The Workshops Rail Museum

This past weekend, my mum and dad and I took Ned to see the Miniature Model Railways exhibition at the Ipswich Workshops Rail Museum.  There were special activities on offer to support the model trains displays including hammering and construction tables, books and puzzles, a miniature ride-on steam train and a Bob the Builder Show.  And then there was the museum itself. 

I fell in love with the old time carriages. My, how elegant. Leather seats, coat racks, pegs to hang your hats on- even personalised seating.  Comfortable too.  The uniforms from the era were on display too.  Ah, I'm partial to a little nostalgia but we've definitely lost something in the art of service.  Wouldn't it be grand to travel a distance in a carriage like this? 

This is the old tea service. 

And the children could recreate a meal for their 'guests' in the dining car.  There were aprons and hats for them to wear, a kitchen and pretend food too.  

There was also a fun hands-on playground for the young ones. Brilliant! 

And of course, the model trains themselves.

And no day could be complete without a play in the sandpit with big big trucks!  Oh, I LOVE places that provide sandpits and big trucks.  A place like this just makes Ned's day! 

Girls Night Out

I'm off to Karaoke!!  I love Karaoke, especially the super daggy karaoke in our local chinese restaurant. It is so daggy, it is brilliant.  I LOVE it!
My school friends will tell you that it can be hard to rescue (snatch) the microphone from me, but tonight, I've pledged to share it around.  But just the thought of a night out with wonderful girlfriends, delicious dinner, no children and karaoke is enough to make me giddy!!!
I'm off to get dressed right now.  Woo hoo!!
Hope your Saturday night is as much fun.  Amber.

Friday's Guest: Kylie Cornock

Our Friday Guest is Kylie Cornock. Kylie is a naturopath, taking an extended break to enjoy motherhood. She has a particular interest in backyard permaculture and practical whole food cooking. Kylie loves learning more about great food alongside her children.  Today, Kylie is sharing her recipe for Soaked Wholegrain Porridge, complete with helpful instructions.  Thank goodness. I love a guide!


Welcome Kylie!  Thank you for your nourishing and mouthwatering contribution to MamaMoontime. 
PS: Your models are gorgeous :)  


Enjoy!  

Soaked Wholegrain Porridge

This is inspired by the “Five Grain Porridge” recipe in the brilliant book, “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon.

Ingredients

Any grains that you happen to have on hand or that you particularly enjoy. My motive was to use up some grains that I had and didn’t know how to use. For my first experiment with soaking grains, I measured out 1 cup each of: quinoa, red lentils, millet, amaranth, oats and short grain brown rice. I also added half a cup each of linseeds and almond meal – again, just using up things that I had on hand.

Preparing the Grain mix

1.     Combine all of your ingredients in a large bowl. Have a large storage container ready.

2.     Use a mortar and pestle or grinder to crack your grains (you will most likely need to do this in several batches) and transfer each batch into your storage container.

Note: An electric grinder is the fast way to do this, but children love to help and the mortar and pestle is great fun.  The idea is to crack your grains, not completely grind them into powder. Store your dry, cracked grains in the fridge until you are ready to prepare your porridge. In the interest of keeping your grain mix fresh, it is best to make only enough grain mix to last about a week.

Soaking the Grains

You need to plan ahead and get your porridge started 24 hours before you will be consuming it. You can easily get into a system of preparing your porridge for the following day after breakfast each morning. It takes barely any time at all.

1.     Measure out 1 cup of mixed grains into a large bowl (this makes enough for approximately four serves).

2.     Add 1 cup of lukewarm water.

3.     Add approximately 2 tablespoons of cultured product such as kefir, whey or natural yoghurt (it is well worth researching how to make kefir milk).

4.     Give it all a stir, cover with a tea towel and sit at room temperature for approximately 24 hours.

Making the porridge (approx 24hrs after soaking):

1.     Prepare any extras that you would like in your porridge such as chopped fruit and nuts and add these to your cooking saucepan.

2.     Add your soaked grain mixture

3.     Add 1 cup of water (or milk, if you prefer)

4.     Add a knob of butter and a sweetener such as local honey

5.     Gently warm your porridge until it is just beginning to steam, but not boiling. You are not trying to “cook” your grains, as they are already softened from the soaking process and too much heat can destroy nutrients.

6.     Remove from heat and portion into your serving bowls.

7.     To add interest, I like to have a few extras on the side, such as cream, seasonal fruits, sunflower seeds, organic cacao powder, dried fruits, toasted almonds, or, or, or…..

This may seem time consuming, but when it comes time to make your porridge, it takes no more time than it would take to prepare toast and sliced fruit. The time and effort lies in the mixing and cracking of the grains, which you would do well ahead of time, when you are in the mood for a bit of kitchen work. This porridge is incredibly rich, creamy, satisfying and delicious – my five year old son who is normally not a fan of porridge absolutely loved it!

Why crack and soak your grains

Although we are encouraged to eat whole grains, there is a vast amount of misinformation surrounding this. Before our breakfast cereal came to us pre-packaged and still today in many cultures, people soak or ferment their grains for several days before cooking with them. Most grains cannot be digested and absorbed unless they have been cracked and soaked or fermented. This traditional knowledge is worth paying close attention to.

Grains contain a substance called phytic acid (also called “phytates” when in salt form.) Phytic acid cannot be digested. Furthermore, it binds to critical minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc and magnesium, making them difficult to digest and absorb. A little research into what these minerals do in the body will show you how vital they are and the consequences that their deficiency states can produce.

So, here we are, led to believe that we're doing a great thing by eating porridge and other grain based meals because they are apparently loaded with essential nutrients and energy. Little do we know that these nutrients cannot be properly assimilated and can lead to digestive upset and a serious depletion of energy (consider the amount of people with grain intolerance - include me in that bunch).

Sprouting, fermenting or soaking the grains before we cook with them are the ways we can release the bound up nutrients. Enzymes that increase the levels certain vitamins, such as B vitamins are brought to life through the soaking process. Additionally, complex proteins such as the notorious gluten can begin the process of breaking down into simpler components for us to digest by using the same processes.

Certainly, there is more organisation involved in this breakfast, but this is a lot of fun for children and a valuable learning experience for anyone with an interest in traditional, whole food cooking. You never know – with a combined effort, we may just initiate the beginning of the end of that awful packaged cereal aisle in the supermarket!

Thank you Kylie!  In light of the article I read the other day on store-bought  breakfast cereals , Kylie's soaked wholegrain porridge looks doubly appealing, don't you think?  But for me, it's all about the texture!!  I can't wait to munch on this delicious recipe soon!


You can be featured on MamaMoontime too!  Here is how: Write for MamaMoontime  
I can't wait to hear from you with your super dooper ideas!

Stainless steel lunch tin

In 2000, my daughter began her schooling journey at Silkwood.

Some clever parent or teacher (goodness knows who but what a fab idea) suggested that the children could use camping tins for lunchboxes.

Almost 12 years on, here it is.  It is now Ned's lunch tin.  

Made of stainless steel, this tin is 14 inches in diameter and has three sections. 

One tip: be sure to engrave each layer or at least label them in some way.

Individual tins have been known to go walkabout! 

No need for cling wrap either.

The food stays fresh all day long and you can even put yogurt straight into the tin and it won't leak provided it stays upright.

The school provided a fridge and all the lunch tins were put straight in upon arrival at school.

I just love that my $24 investment keeps on going.

No more plastic or material lunch boxes for me.

This is a winner. 

My friend Naomi now sends her daughter to her local state school with this lunchtin too.

Perhaps this trend might catch on...?

How to make Ghosts

BOO!

Can you imagine children being greeted by these friendly ghosts? 

(The magnificent pink light in these two photos is the result of that outrageous storm that crossed Felipe's Halloween birthday party)

There were more of these ghostly friends inside too. Gabi made these by first fashioning a ghostly shape from styrofoam.  One large block was the base.  She then sculpted the arms and head pieces of styrofoam with a sharp knife and used bamboo skewers to hold the frame together.  

The next step was to dunk one metre lengths of white muslin in a solution of fabric stiffener and water until the entire piece was really well coated.  She then arranged the muslin over the frame and let it dry.  The eyes, mouth and eyebrows were cut from black felt and glued in place when the muslin dried. 

When the muslin was hard, she simply removed the frame and ghostly forms appeared.

(She used the frames multiple times to make her ghostly sets)

Ghosts also hung from the ceiling fans.  For these ones, Gabi followed the same procedure to soak the muslin in fabric stiffener but draped the muslin (50cm squares) over half-inflated balloons.   When these dried, she added facial features and also a hanging string.  

They spun like Halloween spirits in the breeze!  OOOHHHHH!!!!  Spooky!  especially with the lights off!

How to make Veggie Pancake Spirals

Don't these veggie rolls just look divine?

The original recipe for Veggie Spirals is from the Super Kitchen Machine Blog. 

I just tweaked it a bit and doubled it.

We tried both ricotta and cream cheese fillings, and the winner by far was the ricotta.

Easy to spread, but also low fat and super yummy.

My tip:  Heat up your frypan really really hot.  Add a tablespoon of olive oil.  Swirl it around the pan then reduce the heat to moderate (about 4-5 on the dial) before pouring in your veggie pancake batter.  This seals the base of the pancake and makes it easy to lift off.   I let my pancakes sit on the heat for at least 10 minutes (they were quite thick) before I even tried lifting them out to ensure they were cooked through.  It worked! 

My pick- the beetroot ones.  

But why not have a go at pumpkin or spinach or your fave kind of vegetable too?  

I guarantee, no child can resist a rainbow plate of these!  

How to make Halloween-inspired 'Mummy' soda pop bottles

This is my favourite Halloween craft this year.

Aren't these Mummy bottles divine? 

All you need to do is grab a roll of masking tape and a pair of sticky wobble eyes from your local craft shop.  Stick the eyes on, then wrap the bottle completely with the tape.

Be sure to cover a little bit of the eyes for extra effect!  

Filling a Halloween Treat Bag

This is my friend Gabi's Halloween treat bag. It is simply six rectangles (with slightly rounded sides narrowing at the base) of orange polar fleece sewn together in a round, with a circular base. 

(The rectangles are 8cm at the top, tapering down to 5cm in width at the base, and 14cm in length.  The circular base is 9cm in diameter.  This includes a 1/2 cm allowance for seams).

The handle is a 24cm x 4cm strap of black felt. She then glued triangles of black felt for eyes and nose, and another piece (see the shape below) of black felt for the mouth.  What a grand idea. 

You can fill them with all kinds of things, including lolly bags but Halloween treats don't have to be lollies exclusively, do they? 

Gabi made Halloween pinwheels from custom made 'Felipe' Halloween paper. 

She made biscuit pops and cut out "I'm 2" (for Felipe's birthday) from rolled fondant using cookie cutters  but they can say anything!  How about 'Boo!" ?

Bat wing cookies are easy too.  Simply use a bat shaped cookie cutter, pipe an outline in black royal icing, flood the entire cookie to fill it and add eyes and a mouth in green piping icing.  

Gabi also added Halloween temporary tattoos and a small set of face-paints in the shape of a witch for each child. 

I'm sure there are plenty of other non-lolly or non-food ideas for Halloween gifting out there too. 

Halloween is next Monday.  Do you celebrate it?  And what do you give on Halloween night? 

Styling a Halloween Party with Gabi Panissa

One of my closest friends has left town.

Gabi's husband Julio was invited to transfer to Canada for two years and so they headed off a 2-year adventure yesterday.  Lucky things!

So, they hosted an early 2nd birthday party for their son Felipe and made it a Farewell do too.  

Gabi is one of the most creative people I know, and her talents shine when she is styling parties.

Have a look!

Wow- the effort.

Gabi made most of what you see here, even going so far as to paint the serving plates black and seal the paint in the oven. Felipe dropped one the day before the party (yikes!) so Gabi calmly made another! 

The cake pops were made by a local cake shop. 

How groovy are these? 

I love the colour coordination of the lolly pops, made by Gabi of course. 

She sewed all the lolly bags too!

Even the stationery and tags fit the theme... 

I loved the little flower cases from Brazil, filled with a traditional brazilian treat.

(Pop back this week for the recipe!)

This cauldron is the 'wishing well' for gifts.  

And this is the little man himself.

You have no idea how long it took me to snap this photo of a busy, busy Frankenstein! 

This is Gabi and her husband.

She is like another little sister to me.

I'm so happy to have her as my friend (and Julio and Felipe too)

I'm going to miss her. 

The late afternoon brought the most tremendous storm and the sky turned black and a wind blew and Halloween had definitely arrived early. Eerie! 

The jumping castle filled with water, but that didn't stop determined little 3 year olds for long.

Now, it was a slippery slide jumping castle. 

What fun! 

Isn't that spectacular?  I love seeing what my friends can do.  They truly inspire me. 

Pop back tomorrow for a how-to of Gabi's crafty Halloween ideas. 

See you soon!