Easter break

One of the many good things about having a bike with a basket is that when I spot something dumped in the street, I can scoop it up and leave the scene of the find quickly. So this Easter I'll have my hot-cross buns on my lovely new-old wooden painted tray.

School holidays also begin tomorrow and as such I'll be popping in only intermittently over the next couple of weeks.

Tomorrow we're off to a friend's house to bake hot-cross buns, the smell of which will be heavenly. In the lead-up to Easter, though, I've been adding the odd hot-cross bun to The Child's lunchbox as, like me, she's a big fan. What she doesn't know is that the hot-cross buns she's been enjoying are from a company called Ancient Grains and made with wholemeal flour. Unless you knew, you wouldn't pick it. I figure a little fibre before the onslaught of chocolate come Sunday can only be a good thing!

Have a lovely extra-long weekend. x

Vintage bunny illustration via Lee Mathews.

Birthday song

As I waved The Child off to school from our front gate, this magpie was singing the most lovely song. To my motherly ears, it sounded just like a birdy version of Happy Birthday, but that's perhaps because today The Child officially became A Teen.

We have quite a few magpies in the area, two of which have made a nest in a disused chimney in a house across the street. Once the sun is properly up, they either fly to the tops of other houses and sing or walk around the nature strips looking for worms.

This one's having a sing just after sunrise, hence the sky isn't its ususual blue blue yet.

This is the chimney they nest in, snapped just after dawn.

If you don't know what an Australian Magpie sounds like, they have the most beautiful song (hear it here.) When they're all going at it at once, it sounds like a choir singing from above.

And today that choir was definitely carrolling to the tune of Happy Birthday.

Blue eggs

A belated birthday present has arrived in the post.

At the beginning of the year, dear friends moved to the South Australian countryside to live the dream. The one that includes chickens, starry nights, a quieter life, a kitchen garden. I didn't actually expect to see the fruits of their labours, or should I say their chickens', until we got around to visiting.

Instead, I found on our doorstep, individually bubble-wrapped inside a vintage tin, eight fresh eggs, six of them a stunning blue.

After this photo was taken, I cracked two of the blue ones (from an Aracauna chicken) and fried them. Delicious. Well, they actually taste exactly like any fresh egg but the beauty is there's less white so getting that perfect soft yolk/firm white mix is very easy. Less cholesterol than regular eggs too, I'm told.

If these were available commercially, I'd buy them in a hearbeat, if only just to look at them.

I'm wondering if I'll find small crushed pieces of blue shell in the garden when the next lot of compost matures and feeds the garden. I hope so.

Happy days

The alarm will not ring for two whole weeks. At 8.30 this morning, I slipped back into bed for a second cup of tea and a few chapters of my book. As long, luxurious lie-ins are mandatory during this time, I love the school holidays almost as much as The Child does.

The weather is crisp and today's schedule has nothing more to it than a coffee with friends followed by baking some sort of 'volcano cake' as described by The Child. When pushed for a few details, she produces a recipe for a molten chocolate cake.

Oh yes, we can do that. Day sorted.

I smell good

I can make such an outrageously fragrant statement as it has nothing to do with me personally but, rather, the Miller Harris perfume, picked up at Duck Egg Blue, Balmain, I was given for Mothers' Day.

I tend to fall in love with scents quite quickly and then tire of them just as soon. I'm fragrantly fickle, it seems. Rarely do I make it to the end of a bottle. But I'm pretty sure this one is THE one.

Even though Miller Harris is an English company, my particular love has the fancy pancy name of Noix de Tubereuse and falls somewhere between an oriental and a floral scent. Sweet but with depth. Just the way a great love should be.

The big sleep

It's all about the prep for the Easter-Anzac weekend today so that we can enjoy lie-ins, a visit to the Archibald, shopping at the markets and an afternoon movie.

And, of course, hot-cross buns. x

May all your dreams come true

The Child decided she wanted a very simple celebration for this year's birthday so friends gathered in a beautiful local park on Saturday for a late afternoon picnic/barbecue. It was perfect. Candles were blown out just as the sun was setting, kookaburras joined in the singing and then we all slowly drifted up the hill towards home. BFF in tow, of course, for a sleepover.

Today is the Child's actual birthday so a second cake is in the oven, Bill Granger's Never Fail Chocolate Cake, which even when it does fail (I've had the occasional problem with it falling in the middle) is delicious.

Happy 12th birthday baby x

Edited to add: Bill's cake lived up to its name!

Tip: For a sparkly heart like on our cake, lightly press a biscuit cutter into icing while still wet and sprinkle with edible glitter.

Brownie points

Yesterday we baked, even though it was scorching outside. We baked because the Child starts high school today and she needed a little home comfort in her lunchbox as everything, apart from one old friend, will be new.

Here's how to make the brownies that are the Child's absolute favourite treat:

100g milk chocolate, chopped
100g dark chocolate, chopped
225g butter
1-3/4 cup light brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup brown rice flour

. Melt chocolate and put aside
. Cream butter and sugar
. Add eggs, one at a time
. Stir in vanilla
. Fold in chocolate
. Fold in flour
. Bake for 20-25min in a 180 oven
. When cool, cut into squares
. Sprinkle with icing sugar

Tip: Ordinary flour is fine in place of the rice flour. We just like to mix our grains up a bit. These are extremely fudgy brownies so add a little more flour, up to a cup, if you like yours drier.

Goodbye 2010

We're having a barbecue at home and then walking to the highest spot in the area to watch the early fireworks, sparklers in hand lighting our way. Here's to a great 2011 for us all. x