Wednesday, April 14, 2010

TEETH!!!!!!

Ooh, my much neglected blog. How I have missed you! Uni work has been taking up soooooo much of my time (why set two essays due a week apart?), but happily, I got 16.5/20 for my first assignment. I was very chuffed about that, especially since I graduated 10 years ago this year, and it's a new discipline. Exams, on the other hand, are going to be a totally new experience. I managed to avoid them entirely for the three years of my degree, but now I have no choice.

Austin is cutting some teeth! Yippee! I thought I would have to have him fitted for some infant dentures soon. His two bottom ones are peeking through. I had my suspicions on Saturday when he managed to make his little gum bleed while he was having a drink, that would only happen if there was something hard trying to break it's way through. Sure enough, I was doing my daily dental check on him and there were those little lines on his gums.

He is cutting them like a dream, I can't attribute any typical 'teething' behaviour to them. Of course, the hacking cough that is part and parcel of his bronchitis pretty much negates everything else. Poor little soul, Bowen shared his chest infection with him, and he's not coping well with it. The carpet in his bedroom wore the contents of his tummy the other night, his evening feed, spag bol and beetroot (that won't stain the carpet, nooo) went everywhere. Mixed in with it all was so much phlegm that can't go anywhere but sit in his tummy. I feel so bad for him, but I can't do much to help him. He's been sleeping through a bit lately (the other night he went to sleep after a rough start at 8pm, and slept through until 8 the next morning!) now the weather is getting cooler.

School holidays are coming to a close, and we are going to attempt a McDonald's play session again today (I haven't ventured back alone since my last disaster). The boys are fighting like cats and dogs, with Riordan just in a terrible mood all the time. Everything is wrong, he always wants his own way and he can't always have it that way!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

What's cooking?

This is fast becoming my baking blog!

No more breast milk baking (although I did make some pikelets with some boob juice I had left over), this time it's all about leftovers.

I made a chocolate cake yesterday, a low-fat recipe that is cooked in the microwave (a trend that should never have gone away, I might have to search for a few more microwave cakes). It uses two egg whites, which leaves the question, what do you do with the yolks? Custard, of course!

I couldn't find a recipe for custard from scratch, but I knew roughly what to do, having made it a long, long time ago for a very unappreciative Riordan. I whisked up the yolks with some sugar and vanilla, added milk and heated it all up. So far, so good. I thought it needed a bit more substance, even though it was thickening up nicely. In went some couscous for a lovely, creamy, vanilla-y pudding! Austin thought it was quite delectable, and there is some scrummy left overs for tonight.

The big people had some honey mustard chicken with rice for dinner, and I purposely cooked too much rice so I could make something, anything, for Austin with it. It needed to be firm enough for him to pick up and feed himself (we're still doing baby-led solids for the most part), so I thought some rice balls, loosely based on arancini . Once again, my recipe books failed me, so I had to wing it. In went some grated carrot, an egg, some ricotta, a little plain flour, a tiny bit of onion and some kidney beans (Austi's newest craze). I rolled them in bread crumbs, sprayed with a little olive oil and baked them until they were firm. I then made him a simple tomato sauce with just a tin of tomatoes, some onion, more kidney beans and a touch of sugar to take away the acidity, and then blitzed it all up and cooked it until it was nice and thick. Austin thought it was divine, and hoovered up three balls the size of his fist. Not the tidiest meal, there was tomato everywhere, but he loved it and it is expanding his palate.

Next on the cooking list is going to be some polenta.

Baby Masterchef, now that's an idea for a TV show!