Ergo carrier, what a lifesaver

After being told how fantastic the Ergro carrier was and being outbid a million times on ebay for an Ergro carrier. We recently purchased a performance Ergro carrier. The difference between the original carrier was the material. The performance is much lighter in weight with more breathable meshwork which was ideal for us. It was a good idea to try it on at the store and find out for ourselves how easy it was to put on and how light Jaemkins was to carry afterwards.

Pros: Comfortable and ergonomically correct for baby. Most of the weight goes onto your hips rather than your shoulders, so its very easy on the back and shoulders (unlike most other carriers). Found that there's 3 different carrying positions (front, back and hip). Lightweight, easy to wash and dry. Cool for summer.

Cons: Only available in lime green and grey. Baby can't face outward. Difficult to get baby into the carrier in the back carry position (we have mastered it with 2 people but not by myself).

Overall: This is a wonderful baby carrier. I bought it because I find the Baby Bjorn so uncomfortable after Jaeminkins was 6 months since he was so long and much heavier and the weight used to hurt my back.  But I have had no back/shoulder pain at all with the Ergo. Somehow it feels as if almost all of baby's weight is on my hips, with hardly any weight pulling down on my shoulders, very strange sensation the first time I put it on with Jaeminkins, kept wondering where he was at times.

I think after having used the Baby bjorn from birth to 6months that the Ergo is much better from 6 months as you don't have the problem of the baby's feet dangling in front so you can bend down and pick up things without too much fuss.

I think when travelling. I would carry my baby in the Ergo all the time and not use the pram at all! I hope Pepe and I can master the back carry position as this will make the carrier really useful for hiking. We recently went away to Port Stephens and used the Ergro on our walk and it was fantastic and Jaeminkins slept most of the time in it.

Jaeminkins has taken to the Ergo pretty quickly after being in the Baby Bjorn.. He seems happy enough to turn his head to see things so its not really a problem that he can't face outwards in the Ergo.

I also managed to make matching sucking pads to put on the Ergo carrier which has been great as Jaeminkins is teething so everything is being gnawed at or slobbered on.

I definitely recommend Ergro to all mums with bubs older than 6  months, certainly saved my back and it also means extra boot space as you don't need the pram when your away travelling. Yay.

Dark goodness

I'm a fan of good chocolate cake. It has to be moist, not too rich and easy to make. I've tried a few recipes in my time. One of which was the Bill Granger's recipe for chocolate cake but I found it to be too sweet. I could probably reduce the amount of sugar but I haven't had a chance to have another go at it.

So my question to you all is what is your favourite chocolate cake recipe?

I recently tried the recipe from 'Good chef, Bad chef' and I think I'm onto a winner. It was so good and taste better as the days go on. But I'm keen to try out a few more recipes before I decide.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake
1 cup water

1¼ cups caster sugar

125g butter

½ cup cocoa

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

200g dark chocolate (I used a mix of 1/2dark and 1/2milk chocolate)

1¼ cups self raising flour, sifted

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Chocolate & cream cheese frosting

125g icing sugar

15g cocoa powder

100g cream cheese

125g unsalted butter

160g dark chocolate

Chocolate Cake Method 
Preheat oven to 190ºC conventional or 170ºC fan forced.
Line a 20cm cake pan base with baking paper and lightly grease sides of pan.
Combine water, sugar, butter, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda in medium saucepan. Stir over heat without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 2 min. Pour over chocolate and stir. Cool to room temperature (approx. 30 min). Add flour and egg and beat until just combined. Pour into pan and bake for 40 min. Cool in pan 10 min then turn onto cooling rack. Drizzle over chocolate icing.

Chocolate & cream cheese frosting Method
Paddle cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add slowly sifted sugar and cocoa. Beat. Pour in chocolate

Ebay disaster

Okay I'll admit it, I'm not the best at ebay and this story pretty much sums it up.

I've been on the search for a secondhand baby activity centre, its a toy which give bubs an endless amount of amusement. It's pretty much a multi-use play unit features three activity modes a baby walker, rocker and stationary activity centre. It encourages exploration with 8 interactive toys, sound and lights and it grows with your baby with three adjustable height settings.

So I've been watching a few on ebay and bidding haphazardly. Usually I'm not online when the bids are counting down so I miss out or I've forgotten when the bids finish or I'm out and about and get outbid whilst trying to bid on the iphone.

This time I thought I had it in the bag, I found one in Sydenham for $25 when rrp is $160. Score right? That's what I thought.

So the bid closes and as I was the only bidder, I ended up winning it. I finally won a bid for once and as the conditions were pickup only, I ask for more details in regards to the location. Imagine my surprise when the vendor tells me its Sydenham Victoria. Huh?!

As I google the location and chat to my brother in law, I get told its at least an hours drive out of Melbourne CBD and I'm thinking opps as its going to be absolutely impossible to get. With the possibilities of posting it or having someone to drive up to Sydney, it was an expensive exercise.

In the meantime, Pepe was at drinks telling work colleagues that he was proud that I finally won something but he was secretly happy that I was terrible at ebay so I didn't spend any money. So when it came to telling him the story, he's in hysterics laughing at me and it may certainly be the end of my ebay career.

But it really wasn't my fault as the vendor wrote Sydenham, Australia and I just assumed it was in NSW. But I should of heard alarm bells ringing as no one else was bidding on the item and I've been seeing the same item go for approx $40-$50.

Note to self, do not buy items outside a 50km radius of Sydney CBD and perhaps ask the vendor as to the location before proceeding.

Anyway til my next bid, I'll fill you in if its a success or not.

Swimmingly

I don't think Jaeminkins knew what hit him when he went to his first swimming lesson last week. He looked like a little lost puppy as he was in the pool being swished around, taken through a makeshift tunnel and having to listen to a heap of nursery rhymes and songs.

Pepe and I had trouble in remembering the words and one of the activites was to put them on the mat in the water and sing 'Jelly on a Rock'. Only to find the following week when I was in the water it was  'Jelly on the Plate'. Classic!

How cute do all the babies look, all lined up.

 He looked like he was enjoying the experience with the other babies or maybe not.

 The following week was my turn in the pool. I'm loving the heated pool and I think Jaeminkins is getting used to it. He's such a water baby, he doesn't want to get out of the water even after being in the water for more than 40 minutes.

As the instructor pours water over his head and Jaemkins shuts his eyes and this action readies him for the eventual underwater dip. Jaeminkins was ready for the next step as the instructor dipped him underwater and he came up okay with it all.

After each lesson as soon as he's dried off and put back in the pram, it doesn't take long before he's fast asleep. But it's not for long, as the peace only lasted for 40min-1hr before his afternoon tea.

Cookbook challenge 5- outdoors

For this challenge I used the 'Quiches pies and tart' cookbook.

As I was already planning an outdoor picnic with a few other mums and bubs, I thought a quiche would be a good idea especially when your trying to eat with attention seeking fidgety bubs.

Quiche Lorraine
35minutes prep time
35mins refrigeration time
serves 4-6


Pastry
185g plain flour
90g cold butter chopped
1 egg yolk

Filling
20g butter
1 onion chopped
4 rashers bacon cut into long strips
2 tablespoons of chopped chives
2 eggs
185mL cream
60mL milk
100g swiss cheese grated

Method

1. Place flour and butter in a food processor and combine for 15 seconds or until crumbly. Add the egg yolk and 4-6 tablespoons of water. Process in short burst until mixture just comes together. (You can also do this by hand which I did, rub butter into flour til crumbly and then add water and egg yolk.) Turn mixture out onto a floured surface and gather together into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 15minutes.

2. Roll pastry between 2 sheets of baking paper until it is large enough to fit and overlap baking dish. Lift pastry into the dish and press well into the sides. Trim off any excess pastry using a sharp knife. Place the pastry-lined tin in the refrigerator for 20minutes. Preheat the oven to moderately hot 190C.

3. Cover pastry shell with baking paper, fill evenly with baking beads (I use the equivalent of rice) and bake for 15 mintues. Remove the paper and beads and bake for a further 10minutes or until pastry has dried out. Reduce the over to 180C.

4. To make the filling, heat the butter in a heavy based pan. Add onion and bacon and cook for 10minutes stirring frequently until onion is soft and bacon is cooked. I also added a zuchini for flavour and a touch of colour. Stir through chives and set aside to allow to cool.

5. Beat the eggs, cream and milk together in a jug. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Spread the onion and bacon mixture evenly over the base of the pastry shell. Pour the egg misture over the onion and bacon and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 30mins or until filling has set and top is golden.

 Finished product! Can't wait to get my teeth into it at the picnic playdate.

It helps when you have a happy baby whilst the cooking is going on. For some reason he was in a rather smiley mood, think he was happy it was time for food with all the lovely baking aroma wafting through in the room.

 Face smeared with pumpkin puree, hee looks rather pleased with himself.

All the happy bubs at the picnic, well most of them are happy.

 Not too sure what Jaeminkins is doing but he's looking quite chilled out.

Looks like kickboxing time?

Picnic in the park was great fun even with the short bursts of sunshowers and the little tree we were sitting underneath didn't offer much protection. The bubs looked like they were enjoying themselves and the mums were chilling at the park along the water's edge. Thanks Miss Z for the salad and Miss V for the yummy chocolate cookies.

The Marque Experience

Pepe and I finally managed to dine at Marque with the help of amazing babysitters Bubs and Mr D (So appreciated guys, you have no idea).

Everything was on track, fed Jaeminkins his pumpkin puree, had a bath, gave him a top up and he went out like a light so we were hoping that he would repeat the performance of the last 3 nights of sleeping through to 3am. Fingers crossed.

After saying goodbye to our awesome babysitters, we hailed a cab and headed over to Surry Hills. It was a balmy Saturday night with people everywhere. It has been so long since I've been out and hearing that buzz of people out and about enjoying themselves. We managed to get to the restaurant early which was probably a good idea since we were having the degustation and I was hoping not to be eating still at midnight.

We ordered champagne to start with of course and toasted to my birthday as I didn't get to dine out last year, our 4 year anniversary and Bubs and Mr D's awesome Christmas gift to us. That first glass of champagne went down too well.

We decided to go with the matching wines as part of our degustation. As part of the dining experience, we weren't given the degustation menu but were left guessing until the plates came to the table and the waiter announced what it was and we would be given a copy of the menu at the end of the meal.

The pre entree of apple, foie gras and cinnamon was a taste sensation, it was like tasting apple pie and I wanted it to keep going. It had these crispy flaky bits on the bottom and they were so good.

We started with the almond jelly with blue swimmer crab, almond gazpacho, sweet corn and avrunga. It took me a little while to get into the meal as the texture was unusual  and the tip was to eat it from the centre out and with a bit of each element but it did grow on me and I enjoyed it. The 2004 Reichsgraf Von Kesselstatt, Riesling Kabinett Feinherb from Germany was a good match as  it was sweet but light.

Next came the pickled calamari with win, wakame and caper water. This went down a treat, so light and tasty. It was well matched with the 2008 Mantlerhof, Gelber Muskateller from Austria.

The next dish was beautifully presented of cold smoke ocean trout with lemon, dill and vanilla. It seemed such a shame to breakup the tuille but it was sweet tasting and the trout just melted in your mouth. This was served with a 2009 Murray Street Vineyards,Viognier/Marsanne from the Barossa Valley.

We were then onto the yellow eye mullet with carrots, kimchi, pear and nori. I was thinking wow they have incorporated Korean with the foam of kimchi, it was strange to taste it in this manner. But the mullet had a nice crisp skin to it and it was delicious. One of my favourites of the night. A nice drop of the 2008 D.de Belliviere 'Les Rosiers' Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley France went with this dish.

Duck egg with black cabbage, brussels sprouts and vinegar. I found this dish too rich for me and I tried the option of dipping bread into the yolk and having it that way. Pepe absolutely adored this dish. Our first red of the night, a 2008 Cos 'Pithos', Nero d'avola/frappato, Sicilia.

Grass fed wagyu bavette with onion, black tea and stem salad. This was my absolute favourite, the dried texture of the leaves with the meat. so unbelievably good. With my favourite grape, 2004 Valenciso 'Reserva' Tempranillo, Rioja, Spain.

We opted out for optional cheese course as we were well on our way of being full and happily tipsy.

But we were surprised by the pre dessert of sauternes custard served in an eggshell, so exquisite and the burnt caramel sauce was soo good. Dessert wine did not go astray either=)

And to end the meal with chocolate with basil, liquorice and lime. This was a challenging one for me, the chocolates were wrapped in a light film of basil and the liquorice blast was too much for me. It was interesting but not to my taste.

The petit fours of starting from the left, sweet, sour, salted caramel chocolates and compari filled bons bons packed a punch in the mouth and that was the end of our meal.

Getting home, there was no sound of a crying baby and I thought he may of slept through but alas I was told he awoke at 10pm and Bubs and Mr D played tag team swinging him to sleep. What a little bugger!

Thankyou again to the fabulous sitters too.

Bring back the perm haha

I decided I was bored with my hairdoo even though I had it cut short only a few weeks ago. So I headed over to my folk's place and they let me know that would happily babysat whilst I got a perm.

I remember my last perm was when I was a little girl and mum practicing on me as part of her hairdressing training. I remember being traumatised as it was a long process taking a few hours, my hair being pulled every each way, hair getting stuck in the rollers, the stinky hair products and a slight burning sensation on the scalp, eyes and even hair. 

Still cracks me up what an afro we had back then. How much has changed since that last photo was taken. There's an portable airconditioner unit where you poured water at the back and the sponge soaked it up. I think we still have that television somewhere but that aerial is classic.

Before I regress any further, I think being away for 2.75hrs was testing their patience as I got a few phonecalls and pictures sent to me of Jaeminkins in the jolly jumper which kept him amused for a short time. Dad complained about his dead arm as he was holding him for a period of time but as mum knew what was involved so was more understanding.

I'm pretty happy with the result, great bouncy curls but I don't like the fact that my dad calls me 'ajuma'. Is it really time to start being called that???