Stew Pie and other bits

We spent Monday (Queen's Birthday public holiday) at my parents' house.  My little sister had a few school friends over - they made a large batch of decorated cupcakes for their teacher's birthday, the next day.  All of the class was in on it - it was for his 'surprise party' in the morning.  See below - suitably 'manly' cake decorations such as soccer ball candles and blue/purple/green icing:

My sister's little dog, Posie, has finally started to chill out - she is a couple of years old, and growing out of the puppy stage.  She's a tiny, sweet, soft little thing - and look how daintily she crosses her legs when she lies down.  Too cute:

In the evening, we had takeaway Chinese (plenty of Peking duck, delicious).  My cousin, Juliette, just turned 18, and is visiting for the week from Tassie.  She doesn't eat gluten, so I whipped up a quick 'guilt free chocolate cake', which doesn't contain gluten or butter.  Without the cream on top, it is both gluten-free and dairy-free, so a good recipe to have up your sleeve.  The recipe is still at mum's, but if anyone wants it, I can post it.

Here is Juliette with her cake:

The texture is nice - almost chewy, like a macaron, thanks to the almond meal.  With some simple whipped cream on top, and shaved dark chocolate, it's nice and simple:

Tabitha certainly enjoyed her little piece!

After dinner, my sister managed to pin Tabitha still for long enough to put her hair in a little 'pony tail'.  I'm not sure Tabitha was all that impressed:

Back to the stew - you might have seen that yesterday I cooked a supersized batch of beef stew.  For dinner tonight, I made a 'stew pie', which is as simple as anything, and a nice way to mix things up when you do a large batch.

Simply pile the stew into a pie dish, or a couple of ramekins (depending on how many people you are serving), then press a layer of puff pastry over the top.  Bake at 220 degrees for around half an hour, or until the top is puffed and golden, and the pie filling hot.  You can certainly warm the pie filling first, if you like, which will reduce the cooking time a little.

You can buy very good pre-made puff pastry at the supermarket.  I like the Careme brand, though I often also keep Borg's organic in the fridge (below).  Borg's is very decent - all it contains is organic unbleached flour, butter, sea salt and 'Otway ranges water'.  It is about a third of the price of the Careme, from memory, so is a good choice for something like a pie.

When I am making a pie for dinner, just for us, with no guests, I do not bother with fancy crimping or decorative tops - too hard when balancing a toddler against one leg!

Tabby loves stewed meat, it is a real favourite:

Plenty for the freezer - massive serves, and some single lunch-sized serves:

Also on the Queen's Birthday weekend, we caught up with Tabitha's Grandpa Mark (The Daddy's father).  Grandpa Mark flew down from Queensland to see Tabby for her birthday, and brought with him the MOST enormous, gorgeous teddy bear - he has luscious fur, heavy, jointed limbs, and a swivel head with a quizzical expression.  He is nearly as tall as Tabitha when he stands up - and she is enamored with him, squealing when she first saw him.  Of course, she's not old enough to name her toys yet - so for now, he is Teda:

Tabitha has started going to 'Occasional Care' on a Friday morning - the session is three hours, though I only leave her for 1.5 or so hours, because she's still getting used to it.  She seems to like it - lots of babies to play with (normally about 6 others, all aged between one and two) and three lovely, older women, who give the babies plenty of cuddles and attention.  There is plenty of play equipment and toys, stories to be read, an outdoor area, and painting and craft activities.  

Because Tabitha is with me all day, every day, I think it is good for her to have an hour or so each week to play away from me - gradually introducing her to the idea of fun without 'mum-mum', so that Kindergarten and the like are not such a rude shock one day!  I have not been at all sad about leaving her - the women are so lovely and the centre is so nice (in fact, I went to the same occasional care center when I was a young 'un!).

So now, she has her own little backpack (pink and purple with bugs and flowers), her own labeled drink bottle, and her own little labeled containers - so I can send along her fruit and sandwich.  My, it feels like she is SO grown up when I pack her little sandwich on a Friday morning!

I found these gorgeous little containers:

Oh, Tabitha has started doing the cutest little thing!  We have a tall wine rack in our kitchen, built-in - we've removed most of the wine, since we don't want Tabby breaking any of the bottles, but she still loves the rack.  She finds all sorts of things around the house, then crawls with them into the kitchen, to post them in the 'pigeon holes' of the wine rack!  She only ever puts one thing in each hole, and she puts all sorts of treasures in there, storing them for later.  It makes me absolutely hysterical with laughter - today, as below, I found:  a bit of soggy crumpet, a plastic cup, a wooden block, a cardboard flier from a local restaurant, a small body lotion bottle and a purple dummy (goodness knows where that came from, must have been hidden away for months!)

Here is the first ever 'artwork' that Tabitha brought home, from her occasional care.  Apparently she had *some* help, but this is a fish bowl with some blue fish stamped on with paint.  She certainly had plenty of blue paint on her hands and face!

It is on the fridge.  I have, however, received some excellent advice - take a photo of every artwork, so you have a record, then you can discard them without guilt.  Otherwise we are sure to accumulate an absolute mountain of art!

Today, my best friend Amy took Tabitha shopping along Chapel Street for an hour while I had my hair cut.  They had a great time, apparently, and I got to enjoy a cup of tea while I had a few much-needed inches lopped off my hair.