School Holidays

Johnston Street, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

Out and about with the kids today. School holiday time.
A promised outing to Scienceworks had all four of us admiring the costumes and movie props at the Star Wars Exhibition. Yet again Museum membership has paid off. We were able to skip the ENORMOUS queues and head straight to the front. It was so busy, and we were certainly glad we got there nice and early.

I must admit that I'm not a big Star Wars fan, and I actually found the other Scienceworks exhibitions more interesting. The retro kitchen, the vintage toys and the old radios.

Leaving Scienceworks, we headed over to Fitzroy for a bit of furniture shopping. Always fun with kids in tow.
We are on the hunt for some new dining room chairs. While I still love our high back, upholstered chairs, they have seen better days. Black wool crepe is lovely, but it was shredded by our cat in his last few senile years. Still deciding, but are considering the Eames DSW chairs in white. Modern classic.

On our way we stopped to admire this fantastic grafitti in Johnston Street, Fitzroy. Pure art. Love it.

Sewing

Today I went here. So much lovely fabric. It seems to get better every time I visit.

Yesterday I made my first Pencil roll. I had been glancing at the pattern for a little over six months, never quite getting around to it. I used this pattern, and it was so simple. It was by far the easiest one that I came across. Needing a quick birthday present for a party that Poppy is going to later in the week, this really was the ideal project for a spare afternoon.
Luckily I had enough fabric squirreled away to make a weekend trip to the very busy fabric store unnecessary.
It came out so well, that I have plans to make another three for birthday presents for other little friends that we will be seeing soon. And maybe some little zippered pouches. That's how I justified buying more fabric today.

The next lot of pencil rolls might come with some nice Lyra pencils inside. So much for being thrifty!

Pomegranate Velvet Cake

This was (is) delicious. A towering mountain of a cake, I think would easily cater for twenty. The recipe failed to mention that it would feed quite so many. Very, very rich. And very, very TALL.

Here's the recipe I used:

POM Velvet Cake

Ingredients:

Cake

juice from 1 large pomegranate
2-1/4 cups plain flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g unsalted butter at room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream

Icing

1 cup pomegranates arils
375g cream cheese at room temperature
110g unsalted butter at room temperature
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
500g icing sugar, sifted
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 170C.

2. Prepare fresh pomegranate juice.

3. Grease three, 20cm tins.

4. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl and set aside.

5. In a separate mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes at medium speed.

6. To the bowl with the butter mixture, add eggs one at a time, beating after each one. Add vanilla extract.

7. Pour milk and cream into a large measuring cup and add in vinegar and pomegranate juice; stir.

8. Add half the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix on low speed, alternating with the milk and ending with flour. Beat for 2 minutes at medium speed.

9. Divide batter into cake pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until cakes test done using a toothpick inserted near the middle. The toothpick should be free of wet batter when withdrawn.

10. Allow cakes to rest in cake pan for 15 minutes or until pans are cold to the touch.

11. Invert cakes onto a cooling rack.

Icing:
1. Score 1–2 fresh pomegranates and place in a bowl of water. Break open the pomegranates under water to free the arils (seed sacs). The arils will sink to the bottom of the bowl and the membrane will float to the top. Sieve and put the arils in a separate bowl. Reserve 1 cup of the arils from fruit and set aside. (Refrigerate or freeze remaining arils for another use.)

2. Blend cream cheese and butter in mixing bowl.

3. Add vanilla. Beat at medium speed.

4. Add icing sugar and salt. Beat until fluffy.

5. Place one layer of cake on a cake plate and spread with icing.

7. Repeat with remaining layers, and finish by icing the outside.

8. Garnish with remaining arils


This is an American recipe that I adapted. All in all it was pretty good. It certainly looks impressive with those lovely pomegranate red colours on top.

Fire fire

Well what an exciting start to the day we had on Friday! I was woken very early by flashing lights, peeping through the shutters. Right outside our front door was an enormous fire truck. Of course it was the one time that I had parked right near the Fire Hydrant. Doing a quiet panic (I could smell smoke), I quickly got up, put on a dressing gown, and rushed outside. The street was full of action. Two fire trucks, a couple of police cars, a fire investigator and ALL the neighbours.

Not my house. Thank Goodness. Not anyone's house. A back shed three door down. A very tumbledown old woodshed. Out our back window were more firemen, and another truck in the laneway.

Poppy thought it was all fantastic, especially the part where we got to drive over the big hose on our way to school later that morning. Oscar slept through the whole thing.

Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

We love the Children's Farm. Growing up in the country, I was lucky enough to have the experience of up close animals all the time. We had the ducks, chooks, goats, cows, pigs,sheep and cows around all the time. I rode a horse. Neighbours had a donkey for a while. And a camel.

I had guinea pigs, budgies, rabbits, cats and dogs. My brother kept ferrets. Looking back it seems like we were surrounded by animals, always taking in something. My Dad still is. It makes me sad that all my kids have now is a dog. Some fish as well, but I don't think they really count.

The City Farm is great. The kids get see the animals, pat them, feed them, and just wander around enjoying the peace and quiet in a lovely corner of our city. We had planned a visit here yesterday afternoon, but discovered that they were closed for the afternoon, getting ready for the evenings events. Even better.

While the kid's missed seeing the animals, they did get to see some great fire dancing and a fantastic bonfire. It reminded me of Bonfire Night when I was a kid. Perhaps without the fire dancers. Far too out there for a country town in the 1970's. But back then we had FIREWORKS. Before they were outlawed, Bonfire Night was the big night for fireworks. A lot of fun. Nice memories.
Perhaps next year we will be more organised. Know in advance that we are going, and plan. Maybe make some of those cool, covetable paper lanterns or punched tin shades. Pack a thermos of hot chocolate and a rug or two. Get there early and make it a bit more of an event.

Second Child

Shoe tying milestone, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

Well she has finally done it. Little thanks to us. Poor second child.

I remember so clearly dedicating a lot of time to the boy, helping him learn the intricacies of shoelace tying. He was tying them himself by 4, ready to get through a day of Preschool without being bothered by his laces.

With this one, it has just seemed easier, faster and less stressful to do them myself. Neglectful. Probably. The past couple of weeks though she has been asking to learn and yesterday, success. So satisfying.

Time is definitely less available second time around. Oscar spent endless hours with me practicing writing and learning to recognise those first few sight words.

Poppy is just as keen, but is far more independent. She seems to permanently have a ream of paper nearby ready to copy random words and has taken to basic maths like a duck to water.

I don't know how people with larger families do it. My heroes.

Baking

Today was spent baking. Not for any particular reason. Just felt like it. Here's what I made.

1. Pomegranate and Lime Curd Tartlets
2. Caper and Polenta Muffins with Smoked Salmon
3. Langues de Chat (Cats Tongues)

All pretty good albeit fiddly.

I took some into give to a few favourite teachers. I think by Friday afternoon, nearing end of term, they were probably in need of a little treat.

Dinner tonight will be panfried fish, oven roasted chips and celeriac remoulade. All served with a homemade tartare sauce, using dill pickles I had made earlier in the year, parsley and lemons from the garden.

Old Skool

My poor neighbours. I am a child of the eighties and more to the point I LOVE Old School Hip Hop.

I spent this afternoon playing with the Genius function of I Tunes. With GrandMaster Flash's "The Message" as the starting point, I've been enjoying (very loudly) Arrested Development, Jungle Brothers, Public Enemy, Young M.C., Dr Dre and so on. Tunes from my past, that can't help but bring a smile.

On another note, I actually got around to cleaning the house. We live in grot pretty much most of the time as I am a terrible housekeeper. I can manage the tidying okay, and the continual laundry that we seem to have, but when it comes to the dusting, bathroom cleaning, floor washing end of things, I'm terribly neglectful. For many years we had a cleaner, but sadly it was one of the things that had to go when I stopped work. Theoretically I have the time to do it, but the inclination just isn't there.

For now at least everything is sparkly and dust free.

Yay.

Hepburn Springs

Red Star Cafe, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

Our midweek lunch found us in Hepburn Springs this week.
We had initially planned on a morning tea up at Macedon, but a late start had skipping this in lieu of lunch.
Hepburn Springs is full of cafes, but we decided on the Red Star Cafe for no other reason than it looked pretty quirky (and did I mention that red is my favourite colour). The shop is filled with all sorts of unusual things: radios, odd lamps, model boats, lots and lots of books, vases and many framed vintage french posters.

Lunch was a BLT. Not bad, but nothing special. Top marks for decor though.

After lunch we dawdled back home with a supply of farm fresh local Coliban potatoes and free range eggs bought from a roadside seller.

After lunch we dawdled back home with a supply of farm fresh local Coliban potatoes and free range eggs bought from a roadside seller.

As the weatherman said, the fog was so thick today you could barely see the neighbours knickers on the line! Luckily we missed most of it, it was lovely and sunny in Spa Country.

Snowflakes

Crafty Snowflake, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

Today I started making the snowflakes to hang from the mantle, for a bit of wintery cheer.
Being in the Southern Hemisphere it's hard to come up with winter themed crafts that don't end up looking too Christmassy.
For Autumn I used some lovely felt from here to make this and have been wondering what I could do to replace it.
While I'm not the best at embroidery I thought I would whip up a few little snowflakes that I could use to decorate the fireplace. Each hoop is only 10cm across, and I plan on making them into little mini cushiony type things.

In my search for snowflake patterns (I ended up drawing my own) I chanced upon this site. While the snowflakes I made were far too complicated for me to sew, it was a bit of fun.

No Sleep

Am headed for the third night of disturbed sleep. Tired and cranky. Dog will not stop crying.

While I feel very sorry for him, I can't take his collar off because last time he had stitches he licked them so much they ended up infected. I can't put him outside either as he makes too much noise rustling about in the bushes then ends up crying at the door anyway.

Another week still to go, earplugs may need to be bought.....

Butterflies and Buster Collars

Butterflies for school garden, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

Time for a bit more frivolity in the school garden. This lot are to replace the mushrooms I made a while back.
The original mushroom plan was that they would be in place for only a few days. I really didn't expect that they would last as long as they did. After all, they were only made out of paper lunch bags. They proved remarkably weather resistant, and as far as I know not one was taken (I did have visions of them stabbing one another with the skewers) out of the garden.
Yesterday was spent mostly inside cutting butterfly shapes out of thin card, attaching sticky dots and pipe cleaner feelers. These were then glued on to bamboo garden stakes of varying heights, which will be placed randomly around the school garden. I do fib slightly as its not going to be that random. A bit of favouritism will come into play and the bulk of them will be outside my kids' classrooms.

I just have to summons up the energy to head off to the school. It's pretty cold outside and my bucket headed dog hasn't stopped crying all morning. I'm not sure how much is pain, discomfit from the horrible collar or stressing because most of the family is elsewhere for the day.

Either way, the constant whimpering is getting a bit hard to cope with. Poor old thing.

Dinner

Periwinkles, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

I think not.

Although today was Market Day, and I did buy seafood for dinner, I didn't stop too long by the Periwinkles. Positioned next to a giant bucket of crawling baby crabs, it was all a bit too alive for me first thing in the morning.

Little Saigon in Footscray is always an eye opener. We go mostly for the fresh herbs and noodles, but always have a bit of a stroll around looking at the weird and wonderful ingredients that the supermarket stocks. Today we saw bottles of fish sauce. Nothing unusual there. A closer look revealed that it was sauce WITH FISH IN IT. Whole fish. Not even sure how they got them in there.

I bought the loveliest bunch of flowers for myself, cabbagey things on long stalks. Gorgeous, but am somewhat fearful that they may be a bit pongy.

Dinner tonight is Thai Fish cakes with pickled cucumber and rice noodles. Pity I didn't buy any of those Creme Caramels I talked myself out of.

Old Dog

We have an old dog. A very sooky, twelve year old Dalmation. Given the cold temperatures of late, and his apparent inability to cope with them, he is now the proud owner of a new bed.

Not just any bed. A HEATED BED. Super fancy.

Last year saw me searching high and low for a new coat for him. I eventually had to resort to making one myself (couldn't even find a pattern), given that he is so big, weighing in at around 35kgs.

Its been a bit of a decline for him this last twelve months. His best friend had to be put down due to old age (our Siamese) and this year he has developed pretty bad arthritis in his front paws. Yesterday I noticed the return of what I think is probably another Skin Cancer on his flank. So off to the Vet again.

He has a pretty good life with our family but its sad to see a pet ageing so rapidly. He has even gone grey! I think he would benefit from having a new friend in the house to keep him company and am pushing hard for another Siamese. A kitten might do us all good.

Osso Buco

Yes. Fatty boom boom food. But it's cold outside, only 11C. So cold I couldn't face the thought of swimming this morning. Must swim tomorrow. Must.

Its frightening how fast I move away from skinny person, salady type food to big, hearty casseroles,pies and soups. A degree or two drop in temperature and out comes a casserole dish.

Its Market Day this week, so perhaps I should set out with good intentions. No red meat. No King Island Cream. Green leafy, herby things. Little Saigon here I come!

Coping with creativity

These kids love to draw! Oscar is all about little, intricate, starwarsy themed scenes (nearly always in pen), while Poppy's are bright and colourful texta creations, quickly scrawled on the nearest sheet of paper. Oscar will spend all evening on one illustration, while Poppy manages to use up page after page of paper.

What would you do with all these treasures?

I probably shouldn't admit it, but most of them get binned.

It has become a bit of an evening routine. The fed and newly washed, pyjammed kids, settle down for an hour or so of drawing. Despite having beautiful pencils, crayons, pastels etc at their disposal, they both choose the same every time. Pens and textas.

Over the years we have kept a few. Some have been framed, some boxed away, others scanned on to the computer. But as much as I love them, I just can't keep them all. The kids are hoarders at heart, and sadly we have a teeny tiny house.

My Father (and Grandmother) were terrible hoarders. My Dad still is. So much stuff. Just in case stuff. I might need that stuff. But I live in the city, with only a small garden/kitchen pantry shed so I need to be fairly ruthless about what gets kept. Having said all that, not a single one of my toys survived my childhood. A few books. NO DRAWINGS. NO PAINTINGS. NO ART. And my parents certainly had the room. Hmmmm.

The Gang

The Gang, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

Away for the weekend. Rather chilly. Wet. Windy.
Lovely.
I finally packed us all up Friday afternoon and off we headed for the beach. We struck horrendous traffic but eventually arrived in darkness to a very cold house. Luckily we had an enormous woodpile at our disposal and all we needed to do was get it started.
No spiders this time. Always nice. Australia seems to be the land of bugs and our little spot is no exception. Given that our house is on top of a sand dune, surrounded by tea-trees, I suppose it is to be expected.

My tut-tutting friend joined us for a night (she swept and swept and swept) with her two gorgeous kidlets. I wouldn't say it was a quiet weekend, but it was certainly fun filled. Brisk walks on the beach, fish and chips and a glass or three of wine with an old friend. Oh and out came the board game Trouble this morning for a bit of competitive popping.

Sadly we don't get down to the house too often, but its always good when we do.

Flower garden hair

Flower garden hair, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

See the hair? Doesn't it make it look like she has a organised parent? One who manages the requests of "can you make my hair look like a flower garden" with ease?
The truth is, while she turned up to school this morning looking not too bad, I arrived looking like a wet bedraggled sea hag.
I can tell today just isn't going to be my day. Time seems to be working in a different way. I have apparently even lost my ability to park. Despite getting up early and only having to get one kid half ready I could not seem to get it together. I left the house with freaky, sticky-uppy wet hair, wearing clothes off the floor. Any my slippers, because I only realised halfway to the school that they had stayed on.

We are going away for the weekend, so at some point I do have to get organised because I need to pack for four, plus the dog, plus all our food etc. I have a friend coming over late morning, who despite having two toddlers, always has a spotlessly clean house. Mine isn't even tidy let alone clean. I know, bare minimum, I need to vacuum or I will be quietly tut-tutted. But I can't seem to move.
I hate these days. I wish I had Flower Garden Hair.

Queen's Birthday

Queen Cake preparations, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

Or Yet Another Public Holiday.
I love Public Holidays. Even though I'm not working and Ben is a shift worker, I still think there is something special about Public Holidays. Being a (mostly) Republican type person, I don't really whip myself into a frenzy about the Queen's Birthday celebration. After all, her real birthday is not even in June. Still. Who wouldn't want to dress up a bit, maybe wear a crown?

Back in the olden days when I did work and Oscar was only four, I whipped up a very Royal, velvet and fake fur cape for dressing up at Creche. I think that was the only time I remember them doing something special to celebrate the holiday. The cape is still around, donated earlier this year to the dress-up box at school. It puts a smile on my face every time I go in Poppy's class room to see someone new swanning around in it.

Today I dragged in mixing bowls and other cake making paraphernalia into Poppy's Prep/Grade 1 class. The kid's rotated through three activities: Recipe writing (using the fancy-pants new interactive whiteboard), baking Queen's cakes and crown making. I bought the crowns from here, and they added big, jewell like diamantes, and various other embellishments.

Here's the recipe:

Queen's Cakes

(makes 10)

100g butter, softened 3/4 cup S.R flour
1/2 cup caster sugar pinch salt
2 eggs 2 tbspn milk
1/3 cup currants vanilla essence

Heat oven to 230C.

Line trays with 10 cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and creamy.
In a medium bowl, sift flour and salt.
In a small bowl, lightly whisk together eggs and vanilla essence.
Slowly add the eggs to the butter and combine.
Add half the flour to this and mix through.
Stir through the milk, fruit and remaining flour.
Using a large spoon, divide cake batter between the cupcake liners.
Bake for 15 minutes.

The recipe should include 1 heaped tbspn of mixed peel, but I left it out as kids universally seem to hate it.

I worked with groups of 5 at a time (mostly because 5 aprons was about all I could be bothered making) and it seemed to be a good number. Everyone had a couple of turns doing something and there wasn't too much time waiting around for them. I had planned on making mini chef's hats too, but only managed to make one. They were all very gracious and took it in turns to be "MasterChef". Their words, not mine.

Sydney Road

Pistachio Macaron, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

Sydney Road is always a surprise. Nifty shops. Good food. Terrible traffic and never any parking. Luckily today the Parking Gods favoured the Volvo and we managed a park close to our destination. Choukette.

The real reason for the foray over to Brunswick was yet another visit to yet another senior school. This time a tour through Brunswick Secondary College. Not too bad, possibly a front runner (they had a great arts /drama/dance program). We are still debating the merits of public versus private but Brunswick seems to have a lot on offer, the buildings aren't falling down (or portable horrors), the kids didn't look like juvenile delinquents and the teaching staff all seemed very enthusiastic.

As a reward for spending the morning school hunting, we headed over to Sydney Road and ducked into Choukette for a quick coffee and pastry. Ben had a particularly delicious Almond Croissant and I settled for the slightly less fattening looking Choukette. Very, very good.
Mostly because I love the colours, I bought a box of assorted French Macarons for the journey home. Last time I had Macarons, I made them myself, and although they were beautiful, I am too lazy to make more than one flavour at any given time. My recipe made about two dozen filled macarons, of which all were eaten. That can't be good.