Last week of school holidays done,  thank god.  It's been another quiet week, the kids were still a bit off colour,  but we decided to take them out yesterday seeing as they had done nothing all holidays.  We went to Lake Wendouree in Ballarat which has a great kids playground, lots of picnic areas and a nice walking track all the way around the lake. And lots of swans and other bird life.  They also have old tram rides.We met Lizzy Lou and her kids there, plus Lizzie's sister and her kids.  Family gathering lol.

 Of course we had to do the walk which is 6.11 kilometres.  It took us 1 hour and 16 minutes, pushing prams and chatting.  Beautiful walk.  We apparently lost 420 calories walking but then..... we ate.

 We had a picnic lunch consisting of salad rolls,3 different types of cake and I even packed a little gas stove because we can't go without coffee for too long.  After we ate, the kids played on the playground for a couple of hours.

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The day had been predicted to be 17c and cloudy but turned out to be 27 and sunny.  Perfect.  Typical Melbourne weather. Then the man arrived with donuts, so we ate some more, drank some more, so much for that good walk, the kids played some more and we came home.

Just thought I'd plug good old Ballarat a bit.  Great place to visit. Stops the kids from annoying you, for hours too. (I stole the photo's because I forgot to take pictures)

So here's Saturday and another birthday.  Happy birthday Miss Tash.

Tash picked the menu for tonight.  We are having her favourite chicken pies, scalloped potatoes, cake courtesy of the cheesecake shop and malteser cupcakes.

This is the first Saturday in ages that I haven't had the kids.  Miss Tash, the chunky one and I went shopping.
Firstly to change her broken phone, secondly to buy her a Pandora bead for her birthday and thirdly because I can't cook without groceries. So we shopped, came home and had some lunch and spent a couple of pleasant hours playing outside with the chunky one.  It did occur to us that we did have other things to do, so we dragged ourselves out of chairs, Miss Tash to go home to do some washing and me  to go to the kitchen to cook.  I made the malteser cupcakes..Chocolate cake (I did cheat again. Thanks Duncan Hines) with a whole malteser pushed into it when it's cold and then chocolate butter icing with another malteser on top.

Then I made the scalloped potatoes, potato, garlic, bacon, cheeses and cream. They need 1 1/2 to 2 hours to cook.  Then I made the filling for the pies, chicken, frozen veg, onion, cream of chicken soup, cheese  and stock cubes. It has to cool before you use it.    Once cool, I plugged in my electric pie cooker, (I have 3, family, normal and party. I go for the party).  Miss Tash arrived back while I was making the pies, so we tried one while we were chatting.  Pretty yummy.

Lizzy Lou and the girls arrive and we have tea.  Good all round.  CAKE TIME.  We love the strawberry fields cake from the cheese cake shop,  It's a standard for every girl birthday.  Always yummy, all strawberry creamy sponge and chocolate.

While we were eating cake and drinking coffee,  we noticed poor Lily Pily.  It's apparently been a big weekend for a little girl.(she had some face painting done earlier today)

And everyone else as well.  Daylight savings begins tonight.  Clocks forward, lose an hours sleep. Suddenly it's not 9.00 but 10.00 pm.  Mass exodus.  Oh well.  Easy day.  Easy night.  So no exciting cooking this weekend. No recipe inventions, all things I have made before.  Pretty sure I haven't published the pie recipe though.

Through the week, I tried a recipe I'd seen on face book. I modified it a bit , as I do.  Potatoes, bacon and onion in foil.. Good for a side dish.  Really yummy and easy to make.

That's me for another week..