Classic Shortbread Recipe

I must say this has to be one of my all time favourite recipes that I’ve made time and time again as Christmas presents for family and friends. I just love whipping up the dough, waiting for it to bake, decorating and then putting your final product into nice little packages to give away.

This classic shortbread is the ultimate shortbread cookie I always go back to – it’s a trusty and simple recipe that has never fail me so give it a go.

You will need:

250g unsalted butter, chopped
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 ½ cups plain flour, sifted
½ cup rice flour, sifted (can be found in local supermarket)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Extra icing sugar for dusting
 

What you’ll do:

1.       Preheat oven to 180°C

2.       Place all ingredients into a food processor and process until dough comes together

3.       Press dough into lightly greased 20x30cm tin lined with baking paper

4.       Refrigerate for 15min or until firm

5.       Use knife to score into 20 rectangles and prick with a fork

6.       Bake for 35-40 min or until golden brown

7.       Let cool in tin for 20 min before transferring to cooling rack

8.       Once completely cool cut and dust with icing sugar

You can also choose to:

– refrigerate and bake it another time
– cut into circles, hearts or any other shape and create a tree like I’ve done below

– Roll it into balls, flatten slightly and sprinkle with sugar
– Roll it into balls and using the back of a fork, flatten it slightly to create ridges on the cookie top

 Please share your creations with us

Enjoy

^YKylie

 

 

Keeping It Real - Motherhood In Pictures

 

We all see the "perfect" side of motherhood... the glamorous pictures of beautiful mums hair done, make up on. We put on our happy faces and present ourselves to surrounding family and friends... today I document in pictures the truth about being mum. Keeping it real for all to see being a parent is not always sunshine and roses but totally worth it!

 

 I spend countless nights with little to no sleep, I have bags under my eyes and no time to sleep!



I'm Doctor, cleaner, carer and chef... and I'm all of these things with no rest.

 

From crying to yelling.. 

 

 

or trashing the house.. with having 2 there is always something to do!

 

 

As mum I now share everything from my food to my bed..

And with little Miss now here to, feeding and nappies is just something else I do.

 My work in not done even when they rest, always soothing a tummy or putting a nightmare to rest.

 

 

Yes being a mum is hard work but also the best!

 

We have laughter, giggles, cuddles and fun 

all captured in pictures, memories to keep.

 

 

 But whilst you see perfection...

 

 

I live reality... mum's I don't get a lunch break, to rest or to sleep

But and at the end of the day when all said and done...

I'm bringing up my kids and it's so much fun!

^YKylie

What should go where in our fridges?

 

So we have all seen the very impressive fridge storage and organisation floating around. I myself am happy with how my fridge storage looks, however I’m always wondering if we are correctly storing our food. What should go where in our fridges??
 

So today I decided to educate myself with the help of pinterest and thought I’d share with you what I learnt.

Here is what I found:


http://pinterest.com/pin/10062799138270266/

http://pinterest.com/pin/199988039672410493/

  I learnt that:

1.         Dairy products such as milk, cream, yogurt and other dairy products are best stored on the upper shelves of the refrigerator where the temperature is the most constant, so they'll keep longer.



Fail #1: I’ve always stored my milk on the fridge door!

Will have to see if I can rectify this in my small fridge



2.         Eggs are happiest in their cartons on a shelf.

Nooo.. One feature I love the most in our refrigerator is the egg storage compartment that urge you to put your eggs on the inside of the door. Guess that’s fail #2, I’ll have to stay strong and not give in -- the door is the warmest part of the refrigerator so the eggs are on the move!

 
 

Eggs in the door! Fail #2 sham on me!

3.         Cheese should be wrapped in cheese paper for storage, but waxed paper or parchment paper will also do the trick. Before storing, scrape the surface with a non-serrated knife to remove any excess oil that may have “sweat out” at room temperature. Each cheese should be wrapped separately and marked with the name and date of purchase. Avoid plastic wrap at all costs as the cheese can absorb the flavors and chemicals from the plastic.

 

Fail #3 Wow I’m really not doing well here! I always pop our cheese straight into a Tupperware container and store it at the top of our fridge. Next time I’ll know what to do!

 

4.         Mushrooms you buy at the grocery store are best left in their original packaging. Once you open it, wrap the whole package in plastic wrap. Wild mushrooms are best kept in a paper bag in your refrigerator’s crisper drawer.

 

5.         Never store fruit & veg together as ethylene-producing fruits are sure to make vegetables decompose prematurely. All vegetables are best stored in perforated plastic bags in your refrigerator’s crisper drawer. Fruit, with the exception of melons, citrus, and bananas, should be stored in the refrigerator in a separate drawer from the vegetables. Do not wash your fruit until you are ready to eat it; the excess water quickens decomposition.

 

Good news I use to throw them all in together in my crisper draw
however after getting my Fridgesmart Tupperware containers
I can happily say I’m no longer an offender.

Fruit and veg now get their very own container in accordance to the air that they require. 

Who knew fruit and veg breath?
(Find out more info here)

6          Meat is best stored in the bottom of the refrigerator where it is coldest. Removing the retail packaging and re wrapping the meat in foil can extend its shelf life, but you should try to consume refrigerated meat within 4 days of purchase.



I've removed our crisper draw in order to
store raw meat in the bottom of our fridge.

OK I knew this one but thought I’d share the info anyway. Raw meat should be stored at the bottom of the fridge to also prevent drips from contaminating food below.

So there we have it. Hopefully you learnt something new just as I did. I’ll still live by the basic rule of 'when in doubt, throw it out' however with this information hopefully I can now confidently stock the fridge, reduce our waste and saving us money by know what should go where in our fridge.

 

^YKylie

 

Home Organising System 1 - grocery plan

Well it’s the first day of October and whilst it might just be the start of another month, for this household it means the start of a few new home organisation systems that were going to start.

There are 4 main systems that I’ll be putting into practice : A new grocery shopping plan, a toy box-a-day system, a laundry schedule and a cleaning schedule.

I’ll share with you in detail over the next couple of days the systems were putting into practice in order to have a cleaner more practical home. At the end of the month I’ll let you know the result, what worked what needed tweaking and if I’ve scraped any.

First up A new grocery shopping  plan

As our local farmers market occurs each Monday so it makes sense for me to meal plan and head out to grab the fresh local fruit and veg that are better priced than what you find in the grocery store.

 

I’ll then head to our local butcher then finish up at Safeway to grab anything else. It makes for a long trip with two kids to lug around however I’m sure it will be worth it. Nothing beats fresh local fruit and veg!

Once home I then prep all our food taking the time to go through the fruit and vegies and pre-wash and chop any that I can before put them away.

colourbox.com

 

Pre-cutting all our veg then placing it into my Tupperware containers makes should make it easier each night at dinner rush time. I like the idea of just being able to go to the fridge and grab out any that you need to use with dinner!!!

 

I’m hoping this system will saves us a lot of time and money. Hopefully by having it pre-cut I’ll be more likely to use it all up and thus the amount that I throw away will decrease.

 Less waste = saved $$

Do you precut your fruit and vegie? How has it worked out for you?

Would love to hear you tips or ideas on making dinner time easier so please feel free to share

 

^YKylie

 

Beer Tasting Bash

So we had my husbands 30th birthday party over the weekend. He didn't want much just beers with the boys however being his 30th I insisted on something a little more. So a week out from his party I got to planning and decided that a beer tasting party was what was in order.

I wiped up some invitations and sent them out.

 

 

I then got started on the cake. After some idea searching on the net I decided to make a bike cake as hubby is always at me for a bike so I decided that I'd give him one.. 

 

 

With the cooking and decorating of the cake taking up all of Friday all that was left was the decorating and set up for the party to be done on the day.

 

So with a few hours till guests arrived I looked through my scrapbooking paper stash and pulled out a few different papers going with a beer coloured theme. I had seen many party set ups with paper rosettes and decided that's what I'd make. With my good friend google I found out how to construct the rosettes and made a few in different colours and sizes.

 

 

I sent hubby off to the local bottle shop with instructions to get 6 different bottles of beers, 4 of each and lots of ice. He almost got it right..lol.. coming back with 8 different types, 4  in cans not bottle's... but he tried ha ha ha :) So with what I had at hand along with my stash of ikea tubs I set up hubby's beer tasting bash. Here are a few pics of how it turned out...

 

 

Hubby was very impressed and somewhat amused that I'd created his 'beer with the boys' into the above display. None the less the beer tasting bash was a big hit with everyone.

 

Overall I was very happy how it turned out. And it just shows that you can quickly throw together an eye pleasing party display with a little effort.

What themed party have you put together at the last minute?

^YKylie

A Speedy Arrival

 

With the very speedy arrival of our little girl at home we were in shock for a bit and had to keep pinching ourselves to make sure it was all really true. This is a day that I will never forget and a story that I've kept close to my heart as the raw emotion of such an experience is one that I can not explain. None the less, I'm now ready to share with you all the story of how Miss Charlotte Grace entered this world...

 

We have just moved house and were in the process of cleaning up the old house. Saturday was the day that we were finally going to complete everything at the old house and we would finally be free of it. I had a restless night and had woken up in a bit of pain however put it aside as I had the daunting task of cleaning an entire house whilst 40 weeks pregnant in front of me.

 

The day went well and everything got done, despite my growing pain in the bottom of my tummy that constantly gave me grief. The cleaning, steam cleaning, mowing and garbage removal had all been completed. Yes finally free and on our way home. It was however on the trip home that it became apparent to me those pains I'd had all day were all of a sudden coming regularly... I convinced myself that they were not contractions as it was nothing like the full tummy contractions I'd experienced with bubs #1.. it was just pain like I was busting for the toilet.. I'll be fine!

 

Little did I know that 3 hours later I'd be holding our precious little girl in my arms whilst laying on our en suit floor! That's right our bundle of joy decided to enter the world in a hurry.

 

Once home I rushed to the toilet whilst hubby unpacked the car. We had decided that a bath then a call to our midwife was the plan of attack. However our little girl had a different idea and whilst hubby ran a bath I went into full labour with my waters breaking the min hubby came to get me. I calmly told hubby that my waters had broken followed quickly with a panic yell of oh god I need to push. 

 

After Hubby freaked out as our 2 year old had hidden his mobile he grabbed my mobile and calmly asked me "Who should I call first.. your mum??" I reinforced that I have an urge to push and that we needed 000 NOW!! The 000 lady was wonderful. Guiding us through each step with instructions and encouragement, we were extremely grateful we had her. I didn't want to push till we had paramedics but hubby reassured me that we were OK and could do this alone. And so three contractions later bubs was born with her 2 year old brother looking on. We had done it.. however we could not relax yet. Bubs had the cord around her neck and hubby was panicking as he didn't know what to do. I sprang into action and without thinking grabbed bubs pulling the cord up and over her head. She was OK.. I wiped her face, she was crying and pink. Thank goodness she was OK. I held her close to me as the paramedics arrived and now we were able to relax as we had help at hand.

 

 

Bubs and I stayed in hozzy overnight and then returned home where we were more comfortable.

We were showered with well wishes, flowers and gifts. Everyone was very excited and want to know all about the extraordinary unplanned home birth.

 

I however was still in shock!

And as everyone around me said how wonderful it was I could not help but feel guilt and worrier. Guilty that if only I had not ignored the pain then our experience would have been how we had planed for.. in hozzy with our midwife, my hubby and my mum. At home alone was frightening and somewhat traumatic as our 2 year old had witnessed the entire thing with clenched fists screaming in worry and concern.. mummy was in pain screaming and he hated every min of it!

I worried for the well being of our son. I hated the fact that I was in so much pain that I could not console him and constantly have the vision of him screaming and shaking with fright. Would he remember it, be scared for life from it or hate me for it?

I was worrying about so many things, my emotions had turned into a whirlwind going from ore, to disbelief, to what if.. what if something went wrong... what if I could not have got that cord loose from around her neck or if she stopped breathing... But nothing went wrong.. were all OK and our son knows none of what he saw.

 

 

So now a little over a month on I can look back and be thankful.

Thankful we have a beautiful healthy little girl who one day will here her amazing story of how she quickly entered this world.

 

 

 

And a little advice for all those second time round mums... its not guaranteed to be just like the first time so don't ignore what you might brush off as little pains!!

 

 

^YKylie

 

p.s. Sorry for being mia recently.. our little princess is keeping me from blogging as I'm LOVING every minute I have with her!

Waiting For Baby

I've been kept busy moving house and taking care of my wonderful little 2 year old, but my belly has been getting bigger and bigger...

and all of a sudden the due date for the arrival of our little miss has come and gone!

All of a sudden I am in shock that 9 months have passed SO QUICKELY. However I now find myself looking at the clock every min wondering when our little miss will grace us with her presence. Not to mention all the impatient phone calls from family and friends driving me crazy... it was time to get out of the house..

So of to the shops we went... found some bargains at the beloved Reject shop and that was all I could master. I was in to much pain to brows the shops to waist time so back home it was for us. :o(

 Once home my Mr2 gave me loads of cuddles ad his baby belly lots of love to..

We unpacked some more boxes.. LJ loves helping when it comes to an empty box he can play in...

 I then did some baking... more cos I was hungry and wanted some sweets than anything ;0)

Then I decided it was time for a brows around our new garden to see what we could find...

And now I blog about how I have killed time today...

It as if time has been put on extremely slow as I just want to have our little girl NOW!
I was not so impatient with our first. He was 7 days overdue and I was happy for him to stay there as long as he liked. Perhaps it was just that the first time around I was approaching the unknown and was happy to put it off a little longer. Not the case this time around! I enjoyed a hot bath last night and tonight I'll be getting the Clary Sage out to try bring on labour.

Please tell me I'm not going crazy... ladies please share did anyone become as impatient as I have?What have you done to try evict bubs and bring on labour?

^YKylie