A Day At The Fair

Well, okay an hour at the Fair. Hmmm... an hour at the school fete? One of the local primary schools had their Fair today but to be honest, it didn't really meet what I would think of as "Fair" standards, even calling it a school fete would be being kind. There were a few stalls - maybe 8 or so local ladies who sell one thing or another through party plan, you know: Tupperware and jewellery and wooden toys/puzzles - a couple of school run stalls like one with over-priced plants and a sponge throw stall and a bouncy castle. That was about it. Oh, I almost forgot, there were some food stalls out the back but to be honest they didn't do alot for me - no bain maries to keep food warm, no fridges to keep it cool and I had a few issues with the general hygiene too. It's going to be about 35˚C here today and I wouldn't be choosing to eat the food being served. It's a bit sad really - there isn't a whole lot to do at Red Dirt Central and with a little forethought, planning and some decent organisation this could have been a terrific money spinner for the school. The last school fete (for one of the other schools) was not long after we arrived in town and I swear the entire town turned out for it. That one was well run, well organised and a really enjoyable event. Oh well, at least the kids and I got out and had a wander round for an hour or so before it got too hot today.

Offspring #1 on the bouncy castle

#1 has been so tired lately. He doesn't have a daytime sleep anymore but he tends to need just a little bit more than he gets at night. He goes to bed around 7.15/7.30pm and wakes up around 6am. I have been trying to get him to have a nap for about a week but no luck so after this mornings efforts when he refused to get off the bouncy castle and came home in disgrace I told him he would be having a sleep after lunch no arguments! Funnily enough after the usual "I don't wanna have a sleep" he toddled off and I haven't heard from him since. When I peeked in a while ago he was sound asleep, even with #2 awake and tearing around the place like a madwoman! I admit that I cheated and gave him lunch a bit early at 11.30 in an effort to have him awake again at a reasonable hour so that we might get him to back to bed at a semi-decent hour tonight. It's all Catch-22 really. No extra sleep and he's a grumpy little monster, sneak in a nap and he'll be bouncing off the walls till all hours. When it cools down later we might have to take the dog up to the park and throw some tennis balls around to wear everyone out.

Easy and Yummy

Chocolate Chop Cookies
from Family Circle Step-by-Step Biscuits and Slices, Copyright 1994

Makes 24

150g unsalted butter I used salt reduced, it's what I had in the fridge
¼ cup soft brown sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1½ cups self raising flour
1 cup (200g) choc dots oops, threw in the whole packet (230g)

Preheat oven to moderate, 180˚C. Line a 32 x 28cm biscuit tray with baking paper.

Using electric beaters, beat butter, sugars and yolk in a small mixing bowl until light and creamy. Add essence and beat until combines.

Transfer mixture to a large mixing bowl; add flour and two-thirds of the choc dots. Using a metal spoon, stir until ingredients are just combined.

Using fingers, press mixture together to form a soft dough. Roll one tablespoon of mixture at a time into a ball.

Press remaining chocolate dots firmly on top of balls. Arrange on prepared tray, allowing room for spreading. Bake 15 minutes or until crisp and lightly browned. Cool biscuits on tray.

Storage: Stored biscuits in an airtight container for up to three days.
Hint: Choc dots are smaller versions of choc bits. Use choc bits in place of choc dots if preferred. Alternatively, use half white chocolate and any selection of chopped nuts.

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I thought I would kill two birds with one stone yesterday and make something yummy for my blog that I could then take to scrapbooking for snacking on later. They went down a treat with the ladies at scrapbooking, and also with the family at home.

These cookies are so easy to make and really yummy to eat. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate chip cookies - those of you who know me in real life know of my total addiction to chocolate so may be surprised by this seemingly rash statement. Generally I find them too dry and they don't have enough chocolate, or else the chocolate is cheap cooking chocolate not good quality yummo eating chocolate. But these! Well, they are choc full of chocolate (the quality is up to you), crunchy but not too dry and you can make them as big or as small as you like to eat your cookies.

Just for the record, I used Choc Bits - Cadbury have bought some out and they are really nice, lots sweeter than the other brand and really "chocolate-y". I didn't keep any aside to press into the top of the cookies. I have tried it before but the choc bits are too big to do this without the uncooked cookies falling apart so now I just throw the lot in the mix. If you are cooking with kids this is a terrifc recipe - simple to make, only a few ingredients, easy measurements and a really yummy bowl to lick afterwards!

A Packet Dinner!

Yep! I resorted to a packet dinner last night. On my fortnightly menu plan (yeah, I know totally anal!) I had planned to have lamb chops for dinner last night but have been unable to get hold of them for the last 2 weeks. One of the drawbacks of living in Red Dirt Central - popn 13,000 - is that we have Coles and Woolworths for our food supplies and that's it. No butcher or specialist meat shop like Lennards, no green-grocer or vegetable market, no specialty dessert shops like The Cheesecake Shop. Just Coles and Woolies.

Don't get me wrong, after living in a smaller town than this I think that having the choice of both is terrific. They carry a wide variety, try really hard to cater to a fairly multi-cultural poplulation and generally I can find what I want or at least a substitute to use in it's place. But... when they can't get hold of something or they have just plain run out, like lamb chops, you are reminded that you are a long way from the metro area. Anyway, while doing the middle-week vege/bread/milk shop (I shop fortnightly and do a mini-catch-up shop in the 'middle week') on Wednesday I found a packet mix for chicken that looked decent. I knew I had lots of chicken in the freezer and since there were still no lamb chops I decided it would do for dinner on Thursday.

I admit that to me it tasted a little "packet-y" but Hubby and Offspring #1 loved it and have requested it again. I added more vegetables than the recipe on the back of the packet - some brocolli and cauliflower as well as an extra carrot - but for ease, convenience and general taste it wasn't too bad. Even better, there are enough leftovers for the boys to eat it for dinner tonight. I'll cook some rice to go with it, and Offspring #2 has some vegetables in the fridge ready to go. I'll be running from a doctors appointment at 5pm to scrapbooking at 6.30 so I think I'll probably make do with a piece of peanut butter toast somewhere in the middle, as long as the doctor is running on time.

Question Of The Day: Do you ever resort to packet meals? What kind?

Scrap, Scrap, Scrappin'

My local arts and crafts group runs scrapbooking sessions (better known as crops) on a monthly basis. We have an all-day crop from 9am to 5pm one Sunday a month and a night crop from 6.30pm till 11.30pm one Friday a month. It's lots of fun - nice to get away from the house and the kids, lovely to chat with other people who enjoy the same hobby and great to get some fresh ideas. I decided that today I would finish off a few bits and pieces from Sunday's crop and get organised for Friday - decide what photos to scrap, choose cardstock, embellishments, etc and generally put it altogether so that on Friday night I can just get on with it. I have learnt my lesson well after turning up to one with lots of equipment but no real idea of what I wanted to do. That lack of planning saw me complete 3 or 4 pages only to come home and pull them apart because they were horrible. After they were re-done they looked much better and I learnt to get myself organised before the event so that I'm not wasting the few hours I get each month.

I'm really pleased with the pages I finished this week, as well as how many I got done. Two double pages and two single pages - I was really on a roll! Here are the two single pages.

Offspring #1 with the bike he received for Christmas (the photos on the page came out a little dark when re-photographed but you get the general idea.)

And Offspring #2 learning the domestic arts LOL!

Question Of The Day: What is your hobby/past-time/favourite way to pass the time

My day

5.20am - Alarm goes off.

5.24 - Stumble from the bed and sneak down to the living room to dress in exercise gear

5.26am - Leave home for walk

6.08 - Arrive home. Wake hubby, make the day's bottles for Offspring #2, begin breakfast prep

6.12 - Offspring #2 calls from her room. Change her and bring her out to the kitchen, carry on with breakfast prep

6.13 - Offspring #1 wanders into kitchen rubbing his eyes and complaining that everyone is tooooo loud

6.14 - Hubby wanders into kitchen and asks if I ironed his shirt for today.

6.15 - Resist urge to run screaming from the house and instead hand breakfast prep to Hubby and go to iron his shirt (he was going to iron it but I offered)

6.18 - Get half way through ironing Hubby's shirt and realise that it has a great big oil stain across it. Get new shirt from ironing basket and begin again.

6.20 - Realise that I have only been awake one hour, that I won't get to bed until about 10pm tonight and that is a really long time away.

Yes, things did improve after that - we shopped for some vegies, had morning tea with a friend, posted the thankyou notes for #2's birthday presents, came home and had lunch, #1 did some painting (#2 did her very first drawing - some lines and dots that were brilliantly executed!), vacuumed, cleaned the toilet and bathroom, did several loads of washing and then a friend called in to tell me they are leaving town. Bummer :( In fact, really big bummer.

It's Wednesday so Hubby is at golf. We're having tuna mornay for dinner because it's easy and both the kids like it so no fighting at the dinner table tonight. It is made and in the fridge ready to go into the oven where it can cook while I'm bathing the kids and getting organised. I'm feeling a bit sad so may have to seek comfort from food - luckily there is an apple pie in the freezer and I just bought cream (really to make quiche but it only needs half a cup or so, not the whole carton). Big plans tonight - ironing in front of tv! All those loads of washing are dry and have turned into baskets of ironing. If I look on the bright side I could consider it an upper body workout LOL.

Question Of The Day: I've only been doing this a couple of weeks and am running out questions already! So my question is: have you got any questions that I could use?