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.

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!

Happy Birthday Tabitha!

Tabitha turned three on Sunday.  She is a Really Big Girl now.  We had a fairy party with all of her little friends and their parents - from her ballet class, ABA, mothers group, my little sister, and a few other friends.  In total, 20 toddlers and around 30 or so parents.

Because The Daddy has been overseas for a few weeks, and only got home a few days before the party, I kept things pretty simple.  I have a new philosophy for children's party food - work out how much food you need, then halve it.  This actually worked brilliantly for this party, we had just about the right amount, with a few cupcakes and sausage rolls leftover for munching on the next day.

On the menu were:

Homemade sausage rolls with lots of grated veggies
Poached chicken and chive sandwiches
Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream
Mini raspberry pavlovas
Fairy bread
Fruit salad
Honey joys
'Fairy and toadstool meringues'

We also had lots of mini San Pellegrino flavoured mineral waters in a large champagne bucket of ice for the adults, which made it easy for people to grab their own drinks, and raspberry cordial in bottles for the kids. 

We had a few of these tiered plates.  I have a few sets of them, they are terribly useful for parties!

We sent each fairy home with a toffee apple.  I made them with Granny Smith apples and green toffee - I like the contrast of the very sharp flavoured, and crunchy Granny Smith with the sweet toffee.  Toffee apples are outrageously easy to make if you have a candy thermometer (or a brilliant Thermapen).

Prepare your apples by washing and rubbing dry 10 medium sized apples, then spearing each apple with a thick skewer or paddle pop stick (available from craft shops).

In a heavy-based, large saucepan, combine 6 cups of sugar, 1.5 cups of water, 150g glucose syrup and 1.5 teaspoons of green food colouring (or red, if you prefer, though use red apples in that case).  Heat over medium heat, stirring without boiling, until the sugar is dissolved.  Then bring to a boil, without stirring, and allow to boil, undisturbed, until the toffee reaches 155 degrees celsius (or the 'hard crack' stage, where a small amount of mixture poured into a glass of cold water makes a sharp cracking noise, and forms a solid ball of toffee which crunches when bitten into).

Remove the saucepan from the heat, and into a baking dish filled with warm water.  Leave for a minute, until the bubbles subside, then tip the saucepan to the side, pooling the toffee, and dip each apple, twirling as you remove it, over the pan, allowing any excess toffee to drip off, then place each apple down onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, leaving to cool.

Toffee apples are best made within two days of serving, and should be stored at cool room temperature in an airtight container or wrapped in cellophane, away from heat or sunlight.

For decor, I made a 'curtain' of pink and green ribbons, hanging along the window behind the food table:

I also made 20 tissue paper pom poms, hung from the ceiling:

We also had some nice pink baby roses around the house in vases, some pink and green vintage floral bunting, and a little pink 'fairy door' attached to the front door, for the 'real fairies' to come into the party.

Sorry, too busy chatting to snap many photos of the decor!

We bought Tabitha a balance bike for her birthday, with a cute heart-print helmet from Nutcase.  I also bought a cute icy pole playfood set from Le Toy Van, which she loves.

For breakfast on her birthday, I made a strawberry jelly mould.  She found it inconceivably thrilling ("This is the best birthday I've ever seen!"), and it was actually a fairly healthy treat.  I simply packed a small jelly mould (this glass Tala one) full of sliced strawberries, then made up some jelly mixture with flavourless jelly crystals and juice, and poured it into the mould.  So it was roughly 3/4 chopped fruit, 1/4 fruit juice jelly.  Not bad!  I think this will become a regular birthday breakfast in this house.

For the cake, I baked a 4-layer chocolate cake using THIS recipe, doubled (the same one I have used for every one of Tabitha's birthday cakes so far, it is her favourite cake), covered in chocolate buttercream with pistachio and rose macarons to decorate.  I bought these from La Belle Miette - no time to bake macarons, and besides, theirs are far superior to anything I could produce.

I found a tiny pair of blue and silver fairy wings, meant for a doll, and attached longer blue elastic to turn them into baby fairy wings for Zachary.  He made the most adorable baby fairy!

  
Tabitha wore a pale yellow tutu from Tutu Du Monde - this one, Giselle - with gold fairy wings, a matching wand, and a delicate headband featuring small pearls and diamontes.  Bare feet - Tabitha says that fairies don't wear shoes.

Zachary used his puppy-dog eyes to beg for a taste of the birthday cake.  I let him have a little nibble.  He wasn't that sold on the taste, actually!

After the party, one of Tabitha's little fairy friends stayed behind, and they flopped onto the couch to watch Alice in Wonderland.  Note the two pairs of discarded fairy wings on the back of the couch!  They also shared out the remaining honey joys between themselves:

By late afternoon, all of the beautiful gifts were unwrapped and put away, the house was cleaned and mopped, and I was able to put my feet up with a cup of tea and some leftover sweet bits: