Wool n Wire Christmas Craft

Christmas Craft #2 as seen in the Better Homes and Gardens magazine. It was very hard to photograph because I used quite dark wool. After 3 hours of wool winding this is the result.

Simple enough to do, just time consuming. Shape some bendy wire into a word and wrap wool around and around, and around and around....

Favourites

I go through phases with my shells. There are times that I like to collect particular 'types' of shells. At the moment I love the look of these types of shells. I wonder if God gets bored and decides to make new colour schemes with His shells. I have seen alot of chocolate colour shells lately. Although I think that it is simply because I go through these phases with the shells and don't notice the others that I am not interested in at the time.

Gingerbread House

To celebrate the forth coming Christmas season of 2011, I thought I would share some photos of the gingerbread house which I made last year, Christmas 2010.

The gingerbread was made from scratch. I have never been a committed biscuit baker, especially in our 30+ degree heat summers. You need the gingerbread to be nice and firm for the house. Mine was just ok, just a little soft but it made it to the Christmas party without collapsing. I guess the secret is all in getting the thickness of the biscuit just right. 

This was also my first play with royal icing, Got the hang of it pretty quickly and was well underway. Great for concealing any flaws. This stuff is great, I love the roof shingles.

I really loved decorating the house. I love the holly effect and the bunting with m&m's. I also saw the candy canes on the angle from another picture and thought it was such a fun effect. Candy cane light posts, who didn't love the thought as a child? Marshmallow snowmen, complete with orange jelly lolly 'carrot' nose. And how cool are a ice-cream candy ice poles from the roof?

And fancy having to actually take the constructed piece of lollie art on a 20 minute car ride. I must have been crazy. lol.

Spring time in the veggie garden

My beefsteak tomatoes are growing larger than oranges. I let Jonah take a few to pre-school for show and tell. We are getting a nice supply of eggplant which I have never been able to grow this size before.

Whole Orange Cake

There is nothing like making a mistake with my online food shopping order and ending up with 9kg of oranges on my kitchen bench... so apart from lots of fresh orange juice.... I had to explore the world of orange cooking. 

And what better way to use up oranges than with a whole orange cake, skin and all. This recipe is taken from my favourite cooking site taste.com.au. Taking all of the recipe notes into consideration, I also added a little milk to the puree process to get the oranges as smooth as possible. 

The result is a delicious fresh orange cake. 

A nice dense and moist texture. But still slightly spongy. I must have a super sweet tooth though, the bitterness of the skin still came through for me just a little, so I overcompensate with enough icing 'on the side' to make up for it IF needed. The icing was a simple butter icing mix with orange juice for a nice orange flavour.

Here is the link to the recipe http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/25160/whole+orange+cake

Tip: this cake freezes perfectly ~ seeing it is not fitting for anyone's waistline to have whole cakes sitting around in the kitchen, I generally cut them into 3rds and freeze into perfect size portions for coffee+cake visits. 

Christmas Crafts ~ Snowflakes

Christmas is a great time of the year, especially great for baking lots of yummy treats. Now that my youngest boy is 2 1/2, I now have the time to get a little more creative than I did last year. And so... 

....the Christmas Crafts have begun.

I'm going to start with the less challenging of crafts and work up to the more involved. These are snowflakes made out of ice-cream sticks. They are around 50cm in length and I just copied any type of snowflake shape that I could find on some of our old Christmas cards. I think I am going to spray paint them a red gloss, but for the time being I am enjoying the natural look.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Brownies

Set a plate of these on the table and if you are surrounded by sweet lovers, be sure to move fast as these won't last long. 

This recipe can be found on taste.com.au, which is my go-to site for any recipe I would be searching for. When you find a good thing you stick to it. 

I can't say I am a HUGE fan of peanut butter BUT these are still a tasty treat. Well and truly for the peanut butter lovers. The base to this brownie is brilliant though. It had the right amount of crunch and goo. I think this might be a stable base for any brownie I want to attempt. I think I will try chocolate chunks with roasted hazelnuts... I want to try a Christmas brownie too; I'm thinking pistachios and dried cranberries with coconut. Would glazed cherries work? Would love any feedback...

Happy

I came across a situation the other day where I was challenged with the thought of should I be 'doing more?'
I went through a few struggles in my mind and am really happy with the result. Until this point in time it hadn't occurred to me that I am very content with where I am in life at the moment, and who I am.

So it may just be for a week, a month or a year... things change, life changes. But right now, I am content. I don't want anything more, I don't need anything more and life is simple. I have all I need. *Do read the fine print. I see my life as a pathway through this world till death takes me to the next. So I can put a drop-pin on this point in the path to say that these are good days.


Fineprint: I do have a 2yr old and 4yr old boy: so in no means is life not full of tense and testing moments daily... maybe hourly? 

M is for Mocha Cupcakes

I have missed baking but with a baby shower to prepare for, I was happy at home in the kitchen once more.

There is just one simple word to describe these - Y U M !

Made with melted dark chocolate and coffee powder, I was unsure how these were going to turn out. The mixture was very runny and I wondered if they were even going to rise. Sure enough within the last 15 minutes of cooking they came to form. I made them regular cupcake size.
My cupcakes were made with chocolate butter cream icing as I felt this would be better for the look I wanted.

Here is the link to this delicious recipe
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/21395/baby+mocha+cakes+with+coffee+syrup

Have you heard this Old Wives Tale?

"Hold your ear!" is what I yell to someone when they have just burnt their fingertips. It is quite funny for me to think about. And the usual reaction to me is a raised eyebrow and 'what the?'.

My Oma told me this fantastic old wives tale. And if you are reading this, you so have to try it.

Whenever you burn your finger or fingertips on something, grab your earlobe and it will instantly take away the burn.

Instantly the heat dissappears and you shouldn't even blister. Just hold your earlobe long enough for the fire to go. Wow! I think it is so awesome and I instantly grab my earlobe whenever I burn. Try it next time. Although if you are wearing earrings, make sure you don't touch the metal cause that won't help the issue at all.

Let me know if it works for you.