My bucket was full, so I emptied it a bit..

I heard a great analogy a few years ago when I trained to become a Mental Health First Aid Instructor.
Here is my take on it.*

Everyone has a metaphorical bucket inside them
Some people's bucket is small, some are large. 
Some are made from strong, durable material; some are pretty flimsy. 


Everything that comes up in our lives that is stressful starts to fill our bucket. 
Stress can be positive or negative.
Exams, break-ups, illness, deaths, are all examples of negative stress that add to your bucket starting to fill up. 
Positive things are stressful too, like holidays, a new relationship, a new job. 
As more stressful things happen, your bucket becomes fuller.


When someone experiences a mental illness, it is because their bucket is full and has started to spill over. 
Which mental illness (anxiety, depression, psychosis etc) you have is probably due to genetics, or other personal factors.
But why one person has a mental illness after a couple of stressful events, when the person next to them is fine, comes down to how big and strong your bucket is. 

So anyway, over the last couple of months I have been trying to become a successful Thermomix consultant. I have been trying to excel in studying Law. I have been trying to be a good friend. I have been trying to be a good daughter, and sister. I have been trying to be a perfect mother and wife.

I have not felt like I have been doing any of these things as well as I would like to be. I talked earlier this year about wanting my word of the year to be Joy. I haven't been feeling much Joy at all this year. I've just been too busy.

So I decided that something had to give, and that thing is Thermomix. I'm not giving up cooking with it, that I love and it feeds my soul (and my family!).
But I just didn't feel like I took to the sales aspect of it, and it was taking up precious space in my bucket.
I felt like my bucket was starting to drip, so I tipped out the sales.

It wasn't an easy choice, because I felt like I had given up, like I had failed.

But it was the right thing to do.

I feel lighter now.

How full is your 'bucket' right now? I'd love you to share....

x Sannah 

* Apologies to the owner if it is quite far from your initial description. Alternatively if you want to take credit for it, just drop me a line.
** And no, our poor little blue bucket didn't survive a couple of boys throwing bricks into it to make the splash. I hope no one ever throws a brick into my metaphorical bucket. 

Cranberry Hot Cross Buns

Apart from a not so good attempt in Home Economics class when I was about 13, I have never made hot cross buns until this year.

I had no idea what I was missing out on.

The recipe I used is a recipe I adapted from the Thermomix Everyday cookbook. I love hot cross buns. I hate citrus peel, so I left it out. You could of course put some in, if you like that sort of thing.

Ingredients for Buns:
250g warm milk
500g bakers flour
2 tsp salt
90g butter
50g sugar
1 egg
2 sachets dry yeast (or about 4 tsp)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 ground cloves
90 g sultanas
80 g dried cranberries

Method:
Place milk in Tm Bowl and cook for 50 second speed 1 90 degrees C.
Place all other ingredients apart from dried fruit into the bowl and mix 6 seconds speed 7. Set lid to closed lid position and knead 3 minutes on dough setting.
Add dried fruit and mix 10 seconds speed 5.
Wrap in thermomat or silpat or place in bowl in warm place and cover. Let prove for about 90 minutes until dough is roughly double in size.
Cut and shape into dinner sized bun rolls - I did 12 rolls, which I found to be a really good size.
Place buns close to each other on lined baking tray and let prove for another 30 minutes, covered.
Pipe with crosses. Bake in pre-heated oven at 220 degrees C for around 15 minutes until golden. Brush with sugar syrup while still warm.

Ingredients for piping mixture:

80g plain flour

1 tsp olive oil

100g water

pinch salt

Method:

Place all ingredients into TM bowl and mix to combine for 30 seconds speed 4 to obtain a pancake consistency. Tip from a friend is to put piping mixture into an old sauce bottle to pipe the crosses on - works brilliantly.

Ingredients for Sugar Syrup:
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water

Method:
Place both ingredients in the bowl and cook for 2 minutes at 100 degrees C on speed 4.

Try them. 

You will thank me. 

Unless you decide to eat them all.

 In which case you may hate me. 

Don't eat them all. 

At least not all at once....

x Sannah

Cupcakes and Thermomix

Rose flavoured 'Fairy Princess' cupcakes

I feel like everything has been so busy and spiralling out of control the last few weeks, but now with a couple of big things out of the way, I am hoping to get into a bit of routine and post here at least once a week. 

A few of you said you would be interested in hearing how all the Thermomix stuff goes, so I want to talk about it, but seeing as I have barely talked about Thermomix stuff on my blog before, I am a little hesitant to. I really don't want it to start to seem like a promotional blog. But the reality is that I love my little machine. It makes me happy. It is a big part of my life, that is becoming a more important part of my life due to me becoming a consultant. I am not sure how long I will be a consultant for, but regardless of that, I will still be using my thermomix every day (probably several times a day). So I guess what I want to say, is that this is a little warning, that this blog is potentially going to show a lot of Thermomix recipes from now on, because my blog is about my life. 

I am at the end of my first month of being a consultant. I enjoy doing the demonstrations, although it is a little nerve-wracking. I mainly just get worried that I am going to forget something crucial, but I have done 3 now and have found that they have all gone quite differently but have all been enjoyable, both for me and the guests. A lot of people have heard about Thermomix now, and love the chance to see it in action; and then there are a couple who haven't heard about them and are pretty blown away by what it can do. 

The things that I find really hard are self-promotion (asking people to have demos), following up and asking if they actually want to buy it (this comes down I think to a few things, such as feeling it is wrong to talk about money, and also that people are independent thinkers and if they want to buy then they will let me know, but this isn't how sales works is it?). The final thing I find really hard is follow up phone calls. I have a fear of the phone. I hate phone calls. Full stop. I think I am quite a visual person, and find it really hard when I can't see the face of the person I am talking to. However, I obviously just need to get over myself and make the calls if I am going to make this work. Do other people have this problem, of not liking phones?

The exciting news is that I sold one. It was pretty much in the bag, as the Rocket's Godmother has seen mine over the last couple of months since she moved to Melbourne, and had pretty much decided she was going to get one, regardless of me being a consultant. It was really exciting delivering it to her, and even better to receive her excited texts in the following days saying how much she loves it. For many people (including me) it is life changing, and it is really special to be able to be part of that. 

Anyway, I was going to just do a short post, which this obviously isn't! So I better stop now, and go and do some reading for Law. 

Below are a few pics of some Rose flavoured 'Fairy Princess' cupcakes I made for my little girls 3rd birthday which was just over a week ago. I am going to aim to post the recipe (made in Thermomix) next time. 

Have a lovely week everyone!!

End of Summer

Summer is coming to an end.

My babies go back to school on Friday. I am not ready to say good bye to them, to return to the routine of school.

I love the endless days of summer, that bring endless possibilities. Where every day you can wake up and choose your own adventure. Or choose nothing. The choice is yours.

This summer has gone too quickly. I am not ready to let it end, and it makes me sad.

This year will be very different for me. In addition to my babies being at school 5 days a week (which isn't new, I just find it hard), I am also starting to become a thermomix consultant, which I feel both excited and nervous about, and I am going back to study Law. Things will be busy. I am not sure how much time I will have to blog, perhaps none at all. I hope that is not the case, because I love this space, but the reality is that to give my new ventures a chance to succeed, I need to put them as a priority for a while.

I may not be here every day, but I believe me I will be thinking of you all. I will try and stay in touch, but it might be sporadic at best. Or I might be here quite frequently, but with smaller, shorter posts. I am not sure how it is all going to pan out, but I will try and keep you updated.

Love, Sannah

image credit
linking up with Jess's IBOT

Thermomix (and fear)

At the beginning of 2011 I bought a Thermomix. My blender had finally died, and I was looking for a replacement. I love making soup, and smoothies, so I wanted to get a good one. About 12 months before that, a friend of mine had told me about this crazy machine that she had bought that could do pretty much everything. Needless to say I didn't really believe her. In fact, despite her being one of my favourite people in the world, and someone who I have so much respect for, I thought maybe she had gone a little crazy.

However, over that year I learnt a lot more about them, and saw them on Masterchef. I decided that I wanted one, but couldn't justify it. I thought maybe one day in the distant future our paths would cross. Then we moved to Melbourne. I grieved the loss of my little community in Adelaide. I was miserable. Then my blender broke. I decided that what I really needed was a Thermomix. It would make me happy.

Buying things when I am miserable usually only manages to cheer me up in the short term. My love affair with my Thermomix has been different. My love for it has grown over the course of almost a year now. My passion for cooking has been re-ignited. My children eat far more variety than ever before, and are far more adventurous eaters. My 9 year old said a couple of months ago, I will try *anything* you cook mum. That brought a tear to my eye.

So, at the end of last year I decided to be brave (something I am not very good at), and I decided to become a Thermomix consultant. Unfortunately my training was interrupted by gastro wiping out the family for a couple of weeks, so I am re-starting the training today (arggh!! today!!).

I am excited, because I really do love my thermomix, and want to show it to others. I love cooking, and creating, and want to share this passion with others.

But I am also terrified. Terrified to put myself out there, to be judged, to do demonstrations in front of people, to technically be a 'saleswoman' - I found retail hard enough when I was young! And more than anything, I am terrified of failing. What if I don't get enough sales to make it through the initial period? What if people don't like me and say they don't want demonstrations?

Despite these fears, I am going to give it a go anyway, because I know that I grow when I push myself out of my comfort zone. And, you never know, I might even enjoy it.

image credit

French Carbs, and other Joys of Life...

I am sitting here eating, at 6pm, some of the remnants of brunch. It has come straight out of the oven, and it is burning my thighs, as it is carefully cradled on a tea towel in my lap. What I am eating was meant to end up being a cinnamon scroll, but for some reason it didn't rise. The recipe failed me for the first time ever. So, instead of being a cinnamon scroll for breakfast, the dough has just been baked into rolls (without cinnamon), and is delicious, sweet and rich, and flaky (in a good way). Like a cross between brioche and croissants. Mmmmmm.....

This morning I had one of my oldest and dearest friends and her mum for brunch. I have been using my thermomix more frequently in the past couple of weeks, and starting to become more comfortable experimenting a bit. So, I was pretty excited about the prospect of visitors. I decided to make some cinnamon scrolls (which failed me! -  not in the thermomix), some brioche in the thermomix (I turned half the mix into cinnamon scrolls, and they were ok); I made some scones (not thermomix) made some butter to go with them in the thermomix, which I think I did for too long, as it was more like whipped butter, but still good. I also made some hummous, some dukkah, and we had some shop bought cheeses, and lots of fresh fruit. I just love brunch.

And it doesn't exactly fit in with brunch, but I have always wanted to make a Lemon Meringue Pie, so decided that today was the day. I was pretty happy with my first attempt.

What is your favourite Brunch food?

Do you like to experiment with your cooking?