Sydney Trip

Last weekend, Tabitha and I made a three-day visit to Sydney.  Notice how I didn't use the word holiday?  That was intentional...

Because we only went for a few days, we had lots to cram in.  Friends and family in Sydney who had not yet even met Tabitha!  So the trip was action-packed.  We went pretty much straight from our early morning flight to Sydney, from the airport we hired a car and drove 40 minutes north for a baby shower (the main reason for our trip).  On the plane, I had to carry Tabitha and my outfits in a large carrier bag, wrapped in tissue, so they didn't wrinkle, as well as the wrapped gift, so that I didn't squash it's fancy bow.

Speaking of the gift - the baby shower was for the divine Miss Kitty Cat from Miss Kitty Cat Goes to Town.  Since I know that she is going to be a truly excellent mumma, and also I know that she appreciates handmade items, I decided to crochet her a blanket for her pram.  She has purchased a green Bugaboo Cameleon, so I did a green, pink and cream blanket.  The pattern is one I created myself a few years ago - I crocheted a large (single bed size) blanket while The Daddy and I were on our honeymoon driving around France, with the intention that it would be used one day for our first baby.

Anyway, I finished the blanket with a week spare before the baby shower - roughly 25 hours' work, and quite a few balls of really nice Debbie Bliss Cashmerino yarn.  I carefully washed it, and laid it out to dry, gently pulling it into shape to lie flat on a clean towel.  I closed the bedroom door, to keep the cats out of the room.

Fast forward a couple of hours - I open the bedroom door to get some shoes.  ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!!  I must have accidentally locked the cat (the younger, more destructive one) IN the room with the blanket!  He has eaten great holes in it.  It is beyond repair - as you know if you have crocheted, you cannot patch it or close big holes.  I was completely devastated - I called The Daddy, and I think he thought someone had died!

After a total meltdown and freakout for half an hour, I pulled myself together and thought about things logically.  Could I re-do the blanket in a week?  Yes, I thought, I can.  With roughly an hour per colour-stripe, that meant I would need to crochet for around three or so hours each day, leaving enough time to wash, dry and wrap the blanket in time to take it to Sydney for the baby shower.

I was able to salvage the first four stripes.  I carefully cut them away, pulled out the tiny pieces of wool, and started from there...

So, I did finish it in time.  I may have some mild carpal tunnel going on!  I washed it, laid it to dry (well away from the cats) and took it to get beautifully wrapped.

I chose some cute pink polka-dot paper, and a few nice pink and green ribbons:

Even the envelope for the card had green polka dots.  I was quite pleased!

Here is Tabitha's sweet little outfit, ready to take on the plane - because it was chilly in Sydney, she embraced layering:  cream wool tights, a pink cotton Petit Bateau dress, a cream cotton Bebe cardigan, and a pink wool frock coat from Zara.  She wore pink shoes.

Here is my sweet darling devouring a cupcake.  Sadly, I got well and truly covered in frosting at the baby shower!  I looked a real fright by the time we left - but Tabby had an absolute ball, 'helping' to unwrap presents, gorging herself on cupcakes, and generally getting up to mischief...

The food was, unsurprisingly, divine.  Two of Miss Kitty-Cat's dearest friends had done most of the food prep, and everything was delicious:

The cupcakes have little 'babies' stuck on top.  Tabitha carried her tiny 'baby' around all afternoon - in fact, it is still in my handbag!

Look at these gorgeous cat cookies!

The shower was such fun, and well worth the trip.  I managed to sit and enjoy a couple of Champagnes, and it was fantastic to watch Miss Kitty-Cat open all of those achingly sweet little gifts - tiny shoes, pretty dresses and the like.

The rest of the trip to Sydney was jam-packed but lots of fun.  I did not take my camera out for the rest of the trip, sadly - but we went to Avalon to visit my Godfather's parents, we went to the fish markets (Tabitha and I shared a delicious lobster for breakfast!), and my friend Amy and I took Tabitha to a Sushi Train restaurant.  Tabby thought this was beyond brilliant - her high chair sat right up at the bench beside us, so she could watch the train go around while she ate her sushi.  She insists on trying to eat sushi with chopsticks now, would you believe, so it can be a slow process...

Upon our return to Melbourne, I needed to do something grounding, so I made an enormous batch of savoury mince to freeze for lunchtime meals for Miss T.  I included loads and loads of finely chopped veggies - zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, squash and celery.

Now that Spring has started to make itself known, my garden is slowly coming back to life.  Fresh new growth on the rosemary bush, and new buds of mint, are appearing, so I used them and made a lamb shoulder with caper and mint gravy.

So I mentioned that Tabitha loves sushi - here she is absolutely freaking out with excitement because she has some tuna and avocado handroll in her little fist.  When we go near the sushi shop - any of the half-a-dozen we frequent - she starts wriggling and pointing madly, calling "Shoo-shoo!  Shoo-shoo!".  It really makes me giggle that a 15-month old baby can say 'sushi'.

Oh - and I bought this sweet little wooden pull-along mouse toy the other day.  I am in love with it - it's little bottom wiggles from side to side as it pulls along:

Whew.  Now that I have managed to recover from my Sydney trip, and am back in the swing of normal life, I have exactly 7 more days before we leave again, this time for a week in Palm Cove.  Thankfully, The Daddy is coming along, and we are also holidaying with my parents and sister, so it will actually be a proper 'holiday', with a cocktail by the pool and a few nice dinners out and all that.  Can't wait!

Fathers' Day Lunch

Sorry to skip around a little - but I have to share the delicious lunch we had on Sunday.  The Daddy, Tabitha, myself, my parents, my sister and I all went to my Godfather's house, where we had lunch with him, his wife and son (my Godson/Tabby's Godfather).  My Godfather is a truly brilliant cook - experimental but always comforting, hearty and home-style food.  His mother is Italian, and also an excellent cook - I remember being highly impressed by her Bombe Alaska when I was a wee thing.

For the nine of us, he prepared a relaxed, long lunch, starting with a rustic guacamole served with crostini, raw fennel and carrots for dipping, followed by a roasted tomato and balsamic soup, with toasted, oiled bread, followed by grilled spatchcocked chooks with a steamed medley of vegetables, followed by some delicious summer fruits with a sort of 'sweet pesto' of mint and sugar.

Rough-chopped guac with fennel and carrots:

Roasted tomato and balsamic soup with grilled bread:

Giant bowl of grilled chicken:

This is how they come out of the oven - just spatchcocked and grilled:

Great big pile of steamed, buttered veggies - he says he put the potatoes in first, then after a while adds the baby carrots and green beans, then adds the cabbage, then lastly adds the peas on the top for the final few minutes:

For dessert, pineapple, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, with a mortar and pestle-pounded sauce of fresh mint, olive oil and sugar:

Accompanied with a bottle of my current favourite Champagne, which is on sale for $59 at several of our local bottle shops - we stocked up a little on the weekend!

Tabitha plucked an apple out of my Godfather's fruit bowl, and sat on the couch, happily munching away:

Tabby and Q, just hanging out:

Tabitha also enjoyed chomping on the raw fennel - here she is clutching her apple in one hand, her fennel in the other:

A really lovely Fathers' Day, with great company, and lots of food - we did not need dinner that night!

Fast Food for Toddlers

No - not that sort of fast food!

The two problems with feeding a one-year-old, so far as I can see, are that a) they go from happy to starving in three minutes flat and b) once they are hungry, they are grumpy and don't want to play happily while you prepare their food.

I'm sure every mother knows that it is entirely possible to create a vegetable omelet with one hand, while balancing a wriggly toddler on the opposite hip.

Now that Tabitha only naps once a day (12pm for between 1.5-2 hours, normally, although right now it is 2:50pm and she's still asleep!), and is quite demanding of my attention when she is awake, I have to be more clever with my time management.  I try to do as much food prep as possible during her nap.  Some of the most useful things I do include:

• Cutting up a whole head of broccoli into florets, and storing them in a tupperware veggie keeper in the fridge.  I used to just cut up broccoli when I was about to cook it, and steam the whole lot in one go, but Tabitha loves broccoli, so being able to quickly pluck out a few florets to steam for her is very handy.
  
• I roast small pieces of potato, sweet potato and pumpkin around once a week - they re-heat easily, and a small handful of these (roasted with olive oil, rosemary and a little salt and lemon) is a yummy side of veggies for Tabitha.  I keep them for a few days in the fridge, re-heating small amounts as needed.
  
• Frozen corn and frozen peas are always on hand in my freezer - I used to buy canned corn, but not only do I find frozen corn to be of superior quality (and apparently nutritional value), I love the ease of being able to shake out a few tablespoons for Tabitha, instead of opening a whole can.
  
• Preparing meat / protein under time pressure can be difficult, and because toddlers (like us) only need a small portion (the size of their palm, roughly, of red meat), I find it much easier to divide meat and proteins up into single servings ahead of time, and freeze them.  For example, today I bought a large veal schnitzel, a thick eye fillet steak, and a really lovely locally made lasagne.  I cut the schnitzel into 4 pieces, cut the steak into 4 smaller 'mini steaks', and divided the lasagne into 6 serves.  I wrapped each serving in cling-film, and popped them all straight into the freezer.  It took less than 10 minutes, and now I have 14 Tabitha-sized serves of red meat ready to go.

Veal schnitzel portions - our local butcher crumbs them with fresh breadcrumbs and parsley:

Eye fillet portions - I got 4 thick-ish pieces out of the 3" high steak.  I then butterfly each one before cooking, so I can get it medium-rare in next to no time.

The lasagne I like to buy contains, in order, organic beef, gluten-free pasta, tomatoes, cheese, white sauce (milk, flour, butter, bay), Shiraz, onion, garlic and salt.  I choose this one because it contains plenty of beef for a nice hit of iron and protein, no nasty additives, and most importantly, it tastes and smells incredible - just like bolognaise you would make yourself, at home.  It's a nice easy 'cheat' meal, full of good things without having to make it from scratch yourself.  To serve, I heat it up and chop it, so that it can be eaten with a spoon or a fork, and I add some veggies (peas or corn stirred through, or else a side of broccoli or beans or something).

14 serves of meat ready for the freezer - schnitzels, steaks and lasagne:

• Other nice and quick proteins that I rely on are:  eggs (scrambled, fried or omelet), seafood (canned salmon, tuna or sardines, or simple salmon or white fish to pan-fry, as well as prawns, scallops and yabbies), poultry (roast chicken, pan-fried duck breasts or chicken thighs and breasts cooked in all sorts of ways) and also beans, pulses, natural yoghurt and cheese.  Between these, and red meat a few times a week, it is easy to offer a diet with plenty of variety.  Of course, you can stash fish portions, prawns and chicken pieces in the freezer.
  
• When time is critical, the simplest emergency meals for Tabitha seem to be either some eggs scrambled with cheese, peas and corn, a veggie-burger with cheese or a fried egg, or some microwaved lasagne.

While Tabitha normally eats dinner with The Daddy and I, or just myself, I tend to prepare a separate lunch for her - she has lunch at 11:30am, which is a bit early for me, so I just sit with her and pick at her meal (so she's not eating alone).  Some of the most common lunch time meals that I cook for Tabitha at the moment include:

• A jaffle on wholegrain bread with Gruyere, green tomato pickle, canned tuna (Sirena in oil) and a good amount of corn.
  
• Salmon and rice with some teriyaki sauce and green veggies.
  
• Beef stew from the freezer (beef with a few veggies, normally carrot, onion, potato tomato and celery) or other cooked-in-advance and frozen meals such as chicken provencale.
  
• A small veal schnitzel or piece of eye fillet (both very tender meats for her little molars) with some vegetables.
  
• Scrambled eggs or omelet with cheese, peas and corn, sometimes spinach, capsicum, mushrooms or some shredded meat from the fridge).
  
• Beef lasagne with veggies, or vegetable lasagne.
  
• A veggie burger (as I've mentioned here before, I use the incredible VBK Foods ones, which are 85 per cent vegetables, with wholemeal flour and rice bran oil - we love the sweet potato ones.  These are sold at our local farmers' market, but are also available at an increasing number of outlets) with some nice cheese or a fried egg.
  
• Leftover roast meat (such as lamb shoulder, pork, beef or chicken) served hot or cold with veggies.
  
• An avocado and cheese sandwich on wholegrain bread.
  
• Pasta (penne or spirals, wholemeal or not) with basil or coriander pesto.
  
• Some white fish, tossed in seasoned flour, pan-fried and served with lemon butter and veggies (normally asparagus or broccolini).
  
•  As a treat, I cook some Maggi-type noodles (plain, with no flavouring).  I add a beaten egg, and some peas and corn, while they cook.  I drain them, then stir through a little ketchup manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce) or oyster sauce, sometimes some sweet chili sauce as well.  She really loves these, and it is super-cute watching her eat the noodles with her hands.  I must point out - you need to chop up the noodles, because long noodles are easy to choke on if they start to swallow one without chewing properly.
  
• If we have gone for a nice long walk before lunch (often we do a morning walk from 9:30-10:30am), I will often buy her a couple of sushi handrolls from the shops nearby.  Tuna and avocado handrolls are probably her favourite food at the moment - she recognises the sushi shop, and flaps around madly in her pram as we approach.  She points at all the handrolls and when I buy them, she gets mighty upset if I don't hand one over straight away!  Two handrolls - normally tuna/avocado and omelet/cucumber or vegetable - make a nice quick, easy 'treat' lunch.

I'd be thrilled to hear any other fast-food ideas...

Zoo Day

The weather was lovely today, so we took Tabitha to the zoo.  We wondered if, perhaps, she might be a bit too young to really enjoy it - would she be more interested in the seagulls than the monkeys?

We need not have worried - she had a brilliant time, and was quite excited by the primates, the large colourful birds and the elephants.  Because Tabby wanted to walk most of the time, we only managed to cover around a third of the zoo.  Never mind - even more reason to return again soon!

There is a baby spider monkey on display.  I nearly died on the spot from the cute.  This tiny, wiry little slip of a monkey was hilarious, tumbling and playing and hanging upside down for the crowds.

She had a little 'play area' which she could spend some of the day in, decked out with the latest baby toys - she even has the same 'Lamaze' brand peacock toy as Tabitha:

Tabby striking a 'gorilla' pose in front of the gorilla statue:

Taking a break from the walking on Daddy's shoulders:

"This way, Dada, I see more monkeys!"

The wonder in her eyes was just priceless:

Enjoying an overpriced zoo sandwich:

And a gingerbread elephant, which was useful in encouraging her to sit in the pram for enough time for us to scoot to the far end of the zoo:

Sitting on one of the wooden elephants - such a big girl! I am fond of this outfit - the deep pink of the shoes perfectly matches the little pink ribbon around the neck of the bunny on her top.  From the ribbon dangles a tiny silver heart charm, which is Tabitha's favourite part.

Shudder.  They can dress it up however they want - I still know there are scary terrifying hairy spiders behind that cute wall:

Pachydermata, one of my favourite mammal groups, after primates.  The pygmy hippo is my personal favourite, but I do love a jaunty swinging elephant trunk as well!  Here is a baby:

And a great big mummy:

Our final stop was the Orangutans.  Always save the best for last!  Here, Tabitha crouches in front of the glass, watching two of the large boys wrestle and rough-house:

A highlight of the day was watching a beautiful, gentle mummy orangutan breastfeed her baby, who is nearly 9 months old, and has 8 teeth, apparently.  As they fed, the baby stroked her mummy's arm and chest, and the mother kept stroking her baby, gazing adoringly into her face, and adjusting the blanket to keep the sun out of her baby's eyes.  It was a magical time, watching their special bond:

Perhaps Tabitha noticed the feeding - she begun to paw at my top quite urgently, so I fed her while we watched the beautiful orangutan mother feeding her baby.  I felt fabulously at one with my favourite primates.

When we got home, The Daddy brought in the washing - look who hitched a ride in the basket:

In the early evening, we walked down to the park for a quick play...

 

Building up the courage to try the big slide on her own:

And WHOOOOSH!

All in all, a lovely day!

Chocolate Brownie Recipe

I promised that I would add the recipe for the chocolate brownies.  HERE it is, or scroll to the post below.

Now go and make them.  That's an order...

Brownies and Rhubarb Cake

EDIT - now the brownie recipe is included, below...

So sorry about the absence - Tabitha and the cats collaborated in a joint project of somehow flinging the computer across the sofa, snapping the little USB internet thingy.  So I was without internet for a week - scary times.  No matter - now I have a fancy Telstra broadband hub thing, it is super fast and excellent.

Yesterday, our wonderful midwives Jan and Kelly held a working bee for their new midwifery clinic (the first of its kind in Australia!) called MAMA, a.k.a. Midwives and Mothers Australia.  The Daddy, Tabitha and I trooped along to help out - The Daddy did some excellent painting, I baked some bits and pieces and brought along a mountain of egg sandwiches, and Tabitha helped out by being generally adorable and also passing the odd screwdriver as required.

Here she is washing the windows with two sponges, having a grand old time:

I baked a rhubarb cake, improvising with my favourite 'old standby' apple cake recipe, but with pureed rhubarb as the filling.

To bake the cake, simply cook about 6 stems of rhubarb, sliced into 1cm pieces, with around half a cup of water and a few tablespoons of sugar.  Once tender, pour off the excess water and mash to a rough puree with a fork.  Taste it - you want it to be quite tart, but not shockingly sour.  About the same as cooked, unsweetened apple.  Add a little more sugar if you think it needs it.  Add a tiny drop or two of pink food colouring if your rhubarb is particularly wan looking.

Mix in a bowl 120g wholemeal self-raising flour, 115g ordinary self-raising flour, 150g sugar, an egg, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and 125g of melted butter.  Press 3/4 of the mixture into a greased and lined 20-22cm round springform, then carefully spread the rhubarb puree over the top.  Next, use your fingers to flatten out pieces of the remaining 1/4 of the mixture, placing it over the top of the puree.  Sprinkle the top generously with demerera (or plain) sugar and some cinnamon, then bake at 180 degrees for around 45 minutes, or until lightly golden brown on top.

See how lovely the vibrant rhubarb looks:

Here is the top layer of cake, with little bits of rhubarb poking through, sprinkled with the sugar and cinnamon:

When baked, the top layer of mixture will spread, covering any gaps:

The rhubarb makes for a very pretty cake, and the sourness of the rhubarb offsets the fairly sweet cake nicely:

I also made chocolate brownies.  I am not even slightly exagurating when I say that these are The Best thing that I have ever made.  Ever.  They were so gooey, richly chocolatey and perfectly thick and fudgey.  They have walnuts, and some dark chocolate chips.  The batch produced around 50 or so small squared of brownie.  They are completely worth making!

The recipe is just slightly adapted from the brownie recipe in the 'Chocolate' section of Nigella Lawson's brilliant 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess' book, which is now more than a decade old.  It is a book which gets used almost weekly in our kitchen, with many of its recipes in regular rotation - the madeira and seed cakes, the rosemary loaf cake, the American pancakes, the steamed syrup sponge, Granny Boyd's biscuits and the sponge drops are all favourites in my kitchen.

I have peered at the photograph of the brownies in the book so often - read through the recipe, thought about making them.  I have absolutely no idea why I have never made them before now - they are straightforward, and life-changingly good!

Easily The World's Best Chocolate Brownies

375g unsalted butter

375g high quality dark chocolate (I used Lindt 70 per cent this time)

6 large eggs

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (that's right people, a tablespoon, not a teaspoon)

500g caster sugar (of course, I used my standard vanilla-infused caster sugar)

225g plain flour

1 teaspoon of salt

350g chopped walnuts (you could use salted peanuts, that would be pretty awesome, or hazelnuts)

A good handful of dark chocolate chips (you could use white or milk if you prefer)

Line the base and sides of a 23cm x 33cm tin with baking paper.

Melt the butter and the chocolate together over low heat in a large heavy-based saucepan.

In a large-ish bowl, beat the eggs together well with the sugar and vanilla.

Measure the flour and salt into another bowl.

When the chocolate mixture has smoothly melted, set aside to cool for a bit, then beat in the eggs and sugar, then the flour and then the nuts and chocolate chips.  Beat well with a wooden spoon to combine, and then scrape the lot into the prepared pan.

Nigella says to bake at 180 degrees for around 25 minutes, however I must say that, even with my super-powerful oven, I needed nearly 40 minutes.  Why?!  I don't know.  Normally I need less time than recipes specify, so I will still be checking from 25 minutes next time.  I must stress, however, that it is important not to overcook them - even a few minutes too long will result in dry brownies (very, very sad).

When the brownies are done, the top should be set, turned into a pale, smooth and glossy thin crust, while the middle will still be dense and goey - a cake tester should come out clean-ish around the edges, but still somewhat goopy in the middle (they will continue to cook and set as they cool down).

Allow the brownies to cool completely in the tin - it is perfectly fine to let the tin sit on the kitchen bench overnight (preferably sitting on top of a cooling rack).  If you lined the tin well with baking paper, you should be able to use it to carefully lift the entire slab of brownie out at once, then cut into squares on a board with a large knife.

If, at worst, your middle section is still a little too gloopy to cut into neat brownies, do not despair!  Simply wrap the soft section in some foil, heat in the oven, and eat with ice cream.  In fact, I recommend intentionally leaving the middle section a little undercooked for this purpose - the mixture makes plenty, so you will still have dozens of brownies!

Here is the back view of the fabulous MAMA centre - it is an amazing space, light-filled and enormous, with a large backyard outdoor area.  Lots of families and babies came down to help, and we all had a whole lot of fun helping out.

Tabitha napped in her pram, parked outside in the shade - we found a spot where The Daddy could peer out and watch her sleep through an open window while he painted:

Those of you who are scared by small harmless pythons, a quick heads-up to avert your eyes now.  Here is a gorgeous little photo of our baby Marilyn (who is coming up to one year old now!), wrapped neatly around my pony tail while I sat on the sofa: