September 2011
3 posts
1 tag
Vest
Here is a vest I’ve slowly been working on for Ralph.
I love vests on him- they look so sweet, but are also very practical for an active little boy. This one is a little large, but should hopefully last through til next Winter.
Lolly-scramble cupcakes
We had the Playcentre Gala last weekend and I made these cupcakes for the cake stall. The recipe is by Joan Bishop and comes from the book ‘A Treasury of New Zealand Baking’ which I refer to from time to time. I thought this recipe would be perfect as I know that anything with lollies on it is bound to be a hit with kids. I didn’t get the chance to try these cupcakes as I...
1 tag
Banane Brot (mit Ingwer)
My loaf baking obsession continues. Banana bread is the one that started it all, I believe. When we were staying in Berlin earlier this year, we spent about a month in Kreuzberg where we were lucky enough to have Passenger espresso as our local cafe. This place served some of the best coffee in Berlin. We usually ended up going there several times a day, and invariably ordered a piece of their...
August 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Coconut Bread
As already mentioned, I’m on a bit of a ‘bread’ wave at the moment. The most recent of which I’ve made is Coconut bread. I think I first tried Coconut bread In Sydney, which makes me think that it might be a particularly Australian phenomenon, but I’m not sure. I have definitely had Banana bread as a breakfast in several Melbourne cafes so it seems likely that the...
1 tag
Bread!
I’m all about bread at the moment. Not Bread Bread, which involves yeast and kneading and waiting a long time, but those pretend breads which are made in loaf tins and are actually more cake/muffin-type concoctions. Gingerbread, Banana bread, Date loaf, Fruit bread, and the current favourite: Corn bread. My friend Emily made this for us when we were in Berlin recently- she served it with a...
May 2011
1 post
1 tag
Monkey Man
Ralph will very shortly be turning ONE. Holy Mole.
I made him the cake below for a small family party today. Essentially it is my favourite banana cake recipe, which I’ve written about for the lovely wee days blog here. I increased the recipe by a third, which made the quantities quite easy to work with (for example, four bananas and four eggs, instead of three). This meant I had enough...
April 2011
3 posts
1 tag
Hat #2
I have finished my next new-and-improved hat for Ralph. I’m quite pleased with it as a piece of knitting of my own design.
It can be worn with the rim down to reveal the green trinity stitch pattern, or with the ribbed rim up a la Dexys Midnight Runners (of ‘Come on Eileen’ fame). The one thing I would change about it is I wish I had joined the green wool on the other side,...
1 tag
Big Hat
I knitted Ralph a new hat, in the same pattern as this one. I would have a photo of him wearing it, but that just doesn’t seem possible because he HATES it. He is usually pretty good about wearing hats and the like, but not this one. Frankly I don’t blame him. It is rather huge (the pattern said fits 1 year old, but it would probably fit me and my head is not small!) and other than the...
1 tag
Guinness Chocolate Cake
My friend Tessa introduced me to the wonder of Guinness Chocolate Cake last year. She mentioned it several times when we talked about baking, which we did quite often, so I figured it must be an exceptional cake. I had put it on my mental ‘baking-to-try’ list, but forgot about it for many months until St Patrick’s Day this year, when Floriditas sold Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes....
March 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Banana 'Ice cream'
One of my recent-ish discoveries for foods that Ralph likes to eat is banana ‘ice cream’. It is in fact just frozen bananas (peeled and chopped) which are then blitzed in the food processor with some frozen blackberries until smooth and creamy. It’s quite delicious- I happily eat it myself too, and hard to believe it’s just fruit, so super healthy.
We let Ralph feed...
1 tag
Scarf
Oh dear, it has been a very long time. I could blame many things, like sleep deprivation, or lack of motivation, or my six week period of single parenthood, but that’s all rather boring to dwell on.
While Ralph and I basked in the gloriously long days of Wellington’s late Summer, Sam spent six weeks with his band touring the very cold central Europe. It was here, in Berlin, at -11...
September 2010
3 posts
Placenta
Ralph’s placenta has been in my parents’ deep freezer since he was born. We hadn’t been intending to keep it, however over the course of my pregnancy I grew to respect the amazingness of the work it did in supporting Ralph and decided to give it a proper burial.
The placenta is a unique organ consisting of half the mother’s cells and half the baby’s cells. Not only...
Spring!
Spring is here. There is blossom on the fruit trees and various sorts of once-hidden bulbs have sprouted into life in our garden. I have happily discovered that Ralph loves to be placed outside in his bouncinette while I hang out washing- I guess the washing line is one big mobile to him. Being born right at the beginning of Winter, he hasn’t spent much of his short life outdoors- it’s...
Ginger kisses disaster
Last Sunday was Sam’s first Fathers’ day as a father, so I thought I’d bake him one of his favourite treats; Ginger Kisses. In hindsight, I think Ginger Kisses might be one of those rare food products which are actually really good bought from the supermarket. Maybe it’s something in the mock cream. Anyway, my attempt was a bit of a disaster. The kisses spread across the...
August 2010
1 post
1 tag
lemonade and water
This was the scene on our kitchen sideboard yesterday. That’s a watercolour of Prince Harry on the right that my old flatmate Leah painted.
We have more lemons than I know what to do with. Even the most lemony recipes often only call for one or two lemons, and we have bags full of them. They do look rather nice in this Katherine Smyth bowl though.
I decided to make some lemonade. I...
July 2010
4 posts
1 tag
Miracles
On Sunday we had our ante-natal class reunion and I decided to try out another recipe from ‘Ladies a Plate’ to bring along. I thought the pretty little cupcakes called ‘Miracles’ would be ideal. The ‘miracle’ of the cakes’ name refers to the spoonful of jam which appears to be magically encased inside. The housewives of yesteryear who came up with the...
Tummy time in puffy pants I knitted
1 tag
Ginger Crunch
Almost as significant as Ralph’s developmental milestones for us (smiles! yay!) are some of our domestic achievements. The first time we left the house with a baby. The first time we walked to a cafe with him asleep in his buggy. And now, the first time I’ve managed to do any baking since he was born.
I’ve been coveting the baking cookbook Ladies, a plate by Alexa Johnston for a...
1 tag
lemon and lavender shortbread
I still don’t seem to be able to manage baking from scratch yet, but I am able to put things in the oven. Today I baked some shortbread from dough I had made and put in the freezer way back when I was pregnant. I’m pretty hooked on the notion of cooking from frozen dough now. It’s great to be able to bake things quickly, and fresh, for our frequent baby visitors, but not have a...
June 2010
2 posts
1 tag
More Ralph
Well it’s been over two weeks since Ralph arrived and the memory of his birth is already a blur. I was intending to write a detailed account of my labour, but I don’t think I will realistically ever find the time to do this before it all fades into my distant memory. To summarise though, I thought it really wasn’t that bad. I didn’t have any pain relief apart from some gas...
1 tag
Ralph!
I had a baby on Monday. Here are the stats:
Ralph Edwyn Reid Scott Born at 6.15pm, 31st May, 2010 (8 days before his due date) 3.54 kgs, 52cms long Once I have a bit more time and energy I will write about his birth. We think he’s pretty gorgeous. Here is Ralph on his 3rd day.
May 2010
5 posts
1 tag
Bumble Bee jersey
Well, I’ve finally finished my latest knitting project- this rather plain crew-neck jersey. It’s knitted in 8-ply merino wool and is quite massive (although I followed the pattern quite carefully, other than than making it all one colour rather than striped). It claims to be for a 9 month old, but I reckon even my 2 year old nephew would fit it. I’m now wondering if it’s...
1 tag
Ladies a cake
It’s quite possible I’ve put on another 5kgs in the last few days. My friends Tessa and Tessa organised a ladies’ afternoon tea for me on Sunday. It turns out I have some pretty amazingly talented and crafty friends. Homemade toys, clothes and books, delicious baking and meals for the freezer were gratefully received. My friend Marama made this cute owl family for us.
...
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Autumnal cake
When Sam came back from his tour down south last week, he brought me back a big bag of walnuts. This walnut gift has become a bit of a tradition as there is a particular orchard near Queenstown where the band regularly stop on their tours, which seem to occur around this time of year. Our vege box delivery last week was particularly good too- full of delicious apples, pears, mandarins and...
1 tag
Mothers' day Cupcakes
I had organised to go around to my parents’ house on Sunday, and so decided to bake some cupcakes for Mum in honour of Mothers’ day. I’ve recently taken to getting magazines out of the Newtown library and I chanced upon the recipe in one of those slightly tacky and embarrassing mags which I currently have out. It is courtesy of Simon (son of Alison) Holst.
Recipe
150g butter...
1 tag
C is for Cookie
Today I made these chocolate chunk cookies. Actually, I made the dough yesterday, as it is recommended that you refrigerate it for at least 24 hours, but I baked them today. I used the recipe from this beautiful website which is run by friends of my sister-in-law Rosie, who lives in Melbourne.
I made a few amendments to their recipe. I thought the 600g of chocolate called for was a little...
April 2010
9 posts
1 tag
I love juice
We own a pretty awesome juicer, which in my day-to-day working life I generally can not be bothered using. So it sits on our kitchen bench collecting a greasy film of dust. However, as of my antenatal employment hiatus I have been using the juicer several times a week. Recent delicious fruit combos have included: Grapefruit, Carrot and Apple; Apple, Carrot and Lemon and Beetroot, Carrot and...
1 tag
Anzac Biscuits- my baking nemesis
I’ve been baking Anzac biscuits, around this time of year, on and off for about twenty years. The perfect Anzac, however, remains elusive. Most often my problem has been the mixture spreading over the entire tray in the baking, and me ending up with something more akin to an oaty brandy snap. This has been the result of me following the Edmonds Cookbook recipe. Well Edmonds, I’m...
1 tag
BOBVIOUSLY
Over the weekend I attempted a bit of a de-clutter. I went through my drawers and tried to make a pile of all the clothes I could happily donate to Saint Vincent de Paul. Being pregnant makes this slightly easier- if I didn’t comfortably fit it pre-pregnancy, there’s little chance I’ll ever fit it again.
However, then you get the real curve-ball items, like this long-sleeved...
1 tag
Bread and butter pudding
I’ve never made, or even tasted, bread and butter pudding before. Last night for some reason I got a bit of a craving for it. We had a bag of frozen raspberries in our freezer which we’ve been adding to our porridge in the morning- delicious! I used some of these raspberries which had defrosted as a base for the pudding.
B&B pudding is generally thought of as an economical...
1 tag
Origami-rama
My husband is in a band. They are about to release a new album titled ‘Buffalo’, on April 26th. They are also taking pre-sales for a special ‘collector’s edition’, called the ‘Golden Buffalo’ which will include, among other things, paper and instructions to fold your very own origami buffalo.
In order to fit inside the packaging, and to give folks a bit...
1 tag
knittin' mittens
In an attempt to use up some of my bits and pieces of wool, I’ve taken to knitting some quick, small things for the baby. Here are some little mittens I knitted- for keeping little hands warm and preventing baby from scratching himself.
They required about 25grams of 4 ply merino, and took me about 2 hours to make, so I think I’ll be knitting some more as presents for other little...
1 tag
Comfort food
The weather was a bit miserable today. After spending the afternoon aqua-jogging laps at the aquatic centre, my aching, cold, chlorinated body felt like something warm and comforting. So, I lit the fire, baked up a date loaf and snuggled up on the couch. As I don’t own a loaf tin, I made it in our square tin which I usually bake Brownies in. This resulted in fat finger-shaped pieces rather...
1 tag
Baby hat
Over the weekend I’ve managed to knit another little baby hat to add to my collection. They seem to be a very tricky thing to get right, given the variation in baby head sizes, speed at which they grow, and how annoying it can be for a little one to have a hat that keeps falling over their face. So I figure I may as well just keep making different styles and sizes and I’m bound to end...
1 tag
Buns in the oven
There are several beliefs my parents have which I found annoying growing up, but now find that I am slowly adopting myself. One such belief is that you shouldn’t eat Hot Cross Buns before Good Friday. In their case this stems from the concept of Lent, however I think my reasoning is based in anti-consumerism. I could have bought myself a creme egg at the supermarket, or a packet of Hot Cross...
March 2010
9 posts
Bibs
I made these baby bibs a while ago. They are made from cheap facecloths backed with cotton and trimmed with bias binding. Sewing on the bias binding was the tricky part. I free-styled these patterns so not sure how well they will actually fit a little bebe. They are pretty big, so are probably more appropriate once Master Scott starts eating food.
2 tags
It's getting Chilli
As daylight saving draws to a close there is a noticeable chill in the air in the Wellington evenings. I actually was convinced that daylight saving ended last weekend and turned all the clocks in our house back an hour on Saturday. It’s amazing that being an hour behind the rest of the country had absolutely no impact on my life. I almost managed to convince Sam that there was something...
1 tag
After school slice
Here is another of my Mother’s classic recipes. I’m not sure whether it officially has a name. I know it from my childhood as ‘Cornflake biscuits’, but also think of it as ‘After school slice’ as Mum used to whip it up when we came home from school hungry. It must also be in the running for one of the quickest slices to make in the world.
Recipe
200g butter...
2 tags
Gooseberries
We were babysitting my nephew last night. He pointed to the lightshade in our living room and said ‘That light is a gooseberry.’ It was pretty cute and a surprisingly accurate description of its shape. I’ve tried practicing my drawing skills by attempting to capture the variations in shade of its form from different angles. Sam tells me it is on a long-term loan from his friend...
1 tag
Mum's Apple Cake
I’ve just been watching ‘NZ’s hottest home baker’. I can’t help thinking how much better my Mum would be on this programme than the current contestants. My Mum doesn’t need recipes, she bakes instinctively. Mum can whip up a sticky lemon slice or a trifle or loaves of bread from memory, and they seem to always turn out consistently well, probably because she...
1 tag
Banana Cake
I like to think my baking skills have improved a fair bit over the last few weeks. This is probably because I have been doing A LOT of baking. I also think that Sam’s birthday present to me of some kitchen scales may have something to do with it. My usual approach to baking has been a bit haphazard, full of estimates and substitutes. Since being the proud owner of some kitchen scales though,...
1 tag
more puffy pants
I knitted another pair of puffy pants. They are supposed to fit a 6 month old, but they look HUGE. I can’t imagine how my little baby (currently weighing just over a kilo in utero) will ever be big enough to fit them.
1 tag
Bizcocho Dominicano
Sam and a group of his friends have started a club called ‘Cuisines of the World’. Each member takes turns to host a meal of food from a randomly picked country for other club members (blindfolded pointing to a map, or flicking through an atlas.) Today it was Sam’s turn to host and he had selected the food of the Dominican Republic. It seemed like a rather prescient selection...
1 tag
Jam Drops
Last night I made some Jam drops. They are perhaps the easiest and quickest biscuits to make in the world. So quick and easy in fact, that I managed to make them during the ads of ‘Project Runway’. I was inspired to bake these by a post on one of my favourite blogs Tiny Happy. Unlike in her post, my jam was not homemade. I used Anathoth Apricot and Raspberry, which are the closest to...
February 2010
8 posts
1 tag
Belgian Biscuits
Yesterday I made some Belgian Biscuits for my nephew’s 2nd birthday party. I used this recipe here. Maybe they needed a little bit more spice or brown sugar to give them the classic golden-brown colour I associate with the biscuit. The darker brown ones in the picture were a little over-cooked and the lighter coloured ones, although delicious, aren’t as aesthetically pleasing….....
1 tag
Black and White
I was looking in an expensive baby shop last week and noticed the fashion for black and white baby toys. The current theory of baby vision is that their early eyesight responds to simple bold, high-contrast shapes- hence the black and white. I saw a mobile in the shop I liked, but thought ‘Pfffft 30 bucks, I could make that myself’. Well, making my mobile was a little more tricky than...
1 tag
Harvest
Way, way back in about September I bought a packet of tomato seeds for about $3. I sprinkled the seeds into little containers I found about the place which I’d filled with potting mix. After a few weeks on the window sill we had sprouts which I transplanted to pots, some of which I later transplanted into our garden. This resulted in about 13 tomato plants. I actually wasn’t sure what...
1 tag
Brownies and Skating
Nothing complements watching Men’s ice skating like some chocolate brownies. The recipe I used is from Mark Bittman’s excellent cookbook How to Cook Everything and can also be found here. Sam and I made these with the addition of some frozen raspberries, a trick I learnt from my cousin Miriam. This batch wasn’t as chocolatey as the previous times I’ve made it, maybe because...
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Little vest in 4ply
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Pants
Here are some puffy newborn pants I made. I didn’t follow the part of the pattern which said I should use back-stitch to join them and I used my own made-up, inferior stitch, hence the slight puckering. I think I’ll make another pair in a larger size too. In Wellington you can wear wool 10 months of the year. Yay!
If my baby knitting just gets too speedy and easy I could always try...