laurasaur

I’ve been so slack at updating, my blog WAS broken but it’s miraculously fixed itself tonight finally. I’ve also developed a mean sewing addiction which is soaking up any spare time I have !

Apple and feijoa crumble pie and a fabric covered letter for Charlotte’s room. xxx

My gorgeous Aunty Robyn gave me this cake tin tonight, and to celebrate my pimping new oven straight from the 80s I baked this amazing cake. It’s amazing because it involves nothing fancier than a normal cake but comes out looking so fancy pants!

Check it out! This oven was in my parents house when they bought it over 24 years ago!! It has fanbake! And a lower oven! Haha. This is a pretty exciting day for me let me tell you…

The cake is Alison Holst’s lemon yogurt cake which you can make it the food processor in less than 5 minutes. Nice and easy, even when you have a crying baby strapped to you in a sling and a toddler demanding your attention

I didn’t sew the whole time I was in London, but having a working sewing machine and a dining table to put it on is so novel I couldn’t help myself.

The other motivating factor in this little project was that the only cotton cot sheets I could find were $30 for a fitted sheet and a flat sheet and boring as heck. What’s with all the polycotton for babies anyway?! Considering we barely use flat sheets and already have some beautiful ones (we mostly use sleeping bags) that seemed like a mega waste of money.

So for the sum of 14 dollars I purchased enough fabric, elastic and thread for 2 fitted sheets. I SUCK at sewing, thus is the first thing I’ve made in many many years and it was so quick and easy. The hardest part for me was measuring it out! Xxx

The baby made me do it?! I’ve been clearing out our cupboards and came across my canned pumpkin stash. I LOVE canned pumpkin. When I was 8 or 9 my mum took me to her colleagues house for a thanksgiving meal (thanksgiving isn’t normally celebrated in New Zealand) and I had some delicious pumpkin pie, and we came home with a can of pumpkin. The can sat in the cupboard for a couple of years until I think we made something from it (worst memory ever!). Either that or it got old and my mum threw it out haha.

Anyway I’ve loved pumpkin pie ever since then and made it a couple of times with normal pumpkins – until I arrived in London and discovered our local Waitrose often stocks canned pumpkin!

This is a whole lot more delicious than pumpkin pie if you love cheesecake like I do! Excuse the cracked top, I made this in a serious hurry and messed up with opening the oven a bunch of times and forgetting our oven is realllly hot.

Pumpkin Pie adapted from [Paula Deen]

Crust:

• 150g biscuits
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:

• 3 (8-ounce) / 640g packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (15-ounce) / 425g can pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

You need a food processor for this recipe unless you have oat flour on hand and wish to chop up your nuts by hand
These pancakes are quite dense because of how they are made all in the food processor but so yummy, perfect for a weekend treat – full of  goodness! They don’t make the prettiest picture but I promise they are worth it.

Pecan Oat Pancakes

¾ C whole oats
½ C all-purpose flour
¾ C pecans
1 T dark brown sugar
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
Pinch of kosher salt
½ C whole milk
½ whole yogurt
1 egg

1 ½ T unsalted butter – melted; plus more chilled butter for griddle

Heat your pan (cast iron is good as you can leave it heating for a while to get to the right temperature without worrying about what’s happening to the coating of your non-stick) to a medium heat.

1) Grind your oats in your food processor until they turn into an oat flour.

2) Add all the other dry ingredients, the flour, pecans, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and blend until just combined. The nuts will get nicely chopped during this process.

3) Add the remaining ingredients – milk, yogurt, egg and butter and blend until combined.

4) Add some butter to your pan and cook pancakes to your size and liking. Bubbles will appear when it’s time to flip.

Eat with some butter and real maple syrup! YUM.