Babycinos

I have been meaning to post for a while about our favourite local cafe, where the food is amazing, the coffee very good and the service exceptional. Ben, the barista, is very friendly, and always has a smile no matter how busy he is. The girls love going there, in large part because of the babycinos that Ben makes.

They are pretty special. They are also free, which I find amazing given that some places charge $2.50 for ones that are not nearly as good.

It means we go a lot more often than we otherwise would. And that the kids are happy while I drink my coffee. Win win!

Spaghetti face

We had spaghetti bolognese tonight. We have it reasonably often, partly because I have an emotional attachment to it arising from it being the dish I felt most comfortable making when I first moved out of home, and partly because it gives me a good opportunity to engage in some veggie smuggling.

And because it provides a great opportunity for the standard spaghetti photo. Which just goes to show that you're never to young to appreciate good food.

Note: the picture is of baby Ella because it's far less embarrassing than a photo of my spaghetti face!

Homemade Hommus

Here is a picture of the hommus we made the other day. I made it without garlic because Zoe doesn't like "spicy" foods. I also used unhulled tahini, which gave it a yummy nutty flavour.

It was very popular with the kids. My in-laws liked it too - at least, they ate it! I didn't see any surreptitious spits into tissues.
I liked it as it was, but I think next time I will add garlic, though I'll cook it first.

I put one of my homemade crackers in the picture just to prove I made them!

Sushi

The girls and I made some this morning. Jessica wanted to take some to kinder for lunch. She got lots of oohs and aahs. I love sushi - but since we moved I haven't found a favourite place yet - I'm just not out at lunchtime much these days.

Ella thought it was good too - minus the nori of course!

Caramelised onion

A delicious, highly under-rated food. Ella, who at 6 months is finding all food an adventure, gave it a 5 star rating. Big smiles :-)

Jelly on a plate

Just for fun - the girls liked it. A bit difficult to get out of the (metal) mold - a fine line between enough hot water to loosen it and starting to melt the jelly.

Yum...

Jessica: "Look Mum - Ella's eating lamb for dinner!"

Photo evidence

Here is proof of Ella eating. Pumpkin risotto - tasty :-)

Of course, I got a reminder of how messy teaching a baby to eat is. Pumpkin everywhere, then a
pumpkin-y milk chuck later that necessitated a change of clothes. Hmmm - the things you do as a mum. Not one of the nicer culinary experiences.

First foods

My baby Ella had her first food today. That's if you don't count the sucks on the Calippo icypole, the licks of my apple the other day, and the paper she ingested over the weekend (complete with dark green texta).

But her first bona fide food in mouth was tonight. I made a baked pumpkin risotto, and as she was sitting on my lap during dinner, she looked (as usual) pretty interested, so I thought "Why not?" I gave her a bit of pumpkin and she was not at all displeased, I must say. It was pretty mushy, and she mouthed it quite well.

I will put a post up very soon about babies starting solids - I have done a thing with my older girls called Baby Led Weaning (basically self feeding) which has been very successful and I mean to do again. I'll let you know how it goes. Prepare yourself for photos of baby face smeared with food!

Pizza

Homemade pizza tonight - quick and easy, and a good way to use leftovers. My girls "don't like" the roast beef and baked potato and sweet potato we had last night, but they ate it on pizza!

My bread maker makes doing the bases so easy, and they taste fantastic. It's as simple as putting the flour, water, oil, salt and yeast in the bread maker, let it do its thing for 50 minutes, then divide the dough in half, roll it out, slap on some toppings, then put in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

I often just do tomato paste, dried herbs, sliced tomatoes, rocket and basil from my garden, shaved ham and plenty of shredded mozzarella cheese. Yummo!

Kids in the kitchen

We made scones today. Or rather, Jessica and Zoe, my daughters made scones. I stood there and told them what to do - I wasn't allowed to actually touch them.

We started off by reviewing the kitchen rules. These are courtesy of my sister, who has a knack for putting things simply.

Then we put on aprons, collected ingredients and utensils and got to work. We used the "cheat's" recipe with cream and lemonade, because hot little fingers have trouble rubbing butter into flour without melting it. They also get bored very easily, and don't tend to have the staying power needed for rubbing.

The biggest challenge making scones with kids is preventing overhandling of the dough. My high school home economics teacher told me to treat scones as though they were made of GTN. Imagine mixing a bowl of explosives - it gives you a light hand! Given that my kids are girls though, not boys, I didn't think they would understand the concept of things that go bang. I told them instead that they had to be careful not to pop the bubbles in the lemonade. That worked pretty well. Here are some action shots:

Mixing - go gently!

Measuring

Cutting out the scones

 The dough got kneaded fairly unevenly. I was taught to fold it over, turn clockwise a quarter turn, fold it in half again, turn again - seven times, no more. That didn't quite happen but we managed okay. Then we cut them out and put them on the tray, brushed them with milk, and they were ready to cook. I did do the putting in the oven part - at 2 and 4 they're not quite ready for that!

They did everything else themselves, though. And the scones turned out quite well. I have to admit that I don't often have heaps of success with scones - I've never been the sort who can whip up a batch of light fluffy high scones as I hear the creak of the garden gate. It makes me feel a bit of a failure as a housewife. But my daughters did well. And they did it all without any tantrums or fights, too!