Haddock pie

  

You will need:

440gr haddock* (skinless, de-boned and smoked)

750ml full cream milk

1 cup frozen peas

3 -4 carrots peeled and finely chopped

3 spring onions - chopped

salt

pepper

 4 - 5 large Potatoes - sliced thickly

cornflour to thicken

4 Tbsp creme fraiche (optional)

Peel potatoes, cut into thick-ish slices and parboil.

Place the haddock and milk in a pot and bring to boil, add carrots, spring onions and peas.

Allow to simmer until carrots are tender.

Add 4 Tbsp Creme fraiche - just because I had it and it adds an extra creaminess...

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Mix a little cornflour into a paste and add to mixture.

Let it simmer for a few more minutes to thicken.

Place in an oven proof dish.

Place sliced parboiled potatoes on top in a layer, over lapping.

Put a couple of knobs of butter on top and put into the oven preheated at 180 degrees Celsius.

It will bubbles and cook and brown and look delicious...

Once nice and brown on top, serve with a green salad.

Enjoy

(* this was the quantity I bought fresh from Woolworths, you can use a little more or a little less)

Thanksgiving fun

  We were invited to share a Thanksgiving dinner with two special families this year...

as South Africans, we have never celebrated Thanksgiving...

so this was a wonderful new experience for us...

We decided to make a Thanksgiving tree in the week, my knight came up with the idea of collecting dried branches and cutting out colourful leaves to hang on our tree...

We then wrote on each leaf what we are Thankful for...

a very special time of reflection, 

a time to count our blessings and be...

 THANKFUL...

My knight started with a white and silver star, that he wanted to put on the top...

we are Thankful to God and knowing Him, for His love for us...

then it was grannies, grandpas, cousins, aunties, uncles, friends, food, butterflies, our home, siblings, parents, fun, sport, beaches, sun, mountains, animals, lego, sweets...

the lists went on and on...

Here is a picture of our tree...

Then for our dinner, I was asked to bring some sides to go along with the roasted turkey...

so I had to do some research...

These are two dishes that caught our fancy and we tried...

Both very delicious I might add...

(Be warned though, they are sweet!!!)

Sweet Potato Au Gratin

5 large Sweet potatoes

5 red Apples

1/2 - 1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

3/4 cup Bread crumbs

Butter

Olive oil

Brown sugar

salt

black pepper 

Peel and slice the potatoes. Place in a large bowl. Peel the apples and chop into pieces - place in bowl with the potatoes.

Melt about 3 - 4 Tbsp of butter, add 3 Tbsp brown sugar, salt and pepper...Pour over the apples and potatoes and toss well, so coated. Place in an oven dish and bake (180 degrees Celsius) until cooked and tender, turning a couple of times.

Combine breadcrumbs, nutmeg and Cinnamon and sprinkle over top...Sprinkle 2  - 3 tsp brown sugar over as well...drizzle with olive oil and bake again until crisp and browned.

Caramelized onions, green beans and flaked almonds

500gr fine green beans

2 large onions

50g (or more) flaked almonds

brown sugar

butter

salt and pepper to taste

Chop onions finely, place in pan with a blob of butter and brown sugar...fry until golden brown and starting to get sticky. Take out of pan but leave any juices behind, add another blob of butter, turn heat down and put half the beans in, let them simmer until they start to soften and turn bright green - don't overcook, it is nice when they are still crunchy.

Take out and cook the other half.

Once done place all ingredients into a large bowl and toss well...

Place on a platter or serving dish.

(Both these recipes I changed a little because of ingredients not readily available here...

we will definitely be making both of these again!)

Then one last thing...

I packaged some of those delicious chocolate biscuits as gifts for these two special families.

The turkey bottle top idea I got from here...

Thank you family G and family D for the friendship and the wonderful evening...

Chocolate Biscuits...again!

These biscuits have been such a hit, they are so chocolately(!)...

delicious...

so we tried a variation this week...

and added more chocolate...

we put a colourful Astro on each biscuit...

brightens them up...

and makes them even more delicious...
...these are to be used as gifts...

Colourful Friday - Tie dyeing

 As I have mentioned before, I home school my children, and on Fridays we have a couple of families that get together and have some fun...

We do all sorts...afrikaans,recorder,rhymes,poems,stories,lapbooks, games,circle time, lunch and hand crafts...

This is the beauty of home schooling, we can share and support one another...

and our children are building beautiful friendships...as are us moms...

Well my part on the Fridays is the hand crafts...fun fun fun...

This week we tried our hand at tie dyeing...

...Take a look...

 Each child came armed with a fresh white T-shirt...

We used:

Lady Dyes

colours - daffodil, atlantic blue, magenta and protea red

Salt

Warm water

elastic bands

marbles

The items to be dyed must be pre-washed and wet before dyeing.

Make up the dye as per instructions.

We doubled the amount of salt  - (they say by doing this, the colours will be intensified)

We split the four colours into 8 dyes baths 

Each child took their T-shirt and twisted it, tied it and knotted it with elastic bands

If you tie a marble into the fabric, you get very cool 'dots' once dyed...

Take a look here, there are some lovely tie dye ideas...

Each child decided on a colour scheme for their T-shirt, some only wanted one colour, 
others more..

And into the dye they went, they sat and stirred them around for about 10 minutes, then we added the fixative to the dyes (as per instructions)

Then they have to sit in the bath for 45 minutes...so we had a break for some of this...

  Tie dye cake...

this is the basic vanilla cake recipe, divided into 5 bowls, dash of food colourings added, we used red, blue, yellow and made purple and green.

Then we iced it with a plain butter icing and my knight and his cute sister had fun decorating it...

This was a treat from our family to these special friends of ours...  

 

Back to the dyeing...

we then removed the T-shirts from the dye and removed  the elastics and marbles...

then rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse some more...

Those that wanted another colour then tied and twisted their shirts up again and back into a new colour dye bath... 

Take a look at our beautiful hand made original T-shirts... 

we will definitely be doing this again...

Art Class - Edgar Degas - Three

Today we had some messy fun...chalk pastels are really messy to work with...we had blue cheeks and blue elbows, and blue arms, and blue floors, and blue hair...

We started with a wild crazy colour wheel, to try our hand at blending pastels to achieve desired colours and to brush up on the colour theory that we have already learnt...

So each student had to make 12 areas on their pastel paper 

and then another shape in the center using black markers...

we started with positioning and colouring the primary colours red, yellow and blue, 

then the secondary colours, orange, green and purple, 

then the tertiary colours,which they had to make by blending... 

yellow-green, blue-green, blue-purple, purple-red, red-orange, orange-yellow...

The middle shapes were shaded in using white to create tints and

the center shape coloured in using black to create shades...

A really fun project...

Take a look at these awesome artworks...

We watched a clip on You Tube Degas and the dancers

the boys really enjoy this...

We then looked at Degas beautiful pastel work The Blue Dancers 1899 and tried our hand at our own Blue Dancers...The boys used chalk or soft pastels to create their artworks, we glued a few pieces of tulle onto the skirts for a 3D effect...

Take a look...

Well done boys - you are great!!!

Chicken and butternut Cannelloni

This has become a favourite...

You will need:

250gr box cannelloni tubes

4 free range chicken breast - chopped finely

1 small butternut - cubed

1 onion - sliced

1 small red pepper - chopped

 10 - 15 baby tomatoes - halved

150gr feta (approx) - crumbled

salt

black pepper

2 tsp brown sugar

1- 2  tsp veg stock or seasoning of your choice

Chop the onions and soften with a tsp or 2 of brown sugar and glug of  olive oil, add the finely chopped free range chicken breasts. Saute for a few minutes. Add the butternut, red pepper and tomatoes. Add seasoning, I like the Woolworth's veg stock and use this as seasoning along with salt and ground black pepper.
Add water and let it simmer away until cooked through...
Allow to cool, so it is manageable to work with and add the crumbled feta.
Fill the cannelloni tubes with this mixture and place in an oven dish...lay side by side and on top of each other.
(This is quite a messy process...we used a spoon and our hands to fill the tubes.)

Make the cheese sauce

 750ml full cream milk

80 - 100gr butter

1 tsp Dijon mustard

cheese

salt pepper
2 - 3 Tbsp cornflour to thicken(mix to a paste with water)

Place the milk and butter in a pot and bring to boil, add salt and pepper and mustard (if using)...add the cornflour paste and whisk continuously to avoid getting lumps, turn down heat and add grated cheese....it really depends on you, how much you add, if you like a really cheesy sauce then add quite a lot... if you like just a hint of cheese add a little...taste as you go...
Once the cheese is melted and the sauce nicely cooked...
Pour the sauce over the cannelloni tubes and shake the dish gently to allow the sauce to get in between all the tubes.
Sprinkle with some grated cheese and place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
Allow to cook through until bubbling and nicely browned on top...

Enjoy with a salad or steamed green veg...

Pavement chalk

 My knight loves experiments and anything to do with creating...

so we gave pavement chalk a try...

What fun...

...but be warned!...

it was messy!

You need:

500gr plaster of Paris

Powder paint or ready mixed Liquid tempera paint

ice block trays as moulds 

(any anything that can be used as moulds)

warm water.

I am not one for measuring (as you often see from me recipes - ha!)...so we poured some plaster of Paris into my knights container and some into his cute sisters container. We then added blue powder paint to his and red to hers, some warm water and they mixed away...

Once it was of 'icing' type consistency, we put in into moulds.

I don't think it is critical how much water you use, the sloppier the mixture, the easier it it is to put into moulds.

Then we added some yellow to what was left in both containers to make orange and green...

mixed away and moulded...

...left in sun to dry out

...so easy and depending on the amount of paint you use, you can get really nice bright colours..

Give it a try, it is worth it..

Our basket of chalk now stays outside and we use it for spelling/ writing practice and just for

FUN!!!

Roast veg and cous cous salad

This is something I make often, it can be eaten as a veg accompaniment to a meat dish or as a salad with a braai or as a meal all on its own...

You will need

1 small Butternut

2 medium Sweet Potato

1 -2 Onions

1 cup Cous Cous

1/2 cup Raisins

100gr Feta

handful Pumpkins seeds (optional)

Peel and cube the sweet potato and butternut into similar size pieces.

Halve the onion/s and slice.

Place all together in an oven dish and season with salt and black pepper, and any other seasoning you enjoy. Drizzle with olive oil...roast till cooked but still holding shape.

Prepare the cous cous - place in a bowl and add one cup boiling water. Cover and let it steam.

Once done (all water absorbed) give a stir with a fork.

To Serve...

You can either spread the cous cous on a large platter and place the cooked veg on top...sprinkle with raisins and crumbled feta
or
place all ingredients into a salad bowl and toss lightly..
Enjoy

Chocolate biscuits

 Our biscuit bottles were empty, so I asked cute little sister if she would like to bake some biscuits and what she would like to bake....the answer was chocolate biscuits...of course...yes it seems to run in the family...

 

You will need:

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Beat the eggs, vanilla, oil and sugar together.

Sift in the cocoa, flour and baking powder,

The mixture is quite sticky, roll into balls and flatten slightly with your fingers, or with a fork

 -  I did both ;-)

 Place on a well greased baking sheet and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 10 - 12 minutes (always keep an eye on them as oven temps differ)

They harden and get crispy once cooled...

Enjoy

Oil sun catchers

This is such a fun and easy craft to do, especially now in our lovely sunny weather...

 

What you will need:

Different colour card stock

Ear buds

Baby oil

string or ribbon

Cut out some circles in different colour card stock about the size of a side plate, 

(it must be thicker than paper.)

Pour a little baby oil into a container, and start drawing with the ear buds.

The oil spreads as it is absorbed into the card, so dont put to much on...

Also... detailed drawings dont work too well, this craft is about patterns...

Once dry, punch a hole in the top and thread some ribbon or string through...

hang in a spot where they will catch the suns rays...

(Warning this is lots of fun, so be prepared to cut out a number of circles!)