On the home stretch...

 I've finished all the squares for this blanket and have started joining them. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to join them so I googled "how to join granny squares" and the first link that came up was for one of my favourite crochet blogs - Attic 24. Lucy's instructions are so clear and easy to understand, so that's the way I'm joining all 96 of my little granny squares. Lucy's technique gives a nice neat finish. I'm joining them all in rows vertically - on the picture below the first to rows on the right have been joined. So I'll continue along each vertical join, then do all the horizontals. Lastly I'll need to add a border and an edge. I'm thinking of doing another couple of rows of white treble clusters (is that what they're called?) for the border and then a scalloped edge (also in white). I don't really want to add any more colour. Any other suggestions?

Here are the squares all laid out. I tried not to agonise too much over the placement - which is not easy for me! I didn't want to repeat the same rows and I also tried to make sure I didn't have too much of one colour clustered together. So this is it - I WILL NOT move the squares around anymore :) I'm so glad to have it finished. I don't love it as much as I originally did, mainly  because I have found so many colour combinations (and wool suppliers!) that I love more since getting back into crochet & knitting. But I have loved the process. It's so nice to sit and crochet when I'm stressed - I've realised that maybe I should use a larger size hook when I'm stressed though as it shows the tension of my crochet haha! So I can't wait to start my next blanket - so many colour combinations and patterns to choose from, but I'm thinking a boyish blanket is in order and I already have a plan for it. I will be finishing this one before I start another one though - I've always been great at starting things but moving onto another more exciting project before the previous one is finished. I don't want all the hours that have gone into this project wasted - each square took me around 20-30 minutes to do, so that's a LOT of hours! As you can see, I have a lot of loose ends to work in too - ugh! Next time I'll try to do them as I go - not looking forward to such a tedious job, but it has to be done :(

So I'll be back soon with a finished blanket to show - and some better pics. I've been using my iPhone to take most of my photos lately (like the ones in this post) because it's so much more convenient than my DSLR and sometimes convenience wins out over quality :)

Hummingbird Slice

I can't remember where this recipe comes from, but it's become a fave in our house the past couple of years. I've made it so many times now I can almost do it without looking at the recipe card. It's a great recipe if you have a couple of ripe bananas that need to be used. In fact I think that's why I first tried baking it - I was getting a bit sick of banana bread. Never thought I'd be sick of banana bread! Actually, I'm not sure if I've posted my recipe for banana bread here. I will check the archives and add it if I haven't already :)

Anyway, onto Hummingbird Slice!

Ingredients
1 cup self raising flour
1/3 cup plain flour
1tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup dessicated coconut
450g can crushed pineapple (unsweetened), drained
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp finely grated orange zest (substitute for lemon, lime or a combination if you prefer)


Icing:
125g cream cheese
1 - 1.5 cups icing sugar mixture
1 tsp finely grated orange zest (substitute for lemon or lime as above)
2 tbs freshly squeezed orange juice (or lemon, or lime)


Preheat oven to 180 degC/160 C with fan.
Grease and line a 26x 16cm slice pan.
Sift flours and cinnamon into a large bowl. Stir in sugar and coconut then drained pineapple, banana and combined eggs, oil and zest.
Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Cool for 15 minutes in the pan then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. Spread icing on cooled slice and cut into approx 20 pieces.
Optional - sprinkle some extra dessicated coconut (or shredded as I have used) over the iced slice.

Icing
Beat all ingredients together until smooth. Adjust sugar, juice and zest quantities to taste.

Voila!

Happy New Year!

I always love the start of a new year - an opportunity to start over and make some changes. I suppose there's no reason you can't do that at anytime of the year. But there's something about having a fresh new calendar & diary - like a clean slate.

I don't do resolutions, simply because I'm lucky if I make to the end of January with them. I have set some goals for myself this year though - hopefully they are achievable and turn into lifelong habits, I think they are/will.

My main goals are to be organised, do more fun things with my children, and do something creative every single day - even if it is just one granny square for the blanket I started last year. Oh that's another goal - I want to FINISH that blanket so I can start some different ones :)

The first thing on my list is to be more organised. A few years ago after looking around the web at some "organisation" sites I came up with a cleaning routine that really worked for me. It involved writing each housework task on 3 x 5" cards. You can make them as simple (or complicated) as you like. First I sat down and made a list of jobs room by room. I categorised each task into daily/weekly/monthly/seasonal. To some people it might sound over the top, but like I said, this worked for me. I then labelled the dividers "daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal as well as each day of the week". I know this is sounding complicated, but stick with me :)

On the front of each card I wrote the category at the top (eg daily, weekly etc), as well as the room and task. On the back of the card I wrote a brief description of the job, including which cleaning products to use - which is really helpful when delegating jobs to other family members :)

I also had dividers labelled "week 1, 2, 3 & 4". On the first of the month I'd sort the monthly cards across these 4 weeks, so the monthly tasks would be spread across the month.

At the start of each week I would sort each of the weekly jobs into the daily sections (including any monthly ones in that week's section). Confused? It makes sense when you do it :) So each day I'd have my set of cards that needed to be done and as I completed each task, I'd file the relavant card back in it's original section - daily cards into the next day, weekly back in the weekly section etc etc.

It took a little while, but I did end up getting on top of the housework by using this system. I'd tried other methods in the past, but this one worked the best. I love the flexibility of it - eg if you have a busy day planned you don't put too many jobs in that day's section. There's also a sense of accomplishment as your daily section empties - often very quickly, leaving the rest of the day (apart from the after dinner jobs)  for more important (FUN) stuff! It also means that none of those annoying little jobs are overlooked. As long as you keep on top of your daily tasks, you never seem to have to have a massive spring clean - which is what I'm in the middle of doing right now - UGH!

It may not work for everyone. But I hope it might be a starting point for someone (or a few someones :) ) Change it to suit yourself. For some people it might be overwhelming to have the weekly & monthly jobs written down - so just start with a few daily ones and then add to your cards as you feel ready.

Since moving halfway across the country a couple of years ago I haven't used this card system - I haven't been able to find them either. So this week I'll be spending some time writing up a new set of cards.

I'd love to hear organisation tips from others - either yours or helpful links you've come across. I'm always looking for new tips to make life easier and function better :)

Mini Christmas Puddings

I made these cute little puddings for my 5yr old's class party. They are so simple to make (mostly anyway). I was planning on covering them in milk chocolate before topping them with white chocolate & sprinkles - but quickly discovered it's not the kind of job to do when you're in a hurry! So I scrapped the milk chocolate and just topped them with white chocolate. I still think they look ok???

To start, bake a packet mix chocolate cake according to directions on the box (see - EASY!) I baked it in a 8x13" lamington tin - as you can see it was only just big enough. Let the cake cool completely...

 ...then crumble it into a large mixing bowl. I probably should have used a bigger bowl to avoid spillage. Next add a whole container of pre-mixed chocolate icing (I used Betty Crocker brand). And mix it through the cake crumbs until really well combined - it will be sticky & messy!

 Next roll the mix into balls (a little smaller than a golf ball) and lay them on a baking paper lined tray. I managed to make about 36 puddings from one cake + icing mixture. Put them in the freezer to set. The next step is where I had problems. About 4 hours later I took them out of the freezer and tried to coat them in melted chocolate, but they fell apart in the chocolate. So I transferred the uncoated balls to mini cupcake papers and decorated them with melted white chocolate and sprinkles. Voila!

They can also be made with fruit cake moistened with some orange juice (or something a bit more special) - I'd love to give them a try. But I thought chocolate would go down better with kids :)

I transported them to school in one of these tins. Aren't they gorgeous? I picked up the whole set of three for about $12 at IKEA a few weeks ago. They'd be great filled with cookies and chocolates for Christmas gifts I think... This set is looking quite gorgeous on display in my kitchen :)

Christmas

I say this every year - I can't believe the year is nearly over. The older I get, the faster the years seem to fly by.
I'm more organised for Christmas than I have been in a long time. As far as gifts go anyway... Decorating on the other hand is yet to be started! I love this time of year and can't wait to start decorating, wrapping presents (I LOVE wrapping presents), baking...

We did start watching some Christmas dvds and reading some books a couple of weeks ago. These are some of our favourites so far...

 This is a really nice cartoon which portrays the real story of Christmas. My children both love watching it. It's available here

We have several of Max Lucado's childrens books and dvds. This one teaches children that Christmas (or Maker Day as it's called in the story) is about giving rather than outdoing everyone else by getting the biggest and best presents. This one is available here 

I picked up this Veggie Tales dvd a couple of weeks ago - great value, 2 movies in 1. Our favourite is "The Toy That Saved Christmas". Available here 

This book is another recent purchase from here The illustrations are absolutely beautiful and the story is really well written and includes Bible references.
I'll hopefully be posting back regularly between now & Christmas with recipes and crafts that I'm making for Christmas.
(I realise a couple of the links are not working - I'll fix them ASAP. Blogger is being painful at the moment!)

Buttermilk Pancakes

This is what we had for dinner tonight - yes pancakes for dinner! It's school holidays here at the moment + a public holiday today + the kids have done a great job the past few days spring cleaning their rooms, so I thought it would be nice to break the usual routine and have a treat. And it was GOOOOD!!! Tonight we had them with raspberries, blueberries, icecream and a drizzle of maple syrup. Normally when we have them for breakfast we have them with berries, sliced banana and maple syrup or occasionally bacon and maple syrup - don't knock it till you've tried it lol!

We always have pancakes for breakfast on special occasions - birthdays, mother's day, Christmas, and any other day we deem to be special :) I've tried lots of different pancake recipes over the years. A few tips and tricks I've learned and worked out when making pancakes are:

• use a non stick pan if possible and don't grease it at all - it's the best way to get a nice even golden colour. I used to grease the pan with a little butter, but I found it made the outside cook too fast and it would burn while the inside was still gooey
• cook them over a gentle heat (med-low) so they have time to cook through without the outside burning
• leave the batter to rest for 5-10mins after mixing before you start cooking - this helps to get nice light and fluffy pancakes as opposed to rubbery ones
• lastly, whatever recipe you use, substitute ordinary milk with buttermilk.

My favourite pancake recipe for the past few months has been from Julie Goodwin's first cookbook. I don't know what makes them taste so good, but I suspect it has something to do with using buttermilk instead of ordinary milk. It makes them so light and fluffy - YUM! I don't know all the ins and outs of buttermilk. But a few things I do know... despite the name it is actually low fat. It used to be a by-product of making butter. I guess the closet thing it could be compared to is plain yoghurt, it's kind of like a cultured or "soured" kind of milk. I'm not quite sure of the science behind it, but it is fantastic in baking. I think it has something to do with acid reacting with alkali... well let's just say it make things all light & fluffy and supermoist, VERY scientific and technical lol! I use it all the time in baking now in place of milk - in cakes, muffins, pikelets, scones - it does amazing things for scones. Give it a try next time you're baking, you won't be disappointed!

**edited to add** I just found a link to Julie's buttermilk pancake recipe here. This is exactly the same one as I use and it's the best I've tried :) Enjoy!

5 minute chocolate mug cake

I first came across this recipe a couple of years ago and it has become one of my favourite desserts, because it is so ridiculously quick and easy to make and it uses basic pantry ingredients. Tonight I decided to add some raspberries to the mix and I don't think I'll be able to eat it without them in future. The raspberries took it to a whole new level of delicious-ness :) It reminds me of the gorgeous chocolate coated raspberries that my lovely cousin has brought me, all the way from beautiful Tasmania. My only regret is that we didn't have any icecream to go with it! As the name suggests, it's intended for cooking in a mug. However, I find at least half of the mixture spills over and all over the microwave turntable when cooking. So I now use a 1 litre capacity pyrex dish to cook it in. The recipe easily serves 2 people.

In the photo below, the cake looks a little dry - I can assure you it wasn't :)

The recipe...
5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
4 tablespoons self raising flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons melted butter (or oil if you prefer)
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 cup fresh or frozen raspberries (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract


1 large coffee mug or microwave safe bowl
Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips and raspberries (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.