Friday Five – Joy

Things that are making me smile:

• The pants I made for the Turtle, which he seems to love. They’re made from an old t-shirt belonging to the hubby and very very soft. And if you’re not a complete fool (like me), you can make them in little more than an hour. Give them a go. Dana is a genius. And now my son has pants that don’t fall down when he’s nappy-less.
• Finally, finally, being fully unpacked. Even the boxes of “crap” are empty now. And our photos are up. Things feel like home.
• My sewing room. I no longer have to gather everything up when I want to curse and swear at my machine, ending up with a big pile of ruined fabric and knotted thread whip something up and put it away afterwards dejected.
• Lemon chicken. Utter deliciousness. (Cut up some chicken breasts, lightly beat an egg add it to the chicken with some slices of garlic and unwaxed lemon rind. Marinate for 10-15 minutes. Remove the lemon rind. Add a teaspoon of cornstarch and mix it together. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken. When it’s almost done add the juice of one lemon. Ta daaa! Deliciousness!)
• The prospect of more “family time”. The hubby’s new job involves shifts with some kind of complicated two day on – two days off – four days on – four days off  madness. But, looking at the calendar, it looks like we will have more time together this way. And with this new job, there’s no real chance of him being deployed!

“Cooking”

Inspired by My Daddy Cooks, the turtle and I embarked on a culinary adventure today. Any time I think of doing this, and I mean any time, I never have the right ingredients or the necessary organisational skills. Never. And the same was true today. I decided to try cookies, because the turtle is obsessed with the knobs on the cooker, so I try to keep him away from it. And cookies just get thrown in at the end of all the messing “cooking”. Naturally there wasn’t a speck of brown sugar in the house. Not a speck. But I was already committed. And I need to get rid of use up the oats that have been languishing in the back of the cupboard for aaaaages. Who knew oats weren’t the same as porridge? Not me! Then I discover that there’s shag all white sugar. Waaaaaaaaaaah! But there was honey. Hurrah! A worthy substitution.

Let the “cooking” begin!

We didn’t actually do too badly. Some butter was eaten. A fair bit of cinnamon. Raw oats are apparently “nice”. I did panic a little over him eating the dough, what with the raw eggs. But I defy anyone to stop him! He seems to be none the worse for it.

They’re nice cooked too.

Here’s the recipe:

1/2lb of butter/marg

1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar (or a few squirts of honey)

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

1tsp vanilla

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1tsp baking soda

1tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp of salt (optional)

3 cups of oats

1 cup of raisins (we used half raisins, half cranberries – something else we have to use up, although the turtle seems to have a new found love of them)

Heat oven to 350F. Beat the marg and sugars together until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda. cinnamon and salt; mix well (surely you could use self raising flour and forgo the baking soda?). Stir in the oats and raisins. Mix well. Drop tablespoonfuls of mixture onto an ungreased cookie sheet and cook for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown (20 minutes for us).

Friday Five!

Five things “we” “made” yesterday (if the words “we” and “made” are true!):

• some lovely new pictures for daddy, a collaborative effort, involving Thomas and some other trains.The fun lasted a good 15 minutes. A brilliant idea from Slugs on the Refrigerator. I’m thinking next time some stamping with his animals (the toy ones! The toy ones!), as I’m too lazy for the whole potato stamping mallarkey. I think we’ll need poster paints for that though. Do finger paints freak anyone else out? I certainly don’t remember them from my childhood. Gooey yuckiness. Apparently they taste awful too. There was much yucking from the little turtle when he gave them a go. The results:Geniusness! And surprisingly easy to clean up after. His trains needed a good washing anyway!
• Gyoza. Wontons? Yumminess! Time consuming yumminess! It took me ages to figure out how to fold them. The Japanese wrappers are round, these were square. Not noticing the difference, in any real way, I couldn’t understand why they weren’t coming out in the shape I wanted them to! Needless to say, if I’d had round wrappers, these would be very professional-looking indeed. Restaurant quality The “recipe” is minced pork, half a raw egg, and some chopped onions, mixed together. Put some of this mixture into a wonton wrapper and brush the edges with the other half of the egg, so it’ll stay together. Fold as you like. Cover the bottom of the pan with water, a couple of mm deep and add a drop of oil. Put in the wontons and cover. 5- 10 minutes or so, until the water has evaporated and the oil gives you a crispy bottom (on your wontons!). Or you can deep fry them. Serve with dipping sauce – soy, vinegar and Chinese five-spice. Put the excess wonton wrappers in a ziploc bag in the fridge, where you won’t come upon them again until the New year, when they’ve shrivelled up beyond all recognition. Or maybe that’s just me. (If you make  them before you cook them, cover them with a damp (clean) dishtowel before you put them in the fridge, to stop them from getting dessicated).
• Potato balls. My contribution for the thanksgiving party at the hubby’s office. I did want to make these, but couldn’t find an icing bag and nearly had a meltdown on Wednesday when my ingenious plastic bag with icing nozzle squeezed in one corner didn’t work. So potato balls it had to be. How could you go wrong with potatoes, bacon, onion and cheese (cheddar, parmesan and cream) covered in breadcrumbs? Well, they might be a bit dry. I have to find some kind of dipping sauce for them. Cream cheese-y business? Ketchup?
• A “water park”. A small boy and a hose. Genius!

• A happy boy.

(Now I’m off, before anyone asks me about all the tantrums and meltdowns we had in between these 15 minute idylls. And I have cookies in the oven and a carrot salad thing to make, because potato balls weren’t enough of an effort to make. Madness!)