New Phone Number & Vacancies

Please note that since we moved house we've had to change our landline number (thanks to Plusnet and their mistakes!).  The new number can be found on the contact page.

Our new house is coming along nicely, I'll post some photos as rooms are refurbished. We've bought a large climbing frame and den for the garden.  The children are enjoying having the extra outdoor space.  I think it must be a shock to the neighbours.  They've gone from having quiet neighbours with grown up children to having a group of excited children making a noise in the garden.

One of the children is leaving at Christmas. From January 2012 I will have a vacancy on a Monday and Tuesday  for a child under the age of 5 years. Please contact me for more details.

Easy Peasy Yoghurt Cake

1 small carton of flavoured yoghurt
1.5 cartons of caster sugar
3 cartons of self raising flour
1 carton of sunflower oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

Rather than weighing the ingredients for this cake on scales, you measure them in the empty yoghurt pot.

Place all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  Beat them together with an electric whisk until smooth (or use a fork or hand whisk). Line a large loaf tin, pour in and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 160 degrees centigrade or gas mark 3 for one and a half hours.

My two daughters, age three and six, needed very little help to make the cake.  You can use any flavour yoghurt, the end result doesn’t differ that much in taste.  We used a small low fat, Asda, branded yoghurt.  

You can make small muffins rather than a loaf but I have never tried this.

Irchester Country Park Summer Fun Day

Northamptonshire Childminding Association organise several summer fun days each year.  This year they've been at East Carlton Park and today, at Irchester Country Park.  The next event is at NCA's 20th Birthday party at Abington Park, Northampton on Monday 22nd August.  The activities are open to everyone, not just childminders.

Here are some pictures of our day at Irchester.  We were lucky with the weather and avoided getting too wet.

Rhubarb from the Garden

Each time the rhubarb starts to grow either the children stand on it or the slugs eat it.  I decided today that we'd pick the young stems and use them before they got wasted.  The cake we chose to make needed a pound of fruit.  Above is a picture of the children weighing the stems as they were taken from the plant.  It is now bare, I didn't realise a pound was quite so much.

Recipe for rhubarb cake

Ingredients

• 3oz butter
• 3oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3oz self raising flour
• 1lb rhubarb
• 1tbsp demerara sugar for the topping
• 2 1/2 oz butter
• 3oz plain flour
• 1oz caster sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 190 c.  Grease an 8in round cake tin (I used a slightly larger square tin). Cream the butter and sugar together.  Beat in the eggs then fold in the flour and a pinch of salt.

Slice the rhubarb into 1cm pieces and toss in the demerara sugar.  The children sliced the rhubarb using a Pampered Chef safety knife.  Even the toddlers helped.

To make the topping, rub the butter into the flour and stir in the sugar. This makes a crumble mixture.

Pour the cake mix into the tin and arrange the rhubarb on top.  Sprinkle the topping over and bake for 40-45 mins.

Our cake is in the oven, I have realised I have made a mistake.  I should have either used a loose bottom tin or left the greaseproof paper hanging out the sides to use to lift it out. I have no idea how I am going to get it out of the tin with the crumble topping.  I'm hoping to make it to the shops before dinner to buy some ice cream to serve it with.

Tomato, Red Lentil and Vegetable Soup

Last night I made some soup for the toddlers to have for lunch today. It went down well so I thought I would share. I adapted the recipe from something I had read elsewehere so there are no exact quantities.

4 carrots
1 courgette
Small onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
Clove of garlic
Half a teaspoon of paprika
Half a teaspoon of stock powder (use as little as possible as the salt content is high)
Small carton of passata
Black pepper
Handful of red lentils
Splash of olive oil
Fresh or dried basil

Chop the vegetables and crush the garlic. Fry these in the olive oil for a few minutes. Add all the other ingrediants along with some boiled water and bring the soup to the boil. Gently simmer until the vegetables are soft to taste. I left the soup lumpy but for some children you might want to blend it to hide the vegetables.

I've been searching the internet for some new recipes. If any of them are a success then I will report back, watch this space!