My (first) Creative Space: Bribery Reward and Corruption

This is my first time playing along with My Creative Space.  It seems too much fun not to join in, so today is the day!  I hope my 'creation' qualifies.... it's a bit different to my usual sewing efforts.

I recently created this Good Girl Chart to tackle some challenges with our Toddler.  It is very free form as you can see.  My first instinct was to divide the page into sections for each day, but this seemed more age appropriate to just have a big space for sticking and more sticking.  It is working wonders for us!  Every morning Toddler Cuggles gets a sticker for not having called out to Mummy and Daddy in the night; another one if she hasn't called out after we leave her room when she goes to bed; and a sticker every time she doesn't squirm or kick my very pregnant belly when changing nappies.

Before starting the chart the Toddler Cuggles and I talked about how it works and I asked her what prize she would like to have after she gets lots of stickers.  She decided on a cupcake.

After a week of collecting stickers we set off to Di..licious and the very proud Good Girl showed her sticker chart to the lovely Renee in exchange for a cupcake with a dinosaur on it.  We then went off to playgroup where she ran around showing all the kids her stickers and saying 'I not to call out Mummy and Daddy in the night!'.

Wow, what an impact.  I like to read into this that perhaps we've taught our daughter about setting goals and how good it feels to achieve something you want.  Perhaps, but then, she's 2 and a bit, maybe it is just FUN!  Either way, we're all happy.  

Thanks for the game Kirsty.  Time for a cuppsy!  : ) Kim

A Dinner that cooks itself: Donna Hay Baked Mushroom, Bacon and Spinach Risotto

I LOVE any dinner that can be thrown in the oven and forgotten about until it's time to eat.  This recipe is a favourite in our house, there is a little bit of prep on the stove and then it all goes in the oven.  Recipe following below if you want to skip over my tips. 

My tips for streamlining this dish:

1) I ask my butcher to take the rind of the bacon and roughly chop it up for me so I don't have to do that part.  (I also ring him when I'm around the corner from his shop and get him to deliver my order to my car as I go past the back door.  One less 'in and out' involving a child and a car seat!).  Gotta love good old fashioned service.

2) Make sure you use Aborio rice, may be an obvious statement if you're a seasoned cook.  I'm not the best of cooks and I did try substituting normal rice once.  It works but takes longer to cook and the result is not as nice as a proper risotto.

3) We have a big 'stove to oven' pan with a lid that I use for this recipe.  If you have one I recommend using it as there is less clean up and saves time transferring ingredients to an oven dish. 

4) I shared this recipe with a girlfriend who is a great cook.  She uses porcini mushrooms and I think she said gruyere cheese... it takes it up a notch in terms of flavour.  If I don't use these ingredients, I use a good amount of salt to season at the end.

The recipe - Donna Hay – Baked Mushroom, Bacon & Spinach Risotto

Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
300g button mushrooms, roughly chopped
4 rashers bacon, rind removed, roughly chopped
1.5 cups Arborio rice
5 cups chicken stock
2 big handfuls of spinach leaves
1 cup finely grated parmesan
2 tablespoons butter
sea salt and cracked black pepper

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat.
Add garlic, mushrooms and bacon and cook for 5 minutes/ until browned.
Place in a ovenproof dish with the rice and stock, stir to combine. Cover with lid/ aluminum foil
Bake for 40 minutes or until most of the stock is absorbed and rice is al dente.
Stir through the spinach, parmesan, butter, salt and pepper.

You can also see this recipe on the DH website.

Nesting: The Man's way.

Pic from Flickr - no copyright
Help!  Only 5 weeks to go until bub number 2 arrives and my husband and I are both in nesting mode.  I was sick in bed on Saturday with a cold, leaving Hubby and Toddler Cuggles to their own devices.  I'd normally be at work on a Saturday anyway, but when I got up in the afternoon... the house was sparkling!  How did  he do it with a toddler underfoot?  He won't tell me the secret and assures me there was no TV involved.  I'm sure I heard a tanty at some stage, but nothing disastrous. 

Hubby had vacuumed and mopped all the floors, polished the furniture (something I never do), tidied away all Little Miss Cuggles' toys, clothes and general kid-stuff and oh yeah, rewritten my menu plan for the week!  (I let it slide because of how the house looked, because Toddler Cuggles hadn't come and jumped on the bed or disturbed me all day and because he chose only Donna Hay recipes.  He is wonderful at times.  (So far I've resisted the temptation to blog about when he's not!).    

Will do another post about how I've been nesting soon.  For now, it must be time for a cuppsy.

The Making of a Master McChef

One of my favourite clients is married to a Scotsman who has recently started cooking at the age of 60. She loves a good joke and asked me to make him an apron with a kilt attached. "Hmmm" I thought, how am I going to do that?

Well, I got some tartan, worked out how to space some knife pleats...

fashioned a sporen (Ha!) and attached it all to a standard adult's apron. Here's the finished product!  Oh yes, and the matching 'Master McChef' Hat of course.

I wonder if he has snags or haggas on the barbie?

Either way, I'm off for a cuppsy tea (and a Nenish Tart). What? 
:  ) Kim

My friend Barb and her Ginger Kisses Recipe

Meet my friend Barb.  She's from the 80's I think, and not quite what she used to be.

Barb and I met at our local op shop a couple of months ago  and since then she has happily assisted with lots of lovelies like these Ginger Kisses for example.  Recipe below.

And yet, she doesn't like to oblige every time I ask for her help.  If I ask her to cream butter and sugar in the big bowl instead of the little bowl, she flings big chunks of my ingredients all up the wall and onto the floor.  At least I know her limitations... and sadly, she matches the decor of our kitchen.  One day we'll win lotto and get rid of the ugly gumnut tiles and green laminate.

Here is the recipe, I found it online ages ago and unfortunately don't know who to credit for it.  It's a goodie anyway.

GINGER KISSES

Ingredients

125g (2oz) butter

125g (2oz) sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 egg
225g (8oz) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1/3 cup milk


Method
Cream butter, sugar and golden syrup. Beat in egg. Sift in dry ingredients, add milk and mix with a metal spoon. Place teaspoonfuls on greased trays. Bake 10 - 12 minutes at 200ºC.  Fill with mock cream flavoured with 1/4 teaspoon lemon essence.

MOCK CREAM FILLING
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sifted icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence/lemon essence

Method
1. beat butter and icing sugar to a cream

2. add vanilla/lemon essence, stir in well
3. sandwich between 2 Ginger Kisses.

Yum!!  Enjoy with a lovely cuppa tea.  : )

How to stop yelling at your kids

Pic courtesy of Muhawi001

I've realised lately that all Mums yell at their kids, or have wanted to at some stage.  It's being talked about amongst my friends, at playgroup, in the shop and being blogged about.  I'm as guilty as the next person when it comes to yelling.  We often feel infuriated, stressed, rushed, exasperated, frustrated and many other things when our children don't behave the way we want them to, when they flat out ignore us, defy our requests, make unreasonable demands, take far too long to put a pair of shoes on.....  I've noticed something funny though.  My Toddler Cuggle is so often a well behaved little angel on a Friday.  

Fridays are the only day of the week I don't have hard and fast plans.  No strict schedule, no 'hurry up', 'quickly', 'we're going to be late', 'where have your shoes gone?'.  Fridays are protected with my life as a No Rules Day.  Sometimes we have baking days so we have something warm from the oven for our morning and afternoon tea, sometimes we stay in our jarmies and allow the TV to go on for extended Wiggles watching; sometimes we go to the park or we make play dates or Toddler just runs around in the back yard while I potter around hanging washing and just doing normal things.    Sometimes we have to run errands, but whatever we do I keep it casual and I try to make my little girl the focus.  I ask her what she wants to do/wear/eat and take the attitude that it doesn't matter how long anything takes.  These are the days where I really appreciate my child's budding personality, her jokes, her quirks, her ability to be so sweet and considerate.  I get lots of spontaneous cuggles and kisses that are usually only reserved for Daddy.  (He's the stereotypical fun one). 

I know I'm among the lucky ones to have the luxury of an entire day like this most weeks and I'm sure things won't be so easy once the 2nd one arrives in August.  It wouldn't be reasonable to allow 'no rules' days too often either, our kids might end up with rotten teeth or square eyes.  We'd be late for work, they'd be late for kindy or school and everyone would be cranky from not being fed on time and not being able to find anything in a very messy house.  

The moral of the story though - if we can find a little bit of time here and there to focus on the child/children and not on the clock, we might all feel a bit calmer and happier, and less like a psycho-mother like I do sometimes.

Not that I'm any expert but this Dr Cuggle also recommends a damn good cuppa tea when all else fails.  : )

At My House: Heirloom Pumpkin Gnocchi with Tomato & Olive Sauce

This is my first attempt at pumpkin gnocchi, any gnocchi actually.  It tasted good, but I did run into some trouble getting to the end result.  Preparing the dough was fine, but making the little shapes requires a fork and a flick of the wrist that I haven't quite mastered.  We'll definitely be having this again, so time to practice next time. 

I used this recipe, cooking my pumpkin by baking it in the oven for half an hour or so.  We were given an heirloom pumpkin from our interstate visitors recently, they bought it from a farmer in Kyogle.  Apparently he sets up his truck outside a servo there if you know the area.  It was beautiful, the flavour was so distinctive and reminded me of the roast pumpkin Nan used to include with our Sunday Roasts.

There are other things happening at our house this week, however I'm doing that stupid, unproductive thing where you have a toddler on your lap thinking you can type a quick post and keep them happy at the same time.  I've pulled her fat little hands off the keyboard and mouse a few times now.  I think it time for a cuppa tea and a nice story with her cuddling in next to me.