Chocolate Brownies anyone?

This is a day in my life...

So upon asking my husband which biscuits he’d like me to bake for him and to put in the kids lunchboxes – he quickly responded with “Chocolate Brownies”…{Duh! Like how come I didn't think of that?!}

Now Chocolate brownies are not quite biscuits in my estimation, and certainly not lunchbox friendly…clearly there is a reason I’m the mom in this house!

But anyway, I obliged - like a good wife should {*insert sniggering here} and the kids and I had fun baking again...and cleaning out the bowl and bits after.

I thought I’d share the recipe with you all ‘cause it is just too darn good not too!

So here it is The Chocolate Brownie Tutorial:

You will need:
250ml Butter
150g Bar One Chocolate bars
2 Cups Sugar
4 Eggs
5ml Vanilla Essence
1 Cup Flour
200ml Cocoa Powder
½ tsp Baking Powder
A pinch of Salt
100g Pecan nuts OR white chocolate pieces or both (I always use both!)

First off you can start by pre-heating the oven to 180°C.
Then, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence till creamy.
Then melt the butter and bar ones in a heavy based pot (I cut it all up into squares first as it melts more evenly this way)

Once nice and gooey, add to the egg and sugar mixture.
Add the sifted flour, cocoa, Baking Powder and salt and beat till well mixed.
Once well mixed, stir in the chopped nuts and chopped white chocolate.

Pour the mixture into a large oven dish lined with foil (shiny side down). The mixture rises so make sure the dish is about 5cm deep so that the mixture doesn’t overflow while cooking.

Pop it in your pre-heated oven and bake for approximately 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in oven dish,  and once cool tip out and peel off the foil.

Cut into squares and dust with icing sugar.
Yummy…. needless to say I am apparently part of Shane's weight gain "problem" and definiately not part of the "solution"!

This recipe was shared with me by a very talented friend who offers cooking courses, check out her website: http://www.domesticgogos.co.za/ she often features yummy bits for you to try.

Have a lovely weekend and let me know how yours turn out!

Olivia Faith's Baptism...

I mentioned that in amongst the last three crazy weeks of school holidays we finally got around to baptising Livie.

This was a big day for me, as I felt that it was so important to promise her back to our maker just as he had given her to us…

So with almost all her special people gathered and a few* pretty treats prepared, we made our way to North Durban Presbyterian church.

The minister had asked me to say a few words to bring those of the congregation that did not know our story up to speed so I sumarised as much as I could...it was only an hour service;) and I took the opportunity to thank those that did know and had supported us along the way and I thought I’d share it here.

Sunday 7th July 2012

Today is a very special day for our family and especially for our little Olivia Faith.

I want to start off by thanking everyone for coming and supporting our beautiful daughter today and for supporting our family since her birth and before. The love and kindness that we have received from all of you has been overwhelming. The phone calls, the messages, the visits, gifts and especially the prayers have helped our family enormously. Just knowing that all of you were standing by us and holding us up has touched our hearts in a way that words can’t possibly describe. We have been so very humbled.

We found out that I was expecting late in 2010, a complete surprise to both Shane and I, but as with all gifts of this type I was thrilled. The pregnancy didn’t start off well though, and early on by 8 weeks, I was diagnosed with Placenta Previa (a low lying placenta), and shortly after, hospitalised due to bleeding. At that stage I wasn’t aware that I was carrying triplets and sadly by the beginning of January I had suffered an inevitable miscarriage. It was shortly thereafter that my gynae advised me that I had in fact miscarried, but that there was evidence of two further embryos. Twins!

And so our journey together started… I remember asking Dr K at that point, what I could do to help keep my babies safe and avoid another miscarriage and his answer was simple … Pray.

And pray I did, sadly within the next few weeks one of the heartbeats no longer showed up on the ultra sound, but one very strong little heartbeat hung on – Olivia.

Even from that point we were seeing Dr K every 2 weeks and each visit Olivia grew and grew. But by 16 weeks I was aware that something was very wrong. At that early point I was feeling heavy and uncomfortable like I did nearing the end of my two previous pregnancies, and was also breathless and battling to sleep at night because of the severe pain.

After some investigation, Placenta Percreta was confirmed. This being a very rare condition where the Placenta grows through the uterine wall and into neighbouring organs. There were six known cases worldwide and the prognosis was not good.

So at 16 weeks I was put on full bed rest. Family and friends rallied around and those months seemed to drag from one doctor’s visit to another and I held my breath each time until I saw my teeny, tiny little girl’s heartbeat on the monitor. The challenges of being bed ridden with two other children and a very hardworking husband were not easy, but with God’s grace and amazing support, we managed.

Finally we reached the point when the risk of my mortality was higher than the benefits to Olivia to keep her in my belly. The doctors were well prepared for my expected complications and blood loss and thankfully all went well.

Olivia was born at 32 weeks at 7.47am on the 21st June 2011, at just 1.31kilograms, she took her first breath, cried and then stopped breathing…I thankfully was asleep for this as with the risks being so high Olivia was delivered under General anaesthetic. Thankfully Olivia was stabilized and spent the next almost two months in NICU growing and fighting and stealing all the nurses’ hearts.

The next few months consisted of chemo therapy for me and various surgeries’ and finally a full hysterectomy to deal with my placental issues. Then finally after quite an ordeal, we were both sent home to heal.

Olivia turned one a couple of weeks ago… a whole year has passed since that early morning in that cold sterile theatre as the slow, steady rhythm of the beeping machines in the background lulled me to sleep.

As I think back I can still smell the disinfectant in the room and feel the Goosebumps prickle my skin under the warm blanket on that hard cold operating table. I gulped back my fear, held on tight to Shane’s hand, said a final pleading prayer and then, there was nothing … nothing but him keeping me going, keeping me strong.

That was the first of my surgeries; there were three further and each time the same pleading prayer…don’t leave me, please give me the strength to get through this…just a little further.

I am often asked how I kept so positive and strong and all I can say is that it was not me, it was him. He never let me believe for a minute that either of us wouldn’t make it and this verse often rang true;

Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance of what we do not see Hebrews 11.1


Today those early days of anxiety mixed with excitement, and pure relief and joy every time we got a positive update on Olivia’s progress seem light years away – did it really even happen to us?

I watch Olivia play on the mat in the early morning sunshine, and I marvel at the miracle in front of me… to think, had I not the faith and the stubborn belief that we could make it, had I listened to the Doctors early warnings of deformity, mortality and more, had I made the choice to terminate this little mite, I would not be able to watch this dinky, strong, feisty, loving little girl busily moving around the floor, playing with this and that, jabbering quietly and coming over every now and then to give her mum a cuddle, flash that heart melting smile of hers and show me the toy she just discovered…

And then I am thankful, so very thankful that I was brought up in a Christian home, that I have the mother I do and the family that jumped to our support. Without my faith and special people this miracle girl would not be here, and we would not have completed our family and we would have missed out on so, so much joy!

And also were it not for all our doctors and nurses and all the amazing neonatal staff at Umhlanga Hospital our life as we know it would not be. He put them in our path and led us to this place and for that we feel so very blessed.

Shane and I feel like the luckiest parents in the world to have been blessed with not one, not two, but three amazing strong, confident and loving little girls. When something like this happens you tend to re-evaluate your life and I am aware of just how much this has taught us.

It has taught us strength, a strength I never thought I had. It has taught me to appreciate life and all of the little things. It has taught me trust, to put that trust in God as never at any point have I felt alone, it has taught me acceptance, the strength to accept the hand I have been dealt, it has taught me human kindness and it teaches me still.

About four months after my last op, I was again struck with severe pain and it was found that due to all the surgeries and intervention, adhesions had formed between my intestines, colon and other internal organs literally gluing my insides together with a chewing gum like substance. So as my body works my organs pull against each other causing severe pain.

My doctors and I are still working on that, and I have good days and bad, but I’m doing okay and mostly manage to supress the pain and instead concentrate on my three beautiful girls and long suffering husband.

Olivia is doing so well, on the whole healthy and happy, a little on the small side, but we all know that dynamite comes in small packages. People often comment that when Olivia is a difficult teenager I can remind her of what I went through to give her life, but each time it is said I have the same violent emotional reaction… my body let her down, she did nothing to me, nothing but be the bravest little mite I know and the feistiest little fighter around. I am so proud of her and couldn’t in a million years blame her for anything but bringing me closer to God and making me a better person.

I would do it all again in a heartbeat just to be able to see her silly smile and tickle those tiny feet.

Today we as a family bring you Olivia for the sacrament of Baptism, so that you may be brought up in the faith of Christ and as a member of his church… just as I was. True faith is very personal and my wish for you is that you always know what a miracle you are and how special you are because you were spared.

The world is a better place with you in it Olivia, and I thank heaven above for my daughter and my life.

Where I am week, he is strong.

This was tough to stand up in front of the congregation and say, and I did get a bit choked up here and there but I think it was good for me to do it and definitely part of our healing process, as upon writing these words a flood of things long supressed came out and at least now I am stronger and better able able to deal and move forward...

Thanks for reading.

Candy Baby!

Today is a sad day for Olivia…her sisters went back to school! This it seems, is highly inconvenient for my little mite and she has been trawling the house calling for her sisters {insert broken heart here*} all morning!

The benefits for a third child is that there are always playmates close at hand – this school thing really does put a spanner in the works though, but I’m sure come pick up time and when her sisters burst through the front door, Livie is going to be the happiest little camper again to have her rowdy sisters back to entertain/ annoy / cuddle and control her!

Anyway – I thought I’d share one of our holiday activities with you today…we made Rock candy!

Kayla has been rather obsessed with a crystal making set she got for her birthday, but it is all very complicated and seldom the outcome she was hoping for results! So to restore her confidence in science (whatever) I decided to teach her and Iz how to make rock candy and it was surprisingly easy and yummy!

We googled it of course , took all the advice given and this is what worked best for us!

You will need:
Sugar (loads of sugar, we had to go and buy another bag!)
Water
Food Colouring gel (I used the Woolworth’s natural ones)
Wooden Skewers
Jars or Glass Cups (tall and thin)
Clothespegs

Step one:
Trim down your skewers to a reasonable size to fit in whatever glass that you will be using also remove the pointed tips. Dip them in water, and then roll in sugar. Set them aside to dry completely and continue with the sugar mixture. This gives the sugar a base, something to adhere to when it starts to crystallize.

Step two:

Mix equal parts of water and sugar in a pot on med-high heat on the stove until dissolved. Then continue to add sugar until you have a 3:1 ratio. It will get to a point where it won't dissolve anymore. To check that your sugar is dissolving, coat the back of a metal spoon with the syrup and make sure that it is smooth with no grains.. We used 6cups of water and 18 cups of sugar and it made 6 glasses of syrup, but you can definitely half the recipe if you like. We wanted a lot of colours though so stuck with these quantities.  The idea is to make nice, sticky, syrup. Mix until mixture starts to simmer. Easy peasy!




Step three:
Remove the mixture from the stove and allow your syrup to cool for 10 -15 minutes or so and ladle into your glasses. It is still pretty hot at this point so take care. Using the the tips that we trimmed off of our skewers we dipped them into concentrated food colouring gel, then swirled the skewer into our hot syrup mixture. You can use liquid food colouring, but I like the gel better.

Step four:
Attach two clothes pegs to each skewer (the ones you dipped in sugar and let dry) and balance in the middle of the glass. Make sure the skewer isn't touching the bottom or sides of glass. They need room to grow. Since our glasses were narrow, we only used one skewer but I’m sure in a wider glass you could add more!?

Step Five:
Place your glasses in a warm location with lots of natural light. Here they are on day one (above pic)...you can see that there is a bit of sugar build up from when we dipped them in water and then let them dry in sugar as well as a bit on the bottom of the glass. Another tip is to pop something over the top so nothing falls into the mixture to taint it. (I used coffee filters). The pictures below were taken on day 5...the girls were tempted to call it a day here, but we persisted...or rather I insisted we persisted;)

Step six:
Wait and watch them grow for about 7 days and Voila! How pretty are these??? Remember that the actual crystals will be much lighter in colour than the syrup which suits me fine...pretty pastel crystals result!

 We had a great time watching them grow and sampling the finished product. I think to the kids it seemed like a month not just 7 days but they managed and trying them out was worth the wait!

*There will be crystallized sugar in the bottom of your glasses. Just run them in hot water and chip it out with a butter knife. It comes out pretty easily.*

So that’s that - Rock Candy Tutorial = such fun and great to teach the kids a bit of science AND patience it seemed! ;)

Let me know how yours turns out?

A time to celebrate...

The past few weeks have been crazy hectic, I was under the wildly hopeful impression that since the kids were going on school holidays that I’d get plenty of time to catch up all the bits and bobs on my never-ending “to do” lists, but with today marking the last day of the school holidays I am even more behind!

Hence the lack of posts, and soooo much has been happening in our little family!

{Olivia celebrated her First birthday party, loads of fun and play dates occurred during the school holidays with my busy brood, and we also celebrated Olivia’s baptism… a truly special affair.}

I won’t cover all of that in this post but pop on over and I’ll cover it over the next week… complete with pretty pictures too!

I had a wonderful time preparing for and baking all sorts of yummy bits for the party, only for my husband to comment that he couldn’t understand what all the stress and bother {not in my eyes} was about as it was clearly for my own gain and not our daughters as she would be happy with a cardboard box at this stage!
And he is perfectly on the money too, BUT what he is not taking into account is that as much as I enjoyed taking care of all the finer details, those details were carefully thought out in honour of my baby girl and if per chance I am unable to do in in later years – she will be reminded by the pictures I have taken how much effort I put into her party too to make it pretty and perfect just like her! For me the little things are important – going the extra mile for those you love is what it’s all about whether they realise it or not.
Livie just loved her party and had a fantastic time. It certainly did bring out the social butterfly in her and I was amused to note how different my three girls are. Olivia was happiest in the thick of all the action and lapped up all the attention!

It was so much fun watching the three of them interacting during the day – Kayla so wild and loud – organising everyone, Izzy so quiet and quaint interacting so freely but always gently and Livie taking in everything with cheeky smiles and full of gusto! Have I mentioned lately just how much I love these little things… so very blessed!

Wishing you joy this week,