Easter Makings

We had a lovely four days off here.  I didn't do the Easter Shop until Maunday Thursday this time - with Ginger I shopped early and then spent Easter in hospital with all the fixings going to waste in the fridge at home:)  I have learnt my lesson.

Good Friday we had church and homemade hot cross buns.  I used my favourite recipe, and adapted it for the breadmaker so the dough could be made while we were at church.

 Sunday we had Ginger's egg hunt (the mean Easter Bunny left her only a smattering of chocolate eggs, but did make up for it with some homemade bunny beanbags and a book).  The beanbags were actually the hit of the day - I got the idea here.  Actually, Ginger didn't know what to do with the eggs when she did find them.  She made use of them in her little kitchen until we had Mr Provincial's brother over for lunch and he unwrapped one for her. Then, Mummy made a very smart move to hide two-thirds of her haul away in the fridge for later!  

Lunch was roast chook and simnel cake.  I have to contact my Mum's friend for her simnel cake recipe as this one turned out really dry.  Good news though that Ginger apparently likes marzipan.  I had to zealously defend the 11 apostles (Judas of course not appearing) from being eaten while I put the cake together.

All in all, a lovely weekend. Hope you had an enjoyable one too.

Post Birthday Recovery

We are in post birthday recovery mode here today.  Ginger turned two this weekend and despite us keeping things low key - well as low key as you can when I insist on putting up bunting, decorations and helium balloons:) - I am having a day of rest.  

Hope to post more tomorrow, but then again have a midwifery appointment smack in the middle of Ginger's naptime so unlikely I will get her down for a nap and, ergo, probably no computer time for moi.

Cake was the sticky date pudding from Annabel Langbein's The Free Range Cook. Mr Provincial baked.  Isn't Ginger lucky to have a Daddy who likes to be in the kitchen:)

Keep Calm, Craft On: Birthday Crown

Apologies (once again) for absence from these parts.  Just two weeks before her second birthday Ginger is busy cutting her two year old molars.  And, while we have not been having the night wakings that accompanied earlier teeth arrivals she has been one clingy bub during the day. 

Also, Mr Provincial is back at university and has the computer mornings and evenings, leaving me only Ginger's naptime to post.  Frankly, at 8 months pregnant I have been taking that time to nap too:) Oh, and lastly we are weaning Ginger from TV.  She has only ever really watched one playschool episode a weekday, but lately she has been asking to turn the TV on.  Mummy had a little freak out; so the TV is out of bounds for the moment.  We are a week into the new regime, and all is going well but there goes that useful half hour of tidying or blogging time.  I know as her imaginative play develops I will win back that time many times over, but the beginning stages are tough.

Anyway, I have found time to finish Ginger's birthday crown.  Finally.  Just a year late.  I have a reveal of her birthday presents, which are also homemade, coming later in the week.  I used Nicole's tutorial, which was really simple.  Did learn something too - did you know in Australia you can label something as wool felt even if it is not 100 per cent wool.  Not overly happy Jan (sorry, old yellow pages ad reference there) 

I used a card Ginger got from her Godmother at her baptism as inspiration.

Pom Pom asked for an update re baby boy.  He is doing well and has dropped down, currently on my right side (the midwife thinks he is actually pinching a nerve or something because I have cramps in that leg every night but none on my left).  He is a little on the small side.  At 35 weeks, I have a fundal measurement of 31 weeks.  But at least he has grown.  On my preceding two visits, a fortnight apart, he didn't grow at all - while the midwife was really calm about it and said he could just be tightly curled (and they would do a scan if he still hadn't grown this visit), I had an apprehensive couple of weeks. Heartbeat is strong as usual and he gives good kicks so I know pretty regularly that he is alright:)

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to pop in for a few minutes and wish you all a belated Merry Christmas.


We are having a lovely, if unexpectedly damp, time in Singapore.  Probably not as damp as if we had stayed in Darwin though with the cyclone hitting on boxing day.


We went to the Christmas eve crib service at St Michael's, along with a goodly portion of the Singapore ex-pat community of the under-10s!


We are eating ourselves silly on local foods, and enjoying taking Ginger to some of our favourite attractions.


Thank you all for your blog visits.  I love hearing from you.  I hope to be back here more regularly at the start of the new year.  Theoretically our internet should be up and running in our Darwin house  as of 4 January, but no other transition to phone and internet installation has ever gone smoothly so I just have my fingers crossed.


Oh, and did I mention that our 20 week scan ( a few weeks ago now) showed a bouncing baby boy.  To be honest the bouncing part would be preferable in daylight hours.  This little bump is keeping Mummy up much of the early hours of the morning with his daily exercise session.


Have a safe and restful start to the new year and I look forward to catching up with you soon.

Christmas and its immediate aftermath

Well, Christmas has come and gone - and I never got on here to blog in the leadup to it.  The leftover roast pork is gradually being eaten up, as is the pudding and remaining Christmas baking.  Had a lovely Christmas day with just the three of us.  Up early as Ginger rose at her usual 5am.  Awestruck by her presents!  Played with the wrapping paper rather than the toys but has spent the last two days giving them a thorough working over.

Ginger heads for the pile of presents (I hasten to add not all intended for her).

All for me!

Made it to church and then DH baked a lovely roast and made his final pudding and brandy custard preparations.  Lunched at 12 and the roast pork (free range, don’t you know) was a definite hit with Ginger! 

DH also did potatoes a la Jamie Oliver’s Christmas with butter, Clementine juice (in our case orange) and sage.  Yummy. 

Pudding was a success – despite it not being his Grandma’s official recipe.  We asked her for her recipe as we had so enjoyed a pudding she made a couple of years ago when we spent Christmas in England, she posted us one and the pudding was made; only for her then to tell us that she didn’t follow any particular recipe in making her puddings.

Pudding with garden variety Holly  – homegrown cherry tomatoes and rosemary

Grandma's Christmas Pudding

(makes a huge quantity – we made a third of this amount )

225g raisins

225g currants

225g  sultanas

200g mixed peel

225 shredded suet (we used copha )

500 demera or muscova sugar (we used brown sugar)

225 fresh bread crumbs

75g  plain flour

1 teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

40 blanched chopped almonds

1 carrot grated

1 cooking apple, grated

2 lemons, grate the rind and squeeze the juice

3 eggs, whisk with the brandy

150 mls brandy

knob of butter

Add all to a large bowl.

Mix very, very well and leave to stand for a while.

Butter the pudding basin and line the base with paper.

Tip in mixture top with disc of paper and pleat foil to cover the top, tie on.

Cook in the top of a steamer or on a trivet for 5 hours.

Check regularly to make sure it doesn’t boil dry

Store for a month.

Cook for a further 2 hours before eating !!!

Wintery weather made it perfect for a hot midday meal.  The rest of the day, boxing day and today have been occupied with reading (Christmas loot), knitting, planning for the year ahead, playing with toys, bread baking, general pottering and watching the rain streaming down our window!   A delicious way to conclude the year.