nest

List

I am a list writer. I am. It’s true.

In fact I wrote a list before Christmas that was so lengthy, each task so full of hidden detail, that I freaked. Items like ’27. Cupboard’ should have actually been broken down into a subgroup of 30 combined tasks. ‘Cupboard’ should have been the title of a separate list. It was very daunting.

I felt much better when the list was hastily screwed up and thrown with some force into the bin.

The material evidence was gone but the list stayed in my head. Most of the items are still incomplete. And many more have been added.

Dad writes lists too and has his own superstitions about them. Like he’ll never stop a list at item 13, he’ll always think of something else to jump the list to at least 14. Bad luck will follow, apparently.

So I wasn’t surprised this morning when Tom asked me to divide a page into squares for him to write a list of things he wanted to accomplish today.

My favourite...

I’d add that to a list of ‘Things To Do’.

 
Watch a chook is a great thing to do.

And at the end of the day all items have been ticked. Very satisfying.

Gluten Free

So many people have happier, more comfortable lives without gluten in their systems. The gluten free diet is very common now and even most cafes and restaurants have a GF option. It's a shame though. Gluten is good. Gluten makes a cake light and fluffy, pasta silky and pastry stretchy. It provides elasticity to all wheat based products. Gluten free bread? Well, barely edible bricks, really, aren't they?

Mum is allergic to wheat, so she eats a 'gluten free' diet. Baking with GF flour is DIFFICULT when you first start. There are some things that just aren't worth making when you're working with GF flour. Don't even bother with pastry. Don't try a sponge cake. It'll all end in disappointment.

The first thing to do is accept the fact that those days of light airy butter cakes and crunchy puff pastry are over. O-V-E-R. Accept it, own it, get over it.

Some traditional recipes do work when substituting GF flour directly for wheat flour. These are cakes that are normally meant to be very moist or heavy. I'm talking about cakes made with sour cream, or a nut meal or syrup cakes, cakes with yoghurt or lots of melted chocolate. The GF flour will make them heavier and probably sink in the middle, again, accept it, own it, get over it. It will still taste pretty good.

When baking for mum I use this flour...

 
  
If I need self raising flour I simply add 2 1/2 (two and a half) teaspoons of baking powder per cup of GF flour.

Today I'm making GF BROWNIES. Oh yeah, brownies work. You may not be able to have good pasta, but here, maybe a brownie with make you feel better.

GLUTEN FREE BROWNIES

120g GF flour

70g corn flour (making sure it's the one without added wheat!)

100g maccadamia nuts, roughly chopped

5 eggs

120g caster sugar

300g milk choc melts (I'm not even going to find out the weight watcher points for this one)

200g butter (oh yeah, eat at own risk)

Oven on at 170 deg C. Grease and line a lamington/ brownie tin. Sift flours. Melt butter and choc in a bowl over simmering water. Whisk eggs with the sugar until light and airy. Fold in choc and butter. Fold in flours and maccas. Bake for 45 mins. Cut when cold.

So I've been melting...

Breaking eggs from Chooktopia and whisking....

And pouring into prepared tin....

And taking out of focus photos... but I suppose you'd already noticed that.

Mum is due to arrive soon and this will be just what she needs with a cup of tea after the drive.

Out of the oven and.... TA DAAA!

 

Mmmmmmmm, just what the dietician ordered. 

There you go mum...

 
 
 

Firecracker

(image from here)

I need a firecracker inserted somewhere upon my person. So, excuse me while I give myself a good stern talking to...

GET YOUR SEWING MACHINE OUT!!! GO ON! GET STARTED. YOU'RE ALL TALK, NO ACTION! FIND THE TIME AND DO IT! Goodness me. What a slacker.

Ouch. Thanks, me, I needed that. I'll start something now for no other reason than to shut me up. I can be so annoying.

I have mentioned before how I love to sew but have been so time poor for so many years that the sewing machine barely sees the light of day. Tom's at school now and I find I have pockets of moments that I could use... for myself... UNBELIEVABLE! I'll be fabric shopping this week and starting ASAP on a few projects that I have in mind. Little easy starters to get me in the groove;

• drawstring bags for undies, dirty clothes, etc for when we go to Europe later in the year.
• table cloths for our dining table, because we've been actually sitting as a family at meal times!! (wonders will never cease)
• a-line skirt for me. I've seen a pattern on Etsy that I'm considering.
• skirts for Juliet- again, thankyou Etsy.

This will get me started. Where's that firecracker fuse? Light the match!

My renewed sewing motivation has also come from a surprise inheritance. I've been given my Nana's Singer sewing machine.

It's being kept at my parent's place until I have room for it.

I've never thought of my Nana as a sewer. I guess she used it to mend clothes or make what she couldn't buy. She was never a crafter or someone who sewed for pleasure, not like my other Nana. So I was surprised that she owned this. In the drawer there are the original bobbins, cleaning brushes, key and manual.

The receipt of purchase is also in this drawer. She paid 45 pounds for this on the 27th of April 1943.

That's the day of my birthday, many years before I was born. So I was meant to have it, surely. And I'm really moved to have it given to me. It means a lot.

So, some fabric, some thread, scissors (where are my scissors?), pins, tape measure (I think I last saw that in the toy box..), a cleared off section of table... and some time. Thats all I need.   

Brainsnap

Tom started school last Wednesday. Remember in my last post I had decided not to think about it? Bad idea. Running through the events of the day in my mind would have paid off, I guess. Ahhh, hindsight.

  

Yep, that thought bubble is E-M-P-T-Y. No thought.

If I had let myself think about it last year I would have bought his uniform from the uniform shop before it closed a week before Christmas.

Then I wouldn’t have had to borrow a school t-shirt and shorts from a friend. Oh, and socks too.

If I’d thought about it and made it to the shop last year he would have had the proper school bag and hat on his first day, too.

Then the night before school was to start, at about 9pm I realised something.... he would need lunch. No lunch box. WHAT?! So, off he went with his lunch in a plastic bag with a coldbrick chucked in. To my HORROR, upon arrival, lunchboxes are taken OUT of bags and placed into baskets at the classroom door. Lovely new insulated bags with drinkbottle and morning tea sections, brightly coloured and name labeled.... and a plastic bag written on with black texta. For all to see.

I hadn’t labeled his shoes. These were also taken off at the door and put into baskets. They cost a fortune. I had a black marker in my bag, but how do you mark black shoes with a black marker? It was a miracle that he came home with them. And the socks.

AAAHHHHHHHH!

I’m normally pretty organised and all I can put this string of debacles down to is that I suffered a Brainsnap. Is it a brain-snap? Or a brains-nap? Either way, I had one. A BIG one.

Now, almost a week later, properly kitted out, we're in the school routine. Drop off and pick up going quite smoothly, actually. Parking is a nightmare! But we're working that one out too.

 

First week down... 520 to go...