We made sushi

We're learning about Japan this week at home and we tried making Sushi. I think sushi is okay sometimes but I didn't really like the taste of ours.. The seaweed wrapper tasted like swallowing sea water by mistake. We used crabsticks which we hadn't had before and they don't really taste like crab, but they were okay. We also had smoked salmon but we asked if we could just eat that and not make it into sushi. We've had some really tasty noodle and rice dishes and we're hopefully going to a Wagamama restaurant later in the week.

End of the summer holidays...

Some of our favourite things from our Summer Holidays..... we went to France and Spain.

Baby Octopus in Spain

Baby Octopus in delicious tomato sauce

Mussels

Prawns devoured in France and Spain

Birthday Cake

This was a lake in France and we were the only people here. We loved it and were having fun with some of our friends from England who we stayed with for one night, but then a lifeguard came and said that we had to get out of the water and have a shower as the lake was contaminated. Mummy keeps checking to see if we are growing more heads but we aren't!

We both had birthdays, mine was in France at my cousin's house.

We now have a really cool tree house in the garden and we really love eating lunch in it.

At the start of the holidays we went to Disneyland Paris as Daddy had some filming to do there. It was great fun and my favourite ride was Buzz Lightyear and Peter Pan.

Oh and we also went to the fish museum and fish auction in St Feliu de Guixols. That was brilliant!

I had a list of things I wanted to eat on holiday and I was lucky to eat everything on the list. Some things I ate a lot of times. My little brother also ate everything which pleased the olds because sometimes he wont try things.

My holiday food list
Jamon Serrano
Prawns (lots and lots of them)
Squid
Mussels
Octopus, especially baby octopus
Clams
Steak

Thank you to our hero, Chef Aidan who mentioned us for Blog Day.

School tomorrow... Mama says we can help to make packed lunches from now on. Sometimes I call Mummy Mama which means Mummy in Spanish, I think she likes it when we speak Spanish. Daddy got us to speak Spanish a lot more on holiday and says it's important that we learn. He also got us to say some French words when we were in France.

Our most favourite thing about the Summer holidays.... going on holiday to different places!

Happy Birthday Grandma Maggi

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Grandma
Happy Birthday to you

We're making you a cake.
We love you!
Cowagbunga!

Favourite Food - Salmon and Prawns

Sorry Aidan, I'm doing it again... Over the summer holidays I promise Little will do some posting of his own (with a tiny amount of help, he does need to practice spelling).

Salmon and prawns need to feature on our weekly menu, preferrably together but are accepted on their own.

When we're bbq'g it's really easy for the boys to prepare kebabs and their favourite kebabs are salmon and prawn.

We allow 1 salmon fillet per person, cut into cubes (of approx 2cm)
1 packet of uncooked king prawns

Put the cubed salmon in one bowl and the prawns in another. We have large kebabs so one fillet cubed like this will fill a skewer with prawns.

Small is too young to be putting things on skewers so he helps by handing pieces to Little. Little is more than capable, however he does always have to make sure that everything is even and that it all goes on in the right order, often giving orders if he's handed the wrong thing.

As the kebabs are for adults and children we tend to cook them for a little longer. About 6-8 minutes. They could just as easily be done under the grill.


Until your children are old enough I don't think you should let them do the hot bits. It's not worth the risk. I think you have to judge it very carefully when you do start allowing them to do this. I think Little could do some of it now but I'm just too neurotic and there's plenty of time for him to do the hot bits. Besides there's still plenty to learn from cold things and preparing food to be cooked. He helped prepare a beautiful Greek(ish) Salad for lunch today and was pleased that we all tucked in, eating it all.

Little Foodies Marzipan Muffins

Marzipan Muffins (makes 12 large muffins)
From mummy's Little Foodies. We adapted a plain muffin recipe from an old Aga recipe sheet that Mummy had. (We don't have an Aga but when we bought this house just over a year ago Mummy kept asking Daddy if we could have one!)

450g (16oz/1lb) plain flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
115g (4oz) caster sugar (we only had cinammon sugar which we made at Christmas)
300ml (1/2 pint) milk
2 large eggs (beaten)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
55g (2oz) melted butter
225g (8oz) marzipan (We used Mediterranean almond marzipan as it has a better flavour)

Turn the oven to 170C, 325F or Gas Mark 3.
Sift the flour, baking powder and sugar into a bowl and mix together.
Cut the marzipan into 12 equal pieces then roll each one into a ball.
Measure the milk, add the eggs, vanilla and melted butter, mix it all up with a fork.
Add the wet mix to the dry mix and stir it quite lightly. It will be gooey and lumpy. Avoid over mixing or it can give the muffin a tough texture when eating.
Spoon into muffin cases then pop a ball of marzipan on the top and push into the middle with your finger then gently push the muffin mix over to cover the hole where it's gone in.
Bake in the oven for 20-25mins. Leave to cool a little before trying!
We definitely think that they would be better with the marzipan chopped up into smaller pieces and mixed into the muffin mix just before putting in the cases to bake. They were still very tasty though.

Muddy Puddle Puddings

This is lifted from mummy's LittleFoodies blog. We wanted to play in real muddy puddles until mummy gave us the option to play with the sort of mud you can eat..... messy and yummy - our two favourite things.

Mummy measured the difficult bits and did the hot bits - we did everything else.




Pudding Mix
65g self raising flour
4 tbsp decent cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
80g butter (at room temp)
80g soft brown sugar
3 eggs

Sauce Mix
3 tbsp cocoa powder
50g soft brown sugar
200ml hot water

First make the sauce - Mix the cocoa and sugar in a bowl, add a little water and mix to a paste. Gradually add the rest of the water.

Butter a 1 litre oven-proof dish (or several ramekin sized pots) and stand them on a baking sheet.

Then make the pudding by mixing all of the ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. Here's the fun part you can mix it with your hands or you can use a wooden spoon. (Children love doing this with their hands – obviously! If you're going to go for this option I would suggest you do it in just a t.shirt with an apron over.)

Pour and scrape the pudding mixture into the oven-proof dish & cover with the sauce.
If doing individual puddings half fill with the pudding mix, then add just enough sauce to cover. There needs to be enough room for them to rise.

Place the dish on baking tray in the middle of the oven. Bake for 12 minutes. The pudding should have risen well by then.

They're magical as the sauce is on the bottom and the cakey pudding is on the top. Warning - Let it cool before you try or it can scald your mouth! Today we ate these as they are, we have eaten with custard, ice cream or cream. Anywayhow they're delicious!

Little Foodies Big Bad Minted Lambie Burgers

Oh LittleFoodies what a treat we are about to eat....

500g organic lamb mince (or any good lamb mince from the butcher)
half a medium onion, finely grated
1 clove garlic crushed and crushed again if necessary
1 egg whisked lightly
handful of fresh mint leaves
teaspoon of mint sauce from a jar
pinch of salt and a grind or two of pepper

In a large bowl mix all of these ingredients together with your hands
Divide the mixture into 8 equal portions and roll into balls
Flatten each ball with your hand to burger shape and size you like (round and squat is best)
Ask a grown up to cook them for approx 5-8 minutes on each side or until cooked through
Serve in soft white baps with lettuce, sliced beef tomatoes and thinly sliced onion
(mummy likes mayo & some chilli sauce with hers - she is from the North East originally!)

Little Foodie Noodles

Recipe for quick dinner noodles using leftover chicken

Half a packet of noodles (approx 185g or two biscuits of noodles)
half a yellow pepper (or other colour pepper)
approx 3 spring onions (or salad onions whatever they're called)
1 cooked chicken breast or equivelant size amount of cooked chicken)
2 tablespoons japanese soy sauce
tablespoon runny honey
1 tablespoon oil
(mange tout or green beans also go well added to this)

Cook the noodles and leave to one side (ask a grown up to do this bit)
Cut a yellow pepper up how you want it
Cut the spring onions in to small pieces (or as you like them)
Tear the chicken apart so it becomes shredded
A grown up has to do the next bit. Put the oil in a pan over a medium heat, add the spring onions and cook for 2 minutes, add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes, add the pepper, soy sauce and runny honey, turn the heat up and cook for 5 minutes. Add the noodles to warm through and serve. The onions have been in for a quite a while by now but that's how most children like them.

Cruncy Munchy Poppadom Sandwich

In homage to our lovely aunty - this one is for you... Enough for 2 hungry littlefoodies.

Mummy says that when children are cooking the key is preparation and to have everything together before you start or we get bored and wander off because things are not happening quickly enough.

Get the following...
4 Thick slices of good white bread
Mayo (3 tablespoons)
Mango Chutney (2 tablespoons)
Very very finely chopped small red onion (ask a grown up to do this)
3 to 4 slices of cheddar cheese (depending on how big your bread is)
2 cooked poppadoms

First place bread on plate side by side
Then mix the finely chopped onions with the mayo
Smear the onion and mayo mix on one slice of bread
Smear the mango chutney on the other slice of bread
Arrange the cheddar cheese on the slice of bread with the onion and mayo mix
Put one poppadom on top of the cheese
Place the piece of bread with mango chutney side down on top of this

This must be done in this order or you will be taken outside and shot!
Wrap tinfoil over plate and take to the den in the garden.

Ask brother to take some more cucumber and carrot and cartons of apple juice from the fridge (I added this on behalf of the boys as I know it's what they do. They think I was born yesterday!) Mummy as she types realises that it's not just the youngest who steals from the fridge... So much for little foodies, thieving toads more like.

Salad for Supers

How to make a salad for super heros when you're nearly 6.

First make sure your hands are clean or mummy freaks that you're spreading germs.

Decide on your ingredients and wash them. We eat salad a lot - our best one is...

Romaine lettuce
Rocket
Cucumber
The biggest juicy tomatoes in the world from our village shop
Red onion (get a grown up to slice it very thinly - it's disgusting in big chunks)
Fresh red, yellow and orange pepper (cut up however you like)
Tinned roasted red pepper (get a grown up to slice it thinly - ours come from Spain)
Cubes of gruyere cheese
Tinned tuna
Green olives (my small brother likes about 20 - I've gone off them)

Tear the lettuce apart and arrange on the plate, add the rocket, then cucumber, then red onion, then all the different peppers, cubes of cheese and sprinkle tuna on top of this and if you're my brother add your olives. Tuck in and know that one day you'll be a super hero.