Mix Bag.

Apart from the incident where Rye bit C's fingers, it has been a lovely day.  After the incident I bundled both children into the kitchen to help me make parmasan flakey buscuits so I could keep a proper eye on them both.  I had C in the ringsling on my hip and Rye on a chair next to me. 

I've made processor rough flakey pastry many a time but it's never really being that flakey; and to be honest my discovery today was by accident not design.  The receipe is thus:

2 cups of plain flour - expertly dumped into the processor by a 3yr old ;-)
1 cup of chopped up fat (butter, lard, trex, vegan spread etc)
good pinch of salt (don't let the kids do this... Rye immediately tried to lick it..sigh)
a cup of ice cold water.
3/4 cup of parmesan cheese grated.

Ask your helper to dump the fat into the processor too, and then they need to place those little fingers on the pulse button and briefly, and I do mean briefly process the flour and fat.  Short bursts, probably only about 3 or 4 until the fat is mixed into the flour but there are still large-ish lumps throughout.  Then add the water, add half first and then process.  If more water is needed, stop add water then process a bit more using the pulse always so not to over process the dough.  You aren't looking for this to come together in the processor - instead you're just looking for large clumps.. once you get that, turn out onto a floured surface and press together and also dump in the cheese and press all together, wrap and pop in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.

Now normally, the advice would be to then take it out of the fridge and roll it out, then fold into thirds, rest for another 30 minutes and do that several times.. bit of a palava - tho not so much as real flakey pastry.  But it never quites works for me - I just get a very light and delicate pastry when cooked.. which is delicious but darn it.. I want some flakiness!

The incident however meant I was keen to get out of the house with the kids, and a C had new wellies to try out and Rye was keen to go for a ride on his bike.  So once the pastry was in the fridge I togged the kids up and we went out for a walk.  Wow, I'm glad we did, glorious out there.  The sun was beautifully warm, promising Spring, and both kids enjoyed getting out and having a run around.   When we got back Rye wanted to play out in the garden and C seemed to be enjoying herself too; so I sat and watched, helped her with the trampoline etc and before I knew it we were getting on after 1pm!  Eeek, I normally do the kids lunch between 12:30-12:45.  So, I simply didn't have time to do the rolling out folding and leave to rest for 1/3 hour x 3.  Rolled out the pastry, used my smallest cutter and made two tray fulls of buscuits.  15 minutes or so in a hot oven and they were ready.  Delicious with the homemade brown chickpea humous (brown chickpeas seem to have a bit more flavour) spread over the buscuits and sliced pepper and carrot.

 

And voila!  A really nice lunch that the kids literally hoovered up; both had seconds.

After lunch is C's naptime, so I took her up and she was out like aflash.  I would normally take an hour to relax myself and cuddle with Rye, or do whatever he wanted; but as time was pushing on (C is usually in bed by 1:30, and generally 1pm... today it was quarter past 2), so I had a bit of think about what to do for tea.  Had some left over veggie cornish pasty filing from pasties I'd made last week (i.e. shredded potatoe, carrot and swede with chopped up sweet red pepper, and mixed together with cheese..also added some cubes of paneer cheese to it too)...  and the other night I watched a few episodes of the Hairy Bikers on I player and was inspired by a sausage plait that a mum made - so I made my version;

Yep, again I made up the processor rough flakey pastry and just squeezed it all together on the board once it had started to clump in the machine; and then shoved in the fridge for half hour..and ohhhh yum!  The kids shovelled this up too.  I served it with nutmeggy mashed potatoe and purple sprouting broccoli - yum!
Then our usual story time before her mum picks her up.

I wondered if the incident earlier could partly be attributed to Rye starting to feel a little resentful; I do seem to fairly constantly on his back to give her back a toy he's snatched away, to stop chasing her and pushing her, to give her the book she's got off the shelf to "read" back etc.  Not helped, I'm sure, by feeling rotten the past few days because of yet another cold so we've not been out at all, and that means lots of exuberant energy!  Not only that tho, I am often shattered by the end of the day; and even once C has gone home my day hasn't quite finished; I've got accounts and records to do; not to mention tidying up the kitchen after our tea and sweeping round and tidying up a bit in the lounge; and often Rye's requests for "play mummy" or "can I paint?" is met with, "Oh, not now darling" or "later".   So much so, he often answers a request himself with "later. :-(

So, cleaning and records be buggered, this evening we've played, and he wanted to make castles for his dinosaurs;

 

  

  

  

"Its perfect!" he exclaimed,

 

Well, maybe not quite.. lets just put this here. :-)

Yep it fell down lol.

He also done some more drawing, that I can't show off because my camera batteries need recharging.

Tonight though he's drawn a very credible car and bus :-)  Putting some paper and pencils within reach, so far is working out pretty well - so long I only put a few peices of paper out, otherwise he seems to make it his mission in life to mark each and ever single peice of paper.  And you know what; once a piece of paper has a mark on it; can't possibly be used again!

Boys!  lol.