A Quick Healthy Snack

OK, so generally when I'm looking for a quick healthy snack for the boys or myself I grab a piece of fruit or a hand full of nuts ( the little peeps have a thing for cashews at the moment), but the other day I stumbled upon  a recipe for no bake energy balls, so I thought this afternoon that I would give them a try.

I suspect that there might be some difference in measurement between US measuring implements and Aussie ones, because mine turned out a whole lot lighter, and seemed to be not quite right. Of course, it could just be the cook in my kitchen! ;) I HAVE been inspired to try again though with different ingredients. One of these days...

Hope you have a wonderful weekend planned - mine is shaping up to have paracetamol, tissues and the 3 little peeps tucked up in their beds. I guess I should get to bed before another volley of taking temps, doling out medicine and wiping noses starts again. Looking forward to catching up with what everyone else has been up to soon!!!


S xxx

Date Caramel Coconut Cake.

Today we had a surprise birthday party for my Mother in Law. She is a treasure, so when my SIL asked me to make a cake, I quickly put my thinking cap on. After making a short list of cakes, I called in reinforcements (aka the man of the house).

This is what we came up with.

A gorgeous friend shared the recipe with me a while ago (Thanks Ruth!), but this is the first time that I have made it!!! I am really quite pleased with how it turned out. It was totally delish!

Hope you have all had a great weekend!

S&R xxx


Partying here and here.

Scents of Autumn

Why is it that we associate certain aromas with particular things... like summer and fresh cut grass or watermelon, or freezing cold temps with wood smoke (from the fire) or hot chocolate? A favourite perfume and a time in your life (that would be Fire and Ice cool  and Eau de Eden while I was at Uni, and the Beverly Hills 90210 fragrance from early high school). For me Autumn conjures thoughts and memories of the scent of leaves falling (and leaf fights! JOY) and apples - mostly ones that are being made into pie or crumble.

So today was one of those days where I was having the aroma match the season. I stewed up some apple and turned it into crumble. I love the golden brown crispness of the crumble topping, the cinnamon, and the fresh tartness of the apple. They just seem to go together like a hand in a glove.

What are your favourite scents? What do they remind you of?

Christmas, er... saussage?

This is what happens when you let the man of the house loose in the kitchen.
And odd mix of sausage casing, and Christmas pudding mix.

He got the idea of everyone having their own little puddings for Christmas instead of having a big one to chop up. I think they are totally cute. We did a trial run the other day, and lets just say that they were completely delicious. No actual recipe, he just got an ingredients list, and figured out the proportions that he wanted in it. (So glad that HE can do math... I am hopeless at math with cooking!)

This is the test one hanging up to cool. The pictures are a bit dodgy. Bad lighting inside as it was just on evening (and Mr. Kelp wanted to serve it up and eat it, so while I was toying with getting the little tripod, he took a snap of this and started cutting into it...).

Packaged and waiting...
I can't wait to try out the final result, after they have matured for a few weeks :)

Our Mr. Happy Turns 1!

Little Clam's 1st Birthday was last week...

So I made this huge # 1 out of a large sheet of cardboard, and scrunched up squares of tissue paper, to hang above the fireplace. I also made more of these pompoms to decorate inside with - but blue ones to go with the yellow and orange this time.

 Mr. Kelp has always referred to Little Clam as Mr. Happy, so requested a Mr. Happy cake for him. We made this one from a round vanilla cake, almost an entire box of fondant icing, and some styrofoam for the hand an feet.

I made these cute bug & bee biscuits using a recipe that Mr. Kelp's grandmother gave me last Christmas. They were too cute, and rather tasty. Unfortunately for some of the guests, we forgot to put them out during lunch, but they did come out later and buzz around for a while. This picture above was about half of them.

Jelly salad  - for something a little bit different. I'm not sure if the kids or the adults liked it more! (The Jelly had grated carrot and crushed pineapple in it).

Between the pass the parcel, the treasure hunt in the back yard (where we made everyone look for Duplo blocks, which they then redeemed for a prize... chocolates for the grown ups and books of stickers for the kids), the presents, food, and then play time in the big sandpit we built last year, we had a fun but full day. Thank you to all the family who came from near and far for helping us celebrate and making it a wonderful day! :)

My Creative Space - Decorations and Celebrations

My Creative Space today is filled with...
Tissue Paper pompoms in orange, yellow and pink.
(found here)

This is just a hand full of them!

Black Forrest Cake.
(found here)

 (What's left after lunch!)

Roast Pumpkin Dip.

Mini Quiche.
(Just one platter of them - there were too many for this)

Some treats for me!
 (The one on the left is from Harrods, and the one on the right...someone who knows my thing for ginger!)

And lots of Love.

Why?

Because it's my birthday :)

For more Creativity, head over to Kirsty's!

A Plan...

Easy Housewifery Meal Plan

 I'm trying to be more organised. Honest. I have been trialing something that I found on someone else's blog, and so far it seems to be working!
A while ago I was reading Messyfish, and found this idea. I thought "That's great!". I have been sick of trying to think of something to cook each evening, and would often ask Mr. Kelp (who was still at work!) what he would like for dinner. The usual comment from him was "I'm easy!", so I'd scratch my head and rummage in the fridge/cupboard/recipe drawer till I found something that at the very least resembled a meal. Not satisfactory. So when I saw Mrs. Messyfish's Housewifery plan, I was set.

Then for the fun bit... drawing it all up and adding colour. I LOVE colour! I used to write in my day book at school (my plan of what to teach each day for the week that corresponded with my programs) using a different colour from my Staedtler triplus pen set each day, so this was a piece of cake! I have only been following it in earnest for about a two weeks (we had a few minor alterations) and I am loving it! Thought I'd share it with you. (If you see something that you would like the recipe to, leave me a comment and I will see what I can do :) )

The postman gave me cake

Secret recipe for mini sultana cakes

Look what the postie brought me this week!

A recipe of ease and, oh so much deliciousness!
We visited some fabulous people a little while ago, and the little cakes she served were wonderful. Jellyfish ate two, and would have eaten more had Mama Seaweed and Daddy Kelp let him! When I later asked our hostess for the recipe, she said "...I will send you a copy of my special recipe in the mail."
Oh beautiful lady, you are a treasure! Thank you so much. We love you (and your sense of humour!).
Mwah!

Cooking Mini Sultana Cupcakes.

So here is how it turned out...
The cooking process in progress.

The finished product. Mr. Kelp said that he liked "B's" cupcakes better. Hmmm. I wonder if she has a secret additive? :)

P.S  I thought I'd send you some little note cards made from my Imperial vintage wallpaper stash.  
Background fabric "Church Flowers" in the Nicey Jane range.