Little Sugar Houses

With sticky hands and sticky fingers, a lick here and a lick there (you can do that when you will be the only person that will be eating your little house)
We stuck together tiny little houses other wise known as 'Sugar Houses'

All were very pleased with their efforts and we ended the day on a sugar high. 

Little Sugar Houses
    1 x packet of Vovo's, Waffers and Hundreds and Thousands
    1 x batch of Royal Icing (the glue for your little house)
    A selection of lollies to decorate.

Build as you would would a house. From the ground up with four walls and a roof (slice a waffer in half to form a triangle to give your roof a frame)

Decorate and enjoy.

Disclaimer:  It was so very hot on the day that we made these that the icing just would not play the game and set for us.  They had a trip into the freezer to set before decorating.

Have you made a gingerbread house before?
Did it stay up?
Any tips of tricks? 

A rainbow : #3

These are the little cakes that went along to school to help our little girl celebrate turning 7 with her class. 

Being born at the end of September always means that no matter what state we live in her birthday is always going to fall in the holidays.

These were easy to make. The original idea came from a pin on pinterest.  I was never able to find the original source so if it is you please let me know so I can link to you here and update my pin.

If you would like to recreate these:
Sky = Blue Icing
Clouds = A tin of canned White Icing (the colour said 'cloud' : perfect)
Rainbow = Sour Straps, these are from Woolworth's and come precut.  I cut them in half again and pushed them into the clouds.

The hardest part of making these was trying to get them up to school.  We only live 6 houses from the front of the school but unfortunately it is Magpie nesting season and there are 3 trees with nests on the way and magpies and I do not see eye to eye. 

School Holidays...

Our school holidays are quickly coming to an end.


We have spent the two weeks enjoying the time together, no real plans and just enjoying time together.

The little people have been crafting up a storm.  I bought a few new pens (the girl is thrilled with the purchase of Gel Pens, it is all the rage for 6 year olds I believe) a few stamps and foam stars and an animal pack.  Hours and Hours of endless fun.

There was also the making of an Easter Tree and Easter Chickens.

My creativity has been in the kitchen. Lots of cooking to feed hungry happy stomachs.

We also had visitors this past week.  A house full of four girls, one boy and two mums.

And a little late night knitting with my lap warmer at the end of the day is keeping this mumma content. For more creative soles and some creative kids head over here.

Have you all had a great holiday?  Am I the only mother out there that enjoys having her children at home on holidays?

On the Shelf...

It appears that I have fallen off Blogtoberfest with a thud.

Life here has managed to get crazy busy again here (sorry if I am meant to have sent you back an email - I am hoping to get to it tonight)  I have managed to catch up with a few friends this week and am attempting to get organised to go on a little family holiday, all I have packed so far is my knitting and crochet, that is acceptable behaviour for us crafty folk isn't it?

I have been stir, stir, stirring a great big pot and turned 11kg of tomatoes into Special Sauce*.  Another crazy thing to do just before moving.  Never mind, there is always ways around moving things (trust me, after 8 moves in 9 years I know ALL the tricks)

Special Tomato Sauce

11 kg of tomatoes
1.5kg sliced brown onions
2kg granny smith apples, sliced
100g garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2kg sugar
500g salt
40g all spice
40g whole ginger, sliced
10g Cayenne
40 g cloves
5 cups of brown vinegar

Boil unpeeled tomatoes, onions, apples and garlic slowly for 3 hours (depends on how thick you like your sauce)  Remove skins that are floating on the surface.
With a bar mix or blender (I used the thermomix) Puree, blend in sugar and salt
Place spices, ginger, cayenne and cloves into a muslin bag and secure.Place in the pot of sauce mix and stir in vinegar.
Boil gently for 2 hours, stirring occasionally and be careful not to catch the bottom (burnt sauce isn't good)
Remove spice bag. Pour into sterilised bottles and seal firmly.

We now have a nice little stock pile of 18 bottles of sauce sitting on the shelf.  This will last us a year and is used in everything from pasta, spaghetti and shepherds pie and of course on top of steak and pies.
* Baden calls this his special sauce as it is the only sauce that isn't naughty and cause a rash on his face.

Joining in with Vic's Meme this week.  She has it back in her hot little hands and is a little excited to say the least.  Why don't you pop by and say hi.

A friend in the Kitchen...

Meet my new friend in the kitchen.

She has been part of the family for a few months now and to she is here to stay.

The Thermomix.  A food processor that also minces, blends, beats, whips, grinds, kneads and COOKS.  It has taken me a while to come out in blogland as I didn't want you all to think that I was made of money.

I have dreamt of owning one of these since I saw it at a friends demo in December last year.  I came home announcing that I would love one to my husband and he announced that I could have it the next day if it cooked toast and replaced the oven* (the two things that it can not achieve)

After finally killing  the food processor in May, I ordered one and have not looked back.

Just look at their faces.  This was the first time they used it and they were not impressed.

It took a little convincing the kids that this new machine was a good thing.  We had tears from both of them as helping Mum in the kitchen meant licking the beaters and I was not about to take out the blade for them.  They have come around now and love helping to make everything from cakes and playdough to micing tge garlic and watching steak turn into mince

I am enjoying how quickly it makes everything and Tim fears that if it ever breaks I will not know how to use a knife and with Baden with his reactions to food preservatives I have cut down my preparation in the kitchen by approx 2 hours a day.

Parmesan Cheese in seconds

This is not going to become a food/thermomix blog.  But if you would like to see it in action and live in Brisbane I have signed up as a consultant and would love to come and cook you and a few friends lunch or dinner so you can see its magic. There is no pushy sales pitch. I promise.

 * Little did I know that he had been on to Google and checked out what it could do.

The Party {And then she was SIX}

I thought I would start the first day of October off with a bang and a party and share with you a little party.

We had a little tea party with a few friends in celebration of Amelia turning six on Thursday.

The kids usually get something handmade as part of their birthday presents.  But due to lack of time and the late night knitting that occured here I just plain ran out of time.

Instead, every part of Amelia's little tea party was baked and prepared by me.  All on Thursday monring.  Thank heavens for my new machine in the kitchen (more on that later) or there would have been tears.

Decorations were in the form of chinese lantans made by the birthday girl and a few ballons.

Tea cups from the opshops were filled with a few lollies and taken home by the guests. The girls decorated their own cup cakes and a game of musical chairs, pass the parcel and dancing filled in the time.

Joining in with the month worth of celebrations and fun that is Blogtoberfest over at Tinniegirl.

My Creative Space..

... is a sticky one this week.

I have been making jam in preparation for the school fete.

Lets just say that every door and tile in the house is sticky.

This jam making business is a talent.  After hours and hours of stirring and still not setting I added jam setter (thankyou pectin in a bag)

My little helpers performed a quality test before I chopped up 2.5kgs worth.

And have been enjoying some on toast (so have I for that matter)

The Recipe:

Ingredients

• 2.5kg strawberries, hulled, halved
• 2.5kg white sugar (warmed)
• Juice from 1/2 a lemon

If you don't have the luxury of getting reject mutant strawberries from the strawberry farm, adjust the recipe to equal parts of sugar to water and a little lemon.

Method

1.  Wash and Slice (or quarter) Strawberries.  Place strawberries in a saucepan and stir through sugar. Leave for 1-2 hours while sugar softens the fruit.
2.  Add juice then cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until fruit is soft.  Wash and Sterilize Jars.

3. Remove 1/3 of fruit. Set aside. Cook remaining mixture until fruit is mostly dissolved and jam sets on testing (see note).  Stir reserved fruit back into the pot and mix through to reheat. 

4.  Pour into jars and seal*

Note:  Place a few saucers in the freezer.  To check if jam will set, smooth a little hot jam over the saucer and leave for a few minutes. Test by pushing the jam a little.  If it is set it will scrunch up.  If not set stir on medium for a further 3 minutes.  Add Jam setter if in doubt (or have had enough stirring)  Don't be like yours truly and do it for 3 hours before deciding to add it as it was past her bedtime.

*this part is hot - be careful not to burn yourself.

For more creative spaces (and hopefully less sticky ones)  Pop over and say HI.

Little Nests

I volunteered to cook with Amelia's class yesterday.
Crazy, maybe, but I had fun and enjoyed it and it reminded me of why I loved my job before I had the kids.

20 eager and interested children watched as we turned chocolate, noodles and MnM's into little nests.

If you would like to try this at home (that is if you have not had enough chocolate yet!) you will need
200g of cooking chocolate (we used the buttons)
1 packet of fried egg noodles (from the Asian isle of the supermarket
a few MnM's for each (you could also use the candy coated chocolate if you can find them)

Melt chocolate in the microwave or stove top.  Mix in and noodles.  Spoon onto greaseproof paper and decorate with MnM's.  Refrigerate and enjoy.

 Also found on the back of the fried egg noddles packet - they call them Chocolate Spiders and also add peanut butter (which I left out due to allergies in the class)

Linking up with Creative Collectives Easter Happenings

I see Biscuits...

and lots of them.

Yesterday I had a bake up in the kitchen as it was raining outside and the temp had dropped allowing me to use the oven and not cook myself in the process.

I found a recipe that makes 120+ on Frills in the hills (it is getting around blogland at the moment though - thanks Retromummy for the tip off)

My batch made 137. 

Now all I have to do is hide them from my cookie monster (aka Baden) and enjoy a few before he wakes and finds them on the bench or on top of the microwave - he seems to be able to sniff them out where ever I hide them.

I also think that these will make a great fete item come September.

New Shoes...

The little Miss starts Prep next week.  She has been counting down every day this week, fingers crossed that the enthusiasm continues.

She has been wearing them around the house for a few hours each day to get used to wearing them (and to break them in a little) 

My next job is to work out what to feed her.  What do you pack in your children's lunch boxes.  Any help will be appreciated and I will compile a list in a week or two of recipes and ideas. Oh and the school has a rubbish free policy - looks like I am going to be busy in the kitchen.

Last week we gave Cathie's Back to Kinder Healthy Slice a go.  I was running out of both peanut butter and honey so it did not stick as well as it should have.  That did not seem to matter though - it was devoured in a minute (we had friends over and I think the Mum's ate just as much as the kids) 

Thanks Cathie for the use of the photo - I did not have time to get one:)



Kootoyoo is back playing My Creative Space today, I have been doing a bit here and there.  Here is a sneak at what I have been working on this week.

Day 14: My Creative Space

My Creative Space is in the kitchen today.

I invited a few Mum's over from Kinder for Morning Tea.  An excuse to get together really and make up a batch of Lemonade Scones.  I was also trying to find something that I knew how to make and was easy to show a friend who has recently moved here from America, she is missing her 'biscuits'.

3 cups Self Raising Flour

1 cup Cream

1 cup Lemonade

Place Flour in a bowl.  Pour Cream and Lemonade in and give it a stir. Place onto prepared tray in clumps and throw into a moderate oven until goldern.  (about 15 minutes)

Enjoy with Jam and Cream. 

Easy Peasy.

A Birthday Princess

Just a few photos of the birthday girl.  I think that I successfully pulled of an almost handmade birthday party and gifts this year.

The cake, may I present to you Princess Dolly Varden.  I am so impressed that I pulled this off and that the cake was not a flop (I read some horror stories on the net)  When it came out of the tin perfectly I was doing a happy dance around the kitchen chanting a little chant.

 Thanks must also go to my lovely friend Steph who bought along the cutest crown biscuits and mini pav's that were devoured by the Mum's.  Also to my Husband who stood and put the tea cups together and to my Mum and Dad, who cut, threaded, stuck and helped to watch as little 2 year old fingers threatened to lick, suck and taste every thing that was happening around him.

And every Princess needs a dress, and this princess asked for a pink Sleeping Beauty dress.