T-Bird Anni Rides Again

We decided to bake today, it’s not good for the waistline but I figure if we are going to eat sweet and tasty treats they may as well be home made and thus cheaper and less full of nasty things!

We started with some basic bread dough which we eventually decided to  use for pizza for tea rather than a loaf.  There is something rather satisfying about mauling (sorry, kneading!) the living daylights out of a bit of dough and Aprilia is getting pretty proficient at it too.  I did slip up slightly, I forgot that the tinned yeast needs to be put into warm water and left to froth for a bit rather than being spooned straight into the flour but, as we didn’t use it til tea time it had plenty of time to disolve in the dough

After that we made  gingerbread men based on the Hairy Baker’s Speculaas biscuits but without the candied peel.  It made a slightly over-soft dough which was a challenge to roll and cut but made fantastic little men, I’m wondering though if the BBC have done their usual and not proof read properly, I suspect it would ahve gone easier if you rubbed the butter into the flour, baking powder and spices then stirred in the sugar and brought it together with the milk rather than mixing it all together in one go.  It’s definitely one I’m going to file to do again.

Then it was on to mincemeat muffins, with thanks to Nic for pointing me to the recipe.  I used some of the Hairy Baker’s mincemeat left over from the mince pie making a couple of weeks ago (I fear I will never be satisfied with shop bought mincemeat ever again now I know how easy and how much nicer home made is)  I have to say, I’m with Nic on this, now I’ve made mincemeat muffins, I may never make pies again, the muffins are awesome, much lighter and more satisfying at the same time.   Just wondering if they count as remotely healthy with all the dried fruit…. well, okay then, healthier than chocolate muffins I suppose!

Then we had lunch

After luch we nipped into town.  Aprilia had left her coat at Emmie’s after boxing day (I do wonder slightly about a parent who lets someone else’s 7 year old child leave their house in a sleeveless teeshirt in the middle of winter…. did it not occur to her that said child may have arrived with a coat???) so first stop was Peacocks to get a new one.  She insisted on another "dead cat coat", you know, the ones with tabby fur round the hood that looks really manky after a couple of washes…. It’s big for her but hopefully that means it will last the year!  

Then it was the library.  Duke signed her up for a "reading challenge" when he took her in before Christmas but it’s a bit of an odd one as you have to read 3 books by Jacqueline Wilson (she who wrote Tracy Beaker) or rather read 2 and listen to an audio book.  The audio books for the challenge are free to borrow which is nice but obviously, therefore, somewhat thin on the ground as everyone is taking advantage of a free loan!  However, one free audio book is not nearly as nice as what I found out when I got all brave when we were booking out.  I asked if there was any discount on audio books for dyslexics.  My friend the chief librarian lept up from his desk to tell me that yes, it counts as a sight imparement and we get them free then showed the lady at the PC how to mark up our accounts as "special" (coooo, I’m special at last!) and from now on all audio books are free for either of us to borrow!!!!  I do love our library VBG

“Nothing and no one makes sure that the creative side of your existence is honoured except you…”
Jill Badonsky “The Nine Modern Muses”

What will your 365 days in 2009 create?

Once again, Handmade homeschool has prompted me to thoughtfulness.  So, what will I create in 2009? 

Less mess would be a nice thing to create, and less clutter.  Hmmm, must turn that round, I will create more space and calm in my home!

 I’d like to create a smaller yarn and fabric stash by using it all up and having some nice things to wear and use.  I’m thinking of challenging myself to make one item a month minimum (that’s not a lot really is it!) out of stashed items.  That would help with my first aim as well really!

I’d like to create more food from scratch, including home made "ready meals" in the freezer.  We spend too much on over-processed junk foods because it’s easy to pull something out of the freezer and nuke it for 10 minutes at the end of a long day but really, I have enough easy days in a week to cook up a freezer full of stuff and it would be a much better example for Aprilia too.

I’d like to create more slimline versions of me and Aprilia.  Good home cooked food will no doubt help (although Im going to have to go easy on the mincemeat muffins!  They are just too "more-ish") but we also need to fit a bit more excercise than just once a week at Kung Fu to make a real difference. 

I would dearly love to create more artwork and I think I need to settle back to that again, Aprilia was asking if we could do more "Drawing with Children" the other day, it didn’t really float my boat but I suppose it’s as good a place to start as any seeing as we own it.  There’s nothing to stop me from doing that with her then following it with a bit more Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain really.  Except I never do because I have a short little attention span…..

So, what about you?  What are you going to create in 2009?