One Per Month Challenge

So I have decided to join in the one per month challenge over at chaletgirl's blog. I have heaps of cookbooks and craft books that I have never made anything out of so hopefully this will encourage me to try some new things and give me some new blog fodder as well.

For January I have chosen The Ultimate Mixer Cookbook by Kay Halsey as my cookbook.

I got a KitchenAid for Christmas that I haven't used yet so cooking something out of this book will give me a chance to try it out. I'm thinking I'll make the Pizza Margherita.

For my craft book I've chosen Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule.

I've had this book for a few months now but I've yet to make anything out of it. There are so many great projects that I want to sew but I think I'll start with a practical one. We are in desperate need of some more bath mats so I'm going to sew the towel rug.

Do any of my newly blogging friends want to join in the challenge? I have plenty of books I can loan out...

Let them eat cake...

These are two of my favourite cake recipes.

This first cake was one that I knew I could have finished before Iris woke up from her afternoon nap hence why I started to call it the naptime cake.

Naptime Banana cake
Ingredients:
125g butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self-raising flour
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease and line a round cake tin.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy or if you're feeling really lazy microwave the butter till melted and then mix in the sugar.
Add eggs one at a time, adding one tablespoon of flour with the second egg.
Fold in the remaining flour with the mashed banana.
Pour into cake tin.
Cook cake until top is brown, middle is firmish and edges look a bit crunchy.
Remove cake from pan.
Dust with icing sugar whilst cake is still hot.
This cake tastes awesome served warm with icecream!


This next recipe makes a huge cake. That didn't stop me eating half of it in one night the first time I baked it...

Lemon Sour Cream Cake
Ingredients:
250g butter
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind ( I use my microplane grater)
2 cups caster sugar
6 eggs
2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup self raising flour
200g sour cream

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius.
Grease and line a large round cake tin.
Cream butter, sugar and lemon rind until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time.
Sift flours together and stir in half of the flour and half of the sour cream until combined then add the other halves.
Stir until smooth then pour into cake tin.
Bake for 1.5 hours, stand for 5 minutes then dust with icing sugar.

Lou and baby-led solids

I am doing things a bit differently with Lou in regards to solids than I did with Iris. Although I never pureed food for Iris I still started her with mushy soft foods and slowly worked up to "real" food over a few months. I am doing baby-led solids with Lou instead. I was going to wait until she was six months before giving her any solids or later if she still wasn't showing any interest. Well Lou decided at five months of age that she was most definitely interested in food and no way was she waiting till six months to get her hands on what everyone else was eating in front of her. She started grabbing food from my hands or from my plate and getting very upset when her "prize" was taken away. After a few weeks of this I finally let her keep a peach she had snatched from my hand. She ate nearly the whole thing! She only stopped when I pried it from her hands not wanting her tummy to be overloaded with too much of a new thing all of a sudden. The next day I gave her a piece of banana thinking she might suck on it a bit and throw it away, well she ate the whole banana and cried for more when it was all gone! She pretty much hasn't stopped eating since and it's nearly impossible now to eat or drink while holding her without her grabbing at your food, cutlery, plate or drink.

At seven months Lou's favourite foods are bananas and toast but she has also tried chicken, pork, nectarine, cantelope, strawberries, blueberries, beans, peas, pumpkin, potato, cheese, cous cous, corn on the cob and I'm sure there are foods I've forgotten.

Following Lou's lead as to when and how much she wants to eat has made starting solids easy and as you can see she is having a great time exploring food.

Rockin' on with Daddy

Lou doesn't like to be held by anyone but me and I can usually hear her protesting loudly most mornings because Steven is holding her while I have a shower. This particular morning I could hear her laughing instead and I wondered Steven was doing to make her so happy. This is what I saw when I came into the lounge room...

Steven was playing playing Guitar Hero with Lou in the sling and rocking Lou with his dancing as he played. She thought the music and the dancing was hilarious!!

French Onion Dip Recipe

Ingredients:
50g diced bacon
1/2 cup egg mayonnaise
1 1/2 cups sour cream
35g packet low salt French onion soup mix
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 geen onion, chopped

Heat a frying pan over moderate heat. Cook and stir bacon for 3-4 minutes or until crisp. Drain on paper towels; let cool. Combine remaining ingredients in a medium bowl; stir through bacon. Cover with glad wrap; chill until required. Serve topped with the onion.
This dip tastes even better if you leave it to chill in the fridge overnight!

Recipe from January 2009 Recipes+ magazine

Playing in the rain

It started to pour with rain just as we were getting home this afternoon. Rather than rush Iris inside we decided to have some fun first. I started to jump in some puddles at our front door and it didn't take her long to join in. She was soon running up and down our driveway jumping in the puddles and calling out "jumping in the big puddle, jumping in the little puddle."

The rain didn't seem to bother her at all. It was so sweet to watch her delight at catching raindrops on her tongue as the rain got harder instead of running inside.

Caramel Chocolate Cups Recipe

Ingredients:
150g dark cooking chocolate
80g Mars Bar, finely chopped
80ml (1/3 cup) thickened cream
24 small foil cups

1. Place dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan half-filled with simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water). Stir with a metal spoon until chocolate is melted. Always use a metal when cooking with chocolate because wood and plastic absorb moisture and will make the chocolate seize.

2. Use a small clean paint brush to paint a thick even layer of chocolate over the inside of a small foil cup. Place the cup upside-down on a wire rack. Repeat to make 24 cups. Set aside for 20 minutes or until set. Place the leftover chocolate over the pan of simmering water to melt.

3. Stir the Mars Bar and cream in a small saucepan over low heat until smooth and combined. Transfer to a bowl. Set aside for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture thickens and just starts to set. Pour among the chocolate cups.

4. Spoon the leftover melted chocolate over the caramel. Don't make the same mistake as me and eat the leftover chocolate with your friends before you realise you still need it lol. Set aside in a cool place for 3-4 hours or until completely set.

Recipe from December 2009 Good Taste magazine