… and our garage (which was storing many things including photos 🙁 flooded as well…

at this point we are all grateful to be OK and i think i literally squealed when the power went back on… it is so tough keeping things pregnancy hygienic with no hot water (and needing to collect water in buckets!)… we lost all the contents of our fridge and quite a bit of our freezers as well which was a real bummer… thinking that buying a generator will be on this year’s list… they are still predicting more rain and i’m just crossing my fingers that we won’t lose power again…

it feels so weird to have the internet again when we still don’t have a working phone! and have been living by candlelight for 3 days….mother nature sure has a way of putting us in our place

i want to go and have a nap, but i have more scrubbing to do… i’m onto about my 6th load of washing and have scrubbed out the fridge and freezers and on top of if it all i need to prepare for a visit from my dreaded mother-in-law in the next few days… i have boxloads of water damaged stuff airing all over our house- so i have no idea how that is going to work out…guess that means i’d better get back to it 🙁

[with love Heidi]

Oh, no, rastis, what an awful week (and the MIL coming too!!)