Woo hoo.. three eggs this morning.. I guess that means they approve of their new home ;)



The yummy chocolate biscuits I posted here. I cooked another batch today and hid half of them from the kids.. just to make them last longer.. lol

Passing on a good thing

These are the yummiest chocolate biscuits I have ever made. I dare you to stop at one.......... the only thing I did differently was rolled teaspoon sized balls in stead of tablespoon .. if you do this you can eat twice as many....

Yummiest chocolate biscuits link

I would have posted a pic .. but we ate them all.

I'll just have to make them again now..

Kris... you have to get this book ;)

We are having a lazy Saturday at home.

Last night we joined with others to help friends celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary last night. Congratulations Dawn and John, you are such an inspiration.. 50 years .. WOW such an achievement.

Anyway.. before we left for the celebrations we loaded and turned on the dishwasher.. some hours later when we got home.. it was still going.. humming away the way it does when it is pumping water... uh oh. I secretly began having visions of getting a nice shiny new dishwasher but the ever clever Dh pulled it out and fixed this morning.. bummer.. ;) So it lives to wash another day.

And that is about as exciting as the day gets I am afraid, its raining and I have grand plans to stay inside and cook, so here a few pics form the week..

The remainder of the cupcakes that didn't get eaten by the dog...


Some pretty flower buds..




and a pretty little girl I found just swinging about..

Cupcakes

So thought I would make some cupcakes today. Here they are cooking.. all 30 of them.



Here they are cooling, all 30 of them. Left them there while I went to pick Ethan up from kindy.

Don't they look lovely?


Does she look guilty?? Thats probably because she ATE 14 of those 30 cupcakes! Lesson learn't for today.. remember to shut kitchen door when leaving house with cupcakes cooling on the bench....


oh and no sign of the paper cases they were in.... yet...

2 more days and I will have the kids home for two weeks. Normally I would be dreading school holidays but I am actually looking forward to a break from being the family taxi service! In the meantime I have been busy organising little spots here at home that were long overdue for some sorting out.

Now that I am cooking more my recipe books got a long overdue sort out. No more untidy pile of books!


Dh's shed was next.. Now I can find everything..lol



and of course I have been cooking!

Food

I seem to be discussing food alot lately in various circles. Having witnessed first hand the way food had an effect on our kids behaviour, we have always been watchful of what we feed our kids. We aren't the no lollies, no chips sort of parents but we try to keep those things in moderation. Lately with all the talk of trans fats I have gone one step further and have started baking more. The surprising thing is how much they are loving the homemade treats over the bought stuff, especially the muesli bars!

The EVIL brownie

Pure evil... but soooooooooooooooooooooo nice!

To commit this particular sin you will need the following..

180g (6oz) butter
250g (9oz) dark cooking chocolate
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa

Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
Line base and sides of a deep 20cm square cake tin with baking paper. Grease.
Chop butter and melt in a medium heavy based pan, add roughly chopped chocolate and stir constantly over low heat until melted and smooth. remove from heat and leave to cool.

Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla together with an electric mixer until thick and pale. Sift together flour and cocoa and add to egg mixture along with melted butter and chocolate. Carefully folding using a large metal spoon.

Gently spoon mixture into prepared tin. Spread to edges and gently shake to settle. bake for 30-35 minutes.. do not over cook. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan.

We reheated and had with whipped cream for dessert.... melt in your mouth!

Savoury Muffins

These are a big favourite in our house so thought I would share the recipe.

1 310g can cream corn (approx 1 cup)
1/2 cup reduced fat milk
2 eggs
2 cups Self Raising Flour
pinch salt
2 cups reduced fat cheese, grated
2 slices ham, chopped
1/2 cup chopped green capsicum
2tsp english mustard

Whisk together corn, milk and eggs in a large bowl until combined. Add remaining ingredients and stiru until just combined.

Spoon mixture into muffin tins. Bake at 200C for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

Yummiest caramel slice ever!

You will need..

1 pkt Arnotts Milk coffee biscuits (250g pack/8oz)
(which looks something like this for the americans and is a plain sweet cookie?)
4oz (125g) butter
1tbs Golden Syrup
3tbs brown sugar
1/2 can ( or a little over 1/2 a cup) condensed milk
1 block (125g (4oz) approx) Cadbury dairy milk chocolate
2oz copha (vegetable shortening)

Line a lamington tin (small 11in x 7in rectangular pan) with enough biscuits to cover bottom, trim to fit if needed. Crush rest of biscuits finely. In a saucepan melt butter with golden syrup, condensed milk and brown sugar, bring to boil and simmer, stirring, for 8 minutes. Mix the crushed biscuits into the butter mixture and carefully spread over biscuit base.
Melt chocolate and copha together and pour over top, allow to set in refrigerator and enjoy!