Sunday night supper club: yumminess within

We actually ate this for dinner tonight, and although it doesn't look very pretty... there is a lot of yumminess going on inside those layers of filo (if I do say so myself).   It seems a bit odd to be having a pie in the middle of summer, but this one works I think.  We ate it with some green salad.

It's a moroccan chicken pie from Everyday in the Kitchen, which I think may be out of print now but really is a great cookbook to have around for some every day inspiration.

Anyway, here's the recipe so you can give it a go!

1 kg skinless chicken thigh fillets, diced
Seasoned flour
Olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 teasp ground cumin
2 teasp ground coriander
1 teasp sweet paprika
1/2 teasp allspice
1/2 teasp ground ginger
1 teasp chilli powder (optional - I don't put this in but actually I think it would be nice)
500ml chicken stock
salt and pepper
1 tblsp pomegranate syrup (optional - but I use it, it's yum)
Handful or coriander leaves
3 small zucchini, halved and cut into 1 cm slices
6-8 sheets filo pastry
Melted butter (for pastry)
Sesame seeds (for on top of the pie.. I didn't have any tonight)

Toss chicken with flour and shake well to remove excess.  Heat a casserole pot over med heat.  Add oil and cook chicken in batches until golden brown, set aside.

Using the same pot, cook onion and spices until fragrant.  Return chicken to the pot and add stock, salt and pepper.  Bring to the boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until chicken is tender, about 45 minutes.  Check seasoning, add coriander, zucchini and pomegranate syrup.  Remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Grease a 20cm springform cake tin.  Brush butter on 6-8 sheets of filo and arrange them in the tin, allow excess to hang over the sides.  Spoon chicken filling into pastry and arrange excess over the top, adding extra pastry if needed to enclose filling.  Brush the top with butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes or until crisp and golden brown.

Serves 4-6. 

Random craftiness

Do you remember my Christmas Tree stump?  Well it's been sitting in our living room ever since Christmas (despite all the other Christmas decorations being put away ages ago).  Matilda has taken to sitting on it and so it inspired some random craftiness.

We made up a little cushion for it and stuck it to the log with some velcro so for 11 months of the year it can be a proper seat.

Job done!

Sometimes I look at Matilda at 2.5 years old and thnk I'm looking at a teenager, and then get very scared!

Pom pom Ooshka for Polly

On my day off on Thursday (when Matilda is at day care) I crossed another item off my project list.  Polly's Ooshka is all done! 

Well almost I think, she needed something around her neck so I made the pom poms which I like. But at the moment they are just tied on with a piece of wool, I think I might crochet a chain to put them on instead.

I was given the Ooshka kit for Christmas, good present peeps!  I love the little faces.

And while I was mucking around in her room to take the photo, Polly found her box of hats and tipped them over.  I think she kind of looks like her Ooshka.

Cry of the Peacock by Gina B Nahai (and bookclub)

In my book club we all take turns picking books and this month's was my pick.  I had read Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith years ago and found it really interesting so I wanted to read another book by Ms Nahai.

I like reading about histories and other cultures that I don't really know much about and this book follows a family or Iranian Jews from about the 1700s through to the 1980s so there's a lot of history there!

I really enjoyed this book too although there are parts of it that are fairly brutal.   Persian history and culture is really interesting to me and the story really nicely told.   Plus there's a little bit of mysticism and magic throughout the story which makes it all a little bit special.

I also hosted book club this month, so among other things for supper we ate (to be totally cliched and obvious) figs and persian feta.  Plus Middle Eastern baklava that has Turkish Delight in it and was so easy to make for how yummy it turned out.   It doesn't hurt to be a bit obvious some times.

Treasures

A few treasures I've saved (from the op-shop bag) or been given lately... from my mum and my Grandma.

Yellow plate, salt pot and flower spoon rest.

My Holly Hobby tea cup from when I was a kid.

And to balance more 'stuff' coming into my house, a bag of toys went in the donation bin this morning.

There's a donation bin in the carpark of Matilda's day care, and I'm planning on dropping a garbage bag in once a week.

Sunday night supper club: comfort food (and doughnuts!)

Sometimes there is nothing else for it, you need comfort food for dinner.

And I was put onto a new recipe last week which was delicious (and comforting). But I was lazy and didn't take a photo, I would have had to snap out of the couch mood I was in for that. You do get a link though, with the recipe.

Here it is: Baked chilli and coriander pancakes. Eaten with some sour cream, avocado and a squeeze of lime, totally yum.

Plus I got a tip when I was put onto the recipe - you can buy frozen crepes at the supermarket, use them and just sprinkle some coriander over the top.   For me, that turns this recipe into a weeknight option. 

In a non-supper related subject, I made baked mini doughnuts this weekend.  Double yum.  I was obsessed I tell you, and I couldn't find the tins anywhere here so I had to order them from Amazon.  G thinks I'm a mental case.  But he ate the doughnuts.  Now I want to try this and make pretty coloured sprinkles for them.

my big girl

Went to 'school' for the first time today. Well, she started day care anyway. She is going to be going one day a week.

I have been thinking about doing it for awhile but never got any further than actually thinking about it. Then finally last week, I went to visit a local centre where I know a few of the other kids that go and they had a place available for Matilda if I wanted it.

I kind of freaked out a bit because I wasn't expecting there to be a place, I thought I'd be on a waiting list for a few months at least. But there it was, on a day that suited us and she would be in a room with another little girl we know so that was it. She was booked in.

Matilda and I have been talking and playing schools all week, so she was pretty excited to be going, and she knew that she was going to 'big girl school' and that mama didn't go with her. Still, I expected her to perhaps be a little upset. She was fine. A little nervous to meet all those new people but there were no tears and she had no problem with me going.

I rang the centre around lunch time and she was still fine.  I picked her up in the afternoon and she had a great day but was a bit tired.

In the mean time, Polly and I went and had coffee with a friend at an actual cafe. We did some shopping and some cleaning and some cuddling and while she slept I watched Life at 5. Indulgent!

Couldn't send her off though without a proper homemade sheet bag..

Sunday night supper club: boring weekday dinner

Ok, tonight's one is a bit boring but it is a rediscovery in my household and it's been working for us for a weekday dinner.

We've been a bit low on iron lately so I've been trying to find something that has some red meat in it as well as some decent vegies that I can get our toddler to eat  (sorry people out there without children, I warned you this was a little boring!). 

Anyway, baked potatoes have been part of the answer for us. Topped with beef mince (like bolognese) that has grated carrot and mushed up broccoli hidden inside it and topped off with some corn (and some sour cream isn't bad too).

It's pretty tasty actually.. if you can't think of something to cook one night this week, give it a go.  It has the G + Matilda stamp of approval.

Quilts for Queensland & Matilda's Panda (finally)

I don't know where she finds the time but Corrie from Retro Mummy is organising Quilts for Queensland - making quilts for the victims of the floods in Queensland and cyclone Yasi.  So for our craft night a couple of weeks ago, we decided we would like to join in and we all made some quilt blocks to post off.

I would have loved to have made a full quilt to help out but I knew if I did that it would never get to anyone because I'd still be working on it in three years time. Plus my binding is still really dodgy, so whoever received the quilt would be feeling a bit dudded when they saw all the other beautiful ones on Corrie's blog. But hopefully our little quilt blocks will help out a bit.

This weekend I also finally finished Matilda's panda bear (and can cross one thing off my project list... yay!).

Originally I started this panda planning to give it to Matilda on her second birthday (last July) but then I did something wrong on one of the legs and so it sat in a bag, unfinished until now.  Better late then never though right?

I just hope he can withstand the love... he's been doing a lot of dancing so far.

I made him from this tutorial, which I can definitely recommend, he was pretty easy as long as you have a really big needle to sew the arms and legs on with.

Dressing a toddler

We're going on a play date today. 

I am not sure if any of you remember this dress, but it still fits Matilda (just as a top now).  Anyway, I wanted her to wear it but she didn't want to.  I basically had a sook until she agreed with me that she would wear it.

She looked so cute with it on, little denim shorts, red saltwaters and her hair in braids.

Within about 3 minutes of wearing it though she was whinging.  The bow was annoying her, she kept thinking her top was falling off.  We were heading for a tantrum.

So I gave in, she is now wearing the boring blue t-shirt with a caravan on it that she wanted to wear all along.  Not nearly as cute, but she's happy.

No fair!  At least Polly still lets me dress her, although even she won't let me put anything in her hair.

Fabric Hunt

I need help, does anyone happen to know what this fabric is called? I'm a bit obsessed!

Getting organised

January is still holiday month. February is the month to get organised!

So I'm trying.

I am using TeuxDeux. Even for my small little daily tasks, mainly because it's motivating to cross things off and I also don't get to the end of the day and think I've done nothing again because I can see all the little bits and pieces I've crossed off.

I've started a list in my sidebar of all the projects I want to do.  These don't really have deadline but at least this way I'll remember them all (and maybe try not to buy more stuff for new projects before I've finished some of the ones on this list).

I have even come up with a solution to make my keys easy to find at the bottom of my massive handbag.  Because they always end up underneath the nappies and milk arrowroot biscuits, amongst the dummies and bottle lids and random scrunched up dockets and then I'm standing at the car holding on to one baby, trying to make sure the toddler doesn't run out in front of a car while searching for my keys.    So I put them on a lanyard.. and because they are always pretty ugly, I covered mine.  It's working well so far.. very easy to find in my bag.

And the big one... I've booked Matilda into day care one day a week. I've been talking about doing this for awhile but never actually did anything about it but today I got my butt into gear, went to visit the local centre and they had a place available - so I'm taking it! I am a bit nervous about this, but I think Matilda will really enjoy it, she's getting a bit bored at home with just Polly and me for entertainment. It will of course, also give me some time to do some of those things that's its really hard to do with two little kids around (like my tax). Fun.  I am still a bit freaked by it, I was expecting to have to go on a waiting list.

Anyway, it's good to get some stuff done... I am hoping my organising binge sticks around a bit longer.

Sunday night supper club: casual dinner party

On Tuesday night our monthly craft nights started up again for the year.  A bunch of ladies meet at my house on the first Tuesday of the month and we have dinner and do a little bit of crafting (read talking).

With a couple of kids running around and a house to tidy up before they arrive (my house is always messy) I like to make something easy but a little bit special for dinner.   Also there's a couple in the group who don't eat red meat - so we're chicken, seafood or vegetarian.    And to top it off it's been  ridiculously hot and humid up here lately so the food had to suit the weather too.

So what to have??  I was giving the recipe for the fish curry to one of the ladies a few days before craft night and she suggested that we have it for craft night.  Winner, it's easy to make... can be easily doubled or tripled so there's enough for everyone and it fits all my other critiera.  

But it needed something to make it a bit more of a special dinner than just curry.  So we added Thai prawn cakes, chicken satay skewers, roti bread and a salad made from shredded lettuce, shredded cucumber, pine nuts and a Thai flavour salad dressing to the menu - now we're talking about a craft night feast.   And nothing particularly difficult to make, plus lots that could be done beforehand.

For desert, perfect for a hot summer's evening we ate lychee ice cream with raspberry puree.

I'd like to leave it a that so you can all think I'm terribly clever for making my own ice cream.  But in truth all I did was puree a big tin of lychees (drained), mix that into 2L of softened vanilla ice-cream.  And added some raspberry puree to the bottom of the tin and to the top of the ice cream.  The recipe was in a Real Living magazine a couple of months ago and if it wasn't so yummy I wouldn't have told you and then you would all continue to think I was terribly clever.  But it was yum, so I had to share.

What have you been eating?

A whale of a time

What's a good blog post without the dodgiest pun title you can find?

I can't believe another week has gone and we're into February already. I like February, I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things and getting things done. I don't really like January, it's still kind of holiday time and the thought of a new year seems overwhelming so I'm glad it's Feb!

We've been down the beach for a few days again... for the last time now, back to normal routine. We ate cupcakes and played cards and swam, fun.

We got back on Friday night and yesterday Matilda and I made softie whales (while Polly and G slept). First of all we made one using this tutorial, which is cute on the blog but mine looked more like a shark and I wanted a really cartoony looking whale. So we decided to just wing it and then add a bow tie.  

I do think he is kind of cute, but I would like the yellow fabric underneath to not go up so high.  Ahh well.

He's a present for a baby Jonah.  Another dorky pun.  Nice.