No Scissors Required

Love may not be quite the right word for it...

... but I am feeling an almost unnatural affection for my latest toy. 
 
This year’s birthday present from my husband was the Silhouette Cameo, an electronic cutting tool. There is a variety of this type of machine on the market, but I chose this one because the reviews were good and it seemed to suit my requirements.

Temporary Tattoos

Even before I owned this little appliance of happiness, I had plans for it! I wanted to make cutesy cut out things for seasonal events, including birthdays; I wanted to use it for cutting out tricky things for my cake decorating; I wanted to make cool and groovy craft projects for the kids; etc etc etc…. (yes, this machine can do all of that and much more). 

Personalised Popcorn Boxes

I took it for a bit of a test run for my son’s birthday but then a few life events got in the way and it has been languishing on my desk feeling unloved, except for the occasional prodding by the youngest member of the family. During this time I discovered a blog, Under a Cherry Tree, which I immediately fell in love with. It showcases and explains a whole bunch of projects that can be made using the Silhouette. This, in turn, introduced me to Lettering Delights – a website full of fun graphics and fonts in a variety of formats. Their selection is fantastic and their prices are reasonable.

Cue my daughter’s Cinderella themed birthday party…..

Personalised Banner

 …with the help of my Silhouette, a tutorial or two on Under a Cherry Tree and LD’s “Happily Ever After” and “Once Upon a Time” series I pumped out personalised popcorn boxes with cutesy graphics, a personalised banner, themed temporary tattoos and motifs for the cake board. Even the cake was based on the LD Cinderella Graphic. 

Cinderella Cake on a Customised Board

How much fun did I have?! And what can I play with now??? Roll on Halloween! 


(Disclaimer – This is not a sponsored post. I am not paid by any of the companies I have mentioned in this post. I just wanted to share my happiness in a very specific manner.)

Voula Made Me Do It

And the “Voula” in question will know exactly who she is.  

Why, oh why, do people ask for trusted recipes of yummy things that I like? And the yummy thing in question today is VERY YUMMY : GINGER KISSES. 

For the uninitiated, Ginger Kisses are a bit like those American Whoopee Pies that are all the rage at the moment – a nice gingery, cakey sandwich filled with a delightfully light and creamy filling. Yum, yum, yum!

So ….

…after very little encouragement or coercion, I decided to whip up a batch of Ginger Kisses before feeding the little people their dinner. 

I vaguely recall using a recipe from the NZ cooking “bible” the Edmonds Cookbook back in my younger years. I currently have two editions of this book and upon investigation neither of them contains a particularly satisfactory recipe. In fact, one of them doesn’t have a Ginger Kisses recipe at all. Go figure! (And so I wonder, yet again, what happened to my third copy of this all important book). 

Not to fear – I have another New Zealand wonder called Ladies, a Plate: Traditional Home Baking by Alexa Johnston. The all important Ginger Kiss recipe contained therein looked particularly luscious, so I decided to give it a burl (Voula, I consider this to be “taking one for the team”). 

The recipe which, very conveniently can be located at this link, is very simple and on the whole, uses what I would consider to be standard store cupboard ingredients. 

In keeping with the whole “traditional home baking” thing, I decided to spoon my mix onto the trays rather than piping them in smart regimental fashion. I like that whole rustic/imperfect look for what goes into my biscuit tins. 

 

They do spread a bit so next time (and there truly will be a next time) I will put a bit more space between them on the tray. 

Even without the filling the fast fingered thieving children loved them. In my opinion the filling is a little too sweet – perhaps measuring the vanilla a bit more carefully would have helped that, but the added ginger gives it a lovely kick. 

The verdict: definitely worth another shot. Mmmmmmmmmmm 

A final note to Voula:
If you want a taste test you had better get across town very quickly because I don’t think they are going to last long!

Being a Right Sew and Sew!

Housework that needs to be done:

• Laundry, Laundry, Laundry
• Mop Floors
• Dusting
• I threw some of the desk detritus in a box yet the poor old thing still needs dealing with!!!

But instead of doing that.....

I have had the unspeakable pleasure of doing some sewing. I don't sew as often as I would like because I get a bit caught up in it and then I forget to feed the kids and important stuff like that. Also, the unrelenting fatigue that seems to be my constant companion these days tends to make me put off doing anything that requires more than 10 minutes of concentration.

It started yesterday when my lovely MIL (and yes, she is genuinely lovely) came over to watch the kids while hubz and I popped out for a couple of hours. I arrived home with a  sewing pattern in hand but not much intention of doing anything with it any time soon. However, an hour later one little person was asleep and the other had gone home with Nanna and I had a little bit of free time, so out came the pattern.

I should also explain here that I have so many projects in progress that I actually started organising the patterns, notes etc in a folder fro ready access when I have a spare moment. The theory is great and it has helped a little, but it just doesn't help me with my innate (or possibly inane) spontaneity when it comes to craft projects. I get sooooo excited when I see something new that I simply forget all the other million gazillion projects that I have on the go. Off I go and procure all the materials for the new project and then never get it finished because I get interrupted and then my attention moves to something else!

So this weekend has been a marvel because not only did I finish my sons PJs within 36 hours of buying the pattern, but I also sewed up his beanbag cover (which I bought the fabric for last year and cut out over Easter weekend) AND I made a lovely sultana cake (it's the FIL's fave) to say thanks to the In-Laws for all their help this weekend .

Bake-arazzi

Housework that needs to be done:

• Washing and Folding of Laundry
• Put Away Clean Dishes
• Tidy Living Areas
• Mop Floors
• Dusting
• and as for that Desk! Well .....

But instead of doing that.....

I have been doing a bit of baking. Realistically a bit of baking isn't entirely unusual for me, but I tend to keep it reasonably simple unless I am making a celebration cake. Today I have pushed the boat out a bit as I am taking dessert over to the in-laws as they have family visiting from overseas. It's always nice to do something a little bit nice for a special occasion.

Filling the mini loaf tins

So the menu today involved Nigella Lawson's Mini Lime Syrup Sponges (available in her book "How to be a Domestic Goddess") and a chocolate/raspberry profiterole concoction I fondly refer to as "Chocolate Bards" - more on that another time.

Smoothing out the batter

Anyhow, the other thing worth noting is that Miss L (my darling 3 year old) is now the proud owner of a lovely purple camera - no other colour would do, of course! (Thank goodness the shop had a reasonably priced purple camera!!!) As soon as the battery was charged she was up and snapping. As I was baking there was some serious paparazzi action going on so today you are getting a few shots of a 3 year old's perspective of baking activities.

All ready for the oven

As you can see, she's not overly concerned about things like focus or composition, but I love how she likes getting right in on the action!

Miss L likes order (although it is not always easy to tell, given the trail of destruction she leaves in her wake). You can often find her rearranging the carefully merchandised displays in stores. Most of the time everything gets lined up in some regimented order that makes sense to her. So, when she realised my photo tent was out and there was baking to be photographed, off she went to set up a "shoot". I was delighted when I saw my chocolate choux buns arranged in the classic Miss L line up! 

Chocolate Choux Buns all in a row

I wasn't quite so delighted with the how the buns appeared in the resulting photograph. Thankfully I had taken my own pics of the finished product.

Choc Raspberry Profiteroles

And we all indulged happily ever after.

Nigella's Mini Lime Syrup Sponges

What a Hoot.....

Housework that needs to be done:

• Hang out Washing
• Mop Floors
• Tidy the Play Room
• and as for that Desk! Well .....

But instead of doing that.....

I'm trying to make up for my exceptionally bad parenting yesterday by spending some time with the kids doing crafts.

I recently procured a whole stack of cupcake papers, so I thought perhaps there might be a fun craft we could do with them. 

2 minutes on Google (I do love the internet) and I found these delightful little owls. I figured they wouldn't be too tricky for me or Miss 3. Mr 1 3/4 also wanted to join in, so he just helped me.


30 minutes or so later here are our little hootie friends

And now the kids are happily playing with paper scraps and pilfering tomatoes from the bench. Hmm - better go and rescue those tomatoes! 

Oh dear - it seems like there was more to be worried about than tomatoes.....

Frozen Eggwhites - A Little Experiment

Housework that needs to be done:

• Tidy Kitchen and Family Room
• Put Away Folded Clothes
• Tidy the Play Room
• Deal with the Desk (yes, I know!!!!)

But instead of doing that.....

I'm performing a little experiment.

You see, it's like this....
I do a lot of baking etc that involves just egg whites, not the yolk, and while I can separate an egg easily enough, I always have a bit of a dilemma on what to do with the leftover yolks. I was brought up to not waste food. Yes, I know there is custard and the various things that it can be turned into but hubby DETESTS custard and with the quantities I would be making, the kids would end up hating it too.

So-o-o-o, imagine my excitement when I found frozen egg white at the supermarket. I promptly bought it and took it home to my somewhat overloaded, but highly functional freezer. It wasn't until today when someone else mentioned that the label says that it is not for whipping that I had that sinking feeling. Now I had a litre of egg whites (the equivalent of almost 30 egg whites) that may have no functional use for me. Well, there goes the guilt-over-food-wastage quota for another month!

Perhaps not! Afterall, we all know that food labelling tends to err on the cautious side. With nothing to lose, I have defrosted my little bottle of eggy goodness and am seeing what happens when you try to whip that stuff (which, by the way, is pasteurised and bottled for people to drink....ugh!)

My choice of experiment - Pavlova.

After making sure all of my equipment was "scrupulously clean" (don't I sound like a cooking show), I set forth into the unknown, following the Pav recipe from the New Zealand's fave - The Edmonds Cookbook.

Armed, dangerous and ready to go...

Unlike a cooking show, I didn't make sure the eggs were at room temperature before assaulting them, so that may have impacted the initial whip (they were still quite chilly). But they did froth up and get some volume. Secretly, despite my bravado about "all in the name of science" I was a bit pleased that I didn't have to throw anything out at this early stage.

The initial whip - egg only

Mr Edmonds' recipe adds water before the sugar. Not sure if that is such a great idea with these eggsicles, but that is hindsight. After adding the sugar  it took a lot longer than normal to get a fairly thick mix. However, it seemed to get reasonably thick. Still not 100% convinced on the volume front.

More whipping after adding copious amounts of sugar

But, onwards and upwards (or perhaps round and round and round).....
The meringue is a lot softer than usual so I don't get the same height that I normally would on the tray.

 

Ready for the oven

And now I wait....

Where it is at the moment

So far I think that I would be happy to whip my frozen egg whites, and even make some yummy, light baked goods with them. But there is some further experimentation to be done. Afterall, I now have 900ml of defrosted egg whites that need some attention or I will be racked with that wastage guilt.

Postscript

This is the end result. A bit flat, but certainly passable. Now where are the cream and berries?????