One last Christmas post.

Our lovely tree which I wanted to document as we have to take it down soon. Christmas seemed to fly past super fast this year- the fake tree was a bit of a bummer as I love the thrill of going out and purchasing the real one and the gorgeous pine-y scent. Not to be this year with a new kitten in the house who is a leaper and a climber. My husband forbade it on the grounds of possibility of electrocution. (According to him, flying kittens + water + electricity= dangerous mix. I guess I can’t really argue with that! )

I love the handmade decorations we try to add to each year. In particular the paper chain we made last Christmas and the stunning angel my little preppy brought home from school this year.

Not quite as professional as the gorgeous gingerbread house gifted to us on Christmas Eve is the one we made ourselves. This is a great activity to do do in the lead up to Christmas as it takes two whole days to make!

We made the dough on the 23rd, refrigerated it, rolled it out, cut the shapes out with our templates, baked and cooled on a wire rack. In the evening I made the royal icing and piped the walls together, then left overnight to dry. (I have a metal piping gun and just wrapped the end in glad wrap so that the icing wouldn’t harden). Morning of the 24th I iced the roof into place, propped up with glasses to prevent slippage and left until the afternoon. By late afternoon we were ready to pipe the rest of the icing on and add lollies. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar “snow” and it was ready to take as a very impressive dessert present on Christmas Day.

All the better received because it had been completely made by the grandchildren. Who were so excited to eat the lollies and so proud of their achievement. Personally, this kind of activity sings to the Queen of Kitsch lurking inside me. A not very cunningly disguised one at that!

Four.

Last week was the week of Four. Four years old and there are no more babies in my house.

On Wednesday we had kinder duty. Chocolate cupcakes with yellow flowers and the Happy Birthday hat.

Thursday was the day and we had a chocolate swirly frosted love heart cake with glace cherries and a vat of spaghetti sauce. Because they are his favourites. Four articulates demands. Loudly and frequently.

Saturday was party day.

I was pretty heavy handed with the icing and sprinkles.

And I was totally insane as far as the cake was concerned.

You’ll forgive me though, as this is the last four birthday in our family. A fantastic afternoon was had by 30 small children riding wheeled things maniacally around the Traffic School. With mini Four on his brand new bike.

He has already started planning his Five birthday.

Nigella’s number biscuits.

Today we had a playdate at a little friend’s house. There was one 6yo, three 5yo, a 4yo and a 3yo. 5 boys and one girl. It was loud, rough and a bit boisterous. It was a perfect morning to take along a batch of Nigella Lawson’s iced biscuits. I used the number cookie cutters from her range- I think the numbers are fun.

mine.

As you can see from the photos, mine aren’t as tidy as hers, but what I lack in neat I made up for with embellishment. The sprinkles were just the thing to draw your eyes away from the messy edges!

Nigella’s.

They won the taste test. An empty plate dotted with a few sprinkles were all that was left, although after all that sugar I did have to peel my boys off the ceiling to take them home.

6 ways to stuff the blues down to your shoes.

Having a bad week? Can’t remember why you didn’t stay in bed? Do some stuff and then at the end of the week you can at least  write yourself a little mental list and say- “But at least I did some stuff”.

It helps.

Number 1.

Have a bake off with yourself- then you’ve got home baked goods to send to school with the kids. You get a Nigella buzz baking it and feel like a bona fide super mum packing their lunch boxes.

Number 2.

Take up a new hobby. Embroidery is something I’ve longed to be good at but didn’t dare try because it looks so hard. In reality, it’s really fun & easy and I’m working on something that’s suitably aggro to suit my mood. Which makes me smile. Which is good.

Number 3.

Take said hobby and give yourself a little budget blowout. $30 on embroidery floss was in actual fact- a little excessive. But it felt great.

Number 4.

Get a little mothering by getting someone to make you a hot drink. Even if you have to pay for it. The good feeling lasts as long as the drink stays warm.

Number 5.

At the end of the week, write it all down while listening to your favourite “sad feeling” CD.

Number 6.

Hug your pet. For the same reason pets visit aged care homes. Mine’s just come in from outdoors and smells like Melbourne in the winter. He’s purry and soft. He makes me feel better.

Home Economics.

We have an abundance of apricots at the moment.

So I baked. It’s something my mum used to make with grated apple, but this version is a little more country.

Easy Apricot Pudding.

Cream 1 dessert spoon of butter with 1/2 cup sugar. Add one egg and mix well. Add wholemeal self raising flour gradually until mixture is stiff.

Spread 3/4 of mixture onto a small, greased lasagne dish. Place apricot halves over mixture. Sprinkle apricots with 2-3 dessert spoons of brown sugar.

Thin down remaining mixture with milk until it resembles pancake batter. Pour over the top of the apricots.

Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 45mins (up to an hour). Check after 25 mins and adjust baking time to suit your oven. Eat warm- it’s yummy with vanilla ice cream.

Apple pie and sunshine.

Had a crazy afternoom last Tuesday. Had pumpkin home from kinder sick (again- aaaaah! and it’s only the beginning of winter!) and so with no taxi duties to perform in the afternoon (picking up and dropping off small people) had a sudden wash of warm, housewifely, momsy good feeling wash over me and decided to bake!!!

I should have known better- it’s like this rush of hormones, or a schitzophrenic episode where my alter ego, a 1950′s housewife called Enid comes out and destroys my kitchen with two kilos of flour a dozen eggs and a kitchen aid.

I love it when I start, but I always get bored about half way through and then it just becomes a chore… and the cleaning up!!! It took me two days to get all the dishes washed up and the dried up dough scraped off the bench without gouging great chunks out of the wooden top.

However check out my grand creations. Jamie Oliver’s Apple pie- it’s great served hot with greek yoghurt, Nigel Slater’s easy bread recipie (a bit dense, but maybe I didn’t let it prove for long enough) and yummy roasted pumpkin and cauliflower and bacon soup (I didn’t take a photo of that, because yummy as it was, it looked like a vat of vom.)

Also just finished quilting my latest etsy quilt. I think it’s my best one yet, v. happy. Am off now to sew the binding on.

All around, it’s been a reasonable week on the homecrafts front!

Tags: apple pie, baking, bread, enid, Etsy, housewife, kinder, Pumpkin, quilt, soup, winter