Recipe - Orchard Crumble

This is an Annabel Karmel toddler recipe that is absolutely scrumptuous. It's super easy to make & is delicious to serve for adults as well as kids. Give it a try:

• 2 large sweet apples (such as Pink Lady), peeled, cored & diced
• 2 large pears, peeled, cored & diced
• 85g plain flour
• 45g unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature 
• 45g demerara sugar (I used brown sugar)
• 3/4tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4tsp salt 
• 4tsp granulated sugar (I used raw sugar)

Preheat the oven to 200 (180 fan-forced).
Put the fruit into a small saucepan & cook gently for about 15 minutes until soft.

Put the flour in a bowl & rub in the butter until it looks like crumbs; add the demerara sugar, cinnamon & salt.

Remove the fruit from the heat, stir in the granulated sugar. If you're making this for toddlers or small children, you can use less sugar, or leave it out, as the fruit is sweet & the crumble topping has a bit of sugar in it.

Divide the fruit mixture into 4 ramekins

& sprinkle them with the crumble topping.

Bake for 20-25mins.
Cool to warm before serving with a little vanilla custard, or just on their own.

They were so good, that I made an adult version for hubby & I by adding a bit more sugar & putting a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top. Some double cream would also be perfect on top. Yummmmm!

Tip - Cleaning Stains from a Rug

I was so annoyed with myself today. Little Miss has a new cream coloured rug in her room & I make a point of being careful not to get it dirty when I walk in there. Well, don't ask me how, but I somehow managed to get soil stains on her beautiful rug today, & I was beside myself.

Hubby asked me if we have a carpet cleaning spray (we don't), but I just kept staring at the black stains on the rug. There would have been about 6 or 8 blotches staring up at me.

It took several minutes before I gathered my thoughts & remembered I had seen Sharon Lush on A Current Affair, talking about stain removal around the home. She kept mentioning bicarb soda, white vinegar & water, so I decided to experiment, as I needed to act quickly.

Here are the details:

Put half a teaspoon of bicarb soda on each stain &, with a brush, lightly start to brush on the stain in one direction, then in another direction, so as to displace the soil embedded in the pile. You can brush a bit harder as you go.

If it's a light stain, it should disappear.
If it's persistent, put another half a teaspoon of bicarb soda & repeat the process.
This removed most of my blotches, but unfortunately I had 2 tough ones that didn't want to go.

That's when I used the vinegar & water solution.
Mix 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water in a spray bottle & spray the stains lightly. Grab the brush & brush lightly (as before) in different directions but without being too harsh so you don't damage the rug, until the stain finally disappears.
It's a bit of trial & error, but it did seem to work for me.

Once it's dry, give it a good vacuum (I'll be doing that tomorrow), & it should look as good as new.

Just wanted to share. Do you have any great cleaning tips you'd like to share? Any triumphs that came about after a moment of panic? Feel free to leave me a comment.

My new George Clooney coffee machine

I love a good cup of coffee (cappucinos & cafe lattes are my favourites), but a good home-made cup of coffee is rare. I haven't had a good one in quite some time....until now.

Hubby was generous on the weekend (he had some rewards points he wanted to use up!) so while we were all out on a shopping trip, he decided to also purchase a DeLonghi Nespresso Latissima+ coffee machine, which I lovingly refer to as the George Clooney coffee machine.

This coffee machine is wonderful. You pop in a coffee pod, press a button or 2 (depending on what coffee you're making) & your latte, cappucino or short black is ready so quickly that there's no time for multi-tasking.

Cleaning the frother is ultra-easy, as all you need to do is press a button & it's done for you. Any milk left in the frother can go straight in the fridge, to be used within 2 days.

I am yet to work out how to make a hot chocolate, but I've been told it can be done. I'm sure you could even make a cup of tea, but I'll have to experiment a bit. My first task is to learn how to make a baby-cino for my Little Miss, so she can join me when I have my "mummy-cino".

Thanks to one of my gorgeous girlfriends, who happened to visit last week, & who recommended her Nespresso machine. A week later, after quite a bit of research, I'm finally enjoying cappucinos at home.

A special thank you to George....oops, I mean hubby! And the red colour makes it extra special.

Has anyone else bought or received anything lately that has made life easier or sweeter? Feel free to share. I'd love to hear about it.