The Year That Was.....2011

Well hello there! I wasn't going to write a NYE post but it got the better of me!

BTW no pretty pictures as I can't work out how to do it on my iPad, plus this is spur of the moment post. May come back in the new year and pretty it up I think!

2011 wasn't the kindest year for my little family, infact I couldn't even see myself celebrating this year a couple of months ago. But I want to send it off with a bang and ring in the new year with positives spirits!

So here we go in point form (cause I like it that way!)....

~ I learnt it's the simple in life that matter the most
~ I learnt that I can't change peoples perception of things
~ That I have the MOST loving supportive Hubby ever
~ That I have the MOST gorgeous son ever
~ I became a Mum of a teenager (OMG)
~ I'm so lucky to have my amazing sister and Dad near me who love and support me
~ My relationship with my Mother grown and blossomed and for that I am so thankful
~ I'm blessed to have the love and friendship of amazing girlfriends
~ I've learnt that some people want to know your business just to be nosy, not cool
~ Depression reared it's ugly head again with avengece, but I'm stronger because of it
~ Pondered what to do with my life
~ Started my Blog
~ Formed some wonderful relationships already with other Bloggers
~ Realised what makes me happy, it got lost there for a while
~ I have a loving family
~ My Hubby's family is pretty cool apart from a few crazies, but who doesn't have them

I've never made NYE resolutions but for next year I wish for continued health, happiness and love. That's all I need.

Thank you for being part of my blog and I wish you and your family a magical new year.

Best Wishes

Wordless Wednesday.....My Sister

This is my gorgeous little sister, Jeanette, and I on Christmas Day.

Image is from my Instagram, don't you just love Instagram?!

If you're Instagramming my address is @ubersimplicity

Linking up with My Little Drummer Boys

for Wordless Wednesday

Ratatouille Tarts

I have a teenager who LOVES to cook, and that makes me happy.  Pretty sure it's in his genes though, he really had no choice in the matter coming from good European stock!

A couple of years ago I bought him a cook book, I want to be a Chef.  It's fabulous with clear step by step instructions and photographs to match, needless to say it gets a great workout in our house.  Recipes range from simple to a little more complex for the advanced Mini Chef! 

So today I'm taking a recipe from the book, Ratatouille Tarts, a savoury pastry full of vegetables and cooked by my Mr 13!

Just reading the recipe through again before he starts!

Ratatouille Tarts

Makes 4

Ingredients

2 sheets ready-rolled puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 long slender eggplant, cut into thin slices
2 zucchini, cut into this slices
1 red capsicum, diced
2 tomatoes, roughtly chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).  Brush one pastry sheet with egg.  Top with the other sheet.  Cut pastry into 4 squares.
2. Place on a large baking tray and cook for 20 minutes, until puffed and golden.  Set aside to cool.
3. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based frying pan. Cook the onion and garlic over medium heat for 5 minutes.  Add the eggplant, zucchini and capsicum.  Cook covered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the tomatoes and cook, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, stirring.
5. Cut an 8cm (3.25inch) round hole in each of the pastry squares, and pull out the soft pastry in the centre.
6. Fill each of the holes with vegetable mixture.

and the finished tart....

Do your kids love to cook?  Let me know if you give this one a go!

Best Wishes

Wordless Wednesday.....My Nanny

My Nanny, she's just gorgeous and is fighting aggressive cancer.  We love her dearly.

Linking up with My Little Drummer Boys for Wordless Wednesday.

Much Love

Tangerine Tango......love it or hate it

 

Drum Roll please.......

Pantone's 2012 colour of the year is Tangerine Tango (aka orange!)

It's a love it or hate it kind of colour.  Me?  Let's just say I'm not that taken with it!  But I'm not really a colour girl, neutral tones for me.  I digress, back to orange....

The colour itself evokes feelings of;

• warmth and energy
• joy and fun
• happiness and socialising
• stimulates activity
• stimulates appetite

A great colour to use in the kitchen/ family area but also works equally well in the bedroom in small amounts.  Splashes or hints of colour work best, don't go all crazy on me and make everything orange!

Let's take a look at some great examples.



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Hmmmmm maybe a splash of orange may just appear in my kitchen after all!

What's your favourite colour?

Cheers

Piquing my Pinterest {christmas wrapping edition}

Oh how I love Christmas!

I haven't done ANY shopping yet, that's on today's agenda after I finish up here.  So I thought I'd source around for some wrapping ideas so I can tackle mine tonight (the tree is looking a bit sad with nothing under it!).

Now me being the fussy everything must match type of person, I always co-ordinate my wrapping with the colour theme of my tree!  Yes it does change every year, and no I don't spend a fortune on decorations!

TIP:  Only buy when they are on sale or wait, like I do, for stores like Myer to have their 90% off decoration sale in January!  Bargains ladies, BARGAINS!!

Last year our tree decorations were red.  So I went with simple brown craft paper, glued white paper doilies onto the paper, then tied with a red ribbon.

This year our tree decorations are white and silver, so I think I will go with either white or silver wrapping with a silver ribbon, I'm a ribbon kind of Gal!

Now to some wrapping ideas.....

We have a lot of teenages in our family now, so money or gift cards are the in thing! 
This is a great simple wrapping idea for gift cards.

Great use of cup cake wrappers!

Simple brown craft paper, red and white ribbon finished off with a button and gift tag.

Love the look of the monogrammed gift tags,
and different shades of red wrapping paper.

Craft paper again with different decorative features.

Love the use of the foliage.



Fabric, or scarves are a great way to wrap a gift for someone special.
Think I'll do this for my Mum and Nanny this year!

Linking up with Tina Gray {dot} me for Piquing my Pinterest!

If you're not on Pinterst don't panic just send me an email and I'll send you back an invite, then you too can get lost in the wonderful world of Pinterest!

All images are from my gifts + packaging board.

Carmella Cake

My Mother in Law, Carmella,  celebrated her birthday over the weekend and my Hubby asked me to make her a cake.  You only have to ask me once!  Introducing the Carmella Cake; vanilla cake with chocolate butter cream icing.

I LOVE baking and decorating cakes and cupcakes!  It's something that I've enjoyed since I was a little girl.  My fondest memories are baking with my Grandmother's, who are and were gifted cake bakers.  Nanny's sponges are just faultless and are a melt in your mouth type of cake.  Grandma's butterfly cupcakes, one word....divine!

Of course making the cake from scratch is the best option as there are no preservatives etc in the mix, but I'm going to put it out there and say a packet mix is OK!  Personally when I use a packet mix it's Betty Crocker, for me I get the best results from this particular brand.

Making the Carmella Cake

• 2 x Boxes Betty Crocker Vanilla cake mix.  I used 2 as I wanted to get the height on the cake, I woundn't have achieved this with only one mix.
• I used a round 8" x 3" tin.
• Being that the mix is doubled cooking time will be longer than directed.
• Once the cake is cooled slice the dome off the top of the cake, this allows the cake to sit flat on the cake stand.
• Place the cake cut side down on the cake stand. The bottom of the cake ends up being the top of the cake!  This results in a cleaner working surface with no cake crumbs in the icing.
• Mix up a large batch of chocolate butter cream icing.
• Using a spatula spread a layer of icing over the entire cake.  Smooth out the sides and top of the cake.

Now for the fun part!

• Fill an icing bag with same icing and pipe your rosettes on top of the cake.  I used a Wilton 2D tip.
• That's it your done and the cake is looking gorgeous!

With baking and decorating it's all about experimenting and more importantly having fun!

Do you bake?  What do you love to make?

Best Wishes

Craving Caffeine {cappuccino}

Welcome to the first edition of Craving Caffeine!

Just to recap for those that may not be aware that my Hubby and I are both Barista's (he being so much better than me, yes I can say that and no it doesn't bother me!).  We have previously owned a cafe, and although we've moved on from that, coffee is still very much a passion of ours.

Having our business we realised people didn't understand what makes a good coffee, so part of our job was to educate our customers.  This series is all about explaining what makes up a certain beverage and perhaps a little history behind it.

This week it's the humble Cappuccino!

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Just a little history on it's heritage, which I found really interesting! 

The word itself has religious beginings and nothing to do with coffee.  Cappuccino is an Italian word that translates in English to "little hood".  In the 16th Centurary robes with hoods were worn by the Franciscan monks, and they were given the name "Cappuccini" monks.

Urban legend has it that the coffee was  named cappuccino after the Franciscan monks because when the milk was added to the espresso it mixed in forming a colour similar to that of the monks robes.

Interesting!

WHAT MAKES UP A CAPPUCCINO?

Three things, all equally important to make a perfect cup.

• 1/3 espresso
• 1/3 steamed milk
• 1/3 silky frothed milk

A cappuccino has less milk than a latte or flat white so the coffee will taste stronger.  What most people love about it is the lashings of perfectly frothed milk, exactly what the toddlers love! From that the babycinos were born, now don't get me started on those they are a Barista's nightmare!  And if you find one that says they love making them, they're lying!

There's a great saying, "Italians don't drink cappuccinos after 11am!".

Now being married to an Italian I can vouch for that!  Italy is steeped with superstition and they believe that drinking milk after a meal with affect their digestion.  They also view drinking milk as a meal in itself.  On top of that my Father in Law has no dairy at all, something about witches!

Next time your sipping your cappucccino you'll now know just that bit more about it.  And I bet you think of the Cappuccini monks!

Salute!

One is Perfect

Hello!

This post is not related in any way to food, wine, coffee or styling however it is my biggest passion, motherhood.

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Be forwarned it's a 'get it off your chest' kind of post!

I'm a Mum, a Mum of one.  Blessed with a gorgeous 13 year old boy, my teenangel (BTW I can't lay claim for the fabulous word, I pinched it from one of my girlfriends!).

Yes you read right, I have just ONE child.  Oh the shock, the horror!

Seriously how gorgeously handsome is my boy?!

I read the most amazing Blogs, blogs of Mothers with 4, 5 and even 7 children.  In the same way I'm sure these Mother's are bombarded with comments about how many children they have, and how hard it must be, I get comments as well.  Comments that annoy, sadden and dismiss my role as a Mother.

You see we wanted more children, but I can't.  I'm blessed to just have my gorgeous boy.

"Gee your lucky you only have one, it's so much easier!"  That is THE single most offensive comment to anyone with only one child.  It both dismisses my role as a Mother and angers me so much I'm burning inside.  The stars or moon must be out of aligment lately because I'm hearing that more often than not.

Following a very close second is "You should have had another one, why didn't you?"  Can I just slap you now?!

I have duties and obligations to my one child the same way a Mother does with 2 or more children.  Yes you may have more but don't think my life is in any way easier than yours.  You may be envious of my one child, but don't you think I may be envious of your two, or more?  That I feel guilty because I can't have any more, and that my son has no little siblings?  That I see the look in my son's eyes when he watches his mates play with their little brothers or when his cousins are together.  Or the ache in my heart when he still says he'd love a little brother?

My advice...think before you speak, you just don't know that person's story.

At the end of the day I think that I'm a rocking good Mum, just like you.

One is perfect.

Best Wishes