Cooking for the Mothers' Day Cake Stall

                                           

Another half written post, finally finished off and put on the blog!

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I now have a child in kindergarten. One would think this means more time for me to do the things I need to do (work, clean, cook...and I don't know, scratch myself!).  Instead, I find myself on the seemlingly endless trek back and forth from kinder, the three hours sessions feel far too short, and it always seems that I have just got the baby off to sleep when I have to go and pick up the four year old, or drop her off.  Then there is the after kinder play in the park.  All the cool kids do it.  And all the cool mums go along.  There are also special events (like Mothers' day), pizza night, the fete, etc.  Kinder seems to be taking over my life.  And not in a good way.

Having said that, my four year old LOVES it.  She has made a million new friends in her group of about 21 kids.  15 of the kids are boys, and I think this is great.  They seem to just 'get on' and do stuff, rather than wishy-washing around.  The five other girls tend to be rather 'princessy' only children.  Not really our cup of tea.

Organic fermented cocoa beans from Tanzania

Dark roasted Blavatsky coffee beans.

Anyway, the most recent Kinder Event that required me to participate was Mothers' Day.  We had to attend a morning tea at the kinder, with scones baked by the group.  Our daughter was very excited to have us visit.  It was nice to see her having such a great time, although, an hour did seems a bit long!  This was followed up by the Mothers' Day cake stall.  We had to bake something, wrap it artily and deliver it to kinder for their stall just before Mothers' Day.  I am not the best cake maker (this in my partner's fortay), but I can do a mean biscuit!  A friend had recently posted some pics of her 'Coffee Snaps' on Facebook, along with the recipe, and I thought I'd give them a bash.  I decided to make double the quanitity and make half coffee and half chocolate.  They were both delicious...although the chocolate ones are all finished, and we are still getting through the coffee ones.  Read into that what you will!

So, how do you make a coffee/cocoa snap?  Read on!

 Coffee/Cocoa Snaps Ah La Anna (Makes 70)

125g butter, softened
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3 teaspoons ground espresso coffee (I use 6)  or if making cocoa version 6 teaspoons good quality cocoa
3 teaspoons vanilla extract (I use homemade stuff given to me by a friend.  It is an organic vanilla pod which has been infusing into vodka...delish!)
1 egg
3/4 cup plain flour
3/4 cup self-raising flour
70 coffee beans or cocoa nibs

Preheat oven to 160C (fan-forced oven) - grease oven trays

Beat sugar, butter, coffee or cocoa & extract in small bowl with electric mixer until pale and fluffy (it isn't pale if you are making the cocoa version). Add egg; beat until just combined. Stir in sifted flours.

Roll rounded teaspoons of the mixture into balls. Place 3cm apart on trays. Top each with a coffee bean or cocoa nibs (my daughter has also made a  batch with M&Ms on tops). Bake, uncovered, about 10 mins or until browned. Stand 5 mins; transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Eat until you start to shake!

 

                                             

Television Be GONE!

Our television has been banished.  We are now, officially a television free household! 

It all happened rather suddenly.  My partner has always been keen to get rid of the television.  She doesn't really like much on the box, and would rather read a book or the paper.  It was also a bit concerning how much television our 4 year old was watching, which meant our 1 year old was watching too.  We had been quite diligent with our first child.  She didn't lay eyes on the television until she was 18 months old.  We had been overseas for three months and on our return home she was horrendously jet lagged and out of kilter.  For 90 days she did not sleep at night, and did not sleep during the day.  She was so tired that all she could do was sit on the couch and cry with tiredness.  We were beside ourselves too, and resorted to a DVD of 10 episodes of Hairy Maclary.  She loved it and watched it on repeat.  Finally the sleep thing came good (not bit by bit as everyone said it would, but just overnight..weird), but then it was too late.  She was in love with Charlie and Lola, Hairy Maclary and Playschool (which I think is actually very educational and well worth children watching on occasion).  When our second child arrived and we were all so very tired the TV became a kind of pseudo nanny.  Miss 3 year old was happy to be parked in front of it for an hour or so while the baby was being bathed, dressed, fed, etc.  She didn't need me to play with her, get toys out, help paint something, etc.  At the time it was a life saver, but when the baby was 6 months and picked up the remote, turned on the telly and sat in front of it transfixed I realised it was too much.

One night, after I had cooked a delicious meal and my partner and I sat on the couch with it and started to watch an episode of 'The Voice' (a stupendously terrible show) I realised that this was not how we should be living.  Meals should be eaten at the table.  We should talk about our days.  We should not vegetate in front of crappy TV shows until we fell asleep.  I suggested it was time to go TV free.  My partner was thrilled and that very night we took the TV and the cabinet to the shed.  We told the four year old it broke.

I started writing this post over three months ago, and still our home remains TV free.  I can't tell you how liberating it is to have missed the entire season of 'The Voice' and 'Masterchef', that latter of which I had previously been completely addicted to.  No longer is ABC2 the constant background noise to my day.  I love it.

If we want to watch something now we have to get out the laptop or the iPad and actually make an effort to get the iView going, or borrow a DVD.  No longer are we sitting on the couch as soon as the kids are asleep watching complete trash until we fell into bed ourselves.  

I freely admit that not having a television these days is not the same as not having a television 20, 10 or even 5 years ago.  We have the ability to access pretty much everything on the internet, and can easily look up and watch the shows that 'everyone is talking about'.  I remember as a child we had very limited television reception (we lived directly beneath the TV towers on Mount Dandenong and the signal passed right over the top of us), and anything that was on Chanel 10 was impossible to watch.   At the time I was pretty bummed to be missing such gems as 'Neighbours' and the brand new hit show 'The Simpsons'.  Looking back, I realise that my brother and I spent lots of time outside, building cubbies, going for bush walks, dressing up, digging holes.  Things that kids don't do so much these days. 

If you were considering going TV free, even for a while, I would highly recommend it.  Not only is the house more peaceful, but more aesthetically appealing!  Televisions are such ugly things.