Cheese & Bacon Bread Snacks

I have a recipe to share today, I made these yummy cheese & bacon bread snacks for lunch for us:

I'm not sure where the recipe is from - I've had it for a little while waiting for the time and inclination to make them. I'm not a huge slave over the stove top kinda girl (I leave the risotto making to the Big Guy) but I love to bake cakes, muffins etc so this recipe is right up my alley:

Makes approx 12

Ingredients:

200g diced bacon
2 cups of grated cheese
1 small onion finely diced
1 cup of self raising flour
1/2 cup of milk
1 egg beaten
3 teaspoons of sundried tomato pesto



Method:

1. Place bacon, cheese, onion and flour in a bowl.
2.Combine milk, egg and pesto in a small jug then add mixture to dry ingredients, stir until combined.
3.Line an oven tray with baking paper, spoon tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the tray, allow enough room for spreading.
4.Bake in a hot oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden.

Enjoy!

Gift Wrapping/Presentation - think outside the square!

The big guy, the little guy and myself are away in New South Wales' central west at the moment visiting family in Cowra. Lucky for me the motel we stay at (everytime we come if we can!) has wifi. Thank goodness I remembered to bring my laptop this time (unlike 6 or so weeks ago when in a packing frenzy I forgot to bring any sort of entertainment in the form of computer, book, magazine etc to curb my boredom in the evening hours when the little guy is asleep - although last trip he decided he would not succumb to sleeping during the nighttime hours!).

For the first time in may visits to this town we have actually done some touristy things like visit the Japanese Gardens and POW site:

The gardens will be so lovely in spring time when all the flowers start to bloom. We will have to time a visit one year for the Cherry Blossom festival.

Now back to the post topic - packaging - think outside the square. In preparation for this visit to see family and our new neice Miss B I was organising the rather overboard amount of presents I had purchased and needed to buy some wrapping paper or a gift bag to keep it all together. While zipping into Coles for a quick trip for nappies (so annoying Coles in the only store to stock our preferred brand of nappies for the little guy) I noticed some pink storage containers which would be perfect for toys or lots of other items you need to store that come along with having a baby.

So I made a 'Congratulations' sign for the top of the box, tucked all the gifts inside along with the card and a photo album I made:

My sister thought it was a great idea - mission accomplished!

I also recently purchased these from one of our local discount stores:

They are 15cm x 15cm canvas type bags and were a bargain @ 3 for $2.00. I am thinking they will be perfect for packaging gifts for the little guy's daycare staff this Christmas. I need to think of a way to decorate the outside (possibly some sort of silvery snowflake design with the purple and blue). I'm also thinking they would make perfect kids size gift bags for guests at the little guy's next birthday party. Next time I'm out shopping I will buy some more of these little gems to put away for future use.

Have a lovely weekend!

Ready, Steady, Party

I was so happy to receive this wonderful book: Ready, Steady, Party - cooking for kids and with kids by Lucy Broadhurst; for my birthday from my gorgeous sister Mrs R.

This fantastic book indulges my love of party styling - it is divided into party themes, and features menu suggestions including recipes and great presentation/packaging.

'Shipwrecked' Party:

'Farm' Party:

I am rather besotted with the 'Animal Feed' as shown above. The book also includes some helpful tips for holding a party and a section dedicated to Party Games. Other themes include 'off to the circus', 'teddy bears picnic' and 'camp out'.

Some of the recipes look so yummy I can't wait to try them out. It's also makes me keen to start planning the Little Guy's 2nd birthday - although that's 6 months away! Christmas comes first though - will be my first time hosting for my family (parents, brothers, sisters, neices, nephews etc) and I'm looking forward to doing some craft projects for the holidays.

Off to pour over the pages of this fantastic book yet again!

New Additions

A big congratulations to my sister Mrs W & family on their newest addition- a sweet little girl named Bethany born yesterday. We can't wait to meet our new neice/cousin next week!

In other new addition news:

This gorgous cupcake stand was a birthday gift from my awesome friend Nic - who knows me so well - I love it! I've been eyeing off cupcake stands for a long, long time but have never got around to buying one. Thanks again Nic. xoxo



and this lantern:



was a birthday treat to myself! A bargain picked up from one of my favourite stores: Bed, Bath & Table - this bamboo lantern has a glass insert candle holder and handle. Not quite sure exactly where it is going to live in the house - but I'm sure I'll find the perfect spot for it!

And this:

A funky new photo frame - another birthday present from my sister Mrs R - so nice to have a different shaped frame than the standard rectangle. I did a bit of photo editing this afternoon and popped this cute closeup shot of our Little Guy in the frame. Need to find a permanent home for this new addition too. Thanks again Mrs R!

Next post will feature a new book.

(P.S - can you tell I've been getting more sleep?? Third post this month and it's only the 4th)

Christmas ....... Yes Christmas!!!

I've been following Tracey Lau's blog for a few months after seeing her son's gorgeous kite 1st birthday featured on another site:

More photos and details here.

Now anyone who knows me in real life knows that Christmas is 'my thing' and I was blown away when I saw Tracey Lau's Christmas in July celebration:


I'm definitely taking note of some of Tracey's styling for Christmas this year - this sparkling/silver/white theme is perfection. More stunning details here.

Now Tracey is generously giving away a Silouhette SD Cutting Machine to one of her readers - so check out her blog to enter and see more of her fabulous party styling and photography.

A lovely weekend ....

Both the big guy and myself turned a year older recently so this weekend we had a couple of low key celebrations with family and friends. We were blessed with lovely sunny weather and yummy food.

Yesterday our cheeky neice Miss I decided the cheesecake was so good she needed to scoop up a handful:

Today we enjoyed some icecream cake and triple choc muffins:

More blogging this week as I share some lovely new items that have made their way into our home.