My Birthday Cake

Since I have started cooking this year I thought I would break our normal Cheesecake tradition and make my own cake this year.

I wanted to make something simple yet pretty..

Thanks to Betty Crocker this was so easy to do.

I made the mixture as per the packet and then seperated it into 4 bowls. To each bowl I added a few drops of colours.
Red. Pink. Purple. Yellow.

With these bowls I then added one at a time to the baking dish to create a rainbow effect when cut.

I wanted to use white kit kats around the outside but couldnt find them… So I made my own white chocolate shards..
I used pink coloured frosting, this helped keep the chocolate shars around the edge as well as the sprinkles and smarties on top.

It was perfectly pretty, pink and girly..

With the surprise rainbow inside..

What do you think of my cake?

How Happy Birthdays change..

38..!

That is ALMOST 40..

I started the day with a text that said..
A few years older than 21 I’m guessing!

This got me thinking about the pre kids days when birthdays were entirely your own..

Instead here is the run down on the last 24 hours..

A bank loan approved to refinance credit cards with that we have endlessly tried to get through for the last 6 months, we kept the bank manager on side by her seeing our son vomit all over the floor…
Caring for a little boy who has been spiking 40 degree temperatures after the panadol or nurofen are wearing off about the 3 hour mark each time..
A young girl who chose to take over 3 hours to go to sleep last night..

I wish I had the Go the F&ck to sleep book as I would of read it over and over again to her..

Especially when she woke her brother around the 9pm mark… Grrrrrrr

I declared after 10pm that I was cancelling my birthday, no presents, dont say Happy Birthday to me – because I am NOT HAPPY!

So this morning I was greeted with spiking temperatures to dose and a daughter who wasnt talking to me.. No good morning, no anything…

Arrrrgghhhhhhhh

The day did get better with loads of well wishes and nice messages and phone calls.

Here are 38 things I have learnt since my last birthday

1. Never renovate
2. Money doesnt make happiness but it creates stress
3. Less is More
4. Sometimes it is a short term friend who you have the most in common with
5. You are never to old to start something new
6. If you believe you can do anything
7. The mind is one very powerful tool
8. Dont talk politics with our family
9. I have learnt to say NO
10. I love being home
11. I could toss out half the things in my house and still want for nothing
12. I have missed the practical side of Vet Nursing but not the clients..
13. I enjoy cooking/baking
14. Persistence gets you there
15. Good prevails
16. Food create memories
17. I now like Ice Tea
18. Homework is for parents also
19. You have to advocate for your kids
20. Clove oil is a great thing to use
21. To not do my own waxing
22. Recipes arent hard to follow
23. Having someone to inspire you gives you hope
24. Very few people do deals with a hand shake any more
25. When using plastic plates and cutlery buy good quality
26. Everytime I mop the floor the lawns also get mowed grrrrrrrrr
27. White is much easier to keep clean than I thought
28. Matching bra and knickers makes you feel sexy in your own soul with out others knowing
29. All kids behaviours are the same, some mums just say more about it than others
30. I love dancing more than I realised
31. Why is it so easy to increase a credit card limit yet to decrease it is like pulling teeth
32. Smart phones make you feel very dumb when you first get them
33. Kids school shoes should be made out of elastic and stretxh as they grow so fast
34. Socks should have a pairs clip for when washing
35. Lego should come with super glue
36. Barbies should come with hair detangler spray
37. I would never be 21 again
38. This year I am making it more about caring for ME

New life

Here such a simple thing to grow in your garden…

Spring onions

I brought a bunch from woolies and put them straight into the ground… They are now growing big and strong and available to use in salad any time.

Below them I have sprinkled some chilli seeds. We like some nice hot chilli for spagetti or in a curry.. Normally I am a brown hand not a green thumb but it looks like I have got some wonderful chilli babies coming through.

We have also had cherry tomatoes recently but they died off… I weeded out the box and it looks very much like there might be some new little tomatoe plants coming through.. I am not game to pull these out yet. I will let them grow up a bit bigger but fingers crossed this might be the next seasons tomatoe plants..?

I will keep you up dated on my garden growth..

Strawberry flowers!

A few weeks have gone on now and very slowly the plants are getting bigger.
It is one of those things that you dont really notice until you look back on photos and go..
Wow look how big they have grown!

This week has been very exciting as it brought the arrival of 2 little strawberry flowers!
I am not saying we will be harvesting strawberries but strawberry flowers is a great sign that they might fruit?

I look forward to being able to make spag bol with my fresh basil and thyme.

As well as picking our growing capicum that are fruiting

It is great watching your garden grow.

Making my garden bigger

I was sooooo inspired by my friend and her gardening ideas that I decided to get a larger tub and expand my garden..

I have found it very good for the soul to check out your plants. Pull dead leaves off. Water and watch grow.

While watching Better Homes and Gardens a few weeks ago I saw on there that during the cooler months is the ideal time to grow strawberries.
Our son LOVES strawberries.. Infact during the holidays last year we did a family trip to the tablelands to Shaylee Strawberry farm. We all loved looking to see who had the biggest strawberry. Who could eat the most strawberries off the bushes.. Who could collect the most. To taste the freshness in their red skins was so warming..

So

I decided that we would give strawberries a go. My sister looked up for me what plants well with them to help them grow and to keep the bugs away, companion planting and so the collection was brought.

A nice place where the sun shines was found.

And the planting was done

Several different kinds of strawberries.. My Mother in Law says they wont grow but it wont stop us trying….
Sage, marigolds, lettuce, thyme in with our strawberries….

They were watered in and given LOVE… Now time to grow. As you can see this one is significantly bigger than the first one but we have a fair few strawberries in there to grow. I have put sugar cane mulch in there also to keep the fruit off the dirt..? Apparently this helps.. We will see…

Grow little plants grow……

My garden begins

It is very strange what you give out and what you get back..

Some time ago a friend of mine had her husband away and so I kindly offered to bring her kids home from school and cook her dinner. This way they would all be fed and we could have a catch up on life.

It was a great evening and dinner was great..

You dont ever do anything like this expecting some thing in return.
The following week end she checked if we were home and arrived with a huge pot, potting mix and a bunch of small plants.
She knows that I am new to cooking and so she thought that my own little herb garden would be inspiring in my experimenting with tastes..

So the beginning of my garden was started.
Capsicum, basil, parsely and marigolds to keep the bugs away..
I think there is something else in there? Starting with M…. ?

Does anyone else grow herbs in their gardens? What are your gardening secrets?

Cooking – Lava cakes

I was trying to find a recipe that created the most wonderful chocolately single serves with gooey centres. Something like you would see on Masterchef..

I found these great Lava cakes.

They were single yet yummy.
Very rich but worth the taste.

I will next time make them with milk chocolate.
Also in the recipe dont be tricked.. It says 2 eggs and 2 yokes.. Yes 4 yokes and 2 whites..

They cooked up great. I did think the problem would be turning them out. But with a plate and quick turning hands my oiled and floured ramekins worked just fine.

When you cut into them the hot chocolate sauces ooozed out…

Do you have a yummy recipe like this to share?

Cooking – EASY Ham & Cheese scrolls

I have been reading on a lot of pages lately how people have been making Ham and cheese scrolls. I must say honestly my first thought was wow that is hard work.. But then I worked out how simple they actually are..

My secret is
Pampas puff pastry
Ham
grated cheese..

Lay out your sheets of pastry and cover in ham and cheese

Roll these up nice and tight. slicing them into sections, laying them as pictured

Cook on 200 for 20 minutes

These were very easy and super yummy. In some I also put a spread of mustard with the ham and cheese.

I also made Nutella ones… Mmmmmmmm

Do you make these? If so what do you put in them?

May challenge – Day 7 – Laundry

Our laundry is one of those places in our house that is never tidy. There are piles in there everywhere. I use to have the washing sooo under control. These days I would rather spend time with the kids than sorting washing and laundry.

Very slowly we are putting some systems back in place, like with our school uniforms.

I am completing this task on day 8 & I am happy to say a medium bag of used bottles, sprays, sock clips?, old sponges, rags as well as washing to be done was all cleared out of the laundry.

The floor was vacuumed in there and I even set the steam mop onto it with some wonderful clove oil in the water. You cant quite see but the floor was the new floorobe from our bedroom.

I would love to redesign my laundry, with a folding bench and more usable cupboard spaces. The cupboard under the sink is never used, as is the top shelf in my high cupboard as it is too high.. I think I might have a play on the Bunnings laundry planner, as it is free to dream.

But as of now my laundry is cleaned and sorted for another day, my washing is catching up and Day 7 is now complete.

How does your laundry look?

May challenge – Day 3 – Kitchen bench

I dont know about in your house but in ours we have shortened or bench and yet it still has this magnetic force on it that makes everything get drawn to it. Books, homework, magazines, containers, hair ties, drinking cups… Infact anything..

All of these things already have their own homes but have escaped to make our breakfast bar completely full and unable to be used. It seems sooo much easier to dump things there and to put them away. We are all guilty of this..

A quick collection and re group and things are returned to place and the bench can even be wiped down.

It is much nicer to now walk in, clear out the front, sorted entrance and a fresh cleared bench.

I once again had a small bag that I tossed with random unwanted papers.
I sorted so bills to be filed.
Pens into the drawer.
Toys in the right rooms.
School notices on our notice board and calendar inside my pantry.
Brushes and hair ties to the bathroom.

How did you go finding 1 thing to toss today? What did you toss?