Build an Airport ...

That's what Aaron did this afternoon (with some help from Daddy).

It was very high tech as it even had the baggage handler running the length of it to load all the bags onto the plane (yellow & blue blocks near the planes tail).
Aaron's attempt at pointing to the baggage! haha
Five minutes after taking the photo he'd destroyed it ... I think that's what the wooden tractor & 4-wheeler were on standby for!!

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Tonight Lyndon requested a chicken rice dish for tea. I just looked at him and said 'hummm'. So he found this recipe for me. I decided it was going to be a bit time consuming (I am a lazy cook and besides it was after 4pm) and I didn't have any mushroom soup anyway. So I did another google search, but every chicken rice dish I found had mushroom soup in it. So I thought to myself since I had to waddle down to the supermarket to get the soup, to save time I'll combine two recipes, the one he found and this one. It's nearly finished cooking ... I wonder what it will be like ;-) I just put it all in the dish together, gave it a good stir and shoved it in the oven :-) Very quick & easy - hope it tastes okay!! (Oh I didn't put in any paprika as Mr 4 doesn't eat anything spicy!!!)

Right better go and check it I suppose.

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*** Edited to add ... dinner was actually very yummy! Will be making it again for sure. Lyndon had seconds and Aaron even ate it without much fuss! ;-) (Note: I did add another 1/2 cup of water to the mixture and I am glad I did - only took an hour to cook and the chicken wasn't thawed properly - diced chicken fillets). ***

ABC ... (Aaron, Baby & Cookies) ;-)

Tonight I had a Dr's appointment to check how baby #3 is getting on (or mysterious family member #3 as a friend called him/her! hehee). We all went and I had told Aaron that the Dr would put gel on my tummy and then use a special machine so we could see the baby on a computer screen. Was amusing to hear him telling Maddison in the car on the way there "that we are going to see Mummy's Dr and see all the babies and the Dr will look at Mummy's tummy" heheheee Well he only saw the one baby! and was most interested in hearing the heart beat. The best bit though was when he asked the Dr "is the baby popping out now?" LOL

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Maddison was a bit of a pest she had to be right up on the bed beside me and kept putting her hand on my tummy and smearing the gel all over the place! But aside from that all was good. I'm 21 weeks today (although head circumference measurement is 22 weeks!!!) Nice! The Dr told me on the way out that she'd see me in four weeks and the baby would have more than doubled in size by then! :0

Oh and yesterday ... I finally managed to get those cookies made :) hehehee ummm only a couple left now though (there were 3 trays full, I gave away 2 and a bit of them (trays I mean) and the kids and I have eaten the rest) :) :) :) I think blackcurrent jam goes really nice with these actually as it doesn't make them so sweet.

Here's the recipe ... make sure you have plenty of cornflour before you start!!! (I learnt from experience!)

Jam Drops

300 gms butter

10 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 1/2 cups flour

12 tablespoons cornflour

Jam

Melt butter and stir in sugar & vanilla essence.

Sift in flour & cornflour. Mix well until well combined.

If the mixture isn't combining well then I add a little bit of milk while the beater is going around ;-)

Roll heaped teaspoons of mixture into balls and place onto greased oven tray. Make an indentation in the centre of each cookie and spoon a little jam in the centre.

Bake at 160 degs C for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden.

I generally get around 4 dozen cookies ... depending on the size of the balls. I make them a bit smaller for the kids ;-) (and that way I tell myself I can justify eating 2 or 3 at once hehee).

Interview with Penny

Penny has "interviewed" me ... here's her questions and my answers :-)

1. I know that you (and I) like to bake. Tell us a favourite recipe and why you like it.
Heehee it probably appears from my blog that I bake a lot, but really I don't! I used to when we were first married, but put a stop to that after a few months and several kgs of weight gain!!!! Hummm what baking recipe would be my favourite? Decisions, decisions ... I think I will have to go with two ... a cake and a muffin :-)

Cake - (I've shared this recipe before actually)
Reason I like it ...it's got chocolate in it :-) But the combination of chocolate, apple, pistachios and lemon zest is just delicious :-) You ought to try it!!

Apple, Chocolate and Nut Cake
200g butter, softened
200 g (1 cup) caster sugar
4 large eggs
pinch of salt
225g (1 3/4 cups) plain flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, sifted
200g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 applies, peeled, cored and cut into small dice
1 cup pistachio nuts
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest.

Preheat the oven to 180 degC. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the salt, flour and baking powder until well combined. Stir in the chocolate, apples, nuts and lemon zest. Pour into a lightly buttered 22cm loose-bottomed cake tin. Bake for 1 hour. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire cooling rack. Serve the cake warm while the chocolate is still soft, with lashings of lightly whipped cream. If the cake cools before you serve it, simply warm portions in the microwave.

With fruity, moist cakes like this a skewer test will not always indicate when the cake is cooked. It is ready when the top is firm and the cake comes away from the sides of the tin.

Muffins -
Reason I like these ... The topping is what makes these muffins just delicious. I make them in mini muffin tins so they are bite size and you get more of a lemon taste. Also being small I can sort of justify having 3 or 4 of them at a time LOL.

Crunchy Lemon Muffins
2 cups self raising flour
¾ cup sugar
75 g butter
1 cup milk
1 egg

Melt butter, beat in egg and milk.
Add dry ingredients and fold together – take care not to over mix.
Bake at 220°C for 10-14 minutes.

When still hot pour over grated rind of 1 lemon, ¼ cup lemon juice and ¼ cup sugar.
Remove muffins from pans before completely cool.

A tip (from experience) if you have good non-stick muffin tins they are best, because the topping soaks into the muffin. I have to use little paper cups for my tins now and the topping also runs down the outside of paper which makes the papers a bit sticky and it doesn't absorb into the muffin as much.


2. If you were on a desert island what scrapbooking things would you HAVE to have in order to scrapbook? (Assuming you have photos and cutting devices).
Humm you haven't given me a limit!! That could be dangerous! First up would be cardstock, cardstock and more cardstock (is that one or 3 items??), journalling pens, glimmer mists, alpha stickers, brads & ribbon stash. Actually I could keep going ... but those would be things I would probably look for first.


3. A Chocolate or lemon dessert... which would you choose from a menu?
Ohhhh ... such a tough decision. But seriously ... if I've had a meal as well then I would probably choose a fresh fruit platter (with a jug of chocolate sauce!) and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream :-)


4. What's the one thing you're proudest of having accomplished in the past five years?
Being brave enough to change my mind about moving overseas!! When Lyndon first told me about this job I just said 'NO, forget it'! Change the subject, walk away.

But a few days later I was talking to my Dad and he just said some things to me that made me realise I was being really selfish. So I actually re-opened the conversation with Lyndon again and we talked about it. Okay, to be honest I wasn't the most excited about it all, and being 8 months pregnant with Maddison when the word came through that it was all go didn't help either! But just think what I would have missed out on if I had said NO and left it at that!

So yeah, I am pretty proud of that. It's been an awesome experience that I really wouldn't have missed for anything :-)


5. What is the thing that most surprises you about being a grown-up?
Ummm am I a grown-up?? :-} (Some days I wonder!) I don't know ... this is such a Penny question that I am stumped! :-) Surprised that I am "middle aged" (man I hate those words) already, have two live wire kids, a wonderful hubby, and living over here. 20 years ago ... who would have thought!!!! (Actually 20 years ago I'd just met Lyndon! but that's another story.)


Thanks Penny, hope I've answered your questions properly!

Now, if you would like ME to interview YOU, here’s what to do:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will email you 5 questions.
3. You answer the questions on your blog.

Countdown for the New Year ...

50 minutes to go! Well in this neck of the woods anyway :-)
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This morning while I was doing my hair and Mum was in her room Aaron was very busy getting breakfast organised!! He ran into Grandma's room and gave her a chocolate bar and said "here you are Grandma I think this is yours!!" and skittered back out to the kitchen again. Mum came and got me and we went out to find this ... he had got everything that looked interesting to him out of the fridge and put it on the table ready for breakfast, then got the cracker tin and managed to get it open and was helping himself and chucking one to Maddison!! :-) I had to grin because he's just like his father ... he had the cream out and the chocolate sauce. heheehee And the juice ... that was the "very nice milk" :-) Oh and the apple on the jam jar ... "I found it Grandma! I found the apple, it rolled on the ground, I found it!" (meaning when he was busy disrupting the order of the fridge the apple fell out!)
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Needless to say we didn't have that all for breakfast ... the kids had porridge & yogurt, I had egg and toast and Mum had cereal, fruit & yogurt.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the playground and had fun with the bubble machines ... I think Maddison sucked a lot more than she should have! but she had fun anyway :-)

Here's a little muffin recipe book I made for a friend. They saw the little one I made here and said it was very cool and would like to have a try at making muffins one day. So this was their Christmas present :-)

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I used 6x6 chipboard for the pages, covered it in Florish paper and used scrap cardstock to make the "pockets" for the recipe cards. The embellishments are all Florish stickers as well (except for the wooden jar of utensils on the front cover). (Took me less than 3 hours from start to finish!) Sorry my photography skills aren't the best ... I am still in major learning mode with my new camera. I need to sit down and read the manual I think!!

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Cover

Back cover

1st 2 pages

3rd & 4th pages showing recipe card removed

5th & 6th pages

So I'll leave you with that ... and I'll scamper off. Having trouble keeping my eyes open.

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We wish you all the very best for 2009 ... hope it's a super year for you all. :-)

Questions Answered and Recipes

Okay, have had a few questions asked recently, so thought I'd do a post for them.

Where did I get my serviettes from for the candles?

All from NZ, the Asian looking ones I bought, they are the smaller size serviette, and most likely got them from Living & Giving.

The stripes and dots were given to me in a serviette swap so I am not sure where they were from.

The poppies were either from Briscoes or Living & Giving.

Recipe for Pavlova Torte

Huh ... didn't know it had such a flash name. This recipe I cut out of a magazine years ago. The picture looks great, but I don't use the topping (don't like jam!).

4 egg whites

1 cup caster sugar

1 tablespoon cornflour

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1 x 250g punnet strawberries

1 x 150g punnet blueberries

2 x 200g tubs mixed berry Fruche

2 tablespoons raspberry jam

2 tablespoons orange juice

mint sprig to decorate

1. Cover 2 oven trays with non-stick baking paper. Mark a 13cm and 19cm circle on the paper on one tray and a 23cm circle on the other tray.

2. Beat egg whites in large bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating well between additions until sugar is dissolved. Fold in cornflour and vinegar.

3. Divide mixture between circles. Spread mixture just inside each circle; shape sides with a small spatula.

4. Cook in a very slow oven, 120degC for about 1 hour, or until crisp. Turn off oven; cool in oven with door ajar.

5. Combine berries in a large bowl, but reserve a few for decoration.

6. Just before serving, place largest pavlova round on a serving plate. Top with half the Fruche and half the berries. Top with second pavlova round, remaining Fruche, berries and small pavlova round. Decorate top with reserved berries.

7. Combine jam and juice in small pan, stir until combined and heated through. Drizzle over pavlova; decorate with mint sprig.

So there you have it. If you are like me and don't like jam and are a bit lazy :-) Just whip cream and spread that between the layers plonk it together and put strawberries on the lip of each layer. Also - I doubled the receipe for this pav here, it just fitted on the oven tray!!

This next recipe is from a book my sister-in-law gave me. At Home At Play; food by Penny Oliver. I have made this cake several times and it always goes down well, especially when it's slightly warm ... the choc chunks are just right! :-)

Apple, Chocolate and Nut Cake

200g butter, softened

200 g (1 cup) caster sugar

4 large eggs

pinch of salt

225g (1 3/4 cups) plain flour, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, sifted

200g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 applies, peeled, cored and cut into small dice

1 cup pistachio nuts

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest.

Preheat the oven to 180 degC. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the salt, flour and baking powder until well combined. Stir in the chocolate, apples, nuts and lemon zest. Pour into a lightly buttered 22cm loose-bottomed cake tin. Bake for 1 hour. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire cooling rack. Serve the cake warm while the chocolate is still soft, with lashings of lightly whipped cream. If the cake cools before you serve it, simply warm portions in the microwave.

With fruity, moist cakes like this a skewer test will not always indicate when the cake is cooked. It is ready when the top is firm and the cake comes away from the sides of the tin.

Enjoy :-)