Loving... Grateful....

My Monday night ritual to reset and start the week in a good place.

Loving.....

~ The crafty preparations leading up to the big 1st birthday this weekend.

Grateful ......

~ for the time and space to make my little man's first birthday special.

~ for the childlike glee i feel working with these bright, happy colours

~ for delicious cakes

~ for my sewing circle

~ for hot soups on cold days

~ for quiet moments in these wet months

~ for loud moments as the little man finds his voice

Peace and calm.

Take care people

xxx

My friend broccoli

I never cease to be amazed at what can entertain a small child. Today it was broccoli that kept my little one entertained for half an hour. First he had a long chat with the broccoli, talking about the woes of the world i'm sure. Then the broccoli got a little de-leafing haircut and finally he had a bit of a chew before deciding other things were more interesting. It really was the cutest thing though.

On other fronts it's always nice when someone posts a recipe on their blog of the very thing you have been thinking of baking. So tonight for craft group i whipped up this banana cake from cityhippyfarmgirl as a practice run for the birthday next week. Some banana cakes in the past have tended to be a bit dry but not this one, it was perfect - moist and flavoursome. 

Thanks Cityhippyfarmgirl!! Most appreciated. xxx

Cookie

House tidied, washing on, baby sleeping, dinner done, dishes washed and batches of cookies in the oven. Definitely time for a hot cocoa and maybe one of those cookies. You know, just to make sure they're not bad or anything.....

Chocolate drop cookies

200g butter
8 T sugar
4 T golden syrup (or condensed milk)
3 C flour
4 t baking powder
chocolate drops ( as many or as few as you like.)

Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in the golden syrup (or condensed milk). Add in the dry ingredients and the chocolate drops and mix to a firm dough.

Roll into balls and put on a baking tray. Flatten with a fork.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-15 mins until just lightly golden.

Makes about 24 cookies

The great thing about this recipe is because it is so basic you can mix and match a bit with chocolate, dried fruit and nuts to suit what you have in the cupboard.

Enjoy. xxx

Fuzzy bunny cheese

Cheese making is a rather odd process when you think about it. You create this milk based product, press it into a round cheese shape and then stick it in your wardrobe (and in the case of camembert) wait excitedly for it to grow mould. I can't think of a single other time where this would happen. Certainly as a student mould didn't cause this degree of excitement and there was a lot of it in those days.......

Anyway, As you can see the camembert is progressing well and the white mould has been growing over the surface. There was a small hiccup when the cheese on the right grew a small ammount of blue mould and we thought it was ruined, but no apparently this is common and you just scrape it off and wait for the white mould to grow over the scraped areas.

Told you it was weird! So hopefully in a few more days we will have fluffy bunny fuzz camembert's all ready for wrapping and ageing. In the meantime i thought i might whip up some quark for some instant gratification.

Take care people

xxx

Weekending

Sometimes i seem to finish the weekend more tired than i started. This weekend was filled with 

work

frustration

joy

love

tears

playing

cleaning

cuddling

and a little bit of quilt shopping.

I feel like i need another weekend to recover from it all. I did manage to fit in a nice relaxing hot bath this afternoon and finished my day with this....

Crispy topped, tender pork belly with roasted vege salad topped with feta cooked by the better half. It was delicious, that man can really cook!

xxx

Sunshine and crafting

It was a lovely day here today with even the sun trying to make an appearance for a good part of the day. My little man and i had a good morning cruising round the house completing our usual cleaning routine with some breaks for books and playing along the way. We recently cleaned out our conservatory and now have the perfect sheltered sunny spot to read books and play during these cold winter days.
Once the work was done it was off to share lunch with a friend and her little girl and let the kids play the day away.
Isn't it great when a day comes together and you get a chance to really catch up with a friend you haven't seen in a while and just take a breath and relax. It was very much needed. So after my good day and a VERY rare late afternoon nap i was ready to do a bit of crafting tonight.
For those who have been reading for awhile you will know i've been working on a block of the month quilt project - Chestnut and Vines. The last month's package was sitting waiting for me when i got back from holiday so i spent tonight cutting up the fabric ready for finishing.

It's always exciting being this close to finishing off a big project. During the cutting i realised i seem to be slightly short of one fabric which bought the nights work to an early end. I can't say i'm sad to have to take a trip to the quilting shop though! While i'm there i can pick out some backing fabric. Check out the samples they sent me to choose from, aren't they lovely? I'm leaning towards the chocolate vine pattern, so luscious!

Not long now till i can reveal the finished quilt top, watch this space!

Have a great weekend everyone.

xxx

Peach muffins with butterscotch sauce

I've been baking up a storm here this week again with ginger kisses, pinwheel biscuits and today a fresh batch of my favourite peach muffins with butterscotch sauce for my antenatal group catch up. Due to a missing camera battery charger and a dead battery i'm a bit short on photo's for this recipe.

Luckily i was able to save a muffin and charge the battery to show you the finished product.

Peach muffins with butterscotch

3 C flour

1 t baking soda

1/2t salt

1 C sugar

1/2C sultana

1 tin peaches -chopped

125g butter - melted

2 large eggs 

1/2 peach juice (save from tin)

1/2 t vanilla essence

1/4 -1/2 C milk

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.

In a separate bowl mix the peaches, butter, eggs, juice, vanilla and milk. 

Add to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add a little more milk if needed - it will be a slightly thicker muffin mix than usual.

Spoon into a muffin try and bake at 220 degrees C for 10-15mins.

This recipe makes 18- 20 muffins.

Butterscotch sauce

In a pot combine 

25g butter and

1/4 C brown sugar

Until melted and mixed.

Remove from heat and mix in

1/4 C sour cream 

Now spoon onto the top of the still warm muffins.

Delicious.

Yes they taste as good as they look and were popular with the mums and babies alike.

Enjoy

xxx