Exploring Different Tools

The kids have been right into painting lately. We get a bit bored of the same old paint and paintbrush thing, so we mix it up a bit. Sometimes we paint using water instead! The kids love that, they get to take the paintbrushes, the paint rollers, whatever really, and some water outside and let them go for it. They can "paint" anything they like with water, lately they have decided to paint the deck and railings for me as they need repainting haha. Sometimes we do pictures on the driveway. Good clean fun that keeps the littlies entertained for quite some time, and even the big kids quite like to see how big a picture they can draw before the sun erases it!

 

Thanks kids, I'm sure the water painted gate will do the trick.... hehe!

Or if we want to get a bit mucky, we get the actual paints out, but may use different tools to the usual paintbrushes. One we did recently was painting using cotton buds. Originally I had hoped they would be keen on finger painting. My own 2yo was very keen on the idea, he gives everything a go. But the other 2 I had with me that day were a bit more hesitant. I had no idea where the paintbrushes had last been stashed after the last bout of water painting (I dare say they are outside still! My big kids had a big water painting session after school one day and I often forget to remind them to put stuff away that they have taken outside). That made me have to be a bit more imaginative than I might have been feeling that day. But suddenly though about cotton buds. Pretty standard item in most peoples houses, and they make for pretty cool painting instruments.

Can create different effects to what you do with paint brushes, can make the paint swirl more etc. I also took the opportunity to shows the kids how mixing 2 colours together you can create a different one. Throw in a learning opportunity when ya can! And got some pretty pictures at the end of the day :)

Bring a plate? No worries!

Lately there have been many times that I have had to bring a plate to various events, or having people over last minute and need something quick and easy to throw together. I try to also have some sheets of puff pastry in the freezer, as they are so handy! I have even thrown a variation of these together before kindy once when one of the kids had a shared lunch I had forgotten about (and I only have about an hour from waking to getting the kids out of the house in the mornings!).

 

Puff Pastry Pinwheels. They are YUM. My fave adult version using ingredients I always have on hand are Pizza Puff Pinwheels. I shall share with you the recipe below.

 

 

 

Pizza Puff Pinwheels

 

Puff Pastry Sheets (2 or 3 is a good amount)

Tomato Paste

Bacon (cooked first, brings out the flavour more) or Ham, or Salami

Grated Cheese

and optional - crushed pineapple

 

Thaw the pastry sheets (or heck if you are really clever, make your own... so far I'm not that clever.. actually, I've just never tried!)

Spread tomato paste over the entire surface. A good thick amount for flavour.

Layer on the bacon/ham/salami leaving about an inch gap at the top free. Repeat with the cheese (and pineapple if you are doing pineapple).

Then roll the pastry from the bottom to the top, trying to keep the rolls as tight as possible, using the tomato paste to help stick it together at the top. Slice thinly (about 1cm), lay flat on a baking tray and bake at approx 200*c for around 10 minutes or until the pastry is cooked through.

 

 

Variations:

 

Vegemite and Cheese

 

Cheese and Onion

 

Jam with a sprinkling of Sugar

 

Cream Cheese and Herbs

 

 

Frankly, the list is endless with different variations you can try. The ones above are just ones I am more likely to throw together because of their quick and easy - and cheap - ingredients. If you Google I am sure a whole world of puff pinwheel recipes will be revealed!

Another recipe from the back of my cupboard

So I really couldn't be bothered baking last night but the kids had nothing yummy to put in their lunchboxes today (normally I at least have a box of muesli bars in the cupboard for when we run out of baking, but I forgot to buy some on my last supermarket trip!). So I had to force myself up and to do it, and I remembered I had not long ago bought a new slice tin (previously I have used various other non slice tins to bake slices in haha) so I decided I must make a slice. This is my favourite slice recipe I think, have been making it for a few years, grabbed it out of a magazine. It's easy and really yummy. Downside, I cannot stop eating it!

 

Oh, and as an aside - YAY I finally bought myself a new (second hand, because I keep breaking them) camera! Much easier to take pics and do blog posts now woohoo!

Chocolate Chip Slice

Courtesy of NZ Women's Weekly

125g butter (or dairy free alternative)
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c choc chips

Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Mix in the flour, baking soda and chocolate chips until all combined.
Bake for 15mins at 180*c in a slice tin (I scrape the mixture into the dish, then using wet hands I flatten it and even it out).
Once cool, ice with chocolate icing (see below)

Choc Icing

2 cups icing sugar
1 Tbsp cocoa
25g butter / marg, melted
2-3 tsp hot water

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with enough hot water to make a firm icing. Spread over cooled slice.

What to bring for morning tea?

Went to visit my friend the other day (well, the other week now, this blog post has been sitting in my drafts too long!) who had recently had a baby. I LOVE baby cuddles. Wanted to take something along for morning tea/lunch and it had to be dairy free both for her and two of my kids. And I just really didn't feel like making anything sweet. But grocery day was approaching (and I only shop fortnightly so by the end of the fortnight, supplies start dwindling), and I wasn't feeling very inspired. So I was flicking through my trusty old Watties cookbook and came across the recipe for sausage rolls. I had never made my own sausage rolls before. I do have a friend who regularly makes them, and I'm a sucker for them, but for some reason I just never made them myself.

 

I compared the recipe in that book to some more recipes I googled and decided I would keep it simple and use the recipe from the book - it doesn't contain breadcrumbs as fillers for starters, and I had all the ingredients on hand. If wanting to make them dairy free, make sure your pastry is dairy free. The Pams low-fat flaky puff pastry is, that is what I use.

 

And as per usual lately, the photo is crap - taken on my phone, and also just a quick snap before the last couple of sausage rolls were snapped up, but better than no photo right? Or is it? haha

 

 

 

 

Sausage Rolls

courtesy of Watties Kiwi Favourites Cookbook

 

3 sheets pre rolled flaky puff pastry

450g sausage meat

1 tsp dried mixed herbs

1/2 onion, finely diced

1 egg, beaten

 

Preheat oven to 220*c

Cut each pastry sheet into 2 pieces

Place sausage meat in a bowl and mix together with the herbs and onion. Divide the sausage meat into 6 portions. Form each portion into a sausage shape and place on a piece of pastry.

Brush the edge of the pastry where it will join with beaten egg. Roll the pastry over to make a long roll. Cut into 5 sausage rolls and place fold-side down on a lined baking tray.

Make small cuts on the top of each sausage roll or prick with a fork, then brush tops with beaten egg.

Bake for 12-15mins or until cooked and golden.

 



Happy Birthday to ME!

Friday was my birthday, and my wonderful husband who very rarely attempts to bake (and when he does it is normally a packet mix), baked me a cake. From scratch. It's a cake I had only baked once before myself, for mr 5's birthday a couple of months ago. It was easy, and delicious!

 

Turns out, it was easy enough even for hubby to make it PERFECTLY. It was SO good. Caramel Cake. I am a sucker for anything caramel. Probably my favourite flavour in the whole world. Yum.

 

So yeah, today I share with you the recipe, as promised on my facebook page. It is a great recipe, you must try it. It would make scrummy cupcakes too. It's a dangerous recipe - will make me fat if I keep making it, so I must resist. Instead you guys must give it a go, give me your verdicts :)

 

This recipe was posted on the TradeMe message boards, that is where I originally found it months ago.

 

Excuse the photo, a) it's taken on my phone again (really must go buy a new camera!), and b) I only remembered to quickly snap a pic before we devoured the last couple of pieces!

 

 

 

Caramel Cake

100g Butter (or marg)
1c Sugar
1 Egg
1Tbsp Golden Syrup
1c Milk (or milk alternative... rice milk works fine)
1tsp Baking Soda
1 ½c Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt

Cream butter and sugar. 
Add egg and beat well. 
Melt golden syrup and milk, when warm add baking soda. Add this to creamed mixture. 
Add flour, Baking Powder and salt. 
Pour into prepared tin. 
Bake 180*C (350*F) for 30mins.

 

Icing
2Tbsp Butter
4Tbsp Brown Sugar
1Tbsp Milk
Icing Sugar

Melt butter and Brown sugar together, add milk and bring to the boil. 
Add enough icing sugar to make spreading consistency.

So glad we don't have carpet

School holidays started this week, and we have been having a lot of fun so far. The biggest hit so far has been playdough. In nearly every house I have lived in with kids, I have had carpet in the dining room. Seriously, not a smart move really. Finally we are in a house with hard floors. Which means we play with playdough a lot more often now as I'm not scared it's going to get trodden into the carpet!

 

I shall share with you my favourite playdough recipe. It's a cooked dough, which doesn't suit everybody, but I prefer it as it feels so much nicer and silkier to play with and doesn't leave that yucky dry salty feeling on your hands like some other recipes do. And it's really nice to play with in winter just after cooking it!!

 

 

 

 

Playdough

 

1c flour

1/2 c salt

1c water

1 Tbsp Oil

2 tsp cream of tartar

food colouring

 

Combine all ingredients in a pan and stir.

Cook over low heat stirring until a ball forms, then knead until smooth.

 

It is very liquidy to start with, then turns into a sticky mess. When it starts to come together it will still be quite sticky, that's ok, just put it on a board and knead it. It will go all nice and smooth.

 

 

 

Then you can have fun playing with the playdough! The other day we got out some Popsicle sticks and used them to make funny shapes (the kids were 1 and 2, gotta keep it simple). They had great fun, and we got to talk about the different colours and everything - can turn it into not only a tactile experience but a learning one too with colours and shapes and whatever else.

 





Birthday Season

First we had mr5's birthday about 6 weeks ago, then DH's has just been. For his birthday cake, I dug out my old chocolate mud cake recipe at his request. It is far from dairy free, and never tried to make it dairy free so I do not know if it would work too well - you could find a dairy free chocolate, but no idea if it would turn out with using marg instead of butter - I suspect not. Some recipes just cannot be adapted lol. It is a beautiful cake, very rich! Please excuse the photo quality, I am stuck using my cellphone for pictures at the moment and it has a useless camera on it. Really need to get around to buying myself a new camera!

 

 

 

 

Chocolate Mud Cake

 

250g Butter

1 1/2 cup Hot Water

200g Dark Chocolate (I think I actually put in closer to 250g!)

2c Caster Sugar (I used about 1 1/2c)

1/4 c Cocoa

1Tbsp Instant Coffee

1 1/2 cup Self Raising Flour

2 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

 

Icing:

 

125g Dark Chocolate

125g Unsalted Butter (I used normal butter... would have tasted nicer with unsalted though)

 

 

Melt the butter with the hot water in a pot over low heat. Add the chocolate and sugar, stirring till smooth.

Gradually beat in the dry sifted ingredients.

Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.

Pour into a greased/lined 25cm cake tin.

Bake at 150*c for approx 2.5 hours (I found, baking in my fan forced oven at 120*, It was cooked in less than 2 hours - so do keep an eye on it).

 

Icing:

 

Melt chocolate and butter and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Pour over cold cake and smooth out.