Bits And Pieces

We survived the christmas rush and now we can slow down a little bit. There's time for leisurely breakfasts with the kids and no school lunches to make for another month!
It's beautiful here in the valley. I find myself alone outside on a breezy summer morning though the fire rating is extreme for today and I am deciding whether we stay home or head out to B's mums'. If the wind springs up and the temperature predicted is 41c, it will be scary. But now is so lovely.

I've been making something for Em.
I'm nearly done.
The pieces are complete but they need to be blocked and then sewn together.
It's only something small.

I'll show you soon. I was hoping to finish it yesterday but we had such fun at home. Our above pictured breakfast was an all pitch in effort. Little R cut the shapes from the bread and popped them in the pan. I flipped them and he cracked the eggs into the holes. And no shell! Toasty, golden man in a hole complete with runny yolks eaten with such enjoyment. Kids love to eat what they have had a hand in cooking. Meanwhile Little S rumaged through the bottom drawer where I keep all the cookie cutters and plastic molds just for her to play with while I'm cooking. I let her stir and measure though she is so eager to help it's sometimes an un-help!!

Speaking of cooking I had a cake pan disaster New Years Eve. I love baking and I'm pretty good at it most of the time but we were invited to a friends for dinner. The first time we'd been for such an occassion. Just a bbq and I bring dessert. I'd imagined a glorious chocolate cake enrobed in glossy chocolate glaze spilling a plethora of big, fat, shiny cherries. Instead it stuck like crazy to the bundt tin and I lost half of it. Tried to stick it back together. Made the ganache for the top and ended up with this................................................................

A big fat gloppy mess of a thing that I was not happy with. No time to change it or amke something else, I piled cherries all over it and we named it The New Years Eve Disaster Cake! It went down a treat, we all loved it and vowed to make it every year! I rarely last midnight either so we decided to pop our party poppers at 10pm and celebrate with the kiwis over in New Zealand and call it a night. I think we'll do that every year too!
















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