small kitchen tales

I was trying to put this together last night and I read this , this morning and loved the idea of getting to know people a little better across the blogosphere. I am a mum to two adventurous creatures who I would not give up for anything and that's why I work from home so I can spend time nurturing a watching my two little beings grow and evolve. I have a wonderfully loving and caring partner who is a talented chef and that's why I bake and hardly ever cook. I travelled alot overseas and worked there as well, studied art and photography and always loved to make people smile through my art and through my baking experiments. I love baking because of the pleasure it gives other people, whether it's them tasting or trying my recipes or just seeing my kids enjoy making things and loving it and I love taking photos just as much as I love breathing. I am a fussy vegetarian and although I love to bake I don't try any of my recipes unless they have been modified...

For Spring Open Day at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne this Sunday 4th of October 10am-6pm. Lots of activities for the kiddies as well as grown ups, live music and a selection of market stalls. We will be there, not sure if I will be behind the market stall all day or doing kids activities, may have to take it in turns with Mr m.e...so much fun. Also checkout the gorgeous bloggy gift I was soo lucky to win from the fabulously talented The Princess & the Monkey ,pop on by for some gorgeous crafty goodness as well as an amazing collection of tutorials I could even follow. They are craft as you go needle/embroidery holders but I actually think they would make my key ring a little bit happier with them on :). Thank you so much L ♥ Hope you are having a good day, it is ABSOLUTELY beautiful in Melbourne today. Checkout here to see who else is playing along. ✗ ♥

It has been unbelievably cold and wet and the littlies have been getting a little crazy indoors...so what to do, tempt them with baking, cookie cutters, chocolate and lots of sprinkles * . Very simple recipe and you probably have everything in your pantry. Chocolate Freckle Hearts recipe from here ingredients 125 g butter softened 165 g brown sugar 1 egg 225 g plain flour 35 g self raising flour 35 g cocoa 200 g dark chocolate hundreds & thousands / sprinkles method Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until pale and creamy, a few minutes. add egg and mix to combine. Sift together both flours and the cocoa and stir into mix Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Flatten and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180 deg C, 356 deg F. Grease trays Roll dough between 2 sheets of baking paper until 3-5mm thick. Cut shapes and place on trays. Bake for ab...

Hope you are having a good day. We decided to have a lazy day at home as the weather in Melbourne has been windy, rainy and very cold. Kids are playing dress ups, modelling clay, had heart eggs for lunch and we are about to bake some cookies. Hugs ♥ ✗ ♥

Hope you are having a great Friday, if you're in Melbourne, then it's a rainy Friday.. and I ♥ rainy days! Yay for the weekend, yay for dads being home, yay for doing family things and yay for no market tomorrow. I have had a few requests from people for a recipe with berries, so I thought I'd share a yummy rich tart recipe which you can use any seasonal berries you like or use frozen berries as I have. Berry and Almond Tart ingredients 1 quantity sweet pastry 150g unsalted butter, softened 145g (2/3 cup) caster sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 large eggs 140g (1 1/3 cups) almond meal 30 g (1/4 cup) plain flour berries, however many you want to fill the tart method preheat oven to 190 C (375 F). roll out the pastry to line a 23cm tart tin. chill for 20 min line pastry shell with baking paper and some rice or beans and blind bake the pastry for 10 min then remove paper and rice/beans and cook for a further 5 minutes or pastry is just cooked but still pale in the meantime make a...

Sorry for the delay in drawing a winner, but I couldn't do it with the absence of my camera. She was kindly returned to me today after spending a couple of nights away in a very, very lovely new outfit, so I thought that I would use my gorgeous new bag as the decider of the winner. All your names were written on these white paper hearts and placed in the lovely new bag where my beautiful little sous chef pulled out the winner and because we made you wait, we pulled out two more hearts . So the winner of the lovely apron & cookie cutter set is Ms Curlypops (now, this amazing lady makes the most incredible aprons herself...I feel nervous sending her one) and the two winners of the cookie cutter sets and rolling pins are Nikki and Kate . Congratulations ladies, I'll send you an email soon. Thank you all so very much for the recipe requests and questions and I will get to them all soon. Stay tuned for a berry tart recipe in the next few days. Thank you for being fabulous ...

random pic @ royal melbourne show ...to pull a winner out of the hat, but you'll have to wait till tomorrow...sorry. I cannot believe it, but I left my camera at a friend's place yesterday and she spent the night without me! I can't even understand how I could ever forget my 3rd child like that. So, until she's back I am pictureless and can't possibly function without her. does that happen to you with anything? or just me and my obsessiveness over my camera.. until then, check out here to see who else can't wait for Tuesday. ♥ ✗ ♥

Thank you for all your questions and recipe requests , if you still haven't put one through you still have till tomorrow. I will get to all of them in the next couple of weeks but for now I thought I'd try a variation on our porridge as the little ones are wanting a little more of an adventure with their breakfast. Cinnamon & Raisin Toasted Muesli ingredients 4 cups rolled oats 1 cup shredded coconut 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup honey 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 1 cup raisins method Preheat oven at 180 C in a large bowl combine oats and coconut and set aside in a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, oil, honey and cinnamon and bring to the boil. remove from heat and stir in vanilla pour over oat mixture and stir till coated spread in a large shallow baking pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden, whilst stirring occasionally. cool and then add raisins or whatever dried fruit you like, I added dried apricots as we...

Don't forget to send through a question or recipe request for your chance to win here . Hope you are having a fabulously relaxing day, we are loving our babycinos ♥ ✗ ♥

Hope you have a great Friday whilst eagerly awaiting the weekend. If you feel like a market trip on Saturday, the Ivanhoe Makers Market is on from 10am - 4pm. Would love to see you there ♥ ✗ ♥

Well, my sewing skills are pretty much limited to sewing on buttons at the moment, but how could I pass up a coffee & chat craft session organised by the three lovely ladies at Northside Makers. If you haven't stopped by their blog for a visit, why don't you pop by for their whos who craft wrap up as well as useful information on markets, event roundups, tips and meeting more Northside Crafters. The first Northside Makers market will be on the 10th of October at the Uniting Church in Northcote. Hope to see you there. Don't forget to leave a comment for my 100th post giveaway ♥ ✗ ♥