Friday baking... Peanut butter chocolate chip blondies....

There were a few birthdays this weekend, so even though I am killing it health wise, I baked for everyone else... Because it was a request of one if the birthday girls, they were the peanut butter chocolate chip, which I don't like which worked out well! The kids helped, jeepers it can be full on with both of them... I do think it is important that they both get the baking experience, even though Marley (half) bakes at kinder every Thursday, so I persist...

The kids thought that these were the bomb! Recipe jacked from Two Peas and their Pod, it makes almost double the amount that I like...
http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-blondies/

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies
ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch by 13-inch pan and set aside.

2. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from the heat, and stir in the peanut butter, until creamy and combined. Set mixture aside to cool.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, to the peanut butter mixture, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared dry ingredients, and stir until batter is smooth. Fold in 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips, reserving the rest for sprinkling on top.

5. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, spreading the batter evenly to the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips and lightly press them into the batter.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden and the edges are slightly browned. Remove blondies from oven and place them on a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, cut into squares and serve.

Diamonds... A dance experience...

Cassie's and I went to the GH Friday night to check out the new Boylesque, choreographed by Jason Coleman... It was worth it, amazing but a little short! At the end the drag queen on stage said to get down to the Famous Speigletent to catch Jason's show 'Diamonds'... We decided it was a good idea... Been meaning to get to the Speigeltent for ever!

It was a super warm Monday night, still in the low 30's while we queued, but we got brilliant seats and the show began... It was a danced story of Jason's life, from his youth, which included some hot hot hot superhero dances! To the first woman he dates, his mothers death and his search for a woman that was perfect... His travels around he world, with all sorts of dance, most of it beautiful! Especially the segments jacked from Boylesque! It was funny, touching and kept a smile on your face until the end where he introduces his baby mamma and son... I was telling anyone that would listen to check it out, as it was a two night thing, it felt like the stars aligned to get me and Cassie there, it was awesome...

Pics from the GH, not Diamonds... You should go tonight!!!

Big bed time!

Two weeks ago Mark and I were going about our morning routine while the kids slept... We heard a massive bang! And ran upstairs... Mace had climbed out of his cot, in his sleeping bag!!! And landed on his head! I was horrified, shocked, scared, but the little soldier was fine... The question of 'what kid does this?' plagued me... I had never heard of a kid in a sleeping bag climbing out of a cot, what sort if ridiculous upper body strength does this kid have? I was seriously freaked out!

My plan was to order a bed, but who knew how long that would take? Put him on a mattress, try to make his cot into a day bed? This stuck with me all morning, then it came to me! Marley has a trundle single bed under her bed, so I got in there and moved furniture all around, put his new sheets (I was planning to get him a bed in the next month) on and voila, he had his new big boys bed! The awesome thing about it is that it's not too high off the ground so if he did fall out, it's not a long way down... It is a perfect solution!

I was incredibly nervous that he wouldn't stay in it, Marley was in a big bed for over a month at this age, but she seemed more mature then our lad! In any case he has been awesome, he goes in and stays in, waits for us to get him before getting out in the morning... It's been a dream... I know it might not stay that way, but for right now, I am really happy with the outcome... He is too, he loves his big boys bed, and all of his sleepy pals...

Build A Bear Workshop Party

Things have been crazy this past week, I didn't even get a chance to talk about the birthday party we had for the kids! I am not a fan of home parties, at this point I find it all encompassing being social on big groups of people without the added pressure of having to cater and plan an event... Marley had been asking for a build a bear party for about 8 months, we thought it might be a good option for the kids double party... It works because my mothers group friends all have 2 kids with similar age gaps, so Marley's friends have younger siblings who are all little boys Mace's age...

The party was awesome, you choose your budget, no food allowed, no loot bags required as everyone takes home a bear! The beginning was a bit all over the place, I didn't feel that the hostess had a handle on making sure everyone stuck to the budget, ending up in me going over budget... It wasn't a big deal, I just find money awkward, and saying no even more awkward...

The party went for an hour and fifteen minutes, it was well executed, the kids were all really well behaved and seemed to enjoy their time... The bears are cute as ever, I can see how you could spend much more on a bigger package, but the $35 a head was enough for us! A great success, enjoyed by all! Highly recommended party idea...

Red State...

The hype about Red State was more about Kevin Smiths actions as opposed to the film, but being a Smith fan I wanted to check it... I has no idea what to expect, but it was a surprising horror/social commentary almost... It was interesting the way it went down and I don't want to give anything away, but I think it's a good film and check it if you like 'different' films.. It's no mainstream topic that's for sure...

Chocolate chip cookies...

Friday baking! Mace has figured out what we are doing Friday mornings in the kitchen, and wants to be involved too... So the three of us bake, it's tough, but I think it is important for both kids to get that experience... Today we baked chocolate chip cookies, they were freakishly amazing! Really... You should bake them! Haha, I would go a little bit easier on the sugar next time, and I didn't use walnuts because the kids aren't allergy tested yet...

Chocolate chip cookies
http://allrecipes.com

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

Red Dawn...

I acquired this thinking it was Red State... Bad move, bad movie... Haha, oh well...

Hit and Run...

We are still on a run of films... With the colds/babies birthdays, we have been exhausted... It's been a time of put something on and chill the eff out!

Hit and Run has the wonderful Kristen Bell and her baby daddy Dax Shepherd in it, it was his project... I was hoping for hilarity, I'm pretty sure what we got was them just free styling, and there were a couple laughs, but not hilarious at all... It was just a bit weird... Unfortunate really...

Frankie Go Boom...

I adore Charlie Hunnam (Jax Teller in Sons of Anarchy), so I had to watch this... I honestly thought that Charlie would be playing a Jax type roll in a drama/action/something? But it was a comedy! Not quite funny, almost bad enough to turn off, but we didn't... I actually laughed out loud a few times too! Charlie is looking lovely and so young! Ron Perlman is in it too (Clay SOA) and that's straight creepy... I wouldn't recommend it unless you are a die hard fan of his, they do have bed scenes without his abs!!! Ridiculous!!!

Vegan Shepherds Pie...

Last nights dinner was vegan shepherds pie, the pie shepherds who love their sheep eat! We were all really feeling this, keeping in mind how hard it can be trying to make vegan comfort food... I think next time I might add Worcestershire sauce? Any way, a few people asked for the recipe, so here it is! No pics because it was eaten by the time I was asked for the recipe...

Top
5/6 potatoes
Tbl sp Garlic
Tbl sp Nuttlex
Glug of Soy milk
Mash potatoes together with ingredients
If vegetarian not vegan, cows milk and butter instead of replacements!

Filling
3 carrots and/or bag of mushrooms
1 onion
Tin lentils
Quorn mince
Tbl sp flour
Up to 2 cups of Veggie stock to thicken gravy
Tbl sp Tomato paste
Sprinkling of thyme dried or fresh
Sprinkling of fresh parsley

Cook it all up making sure that your gravy thickens, keep stirring, add flour/veggie stock until it's quite thick!

Layer filling and top in pan, bake on 200 for half hour or so...

If you are vegetarian instead of vegan add some cheese to the topping, my kids added cheese to theirs... Marley also added rosemary because she won't eat potato without rosemary (whatever it takes!)... With a dollop of tomato sauce and salt to serve - I don't cook with salt because if the tiny humans, but a light sprinkling of salt brings out the flavours, mmmm...

Taken 2

I am going to lay it out straight, I loved Taken... We saw it at the cinema and there was nothing I didn't like about it... This had a similar coolness to it, but was obviously not ever going to be as good... That didn't stress me too much as we dirt waste childcare or money on it! It's a fine film to watch if you are staying in and have not much else to do, which is exactly how we have been feeling with this cold! So check it out, or even better, check out the first one!!!

Alex Cross - the film...

After a wonderful weekend, shiesty hangover but well worth it, we all got colds (Mark excluded)... It has been so long since we have had colds that I forgot how rotten they are! Two sick kids and a sick mum, not good at all... Feeling really bad led to me going to bed early and watching a film... I was dubious about watching Alex Cross, mostly because I love Morgan Freeman and was concerned that no one could fill his shoes! I am also a big fan of the books, have read them al!

I wouldn't say it was an awesome film, and Tyler Perry wasn't great... It did however tick boxes for being an easy watch when my head was full of sinus pressure... It also seemed to have an all star cast, recognising most actors, even bit parts, that was cool... Don't go out of your way to watch it!

Friday baking caramel slice...

I love caramel slice, I definitely have both made and blogged about it before, but it's worth another go! I use the taste.com.au recipe, it is long, like really effing long, and good! The biscuit base is freaking awesome, need to make it as a cheesecake base... I also used a bit more chocolate this time, I don't like the biscuit dominating my taste buds!

If you are in to caramel slice, you can't go wrong with this easy recipe!
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9164/chocolate+caramel+slice

Banana Bread yesterday...

I had some delicious banana bread on my incredible weekend away... On my arrival home I had some over ripe bananas and thought I would give banana bread a go! I was also hoping Marley would like it so I could add it to her lunch box for kinder to give her some energy to burn... She didn't like it, but Mace LOVED IT! So did I, and Mark too... Will definitely be making it again...

Recipe here:
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/3118/banana+bread

I also had to buy my first loaf tin, and fortunately a client on Monday cancelled so I could zip over to Chefs Hat - around the corner from work - to grab one... I forgot how much I LOVE that place!

Byron Bay with my BFF... The Byron at Byron...

Long time no post... Have been away with my best friend to celebrate 20 years of friendship... Was a big one so we did it in style! The Byron at Byron is a 5 star resort, on entry you can feel it immediately... It's beautiful, the staff are beautiful, literally, smoking hot! You enter on to the pool area, restaurant and deck, it is pristine, overlooking a rainforest... Couldn't wait to use that area!

Next we go to our room and it's amazing... Huge, with balconies on both end fly wires in to keep the rainforest bugs out! A kitchen, lounge area, massive bathtub and king bedroom, 2 TVs, lounge room one was HUGE! Over the course of the weekend we used most aspects of the resort, beautiful pool area, delicious cocktails delivered to wherever we were on the resort, walks around the rainforest, to the beach, a delightful yoga class on the pool deck in the morning, massages, spa, the fine dining, and unfortunately the room service (the only let down!)... Aside from the latter, everything was brilliant!

The massage was possibly the best massage I ever had... The hot oil was divine! Cocktails were all really special, my favourite was the Vanilla Passion, vanilla passion fruit... The Canadian Maple was good and the apple cinnamon sour was just a little too sour for me! The restaurant had the best food I have eaten in a good two years, scallops, fish and veg all cooked to perfection! Dessert was crazy! Yoga teacher was a hot Swedish woman, everything was 'beautiful yah?!' The class was clearly for beginners, but after 1.15 hours I definitely felt it!

If you have something special coming up I highly recommend a visit!

Toscano Belgian Waffles and the first week of kinder!

Not so much happening on the blog front this week, Marley's first week of kinder has been intense... She is only used to being cared for outside if her family one day a week, so three days has taken it out of her! She is usually an absolute delight, this week has introduced a Linda Blair-esque version of my baby girl... It's been a big change and I have a tired girl on my hands... Looking forward to the settling in period to be over!

So a little idea for your weekend is Toscano Belgian Waffles in traditional or choc chip flavour! These are amazing!!! They are our Saturday morning treat and we all love them... They are at Coles, go, go, go!!!

Amy, My Daughter - Mitch Winehouse

Amy Winehouse is important to me, musically... Back to Black was on repeat in my car for years... I adored her, and thought it awful that she struggled so with addiction, needless to say I was devastated when she died... The idea that she wouldn't be alive to live, and write, and share her beautiful music with us again really upset me...

I was dubious about reading Mitch's book, I worried that it would be too bias, that a parent couldn't really write a harrowing truthful account of their child struggling with addiction... Eventually I caved, I am glad I did... Mitch gives a heartfelt account of his experiences with Amy, the good and the bad... It really took you there with them, her sweetness, her broken parts, all if it! It made my heart break for all of them, and really drove home the idea that regardless of who you are, we are all just human, especially when in the grips of addiction... It was eye opening to get the facts if her health issues and definitely made it clearer how she passed away...

If you have any interest in Amy Winehouse, please read this book... It was a brilliant read... And I guess because I knew how it would end, I read it slowly, really taking it all in...

Grobag Clock

I have been incredibly blessed with awesome sleepers! 7am is our routine wake up time, prior to starting kinder Marley was waking between 6.30 and 7... Our rule is no one gets out of bed until 7, so we would go and tell her to go back to sleep, and she would, after waking her brother up in the process! Our friends had used this with amazing results, and we thought we should give it a go...

The first night freaked Marley out, she doesn't like light in her room, so we unplugged it... A few days later I tried to get the night setting to be lightless, and it worked! So the sun is set to come up at 7 and we don't here from her before then ! Since starting kinder she probably doesn't need it at all, she is sleeping until closer to 7.30 with the kinder exhaustion! In any case I do highly recommend it if you have an early waking little one!

Yo Gabba Gabba delivery!

Our entire family are Yo Gabba Gabba fans... When I noticed that they had restocked their nesting dolls, I was on it! I also grabbed a beanie for Mace, it was too cute! Unfortunately, it took almost 2 months to receive these!!! Even for international shipping, it was really not good enough...

The quality if the beanie is good... Mace will definitely get use out of that... However, the nesting dolls, while incredibly cute, are not very durable... Super flimsy plastic... This means that Mace can't really play with them because he is not careful, because he is a toddle, I had hoped that they would be a semi educational toy for his immediate future... Not meant to be...

Unless you have a pre schooler, I wouldn't bother with these...

Banana, white and caramel chocolate cookies

I am in love with Two Peas and their Pod blog, I use their recipes all their time... Unfortunately I can't get all of the ingredients all the time, so this is my version of their banana pudding cookies:


ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 package vanilla instant pudding mix
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
I chopped banana
1 cup chopped vanilla wafer cookies
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips and caramel chocolate chips combined

directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees . Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat baking mat and set aside.

2. Using a mixer, beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add in pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla extract. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the vanilla wafer cookies, banana and white/caramel chocolate chips.

3. Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges and set. Remove cookies from oven and let cool on baking sheet for two minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.

Please excuse the picture, Marley rolled all of the cookies so there is loads of variation in sizes!!!