I went on a cooking spree yesterday afternoon and finally cooked a few loaves from the Rose Levy Beranbaum Bread Bible that I bought for C for Christmas 4 years ago!
I give you: Cheddar Cheese Bread..
My kitchen smells amazing, the bread cuts beautifully, and tastes just the right cheesy…
Mmmmm..
You just never know what will happen at dinner time…
Most nights little O picks at his food and has to be coaxed into even tasting most new things. We try to just relax about the whole thing, and not wheedle or cajole, but some nights we resort to it in frustration.
Generally we do try to eat around the kids too: by that I mean making meals that they like or are not as spiced as we might otherwise eat.
But tonight I decided to just cook something I felt like cooking. Actually a bit of experimentation.
So beetroot and yoghurt sauce + lentil pilaf.
And for once I has a son who ate without complaint, telling me that it “tastes great when I put all of it in my mouth at once!”
Who didn’t look like he was loving it, but for some reason tonight just decided to soldier through.
And gleefully declared at the end of the meal that he is looking forward to purple poo tomorrow.
It’s been a crazy week of birthdays… A quick post to share a photo or two.
We celebrated O’s 3rd Birthday in the park on the weekend with a robot and rocket party.
What does that look like? Lots of big refrigerator boxes all joined up to make a robot spaceship, decorated with stickers and stick-ons. Filled with small children popping their heads up through the funny windows and openings. And crawling between all the adjoining boxes like crazy.
In the spaceship
Lots of fruit for morning tea.
the spaceship has landed in the park
And, of course, a robot cake. Which the smallest one managed to swipe icing off while I was trying to light the candles!
Robot Cake!
Happy Robot Birthday my beautiful boy!
I had to take a photo tonight at dinner to remind myself and record the fact that my son will eat dinner.
On occassion.
If in a restaurant.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
Grrrrrrrr.
I have made the same meal at home (pad thai) plenty of times and he won’t even try it.
And here he is not only serving himself a whole plateful, but eating it too!
I’m happy and frustrated simultaneously 🙂
Love Mum
P.S. The 11 month old weighs the same as the 2yr 11 month old in our house.
Our family went out to brunch this morning to celebrate Aunt Rhyan’s birthday.
We were in safe hands with the rescue team on standby in case of emergency..
One of the songs O sings in music class is about a little box. As part of the song, someone chooses something to come out of the box, and then it makes a noise. Cue this week’s contribution from little O:
Music Teacher: “O, what would you like to be in the box today?”
O: “Boonie. Boonie in the box.”
Boonie is one of little Luna’s nicknames in our house. Nothing to do at all with the Australian cricketer. Just “Luna Boona” gets shortened to “Boonie”. It’s an Australian thing.
The teacher looks a little confused, who wouldn’t with someone saying “Boonie” as though you should know what that is.
I point to Luna’s head to indicate he means her.  Then wonder if I should be encouraging a song where my second child is put in a box. Oh well. The teacher goes on:
“Baby? Oscar wants to put a baby in the box. That’s a good idea. What should the baby say when it comes out? Wah, wah, wah?”
Oscar: “No. Baby’s don’t say ‘wah, wah, wah’. They say ‘boobie, boobie, boobie’.”
At this point the teacher cracks up laughing so hard she can’t talk for a minute. She tries to regain her composure as she says:
“Oscar’s right, babies do say ‘boobie, boobie, boobie’. Everybody, let’s put the baby in the box now ..”
And we all proceeded to sing the song and then say “boobie, boobie, boobie” when the baby came out of the box. Nice.
Another breastfeeding is just the norm in our household snippet bought to you from the mouth of a babe.
breastfeeding is the norm. Me feeding little O when he was 14 months at a friend’s wedding. In a totally not breastfeeding friendly dress. It worked nonetheless. (And yeah, I can’t remember what we were talking about but S is obviously demonstrating something).
Love mum
Yep, that is how we say it around our house: Gingerman Bread.
It’s very funny to watch kids try to wrap their tongues and heads around funny phrases and words. Especially when they are your own kids and you can just laugh out loud…
Last year when we went to Canada to celebrate Christmas with our Canadian family in the snow, we visited some friends in Vancouver on the way through who had the MOST amazing gingerbread house and scene ever made. Let me tell you. It was amazing. (Note I’m having to tell you rather than show you as I’m such a numpty I forgot to take a photo of the wonderful creation.)
They make one each year, and keep it up on display without snacking or nibbling for a few weeks over Christmas, and when the kids go back to school in early Jan they take it in as a treat for all the kids to eat together. And I was inspired – I’ve always wanted to do one.
So last week I emailed them and got the recipe for the gingerbread and icing, and started to think about making it… Then realised that although it would be fun for me, the two year old in our family would LOVE to help and the house construction and decoration is just a little bit beyond his decorating ability, patience-level and possibly balancing skills. I could forsee typhoon-struck ginger-house with icing dripping from gables aligned with the floor… (I’ve also been wondering about how a gingerbread house would ‘hold up’ here in humid Brisbane… In Canada the humidity is so low you have to have a humidifier on. Here you can almost drink the air some days. I’m not sure that any gingerbread house would have a long-life without ‘growing’ some of it’s own extra-special green decorations.. Anyone have experience with this is Australia??)
So I embraced the idea of just having fun with it and opted for gingerbread christmas shapes.
We invited O’s little cousins and grandma from Canada over and away we cooked. There was lots of mixing, measuring and then cutting.
rolling out the dough. Lots of helpers..
Then baking.
Then decorating. I put a sheet of baking paper out for each child, in front of them at the kitchen table, and three bowls each for the toppings: smarties, sprinkles and heart decorations. Then a big smear of royal icing on their baking paper and a small palette knife each, and they were off.
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 gathered around the table... |
 Little Miss L's lady.. |
 little miss p's star |
We were planning on gifting some that O had decorated himself to O’s teachers and a few other people. On reflection, after witnessing the licking of palette knife, fingers and smarties that went into putting his together, I decorated a few myself to give on his behalf…
But I still love the creations, licks and all!
 mmm. a reindeer! |
 O's creations. Lots of licking when into these beauties.... |
….
love mum
P.S. Oh, I forgot. They are absolutely DELICIOUS… Thank-you Mickey for the recipe! Yum Yum Yum…..
P.P.S. I am now planning on making the making of these (and a gingerbread house when the kids are bigger) a Christmas tradition in our house.
P.P.P.S. And you may ask – where was the little baby during all of this? Alternately happily rolling around on the floor, breastfeeding and sleeping. She really is a dream child…. !
luna-baby watching the gingerbread-making process
In other developments around our house, the littlest member of the family has started on her food adventure. I don’t know if I managed to get a photo of her first food (cucumber), but since then we’ve introduced a range of vegetables, a little fruit, and a bit of meat (cooked by her daddy), bread and crackers. Did I mention that you got your first tooth about 2 months ago at 3 months old?? Well, regardless of teeth, you are into food.
I remember when little O first had food like it was yesterday. Avocado. You haven’t tried that yet. Will have to add it in.
Dear Little L:
So far, your favourites have been: steamed / fresh snow peas (preferably from the garden) and turkey. Yes, your Dad cooked a Christmas turkey on the weekend and you are very much into it. We are giving you only whole food: the baby-led feeding approach (read this brochure if you want a quick summary on it). So your sit in your bumbo or on our laps, and get whole bits of veges and other stuff to play with and eat as much as you can of. And since starting, your hand-eye co-ordination has improved out of sight and you have no trouble getting the food from your plate to your mouth. And there is definitely some going down, as is evidenced by the seeds and other bits and pieces I can see in your poo. mmmmm… All good fun. We spoon-fed your brother a bit at the beginning but he really wasn’t into it at all so soon changed to the baby-lead feeding approach. For him it didn’t make much difference – he is just a little skinny thing. You seem a lot more into food so far in general. Thankfully. It is nice to have a little robust baby after the skinny minny your brother turned into at around six months (and still remains).love mum
So around here mealtimes are a family affair. It’s fun to see:
 munching on some cheese: baby-led feeding |
 a family meal |
Love and kisses 🙂
mum
A week ago, I headed off down the coast with little Luna and my 3 sisters. It was the first time that just the four (i mean five) of us have ever been away together that I can remember. That is, away without assorted partners, other family etc. (Am I right on that sisters???).
We went out for a few drinks and dinner a few months ago when R1 was up from Melbourne, and it was fun. So when she said she was coming up for a few weeks before Christmas, I took the opportunity to organise a getaway. We headed down to Lennox Heads (just south of Byron), a small sleepy little town with a stunning beach and a lake too. We shared a small apartment that looked out directly to the ocean and where we could hear the waves crashing all night. Played a little scrabble, a few cards, drank a lovely bottle of champagne, ate home-cooked food and just talked.
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I enjoyed myself. Little Luna loved the attention.
And I got to enjoy a swim in the ocean by myself. For ages. Without the worry of a two-year old on the beach wanting my attention, nor a baby to swap with a husband… Yay.
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Love M.
P.S. the best part of the weekend was my sleepy head sister R2 waking up first thing on Saturday morning, and before even asking for coffee (her serious addiction), coming into the room and asking,
“Can we dress her up? What do you have??”….
strawberry-balsamic-icecream… yum!
If you’ve never made icecream at home before, this is my all-time favourite no-cook simple recipe. Nothing beats freshly made strawberry icecream with a hint of balsamic.  It can be done without an icecream maker if you want to experiment. Yum!!! Make it now!
450g fresh strawberries
150g caster sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
150ml whipping cream (36% fat) (i.e. plain cream)
adapted from Liddell, C. & Weir, R. Frozen Desserts 1995
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