Socks, Truffles and Beetroot Lips

Godmother Sophie knitted both myself and Tabitha some beautiful socks for our birthdays - truly, these photos do not do them justice, they have a beautiful lacey pattern up the ankles on mine, and on Tabitha's as well as on her feet.  Sophie is so talented!  Tabby and I have been doing a special "crazy sock dance" together whenever we both have them on, jitterbugging all over the rug.

One of Tabitha's greatest joys in life is being allowed to scrape out the ice cream maker bowl after I've made a batch.  It's really incredible how clean she can get it.  Just cream, milk, egg yolks, vanilla bean and a bit of sugar, so I am happy to let her enjoy this treat.

Recently hosted an evening dessert night for local mummas from our ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association) group.  There were about a dozen women, plus a few wee babes in arms.  It was really a lovely night!  I made a large flourless chocolate cake (recipe here, although I do it in a larger springform these days), a pain au chocolat bread and butter pudding (recipe below) and a steamed golden syrup sponge pudding (recipe here).  Oh, and vanilla ice cream (recipe here).

For the pain au chocolat pudding, simply slice up 4 stale large pain au chocolat croissants (about 1cm thick), place in a buttered 1.5 litre shallow dish. 

In a medium saucepan, heat together 500ml thickened cream with 500ml full cream milk until nearly boiling.  

Remove from heat, then pour into a bowl containing 1 egg, 4 egg yolks and 3 tablespoons of caster sugar, whisking the whole time.  

Add half a teaspoon of vanilla extract, then pour over the pain au chocolat slices, leaving to sit and soak for about ten minutes.

Bake at 160 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until the pudding is softly set.

In other food adventures, The Daddy recently brought home a truffle.  He was terribly excited, but I felt such pressure to cook something fancy with it!  I am not a fancy sort of cook, so I reached out to some of my clever friends (including Miss Kitty-Cat) and ended up using the truffle for the following:

- Two roasted chickens with butter and thinly sliced truffle under the skin;
- Toasted sandwiches with pane toscano bread, Gruyere cheese, truffle roast chicken and plenty of truffle slices (which the children both loved!);
- Simple risotto with chicken stock (infused with truffle slices) and shaved truffle over the top
- Scrambled eggs with truffle-infused eggs, and fresh truffle over the top;
- The final scraps of truffle were whizzed up with some nice organic unsalted butter in the food processor and frozen in a log, to be sliced and melted over asparagus, poached eggs etc. later on.  I might try making a hollandaise sauce with the truffle butter.

So there you go - if you find yourself in possession of a 70g truffle, keep calm and proceed as above!

My darling little Tabitha is becoming camera shy - so I am getting plenty of gorgeous shots of her silky hair from the back.

Zach, however, remains cheerful and keen for photos - even when he's covered in food.  Perhaps especially when he's covered in food.

Chubby hands covered in roasted beetroot:

Beetroot makes his lips so pretty and pink!

Zachary was off his solids over the last few days - with teeth numbers 7 and 8 making their way through, his mouth has been too sore for chewing, so he has been filling himself up with lots of nice milk.  The Baby Led Solids approach of 'food is for fun until they are one' is most reassuring at times like this.  I know that he is getting everything he needs from breastmilk (he's 95th percentile for weight, and 4cm taller than 98th percentile for height, so he's obviously thriving), so if he wants to stick to milk for a week, that's just fine.  This will also be helpful on our Europe trip (four days until we leave!) - if we are out and about, he will be happy with plenty of milk.

A Visitor, and Snacky Dinner

We had a visit from "Great Aunt Penelope" this week.  She is not really anyone's Great Aunt, in fact she is a friend of my mother's, but we have bestowed the title on her as an honour.  Tabitha is incredibly fond of her - Penelope runs a ballet school, and teaches children Tabitha's age, so she is wonderfully fun with littlies.  She also brings beautiful presents and sends gorgeous postcards from France, so Tabby thinks she is marvellous.

Tabitha and Penelope singing nursery rhymes:

Lots of tea, and warm apple cake, and cheeses with olive bread.  Perfect for 11am, or any time.  Someone asked where my purple cup was from - they are Limoges with platinum edging, available from many places.  They come in the most beautiful jewel-box range of colours.  I love them because they make any everyday cup of tea feel like an occasion.

Beautiful knitted cat for Zachary, and a French ragdoll for Tabitha.  Called Sarah, she says.

Zachary got stuck into the goat's cheese and olive bread.

Also pears - clever boy, he knows that pears go well with cheese!

I always dissect bouquets when they are seemingly on their last legs - I pluck out any of the surviving blooms, and pop them into smaller jars, discarding the rest of the arrangement.  From my birthday arrangement, I have salvaged several full white roses, divided into two jars, and many beautifully wavy lengths of Snapdragon blooms, below.  Snapdragons are a lovely flower to have indoors - just pluck off the bottom blooms as they wilt, and the top parts continue to open and bloom for ages.

'Snacky' dinner time - when The Daddy isn't home for dinner, often I just put together some bits and pieces for myself and the children to nibble on.  Actually, I thoroughly enjoy these sorts of haphazard suppers!  Tonight, grilled sage-marinated lamb cutlets and tomato chutney, fried buttered mushrooms with thyme, and some mashed sweet potato with butter and loads of cinnamon, spread onto toast.

Zach loved his lamb cutlet!

Tabitha ate her dinner in a tutu.  Why not?

Perhaps it sounds off, but I love mashed vegetables as a toast or sandwich spread.  Often, I use avocado in place of butter, but lately (in the Winter, I suppose) I have been thickly spreading sweet potato, pumpkin or cauliflower mashed with plenty of butter and cinnamon onto toast or sandwiches.  Quite delicious!

I am in a bit of a vegetable rut.  We so often have roast veggies, or steamed beans, broccoli or asparagus, or honey mustard carrots, or cauliflower cheese, or mushrooms, or stir-fried bok choi, or salad veggies.  What else is good?  

My Birthday and Zach the Eater

Last week was my birthday - just two days after Tabitha's.  I turned 29.  I had a great day - started with presents and a cup of tea in bed, then spent the morning with the kids, then my mother and The Daddy came home for lunch and birthday cake.

Tradition dictates that I have some sort of chocolate birthday cake from Laurent.  Preferably with crunchy bits and cakey bits.  This one was gorgeous - crunchy praline bits, chewy nougat bits, brownie fudgy layer, a light mousse layer, and incredibly rich ganache.  With crunchy biscuits around the edge. 

Zach was entranced by the candle.  I wish I had have thought to dry my hair before photos!

Birthday presents from The Daddy and the kiddie winkies.  What is more exciting than a blue box?  A blue box and an orange box!

The Daddy picked out the scarf while in Hong Kong for work earlier this month.  He said he thought I needed a pale one, as I have lots of bright and dark scarves.  Clever man.  It's cream, lemon, apricot and lilac in a geometric design.  The necklace is a Paloma Picasso design, 15mm beads in all sorts of semiprecious stones - it has Amethyst, bloodstone, blue lace agate, chrysocolla, dumorierite, green aventurine, hawk's eye quartz, garnet, jasper, lapis lazuli, green jade, red jasper, rhodochrosite, rhodonite, rose quartz, sodalite, tiger's eye and yellow chrysoprase.  Whew!  Anyway, it's incredibly pretty, appeals to my inner hippy, and looks lovely with a plain black dress.

Very large bouquet of flowers from mum, from my favourite florist, Camberwell Market Flowers.  They are just a little stand at the market but they do weddings and events and the most spectacular pomanders and gift arrangements.

After Zach and Tabitha were in bed, The Daddy and I went out for dinner, to Ocha, one of my favourite Japanese restaurants in Melbourne.  As soon the food started to arrive, we received word from home that Zach had woken up, but he was quite content to get up and play with our babysitter until we got home!  He's such an easygoing baby.  We finished off the rest of the cake when we got home.  I would say I ate at least half of the cake over the course of the day!

Cheeky Tabitha.  She has taught Zach to climb the stairs - she stood there for ages, "come on Zachy!  I know you can do it!"  He can climb a few, which was enough for me to organise a stair gate, quick smart.

Made some brownies.  It's a rare week in which I do not make brownies!  They are just so easy, delicious and they even freeze beautifully.  They also go down a treat with the neighbours, and we have lots of lovely neighbours.

Brownies and apple cake.  The apple cake has apples, you see, and wholemeal flour.  Which makes it practically a health food...

Tabitha cannot be trusted alone with an apple cake:

Godmother Sophie read The Jolly Postman to Tabitha - she was enthralled, thoroughly excited by all of the letters.  If you loved it as a child, I'm sure you have already shared the love with a small person, but if you haven't read it, grab a copy for your own family or a little friend.

Zach had a few days off solid foods last week (he had a bit of a cold, so I wanted to get as much breastmilk into him as possible, to help him get better).  Now that he is back to full health, he has plunged back into the world of Solid Foods with gusto.

What does Zach eat on a typical day?  And yes, these photos are all from today - I find it easier to just change his top than bother too much with bibs!

Bananas are popular for breakfast:

For lunch, some steak and mushroom pie with roasted sweet potato and roast potatoes:

For dinner, fish with green beans and cauliflower cheese.  Cheeky grin below - and covered with bits of fish and cauliflower!

Tabitha off for a ride on her balance bike.  With her new Ballerina Barbie, naturally.  Ballerina Barbie was a 3rd birthday present (belated, from moi).  I saw her in her pink box on the shelf and couldn't resist - I received my own first Barbie when I was 3, and it too was a Ballerina Barbie.  I still have her.  I don't believe that classic Barbies are damaging to little girls.  This one has a pink tulle tutu with glittery bodice, sheer pink stockings with seam backs (!), ballet shoes with tiny real ribbons, and a silver tiara.  I think I love her as much as T.

Yes, Tabitha owns lots of clothes that are not pink.  More than 50 per cent of her wardrobe.  Do I have a hope in hell of getting her into any of these non-pink clothes?  Rarely.  It makes me laugh, really, her pink obsession - we deliberately started her out limiting gendered toys, clothes and activities for the most part.  She took soccer lessons, wore blue jeans, loved her toy cars.  Fast forward to around two and a half, suddenly a switch seemed to trip, and she is All About the Pink.

Sweet Potato Fries, Tonkatsu with Curry, and Zach Eating Food

I made sweet potato fries using the brilliant cold oil method I mentioned recently.  They were delicious - let them rest for a minute or two on the rack after cooking, as they crisp up best that way.  You inevitably end up with lots of odd shaped leftover pieces when trying to fashion a sweet potato into chip shapes, so steam the bits, mash with butter and cinnamon, and have them spread on toast with green tomato pickles and grilled cheese!

Tabitha has some balloons, brought home from a party, with which she likes to play Pregnant Mummies.  She gets out her medical kit and does a pretty thorough examination of herself - blood pressure, stethoscope, blood test, and uses the Pinard, below, to listen to her baby.

When I used to work in the city (many moons ago), I loved a Japanese pork Katsu Curry for lunch on a cold day.  Now, I make it at home - using the same curry-in-a-box that many of the Japanese joints use anyway - S&B Golden Curry Mix.  It couldn't be simpler to make:

For 2-4 people (as a main vs a side dish), use half a packet of curry mix (50g).  To start, fry a chopped onion in a tablespoon of oil until softened, then add a diced carrot, fry for a minute, add some sliced celery and capsicum, and any other veggies you want (beans, peas, corn), then add 1.5 cups of water, and simmer for around 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the veggies are tender and the sauce has thickened (add more  water if you'd like a thinner curry).

Serve the curry over rice.  I like to also serve it as a side dish, with rice, with tonkatsu, which is just a Japanese sort of pork schnitzel, using panko breadcrumbs.  Pound pork fillet or loin steaks until thin (5mm), then dredge in seasoned flour, egg then panko.  Fry in vegetable oil (either deep fry, shallow fry, or do as I do and hybridise the two with around an inch of oil) on both sides until the tonkatsu is richly golden brown, and the pork is just cooked inside.  Rest on a wire rack to drain for a few minutes, then slice into 1cm strips, and drizzle over Kewpie mayonnaise and Tonkatsu sauce (available from Japanese groceries).

This meal is an absolute winner with kids, and a great treat on a cold night.

Lots of scones are being made in this weather, too.  Tabitha is 'just having a little taste' of the scone dough, below:

Caught in the act!

My final word on Winter for today?  Mandarin season is here, get as much citrus as possible into you to stave off the colds.  Tabitha agrees:

Zach is really enjoying his food - he started solids at six months, so he's been eating for three weeks now.  Here is an example of one of his meals - he eats what we eat, only slightly modified to be easier to manoeuvre while he's still working on his fine motor skills, and I also avoid excess salt.  So, when we had teriyaki salmon with rice and brocollini, he had some rice (which I pressed into a firm 'log' shape), some broccolini, some crispy salmon skin, and some of the salmon fillet, in a few hands-sized pieces.  I barely brushed his salmon with the teriyaki sauce, as it is fairly salty, but he had enough for a taste.  There is no reason why I couldn't have given him the rice as we had it, or the salmon in a big piece, but I was trying to minimise mess somewhat!

The crispy salmon skin was a winner!  Plus, full of nice good fats for baby brain development.

These photos were taken before he got stuck into the rice.  When eating rice, Zach would benefit from a baby Hazmat suit.  Or a good hose down outside!