Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day for yesterday everyone. I hope you all had a love filled day regardless of if it was from a partner, a parent, your child or yourself. There are so many synics when it comes to valentines day claiming that it is just another commercial holiday created by the retail industry. It doesn't need to be about expensive gifts or dinners out. It should be a day to appriciate the ones around us that we love the most. For my spunky new husband I made some garlic chilli prawns served with steamed vegetables & brown rice. Because I love the kids so much I let them have left over pasta instead (they hate prawns lol). For dessert I created something special. This delicious 4 layer ombre effect strawberry butter cream frosted Valentines Day Cake.

I hope your day was filled with something sweet too <3

Peanut butter & choc chunk cookies aka the most delicious cookies ever

Knowing myself and my teenagers well, I choose not to have sweet treats in the house. This means I either have to drive somewhere to buy them or make something from what I have laying around in the kitchen. Yesterday I was lazing around trawling through pintrest (as you do) looking at all the delicious recipe's that were begging me to make them when I came across this tasty looking cookie recipe from Bakerella. Um YUM! My taste buds were tingling at the thought of a yummy little treat for afternoon tea. Being a Sunday the last thing I felt like doing was going grocery shopping so I looked through the pantry & adjusted the recipe to suit what I had on hand.

Thank goodness I am at work today & not home to make my way through the entire batch! The teenage boy will be home in the afternoon & ensure will that I do not need to worry about over eating! If you do not have a teenage boy I recommend cooking half the batch & freezing the other half in preparation of your next craving!

Peanut Butter & Choc Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

100g butter

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 cup of brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup of roughly chopped dark chocolate

2 cups or self raising flour

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180oC

2. Cream the butter, peanut butter & sugar together until light & creamy

3. Add the eggs 1 at a time

4. Reduce the speed of your mixer & add the choc chunks

5. Add you flour & mix until just combined

6. Roll teaspoon sized balls & place on your lined baking tray

7. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden

Rainbow Cuppy Cakes

I love to bake. The thought of producing a yummy little treat for my family myself fills me with happiness. Much like these colourful little cuppy cakes. These are a practice run for Maddi P's birthday in March. We are actually going to do a layer cake however I had never cooked with such strong colours so I wanted to see how it would turn out. I am very happy with a vibrancy of the cake colours. I just used a basic vanilla cake recipe. Split the batter between bowls & coloured it. Then spooned teaspoon fulls into the patty cases. Once finished I topped with butter cream frosting piled high of course!

Water

Water... I just love it!

Summer

Yesterday was a blistering summer day on the Sunshine Coast, everyone was sweating & complaining & wishing for winter. Not me- I ADORE summer. The heat, the sound of the cicada's singing to one another, the smell of the fresh summer fruits like nectarines & peaches & mango's, freshly cut grass. Endless days & the threat of storms on the horizon. Aah summer I love it!

Camping

I love camping with our little family. As night falls an easy camp style dinner followed by the roasting of marshmallows. With no television, mobile phones or computers the kids are forced to come up with other forms of entertainment. A simple game of charades can last for hours. It is lovely watching the kids interact with out any squabbles.

Damon, Kirra & Maddi playing coconut around the camp fire.

Janelle Dee Photography

Janelle was not only our wedding photographer but is also a great friend. I love her work you can check it out on her  facebook page. Leigh & I are not exactly super models & if you had of been at our shoot you would have been in hysterics just like us. Janelle & her husband Kurt made us feel totally at ease.

Leigh & I on the rocks at Point Cartwright NYE 2011 Photo by Janelle Dee Photography