Mammajoy

Easter 2012

Hi y'all!  How was your Easter?  Has it really been 3 weeks since my last post?  Time has flown by lately - thanks mostly to it being school holidays here in Queensland.

We've had a blast the last 2 weeks and the highlight was going camping at Kenilworth Homestead.  It was a beautiful spot and the kids had a blast.  Matt and I have never taken the kids camping before.  In fact, the last time Matt and I went camping was on the weekend that he proposed to me!!!  That was 8 years ago and we've been too busy having babies to easily fit-in a weekend camping trip somewhere.  But we are so glad we've finally done it.  It was a really special time for us.

And now...two more days and then my little darlings will be off back to school!  I'm going to miss them.

There's a bit to do before Monday...Joseph's Kindy portfolio needs some pages filled-in, I need to label some new lunch boxes, order bigger uniform shirts for Jessica and pay all the extra-curricular fees!

It's been nice enjoying some holidays but I am looking forward to the return of our happy little family routine.

 

Raw Chocolate Brownie (it's magic, I'm sure)

A while back I was cruising on facebook (yes, I cruise) and I stumbled upon a link to a recipe for Raw Chocolate Brownie.  I was intrigued as to how raw ingredients could be used to make a brownie.

How could this be possible?  Without eggs?  No sugar?  No FLOUR? 

Oh I must know how!!

The good gals from  Mamabake were sharing the link from Wayfaring Chocolate who I believe has adapted this recipe from somewhere else (the origin of which I'm not sure).  Here is Wayfaring's instructions for this brownie.  Finding this recipe has changed how I make brownie forever.and.a.day.  I don't think I'll ever make a traditional brownie again.  This one is just so much better.  

 And it's healthy.  OH Lord Have Mercy! I can get a chocolate fix AND IT'S GOOD FOR ME.

Women of the world, this is what we've been waiting for!

I've made them twice now.  The second time I doubled the recipe as the quantities listed only made a smallish brownie and I have a tribe to feed.  I have tweeked it slightly - my family don't really like walnuts, so we used macadamia nuts instead.  The taste is amazing, the macadamia nuts are subtle and gives way to the strong, robust chocolate flavours.  Oooh listen to me, sound just like a foodie!

 

Ingredients...

1 cup (110g) macadamia nuts (or walnuts)

1 cup (150g) medjool dates, pitted

1/3 cup (30g) cocoa powder (I used the cocoa powder I mentioned in this post, raw is better as it has this amazing chocolately kick to it)

1 avocado

40ml raw honey or agave nectar

30g cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

dash salt

dash cinnamon

 

 

Now for the magical, amazing, far-out-that's COOL part of combining all these ingredients and watching it turn into pure yumminess!

Put the nuts, dates and the 1/3 cup cocoa powder into a food processor and process until the mixture looks like potting soil.  Yes, that's what the original recipe says and it will eventually look exactly like potting soil!

Press this mixture into a small slice tin (mine was 11 x 7 inch) lined with baking paper.  The harder you press the more compact your base will be, so break out those muscles and flatten the mixture good!  Then pop it into the freezer while we make the topping.

 

 

With a blender or handmixer (stick blender) blend the avocado, honey or agave, second lot of cocoa, vanilla, salt and cinnamon until really smooth.

The first time I made this I used the food processor again (why dirty another machine right?) but found it was impossible to blend everything together well enough - this meant I had tiny flecks of avocado left in the topping.  Not good.

 

 

This is my mum's super duper commercial blender I used.  You want this topping blended until it's smooth and creamy.  If you can taste avocado in the mixture - add a dash more honey.  The cocoa and the honey should completely mask the flavour of the avocado.  I know.  It's magic.  And pure genius.

 

 

*Cute kids to model blender not a required step*

 

This is the mixture when it's blended together.  At this stage I'm often lost in the glossy beautifulness of this mixture....I can't believe it's got NO butter.  NO sugar. NO eggs!  It's sooo smooth!!!  Amazing stuff.

 

 

Spread the topping over the brownie base, making sure it's nice and even and then put it back in the freezer for about an hour to set.  This slice needs to be stored in the fridge.

 

 

Eat. Enjoy!  Marvel!  Oh the chocolately goodness!

A Spot of Sewing

 

I did it.

I cleared my desk in my studio and found my sewing machine!

There it was, ready to go.  Draped in a pair of Joseph's pants that need to be re-hemmed.  I suspect my mum was about to do them but ran out of time before she had to head back to work after helping me out the other week.

It felt so great being back in my studio and thankfully I had a project waiting to be finished that I could start on straight away.  There is nothing more annoying then fluffing about not sure of what to do....... while the clock is ticking away the child-free minutes very quickly!

I speak from experience my friends.

 

 

I started working on this bunting sometime around Christmas last year.  I've made bunting before but hadn't done any with letters and I wanted something to decorate the lounge room with.  I could fill my house with bunting.  One room at a time.  Except maybe the toilet.  That could be strange.

One of my favourite verses from the Bible is Corinthians 13 or the love chapter as it's commonly known as.

Verse 13 ; 'And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.'   I so love the simplicity of this and wanted a daily reminder of what really matters.

It's so easy to make bunting - I simply made a template, cut out my fabric and sewed away.  The most time-consuming part of all was doing the applique on the letters.  And it took even longer to do the blanket stitch around each letter - my machine has a blanket stitch so thankfully I wasn't doing it by hand - but it was still a bit fiddly!

I used good 'ole bias binding to hang them from.  Usually I would sew a casing in each flag, but this time I simply placed the flag between the binding and sewed one great big line from one end of the bunting to the other.  So easy!

 

 

I love how it turned out.  It fits perfectly across the feature wall in my living room and I can't imagine this room without this bunting in it now!!

 

 

 

 

I also worked on some bags today.  I've been avoiding procrastinating on them because the straps, oh THE STRAPS.  They are giving me grief!

But I am determined to finish them because they are shaping up to be beautiful and my goodness me, it's high-time I re-stocked my local retailer!

Anything exciting coming out of your studio lately?

 

Heavy

 

Saturday.

How was your's?

Mine started a little bleekly.  The headache (too much red wine last night?) didn't help and the recent happenings in our family life certainly didn't help either.

Thankfully we had a friends daughters' birthday party to attend, otherwise I may have snuggled into bed and cried all day.

So I found my brightest, most cheerful dress.  Frocked up and headed out.  It was a beautiful day here in sunny Queensland.  Sitting on a rug in the delicious sunshine chatting with friends old and new lifted my mood.

We talked about dyring fruit, soap making, vitamin deficiences, natural deoderants, puppies and in-laws.  It was wonderful.  I started feeling clucky over a sweet lil' babe called Gabrielle.  Such a lovely name, no?

And now the kiddies are all tucked into bed.  The house is quiet.  Matt is in the city tonight, hanging out with his mates.  So it's me, a glass of red wine ( I know, headaches right? I'm a sucker for punishment) and Julia Stone to keep me company.

The kitchen is in a state.  I had grand plans to whip up some Raw Chocolate Brownie tonight to take to a family get-together tomorrow.  I'm having second thoughts now.  Although Rachael and I did manage to make her birthday cake tonight.  Then it was sitting on the bench cooling and Mr 2.5 decided to help himself.  Her beautiful butterfuly cake is now missing half his wing *sigh*.  I guess I'll have to reconstruct one out of pure icing because I am not baking again tonight.

My heart is just heavy.  Heavy with sadness for things that are not true.  Heavy with grief over things I cannot change. 

Matt took some great photos today and I just went to find his camera.  He's taken it to the city with him.  Oh well, another post, another day.

Joseph's temperatures have stopped.  In fact everyone's cough and sniffles are getting better.  I've made our first batch of Flu Bomb for the cooler season.  Hopefully if we start taking some now every day we'll avoid the nasty winter flu's like we did last year.  Or was it the year before?  It was bliss either way.  An entire winter without a course of antibiotics in sight!  If you'd like the recipe for this magical potion, just email me.  The email link is there on the right.

Tomorrow we head into the city.  A bit of shopping and then a relaxing afternoon with family at the park.  Cake, presents, nibblies and laughter.

I'm really looking forward to it.

 

 

 

P.S. I'm dreaming of going here.  The sand and salt are calling me!  We are planning a short holiday soon, using some accommodation vouchers from some dear friends.  Hopefully the sun will stay shining strong for a bit longer :-)

 

 

 

Birthday Girl in Black and White

 

Rachael turns six next week.  How this is possible is still baffling me.  My sweet, sparkly little girl who lights up our life is GROWING UP.

 See the picture below?  Do you see what she's doing?  Melting my heart!  That's what.  She's trying to get something I said she couldn't have but she's trying to do it anyway.  And those beautiful big brown eyes look at me and that cheeky expression shines out of her lovely face and oh 'okay, you can have one'.  That's how it happens around here.  Grace wins a lot.  

She better be careful when she's older.  Those feminine wiles can be dangerous Miss Rachael Bear.

I'm so glad that Matt loves photography.  I have folders upon folders upon folders of photos on our computer of our children.  Their lives have been well documented in pictures so far!

 

With the recent purchase of his new camera he's starting to take photos in black and white.  I.love.black.and.white.photos.

 

 

This boy loves to help me in the kitchen.  And now at 2 1/2 he is the perfect height to stand on his little wooden chair and reach the bench.  I have no idea what we were making in this photograph.  I think that's macadamia nuts in the big bowl there, so maybe it was Macadamia & Cranberry muffins for school lunches?  I think so.

 

 

Many hands make light work.  *Sigh* Samuel is growing up so fast.  

 

 

Uhh, that's hot Sammy.  Ever the curious toddler I suppose!

 

 

This big 4 year old had his immunisation needles today.  He was so very brave, didn't cry once.   Mind you I was a bit tearful.  And proud.  He passed his sight test in a breeze.  He chatted confidently to the doctor.  He's just a delight.

I bought him a new toy straight after the appointment, a new car that makes the most horrid 'race car' (aka sound of a pig dying ) noise when you push the drivers helmet.  I paid $5 for an afternoon of torture!

I also bought him a bag of race-car lollies to cheer him up just in case his arm started aching tonight.  But I ate them all.  Parent of the year right here!

 

 

I don't remember this photo being taken.  I wasn't there and I can only guess it was when I was sick.  I'm glad Matt captured these photos.

We haven't managed to snap any B & W photos of Grubby yet.  He's doing really well and the kids, oh my, their love for this dog is deep.  He's escaped once and thanks to our kind neighbour was quickly caught and tied back up in our backyard.  Matt has had to do some reinforcing of sorts on the fence.  It's good practice I say, for when he builds me a chicken coop!

Tomorrow I hope to bake some bread.  I ran out today and didn't really like having to buy a loaf.  And I'll try and get some muffins baked for school lunches next week and do some more fruit drying.  Our dried fruit snack packs were eaten pretty quickly.  This *ahem* may have had something to do with me, more than the kids.

Oh and have you noticed all the food-related posts lately?  What's up with that?  Totally unintentional.  I haven't had the space to get back into my studio lately.  But I'm looking forward to the day I do.  I've missed my sewing machine.  And I have about a gazillion (or maybe just 5) bags to sew for the shop.

But I have to tell myself, one day at a time.

Hope you have a terrific Friday!

 

 

 

Random Stuff From A Rainy Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

:: Hanging old bunting in new places which makes it seem like new again.

:: Watching and enjoying my big girls enthusiasm over new Nintendo DS games.  Exciting stuff for Miss 7.

:: Enjoying the crispness of my new, just-perfectly-sized diary planner.  This little baby will live in my bag.  And I WILL you it.  Yes, I will.

:: Little boy and his bunny: an adventure on the trampoline.

:: Little dog vs the big backyard.  Seriously.  How cute is this dog.

:: LOVING my new salt dish.  I've been wanting one for ever.  Just the right size, to sit next to my stove.  Just for cooking.  And I found one on the weekend at Coles.  It's perfect! So happy.

:: Rugging up throughout this cold, windy and rainy day.  The kids have blankets on tonight and it's chilly out.  Autumn has arrived!

Sister's Surprise Birthday Party (Without the Sister)

 

Plans.  They are fickle things aren't they?

One of my beautiful sister's (whose, by the way, whimsical creations can be found here) organised and orchestrated a lovely little soiree for her twin's birthday.  Private facebook events were made, hidden texting was a plenty, nervous glances were had when in the presence of the unsuspecting sister.

 

 

And everything was going smoothly, until the day before the party when said sister announced that she had BRONCHITIS!!!!

I'm gonna go ahead and guess that a chest infection, antibiotics and loud rambucas partying and drinking do not mix.

 

 

I spent the morning of the day of the party with my poor, sickly sister over a lovely brunch and thought she looked okay.  But as the day progressed her health kinda went belly-up.

She was down.

Sent out a text and everything.  She was bailing on the decoy plan of 'drinks in the city with ""a friend"".

My family went into meltdown.  Me included.  I had spent the whole morning tyring to hide my enthusiasm about her plans for the night, trying to be only vaguely interested when I really! wanted to know if she was going to make it.

Oh the emotional trauma people!  Do you know how hard it is to LIE to your sister!  At any given moment I was terrified I would just blurt the whole darn story out, just to be done with the inner turmoil.

I know, I'm a gentle soul aren't I.  Precious. 

 

 

The facebook event page was a hive of heated words and vented fustration (by me mostly).  The boyfriend wanted to stay home and care for his darling.  The sister who flew 2 hours to be at the party wanted it to go ahead.  The twin sister who planned the whole she-bang was saying 'listen sista, toughen up, pop a panadol and GET YOUR DANC'N SHOES ON!'

The contents of said facebook page should be published into a book.  We'll gather around the table in 20 years time while all of our teenage kids google inappropriate words on their laptops and we'll reminisce.  We'll laugh.  We'll cry.  We'll maybe still harbour some hatred fragile feelings over what was said.  But what family doesn't have a disastrous birthday story in it's history somewhere?  Well, actually, we didn't.  But now we do.

 

 

After we all said our two-piece and weighed in, it was decided that telling the birthday girl about the surprise was the only way this ship was going to stay afloat.

Yes.  My sister {who had spent lots of dollars and lots of hours and lots of energy dreaming this night into being} had to ruin the surprise for the surprise party that she had planned, to the person who we were supposed to be surprising.

So it's no surprise she was a bit upset.

 

At hearing the news, birthday girl was, well, surprised.  'Really?  For ME?'  Oh don't be so coy, you know we love you to the moon and back! 

When we all arrived at the birthday girls house en route to the party venue in the city, she was tucked up in bed.  Peppermint tea beside her, boyfriend at her beck-and-call, looking pale, weak and generally unwell.

Damn bronchitis.  See?  No capitals for you anymore.  You don't deserve them.

So what was left to do but party without her.  The deposit on the venue was non-refundable if no-one turned up.  The food platters had been purchased.  The balloons and banners were up.  The music was on and the lights were off.

A life-size picture of the birthday girl's face was printed and stuck onto a ruler.  She had a great time!  Posed for lots of pictures.  Enjoyed some drinks.  Floated around the room attached to a bunch of balloons.  Almost escaped via the rooftop balcony once.  I caught her around the neck and told her to get back in there, stop being so ungrateful and START HAVING FUN.

What a hoot!  The wild girl.

Once the guests had left we took the now subdued group of siblings back to the birthday girls house.  We filled her room with the balloons, gave her our last hugs and called it a night.

Will my sister ever plan a surprise birthday party again?  I seriously doubt it.  This was in fact the THIRD attempt at organising a party for her twin.  She's probably in counselling as I type this. Dealing with the aftermath of anxiety and stress.

We partied.  But we missed her.  We ate the food, enjoyed the balloons, giggled over the embarrasing photos from her childhood.  But it felt a little, weird, without her there.

Happy Birthday beautiful 'lil sister.  You weren't at your party in person, but you were in our hearts.  You were in our smiles.  You were in the laughter that filled the air.  You were the reason that we all gathered to celebrate and we celebrated the joy, love and beauty that is YOU.

You light up our life girl.

Now hurry up and get better.

xxoo

 

 

A Drying (& folding) Good Time

 

My mum has all the good ideas.

A while back we were discussing the complexities of having a downstairs laundry.  Couple that with having 4 kids and my time walking up and down the backstairs = five thousand and two.  Per week.

Not to mention the MOUNTAINS of clean laundry that are left on my lounge at the end of each day, ready to be folded.  Sometimes I'll just leave them there, decorating my lounge suite.

Adds a homely touch, I feel.

So I'm lamenting my situation over a cup of coffee one day and my mum comes up with this great 'pigeon hole' system whereby I wash, dry and fold - but rather than lug everything upstairs - I fold and put into a basket labelled with my children's name - one basket for each child.  This will drastically reduce my folding time AND give the kids an opportunity to be involved in the (never-blink'n-ending) process of washing clothes which will HOPEFULLY lead them to not change their outfits 3 times per day.  If they know there is more work involved for them if they change their clothes too frequently, then maybe they'll stop!

And when they run out of clean clothes, I'll happily tell them to 'Go downstairs to the laundry and find your basket, bring it upstairs and put your clothes away!'  Yay Yay Yay! Everyone's happy now!  (I've been practicing that speech, can you tell?)

I've yet to set the wheels in motion on this little laundry overhaul.  Mainly because I will need Matt to build some shelves and some pigeon holes and give the laundry a big tidy.  He's been busy with work so it's going to have to wait.  But I will.  Oh yes I will implement this system.  I think it's genius!  And I just hope the kids cooperate with the new system...

The other smart idea my mum has given me is to use the dehydrator that has been sitting under my house for about 12 months.

I always had good intentions of using it, but they never really eventuated.

While mum was here taking amazing care of me and my family after the events of 3 weeks ago (which I may one day share with you...) she went downstairs, found the dehydrator, gave it a clean and set that baby up with trays upon trays of delicious fruit.  She even made some natural fruit roll-ups.  My kids love roll-ups - you know the supermarket ones - we've bought them the odd packet as a treat and I always regret it!  They are so sickly sweet and they get stuck in their teeth something bad.  More cavities anyone?

But this dehydrating business is set to change all that.  And I've never seen Jess and Rach so keen to help before.  They loved it!  The slicing, the laying out, the mixing up.  Hours! of! Fun!  The house smelt devine for hours - lovely sweet bananas and apple slices sprinkled with cinnamon.  Scrumptious!

Once everything was dried she divvied it all into snack-size ziplock bags for the kids to take to school and kindy.  Brilliant.  Idea.

We call them our dried snack packs and the kids love them.  And I love them because they are affordable, 100% natural, have zero additives, and the kids love to help out in the process of making them.

So that happened when my mum was here and we've been enjoying them ever since.  They keep very well in the pantry.

But then we ran out of these wonderful snack packs.

And the dehydrator was sitting there, trying to get my attention.  Looking all layered and approachable.

So.  The other day, the boys and I did it.  Mum, you'd be proud.

 

 

Bananas were first.  These slices are so incredibly yummy when they're dried.  The natural sugars become more concentrated (by the lack of moisture) so they are much sweeter than a normal banana.

 

 

Am I a food- geek if I think this is a beautiful picture?

 

 

Apples were the next victims.  Mum sprinkled these with regular ground cinnamon, but I used cinnamon sugar.  Couldn't resist really.  And they turned out lovely.

 

 

Next we whizzed up some fruit for the roll-ups.  I didn't use any recipe for this - just blended together some banana, paw-paw and coconut cream.  Once I poured it onto the trays I sprinkled some desiccated coconut on top.  HEAVEN HAVE MERCY these were yummy when they were finished!  It's like a trip to the Carribean in every bite!  So tropical!  The bliss!

This picture above is before they were dried.

 

 

And this is when they were finished.  I think it was maybe 9-10hrs in the dehydrator?  Ridiculously yummy.

 

 

Once finished I cut them into wedges and rolled 'em on up!  They hold their shape really well and don't stick together like the commercial ones do.

 

 

And voila!  Here are our snack packs for next weeks school/kindy lunches.  In each pack is a tropical roll-up, dried banana, dried apple, some sultanas and a few dried cranberries.

If I can be organised with this hopefully we can buy less store-bought processed snacks and give my munchkins more natural food.

That's the aim anyway.

 

 

A bowl full of goodness.

 

 

Oh and you know I kept one for myself!!  They're just too good!

 

 

Day One

There was A LOT of excitement in our home today.  We've been looking for a puppy for ages now and when we heard there was one available in our price range we contacted the owner straight away, visited the puppy and fell in love.  Well, maybe not love.  But definetly a strong like.

We told the kids last night that we are buying a puppy and oh.my.heavens they were beside themselves with glee!

Of course then the puppy actually turned up this morning and the girls fled to their bedrooms, refusing to come out until the 'dog is on a LEASH MOM'!  (Yes, Jessica sometimes does the American accent, I think it adds a more dramatic, diva effect).

But nonetheless, here he is in all his cute, fluffy cuteness.

Meet Grubby....

* This photo is blurry, hard to photograph a dog who won't stop moving!

He is a 4th month old Maltese x Shitzu (we think?) and so far we ADORE him.  Sure he spent the first half of the day trying to MOUNT MY CHILDREN.  No one prepared me for that.

After a few swift smack to the rump he soon learnt that this was not okay.

He was also an 'inside dog' for the first half of today.  We made it to lunch time and then I declared a time out.  The boys were so hyper! excited! and this poor pup was just exhausted.  

And I was a little freaked out by the whole dog-inside-the-house thing.  I tried.  But whenever he walked past me in the kitchen I got a fright.

I know.  I'm a wimp.

So Grubby slept all afternoon, tired out by all the chasing and ball throwing and picking up and down and up and down and up and down that my boys inflicted upon him.

I'm praying now that this dog will live to see it's first birthday!

Welcome to the family Grubby.

We promise to always love you, hide you when it's storming, pat you and cuddle you 'till you get sick of us and we'll try and feed you at least every second day.  Seriously, we're a bit slack on that front.  Just ask the guinea pigs.

Guess what....

 

...Is coming to live with us tomorrow?

 

P.S. Entirely unrelated - I'm in the middle of a complete face-lift of this 'ere blog.  This is not the final look.  Apologies if things have gone a bit haywire in your particular internet viewer.  I'll make up my mind soon, I promise!