In My Kitchen: April 2019

April bring lots of holidays this year.  School holidays, Easter Holidays and the ANZAC Day holiday.  And I am ready for them after finishing last month with a bout of sickness.  However March was full of fun with St Pat's greens, of change of the season and fresh apples.  But let's start above with some cheery pop-art labels on tins of my favourite Annalisa diced tomatoes.

It has been busy with work going crazy and not much energy at home so I haven't been baking much.  These Fruits and Roots Choc and Berry Cookies with Beetroot have been a great little snack at work.  Actually my boss came by the other day and looked at them with suspicion, saying that his daughter had a way of finding interesting snacks.  Wrapping the cookies in pairs seems excessive packaging but it is convenient.

We saw there was a free make-an-easter-pinata course for kids at the local library.  So Sylvia and and friend went along and brought home a pretty pinata each.  I have insisted that we wait until Easter to crack it open with her cousins.  It seems a long time away but I am sure it will be here before we know it.

I have been pleased that Sylvia has been trying a few new foods lately.  She is particularly smitten with cheese.  Haloumi is one of her new lives.  She has even been known to fry it up herself.  (The plate of haloumi, spinach, roast pumpkin and rice and lentils above is my dinner. not hers)  She has also tried my mum's spinach and cheese puff pastry pie and is talking about trying other soft cheeses.

During Harmony Week this year, Sylvia managed to be sick on the day, they were taught a cultural dance, forgot to wear cultural dress the next day but we did some tattie scones for the lunch where they had to take some traditional food.  It was a rushed morning but she was pretty happy with her lunch that day.

We've had a lot of slime in the house lately.  Sylvia has become a bit of an expert at slime using glue, activator and shaving cream.  I borrowed a book from the library called "101 kids activities that are the ooey, gooey-est ever!"  I bought her ingredients for a complicated butter slime (yes there are many types of slime): saline contact liquid, baby powder, hand lotion, oil, shampoo, bicarb soda, shaving cream and of course butter.  The recipe in the book didn't work as hoped and Sylvia had to doctor it to get it coming up in a curtain.

The next day she tried again with some soft clay from Daiso and activator and had her most wonderful butter slime.  Watching her make the more complex butter slime from the book but it is fun to see how much fun she has with her butter slime made from clay.

We have had a bit of fun with fondant lately.  So when a local kitchenware shop had a huge sale I was tempted by some fondant implements.  I am not sure how much I will use them.  Perhaps some time we will have a go at more fondant decorating as we still have leftovers of the huge amount we bought for Sylvia's birthday.

Coles supermarkets has done it again: given away little plastic toys in plastic packages to set young hearts aflutter.  These Stikeez have not been as huge as the Little Shop collectables last year but Sylvia has enjoyed collecting and swapping.  I think Coles has been appealing to parents by focusing on fruit and veg this time.  Interestingly Woolworths yet again managed to have some giveaways that are a lot less plastic focused than Coles but not quite as popular.

After I went to stay at my parents and visit St Patricks Day Irish Folk Festival, I bought home goodies from the fete and apples from my mum's tree.  The apples were superb.  And the plum chutney and peppermint slice did very well for lunches.

I was very excited at the fete to find this cactus drink dispenser.  We had bought the same one early in Summer and then found that the hole for the tap broke easily if someone (no names) did not read the instructions.  Here was our second chance to get it right.  I can't say we have used it yet apart from to test it but I think I will put it away for next summer.

Meanwhile, summer seems far away now that the cold weather and accompanying illness has hit.  Sylvia was ill over the weekend and the doctor prescribed some horrid tasting pills.  She also missed her first day of school camp.  We bought lots of junk food (and The Women's Weekly which had a free tote bag for me) to help her get the pills down and to feast on while we watched all the Harry Potter movies.  I hope she will be better tomorrow so I can drive her to camp for the last couple of days.  (Fortunately it isn't far.)

Actually I felt like I needed a bit of comfort food this morning when I got to work and discovered that I was the only person left of my team of 4 people, with everyone else either ended their contract or on extended leave.  Luckily I have a good group of people around me who are not in my team but are very supportive.  Though I did think it ironic I baked a cake from morning tea at work this morning and then bought packets of biscuits for home.  Life is a bit odd like that lately.  Hopefully it will calm down over April.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event, that was started by Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial,  If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to peek into more kitchens.