Tourists in our own city -Melbourne

We had a wonderful Christmas last year. Peter’s sister Nyree and family stayed with us. It was wonderful for the kids to spend time with their cousins, which they so rarely do because they live interstate.

Whilst they were here, we did many touristy things in Melbourne – things that people with kids would probably enjoy:

• Luna Park this is great for younger kids… a bit lame for kids that are used to SeaWorld, Dreamworld or Disneyland – however a bit cheaper too!! It was $100 or so for 2 adults and 2 kids – unlimited rides – plus you could get in and out at any time – so that you could leave and buy food. The trick is to get there close to opening, as the lines are short.
• Melbourne Museum We love the Museum at any time. They have great kids areas, plus ours love all the animals and insects. It’s cheap to get in. There’s food there, which on the expensive side of normal when you need to feed and water a whole family.
• Puffing Billy This is nice thing to do once in a while. I think its quite expensive, and if the kids are a bit ratty, it can be a nightmare!!  One trick here is to get off at Emerald rather than continuing on to Lakeside (about 10 mins further on). In Emerald there are some shops and a great play ground for the kids, so you can buy lunch and relax. There’s not much at lakeside, so if you haven’t packed a lunch it can be annoying to say the least!!
• Melbourne Aquarium I don’t know whether this one is better or worse than Sydney… all I know is that the kids enjoy patting the creatures, watching the sharks swim over head and the other usual things you’d expect to see.
• Played in the local park. We are lucky enough to live next to a park, so we spent a few hours there!
• Shopping at Chadstone Nyree lives in the country – and loves shopping, and loves Chadstone. I don’t normally shop there, even though it is quite close- as I find it a little overwhelming.
• Narnia THe boys took the older kids to Narnia, which they LOVED!!! I can’t comment,a s I didn’t see it. But Nyree and I enjoyed the break.
• Just Like Heaven Nyree and I decided to see a chick-flick and take the older girls. It was rated PG, very predictable, cute and funny. We loved it – but the boys would have hated it. Reese is gorgeous!

Here’s a couple of pics of the kids hanging out together…

       

 

New Addition to the Family

I’d formally like to welcome Phoebe Savage to family.

My little brother Duncan and his lovely partner Janine had a little girl on the on the 28th of January 2006. She arrived 5 weeks early – 5lbs 2 oz and a mop of dark hair.

She came home after 3 weeks in the special care nursery, and is doing great!

     

Loser

Pah!

I have been playing poker online on and off for several months now… and I seem to be getting worse. I lost 3 tonrneys in a row!! The first was $10K – so I kinda expected to get in trouble on this one. The $5K one.. well I’ve won a few of those before.  So I thought I’d make myself better and win a $300 game – and bloody lost that too.

I’ve read so many books lately – and guess I am too hell bent on trying out the techniques rather than just playing??? Not sure.  But I’m really a bit peeed off about it right now!!

Egg Free, Dairy Free Orange Biscuits

Another handy recipe….

 Ingredients:

• 675ml corn oil (or vegetable oil)
• 450 ml orange juice
• 450 ml sugar
• grated rind of 2 or 3 oranges
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Bi-card soda (Baking Soda)
• approx. 1 kg plain flour
• sesame seeds

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 C

In a large bowl dissolve the sugar in the juice and oil, mixed with Baking Powder, Baking Soda and rind.

Add a handful of sesame seeds. Then add the flour a portion at a time, stirring with your hands until you have play dough consistency (i.e. you can shape into a small sausage with clean hands and don’t have greasy palms)

Roll out handfuls of dough into long strings, cut and roll in sesame seeds.

The size and shape don’t matter but similar sizes will cook more evenly.

Bake for about 15 mins, or until golden brown.

Bella Friendly Chocolate Cake

This cake is rather good considering it has no eggs or dairy. It’s quick and easy to make and you can make it in the pan used to cook – although I use a mixing bowl.

The picture is from Bella’s 4th birthday party. I used commercially available icing paste – that you simply roll out and apply (so easy!). And it covers a multitude of sins.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Cups Plain Flour
• 1/3 Cup Cocoa Powder
• 1 teaspoon Bi-Carb Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 Cup Cold Water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 2 teaspoons Vinegar

Method:

Preheat oven to 175 C.

Sift dry ingredients (except sugar) together. Add Sugar and mix.

Make 3 wells in dry mixture. Fill 1 with water, 1 with oil and 1 with vinegar.

Stir together with fork.

Place in 9 x 13″ pan and into the oven.

Takes 25-30 minutes – test with a toothpick – should come out clean.

Notes:

• To make Bella’s birthday cake, I cut the cake in half and stuck one piece on top of the other using strawberry jam. I then rolled out commercially bought chocolate icing (which contained no dairy) and covered to make the box. I used white icing to make the bow.
• Plain oil such as grapeseed or plain vegetable work best – olive and other vegetable oils with a strong flavour can overpower the cake.
• Plain boring vinegar is best. I have apple cider vinegar – not so good.
• I have had the cake stick a few times too. I guess I should line the tin with paper… but I never seem to get around to that
• Egg free, dairy free chocolate cake

Do you have a child with food allergies?

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Egg Free and Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a highly evil recipe for chocolate chip cookies that my kids love. I used a variation listed below (which would not be any use for kids with a nut allergy) for the cookies in the picture. You are right – I am unlikely to become a food stylist or food photographer!

• 3/4 cup margarine (check ingredients)
  • (I substituted 1/4 cup of margarine for peanut butter – very yummy)
• 1 cup unrefined Sugar
• 1 banana
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa (can be a little more if you like)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup Chocolate chips (you can use carob/soy etc. I used Max Brenner Dark Chocolate chips, which do not contain any milk products)

Preheat oven to 175 C.

Cream margarine and sugar (and peanut butter if included) until light in colour and fluffy. Add banana and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, soda, and baking powder.

Add dry mixture to wet mixture and mix until everything is well blended. Stir in the chips.

Form balls and squash them down a little bit on a baking sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes until the tops are no longer gooey.

These have been a huge hit with adults and kids, allergy free or not!

Do you have a child with food allergies?

Please add your data to the Food Allergy Survey

Setting up my Blog – Getting an Image into a Post

A very boring and predictable post.. possibly. But hoping it will help Bron, Mum and Dad

I went to www.wordpress.com and registered. I followed their instructions. (hard so far huh?)

The only thing I have really had any trouble with was adding an image to my page/post. Firstly you use the Upload feature underneath the “Save” and “Publish” buttons on the “Write Post” page. This allows you to browse to the photo you want to add and Upload it to the wordpress site. It should then appear if you select “Browse all” tab in the upload box. Left Click on the image and select “Send to Editor” .

Voila! – as Milo would say.

If you then click on the image in your Write Post edit – you will see it is selected by he handles on the image. Then select the picture of the tree in the menu bar for writing a Post. This will allow you to position the image in your text. If you do this, and your image takes over the whole post, you need to edit you picture (in paint or similar) to reduce the size. I use the “skew/scale” option and keep reducing until its the right size…. making sure that I keep the proportions right. Simply save (as another name) and upload the reduced size file.

If you want to add a series of photos – ie. an album – I believe you are better off adding in a photo manager. Have a look at Cam’s site to get an idea of what I mean.

He also has lots of references and handy hints in this entry in his blog.

Food

It’s ironic that two foodie people end up with a child with food allergies.  Pete is a fantastic cook, and I am a fantastic eater. He has been honing his skills over many years and makes brilliant food – but my favorites are his Indian curries, roast chook and Moroccan lemon chicken in the Tagine. He preserves his own lemons for this recipe. Heaven in a bowl.

I guess Pete’s focus and obsessiveness in the kitchen is a blessing. Isabella rarely feels like she misses out when we are home.

It’s been quite a while since we have experienced a severe reaction. We have been pretty careful. She did get some minor face swelling/welts from her subway the other day. Mostly likely the salami (which she loves) had milk in it.

Eating out with Bella is the most difficult part of her allergies. We seem to gravitate back to chips or McDonald’s. Yuck! But safe. Subway is a new option – which is pretty good, except when Bella insists on Salami. We eat quite a lot of sushi, which Milo loves! He hates vegies but will eat fish eggs, avacado and seaweed – go figure. However, we are not game to give Bella sushi without fish because we fear of cross-contamination, especially from the Salmon.

 

Milo Starts School

Monday the 6th of February was Myles' first day at School. 

This day had been awaited with great anticipation!

Being blaze parents (second time around), we hadn't read the notice about start times and other details (neither Peter nor myself are that great with details ) and arrived early. Not that it mattered, since we needed to be there to drop Isabella off to class.

Myles marched into the room, sat down and started with the play dough and couldn't have cared less whether we were there or not. We left him briefly to drop off Bella and then headed back for the obligatory first day photos. As we returned, he was fully engrossed in one of the computer "games".

10 minutes later, with kisses hugs and smiling good byes, it was all over. Mum and Dad were fine too.

Three days into the year and all is well. He has made new friends (though in typical boy fashion, doesn't remember their names – "hey you" and "boy" usually suffice.)

He's tired and having fun.

I'll post a photo as soon as I can locate the cable for the camera.

Lunch Week

I have taken this week off work. Yeah! Mostly because my youngest started school, but also because I needed a break.

So what to do, at home sans kids for a whole week (well from 9:30 till 1:30 at least ).

My hubby and I decided to take a tour of the local restaurants. It’s something we don’t have much opportunity to do for a couple of reasons. Firstly all our relatives are interstate and so it becomes a costly exercise by the time you factor in taxi’s and babysitters. We tend to use babysitters for special occasions.  Yes… we could take the kids, but unfortunately our eldest has very severe food allergies, which I intend writing about once I get up and running with this bloggy thing.

So our tour thus far is:

Monday – Noodle bar. I love Asian noodle dishes, filling yet light. This place was extremely fresh. I always think its a great sign when the place is loaded with Asian people.. at least the food will be authentic!

Tuesday – Chennai Banana Leaf – 252 Blackburn Rd; Glen Waverley

Pete saw this reviewed in the Age, (click here to link)  so we were keen to give it a burl.  So far its the highlight food wise, though the atmosphere wasn’t great, and the get your own cutlery/drink thing doesn’t inspire me. None the less, the food was great, and quite different from the Indian I am used to.

Wednesday – Ocean Princess – Yum Cha

Yum-cha was yum! The only problem is yum-cha is not designed for 2. All the dishes had 3 or 4 pieces and we found after only 5 or so plates we were full. Food was great though.

Thursday ended up being a lay day – finishing up tax returns etc.

Friday. Our neighbours, Kirsten and Gavin, were also home, sans-child and came to lunch too. So we went Yum-Cha again – this time trying far more dishes before getting full. My favorites were the prawn wontons with greens (spinach I think) and mushroom; spring rolls, and sweet pastry with sweet bean curd inside (no-idea what theya re called).

On both occasions it was about $12 per head, which I think is great value.

The waitresses were lovely. They all had heavy accents so it was often difficult to understand what they were saying – but they were incredibly patient with us Westies and very helpful, friendly and ever-smiling. It was fun.