craft monday :: the art of cooking

We had a fabulous weekend celebrating my birthday and spending time with lovely friends. For craft monday today I wanted to share the yummy chocolate mousse Keely and I made together as my birthday cake. I know it is not very crafty, but with such a love of food in this house and the new found love of cooking with my children I feel this is a craft; the art of cooking!

I knew I wanted something different for my birthday cake, something we could all have on our own, and a mousse was the perfect choice. I loved making these with Keely as it was nice to show her what happens to cream when you whip it, and also what happens to egg whites. There was a lot of whizzing going on, but it was worth it as the mousse tasted divine! I think it helps that we used lindt chocolate.

It is nice to cook with your little ones, as sometimes it is too hard to get out the paints and put together a craft session for them. Cooking teaches them to appreciate food, and hopefully for me it will allow Keely to try something new. To be honest, I am not sure if cooking is a craft, but, I am making it a craft as my weekend was too busy to have a craft moment with Keely.

I have actually been looking at how busy my life is and I must say I could manage my time a bit better when it comes to the whole meal planning. We shop almost everyday. It has become part of our daily routine. But over the weekend and since Taj has been unwell this has been very tiring. I think it is time to sit and write a menu plan and a big shopping list. Do you have a menu plan you do for the week and shop in one clean sweep?

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chocolate mousse

melt 200g chocolate and 75g butter in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until smooth. pour into a bowl and beat in 4 egg yolks, one at a time. set aside. whip 1 cup (250ml) cream to soft peaks. set aside. whisk 4 egg whites to soft peaks. whisk in 2 tablespoons icing sugar until thick and glossy. fold cream into chocolate, then egg whites. refrigerate for 3 hours. serves 6. {I used good quality chocolate, yum}

happy weekend

This weekend is going to be lovely. It is my birthday tomorrow and I am going to be celebrating with my two beautiful children. Today Keely and I are making chocolate mousse for my mummy birthday cake and we are going present shopping in my shop, Pulp Life. Keely really wanted to make a cake out of the children's cake book, and she really wanted to take me to Mimco to buy me a red love heart headband. She assures me I will love it and it will be lovely as she can wear it too! I must say she is good, she really is becoming one smart little girl when it comes to fashion!

Keely picked gorgeous gerberas this week and she chose them especially for me. Pink is her favourite colour and red is mine.

I am not sure if there will be much time for craft this weekend, but I am sure we can share part of the birthday celebrations on monday instead. Can I class cooking as craft? Well I guess to some it is a craft, and I think anytime spent with my daughter is a special time, if it be holding a paint brush, or holding a wooden spoon, either one is special.

Enjoy your weekend!

he says, "OUCH!"

We are having a hard time in the little pinwheel home with a boy and his two very infected ears. He has had a lot of them this year and I have to say it is really hard for him and for me. I cannot handle knowing Taj is really in pain. Yesterday he stood in the middle of the kitchen floor screaming, and screaming.

He is on antibiotics and panadol for the pain. He sleeps with me all night wanting boob all the time. The cuddles are beautiful, I just wish he was comfortable. I am sure the antibiotics will start working soon.

Grommets are on the list for long term management. Wait for check up next week. Until then, cuddles, boob and medicine.

sale :: hop on your bike!

It is that time of year where little pinwheel is clearing all the winter stock to make way for the summer stock. Ride on over! I ship internationally too.

happy shopping!

little kitchen :: pancakes

I love good children's books and to have a lovely friend of mine recommend a kids cookbook I was instantly online purchasing this particular book along with a few more for the little ones. I have not recieved the book she recommended but I did receive the other cookbook I thought I would try.

I love a good children's cookbook, especially one that is written by a mum that seems to understand little people and how some can be fussy eaters. This book is not especially made for fussy eaters, but just by the way things are done you can tell she understands what it is like to have a little one that will not eat lumpy vegetables.

We really wanted to make one of the dinners out of the book, but we did not have the time and instead we made the pancakes! The book is called, Little Kitchen and it is full of receipes that are simple and really easy for children to make. I love having Keely in the kitchen with me and her cooking with me. I like her to see, smell and touch different foods, even food she may not even try. I think this will help turn my fussy eater into a non fussy eater!

There are a few cooking with kids books, but I am really happy with this one. It says when mum or dad need to do certain things, but really it is more focused on the children being the cooks. We made really yummy pancakes, that were easy for her to make and fun for us to eat. Keely made star shaped and your regular round pancakes and dusted them with icing sugar. The best thing is the recipe mixture is a small amount and portioned for children, so you are not left with leftover batter, or pancakes.

We have cooked more this week out of the book, and I will share one of the dinner meals with you next week. So far we have 2 winners out of the book!

Here is the recipe for the pancakes, although I am sure you all have a pancake recipe, but this is good for 2 or 3 small children.

fun-shaped pancakes

1 cup plain flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

2 teaspoon softened butter

juice of 1 large lemon

2-3 tablespoons of icing sugar for dusting

*sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into a mixing bowl.

*combine the egg, milk and vinegar in another bowl and whisk them together well. ask a grown-up to help you tip the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk them together.

* add 1 teaspoon of the softened butter to the frying pan and use a pastry brush to grease it evenly. brush a little more butter inside the pancake rings.

*ask a grown-up to help you put the frying pan over a low heat and put the pancake rings in. allow them to heat for 1 minute. pour 1/4 cup of batter into each ring so they are about a third full. if you are not using pancake rings then just pour the batter directly into the pan so that it forms a round pancake. cook until bubbles start to appear on the surface then use and egg flip to gently hold the pancake in place while lifting the pancake ring away from the pancake. ask a grown-up to help you with this. continue cooking for another minute, or until the pancake is cooked on the underside. (life the edge up with an egg flip and have a peek.

*ask a grown-up to help you flip the pancakes over and cook them for 1-2 minutes on the other side, then lift out the pan onto a warm plate. cook the rest of the batter to make more pancakes.

*serve the pancakes hot from the pan, sprinkled with lemon juice and icing sugar.

enjoy!

girl time :: headland bush walk

For our girls only moment Keely and I went on a "bush walk." (This is what Keely calls any walk that involves a bit of nature). There is a beautiful walk very close to where we live and it is perfect for her little legs. It is right up on the headland and you can see for miles out to sea.

All week we couldn't manage to work out a good time for Keely and to get together on our own. It was early sunday morning when I decided I would call Simon and see if we could swap little ones for the morning. Keely came back home and off we went for out time, and Taj went off to have time with his daddy.

There is so much to see on our walk from quirky signs, to swings in trees. We had a beautiful time walking around the top of the cliff face, finding beautiful flowers along the way.

There is one house up on the headland that I have always found interesting. You think it would be out of place with its Greek Island look, but it fits nicely into its surrounding green vines and bushy trees. It is not my kind of home, but I quite like the feeling it gives me. It is fresh with being white and it brings happiness with its bold royal blue and cute red gate.

Keely sung me songs along the way; a very cute one about the sun coming out from behind a cloud and creating a rainbow. I loved how she skipped along and held my hand, while singing to me. These are themoments I am holding on to with our time together, just her and me.

When we came out the other end they were doing the sunday swimming at our local pool. I love seeing all the old guys laughing and having a great time with good friends. We completed our time together with a banana smoothie for Keely and an iced coffee for mum.

This week will be a great girls only time as we are going to see Shrek at the movies for my birthday.

{wow there are a lot of images today! I hope you like them all. Nice to see the story in pictures and words}.

craft :: MiniMe paper dolls

I received the best email a couple of weeks ago from a very creative mum. Her name is Hannah Stevenson and she is an artist with a very beautiful creative mind that talks to children. With having 3 little girls Hannah was inspired by little girl's imaginations and she has created a line of paper dolls called MiniMe.

I was so excited when she had told me she would like to create a paper doll just for Keely. One that would be similar in appearance to Keely. I was intrigued! Hannah created a mini Keely paper doll from asking me some really simple questions and she also included a whole wardrobe full of beautiful clothes, both everyday wear and enchanted clothing.

Keely unwrapped her beautiful gift, which I kept a surprise, and she was very happy to open up a little paper girl with amazing clothing. She could pick out all the outfits, from cinderella, to a little mermaid, and a fairy.

I was instantly asked to please cut out the doll and some of her outfits. Keely pointed out her letters below the doll and she said, "mum they are all my letters!" (She has recently learnt how to write her name and how to recognise her letters). Her MiniMe paper doll has been to show and tell last week for all of her class mates to see, and she has been playing with her everyday since she received her.

Pop on over to Hannah's site as it is amazing. You can purchase the dolls with the colour hair you would like, what style the hair is, the colour eyes, the skin tone and what outfits you would like. There are many different ways of purchasing your little MiniMe; you can even print the dolls and outfits out yourself. I would recommend lovely paper if you choose this option. Otherwise you can wait for Hannah to post it to you, which took no more then 10 business days to arrive. Hannah also has a blog called Lily and Thistle, which is beautiful and it gives you an insight into her little family, along with posts about new paper dolls.

You can also join the MiniMe outfit of the month club and have a new outfit to print out each month. I am sure we will be joining the club! The best thing is you receive a disc with all the artwork so you are able to print out new dolls and clothes as they get worn out from all the play. This is great as we have already spilt some water on the servant outfit for cinderella.

A beautiful gift for any little girl. Hannah has more ideas and there is a boy in the making! But who said boys shouldn't play with dolls? Taj has his own little baby doll.