21 November 2011

Family Moments

Lacking time or energy for the last month (being quite sick while juggling work, house construction, and more), today I finally feel as if I'm returning to the land of the living... and blogging!  A quick post this time - just to capture some moments and stories.

Anya and Callum have been playing together more and more and are becoming really good friends.  I am so glad because when I was growing up, my sister was my best friend, and she was a major force of good in my life.  Thanks, sis!

Little things they do for each other: when I offer Callum something nice (toy or treat) he always immediately asks that Anya should get one too.  And when racing through the park, Anya stopped short several times and made sure that Callum got to the finish first.  Right now they're having breakfast on the patio and pretending to be Shark Boy and Lava Girl.  I can hear them collaborating: "And I was the queen -- " "Mmm-hmm, and I was over here -- "  "Pretend I was at the -- "

In other developments - we are gradually moving toward eating the same meals at the same time.  I know many families who do this already but it never really suited our adult lifestyle to eat dinner at 5:30.  Also, the kids tend to prefer really plain food.  Recently we introduced "family meal time" on weekends when we had more time to prepare and enjoy the meal.  Also we've been preparing things more to our adult tastes but just not quite as spicy: corned beef, moussaka, tuna pasta bake, Asian stir fry...

I was pleased last night to whip up a cake in about 10 minutes from a recipe that had just six ingredients.  As I was already baking moussaka it was simple to swap the cake into the oven while taking the main meal out.  The cake turned out very nicely so I thought I'd share the recipe (from "The Flavours of Buderim" with some added notes from me):

Pineapple Cake

150 g butter
150 g sugar
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
150 g self-raising flour
450 g pineapple, drained well (recipe calls for crushed, but I find it better to chop whole pieces)

Preheat oven to 175 C (or 155-165 C in fan forced oven).  Beat butter with sugar until creamy; beat in eggs one at a time and beat until fluffy.  Fold in flour and vanilla, then the pineapple.  Line an 8" round cake tin with non stick paper (bottom & sides).  Pour into tin, and bake 45 minutes or more until done, testing with a skewer.  Note: make sure the pineapple is really well drained otherwise the cake will be sloppy and never seem  "done" when you're testing it!