i've been delayed

I have been baking and cooking and crafting - I promise. But as our household has been somewhat poorly over the last couple of weeks - first the boy's bout with fever and cold which I tried to avoid but ended up with strep throat this week - so days of fever, headache and aching throat. It got me out of an hour in a cold, drenching rain on the soccer pitch but not much else in between my rounds of napping on the sofa under the duvet. I have plans - but for now they are on hold. I wanted to bake these cookies and these cookies as well. The guys are eating store bought chocolate wafers which they probably like just as much.

I've nearly finished the boy's advent calendar, (here in an earlier stage)

just needs some hanger tabs and it will be done - can I finish before Thursday? And occassionally I pick up my knitting needles to knit the boy a sweater - I finished one last week (in between illnesses) and it kept him snuggly during a stormy day this week.

So now I will retire to my "feeling poorly" spot on the sofa, pick out my felt pieces for the calendar and watch Lego car races.

catching up

Sorry to have been away from here for so long. I've been cooking and crafting and general mum/work/life stuff.

 a sunny day on the soccer field

But not writing here. And I've missed it. And I have so much to catch up on.

Did you all have a wonderful Hallowe'en? Ours was fairly low key.  A couple of weeks prior to Hallowe'en our town had a pumpkin fest.

I entered the fares and wares competition with a couple of things - pickles and chutney and won a 2nd place ribbon for my peach chutney. The boy had fun looking at all the amazing carved pumpkins in that competition and eating chocolate ghouls.

My man isn't really into celebrating things like Hallowe'en but with a Kindergardener in the house we still had to do some decorating.I managed to make a paper skeleton with help from here. The boy got a pair of spooky glasses from his Auntie and wore them after swimming to scare people at the swimming pool.

And we carved a couple of pumpkins. Our boy visited a very muddy and wet pumpkin patch with his class and then carved a pumpkin at school which made a trio of jack'o'lanterns outside our front door. And our boy decided to go trick or treating as a tiger shark this year - so I got out his great white shark costume from last year, fixed a new tail on it, painted stripes on the back and head and changed the red gills for white gills and hey presto - a tiger shark costume.

And I made a batch of pear muffins from a recipe from tea and cookies. They are yummy and a lovely, portable snack for little goblin hands.

Pear Muffins (adapted from Tea and Cookies)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/4 cup spelt four
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pear apple sauce
4 egg whites, lightly beaten
1/2 c plain yogurt
3/4 cup agave
1 apple, peeled, cored, and cut into a small dice
1/2 c dried cranberries
1/2 c chocolate chips
Preheat over to 375°. Mix all the dry ingredients together (baking powder and soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, spelt flour and oats). Stir to blend and make a well in the middle.

Lightly beat the egg whites until they are foamy and hold a bit of their shape.

Add the yogurt, pear puree, and agave to the bowl with the flour mixture and sir to combine. Add the egg whites and gently fold into the batter. Add the diced pear, dried cranberries and chocolate chips. Mix briefly to incorporate.
Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins. Top each muffin with a few slices of pear. Bake for 25-30 minutes. The tops of the muffins will brown slightly, but the insides will remain moist.