Experimenting - Jumbo Cupcake

The lastest crave in cooking is Jumbo Cupcakes. Tamika wants one for her birthday cake but I had to experiment with cooking times and the mould itself. A fancy little contraption....

We put together vanilla and chocolate. The base was vanilla and the top was marbled chocolate and vanilla. We decided this time not to fill it but next time I will, maybe with jam.

Poor logan had to sit back and watch Tamika lick the bowl and then eat the cake. He enjoyed the icing though, chocolate with M &M's. I wasn't impressed with the icing. How do you ice and decorate the cake and the cupcakes attractively? What is the secret? It is really annoying.

Vegetable Garden

We spent this weekend fixing up our vegetable and herb garden in the backyard ready for the summer season. Trying to save a bit of money on the vegetables... healthy eating soooo expensive, but we worth it. We have lettuce, spinach, roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, snow peas, cauliflower, strawberries, passionfruit (as long as it recovers from the frost), rocket and sweet corn.
Thinking of all the beautiful salads we can cook with these lovely vegetables.

The Rocks Walking Tour

I took my year three class on an excursion into the city to go on a guided walking tour of the Rocks area to learn about the arrival of the First Fleet and convict life. The students complained that it was a long walk around but they really enjoyed it and once we got back to school I could see they learnt alot about that time.

http://www.rockswalkingtour.com.au/

Each child was given a convict that they had to be for the tour and walk around the city to the significant convict places learning about what the convicts did and why they were here. One convict even tried to escape and got as far as Indonesia and another one was sent to Pinchgut ( now Fort Denison) for being a very bad convict.

Netball 2010

Another year of  netball is nearly over. Tamika's team haven't faired very well on the competition status this year but I think that is because they were placed in a higher grade since they did so well last year.

On Sunday 8th August Blacktown Council held a Gala day. It was a VERY long day, but Tamika and the other girls in her team enjoyed it. They also learnt alot as the following week they won their game 14 - 5. That was only their second win all season.

Tamika was determined NOT to let go of the ball and make it hers.

Gluten Free Expo

On Saturday 7th August we headed to the Olympic Park Area at Homebush for our first Gluten Free Expo. Logan had been waiting for this day to arrive for a very long time as Nanny Lynne told him that he would get to tast alot of food and go away with samples.

We lined up early expecting it to be busy, we of course were the only ones there 45 minutes before opening time. Once inside there were sooo many products no one would become hungry. There were stalls advertising new Gluten Free Products and some that were selling their products at a discounted price. Take the loaves of Country Life Bread, usually $6 a loaf in the shops at the expo we picked up 5 loaves for $20. Bread freezes....

We came home with bag loads of food and then I had to clean my pantry to try and fit it in, cereal, biscuits, pasta, cake mixes, snaxs etc. The most delicious item at the store was the 'Cake Mark coconut delights'. They may be Gluten Free but they sure as hell aren't healthy. Weight Watchers would die at the points... lucky I only had a half. Now I will never look at them the same way again.
Yes, it will take Logan a quite a while to get through this pile of food.