Europe Holiday Imminent

Goodness.  This has really snuck up on me.  Next week, we're off on a holiday for three weeks, to Netherlands, France and a two-day stop in Kuala Lumpur on the way.

The Daddy's best friend Chris is Dutch, and has just had his first baby with his lovely partner Cyrelle.  Their little girl Neala was born in February, and we planned our visit even before she was born.  Then, we thought, if we are going to take the children on a plane trip all the way to Europe, we want to go somewhere else as well, but somewhere fairly laid back, so we added a week in Aix-en-Provence to the trip.  Then, we realised we would need to leave from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for the trip home, so we may as well spend a few days in Paris as well.  Then, after chatting to some friends who travel to Europe with children quite often, we decided to add a couple of days in KL on the way over, to break up the long flight and to help the kids adjust with the jet lag - and to catch up with friends of ours, who are popping over to visit from Singapore.  Coming home at the end, we elected not to stop over, merely spending 5 hours in KL, as we prefer to just 'push on' and collapse in a heap in the comfort of our own house at the end!

So, the trip is as follows:

Two days in KL, a week in Netherlands (in a small-ish town where our friends live), then fly down to Aix-en-Provence for a week, then catch the fast train up to Paris for three nights, then home.  Total of exactly three weeks, including travel time.

The weather will be lovely - mid 20s to mid 30s between NL and Aix - and our schedule is incredibly relaxed.  In the Netherlands, our plan is just to mooch around and enjoy spending time with our friends and their new baby, and Chris's three siblings and their total of ten children under six (yes, you read that right!).  Plenty of time for Tabitha to play with all the children, a good week to adjust to Euro time, and lots of Dutch food.

Once we are in Aix, we have similarly low-key plans.  We spent a little time in Aix on our honeymoon, and adored the town (it's a very pretty university town in the Provence region in the South of France).  Mostly, we will spend our week just wandering, eating and people-watching, though we are also hiring a car for a few days, to allow for day-trips to some of the local areas (considering St Tropez and / or Monaco via Nice).  My darling friend Shalini, who currently lives in London, is also coming down to Aix to stay with us for a few days, which will be fabulous!  Our apartment in Aix is right overlooking the old town square, where a divine farmers market is held a few times a week.  I cannot wait!

Up in Paris, we have an apartment in the 8th, walking distance from most of the things we want to do, so we will hopefully have a relatively calm few days in Paris.  A little shopping, some macarons, a trip up the Eiffel Tower at dusk.  Then home, with five hours in KL on the way back through (not too terrible, as we are flying Malaysia Airlines, and their gorgeous flagship Golden Lounge is in KL, so we can hopefully have some quiet time there, and it also has a wonderful kids corner with comfy chairs, art supplies, movies etc.)

What am I looking forward to?  Spending quality time with the family, especially The Daddy, seeing our friends' new baby, buying some gorgeous boys' clothes for Zach in Paris (no one does boys' clothing like the French!), strolling around the food markets in Aix, watching the children splash around in the waters of St Tropez.

What am I dreading?  The packing (I've been working on our packing list for months and I'm still tweaking it!), having the children on several long flights (mostly night flights, praying hard that they sleep), the possible jetlag leading the 4am wakeups for everyone for the first week.

If you follow the 'travel' tags on this blog, you'll find some of my musings after our month-long American trip when Tabitha was 10-11 months old, including packing lists.  I'll write some similar posts after this trip, including our experience of travel with two children this time.  

We are not taking my beloved Bugaboo Donkey pram, sadly - we decided it was too large to lug around, considering we are moving around a fair bit - opting instead for a lightweight Maclaren umbrella stroller with a scooter-board.  So, Zach can be in the stroller with Tabitha riding along on the scooter, or Zach can be in the wrap or Manduca carrier with Tabitha in the stroller.

On our US trip when Tabitha was small, most days our days went as follows:  Awake, go for an early walk (with breakfast, coffee, a quick play in a park), then come home for the morning nap.  We would then go out for the rest of the day, letting Tabitha have her afternoon naps in the carrier.  This meant we could go out for lunch, do an activity in the afternoon, have an early dinner, then be home in time for bed.  We found this worked really well - her morning nap was time for her to properly rest, and for The Daddy and I to rest, and plan our days.  We then had ample time to get out for the rest of the day.  Honestly, it was probably much more relaxing and sensible that cramming so much into every day, as we were inclined to do when we travelled before kids!  Spending time each day at local parks is also a lovely feature of travel with kids - you get to meet local families, as well as 'stopping to smell the roses', so to speak.  Also, it was on one of our early-morning park trips in New York with Tabitha that we got to play with Hugh Jackman's beautiful French Bulldog Peaches!

Any questions or requests?  Advice?  Warnings?!

Accidental Low-Allergy Cooking: Banana Pancakes and Two Eggless Biscuits

Pancakes that are outrageously simple and also nutritious, dairy- and gluten-free?  These are a breakfast staple in our household, for The Daddy and I as well as the children.

For these Banana Pancakes, per person (approximately three small pancakes), mash a large, ripe banana and beat in one egg.  Add a tablespoon of buckwheat flour, mix to combine.

We usually also add a scant teaspoon of LSA meal, and a good shake of cinnamon as well.

Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat, and cook for a few minutes on both sides until cooked through.  I recommend sticking with small pancakes (around 12cm diameter or smaller), as they are easier to flip that way.  You can also make them with just egg and banana, but the buckwheat adds flavour, body and makes for easier flipping.

I love Bob's Red Mill organic buckwheat flour.  I get it at my local independent supermarket - they carry a dizzying array of specialty flours - but Bob's Red Mill products are also available from lots of healthfood stores and online retailers.

Tabitha and Zachary have their banana pancakes with fresh strawberries or blueberries.  The Daddy and I love them with maple syrup, and bacon on weekends!

The other day, I made two batches of biscuits which were both, by pure coincidence, egg free.  So I thought I'd post the recipes here.  I am not normally a good 'something-free' cook, as most of my recipes contain lots of butter, milk, eggs, flour or all of the aforementioned, but it is handy to have a few such recipes up one's sleeve, as more and more children are allergic to various things these days.

The first recipe is for homemade arrowroot biscuits.  Similar in texture to a shortbread, but much lighter in flavour, these are an incredibly versatile biscuit, perfect for icing and decorating, or for an 'everyday treat' sort of biscuit for small people.  They are also delicious served alongside a cup of tea - three or four small biscuits is just about right.

Little Arrowroot Biscuits

150g plain flour

60g arrowroot flour or tapioca flour

70g icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

50g thickened cream

60g or a little more canola oil

Sift the dry ingredients together into a bowl.  Using a fork to mix, slowly add the cream, then the oil.  You will need to mix very firmly and for a reasonably long time.  The mixture should be very crumbly, and only come together when you pinch some together with your fingers.  You may need a little more cream or oil, but first try mixing for longer to make sure the liquids are thoroughly worked through.

Using your hands on a sheet of baking paper, press out about 1/3 of the mixture at a time, to a uniform thickness of around 3-4mm.  Use a small cookie cutter, and cut out shapes, re-pressing down the remaining mixture as required.  You will get around 50 small cookies - my cutters are around 3cm across.  Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper (you can put them close together, as they will not really spread) and bake at 180 degrees for around 8 minutes, or until they are just slightly changing colour.

Let them cool on a wire rack, then store in an airtight tin.  They will happily keep for a good week or so.  They are a good little biscuit to ice, as well.

The second biscuit recipe is one I have posted here before - here - but I am posting the recipe again, for the purposes of having both eggless biscuit recipes together in one place.  These are delicious little chocolate chip cookies made with condensed milk.  They are most delicious when fresh from the oven, but perfectly acceptable for a day or two afterwards as well.

Highlander Biscuits

Cream together 115g softened butter with 55g caster sugar, until light and fluffy.

Beat in 2 tablespoons of condensed milk (note - these are NZ metric tablespoons, so only 15ml each), and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Sift together 170g plain flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and work into the creamed mixture, along with 60g of milk or dark chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate).  Once you have a crumbly mass of dough, tip it onto the bench and lightly knead it together into a rough ball.

Roll teaspoonsful of the dough into balls, and place them, spread apart, onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.  Press each ball down to flatten somewhat with a fork.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes at 180 degrees.  They should be lightly golden on the bottoms, and barely coloured on the tops.

Cool in a rack, and store in an airtight tin.  This makes around 25 - 30 small cookies for me.

One final sweet dish, which contains egg and dairy and gluten, and is incredibly quick and delicious - my golden syrup Hasty Pudding.  Recipe here.  We've been eating it quite often lately, in the cold evenings of Melbourne winter, and it really hits the spot, with plenty of cream or ice cream.  Make it tonight - it's a one-bowl, melt-and-mix kind of affair, perfectly manageable to throw together after dinner on a chilly night.

A new pair of Baby Legs leggings for Zach - these are really handy for babywearing, as you can slip them on and off according the temperature (for example, if you are going in and out of air conditioned places on a hot day) without disturbing or unwrapping baby.  We're off overseas next week (more about that soon) and I think Baby Legs will be brilliant for all the on-off-on plane action.

Also a few mini pots of CJ's Butter - truly the best and most delicious smelling range of nappy cream / all purpose moisturising balm.  I am never without a little pot of it - current favourite scents include Narwhales and Unicorns, Warm Vanilla Cake and Blueberry Crumble.  The little sample pots are the perfect size to throw into a handbag or nappy bag.

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!