Pumpkin bread

I made this loaf in October and I really liked it.  It was a recipe from the packet of flour I bought.
So I am going to share on the blog and it's more that I can refer back when I need to bake it again.

 

 

 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Wholemeal Flour
3/4 cup Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 cup cooked pumpkin, Mashed (I used Crown pumpkin)
1/3 cup Canola Oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp Mixed Spice
1 and 1/4 cups White Sugar
1/2 cup Chopped Walnut
3/4 cup Pumpkin Seed

Preheat oven to 200c (I think I may have done 180c on fan bake).  Lightly grease a loaf tin with butter and dust with flour. ( I was lazy and just lined with baking paper).

In a medium bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda.  In another large bowl, beat the pumpkin, oil, eggs, mixed spice and the sugar until smooth.  Fold in flour mixture and walnuts until just combined, making sure to not overmix the mixture.  Add the mixture to the prepared loaf tin and top with pumpkin seeds.  Bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, or until a wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Cool in the tin for 5 mins and then turn it out of the tin. 

Royal spotting ( 9 Nov 2015)

A  went Royal Spotting on Monday with the rest of the year 1s.  

 Above Abel waiting at Brooklands Park for Prince Charles and Camilla Duchess of Cornwall.

 

 

 

Pics courtesty of Aunty Christine who was there with her grandson C.

Gems and Minerals Show

 

I have a boy who is obsessed with rocks.  So when he saw a sign on the road that say there's a gem show, he got very excited.  I remembered my reply to him was that is only a show for old people.  Anyways he was pretty ill that weekend, and I wanted to cheer him up so brought him to the show.  It was an impressive show.  There were people coming from South Island and Whanganui to be part of the exhibitor. 

The rocks/gem were beautifully set up in the special casing, and people could look and admire them.

 

You could see Noel even brought his own rock kit with him. He thought it was going to be a meeting and people would talk about their rocks. 

 

 

This is a special dark room. And the rocks were very colourful under the special lighting.

These were rocks/gems available for sale from sellers coming from all over the place.  I later found out this event happens every two years.

This is a carver doing his special task of carving the stone.

 

The boys went for their lucky dip.  They were not very excited when they found out it was just magnets.

The kind man in checkered shirts give free rocks to kids from his collection.

I was wrong. There were many children attending the show.  This was a section just for them, finding treasure in a big block of ice.

 

 

 

Abel was super proud with his little treasure. His fingers were icy cold after that.

Polished rocks in the shape of an egg

 

The hall was filled with people from all ages. 

No, I did not get these Amethysts geodes for them.  They were like $1,500 each.

Abel wasted no time in displaying his rocks on his shelf.  He was very daring to ask for prices from the seller. Rocks start at 20c a piece. But the boys had their eyes on more expensive stuffs. Luckily,  I capped their budget at $3 max or I could go to $5 if its very very very special and BIG (*evil grin) because Abel laid his eyes on a tiny piece of rock which was $20!!

 

Noels' collection.

Scouts - dress up nights

 

I am not a fan of Halloween. We don't celebrate it and don't go trick or treating. The scouts leader have asked everyone to dress up for that week.  Noel chose to go as a Japanese boy, and Abel wanted to go just in his uniform (scounts shirt and scarf).  Of course when we arrived, he saw all the children were dressed up so he started to cry. Anyhow, here's a group shot of all the kids. There were bats, optimus primes, bumble bee, ninja turtles, superman, and few witches and skeletons and corpses. 

 

They did group activity with the parachute. Abel refused to join them so he was sitting next to me, facing away from the activity.

Did you know that you can use parachute as emergency shelter? I learned something new everytime I go to scouts.

 

Next they did some experiments.  Above, NF the leader did the volcanoes experiment. Abel decided to check out the experiments so joined the rest of the children.

 

Here they were making clouds 

Then off to the kitchen to see how rain is formed.

 

Finally, this activity is interesting.  It's a goo that is made by mixing 1.5 bag of corn flour with room temperature water.  It made this very interesting tactile activity. If you punch the goo, it's hard, but if you poke your fingers, it is soft.

 

Not scouts related but Abel wants to be a pirate while we were walking one day. Arrrrr,  matey...

 

Quick lunch -Quinoa with canned tuna and veggies

This is my lazy, quick, dump everything in a bowl lunch.  Ingredients would be based on whatever you can find in the fridge.

I used tomatoes, broccoli, quinoa, and a can of Sealord red curry tuna which comes with little pieces of potato.

I cooked the quinoa the night before (enough for 2 servings) and I cut the broccoli florets and microwave for 1.5 mins on high. Then I microwaved the can of tuna for 30 secs  together with the broccoli and quinoa. Lastly, I chopped in the tomatoes.

Lemon Yoghurt Bundt Cake

 

 

I bought a new bundt cake pan in my recent trip to Melbourne.  I tried it out by making a lemon yoghurt cake.  The hard part for me was trying to find a recipe to fit the pan.  The pan is a big one - 10 inch diameter and pretty tall (like 6 inches)

 

I based my recipe on this recipe from http://orangette.blogspot.co.nz/2004/08/slow-roasting.html 

  The recipe from orangette will fit a 9 inch round cake pan.   Here's the recipe:

 

 

For the cake:
1 jar plain yogurt
2 jars granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 jars unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 jar canola oil

Note:  1 jar is equal to 125ml or half cup

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. (I preheat on fan bake at 160c) I double the recipe above to fit my bundt pan.

In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs, stirring until well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, and zest, mixing to just combine. Add the oil and stir to incorporate. At first, it will look like a horrible, oily mess, but keep stirring, and it will come together into a smooth batter. Pour and scrape the batter into a buttered cake pan. 

 

I baked mine for 1 hour 11 mins, until the cake feels springy to the touch and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.

 

 

Before icing

 

 

I used the lemon icing from this blog.

 

http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/how-to-make-a-lemon-icing-glaze/

 

Ingredients Needed:

1 3/4 cups of confectioners sugar
1/4 cup of lemon juice
the zest of one lemon (or more!) - I omitted the zest though
1 tsp of salted butter

 

I soften the butter for 10 secs in the microwave and then I add in all the other ingredients and used my little handheld electric beater to beat until desired consistency.

After icing...

The inside, it's a very tall cake.

 

The slice.

 

L