Using up those crayon odds and ends

I needed something fun to do with the boys and not too messy for a change, so we dug out the crayon box and got busy. I thought we'd have a go making our own crayons out of all the old, broken and just-not-great crayons, like I talked about here.

For molds, we used my small silicone cupcake molds (that I don't use for cupcakes because I can never get the cupcakes OUT of them) and they worked just fine.

First we peeled the crayons...

Then turned the oven up to 100c/210f and selected the crayons for our molds.

(Please excuse the manky looking tray, I cover it with a silicone sheet when I actually use it for anything food related. I know, gross, aren't I? ;b)

Then into the oven for about 10-15 minutes and bingo:

Once they were out, Mr 2 decided to pop extra crayons in them. Looked kinda cool actually.

And here they are.

Perfect for stacking, it turns out.

They are yet to be actually drawn with, though I did sneak one and try it out hehe. Works perfectly of course.

These are worth trying, especially if you're after something cheap, cleanish and quickish.

We need to get some more crappy crayons now, just so I can feel justified in doing this again.

Easy fun, this one!

Best brownie recipe ever, ever, ever

While I was house sitting, I made up a batch of brownies from their recipe, 'cos the kids (and I) had churned through most of the box that was in the freezer and I didn't want their mum to come home only to find the cookie tins empty and in need of urgent re-filling.

Longest sentence ever, sorry.

But, this particular brownie recipe is SO GOOD (think dark, fudgey, dense, rich) that I stole it and brought it back to my house.

And lucky you, I'm about to share it.

I think it comes from a Nigella book, not sure 'cos I'm dealing with a photocopied page....

but here it is:

Brownies

You will need:

375gm unsalted butter (13.2 oz)

375 gm good quality dark chocolate (13.2 oz)

6 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

500 grams caster sugar (1lb 1.6 oz)

225 grams plain flour (8 oz)

1 teaspoon salt

300 grams chopped walnuts (10.6 oz)

• Heat the oven to 180C/355F.

• Line your brownie pan, the sides as well as the base.

• Melt chocolate and butter together in a heavy based, decently large pot.

• In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla.

• In another bowl, measure out your flour and add the salt.

• When the chocolate has melted, let it cool a little before adding the egg mixture. Actually, I find if I whisk the egg into the chocolate a little at a time, I don't need to wait for it to cool.

• Add the nuts and the flour.

• Mix well until smooth then scrape into your lined brownie pan.

• Bake for about 25 minutes.

• When it's ready, the top will be dried and paler but if you test the middle it will still be dark and gooey. Perfect.

• Don't let them overcook, or they dry out and you lose the dark, rich texture.

Notes: you can do without the walnuts if you so desire, although if you've only ever had the store bought, pre-shelled variety you will be pleasantly surprised if you taste fresh-out-of-the-shell walnuts. I didn't add 300 grams as the kids had scoffed some, so it was more like 200 I think.

I made this with spelt flour and it works as well as regular wheat flour.

Next time I'll try the rapadura, though I think I'll stop there with adjustments. This one's just too good to fiddle with too much. I'm not kidding myself that it's at all healthy but I'm willing to over-look that in this instance.

Lastly, these are great stored in the fridge, or even better, stored in the freezer.

Now, if you want the yummiest mud cake ever, my sis is claiming that title right now so pop over to her to get that recipe.

I can hear those brownies singing my name right now, from my deep freeze.....I must resist!

(Or I won't sleep, dark chocolate keeps me awake! But you have one, go on...)

Thermomix for a big family?

Have I mentioned my Thermomix love before?

Um , yep, here, here and here, oh and here too.

And a few other places too, on both blogs, if you're reeeaaallly interested.

But, a question I've seen asked here and there is....

Is the thermomix good for a big family?

Well, my unequivocal answer is YES. Y.E.S. Uh huh, yep it definitely is.

How do I know this, with my family of 2 adults and 2 young kids? Which I consider a small family, by the way.

Well, I've very recently spent 10 days house/kid/dog wrangling sitting.

Which amounted to a family of 2 young kids (one of whom eats as much as an adult, and it's NOT the 5 year old), a nearly 10 year old and an 11 1/2 year old - girls, a 14 year old boy, myself, and sometimes my husband.

So, as far as the amount of food being consumed, I cooked enough for 5 or 6 adults and one 5 year old.

I would NOT have wanted to be without my thermomix, actually.

I used it for chopping onions (no tears and so fast), making coleslaw (in an instant), making white sauce for lasagne (no standing and stirring for ages), making meat sauce for lasagne, mixing crepes, boiling eggs, cooking rice, making smoothies, grating cheese, making tahini balls (which require everything chopped or ground, sooo fast!), mixing meatballs, making bread dough, making breadcrumbs, making a beef nacho topping, making the spice paste for butter chicken curry, making sorbet.....

and there's probably a few other things I'm forgetting.

Phew.

I actually used it a lot more than I do at my house, with our 2 adult, 2 kid family.

The fact that I could set it and let it do it's thing was really a lifesaver, as I simultaneously helped the 11 year old with homework, policed 'net and mobile ph usage by the 14 year old, chased down the 9 year old to feed the dogs and dig out her lunchbox, dealt with 2 hungry, over-stimulated youngsters, fielded ph calls from telemarketers and put a healthy, from scratch dinner on the table.

I made each breakfast and dinner from scratch and school lunches were often left-overs from the night before.

So, YES!

Thermomix is GREAT for larger families.


Read this post here written by Jo over at Quirky Cooking
if you want her thoughts on using a thermomix to cook for large groups.

Plastic bag kite - super thrifty (and easy)

Do your kids ever want to take their kite out when it's not windy?

Well, read on to find an easy solution.

I found this somewhere out there in bloggyland, but cannot for the life of me remember where I saw it. But I thought it was so inspired, I stashed it in my memory (or what passes for one these days, ha)

Wee!

Now, maybe my kids are just gullible, but they've really enjoyed this activity both times we've done it.

Do I need to explain it?

Ok, you take a plastic grocery bag (I just need to say I do use cloth bags, but I still end up with the odd plastic bag kicking round), take a longish piece of wool or string, tie it round the handles....tying them together in the process......, leave the long end for a kite string, and there ya go.

Now run!

Instant boofy kite.

You now have an instant wearing-out-kid activity made up in about two minutes.

Or maybe one minute if you actually have a plastic bag handy and don't have to go searching in the deepest recesses of your kitchen for one.

Picture quality disclaimer: I am once again house-sitting the mansion, except this time the mansion still has it's three kids in it, plus my two. So I'm actually, house/kid/dog sitting really. Anyway, because of this I'm on the laptop, and I'm never quite sure how my photo editing is on this, it all depends at what angle the screen is, which is very helpful, not.

We're having a great time though, but buying and cooking for five kids, three of them who eat like adults, is an eye opening experience!

How to make oven fries

I have finally found a way to get my kids to eat potato.

Now, potato is not a must-have, it is very carb heavy and from testing when I had gestational diabetes, I know that eating it makes my blood sugar go up and stay up for too long. Or maybe that's just when I'm pregnant, I haven't actually checked it regularly since.

But, organic spuds are a beautiful, earthy thing to behold I find, and I don't mind my kids and hubby eating them once in a while. As long as they ARE organic and not laced with any nasty stuff.

So , frozen oven fries from the supermarket are O.U.T.

And this is what is in:

Home made oven fries

Scrub some (preferably organic) potatoes, leaving the skins on.

Any type of spud is fine, I have used kipfler recently and they worked well, much less insipid looking than your average white spud.

Slice them super thinly, the thinner you slice, the crispier they will become. I slice the spuds into thin sheets, then stack the sheets up a few at a time and chop them into matchsticks.

(You'll notice in my picture, they are not sliced that thinly. I have since learnt that thinner is better.)

Throw your spud matchsticks in an oven proof dish, and dribble on some olive oil.

Keep them to one layer, don't pile them on top of each other.

Grind salt and pepper over them and toss them round till coated.

You can also sprinkle over some paprika or another flavour instead.

(See, much too chunky here, thinner IS better, at least in this situation)

Heat your oven to 200c/400f and when it's hot, put your dish in and set the timer for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, toss them around a bit more and put them back in for about another 20 minutes.

Add some dip or sauce if you like and you're done.

Note: Today I discovered if you put them on a TRAY, instead of in a dish, they cook a lot faster, so be sure to adjust your cooking times to allow for thickness of spud and whatever you are cooking them on.

I whipped some of these up today when we had unexpected guests for the second showing of the Grand Final, as believe it or not, last week's Grand Final was a draw.

Quick (to prepare) and easy, kept everyone happy :)