Geekling's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Geekling's 2nd birthday last weekend at our favourite park at Chermside - its huge!  The play area is under cover, and although not a priority for us there are lots of options for special needs kids too which is nice to see.  There are toilets and lots of tables and benches and lots of grass to run around on - its a wonderful space.

We had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party as its Geekling's favourite book at the moment.  We ate all the foods that the caterpillar eats in the book!

 

 

I've been struck down with Ross River Fever that I must have picked up from a pesky mosquito while camping a couple of weeks ago, which put me out of action in the lead up to the party.  A HUGE thank you to:

• my mum who made Geekling's awesome caterpillar cake;
• my mother in law who made the jellies and cupcakes and supplied drinks; and 
• my wonderful husband who did the rest.  

The only thing I managed was to pick up a second-hand single bedsheet from the thrift store and stamp it in greens and red with a cut potato.

52 Uses for Coconut Oil

I came across this post recently on 52 uses for coconut oil.  I'd never realised Coconut Oil was so useful!  I love that you can use it as a base for so many home made cosmetics and medicinal balms - some of which would make lovely home made gifts.

(Image from the http://www.deliciousobsessions.com article linked above)

For those who haven't used it before, coconut oil isn't a liquid like most oils we're used to, its a thick balm like substance.

Chicken pen

Two reasons its been a bit quiet on this blog lately:

1. My laptop is dying

2. We've been spending our weekends building a chicken pen for our chickens.  And here it is!

The frame is made from recycled pool fencing that had been sitting around hubby's parents place for the best part of the last decade.  While it is excellent to be able to use the gate part, I wouldn't recommend it as it is SOOOO heavy.  Or at least I would not recommend situating the new chook pen at the very far uphill corner of the yard.

The frame posts are secured with recycled star pickets donated by our neighbour.  It is covered with chicken wire and recycled corregated iron from the nearby Dakabin Tip Treasure Market.  We ran bricks around the outside to stop the dog (or anything else) digging under it.

The chook house is a dog kennel I purchased recently on ebay for $10.  The lid is on a hinge so lifts for easy access to the eggs (when they start laying) and for cleaning.  The ramp is made from a bit of pine with backyard sticks glued to it.

The chooks seem happy enough with it but they haven't yet worked out how to get up into the chook house which I find odd since I thought they naturally go to the highest point.

Vegies are tasty!

This post ties in well with my recent guest posts over at  Brisbane Kids - creative food play and my favourite pizza base recipe.  Brisbane Kids is also on Facebook and are a great way to keep up with cheap and fun activities around Brisbane such as expos, fetes, festivals and other celebrations.

We're having a little trouble convincing Geekling to eat vegetables at the moment.  The frustrating thing is that he will eat the same vegies in one form (on a pizza, pureed, mashed or in another dish) but then not in another (whole or chopped).  We don't want to take the developmental step back into purees all the time so here are a few of the things we've been trying to overcome this:

Muffin Tin Meals

We try to give Geekling a muffin tin meal once a week, and challenge ourselves to include one food he hasn't eaten before.  He will usually try something from each of the six compartments but we must admit he doesn't often go back for a second mouthful of vegies.

Dip-Dip

We tried lightly steaming some carrots and broccoli, and adding some yellow capsicum and cherry tomatoes, then serving with a home made cheesy dip (recipe below).  He loved this but tended to just dip the vegies, suck the dip off and dip again.

Our floor cleaner (dog) Mr L waiting patiently in the background for any dropped vegies or drips of dip

Cheesy dip: simply mix and microwave lightly to warm

2 tbsp cream cheese
1/4 cup cream
1 - 2 heaped tbsp grated cheese
1/2 tsp french onion soup mix

I threw this together using leftovers, but you could also use store-bought cream cheese spread or combine corn relish, gherkin relish or even tuna to cream cheese.

Vegie Tempura

Since Geekling is a fiend for fried potato chips we thought we'd try tempura.  He had a little bit, but it wasn't the success we'd hoped for.  He'd had a big afternoon of grazing at a birthday party and had some fresh bread while I was frying up so we might try again soon.

 Geekling gets started while Mumma continues frying

We used calamari and prawns, sweet potato, spring onion, green beans, red capsicum, broccoli, mushroom ans zucchini.

We wound up with two full plates of tempura left over after hubby, Geekling and I had finished and had to call in reinforcements to help eat it!

On our list of things to try is baked vegie "chips" and American-style pumpkin pie or muffins (both of which I LOVE).  Geekling loves vegie pizzas and fritters, so we do have some back up plans, and we tend to sneak grated veg into lots of other meals like meatballs, pasta sauces etc so we're sure he's well enough.

Making bread

One of the many grocery items that hasn't graced our shopping list in a while is bread - we make our own!  We cheat and use a breadmaker that was gifted to us, and even though bread is quite cheap at the shops (sometimes as low as $1 per loaf) I still believe we save money making our own.  Besides, nothing beats the fresh stuff, slathered in butter and spread thinly with vegemite!

Geekling loves helping around the house at the moment, including making bread.  Hubby often measures out the ingredients for him to tip in to the tin.

Here is the recipe we use and love:

1 1/4 cup water (room temperature - approx 15 - 20 degrees)

3 and 1/4 cups plain flour 

2 tbsp butter

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tsp salt

1 and 1/2 tsp bread improver (optional)

1 and 1/2 tsp dried yeast

Throw it all in the machine and turn it on!

The recipe can be adapted to baking in the oven - you just have to mix, knead and prove yourself.

You can also use 00 flour or breadmaker's flour if you want to get fancy, but plain flour works just fine!

We've been meaning to experiment with cheese and herbs and all manner of delicious add-ins but have been too busy enjoying it as is!