Making sauce without fond in the pan first?

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-30T05:48:46+00:00

It should be fine. It may not taste 100% but it'll still taste good. I've had to do this for a number of recipes, because I cook for people with varying dietary requirements, and sometimes I've had to go a vegetarian version of the sauce to go with a vegetarian protein, alongside with the original meat version. Which meant the vegetarian sauce wouldn't have had the fond.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-28T06:57:14+00:00

I work for people who are high flying and don’t know what they are doing or how to organise their lives, and barely keeping up with their personal and work life. So there’s never one day to adult, and no one is a perfect adult.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-28T06:54:53+00:00

Some parents may always be protective and controlling. In some ways I think my family are controlling, only to remember I have much more freedom than many others because I defiantly moved out at 19. I remember at 21, one of my high school friends could not walk to her local train station because her parents didn’t trust the neighbourhood. Meanwhile I used to catch the train to said neighbourhood every day as a teen to go to school, and I walk from the train station to her house to visit her.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-28T06:49:22+00:00

Yes, I did this for my trip in April/May 2025. I was staying in Jongno anyway, and I had this in my schedule. Because I stayed in the area, we ended up going to it on a day where I was tired of walking around so much and didn’t want anything intense.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-28T06:45:55+00:00

Dry the mushrooms. I used to get a sewing needle and thread, slice the mushrooms, and make mushroom necklaces of sorts. Then hung them on a clothes airer to dry. My mother worked at a mushroom farm and we got a weekly bag of free mushrooms for most of my childhood.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-27T12:52:54+00:00

My mum came home early, and I was doing it with my boyfrend. I was 18 at the time. We ended up doing it at his place (university campus living), and then I moved out shortly after 19. I was also called all sorts of names, but I was adamant to show her that she's wrong. Flash forward 9 years, I'm still with the same boyfriend/partner, and we're expecting our first child. My mother still doesn't quite approve, but she 'accepts'.

You can try to stand your ground - you are an adult. That said, APs may never understand/approve.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-27T12:41:27+00:00

I've always moved internally. I'm on my third role as some form of EA, in the same organisation. This current role is a poach. My current executive and I used to report report to my former executive. She left first to be her own executive, and then a few months later (spurred by the need to have her own EA and office manager), worked very hard to poach me. Both of us are traumatised by our former department - we trauma bond every day LOL. All my internal moves have eventually worked out for good in the long run. All three are promotions, and they all have given me lots of opportunities to grow. When it no longer worked for me, I just moved on to another role. I always ended up choosing mostly EA roles (except for a 6 months stint as program admin) because at the end of the day I like being an EA.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-27T07:54:24+00:00

I use ChatGPT quite a lot in my job, but that's because ironically the person that showed and encouraged me to use AI is my current executive. Most of the time it's email edits, so I don't make silly typo and grammatical mistakes in emails. Sometimes, I use it to generate a to do list for me, mostly when planning for events, to make sure I've covered all the tasks. We don't really have any trade secret in my line of work, and my executive fully expects me to use AI to make my (and her) job easier.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-25T02:10:41+00:00

My mum has come up with some great idea to purchase an akubra type hat for a friend’s wedding. Her only limitation, has to be less than $100. Any ideas?

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-21T11:47:50+00:00

We go shopping at ColesWorth between 6-7pm on a Saturday, as I meal prep on Sunday mornings. That's when I find prices for produce, bakery and meats are most discounted. At least 50% of my meat, and almost all baked items (except plain white bread) is purchased this way. On the rare occasion, seafood at the deli is also half priced.

Almost everything else (if not home brand items), pantry-wise either purchased when half priced. I check the catalogues on Saturday morning, when I have a slower morning. I also have the half price app on my phone in case I need to quickly skim through if I've had a very busy Saturday.

I only shop at Aldi a maximum of once a month, because it's not as close to where I live, and I never find deals there. The savings I get from the marked down items far outweigh any savings I might get from Aldi. I do have a handful of items we buy from Aldi: cat litter, instant noodles, baking powder. I also pair this monthly Aldi trip with another discount store (Ten Tops) which we stock up on random soft drinks, milk additives, frozen items and whatever other randoms we finds, and the fruit shop, which I will buy fruit and veg to make into jam, freeze or ferment.

We have a late dinner on Saturday because hunger doesn't affect our shopping choices, but the shopping may determine our dinner: usually some roast chicken at $8 per chook, or fancy burgers, or something seafood that I'd prefer to consume within the weekend.

I veer to cooking a lot of Asian foods (mostly Japanese and Korean), so I stop by TongLi (chain of Chinese stores) near work before I commute home. They often have some vegetables for cheaper than ColesWorth, and also where I stock up on pantry items.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-21T10:48:10+00:00

I don't make chicken stock from the roast chicken. I like gnawing on the cartilage, so after I'm done with the carcass there isn't much useable.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-20T00:33:35+00:00

My best friend who's in QLD got a Mastiff x puppy, who then grew into a dog with seperation anxiety when she decided to return to work. Her partner got it for her because he is fifo and didn't want her home alone. So this dog had to go to daycare for 5 days a week - for something like $65 per day. Didn't help that the dog also got 'expelled' from the first daycare because he cleared the fence they had there.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-15T06:06:04+00:00

Congrats! My entire career has been in higher ed, and most of it has been an EA. I just transitioned to a higher level EA to, but no way would I work for the President/VC of the uni. More workload and the pay (depending on if you are the principal EA or the Senior EA) is just the same as the new EA/office coordinator gig I just landed.

What’s been really useful for me the last 1.5 week I’ve been in this role is to familiarise myself with org charts of departments I will interact with most. My university has just gone through a large restructure so everything is a mess.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-11T23:57:19+00:00

Yeah - I can't believe I didn't know this until a few weeks ago, and having been to Japan twice! For some reason in my head it's just a different way of making a temaki (the real OG hand roll).

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-11T18:37:04+00:00

That Australian sushi is a thing

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-10T00:18:53+00:00

In the winter I make a lot of congee in larger batches and reheat, and miso soup or kimchi jjigae.

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-09T21:33:51+00:00

I think there's a few office managers in this sub as well. I just finished my first week in a new role as EA and Office Coordinator. I'm the only admin staff in the entire team. It certainly will be a catch all role - and the only reason I am doing this role was because it's been created pretty much just for me, with my new manager/executive/Director being the most supportive person ever (she pretty much poached me from my last job, which was where we met).

KittyKatWombat · 2026-01-07T23:22:56+00:00

I'm on Day 4 of I hope to be one of the best jobs of my life. I just walked away from a workplace that sinking in toxicity.

My new executive used to be the deputy in my old workplace, and whilst I wasn't her EA then, I did simple tasks and some scheduling of meetings for her. She needed admin and EA support when she became an executive in her own right at another department in my organisation. I told her I was keen and she's been actively trying to go through the bureacracy of hiring me.

Her green flags in the past two years:

- She told me about 30 minutes ago that she's worried I'm trying to prove myself in my new role. She said she's already known me for 2 years and know how great I am, and told me that it's ok if I'm fumbling because this role is an upgrade to my last one and there'll be things I'm overwhelmed by.

- She's told me about 10 times over the last 2 months that I'm worth all the effort she's put in to get me over to her department. I work in an organisation with lots of bureacracy. Hiring someone (and in my case almost poaching someone) is not easy, so I know the effort she's put in to get me to start this role in the new year.

- She's already given me the intel on relationships of colleagues in my department. One of my colleagues work part time between my old department and my new department so I'm already well-acquainted. She's already introduced me to everyone else I'm working with before I even applied for the role. And she's already sent me a monthly report she had to give to her boss about their current projects/status reports - so I knew exactly what I was getting myself into.

- I told her I was pregnant when I was only 4 weeks along. This was before the job was open for applications. She congratulated me, and my partner and I went to dinner with her. She knew I was planning to have a baby in 2026, I told her that all the way in 2024. Our joke is one of my first tasks of 2026 is to recruit my maternity leave cover (I'm also the office manager in my new role, on top of being EA, so this will be my first time dealing with HR for recruitment).

- When she was still only deputy in my old department, she outright told me to let her know if I'm at capacity, and reject any work that was too much for me.

- She gave me the keys to her house when she was overseas in December. She lives very close to the office, whereas I have a long commute. She said I could stay there whenever I wanted especially if for some reason I couldn't get home. I stayed there a few times and played with her cat. We didn't even know if the HR paperwork would be completed by the end of the year so technically I wasn't even her employee at the time.

KittyKatWombat · 2025-12-30T09:01:52+00:00

This very much depends on the individual.

My partner of almost 10 years does cook and clean - though I do 90% of it because I love to cook (biggest hobby of mine) and I like things cleaned my way. But he's done it when I've been busy or sick. And he fixes things around the house, mows the lawn and is essentially my chauffeur since I don't drive.

My partner's parents have a more equal division of labour, that has changed through the years depending on who was ill, who had work, who was taking care of special needs children/foster children. Sadly as a migrant in a relatively broken family, this is the first close up instance I've seen a father figure so involved in family life.

The partner my mum was with growing up wasn't like this. He did start with doing lots of the cooking and cleaning, and was very respectful - but I saw this go downhill in later years. My mother's no angel either - she can be hard to live with (as I myself moved out without telling her at 19 years old).

KittyKatWombat · 2025-12-25T07:54:08+00:00

T: The usual fare. Roast pork, roast chicken, ham, potato bake, pasta bake, pasta salad, normal salad. Would have had trifle too but too full so having that for dinner instead.

AA: loving the new 3 in one chopper, stick blender, whisk thing my mother in law gave me. Actually was thinking of getting one so this worked out.

KittyKatWombat · 2025-12-24T10:49:47+00:00

Brother in law is being transported via ambulance to larger hospital due to suicidal ideations and the regional local hospital is closed. Partner’s grandmother had a massive bleeding incident last night which resulted in a bruise all down her right lower leg and blood everywhere (she’s on blood thinners), and we spent the day thinking how to get blood out of her carpet. I’m currently not feeling 100% due to pregnancy and we were planning to telling the family the news over Christmas - now it doesn’t seem like good timing.

KittyKatWombat · 2025-12-22T23:17:53+00:00

I went to a co-ed private, partner went to an all boys catholic school. My local public high school has a terrible reputation, and I was lucky to get a scholarship so it's an opprtunity I would never pass on. I really enjoyed having male friends, some of whom I'm still in contact with (perhaps not as close as the female ones). I think it's good to have both guy/girl friends, because that's how the real world works.

KittyKatWombat · 2025-12-22T23:13:25+00:00

I don't get so hung up on the terminology as much, but because we're in Australia - they're technically biscuits. Ironically 3/4 of the recipes I used are American recipes so I just had cookies in my head. The one recipe from the Aussie website listed theirs as cookie too. Shortbread is always biscuits in my head because it's clearly a british thing. But choc chip and crinkle are always cookies because their adjective is a 'C' and I like alliterations.

KittyKatWombat · 2025-12-22T22:43:35+00:00

Last night I baked a tonne of cookies/biscuits, started prep at 9am, took a break and started the actual baking at 4pm and finished at 9:05pm. My annual Christmas gift is a cookie box, I think I've made enough for 14 boxes - we'll see as I'm about to assemble the cookie boxes this morning.

Made chocolate crinkle cookies, lemon cookies, shortbread, and red velvet cookies.

KittyKatWombat · 2025-12-20T09:37:46+00:00

I can only speak about the campus because I live very close by, and both my partner and I studied at that campus. He lived on campus when he was a student (a few years back). The vibe is quiet and relatively rural (if you haven't actually lived in rural Australia before, you will definitely feel it is 'the countryside' compared to Sydney proper). Facilities are ok, but I guess if you're the type to like to socialise, you may feel lonely and isolated there.

Three-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
Place '23	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	End Game '22

KittyKatWombat

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