Non-stop action

Its 2:30pm, Saturday afternoon, very chilly and overcast outside and we’re all chilling in the lounge. Aimee is playing with Ethan’s firemen and Playmobil firetruck while Dieter, the boys and I are watching Fine Living. It’s the first time today that we’re all just sitting down and not busy doing something.

Ethan announced that it was Teddy’s Birthday when he woke up this morning and insisted that we bake a cake for a ‘party’. We’d decided to bake a carrot cake, for a change, but were stopped shortly after we started because we didn’t have enough flour. I eventually convinced him to help me make some ‘no-bake’ choc, oat and coconut biscuits that are very quick and easy to make. Ethan loved stirring the ingredients together in the pot and watching the butter melt and the ingredients come together. He was so proud of himself for doing that!

After lunch we had put a match in one of the biscuits and put it on a special plate for Teddy. We lit the match with a lighter and Ethan quickly blew the match out so that the biscuit didn’t melt. It was fun! Ryan then helped me make a chicken curry for lunch tomorrow and some Chakalaka for dinner tonight. Jed sat on the outside of the kitchen at the breakfast counter writing down the ingredients we used and the processes we followed to add to his recipe book.

Its been a fun week food wise for us. I’ve written two of our own recipes, one for a beef stew and the other is Hake, mash and mushy peas – both for our baby food menu. Dieter made a batch of each for us while I told him what quantities and method to use. We only need one last recipe, preferably a fish recipe for our 12+ month range and we’re done! We’re not at all sure what to do! We were going to make a fish pie, but the recipe we have requires a huge variety of seafood and fish and will be very expensive to make.

Dieter and I’ve spent a few hours visiting various big suppliers to get prices on some of the ingredients we will use – its been loads of fun! We have also bought a digital kitchen scale (eventually!) and ordered a 270L chest freezer which will be here on Wednesday so we now have all the equipment we’ll be needing. We’re also seriously toying with the idea of launching at the George Show in mid-August and then having a stall at the Outeniqua market every Saturday to sell our products. (Almost everyone we’ve spoken to has recommended selling at the market!) We aren’t thrilled about the every-Saturday-commitment, but we like the fact that it will give us more control of our time in the week to homeschool and also cook the babyfood.

We’ve already got some ideas on how to extend our product range (watch this space!) and so the most exciting development of our week was reading a friend’s blog and seeing that she makes her own coconut milk from dessicated coconut. We were about to scrap our 12+ month Chicken and Apricot curry dish as the coconut milk is just too expensive, but making the milk ourselves will help us save a lot of money and keep our product prices down. So, we’ve bought a 1kg bag of coconut and have already made our first batch of coconut milk and are looking for ways to use the butter it automatically creates too. And if this works, we can add another product to our Kiddie Bites range ….. very, very exciting stuff! Again watch this space!

The other thing I’ve spent a lot of time working on this week is finding a way to get a tricycle from China to Cape Town for Jed. The quotes I’ve gotten are very discouraging as they are incredibly costly, and so we’re having to explore all other avenues from scratch again. All big learning curves for us, which is tons of fun.

Its really cold this weekend and we’re needing lots of hot drinks and stew-type food …. And are we’re watching some lovely movies with the kids too. Last night we watched ‘Amelia Earheart’ with Ryan and Jed last night, it gave us great to get some insight into her life story. My fingers are so cold I’m struggling to type … must mean it’s a good time to sign off for today!