Water Fight!! – Monday Made

“While we’re young and beautiful, living free and easy. Here without a worry, dancing in our bare feet because when the summer’s done we might not be so young and beautiful.”~Unknown

We celebrated Christmas with our friend-families on Boxing day. Gifts aren’t a big thing but this year there was a candidate for Best Australian Christmas Gift……water bombs.

Probably not relevant in the Northern hemisphere since it is winter in December, but here in Oz, it can be stinking hot during the festive season. This gift filled our afternoon with active fun in the backyard, cooled down its participants, entertained the onlookers and tired out the kids.

It was, unsurprisingly (well, to me, anyhow) a bit of craftspiration (I declare that a word, now) found on Pinterest by our friend. She whipped up these little gems using kitchen sponges and fishing wire. Amazing.

You can find the instructions for them here.

Honey Tea Loaf – Monday Made

“There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea.” ~Bernard-Paul Heroux

It’s nearly the end of Monday and no post yet!!

I have had a lovely afternoon of tea drinking and chatting while small people played. I did mention to the double trouble that we could bake but they were so wound up in their own imaginary world that it didn’t even register.

The baking did eventually happen. My dinner was taking much longer to cook that I thought it would and I found myself with a couple of cranky toddlers who needed entertaining.

Honey Tea Loaf is very entertaining. I saw this recipe on a kids’ cooking show called I Can Cook. It looked like a bit of fun, possibly yummy and, as an added bonus, it is dairy free.

I used French Earl Grey tea to make this, the recipe just said “decaf tea”. I don’t think there is enough caffeine in it to cause an issue. The recipe originally called for mixed fruit, but I only had sultanas. I think a little bit of orange rind would have gone nicely, though.

What you need:

• 100g sultanas
• 70ml warm tea
• 1 1/2 tbsp  honey
• 1 egg
• 150g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp mixed spice

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degreesC (160 fan forced)
2. In a small bowl mix the tea and sultanas together and set aside.
3. Mix together the dry ingredients then at the eggs, sultana mix and honey until just combined.
4. Bake in a lined loaf tin for about 25 minutes and enjoy the insanely good smell coming out of your oven.
5. Allow to cool before slicing and serve with butter or Nutlex (or whatever your butter alternative of choice may be…..)