Hello!
Nope, still no baby... My problem is I have thought since last Sunday that the event was imminent; but apparently not.
Ah well.
What do I do when I'm at a loose end? First: read. (At night after the kids are in bed, obviously.) Which is why my knitting and sewing projects are sitting unfinished and ignored at the end of my desk right now.
Tilly and I went to the library today. We love the library. She borrowed two books and I borrowed one: 'Crime and Punishment', Dostoevsky. Oh yes. Not because I'm highbrow and gagging for some heavy Russian narrative.
I am suffering serious insomnia.
I thought this might be a plan. And then talking on the phone to my Mum tonight, it turns out when she was pregnant with us, and waiting waiting waiting in hospital, she read 'The Brothers Karamazov', also Dostoevsky, and promptly fell asleep after one page every night. How funny is THAT?!
So I think this is a good plan. Well tested.
Second loose-end occupier?
I make stuff up in the kitchen. Like carrot cake!
This one was inspired by a dreadful one I made a fortnight ago. So dreadful I actually threw it away. I'm not actually going to tell you which book it came out of because everything else out of that book is good, and maybe I was just having a bad recipe-following day.
But that being the first carrot cake I'd ever made, I knew what tasted good (and what didn't - I've eaten a lot of it, just never baked one myself) and knew I wanted something that was low sugar and low fat for the kids. And no nuts. And no sultanas. Tilly doesn't like them.
So I ventured out on my own. I split this mix into two and made an adult version (below) in a loaf tin with cream cheese icing sprinkled with flaked almonds. YUM.
Then I made lunchbox-sized muffins for the kids...
I am delighted with this cake. So moist and sweet and carroty and delicious.
INGREDIENTS
½ cup brown sugar
100ml macadamia oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour
2½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
2½ cups grated carrot (I used 3 medium carrots)
½ cup desiccated coconut
1x 440g tin crushed pineapple (drained)
METHOD
Preheat oven to 180° celsius. Beat sugar and oil for a minute, I used electric hand beaters. Add eggs one by one and beat well. Add the vanilla. Sift in the flour, baking powder and soda and the three spices. Stir to mix. Add carrot, coconut and pineapple and combine well.
I made one loaf tin and a dozen small muffins.
The loaf cooked for about 25 mins, fan forced oven. The small muffins took about 20 mins.
Gosh they're yummy.
Hope you like them!
Off to bed now, hello raspberry leaf tea + Dostoevsky.
xxx
