Baking up a storm

At my office we have a Thursday breakfast tradition. If you want to take part your name is added to the list and then it works out to about twice a year that you have to bring breakfast in to work on a Thursday.  Last week Thursday it was my turn.

So I skipped going to Tiger’s football training on Wednesday night and got my baking on.

Bacon, Corn & Cheddar cheese bread

Savory Muffins (feta, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and spinach)

Peanut butter cupcakes

Apple cinnamon cupcakes

a couple of baguettes and some cold cuts.

It was delicious, even if I have to say so myself. 

Himself wanted to know why it is that I bake for my colleagues and not for them at home – it is simple I said, I don’t want us to get any fatter. If I baked like this at home all the time we would be rolling around instead of walking. 

I am still looking for the perfect Peanut butter cupcake recipes so if you have one that is light and fluffy please pass it along. This one was nice but just a tad too dense for my liking. The Apple cinnamon was amazing! 

And for those interested here are the recipes:

Bacon & Corn (or Mielie as it is called in South Africa) bread

side note: the first time I made it I added the cream style corn but I found the bread to be very heavy. This time I didn't add it and it made all the difference. 

Savory Muffins

side note: I really liked these but next time I'll add more feta and olives. Also, I added some baking powder to the second batch and it was a lot better.

Peanut butter cupcakes with Peanut butter marshmallow fluff frosting 

side note: I liked these but they were not quite as light as I usually like me cupcakes so I'm still going to be trying out other recipes. For the frosting I sort of just make it up. Peanut butter, butter mixed until smooth. Then I just added some marshmallow fluff and icing sugar and mixed it all together.  Once a find a recipes that I really like I'll post it.

Apple cinnamon cupcakes with maple cinnamon glaze

side note: these were Fantastic!   

 

Dear neighbor,

You might have seen this doing the rounds but as I had tears running down my face when I read this I just thought I had to share it with you, in case you haven't seen it:



Dear neighbor,

Message from the Queen

Saw this posted on Facebook today and had a little giggle:

A MESSAGE FROM THE QUEEN To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.) 

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except North Dakota, which she does not fancy). Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. 

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect: 

1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary'). 

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as 'like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.' 

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. 

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse. 

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public. 

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour. 

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it. 


8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar. 

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. 

American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion. 

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater. 

11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).
 
12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries. 

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad. 

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776). 

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season. God Save the Queen! 

PS: Only share this with friends who have a good sense of humour (NOT humor)! 

Tiger came home from school with ...

Wednesday night I woke up from Himself looking for something in my bedside drawer. 

A lice comb! 

Yip, Tiger came home with lice on day 3 of being back to school! Ugh! really I could so do without it. So the man, bless his heart, washed the his hair at 2 in the morning. 

I'm so glad that Cat seems to have avoided it cause with her curly hair it really is an extra pain to comb it out.

I just hope that we have nipped this in the butt and gotten rid of these horrible little monsters for good! 

(image credit google images)

 

resolution number 2

Okay, so I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the worlds most organized person. I have great intentions but I just never seem to be able to carry them out, or stick with my organization plan. Also, this year I haven't really made any resolutions except for these two: 

1. save money! (both Himself & I are terrible savers)
2. get more organized (yes I get that this is very vague but it is a start, okay)

One particular area of our life that really needs to be organized is the meal/grocery planning.  I tend to cook 90% of our meals. Himself tends to do 80% of our grocery shopping. So I have decided to try and to the weekly meal planner and then create a grocery list based on that. Trying to buy only what we need and also taking the stress out of coming up with something to cook for dinner at 4 in the afternoon, especially when I'm not sure what there is or isn't in the house.
 
The other little 'issue' linked to this is that 4 times a week we only get home at 8 so then I have to cook dinner as quickly as possible to try and get the kids fed, bathed and into bed by at the latest 9. (yes they 'bath' themselves and no they can't wait till morning cause the reason we get home so late is sport related).

So I want to know:

• do you plan your meals ahead of time?

• if yes, do you repeat a set of meal plans (e.g. rotating the same 2 or 3 lists)?

• do you have some quick and easy meal ideas for me? (no, I do not own a slow cooker)

O Yum!

Okay, first of all Happy New Year to you and everyone you love! I hope that 2014 will be everything you hope it will be. 


On a personal note I must say that I don't think we could have a worse year than 2013 so we are very cautiously optimistic about this year.

Tomorrow we are going back to work and back to school and I really should be cleaning the kitchen and the lounge but nah I have neglected my blog for way too long. The good news is that I got a mini iPad from my work so I'll be able to blog on the train to or from work, meaning more regular posts, I hope.

We have been having the mildest winter in years. The temperature has been averaging around 8 - 10 deg / 46 - 50F without a hint of snow. Some days are sunny but most of them are grey and wet. Today is one of those with a drop in the temperature to 3 / 39. And what is better than a nice bowel of soup on a day like today.

Problem is my family is not big on soup. The only soup they like is potato soup and let's face it it's not really soup, or is it? Anyway, despite this fact I decided to try a 'new' soup on them, tomato, basil cheddar soup.

Yum! It was amazing! Himself even asked for seconds! The kids were less enthusiastic about it but I'm not too worried about that. I'm sure you all have this recipe already but just in case you don't this is the one I used, try it you will not be disappointed!