My Bread Machine Obsession!

I confess I am totally obsessed with my bread machine. 
I love that I can put ingredients in turn it on and leave it.
I love the smell in my house.
I love the taste...........it nearly always comes out yum.
I love that it is cost effective for a family of five.
I love that it is something everyone in my family eats.
And I must admit I do like the ideal of providing fresh food for my family.

Over the last year I have started to cook more than just a loaf of bread in my bread machine and it has just indulged and feed my obsession.  One of our favourites are these Italian Bread Rolls

Italian Bread Rolls

1. 1 cup of warm water
2. 2 1/4 tsp yeast
3. 2 tbsp sugar (I often use honey)
4. 3 tbsp melted butter
5. 1 tsp minced garlic (I use the stuff from the jar)
6. Fresh herbs finally chopped (whatever is in my herb garden)
7. 3 cups of bakers flour
8. 1 1/2 tsp of salt

• Combine water, yeast and sugar in the bread machine and leave for ten minuted to activate the yeast.  
• When it is fluffy on top add the butter, garlic and herbs.
• Lastly add the flour and salt.  
• If I think the rolls are going to last more than a day I add 2 tsp of bread improver now.
• Put your machine on dough cycle and let it work its magic.
• When the cycle is completed pull the dough out give it a quick knead, shape portions into rolls or sticks, pop them on a greased tray and cover them with a tea towel to have a second rise.
• Sprinkle on some Parmesan and pop them in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. 

And yum fresh baked rolls for everyone to eat!

A great roll making tip that I once read you know rolls are ready when you tap the bottom and they sound hollow.  I am not sure where I read that one but it always seems to work.

Bang the Drum

I am a big believer in keeping things simple.  In fact lately I have really embrassed the idea of keeping life small and simple for our family so when I am making decisions about our day or week I often ask myself does this keep our life small and simple. 

And sometimes kids activities can be small and simple.

Miss two was in a banging mood, she was using her toys to make a wonderful banging noise on the kitchen bench shouting bang, bang, bang.  So before I headed out to hang out clothes I grabbed some bowls and a stick and invited to bang her heart away.

Small and simple just the way we like it!

Comment of the Week

 "Your surprisingly good at that mum" said Mr 7 as I folded a paper airplane.
 "Especially since I only taught you recently"

You see Mr 5 asked me to make him a paper airplane so I gave him a piece of paper and said you make one with me and he folded his piece as I folded mine.  Our expert airplane maker Mr 7 was watching and came out with the comment above.

Always nice to know I can surprise them!

Jelly Animals

With Mr 7 and 5 at school and busy afternoons I have been trying to make sure that rather than just being busy that Miss 2 and I do some fun stuff during the day that is all about being two.

So while looking in the pantry to see if I had the ingredients to make new playdough I discovered some Gelatin.  So I went to may favorite activity book of the moment and soon we were making what we called Jelly Animals.  Asia calls it Reusable Gelatin in her book 150+ Screen Free Activities for Kids.

Make your Gelatin as instructed on the pack ours was 1 tablespoon in half a cup of  hot water to set 400ml of liquid. 

We added it to water

Added blue food colouring

Had fun placing animals in a muffin tray

And then poured away

Miss two had great fun checking the fridge to see if they were set over and over.

Then when it came to reading time for the boys she had great fun playing with her jelly animals.  A win for us all as reading is much easier if miss 2 is not trying to join in or needs attention.

And once animals were extracted and played with in the wobbly jelly.  The goo was just as much fun.

We saved some for the boys to play with after reading and stay tuned to see the activity they have dreamed up after doing this one.

Organisation Mission - Revisited

Piles Be Gone!

Way back on the 21st Jan I was on a mission to organise my space, to make life simplier.  You see when my space is organised when things get crazy.........................and I mean rush home from swimming, get dinner on, do reading with the boys while entertaining Miss 2 busy. It is much easier if I can just grab the books we need to read or give Miss 2 an enticing busy bag.

I started small with my desk and the kitchen bench. My aim to have clear working spaces each night for the next day.

Well I started off great but we are now two months down the track and I have started to slide down the slippery slope into the depth of pile kaos.  So my promise to me this week is tidy working spaces at the end of each day.  Desk, table and bench as these are the spaces we function in all the time and if they are organised it makes it so much easier to get things down when 100 things are going on at once.

Snow Play in the Sun

Miss 2 was given some frozen figurines not long ago so I decided it would be fun to make snow.  So with the help of google we had all we needed to make snow and it was much easier than I thought.

All it takes is:

Hair conditioner

Bi Carb Soda

Put your Bi Carb Soda in a bowl or on a plate and then pour hair conditioner in and mix it with your hands til you have a consistency that you can mould or build with.

I have no idea what chemical reaction happens here or what the molecules are doing but it not only looks like snow, it is cold too........ some science magic going on there!  We even went and collected pebbles and sticks to make a snowman.

Mr 5 and 7 loved this to, but warning if you are a neat and tidy person (so not me) you might want to spread a bit of plastic on the floor.  We have easy to sweep flours so I didn't bother.

The snow can be kept in the fridge in a container and re-used.

Remniscing Over Birthday Cakes

 

Pinterest and some creativity and chima loving Mr 5 got Chima World this year.

Today I am reminiscing over 7 years of birthday cakes.  Mr 7 turned 7 a few weeks ago, so we have been celebrating and as I sat up late decorating a cake it brought back memories of the last seven years including the many cakes I have decorated over the years........some pretty good others that make me laugh!

My most recent effort makes me laugh.  It was meant to be 1/3 Yoda, 1/3 Dark Vada and 1/3 R2D2.........mmmmmmmmm. 

This is one of my favourites Miss 2's first birthday

Everyone loves the Women's Weekly Birthday Cook book

Nemo I dreamed this one up I think

It's meant to be Toothless for my dragon loving boy

Again the Women's Weekly Birthday Book has the goods

For Miss 2 who loves to jump on a trampoline

My very first birthday cake ever!

How funny is this BMX track............mmmmm maybe I should stick with the Women's Weekly Cookbook.