Three Cheers for Occupational Therapy (in the kitchen!)

Mum's turn to blog.... Well, if the way to a man's heart is his stomach - perhaps the way to a boy's occupational therapy exercises is his biscuits?

 Our amazing Occupational Therapist has been working hard to help me learn how to engage little ones while they learn much needed skills. Skills that you and I take for granted, like being able to hold a pencil, or move our arm comfortably from left to right, or even just concentrate on information for a while. This patient woman has tried to show me how to go with the flow - if he's talking about Batman, then jump into that world, and incorporate the exercises into it. Go with it! But it turns out that I'm not too...flow-ey. I'm sort of the opposite actually. So this batch of (gingerless) gingerbread seemed a golden opportunity for us both to learn :)

 Here is the start - long left to right movements - he's cutting along the rolled out biscuit dough.


Then it's time to carefully manipulate something small along the lines - left to right, left to right!

We carefully rolled some small balls of dough (you're relieved to know it's not rabbit droppings yes?)
And then we 'tweezered' the balls over onto the line. Too tired and hungry at this point - I think a few pellets didn't make it to the dough.

And then - who wouldn't be proud of the modern art finish?

A nice reward for hard work. Are you negotiating challenges at the moment?

Sophia's Chicken Broth and Veggie noodles plus bacon and Eggs - ALL AT ONCE!

Hi everybody how are you today? I'm going to tell you what I made last night. Actually, I made two dishes at the same time. The dishes were Chicken Broth Soup and steamed Bacon and Eggs

 Firstly, I started making the chicken broth. In the steamer basket I put

• zucchini
• carrot
• leek
• parsley
• chicken bones from a roast chicken (yum)

Then we added 1200g of water to the Thermomix bowl, and we put it on Varoma, speed 2 for 40 minutes. I should have added some salt!

Then in the mean time I got my little dishes ready. First I wrapped bacon around 4 of the six dishes, (Sam can't eat bacon). Then I cracked an egg into each. Next I got a blow torch and sizzled all around the rim of the bacon.

 I put them in the Varoma and set them on top of the thermomix. While they were cooking I twirled some carrot and parsnip to go into the soup and I cut some cherry tomatoes in half. Sometimes I peeked into the varoma, and it looked like there was cream on top of the eggs.

Then when it was finished, I sprinkled parsley and cheery tomatoes on top. Then I put some grated carrot (grated in the thermomix for lunch) and some sour cream on the side. Then mum tipped the stock ingredients out from the steamer basket, and put the twirly veggies in with some left over chicken and cooked them for 3 minutes at 100 degrees.

The eggs were scrumptious and I loved the soup, (though it did need that salt!) My brother rated the dinner 10/10.

Cooking Cravings

So Sophia rescued us by cooking dinner while mum and dad languished in bed with the real flu - but it was 'just soup'. A creative fix was required, and with mum and dad mended...only gnocchi would satisfy. So with lots of fun, and equal amounts of flour on the floor - the whole family enjoyed her creation.

Sophia here; making gnocchi was a fun moment and the thermomix was a great help. A very fun part was when I rolled the potato mix into a ball and then pressed a fork on it. My tip for making it good is to just get some flour in your hands to roll the ball together, then put your fork in the flour so it doesn't wreck your gnocchi when you press the fork into the ball. When you don't flour your fork it makes it squished and wrecked. Mummy and I made a tiny bit of a disaster because we didn't the whizz the potato before adding the flour and other ingredients - but it worked anyway. We were just finishing making the gnocchi and the boys were sitting at the table saying "where's my dinner? I'm hungry!" and mummy and I kept saying "It's almost ready". I also loved scooping out the gnocchi that floated to the top in the saucepan. Bella and I took turns while mummy made the sauces. It was the best dinner I have had in a long time - I'm glad I made it.

The failsafe version (dairy free - contains wheat, egg, and moderate salicylates)

1 clove of roasted garlic and and several parsley leaves blitzed for 1 second on speed 7
Add 1/4 tsp celtic sea salt
100 - 120g nuttelex (this was for 3 people)
4 1/2 minutes on varoma, speed 1-2
Pour over the cooked gnocchi and peas

The rest of us had burnt butter and sage...oh yum!

Sisterly love

Ben 10 power!

Well, Sophia Lush AND her mum are appalling at keeping the blog posts rolling. But watching Sophia calm Samuel down by cooking up a batch of biscuits with him was too sweet not to quickly post! She caught his vision with the promise of light sabre and Ben 10 watch shaped biscuits...a little tricky for a soft dough. However, no trickiness with the flavour! - So good that they all disappeared before photos of their clever shapes.

 The chocolate chip biscuits from the EDC were modified with nuttlex and rice milk and oats for choc chips, (no nuts) to make them "failsafe", that is, low chemical



I have to say that Sophia's version of the Creamy Fettucine Salami was sensational. I love my 8 year old cooking our dinner. She just

• replaced the veggies to ones that were in our fridge (broccoli and mushrooms), 
• changed the cream, tomatoes and water to a tin of tomatoes and a tin of evaporated milk plus a little water, and 
• changed the salami for bacon. I think it was a tiny bit lower fat - which makes up for my seconds and thirds...I think.

Leave your favourite recipe tweeks in the comments :)

Mayonnaise meets it's Maker

Hi it's SOPHIA from LITTLE LUSH COOKS. 

Tonight  I made  really, really creamy, yummy  mayonnaise.

I will give you the recipe later.

When you make  mayonnaise you need to separate the egg yolk from the white. When I was doing this I accidentally let the egg yolk fall in to the bowl but luckily dad came to the rescue. Then it was all good..

* from mum - seems lots of folks have a whoops with mayonnaise once or twice! So I have included a trouble shooting guide, which includes advice from lots of forum users. It's down the bottom if you want to scroll down.

I promised  you the  recipe so here it is.

 1 . Ingredients .

1 clove roasted garlic (optional)

1 egg' room temperature  and separated

salt and pepper to taste + a little Dukkah

1 tsp Mustard we used Dijon

 1 tsp rice wine vinegar or lemon juice.

250 g Grape seed or safflower oil (though we just used sunflower)

                                             

Put the clove of garlic in first - I just chop for 3 seconds speed 7.
Separate your egg and put the white in a dish and the yolk in the bowl.
Put the special butterfly in.
Add the mustard and vinegar and salt and pepper. Set to speed 4 for 1 minute, we cook at 37 degrees here to make sure everything is the right termperature.
Scrape everything down the sides, (and mum quickly scrapes around the blades).
Put the lid back on and weigh your oil in a jug. Press 4 1/2 minutes. Turn to speed 4.

For the first minute just do little pours on the lid. Then you can get more lazy and pour lots on and let the special lid do the drip, drip, drip.

I use a spatula to wipe down the measuring cup and lid towards the end.

When the timer gets to 12 seconds, tip the egg white in to mix til the end. Then you have yummy creamy mayonnaise.

 

A TM Mayonnaise trouble-shooting guide
*Firstly, I have to share this amazing tip from Alice Flanagan. It is the fastest, most trouble free way to make mayo: Put the butterfly in, and throw all ingredients into the TM bowl (except oil), including the egg white. Set for 1.5 minutes, 37 degrees speed 4. Then remove the butterfly, put the MC in place and set the TM to 3 minutes speed 4-5. Pour a little of the oil onto your MC, wait a few seconds, then pour the whole lot on. Never takes me more than 2 minutes now :)

For the traditional way - heres the TM australia You Tube video: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb_13IHiMuk 

Problem	Possible Causes	Suggestions
Mayo is split (runny mess)	1.    The yolk or other ingredients were too cold to allow the oil to emulsify into the yolk mix 2.    The oil was added too quickly 3.    The type of oil was too heavy, such as olive oil 4.    The acidity of the lemon was lower or higher than normal due to seasonal fluctuation	1.        Put the split mix in a jug. Clean out your TM bowl and butterfly. Re-whisk an egg yolk or two for 1 minute on speed 4, then add your split mix slowly instead of oil. 2.        Next time, try heating your yolk mix on 37 degrees for the first minute. 3.        Make sure you use a light oil with a light flavour, e.g. sunflower or vegetable oil. Only pour some of the oil on for the first minute. You can tip the rest on the lid after the first minute 4.        Use a white wine vinegar instead of lemon juice if you have had splitting problems
Mayo tastes gross	1.    Too strong a flavour of your oil 2.    The fresh garlic is too sharp for your taste	1.    Use a light oil! E.g. sunflower or safflower or light vegetable oil 2.    Use roasted garlic or ½ tsp of garlic powder
Mayo going off too quickly	1.    Too small a family to get through the quantity of mayo in time 2.    Jars not sterilized or using unclean knives in the open bottle	1.    Do a half quantity of oil – it will have an even yummier taste! 2.    Ensure your jars are clean and only clean knives go into the opened mayonnaise

Mayonnaise recipe or flavour suggestions:

Grapeseed, Sunflower, Rice Bran or Macadamia oils, (or very light olive oil).

Mustard: you can choose a flavour you like!

Tips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YqJckz5zSY

Queen of Tarts meets Queen of Hearts

Mum's turn to blog as we reached inspiration overload! What's a girl to do when a lovely neighbour whisks you to the ballet to watch Alice in Wonderland? It was a delight from the dramatic installation in the foyer to the turkish delight powdering our noses between acts. Vivid costumes, comic timing and fabulous choreography were saluted by a rainbow at our exit.

Then another neighbour dropped over the most quaint packet of rosebud tea...and our creative juices flowed. Raspberry Frangipane Tart and Rosebud Tea jellies emerged with thanks to Fiona Hoskins' real fruit jellies recipe from "Devil of a Cookbook"and Steph Berg's sweet shortcrust pastry recipe.

The frangipane is so simple and delicious - and I once prepared and cooked mini frangipane's before my brother's rancilio Sylvio had finished warming up and extracting our perfect coffees.
Sophia's favourite part was the simple jelly making and cutting. And the result is fit for any Tea Party down the Rabbit Hole!

Berry Frangipane:

Oven - moderate (180) and prepare a tart or friand tin

Grind 200g almonds for 10 seconds speed 10 - set aside
Pulverise 200g raw sugar and zest of 2 lemons for 20-25seconds on speed 9-10
Add 200g butter (roughly chopped) and mix for 30secs speed 5.
Add 2 eggs and mix 10 seconds speed 5, scrape down. Add 2 more eggs and repeat.
Add 30g cornstarch and the almond meal and mix for 10-15secs on speed 5.
Pour into the tin(s) and dot with berries.
Bake for 15-25 minutes depending on pan size. The tart should be golden brown and just firm. Don't dry it out.
For the tart, we blind baked the shortcrust pastry for 10 minutes first - and then we should have let it cool.

The result was a fabulously quirky tart with jellies, but unless you like unusual fibre - we discovered that the rosebuds are most certainly ornamental!

Until next time...Sophia Lush and mum would love your comments.

Birthday Cooking

Hello, it's Sophia again in Little Lush Cooks land. You must be wondering about my apple pie for my birthday...it tasted perfect with my lemon custard but every one was so fixed on eating it that they forgot to take photos!

My birthday was busy and exciting. My little brother, Isaac, cooked me teddy bear birthday cakes - I will include the recipe later. He made a dairy free, low salicylate vanilla cake so that my other brother and sister could eat it. I made teddy bear biscuits, and baking powder!

The best thing about turning 8, is that now there is only 10 years until I can become a thermomix consultant like my mum - but that didn't stop me from doing my own demonstration for my friends.

First I made fresh strawberry sorbet - using the spicy apple water I froze in the ice trays - I think everyone loved it but they probably ate it too quickly as they got brain freeze.

 

Next up was my buckwheat and grain bread rolls. My friend and I loved shaping them

I made low salicylate chicken risotto for the dinner and finished with the lemon custard and my apple pie. I had lots of fun and hope everyone else did as well.

I promised the cake recipe - it's just changed a tiny bit from the Every Day Cookbook, and as you saw, my 6 year old brother can make it:

Dairy Free Vanilla Cake:

Ingredients

120g Nuttelex
2 Eggs
100g Rice Milk (home made- but bought is ok)
1tsp vanilla sugar or pure essence
130g sugar
160g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease a ring tin, or muffin tins or bear tins :)
Put nuttelex into the TM, and blend 30 seconds, 50degrees, speed 2
Add everything else. Mix 30 seconds speed 5.
Get mum to pour it into the tins.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 15-35 minutes depending on the tin you use.

We sprinkle with citric icing sugar for the low salicylate people at our house, but cinnamon sugar tastes yummier - mum calls this a tea cake.

I'll be making more biscuits with my birthday biscuit cutters - stay tuned!