ruth plus two

Crazy…or ambitious?

Posted on January 26, 2014 by Ruth

We all survived my first week back at work. I don’t think I’ve been so exhausted in a long time. Hugo chose to break his recent habit of sleeping through, which didn’t help, but I think much of my tiredness was due to the pure stress of having to be so organised. I can see a future of slow cooker meals, a much messier house and weekends full of washing!

The first half of our week flew past due to the aforementioned work. Thursday and Friday were a bit of a slog. The kids and I were exhausted and the house is still a mess from all the painting disruption. Not a good combination. Elena is well and truly wearing the ‘terrible two’ mantle, although it’s pretty hilarious at times.

She has taken to demanding assistance eating her breakfast…what’s good enough for Hugo is good enough for her, it seems. Trying to cajole her into feeding herself this morning, I told her, “You’re two and a half – you’re big enough to be feeding yourself!”. To which she threw me a dirty look, “I’m not a half. You’re a half!”. So there, mamma.

Just before Christmas, Alex, his brothers and father, poured some concrete to extend our chicken coop slab. They did such a great job. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a neat piece of concrete. Unfortunately, our local cockatoos couldn’t handle such a blindingly brilliant slab and decided to drop half eaten apples all over it before it hardened, giving it a slightly pockmarked appearance. It’s okay. It’s still great…and at least we all witnessed their handiwork before the blasted birds had their way.

Needing a distraction from all there is to do inside the house, we’ve made a good start on the chicken coop. I did loads of research before deciding to go down the flat-packed coop path. One of the major reported flaws of flat-packed chicken coops was the poor finish of the wood (and therefore poor water resistance). I tried to buy one of the better quality flat-packs, but the quality is not particularly great.

To counteract this, we decided to treat the wood with a decking treatment before constructing the coop. The product we were recommended at the hardware store was Wattyl Express Decking Oil. It’s water based and fast drying, and claims to combine the protective qualities of both decking oil and acrylic treatments. I guess time will tell. It certainly looks much better than the original finish on the wood.

Over the weekend I’ve been staining away (one coat on the interior pieces, two for the exterior) and, finally, it’s all done! Seven hours with a paintbrush and two tins of stain later – I’ll be happy to give the painting a miss for a while.

We made a pretty good start on the construction side of things this evening after the kids went to bed. I was surprised at how quickly it came together. We’re using liquid nails along the joins, as well as the supplied screws, to give the structure a little more stability.

In other news…well, we’ve been eating our own tomatoes for the last week. I know it’s only a small thing, but it does warm my heart to be eating food we’ve grown ourselves. I’ve been slowly adding stitch markers to my Etsy store. They’re actually quite addictive.

It’s Kid’s Clothes Week again next week. I’m tossing up whether to participate again this round. I’ll be completely knackered, but I think I can probably manage at least one hour of sewing an evening. And the kids will need some new clothes when the cooler weather hits. But then again, it’s quite possibly an insane idea.

So, what do you think? Crazy, or ambitious? I know which side of the fence I’d rather fall on, but I fear I’m squarely in the crazy camp.

Posted in chickens, Etsy, Kid's Clothes Week | 5 Comments

{Gluten-free} passionfruit curd tea cake

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Ruth

For me, passionfruit are one of those fruits associated with sweet childhood memories. I have distinct memories of visiting my Nanna and Poppy’s home on the north coast of New South Wales and being allowed to eat passionfruit off the vine at will. I suspect I probably gave myself a pain in the tummy.

Passionfruit are expensive in stores here, so I rarely buy them. I have heard that you can grow them in Canberra, perhaps they’re something we should consider for the garden.

It goes without saying, then, that I was very happy to discover that my mother’s passionfruit vines were fruiting when we visited. Like most things on Norfolk, the passionfruit varieties are a bit of a mystery. I know Mum has at least two – one turns purple and the other stays yellow/green. Both are sweet, and we had plenty of each.

My mother has an old-school Fowlers Vacola preserving kit so my original plan was to preserve some of the passionfruit for use later in the year when there’s not so much fruit about on the island. I spent some time fishing around on the internet for passionfruit recipes and came up with a shortlist – passionfruit curd, passionfruit tea cake, passionfruit buttermilk cake and a passionfruit syrup. Yup – there were a lot.

A friend shared a lemon tea cake recipe with me years ago, which I converted into gluten-free. I decided to give it a go with passionfruit – and by goodness, it was good!

The first step is to get your hands on some passionfruit curd. I decided to follow this recipe from the Donna Hay website. I like the technique in this recipe because I didn’t end up with any overcooked egg white in my curd as I have when making lemon curd.

I like my curds a little tart so added a few extra tablespoons of lemon juice at the end. The sweetness of your curd will depend on the sweetness of your fruit. A little bit of sour will set the curd off nicely against the sweetness of the tea cake.

You can make this as one large cake, or as small cakes to share more easily with a crowd. If you decide to make the cake in individual serves, I recommend using plain café-style muffin wraps – it makes for a more stylish presentation.

It is quite a dense cake, best eaten on the day of baking (or warmed slightly in the microwave on subsequent days…if it lasts that long).

I’ll give you a heads up – passionfruit curd tea cake comes together in a strange way. But I promise – it does work.

Be sure to line your cake tin well, including the sides. The way the cake is constructed, it’s easy to get some curd spilling out towards the sides and it has a tendency to be very sticky – making removing the cake from the tin slightly perilous. Careful use of baking paper eliminates this risk! I forgot to line the sides of the tin this time and I’ll admit I held my breath as I released the springform pan.

I find it a little tricky to tell when the cake is cooked, because a skewer will generally always come out covered in curd. Cooked properly, the cake is crunchy on the top, a little oozy around the curd layer – and soft on the base. Follow your gut but tend towards cooking for a little longer rather than less – the cake is naturally moist due to the curd.

If you prefer, you can substitute the plain-flour and baking powder with 2 cups of gluten-free self-raising flour – I just don’t have a brand I like using.

{Gluten-free} passionfruit curd tea cake

Time: 2 hours, plus time to cool in tin
Difficulty: A little tricky, but not too hard.
Print

Ingredients

2 cups gluten-free plain flour
4 tsp gluten-free baking powder
1 tblsp psyllium husks (optional, but I think it helps hold everything together)
1 cup caster sugar
130g butter, chopped
2 eggs
1 cup passionfruit curd (or lemon curd)

Directions

Preheat oven to 180°C, and grease a 20cm cake tin.

Sift dry ingredients together and add butter. Rub butter together until mixture is the consistency of breadcrumbs (I generally use a food processor for this step – just pulse the mixture until it forms crumbs).

Using a mix-master, add eggs one at a time, and mix well until a soft dough forms.

Gently spoon half the mixture into the base of the cake tin. Leave a 2cm rim around the edge of the cake tin, to keep the curd away from the edges of the cake.

Spread the curd across the cake, keeping the curd inside the ‘rim’ of dough.

Using a dessert or tablespoon, dollop the remaining dough over the curd. Put slightly more dough towards the centre of the cake. It will be uneven, and you’ll be able to see the curd in some places. That’s okay!

Bake towards the middle of your oven for approximately an hour. Watch the cake carefully and remove it when it appears cooked – the top of the cake will be golden brown and the cake will have come away from the sides slightly. See notes in the text above.

Cool cake in tin. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Serve alone, with a small dollop of extra curd, or with a little double cream.

Happy baking!

Posted in baking, gluten-free, recipe, sweet | 11 Comments

Bananas galore

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Ruth

The combination of Norfolk Island’s warm climate and strict quarantine restrictions means many of the island’s residents grow as much of their fruit and vegetables as they can. Mum and Dad are no exception, although only being on island for part of the year makes the logistics a bit difficult. Their bananas, passionfruit and paw paw grow with little tending, as do delicious cherry guavas.

Norfolk ‘plun’, as bananas are known in the local dialect, taste a million times better than mainland bananas. They’re little and sweet, with a very intense flavour. When the birds start getting into a bunch, my father cuts it and hangs it on their back verandah to ripen wrapped in sheet. The problem with growing your own bananas is getting through the glut which occurs when a whole bunch ripens at once – you go along having no bananas at all, and then, all off a sudden, you’ve got dozens on your hands!

We caught up with some friends and their two little ones for a coffee and playdate while we were on island. Mum had a bowl of bananas in desperate need of eating and I didn’t want to turn up empty handed, so I made a batch of my banana muffins.

Such a simple, quick recipe…although I never seem to measure the muffins out evenly! Perhaps I should re-write the recipe so I end up with a bit more batter?

They went down well – those muffins are always a hit with kids! I followed my previously-blogged recipe, guesstimating the number of bananas and substituting caster sugar for the brown in the recipe. The muffins were fresh out of the oven (I was running so late) so they ended up in a basket.

And we had a lovely catch up!

Posted in baking, holidays, sweet | 2 Comments

Norfolk Island

Posted on January 18, 2014 by Ruth

We’ve made it home, safe and sound after our time away. Our freshly painted house looks great, but I’ve not managed to take any photos yet. We’re too busy trying to unpack everything and get rid of all the dust and grime which comes with having tradespeople in your house. And sew and hang curtains…agh. A total nightmare. I promise I’ll share some photos – just as soon as it no longer looks like someone’s squatting in our living room!

I didn’t write about it much while we were away, but we spent the last fortnight with my parents at their house on Norfolk Island. My father and his family moved to the island when he was a teenager, and my grandmother still lives there permanently. My mother and father spend a good part of their year on Norfolk, spending time with my grandmother and enjoying the beach and the other things the island has to offer.

Norfolk Island is a tiny island off the east coast of Australia, in the Pacific Ocean. It’s kind of between Australia, New Caledonia and the most northern tip of New Zealand, on a similar latitude to Brisbane. Norfolk has an area of 34.6 square kilometers (13.4 square miles) and the climate is subtropical. That said, we had hot weather while we were there this year and no rain – which is quite atypical of our usual trips.

Norfolk has a fascinating history – variously home to an early Polynesian settlement, two separate convict settlements, and finally the descendents of the mutiny on the Bounty who had outgrown their home on Pitcairn Island. You can read more about Norfolk’s history here – it’s worth checking out. Lots of buildings and ruins from the later settlements remain – some have been turned into museums. We didn’t poke around the ruins on this visit. Elena and Hugo aren’t really up to it yet.

These days, Norfolk Island is a self-governing external territory of Australia. It has it’s own immigration and quarantine regulations and a speed limit of 50 kilometers (31 miles) per hour (40km/hr in town and 30km/hr in the school zone). The cows (who roam the island relatively freely) have right of way on the roads.

We visited Emily Bay (the most popular swimming spot) almost every day – sometimes twice a day – this visit. To our utter surprise, Elena and Hugo were massive fans of the beach and swimming. Hugo took a liking to eating sand and crawling headlong into the water. Elena was a little more wary but still very happy to swim with Alex or me.

We spent time introducing my grandmother and Hugo, and had belated celebrations for Christmas and birthdays. We had four generations of my family in the same room. Crazy. We are very lucky.

My father has a love for all things mechanical and has a few old vehicles on the island – a 1928 Austin Seven Chummy (Alice) and a WWII-era Harley Davidson (civilianised 1942 WLA), as well as a not-so-old Citroën 2CV Dolly (Chloe). Elena was completely enamored of Alice and Chloe and very much enjoyed rides in both. She also loved the bike. I think our daughter might be a rev-head in the making! Hugo was a huge fan of Dad’s tractor.

The kids ~~were totally spoilt~~ had a ball. Who else but grandma would let you destroy the flower arrangement in the centre of the table and then try to eat a hydrangea?

mess Or let you try on your great-grandmother’s jewellery (clip on earrings, I must add…)?

We didn’t have any fantastically grand adventures. We had a lot of slow, family time. I did a lot of baking and preserving. Elena cooked with my mother. And I took a lot of photographs.

I even caught a semi-decent photo of Elena in her Christmas dress.

I’ll be sharing a few of my new-found recipes over the next little while. I start back at work (part-time) on Monday and I think recipes will make for much more interesting reading!

Our garden survived our absence very well. Our tomato plants are full of fruit. I don’t know how many we’re going to get, however – I went out to pick our first ripe tomato this morning to find it had been half eaten by some type of animal/bird. I’ll have to work out how to thwart my competitor!

Unfortunately, while we were away, I received the sad news from our chosen chicken-breeder that one of the lovely chickens we had arranged to buy had died. Because the pullet died from a (bird-to-bird) transmissible disease, the breeder is now unwilling to sell us any chickens. So now we’re back to square one on the chicken front. Given the extreme temperatures we’re having at the moment, I think we’ll wait a few weeks before trying to source some more girls for our (yet to be constructed) coop. It’s a pity, but I guess it comes with the territory (and I’m glad not to have bought an infected flock).

Southern hemisphere friends – I hope you’re keeping cool in this crazy weather. And to those up north…well, I hope you’re keeping dry and warm!

Posted in chickens, garden, holidays, travel | 9 Comments

Heading home

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Ruth

We start our journey home tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to the travel part, but I am looking forward to getting home. We’ll be sad to leave the island though. Norfolk, you’ve been kind to us!

Posted in holidays | 4 Comments

2013 in review – and a blank canvas of a 2014

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Ruth

Happy New Year, all! I hope 2014 has been kind to you and your families so far – and that your year goes from strength to strength.

As we drift into 2014, it’s interesting to reflect upon last year. 2013 was such a big year for our family. Hugo was born in the dying days of 2012, so we began the year with a new, new baby. We somehow managed to sell our apartment and move into our house.

Hugo stopped sleeping – and didn’t start again for months until our pediatrician helped us get his reflux and food intolerances under control. We eventually managed to unpack our moving boxes and start our renovation of the house. I commenced my war on the vinca – and started to make progress on the garden.

I sewed, knitted and cooked a lot.

We baked a lot. And dyed yarn.

There was some crochet and some quilting.

I opened a little store on Etsy. Elena had grommets put in. A big year.

We’re on holidays at the moment, and will head home soon to a freshly painted house (and more chaos to sort out). Such a nice way to signify starting the new year – with a blank canvas. Given everything we did in 2013, it’s settling (and unexpected) to be starting 2014 with a sense of peace.

2014 will present it’s own set of challenges. I’ll be back at work part-time from late January, so the family will have to adjust to a new way of operating. I think I’ll, sadly, have less time for sewing and knitting – but I might manage to surprise myself. I have my fingers crossed.

I have a few little goals for 2014 – to not make myself crazy trying to keep on top of everything, to get some (or any, really – let’s be honest) exercise, to get our chicken coop up and chickens established, keep the garden going, and to finally sew or knit something for myself. Anything else on top of that will be a bonus.

WordPress.com’s stats helper monkeys sent me this annual report for the blog. It’s such a little blog, without too many readers, but I still think the report is pretty neat. Thanks, too, to everyone who comes along and has a read every now and again, and to those who leave comments. I really value your ideas (and it’s nice to know there’s someone out there!).

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

I’ll see you when we’re back home with some posts about our trip away, and some pictures of the house with it’s new paint job.

Posted in random | 6 Comments

Happy birthday, Hugo!

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Ruth

A year ago today, Alex, Elena and I welcomed Hugo into the world. Happy birthday, little one! I can’t believe a whole year has passed by.

It seems crazy that our baby’s one. He has grown so much. There are so many photos – I started to sift through them and then couldn’t decide. Sorry about that!It has been a full-on year, but I believe we’re ending it in a good place. Bring on Hugo’s second year – and 2014, I say.

We had a little get together with Alex’s family just after Christmas.

We’ve celebrated Hugo’s birthday today by packing up the house, ready for the painters to come through while we’re away. Those of you who remember how hard we worked to get the place unpacked will understand how these photos pain me! I just have to keep reminding myself that a freshly painted house will be so lovely.

And my handy tip for the day? Sydney International Airport is a great child minding service! We’re off to see family tomorrow so staying the night at the airport’s hotel. The children were enthralled. So. Many. Planes.

Posted in baby, raising children, renovations | 11 Comments

A Christmas outfit or two

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Ruth

I’ve gotten into the habit of sewing an outfit for Elena each Christmas. I sewed her a little Christmas ruffle bum onsie the first year.

Last year I sewed her a pair of Grinch shorts.

This year I managed a dress for Elena and a Christmas tree onsie for Hugo. Of course, I left it completely to the last minute and only started Elena’s dress at 10.30pm on Christmas Eve…and made Hugo’s on Christmas morning.

The onsie was about as simple as it can get. I cut out the shape of a Christmas tree and used vliesofix to attach it and some stars to a white onsie. Christmas outfit: tick! In the end, it was good that I was running so late. Christmas day was unexpectedly chilly so I switched out my planned short sleeved onsie for a long sleeved one. The fabrics were the same as those used in Elena’s dress.

The dress was also a pretty simple affair. I found the sweet Little Ellie pattern from Wink Designs on Etsy. I was attracted to the round collar and simple lines. The pattern was great, with clear instructions and a nicely designed layout. It was a quick sew, too. I started cutting out the pattern pieces at 10.30pm and was all done by 1.30am. Not too shabby.

I made the size 2-3 which fits Elena quite well (despite her chest size of 19 1/2 inches matching the size 1 on the size chart). There’s a bit of room in it which means she’ll get a bit of wear out of it. I don’t mind – it makes the effort a bit more worth it. The star fabric is from Lincraft’s Christmas collection, and the red trim is from my stash.

Unfortunately we didn’t have a particularly smooth Christmas day and I didn’t manage to get a good photo of the dress on. This was as good as it got! It’s not even in focus.

I intend to keep this tradition going until the children won’t have it any more. And then? Well, I’ll try to guilt them into it – and if that doesn’t work, well, I’ll come up with something else.

Do you have any silly Christmas traditions?

Posted in christmas, clothes for children, sewing | 2 Comments

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Ruth

Poor old Santa doesn’t look too happy…neither of the kids were having a bar of the idea of hanging out on Santa’s lap – so Alex and I ended up in the photo too. I actually really like it! It’s one of the first proper photos of the four of us with everyone looking in the right direction.

We wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope you all have a restful holiday period.

We’ve had a crazy day with Alex’s side of the family. We’ll be on holidays for most of January so I won’t be around much. See you all in 2014!

Posted in christmas | Leave a comment

Grommets success

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Ruth

We’ve got the grommets over and done with. Elena coped with the whole thing admirably – the anesthetic process was pretty horrible (for both of us) but she woke up calmly and was just sucking her thumb by the time I got to her in recovery. Such a brave little one. The specialist reported that it all went well. Hopefully we’ll see an improvement in the ear infection situation – and we’ll be able to go swimming without getting sick each time. Swimming lessons will be a ‘go’ next year! We were all completely shattered by early afternoon, and both Elena and I had good naps. I’m not joking. Afternoon naps are bliss.

In less complicated news, look what was waiting for us when we got home from hospital!

I can see what we’ll be doing for the next little while. I can’t wait. I’m going to open the packages and take the smallest part to a paint shop for advice on the best way to treat it to weather proof it better. We’ll hopefully get the slab extended in the next week or so, and then building can commence.

And, to top off the day, I finally got the buttons sewn onto another cardigan for my etsy shop. Finally! It only took me a week…

We’re having a quiet day at home tomorrow so Elena can continue her recovery. We’re also getting an awning installed over our most westerly facing window…just in time for a spate of 35°C+ (95°F+) days. I think we’ll be glad for it and the cooling.