Hi again.
I must say, this is one Saturday I'm glad to see the end of.

My day started at 6.00 am when the first of the grandchildren arrived for babysitting duties.  Luckily she goes to sleep and so do I till the next two arrive at 8.30 am.

From there it was all down hill.

My two wake up and it's on for young and old.  They can't agree on what to watch on tv,  so much yelling and  two tvs later and they are reasonably happy, except for the fact that the babies don't care about tv and are happily destructing the loungeroom and filling the floor with toys.

 All was going well till little miss Chunky fell over a toy and put a tooth through her lip.  Lots of tears, blood and snot (she's got a cold as well) later and its back to good times, albeit with a fat lip.

An hour or so later, 2 little angels are asleep and I can finally go and have a shower.  Did I mention that you can't walk out of the room while miss Chunky's awake or she screams the house down.

By now its midday, I'm clean and dressed and miss chunky's awake.  Nothing like 20 minutes sleep to get you going again.  So Chunky wakes up the Dough ball (as we call her, even tho she's tiny) and we start again.

Lunch time.  Vegemite sandwiches and cordial all round. nice and easy.  Wish it was that easy to feed the rest of the family.

I'm expecting Chunky's mum home soon so I can start cooking for the day. Waiting, waiting, big kids fighting,babies crying because big kids yelling ,even bigger kid (me) yelling at big kids to be quiet, babies crying louder cos I'm yelling, I'm totally stressed,  phone rings.

She's still at work, left her purse in the nappy bag at my place.  Can't get home.  The man's going to go get her  (think he's glad to get out of the house, away from the noise and mess ).  He's taking Chunky with him so she can get some sleep and I can start cooking.  It's now 3.00 pm.

Suddenly, it's quiet.  big kids have decided to take the dog outside to play (with a bit of persuasion) and  Dough ball's gone back to sleep.

Lovely.  Kitchen time.

Because it's so late I decide to have easy dessert. I'll make some pikelets and cheat with packets of self saucing puddings.  Luckily I had already planned main course to be on the easy side.

So made the pikelet mix up then cooked them on the cast iron griddle that i bought.  Haven't used it before.
They turned out pretty good.

On to the chopping of meat and vegetables for the two chinese type meals.

Firstly I'm making Kai si ming.  Its a meal my mother  (and everyone elses mother) cooked pretty regularly.
Its like a savoury mince, come curry, come chinesey looking stew type thing lol. Really yummy tho. The good thing about this recipe is the longer it sits, the better it tastes. Its going to sit for an hour or so. But its ready to reheat.

For the other main,  I'm making Hoisin chicken.  Never made it before but the recipe looked good.
So I brown the chicken and cook the vegies till just about done, so all I have to do is add the sauce and reheat it when everyone arrives. I'm also going to have boiled rice and mashed potatoes.


Everyone except  Number one son is here.  We have a cuppa and wait for him. Looking at the time, I decide I'm getting it all ready anyway. Rice and potatoes are ready, I put everything back on to heat, he's here and dinner is served.
The Hoisin chicken is really good.  That recipe's a keeper.

You've gotta love packet mixes.  The pudding's in the oven and I'm going to eat.  Yumm.

Back to the kitchen to whip cream for the pikelets and to get the pudding out of the oven..It's a new one. Greens Sticky date self saucing pudding. My son says it's really good and Lily pily thought so too. They have already eaten half of it. Apparently no one else likes sticky date, ( bugger I forgot to ask) . I tried it. Tastes alright to me to. Thankfully we have pikelets.  The girls aren't complaining. Not about the food anyway lol.

The mini food critic hasn't had a say for a while. So here she is with what's left of her chocolate banana ,and cream pikelet. Must be good, the chocolates all over her face.

Miss Tash is not well.  Had the flu for a while, so she's going to the doctors.  Miss Chunky is staying here. Happily she is in a really good mood..

So we have a cuppa, the goers go, my two young stayers go to bed and the night is almost peaceful. Except of course for miss Chunky who's walking from dining room to loungeroom and back making growling noises as she goes. She thinks she's funny so there's some giggles thrown in as well.  Not bad for ten months old.

Miss Tash is back. Another cuppa, bit of a chat,  Chunky's had enough.  Time to leave.  Kisses all round and here I am.

On a final note, I made some muffins through the week.  Two of my own recipes.

Orange and Lemon tang muffins

Raspberry jam and white chocolate muffins

And now, I bid you farewell till next week.

Oh , just wanted to add this