Blueberry Muffins

Last night the temps here didn't drop much below 30c all night.  Combine that with a sweaty toddler who only likes to sleep nose to nose and I didn't sleep much!  I finally did fall asleep then slept through the alarm and missed church - oops!  Thankfully Husband (who never seems to be bothered by any of the Small People) had a reasonable sleep and offered to take everyone to the pool again to give me a chance to try and catch some zzz's.  Marvellous.  It took them a ridiculously long time to get organised but they finally left, hoping to practice their strokes for their Swim Carnivals this week.  They had a great time and only came home because Smallest Boy actually fell asleep in the pool!  After their exhertion we planned a fairly chilled out afternoon and just aswell because the thunder and rain finally came, bringing some fresh air at last.  The temps have dropped 15c and I reckon we'll all sleep tonight.

Planning ahead for the week I realized we were out of lunch stuff, so bearing in mind my resolution to stop buying lots of packaged, processed food for the kids packed lunches, I did some more baking.  Today I had frozen Blueberries to use up so whipped up a batch of beautifully moist muffins, huge enough to satisfy even the hungriest Boy at recess! 

It's another good recipe -

4 cups Self-Raising Flour
1 cup Raw Sugar
4 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
2/3 cup Melted Butter
2 cups Sour Cream
2 cups Frozen Blueberries

I mixed the sugar, eggs, sour cream, melted butter and vanilla essence then sifted the flour, mixing it in lightly, before adding the blueberries.  I baked them at 180c for 25 mins.  You could add some lemon zest for an extra zing but my lot always complain if I use lemon.   I got 12 large and 6 medium muffins out of this, those of you with sensibly sized families might want to half the recipe!

As always, enjoy with a lovely cuppa, preferably somewhere quiet!

Hot, hot, hot!

Well the weekend has come around pretty quickly! What a week it has been - temps of over 40c most days here, Cyclone Yasi following the floods in Queensland, bush fires in various parts of Australia, and crazy winds across Scotland to mention a few. We're very thankful to have a roof over our heads and are remembering all those who have lost theirs these last few weeks. I've been really impressed with the way the Blogging community has galvinised and come up with all sorts of auctions and other ways to help those who are suffering. One thing I am going to get involved in is Crochet a Rainbow.   Sarah London is asking as many as are willing to make as many Granny Squares as possible to make blankets for those who have lost everything. It’s not much but it shows that people care and is something to give a bit of comfort, especially for wee ones.

Our week has been hot. We’ve had a number of trips to the pool after school, and spent nights tossing and turning, last night I even lay on the sofa under the aircon between 1.30am and 4am until I had cooled down a bit!

Amazingly the heat hasn’t stopped the kids (or Husband who has been cycling to and from work), No 2 Boy has joined the Tennis Squad and was playing in 40c for 2 hours! His exciting news of the week is that he was voted Vice House Captain for Blue House and is looking forward to the Swimming Carnival on Monday to lead the cheers!

No 1 Boy has taken to High School like a duck to water. His favourite subject is History and he is really looking forward to his first Cookery class next week. He has made some new friends and comes home happy every day! Long may that last!

I have managed a wee bit of crochet this week, but to be honest, every time I’ve sat down I’ve had a little friend cuddle in and next thing we know it’s time to pick up from school! He generally doesn’t sleep during the day so I’ve been quite glad, although it does have knock on effects at 8pm...

So the crochet! I found a bucket full of “bella baby” 100% 4ply wool which had been marked down to $2, and was half price again, in Spotlight before Christmas when I was looking for yarn to make a blanket for Miss M.

The colours weren’t what I had envisaged but she’s not a very girly girl, so I figured we’d give it a try, at $1 a ball I couldn’t go too far wrong! I got 6 different colours and 2 shades of white. My calculations could, most likely, be wrong, but I reckoned I should get 120 different 3 round circles form the combinations.

I followed Lucy at Attic24's pattern and added another round. Being new to all this, I didn’t think to increase my stitches in the 3rd round so they curl up a bit, but this has been sorted out now that I’m adding the white yarn as I’m joining them. 

I'm baby-sitting tonight so I'll try and get some more of the 72 remaining circles added.  Once they are all joined it will need a fairly deep border as it's not all that wide.  I'm thinking I will use all the colours interspersed with the white.