Pear muffins mayhem: easy fun baking for little hands

When you have a house full of runny noses, nasty coughs, clingy kids, a sunny day and a pantry that needs to be replenished with safe snacks.....what do you do?

This was our exact situation earlier this week so what better idea than baking together outside in the sun!
activity to entertain the munchkins. CHECK :)
a dose of sunshine and fresh air. CHECK  :)
Yummy snacks to eat. CHECK :)
Opportunity for learning. CHECK :)
Quite a mess. Oh well :P

I set up a table  with mixing bowel, 2 spoons and measured out the quantities of ingredients in separate little plastic bowels so the kids could get stuck in and mix it all up.

The beauty about muffin's is all the ingredients all get chucked in together in the bowel-there is not real beat this, then put this in, add half, mix again.
No complications, just chuck it in and mix.
                                                                 The other good thing about muffins is you don't have to mix them to a perfect paste, mixing the ingredients a little roughly and not too much mostly results in better lighter muffins. Too much mixing will end up creating a more dense result.

Here is the result of my munchkins sunshine activity....yummy!

Pear Muffin's

Low chemical. Free of egg, nut, dairy, gluten and soy
(simply pick the ingredients options that suit your family)

1 1/2 cup self raising flour or gluten free self raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg lightly beaten (equivalent amount of egg replacement)
2/3 cup of milk, soy milk or pear syrup
1/4 cup of canola oil
1/2 cup of canned or fresh pear, diced

• Sift flour into a bowel and add remaining ingredients, stirring till mixed.
• lightly grease a 12-cup muffin pan with nuttlex or canola oil and use a spoon to three-quarter-fill cups.
• Bake at 180 degrees for 15-20 min (we used a mini muffin pan and reduced cooking time)

Variations:

• Apple muffin's: add 1 chopped Golden Delicious apple (salicylates) and 1 tbsp extra sugar
• Veggie muffin's: use 1/2 tsp salt instead of the sugar and add finely diced such as chokos, brussels sprouts, potato and green beans as another good way of getting vegetables into children.
• High fibre: add 1/4 cup rice bran, increase milk to 1 cup.

Happy baking!!!! enjoy

Glorious Garden Goodness: Poppy's Corn

Corn Corn glorious Corn! but not just any corn...

it's Poppy's corn!! :D

Since moving house late last year onto a property that had an established orchard, fruit trees and lots more potential our family has embraced the way of growing our own food where possible.

There is nothing like going out into the garden and snapping of a snow pea, pulling out a carrot, twisting off an orange of the tree, picking some herbs, smelling the mango's

growing and all the things we now get to experience before we eat our own produce.

When my parent's moved onto the property earlier
this year they brought with them the wisdom and knowledge that comes along with 'a veggie patch'.- something that was lacking somewhat in our garden.

My mum grew up in the small country town of Stroud in NSW where her father (Pop) grew all manner of garden goodness...Pop has such a passion for garden life
and many look to him as master of the garden.

I may be a little bias but Pops produce was 'THE BEST' and simply could not be beaten, he shared the fruits of his garden with locals, family, friends and always gave to the local nursing home.

One of the things I always looked forward to when visiting Nan and Pop was to follow Pops footsteps around the garden as he tended,picked, groomed and showed me how it all works
.Nan simply was the icing on the cake as she magically turned Pops garden to a feast for your eyes and music to your mouth as the food headed towards the kitchen
Every meal was prepared with love from the seed, then harvesting, the food preparation and finally becoming a melody of tastes before you at the table.....taking every step on it's journey with the utmost care.

Without a doubt my favorite thing that Pop grew in his garden was 'Pops corn' - known my many ...I'm sure that if you asked anyone that had at least one cob of Pops corn "So what was it like?"...an instant warm smile would appear on their face, remembering that unique sweet juicy taste they will simply never forget.
Sadly Pop doesn't get out and about in the garden anymore as he is now a resident in a nursing home and Nan has moved house into a retirement village, but believe me the memory lives on.

I remember the last time I had Pops corn was on a visit to Newcastle in March of last year....Mum, Dad, Andy, Declan and I were seated at the table for dinner and mum in a soft voice announced that we were about to have the last of Pops corn, instantly I was excited, sad, happy, salivating and not wanting dinner time to end.

Excited: that after quite a few years living in Brisbane without such a treat :O
Sad: that Pop could no longer get his hands dirty in the garden :(
Happy: to share the experience that is 'Pops corn' with my hubby and toddler :)
Salivating: at remembering that very distinctive taste

These memories will always stay with me and the experiences very dear to my heat.
I hope to create similar experiences of garden life in my own children, planting, watching the garden grow, the excitement of harvest time and having fun in the kitchen with our own food.
The garden is such a great place to get dirty, explore, create, design, teach nutrition and learn about the world around us.
So far this year my children have really grown to share the passion of the garden and love going around observing and actively helping in the garden.

Since Dad, their own Poppy has moved and created the veggie garden- they have dubbed him Teacher of the garden.
Poppy's garden (the veggie patch) grows all manner of yummy: zucinni, carrots, lettuce, beetroot, beans, capsicum, snow pea's, tomatoes, broccoli, shallots and many more to come.
The munchkin's always ask when dinner is served if it's Poppy's broccoli or Poppy's zucinni and so on...I must say that their is a little disappointment when the answer is no.

Mum seems to have taken on Pops passion and way of garden life...everything has to be done the way Pop did it back in Stroud, the seed packets have to be placed on the wooden stick standing at the end of the row of seeds, the wind must be verbally abused at when it blows of the blossoms of a fruit tree while the shaking of fist is practiced and so on
It's beautiful to see Pops passion living on through my own parents and passing on these experiences to my own children.

This morning Mum called on the intercom letting me know that a very excited 'Pop' would be coming up to our house soon to collect the munchkins for a good corn picking....knowing that Declan just looooves his corn on the cob Pop felt it very important that Declan be present when the picking was done.
When Pop arrived at the back door and told the muchkins what was going on I don't know who was more excited, the kids or him...lol

Off they went with Mummy in tow with camera...they picked the corn along with some other goodies munching a few snow pea's as they went.
On Nana's request Poppy then showed Declan how to strip the corn of it's husk to prepare for steaming, Declan was filled with excitement and happiness that I'm sure the next block in the neighbourhood would have heard :P

Tonight I added 'the corn' to our dinner and the kids just loved it, Declan finished his off and just kept rotating it hoping to see another kernel magically appear. On seeing that Daddy had left a few kernel on his, Declan gave Daddy a big smile and slyly asked with him puppy dog eyes if he may have it...Daddy handed it over and Declan made sure it was all gone.
At the end of dinner a gorgeous phone call was made to Poppy himself Thanking him for the yummy corn!!!

It seems my own children will have a very similar love of corn as Mummy does, but with their own special Poppy!! :D