Kids In The Kitchen With Tetsuya

Last week the Doctor and I went on a date. To Tetsuya's.

I know. Right?!

Electrolux invited us to enjoy a Kids in the Kitchen Masterclass with Tets. Who was I to decline?

We enjoyed such a wonderful night learning from the master - two easy recipes - scrambled eggs with ricotta, creamed corn and truffles, and twice cooked chicken with bread sauce. So easy and accessible you can get the kidlets involved cooking dinner. Plus - those eggs, oh em gee peeps. Make them for Father's Day. I am telling you, they are a winner.

As well as enjoying the gentle company of Tetsuya, we learnt about the Electrolux Induction Cooktop. If you are in the market for a new kitchen - check it out. You will thank me. Yes. Yes you will.

There's no use crying over spilt milk, because if you're boiling milk on your Electrolux cooktop it won't bake it on to the stove. The heat is only retained where the saucepan has a magnetic field. Pretty cool if you ask me. Plus it distributes heat evenly which means perfectly cooked pancakes and scrambled eggs. This is clearly a big deal for me because we are a family that loves pancakes and scrambled eggs.

The Doctor got a behind-the-scenes tour of the restaurant with Rich (see bottom two pics by the Doctor). Rich is beyond genius and his passion, enthusiasm and knowledge just blows you out of the water. Not to mention his supersonic hearing abilities.  Big thanks to Electrolux for hosting such a wonderful evening. This was a date night to remember with my little man.

PS - Do not tell Tets that the Doctor's highlight was riding in the hire car. It filled him with such glee. Boys and cars baby, boys and cars.


Please note: This is not a sponsored post. Electrolux invited me for dinner. I loved it. I went. I wanted to share.

Really Rather Super

How cool is this video for Pottery Barn?

The simplicity. The palette. The print and pattern. The small people. And the illustration.

I think I've gone to heaven.

Ice-Cream Sunday

How was your weekend? 
What did you do? 
Did you do anything exciting? 


I made raspberry ice-cream with the Vitamix. It took me approximately three minutes. 
I will make a video and show you how, because my goodness, that was soooo good and made a pretty hideous Sunday turn the beat around. Ice-cream has a knack for that. 

PottyMouthMama: Reporting For Domestic Duty

This weekend was going to be all about me being a domestic goddess and surpassing my motherly duties. Ticking every box and getting a gold star. 


And do you think that happened?


Er. A little.


I had plans to tidy the whole house. To ditch all the junk hovering around our house. It's mounting. In piles. In bags. In boxes. And I can't seem to get on top of it. Well wait - I can get on top of it, I can lie on top of it, I just can't control it. 


I was going to get wildly domestic in the kitchen. I had grand aspirations.


Instead Saturday I had a wee hangover, and shuffled around the house like a hermit crab. What kind of young player am I? 


I did sort out some clothes. I did bake choc chip cookies. 


And tonight, Matt went out to do some painting, while I stayed at home - and thought - yes! I will make pasta. Then it all went to poo. I was rolling pasta, I had the water bubbling away - the pasta was rolling, rolling, too long to hold in both my hands - I felt like Big Anthony out of Strega Nona. Pasta everywhere. I finally got it into the pot and kept rolling out extra pasta - and then the pasta went bloaty and gluggy. Poor pasta.


So the smalls wound up with toast and baked beans for dinner. 


And then I hurried them through dinner, tucked them into bed and felt irate with myself for being such a grump. 

Sneaky McSneakerson: (Kale) Smoothie

On Saturday the smalls were given some chocolate by a well-meaning friend. We're by no means perfect and pure, but I have been trying to remove refined sugars, colours and so on from our pantry - not in a nutty way - just in a 'we don't need this crap in our diet' way -  and replace it with more and more wholefood. 


All afternoon the kids had been in a slow decline, naturally becoming tireder towards the end of the day. (Halleluljah!)


And then they ate the chocolate.


Literally within minutes Tiny was bouncing off the walls. She was back on. I felt so defeated. Deflated. Meanwhile, she was a helium balloon. Up, up and away.


Fast-forward to this afternoon when I thought, I am going to gazump those little kittehs, whip up a knock-out Vitamix smoothie that they love to love.


I chucked in the following for a delicious smoothie that the Doctor rated as the highlight of his day (high-five!). Just wait 'til you see what I snuck in there:


1 x banana
1 x cup mixed berries (frozen)
2 apples
1 tablespoon of honey
1 small handful of kale. YES KALE! 


Blitz. Serve to two small children - and they will never know the kale is in there. Scout's honour. 


I was so stoked to find kale at my fruit and veg today. The lady at the shop I think was a little bewildered by my excitement - I've been trawling all the local shops looking for it.  It's in season now folks, and is super duper good for you. Get into it! 

A Tiny Party

Yesterday we belatedly celebrated Tiny's birthday with a tiny party. A tiny Tiny party. Or is it a Tiny tiny party? Who knows. Either way, it was a party. For Tiny.

My sister kindly made the cutest teacups a la Tic Tocs - which were a huge hit with the tiny brigade, my mother-in-law made the most melt-in-your-mouth meringues, topped with fresh raspberries, and the birthday cake? Well I'll post a pic as soon as I have one. Promise.

I wound up finding pudding basins on Saturday morning, got them home, washed them - to discover they were microwave proof, but not oven-proof. Excuse me but WTF?! So it was back to the Dolly Varden drawing board.

I promise I will not talk Dolly Varden again after this post. I am probably making Dolly Vardens trend over on Twitter because I am banging on about them so much.

I had a hoot making this cake. The DV tin did not yield a long enough frock, so I baked an additional round cake and added a longer hem (ahem) on the bottom. Who do I think I am? Suzie Seamstress? Yes. Apparently. I then cut it down to fit with the frock, stuck them together with buttercream, and then got to decorating.

Tiny walked in halfway through and told me it looked ugly.

YES! High fives all 'round.

Then she came back later and was stoked. Phew.

She had such a brilliant time at her little party, played parcel the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey, musical snatues (sic), and decorated cupcakes. Too cute.

At bed time she said: "Mama, that was the best party ever." And then didn't go to sleep for another 2 hours.

Fathers. Dads. Papas. The Old Man.

Happy Father's Day to my huge fatherly audience (that's you Matt and my Dad!).

What did you do to celebrate?



I was woken early by the Doctor wanting to give Matt his Father's Day present (a money box - cute). I rebuffed, pleading for an extra half hour sleep on a Sunday morning. Wish granted.*



Half an hour later, proceedings commenced from the comfort of bed.



And then I got up, made bills corn fritters (Dad, when you're back, I'll make them for you too), wolfed it down.



Later in the afternoon I flaked and slept for 3 hours. Sorry Matt. I did feel marginally better though.



What a beautiful sunny Spring day. What did you get up to?





* Tiny gave Matt a toy helicopter. That's all she wanted to give him. Cute.