Hi thereWelcome to a new phase in my life - Harper the food critic. Inspired by that dapper Matt Preston on Masterchef, my life's work now is to seek out good food and eat it. 
Like Mr Preston, I am a hard taskmaster. I insist on the best. There must be hundreds of hundreds and thousands of thousands on a biscuit. Any less, and it is rubbish.But I am more than just a critic, I am very capable in the kitchen as well. Inspired by Gary and that Greek guy who says 'Straya' instead of 'Australia', I have been running Masterclasses for mum. The first one - how to make the perfect pie.
Make your filling. I quite chicken and leek. Once you have put your cooled filling in ramikins, you put pasty over the top. Now, you should run a strip about 1 cm wide around the rim. This will help the lid stick.
See? Easy.
Then bake them for about 20 mins at about 180 degrees. Here's a very important tip - eggwash on the lids will really crisp them up and give them a nice colour. 
Mum then plated up the pie. I put my red cravat on and tasted. The filling was morish, the chicken cooked perfectly, the leek comes through, mum really got some taste in there, good strong flavours. The pastry was excellent, I wanted to go back for seconds. A very good job.
Next Masterclass...pasta. You need some pots, some water, some pasta and a spoon.
Or an Aldi kitchen set. Then you cook the pasta until it is al dente. Easy.
I am not the only judge - my colleagues Ava and Immy are also on hand to taste the food. Here, Ava and I are sampling a modern high tea - sausage rolls with sauce. A classic when done well. The sausage mince needs to be seasoned well and not too fatty. The key to sausage rolls is in the rolling - a nice consistent tube of meat on the pastry, which is rolled over carefully with the join on the bottom. Like the pies above, a little egg wash will give them a seductive colour. 
Later, Immi and I had a degustation menu to taste. We started with a twist on the legendary Anzac biscuit, the Anzac Slice. It was very good - moist but not sloppy and you could really taste the golden syrup coming through. Then it was crisp sliced Pink Lady apple with sun-dried sultana grapes from the Sunraysia district. This combination of textures really works well together. 
I forgot my cravat on this day, so you can see my double chin. Lucky us foodies don't mind showing a bit of blubber - it's part and parcel of the game.
With my new calling, I have certainly put the pressure on mum to step up. This beautifully plated pear and rocket salad accompanied a simple mid-week dinner. In the past, we'd be lucky to see some random lettuce leaves thrown together and splashed with some commercial disaster of a dressing. I am happy to report those days are gone.
Bon appetite
Harper
Hi fansAs you all know, I have a new baby brother called Monty. He is pretty ace. Obviously not as cute as me but man, pretty damn close. Almost a tie I reckon.So here are some pics of me, and and just a couple of him, and I will let you decide. Of course, if you say him, I won't speak to you again.Just saying.Here's what I have been up to:
It's been raining here. While Dad moans about the grass being wrecked, I think it splashing is ace fun. Harden the firetruck up old man, I say. 
When I go to a fancy dress and the theme is 'come dressed in your favourite outfit', well, there is only one choice - go dressed as a plumber. Mum wouldn't let me show off a bit of bum crack though, which is a shame. I am sure Uncle Tommy is all about the bum crack.
So cute. Monty is not bad either. 
Some days it's all a bit rough and you gotta just have a cry. Ideally, your mum wouldn't take a photo of it, but there you go.
Some days I just get the iPod out and rock. I quite like the Kings of Leon and the other day got right into The Cult. I also quite like Justine Clarke, but don't tell anyone.
The bath - my other sanctuary, where I can play with bubbles, drink the water and, er, do other things with at least some privacy. Well, none actually as mum or dad is always watching and some nights, mum has that camera out again. 
My career as an aeronautical engineer is coming along. This plane is actually safer than a Qantas jet.
I am taking my big brother role seriously. Here's me checking to make sure Monty is still asleep. Good, he is, now more attention for me.
And I do still like to grab some zzzzzs on the couch from time to time. I have been busy cooking up something for you all...that's coming soon.
Why hello thereForgive me if I sound a little older, but I am now two years old, so it's only natural that I shall start to sound more grown up.I celebrated my birthday over three days - Thursday with some ladies, Friday with mum and dad and Saturday with special guests. Wanna see? Sure you do.
Thursday - I am hanging with my posse of sweet ladies, Laura, Olivia, Grace and Chloe. There was cake.
As it turns out, I quite like cake.
Friday - all these presents magically turned up. Mum and dad gave me some building blocks, which are pretty ace.
Auntie Kara sent me a card with felt animals on it - a few hours were well spent playing with that.
That night, we went out for dinner. Mum and dad took me to Venice. For real. It looked a bit like Croydon Park to me, and the pizza tasted a lot like Rene's. What a coincidence. 
Saturday - all good days can start like this. Here I am, my first beater to lick.
The cake mum made was very very grouse. It had butterflies and real life bits of the front hedge on it. And candles. Two of them.
It was these candles I would blow out in the company of Gillian and Aaron, Ava and little Audrey and their parents Kate and Stuart as well as Imogen, who brought her folks Natasha and Garrett along as well.
Hey againMan, four blogs in one night - madness.Last one is a quick one. Mummy has a bubby in her tummy. And this bubby is coming home soon. That's all I have worked out so far, which is enough cos I reckon that sounds coooool.
Mum asked dad to take a pic of her and her belly.
I had some ideas on how to make the pic better, but instead I gave bubba a kiss and went and played cars. Well, I am only two (almost) so my attention span is pretty short.
Hi folks
Sorry about the gap between blogs - bit of an technical issue but mum and dad gave some money to some nerds, it's now all fixed. So, to bring you up to speed....I've been hanging out. You know, doing stuff. 
Every goood day involves me hangin' with some sweet ladies. From left, Laura, Chloe, Grace and Olivia discussing how great I am. I pretend to not listen.
Then there was some footy. The Hawks early season form had me worried, hence the Cats top, to cover my bases. I was on the phone to Sneaky Pete my bookie, putting a box of matches on the Hawks to beat the Eagles. And they did - Redheads for everyone!
I take dinner very seriously, taking time each night to study the cookbooks and to offer mum some suggestions. Here's a tip - it will probably involve pasta.
I have also taken to catching up on my other work - book critic. Here, I was reviewing Henry, which is a book about a boy who catches Imaginitis. Sounds nasty, but it's not really. I heartily recommend this one - nice drawings, thrilling story and a twist at the end. 4/5.
All this is pretty tiring - I have been known to nod off on the couch from time to time. I have a theory I might continue to do this for the next 90 years...
CheersHarper
Like Mr Preston, I am a hard taskmaster. I insist on the best. There must be hundreds of hundreds and thousands of thousands on a biscuit. Any less, and it is rubbish.
Make your filling. I quite chicken and leek. Once you have put your cooled filling in ramikins, you put pasty over the top. Now, you should run a strip about 1 cm wide around the rim. This will help the lid stick.
See? Easy.
Then bake them for about 20 mins at about 180 degrees. Here's a very important tip - eggwash on the lids will really crisp them up and give them a nice colour.
Mum then plated up the pie. I put my red cravat on and tasted. The filling was morish, the chicken cooked perfectly, the leek comes through, mum really got some taste in there, good strong flavours. The pastry was excellent, I wanted to go back for seconds. A very good job.
Next Masterclass...pasta. You need some pots, some water, some pasta and a spoon.
Or an Aldi kitchen set. Then you cook the pasta until it is al dente. Easy.
I am not the only judge - my colleagues Ava and Immy are also on hand to taste the food. Here, Ava and I are sampling a modern high tea - sausage rolls with sauce. A classic when done well. The sausage mince needs to be seasoned well and not too fatty. The key to sausage rolls is in the rolling - a nice consistent tube of meat on the pastry, which is rolled over carefully with the join on the bottom. Like the pies above, a little egg wash will give them a seductive colour. 
Later, Immi and I had a degustation menu to taste. We started with a twist on the legendary Anzac biscuit, the Anzac Slice. It was very good - moist but not sloppy and you could really taste the golden syrup coming through. Then it was crisp sliced Pink Lady apple with sun-dried sultana grapes from the Sunraysia district. This combination of textures really works well together.
I forgot my cravat on this day, so you can see my double chin. Lucky us foodies don't mind showing a bit of blubber - it's part and parcel of the game.
With my new calling, I have certainly put the pressure on mum to step up. This beautifully plated pear and rocket salad accompanied a simple mid-week dinner. In the past, we'd be lucky to see some random lettuce leaves thrown together and splashed with some commercial disaster of a dressing. I am happy to report those days are gone.
