Of fabric, noses and baking

I got home from the school run just in time, my phone was delivered!   It's all charged now and waiting on Telecom to switch it over so I can download some apps and get the rest of it set up; so far it seems fairly intuitive which is good as the manual isn't the best I've ever seen.

1st thing I did today aside from the usual getting kids to school and going to work was to pay a visit to Stitch in Colombo St to see their sale.   I didn't spend much, but I did get 2.5m of fabric plus a free fat quarter.
My favourite is the colourful owls on their navy background.  The tan will be going with the owls even though I'm not sure what I'll be making; the salmon will join the stash and the more subtle owls will go with the main owls somehow.   I think I might be envisioning a cushion cover even though we don't normally use cushions.

I might have spent a bit more today too; a grab bag of Timberland clothes for the boys off the NZ sale website and some probiotic products for the boys and me.   Going to try them on Ian as there's been some research on ASD children and probiotics with positive results.   Hadn't been planning either purchase, but it's worth it I think.   The fabric came out of my remaining cash reserves.
I've finished my circle skirt too, no photos till Thomas gets home I'm afraid.

I picked up Ian from school as normal and the plan was to go to the gym from there; unfortunately the gym was not to be.   Apparently he tripped earlier in the day and went nose-first into a metal bar; ow!   There's swelling and apparently a little blood at the time, I don't know if he's broken it or not, but I figure gym is not a good idea less than 2 hours after that sort of thing.   Instead we just came home and he's getting some computer time while I make pikelets.  I don't make standard pikelets, these are golden syrup pikelets from a recipe my family has used for years.   At the request of Nicole (Casper on Twitter); I'm posting the recipe for you.

Golden Syrup Pikelets:

1 cup plain flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup of milk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 dessertspoon butter
1 tab golden syrup (I often use more than this)

Sift flour and cream of tartar, add sugar.  Add beaten egg and milk in which soda has been dissolving and mix.  Melt butter and syrup together and add.  Mix well, but do not stir after commencing to cook pikelets.

My lovely kitcheaide is doing the hard work as you can see.  Your batter should be smooth; no lumps.

Start to put tablespoons of batter in your preheated frypan.   I'm using my stainless steel electric frypan for this as it has plenty of room.   I used to butter it up first, but find that's not necessary and can cause burning.

after they've been in a wee bit they'll start to bubble a bit; once a fair number of the bubbles have burst through the top it's time to turn them; this one's almost there:

A few minutes later and they're half done; at this point you can't rely on bubbles to see if they're ready.   I have a feel for it now, but you could put the fish slice under them and check.

And finally, all done!

This is halfway through the baking, at the end of it there's actually less as the boys keep taking them to eat, lol.  I might have had a few too.

Oh, and Ray wanted to help; it seems the best way to help if you're a cat is to ask for pats

It is so hard to get a decent photograph of a black cat!   I didn't give her pats though as then I would have had to wash my hands again.   Now I'll reuse the frypan for dinner; we're having homemade burgers.   Using multigrain buns from Bakers Delight, mince from the butcher mixed with egg and honey and maybe a little salt; homegrown lettuce, bought tomato, cheese and ham.   Thomas can cook his when he gets home since he'll be late.