{R.A.C.K. 2014 : Random Acts of Christmas Kindness}

Christmas is my favourite time of the year. I love the festivity, the food, the celebrations and the traditions. We have many traditions but this year we are ramping up the tradition we started over the last few years where we use this season to focus on generosity. {original post here}. I have written before {link here} about how easy it is to over-indulge at this time of year with food, gifts and money in general.
I love going all out at this time of year, but I also love teaching the kids (as I try to do all year long) that it's not just about us. There is more to life than what's in it for me? If I leave a legacy to my kids of generosity being a standard and always looking out for others, I will be a happy Mum. 

{Secret Santa Helper}

I don't mean to alarm you, but Christmas is 40 days away! I still have a bunch of shopping to do so I hope your more organised than me. It's crept up very quickly here this year. 

For those who do a secret Santa, my husbands side of the family is using a great website to draw secret Santa names. Since we aren't all in the same state, it has made drawing names so easy I just had to share!

If you log on to drawnames.com it allows you to set up a group. You enter email addresses and can even set exceptions (i.e. spouses don't get each other for example). Then each person gets an email allowing the to log in and set a wish list with examples of things they may like. 

I like my shopping done by December so as soon as I get back from my vacation - I mean Tresilian, it's going to be a big shopping day for me I think. 

Do you do a secret Santa in your family or an all out gift fest?
 
Lauren  x

{Call The Fashion Police and Lock Me Up}

Many things fascinate me about wardrobes. The way people organise them or the way they don't. If you go into my wardrobe you would find it orgnaised by category and also colour. My mind works better when things are labelled and in categories. It's just something that makes me, me. Some people laugh but then I can find anything in my wardrobe I need in 2 seconds flat and I think that's just pure efficient if you ask me. 

People also hold onto some items of clothes like they are a time capsule. That section of your wardrobe that you used to fit and one day hope to again. It's like some sort of deal you have with yourself as insentive. Somehow if you throw them out or donate them, it's like your admitting that goal is over - for now! And the thought of that is devistating. So we hold on to them.

{Ode to South Africa}

Recently, my husband had to travel to Cape Town for a business trip. His new job requires more travel than before and so with Daddy being gone for over a week, I tried to think of ways to keep the family in touch with where Daddy was. We started by turning our fridge into an information station on all things South Africa. I printed off some pictures of maps, flags, animals and food commonly found there. The boys loved learning about this country and having it front and center helped my boys to focus on Daddy's adventure and feel like they were involved. Apologies for the terrible picture, but you get the idea of what I was trying to achieve. The boys coloured in a South African flag and these activities gave us a lot to talk about when Daddy arrived home. 

During the week and a half he was away, we also dabbled in trying some South African Cuisine. I bought a Boerewors sausage from our local supermarket and we had that for dinner one night. I am not normally a fan of sausages for dinner, but it was delicious and I understand why its a favorite dish in that part of the world.

 

The boys and I also made a melktert (milk tart) which is a delicious South African custard style tart. It went down a treat and no fancy ingredients, easy as, well, pie!  {Click here for the recipe}

Some other dishes we would like to try are the Bobotie and a 'Bunny Chow' Curry.

A great tip for people with kids who travel for work. Hubby took a minion toy away in his suitcase and sent us photos when possible of "the minions adventures". The boys loved it when I got to show them these photos and it became something they looked forward to. This is a great tradition we have started for when buisness travels are long and especially overseas. As great as technology is, you can't always bank on good wifi connections, and sometimes time zones don't favour facetime. This idea allows some communication with home, and for the traveling parent to send these photos when its easy for them.  

  
It has been an incredible experience learning about a culture other than our own. Especially when we got to see some of the sights and animals that daddy shared with us.

What a beautiful country and I would love to visit there someday. 

Q: If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go?
Lauren x

{Baked Camenbert}

I wanted to m,ake a snack for small group last night that was yummy but since I am thick in the midst of (attempting to) sleep training my baby, I didn't feel like hitting the shops looking like the "wreck of the hesperus" as my grandma says. So, I decided to set myself another 'shop the pantry' challenge. The result was wickedly delicious and I am adding this to my entertaining menu for sure! 

I searched through the pantry and the fridge and saw a small wheel of Camenbert on the cheese shelf that I didn't end up serving with dips a few days earlier. Perfect. That was my hero. I had hummus and carrot sticks, but that seemed in the words of Masterchef, pedestrian. I am not actually that fancy, I just like experimenting with flavours. I wanted something easy but different. I wondered about baking it as I had seen it done before and up comes this photo on my phone from Jamie Oliver. 

 

{RECIPE HERE}

That looked to die for. So I skimmed the ingredients and knew I had it on hand. Excellent! Even if you are not a baker or enjoy cooking that much, this is SO easy and the result is definitely one that creates a WOW factor. Its the kind of dish I could imagine having on a Friday night instead of dinner. A Spring or Autumn night out on the deck with a good glass of red. Chatting to my hubby and enjoying each others company. 

1. You simply score the cheese and place thinly sliced garlic, Rosemary leaves and a touch of Olive Oil.

2. Tear up chunks of day old bread and thread onto Rosemary stalks. Spray with oil and sprinkle with a little salt. Place in oven with cheese.

3. Whilst in the oven chop up some dried cranberries and nuts. I used pinenuts and walnuts which is what I had. I could imagine most working though. 

4. Once bread is golden and cheese is gooey, plate up. 

5. Dip bread in cheese and then sprinkle nut mixture on top and enjoy! SOOOO GOOOD!!!!  

My Interpretation of Jamie's dish:

  

Give it a go, if you can chop, rip and put stuff on a tray....you got this!

Lauren x