...I have had that one line swirling around and around my head the past week or two. I can not remember if it was a friend singing those words, or a well placed TV commercial that has had me humming these lines over and over again. It would actually be useful if I knew the rest of the song. However, it has just helped me put in perspective how wonderful this time of year is. Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year...

Here are my thoughts as to why:

1. Presents
I love giving presents (and yes, I love receiving them as well!) I love planning and thinking through what a person may love and designing something perfectly to suit them. We mull every year about whether we go to doing a family secret santa and just purchase for one person...However, if we were to I would miss this opportunity to devise something tangible for those I love.
I have been so thankful for the extra time I have had this year to create/plan and shop (online) for the gifts for those around me. It broke my heart the past couple of years to need to resort to gift vouchers! 
A few of my favourites this year were...

Subjective Personalised Guess Who (The Eastman Edition) which appears went down pretty well with my Big Little Bro...

Big Little Bro

Fabric Alphabet for my nephew (such a teacher present!)

Fabric Alphabet

And for friends...Hot Chocolate Spoons...

Hot Chocolate Spoons in brown paper packages tied up with string...

Blog Posts to come on each of those shortly!

2. Atmosphere
I love decorations, a Christmas tree, a beautiful table setting, festive decorations adorning the house, fairy lights. It just makes you appreciate beauty in the little things...

A dead branch that is now a Christmas Tree

My Christmas Tree

Fresh flowers from the garden (and the shop!)

Fresh Flowers on our Christmas Table

Plates arranged in a certain way

Eclectic Dinnerware

3. Food
I love Christmas food...simple spreads of cold meats and seafood, antipasto plates, tasty summer desserts, a BBQ with friends, a glass of sparkly or a wine.

Lunch Spread

4. Friends and Family
I love the casual gatherings over this period between Christmas and new year. BBQs with friends, Christmas Eve drop in, annual Christmas Day McDonalds breakfast with many of my church family, family Christmas lunch, casual swims after church...everyone excited that the year has wound down and there is a forced work closure! Life slows down. I do find these gatherings a challenge...energy wise...but I am thankful for friends and family that make these as pain free as possible for me. And who spend the time to love on me!

5. Christ
I love that despite the focus on diversity and tolerance (both important) that Christ is still the centre of CHRISTmas. Christ. The one who we celebrate and who we find our hope. We stop and celebrate the birth of the one who gives us true hope, true joy, and who we can trust in. Christ. The one who makes this the most wonderful time of the year.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas 2015, and that no matter the challenges, the pain, or the hardships, that you have been able to enjoy in your own ways this time of year.

xx Kate

I love getting my creative on with making a Gingerbread House each year. This year was a push for energy and I ended up throwing lollies on it, as I was rather tired by the time it came around to finish decorating it! I was excited that this year I was able to have a gluten free house....still not dairy free...and no comments about the lollies...but at least my household who are 3/4's gluten free can enjoy it.

My Gingerbread House, 2015

I love coming away with ideas from Gingerbread House making nights. This year I decided to capture some of these. If you are the owner/artist of any of these beautiful houses, please let me know which one is yours and so I can send the credit back your way! Aren't people clever!!!

Love a good Gingerbread House!

It appears to be beetroot season...Yay! It was on sale when I stopped at my local Harris Farm market the other week for like under $1 a kilo...so I couldn't go past purchasing a couple...of kilos that is!
We then also got 2 lovely bunches of them in our veggie co-op boxes the past few weeks. So beetroot we have in abundance.
I didn't think beetroot rated in my top veggies...I am starting to reconsider that this week.

So what to do with all this beetroot.
So far we have eaten beetroot chips, roasted beetroot, fried beetroot, beetroot dip and beetroot relish...and I don't think I am sick of it yet. I have eaten it in my breakfasts, lunches and dinners, as well as a snack...I may however, fear that I may be turning purple sometime soon.

Here are a couple of quick and easy recipes that I have used the beetroot for this week. As usual, please be aware that all measurements in Make It Bake It Fake It recipes are approximations...use your discernment and your taste to adjust recipes accordingly. It's a bit more about having fun with cooking, than being precise. A bit of a never ending adventure...for those who like precision and no fail recipes, these might not be for you...
However, there is really no such thing as failure..like recently in our household we learnt that deconstructed profiteroles (read- very flat profiteroles) are still entirely tasty and able to be served at functions!

Let me start with Beetroot Relish...

Beetroot Relish

 

Beetroot Relish and Beetroot Dip (Paleo, Gluten and dairy free) @makeitbakeitfakeit

Ingredients

2kg of beetroot
3 onions
3 apples
250g coconut (or brown) sugar
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
a few cloves garlic (diced)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 chillies (deseeded)
handful parsley (chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste

What to do

1. Grate beetroot, apple and onion with food processor.
2. Throw everything into large stock pot/saucepan.
3. Stir and keep on low boil for around an hour, until mixture reduces, beetroot softens and liquid evaporates. Stir regularly.
4. Taste, adjust seasoning if you wish.
5. Spoon into hot sterilised jars, invert and cool. (See here for how to sterilise easily).
6. Enjoy.

Now I have already used this served with meat for dinner, as well as an accompaniment to breakfast.

Beetroot Dip

Beetroot Dip (Paleo, gluten free, dairy free) @makeitbakeitfakeit

This simple dip was so easy to make, thank you Bri for the idea.

Ingredients

3 large beetroots quartered then roasted (1 hour or so, the night before alongside dinner)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
A few squirts of lemon (or lime) juice
A clove or 2 of garlic
Handful of parsley
Salt and pepper

What to Do

Throw everything in food processer. Process until you are happy with the consistency. Taste. Add more mayo if you would like it creamier. Can't get much easier than this!!

Enjoy!

PS-Wow! I can't believe I have finally been able to manage to post about food! It's been a few very slow CFS months. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

I've been wandering around a bit aimlessly this week. Trying to figure out what this new and different stage of life might look like. Caught up in the winding down from the frenetic pace that my working life had, the sorting out of the logistics of what not working for the next couple of months means, moving forward past the guilt that this entails, scheduling financial and medical appointments, mixed with a whole lot of random pain and a whole lot fatigue, that has made even lying in bed at times torture. Through this period I have had multiple conversations reiterating that no, my chronic fatigue isn't worse, it is pretty similar to what it has been over the past few years, but that my body cannot continue to function in the boom and bust cycle that I have been on for some time. I can't be simply attempting to survive a day at work, or an evening out, or getting through an event, then crashing for the next day. I needed to get out of survival mode. I needed to step away from the façade that is put up by anyone with an invisible illness, and acknowledge that my body is on strike, and there is no way (and no point) to keep fighting it. And for a highly independent, quite focused and driven individual to make this not feel like defeat is a challenge.

So the first week or two of leave I had all these grand plans. I wanted to be able to walk regularly, spend quality time with God, blog often, be creative, attempt projects I had never got around to doing, catch up on my life admin, start actually achieving some activities of daily living such as sorting my washing more often than once a month, and cooking proper meals. Surely these are all the things that could be done now that I am not using up so much energy with work. Yet this week, my body has told me that enough is enough and that's not what this time is about. God continues to speak into my life in these moments when I keep want to be powering forward on my own, and doing, and being, and moving. Yet, through the pain, and through the inability to keep up the façade, and when it feels like this earthly body has had enough, I am reminded of His goodness, and His kindness, and the joy that can come through Him alone. This week it may have not been seen in the ways I wanted, but through the people around me. Through those this week that prayed for me when the pain was constant, who gave me lifts so I could get out at night and to appointments, who helped my muddled brain work through the seemingly endless paperwork, and those who encouraged me to be vulnerable, and allowed me to share in their lives as well.


So, I have reached the end of the week, and I don't feel like I have achieved a thing...well...apart from the fact I sorted my washing today! This may not seem like a momentous achievement, but if you had seen the 4 loads of washing overflowing from the basket, and factored in the energy output required to sort it, fold and hang it all, the resultant lie down and do nothing phase on completion, you would agree that this was quite an accomplishment. But I am learning this week, that as my body takes its time to find an even keel, and find its balance, that achieving rest and quality rest in Him, is going to be a challenge. Something I need to work at, without working at it in my output focused manner, but despite what I do or don't do, through it all, each and every day, the good days and the less good days, God's goodness and love does follow me.

This post has not been the easiest to write. Mainly due to the fact I started making these icecream bites weeks ago, and it has taken ages to actually be able to finish them. And every 20 minutes worth of typing or photographing or baking requires a chunk of rest afterwards.
However, these bites themselves are so easy to make. So, before the summer taste of gorgeous fruit is a distant memory, have a try of these fruity icecream bites. I originally made a batch of these as berry coconut bites. They were tasty, however, I was inspired by recent recipes of friends (and cheap mangoes) to try a mango version. So here it is.

mango icecream bites

mango icecream bites

I have tried these with both berries and mango, but I reckon peaches would be awesome too. Or pineapple for a Pina colada inspired taste.
Here is the recipe for the mango version. As per all of my recipes, measurements are approximate. Use your discretion, and your taste and your intuition to bake. It's the best way to go!

assembled ingredients

Ingredients

- Chopped up fruit (mango or berries or peaches).
- 1 tin coconut milk (refrigerated over night)
- 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup coconut oil

What to do

1. Separate the thickened coconut cream from the tin. Beat on high with your mixer until thickened. (I freeze the leftover coconut milk for smoothies or making banana blender icecream).
2. Add vanilla and maple syrup and mix well. Adjust measurements to taste.
3. Mix in coconut.
4. Spoon fruit into ice cube tray. (You could also use silicon cupcake pans or something similar)
5. Spoon coconut mixture over and tap lightly on bench to remove bubbles.
6. Freeze for a few hours.
7. Once mango coconut mixture is frozen, melt chocolate and coconut oil in microwave in a deep container. Mine usually takes 2-3 mins (with regular stirring) on 50% heat.
8. Once chocolate is smooth, dislodge mango coconut bites and drop individual pieces quickly into the chocolate mix. Rescue with a spoon and allow to set on baking paper. Return to freezer as soon as possible.

mango coconut bites ready for chocolate 

Eat and enjoy, before summer fruit is a distant memory.



mango icecream bites

Chocolate Bark

Dark chocolate Oreo with a white chocolate drizzle

Clockwise: Peppermint Bark, Freeze Dried strawberry, Freckle

Clinker- as the name describes chopped up Clinkers in milk chocolate

Jelly snake...yum!

Pretzels and cream.... milk chocolate base, pretzels, plus a dark and white chocolate drizzle. The favourite at work!

Paleo Chicken Burgers

I have just spent the past 3 weeks travelling through the USA. I decided during this time, as I was not the one doing the cooking, it was easier to deal with the consequences of eating the dairy/gluten etc that make me feel rubbish. Really on the balance scale trying to figure out if feeling (more) lousy, was better than exerting more energy to chase down paleo style meals. So I went with diet rules out the window. Now I am back on the straight and narrow, and hoping to feel a ton better soon.

Paleo Chicken Burgers

Chicken patties

Nut butter satay sauce

Serve on lettuce leaves with avocado, veggies of choice including some roast vegetables such as zucchini, pumpkin, carrot and beetroot.

Paleo Chicken Burgers with Nut Butter Satay Sauce

I am loving getting back into some 'normal' food!

Choconut Berry Bar

A slice of yum! Styled (ie placed ready for eating) on my new Anthropologie plates.

Step 1: Biscuit Base

Step 2: Coconut Cream

Step 3: Berries

Step 4: Chocolate Drizzle

Step 5: Consumption

Choconut Berry Bar

Happy Birthday, Maddie!

Layer Cakes



To create flat layer cakes- cut a strip of fabric (I used part of a tea towel), wet it, wring it and wrap it around the cake pan. Secure with pins. This slows the baking of the outside of the cake to allow it to rise at a consistent rate.



Four flat layers- different pink tones.



Sandwich layers with white chocolate ganache. Don't spread all the way to the outside, it will squish as the pressure increases.



Spread the ganache around the edges. Use a palate knife to make it smooth.



Cake iced!

Thank you to Anita for teaching me how to make fondant flowers.



Layers of yumminess!

Choc Chip Blondies

(Gluten and dairy free)

Ingredients

What to do

LOL

Lots of Layers

I am thankful for the garagefit community from SovGrace Sydney. With whom I have loved training, hanging, building friendships, and doing cool things like tough mudder (which I would have never pictured myself doing).