A handbag!

When I was younger, my uncle gave me a collection of the Adrian Mole stories. I thought they were fabulous and hilariously funny. There was a line in one of the books making fun of the Oscar Wilde play, "The Importance of Being Earnest". I've not seen the play so that's my frame of reference when I hear the line about a handbag. Anyway, every time I watch Ellie with her latest obsession, it's the line that runs through my head.

For lately, Ellie is obsessed with handbags. I think it started at daycare, but she brought it home with her. I would often catch her carrying around a shopping bag or dragging my (very heavy) computer bag along the floor. Finally I relented and gave her one of my less used smaller handbags (a very nice red one I might add).

She loves it. She carries it around all the time, draped over one shoulder, or across her body. All the while, she does this very queenly wave. I'm sure that I don't do that myself, but she must have picked it up somewhere! Sidenote, but it's very funny the way babies see the world. For example, Ellie also believes that when people talk on the telephone, the correct location of the phone is at the back of one's neck....

I digress. What I wanted to share is this photo that cracks me up, because it is so Ellie. Here she is, pootling around the house with her favourite red handbag accessory. She is having too much fun to stop and let me take a non-blurry photo. Stuffed into her bag are all of life's essentials. Her toy mobile phone (for talking from the neck back, naturally), a single toddler sized shoe, and a handful of sultanas. Every so often she will run up to me and demand kisses and then resume dashing around, handbag in tow.

I do love her so.

Does your child imitate adult life in amusing ways? I'd love a giggle if you'd like to share.

Mango and coconut mini wacky cakes

After the success of my first wacky cake, I thought I'd experiment with a variation. What better excuse than a play date to make some mini cakes?

I omitted the cocoa and apple puree this time. Instead, I used maybe a quarter cup of shredded coconut and a mango, which I cut into small pieces. I used some coconut oil instead of the vegetable oil and baked it in small muffin moulds. Because the mango was so moist, I also didn't need the full cup of cold water.

I think next time, I'll puree the mango. While it would have been fine in a big cake, the mini moulds weren't very forgiving with space and there were a few that had big chunks of mango at the bottom which meant that they were a bit soggy and didn't hold their shape (I ate those!). 

Apart from that, these were delicious, and a big hit with Ellie and her friend (and the mummies!). Wacky cake - forgiving and delicious.

How has your week been? After my rant, we managed to get our Christmas tree up on the 1st. Just.

Mr Fork and I remembered about an hour before Ellie's bedtime, so we hustled to get the tree, unpack it and get it set up and the lights untangled. At that stage, Ellie was too tired to care, so we finished it all after she went to bed. Every night afterwards though, she's been entranced with those lights. I can't wait to take her around to look at all the decorated houses!

You might also notice that all the decorations are up high. They were spaced beautifully on the tree, until we realised that Ellie was pulling them down and stashing them around the place. We've yet to find them all again, but those that we have are now beyond grabbing range. For the same reason, presents are not under the tree yet. I just don't trust her and the hounds.

How do you child proof your tree? Is it up yet?

Wacky cake - strange name, great taste

Recently one of my mummy friends put me on to a great recipe: wacky cake. It's egg free, soy free and dairy free and actually, it's not really so much of a recipe, but more of a guideline. You can vary it to suit tastes and I think it's one of those glorious mixtures that is hard to stuff up! Even better, it's not finicky at all, cheap to make and it's child friendly!

Taking approximately 5 minutes to whip up and 25 minutes to bake, this is a winner in my books.

Here's what I did:

• 1.5 cups plain flour (I used one cup white flour, half a cup of wholemeal)
• 1/4 cup raw sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 5 tbsp vegetable oil *
• 1 cup cold water

That's the basic recipe. You mix the dry ingredients, then add the wet, mixing gently until just combined. Put into your tin and bake at 175C until it springs back when touched. 

Now, as you can see, mine looks a little different from the ingredients indicated! I switched it up a little (because we know I can't help playing with a recipe to make it 'mine').

I added:

• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• * approx 1/2 cup of apple puree (and then I reduced the oil and water added to compensate)

As with any vegan cake mixture, you need something to bind it instead of egg. As well as moisture, that's what the oil and water are doing in the original recipe. I used apple puree to make it a little healthier, and also reduce the amount of oil needed. As with regular baking, the tip is to mix the dry ingredients, then add the wet. Once that baking soda is wet, it activates and that's what helps your cake to rise so you want to avoid over mixing so you don't end up with baked concrete, and get it into the oven as soon as possible.

So, the verdict?

Delicious! Quick, easy, and a bit of a hit with both the adults and Ellie too. Hurrah! I'm going to add this one to my regular baking rotation and have some fun with it. 

I also think it would be great with some of the following added:

• cherries
• shredded coconut
• pineapple
• dates
• berries
• mashed banana (I have it on good authority from aforementioned friend that 2 bananas makes it a little stodgy so one sounds just right, although I don't care for banana myself)
• sultanas
• cacao nibs
• apple pieces

Do you have a go-to baking recipe? Or one that you use as a basis for adding other flavours to? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Garden visitors

I mentioned a few days ago about how my garden grows. Well, as much as possible, I like to sit out on the deck and enjoy the breeze (and check out the plants).

These little guys came for a visit and a chat as Ellie and I were having morning tea. We're also lucky enough to get some lizard visitors and it's not unusual to see skinks sunning themselves (while the hounds are distracted elsewhere naturally).

I love that our garden attracts wildlife. I grew up in a rural area where it was not unusual to have kangaroos in the backyard and to see kookaburras, frill neck lizards and the occasional echidna. Not to mention the snakes and spiders the size of my father's hand.... ugh. While Mr Fork gets to deal with any creepy crawlies we get, I'm so glad Ellie can experience some of the nicer visitors!

What kind of animals visit where you are?

Eco heroics

Recently I was a finalist in the ettitude eco hero awards. I lost my category by one vote, which was disappointing, but it got me thinking about my eco footprint and I thought I'd share a little about how we live.

I don't really think of myself as an eco hero, per se, just a regular mum who sets a good example for her family. As you know, I use cloth nappies on our daughter and when we wash, its full loads only. Speaking of cloth things we are also big users of cloth for washing dishes, drying dishes and cleaning instead of using paper towels. Living in QLD, I don't own a drier as we get plenty of sun and I think laundry smells nicer dried in fresh air. We meal plan to avoid food wastage, and any food scraps are composted or fed to the dogs. Any paper scraps are likewise shredded and composted. We recycle, freecycle and bicycle as much as possible, and buy second hand where feasible. We have solar panels and our lights and appliances are off when not in use (although I think that's just financial sense!). I also sew, so old clothing generally gets upcycled into something new.

One of the big things that I think makes us eco friendly (and definitely helps the budget) is that I grow as much of our veggies as possible. We don't have a huge yard, but I try to make it as productive as I can - we have a dedicated veggie patch and a fruit section too, which hopefully should start producing in a year or two. Everything is looking lovely after all the rain we've had so I seized the opportunity for photos.

As well as flowers, our front garden has a basil plant which is so top heavy I needed to stake it, as well as that glorious purple chilli plant you can see there. These two are decorative and useful, especially for pasta dishes!

Wider view of the front - the garden behind the hedge is lime, lemon, mandarin and passionfruit vines which I'm gradually training along the fence. This is a slightly old photo and everything is a bit larger now. Mr Fork was a bit vigorous trimming the hedges, so they're looking a little worse for wear.

Here's the raised veggie patch, looking sparse at the moment as lots of it is still underground. There are some rangy cherry tomatoes climbing around the fence, some eggplant, some cucumber, celery, leek and a few other goodies hiding in there.

Beside the house is an area which we don't use very often so I'm making it productive. This boring looking patch actually has some galangal growing beautifully (yet invisibly) along the fence, and then in the mound beside it I've planted sweet potato. Sweet potato is awesome because you can eat the leaves above ground while the potato does it's thing growing underground. Very useful!

Gardens aren't restricted to just the ground either, you can grow lots of things in pots and containers! Styrofoam containers are great for growing lettuce - I plant a variety of types and just harvest the leaves as we need them.

In a sunny place under the stairs I have spring onions in a pot. Fabulous and pretty much ever lasting - I snip them off as I need them. Occasionally I'll do a huge harvest and chop and freeze them in bags for cooking with later. Also some pineapples. These babies are slow growing - it took a year to get my first one, and this is year two, when I get another two! These are seriously the sweetest pineapples I've ever tasted. There used to be rosemary in another pot. People say it's easy to grow but I just can't seem to keep my rosemary cuttings alive at all!

Here's the compost bin. Not very exciting, but it does make exciting things for the garden. I move it to a new position every time it's ready and full and the old position gets used to plant something yummy. You can also see some aloe in a pot in the background. It used to run wild in the garden, until it really did run wild and amok requiring much effort to control, so now it's contained safely in a pot for when we get sunburnt.

So that's some of my gardening and eco heroics. Do you try to be eco friendly or sustainable? I'd love to hear about it (or see your garden if you're keen to share that too!)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Is it me, or do the Christmas decorations go up earlier every year? It's not even December yet and I swear, for the past month, every time I venture to the shops I've been assaulted with Christmas carols, decorations and reminders that there are only X number of days before Christmas and better get organised!

Ok I get it, I need to start thinking about preparation, food, shopping and presents. I'm not really a grinch but it seems like we jump from one 'special' day to another and because there's no down time between them, they lose their 'specialness' a bit. Wasn't it only just Easter? Ok I joke, and maybe I get jaded as I get older but this commercialism is insane!

Ellie on the other hand, loves it all! She's is in love with the shiny decorations, the flashing lights, the ho-ho-hoing of a wandering shopping centre Santa. Her little eyes just don't know where to look as she feasts on all the visual gaudiness. It's lovely as this is really her first Christmas where she can start to appreciate it a bit (last Christmas we couldn't even tempt her to play with the wrapping paper on her presents). So for her, I'll make sure I hide my inner grinch and make Christmas magical. Which I will start to do. But not before the 1st of December.

How do you celebrate Christmas? Are you organised already or just starting to think about it now? 

Go ahead, make my day

A few weeks ago, I was having a bit of a tough week at work. Usually, I make a big effort not to bring work troubles home with me but I just couldn't stop thinking about the could have/would have/should haves and I have to admit, I took my horrid mood out on Mr Fork a little bit. The poor man, he's not one for the sympathy and the listening and the talking and analysing like my girlfriends are and he didn't quite know what to do as I babbled and vented about things that weren't his fault at all. When I was done, I went to bed in a huff so that I could stew in my bad mood in peace. Mr Fork came in later without any prompting, bringing me a cup of tea and proceeded to give me a shoulder massage to make me feel better. He might not be one for words, but he does redeem himself with gestures.

So, this post is about those things that someone does to help change your mood from a frowny face to a smiley face. Those little things that give an opportunity to grab that warm and fuzzy feeling and share it around some more. Coming into the festive season, moods start to get higher, and tempers sometimes get a little stretched - so here are eight ways you can make someone's day a little brighter:

1. Check in. Sometimes all it takes is a friend to ask a simple "are you ok?" or, "how are you?" and be willing to listen to the response. 
2. Listen. Continuing on from #1, honestly, if you ask the question, be prepared to invest a little time into hearing the answer without vacant nodding and mm hmming. 
3. Have coffee (or beverage of choice, bubbles are also nice!). I have a coffee at home to help get me moving, but by the time I get to work, I'm ready for another, so I've gotten into the habit of going for a second cup with colleagues. It's also a quick opportunity to catch up and have a bit of a vent or chat out of the office. On non-work days, I love nothing better than the excuse to catch up with people over coffee and cake...
4. Little acknowledgements. It doesn't have to be something bought, a post it note with a smiley face on, or a chocolate biscuit can bring a smile. I have a colleague who brings me slices of homemade loaf, and bags of home made trail mix sometimes. I love it! (I bring her bagels and slice). Apart from satisfying my constant need to eat, I feel super chuffed that someone was thinking of me enough to pack me a snack.
5. Go for a walk. Apart from working off the snacks and increasing those all important steps,  with the weather getting sunny and warm, it's nice to see a bit of sun and absorb some vitamin D. Plus its a great opportunity to talk or even just walk in companionable silence.
6. Make them laugh. Tell them a joke. Send a funny email or a voicemail. Put on an accent or do an impression... the possibilities are endless!
7. Shop. Sure, it's not as easy on the wallet, but shopping doesn't have to result in buying something. Window shopping is almost as therapeutic, and hey, it's called retail therapy for a reason!
8. Give them a hug. Obviously don't go hugging people randomly, but sometimes a little human contact does wonders. The best part of my day (sorry Mr Fork!) is coming home to snuggles with this little person

What brightens up your day when you're feeling down?