books, recipes, parenting & other things
What mum and her partner spent a lot of time doing while they were visiting – looking up in the trees identifying birds. I now have a little list of birds that I know are on the property but that I haven’t personally seen. I’m eager to go out and get myself some binoculars now so that I can spot a scarlet honeyeater myself – they look very pretty in the bird book.
One of the very spiky (and painful!) plants left in a wooden planter outside the front door by the previous owners of the property. It’s covered in little cobwebs, but I don’t want to brave the spikes to brush them off.
My mother and her partner came to stay with us last weekend. It was lovely to have them – I hadn’t seen mum in a long time, since my wedding last year, and we had moved on to our new property since then. They stayed in the granny flat next to the house, and it was great fun getting to show them around the place.
Playing the guitar on our verandah.
Although it would have been nice to get this in focus, I rather like the motion blurred belly.
Love the horrified expression, but I’m not sure what caused it – I think gifts were being opened at this point.
My Easter themed baking for the year – a lovely fruity chocolate muffin, with a cross on the top. I used this recipe almost exactly, although I used a plain stiff white icing to form the crosses (just icing sugar and water) rather than white chocolate. My attempt at melting the chocolate was a terrible failure – incredibly lumpy and separated – so I had to use icing instead. A fun change from hot cross buns (and quicker to make, too!)
A clear sign you’re growing older is when people you went to high school with start having children.
I think these are the loveliest carrot muffins I’ve ever made – soft, moist, and delicious with or without the icing. I altered a recipe in Penguin’s Muffin Bible, and was extremely pleased with the results.
ingredients:
1 3/4 cups plain flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup of mashed tinned pear
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups grated carrot
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Preheat the oven to 200C.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk together the oil, egg and vanilla, and then stir in the mashed pear.
Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture, and stir until just combined. Gently stir in the grated carrots and cranberries.
Spoon into a muffin tin and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes.
If you want to ice them, mix together cream cheese with icing sugar and a dash of lemon juice until creamy. I never measure amounts for this – I keep adding icing sugar until it tastes right, and lemon juice to add a bit of tang and moisten the mixture.
More cupcake deliciousness. I think I need a cupcake stand like that.
o frabjous day! 