Week Long Cooking Stint

Note: I wrote this yesterday and was meant to post it. I obviously pressed the wrong button again and ended up saving it as a draft. LOL.

This last week was the second week of Stella’s first school holidays. I looked after the girls at Stella’s home for the five days. As planned, we spent the whole week doing a bit of cooking on each day. It was very nice of Stella’s parents to pre-purchase the ingredients we required. We did have to go to the local grocery shop to pick up a bottle of milk on Tuesday, but that was easy and both girls behaved beautifully at the shop. We actually went there without strapping Bree into her buggy. I needn’t have worried. She was no trouble at all.

Monday: Mini Hawaiian Pizzas

This was made on Monday because it is something that Stella really likes. Stella is a champ and required very little help from me. The only things I did were opening the fiddly pack of shredded ham, opening & draining the can of pineapple pieces, popping the made up mini pizzas into the oven and then removing them again 15 minutes later. Stella showed Bree how to spread tomato paste on the English muffin slices and how to top up each slice with the ingredients available. Bree enjoyed spreading the paste but she also enjoyed pinching pieces of pineapple every now and then. LOL. To show how considerate Stella’s mum can be, she even pre-sliced a small block of cheese and placed it in the grater container for the girls to use. I really love this grater that they bought from IKEA. Each grater comes with its own container. This makes it easy for everyone because the grated food goes straight into the storage container.

Tuesday: Fruit Salad Smoothie

We set off to make yummy drinks right after coming home from the grocery store. Bree and I had a banana & honey smoothie while Stella had a strawberry smoothie. The girls enjoyed chopping up the fruits. Bree has only just started to slice bananas at home. She needed supervision even though she was slicing using a standard dinner knife. Because I was also having the same drink as her, she had to chop an extra banana as well. Of course she didn’t mind the extra work. I don’t think she even realised that she was chopping my share of bananas. LOL.

Wednesday: Apricot Muffins (Teddy Bear’s Picnic Cancelled!)

We originally planned to have a small picnic outdoors for Wednesday but it turned out to be a wild day. The weather was just horrible. It was super windy and when it did rain, it was like a big downpour that I have not seen happen very often in Melbourne these days. Bree arrived at Stella’s wearing her new quilted jacket to keep her warm. Her mum must be particularly pleased with the sudden chill. Despite the wild weather outside, the cooking continued indoors. We made apricot muffins. We started off making just 12 but the girls enjoyed the process so much that we unanimously decided to make another batch. Of Course we didn’t eat all of them at once. We are not that crazy! The leftovers were evenly divided to be shared between the two households. The muffins were a hit among the adults. The children and I got plenty of compliments.

Thursday: Salad

The cooking clinic continued on Thursday without Bree. We made salad for the day’s dinner while Bree was napping soundly upstairs. Stella loves to chop things with a knife and I felt that salad making involves far too much chopping to be suitable for a little tot like Bree that I decided not to include her. The Supergirl got to slice mushrooms (after I cleaned and peeled them), zucchinis, a green capsicum, tomatoes and parsley to her heart’s content. Later, she reluctantly let me boil and drain the zucchinis. While I am quite happy to let her use the electric frypan (with strict supervision) at her little table, I am still not quite sure about letting her cook anything at the stove. We also ventured bravely into the backyard to look for some mint leaves and parsley for the salad. Despite what the weather people said, the weather was still quite wild on Thursday. It was great spending a bit of Stella + @#%*-@#%* time making this lovely salad. Stella said that she missed spending time with me. It is true though. Since school started for the Supergirl, she has hardly any opportunity of having me all to herself.

Note: I do think that knives can be dangerous. I only allow such tools to be used by children under strict supervision. The children’s parents are aware that the children sometimes use such tools while with me and support the idea of letting them practice. While Bree had only just started to chop her own banana using a dinner knife and buttering bread with a small spreader, Stella has had plenty of experience doing that over the years. She now yearns to chop different things using a small paring knife. While I can easily and quickly make the salad for the family’s dinner, Stella truly enjoys chopping and cooking. She couldn’t wait for her parents to arrive on Thursday. She just wanted to tell them that the salad had already been made up.

Friday: Chocolate Banana Bites

To celebrate the end of a wonderful week of cooking, we made chocolate banana bites. These were made by dipping chopped bananas into melted chocolate before covering them with chocolate sprinkles by rolling each one on a tray filled with a generous layer of sprinkles. The girls and I had fun making them. There were funny moments when the banana pieces slipped off the skewer and sunk deep into the bowl of melted chocolate. I tried to rescue one of Bree’s but once I got it back on her skewer, the tot stuck it back into the bowl and the same piece of banana slipped off and sunk again. It was just hilarious! There was also a minor hiccough at the end of the activity when Bree absolutely refused to wait for the banana bites to set. She just wanted to eat them right away. We had to leave the tray of banana bites to set on the kitchen bench to keep it away from Bree. She ended up crying of course. We ended up leaving the kitchen – out of sight, out of mind. Later, the girls and I enjoyed every bite together. They were heavenly delicious. We didn’t keep any for the others because I didn’t think that they would keep that long. The bananas might turn all black by the time the adults arrived.

Note: Since spending a few weeks with Grandma Ettie in Sydney at the end of last year, Bree has acquired a permanent sweet tooth. She loves chocolate but her mum is trying really hard to keep it to a bare minimum.

That was the week. It went so quickly! I am just so greatful that we didn't experience any power outage like some other Melbournians.