Help yourself

I think my favourite family meals are the ones when we sit down at the table and have an assortment of fillings in the middle and we put together our own plates.
This is the way we have sushi, burgers, salads, tacos and PANCAKES! Yum. Everyone can tuck in and add what they want.

Good for little people to have fun choosing their own meal. I find it is a pretty good way of getting them to eat some things they wouldn't usually be keen on trying.

So, I'm wondering? What are the family meals you enjoy most and what do you like to eat on your pancakes? Got any new suggestions for us to try? Our selection is typically lemon, sugar, butter, golden syrup, cream and strawberries.

A2K & Why you will want to visit it.

A2K = Allotment to Kitchen. Shaheen (or Mangocheeks as she previously was known as) is one of my favourite bloggers. All the way over in Scotland (but soon to be relocating to Wales), she produces fresh produce from her garden and fresh culinary ideas. Whats more - its all vegetarian.

I so want to sample everything she makes because it looks looks so good and she has such a good idea of healthy and yummy food.

She is brilliant. You will be inspired. You will wish that you could grow your own food. You will wish that you could make so many good meals. You will want to try some of her recipes.

Her blog is well written and has lovely photos. She has so many new ideas.

Her site is so concise and easy to follow. She has conversion charts, a search index for recipes. And there is a side column to tell you what she is growing in her allotment.

I dont understand why she dosent have a book deal yet? SOMEONE give this woman a book deal!

My Welsh Dragon Soup (Leek, Potoato & chilli minus the chilli cause I don't think the kids or breastfed bub would appreciate that), with Welsh Dragon Chilli Shortbread (minus the chilli once again and the Dragon - so I picked a random 'interesting' shape from my cookie cutter collection. I think it is suppose to be Santa's Sack. I told the kids it was a rabbit, because thats sounds similar to Rarebit and... well I suppose you can see my attempt at clever word play even if the kids had no idea).
Heres the link to the original A2K one;)

New Quilt

is coming along nicely.

Enjoying that I can find unstressful moments to do little bits of it every day or so.

Vegan Sausie Rolls

The first time I made sausage rolls and I made meat free ones! Yea for vegetarian sausage rolls!!

I enjoy good food but I'm not the type to want to spend ages or work on my technical skills in the kitchen, so I try out or create recipes that are simple in ingrediants and preperation.
I looked in my cupboard and made these "sausage" rolls for lunch with a vegan friend during the week. Quick, easy and yum. If you don't eat meat (or even if you do) I think you should give these a try and let me know if you did!

Here is my recipe for Nutolene Vegan Sausage Rolls.

2 sheets of flakey pastry (check its made with vegetable fat and not butter).

1 can of Nutolene
1 grated carrot
1-2 Tablespoon finely diced red capsicum
Half small onion finely diced
1-2 teaspoon chopped parsley and basil (I keep the freeze dry in a jar stuff in the cupboard so 'fresh' herbs are always on hand).
Salt and cracked black pepper.

Set aside pastry sheets.
Mush all the ingrediants together well.
Divide mixture in half and place one half onto a sheet of pastry. Spread onto the pastry sheet so that its about 1-2 inches from the edge, but the length is taken all the way to the ends - think sushi and how its rolled. And then roll it up and cut to sizes you like.

Do this again with the 2nd sheet and the 2nd half of the mixture.

Place on a baking tray a sheet of non stick paper/baking paper and lay out the rolls.
Bake in oven. My expensive but crap gas oven is quite unreliable with temperatures, but I'd say a moderate temp of around 160 −180 should be about right and bake for around 30 −50 mins depending on big you cut the rolls and how finely you diced the onion! (which is the only part that needs to really cook properly other than the pastry).

I made these the day before and reheated half of them and then put out warmed up ones and room temp ones. The verdict was that they taste good cold or hot. We dipped in tomato sauce but I think a homemade relish would be really nice!

Happy Mother and days.

It has been over a month since I posted. I had been posting 2 −3 times some weeks up until the end of March, but time has now been consumed with LOVE and 'home duties' :)
Our little girl is lovely. So lovely. We were momentarily tempted to go for another one! But reality is 3 is enough for us. I feel so blessed to have got a daughter after 2 (beautiful) boys. Another girl would be so sweet but having kids is hard work!

I have been working on a cot quilt/play mat for Baby S and was quite close to having all the blocks sewn together when I realised someone had messed up the order (I had them lying on the work room floor) and tried to put them back in place. They did a neat job of covering up their mess, so much so I didnt notice something wasn't right until I was almost done. So lots of unpicking and trying to figure out how they went together. Typically when I quilt I make up random patterns with basic shapes so it's a bit more fiddling about to make sure the blocks are placed in a way pleasing to the eye. Someone once told me to take a photo when you get the placement right, but I had ignored the advise this time.

I must get it finished soon though as Baby S is already 6 weeks old and growing like a weed. She needs something proper to lay on for her tummy time :)



We made a trip to Kyneton last weekend. My first time there. They have lots of sculptures around the town. Really great to see. And the bank had this wonderful original facade.

The next day was Mothers Day and I was treated to an amazing breakfast (Sam is pretty damn good at these) of eggs benedict on bagels with hash browns, spinach and coffee. Big M was excited to present me with his choice from the mothers day stall at school - a manicure set.

There was also the surprise of me and my baby on the front page of the sunday paper! I wont go into details about that right now - but it all made for a really great Mothers Day.


ETA I edited this post from a few weeks back and some glitch has caused it repost itself under todays date. The posts following this one should be
Linen & Silk,
Matou en peluche and the most recent is Dear Diary,

Dear Diary,

Sometimes I wonder why I am blogging. I think mostly it is simply to put down some thoughts, record some of the things I have been doing, to share with other who are like minded - or challenge my own thoughts about something and to sometimes I hope offer some inspiration to the odd reader or 2.
I don't really feel I have the patience or time to write really well. Some blogs I read are written really well and are fun and informative. Some are lovely to look at because of the beautiful pictures and well designed layout.
I have some favourites to read which I will share on another post soon.

As for my own blog. I have decided to jujsh it up a smidge. Because sometimes I even bore myself with it. I don't really have any great ideas of what to do with it and dont probably have the time to do much anyhow. But I have changed my font. I know its the sort of font that would really F some people off, but so what? I'm giving it a try. Creative fun - a bit Spike Milligan I reckon.

matou en peluche

Love these new prints coming my way in the post.

www.matouenpeluche.typepad.com/

Linen & Silk

We have been given some nice things for our little girl since she was born 7 weeks ago, but what I love the most are the handmade things.

An aunt and uncle made Baby S a book (about her and a robot buddy), a friend sent her a sweet tiny knitted cardy (already outgrown but being kept for her to dress her teddies and dolls in), and last weekend another friend gave her this silk and linen set from her own label lalahiprism (she is also one of the clever people behind the fabulous kidswear range ZAMO).

It should be the right size for her next summer. I'm looking forward to seeing it on her and tying up the drawstring on those pants :)